A/N: Okay, here we go. The last action chapter of "Shadows", and it didn't take nearly as long as last time – which is strange, considering that for that Transformers story I mentioned last chapter I've been promoted from Beta to Co-Writer.
But, I digress. On with the chapter.
Disclaimer: I own Jana, the EMP Cannon, and the plot. Everyone and everything else belongs to the mind of Jhonen Vasquez.
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Escape Pod 2
Jana grinned from antenna to antenna as her shot headed straight towards Dib's escape pod. But then, seconds before the plasma bolts could vaporize the annoying human, the pod's braking thrusters fired, moving it backwards enough so that the attack just barely missed and hit the hull of the Cannon. The force generated from the resulting explosion sent the pod bouncing further away, and before Jana could get another lock on it, its engines flickered to life and it sped away.
Cursing, the assassin moved to follow her prey, giving a small hiss of pain as the sudden movement of the ship caused her damaged arm to slam into the console – even though her PAK had deactivated the nerve endings in the damaged tissue, the surrounding nerves were still quite alive. Ignoring the pain, Jana increased the speed of her pod, quickly closing the distance between her and Dib's damaged vehicle.
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Escape Pod 1
Dib flew the pod as fast as it could go. Unfortunately, being reduced almost to emergency power meant that that was not nearly as fast as it could have been. As if to remind him of the low amount of energy remaining in the pod's generator, the cockpit lights flickered and almost went out.
"Come on," he muttered to himself, "Think. There has got to be a way to beat her."
Unfortunately, Dib's mind was refusing to cooperate. He was running purely on adrenaline and fear, his "fight-or-flight" instincts kicking in; even his miraculous escape from Jana's last attack had been a coincidence. He had panicked as he saw the plasma bolts heading towards him and begun hitting buttons on the damaged control console. It had been by sheer luck that he had hit the control for the braking thrusters, and even more so that there was still enough power for them to work.
But Dib needed more than luck now. He needed a plan, and Jana wasn't exactly giving him time to think. As evidenced by the plasma bolts she was raining down on his pod.
BOOM!
Speaking of which…
Dib quickly swerved the pod to the side, as a plasma bolt exploded only a few feet away, causing the pod to shake. Another bolt overshot, exploding right in front of him. Dib cursed and pulled back on the joystick, sending the ship shooting upwards – however, that didn't do much good, as debris from the explosion followed him upwards and impacted the rear of the pod, worsening its already damaged state.
Jana's pod shot by through the space Dib's pod had just been in, and quickly turned around so that the two pods were facing each other. Dib quickly checked the monitor on the console, and cursed again when he saw that power to the weapons still wasn't restored – it was close, but still not there. Before he could make another move, however, a holo-screen appeared on the viewscreen, and Jana glared down at him.
"You can't run from me, monkey," she snarled, "I spent over a century in training to become a Shadow. I am an extension of my master's will, and I cannot be stopped."
"Really?" Dib asked, in a forced casual tone. He was looking Jana in the eye, but kept glancing at the console. "I would think being a part of Zim's will would make you easier to beat."
Jana growled. "In a few minutes, your planet will be plunged into darkness and anarchy," she hissed, "My master will reign supreme over the universe, and there's nothing you can do to stop him."
"Wanna bet?"
Jana blinked in confusion, and then cursed when Dib suddenly lunged forward and hit the firing trigger. Multiple plasma blasts shot forward, and Jana barely managed to avoid most of them. Fortunately for Dib, a few of the blasts did manage to make contact, and Jana lost one of her engines and a couple of her laser turrets.
The pod was sent spinning away, and Dib made a quick exit. He needed to get rid of Jana and fast. Otherwise, he wouldn't have a chance of stopping Zim from firing the Cannon. Behind him, Jana managed to get her pod back under control, and quickly began chasing him again. As plasma bolts shot past his ship, Dib quickly said a small prayer.
"If there really is a God up there, I could use a hand right about now!"
