Chapter 3 - Unwelcome Surprises

Chapter 3: Unwelcome Surprises

"What do you mean, 'the goggles are lost'?!" Zim snapped as he looked through the desk drawers. "How could you misplace Zim's all-powerful goggles?!"

"They were right on the desk, Zim, they couldn't have gotten far." Dib said as he looked through a pile of clothes near the desk. "They might've just fallen off or something..."

"In your disgusting room, I wouldn't be surprised if they left. Don't you ever CLEAN THIS PLACE?" Zim said as he poked some mystery goo in the corner with a ruler, watching as it bubbled and groaned.
"I don't have time to clean, I'm to busy with my paranormal researching-"

"And losing Zim's things!"

"Oh shut up and keep looking! They couldn't have up and walked away." Dib rolled his eyes.

"Unless they were worn by a filthy human." Zim corrected. "Did you or anyone else wear them?"

Dib paused. "Uh, no, no, n-not that I can recall." He said, turning around quickly and looking through another pile.

"Oh, tallests, you put them on! Dammit, Dib, you're supposed to be one of the smarter meat-stinks!" Zim yelled, purple lens-eyes narrowing in anger. He was soon only a few inches from Dib, pinning him to the wall with one hand. "Do you realize what you've done?!"

"They're a normal pair of goggles, they didn't create this almighty Irken guy after I took them off." The pale teen said, trying to remove Zim's painful grasp on his shoulder.

"They activate when the person they collect DNA from goes to sleep, idiot!" Zim growled, his teeth gritted. "There's your answer to the bomb at skool today....it's your irken counterpart." He released the human and turned. He slipped a device out from his PAK...a strange irken pair of hand-held binoculars.

"Hmm..." Zim said, going over to the table. "I was correct, Dib-stink...have a look for yourself. Try not to get any of your horrible human germs on my mighty irken equipment." He handed the device over to the earthling, who cautiously put it up to the lenses of his glasses and peered through them.

It showed the events of the other night, from the time he placed the goggles down to the time the strange irken left.

"Wow....so this thing is like a Negative version of me?" Dib asked as he lowered the binocular like device from his glasses.

"In a way, yes." Zim snatched the device back. "So, I suggest we go back to the Highskool building and see if we can find anything else....perhaps a loose strand of altered DNA or a piece of metal...I can run it through the computer in the base so we can figure out what this 'thing' is."

"Why are you so concerned about it, Zim?" Dib inquired curiously.

"Because it is my creation, Dib-worm. It is running amok and I must find it and get it under control so the conquering of the planet can be put back on track!" Zim replied, grinning toothily.

"Fine...we'll walk back." The white teen said quietly, and headed out the door. Zim hurriedly trailed behind him till they hit the bottom of the stairs, in which he led the way once more.

"Gaz, we're heading out to find a psycho and get him, be back in a few hours."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Gaz muttered as the door closed. "I hope he gets chopped up into bite sized pieces."

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After they searched the classroom of the skool and found a small piece of metal with greenish liquid on it, Zim promptly dragged Dib back to his base, where Gir was eagerly waiting.

"HI!HI HI HI!" Gir giggled through the window in his cute doggy suit as he waved. When they entered, Gir somehow managed himself onto Dib's head. "Hi big-head boy! Can I goes for a ride on yous head?"

"Gir, stay off of his head." Zim grunted as he opened a way down to the labs deep below the house.

"Aww..." Gir whined, and fell to the floor head-first. He managed up and out of his costume and soon did a cannonball down the tube leading downwards. Dib looked down it from the edge.

"Go ahead, Dib-stink." Zim said, a tad impatiently. He simply pushed Dib and watched him fall into the seemingly bottomless tube.

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Dib landed with a harsh 'thump' onto the pinkish-purple floor of the labs below. "Ow..." He said, achingly picking himself off the ground and dusting off his coat. "Aww, these are new glasses..." He whined as he noticed the crack in the lens. He looked up and saw Zim slip out easily with the spider-legs from his PAK. "You suck." Dib told him, frowning unhappily.

"Silence, human." The Irken waved his hand uninterestedly as he peeled off his disguise and threw it on a table. "Now to figure out what exactly my creation looks like so I can find him quickly."

Dib managed to stumble over to Zim, the darkness of the lab making it near impossible to see anything.

"Be careful, clumsy big headed earth-filth. If you break one thing in ZIM's almighty base, I shall personally eliminate you." Zim threatened, and only gave an irritated growl as Dib rolled his eyes and came to his side.

"Computer, extract the DNA and reassemble an accurate appearance of its owner."

"Yes sir..." The computer yawned. a robotic hand stretched out from the wall and grabbed the metal piece, and a scanner soon began the process.

"Extracting...."

The screen started going to static.

"Computer, computer, what are you doing?" Zim said quickly, rushing over to the set of controls. They short-circuited and caused Zim to back away to avoid being electrocuted.

The screen went to pure black, until a pair of crimson lenses appeared with a glow.

"Greetings, Creator....Host...." The Irken symbols on the screens moved as they looked at Zim and Dib.

"My goggles!" Zim said, pointing quickly.

"Correction. MY goggles. They are no longer within your control, Zim." The creature laughed, the lens color changing from deep red to yellow. "What fun would it be if I just stayed and kept telling you two things? None, really...now games, games are fun...." He was slightly distracted as he went on a rather insane conversation with himself.

But he stopped himself. "Ah, here I am, rambling...Zim, I'm killing your DNA extractor. You want to see me? Come and find me for yourself."

"Cut the transmission." The figure ordered, and instantly the screen shut off.

"Computer, pinpoint the exact location of that transmission!" Zim demanded.

"Can't, sir...it's been scrambled."

Zim slammed his fist on the non-sparking control panel. "Irk..." He glanced over at Dib. "Dib, go call your sister. Tell her your staying here for the next few days. That thing doesn't know where the base is....my scrambler allows me to get transmissions but without releasing my location...."

"But why do I have to stay away from home?"

"Because something is wrong, and I don't like it.....he's going to try to frame you for his future actions, and I'd prefer to have someone alive enough to help me capture and deactivate him." Zim answered and watched as Gir finally ran in.

"I gots a phone!" The little robot giggled.

"Gir, can I use that?" Dib asked as he crouched down.

"Suuuure! Here ya go!" Gir handed over the phone. "I'mma gonna go play with piggy!" He laughed insanely as he ran off.

Dib chuckled and dialed his phone number. "Hey, Gaz? Listen, I'm going to be spending the week at Zim's...make sure you tell dad so he doesn't start sending out search parties or anything....okay, bye..."

He hung up and looked over at Zim. "So, have any 'brilliant' ideas on how to capture this guy?"