Thunderstorm: Chapter Ten
"Don't you dare harm a hair, on that human's head," a voice from the door commanded. Pud looked up to see Juelia with Gir at her side, who now flashed red. She pointed her small laser gun at the scalpel and shot it, knocking it out of his hand with a sting.
"You two, get over there, now," Juelia barked waving the gun in a direct fashion towards a corner, "Gir, get Dib and Gaz lose." The robot saluted and walked over to the two siblings, popping out a little blow torch.
"Juelia you traitor, I knew they shouldn't have let you in, I should have been a commander," Pud hissed. Qui snarled in Dib's direction, as she wiped away the rest of the human boy's spit.
"Thanks for your opinion, but I didn't ask for it," Juelia sneered. Gir finished burning through the last of Dib and Gaz's shackles, in which Dib quickly made his way to a drawer on the far wall. He pulled out his laptop computer, then walked back over to grab his shirt and trenchcoat.
"Where are the others," Juelia asked still keeping the laser trained on the two disgruntled irkens.
"Their next door," Gaz said.
"Gir tie them up, and do a very good job," Juelia ordered. Gir trotted over to Pud and Qui and waved happily.
"I'm gonna have to tie you up now," he squealed gleefully as he shot out a rope from his cranium. He turned on his jetpacks and jammed around the two until they were tied back to back tightly.
"Yeah, you be the cowboys and I be the Indian, How," the sir said as he began to do a pow wow around them.
"Come on, Gir," Dib said as he, Gaz, and Juelia quickly ran out of the room.
"All man...okay," Gir replied sadly as he followed. Meanwhile Zim and Red both were pacing back and forth in the cell. The two siblings had been removed a half hour ago and they were worried stiff. Both of them could only imagine what torture that these people had in mind, and when it was their turn.
"I never would've dreamed that it all would have ended like this," Zim said absentmindedly.
"Me either," Red said as they crossed paths of their pacing motion.
"Grrr, everything I do always backfires or blows up in my face," Zim blurted, "I try to please my people and they abandon me, I strived to take over Earth and fail, I try to save Earth and fail, gah I could try and screw in a light bulb and break my neck." Red stopped pacing and looked at the alien."I'm a failure, a disgrace that's no welcomed anywhere."
Red felt sorry for him but didn't really have any words that could comfort.
"Well um...everyone makes mistakes," she finally said.
"Not mistakes like mine, I am a mistake," Zim said sadly.
"Oh please, the only mistakes are these *irkens*, um no offense," Red stated.
"None taken."
"Listen, Zim, you did something that most can't do, the right thing, I think...," Red said unsure, due to the fact she only knew him for a little while. Zim suddenly did something Red wasn't expecting, he started to laugh. She was puzzled by this to the point of curiosity.
"What are you laughing about," she asked concerned for his sanity.
"Ha *gasp* I, I, you, all of you, humans are a trip, I say I'm taking over Earth and you still don't care. I use to want to destroy all of you, but, heh heh, you still trust me to help save...," Zim laughed out warm-heartedly.
"What's that suppose to mean," Red said becoming confused and slightly afraid of the alien's actions.
"I'm sorry, its just that nobody's ever really given me that chance to prove myself, because of my size, and past, but you guys, Dib, Gaz, and you almost trust me. It's just, I guess I'm happy, I'm just sad that I couldn't have discovered this sooner," Zim explained as his laugh turned into a mere chuckle.
"Oh." Red began to pace again along with Zim. They both stopped suddenly when they saw the door on the far side open. What was odd however was that no one came out this time. Instead, there was some coughing as if someone was clearing their throat.
"Bring the rest in here," a deep voice, similar to Pud's, hollered. The guards shrugged and opened the cage's door. Zim and Red exited without a fuss, as the guards lead them down to the passage. When they reached the door the soldiers were taken back, when the door opened all the way to reveal Dib with Juelia right behind him holding the laser gun.
"Now you two, step away," Dib said in his Pud imitation while grinning. The guards did as they were told by backing away from Zim and Red. Gaz and Gir soon emerged with a piece of rope and quickly tied the two irken soldiers tight.
"To the control room then," Juelia said looking down at the small group.
"To the control room," Zim shouted as he took off in one direction.
"Um, Zim, the control rooms that way," Dib said pointing down the opposite direction.
"Oh yes, yes of course," Zim shouted a little less confidently as he changed his course. All six of them made their way to the ever familiar control room. When they reached it's entrance Gaz and Juelia stood guard at it's front while Zim, Dib, and Red went inside. Gir was more or less doing both, jumping in and out of the door. Zim immediately began typing on the weird irken text buttons and pulled up several programs. Every once and a while he would hit a snag and Dib or Red would override it for him.
"Okay cameras are down," Dib announced.
"Computers are down," Red said.
"Lights," Zim pressed another button and lights in the control room dimmed, "are down."
"That leaves the engines," Dib said.
"Wait, how will we get out if power is out in the entire ship, the Vootrunner won't be able to undock," Zim said, remembering the spacecraft. Everyone in the room let out a frustrated sigh.
