All right, so this chapter introduces yet another character, who will also be quite the foil character for Dib in later chapters that both will appear in. He's a friend of Grace's. I think this may have almost spoiled it so...yes. Enjoy!
Chappie Ten
Sha's POV
"I hate this movie," Michelle remarked.
"Me too!" Emmy said. "IT SCARES ME." GIR climbed onto her lap.
It was actually really boring, more than scary.
"The aliens are allergic... to GERMS!" one of the characters exclaimed, like she'd just found some answer to the biggest question in the world.
"This is boring," Emily complained.
The words "The End" FINALLY appeared on the TV screen. We all stood up.
"Hooray for Earth!" GIR cheered.
"GIR! Earth is our enemy!" Zim scolded.
I was Zim's enemy?! Awwwww! I thought I was his slave! Wait...what was I saying?!
"I understand," GIR said, even though I was pretty sure he didn't.
"Stupid human propaganda! The very concept of a superior alien species being felled by something as pathetic as germs is pure fantasy! Do they really believe that could happen?" Zim laughed. He laughed for a long time. GIR was confused. He eventually joined in.
The laughing was infectious. It caught on to all of us and we were all in hysterics. It was loud too.
"KEEP IT DOWN!" Old Kid passed by our house and shouted to us.
Zim's laughing came to an abrupt stop. Immediately, we all shut up, except for GIR.
I looked at Zim. "Going somewhere?"
"Yes," Zim said. "Down to the lair."
"Well, you're not gonna be alone!" I smirked as he flushed himself down the toilet and I did the same.
Emmy joined GIR in laughing too as I left.
When I got down to the base, Zim was sitting in a chair.
"Mind if I sit with you?" I tried to flirt, just a tiny bit.
Zim gave me a weird look. "Well I guess you are my slave, I should repay you." He moved over. I joined him on the chair.
"Whatcha doing?" I looked at the screen.
"Trying to conquer an alien world? Remember, never under estimate the small threats... like germs!" the computer said.
"I'm watching some stupid hyooman movie on germs, like that stinky movie we saw."
"I hated it," I said to him.
Zim ignored me.
"Yes, germs. Every planet has them, and many an invading life form has been thwarted by these invisible enemies," the computer continued.
"It's true!" Zim gasped.
"What's going on?"
I turned around and saw that Narm had come down, not in his disguise. BIR was right next to him.
"Hey, Narm," I said to him.
"FILTHY FELLOW IRKEN!" Zim jumped up. "What are you doing here?"
"Just here to check on Zim." Narm whistled as he walked over to us. "Whatcha up to?"
"Watching an informative thingy on germs," I answered for him.
"So whether you are out conquering worlds or are just concerned about these tiny pests, make sure you're prepared with a pair of germ-spotting micro goggles." The computer sounded.
I bet Narm would've rolled his eyes if he could now. "You're kidding right?! Why are you afraid of germs?!"
"It was some stupid movie we watched earlier," I said to him.
"Wow."
Zim's attention had shifted back to the computer.
"Click here for a free five second demo," it said, showing the goggles.
Zim clicked on the symbol and the goggles materialized. It was amazing!
"Oooh, neat!" He put them on. "Now, let's see this mighty human threat!"
He turned around and looked at Narm and me in shock. He screamed and cowered back. The goggles disappeared.
"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing exactly what was wrong, but just pretending.
"Wasn't that neat? Thank you for trying micro goggles. If you like what you saw, please order the full version," the Computer persuaded.
There was only one thing Zim could do. He pressed the screen.
Narm left the lair...Oh no. He was gonna get the others.
Ahhh. This is bad!
Grace's POV
BIR did his "secret agent"-ish roll into the room. Narm was close behind him.
"What's up?" I asked, sipping my soda.
"Hey Grace..." Narm said. "Um, can you all come downstairs? Zim is acting like a chicken. I mean, not literally like a chicken, but like a scared-"
"Yeah, we get whatcha mean." I cut him off. "And why's Zim acting like a chicken?"
"Something about germs," he murmured.
