Chapter 4:
AN: Sorry for taking so long. I finally obtained a full-time job and earned a Master's degree. However, I have felt rather uninspired and drained lately. I have just been lurking around here reading other fics and commenting on those I enjoy. So here we see Zim's plan into action. I am also quite depressed with current events such as the decimation of the Emperor Penguin population due to global warming. If we keep this shit up, Zim won't have a planet to conquer.
"Hey!..Hey!...Hey!HEY!Hey! You stupid blobs of filth and dookie! Look over here!" Zim managed to capture the attention of the germs that had caused him so much hardship. Much to his chagrin, he had to follow their disgusting stench and endanger himself. It would be as if he was willingly trapping himself between the Earth's filthy ocean and a horde of Digestors.
"There he is! The idiotic green menace! Get him!" A germ screeched as the hordes approached him. Zim's PAK legs sprouted as he headed towards the viral swarm. How he wished the swarm was closer.
The colony saw through his intentions far too late. Bacteriophages latched onto each bacterium and injected their deadly seed into them. Some tried to alert their comrades to danger, using the last reserves of energy to produce chemokines. Their faces contorted as if they were taking a shit, much like Stib did before perishing. Before the blobs of filth could secrete their chemokines, however, their cell wall and membrane ruptured due to the efficient replication of viruses. The whole spectacle was disgusting and pathetic to Zim. He still needed to find the switch of his shrinking device, so that he may return to his original mighty form.
He ran while the slaughter of the colony occurred. Some bacteriophages followed him. They were blasted into oblivion by his PAK lasers.
-Several Hours Later-
He was short of breath.…. He had found the lever. He climbed using his PAK legs onto its edge and jumped up and down, intending to get it to go down. It was not working! He was too light! He was tiny, alone, and pathetic… just like he had always been pretty much all his life. He could not do this on his own, but he should be able to. Nothing is impossible for an Invader for Invaders are the mightiest. Invaders need no one. If he didn't get out of this situation and return to his mission, he had failed the Tallests. Squabbled their generosity like an idiotic pig-smelly! He would not be able to live with himself and would rather be lysed by bacteriophages or slowly digested in the bacterial swarm.
HE HAD TO GO BACK THERE, to that pit of horrors and filth.
The Invader dejectedly walked over to the warzone. Not knowing what to do. He would figure it out, like he always did. He just knew he would not live in failure. The bacterial swarm noticed him. The swarm exuded rage all around. "That's him! The one who has cost us so many!" What remained of the bacterial swarm focused on him entirely. The viral swarm followed suit. All the microorganisms in the base wanted to kick his ass beyond recognition, and the viruses were horny and were after both the bacterial swarm and his green ass. Zim maneuvered his PAK legs as fast as he could.
-Several hours later-
The lever was within reach. Zim leaped atop of it. The now-visible bacterial swarm followed, forming into a fist, about to wreck Zim's pretty face. Zim felt the impact as the lever came crashing down. Portions of his cartilaginous teeth falling out. The viral swarm, quickly consumed the bacterial swarm as the ray blasts out, engulfing Zim in its aggrandizing radiation.
Zim was back to his original puny, I mean, mighty form. He could feel the PAK working overtime to fix the damage. He had succeeded! He was back on track to conquer that filthy ball of dirt he had been…banished, I mean, stationed to. He heard instruments being knocked over the table. He had not been the only one zapped by the growth ray! Some of the bacterial swarm had followed. They were ready to do what his Tallests couldn't, I mean, dreaded... finish him off!
"Haha, you're not so tough now, little man?!" A smug bacterium taunted as Zim was surrounded and his extremities were entrapped within the swarm. As peptidoglycan production ensued, complaining became rampant amongst the swarm.
"I can't procure the resources to create peptidoglycan!"
"I need to get smaller! I can't keep this up!"
"I hun…. ger!"
"I don't feel so good, ," a rather young comrade whimpered. Staphy's heart broke. Staphy didn't know what was going on. He was feeling it too. He was running critically low on nutrients. They were doomed! He had doomed them all with his thirst for vengeance! They should have avoided the ray, the sudden change in surface area to volume ratio had significantly slowed down the nutrient diffusion rates of their surroundings.
Well, if they were going to die, they would take HIM with them! And so, they encroached upon the invader, they would tear him apart and use his puny remains for nutrients, as little as they would last in this new diffusion rate. They were so weak. The invader broke from their grasp and proceeded to annihilate them with his PAK legs and lasers. The swarm was naught but a pile of ash when Zim was done with them.
Zim was safe now. He went to retrieve a clean uniform and incinerated what remained of the partially digested one he had previously worn. These… germs… these… viruses. They were so small yet so dangerous…
A/N: I am wondering about those weird, childish, rude-ass guest comments? Did you mean to comment on this fic? I think not. I didn't even mention Tallest Purple, lol. And you don't even know who I am. GTFO.
I would like to thank Megxolotl for reminding me to update this fic. There will be one or two more chapters after this one, depending on how inspired I am, and how long I can write one chapter. I am glad you have learned from this fic, lol that's college lol. I am glad my amateur writing is good enough.
FUN FACT: There is something called the Lysogenic cycle, wherein viruses don't burst out immediately after infecting the cell and producing multiple copies. The virus integrates its genetic material into the cell's and allows the cell to continue with its life, reproducing copies with the viral genome integrated into them, until some event triggers the virus bursting out of the cell. Zim would've been SO FUCKING screwed if the viruses had undergone lysogeny instead of immediate lysis. The bacterial swarm died because their surface area to volume ratio changed VERY drastically and suddenly. Usually cells regulate this based on available conditions to maintain homeostasis. I didn't make the viruses giant as well because I am lazy. So, the ray didn't reach them. And I like the idea of the swarm dying out in a very pathetic manner, like the Martians did in War of the Worlds.
