Purple hued eyes stared lazily at a blue screen, drool dribbled from the corner of his green lips in boredom as a loud rapping was heard in the background. The air outside was non-existent and it seemed it would be incredibly dull to describe the many uninteresting stars that dotted their nebula. Plant Irk was not one of a very spontaneous background; if one were to spend too much time there they would discover it was much the same routine and same scenery day after day.
There was nothing interesting about it. No greenery or blue skies to bask in, not even a tree you could read a book under – not that you would find yourself reading a book on a planet that was strictly military and food anyways.
One Tallest pondered this thought as his angry comrade, possibly brother, hissed at the now blue screen to work once again. His name? Purple.
Purple was usually quite full of energy, but at the moment it seems he could hardly keep his eyes open. Two fingers set upon a green cheek as he tapped the opposite hand on the arm of his throne. He yawned and a glare shot back at him as a shout erupted from the other Tallest's mouth – the one named after his color scheme which was the brilliant shade of cherry lollipops as he liked to think of it.
"Get one of the control brain's in here! Zim made the transmitter go out again with his…his… 'Sploding!"
He squawked angrily as he waved his fisted fingers. Returning to his own throne to angrily pout for a while.
Purple didn't even notice as the smaller Irken scientist scudded along with a wrench to lightly 'ding' the side of the screen lightly. Walking out as it fizzled and cracked to show up a happy Irken corporate symbol with a cheerful 'Please Stand By' under it.
Purple perked up at this, antennae stood up to stare at the transmitting screen with interest.
Waiting quietly for something to happen, they both stared for quite a bit. Blinking every few moments until it zipped into a dull video transmission of a rather crispy Irken solider.
They both groaned, Red placing a hand over his head in displeasure. But the more interested Purple leant foreword with a disgruntled looks on his face.
"How did you hack into the satellite THIS time Zim?" Purple said in a whine, sighing as he leant back in his chair and fetched his drink off the table between them while Red seethed over talking to the annoying little loyalist once more.
"Oh my Tallest's! It was terrible! I couldn't connect to your transmission at all! Some-thingy about denied access? Oh but don't worry, I fixed that for you," he said, his voice ranging from almost fearful to a cheerful, insane smile. The Tallest's simply shook their heads in an odd unison.
"Yes Zim, that's very… clever of you. INFACT-"
Purple interrupted into Red's explanation with his own, saving his fellow ruler the trouble of finding an excuse that he was sure Zim wouldn't question, but found that his own explanation would be more plausible so they could have the Control Brains put an even stronger protection program in place to keep out the tiny Irken.
"Infact just to CHALLENGE your very…um… Unique talents we're going to purposely put a block on you – to again… CHALLENGE your skills!"
The Invader's eyes lit up with enthusiasm, raveling in the moment where his rulers would allow him a second chance for his downfalls – at least that's how he saw it. He bounced on his heels ecstatically, grabbing his small idiotic robot by its head and shaking it around a little.
GIR giggled as he did so, waving his hands and screaming an obscure and random phrase that Zim never really did pay attention to.
"Oh THANK YOU my lords! You will not be disappointed! A very wise decision, why, I could almost mistake you for the mother brain!"
Zim went on, complimenting how wonderfully intelligent they were. If only they cared about his opinion, then maybe they would have taken more of a liking to the loyalist than the actually did.
However, the current Tallest's, ever sarcastic didn't sit back and take his praise like they should have had… they just had to go and mess around with his head.
"So… you're calling us a giant…. Brain?"
Red asked accusingly, a bit of stale curiosity in his voice. Continuously tapping his finger on his chin, only to stop to pay full and very dull attention to Zim's response; to bad his brother ruined everything
"Oh! Like we're so powerful we could run the whole planet?!" Purple chimed in, slamming a fist in his palm and had a fake anger. This was overshadowed more by his excitement and snickers as he tried to pull it together to make his performance seem believable; a difficult task for a regular peppy overlord, as he has shown on many previous occasions.
"….No… I was saying that you, my Tallest's, are so smart that if you wished you could run the whole planet."
"But we already run the whole planet!" Purple said, frustrated as he threw his hands up and let his throne drift into the TV screen, gritting his teeth and cocking one eyebrow; he stifled a loud uproar of laughter. Teasing Zim, his favorite pastime.
"Yes, but-"
"But nothing! We will see you on probing day, ZIM"
He hissed the name with a distasteful malice, the TV screen blinked and faded into black once more. Both Tallest's turned to stare at each other, and for a few moments it was a cold silence… until both of them erupted into a fit of giggles and snorts.
Unable to roll on the floor, they leant back in their chairs and wagged their heads back and forth, uttering soft murmurs of 'stop' when tears began to rise in their eyes and their sides begun to ache.
