From the sobrekt newspaper DAILY CROC, Twenty-sixth edition, published this morning.
ROOKIE INDOKURO DEFEATS CHAMPION!
The unthinkable has happened! Maugrim, who until now had been the unbeatable champ of the Indo-fighting tournament, has been defeated!
The indokuro behind this, Cheesecake, is better known as the rogue individual who tore an arm off an indokani. He is said to be only three years old, the youngest age of any indokuro in the tournament. Not only that but during the fight, he exhibited some strange behavior patterns, such as the peculiar dance that delivered a kick right to Maugrim's jaw. Despite its infamous reputation, this young up-and-coming indokuro has undoubtedly made a name for itself this past month.
With this defeat, Maugrim's owner, the senior indokani Sendou Grikal, has returned the Irken flagship to the Tallest, as per the agreement. Many officials and soldiers gave voiced their disagreement with this decision. Still, Mr. Grikal has so far refused an interview regarding the wager. He's only said the following statement:
'The better indokuro won. I admit I didn't see it coming, but that's how this works. Before you know it, you're being eaten by a pack of gebraks."
Indokani
Chapter 23- Welcome Back, Zim.
"Irken, this is getting weird."
Red ignored Captain's comment and continued to hug and kiss the wall. "Oh, Massive! I'll never let any filthy aliens take you away ever again, I promise!"
True to his word, Sendou returned the Massive without putting up much of a fight. Purple, Red and the others had half-expected him to try and back out from the deal or something like that, but he didn't. He merely congratulated Purple with a tail shake, called his men on the Irken flagship, and ordered them to abandon the ship as soon as possible. This allowed the thousands of Irken soldiers, engineers, and drivers to return to it and disinfect everything before the Tallest went back up.
Purple had insisted he wanted Cheesecake treated on the Massive with the best medical technology available. He was very stubborn about it no matter how many times Blue and Sakr pointed out that it'd be better to take him to a specialized reggel clinic. Finally, they gave up and took a barrel of reggel up to the Massive so they could use it on the indokuro's wounds.
Cheesecake was put on an anti-gravity stretcher, making it easier to move him around with all the crew hugging and kissing the walls and floor. Red soon joined in when they got to the infirmary, for once not caring about the odd looks the lizards were giving him. He only stopped when he realized Lena had gone into the infirmary with Sakr. Apparently, the lizard offered to aid her in treating Cheesecake's injuries, given she had no experience in treating indokuros. Red banged on the door for a good twenty minutes until Ilk suggested he make sure his Miyuki roll stash* hadn't been found and ransacked.
"Why don't you go check on your donuts, Uncle Pur?" Ilk suggested.
"I'm fine, Ilkie. I'll stay here," Purple said.
Blue and Captain exchanged looks. They might not know the Irken that well, but from what they learned in the past month, whenever he refused anything related to snacks, it meant he was distraught.
"Hey, Blue… What're the chances of Cheesecake getting sequels from this episode?"
"You mean physical or psychological?"
"Psychological? Those lizards can get those types of problems?" Tenn inquired.
Blue frowned. "Of course they can, they might be animals, but they aren't dumb, you know."
"Physical," Purple said quickly. Right now, he wasn't in the mood for a pointless argument.
"Be sure that he'll get lots of scars from the big injuries. The reggel should take care of minor injuries, but I'm not sure what your machinery can do about broken bones…"
"The Massive is equipped with bone-repairing lasers." Wow, that felt good. Admittedly, he too missed the Massive's superior technology.
The doors opened. Lena and Sakr stepped out, the former wiping some sweat from her brow. "I swear, this must be the longest surgery I've ever done." She said.
Purple stepped forward. "How's Cheesecake?"
"Heavily sedated. We healed most of Cheesecake's wounds, but he's got scars on his sides and a few on his lower jaw."
"That's good!" Captain said.
"How's a scar good?" Purple asked him with a glare.
"It's proof that he survived nasty wounds, which in turn means he's a survivor*. That's a good thing! Nobody will want to mess with him."
"Is that why your leader shows all of his scars?" Lena inquired curiously.
"You have no idea of how many battles he's survived to get to where he is now."
"And he gets more while defending his position," Blue said.
Unlike most alien cultures, Sobrekt leadership isn't passed from father to offspring. Instead, the Shuryo or the high ranks, such as Fleet Commander, can be challenged by a subordinate for the position. The fight is long and brutal; Purple had read about lizards losing not only limbs in those combats, and it has no rounds nor breaks. The battle goes on until either fighter surrenders or dies. And the warriors would rather die than surrender, as the loser is obligated to commit a sort of ritualistic suicide for his failure, anyway.
