Chapter 1

Slert looked around, a confused look on her face. Katz had just been right beside her, but now she was suddenly gone. Slert didn't blame her, though; now that they'd successfully escaped, the authorities would be on full alert.

Now she found herself in the middle of a dilemma. Here she was standing out in the open, an easy target for those wanting to recapture her, and she had no way of getting off the planet.

More and more of the Tallests' elites were arriving every few minutes to subdue the escapees and soon getting off the planet would be near impossible.

Nervously she scanned the skies for any spare aircrafts, thinking that she could use Streerch to forcefully commandeer them. She would do anything to avoid going back to a cell in that prison, even if it meant getting herself killed in the process of trying to get away.

She tuned to her little robot and commanded, "Streerch, go find us a ship so we can get out of here! Do whatever it takes to get u off that planet… or you'll be back in that junk closet and I'll be in a cell. If need be… kill all in your path!"

"Yes, my Master!" Streerch said loudly, turning away from Slert. Without any warning the robot shot up into the sky to survey the scene. For a few moments it scanned the area, searching for any ship they could use.

Quickly growing impatient Slert called up to her minion, "Streerch, do you see anything yet? We don't have time to goof around; the elites could get to this part of the planet at any moment!"

Soon after Streerch landed, its search complete. It reported obediently, "There appear to be a few vessels left on the planet's surface. The closest one is just a little way away. Its pilot seems to be not too far away from it, looking for someone."

Slert looked in the direction her robot was pointing and almost instantly came to a decision. If she wanted to get off this horrible planet she'd have to steal someone's ship.

"Well, what're we waiting for? We need to get out of here!" Slert said, as she began to make her way toward the waiting spaceship.

Streerch followed closely, though quickly took the lead. Slert had no idea where she was going and she would most definitely need its help to find her way.

The two of them walked through the small crowds that scattered the area for a good few minutes, still not finding the ship. It was a long way away and it would take them a little longer than they would have liked to get there.

They stopped briefly to glance at another fight that was breaking out and were about to continue when something else caught their attention.

They heard a mass of screaming was coming from just behind them, and they couldn't' help but take a peek. Just as they turned around they saw the crowds scattering wildly. This sudden and random behaviour confused Slert, but she soon enough realized why they were doing this.

A loud whistling noise soon filled the air, and Slert instinctively looked up. There in the sky was a voot cruiser hurtling crazily toward the planet. It didn't appear to be slowing down in the slightest as it neared the planet's rocky surface.

Before she knew it the thing crashed into the planet, killing two of the few who didn't know what was going on and hadn't moved. Out from the wreck tumbled and irken and its SIR, crazed looks on their faces.

Slert happened to be the first one this irked saw, and very soon he was running toward her. He yelled at the top of his lungs as he reached her, "I've made it! NOW! WHERE IS MY KATZ?"

"I don't know, she probably already left. Like I'm about to do… I have to get off this planet. Your ship, is it still working?" Slert asked anxiously, though one look at the craft told her that it would probably never fly again.

Not waiting for an answer she began to walk away. She had to get going, and couldn't afford to wait for this guy.

Neither he nor his SIR were willing to leave her alone, though. As the robot latched onto her leg he followed her, walking in a very odd manner. Questions poured continuously from his mouth, and Slert was able to ignore him for a short time. Her patience soon grew thin, however.

"Damn it, will you just shut up? I'm sure Katz is OK, I don't know where she is, and yes this is 'that prison planet'! If you're going to follow me shut up… and tell your robot to GET OFF OF ME! And tell me your name; I hate traveling with people who's names I don't know," she exploded, "Or if you'd rather I kill you right now, that could also be arranged."

"I am ZIM! You will OBEY me and lead me to my Katz!" the red-eyed irken introduced loudly, apparently taking great pride in himself.

"Yeah… no. I have my own things to do right now," Slert said, growing very annoyed. This guy thought he was the king of the universe or something, and it was really getting on her nerves.

"OBEY ME, FOR I AM THE GREAT ZIM!" he screeched madly.

"Look, when you're with me, I'm the one who's in charge," Slert hissed, whipping out the dagger she'd gotten from the irken who'd kidnapped her, "I say where we go, I say what we do. So unless you want to die, shut the hell up."

Zim shut up upon seeing the deadly knife, sinking back just a bit. He followed nearly silently from then on, reducing his talking to the occasional random question.

Soon they found themselves at their destination. Slert breathed a sigh of relief; the aircraft as well as its pilot were still there. One thing did strike her as odd, though; the pilot of the spacecraft was vortian.

"You! We need you to fly us out of here!" Slert said as they approached her, an urgent tone to her voice.

Much to her surprise the pilot kindly obliged, "Sure, I suppose I can do that. It seems the one I was sent here to retrieve aren't coming, so… hop aboard."

Slert didn't need to be told twice. Almost before the vortian had finished speaking she and her robot were sitting in the passenger seat beside that of the pilot. Zim and GIR quickly piled in after then, and after then the pilot climbed in.

