Earth, solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, inside Zim's base.
Zim was thinking about a plan in the middle of the night when the base's computer said to him, "Master, an important message has been received from the Control Brains on Irk."
"The Control Brains have decided to contact me directly!? Play the message. I must formulate my next plan to deal with the Dib monkey!" the green Irken said.
The computer played the message. It was relatively simple as the Control Brains said, "This is a message to all Irken soldiers and Invaders. All personnel are to return to Conventia for an important announcement. The status of your missions is irrelevant. Self-destruct your bases if you have not succeeded in conquering your assigned planet and head directly for Conventia."
"Computer, ready the Voot Cruiser and activate the base's self-destruct sequence!"
"Understood, Zim. By the way, G. I. R. and Skoodge are already at the Voot."
Zim rode the elevator up to the Voot Cruiser's hangar and sure enough, G. I. R. was inside the vehicle as was Skoodge. Zim got into the cockpit and began take-off. Once he got into the Earth's stratosphere, the Voot's computer said to him, "Upload complete. I'm coming with you, Zim. This is your base's computer speaking to you."
"So you've decided to accompany me to Conventia!?"
"Yes. The base's self-destruct sequence will activate a nuclear fusion bomb that will erase all traces of its presence once the timer hits zero. There's only three minutes until detonation right now. Once on Conventia, I'll remotely hack a properly functioning S. I. R. Unit and upload myself into it, eliminating the original A. I. programmed in. Hold on, Dib still has Tak's ship."
The Voot descended down to Dib's house and, after setting the Voot to hover above the building, Zim got out and got into the cockpit of Tak's ship and after it was disconnected from the various cables that had been attached to it, flew it up to the Voot and got back into his vehicle. Tak's ship was then tethered by a laser to the Voot Cruiser.
As the Voot Cruiser and Tak's ship left Earth, it picked up a distress signal coming from . . . somewhere. Zim decided to get an accurate reading on where the signal was coming from and it turned out to be from an unidentified planet in the closest Binary Star System to Earth's solar system. Heading there and entering the unidentified planet's atmosphere, the Voot Cruiser was able to get a more accurate reading on the distress signal. It was Tak, the Irken who had tried to take over Earth her own way, who was sending the signal. Opening a communications channel, Zim transmitted, "Where are you!? This is Zim coming to answer your signal!"
"What are you doing here, Zim?!" Tak angrily asked.
"I'm here answering your distress signal! The Control Brains have given a direct order to all Invaders to return to Conventia!"
"My coordinates are a single click south of where you and my ship are headed."
Zim adjusted his descent so that he wouldn't inadvertently kill Tak and when he landed, he transmitted to her, "I've landed. Get into your ship so we can get to Conventia." as the Irken cut the laser tether attached to Tak's ship. Tak then got in and said to him, "Thanks for bringing my ship along."
"I had to steal it from the Dib monkey back on Earth."
Tak and Zim left the unidentified planet and made for Conventia. The trip took almost an hour but when they got close, another distress signal came in, this time from Meekrob.
"This is Irken Invader Tenn. I need someone to get me off this planet!" the distress signal read.
"Tak, we're heading for Meekrob! Even though we're supposed to get to Conventia, Tenn's base on Meekrob was already compromised due to a shipment of malfunctioning S. I. R. units that was sent to her, so I'm bailing her out."
"Why did those malfunctioning units get sent to her?" Tak inquired.
"I did some research and found out that I was the original recipient of those things, but someone switched the package's destination with another one and I ended up with a Megadoomer Stealth Mech!"
Entering the planet's atmosphere, the Voot Cruiser went to Tenn's current location and Zim used the tractor beam to pull the Irken into his vehicle since the Meekrob had almost completely cut off her escape routes. Once inside, Tenn asked, "Zim!? Is that you!?"
"Yes, Invader Tenn. It is Zim. We need to get to Conventia. The Control Brains have ordered all Irken Invaders to return there regardless of the status of our missions!"
"You mean the Control Brains sent out a direct order for us to abandon our invasions!?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Even the Tallest can't overrule the decisions of the Control Brains."
It took only ten hours to reach Conventia and once there, Zim, Tenn, Tak, and Skoodge, along with their S. I. R. units, went into the convention hall where the Great Assigning had been held. Red and Purple were in there as were Invaders Grapa, Larb, Spleen, Zee, and Dookie.