And what a better way to die than in battle?
"Really, why can't you lizards just vote to pick your ruler or something?" Larb said in understandable disgust.
Sakr snorted. "Says the race who pick their leaders based on such a superficial and pointless thing such as height."
"Say that again! I dare you!"
"Anyway," this time, it was Lena who broke up the fight before it even began. "Other than that, Cheesecake will be fine. He'll wake in a few hours; we had to sedate him so he'd let me do my work and to speed up the process." She looked around. "Hey, where did Red go?"
Almost on cue, he reappeared in the corridor a few seconds later, carrying lots of cinnamon rolls in his arms. There were blue crumbs all over his face.
"The Miyuki rolls are fine!" He cried one between munching and putting more into his mouth.
"I thought they were for emergencies only," Purple pointed out.
"These are normal rolls! I only ate one Miyuki roll!"
"Miyuki roll?" Blue repeated.
"Long story," Ilk replied.
"Anyhow, now that the issue is taken care of, we can focus on the reason we came to Sobr in the first place, sweetie," Red said with a smile once he was done with the cinnamon rolls. "Your wedding."
"Wait, there are no weirder pre-wedding customs, right?" Purple piped in quickly.
"Nope. The official ceremony will be held tomorrow; Cheesecake should be better by then."
"Have you thought about what you're going to wear, sweetie? I know someone who could make you a spectacular attire…!" Red noticed the awkward look on Ilk and the lizards' faces. "What?"
Captain decided he'd be the one to break the news. "Um, Irken… the couple doesn't use any clothing in the ceremony.*"
Silence. Red just stood there, staring at Captain, seemingly unresponsive. Purple felt a shiver down his spine, knowing what was going to happen next. Sakr learned into Blue.
"Nephew, you may want to start running."
"Is it that bad?" Blue yelped and ran off when Purple started counting down from five to zero.
Red spread out his battle PAK-limbs and cannons and went after the kryvtor, screaming obscenities in Irken as he fired plasma charges at Blue.
Ilk smacked her forehead.
"Maybe you should have mentioned that they allowed an exception to that rule in our case." She said, glaring at Captain, whose only response was a chuckle.
"Sorry, but I couldn't help it."
"Well, we have to stop him before he kills my groom!" That said, Ilk darted off towards the corridor, followed by Lena and Captain, leaving Purple alone with Sakr outside the medical bay.
Purple coughed uncomfortably. Sakr averted his gaze.
"Sakr?"
"What is it?"
"Do you happen to know if miss Akkono…?"
"She passed if that's what worries you. She picked up her egg yesterday."
"And… do you know where she lives?"
Sakr looked at Purple this time. "Why?"
"None of your business!" Sakr raised an eyebrow. Purple gulped. "Well… Let's say we… found we had a few things in common."
"Well, I do know where her family state is…"
-IZ-
Purple stared at the modestly-sized home amongst the bigger houses. "This is her family state?"
"Yup."
"Are you sure?"
"Not what you expected?"
"I imagined she'd live in a bigger house. I mean, she made it sound as if her family was influential."
"They are, but it doesn't mean they are rich. Having to maintain one Indokuro is expensive, so imagine how much it costs to maintain at least six… seven counting Akkono's."
"Tell that to me," Purple murmured. He spent a good amount of monies in Cheesecake's meat.
The Irken stepped forward towards the metal gates. Was she home? Would she open the door? Or one of her family members? Would she want to see him?
Wait, why was he so worried? Damn it, Red's reassuring would surely come in handy right now! He'd have to confirm with Sakr. Purple looked back at the kryvtor, but he merely shrugged. Geese, this guy!
Finally, he knocked on the door loudly. A few minutes later, the doors opened; a small kryvtor hatchling with dark mustard scales was looking up at him with bright yellow eyes.
"Hey…" Purple said awkwardly.
The hatchling didn't reply.
"Does Akkono live here?"
"Akko big sister!" Akko? Must be a nickname. Purple chuckled; it's cute.
"Would you tell her I wish to talk to her?"
The hatchling pointed at him. "You tall, iken idokani!"
"That's right, little guy. Would you go fetch Akko for me?"
The hatchling disappeared through the door of the house. Purple glanced at the garden; it reminded him of Blue's, but smaller. Akkono came out of her home shortly after.
"Your Tallest," she greeted, sounding surprised.
"Hey, Akkono." Purple waved a hand awkwardly. "I'm… I'm glad you're okay."
"Thank you, your Tallest. I heard that your indokuro won the fight. Congratulations."