"I'll get the ship out," Gaz suggested, or more like stated.
"But you don't know the controls," Zim said.
"Trust me, I know a whole lot more than you think, plus I'll take Gir, he has to know something."
"I guess, but how will we know your out," Zim asked.
"You'll know," the girl said as she picked up the sir unit.
"Fly it over to the port gate," Juelia added. Gaz nodded and ran off carrying Gir with her.
"Let's just hope this works," Zim breathed.
"Yes, we only have so much time before those highly trained morons come down to the control room to find out what's going on," Juelia said.
"Maybe we should lock down certain areas," Red suggested. Zim's face lit up.
"Of course, why didn't I think of that," he said as he threw a switch. A series of clicks were heard as sections throughout the large ship shut off.
"There, that will keep 'em busy."
"So now what do we do," Dib asked.
"Wait until Gaz gives us a sign," Zim answered as he rested on a control room chair. Juelia stood at the door quietly watching out for any approaching soldiers, leaving Dib and Red in an awkward silence. The pale boy pulled at his collar nervously and she fiddled with her hair, anxiously. They wanted to both explain their actions and the 'kiss' but again didn't have the words to speak. Finally, they both turned to one another and began talking.
"Well, I um just wanted...," they both said in unison.
"Oh, sorry you first," they said, again at the same time.
"It's just that...," they both began. Zim rolled his eyes, he had never seen such ludicrous behavior. Red and Dib paused for a moment but before they could say anything, three shock waves rocked the ship. Everyone looked at one another and knew who it was.
"Gaz."
Zim turned and quickly punched in a code.
"Access denied," the computer sounded. Zim growled and motioned for Red to bypass the program lock. She pressed the touch tone screen and again the computer allowed her to pass flashing access granted. Zim then went to work once more.
"Hurry we don't have much time," Juelia said. Zim pressed a few more buttons and threw the final switch.
"Self-destruct sequence activated, you have T-minus ten minutes," a female computer voice said as sirens and emergency lights began blinking throughout the whole ship.
"Destruct sequence, what the heck's that," Dib practically screamed.
"That's the only way to shut down this ship's engines," Zim said matter of factually. Power throughout the ship completely turned off and the only source of light came from the emergency lighting.
"Come on we have to get out of here, fast," Juelia said as she and the others took off running down the hall. They weren't alone as other irkens ran in the same direction in a panic. As they ran Zim made a detour to the imprisonment section where he released the irkens that had been trapped. They all scrambled out of the large area without question. Zim, even though he didn't like these guys, didn't see the point in having them killed. He quickly rejoined his group, and now they all headed for the port along with every other living thing on the ship.
"It's everyone for themselves," one soldier cried.
"Run, move it, move it, go, go, go," another shouted. Screaming and shouting erupted from the halls as our little group made their way to escape. When they reached the port it was instant chaos. Escape pods of all shapes and sizes were being filled with frantic irkens, then shot out off into the vastness of space. The Almighty Tallest had already made their exit, being one of the first out. Since everyone on Irk knew there was no reversal of a manual self-destruct sequence no one even bothered to try and deactivate it.
"Remind me why we had an irreversible destruction program on our ship to begin with," Tallest Red asked quite annoyed.
"Note to self, destroy the planet that designed that ship," Tallest Purple said as their escape pod quickly retreated from the mother ship. Meanwhile, still on board, Dib noticed the Vootrunner int the midst of the confusion.
"There she is," Dib shouted as he took off in that direction. The others followed closely behind him. When Gaz saw her fellow advocates running towards her she quickly opened the hatch. They came upon one issue, however, how were they all going to fit in the small spacecraft.
"Just get in, we'll see what works best," Zim ordered as he climbed in. Juelia shrugged and hopped in. She had to draw her legs up to allow Dib and Red to climb in. Gaz relinquished her spot from the driver's position to let Zim take over. Gir climbed on top of Zim's head, which the alien allowed being there was little room. In the end, they all managed to squeeze in nicely and Zim closed the hatch. He turned on the Vootrunner's engines and took off for the escape doors.
"T-minus 20 seconds and counting," the computer echoed through the ship. Zim gunned it, making it out of the ship.
"We have to hide from the explosion," Zim cried frantically as his ship zoomed off.
"Round the Earth, go around it," Dib said leaning forward a little. Zim decided to take his advice not having much time to argue. As the tiny ship made a curve around the blue, green planet the computer counted down its own demise.
"Five...four...three...two, have a nice day." The core exploded sending shockwaves throughout the large ship. Then, in the blink of an eye, the entire Massive erupted, sending out a blinding white flash, followed by a blue flare. However, the hazardous situation was far from over. A super energetic shock wave was released from the blast, that could shatter the workings of any craft in its way, including the Voot.
*~Okay, that's chapter ten. Now, this is a pre-warning. If you liked all the action and adventure there will be more of that, but in Chapter eleven it's going to be kind of a slow period, you know, why stuff happened, what will Dib and Gaz do without their dad, that kind of stuff.