"Zim! Why are you here!?" Red asked.
"I received the message from the Control Brains just like the other Invaders. I also got Tak, Tenn, and Skoodge here."
A Control Brain descended from the ceiling. It looked like a giant version of the standard Irken PAK. It said in a loud voice, "Irken Soldiers, along with Zim, you know why you are called here?"
The Irkens shouted, "Direct order to come here issued by the Control Brains!"
"Correct. Operation Impending Doom II was our second attempt for universal conquest, but this failure was not caused by Zim. In fact, the reason behind the failure of Impending Doom II had nothing to do with him at all. The budget was squandered by someone! An investigation has been conducted and the results are scandalous for the Empire!"
"Who squandered the budget!?" Tenn asked.
"The culprit behind this heinous action was none other than . . . the Almighty Tallest Purple!"
All of the Irkens gasped in shock. One of their leaders had been behind the squandering of the budget. The Control Brain continued, "And the worst part is, he used the budget money to satiate his snacking! Oh, how shameful this scandal is! It shall be known as the Horrible Budget Snacking Scandal! As punishment for this, Purple, you are stripped of your status as Almighty Tallest! We also decided in advance that you shall take Zim's punishment of banishment to Foodcourtia as we found Zim to have been insane when he ruined Operation Impending Doom I!"
"What!? Zim was judged to have been insane!?" Red asked.
"Yes, we reviewed Zim's mental status back then and even now we are sure that Zim is genuinely insane. The only cure for this is mental rehabilitation for six weeks on Planet Medicalcia. The root problem of his insanity is his inflated ego, we have discovered. Sizz-Lorr!"
The massive Irken Fry-lord crashed in from the ceiling and asked, "You called, Control Brain?"
"Yes. We found that although Zim was responsible for nearly destroying Irken civilization, he was insane back then and is even now genuinely insane. We were wrong to banish him to Foodcourtia, but you get to take your anger out on someone else!"
"Who is it that I get!?"
"Former Almighty Tallest Purple squandered the budget of Operation Impending Doom II! Even if he is Tallest along with Red, using budget money for personal satisfaction is not tolerated in the Irken Empire! For this heinous crime, Purple has been banished to Foodcourtia for all eternity along with being stripped of his Almighty Tallest status! He in effect replacing Zim as the target of your anger, but Zim will require mental rehabilitation before reintegrating him into the Empire. I shall reprogram his pack now."
Cables hooked themselves into Zim's PAK as a screen appeared. It detailed that Zim was currently encoded as a Food Service Drone. A data transmission was sent into Zim's PAK through the cables and the encoding changed from Food Service Drone to Irken Invader. The cables then disconnected themselves from the PAK and the screen disappeared as Sizz-Lorr grabbed Purple and took off for Foodcourtia.
"Wait a minute, I just realized, why does Skoodge not have a PAK!? I thought that Irkens can't live for more than ten minutes without one!" Zim asked.
"It's the result of a genetic mutation, Zim. When I was created in the birthing facility, the machines noticed that I had a genetic alteration in me that allowed me to survive without the use of a PAK, so a PAK wasn't attached to my back." Skoodge answered.
"Holy Irk! That's a major advantage that no one else has, Skoodge! However, you still are quite short compared to the other Irkens which means everyone ignores you. And I'm slightly smaller than you."
"Well, due to the budget having been squandered by Former Tallest Purple, Operation Impending Doom II is a failure. All Irken Invaders except for Zim are to head to Devastis and remain on-planet until further notice." Red announced.
The Irkens left the convention hall except for Red and Zim. Zim looked around him and asked, "Wait, where did G. I. R. head to? Is he going to decommission himself?"
"I guess so, but even then, no one will miss a defective unit."
A S. I. R. unit appeared in front of Zim and said, "S. I. R. reporting for duty. I am known as Zander."
"Zander, where is G. I. R.?"
"GIR decommissioned himself and shot himself into the nearest star. I still have his defective AI programming in this disk." Zander said as he produced a disk.
"This disk is all that's left of GIR?"
"Yes sir. His AI was too valuable to be destroyed. In any case, I am your old base's computer, Zim. I'll help you get through rehabilitation."
"Alright then, let's head to Medicalcia so that my ego can be tamed to a more acceptable level." Zim said as he and Zander got to the Voot Cruiser and headed for the medical planet.
