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Author's Note:
Invader Zim is -c- Jhonen Vasquez! Only the events of this story, characters specific to the story, and character tweaking (heh) are mine. :3
~Jizena~
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Zim's Records
I swiftly lost position as leader of our Irken outcast group the closer we got to the town. Purple's light feet carried him ahead of all of us; he was driven by the path of the smoke signal from the downed ship, and his sharp eyes did not lose focus for a single second. Red was the one looking a little concerned, by the time we cleared the last of the trees and found ourselves on a clear hill overlooking a city.
A very, very familiar city.
"Oh, no..." I said under my breath.
I stopped short and stared out over the skyline. I knew it well, all right. I'd spent plenty of time there, after all. Somewhere in that city was an old, abandoned Irken base of operations, with a front lawn littered with garishly oversized lawn gnomes and horrid, telling wires leeching power from the apartment buildings on either side.
Unless, of course, the ship had crashed right into that base. I ruled that out quickly, though, remembering that I had rigged up my old Doomsday device, MiniMoose to the base that would blow that chunk of the city sky high if it were to be disturbed. Kind of regretted doing that now, but with any luck, MiniMoose wouldn't function the way it was supposed to and nothing would come of the intended explosion.
Further down the street from that base was a home I'd been a guest in for about a week. So, of course, only one thing came to mind now. Luck had landed us near the same city I'd first touched down in, and hopefully cruel irony hadn't destroyed the person I wanted to return to see.
"GAZ!" I cried out before I could stop myself. While I'd stopped short upon first coming upon the city, I now broke into a sprint, darting past Purple and down the hill toward town.
"Zim!" Red shouted after me. "What's going on?"
"I KNOW THIS TOWN!" I shouted back at him, not breaking my pace for a second.
My heart was pounding. The back of my mind flashed for a second, trying to show me a similar devastation, or at least an awful conflagration in another foreign city on a planet I couldn't place, but I shook the unfamiliar memory away. No time for that. No time for anything. The only thought in my mind was, Please be safe, please be safe, please be safe...
"Stay strong," I whispered as I ran. "I'm coming. Just hold on..."
"Zim, get back here!" I heard Red holler. The two sets of rushing footsteps behind me told me that the Tallest were keeping up even paces, Purple darting forward with twice as many steps in order to match Red's longer strides.
"No!" I shouted. From his perspective, I was probably being rash and unreasonable, and maybe I was, but the Tallest were handling themselves well. And the town was most likely in a panic. No one would bother to look closely to see how different they were than anyone else. I worried a little about GIR being exposed, but now that I looked fully human, I was sure I could concoct some new government experiment lie to cover for my robot.
At the bottom of a hill was a long wire fence, put up as a border. I sent GIR ahead to confirm that it wasn't electrified, but the dutiful little guy went a step beyond what I'd asked and blasted the thing down with a triumphant, "WOO!"
"I'm not asking you, Zim, this is an order!" Red tried this time.
"Not gonna work right now, sir!"
"Yes it—IS—!" On that last word, I was hauled back by the elbows. I gave a little yelp, as the sudden tug disturbed my wounded right arm, and quickly shook myself free from Red's vice grip and whirled around to challenge him. He was more than ready for me, though, and he snapped, "So were you just planning on leaving us behind? What's so great about this place?"
"It's the city I set up base in," I told him, my heart still beating in a frenzy.
"Okay, that's kind of a good thing, since you can lead us around. But why run ahead like that?"
"There's someone who lives here that I—" Oh. I clamped my mouth shut, and glanced from Red to Purple. The first looked furious, the latter just knowing. "Sir, I'm sorry, I..."
"You were fraternizing with the enemy..?" Red scrutinized me, staring me down.
"Sir, let me expl—"
"You could've blown everything!" the Tallest shouted. "You'd better hope you can stay here as a human because you're certainly not welcome in the Empire anymore!"
"Red, sir, I meant no—"
"Well, it's done and over with!" Purple snapped, yanking us apart. I'd forgotten not to underestimate his strength based on his size. Red and I both stared down at him, and Purple continued without letting either of us go. "I agree with Red that we approach with caution, but we need to investigate that crash site. Zim, you're staying with us for now, so just keep an eye out for whoever it was you knew."
I sighed. Like he and Red would ever understand my reasons, anyway, I thought.
"Now," Purple went on, "if you know this town, you can navigate us through it. It's fortunate that things worked out like this."
"It's fortunate I haven't strangled you yet," Red muttered.
"Shut up," Purple barked up at him. "This isn't really the right time to be a jerk, Red."
Red just snorted and smacked Purple's hand away to release himself from his partner's grip. Purple then slowly let go of me while Red looked over the city from our closer but still safe distance away. "Hey, Zim," he said, his voice at a more even speaking volume now.
"Yes?"
