Chapter 4

Dib felt himself fall to his knees. He looked back at the body in shock as it lied there. This was terrible. He could do nothing to stop the invasion, or prevent the half-breeds from being kidnapped. Irken ships flew overhead, attacking humans, corralling some. "DIB!" yelled a voice
In the distance, he couldn't see anyone but the Irken soldiers. He got up and looked around. He wasn't sure where to go. One minute, he was on Zim's couch watching the news when Zim placed the whole base on lockdown. He didn't say where was going, just for him to stay put...
That was two hours ago...
Dib picked up a gun from the downed soldier. Plasma rifles were switched over mid-battle, or at least that's what he picked up when he hacked the system. Specially made from Professor Membrane. A blast exploded over his head and he aimed his gun. "Dib!" yelled the voice
He heard growling and a he saw a terrifying dog-like creature bounding towards him. Aiming the gun, he fired off a few rounds, but he missed. It bounded at him and snapped it's jaws on his arm. Dib cried out in pain as he felt his bones shatter. He grabbed the sharpest tool he could find and jabbed it into the creature's eye. It howled as Dib stabbed it worse. It fell dead taking Dib with him.

"DIB! YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE US LATE!" yelled a familiar voice
Dib groggily woke up and stared at the alien poster on the ceiling. He was in his room. His arm was fine. Slowly getting up, he drug his body to his door, where Gaz was currently banging on it. He opened it and his sister looked like she was going to pop a blood vessel. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail and a typical t-shirt in jeans. She didn't even bother with goth make up tonight. She looked...completely out of character. Before she could utter another insult at her older brother, he pushed her out the way by her face and began dragging his body to the bathroom. "I need a shower..." he mumbled
Gaz twitched for a bit. Never in her life has her brother touched her. She went straight for him and then skidded to a stop as she looked at her brother's face. "Is there any particular reason you're stopping me from taking you to the circus?" he asked
Gaz huffed, turned on her heel, and walked away. An uneasy feeling welled up in her stomach. "Hi Gaz!" said Robo-Membrane
"Fuck off..." she growled
"Have a nice day!"

Zim banged his head against the keyboard. Three weeks, and no mission, no idea, nothing was coming to him. His rations were low, he didn't know how to even grow vegetables to keep himself fed, and drinking the water was out. "MASTAH!" yelled a voice
Zim groaned, he wasn't in the mood for this right now. Gir jumped on his back. "I'm back from Tijuana!" he said
"Tijuana? What is a Tijuana? You know what never mind, Zim doesn't care."
"Aww, but I brough back a drink for ya!"
"What? Wait Gir, don't aaaah!"
Zim rolled around in the floor, expecting the pain from water, but it was just a pinch. Sitting up for a moment, he glared at his defective SIR had sprayed a smelly, sticky substance on him that merely felt like a pinch rather than excruciating pain. He flicked some of the liquid at Gir, who ran around in a circle. "What is this...substance...?"
"Dandy man says it makes ya feel good!"
Zim snatched the drink from Gir before he decided to spray it again. "I should analyze this substance..." he muttred
A drop of liquid hit his tongue and he first winced for pain, but, it felt sweet. Sniffing the drink he read it labled "Wiskey". He looked at Gir, who then ran off to play with Minimoose. Maybe he could drink earth liquid after all...

