"Gaaaz!"

The teasing giggles and harsh stares had started again. Betting every penny she owned that they were here to bring up some sort of punishment for last Monday, Gaz stopped in her tracks, keeping her face firm and angry while she stared down at her striped leggings and small black tennis shoes. The sound of squeaky little giggles from squeaky little girls made her head hurt, and even though her back was turned to the crowd of menacing, cruel, midget-size, preppy girls, she could feel the heat of their glares.

"Gazzy," started their leader, who slowly led the group to where Gaz stood in the middle of the empty hall. Every step they took, the giggles seemed to get louder. "We heard about last week… with you and Mr. Membrane and all…" Gaz felt herself surrounded now, every pair of little eyes on her.

"And although you didn't get detention or suspension, which you rightfully deserved," the clique switched from innocent giggles to loud, snorting laughter. "You really need to be punished for what you did, and because we had some time on our hands… well, we came up with THIS."

With the final word of that sentence, she pulled a water balloon from out behind her back and held it above Gaz's head. Gaz felt her face form into one of her famous "Massacre" expressions. The group let out cruel chants.

"Soak the Freak! Soak the Freak! SOAK THE FREAK!"

The girl's blue eyes turned cold gray as she slammed the balloon on her victim's head, almost as if she was slam dunking a basket ball into a still, unstirred goal.

The group's laughter got louder and even crueler, and Gaz finally snapped. Her eyes widened and her teeth grit, causing every vein in her body to almost pulse out of her body.

"FOOLS!" She turned and screamed, balling her hands to cold, white knuckled- fists. "YOU HAVE GONE WAY TO FAR THIS TIME!" Every one of the giggly girls went silent and stared at her.

Almost as if she couldn't control herself, she wrapped her hands around the first neck she could reach. All the little preps ran away screaming, and Gaz couldn't see what was in front of her from her blurry vision.

"DO YOU LIKE MAKING AN IDIOT OF ME?! IS IT REALLY THAT ENTERTAINING TO MAKE ME MISREABLE?!" She shook the girl harshly and ruthlessly, screaming these words form the top of her weak lungs. Her voice cracked in a few places, leaving her horse and her throat sore. When she could scream no more, she threw the girl on the cold tiled floor, then mercilessly kicking her side and stomping on her perfect face. The already bleeding female threw her arms in the air and waved them around in every direction, trying to defend herself. The water dripped from Gaz's shaking and fiercely active body, leaving a small puddle next to the one that was left from the water balloon.

"I'LL SHOW YOU PAIN, YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

Just when Gaz was about to pin the girl to the ground to deal some menacing blows to her rib cage with her fists, the pale faced-child's arms went limp, and she could no longer defend herself. Realizing this, Gaz stepped away from the corpse of the strangled, bleeding body.

Another victim of my strength, Gaz thought wistfully. That ought to teach those little sluts to mess with me…

The moment she heard the yelling of teachers and little girls, and loud running footsteps from the next hall over, Gaz made a run for it, leaving the dead little girl behind.

When she had awaken from her nightmarish flashback, Gaz found herself still in front of the cottage-disguised base of Tak, and she felt a cramp in her hands from balling them into fists so many times. She must have got carried away while she was recalling the horrifying event, because there was a small little bush in front of her that had been cut in half from the stem, probably from where she kicked it.

You see, Gaz had told none of this to anyone.

And she knew if she thought about it anymore, she might have gone insane. I guess that's how Tak and I are alike, she thought, looking up to the sky and letting the cool wind blow in her face, giving her some room to breathe a little. We both keep secrets from the ones that matter the most… or matter the least…

The only reason they did those things to Gaz is because she knew their secret. She knew it, and no one else. They thought they were doing a good job of concealing their secret identities as super human freaks, and Gaz had apparently ruined EVERYTHING. She had saw them giggling in the girl's bathroom, inhaling deeply and freezing things. Not to mention how she'd been a witness to their little magic tricks that included suddenly making the all the water bottles freeze except for maybe two or three of them, making sure everyone except them had a frozen bottle of water along with their lunches. Gaz didn't know what to call them. Super Humans? Machines? Androids? And if possible, Aliens?

Selfish… Foolish…

For once in her life, Gaz almost felt sympathy for her idiot brother, who had yet found the evidence he needed to prove Zim was an alien, which would be obvious with his green skin if every last kid in the neighborhood wasn't such a total IDIOT. She knew how he felt now, cold and alone and hated. That was all there was to it. And No matter how she tried, Gaz couldn't change that.

Soak the Freak! Soak the freak!

She shook the thoughts from her head and returned her attention to Tak's base, which she had yet to get into a range of 4 feet in to. She sighed. Feeling every inch of all the courage and fury she's had stored up for all these years suddenly leave her with each breath she took. These girls were a threat; she knew that, but the dangers of meddling with them…

Well, she didn't know that.

Gaz had never felt this feeling before. She knew her hands were shaking, and yet she didn't try to stop them. Her head felt light and airy. She didn't feel so reassured now that everything was going to go her way, with the help of her violent, dark attitude.

Was it, if possible, fear?

No… Gaz told herself. I'm not that kind of person. Why should they pose a threat? I strike fear into others… not the other way around…

So what if they freeze things?

I'll… kill them…

With everything I have… With or without Tak's help…

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Dib, finally realizing he was the only one in the house now that his sister had escaped the insane clutches of their father and his dad had left the house for some freakish meeting with fellow insane scientists, rose his head from the table and looked around at his kitchen. Every one of Dad's weird doo-dads that he had left lying around in the kitchen were gone.

That's… not surprising.

Dib stood up and pushed the chair back in.

Not at all.

He tried to figure out how long he had slept, and found that difficult due to the fact that he didn't remember what time he fell asleep. Sometime in the morning, when Dad thought it was time to go to school. Not to mention Gaz still wasn't back. Which was convenient.

He looked at the clock to see it was still early, around ten. And wherever Gaz went, she spent a good hour there. Not one to celebrate having the house to himself, he decided it would be best if he took a little walk or visited somewhere as well. There really wasn't anything else to do. Maybe he would sabotage Zim's next plan, or at least find out what it was.

To his dismay, Dib didn't really have any inventions ready for spying, and he wasn't in the mood to make a new one. Well, he did have a few. He just didn't think he could take another disappointment. Gir would blow up something, or nobody would believe him even if he did find something out, or Gir would find a hidden camera, or something would malfunction… the possibilities of failure, which mostly included Gir, were endless.

Not to mention he certainly wasn't getting any support from his family. Which was nothing new.

I need to get out of here. He thought to himself calmly. I don't know why, but the empty atmosphere is just too much. Dib grabbed the doorknob, sighed, and his hand fell back to its original place next to his waist.

When was the last time I felt so lonely?

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Tak was speechless. Her face blank and her jaw quivering, she shook her head in disbelief. Zim stared, unwillingly, and felt sadness and disappointment finally hit him.

They were back.

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:)