"Are humans supposed to have a really strong sense of smell?"
"Stronger than Irkens, yes."
"Hmph, thought so," said Red. "The flames from the crash definitely caught and are rising. Technically speaking, we shouldn't go anywhere near that ship."
"It seems like a backward step, sir," I agreed, "but if we're going to survive from now on, we have to. Besides, I know people here. People who might help us." If we ask really, really nicely... maybe beg a little...
Gaz would hopefully be on board to help. I just had to hold onto the hope that she was all right, that she was nowhere near the crash site. Somehow, I expected that Dib would survive it, and was probably investigating the damn thing already. His help would come with a hefty price, I was sure, but the possibility that he might was still there. That all depended on how he'd react once I told him everything about Tak, and convinced him (which would probably take a long time) that I was never siding with her again.
So we pressed onward, GIR taking a slight lead on my command, since he was unaffected by changes in the air but could still tell whether or not a place was safe to be. The city itself still stood tall and sturdy, meaning that the crash had happened closer to the suburbs, which was exactly what I was afraid of. The closeness of the crisis, however, had flung the familiar city into a panic. Sirens blared, red lights flashed, dogs were going crazy at all volumes of barks and howls, and humans weren't reacting any less brashly. Cars were either abandoned or being driven recklessly through the streets, men, women and children tore about shrieking about the 'meteor or something' that had crashed just out of town. Some people were just going about their business, though... cops convinced that it was only a helicopter and that the state would deal with it, teenagers with headphones on who probably hadn't noticed a thing, kids who couldn't know danger even when it hit.
Nobody stared at GIR. Nobody asked questions. The three of us walked more or less invisibly through town, and I skirted us through back streets, away from the horrible drivers, until we made it to the part of town that separated the city from the suburbs. There were a few complexes in that area before we hit the grid of roads that led to the residential part of town; some were businesses, one was the elementary school, and the other was the city hospital.
Apparently, the hospital was the busiest place in town. As we passed by, Purple slowed to a halt and stared. The air was becoming more and more dense as we made our way closer to the suburbs, and here at the hospital, I noticed a few trees that had been singed by cinders rising up from the crash site. Ambulances wailed in and out, and several cars were parked almost literally on top of one another in the parking lots and on the streets around the hospital complex itself. "Something wrong?" I asked Purple, stopping myself from calling him sir at the last second.
"I'm sure there is," he answered, dutifully studying the activity in the parking lot. Orderlies came and went as people were rushed through the emergency room doors; families clung to each other, people wered desperately dialing on their cell phones, guards were placed around to assure an easy flow of foot traffic.
The city hospital was rather large—an unsightly concrete building, and one I had visited before, back during the Warp, when I was given my first scare of a near-death experience for Gaz. It stood on a fairly long stretch of paved land, and was built up to ten stories, depending on which segment one was in. Sliding glass doors marked the entrance to the two-storey emergency wing, near which we now stood, watching the scene from the lot.
I heard Red mutter something about the inefficiency of the small vehicles, and how dumb it was that they couldn't fly, but Purple and I ignored him. I was focused mainly on how many people were being rushed into the building. As we approached, I took a survey of what seemed to be wrong with everyone gaining entrance. Several people were severely burned, but many others were covered with deep scratch marks, in a jagged, three-line pattern.
"Out of the way!" a woman wearing a white lab coat called over to us, and I forced the Tallest to walk forward with me as the woman rushed by with a team to help carry someone else in. This figure was female as well, and fairly young-looking. She was covered in deep scratch marks, and was given over to the doctors' care by a man who could only have been her husband. Clinging to his leg, was a little girl, probably only about four years old, with blonde pigtails.
The little girl turned her head, and was the first person who gave us notice (other than the doctor who had told us to get out of the way). The girl's wide stare got me a little nervous, wondering if we looked out of place, but then she smiled, left her father, and walked over to us, as we weren't too far away.
"Hi," she said shyly.
"Zim, what is that?" I heard Red mutter into my ear.
"She's just a kid, hold on," I assured him. Kneeling to the girl's level I said, "Hey, there. You shouldn't wander away, you know."
The girl took an extra hair elastic out of her dress pocket and started twisting it around. She nodded, still looking shy, then glanced over at GIR, then back at me, then back at GIR again. GIR stuck his tongue out and waved, and the little girl laughed. I heard Red groan, then choke as Purple most likely elbowed him in the ribs to get him to shut up. "I don't suppose," I tried to ask the girl, "you have any idea what's going on, do you?"
The girl nodded. When I asked her again, slowly, she answered, "A big thing came out of the sky and now there's a big fire."
Yeah, a four-year-old probably wasn't my best source of information.
"I see. Um..."
