The Insanity Continues: March into Oblivion
Note: The sequel to "The Insanity Continues: Descent into Darkness. Alu discovers that most every human being has one weakness that will cripple them. When the Phobia Ray is ready for full-scale use, it is only temporary (since a sidetracked Rigel turned the dial to that option)…
"I have much to learn, for yet I am still so young."—Myself
"Real men are not intimidated by physical threats against their personal selves, and ironically, neither am I."—Ernest P. Worrel, Ernest Goes To Jail
Chapter 1—Inspired by Terror
One night, it happened to be raining quite hard outside. It was the midnight and Alu felt a bit hungry. In typical Irken fashion, she headed toward the kitchen in search for chips and soda to cease her stomach's irritating grumblings. Not much longer had she turned on the television had she noticed that there was a monster movie marathon. Movies intriegued her, since they gave her a window into the mind of human beings, especially their superstitions.
She kneaded her hands together greedily and chuckled.
"How droll. Yet, how insanely entertaining.", she thought to herself. Then an idea came to her almost instantaneously as she had been enjoying the so-called 'terror' from the celluloid screen. Donning her usual laboratory coat and protective goggles, she entered her lab from the trapdoor entrance above. Rigel, being the diligent helper, followed her, slipping down the miles of inner-tubes that led to the lab's entrance. It had been dark, but their vision hadn't been compromised. With a quick clapping of Alu's hands, the lights suddenly brightened. Momentarily, she was blinded but as soon as her Irken eyes adjusted, she began drawing the blue-prints for her latest devious masterpiece, the Phobia Ray.
Though she worked long and hard from day until night without taking many breaks or slowing down for the occasional snack, she had completed her newest invention without much trouble at all. She knew she would have to test the ray on an unsuspecting victim to see what its effects would be, so she chose Hope, who was one of the members of Alegra's meddlesome band of reporters. The machine itself wasn't much bigger than a conventional earth pistol, more so like a Berretta, but it looked nothing like a gun. It looked more like a toy bubble blower that a child might purchase from any convenience store or supermarket. It was so cleverly disguised that whoever was hit by its ray wouldn't know what happened until they started living their ultimate nightmare. She couldn't use the ray at this moment, since the teacher was watching her every move. Recess was coming soon, and then, it would be time for Alu to test her latest implement of doom.
Chapter 2—Success !
As all of the classes were released for recess, Alu set her sights on Hope, who was quietly reading a novel by V.C. Andrews. She adjusted the frequency on the Phobia Ray and selected her target. Hope, who saw her from a distance, stood with mouth agape and her index finger pointing at the ray in defiance.
"You can't bring a water-pistol to school ! It's against the rules !", Hope yelled, noticing Lou wasn't paying any attention to her. Alu pulled the trigger and watched her subject become unraveled. It was apparent that Hope's biggest fear was being lost in the dark, with no one there to hear her. No one seemed to notice Hope was in peril, but Alu nearly did a victory dance when she had found her latest invention was working well. All that had to done was to test the ray on a crowd and her plan would take flight.
Later that day, Alu held a false press conference to lure unsuspecting humans out into the open. She was being hailed a "blazing, fiery new talent of cosmic proportions". She had begun singing a song she adored from the metal group Nightwish, which drew quite a crowd, but none of them were prepared for what awaited them.
Chapter 3—Temporary Setback…Perhaps ?
Rigel was going to have the pleasure of handing Alu her chosen weapon of destruction when she caught a glimpse of her moogie-woogy (her word for darling dear), GIR waving at her. It seemed Zim had been watching from the sidelines, letting her have her moment in the spotlight. While innocently flirting with GIR, Rigel accidentally set the frequency of the Phobia Ray on "temporary effect" before handing the ray over to its owner. For a while, she pretended the ray was a microphone, making her eerily echolaliac voice all the more bizarrely hypnotic.
While the humans were distracted she zapped them. She couldn't believe how she had caught her foes off guard with the human element of music, but she had also learned by way of Rigel that it could have a mesmerizing effect. It was fortunate for her that all of this knowledge was aiding her in what she perceived as imminent victory. Sadly, she was not alert to the faux pas that had been made.