Gen looked up at Miri curiously. She was sending a text and snickering. "Aren't you supposed to be practicing?" he asked
"I'm going from a trapeze to a noose. All I'm going to do is pretend hang myself, do a trick, and land gracefully on the ground. Not much a trick when you've done it thousands of times."
"You can mess up really bad."
"I doubt it. Anyway, Gaz said she's getting tickets right now and she said that somebody better get hurt."
"What do you like her again? She's sounds like a psycho."
"She's not a psycho, she's just...eccentric."
A woman with long gray hair wearing a ringmaster's outfit appeared. Her face showed scales and she had pointed claws on each hand. "Curtain call!" she called out, "Remember, no extreme tricks until later on in the week!"
A lot of the circus members groaned and he rolled her eyes. "We don't need a repeat of the last time we did a deadly stunt and a kid decided to repeat it."
"Do you still want me to do the hanging noose?" asked Miri
"No! We don't need excited mothers in the audience. Just do the regular trapeze act for now. Oh, and that remind me Gen, no knife throwing tonight."
The blonde grumbled something under his breath and put away the switchblade he was messing with. The ringmaster used a watch to alter her appearance, making her look like a woman in her 50s. Miri swung back to the podium, awaiting her performance. She wore a bright blue bodysuit with dark blue outlining her hips and her shoes. She hated this outfit with a passion, but it couldn't be helped. Nobody could see her if she wore black in the rafters. She sat down on the edge and watched the ringmaster began with her usual excited speech about tales of the unknown. She began playing Angry Birds on her phone and then noticed as the clowns were the first act. A couple of shapeshifting half-breeds who could perform without injury. As the crowd cheered, she looked at Gen typing on his min-computer. He was pissed, no knife-throwing tonight means he was on support staff and bored. Her phone beeped and she looked at it.
Gaz: "Why are there mutated clowns? This isn't even funny..."
Miri: "It's a warm-up. The great feats will start soon."
Gaz: "Somebody better get hurt.."
Miri chuckled and looked around the crowd to find Gaz. Though, she found something strange, or rather, someone strange. There was a man wearing a pinstripe suit began straightening his gray hair. He tied it up in a high ponytail and she began to get an uneasy feeling. As he made himself ringside, the ringmaster began to approach him as she did others that wanted to try their talent live, but froze. The spotlight turned on him and he walked to the center of the ring. The ringmaster was still frozen. "This isn't good..." muttered Miri
"Ladies and Gentleman!" he started, "The real show is about to begin. Prepare to be amazed, as we show the real feats! The real faces of all the performers!"
The clowns tried to attack him but they froze on the spot. "Why don't you show these people what you really are?" he asked
As the clowns wiped off their makeup and took off their costumes, they began morphing into blue-skinned humans. Men in suits came rushing down the isles and the crowd became curious. "Now, how about our darling performers? I wonder what they look like out of their masks? Would all the top performers please come down to the ring?"
Miri felt the uncontrollable urge to obey. Her legs wobbled as she climbed down from the top of the trapeeze. Gen looked around at all the performers and grabbed Miri by her waist. Her Maltusian abilities kicked in and she forcefully pulled Gen off of her. "I have to obey!" she said, "He told me to come out here!"
Gen stuck a syringe in her neck and she wobbled a bit. "What...?" she asked
"Sedative." he said, "It'll keep you from obeying."
Both Gaz and Dib felt the uncontrollable urge to obey for a strange reason, but were able to resist. They both saw a multitude of people beginning to line up, including the ringmaster. Men in combat gear began putting collars on them. The audience began to mutter. "Can any other people hiding in the audience also please step forward?" asked the man in the suit
Dib held a death grip on Gaz as she tried to move. She glared down at him as sweat beaded down his face. "Oh come on," he started, "Nobody is even attempting to come down here? Nobody in our audience is hiding? Oh well...I guess I'll have to send my mend up there to find them."
One of the guests got up from his seat and began walking. A guard barred his way out. "Sir," he started, "go back to your seat."
"Screw you."
He was hit with the butt of a gun and shot dead. Then, people began to panic. The man in the suit merely chuckled and pulled out a remote. "And here I thought people were too ignorant to feel scared..." he said
As people began running around, the guards began to shoot.
In the back, Gen held Miri as she was sweating. The sedative negated her strength, but her will was something else. "All members backstage come to the front!" yelled the man
"Damn you Grayden..." muttered Gen
He struggled to drag Miri outside the tent and into his trailer, where he sedated her more.
Back inside the tent, as the panic began to get worse, Grayden (the man in the pinstripe suit), looked at the two people still sitting. Smirking, he pointed at the two. "Everyone stop! Gaz and Dib Membrane!" he called out, "You two are missing all the fun! Come down here!"
As both siblings felt their body pull, Gaz noticed that Dib looked like he was panicking. For once, she couldn't blame them, their bodies were moving without their own will. Struggling, to get through the crowd, Gaz ended up losing her brother's hand, which made her realize just how dependent she was on him at the moment. It disgusted her to no end. Still, her body kept obeying. The one thing that she realized that when everybody froze, that she could use the bodies to keep herself from moving forward. Dib felt his mouth foaming up as he struggled with every step, cursing himself for letting go of Gaz. Everything about this man's body spelled evil, and he wasn't sure, but he felt like it was a familiar evil. The man's face showed not comfort from his handsome features, but of Lucifer himself. He slid his hands over the seats, hoping to find something sharp. He said for him to come, but never said anything about grabbing something on the way.
Grayden smirked evilly and watched in the corner of his eye the guards that were standing there. Their holographic bands worked like a charm, and nobody seemed to question when they began to appear in the audience. In fact, taking over this circus seemed to be a breeze. He walked over to the ringmaster and stroked her cheek. "To think that you've been hiding in this circus the whole time, Galena."
The ringmaster shivered under his touch, but she couldn't resist him, nobody could. "I wonder though, is this all of your freaks?"
Her lips quivered and her head beaded from trying to resist. "Tell me Galena, is this all of them?"
She felt herself getting sick, her jaw willed itself open and her voice came out. "No." she said
"Oh? How many more are there?"
"Four..."
"Really? Just four?"
"Yes."
"Where are they?"