"Thanks…" Why did he feel like someone had put fluttering snagogs inside his squeedly spooch? "Um… You have a pretty house, though frankly, I imagined you lived in a mansion..."
Akkono chuckled. "Maintaining indokuros is quite expensive, so we have a small home."
"How many are you? Do you even fit in there?"
"Yeah, it's just me, my parents, two uncles, and my little brothers. My elder siblings have already moved out."
"So… I guess you already got your indokuro egg?"
Akkono went back inside the house and then returned, holding an incubator with a shiny black egg. "I did." She said with a bright expression. It's the first time he's seen her smiling, and admittedly, she looks even prettier like this.
Purple had to turn away momentarily so she wouldn't see him blushing. "It's cute!" He said, chuckling nervously. "So, how are you going to name it?"
"It's hard to say when I don't know its gender."
"You could try something for both genders… I mean…" Purple bit his lower lip, trying to remember the word for it. "Unisex! Yeah, it's a name you can use for either male or female!"
"I will think about it."
There was a small moment of awkward silence while Purple gathered up some courage to bring his question up. "So… Akkono… You probably know this, but my niece gets married tomorrow, and… Well, we're supposed to bring a sort of companion… I wanted to ask you-"
"If I want to go with you?"
"Hey, I'm the one who should be asking!" Purple cried out in an unsurprising show of immaturity. "But yeah, that."
Akkono had to admit she was surprised. She didn't expect the Tallest actually to invite her to such a… personal event as a companion. Then again, it's been a while since she went to a social event, plus she heard Hitorken Zim was a guest of honor, so why not?
"It'd be an honor, your Tallest."
Purple felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He smiled a bit. "You know, we could start by not being that formal anymore. You can call me Purple."
"Is that your real name or a nickname?"
"You could say it's my Tallest name. It's how everyone knows me as, but it's not my birth name."
"I guess your partner's actual name isn't 'Red' either then, right?"
"That's right. Our real names are top secret; no one knows it, and if anyone does, they aren't allowed to call us that or they get a one-way ticket out of the airlock. Only we can call each other by our names... No, wait, Lena can call Red by his name too because she's his wife."
"Well, Purple, in that case, you may call me Akko."
Purple's smile widened. "It's a pretty nickname."
She might not know Gaz that much, but Ilk was worried. It had been a while since Zim was… eaten, and she was yet to say a thing. Isn't the hyooman concerned about Zim? Sure, she might not act like an overly affectionate girlfriend. Still, Ilk expected she might at least show concern over her boyfriend's state!
It didn't help that Dad and the others threw an anti-Zim party on the base, and Gaz had attended. However, she just sat on the couch with her video game console, ignoring the Zim piñata and anti-Zim posters.
Lena has similar thoughts, but in her case, she was concerned about their Sobrekt neighbors shooting them dirty looks. It wasn't such a good idea to throw such a party in a place where Zim had a statue in his honor.
"You okay, Gaz?" Ilk asked tentatively,
"Aha," Gaz said.
"Doesn't it bother you that Zim might be-?"
Gaz scoffed. "Please. We're talking about Zim. An overgrown snake cannot kill him."
"You sound sure about that."
"You know how many times he's gotten into life-threatening situations and always comes out of it? Sometimes very injured, but always alive."
"Kind of," Lena said awkwardly. Red and Purple, we're always complaining about that.
"The same will happen. Besides, the Sobrekt made that thing for him, right? I doubt they'd want it to kill him."
Hey, Ilkie! Want to throw darts at Zim?"
Ilk frowned at uncle Pur, who wore a party hat matching his eyes. Everyone wore them except for her and Gaz; Lena only wore one to make Dad happy. Speaking of Dad, he was stuffing himself in green cupcakes with pink frosting.
"My Tallest, don't you think it's a bit too soon to be celebrating? I mean, we don't really know if Zim is truly gone, his PAK signal is still-"
"Man, this guy!" Purple rolled his eyes. "Why don't you go bother someone else?"
Ilk felt terrible for the Communications officer, Jack. He had worked in the Massive for years, or so she heard, and Dad and Uncle Pur never bothered to learn his name. They didn't know the name of any of their workers. They only memorize the names of people they either like or don't let them forget; Zim was of the latter case.
"Dad, I think he's right. You can't confirm he's dead until his PAK's signal disappears."
"Oh, come on, Ilk! It will surely deactivate in a while; it can happen sometimes."
"Yeah, Invader Dren's PAK made it back to Irk before it expired."
"Hey, speaking of which, where's you, lizard fiancée?" Gaz asked.
