StarSeal: Woo! Guess who's still alive! Finally started working on this again. Um… let's see. First of all, I have something to say to the reviewers- quit it. Not all of you, but some of you seem to feed on plot flaws and corrupt details and get pleasure from spitting them in the author's face. I'm not against constructive criticism, but there are some comments that help and some that just annoy. For example, this is not a script, and the characters are doing things they would never actually do, so I HAVE to twist and bend certain character traits and stuff, okay? And also, adding characters can be very complex and mind blendering, so I'm sorry if you're in love with Sora but this plot just doesn't have him in it, okay? Anyway, thank you for reading this stuff, nitpickers and all.
The castaways found themselves floating in containment units inside a rather empty warehouse-like building. A huge generator was in one corner, and some transmission screens and computers were set up against one wall. They blinked in the different light.
Gir ran up to the line of chambers. "We got em! We got em! DOGGIES!"
Zim crawled over on his spider-legs. "Yess, Gir, we are amazing. The Dib never expected a thing! HAHAHA!"
Norbert blinked. "Daggot?"
"Eh?"
"Sorry, your voice is familiar."
Zim blinked. He shook his head. "Silence, hair beast, you are here to help me pinpoint the source of the shadow monsters, NOT to distract me with beavery commentary."
Zim turned around and typed something in the computer.
Gir ran back into view, in his dog costume. "Look! Me's a doggy too!"
"That's… great," said Ren uncomfortably.
Gir stared blankly for a minute, then glanced aside, seemed to consider, and pressed two buttons on a panel. The chambers with Jorgen and Ren emptied and opened. Not used to solid ground, they fell forward clumsily.
"Gir!" Zim shouted, turning around. "What have you done?"
"Doggies." As if that explained it. Zim rubbed his temples angrily.
"Can I get the beaver, too?" Asked Gir.
"No!"
"You really didn't have to kidnap us, you know," Said Danny.
"Of course I- how did you get out?"
Danny glanced around. "Um… staff exit?"
Zim scowled. "Gir, I told you not to add that!" He sighed angrily. "Well, since you're all pretty much out already…" His spider-leg poked the last button, releasing Norbert.
"What was it you wanted help with?" Danny asked.
"Yes, shrimpy alien, what ah you doing to stop da monstahs?"
"I'm going to pinpoint the exact location of all universal connections using DNA scans of you guys, lock onto the position, hop in the voot and fly away before the planet explodes! Brilliant, yes?"
"And the planet would explode because…?" Danny probed.
"I'm going to blow it up!" Zim beamed.
"You mean you're going to destroy everyone on Earth just to stop this stuff?" Norbert asked, looking disturbed.
"No, silly, we'll be far away!"
"'We' meaning you and your robots," said Danny coldly.
Zim nodded.
"You can't do that! What about us?" Norbert said angrily. "We're people too!"
"Can I bring the beaver? HE FUNNY!"
"Gir, go chase some cows or something. I'm working."
Gir squealed in joy, busting through a wall on his run out.
"Alright, let's try to solve this like intelligent life forms, alright?" Danny tried again. What do we know about all this?"
"We know that black monsters first appearing een another deemension's video game showed up een our uneeverses and destroyed them," Said Ren.
"And we know the advance of our lives has been deleted indefinitely," said Norbert.
"When did we learn that?" Jorgen growled.
"Oh, I just know," said the golden beaver. "The Schauer told me." He saw their blank looks and continued, enjoying the attention. "Have you ever heard of the Fourth Wall Concept? Well, it's a theory that I have seen proven, and it basically says that every one of us is under the influence of different-dimensional beings more powerful than ourselves."
Zim snorted. Norbert continued.
"This theory is laughable for most of your existence, but there comes a time when you notice that, in all honesty, you're not doing anything. Your action-packed lives cut off and you drift through a series of poorly engineered, dream-like adventures that seem to have been conceived by much dimmer people than the older, golden ones. Sometimes the true life starts up again for a while, but usually, once it's gone, it's gone."
"But why is this happening?" Jorgen snapped.
"Oh, well, remember those people I mentioned? They, in turn, report to more powerful people, and these people decide how many adventure they let us have. It all depends on the different-dimensional viewers, people who watch our every move, memorizing every catchphrase, exploiting every flaw! But ignore that, sooner or later the big guys decide we're through, severe our puppeteer's contact with us and we. Are. Done."
"So we get cancelled like a cartoon?" Cried Ren, aghast.
"Exactly."
"Oh, that' stupid!" Exploded Zim. "I am ZIM! I am NOT some puppet-master's dance-pig! You're all idiots! I'm going to destroy this planet and prove that ZIM never stops having adventures! NEVER! MINIMOOSE!"
"Meh!"
"Activate DNA scanners!"
"Meh."
Minimoose swiveled in the air to ace the castaways. His eyes opened and two cables came out of each, fastening themselves to the four alien's foreheads. They gasped as waves of energy pulsed into them, tracking.
"Success!" Shouted Zim, punching the air. "Target found!" He pushed a button. "Target locked! I always wanted to blow up that mean ol' house computer."