Before I could say any more, the girl looked up at Red and Purple. I stood, wanting to stop any unnecessary confrontation before it could happen, especially when the toddler shirked back at the sight of Red. He did look pretty damn intimidating, I had to give him that, even with how awkward he let on that he was about his glasses. Purple seemed to put the girl more at ease, though, and she cocked hear head, studying him before she held her hand up to offer him the elastic. Purple glanced over at me, and I shrugged, suggesting that taking it would be the proper thing to do. Regally, the shortest of us bent to collect the elastic band, wearing an expression of moderate confusion.
"For your hair," said the little girl, gesturing to her own pigtails. "Like mine."
"Oh," said Purple. He managed a smile and a, "Thank you," before the girl smiled and scampered away when her father called to her. Purple stared off in their direction for a lingering couple of seconds, then brushed his hands through the long, sleek black part of his hair before tying it back into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck. Tightening the elastic into place, he remarked, "Well, that feels better. Now, come on, let's figure out how all this relates to the crash."
Checking again to make doubly sure that the Tallest would both be able to hold up a natural conversation with a 'fellow human,' I led the way toward the emergency room doors, where we were stopped by a guard wearing an obscenely large helment emblazoned with a red cross. This town had an odd knack for overdressing anyone in a position of safety or peacekeeping. This particular guard looked to be middle-aged, and he carried both a pocket radio transmissioner and a mini computer, which he checked as often as a man in a rush will check his watch, most likely because it gave this guard constant updates on hospital goings-on.
"Excuse me," I greeted. "Hello. What happened here? We—"
"You a victim, too?" the guard asked me.
"Eh? Victim?"
"Arm's pretty scratched up, there, kid," he noted.
"I, eh—oh," I said, cupping my left hand briefly over my right arm. The cloth was nearly soaked through, which was something I hadn't noticed in all the excitement of heading into the town. "No, I'm fine, I just, um... ran into a tree." That excuse was lame when I first came up with it, and it was lame now. But it worked.
The guard rolled his eyes. "Kids," he muttered.
"What happened here?" I asked again.
"You just wake up or somethin'?" the guard asked me, looking me over with an odd glare. "UFO crashed a couple hours ago, been seeing a steady flow of people comin' in here ever since. Crashed right into the high school, demolished the whole building, and a couple around it."
The high school. How old was Gaz now? I knew it was summer, but she hadn't been nearby, had she? I remembered from the Warp how far the school was from her house, which was a good thing, but still...
"Who's in charge?" I asked, taking a more direct approach.
"Of the hospital?"
"No, of securing the crash site. The local cops, or the state government, or—?"
The guard shook his heads. "Mayor did a little," he answered, pausing to wave in a team of orderlies who had just arrived with a man on a gurney. I noticed, as the gurney rolled by, that the man lying on it had incurred an awful scratch wound across his face in three jagged lines. My stomach lurched, but I swallowed down whatever bile wanted to rise. "Some cops're in place round there now, but the whole town'd probably be in sour shape without Professor Membrane."
"Membrane?"
"Yeah, that Professor's always got something," said the guard. "Listen, kid, are you gonna go inside and stitch that arm up, or are you just gonna stand here asking me questions all night?"
"Just one more question," I begged. The man rolled his eyes. "Are there any paranormal experts investigating the crash?" I figured I sounded dumb enough at the moment, anyway, might as well go for completely crazy.
"Para—oh... oh!" Suddenly, I wasn't quite so much of a nuisance to the large-helmeted man. "You must be with them! Sorry, are you here to check in on things?"
"Eh? I—I mean, yes!" I covered quickly, though I had to wonder what he meant.
"That's a relief," the guard said. "That Swollen Eyeball Corporation is weird, but I had a man from that organization pass through here a few minutes ago..."
"And we're here to complete the study," I heard Purple say smoothly from behind me. He was very astute, I had to hand him that. He'd picked up on the gist of where I was trying to drive the conversation, despite the fact that I hadn't told the Tallest about Dib's little Swollen Eyeball Network at all, nor did I really know for myself that it would have come up from underground.
"All of you are members?" the guard wondered.
"Yes," Purple lied, without skipping a beat. "My partner here and I will take a look at what's gone on in here... the kid'll go back to give a brief report to headquarters."
"What's with the robot?"
"Medical robot."
"I'm important!" GIR exlcaimed.
The guard considered GIR for a moment, then nodded to Red and Purple. "Go on in. It's a good thing you're here, too."
"We'll have a word with this one for a moment," Purple said, grabbing my right sleeve, "then we'll start our analysis."
That said, he pulled me to the side, where he, Red and I could speak privately. "Nice going," I complimented, "but please let go of my sleeve."
"You get something for that arm, okay?" Purple instructed me.
"Yeah, yeah, gotcha. But what about the Resisty?" I hissed at Purple. "Weren't you just all gung-ho to get at them?"