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Space Station Bridge, Same Time
Zim watched, with an evil smirk plastered on his face, as Jana chased Dib around the Cannon.
Normally, he would have been upset that someone else was trying to kill his rival, but there was something so… satisfying, with watching Jana exercise her skills. He had to admit, he had been impressed with her since the moment they'd met. After all, what was there not to be impressed with? The sheer ferocity of her attacks put her in a class all of her own, but it was more than that. What really appealed to Zim was the grace with which Jana moved - when she really got into a fight, she moved so swiftly it was as if her weapons were an extension of her body. And her body itself moved as if it were liquid; she deftly weaved around her opponents and struck before they knew what hit them. It was truly the most beautiful thing a true soldier could ever hope to see…
'Why is it so hot in here all of a sudden?' Zim asked himself, as he pulled on the collar of his shirt. 'I should remember to run a diagnostic on the environmental controls later.'
"Master, is everything alright?" the computer asked.
"Yes, yes, everything's fine," Zim muttered, as he waved a hand dismissively. He shook his head to clear it, and then refocused on the matter at hand. After checking the timer to see how much longer it would take for the Cannon to power up, he ordered, "Move the Cannon in position to target the Dib-Stink's home city."
"Why? It'll still lose power when we fire the Cannon, along with everything else in a hundred-mile radius of the blast zone, even if we don't hit it directly."
"True," Zim nodded, "But the areas we hit directly with blasts from the Cannon will suffer more damage when their power systems overload. And if I can't destroy Dib himself, then I'll settle for destroying everything and everyone he holds dear. Now, do as I say!"
"Yes sir," the computer replied, as it sent the Cannon the command to reposition itself.
7:00
6:59
6:58
6:57
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Escape Pod 1, A Few Moments Later
Dib dodged another plasma blast, and just as he turned around to return fire, something happened that immediately caught both combatants' attention. The Cannon's surface started shaking, and a few yards to the starboard side of Dib's pod two large metal hatches swung up, revealing some sort of opening.
As Dib and Jana watched, a large tube emerged from the opening, until it was half a mile high. When it was done ascending, the top quarter of the tube bent (as easily as if it were made of rubber instead of metal), until the tube was in the shape of an inverted L. Suddenly, a torrent of ionized flame burst out of the opening at the end of the tube and Dib realized what it was – a giant thruster engine.
Turning his gaze away from the engine, Dib saw several others emerging from other spots spaced evenly around the Cannon and activating. After a few seconds Dib realized something else as well: the Cannon was moving, its angle changing so that the center of its flat side was aimed at a different part of the planet than before.
"Do you see now?" Jana's voice asked. Dib jumped; he hadn't noticed the holo-screen pop up.
"See what?" he asked, tightening his grip on the maneuvering and firing controls.
"The genius of it all," Jana replied, a grin forming on her face. She nodded her head off of the screen towards the rotating space weapon they were hovering over. "The EMP Cannon is the perfect weapon. Its armor is indestructible, its energy source only runs out every half-century, and as you can clearly see, it is not a stationary target. Lord Zim has covered every possible angle in order to perfect this device. Do you really think you stand any chance of destroying something like this? You impudent primate, you are so pathetic…"
Dib had stopped listening halfway through Jana's rant; he could tell right from the start of the speech that she would probably be going on for awhile. He'd known that her blind worship of Zim, combined with the Irken race's apparently inbred egotism, would cause her to stop and gloat at some point, and Zim's apparent victory was as good a time as any.
The good news was that this predictable attitude was buying him time to plan his attack. The bad news was that it was buying him more time overall – he had maybe five-and-a-half minutes maximum before Zim fired the Cannon. He needed to make a move now, or it wouldn't matter; Earth would be thrown back to the Dark Ages and left completely vulnerable to invasion.
Sweat poured down his brow as he quickly swept his gaze around his surroundings in order to find something he could use to his advantage. His eyes came to rest on the raw energy pouring out of the engine nearest him, and then they widened as an idea hit him. Had he been in a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over his head.
