This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Seriously guys, the initial response for this was INCREDIBLE. I've never had so many reviews on a first chapter before. The theory was proven beyond expectations and the experiment a complete success!
Now like any other good scientist... writer... thing, I shall build on this success! This chapter is a little longer than usual, again, an experiment to see if you guys like longer or shorter chapters. I'd like to thank ma new bros UpsidePickle and It Was All A Puzzle for their brotastic messages and suggestions, as anyone else who sent me messages and reviews for the last chapter! As for all you guys voting, ZAGR won by miles, THUS THIS IS NOW A ZAGR STORY.
Anyway, this has gone on long enough. TIME FOR READING.
The sunlight woke Gaz up before her alarm clock did. Ugh, she hated it when the sun woke her up, besides, she was sure she'd kept her blinds drawn all night. She was sure she'd kept her blinds drawn she she'd got the damn things... weird. But she was too tired to look into it, rather, she hauled herself out of bed and began her usual daily routine.
She wasn't one of those girls who preened over her looks, but that didn't mean she wanted to look ugly. Gaz enjoyed her gothic style, it was part of what made her Gaz, thus she was motivated to make sure that her skin was white and her eye-liner heavy and black. If she looked dark and vicious, she felt dark and vicious and thus she could face this crappy world with confidence.
When she had finished getting ready, she wandered back into her room, now shoving her books and homework into her bag, put most importantly, her Gameslave 2. Strangely it was not on the beside where she seemed to remember leaving it last night, but ontop of her school bag. She paused only for a second at this. Had someone touched it? She couldn't see any marks on it and it loaded up fine... huh. Maybe she was just being paranoid, besides, if anyone ever did touch her Gameslave... they would pay.
"DIB?" She called out as she walked down the stairs, her satchel bag slung over her shoulder. "Dib are you still sick?" The sound of sneezing from upstairs answered that one for her. "Great. I'm going to skool. Don't go in my room."
She stormed out the home and into the annoyingly sunny morning. Gaz hated the summer, it was too bright and hot and happy. She liked the autumn more, something about everything turning orange and brown and the world going into mourning made her smile.
Right now the sun cast an annoying glare on her screen and forced her to sit in the shade a lot. But, that wasn't going to put her off. Gaz had been preparing for this day. The day she finally took on the boss piggy demon in Vampire Piggy Hunter: Symphony of Squeals. She sat down, batteries on full, eyes locked on her Gameslave 2.
Nothing and no one was interrupting her titanic battle with the Boss Piggy Pigula. She had spent all morning recess building up her inventory, double checking she had all the best armour and weapons. She had heard from Iggins, that loud fat noob, that this boss was supposedly impossible to beat... well, she liked a challenge.
It was lunch-break, the perfect time to sit on the bench under the willow tree and play her game until her thumbs wore off. She fired up the game and began, walking right into the main room and, in a rare moment, grinning with vicious glee as she saw Pigula standing before her, taunting her character with questions like 'What is a man'?
That was until about halfway through her titanic battle when a shadow fell across the screen, causing her to pause quickly and look up with the fury of a thousand suns in her eyes.
"Gaz-stink! It is time for our epic battle!" the highly annoying voice of Zim cackled through the air, "Prepare yourself for imminent destruction at the mighty hands if ZIIIM!"
"... later," Gaz commented simply before looking back to her game. "Now go away before my patience wears thin."
Zim stood before her with a confused look on his face. Had she not promised him a battle? Why was she suddenly flaking out on him like this? He growled deeply. "We had a deal Gaz-beast, we will do battle! Now!"
"I said later," Gaz replied quickly, wishing she could reach out and throw him a across the damn school-yard, but she needed both hands to fight Pigula. "Go away."
Zim growled deeply, "I had your word, human! Bah, I knew it was stupidity to trust the honour of one of you stinking pig-apes." Zim's growl turned into a horrible and sly smirk however, "Good thing I didn't trust you anyway." He crossed his arms and proudly announced, "Gameslave! Deactivate!"
One second Gaz was about to slay the Pigula, the sword literally swinging down onto the beasts head and the next, it all went black. Gaz just looked at he screen, her own reflection staring back at her. She felt... Angry. A White hot rage instantly exploded inside of her, however, she managed to keep it barely in check long enough to ask, "What. Did. You. Do?"
Her whole body was shaking in raw anger, something that Zim foolishly misunderstood. "I see you shake in fear at he mighty powers of Zim!" He turned on his side and continued grinning, no noticing Gaz slowly standing up, "Last night I infiltrated your room and hacked your Gameslave, just in case you didn't know. Now it only responds to the commands of the MIGHTY ZIM!"
The irken thrust his fists up into the air in victory, "Now you have to fight me!"
There was a pause where Zim waited for Gaz to respond, however, when he got no immediate response he looked over to her... or rather, he turned and looked up at her. He suddenly noticed how she was quite a bit taller than he was. In the same moment he realised just how very intimidating that made her. Finally, he also noticed that there seemed to be some kind of raging inferno of fury in her eyes the likes of which he'd never seen in a human before.
She raised her fist and Zim suddenly realised, as he usually did in these situations, that maybe he should have thought his actions through a little more.
The fist hit his face before he could even react, sending the much smaller and lighter boy flying backwards. Pain exploded under his eye and he yelped, and yet, before he could even begin processing how to retaliate a hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him back, then, the wind was utterly knocked out of him as a knee hit his spoonch.
He couldn't breathe but yet another fist hit the other side of his face, he was kept only on his feet by the strong hand holding his shirt.
Zim found himself being dragged along as Gaz began striding forwards. He tried weakly to grab hold of the arm, to yank Gaz from him, but he couldn't, the strength had been utterly sapped out of him.