Zim walked over the huddled masses, shivering, shaking and some were even crying, not even noticing he was parting them as if they had been the Red Sea. He flew into Alu's arms and drowned her in an affectionate kiss.
"This device, it's so deliciously EVIL. Where do you get these despicable ideas, smoogy ?", Zim said, getting lost in Alu's ice-blue orbs.
"What these worm babies call 'B' movies. I let the paranoia and fear do all the work for me. I barely even have to lift a digit.", Alu said with a cocky sneer. Zim nuzzled her neck momentarily, eliciting a small sigh of content from her, until he noticed something.
"Smoogy, there is a bit of a problem.", Zim said, noticing the dial on the ray and its setting. She kissed him softly on the cheek, twirling his right antennae tenderly with her index finger.
"What's that, woogie ?", Alu asked, only wishing to find someplace more suitable where she could cuddle with her sweetie. Zim pointed out the dial and Alu felt rather chagrinned.
"It's not of any consequence. We don't have much time though. Quickly, before the effect begins to wane !", Alu said as she took her love's hand and they raced toward Alu's base, were taken up in her Voot cruiser and began to use the ray from above and take over the government from the President's office.
Scene 4—Telecast from the Capitol
"Citizens of earth do not fear. I, Alu, will usher you into a new era. Along with my second in command, we vow to create a world in which everyone will be treated fairly. There will be no wars. Everyone will work together.", Alu said before Zim began to add his bitter words of truth.
"Yes, there will be harmony as my queen said there would be, but you will have to bow down to us and obey each and every word we say. The nightmares are only just beginning, pathetic humans.", Zim added before laughing. Alu covered the lens of the camera and covered her eyes in embarrassment and mouthed to him,
"Earth politicians don't tell the truth, they lie !" He paused from his incessant chortling and placed his arms akimbo.
"So, I want to be a bit different. What's the harm in that ?", he asked. She pondered his perspective momentarily and knew that her love had a point.
"No harm done. At least let the slugs know they have something to look forward to.", Alu added with a sinister and saucy grin.
"Fear is such a splendid emotion, don't you think, smoogie ?", Zim said, gathering himself onto her lap and again, losing himself to those aquamarine eyes of hers. No matter how hard he tried to resist looking into her eyes, he was always drawn back. Her very aura was entirely magnetic in and of itself. She kissed him passionately, not caring if the camera was rolling and tickled him under the chin. Zim, not knowing he was ticklish, was surprised that he had been caught laughing, not manically, but in enjoyment. It seemed a bit out of character for him to do so, but it strangely felt good and his frame of mind became calm. Another odd side-effect from being so close to the one he loved is that it made him peculiarly sleepy. Before he knew it, he was snoring like a smeet in her arms.
"My king is a bit tired at the moment, but as I was saying, by the time you come to know what has happened, our mark will already be made. A new era…has begun !", Alu said after snickering a bit evilly and shutting off the cameras. She then carried Zim to a room and put him on a couch to sleep for a bit. It wasn't unusual for an Irken to sleep every now and then, but their chins were their Achilles' heel. It's the equivalent of a glass of warm milk before bedtime for the likes of humans.
Chapter 5—Defeated by…Gaz ?
As Alu planned out her agenda once she had hacked into the President's computer, she heard the scuffling of feet in the dark. Suddenly, before she had the chance to speak, two human hands covered her mouth. She flipped whoever it was from behind and landed him on the desk. Once she had seen that it was Gaz, she was surprised and embittered at the same time.
"What in the name of Irk are you doing here ?", she seethed, her fingers wrapped around Gaz's throat. Gaz struggled some, but had been able to fight back and push herself from the desk to the floor where her violet eyes burrowed into Alu's very soul. Alu wasn't one to become intimidated or frightened, but for once in her life, she was a tad unnerved.
"I saw your little telecast, Alu. I know who you are. My brother might not think I listen to his manic babblings, but I do. He was affected by that ray you fired from your cruiser.", Gaz said as she took a fighting pose. Alu leap-frogged the desk and met her new nemesis face to face.