AI Brain taped to the side of the computer: "Hey!"
"Countdown initiated!" He punched more buttons. A projection of a countdown appeared. The castaways started yelling stuff that evil people never pay attention to.
Zim called Gir on his PAK. "Gir! We're leaving!"
Gir ran back in, looking heartbroken. "I found no meat," he whispered. Zim grabbed him by the antenna and started towards the voot.
"Come, Minimoose!"
Minimoose released the other peoples and floated forward. And it was at this ideal moment that the computers died.
"Eh? Minimoose! What happened?"
But it was obvious what happened because a Black, pale-eyed Vortian sprang through the screen (it was behind the computer, no in it, sillies) and tackled the moose.
Commence awesome JV screaming!
Heartless- Shadows, Vortians, Screwheads, SIRs, Shadow Hogs- poured into the building.
The real people scattered, running at windows and doors and rather new holes in the walls.
"Aliens!" Screeched Gir, clapping as Heartless advanced on him. "They's be all scary doom-like!"
Jorgen was backed into a corner, barking madly at the black robots blocking him. He ducked as Danny went flying overhead. He jumped up.
"Forget this!" He said angrily, and went ghost. Hovering invisibly overhead, he screamed as sharp teeth pierced his ankle.
"They can still hurt me!" He exclaimed, falling visibly to the ground.
"Of course, stupid!" Snarled the schnauzer. "'Heart' is just a flowery figure of speech! They obviously feed on the soul! Therefore, you are not safe ion any form!"
"Oh, well- wait, you're not surprised I'm a ghost?" He asked, blasting away a rat-person and a slaughtering rat-person. There's a difference. Really.
"I'm a fairy, stupid! My world was swallowed by video game monsters! That beaver over there is yellow!"
"Oh. Right."
Jorgen doggy-yelped as a Heartless planet-jacker jumped o his neck. He reared and swung his head around. The heavy alien clanged against the PEG, breathing apparatus scraping deeply into it.
BOOM!
The Perpetual Energy Generator blew up, sending more confusion and hurt than ever into both sides.
--
Zim cradled Gir as he dragged himself, panting, down the street. His PAK looked chewed on and his shirt was ripped. An antenna was crooked and stuck out the top of the wig. His disguise was on but it didn't hide his black eye.
"Heartless… so… powerful…" he was mumbling. "Need… labs…"
"Yeah, yeah, shut up already." Gir was missing an arm, his head was slightly deformed, the ball on his antenna was just a few fragments of colored glass and his chest panel had a huge crack in it. One foot looked split.
Zim continued down the street, looking for some sort of lab to break into. Pain seared suddenly up his spine. He bellowed, arching and dropping the robot.
"Got you! Thought you could steal the glory, eh, space-freak?"
Zim turned to face his nemesis. He looks ready to finally kill him, but a blast from behind sends Dib to his knees.
"Dib, this is seriously not the time for this! You idiots had all the time to bounce through cancellation hating each other, but not now! We need to work together to solve this, get it?"
Dib stared. The back of his trench coat was smoking. "Gir?"
"Ha! Hardly. I'm the House Computer in Gir's body. His mind shut off in the PEG's explosion and my current AI brain connected with his skull. Sort of a switch from that one time a while back. But more importantly, do you understand what's going on here?"
"Yeah, Gir's smart and it's reeeaaallly creepy."
"No! Dib, you moron, didn't you listen to anything Gaz said?"
"Oh, yeah, that. Wait- so the PEG actually exploded? Dad's gonna kill me!"
"And I'll enjoy it!" Shouted Zim. Faced with a familiar enemy, he was thinking clearly again. Rays from his PAK were skating over his body, mending the clothes.
"But it really exploded? Just because you threw a Heartless against it?"
"How did you know that?" Asked Gir coldly.
"Oh, I figured out the password into Zim's 24/7 ZIM cams. It's 'ZIM'."
"I know. Now, since we all live in this universe, what are we going to do to fix this?"
"Zim! Dib! …Robot thingy!"
Dib looked around. "Danny! You're alive!"
"Only half of me. Did anyone else get out?" He asked Zim. Zim shrugged.
"Minimoose didn't. WHY MINIMOOSE! They could have taken Gir or the house's computer, but no! They had to take Minimoose! MINIMOOSE!"
Gir: "Thanks, Zim."
"Alright, relax," Said Danny, waving his hands. "We have to work together to get through this, right? Right."
"But Zim's an evil, ungrateful monster! We can't trust him!" Dib insisted.
"You can't trust the Heartless to wait for someone better, either. Now, let's think. We're Over, apparently, but that doesn't explain the monsters. I think we should try to figure out how they got into our dimension, first off."
"Good idea. Let's check the library," suggested Dib.
"Why do that?" Asked Ren. "When we could just go to a bookstore- it's like a giant, overstocked library where everything is new!"
"Never thought of it that way but, alright!"
StarSeal: That was awkward. I hate not being able to script cartoon-based stories. Anyway, sorry it took so long and I hope to throw out more soon. Next chapter I'll be bringing in one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows. Thanks for reading!