"Let me ask you something," he said almost nonchalantly, cutting off Jana.
Her green eyes narrowed to slits as she glared at him and said, "And what might that be? To spare your pathetic life?"
"Nope," Dib said, a smirk appearing on his face, "I was just wondering why, if Zim's such a genius, it's taken him this long to take over the world? I mean, he's been here for six years – shouldn't he have come up with something like the Cannon before? Heck, I think that the best plan he had before this one was the time he fused me with the DNA of bologna, and I managed to turn that against him. So really, how smart can he be?"
"Enough!" Jana snarled, "You have insulted my master for the last time human! I'll tear you apart and feed your remains to that stupid robot!"
Dib's smirk widened – she was seriously pissed, which meant she wouldn't be thinking clearly. "You're going to have to catch me first."
With that said, Dib quickly spun the pod around and headed straight towards the main shaft of the thruster engine. Jana followed close behind, firing every weapon turret she had left. Dib dodged as best he could in his pod's damaged state, and rotated his own turrets so that they were aiming back at Jana.
The two of them traded plasma blasts as they neared the engine. But as he neared the surface of the giant tube, Dib deactivated the weapons and transferred all of the pod's remaining power to the engines. He then pushed them to their maximum speed, sending the pod skimming around the circumference of the thruster, with barely a foot of space between the pod and the thruster's surface.
Jana fired a few more shots, but Dib didn't bother to try and avoid them – at the speed he was going, they were bound to miss anyway. Besides, he couldn't afford to move in anything but a straight line. If he was right, this maneuver should allow him to slingshot away from Jana and give him the breathing space he needed to pull off the next part of his plan.
As soon as Dib saw that he had almost made a 360-degree trip, he braced himself. The moment he neared his starting point, he quickly veered away from the engine. As he had expected, the move he had just pulled off gave him enough extra momentum that, combined with his pod's engines burning at full-speed, sent him flying away from the Cannon's king-sized engine.
After giving himself a few seconds, Dib hit the braking thrusters and then turned the pod around so that he was looking at the engine. Jana's pod came around the engine a few seconds afterwards, but instead of pursuing, it stopped, directly opposite of Dib's pod. Its engines went dead, at the same time that its weapon turrets began glowing with energy.
Dib knew exactly what Jana was doing. Just as he had transferred all of his pod's power to the engines, she was transferring all of hers to the weapons to try and eliminate him… which was just what he wanted.
"I've had enough of this," Jana hissed on the holo-screen, "Go to hell, human."
Jana fired, releasing a massive burst of plasma that shot through space straight at Dib's pod. Unfortunately for her, Dib rolled out of the way at the last second, moving his pod higher up. Now, instead of being directly opposite of Jana's pod, Dib was staring straight at the flames being emitted from the thruster engine.
Dib's grip on the firing controls tightened, and his gaze momentarily flickered from the viewport to the holo-screen. He allowed himself a grim smile when he saw Jana's startled appearance.
"Ladies first," he said in response to her previous statement, before pressing the firing trigger.
A blast of plasma shot forward, quickly closing the gap between the pod and the engine. As soon as he saw that the blast was on track, Dib turned the pod around and increased the already sizeable distance between himself and the engine.
"No, no, no!"
Jana had apparently realized what he was doing; she was attempting to move her pod away from the engine as well, but between her earlier wastage of power and the pod's proximity to the engine, it was too late. The plasma bolts entered the engine, causing the flames to flicker momentarily… and then the plasma ignited the fuel within the engine.
BOOM!!!!!!
The engine blew apart in a blindingly bright flash of light, a massive fireball shooting upwards in its place and sending wreckage flying in every direction. A massive piece hit Jana's fleeing pod, smashing its remaining engines and sending the pod flying out of control. It hit the surface of the Cannon and bounced off, flying past Dib's pod and out into space.
