"No Pleecy, I told you already: I can't go there!" Ley said firmly. She and Pleecy stood in the back of the ship, which was on autopilot flying over Venat to do the same maneuver they used to exit Earth's atmosphere. The seats were moved off to the walls again, and Neeka sat in the trunk with a crowbar trying to get a few dents out of herself until Pleecy could help her. Unfortunately, her master was busy trying to convince Ley into the last stop they'd have to make before returning to Earth. Pleecy had her back to the cockpit; Ley's back was to the trunk. The Mystic had teleported Heral to Ley's home after reaching an agreement that he would stay with Ley (since Pleecy didn't have an enclosure free at the moment and would have to design one when they return home). And just after that discussion, Pleecy brought up the 'touchy' subject of retrieving the last ingredient Pleecy needed.

"Ah, come on Ley! It's for Dib's sake! It's not like we're going there to start a Frickin' revolution or anything! ," Pleecy said, hands held out to the sides in a sort of pleading posture, then mumbled, "They're doing that anyway." She added in a rather simple voice, "we're just going there…to pick something up…and not bother anyone…-"

"Yes, but I'm not allowed, Pleecy: we made a pact with them not to step foot on Sesmia until they've freed themselves, or at least gotten things under control," Ley replied back, arms crossed with a cliché 'annoyed female' posture, looking off to her left a tad so she didn't have to look at her current adversary. She muttered the last part.

"Oy vae, Ley! Okay, then where else can we get Griffifh Claw Diamonds, Ley? I don't suppose you'd like to ask someone for them, hmm? Dimidium doesn't have any; the Tallests' don't have any. That's that. There's no one else we could ask without getting killed or sucked into something that could make us late. We're already late. So if we don't go to Sesmia, then how else are we gonna get the diamonds?" Pleecy demanded, putting her hands on her hips with her pelvis tiled, a knee bent.

Ley thought a moment before her head turned to Pleecy, "We could ask the Emperor –"

"If a Pacifist and an Invader could go into one of their sacred forests and take a buncha rocks?" Pleecy snapped, irritated.

"Precisely."

Neither spoke for a few seconds, the only sound being Neeka's grunts of effort. A metallic sound was heard, like something crashing into the wall, and Neeka called "I'm okay" from behind the seat situated in front of the trunk.

Eventually Pleecy said with absolute casualness and a bored look, "Okay," shrugging. "What if he says no?"

Ley got a considerate look, a finger floating from her crossed arms to rest on her chin. "Then…we're screwed?" she offered, eyebrows raising, head slightly tilted, her hand moving from her chin to midair in front of it.

iLiLiLiL

It was just over a week after the girls had left when Gaz's watch started beeping in class. The face went black and started blinking 'NOW' in red letters with tiny beeps. She pushed up her right sleeve to see why it was beeping and saw the letters, knowing this was Neeka's signal Pleecy said would be sent. Since she was in Skool, though, the metaphorical package would have to wait to be delivered.

iLiLiLiL

A dark, purple-hued forest with faintly glowing, huge quartz-like crystals all through it. The stars above. The rustle of leaf litter as two 'aliens' to the planet ran for their lives after taking a few of said rocks.

"W-was this really a good idea Pleecy?" Ley said to her companion jumping from branch to branch next to her as the canopy whizzed by. Pleecy and Ley were moving through the canopy of a Sesmian forest in a similar manner to the way they had run at the bazaar, like Naruto ninjas, but faster.

"Well, he said he was fine with it, but for us to expect getting attacked. I figured he meant the wildlife!" Pleecy said over the sounds of hissing and rustling.

"Apparently not. I told you the Guard would attack us anyway."

"Oh well," – a bladelike fan like a geisha's fan zoomed past Pleecy's head and stuck into the tree ahead of her. She glanced at it as she past the tree swiftly. "Dang, they have great accuracy," she panted to Ley. "What was I saying? Oh yeah. It's not like they'll follow us off the planet or out the forest."

"No, but it'd be very easy for them to catch us," Ley said as another hiss ripped through the twilight from behind them.

"I know," Pleecy said in a smart-alec tone with a smirk.

iLiLiLiL

Gaz had seen her dad's usual limmo in front of the house, so she knew he had to be home for once. Perfect timing, the ignorant male…

"Dad," she called when she stepped in the door.

"Not now Honey! I'm on a toast breakthrough!" Gaz heard her father's voice call from the kitchen.

