Zim jumped out of the booth and landed in front of the stroller. As his eyes rested
on the empty seat where Max had been, but no longer was, his skin turned a very
pale shade of green. He could hear Tallest Azka's warning clearly as it rang through
his head.
"If anything happens to our kids down there, you'll be shipped straight back to Foodcourtia..."
Azka's stern voice gradually faded into an echo in Zim's mind, until it was replaced by
Sizz-Lorr's evil laugh and other disturbing images of Foodcourtia.
The fast food...the boiling hot grease... the cranky customers... the happy Shloogorgh
costume...the horror...!
"NO!" Zim screamed, completely unaware of the strange looks he was getting from
the other diners. "I am never going back to Foodcourtia! Never, you hear me? NEVER!"
"Knock it off, Zim!" snapped Tark. He rose from his seat and slapped Zim across the back
of his head. "In case you haven't noticed, there are people watching us." He took a deep
breath to calm himself before continuing. "Now stop whining about stupid Foodcourtia and
help us look for Max! He couldn't have gone too far."
Zim immediately stopped screaming and noticed that everyone in the restaurant was looking
at him. He blushed and cleared his throat. "I, um, forgot to take my psychiatric medication
today. Heh heh. I am normal!"
The humans continued staring at Zim for a few more minutes, then went back to eating their
food. Zim gathered the kids around him and began to discuss searching for Max.
"Maybe we should ask the management for help," Aiko suggested.
Zim shook his head. "I'm sorry, Princess Aiko, but that's too risky. And remember one of the
rules I told you: Do not ask the humans for help."
Aiko hung her head. "Oh, sorry about that."
"So, we'll split up and search a different area of the restaurant," Zim explained. "Tark will search
the men's room, Sheen the women's room. You, Aiko, will search the arcade. Ven will look under
the tables in the dining area. I will take Princesses Sakura and Mariah and search the parking lot."
He turned to Gir and motioned for him to come closer. "Gir, see if you can sneak into the kitchen
and look for Prince Maxime there."
"Yes, Master!" Gir replied.
Zim nodded. "Alright, let's move out."
Meanwhile, Dib and Gaz were walking home from school after finally finishing the work Ms.
Bitters gave them as punishment for taking part in the food fight earlier that day. Dib was
surprised that Gaz had waited for him to finish writing on the blackboards instead of going
straight home once the cafeteria was cleaned, but he said nothing about it. Gaz, of course,
continued playing games on her Game Slave 2.
Just as they were about to walk past Bloaty's Pizza Hog, a strange-looking Chihuahua
approached them, holding a slice of pizza in his mouth.
Dib shuddered and stepped back as the Chihuahua came closer. He'd seen that dog
before, and was convinced that it was a sign of bad luck.
Gaz put her Game Slave 2 away just long enough to glare at the little dog. "Get lost,
you pizza stealing mutt," she growled, "or prepare to face my wrath!"
The dog sat down at Gaz's feet and looked up at her, whimpering. Just as Gaz was
about to lose her temper and scream at the dog, Dib poked her in her right arm and pointed
at another small figure slowly making its way down the sidewalk. It appeared to be scooting
along on its bottom.
"What the heck is that?" Gaz asked.
"I don't know," Dib replied, "but I'm going to take a closer look." He tiptoed quietly toward
the scooting figure until he was close enough to get a good look at it.
"Oh, wow. Hey Gaz, come look at this!"
Grumbling about her stupid brother, Gaz walked toward Dib to see what he found. Sitting
at Dib's feet was a tiny, violet-eyed Irken. He was wearing a kind of suit that must have
been standard baby-wear on Zim's home world.
"So, it's an alien baby," Gaz scoffed. "Big deal. What's so great about that?"
"This fixes everything, Gaz!" said Dib excitedly. He scooped the little smeet off the ground
and held him in his arms. "Just wait until the Swollen Eyeball Network sees this. They'll see
I was right all along!"
The smeet began to fuss and squirm in Dib's arms. Dib held him out at arm's length and
laughed softy as he swiped at the boy's face with his tiny claws.
"He's a feisty little guy, isn't he?" Dib chuckled.
Gaz studied the little Irken carefully. "Well, he is kind of cute," she admitted.
"He may be cute now," Dib reminded her, "but I bet he won't be so cute when he grows up.
He is a member of Zim's horrible race, after all." He carefully tucked the smeet into his jacket.
"Come on, we'd better get home before Dad gets worried and calls the police."
"What do you mean you can't find the problem?"
Head Communications Officer Zarthab stood before Almighty Tallests Red and Purple,
trembling. The Massive's long distance communications system had been offline for
almost twelve hours, and the technicians still hadn't figured out the cause of the
problem. The Tallests were getting impatient, because until the communications
system was working again, they couldn't contact Zim to make sure he wasn't doing
anything terrible to their kids.
"Please forgive me, my Tallests," Zarthab apologized. "The other technicians and I
are doing our best to find the problem with the communications system and fix it.
Could you please just hang in there for a while longer?"
"That's what you said five hours ago, Zarthab," growled Red, eyes glowing with anger.
"Five ******* hours ago!" He rose from his seat and stood over the frightened technician,
stretching himself to his full height. "Look, I'm trying to hold it together, but it isn't easy -
especially when my kids are on a planet several light-years away with the most dangerous
and insane defect the Irken Empire has ever known!"
Purple sat next to Red, munching on a corn dog. "He's right, Zarthab," he said in between
bites. "Either you get that problem fixed soon, or you go out the air lock and into the nearest
sun."
"Yes, my Tallests," Zarthab replied. He bowed down on one knee for a minute, then stood up
and left the room.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" asked Gem.
"Don't worry, I was just kidding," Purple told her. "Sure, we're mean enough to throw other
Irkens out the air lock, but we would never throw them into the sun."
"Not directly, anyway," added Red.
"Talon!" scolded Azka. She knew Red hated it when she called him by his real name, and only
did so when he did or said something that hurt or upset her.
"What is it now, Azka?" moaned Red. "Come on, can't you take a little joke?"
"Yeah, you're no fun at all," Purple chimed in.
Azka sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. Red and Purple were the most annoying Irkens she
had ever known. But then again, that was one of the many reasons why she and Gem loved
them. They were funny, but in an annoying sort of way.
While Zarthab headed back to the bridge to help with the repairs on the communications system,
a cloaked figure hid in the shadows of the hallway, holding a small communication device in his hand.
"Did you de-activate the long distance communications system?" a scratchy voice asked over the comlink.
"I did," the cloaked figure replied. "Now that the Tallests can't contact their children on Earth, we can
proceed with our mission."
"Excellent!" said the scratchy voice. "We're on our way to Earth as we speak. Phase Two of Operation
Death-To-Irk is now underway."
Dib now has Max! What's he going to do with him?
Are the kids in danger? And who is plotting against the Tallests?