"Yes," he said strongly, "and I still am. But if we analyze what kind of attacks have been dealt on everyone admitted here, Red and I can come up with a good counterattack. Just give us a little while to gather information here, and then we'll catch up."
"I can i.d. alien attacks pretty well," Red boasted, "and I—Purple and I are the only ones who know exactly what the Resisty is made up of now in terms of species."
"You go ahead and keep going," Purple added, looking up at me. "Maybe you'll find that person you were looking for. Just don't get yourself killed before we finish up here at the hospital."
"I won't, but—how'd you know what it was called?" I wondered.
Purple grinned and gestured over at the enormous glowing red sign I should have noticed before. "Anyone can figure it out," he said. I felt pretty stupid.
I nodded. "All right. I guess this is the best plan we've got right now. Thanks for volunteering to go in. And, honestly, if you do i.d. the aliens responsible, I'm sure that'll give us an in with the Swollen Eyeball." Never thought I'd ever say that, but... desperate times. "I'll leave GIR with you, then," I said. "He can find me once you're finished. Right, GIR? You can find me, right?"
"Aww, yeah," the little robot grinned, following the comment with a little dance that mainly involved shaking his rear.
Grinning, I added for him, "I promise, I'll even get you tacos if you do a good job."
GIR went briefly into duty mode and saluted. He'd do anything for Mexican food. And we were finally in a position to find some again.
Before we parted, I gave the Tallest a little background on what I knew the Swollen Eyeball was, and to be on the lookout for someone with oddly-styled black hair and a black trench coat, though I didn't tell them Dib's name (mainly so that Red wouldn't smack me for knowing any human's name, despite the fact that I figured things like that would go hand in hand with, oh, information gathering), since he was the one among the humans who would probably be able to peg Red and Purple for Irkens no matter what. I told them to be cautious, learn some human names and figure out some fake ones, just in case someone other than Dib knew anything. Dib would at least corner us for questioning first. I wasn't ruling out the idea that someone else from that Network might shoot us on sight, just based on my name alone.
We walked into the hospital together, only so that I could pick up a bandage for my arm (which was given to me free in all the commotion), and then left once I saw that Red and Purple really were handling themselves fairly well, though they did each look, in their own way, cautious of what they were doing. On my way out, I maneuvered through the crowd, tightening my new, clean bandage as I walked, feeling nervous for the Tallest, but also a little relieved to get some time to myself. Besides, GIR wasn't good for much, but he always found his way back to me. Hopefully he could do that before the Tallest ran out their 'food' supply with him. I realized, once I was out on the suburb streets, that I'd completely forgotten to mention to them that eating anything the humans offered them would probably be all right to eat. And then of course I began feeling famished myself.
But this wasn't the time for that.
Before I could make a beeline for Gaz's house, I did feel the pull to investigate the crash site. Just in case. In case she was there. In case I could help.
The ship, an enormous, unsightly grey thing that once had proudly stood up to its Vortian design, was now crumbling into scrap metal and ashes over a span of four city blocks. The tawdry building that had been the high school had indeed been demolished, and the entire surrounding area smelled of overheated metal and singed hair. I knew that the smell of burning flesh was mixed in there as well, but I made myself ignore that scent after the first whiff of it set of a string of flashes in the back of my mind—bodies of unidentifyable species burning, mutilated, half-alive. Whatever the fuck those sixty years I'd blanked out on had contained, a hell of a lot of it seemed to be centered around more than one gruesome battle.
Fire trucks were parked a good distance away, and I heard screams from within the crashed ship that could only mean some of the unfortunate aliens inside that had survived were already suffering from the constant barrage of water that was being shot onto the site. Hovering TV screens, inventions attributed to none other than Professor Membrane, were stationed at every street corner, issuing, in a male monotone, the same message over and over:
"This is an emergency broadcast from Membrane Labs. Professor Membrane and the city council have this situation under control. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is an emergency broadcast. All are advised to stay indoors. I repeat—"
The smoke from the wreckage still billowed sky-high, but the flames had cooled to cinders by the time I approached. The four blocks, plus a few surrounding, were barracaded off with yellow 'caution!' tape and manned by officers of varying branches of the city police force. I approached one man in a sargeant's uniform, took in a deep breath, and prepared for one of the boldest lies I'd concocted in recent memory:
"What's the situation back there?" I asked, making sure not to falter or flinch.
The man glared at me, taking in the bandage on my arm before meeting my gaze, then said, "Kid, there's a curfew. If you need to i.d. a body, you do that at the hospital."
Deep breath, deep breath... "I'm with the Swollen Eyeball," I lied convincingly. "I know I'm young, but I'm a first-encounter expert. I have backup at the hospital, but I have to get in here for a first-hand account."