"Answer me!"
"T-trailers..."
"Now, was that so hard Galena?"
Grayden turned to the soldier to his left. "Check the trailers. Bring all the freaks here."
Dib's shirt was drenched by the time he made it to the stage. Gaz was already standing there, wearing an inhibitor collar. Grayden gave a dark smirk and then grabbed Dib by his throat, making him see black spots. "Drop it." he growled
Dib felt himself losing consciousness as he felt the beer bottle drop from his fingers. His body dropped to the floor and he gasped for air. "I guess your'e not as stupid as your file makes you sound." said Grayden, "I guess I'll be having fun keeping you around as a pet..."
"What...?
"You'll figure it out later. For now, get in line with-gah!"
Grayden looked down at his side and looked down at a syringe. He looked around angrily and saw someone he wasn't expecting to see so soon. "Don't you have anything else better to do?" he growled, "Then chase me around all day?"
Grayden felt woozy and the people around them began moving and loosening their limbs. He panted and pointed at the guards. "C-carry the ones collared out." he said
"Do it and I'll stick on in your eye." said the person, "Release my son!"
"Your son? Be honest, Membrane, we both know-"
"Shut up!"
Other soldiers began appearing around them and Grayden bit his nail. He then turned and motioned for the guards to follow. As opposing men followed Grayden, Membrane and his men began firing. The soldiers anticipated this and created a shield.
Miri hated getting sedated. She gulped down an ice cold water bottle and glared at Gen, who was working on his computer. "I hate you." she said
"You didn't get captured." he said, deadpan, "You're welcome."
"You know most anesthesia makes me nauseous."
"You'll sweat it out your pores."
"Still hate you...who was that guy anyway?"
"Grayden."
"Who?"
"An SOB who's got a chip on his shoulder."
"How do you know him?"
"Long story...gotta get back to work stopping him."
Screaming alerted them to look out the windows of the trailer. They could see Grayden and what looked like Irkens fighting off men in military grade uniforms. "Shit..." muttered Gen
Gen saw Grayden pull out a dart and he got curious. However, he didn't have much time to think as a downed Irken shot into the trailer and he pushed Miri to the ground. He groaned in pain and gripped his side. "My squeedilyspooch..." he muttered
Miri quickly used a nearby blanket to press down on the wound, which began bleeding through it. "This is bad..." she said, "We gotta get you to a hospital."
"No hospital..."
He sat up as he heard the fighting began to disappear. "I need a lab." he said
"You mean like a science lab?"
"Not a human lab...I need..."
"You mean Zim? Great...that's going to be fun to talk to him about. You know he hates me, right?"
Gen struggled to get up. Miri used her body to be a counterweight. She could see where the human guise was ripped. "You're talking to one of the one of the best scientists of the Irken Empire. I can get through anything."
"You mean ex-scientist?"
"We gotta find that Membrane kid. He knows where the brat is hiding."
"In this fight?"
"Sedative should've worn off by now."
"Right..."
Gen sat on his bed while Miri rushed out into the chaos that was left behind during the firefight.