IZ: Ten Years- Chapter 1

“As you can see to your right is the chupacabra. We feed it a goat every two days.” Dib said, being the tour guide to his very own Museum of Paranormal Studies. He was no longer a kid, but now an adult in his early twenties. “This is just one of the chupacabras running about in Puerto Rico.” Dib gestured to the animal moving about in it’s environmental home behind a glass. The tour looks in awe at the creature; they were little children on a field trip. “Yeah, he sure likes his goa-“
“See you stink beasts later! MWAHAHA!” shouted a familiar voice. Zim had escaped once again out of his glass chamber. He was running down the hallway, Dib’s direction. Security guards were trying to get a hold of him but he would swiftly jump out of the way and laugh at their faces. “Zim!” Dib called and Zim stopped in his tracks looking at him wide-eyed. “What are you doing out of your glass tube?” Dib asked, his hands on his hips as if Zim was a child. “Breaking out of course you retched human!” Zim pointed at him. “Your head is still big even today!”
Dib looked over at the children who were gasping in surprise at the runaway alien. “Don’t worry kids! I’ll get him!” he then started to chase after him. Zim shuddered for a brief moment and turned to run. Dib was familiar with Zim’s path for he chased him down like this every month ever since he was moved into the museum for display. “You’ll never catch me alive!” Zim shouted as he ran between two senior citizens. “You say that every time!” Dib went around the two and continued pursuing the determined little Irken. After going through many displays and people Dib finally cornered him. Zim glared at him then pulled out his self-destruct button from the right side of his arm. “I’ll press it! I swear I will!” Zim put his finger over the button. “Go ahead Zim.” Dib said grinning. Zim hesitated and began to sweat. He pressed the button and waited for the implosion. Then he opened his eyes confused and pressed it again and again and again. “Do you forget that I fried most of your alien devices?” Dib said snickering. He walked over and picked him up like a little boy. Zim growled as the button disappears from his sleeve. “How could you forget?” Dib said poking his pak while walking towards a large purple liquid filled tube. A plaque was right next to it reading:

Zim the Irken Alien Life Form
An Invader who originated from planet Irk. Affiliation was the Irken Empire who is attempting a galactic conquest. Zim failed to make Earth vulnerable for the invasion.
Recognition goes to Dib, son of Professor Membrane.

Dib walked behind the tube and pressed a few buttons on a control panel. “I loathe you Diiib…” Zim said clenching his fist. Dib raised him high in the air while not looking and a robot arm grabs Zim by the head and takes him away. The top part of the tube comes off by pipes that come down and lift it open. The arm drops him inside and he sinks to the bottom crossing his arms, the top then closes tightly shut. Zim glowers at the little kids who stare at him. Some of them drool with vacant expressions. His eyes then travel to his dead SIR unit GIR who is in a display case. If only there was a way to reactivate GIR, revive him. Then he could have GIR stall the guards or ride him out the door on his jets. As horrible as GIR was, he always had a use. Without GIR, Zim couldn’t have gotten rid of Tak or return to Earth if he hadn’t stolen Dib’s camera. But now GIR was lifeless and there was nothing else to it. “Curse you Dib! CURSE YOOU!” Zim looked over at Dib menacingly, bubbles rising out from his mouth. Dib was about to walk past him to continue on with the tour but then stopped to look at him. “When will you give up Zim and face it? You lost. I won.”
“Never! An Irken soldier never gives up!” Zim said proudly. “And when I escape I will continue my mission and destroy you all!” Zim pointed threateningly at the children who don’t take him seriously. Dib shook his head at Zim’s arrogance then finally spoke, “Look we’ll talk over pie.”
“Pie!?!” Zim said confused. Dib ignored and continued on with the tour.

At night the museum was closed and the only people there were the nightly security guards and Dib. It was very silent and the halls were dark. The only thing illuminating this darkness was Zim’s tube, which gave off a lavender glow that reflected the tiles. Zim seemed to be in a sitting position in the purple liquid. He was reading a magazine with no interest across his face. It was about human pop culture and Zim would read it just to make time fly by when he had no plans to escape. His dark slender antennas twitched as he sensed someone nearby. He looked over and the sound of footsteps grew. “Dib.” Zim assumed. Dib walked into the glow of the glass chamber with pie in one hand. “Yeah it’s me.” Dib replied and pulled out a remote from his trench coat pockets. He aimed it at the ground in front of Zim and entered a key. Two chairs and a small table opened up from the ground. Dib walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. He settled the pie down on the table then slouched comfortably on the chair. He then lifted the remote again at the base of Zim’s glass tube and entered another key. An attached collar comes out from the bottom and snaps onto Zim’s neck then another wiry restraint loops onto his waist. Zim lets go of the magazine as the lid opens up from above and the robot claw comes down upon his head like a crane game. It hoists him out and the restraints give out more line as it settles him in the opposite seat. “Sooo…” Dib started looking around. “What were we gonna talk about again?” Zim sat up straight in his chair but didn’t reply. “Oh, oh yeah the ‘facing that you lost’ thing.”
“You may have won the battle Dib but you haven’t won the war.” Zim said heatedly. “It’s been ten years Zim and I haven’t seen any sign of an invasion.” Dib said cutting out two slices of pie.
“Ten years? Has it really been that long?” Zim wondered to himself.
“Yes, ten long years since that day I captured you.”
“Ten years isn’t that long… how did you capture me again?” Zim raised an eye as a plate of pie was placed in front of him. Dib proceeded to tell him the flashback.