"Oh," said the sargeant, not even bothering to ask for identification to prove myself. "All right, get on in there, but I'm sure you know not to hang around a site like this for too long."
"I know."
"Here," an officer on guard nearby said to me, handing over a white surgical mask. "Just so you don't breathe in the ash."
I nodded and took the thing, grateful for the offer, then thanked the men as I strapped the mask on and ducked under the tape. The heat rose around me with every step, and I began wishing I'd thought to ask for a set of gloves as well. That probably would have made me look suspicious, as an agent who came unprepared, so I just took care not to instinctually bend to overturn anything. Cries and shouts came out from all around me as I ambled further and further into the scattered piles of metal debris, stepping over singed plastic desk chairs and the remains of a Vortian navigation system alike.
I walked the length of the thing, as best I could through all the stacked, smoldering rubble. Despite the cries, I could see no signs of life anywhere. Black ash clouded my eyes, and I was grateful for the white ventillation mask the officer had given me, else I was sure I'd've choked halfway to the ship. Red and Purple, now that they were analyzing exactly what kind of thing had made those marks on some of the patients at the hospital, probably had a better chance of tracking down any crash survivors than I did at this ostensibly close range.
It wasn't until I reached a building past the remains of the school, an old warehouse, that I came face to face with a human victim. A scream from a female voice got me rushing inside a thick, two-storey grey building with a broken front door, and I wound my way through a claw scratch-lined hallway into a large, open area that had been rooted around in as something of a base of operations. A pipe that had burst was dripping water from the ceiling, and the entire place smelled of ash and mold.
Backed against a vacant grey wall was a woman, probably in her late twenties, with a small, thin frame and shoulder-length curly brown hair that looked pretty badly singed on the ends. She wore a grey business suit with a dark purple camisole underneath that made her white lanyard i.d. tag look stark on the fabric; her ensemble suggested to me immediately that she was with the news, and had been dragged in while reporting. Her blazer had been ripped to her elbows, and both forearms were marked with fresh, bloody three-taloned scratches. She wasn't screaming anymore, she only stared straight forward until she heard my footsteps.
Startled, she drew in a gasp and looked up at me, her grey eyes wide and with dilated pupils, but she looked relieved that I was human. Well, as far as she could tell, and as far as I liked to consider myself being. "Hey," I greeted softly, to show that I wasn't a threat. "Are you all right? What happened in here?"
"I—" she said, her voice cracking as she spoke, "I was... I got dragged in here. I demanded the story, and—"
"Are you a reporter?" I asked, keeping my tone calm.
The woman nodded. "You're just a kid," she noticed.
"Yeah," I sighed, kneeling to investigate her arms, "but I can help you. Look, I'll get you out of here, I have some contacts at the city hospital who're investigating this kind of attack and could use an eyewitness like you, okay?" I was glad, at least, that this person was a professional, and despite the attack still seemed to be carrying herself as such. "Now, what did this to you?"
"Something..." The woman shook her head. "Some... huge... thing! Ugh, it had three heads, and... I-I mean, there's no hiding it, anymore. There's nothing the city officials can say that can make people think this wasn't a crashed spacecraft." Then, her eyes lit up. "You're with them," she deduced. "You're with the Swollen Eyeball."
"I am," I lied, "but I just got transferred in, from, um... Canada." Yeah. Canada. "So I don't exactly know what kind of involvement this town has seen from us lately."
"A group of agents just started coming in," the reporter said. "Just after the crash. But they've been handling it so well, they're experts. I mean, you're experts. I'm sorry, but... can we leave? That thing'll be back any—OH, GOD!"
I looked up, following the reporter's stare in the spot just behind me, and cringed. An enormous, unidentifyable, three-headed alien stood before us. He was dressed in a purple uniform, complete with clawed gloves. All six of his green eyes looked vacant, as though he'd simply been ordered to torture the woman I was trying to set free, rather than come up with the idea himself. I vaguely recognized him from a brief flash in the back of my mind of a Vortian science lab—he was one of Lard Nar's subordinates of another species. An ally of the Vortians. Definitely one of the dumber species known to Irkens, and quick to listen to given orders, especially in ancient languages.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked him fiercely, my eyes narrowing. "Why attack after—"
"Leader," he answered, reaching forward to continue with the torture.
I growled and stood slightly, stopping his hand with my own. "Stop this!" I commanded. Surprisingly, it wasn't English—the universal language—that came out when I spoke... it was ancient Irken. Ancient Irken was a language many newer Irkens could barely grasp, but it was one that still caused various races to cringe when they heard it. The Irkens that founded the modern Empire, so I'd heard on Devastis, had used the language until the universal language came into existence, what with all of the planets the original few Tallest were able to conquer. Still today a few ancient Irken words are used here and there (mostly for expletives, I might add), but why I of all people was suddenly using it was beyond me. I didn't let it bother me, though, for the moment, since my current goal was freeing an innocent human from this alien threat. That in itself should have surprised me, but I didn't question the existence of my conscience anymore.
