WHOOP WHOOP I'M BACK! I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations :P
replies:
Guest: Thank you! I worked hard on that cover, so it's nice that you appreciated it :D Oh, you'll see exciting all right, just you wait ... heheheeh
CupcakeTrue: I LIVE!
Chapter 22:
After lying in the same position for hours, Zim itched to move. Not only was he bored, his only company was GIR as everyone else had left for the night. The clock said it was midnight and Zim knew he should sleep, but he just couldn't. It was horrible because he has never felt this tired before. And the computer with all the blinking lamps was still on, making the room just slightly too bright to really fall alseep.
"GIR."
"Shush. I'm in dreamland," GIR said and made fake sleeping noises.
"No you're not. You don't sleep", Zim said, turning his head to look at his robot. Gir opened his eyes and gasped.
"I don't?"
"No. You are a robot, GIR", Zim blinked at the light from GIR's eyes.
"I've been lied to for my entire life!"
"Do you think I would die if I sat up?" Zim asked to which GIR hummed loudly. Zim waited for about five minutes, listening to the seemingly endless hum. It was sort of comforting. Maybe he could fall asleep to it...?
"Nooo? But you can't sleep if you is sitting up", GIR said. Nope, too late. GIR had broken the spell and now Zim was fully awake again.
"I need to stretch. After that it might be easier to fall asleep", he said. GIR giggled.
Getting up wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. If someone had wanted to stop him, it would take more than their mere hands forcing him back into bed. If his body was back to normal, shouldn't he be able to walk as well...?
He sat up and stretched his arms and back properly for the first time in ages (more like hours). It took a lot of effort to ignore the mild burning on his back, in the two identical holes that hadn't quite healed yet. So maybe this was his limit after all.
"Hey, I was right. I didn't die!" he concluded, deciding that this was a brilliant success. Zim crossed his legs and settled in his new position.
"Are you gonna take over the world now?" GIR asked.
"What? No, why would I do that?" Zim said, squinting one eye. GIR shrugged.
"It seems like a thing you would do. Besides TACOS!"
"That is preposterous!"
Suddenly, Zim's gaze was drawn to something. The AI that showed his condition was still on, for safety reasons with all it's glowing screens and lamps being the primary light source in the quiet room.
Zim hummed. One of the lamps weren't right. If he remembered correctly, that red lamp right there should be orange. Because it was such an important lamp, Zim had remembered it more than the other tiny lamps. It was supposed to be orange and turn green when it was okay to start the surgery. But now it was red. Red like it wasn't supposed to be unless something went wrong.
"Hey, this lamp is broken! It's telling lies", Zim said.
"I like pies", GIR said.
"Not pies! Lies! Focus GIR, this could mean it might EXPLODE at any time!" Zim exclaimed. That probably wasn't true.
"Ooooh... Yay!"
Zim huffed and looked at the lamp again. It was still glaringly red and obnoxious, like the yucky tomatoes Dib insisted to put in the salad. He glanced over to the little table beside the bed. On it lay a discreet remote with a single button. He'd been tempted to press the button for a while because it would make a lot of noise happen in Dib's and Lard Nar's homes. It was only for emergencies.
"GIR, would you consider this lamp an emergency?" he asked.
"That depends", GIR said," on whether you want fries wit that or not."
"... Fair point", Zim said and pressed the emergency button.
Nothing happened.
"Huh", he said, pressing it again.
…
Somewhere else entirely, Dib rolled off his bed in panic, wrestling with the blankets as his half-asleep mind tried to understand why his alarm clock had changed from the star wars theme to a horrible screech of doom.
He soon got up, heart beating and eyes wide when he saw the speaker responsible for the noise. His insides turned to ice.
"Oh no", he whispered," Zim!"
…
"Why is this inferior button broken?" Zim hissed, pressing the button for the hundredth time. Off course he couldn't know that it actually worked, and had successfully woken up two thirds of his colleagues.