Dib was a kid back then. Being stealthy as he approached Zim’s home during nightfall. He stops at the sidewalk with his back against Zim’s fence, he then pulls out a gun. “With dad’s slightly modified electrical circuit gun I’ll be able to bypass Zim’s security and any mechanisms.” Dib then pulls out another gun. “And with this net-shooting gun thingy, I’ll be able to capture him.” Dib then pauses for a moment. “Why do I always talk out loud to myself?”

Zim is in the living room sitting on the couch watching human propaganda with GIR. They are out of disguise. GIR is eating pork rinds from a bag loudly. “GIR that is the most repulsive thing you have ever eaten.” Zim looks at him in disgust. “What about that Can O’ Lard?” GIR asks with his mouth full. “…On second thought that was the most repulsive thing you have ever-“
The door gets kicked open by Dib who is aiming the electrical circuit gun at them. “It ends now Zim!” Zim looks over at GIR glaring at him. “You didn’t lock the door?” Zim says and GIR giggles shamefully. Zim jumps off the couch and stands proudly in front of Dib. “Foolish inferior Dib, your just in time to test GIR’s latest defense mode. GIR! …It’s peanut butter jelly time!”
“Peanut butter jelly time?!” Dib said bewildered.
“PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!” GIR squealed and his eyes turn red. He does a front flip in the air and lands right in front of Dib. Dib charges up the gun and fires an electrical energy at GIR and he starts spewing electricity. His red colors go blue to gray then he stops moving completely and falls over on his back, dead. “Uh… GIR?” Zim frowns and looks less confident. “Wow it works!” Dib says delightedly looking at the gun then looking at Zim with intent. “Get out of my house!” Zim barked and his spider legs emerge from his pak. Dib fires a voltage of electricity at him. His spider legs tremble with electricity going through them. “What the?” They retract back into his pak unaware to Zim and he drops to the floor face first. He looks up to see Dib aiming the other gun at him. It fires and wraps him up in a net. “NOOOOO!” Zim screams trying to squirm out of the netting. “Ha! It’s over Zim! Dun, dun, dun!” Dib says prodding him with a finger. He grabs the lower part of the net that ties it up and starts dragging him out the door. “COMPUTER! INTRUDER ALERT! HELP ME!” Zim shouts and flails around some more. Clawed mechanical arms and wire tentacles emerge from the ceiling and lunge at him. Dib had his hand in his pocket already prepared. “Ha!” he spins around and fires an already charged gun at the arm. It trembles as electricity spews from it and the electrical energy seems to spread throughout the other arms and tentacles then the whole house. Everything shuts down, even the lights. “Wow this gun is better then I thought! It fried the whole house.” Dib says astonished looking at the gun again wide-eyed. Zim was staring horrified by the whole thing. “This can’t be happening!” Zim says pulling his eyelids. “Yeah I know!” Dib says a wide grin across his face. “I don’t even feel good about winning this one!” Dib then begins to squeal with extreme happiness.
“BE QUIET!”