The alien, surprised at the words I'd spoken, backed off, disappearing to the back of the warehouse.
"Thank you," the woman said as I helped her stand. "What language was that?"
"I, eh... it's a code we developed at, um... headquarters," I tried, hoping my stalled lie was convincing enough. My brain itched with the want to know why I had so easily thought to use ancient Irken, and why my human tongue could still pronounce its difficult phonetics. It must have had something to do with the constant flashes, I thought, so the best I could do was continue to ignore them and hope I could deal with things in a more human way from now on. I wanted to be human, dammit, not fall back on Irken tricks all the time.
"Well, whatever it was," said the grateful woman, "it worked. Thank you."
"No problem. Now," I said, removing my ventillation mask and offering it up to her instead, "let's get out of here. Wear that and don't take it off till you get to the hospital. Can you walk all right?"
She nodded. "I'll be fine. I hope it's all right if I still write up my report..."
"I don't see why you shouldn't," I told her as I escorted her out of the warehouse.
"Then, can I have your name?"
I felt my stomach lurch. Giving out my name would be a horrible idea. "I'd rather not go on record," I said. "You don't even have to mention me at all."
"Well," said the woman, fishing (but wincing as she did) a business card out of her lanyard, "please get in touch with me if any more unfolds on just what that thing was, and if you'd permit me to keep readers of my paper informed."
"Absolutely," I said, hoping that it was actually a promise.
Once outside, I helped the reporter cross through piles of debris until we'd made it to the closest 'caution!' yellow border, where I handed her over to the capable hands of a police officer. He offered her a ride back to the hospital, which put me at ease. I heaved a sigh, then turned to investigate again, just for one more quick glance through. But I did so with an elevated sense of pride, and commonality.
Nothing could blur the fact that I had just saved a human life. And felt pretty great about it. The woman was being escorted to the hospital by police car, and I'd been the one to get her out of the wreckage. To save her from meeting a worse fate at the hands of the Resisty henchman.
That solidified to me, now, that this really was war. Now that humans had been exposed to the treat of the Resisty, and now that the Swollen Eyeball seemed to be taking matters into their hands more publically, there was hope that the planet would be better prepared for Tak's inevitable onslaught. She was most likely sitting back biding her time and building her army with the help of that wretched Cabochon, but she was still, however unrightly, the Tallest, and the more research went into this alien threat, the more likely reporters like that woman I'd saved would learn at least the name of the Irken race, and the name of its vengeful new leader.
And it was pretty obvious, as if I hadn't made the decision before, whose side I was on. I'd saved one person, and dammit, I'd save more if I got the chance. Earth was such a wonderful place. I wasn't going to see it fall into the hands of the Empire. Sure, a lot of humans were a bit ignorant and wasteful, but all species can be like that. I mean, just look at the Irkens. If what the Mandylion had said was true, if Irkens and humans were linked, all the more reason to keep one from oppressing the other. I'd been afraid, earlier, of Red doing something stupid to the planet like mining it for resources and then turning it into another shipping and packing plant or something, but now it was Tak's thirst for total domination that worried me. And that I'd fight against with every breath.
I knew she'd start with this town, too. This town, these suburbs... that house I still had to check for a sign of the girl I was burning to see again. I knew that Tak would start with her. Because that was the easiest line to me.
As I was making my way back through the debris, a large steel pillar that once had held up part of the school came crashing down in front of me, and falling with it were two small and very alive creatures that I identified straight away as Vortians. So Lard Nar, the Vortian Resisty leader, had more backup from his home planet, eh? I wondered how Tak was dealing with that, or if she even would concern herself with any of the Empire's other matters.
The two purple-skinned, black-clad aliens, neither of whom exceeded four feet in height, lunged at me. One was holding up fairly well, but the other looked like he'd seen better days. I crouched into a ready position to fight them, but when I drew in a deep breath to get my counterattack started, I got a mouthful of ash and began to cough. Yes, it had been nice to give that reporter my ventillation mask, but incredibly stupid to not rush the hell away from the site in order to at least grab another one.
Before the able-bodied Vortian could strike, he fell to the ground—a black-tipped industrial arrow sailed straight through his skull and he crumpled, lifeless. The other let out a high-pitched scream and ducked for cover, and I looked up to find the source of the arrow walking toward me.
A man, probably in his early forties, with short, greying brown hair and thin wire glasses, walked toward me while reloading a weapon I recognized from a picture in a textbook I'd seen once as a crossbow. On his right walked a girl, probably a little older than I supposedly looked, of African-American descent, with short black hair and eyes too oddly blue to be human. Just as Red and Purple had something telling about their eyes, so did this girl. I knew I didn't, based on something Gaz had told me, so I had to wonder what set me apart.
