Chapter 9: Overload
It was dark, and tiny stars twinkled overhead. Miira felt tremors run through her. She was going to test her abilities for the first time. She retracted her disguise and took out her contacts. Her earth clothing automatically folded itself revealing her silvery white clothes underneath. She put the earth garments in her backpack and stowed the bag in a nearby bush.
The field was lit by two lights on either end, but Miira was beyond caring if anyone saw her. She felt thrills running through her as she anticipated what she was about to do. Stepping into the center of the grass, she focused her mind on the sign, the Rising that seemed to live in her. Her piece of the Rising. She felt it pulse slightly, as if it had its own heartbeat. She matched her breathing to it, and closed her eyes. She felt it glowing, and a strange and exhilarating sensation flowed swiftly through her. She had already tested some of the Rising already, but that was only minor things like teleportation fazing within a set perimeter and connecting to PIR on occasion. She was about to test all of its abilities. All of them.
…
Zim watched from the tree. Miira had been sitting there for hours. His eyes began to drift shut, and he struggled to keep them open. There! Miira was moving. She stood and began to take off her disguise.
Zim had seen Miira without her earthling pig scum costume before, but only in complete darkness where she was in shadow. He was awestruck at how she looked now.
The dim light reflected in Miira's purple in blue eyes, and gently illuminated her perfect green skin. She held her antennae smoothly back against her head so that their curled ends almost touched her shoulders, and then suddenly perked them up in excitement. Her clothing was strange and feminine; it was not the normal stiff irken-style product. What Miira wore was completely white and more form fitting. Lines of silver ran about it, shimmering and blurring.
She was in the middle of the field now. What was she doing, undisguised and in plain sight? A dark green insignia began to pulse and glow on her head.
…
Miira felt energy rocketing through her. She felt wonderful. She danced from side to side slightly. Then, she was everywhere and nowhere, an army of one soldier who covered the entire field in a nanosecond. She disappeared and reappeared thirty feet in the air, and after falling almost to the ground, reappeared safely on her feet. For several seconds, she obsessed herself with bending light waves and sound waves. Fireworks howled in the air and colorful shadows moved across the lawn. She tested her improved balance and coordination, doing gymnastics in the trees and off the tall lamp posts. If she had looked down at just the right moment, she would have seen Zim lurking close to the ground.
Miira laughed now. Why was she amusing herself with these less impressive abilities? She would move on to things more serious now. And testing them out one by one would be too slow. She was going to try them all out at once.
Miira zipped to the center of the field, and once more began to concentrate.
…
Zim was watching Miira with his mouth open. She was ricocheting across the field, sometimes one being and sometimes one thousand. She exploded into light and danced over the trees- he realized suddenly that she did not have a pak. How was she doing any of this anyways? All of the sudden, she seemed to calm down again. With her antennae tilted forward, she closed her eyes again in the center of the field.
Once more, Zim was awestruck. She was truly beautiful, a perfect example of an irken. She looked so peaceful and innocent standing there, almost sweetly vulnerable. The slight breeze gently moved her antennae to and fro, and a smile crossed her lips. He leaned forward, trying to see her better.
Zim leapt back in terror. Lasers burned their way through the grass and scorched the wood of Zim's tree. The field was covered in piercing white light often sliced by beams of red and green. Gold glimmered in the air, sizzling like acid as it dissolved everything it touched. Magnificent destruction shattered the night, reverberating from the pinpoint that was Miira. Miira herself seemed to be changing all the time, blurring and vibrating violently. All Zim could think to do at the moment was curl up into a ball and wait for whatever was happening to stop.
…
Yes! Miira thought. She was fully integrated. The particular technology in the part of the Rising she possessed was fairly new, but definitely working. She applied more and more of her abilities. The air around her buzzed, and some of the field became littered with small contained circles of blue and green fire.
Suddenly, Miira felt herself slip. She didn't actually slip, as she wasn't walking, but rather, mentally something didn't quite click. She felt like she was falling infinitely, crashing downwards. In one second, she experienced more pain than many creatures do in a lifetime. It was as if she was compressing in on herself and being torn to pieces at the same time. She blacked out, slumping over in the blackened grass.
…
Silence and darkness unexpectedly returned to the night. Zim peered out from behind what was left of the tree. Miira was lying unconscious and unprotected. He scrambled over to her.
What would he do now? He would expose her as an alien. Yes… he would show her to Dib, and Dib-smell would perform all his dissections and experiments on her… no, he would give Dib proof, do his own tests on Miira, then hand her over to Dib for dissection… no, wait…
Zim stood for several minutes thinking of exactly how Miira would come to her demise. When he finally had her fate planned out in his mind, he threw his arms in the air and laughed.
"HA HA! VICTORY! VICTORY FOR-" he looked down at Miira, and felt his insides sink. She was sprawled helplessly before him, looking sad and defeated.
Zim sighed and softly kicked at her foot. He appeared exasperated and annoyed for a second, and then gathered her up in his arms.
It was a long walk to her base, but eventually they made it. Zim set Miira down lightly on the front porch, not wanting to have to explain himself to some killer robot protector he was sure waited inside. He glanced back at her limp form as he left the front walk, and silently made his way home.