The flashback ends and Zim is scowling at Dib. He hasn’t touched the pie. “Yep, and then I got pretty popular, especially with all that technology in your base. And remember the time you put me in the holographic chamber? I decided to go for that whole solving unsolved mysteries idea and got even more popular.” Dib takes a bite of some pie and Zim continues glaring at him loathingly. “I guess you deserve some credit for helping me plan ahead in my life. Thanks Zim.” Dib points at Zim with the fork. “Your welcome you despicable large cow dookie...” Zim says gritting his teeth. As if he couldn’t it hate Dib enough, the Dib monster was already just testing his tolerance. Dib could see it in his face; he was going to burst any second. “Have some pie.” Dib finally said gesturing to it. Zim’s left eye began twitching but he still bottled up his fury. He looks at the pie, grabs the whole thing and stuffs it into his mouth. He chews it with irritation then struggles to swallow it all the way down, but he finally manages before crossing his arms. Dib raises an eyebrow as Zim’s eyes start watering. They stared at each other in a long awkward moment. Two guys sitting in near total darkness eating pie. The only reason Zim hadn’t exploded in rage was because he was restrained from doing so and he didn’t want to look like a stupid wild animal trying a get at someone behind a glass, just smacking into it repeatedly humiliating himself. Dib was giving him a respectful silence so he could cool down as much as he liked to aggravate him these days. “Ten of your years has made you old Dib.” Zim finally broke the silence. “Not that old. I’m not going to kick the bucket any time soon.”
“When then?”
“I dunno… in forty years?”
“Such a short lifespan for a inferior race to have.”
“Uh hmm…” Dib looked at him peculiarly as he took a bite from his pie.
“So either way I’ll escape out of this smelly museum of smell.”
Dib looked around sniffing the air. “It doesn’t smell.”
“Your inferior human noses couldn’t smell danger until it hit you.”
“How the heck do you smell then?”
“I just do.” Zim said flatly. Dib blinked. Zim then glanced over at his glass tube where the magazine about pop culture is floating around. “Have a girlfriend?” Zim asked looking back at Dib. “Yes.” Dib said looking at him peculiarly again. “Really? What’s she look like?”
“Well she has long blond hair and- HEY! Why do you want to know?”
“Eh. No reason.” Zim shifts his eyes left and right. “Not planning to threaten nobody…”
“Oh okay, anyways, blond hair, glasses, tiny waist, and- Wait a minute! Liar!” Dib points a finger at him. “Couldn’t hurt to try.” Zim says shrugging and leaning back more into his chair. “I guess… but that’s my girlfriend!”

A few hours past by in the Museum of Paranormal Studies. There conversation got really strange. Mostly guy talk that girls would never get. Scientific things like engineering and chemistry –something Zim would rather talk about then girls- then real stupid stuff… like brownie pie. Yeah…

“Brownie pie?” Zim raised an eye at Dib who was poking his own forehead with his fork for reasons unknown. “Yeah, sounds genius.”
“Okaaay… I think you had enough pie for today.” Zim grabbed the edge of tin on the pie and pulled it away from Dib. Dib finally stopped poking his head and put the fork down. “So what do you do all day in that tube of yours? Plot ways to escape?”
“Yes, so I could continue my mission.”
“Is that all you care about?”
“I’m an invader! That’s all I should be caring about! The Tallest must be worried… I haven’t reported to them in so long!” Zim starts looking panicked.
“They must think your dead.”
“I mustn’t alarm them! I can escape! Zim needs no rescue!”
“They sure take long if they plan on rescuing you.”
“My Tallest are very confident in me for this planets downfall. That’s why!”
“Uh… wow. You sure about that?”
“Do not question Zim!” he snapped.
“I’m sure the other invaders are way ahead on their mission by now.”
“SILENCE!” Zim’s left eye began twitching again.
“Heck, they all probably conquered the planets already. All of them except you.”
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Zim growled in anger and tried wriggling out of the restraints. He grabbed at the collar and tried pulling it open. “I’m not a failure!” Zim cried as he continued pulling in frustration. He gave up and started banging his head repeatedly on the table shaking the plates and silverware. “Not a failure? Just look at yourself.” Dib said through the sound of clanging things. Zim stopped, leaving his head on the table. He finally looked up glowering at Dib. He tried reaching at him so he could strangle him but with no success then he looked over at the pie. He snatched it and hurled it at Dib’s face. It splattered all over, leaving him stunned. After awhile the tin fell off revealing the pie squashed to his face. Zim stared trying to suppress his laughter but then burst out laughing hard. He pointed at Dib’s face chuckling and trying to make words while exhaling. Dib looked at Zim aggravated as the pie started slipping off his face. “The old-fashioned pie in the face. Gets them every time.” Dib said right before Zim started pounding the table repeatedly. “Oh, oh, oh! That is funny! Let’s have pie again sometime!” Zim managed to say. Dib didn’t find it amusing and pulled out the remote. He entered in a familiar key and a mechanical claw once again hoisted Zim up and moved him back into the tube. He sank towards the bottom still laughing, bubbles rising from his mouth as if he was drowning himself. The restraints unclick and withdraw to the bottom of the tank. Dib walks over to the glass tube with his hands behind his back with less pie on his face. “Laugh now Zim. I’m starting to reconsider these scientists offer on taking samples from you.”
“What!?” Zim abruptly stops laughing. “Your just pulling threats like last time. You don’t want me killed.”
“They won’t kill you to get them. They’ll do it while you’re alive.” Dib said now crossing his arms. “I’m willing to take the risk.”
“Yeah right…” Zim signaled him to leave as he grabbed the floating magazine. Dib started walking away. “I’m serious!”
“Uh huh…” Zim said looking at the magazine. “Like last time.”

To be continued...