The man and girl both wore white ventillation masks similar to the one I'd given up, and the girl, after she'd taken an astute look around, handed me another one while the man stood guard.
"Thanks," I coughed out. "Who are you?"
My question went, presently, unanswered.
"Get down!" the man shouted at me. Before I could react, he rushed forward, planted himself in front of me, and sent a volley of arrows from his crossbow at the already-marred creature advancing on us. One hit it in the throat, and the alien was down, lifeless.
As the man reloaded his crossbow, the girl rushed forward and scoured the body for useful things. She stood up holding a Vortian laser pistol, and shouted at both of us, "Firing behind you!"
The man grabbed me by the back of the neck and forced me down, while the girl shot twice with perfect accuracy and hit another—this one also Vortian—behind us. It landed on my back, so as I stood I plucked the body off, noticing to my side another advancing, so I did the first thing I could think of and hurled the lifeless Vortian at its comrade, who fell several feet away and was crushed by a falling block of cement. I winced, but still told myself, They're enemies. They're obviously not on the humans' side, so don't show too much mercy.
"Hmm," the man said, while the girl rushed off to look for more weapons. "You seem experienced." I picked up on an English, most likely London, accent this time when he spoke, now that his words weren't clipped and rushed.
"Kinda, yeah," I admitted. "Going out on a limb here, but... are you with the Swollen Eyeball Network?"
The man laughed behind his ventillation mask and said, "It's Corporation, now, but yes."
The girl rushed back over and handed me a gun. "Here," she said, pressing it toward me. "Learn how to use that. Professor, we're clear, here, let's call back."
Before I knew it, I was being whisked away with the two of them, and wondered how long I could keep my name hidden. No doubt, given that Dib was part of the Corporation, he'd have alerted everyone to the name Invader Zim, and however much I wanted to be removed of that title, I couldn't be until that pointy-haired bastard was convinced. Still, I had to keep close to these two as long as possible, since I'd learn more from listening to them than I could investigating on my own.
The two led me down some of the familiar suburban grid streets until we'd made it a safe distance away from the crash site, and the girl yanked me behind a pale yellow building that had no lights on inside, and had a large overhanging roof that could provide us a great shadow in which to hide from the light of the hovering TV monitors and other lights from the street. Power had gone down in some parts, either that or lights just weren't being kept on... I knew that Professor Membrane had access to an auxiliary power source for the city, which he had most likely activated at least somewhat, since it seemed he was taking an active role in this particular citywide crisis.
I kept a doubtful hold on the Vortian pistol I'd been given, and the girl kept a firm grip on hers as she removed her mask. The man had already removed his and was speaking quite rapidly to someone over his small silver cell phone. "So how'd you hear about the Corporation?" the girl asked me, catching me off-guard.
"I, eh... I've known about it for a while," I said. Figuring I was in safe enough company, I asked, "Do you happen to know anyone named Dib? He's part of it, I think."
The girl let out a full laugh. "You think? Sure, I know him. Question is, how do you?"
"Well—"
Just then, the man with the crossbow turned his head and called over his shoulder, "Tenn my apologies, but what was the name of that race you mentioned?"
"Vortians," the girl called back. "Planet's called Vort."
"Ah, thank you."
Tenn..? The man had just called the girl 'Tenn,' hadn't he? That would have been too strange a coincidence, but I told myself not to rule anything out. I studied the girl... she did look human enough, and looked quite tall at that, but I knew that Tak had perfected solidified holograms, meaning other Irkens could, as well. My head spun, and I glared at the girl who looked so convincingly human. Well... minus her sharp blue eyes.
She caught me gaping and demanded, "What?"
"Tenn?" I wondered.
"Yeah..?" she said, raising an eyebrow in slight confusion.
"Your name is Tenn?"
"That's with an extra 'n,' not like the number," she said.
"Your name is Tenn?" I repeated, sounding pretty stupid by now. "As in... and sorry if I'm wrong, but... Invader Tenn?"
Her expression went from one of confusion to one meant to challenge me. Her gaze was stone as she asked, "Who wants to know?"
Before answering her, I rushed forward with more questions: "How did you get here? Why are you here?"
"I said, who wants to know?" she snapped at me.
I couldn't suppress a laugh. Sure, I'd never known the other Invaders very well, but I remembered Tenn. I'd wondered why she hadn't been around on the Massive with Skutch and the others. Somehow finding her way to Earth was a good enough excuse for that. She seemed comfortable with Earth and appearing human, as well... she even knew Dib and was a part of the Swollen Eyeball, so whether or not anyone else knew about what she was—no, that was ridiculous. If she knew Dib, others must have known.
Oh, this was getting very, very interesting.