"Yay! Let's press random buttons!" Gir cheered to Zim's horror.
"No, GIR! Don't do that!" he screamed, but didn't have to worry. GIR totally looked past the delicate computer and ran up to the lamp switch, turning on the light with a maniacal giggle. Then he turned it off and on again about 54 times. Zim kept his eyes closed tightly during the entire time.
Which is why he didn't notice the doors opening.
"Curse these automatic doors! Zim, what happened?" Dib tried to get inside, but as with every door on Vort, he had to wait patiently while the doors opened themselves. Off course, the constantly blinking lights from inside did nothing to calm his nerves.
"MARY!" GIR exclaimed, leaving the lights on and latching onto Dib's leg.
"Huh?" Zim opened his eyes and saw Dib walked quickly into the room in nothing but his boxers and a bathrobe messily thrown over his shoulders. "Oh, hey Dib, so the remote worked after all."
"What's wrong? Where are you hurting? What did GIR do?" Dib said, lifting and spinning Zim he sat facing away from Dib. Dib looked at the PAK, anxiously expecting and infection or something even worse. There was nothing.
"The LAMP MACHINE is broken!" Zim exclaimed. Dib paused suddenly, frowning.
"Huh?"
"RIGHT HERE!" Zim crawled over to the machine, pointing at the red little lamp," It's the wrong color! It's lying! It might explode!"
"Hey, that is weird", Dib said, knocking at the lamp with one finger. Nothing really happened. "Are you sure you're not hurting? I mean, if something's wrong, then you should be hurting, right?"
"There's nothing wrong! I'm fine, see?" Zim said, waving his arms as if that would prove something. He was hurting, but not that much. Not in the wrong way.
"Well, apparently this computer thinks something is wrong. Lard Nar should be here soon, since you pressed the emergency button, and then he can help us figure it out", Dib nodded at his own idea.
Zim wanted to throw himself backwards and groan, as would have been the appropriate reaction. But he was not stupid so he avoided doing that. Good thing he could throw himself forward instead.
"Come on, Zim! It won't be that long", Dib sighed, sitting down.
"Yes it wi-"
"I'm here!" Lard Nar said loudly, posing behind the slowly opening doors.
"That … was faster than I expected. Didn't you say you lived far away from the castle?" Dib said.
"Oh yeah, I took the jet when Zim pressed the emergency button", he said, looking around slowly with a frown on his face," although there doesn't seem to be an emergency. Zim?!"
"There IS one! Right there! Right … there!" Zim exclaimed as he got up once again. With his face close to the malfunctioning button and his finger even closer he, again, said," right there!"
Lard Nar walked over, humming thoughtfully.
"Hey, that is weird", Lard Nar said.
"That what I thought too, but you would know better than I if we should be worried", Dib said.
"I think it might explode if we don't do something quickly!" Zim said. He was ignored.
"The first thing to do is to check Zim's condition. Meanwhile I'll let the computer run a scan on itself to check for any damage", Lard Nar concluded after doing the obvious tests like knocking on the lamp and shaking the computer gently.
Zim pouted as Lard Nar started fiddling with the new machinery on his back. He felt himself tense up when Lard Nar opened the hatch. It was one of the weirdest sensations he'd ever experienced, because somehow, he could feel Lard Nar opening the smooth surface of the PAK and pressing the buttons inside it. He knew, off course, that it was nothing but metal and that he shouldn't be able to feel what was going on. But he did anyways and it was freaky! I reminded him of those … 'phantom pains' Dib had told him about when ranting about unexplainable phenomena.
Except Zim hadn't lost a limb, he'd gained one. Except he hadn't, but it was the closest thing he could think of to describe this feeling.
"Okay, nothing wrong there. It seems like it was the computer after all- oh, Zim, you seem to be shaking a bit. Are you okay?" Lard Nar said.
"H-huh?" Zim mumbled, remembering that he had to breathe. Slowly, he managed to uncross his arms and look at Lard Nar. Had there been a question just now? "Um. Yeah. Sure." He said, it seemed like a good answer. Except now Dib looked at him weirdly.