"Why weren't YOU affected, girl ?!", she nearly screamed, which awoke GIR, Zim and Rigel sleeping on the couch in the den of the Capitol building.
"I fear nothing, not even you. Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can hand over that pathetic excuse of an invention, or we can wrestle for it.", Gaz said, watching Alu turn the knob to "permanent" on the gun. Alu said nothing but let out a blood-curdling shriek as she pinned Gaz with ease onto the floor.
"Why must it always be so difficult with Irkens like you ?", she questioned, becoming more irritated every moment. Gaz could be unstoppable when filled with rage, and with each blow and evaded strike, Gaz grew more impatient. Zim, GIR and Rigel knew this was Alu's fight, so they stood down and watched the whole event with a big tub of popcorn. Momentarily, GIR lost himself amidst all the buttery goodness when Rigel fished him out and squeaked affectionately as she maternally wiped away butter stains from his metal lips.
Gaz flipped Alu over, causing Alu to land on the floor, wincing a bit in pain. She grumbled, getting back up to her feet and rushing back to Gaz who had the gun in her hands. She tried snapping it in two, but the gun couldn't be destroyed. Fishing a rather sizeable tool box from her backpack, she began using all of her tools to see if anything could be unscrewed or pried open to disassemble the ray.
The girls had a tug of war with the gun, and it accidentally went off, hitting Alu. The two had caused the gun to implode under pressure (as it had been designed to do). Alu started shrinking in fear, screaming to the Ancients, and then momentarily she paused.
"Had you fooled, didn't I ?", she said, straightening out her combat uniform. Gaz grumbled. She didn't have any more time to fight against the meddlesome Alu. With a grappling gun attached to her side, she shot the hook into the wall and escaped from the top of the capitol building.
"That's right, run away, weakling ! It is I who will forever be the victor !", Alu said, before she noticed the gun had imploded. She thought it had been an idiotic idea to build in an imploding option, but what was more important to her was getting out of the capitol building before anyone could awaken and capture her for experimentation. Without saying anything, she called forth her Voot cruiser with her remote, threw herself into it after opening the hatch and collected Zim, Rigel and GIR before flying through the roof of the capitol building.
Chapter 6—Aw, Too Bad
The Tallest had contacted Alu to see how matters were progressing with the craftiness of her latest innovation. She was ashamed to be speaking to them, because she had ultimately failed, though it wasn't entirely her fault.
"My Tallest, you must forgive me. The Earth-girl known as Gaz corrupted my ray, causing it to implode…though it was my initial folly to install an implosion option on the ray. Fear not, for I, Alu, will develop even better devices to CRUSH the humans in my grasp. Just wait, WAIT and see what my mind can do !", Alu vowed. Both the Tallest, who weren't really paying any attention, had been slurping down ice-cold Slurpees and munching on many different varieties of cheese puffs and Irken potato chips.
"Awww. Too bad, Alu. We were pulling for you, really !", Red lied, trying to stifle a giggle that burst out of him almost as if he had been socked in the squiggly-spooch.
"Yeah, a real shame. You came so very close. Earth was yours dangling by a silver thread.", Purple lamented, waxing poetically. The two elite members were enjoying tormenting Alu quite a bit. It made them forget their dull and sometimes dreary lives sending invaders out to conquer the galaxy one planet at a time. Of course, there would be no way even an Irken fleet could conquer the entire universe, because of its mass, but they could at least try.
"I am glad you support me, my Tallest. I shall continue, indefatigably to strive to conquer this world. I shall NOT fail you, not with Zim to assist me in my endeavors.", Alu vowed as she bowed politely before signing out. She returned to her lab to begin working on another devastating invention. All the while, Red and Purple were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes and their sides had begun to ache from all of their laughter.
Epilogue
As everything reverted to normal, Alu returned to her laboratory to begin working on more "implements of doom". After a while, as she sometimes did, she returned to her couch in the living room and fell into a deep sleep. Unusual as it was for Irkens to dream, she was one o the few that did. Her dreams were glorious in scale, with visions of Earth becoming part of the Irken Empire someday. Of course, she realized these were only dreams, but she would never give up. With the support of her king and the Tallest pulling for her, there wasn't anything that she couldn't accomplish.
The End