Dokkou: Okay, here's chapter two. Short but sour. I mean sweet.

I got several reviews reminding me that Zim doesn't sleep and that he can't survive without his Pak for longer than ten minutes. I KNOW. The pod that Zim is in is special. It is filled with a healing liquid that sustains Zim even when he's not wearing his Pak, and it puts him to sleep so that he will heal faster. Capish? After all, how else does Zim recover so quickly after being caught up in his miserable plans when they explode on him?

Anyway... chapter two.

Lost Memories

"COCK A DOODLE DOO!" The computer's voice said, attempting a rooster's crow. But it literally said 'cock a doodle doo'.

"COCK A DOODLE DOO! This is your wake-up call, Master." A loud beep resounded around the lab and the green liquid within the pod drained out. The metal bands securing Zim against the wall retreated back and the irken dropped, swaying, to his feet. He cracked his eyes open and heavily pushed the mask off his face. Odd… he still felt tired. And sore.

He pushed the glass door of the pod open and stepped into the world of blinking lights. He groaned and leaned against the table. He hardly felt better than he had yesterday! Why was that? Maybe the pod had malfunctioned.

Zim reached into his pockets and reluctantly put in his contact lenses and black wig. He hated his costume—it was all itchy and stuff.

A red button on the giant computer monitor beeped.

"Subject Pak repair is complete," The computer said. Zim looked around at his Pak on the lab table. He grinned. At least one thing was going right.

"Excellent," he said, picking the tiny machine up. He walked over and stepped onto a small circular platform. "Computer, take me up to the kitchen," the Irkin ordered.

"Yes Sir," the computer obliged, and the platform with Zim on it ascended through the ceiling. A second later, Zim popped out of the toilet in the kitchen. He hopped down and headed into the living room.

Gir was sitting on the sofa in his doggy suit watching TV. Zim glanced at the screen and shuddered when he saw that creepy crazy monkey.

"Gir, I don't know how you can stand that earth monkey," Zim said in disgust. He moved his Pak around and pushed it to his back. "TV is bad for you," he went on as the wires from the Pak connected to his back. "Then again your brain can't possibly rot any—" He broke off as sparks and blue electrical currents flew off the tiny machine behind him. "What the—" was all he managed to say before blue electricity jolted through his body and bolted off around the room. Zim's whole body lit up with the energy and he screamed in agony as he lost all control of his limbs. Gir watched his master writhing on the floor with a surprised look. Flashes of memories and emotions zoomed through the Irken's mind at a torturous rate:

"You're very small Zim—"

"Please, My Tallest, Give me a chance to—"

"HI COW!"

"No invader has ever been so very small—"

Zim screeched and clutched his head in pain. The images were moving faster than he could process. "STOP IT!! STOP IT, STOP IT!!"

"I know who you are, Zim—"

"The world will eventually implode—"

"I'll get you someday, Zim! Maybe not today—"

"BE QUIET!" Zim screamed, curling into a ball as the world dissolved into a black void around him. "GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!!" He convulsed one more time and then the blue energy disappeared. The Irken fell to the floor, eyes wide and blank with horror. Blue electric pulses occasionally buzzed across his body.

"Master?" Gir said, cocking his head. There was no answer. Gir hopped off the sofa and leaned over his master. "Master?" he repeated, poking Zim's arm. Then he let out a happy squeal. "ARE WE PLAYING THE SLEEPY GAME?! YAAAAY!!" He danced around for a minute. Then he looked back at Zim and blinked. "Wake up, Master, you have to go to the happy kid place today!" The robot got no reply. He frowned, feeling a tiny spark of worry. "Wake up. Master?..." A horrible thought suddenly occurred to the tiny android. Gir whimpered and began to run around screaming.

"MASTER IS DEAD!! MASTER IS DEAD!!" he wailed.

Zim moaned and forced his eyes open. He blinked upon seeing that the world was sideways. There was a screeching noise in the background. Zim lifted his head and immediately realized that he had just been lying down. He shakily pushed himself to his feet.

"Ugh, what hit me?" he mumbled. Then his eyes widened when he saw a weird green dog running frantically around the room, yapping its giant head off.

Zim blinked. Green?! What dog was green?

"Hey, little guy," Zim said, attempting a gentle voice, "Calm down, it's okay." He reached out and grabbed the dog.

"No it's not!!" The dog wailed. Zim cried out and fell backward. It could talk?! "Master is sleeping!" The dog sobbed. "Master is sleeping! He won't wake up!"

"Um," Zim said hesitantly, "Well maybe he's just… tired?"

"No no no!!" Gir wailed, pounding his tiny paws on the floor. "Master not good! MASTER NOT GOOD!" Zim tapped his fingers together uncomfortably as he looked around.

"Er, I don't see anyone here but us," he said to the dog, but he was staring at the room around him. It was the weirdest room he'd ever been in. The ceiling was covered with wires and there was a picture of a large, green and very creepy monkey hanging above the sofa.