The room was void of light for a while, every gadget and gizmo though dully outlined by their mere presence was not to be seen clearly by the naked eye. There sat the lonely Invader in his chair, his eyes still wide with hope as he stared at the screen.
Tears welled in his eyes, but not of sorrow – but strangely of happiness. The invader sniffled, and wiped his large red orbs clean before hopping out of his chair and saluting the now blackened transmission screen.
"I will not fail you, my Tallest's!"
Said the ever loyal Zim as he pivoted on his heel and walked off into the depths of his underground lab to another set of monitors that were positioned near a dark and dank corner.
Their metal frames seemed rusted and uncared for, one of the few screens had a crack down the middle – and when turned on they seemed to take several minutes to fizzle with electrical snow that was colored a tint of blue.
However, with a few knobs to be turned, it could be tuned to have a fairly decent picture shown without to much of a problem.
Zim had found them simply thrown away one day in the city dump, and any equipment he could harvest that was free – he would use without a second thought.
One mechanical spider leg jutted from the irken's pack and tapped at a control panel that sat just above the monitors on the ceiling, with colorful buttons to be pressed and dials to be turned.
He tapped a few of these said buttons and the monitors flickered once, and stalled, than with a small 'ping'; a boy was displayed from a 3-quarters view, possibly from a corner as he reached into the refrigerator and pulled out milk than walked casually off camera.
Zim's eyes flashed to yet another monitor, which again displayed the same young male as he poured the milk into a bowl of Poop-O's cereal. Then, took a seat at the table the bowl was sitting upon and begun to shovel the food down his throat.
His name was all too familiar, and a source of frustration ever since he had arrived on this filthy planet… it was Dib.
His teeth clenched, and a sneer contorted his features – narrowing his eyes with a hateful spite as he watched the human he despised as he innocently chomped on his cereal. Three fingered hands held his hips, and his feet covered by his neatly polished black boots rocked back and forth from toe to heel as he watched the Dib eat his breakfast.
Upon finishing, his enemy returned the milk to its rightful place in his human ice-box contraption and walked out of the kitchen.
Zim's eyes kept switching monitors, depending on which area in his rivals house he was in. He watched obsessively, intensely, until the moment he had been waiting for arrived. The human stepped out of his house, ready for Hi-Skool like every day of his pathetic life. It was time to strike.
Dib hadn't changed much from their younger years, his hair had grown out just a little bit over his ears, and now the odd little scythe like hair-cut on his foul head had begun to zigzag near the bottom as did his fathers.
Of course not to the intensity as the professors quite yet, where his entire haircut was a jagged spike, almost as long as a yard stick – perhaps longer.
His smelly little coat had gotten longer, and his negative face that sat on his light blue shirt had become a bit angrier. His glasses had gotten fitted to him accordingly, and his boots and pants had become longer with along with his body. He now stood a good 5'5 now, which he was excessively proud of though Zim only hated him ever more for it.
However this smelling, rotting planet with natural soil instead of advanced metalloids for its crust – gave him one, only one joy.
The lower field of gravity from its puny iron core which allowed his body to progressively grow at a rate that was almost impossible at his planet with its entirely metal surface, seeing as it thrived off its electricity and magnetism technology that allowed the Irken society to function the way it did.
He now stood 6' even, one foot under his Tallest's which stood at a staggering 7 foot margin. This, from his research, was even a rare occurrence on Earth and was usually the sign of a disease of the bones.
He never changed from his uniform, for it was his pride and joy. He wore it almost everywhere and strangely enough no one had commented on it, except for a few kids back in his Middle Skool days.
He promptly punished them by taking their fingers and replacing them with sausages, what a cruel fate they will suffer for ever disgracing the status of an Invader by so rudely speaking about their uniform.
The Invader, of course, had to employ an earth seamstress drone to add on to his uniform so it fit him at his current new and improved height. Sporting his regular human disguise regularly, he found no need for any other and was content.
His new plan was to observe the Dib-monkey's normal routine and take him out when he was defenseless during his walk to Skool.
He would take him back to his lab for testing, and would create an ultimate human pain device… one that would conquer the planet. He chuckled diabolically to himself, and quickly switched off the monitors with the same mechanical spider leg that had regulated them to Dib's home.
Quietly, he walked to his elevator and stepped inside.
"Computer, first floor please."
"Right."
"Computer!"
"Yes sir!"
Responded the computer in a more militaristic tone than casual after Zim's scolding. The Irken smiled gladly and nodded as the elevator took him to the first floor of his base, where he walked out and grabbed his wig and contacts. He commenced to walk towards the door, until, of course – an annoying little robot had to interrupt his proud march to Dib.
"Master! Master! I'm blue!"
