Alright, another grouping a la filler, but this will probably be the last one for a while. Cause el action es….however you say 'beginning' in espanol. I'd like to dance the night away. Tee HEEE!!!

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"Not good…SO not good…" Det was pacing around the base in a worrisome manner, mumbling to himself all the while. Zim had long since given up his search for Dib's nonexistent spy bug and watched Det walk around, and was surprised at seeing a person as worried about his defenseless nemesis as he was. Gir was once again playing with his squeaky moose, not at all worried about his master's partner sounding as crazy as could be.

"Eh…Det-human?" Zim asked the fretting boy. "Why are you murmuring about how bad our situation is?"

Det stopped and shot a death glare at Zim. "Because, if Bri's experiments made him anything like me, he's gonna be much worse of a danger than he ever would before."

"OOOHH!!! Is he gonna make ya eat glass till ya 'splode??" Gir foolishly interjected.

Det was extremely bothered by the robot's lack of appreciation for the circumstances. "No, you sorry machination. He's gonna make us DIE!!!" Det screamed, obviously freaked out.

'AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-AHHH-AHHH-AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Gir insanely screeched.

"SHUT UP!!" Det ordered the droid, who promptly did so. "If we can just get to him before he's fully awake, we'll be safe."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Zim inquired. "According to you, the Dib will also be able to stop us!"

"Yeah, but I think I can find a way to distract him…" Det trailed off, side glancing at the transmission screen.

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Dib led Bri to the backyard of his house, talking along the way.

"Well, Zim's ship is irreparable without a good supply of Irken technology. So, I thought we'd combine the usable parts with…this!" Dib then revealed a beaten, battered, and slightly morphed Irken ship. Tak's ship.

"You're using that again?" Gaz asked, who had just appeared out of nowhere.

"…Okay, where were you when we got attacked by Zim and Det again?" Bri asked, irritated that Gaz had abandoned them before.

"Why should I have to be your bodyguard just because you're too weak to defend yourself?" Gaz retorted, glaring at Bri.

"Um…about the ship…" Dib tried to keep the two from fighting, but to no avail.

"I'm not weak; I just need help when getting harassed by a destructive force of alien power!"

"Oh, you need help alright; Zim is not a destructive force; he couldn't even take over an abandoned doghouse, let alone the world!"

"We kind of need to fix it and…" Dib still attempted to end the argument.

"He has laser shooting lawn gnomes and blew a 50-foot hole straight through the ground; that sounds pretty destructive to me!"

"Did he actually do anything to you? No! And that's because Zim is a moron just like YOU!"

"Guys, we really need to get the parts for the ship and-"

"SHUT UP!!!" Gaz and Bri exclaimed simultaneously

""No!" Dib replied. "I'm not going to be ignored again! If we don't get a working ship ready, Det and Zim will destroy us for sure!"

Bri was flat-out infuriated now. "You want a working ship?!?" he exploded, running into the house and returning seconds later carrying a large pile of the Voot's parts. He then rapidly connected every piece of Irken equipment in the backyard to the ship's remains, making a super hybrid ship. "HERE'S your working ship!!!" Bri's expression changed from one of ferocity to one of confusion and surprise.

Dib was just as surprised as Bri was. "How did you do that?!"

"I…just did it…" Bri weakly replied, once again pondering his humanity. But, just as he was thinking that he might be some kind of werewolf monkey, (he had been spending the day with Dib, after all,) a transmission screen popped out of the pseudo-ship and showed Det in Zim's base, staring coldly at them.

"Weird," the screen sounded. "The computer said the Voot was destroyed in a crash, but…"

Zim chose that moment to interject. "Destroyed?!? Listen, Dib-stink! My ship is infinitely valuable to me, so if you crashed it, I'll-"

"Call a truce." Det interpolated.

"Yes! I'll call a truce to rip your filthy arms from their filthy sockets and jam them into you filthy…TRUCE?!?" Zim called out in surprise.

"Yeah, I agree with Zim…TRUCE?!?" Dib also exclaimed.

"Why?" Bri inquired quietly.

"Because, in the past 24 hours, we've both been beaten, bruised, embarrassed, and we all need to rest."

"I don't need to rest." Gaz scoffed at Det's reasonable explanation.

"…man, I hate you." Det said, trying to inflict as much mental damage as possible, but Gaz just shrugged it off. "Anyway, do we have an agreement?"

"NO WA-" Dib started screaming, but Bri quickly barged in.

"Deal."

"WHAT?!?" Zim and Dib said concurrently.

Det smiled slyly. "Good." The screen blinked out and retracted into the pseudo-ship.

Dib was mortified. "Bri! How could you believe him? He's just going to attack us again and again until he wipes us out completely!"

"I know." Bri calmly replied.

Dib just stared at the suddenly stoic boy. "And you just went along with it?"

"Yep." Bri then walked back inside, leaving Dib utterly puzzled at Bri's craziness that seemed to surpass even his own.

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The screen had just turned off in Zim's base, and the Irken was already ranting about how much he hated Det's plan and that their partnership was over and a trillion other things, but none of that mattered. What did matter was Bri's awakening. What did matter were Bri's impressive abilities. What did matter terrified Det to the bottom of his soul.

Bri was stronger than him.

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As Sgt. Hobo trotted across one of the rare barren plains on Hobo 13, Tak and Sizz-lorr followed, bickering over whose planet was worse to suffer through.

"I had to feed thousands of freaks greasy food every day!" the massive fry cook argued.

"I had to clean a mud encrusted battle cruiser with a rock!" the weaker Irken disputed.

"ENOUGH!" Hobo yelled, as he had listened to the two clash for hours and was sick of it. "I had to get punched fifty feet by Zim and was chewed on for six months by a monster with buck-teeth!" Tak and Sizz-lorr promptly shut their traps after that.

Eventually, Tak spoke up. "So why are we going to the middle of the desert? I thought we wanted to kill Zim."

"We do." Hobo replied. "But the closest launch pad is halfway across the planet, soldier."

"We're not your soldiers, and why are we going the opposite way of the launch pad if it's on the other side of the planet?" inquired Sizz-lorr.

"Because, the Holding Pen of PAIN is in the vicinity of the launch pad." Hobo said, emphasizing the word pain. He then bent down and picked up a small pebble.

"So?" the other Irkens asked in chorus.

Hobo tossed the pebble at the ground in front of him, causing the ground to shake. The terrain before the three split open and a large slithering mass of mechanical eels launched out and lunged at the trio.

"How do you think we get to the Holding Pen of PAIN?" Hobo inquired before the approaching monstrosities rapidly diving at Tak and Sizz-lorr caused them to scream.

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Heh heh. PAIN is a fun thing to say. Seriously, name any object, scream the words 'of PAIN' afterwards, and it will immediately sound cool. I kid you not. Go ahead and try. I'll wait. 3 minutes later Neat, eh? Review please!