"Where on earth am I?" Zim wondered out loud. Suddenly the dog's wailing stopped. Zim looked around then his vision was completely obscured by a green body. He yelled as he was tackled to the ground.

"Master!" Gir squealed joyously, licking Zim's face. "You're wakey wakey!"

"AGH! Get off! I'm not your master!" Zim cried, trying to avoid the slobbery tongue. "I don't even know who you are!" The dog stood rigidly and saluted, its eyes glowing red.

"Gir reporting for duty," it said in a deep, formal voice.

"Gir?" Zim repeated. "Is that your name?" The dog's eyes turned back to normal.

"MAYBE!" Gir screeched.

"This place is weird," Zim muttered, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "I'm out of here. Oh wait… wasn't there somewhere I was supposed to go?" He put a finger to his mouth with a thoughtful frown. "Oh now I remember! Skool!" He walked toward the door and pushed it open to reveal a lawn covered in creepy little gnomes. As one, the gnomes suddenly turned their heads and stared at Zim. Zim swallowed and slammed the door shut.

"Gir!" he said in a high-pitched voice. "There are—there are—there are zombie gnomes out there!"

"YAAAAAY!" Gir squealed.

"No, that's bad!" Zim cried.

"Aw," Gir said in disappointment.

Zim peeked through the blinds at the gnomes. "Maybe they're robots or something."

"ROBOT! LIKE MEEEEE!" Gir said.

"Don't be silly," Zim said looking around. "You're not a ro—" He broke off with a choking noise.

A tiny silver and blue robot was standing in the middle of the room. Crumpled around it was the dog's skin. Zim's mouth fell open and his eyes popped. The robot stared back at him with blank blue eyes, unnaturally still. Then it waved cheerfully.

"HIIIIII!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" Zim screamed. He ripped the front door open and ran, still screaming his head off, past the watching lawn gnomes into the street. People looked up from their various businesses and watched the little green kid curiously.

Weirdo, they thought, then went back to what they were doing.

Zim ran for almost five minutes before finally collapsing, exhausted, against a tree several blocks away.

"What is going on?!" Zim panted. "Was that some sort of fun house?! Because it wasn't very fun!!" He wiped his forehead and stood up. "Maybe someone at skool can help me!" and he was off again like a bullet.

Dib sat at his desk, fingers tapping together, his face dark.

"Poor Zim," he smirked. "You might as well leave Earth! As long as I'm around, none of your evil plans will ever succeed. And if you stay, someday I'm going to finish you off… permanently!" he let out an evil cackle and a tube of glue smacked into the back of his head.

"Shut up, weirdo!" the purple-haired girl behind him screeched. Dib rubbed his head moodily.

The door burst open so hard it bounced back against the wall. Zim ran inside, breathing hard as though he'd just sprinted a marathon.

"Please," he gasped, "Someone help me! There's a crazy house full of robots and freaky lawn gnomes that move and a dog-eating android that likes gravy and—"

"Zim!" A familiar hiss sounded out. A black figure reared up behind the Irken. Zim craned his head back and found himself staring into Ms. Bitters's growling face. "You're late again, Zim," the dark teacher spat.

"But—the gnomes!" Zim cried.

"Not another word! Get to your desk!" Ms. Bitters said, snapping her finger around at Zim's isolated desk. Zim's shoulders slumped and he seated himself in the green desk. Ms. Bitters sank into the floor and reappeared in her chair.

"Today's lecture," she growled, "is about how the world will implode in upon itself and destroy all life on Earth. It will probably happen during your life time so don't bother trying to get ahead in life because you're all going to die horrible flaming deaths!" Her lecture began and Zim found himself sliding down boredly in his seat, his fear of the house slipping away. Ms. Bitters' voice did that sometimes.

A paper ball suddenly hit his head.

"Hey!" Zim looked around and frowned at Dib, who was smirking. Zim un-crumpled the paper ball to reveal a crude drawing of himself on a lab table with his guts falling out. There were little X's in his eyes and words scrawled at the top of the page saying, "Someday, alien scum."

Zim looked around at Dib, twitching. Dib's evil smile widened and he ran a finger across his throat with a "Kkkch" noise.

"Freak," Zim muttered, ripping the paper up.

Mercifully the bell rang, signaling the start of lunch. Dib was the first out the door.

He's weird, Zim thought as he followed the crowd to the lunch room. What's his name again?... oh right! Dib. Hm…I don't like Dib.

Zim stepped into the lunch room and froze.

Facing him about ten feet away was Dib, hands on hips, evil smile on face. Zim swallowed.

I have a bad feeling about this.

He sidestepped into the line for the cafeteria food, all the while feeling Dib's eyes on the back of his head. Zim blinked when a blob of gray stuff was dumped on his plate. He shuddered and sat at an empty table in the corner of the lunchroom. Zim picked up his fork and poked at the gray matter. He drew back in terror when it jiggled and growled. He pushed the tray away, looking sick.

"Not hungry again, Zim?" A horribly familiar voice said behind Zim. The irken braced himself and looked over his shoulder. As expected, there was Dib, scowling at him, hands on hips.

