Chapter 1
The shorter-than-average Irken rocked back and forth on the two unalleviated legs of the chair, thinking deeply. She'd just made another important discovery, and was thinking of how she was to utilize it.
Of course, the answer to that was simple; weapons such as this were always unique, and the damage made by them was most often harsh and irreversible.
The two front legs of the chair dropped to the floor with a loud clatter, setting her upright. Knowing that this could be one of her more useful discoveries yet, she immediately went to work fitting every weapon she had with this exciting new feature. She had barely started when her stolen SIR unit, Streerch, stepped into her study.
"My master, we seem to be getting low on supplies. I suggest we to out to get more, as soon as possible," it said in that robotic voice that most SIRs had.
"Yes…you're right, as always. That's how I programmed you," Slert agreed, turning in her chair, "It's been too long. Let's go as soon as I put this away…and let's not get as many this time, so we can go out to get more sooner next time."
Soon her unfinished deadly toys were safely tucked away in a place that only she could get to, and she approached the door that Streerch was waiting at. The two walked through the door, and into a gym-sized room.
Lining the walls were Irken-sized test tubes, though some were bigger for different specimens. In many of those entrapments sway Irkens and Voortians alike, some alive but most dead.
"They look so lovely like that, don't they, Streerch?" she asked her robot slave fondly, stopping for a moment to look across the room. These were the test subjects of her experiments, hand chosen by her. Of course most, if not all of them had protested and fought for their lives, but in the end Slert won every time.
She closed her eyes and stroked her skin where a nose would normally be, if Irkens had noses. Etched in her yellowish-green skin was a deep gash that refused to heal, but she was perfectly OK with that. Unlike many of her other scars that faded over time, this one would stay just as it was, showing her work and accomplishments.
Streerch snapped its master out of her odd daydream when it tapped her on the shoulder insistently. "Master, if we want to go today, now is the time. It is the time of the day when they are ripe for the picking," it urged, knowing that they had to act fast if they wanted to get the best ones.
"Yes, I suppose you're right. It just seems to bring back memories…" Slert sighed, walking toward another door, this one to the left of them. They passed through this one as they did the other, and found themselves in yet another room. While Streerch moved on ahead, Slert stayed behind for an extra second or two to lock the door. Soon she had caught up to her robot, and they both passed through the door on the other side of the room.
All that security was needed. Should anyone stumble upon her little lab, she didn't want anyone figuring out anything major. With that in mind, years ago she had chosen this abandoned base as her home, with all its immense rooms and confusing layout.
Finally, after passing through more than enough rooms, Slert and Streerch were standing out side in the evening sunshine. The sun was just disappearing over the far-off barren hills, making this the perfect time to go hunting.
The trip to the city would be long and boring one, but Slert knew that it would be well worth it. The Irkens that would be out when they got there would be the ones that were perfect for testing experiments on.
They both new the routine very well; go there on foot as to not arouse suspicion, make it a quick job, and teleport back to the base, making it hard, possibly impossible to track them.
************
"Ah, the big city…the perfect place to hunt," Slert said happily, taking in the sights as much as she could. That turned out to be quite difficult; when about to commit a crime, one gives off this feeling of danger, so she kept to the unpopulated areas as much as possible. Still, she hadn't been outside like this for longer than she could remember.
Although she didn't remember a lot about this particular city, she did remember where the best spots were. Immediately, after scaring a random person shitless, she let Streerch to her favourite ally, where so many Irkens loved to spend their nights getting high off of Blissful Oblivion, the newest drug on the scene.
They entered the alleyway, and blended into the shadows to ensure being unseen until they struck. As always, they'd have the element of surprise on their side when they put the attack into action.
But on this night, unlike the many others when Slert and Streerch had visited, the small roadway was almost deserted. As the two slunk through the shadows, the only Irkens they saw was a small group of five.
These Irkens didn't seem normal. They weren't giddy and high, but they weren't calm like un-drugged Irkens. They didn't look happy that the Armada was cruising around claiming planets, but instead seemed deeply upset about something.
Slert didn't care how they were feeling, though. She needed test subjects, no matter what.
From out of her sleeve she pulled a knife in its own little sheath. She pulled the knife from its hiding place, revealing that it was dripping with the new poison that she'd discovered just before they left on their little excursion just hours earlier.
"Streerch, stay here until I say so," she whispered to her obedient servant, knowing that her little robot would be the key to getting out of there.
With that, she jumped out from the shadows, the deadly knife held firmly in her right hand.
One of the Irkens caught a glimpse of Slert as she powered toward them, and pushed the others out of the way. He knew what would happen if he did otherwise; the others had lost the will to live, and would stay planted to the spot in the line of danger if he didn't save them.
"Who are you, and what d'you want?" the heroic male Irken asked, a touch of fear in his voice.
"Hmm…how troublesome. This would have been a lot easier if you hadn't seen me so soon…" Slert sighed, her head cocked to the side.
"You didn't answer my questions. WHO are you, and WHAT do you want?" the Irken opposite Slert growled. Although he was scared out of his boots, he refused to let anything happen to his companions, and a distraction like this would give them time to get away.