"Zim, you need to tell us if something is wrong. Your life could literary hang on it!" He said.
"I know that!" Zim defended," and nothing is wrong! What that not what I told you?"
"Okay, okay, whatever."
"Scanning complete. No defects detected", the computer suddenly said.
"Huh, that's weird" Lard Nar mumbled," Computer, explain why lamp number 37b is in mode 'SHGB'."
"Reason unknown", the computer said.
"What? There has to be a reason!" Lard Nar threw his hands in the air. The computer had nothing smart to reply to that.
"Then what do we do?" Dib asked. Lard Nar shrugged.
"The computer is obviously more broken than I expected. We'll replace it with another one and send this to the reparation guys."
"Hear that, Zim? Nothing's gonna explode-" Dib paused himself.
In the middle of their dialogue, Zim had finally fallen asleep.
….
"It looks … weird", Zim said, straining his neck to see his back in the mirror. The PAK was smaller than it felt, it's three circular hatches glowing faintly, not visible to the human eye in the lit up lab. It was morning, and they were back to their normal schedule. 'Normal' which from now on meant testing and retesting the prototype PAK until they were sure there were no defects.
"You knew what it looked like before we attached it to your spine. You shouldn't be surprised", Lard Nar mumbled.
"That is not the same thing!" Zim said.
"I agree with Zim, it does look different now somehow", Sev En added, studying Zim studying himself.
"You think? I really can't tell", Dib said. He could swear it looked exactly the same.
"That's because there's nothing different about it, Sev En is being all philosophical", Lard Nar grunted.
Zim hadn't mean that it looked different, just that it looked weird having half a metal egg stuck on your back. He supposed he would get used to it. At least it wasn't ugly, he actually thought it looked cool.
"Anyways, thanks to Vort's technology your back is as good as healed already, Zim", Sev En said," and so far there has been no strange side effect in your brains or spine. Are you ready for some tests?" Sev En looked more excited than Zim himself, and Zim grinned.
"Off course I am!"
With everyone seated, the real tests began. Zim sat on the table, eyes closed tightly and sweat breaking forth. The others looked on intensely when suddenly the hatches on the PAK opened. They all breathed out and Zim panted slightly. He had no idea controlling machines with your mind would be that hard. It required total concentration.
Something Zim wasn't very good at, admittedly.
"Great work", Sev En said kindly," try closing them again."
Zim sighed and concentrated, focused until his head hurt, willing the PAK to close. As soon as it closed he realized another thing. A feeling he was widely familiar with, but it was so unexpected he almost didn't recognize it.
"I'm hungry", Zim said, sounding almost surprised.
"Already? We had breakfast half an hour ago", Dib said. Zim's stomach growled loudly enough to startle everyone in the hall.
"I need food!" Zim held his belly painfully. He'd never experienced such a sudden hunger before! "Right now or I will die!"
"Could it be that the effort of simply opening and closing the PAKs lids requires more energy than we expected?" Sev En mumbled, mostly to himself.
"Impossible! The infinite battery should be enough, shouldn't it?" Sev En exclaimed. Zim groaned and fell dramatically into a miserable heap on the table and his stomach growled again.
"Whether that's right or not, I think Zim might need a snack break", Dib said, despite having a hunch that Zim was overreacting just a bit.
"Yes! Yes, let's have this snack-break right now! Quickly, before my organs implode into themselves!" Zim said, dragging himself across the table.
Sev En and Lard Nar looked at each other hesitantly. They had never had a snack break before, especially not so soon after breakfast. It simply wasn't the Vortian way. Sev En shrugged with a smile, and Lard Nar sighed and said:
"Fine, but this better not turn into a habit!"
TBC
Mode SHGB stands for Shit Has Gone Bad, fyi.
This story turns two years next week, let's see if I can update on it's birthday :0
/sagapaga