Inwardly he cursed himself, he was supposed to be a soldier, an irken elite, why was he getting his butt handed to him by some human child? He managed a scowl, even if it seriously pained him to do so and spat out, "Let me go!"
"No." Gaz growled, still dragging the boy behind her. Her voice was ice cold and without any kind of remorse.
Zim suddenly realised where she was going. There was a small water fountain on the playground, one with horrible almost brown water coming from it. His eyes widened in horror, not even his paste solution would last under that kind of pollution. "GAZ-STINK! NO!"
She didn't seem to listen, or perhaps she did and didn't care. When they got to the fountain Gaz lifted the irken up with a surprising ease. He was small and surprisingly light, she thought that he'd have more weight to him but it was like lifting a computer with one hand. Sure it was heavy, but doable.
She shoved his face down onto the bowl of the fountain and her finger rested dangerously on the button to sent water shooting out. Zim could only imagine it. That horrible brown sludge shooting into the air, curving and landing onto his face... right onto where Gaz had punched him.
"Gaz-human," He gasped trying to get free but finding his struggling in vain, "Gaz-human stop! I'll fix your Gameslave!"
"Not good enough," Gaz hissed, her amber eyes still blazing, "You brought this on yourself by provoking my wrath. I demand that you admit defeat."
"WHAT?" The very idea of defeat boiled Zim's blood. He would never bow down to some human! Especially not a relation of the Dib-stink! "NEVER!"
Gaz pressed the button, and instantly that horrible brownish water came spurting out of the fountain. There was second before it hit Zim's face, than, suddenly, he screamed. He screamed so loud that people began to stop and look. His skin sizzled against the water and he thrashed in Gaz's grip, but she did not let him go.
However, she did turn her eyes away and took her eyes from the irken, letting the water stop. She looked back to Zim, the fire in her eyes still blazing. "Zim, admit defeat and I will let you go."
"NEVER!" The irken screamed, still desperately trying to escape the clutches of Gaz.
However, he watched as he finger hovered over the button again and his eyes grew wide. "Wait! No! Don't!"
Zim's body was wrecked with pain. He could barely breath, his skin still sizzled and his face was bloody. This wasn't like his fights with Dib where they'd hurl insults at each other than wrestle. Sure he had been punched a few times, but Dib was so predictable. He never hit the face, always the body and he rarely kicked. He was always focused on disabling his opponent.
Gaz was... vicious, she went to cause maximum pain with the minimum of effort and it was brutally effective. He... he had to retreat, he couldn't take any more of this for much longer.
"Let me down," He replied, panting, his voice deadened with the quiet resolve of someone who knew they had lost.
Gaz dropped him and watched as he lay on the floor, panting and putting on hand to his face, feeling where the horrible water had touched him. The taller girl stood over him, her eyes no longer filled with anger. In fact, inside, she felt... kinda bad. Now that she stood over him, he seemed tiny and weak, almost childlike.
"Admit it." She said simply, coldly, "Admit I win."
Zim's look could have burned a hole in the sun, "For this round, Gaz-stink, for this round."
"Say it." Gaz demanded again, stepping forward and looming over him, "Say I win."
Zim looked away, refusing to look her in the eye and say it. His voice was small and laced with a quiet rage, "... you win."
"Good." The teenager turned and began storming over to her bag, "Now fix my Gameslave and leave me alone."
The irken didn't move from his place, if anything, his eyes went wide in surprise. Why wasn't she gloating? Why wasn't she trying to expose him? Why wasn't she enslaving him to her whim like a conquer should? Was his admit of defeat so small that it wasn't even worth her time? He was filled with a strange mixture of rage and curiosity. He wanted to scream at her to follow the proper protocol of victory, and yet, if she didn't he could walk away from this very minor defeat and lick his wounds.
Though she didn't show it, inside, Gaz felt... strange. For all Zim's screaming and shouting about destruction, she had just exposed him for the reality he was, simply a overreaching and foolish little alien. There was no great victory to be had in this, she didn't feel proud of what she'd done. If anything, she felt kinda bad. Perhaps she had gone a little too far in burning him, he was annoying yes but he didn't deserve that.
She walked back a moment later, bag around her shoulder before dropping the Gameslave onto Zim's chest. "Well, go on, fix it."
The irken took the small device and frowned at teen before slowly picking himself up. Once he was on his feet and once he had brushed himself down, he looked to the small gaming device in his hand and, with little emotion, commanded, "Gameslave, activate."
The device jumped back into life with a 'ping' and following array of lights and sounds. Gaz noticed she'd lost her place in the battle but that was fine, she had saved outside the boss room anyway.
"Thanks," She muttered as Zim handed the object back to her. She felt awkward and she couldn't explain why. Perhaps it was the look Zim was giving her, she couldn't place it. He was furious with her, his silence was enough for that, but his eyes betrayed another emotion. He had questions that he wasn't asking.
She turned and walked away but she could feel the irken's gaze on her back. Why did she feel bad for winning? Usually she enjoyed winning. She frowned at herself, she was getting soft, just because he was small and stupid didn't make his beating any less deserved.
And yet... why did she have the almost overwhelming feeling that she had opened Pandora's box?
I didn't like the beginning of this chapter, or the bit about the Gameslave. I felt it was a little shoehorned in... sorry about that. I did like her fighting Zim though, I enjoyed writing it.
And yes, Gaz was supposed to be a little over the top in this chapter, it's all part of the story.
REFERENCES! Pigula, Vampire Piggy Hunter: Symphony of Squeals, and 'What is a man?' are all references to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Read. Review. Tell me what you liked, didn't like, bla bla anything like that. ALSO IMPORTANT! Suggest what you'd want to see more from this story! I'll update next week kids! TILL THEN!