"Fine, if you insist," Slert said. She figured that it was going to be the last thing they heard anyway, and with that in mind she continued, "My name is Slert, and I need Irken test subjects for my experiments."
Not wanting to give the opponent time to react, as soon as she finished talking she leapt at him, arm holding the dagger outstretched.
"I am Kienz, and I refuse to let you kill my friends!" the other Irken yelled as an introduction of his own, as he dodged Slert's attack.
Slert realized that he was faster and more experienced than she had thought, and knew she'd have to step it up a notch. It excited her, really; she hardly ever had the chance to have a decent fight.
Again she lunged at Kienz, determined to take him as her prey. She aimed the poison drenched dagger square at his heart, sure that this attack would make contact. Ultimately, it was her ego that brought her down.
"NO!" Kienz hollered, adrenaline gushing through his veins. He refused to give up, and launched a quick counter attack.
Just as Slert was menacingly cruising through the air toward him, Kienz jumped out of the way, and as she got closer, he put all of the energy he could into a single kick.
Slert, who'd been caught off-guard by this sudden attack, didn't have any time to react. Kienz's knee impacted her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. As she fell to the ground, she could have sworn that her squeedlyspooch had just been bruised.
She tried to call out for Streerch to help her, but only succeeded in making an undecipherable wheeze. Knowing that it was futile at the moment, she looked up at the ones she had failed to capture.
Kienz was crouched on the ground next to Slert, a steady stream of blood flowing from a cut. It seemed that on her way down, the dagger had grazed him, her poison entering his body.
The others, who were still out of harms way for now, were staring at the crumpled attacker, looks of sadness and envy on their faces.
The looks on their faces confused Slert, who didn't know what they could be envious of, and she managed to say after regaining some speech ability, "What?"
"You're lucky," one of the Irkens, a former reporter, told her, "You get to die here free of out society, PAKless like we were meant to be."
At the girl's words, Slert looked to the other side of her. She hadn't noticed, but during the impact, her PAK had detached from her body. That had been roughly two minutes ago.
A normal Irken under these circumstances would die in a short ten minutes. This made Slert neither sad nor happy; it made her angry because these others, if she didn't do anything, were about to lean of her greatest weapon and advantage.
Her breath had returned while she had been silently cursing, and she shakily got to her feet. She didn't want to do this in case someone was secretly watching, but she had to kill them while she still had the chance.
"DIE!" she called out, scooping up her dagger and expertly throwing it at the group who Kienz wanted so desperately to defend. Having only one weapon to work with was starting to annoy her, but it would have to do; she hadn't had enough time to finish any other ones, so this was all she had.
Kienz, who still somehow found the strength to move, launched himself in the way of the flying dagger. It sunk deep into his wrists, passing completely through the first one and finally sticking in the wrist he had placed behind it for support.
"I will NOT let you harm them!" he wheezed, coughing up blood. The poison was starting to take effect, and soon Kienz would become completely paralysed.
He still had a little time left before that happened, however, and Slert was in a pickle. Neither knew how much longer he could last. She'd been foolish enough to only bring the dagger, which Kienz now had possession of.
Not knowing what else to do, she called for Streerch. She had a mere four minutes left until her ten minutes was up, and in that time she planned to kill all the witnesses.
::End of Chapter1::
So here it is, the first chapter of my first purely Invader Zim fanfiction. It will feature original characters, lots of them, and other awesome stuff as well. I'm planning for it to be a three part series, with this being the first part (obviously). So far this first part has 23 chapters, and is waiting on some other stuff to be finished first. Chances are I'm going to just go ahead and write the rest of it, though, and hope I don't do what precedes it/what it takes place in shame... 'cause I would really hate to do that. We shall see I suppose! The second part is also underway, though that is also waiting on something. It should be finished up relatively soon, however, which means I'll be able to work on that again. The third one hasn't been started yet, but I have a plot in mind for it.
So yeah, I have a lot done on this already. I hope to be posting another chapter every one or two weeks, depending on how busy I am at the time, as I'm also writing a TF2 fanfiction and writing for a video game at the moment. Still, I have a bit of time to work out what will happen after chapter 23, so I should start to get on that, just to make sure I don't fall behind at all.
Slert here was actually the first original character I'd ever made inside a fandom. Since then I've made many, many more, all of which will make an appearance in one or more of the three parts at one point or another. Some will play big rolls and others not so much. I'm really pleased with how she's turned out so far and how she progresses through the parts, as well as one or two of the other characters. But I'll leave that for later, as the beginning is no place to talk of stuff that has/will happened so far.
Oh, and one more thing. This story is based heavily around Pakless, a fanfiction by a friend of mine, as Slert and her OC are very much tied together, as you shall soon find out. Her fanfiction was never finished, but yeah... I'll explain what has to be explained when the time comes. Don't you worry about that.
The plot thickens as I leave you this week wondering what on Irk will happen to Slert and how the battle will progress. Until next time (hopefully a week, two at the latest), have fun reading!