Ilk glanced warily to make sure Dad was out of earshot before whispering hurriedly. "He's hiding until Dad calms down." She noticed Lena was prickling her lekku in the air. "What's wrong, Lena?"
"Do you hear that?"
Ilk raised her lekku. She was right; there was a faint sound… it was almost like wing flapping… It was becoming louder-
The wall burst open as something came right through it, sending pieces of debris everywhere: Whoever was near that wall got buried right under it. Red reacted quickly and threw himself towards Lena and Ilk, forming an energy shield with his PAK-limbs. Purple did similarly with the snacks.
"What on Irk?"
Ilk felt a knot in her stomach. Zimkro was standing on top of the debris where the wall used to be. His size had nearly destroyed half of the base, sending furniture and anti-Zim posters against the other half. Larb was being crushed under the creature's weight, but the other Invaders had been either trapped under the debris or knocked aside with the beast's tail.
"Computer, defensive mode!"
"No, don't!" Lena hissed. "If you start shooting in the middle of Igano, we'll become a target!"
"Don't… move…!" Purple whispered. "If you have doubts, stay still and hope it will lose interest."
Zimkro sniffed the air. It seemed to be looking for something. Maybe food? Had the snacks attracted it? Or was it something else? It lowered its head closer to Red, Lena, and Ilk, though it's gaze was locked on the latter.
Ilk silently sent a PAK-mail to Blue's communicator, telling him to contact HybGen and report the missing hybrid had broken into their base… literally, in this case. Hopefully, it wouldn't take long for help to arrive.
Ilk felt a shiver down her spine when Zimkro's nose released hot air right into their faces. Dad silently and carefully brought out his PAK-cannons, aiming them at Zimkro's head. For a few seconds, nobody moved… until Ilk suddenly found herself in Zimkro's jaws and sliding down its throat and esophagus before anyone could do anything about it. She heard Dad, Uncle Pur, and everyone else screaming, but Zimkro's body mass and intestines muffled their screams.
Soon after, she came into a dark space, probably the stomach. All her surroundings felt damp, but oddly the acids weren't burning her skin. Still, she better get out of here soon; just because she couldn't handle it didn't mean that the stomach wouldn't dissolve her body mass into pulp to be digested. Maybe if she could find a sensitive organ to stimulate vomit…
"Who's there? Helloooo!"
That voice! Ilk activated her night vision and looked around the considerably vast space. This was unlike any stomach she'd ever seen in biology books and dissections: The rugae were full and almost cushion-like, and the stomach acid didn't pool at the bottom. Crawling a bit deeper into the stomach, she found none other than….
"Zim?"
"Ah, Ilk-smeet!" Zim cried out happily. He was laid down on top of the rugae as if it were a comfortable sofa. "You came to save Zim!"
"What are you doing here?!"
"You see, while I was searching for Tallest Purple, this beast swallowed Zim. But I have managed to survive inside its stomach, waiting for a chance to get out of it!"
"Why didn't you use your PAK limbs or cannons to get out?"
"I tried, but the creature's stomach shrunk and squashed me for an hour. Curse you, beast!"
Ilk wondered if she should tell Zim. Then again, what's the worse that could happen? "Hum, Zim… This creature's name is Zimkro, and it's a genetic hybrid made for… Well, you."
"Hey, do you have any of what this animal is?"
"I just told you."
"You're making it up!" Ilk sighed.
"Anyway, we should get out of here."
That seemed to snap Zim back into action, as he tried to get on his feet, but his new height and the unstable 'ground' made it hard. "That's what I was saying! I have to go find Tallest Purple!"
Ilk sighed again. Guess she might as well catch Zim up on what happened while he was here.
-IZ-
"Calm down, your Tallest-!"
"HOW AM I GOING TO CALM DOWN WHEN THAT THING JUST ATE MY BABY?!" Purple smacked the back of his co-Tallest's head. "PURPLE!"
Wow, he must be pissed if that didn't work. Purple hid where he knew Red wild never dare go after him: behind Captain.
Instead of flying off like last time, Zimkro curled up on the base's ruins and napped. Red instant sent the nearby Invaders to save Ilk, but the creature's hide was so thick that Spleen's PAK-limbs broke when he tried to cut it, and plasma cannons didn't seem to do other than annoy Zimkro. Larb, of course, pretended to be still unconscious to avoid having to deal with the monster again. Thankfully, Lena stopped Red before he could try to force Zimkro's jaws open, guessing it wouldn't be pleased.
Shortly after, Blue and Captain arrived, accompanied by Dr. Scylla, though frankly, the latter was being anything but helpful. She just stared at Zimkro's curled up body curiously.