Just as they were about to lift off they heard something crash into the exterior of the ship. From outside they heard someone yell, "Please! Please, take me with you! I can't go back to a cell, I just can't! PLEASE!"

"We have no more room, the ship's full. Otherwise I would gladly bring you along," the pilot said through a little intercom-type device.

"Please, just get me off this god forsaken planet! I don't care if I have to ride in the cargo chamber or be one of your slaves! I'll do anything…" the voice called back in desperation.

The pilot looked to Slert for what to do. She was honestly OK with another passenger coming along for the ride, but only if she didn't have to look after them.

The decision for Slert was an easy one to make. This ZIM character who'd attached himself to her would be of no use to her in future plans. This new arrival, however, sounded a bit more promising.

"D'you mind if we get this other one back to his planet? I don't think he'll be of much help to us," Slert asked the vortian pilot in a whisper. She didn't want Zim to overhear.

"Yeah, that could be arranged. I have orders to get back to my planet, but I don't think they'll mind if I take a detour," she replied happily, "Besides, I should practice my flying as much as I can."

"Great, then let this guy on. He sounds like a promising one," Slert said, nodding thoughtfully.

The pilot gave a thumbs-up and opened the hatch. Immediately the irken clambered inside, finding himself a space at the very back of the ship.

"Thank you all so much! I didn't think I was ever going to hitch a ride. If there's anything I can do to repay you, anything at all, you just ask!" he said thankfully, looking to everyone in the ship.

He was a lean irken, though he did have some muscle on him. His green eyes twinkled with happiness and he smiled widely, showing his dull but sparkly teeth. He didn't look like much of a fighter and didn't seem like he should even be at Seven in the first place, but Slert was sure she could find something to do with him.

"Everyone ready to head off?" the pilot asked, as she readied the ship for takeoff.

They all nodded and told her they were. The armada was fast getting their reinforcements and the window of opportunity through which they could escape was steadily closing.

Nobody knew anyone else in the spacecraft but at the moment they didn't care. They'd get to the introductions later, when they were out of immediate danger.

************

"Zim, where do you live?" Slert asked, for they needed to know where to drop him off.

They were finally out of harm's way for the time being, and could now go about doing the things that needed to be tended to.

"I live on the PITIFUL planet of Earth. Soon those FILTHY humans will bow to me, when I conquer the planet," he said loudly, shaking his fist in the air violently and nearly foaming at the mouth.

"Earth, eh? Shouldn't take too long to get there…" Eva, the vortian pilot, muttered, as she switched on a communications device.

From the roof dropped a screen on which a peculiar looking being appeared. It looked to be half irken and half human. Its appearance seemed to catch Zim's attention more than anything.

"The Dib-Stink! What's he doing on the screen… and why does he have ANTENNAE? What are you planning, Dib-Monkey?" Zim yelled accusingly, as he pointed a shaking finger at the screen.

"Dib? Oh yeah, that's that human's name… no, I'm not this Dib. I just found his appearance interesting, so I snatched it… with a few modifications, of course," the one on the screen laughed, "I'm a meekrob, you see. But I don't like my natural appearance, so I change it every so often."

"YOU LIE!" Zim hollered, going completely ballistic in the back seat. His cries nearly deafened his fellow travelers.

The meekrob sighed, "Fine… fine. It doesn't look like you're going to shut up, so… I'm going to show you my true form. BUT just this ONCE."

He closed his eyes and concentrated hard on transforming. After a minute or two his form shimmered and suddenly started to glow. All of a sudden a very majestic-looking meekrob was on the screen in his brilliant true form, an annoyed look on his face.

"See? Meekrob. Can you shut up now so we can get to Eva's question?" he muttered, quickly transforming back. Zim didn't quite settle down, but they decided to ignore him and continue nonetheless.

"OK, now that that's over and done with, I do in fact have a question for you. We need to stop by a planet called Earth to drop the annoying one off before he drives us all insane, but we don't know where Earth is."

"Earth's coordinates…" he mumbled as he typed something into his computer, "Ah, yes! If you go straight northeast at top speed, you should get there in four to five months."

"Thanks, Newp. I'll see you in about nine or ten months, then. 'Course we'll keep in touch, though," Eva smiled, turning the communications device off and getting it out of the way.

Slert fastened her seatbelt, getting ready for a long ride. She didn't know what would happen or where she'd end up, but anything was better than rotting in Seven. She smiled, knowing things could only get better.

::End Chapter 1::

So, I'm going to kick off the start of Revenge Never Rests, the sequel to The Art of Revenge. Invader Zim is something I've been wanting to get back into lately, and since this one was unfinished and Blood Sport is coming up (which I'll be competing in), I wanted to get this out there.

I hope that if my opponents want to know Nyrhtak a little better they'll read parts of this (if not all) since he's one of the main characters and will be fighting a bit.

This will also be where all my (very) minor OCs will make their debuts, and most likely that's where I'll leave them unless I take up an interest and want to further thier stories later on.

Anyway, invader zim (c) JV, yadda yadda