A/N - Yes, yes, chapters are generally short, but once I get to more recent chapters, that'll change.
TWO DAYS AFTER ASSIGNING OF INVADER AVERII
ALSO KNOWN AS MAY 8TH, 2085 ON EARTH
'TESTING ROOM' OF ZIM, ZIM'S BASE
Ave lay on the floor, in pain, and feeling extremely sore, with a horrendously horrible itch on his eyes. Groaning, and resisting the urge to scratch at them, he opened his eyes, to see the partially-familiar circuitry of his new commander's base. Ah, yes, he remembered now. He had half-passed out on the floor after getting slammed in the head with something, what it was, he did not know. He reached to his eyes, and began to peel off the contacts, feeling sweet relief as the itch subsided, though why he did not do that an hour ago, he didn't know. Looking around, he was still in Zim's 'Testing Room', but Zim wasn't here, though he vaguely remembered Zim crawling out, and escaping from... What had he called it, Gir? That little android thing, screaming about pigs and invaders, or something.
Dusting himself off, he put his wig and lenses inside his PAK, and walked to the elevator, and climbed onto the pad, which had a barely conscious Zim on it, bruised and bleeding from the corner of his mouth.
"Uh, Sir?" Ave probed, poking him with one of his PAK legs. Little response. He tried again, and Zim began to wake some more. Groaning, he stretched, and pushed himself up as the lift began to move up.
"Stop calling me that, it irks me." Zim ordered. "You passed the test, by the way." He groaned as he began to feel his injuries.
"What happened?" Ave asked.
"Pain!" Zim declared, and grimaced as some sore bruises began to show. When he saw that his new subordinate was still waiting for a whole answer, he said, "GIR happened."
"Gir? That insane... droid thing?" Ave inquired, and stretched a bit. His short nap on the floor was anything but refreshing.
"Yes, you are to replace him until I can figure out why he's acting up. Well, more than usual."
"You mean he's like that a lot of the time?" Ave guessed as the lift stopped in the living room of Zim's upper house. "I'm wondering how you survive."
"Yes, yes, whatever, I am Zim. Now, your room is the one on the left, mine is the one in the center!" Zim declared, and began to stumble into his room, Ave shuffling into his, shutting the door and falling on the bed. He was out in less than a minute as his mind let the pains and sores fade away on the soft, Vortian fabric.
***
THREE DAYS AFTER ASSIGNING OF INVADER AVERII
ALSO KNOWN AS MAY 9TH, 2085 ON EARTH
THE ELEMENTARY SKOOL OF ZIM
By the time they got there, class had already started. Zim and Ave Entered the room as discreetly as possible, though Ave was quickly noticed by the residents of the classroom.
"Ugh, looks like another one." Ms. Bitters muttered. "Class, take a break from your misery and look at the new horrible, doomed face." She announced unenthusiastically, dragging Ave to the desk as he began to look concerned.
"Eh... Hello." Ave said, and saw Zim face-palm at the edge of his vision.
"You're UGLY!" Zita, a purple haired girl shouted at him, and Ave cringing in annoyance as the rest of the class agreed. Bitters ignored them, and began to look among the rows of occupied seats to find someone to replace. Her hand drifted around, but froze on Brian, who had finally gotten back to class that day.
"YOU... TO THE UNDERGROUND CLASSROOMS ONCE MORE." She hissed, and with Ave jumping back in surprise, the floor beneath Brian swallowed him up, and closed as Bitters deposited him in it.
Dib couldn't believe it. Another Irken scumbag, here to help Zim take over his planet! And everyone was just sitting there, again! He stood up in his seat in outrage, and began to shout hysterically in anger.
"He's an alien too! SEE? HE HAS GREEN SKIN! HORRIBLE GREEN SKIN!"
"IT'S A SKIN CONDITION!" Zim argued, slamming his fists down on his desk.
"NO IT'S NOT!" Dib reasoned, the kids, however, not believing, like all the time, and attracted annoyed glares, especially from the 'Letter M', as everyone called him.
"Haven't we gone over this before?" He growled in agitation. "Dib, will you quit being a racist and just shut up?"
"SILENCE!" Bitters hissed.
"I AM NOT BEING A RACIST! JUST LOOK AT HIS DISGUSTING GREEN SKIN!"
"Brainless Dib-Meat! I SHALL POUND YOUR FACE INTO... EH, MEAT!" Zim shot back, which was enough for the students.
"Zim's got a point!" Zita yelled, and Dib began to be hit by a tsunami of insults.
"Ugh... today... is going... to be... a long day..." Dib muttered to himself, annoyed.
***
1 HOUR LATER
Zim shuddered as he re-entered the cafeteria, the taste of the HORRID human foods still fresh in his memory, and gagged a bit before remembering that Ave was still just standing there, waiting to get his orders.
"Invader Averii, THIS is the cafeteria." He whispered, gesturing. "It's obvious the Humans come here to eat every day, and choke down the horrid foodstuffs provided."
"...Horrid?" Ave chirped in.
"Almost every Earth food is either a major allergy concern or a hazardous poison to us. If you eat ANYTHING here, you'll most likely be WRITHING on the floor as your intestines are vomited out!" He finished with a shout, though quickly began to whistle and look the other way as a few Humans began to raise eyebrows at them.
"Eh, nothing out of the ordinary here! Yep!" Ave quickly said in defense. They looked away quickly, focusing back on their foods. Zim dropped the charade with a sigh of relief as they did so.
Instead of eating, Dib's hands worked as fast as they could to jot down notes on the new Irken, Averii. So fast they worked, he did not notice until they had defaced part of the table, having run out of paper to write on.
"Look at them, Gaz!" Dib said, grabbing a napkin and wiping at the accidental graffiti. "Everyone's so clueless! Like... Like... THEY'RE JUST REALLY CLUELESS!" He shouted.
"Whiner." Was all that came out of the purple-haired Goth's mouth, focused heavily on her Gameslave 2 while munching on the last remnant of her pizza.
"Seriously Gaz! THERE'S TWO OF THEM NOW! IT'S DOUBLE THE TROUBLE!" Gaz's only response to this was a grunt of annoyance as she got up to leave. "It looks like it's me alone, once more..." Dib muttered dramatically.