"Yes Gir…of course you are."
Zim responded with an uninterested tone, as the little robot cackled in reply. He bounced upon his head, a spring like action as he jumped onto the couch and flickered on the TV to watch yet another of his 'favorite shows', which this time seemed to be some reality TV show about putting random people off the street without their consent into a mad house and seeing how they react, then putting it on TV.
"I will return soon, Gir. Please ready restraints for our guest when I return."
Zim said with an evil grin, a mile wide as he rubbed his hands together. The robot simply squealed an 'Okay' as he went back to his vacant face watching his earth television program.
Finally, the Invader made it out the door and into the spring air. It was clean and cool, yet disgusting at the same time. He would have given a lot of things to just get rid of their atmosphere all together; seasons were such a bother when they interfered with his equipment.
He started down the same path, the same sidewalk that the Dib-stink had always taken to get to school. Today was no different, for he could see him headed down the path from a mile way. It was almost completely straight, there were no turns, not even a twist in his path except for once. And that was an alley way he went down as a short cut to the street parallel to the one he traveled down so he could avoid the neighbor's dog just a few doors down from his little secret path. Shortly, Zim himself arrived at said alley and waited patiently for him to turn the corner and meet his demise.
Dib's morning was like any other morning; he ate breakfast, showered, checked his camera's monitors just in case Zim had tried to break into his house and then was off to school. His sister had begun walking separately from him a while ago; the young boy of merely 16 was far to 'weird' for her to be seen with. She claimed it was because she didn't want others to know they were in the same family.
He knew it should have hurt him more than it did, but he seemed to brush it off his shoulder – he didn't need Gaz anyways. He had his research. He had the Swollen Eyeball. He had Mysterious Mysteries. He even had Tak's ship to keep him busy. There was nothing else he needed other than his paranormal interests and work, he was the only thing keeping this planet from exploding and she should have been damn grateful for it.
Dib usually spoke to himself as he walked; talking about what he would do after school that day. However, today something was bugging him and with cautious glances over the shoulder - he kept a quiet and watchful eye on his surroundings, not to be fooled by anyone who wanted a sneak attack.
Little did he know what was awaiting him just around the bend of his usual pathway that he assumed was secret to himself and a few of the other children that used it to get away from the snappy dog that lived close by.
He turned just as always, but was met with a shock – Dib's eyes almost bulged out of his head as he went nose to nose with his enemy. Zim.
"What do you want?"
He sneered, as he went to reach in his backpack. He rustled around in it for some kind of weapon, however for the last few weeks – Zim had been home and he felt no need to carry it. This was his downfall. Frantically, he searched his pockets, but found nothing but a tiny pen-laser that he had forgotten to return to its place in his father's tool-box. He smirked when he found it, clasping it between his fingers; he ripped off the cap and pointed it threateningly at Zim – hoping the small form of weaponry would be enough to scare him off.
Zim simply chuckled and looked down at his laser, unimpressed by his choice of protection for himself. Foolish Dibling, even after all these years, he knew nothing of how advanced his weapons were. He should have known how long, he, the great Zim had planned his capture.
"Come willingly Dib-monkey, and you will not be harmed."
"Never, Zim! Over my dead body!"
"If you prefer, HUMAN."
The Invader hissed the name like it was hard to get past his lips, but none the less. A spider leg flew from his pack, only to be severed by one blast of his tiny earth laser. Zim grit his teeth and withdrew several others, rising above his prey by several feet, he withdrew a small orb from his pocket. It looked strangely like bubble-gum, colored pink, and was not much larger than that.
The Irken bombarded his enemy with several of these things, smacking him gently in the head with a few of them. Until they landed on the ground next to him. Dib only laughed, a few bonks on the head from some plastic balls? Big deal.
"Is that all you got, ZIM?"
Dib laughed as he waved the laser near one of Zim's mechanical appendages, the invader skillfully dodged and watched as Dib leant down to pick one of them up. A smirk made its home on Zim's features, wide as he examined it, letting down his guard – strangely the Irken didn't strike.
Suddenly, the small ball he held in his eye surged with electricity, shocking his entire body. Dib, out of reflex, dropped the tiny ball with a howl of pain from his bleeding finger tips, his fleshed burnt and seared with painful marks. All the balls surrounding him, sitting at his feet did this one by one just after the first one had been holding had done.
They zipped up and floated into the air, and formed a circle around his body; a smile blue line of electricity connected them and started to slowly form inwards towards his body. Dib quickly tried to step out of the circle, but each time the small orbs followed him and didn't seem to let him leave their grasp. Even when he attempted to exit under them, they followed with pops of static every now and then.