She sighed. "Oh I'll give you a breakthrough," she mumbled. "Well, I've got a genetics breakthrough for you," she called back, figuring this would catch his attention.

Professor Membrane leaned out the kitchen doorway, "Really? Have you, at least, taken a liking to science, Gaz?" Membrane asked in amazement.

"No, not yet, but I have something Pleecy needs you to see." She walked up to him with the watch in hand.

Membrane stepped away from the doorway and bent down to his scary daughter. "A watch? Why would your little friend need me to see this?" he questioned, taking the watch and standing up. "I don't think I'll have time to –"

"Well too bad, Dad: it has to do with Dib."

That shut him up, finally. He sighed and slouched a bit. "How do you work it?" he asked exasperatedly.

"First, she wanted you to be in a soundproof, private room. Then press this thing here," Gaz stretched up on her toes and pointed to a button that looked like the thing you turn to change the time on a normal watch.

"Fine; I'll be in the lab closet."

Gaz smirked…or was it a smile?

Membrane locked the door to his lab's medium-sized walk in closet, turned his back to it, and looked at the watch. "What in the world powered by me is this supposed to do? It's only a watch," he mumbled, looking down at the piece of metal in his left palm.

He pressed the button in wearily. The professor jumped when the watch's face popped up and a metallic stem shaped like a 7 popped up pointed at him.

"Retinal scan," a computerized, slightly annoying voice said, "Retinal scan approved: Professor Membrane," the voice started as the stem went back into the watch and the face flipped back up. A holograph projector from inside the watch showed a red image of the Irken Invader insignia as the voice went on, "the following recording is for your viewing only. Please verify that you are able to observe in absolute privacy and then touch the holographic image to begin viewing." He touched the holograph.

The red holograph flickered away before being replaced by a blue-hued holographic image of Pleecy, disguised, standing to the right of a projection screen. "Greetings, professor. I'm sure you know me already, but my name is Pleecy" - she did finger quotes around the next word- "'Nekri.'

"Actually, Nekri isn't even part of my name, but's that's how you most likely know me by now. In fact, to understand what you are about to hear and see, you need to know one thing," she deactivated her disguise, and Membrane went wide-eyed… er, wide-goggled. 'Yes, Dib is right when he talks about aliens called Irkens, and as you can see, I am one, but I'm not really here to do anything bad to your planet, so don't worry." She evilly grinned briefly before scowling sadly. "If you are watching this, then your son's life is in danger. You see, just about a week ago, an accident occurred in my labs: Dib knocked over a few, ah, choice chemicals, and these chemicals entered his body through a cut on his finger.

"These chemicals inverted his DNA. In other words, he's now transmuting into an Irken as we speak.

If you're watching this now, just about a week after I've left to gather ingredients for an antidote, then it seems I'll be needing –no, Dib will be needing – your scientific help. If I haven't started home yet, then I may be a bit late to help Dib; unfortunately, we're on a bit of a time limit here. My labs can explain that for you, as I don't have time. Anyway, in case I can't make it, I've devised a backup plan. I'm sure that, you being your planet's best scientist, and my having the more advanced technology, you could find an antidote using my labs. This watch will be your literal key to my labs. I'm giving you full access to them, so you'll have all kinds of things at your disposal.

If even you can't find the antidote, then we planned to install a PAK in Dib," Pleecy turned around and pointed at her PAK while looking over her shoulder. "A PAK is an Irken device that is almost like a second brain, since we're bred in such a way as to need them. If they're removed, we have ten minutes to live unless it's returned. If Dib changes completely, we'll have to give him one of these." She turned back around. "He'd be perfectly fine with one, and I would give him a holo-disguise like the one I'm wearing, but I don't know how well you would handle having a non-human son, Ehehe…

She cleared her throat. "And with that, I have to leave now if I want to be on time. I hope that you don't have to watch this, but if so, my best wishes to you –

"Knowing you, Pleecy, he'll have something started and we'll get back at the last minute," said another female voice off-screen, which Pleecy turned to.

"Ley, I'm recording!" Pleecy yelled to her right.

"Well, wrap it up, because we're ready to leave."

"Okay, geez," she turned back to the camera. "Good luck, Professor. I hope to meet you personally one day." Then the alien added heartily, "And you better be grateful and careful because trusting another with labs like mine is a very precarious thing to do!" The odd being reached forward and turned off the recording, blanketing the closet in shadows again.