"I'll get you for this, you shaved ape!" Jana snarled, "Do you hear me?! This is no longer merely a matter of serving the master's will; this is personal! I will make you suffer! I will-"
Dib deactivated the holo-screen, and spared a moment to watch the pod containing a pissed-off Irken assassin spinning off into the distance. But he didn't have time to admire the view – he had less than four minutes before the Cannon fired. Gunning the engines, Dib headed towards the still burning ruins of the engine. As he'd thought, a hole had been blown in the surface of the Cannon that went all the way into the interior of the giant weapon.
'This is it,' he said to himself, 'my last chance to save the Earth. Luck's gotten me this far, let's hope it lasts just a little bit longer.'
Taking a deep breath to ready himself – and ignoring the pain this brought on from the wound on his chest – Dib flew the pod into the hole.
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Space Station Bridge, Same Time
Zim bit down on his knuckle, fighting down the urge to scream out loud. So, he settled for screaming in his head instead.
'This cannot be happening! Jana's supposed to be the best, and the Cannon's supposed to be indestructible! This wasn't supposed to happen!'
Several colorful words in both Irken and English escaped from Zim's mouth as he pulled his hand out and slammed it into the console. The fist hit so hard that the metal crumpled and sparks shot out from the keyboard as it shattered.
"Computer!" he shouted, "Engage emergency protocols and speed up the firing procedures!"
"Master, I don't see how that will do any good," the computer replied, "Dib's inside the superstructure. He could very well destroy the Cannon at this point."
"No he cannot!" Zim snapped, denial dripping off his words, "I put too much hard work into this weapon for it be destroyed before by a pitiful human. Now, engage the emergency protocols so I can fire on the Dib-Smellie's city and the surrounding area!"
"What difference will that make?"
"I'm pissed, so destroying things sooner will make me feel better! Now do it!"
A few moments of silence later, and then Zim let out a small chuckle as he watched the Cannon enter the final stage of firing preparation.
In the center of the flat half of the Cannon, six panels lifted up and away from each other, revealing a hexagonal opening. Once all the panels had gone completely vertical, a large hollow tube emerged from the opening. Unlike the giant thrusters, this tube was made of a clear glass-like material, with purple metal rings spaced evenly across its length. Energy began crackling between the end of the tube and the surrounding panels as the main reactor in the core of the Cannon prepared to fire.
A few more seconds, and a good portion of the Earth would essentially be thrown into an abyss of darkness. It wasn't exactly what Zim's destiny was supposed to be… but at the moment, he didn't care.
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Escape Pod 1, Same Time
Dib swerved through valleys of circuitry and support beams, occasionally firing off a shot at anything that was in his way or looked like it was important. But he was trying to conserve power – according to the pod's control console, he was now running on emergency power. He only had enough power left for a few strong shots, and he was saving those for the Cannon's main power generators.
Now, if only he could find the generators…
A thought hit Dib just then, and he quickly typed a command into the console. As he'd hoped, the pod had a connection with the computer onboard Zim's space station. And, to his further good luck, the computer seemed to be too busy arguing with Zim over something to notice Dib snooping around his files.
After a few seconds, Dib found what he was looking for – blueprints for the Cannon. And according to what he was looking at, he was almost right on top of the generators. But before he could move the pod towards them, he noticed the timer in the corner of the screen.
3:10
3:09
3:08
...
Dib blinked as the timer suddenly disappeared. "What the?" he blurted out, before the screen flashed red and a message appeared.
EMERGENCY FIRING PROTOCOLS ENGAGED. FIRING PROCEDURES ADVANCED.
The message disappeared, and a new timer popped up.
1:00
0:59
0:58
0:57
"Oh, come on!" Dib shouted, "Can't I ever catch a break!"
He then moved all power that wasn't being stored in the weapons turrets to the engines and gave them everything he had. The pod flew through the interior of the Cannon, until it finally reached the large chamber at the center of the construct.
