By Seraina
Invader Zim, is owned by Viacom and Nickelodeon. Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee! and I Feel Sick are owned by Jhonen Vasquez.
Thanks to all the recent reviews and favoriting, I've decided to edit and rewrite all the chapters to add some more detail.
No Future
Phase 1: Invasion
"Dib-monkey…There's something horribly wrong!" - Zim
An age ago, long beyond the memories of even the old races, there was a Hole in the universe. The Hole was guarded by a complex system of checks and balances to keep the seal intact. Only the most powerful warriors were allowed in the vicinity of the Hole, and the Keepers were a force to be reckoned with indeed. But every sentient being can be tempted… tormented… and one of the creatures that lived Inside the Hole escaped.
The Creature snuck aboard a ship leaving the remote area of the galaxy where the Hole was located. It inhabited the mind of a powerful leader named Dremik and started a war that shook the entire power structure of the Central Worlds. The repercussions of this War leaked back to the planet that housed the Hole… and the Keepers mobilized to stop the force they had let loose.
The Keepers finally pushed the Creature and the infected Dremik back into nonexistence. Though the losses of such a long campaign wore thin… and a new Lock was created, fueled by the most powerful of substances. But even so, the Keepers were getting older and could no longer keep up with the changing universe. So they pooled their last remaining resources and…
…vanished.
The destruction of the economy done by the war and the absence of the Keepers created a power vacuum in the universe. One that let races like the Irkens conquer vast amounts the galaxy. But the Hole was still there… even if the rest of the universe forgot.
And unguarded, the Creatures inside the hole watched and waited… waited for the Irkens to conquer the spiral arm of the galaxy where the Hole resided.
But the Creatures grew impatient. They were dying inside of the Hole. They needed Escape. So they put a plan into action to let Dremik loose and carry the Creature's Queen to the universe. The Queen would seek out a powerful race and spread her new children into their minds. They could easily use Irken bodies as hosts to their advanced minds. The empire was just a foothold in the conquering of the rest of the universe.
And so far the plan was working flawlessly. The Queen had reached her destination…
She looked out through her host's red eyes at the flashing indicator on the instrument panel. A lone signal from Earth…
She smiled and her host smiled. "We will be taking the armada to Earth. We must free the others inside the Hole."
~No Future~
Dib was right. And unfortunately, so was Zim. The Irken armada was finally here and the Massive could been seen from the ground without the aid of a telescope. All earth military were swatted away like flies. The alien army had already leveled the capitals of every major country. The Irkens were ruthless, cold and efficient at invading and Dib was shocked to say the least. Zim must have been the genetic failure of the race.
"Dib-monkey!" an annoyingly familiar voice shouted. Zim skidded to a halt, his wig crooked and GIR tucked under his arm. "There's something horribly wrong! Those… those aren't Irkens. They're something else. Something far older and far worse than anything I've ever seen before."
"What are you saying, Zim? Aren't they your people?" Dib asked, looking back up at the large armada hanging overhead.
"Yes and no," Zim said nervously, "I believe the armada was taken over by some sort of parasite… or…" the small alien stiffened and then quickly pulled the human behind a pile of rubble for cover. "We thought they were locked away, but they've taken over the Tallest and probably the entire Irken Empire! I-I have to go Dib-monkey. I-I have to save my Tallest!" Zim saluted Dib. And the small Irken ran off to parts unknown.
Dib thought that this would be the last time he would ever see Zim.
~No Future~
Dizzy. He blinked up at the white cracked ceiling. Upon further investigation, he found himself hooked up to an IV and a couple of beeping machines. It was then that he realized two things:
1 - That he was in a hospital-like place, and…
2 – His limbs felt heavy, sluggish, like he was in a vat of molassas.
He figured that he was strapped down and drugged, but how? How did he get there? "What the fuck is going on?" he said in a harsh dry whisper. His mind started racing, I can't be caught. I can't be caught and I can't die, but maybe, I can be hurt…real bad.
Was I knocked around by an intended victim?
No.
Did the house collapse?
No.
Did I fail to kill myself again?
NO!
Then a tall green creature came into his sight. Okay, this is new, he thought to himself. "Hello, Earthling. Welcome to your invasion. Or should I say, 'welcome to our invasion of your world'. I must say you pitiful beings put up quite a fight. It was adorable for the first day, but then it just got really boring. Don't worry! It'll all be over soon."
"Okay Mr.-Alien-Invader-Man, why am I here? Shouldn't I be, I don't know, taken control of or killed mercilessly or something equally horrible?" he asked.
"Well, we were going to and all, but you're quite dangerous Mr. C," the alien said with a chuckle- an alien chuckle.
"Oh, so you know about the whole killing-people-and-painting-a-possessed-wall-with-blood thing," Johnny C sighed and tugged half-heartedly at the restraints. "If I'm so dangerous, then why am I here on your ship?" Nny asked the alien he dubbed in his mind as "Purple". The alien turned its large green head and revealed a bright throbbing vein attached to its head. The vein pulsed and glowed spookily. Johnny wanted to touch it since it didn't seem to belong on the alien's bald head.
"Well, if you were loose and felt like foiling our master plans, you could probably destroy us. But nothing to worry about, we've got a nice little hole to put you in. Nobody would ever think to look for you there... if there are any humans left to look for you," Purple replied.