"What freak of nature would even eat this stuff?" Zim retorted, throwing his fork at the gray stuff. It was absorbed into the blob and disappeared. "I think it's still alive."

"Maybe that's why they call it Mystery Meat," Dib shrugged. Then he smirked nastily. "So, got any other evil plans I should know about? I can't wait to ruin them the way I ruined yesterday's plan."

"What plan?" Zim said with a blink.

"Oh no, don't play innocent, Zim," Dib hissed, putting his face menacingly close to the alien's. "I'm not going to let you just forget about your humiliation yesterday. I'm going to torture you with it until the day I die. In fact, maybe I'll come back as a ghost and keep haunting you!... ... ooooh, that would be cool."

Zim slid back on the plastic bench away from Dib.

"You're crazy," he said uneasily.

"Quit the act, Zim!" Dib snapped. "You haven't fooled me for a second since you came to this planet! You won't start now!"

Something in the Irken suddenly snapped.

"Get away from me!" Zim yelled. He picked up his tray and slammed it--gray blob and all--right into Dib's face. It stuck there like it was glued. The cafeteria fell silent and the students all stared at them. Zim blinked.

Dib slowly reached up a hand and pulled the tray off. The gray food stretched like cheese on pizza before finally breaking with a snap. The human boy's face was furious.

"Alright Zim, you wanna play games?" he hissed. "Well fine." He grabbed a handful of mashed potatoes--or something that looked slightly similar to mashed potatoes-- off a nearby kid's plate and flung it at Zim. The irken screamed and ducked, and the mashed potato ball soared and hit a large brawny kid in the back of the head.

"FOOD FIGHT!!" A girl screeched, and a second later, the cafeteria "food" was sailing in all directions through the air. The children's screams soon filled the room. Within seconds, food coated the windows and walls.

"ZIM!!" Dib screamed angrily before a handful of creamed corn hit him in the face. Zim jumped past him and ran for the door at the other end of the cafeteria. He ducked and dodged the various food missiles flying through the air.

"This whole place is insane," he panted, a chicken drumstick missing his head by inches. "Have to get out!"

"Heads up!" A voice screeched, and Zim looked around just in time to see a piece of meat smack into the side of his head.

"Eeeew," he said, pulling a face. A second later, he blinked when a burning sensation crept over his head. "Hm," he frowned, "What is--AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!" He clawed at the piece of meat, which was smoking and burning as though it was on fire. He flung it on the floor and clutched his head, which was still hurting terribly. "What was that all about!?" Zim said, wincing.

"Hey Zim!!" A voice snarled. Zim looked around to see Dib standing ten feet away, covered in food, his hand drawn back and filled with meat. He was panting, but also smiling maniacally. He didn't seem to notice any of the other kids. His eyes were locked on Zim and Zim alone.

Said alien swallowed and backed away, but he'd only gone a few steps when a wall stopped his progress.

"This is it, Zim," Dib panted, "I'm going to expose you for what you are right here and now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Zim shouted at him. "Leave me alone!!" Dib smiled nastily and pulled his loaded arm back. Zim dug his claws into the wall behind him. "Don't!" he yelled. "Please!"

Dib froze and an expression of shock spread across his face. "W-what did you just say?" he said faintly.

"Er, 'I don't know what you're talking about'?"

"No, after that."

"'Leave me alone'?"

"AFTER THAT!"

Zim cowered. "Don't... please?" A confused frown spread over Dib's face. He didn't even notice when a clump of spinach hit his jacket.

"But," he murmured, "Why...?"

Suddenly the cafeteria doors opened so forcefully they were sent flying back against the walls. The noise was deafening, and all the children immediately froze and looked around.

Ms. Bitters stood framed in the doorway, black flames licking at her feet, looking evilly at the kids. "Who?" she whispered icily.

"THEM!" the kids screamed, all simultaneously pointing at Zim and Dib. Ms. Bitters bared her teeth and growled like a panther. She became a black blur and circled around Zim and Dib like a snake of doom. Then she towered above them both.

"You two," she hissed, "Will not leave this school until this entire cafeteria is clean!" She pulled a mop, a broom, and a bucket of water from out of nowhere behind her back. She flung them at the boys. The mop hit Zim in the face and the water from the bucket drenched Dib from head to toe. "And no playing around with each other!" she snapped. "If you do, you will both be sent to the Underground Classrooms of Doom!" With a final snake-like hiss, she slithered back to the doors. She glared at the kids and bared her teeth. They quickly lined up single file and marched hurriedly out the exit back to class. Ms. Bitters slammed the doors closed behind them...

...leaving Zim and Dib alone in the cafeteria.

Dokkou: Well well well... Am I the only one feeling all nostalgic from that food fight? Just like the good old days in the Invader Zim Pilot Episode, huh? :3

Oh crap... Dib and Zim are alone! And Dib's got a mop!! HE'S GOT A MOP!!What chaos will ensue!!