Dib couldn't help but let out a whistle of appreciation at the sight that greeted him. A massive metal cylinder was suspended in the middle of the chamber, held in place by several pylons that extended from the walls of the chamber. Giant cables - each containing thousands of computers' worth of circuitry - virtually grew out of openings in the walls (including the one Dib had just flown through) and joined together in a huge bundle at one end of the cylinder. From the other end extended a glass-like tube, which exited the chamber through an opening at the end opposite that of the cylinder.
Energy crackled around the tube, and the generator began humming as it built up power for an attack. Dib cursed as his gaze once again flickered to the timer.
0:31
0:30
0:29
0:28
Adrenaline and desperation coursing through his body, Dib let out something akin to a battle cry and locked his weapon turrets onto the generator. With a pull of the trigger, half a dozen plasma bolts shot forth and slammed into the cylinder. There were several small explosions, but when the smoke cleared, the only visible damage was a crack in the metal skin of the generator.
Dib's eyes widened, and he desperately pulled on the trigger again. But the only response this got was a message on the console screen stating that the weapons were out of power.
"No, damn it! Not now!" Dib shouted as he angrily hit the console
Just then, a glow filled the chamber. Dib gasped as he saw why – the crack in the cylinder was widening, and several more were appearing, releasing an ominous glow as energy spilled out through the new openings. Lightning-like bolts of energy shot out and struck everything in reach: the support beams, the cables, the firing tube, even the cylinder itself.
The console screen once again flashed red as a new message popped up.
WARNING. CRITICAL SYSTEMS OVERLOAD. THE EMP CANNON WILL SELF-DESTRUCT. WARNING…
"Okay, time to go!" Dib said, heading towards the opening that the tube exited out of – it was his only way out.
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Space Station Bridge, Same Time
Warning sirens were going off and emergency lights were flashing as Zim frantically typed away at his command console. "This can not be happening! The Cannon is invincible! How did Dib do this?!"
"I told you it would happen," the computer sighed, "Actually, it looks like Dib managed to damage the main reactor just as it was building up a charge to fire. Ironically, if you had just allowed the firing process to continue normally, the damage wouldn't have been this bad. It's actually funny when you think-"
The computer was cut off when Zim ripped his chair out of the floor and threw it into the console, shattering the main screen. He then turned his gaze out the viewport, and let out a roar of rage as multiple explosions ripped through the Cannon.
"Damn you, Dib-Worm. Damn you!"
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Escape Pod 1, A Few Moments Earlier
Warning bells were going off in the pod as well. Dib assumed that had something to do with the wall of fire following him though the tunnel that led to the exterior of the Cannon. Sweat leaked into his eyes, but he couldn't afford to break his concentration long enough to wipe them. He'd managed to stop the Cannon, now he had to make sure he lived long enough to celebrate it.
Seeing the exit coming up, Dib pushed the engines past their limits. Their edges started to melt from the intense heat they were releasing, but Dib would worry about that later. It was either add a little bit more damage to the already damaged pod, or be completely incinerated.
Not really a tough choice.
The pod sped up, just barely managing to squeeze between the tube and one of the panels, and quickly putting distance between itself and the Cannon. Seconds later, the explosion Dib had been running from burst through the opening, shattering the tube and ripping the panels off their hinges. Less than a minute later, several more explosions tore through the structure of the Cannon, blowing it apart.
Hovering just outside the atmosphere, Dib watched, teary-eyed, as the explosion died down and left behind an expanding field of debris. Entering a command for the pod's autopilot to take him home, Dib let fatigue overtake him and collapsed into his chair.
"I need a vacation," he grumbled, feeling the wounds on his face and chest start to ache again. Making a mental note to have his some of his father's medical drones look him over when he got home, he let his gaze drift over the console, and perked up a bit when he saw that the connection was still open to Zim's computer – apparently the mad little Invader hadn't noticed yet.
"This could be fun," he said with a grin. He then went to work, seeing what he could do to add insult to injury for Zim…
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A/N: There you go people. The last chapter of 'SotF'. All that's left now is the epilogue and this story is done.
Also, just thought I'd mention that this chapter is the longest thing I've ever written to date. Go me.
Anyway, read and review!