"WOW..." Mica said. "I'm not-"
"You don't know you're beautiful!" Alyssa belted out, singing along to her iPod. Of course she was singing along to One Direction. "So co-come on! You got it wrong! To prove I'm right, I put it in a so-ong!"
Emmy and GIR were dancing around to it and clapping along to the beat (as well as they could which wasn't well).
"That's why I need you guys to come down," Narm stated. "Make him stop acting so out of character."
"He's acting pretty in character if you ask me!" Emily admitted.
"Emmy!" GIR shouted. "WANNA GO SEE PIGGY WITH ME?!"
Emmy stopped clapping. Her eyes shined. "YES!"
And before she could do anything, GIR had whisked her out the door. I peeked out the window and saw GIR was on a motorcycle. A pig was in the front, followed by GIR, and then Emmy, who slowly wrapped her arms around GIR for protection. GIR seemed to love it.
The motorcycle sped away.
Mica and Emily glared at each other for no apparent reason.
"Let's just go-" Narm started but was cut off by Alyssa.
"SHUT UP! HARRY'S SOLO IS COMING ON!"
"Baby you light up my world like nobody else..."
Narm could have slapped his forehead now. So could have I. But once again...typical Lyssa.
When Harry's solo had finished, we all headed to the toilet. And then..."Grace!"
The door had opened. There was a tall boy. He looked very familiar. Piercing blue eyes, dark hair, and creme colored jacket. The collar was hiding his mouth and a bit of his nose... The ensemble looked mysterious.
"RICKY?!" I found myself saying. His real name was Derrick, but I called him Ricky as a nickname.
"Oh my god, Grace, it really is you!" And he engulfed me in a hug.
"What are you doing here?!" I said when I pulled away.
"Well I was just sleeping one night and I woke up and I was here! I figured since you and I usually go through a lot of the same stuff together, you were here too."
"But how did you know I was at this house?"
"Come on Grace, I know how much you love Invader Zim."
I laughed, and noticed everyone was looking at me.
"Who's that mysterious guy?" Rosa asked, kidding of course. "He looks like someone I know...except animated."
I walked over to her and shoved her playfully. "It's RICKY," I kidded too.
"Ohhhh," Rosa said like she didn't know, but she did.
"I was just wondering...if you wanted to go do something," Ricky said to me.
"I'd love to!" I was soo glad and relieved he was here. I didn't want to leave him in the real world. He was such a good friend to me.
"Narm, I'm not going down with ya. I'm going to hang with Ricky." And with that we walked out the door together, leaving the rest of them all upset because they'd lost Emmy to GIR and now they lost me to Ricky. Which sounded good to me!
Rosa's POV
I can't believe Grace blew us off for Ricky! Oh wait, never mind. Haha, I was just kidding. I could believe that, she loved Ricky like her own brother. And it was fine. Didn't know what the others said about it, but I mean, who cares?
We all went down to Zim's base with Narm.
"AHHH MORE GERMS!" Zim screamed when he saw all of us.
"We are not germs!" Alyssa said, looking like she was about to cry. No 1D and being insulted by an extraterrestrial can hurt you a lot, especially if you're Alyssa.
"He didn't mean it," I assured her. "He's Zim."
"I like GIR better."
DING DONG!
"It better not be a bad guy," Janay said, as Zim traveled up the elevator. We all looked at each other and followed Zim up.
Zim opened the door with caution.
Emily started laughing with the others. Lyssa, Janay, and Michelle were standing near each other, laughing the loudest. I sometimes thought they were "The Three Stooges". I didn't understand why they were laughing...
Zim opened the box and pulled out the goggles, slipping them on. "So... much... filth!" He winced as he saw us all.
Then without warning, the door opened and there stood GIR and Emmy, with a pig near them. Zim seemed to be holding back another scream.
"Let's go to my room, guys!" GIR said, and Emmy and the pig followed him off...to some other place I didn't know.
"I never even suspected that the battle for the planet would ever take place in my own fortress! Hear me now, germs! Prepare yourselves for destruction!" Zim started spraying around the room and Sha was now mopping the floor to help him. Oh my gosh. Haha!