Zim continued to watch, amused as Dib tried to find a way out of his containment device. Finally, the circles closed in at the bend of his elbows, and constricted around his torso, sending violent shockwaves that had Dib flopping on the floor in pain until they stopped moments after, just as the first ball had shocked his system – multiple ones had even singed his coat and burnt his shirt almost to the point where it had a hole in it.
Dib finally collected himself, and staggered to his feet. The small little balls never left their place around him after the shock, the small wavy line still present – yet inactive, it turned a dull grey to signify this. They still squeezed him, however, and didn't allow him to move his arms to awful much, in his fit on the floor – he had lost grip of his pen laser.
Defenseless, trapped. This wasn't looking too good.
"I'll never do it Zim! Whatever you want me to do!"
"Dib, Dib, Dib. You actually think I care about your insolent protests! For your refusal to accept your Irken slave-master, I have decided to use YOU as my test subject for further human studies so I can perfect my Human Pain Device! Aren't you honored?"
Zim mocked him, wagging his finger. However, somewhere in his speech, Dib had decided to use his new gazelle like legs to try and sprint for the mouth of the alley. Silly little meat-sack.
Zim leaped with all his working mechanical legs and landed in front of Dib, poking his face into his own, a vibrant smile plastered on his face. Dib stumbled a few feet back, and glared into his eyes, deep hatred that had burnt for so many years that lay within his irises. Closer and closer, Zim and his rival's faces grew more near until both their forehead's knocked together and they were forced to stop. Nose to nose, just as they had been a few moments ago. Staring each other down, waiting patiently for one to crack under the pressure.
Zim took this opportunity to wedge one of his spider limbs into the ring around Dib's body that kept his arms painfully close to his sides. Once he thought he had a good hook, he gently yanked up and pulled the human from the ground, causing a look of shock to form on his face.
"You-… you tricked me!"
"Your stubborn human blinky contests are no match for Zim's superior brain meats!"
He chuckled as he moved swiftly with the human in mid-air; traveling back the same path the Invader had came to snatch him. Dib, being ever persistent, struggled against his restraint with as much force that he had in his entire body. To no avail, he couldn't shift the magnets that were so prevalent in keeping him still.
So he took to kicking to see if he could slip off the leg that was holding him and perhaps run – but Zim was ever watchful, and would constantly confirm that the grip he had on Dib was a good one and didn't allow him to pull any trick that would allow him to escape his clutches. This was a perfect moment; he wanted to ravel in it.
You may ask why nobody saw him with his giant spider appendages as he walked casually down the street, over roves and such. The truth was that most were at work or watching their TV's, as was Gir. The human race would be so easy to conquer; they never bothered to observe their surroundings unless someone else told them to, sometimes they didn't even listen that one person. He used Dib primarily as an example.
Finally, they arrived home, and Zim pried open the door and crept inside. The high ceiling allowed him to use his longer legs while inside, which was a huge advantage considering the situation.
He coiled back one limb and had it shut the door. He let Dib finally drop from his perch, watching as he hit the floor with a painful screech on his back. He curled into his stomach and whimpered in pain, how he loved to see such a sight. Dib on his back, whining. He licked his lips, the ultimate form of submission – at least, on his planet.
Dib coughed as the wind was knocked from his lungs, leaning into his stomach, his entire body shook with pain. The drop was no less fun than when he had been shocked, and hurt 10 times more than it would have if he hadn't been electrocuted prior to him falling.
Finally, Zim withdrew his legs and plopped gracefully on the ground, he towered over Dib's squirming body as it kicked and wiggled from its place on the floor – desperately trying to turn itself over while it was in pain, like a turtle that had been kicked on its back.
Zim watched as he did so, and stared with a smug smile and piercing eyes as the Dib-beast looked up at him and glared as they were doing before.
"You won't get away with it Zim! You've one the battle but not the war!"
He snapped, but his jaw was forced shut as Zim pushed his boot under his chin and then thrust his foot upwards.
Thankfully, Dib managed to avoid biting his tongue, and found this as an opportunity to shut up for the moment, mostly to regain his strength.
"Very wrong, human. I have won the war, the battle, and any other challenge you throw at me already –It's just a matter of time."
Zim said simply, pride that rung in the back of his throat that Dib took quite seriously. His alien rival had something planned, and unlike his usual doom-threats, he seemed all too confident about this one.
An undertone of knowledge that laced his voice, told him this was going to be different, and here he was, unarmed, a captive and surely Zim would do away with him before anyone else did.
Author's Note:
Before the readers of MoonFlower destroy me, this is a very old fic. In fact, I made it about 2-3 years ago and never bothered to upload it. It has been festering on my DA account since 07, I think.
If I get enough positive feed back (and my girlfriend okay's it), then I will continue. For now, enjoy what I have. It is definitely one of my love children.