Alright, then! Here's the next chapter!
Don't make me get the flying monkeys. And they SRSLY MEEN SRS BSNSS.
SRSLY.
Also, this chapter might be a bit scary or disturbing to some, due to graphic scenes of gore. I love gore. You might not, but I sure as hell do.
Gotta love that gore.
Invader Zim belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.
4. "No Secrets"
The secret was a smallish Irken girl who looked like she had been thrown into a giant paper-shredder. Her innumerable gashes oozed blood all over the floor, making a huge purple puddle. There were bandages halfway around one of her arms. No doubt it was somebody's futile attempt to help. She struggled to breathe.
Everybody who I had met, except for Necro, was piled into the room, frantically pulling drawers out of the cabinets and rummaging through in a desperate attempt to find another roll of gauze. They all looked up when I gasped, and they gasped, too. It was an all-out gasp-fest. Telli stormed over to me, waving her arms frantically.
"GETOUTGETOUTGETOUT!!" She yelled, pushing me to the open door. Ror jumped in front of her, blocking her path.
"Telli, does it really matter? Get back there and help your sister!" She nodded, and went back to digging through the cabinets. He looked back at me. "I'll explain later" He said, and ran back to search for anything that could help.
For the next ten minutes, I sat, confused, on the side of the room, trying not to look at the mortally wounded Irken sitting on a chair in the middle of the commotion. Suddenly, erratic beeping noises and panicked shouts of "We're losing her!" and "Don't give up, there might still be a chance!" drew my attention to the girl.
Her gashes had been sloppily and quickly stitched, but there was no chance on Irk that she was actually going to live through this. Syr seemed to know, and gave the order to stop and step away.
Without warning, her dull, lavender eyes darted towards me. She raised a hand, and spoke one sentence of complete and utter nonsense.
"The dead hand smites, the fugitives burn in infamy."
She gasped one last time, and her eyes rolled back in her head. A solid beeeeeep was heard from the spooch monitor attached to her PAK. I shuddered. Death never was pleasant. The despair and grief in the room was almost tangible as Pyk wailed and sobbed over the loss of the mysterious girl. Drax walked over to her, and put a clawed hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sad too, Pyk." He said, in an attempt to comfort her. "Kari did nothing wrong. This was totally uncalled for. We never hurt them, and yet they hurt us? It sickens me. How could they be so barbaric to attack our poor sister?" Wait, who exactly was the "they"? And what was their problem? Ror walked over to me.
"Now I'm going to explain, and tell you about our family. Come on, then." I followed him out of the room, and down the twisting, narrow, gray hall.
"First things first." He said, still walking. "Except for you, we are all genetic experiments of the Irk Biological and Genetic Association, or the IBGA. I was the first, and Pyk was the second. We were created to take the place of SIR units to assist the Invaders in their conquering attempts. Unfortunately, I was a bit too short for their liking, and Pyk was too crazy, so they decided to deactivate us. We escaped from them, however, and they vowed to get us. They thought we were evil monsters who would slaughter and dismember and pillage. They were dead wrong. So, instead of taking a diplomatic approach, they made new experiments with only one purpose: to find us and do terrible things to us."
We rounded a corner, opened a heavy door, and walked into a thin, narrow room. The sudden, bitter, icy chill took me by surprise. One side was entirely made of steel cabinets. Was this a giant freezer of some sort? Ror continued on with his speech.
"The first experiment, Per, was extremely perverted. Her purpose was to rot our brains from the inside out, and make us surrender. We refused, barely keeping sane, until Telli was created. She, Drax, and Kata had no obedience chips in their PAKs, so they joined us freely. Telli, being extremely intelligent, had discovered how to deactivate the obedience chip in Per's PAK. The procedure was successful, and Per was one of us. And so, we went through many more experiments in this manner. Ee, Nom, Honk, Skee, Simon, Vam, Fie, and Zom were the ones who you did not meet. Kari, Stonus, Necro, Syr, and Shifty all had to go through this as well, and let me tell you, it was fun trying to catch Stonus. I still have the scars!" He snickered.
Wait, who were these new people? Why had I not met them? Questions buzzed in my mind like a swarm of enraged Earth-hornets. Ror was able to read my confused expression quite easily. He led me over towards the metal drawers. I looked at them, and grimaced as the realization of the situation sunk in, like the poison from a snakebite slowly creeping its way into your bloodstream.
This was not a freezing-cold records room with giant, metal file cabinets.
This was a morgue.
Morgue. I repeated the word in my thoughts, trying to fool myself into thinking that this wasn't true, that this was just some kind of sick joke. Sure, scare the new guy, have a few laughs at his expense! He won't mind! My rant was interrupted by Ror's voice.
"Before you lies a terrible token of the IBGC's hate for us. Eight, well, it's nine now, of our brothers and sisters have been horribly murdered by the head of the Company, the root of all evil…" Hate crossed his black eyes. He paused, virtually screaming his next words in rage.
"THAT QUACK OF A GENETICIST, DR. N. KALOC!" Ror growled. "I'll rip his eyes out and tear him limb from limb! I'll lodge a two-foot long knife in his forehead! I'll…"
"Yes, yes, but now's not the time for revenge. You'll get him soon enough. In the meantime, how about we get the heck out of this room and go somewhere else?" I said the last sentence with a hint of urgency. I did not like morgues. Ror could take a hint, however, and ushered me out of the tremendous, iron door, closing it behind me. I breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that I was finally out of that icy hell. Ror walked out of the hall, and continued on.
"The thing is, Zim, that there is only one more experiment left to make."
"Only one?" I asked in disbelief. "Well, that should be easy as pie for you!" He sighed, and shook his head.
"Ha, I wish it was like that, but the IBGC always has its last hoorah."
"Well, what does that mean?" Ror whipped around to face me.
"'What does that mean'? 'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN'?!" He screamed, his voice escalating in volume by every passing second. "It MEANS that this thing is going to be like a tank, loaded with weapons and MAYBE EVEN HEAD-EXPLODING MIND TRICKS!! THIS THING IS GOING TO BE HORRIBLY HARD TO WIN AGAINST!" By this point, he had clung onto my shirt. He realized this rather quickly, and let go. He cleared his throat, and said in a much calmer voice:
"Well, as you can see, this is not a simulation or a video game. We don't have extra lives! We die once, and that's it for us forever! We can't regenerate ourselves! And that's why we need you."
"ME?!" I shouted. "I'm a CRAP Invader! I'm a DEFECT, for Irk's sake! Why would you want ME?!" Ror merely smiled, and gave a slight, knowing chuckle.
"Wow, ten years in hiding really messed up your brain, eh? I remember when you were the 'I can do anything I want, and I'm not going to let anybody stop me' type. Geez, how you've changed." He laughed again. "And we picked you because you're a defect and a fugitive! Think about it, you're ostracized from society, hated and looked down upon, feared…" He paused.
"You're just like us."
Whoof, that was a long chapter. Sorry if I gave anybody nightmares. Hell, it's ten days to Halloween.
It's what I'm supposed to do.
I own Pyk, Ror, Kata, Telli, Drax, Per, Ee, Nom, Kari, Honk, Skee, Simon, Vam, Fie, Zom, Stonus, Necro, Syr, Shifty, and Dr. Kaloc.
And if I don't get a new chappy out by then:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! (I'm going as Tak. :3)