They were cleaning for a long time. Alyssa and Michelle and Janay were singing songs that didn't make sense whilst they cleaned.
After this long while, Zim inspected the kitchen and inhaled. "Ah. The stink of clean!"
But then Zim saw a tiny germ and sprayed that. And sprayed more. "Another win for the Irken army! Clean lemony fresh victory is mine!"
The door opened. "Alright see you later, pig!" GIR waved and the motorcycle drove off.
Oh wow...when had they left?
"I'm gonna roll around the floor for a little bit, kay?" GIR said and off he went rolling, Emmy watching him the entire time.
"GIR, what are you doing? Stop immediately! You're disgusting!" Zim growled at him.
"Hey, shut up!" Emmy yelled at Zim.
"Aw, somebody needs a hug!" GIR cheered.
"No, no, no, no, no GIR, no!" Zim said.
GIR was already walking towards him. "I'm gonna hug you!"
"Nooooooooooo!" And Zim ran outside.
I thought we should go after him. The others were thinking the same thing I did.
We all ran outside.
"The enemy, regrouping! Worse than I thought!" Zim was spraying around the front yard.
Zim finally ran inside after minutes of spraying around the yard.
"Does anyone think Zim's a germaphobe?!" Michelle asked.
My hand shot up. The others' did too. Even Emmy's.
"Let's go inside...again," Emily said.
I could understand how she was annoyed. Because I felt the same.
" I still got a hug in me!" I could hear GIR say. And then Zim screaming again.
"Things couldn't get weirder," Janay said.
And then a tree popped up, with GIR tied to a rope tied to the tree. And he started running around it.
"Okay, that is IT," Narm said, when we went inside, as Zim looked ridiculous. Sha was as surprised as the rest as we were.
"He's become germophobic, and it's really stupid. Germs are everywhere. He can't just go around spraying everything, you know," Dani pointed out.
Yeah right. He was spraying around the base talking to himself again. "Not gonna get me. Germs, chewing my squeedly spooch. Not my squeedly spooch, you don't. What about the mission? What about the mission? I should report in but the germs, explody germs. So many germs! The mission! The mission! I have a job to do! I am an invader! I can't let these germs make me loose sight of the bigger mission! The skool! The skool will know I've been missing! They must be really suspicious by now!"
It just hit us all that we missed skool again.
Dani's POV
"And I haven't reported to the Tallest in too long! They will be worried about me! Mustn't alarm them!" This statement was how we met the Tallest for...the third time.
" Yes, what is it now, Zim?" Purple asked, as he and Red came into view on the monitor. "Oh, hello Narm," he said when he saw the other Irken. He winked at him.
"Sirs. I apologize for not reporting in, but- Excuse me." Zim ran away and sprayed another germ.
"What's wrong with Zim?" Red asked Narm and the rest of us.
"Oh, well, funny story!" Narm fake-laughed. "You see-"
"All is going well, nothing too big to report aside from the usual- Ah! Would you look at the size of that one!" Zim came back in front of the monitor, but once again sprayed with his germ can. "No! No! I'm almost out of disinfectant! All hope will be lost if I don't get more! Never! But, I'm not giving up! I'll destroy you! And you, and you, and you!"
The transmission went static.
"NOOO!" Narm yelled. "I was just going to tell them!"
"I'm gonna go play with GIR. See ya!" Emmy skipped over to the little elevator.
"I need more spray!" Zim shook his empty can, trying to make sure if there was any spray left. I was sure there wasn't as I didn't hear a sound.
"Then why don't we go get some?" Sha suggested.
"That was what I was thinking of, Sha-human."
Sha beamed. I thought it was because she was thinking it was Zim's way of saying that it was a great idea.
So we all headed up and Zim opened the door. I shrugged and didn't bother to close it, when I was the last one out. It'd be fun to tick Zim off because more germs would come in.
"GIR!" Zim yelled to get the "dog's" attention. Emmy and he were running around the tree together. They stopped immediately.
