"Wake up, silly!" a voice yelled, jarring Tak from her sleep. "You overslept! The big fancy ball's already starting!"

Tak's eyes snapped open, showing her that Mint was hunched over her. "Get out."

"But Tak…!" she pleaded, pouting. "You have to go! You have to!"

"No, I don't. I was going to install MiMi's memory into the new SIR unit today, anyway…"

"Go, or I'll make you go," Mint warned.

"Pfft."

Mint's expression went dark.

"Ugh… fine, but can I leave early?" Tak asked.

"Maybe," Mint replied.

"Fine…"

"Oh, I've picked out what I want you to wear," Mint said, pulling her out of bed.

Tak sleepily stood and smoothed out her standard-issue United Irken Resistance flannel pajamas. She looked over to her closet and saw a gold-colored and sparkly-looking dress hanging on the door. "No," Tak commented.

"But this is a white tie affair! You have to have something fancy," Mint commented. Tak realized she was wearing a dark green dress.

"Okay, I'll wear it," Tak muttered.

"Great!" Mint squealed, and put on a mask. It was butterfly-shaped and green, with a matching green top hat. It looked kind of… odd.

"Um. I have to wear one of those?" Tak asked.

"Well, I figured you'd want something else, so I came up with this," Mint said, and handed her a black mask that sort of resembled what a highwayman would wear while looting a few well-to-dos.

"What am I, a robber?" Tak asked while Mint fitted it on her face.

"'K, what color do you want?" Mint asked.

Tak stared at her blankly.

"For your eyes. Your eye color," she explained.

"Oh, yeah…" she said. "Um…"

"I think gold! Champagne gold," Mint said feverishly, pulling out a tiny remote. "This remote is encoded to that mask. You can adjust your eye color and change your voice slightly with it. Pepper designed it, actually."

"Pepper did?" Tak asked curiously. "Your sister made something like this?"

"Yeah, well, if I beg enough she'll do anything," Mint said offhandedly. "Also, she's not actually my sister. We're near clones. Y'know, no natural parents."

"I see," Tak muttered.

"We were part of a top secret project for the Irken military, actually. Funny story; I might tell you about it sometime," she said, still configuring stuff with the remote. She looked from the remote to Tak's eyes. "Perfect. Now, your voice. I'm thinking something a little more… bubblyish, y'know?"

"What?" Tak asked.

"Just count to twenty."

Tak did so, and while she was counting her voice fluctuated in many different ways, until eventually she ended up with a voice a little more high pitched than her own.

"Excellent!" Mint commented. "Now, the last thing. Don't tell anyone what your name is. It's fun that way. I'll know what you're wearing, so I'll know it's you, but no one else will! That's the fun."

"I understand," Tak muttered.

"Great, then we're set. Get dressed, and I'll be back in a couple of minutes. I gotta talk to Pepper."

At one of the hallways connecting to the ballroom, a little while later…

"You know I don't like coming to these," Pepper muttered through her mask. She hadn't bothered to disguise her eyes or voice.

"But Pepper!" Mint said.

"I'm here this time, aren't I?" Pepper asked. "Nice color scheme, Tak. Matching eyes and dress. Looks good."

"Thanks," Tak muttered. "I feel stupid, though."

"Yeah, well, Mint forced me to come here, too," she said.

"Okay, are you two ready?" Mint asked.

Pepper and Tak nodded unenthusiastically.

"Great!" she said, and then opened the door.

Tak's new gold-colored eyes widened as she walked in. Everything was bright and golden… there were Irken freedom fighters in ornate dresses and white suits doing everything from drinking champagne to making small talk in little groups. Old Earth music floated around with its trademark crackly quality.

"Here, darling, here, she's the one I was talking with last week," an Irken female said, dragging a male up to Mint, Pepper, and Tak. "She's simply hilarious, darling, hilarious…"

"Hiya," Mint said to the newcomers.

"Oh, yes, you're the one who orchestrates all of this every week?" the male Irken asked gruffly, holding a flute of sparkling wine.

"Indeed," Mint replied.

"Well, say no more!" he said, chuckling. "Fantastic idea, if I may say."

"I'm going to tend to the music," Mint said happily to her group and the two Irkens. "You all have fun!"

After she was gone, the other two Irkens left as well. Pepper sighed. "Well, now we're stranded. Wanna go grab some alcohol?"

Tak chuckled. "I guess."

"I'll get it. You go sit over there, I guess."

Tak nodded, and weaved through the groups of attendees to sit on a bench off to the side of the huge ballroom.

"I never was one for dancing, myself," a male Irken about her height said, sighing. He sat next to her on the bench.

"Yeah, well," Tak said. She glanced at him. He had red eyes. She grimaced. "Zim, is that you?"

"Zim?" he asked, turning to her. "I'm afraid not."

Tak's expression softened. "Just checking."

"Can never be too careful. Who's 'Zim', hmm?" he asked curiously. "Ex-lover?"

Tak laughed out loud. "No, no. Nothing like that."

"Gotcha," he replied. "Well, it's been nice chatting with you, even if you did mistake me for someone else. Wanna talk again next week?"

Tak nodded. "Yeah, okay."

He disappeared into the crowd, and then Pepper came back with two flutes full of sparkling wine. She stuffed one into Tak's hand, and downed half of the rest in one gulp.

"Geez, Pepper. You're supposed to savor this kind of stuff," Tak said, gingerly sipping the drink. It tickled.

"Pfft. I was dragged here. At least I can get drunk," she muttered.

"This is great," Tak commented.

"Whoa, careful," Pepper warned. "You don't wanna drink too much of that stuff. That isn't the normal Earth sparkling wine. Mint tweaked something about it… I'm beginning to have second thoughts about getting wasted off of it."

"Girls, I wanna introduce you to a few people," Mint said as she walked up to them.

Tak and Pepper talked to a few more people and drank some more of the fancy drinks to be drunk, and Tak eventually managed to be led back to her room by Pepper and Mint after it ended. Overall, Tak had a terrible time.

On the Massive's bridge…

"Wow, these donuts are delicious!" Purple screamed.

"I know!" Red shouted back.

The next morning (Morning in space? WHAT?) in Tak's room…

Tak pulled the sheet over her head, eyes closed. Her head hurt like hell, and she was trying to make herself go back to sleep. She was startled when she heard a yawn right next to her.

She opened her eyes to see Mint. In bed. Right next to her. She was smiling widely.

"Morning," someone else said. She turned. Pepper was right there, too. Grinning.

Her brain exploded.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU… WHAT… WHAT IS…?" she screamed.

"Don't tell me you don't remember," Mint said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She smiled wider.

"Oh, I remember," Pepper said. "I mean, I'm never going to forget."

Tak's brain continued exploding in a chain reaction of realization-goo. "WHAT?" she screamed. She pulled the sheet over her head again. "I WAS DRUNK! YOU HAD NO RIGHT! WHAT IS THIS? WHY DID YOU…?"

Mint started laughing. Pepper joined in soon after.

"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?" Tak screamed. "TELL ME NOW!"

"Tak, calm down. We were just kidding. We staged this as a hilarious joke," Pepper explained. "GIR has already taken several pictures depicting your reaction. Whatever you think happened… didn't."

Mint was still laughing hysterically. She fell off of the bed and hit the floor with a dull thud.

Tak peeked out from the covers and saw GIR in green-dog form with an antique tripod camera. He waved.

"DAMN IT!" Tak screamed. "IT WASN'T FUNNY!"

"Yes, it was," Pepper replied.

[Author's Note:

One of my friends made me do that. I swear. o_o

~ClockwerkOrange]