"Oh." Johnny sighed, wondering what hell he'd end up in next.
~No Future~
Todd Casil had been abducted by aliens before. But he never saw anything like this. The alien army swept the countryside and practically burned everything. His parents were nowhere to be found, and he was hiding in the scary tunnel that led from the neighbor's house to his basement. Squee ran deeper into the darkness, his flashlight swaying from side to side. Shmee urged him deeper into the dark levels of basement of the small and creepy shack next door.
"Shmee, I'm scared. What if they find us? What if the scary neighbor-man finds us?" the little boy asked his teddy bear.
You'll know what to do. But that horrible man isn't even here. You can hide here for as long as you have to, the bear said from inside Squee's head.
"Squee!" said Todd as he neared one of the neighbor's more inventive torture devices. Thankfully, it was unoccupied.
~No Future~
Gaz allowed herself to be pulled along by her brother. She knew that this was the end of the world. She also knew that their house wasn't safe anymore. Their father's lab downtown had been destroyed. They were alone, and they had to make it to someplace safe. Normally she would be okay with this, as she'd often thought she would bring about the destruction of all humanity... but somehow this was all too real. Seeing the aliens systematically hunt down her race had turned her off of genocide.
It seemed like they had been running for hours. "Dib, stop," she growled. She pulled her arm away from her brother before he pulled her shoulder out of its socket. She ducked behind an overturned dumpster and Dib crawled into the hiding spot next to her.
"We can't stop, Gaz. Not until we find someplace more permanent to hide!" he answered in a harsh whisper, sticking his head out to look at the many destroyed houses in the area.
"Stop Devi! Spooky is getting tired!" said a a woman trying to keep up with her friend. Gaz watched Dib as he waved them over to their meager cover.
"Hey! Um… do you two know of a safe place?" he asked, searching the goth's face for sympathy.
"There's this place I know of… well, it's a dump and if we don't get killed when we get there, we can hide out there," the woman with purple hair said, crouching behind the temporary haven the Membrain siblings created. "I'm Devi, this is Tenna."
"I'm Dib and this is my sister, Gaz. What do you mean 'if we don't get killed when we get there'?" he asked tiredly.
Devi bit her lip. "Well, they way I see it, they only destroy places that look like somebody lives there. This place looks as run down as you can get. The guy that lives there… well, he tried to kill me once."
"What if he's still there?" Dib asked nervously.
"Then I'll have to kick his ass again."
~No Future~
After hours of searching through the darkness, Squee finally reached the ground floor of the house. Shmee told him to be careful. Squee hid behind the old couch in the living room (if one could even call it that). He could hear hushed voices at the door. He let out a bloodcurdling Squee as somebody kicked the door in.
"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Todd had jumped about six feet in the air when four figures entered the shack.
"Easy kid, we're not going to hurt you. What's your name?" a nice-looking lady with pigtails asked him. She knelt down beside him and smiled.
"M-my name is Todd, but everyone calls me Squee," he said, clutching Shmee tightly.
"My dame is Devi. Over there is Tenna, Dib and Gaz. Where's Johnny? Is he here?" she asked nervously.
"Mr. Scary-Neighbor Man isn't here. I haven't seen him for a while. He told me he was going on vacation and then he bludgeoned my dad," Squee said looking at the floor. A small part of him was glad Johnny was gone, but now he missed him. As strange as that was, he missed the only adult that seemed to care if he existed.
"Good. We're going to stay here with you Squee. I know Johnny has a big basement that we can hide in," Devi said, standing up.
Squee looked at her with wide spooky eyes, "You have no idea."
~No Future~
"Wow, this place is amazing!" Dib said as they reached the fourth level of basements.
"It's not very soundproof up here, but the further you go down, the less the sound carries up above," Squee said as he led the way through the maze. Dib couldn't believe their luck. If they hadn't found Devi and Tenna, they would have probably been killed by the Irkens by now.
"What does this thing do?" Tenna asked as she inspected a rather interesting piece of torture equipment.
"You strap the victim in there vertically and those straps rip him to strips," Gaz answered and went back to playing her Game Slave 2, which she still had with her. What scared the rest of them the most is that she sounded like she was talking about breakfast, not torture equipment. At least she was playing the game again. He'd been a little freaked out during their initial escape when she held onto him.
"That's really sick, Gaz. But this place is great. We can use it for our headquarters," Dib said enthusiastically. He just needed to get things rolling... then they'd have a proper resistance.
"Headquarters?" Squee asked meekly.
"Yeah, the rebellion! We have to fight back" Dib answered, his trench coat flapping in an imaginary wind.
"But what can we do?" Devi asked, "They have the technology, the army, the ammo and we have a paranormal enthusiast, a gamer, a kid, an artist and… Tenna," Devi said, sitting on a box of nails. Why were there so many nails?
"Look guys, we can't just let them take over. We have to stop the injustice. We have to fight for our very right to live!" Dib said, assuming the "hero" pose as he babbled on.
Gaz just walked into the deeper parts of the basement. Squee followed her. Eventually Devi gave up on Dib's speech as well.
"This is the day that we shall proclaim our freedom!" Dib finished with a flourish.
Tenna clapped and squeaked Spooky a few times.
"Thank you. Thank… hey wait up guys!" Dib said, running after Gaz, Squee and Devi. Tenna shrugged and followed. Well, it'll take some time...