"Pay attention, GIR. We have to go to the store to pick up some more cleaning things. I need as much as I can get so you'll have to help me carry stuff...Emmy, since you're sort of like one of those stupid SIR units, I could use you too."
Emmy just cheered.
Then Zim sprayed her and Zim in the face.
"You're still so germy! But it'll have to do." Zim was disgusted. "I need to save some of this for the trip. Come, GIR!"
I trudged along on the sidewalk. Nobody spoke, or tried to start a conversation, which was strange for our group of friends. None of us were a shy type. Where was Grace anyway?
"Hey guys!" Oh wow. There was Grace, without Ricky. How had I done that? Had I even done it at all?
"Hi Grace!" Em called. "Where've you been?!"
"Hanging out with Ricky." I could've sworn I saw Grace blush a bit. Not good.
Em smirked.
"Look, there it is!" GIR pointed to the "Store" (it was actually called "STORE").
Zim was still spraying with the germ spray.
"Zim, quit using that dang can, or I will take it from you!" Narm said. "I always have to be the bad guy, huh?!"
"You're not bad," Emmy softly said. It was one of those times she was actually being a normal person. "Zim's just being an idiot-like usual."
Sha and Zim did not hear this. But Narm cheered up.
GIR actually looked a bit annoyed. He snatched the can from Zim. "Lemme try!"
"No GIR! The germs!" Zim objected.
And then GIR saw MacMeaties. And ran towards it.
Well, something went wrong! Yay!
Alyssa's POV
"My germ spray! GIR! Come back!" Zim chased after GIR. I guess another chase was coming on. No surprise. This show had a lot of chases.
"Let's go inside! I AM HUNGRY!" I yelled. So everyone followed me into MacMeaties, which was kind of like McDonalds. Zim was getting all grossed out because of everyone eating. Well, not all the germs can be cleaned, alien!
"Let's just go take a booth," Gina said. We all squeezed into one.
"I think I have become claustrophobic," Mica said to us all. She was squished in between me and Gina.
"I'll go order for us!" I volunteered. After writing down a list of what everyone wanted, I walked up to the counter, behind Zim, but not too close. Sha would kill me.
"Are you next in line?" A lady asked Zim. Zim was scared by her germs, so she backed away. "Horror..."
What's wrong with him?!
"GIR! The disinfectant! Where is it!?" I turned around and saw Zim-questioning GIR.
"I lost it," GIR confessed as he took out a burger. "EMMY!" He ran towards her.
I think he's madly in love.
"WAIT!" Zim pulled GIR back. AGHH Zim. "Wait a minute!" He took the hamburger from GIR. "There are no germs on this thing! Completely germ free!"
He ran to the booth in front of ours. One that held two men. Emmy had turned around and stared at them.
"Jhonen Vasquez and Steve Ressel!" Emmy said to Sha, spazzing out. What was the big deal?!
Zim lifted up the top buns of both "famous people's" burgers. "How is this possible? How can this be?"
Well, I don't know...magic?! Haha, I smiled.
Annie's POV
"You! Burger lord! How is it that this meat is so pure, so perfect?" I overheard Zim ask the man at the counter.
"Well, it all started in 1962..." And then he launched into a really boring backstory about how they used NAPKINS to make their burgers. It was a long explanation.
When was story the done?...Well, I don't know, and neither do the others, as we were focusing on eating our lunches. Surprisingly, the food was not bad.
"Ingenious. This gives me an idea, greasy burger man. Yes! A way around the germs! A way I can resume my mission and deal with the germ enemy without bringing any attention to myself! Yes, yes! The answer is in the meat!" Zim said once the story ended. I could tell an idea was starting to form in his head.
"This is gonna be bad," I said to Dani.
"Give me all the meat!"
Now I could see it in my head too.
One day later, we were all anticipating the arrival of Zim in skool.
And he did come...with dripping meat all over him.
"How ya doin'!" Zim said, as though he had nothing abnormal all over him.
We all stared.
AW CRUD!
FOOTNOOTE:
Chappie includes an excerpt from "Germs" which is in Invader Zim!