"You don't recognize anything about me, do you?" I asked her.
"No," said Tenn firmly.
"Not even my voice?"
"No," she repeated.
"What if I told you my name is Zim?"
Answer: she punched me on the shoulder. Hard. The left shoulder, which was good, but it still hurt. "OW!" I yelped. "What the hell was that f—"
"ZIM?" she cried out. That got the man's attention, especially now that he'd completed his call. "Seriously, you're Zim?"
"Ow, not if you're gonna keep hitting me like that, I'm not," I growled at her.
"Oh, shut up! People are looking for you," Tenn hissed. "And by people, I mean Dib. He's got the whole Corporation on alert for your name, and you just waltz down here in hologram—"
"It's not a hologram."
"WHAT?"
"I said, it's not a—"
"I heard you!" Tenn burst at me, her eyes wide and unfathomable. "Professor!" she called over to her companion again. "Call 'em back, tell Gaz we've got—"
"You know Gaz?" I yelped, my heart skipping a few beats before it began pounding steadily and rapidly against my chest. Oh, this was good news. This was very, very good news. I hoped.
"Yeah, and—"
"There's no need to get excited," the calmest voice among us cut in.
With intent to silence the shouting, the man came up behind Tenn and put a hand on her shoulder. He stood only about an inch taller than she did, but had a very commanding presence. Despite his skills in battle, and the strong sensibilities he portrayed, something about him made me feel like he could be trusted with knowing who I was, and what I was trying not to be anymore.
"So," he said, smiling somewhat, "you're the famous Invader Zim?"
I winced. "Please don't use that title to describe me," I asked. "But, yes, my name is Zim. I'm sure I have a lot of explaining ahead of me."
"For now, there's no need. I want only to know whether or not you're on our side."
"Oh, I'm on your side, sir," I said quickly. "Look, there's one thing I want to tell you right off and that's that I'm opposing the Irkens, and any other threat the humans might have. I guess that actually requires a lot more to be said, but..."
"You can fill us in once we return to Headquarters," the man grinned. He extended his right hand to me, and I shook it almost without thinking. First I'd saved a life and now I'd made allies. And one of them was another Irken-for-human-causes. What the hell had I been missing? "For now, it's just good to meet you, and good to have you on our side. My name is Victor Haynsworth. Miss Tenn and I still have a slight mission to do, but we'd appreciate your company. After we're through, we'll take you back with us to the Corporation."
"Professor—" Tenn warned.
"He's on our side, isn't he?" Haynsworth smiled. "You're Irken, and we've come to trust you."
Tenn sighed, looking me up and down, then agreed. As we set off, ironically in the direction of Professor Membrane's home, Tenn whispered to me, "I'm with the Professor on trusting you, but unlike him, I wanna hear the story."
"A-and I'll tell it," I assured her.
"You're really not here with Tak?" she asked me.
"That partnership was broken pretty much as soon as it started," I said strongly. "As far as I'm concerned, Tenn, I'm human."
Tenn shrugged me off, but as we continued walking, I heard her mutter, "I knew you were better than that."
And, just like that, I came one step closer to working toward my goal. One step closer to being human. I had faith that the Tallest would catch up to me soon, and that they could handle things well in regards to the surviving aliens from the Resisty crash. Hope kept me moving. I'd been more or less welcomed into the Corporation already by one of its representatives. I was making headway. I was so close. Things were looking up. Once I got to the Corporation's headquarters, I knew that I'd finally have justification for the life I'd decided to carve out for myself.
Because now, for once in my life, I could say that I kept a promise.
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Author's Note:
As promised, my Sunday update is here! ^^
And thus we get a glimpse of the new Resisty, come back into town, and begin a little string of reunions… :3 I feel bad for Dib, though, he's got it rough. D: We're getting into some of my favorite parts, now, too, now that everyone's coming together… And we've learned a bit about what that Mirror can do...
I'm so glad you're all enjoying this! The comments from Friday's update still have me smiling~ ^^;;; Thank you sososo much, everyone~ :3
Aaaaand tomorrow is August 8th! XD I thought about doing the update tomorrow, but today made more sense in my head. But yes, August 8th, which is—in this story anyway—Dib's birthday! Hurrah~ Fun fact: I gave Gaz her voice actor, Melissa Fahn's birthday (April 28th) but did not give Dib Andy Berman's birthday (February 24th) because of another late February birthday for another character. So his changed to August (also because I wanted him to be a Leo)… and I liked that because it lessened the age gap between the siblings, saying something of Miyuki's semi-inhuman reproductive cycle… ^^;;; (Another fun fact: IZMS, as of this update, is technically stuck back in August of 2005! So in real time, tomorrow, Dib will actually be 20… XD)
The next update is coming this Friday, August 12th! See you then with a pretty weighty few chapters~ :3
~Jizena~
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