A/N: It certainly has been a while. I'm finally working on this but I can't guarantee a schedule.
Disclaimer: I am not Jhonen Vasquez. Zim is not mine.
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Zim sat in front of his computer screen, finishing his preparations for his ultimate plan on how to conquer Earth. "Yes…" he said quietly to himself. "Yes…It's perfect!" Zim then began laughing evilly as he did so often. The new plan involved a satellite laser array in orbit around Earth. With it, he could strike anywhere he wanted, and no one would be able to stop him. All he needed was the raw materials to make the satellites. This would be easy, he thought. After all, the humans were so wasteful. On planet Irk, nothing was wasted. Even before the PAK had been developed a million years ago and control had been handed over to the machine, Irkens always did everything with the greatest possible efficiency. Anything that could be recycled was, and anything that couldn't was used for fuel. Humans, on the other hand, would discard anything they didn't want; even it was still perfectly usable. Zim had seen the landfill before; it was a prime source of scrap metal to build his satellites.
Zim rode the elevator to the ground level and ordered the computer to manufacture a container to haul the scrap. He wanted to bring it all in with one trip, to lessen his chances of being seen by Dib. After donning his disguise, he stepped out the door, sighed, pulled a laser gun and destroyed the stationary camera Dib had set up outside his house, poorly hidden in a tree. Chuckling softly to himself, he brought the scrap carrier outside, then brought out the Voot Cruiser and attached it to the carrier. "Computer!" Zim called, knowing the computer's influence extended to the edge of his property, "disguise the vehicle. Some kind of truck thing the humans use." A flash of light, and the Cruiser and carrier were disguised as a distorted pickup truck. Zim grinned. Perfect. He got in and drove off to the dump, making sure to keep the Voot at a low enough level so the holographic wheels remained on the ground.
Zim pulled the false truck up to the dump and got out. The stench was even more revolting here than anywhere else in the filthy city, and Zim's eye twitched. Gritting his teeth, he activated his air bubble. It was usually used when an Invader needed to personally venture into the vacuum of space for various reasons, but it was equally useful for providing a clean bubble of air to keep out the horrible smell of human waste. Working quickly, Zim loaded up the back of the "truck" with all the metal he could find, no matter how small, no matter how filthy. The Irken technology easily swallowed up the load with no sign of overfilling. Once he had cleared the dump of all the scrap metal, he got back in his vehicle and 'drove' off, taking his find back to the base.
Once back at the base, he had the computer take the carrier full of scrap down to the lab and return the Voot to storage. As he rode the elevator to the lab, Zim grinned to himself. He had everything he needed for his satellite lasers, Dib was (last he checked) far out of range of the base, and GIR was away, likely partying with the humans. Zim didn't really care what GIR was doing, as long as he was kept occupied and out of the base, the robot wouldn't disturb him. And the last thing Zim needed right now was for GIR to disturb him. He needed to concentrate. Grinning to himself, Zim pulled out a hunk of scrap and got to work.
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Meanwhile, across town, Dib was worried. He knew that for the past few weeks, Zim had been working on something big. Every day in skool, he would pointedly ignore everyone else, and work on some sketches of something in a notebook marked with the Irken symbol. Any time he had tried to attack Zim, the alien had simply smacked him away and returned to his work. Recently, Dib had planted a camera outside Zim's home, cleverly hiding it in a tree. Today, though, Zim had simply destroyed the camera with a laser. This meant one of two things: one, Zim had been ignoring the camera, or two, it really had taken him this long to notice it.
"Shut up, Dib," came Gaz's voice. Dib snapped out of his trance and looked at his sister. "You were talking again, Dib. I warned you never to talk in my presence."
Dib blinked. "I didn't even notice it that time," he muttered under his breath as he went upstairs. He entered his room and started gathering up random things to help him fight Zim, mainly several water guns and a few of his father's inventions made for incapacitating an enemy (devised for military use). "Why do I keep talking to myself?" he asked aloud as he hid the weapons in various places on his person, mostly inside his trenchcoat. "Ah, whatever, it doesn't matter now. Zim's planning something big, I just know it. And that means it is up to me, the sole defender of Earth, to put an end to his alien evil once and for all!"
"Be quiet!" Gaz called after him as he jumped out the window.