"So, he swallowed your daughter?" She said after a while. "Interesting."
"Interesting?!" Red repeated loudly, his lekku flat straight up in a threatening pose. "My baby is stuck in that monster's stomach, and you call it interesting?!"
"I genetically programmed Zimkro only to accept Hitorken Zim as his rider. It senses the smell of his blood to know his identity."
"Well, obviously, your precious Zimkro is defective if he can't tell that defect apart from by perfectly normal baby!"
"Wait, blood?" Purple rubbed his chin. "Red, you mentioned that Ilk needed a blood transfusion when we escaped from Hoth, and the only person with the same blood type was Zim." he shivered disdainfully.
Scylla opened her eyes slightly. "That would explain it. He probably got confused by the smell of Hitorken Zim's blood in your daughter and swallowed her."
"Well, how do we make him unswallow her, spit her out, or whatever?!" Red snapped.
"There might be a problem with that. For some reason, Zimkro will not expel his rider from his stomach." Scylla frowned at Red, cold fire in her eyes. "We were working to fix that issue when your Invader set it free and ruined everything."
"So what, I'm supposed to leave my fiancée inside that creature?!" Blue growled.
While they argued, Gaz decided she had enough and approached the sleeping beast. Zimkro opened an eye. It bared its teeth at the hyooman, but she didn't even flinch. She stopped right next to Zimkro's head, holding out a long, slimy dead eel. Without thinking it twice, she snapped the eel's body in half and bit off its head, all the while glaring at Zimkro and making it clear that this eel was him if he didn't expel her boyfriend out.
The good thing about having Zim's DNA was that Zimkro had some of his traits, even if unconsciously. One of those traits was awe and respect for Gazlene. This silent, but direct treat made somehow seemed to make something in Zimkro's brain snap. It got to its feet and tensed up its body, making regurgitation sounds. This caught the attention of the others.
"What is he doing?"
"It appears that something, or someone, finally triggered the expulsion reflex," Scylla said.
"Expulsion? Does that mean he's going to-?" Red went pale. "Nonono, not on my floor!"
Zimkro vomited out on the floor before anyone could do anything to stop him. Red and Purple used their PAK-limbs to get their feet off the floor before the stomach acid touched them. Lena, Captain, and Blue climbed onto the couch. Scylla, however, merely stood there, watching her creation expel two people out of its stomach before retreating outside and taking off.
"ILK!" Red and Blue cried out at the same time as they rushed to her side, helping her get on her feet.
"Sweetie, are you okay?!"
Ilk coughed, wiping some of the slimy stomach acids from her face with an arm. "Define, okay."
"You don't seem to have any burns from the stomach acid; you just need a long bath," Lena said once she took a look at Ilk's skin.
"Wait a minute…" Purple took a closer look at the other body. "Is that…?" Please, no!
"My Tallest Purple!" Zim cried out happily, rushing forward and hugging Purple by the waist, staining his robes with Zimkro's stomach acid. "You are alive!"
The Invaders groaned their disappointment while Red smacked his head. "And unfortunately, so is Zim," he murmured bitterly. Once again, Zim somehow eluded death.
Gaz snuck up behind Zim and pulled him away from Purple by the lekku. "This is for getting me worried, you idiot."
"Owowow! Gaz-demon, let go of Zim! Ahh, the pain!" Gaz relented, her point made clear.
"Hitorken Zim," Scylla spoke. Was it Purple's imagination, or her voice had gained a slightly happier tone? She didn't certainly sound as cold and calculating as always.
"Ah, you must be the Scylla-beast!" Zim cried though he looked confused. "Odd, I thought you were supposed to have six necks that devour hyoomans."*
"Pardon?"
Gaz rolled her eyes. "Zim, she's not that Scylla."
"Huh, she has a sister?"
"Zim, this , the main geneticist at HybGen," Captain introduced her before Zim got any wrong ideas.
"I see. Greetings, Scylla-beast!"
"My, would you look at that?"
"What is it?" Lena inquired, glancing at Captain.
"I've never seen Dr. Scylla so happy before."
"Happy?" Purple glanced at Scylla's stoic expression. "I don't see any difference." The former pointed out.
"If that's her happy face, I certainly can imagine her excited one," Red added.
*From The Smeet chapter 4. Red has a secret stash of bluish cinnamon rolls, made by Miyuki for him back when she was alive. He only eats them when he needs cheering up or to celebrate something.
* Sobrekt Culture Trivia: Scars aren't frowned upon nor seen as disgusting, but seen as proof that you've gone through hell and survived, meaning that you are a true warrior. Because of this, Sobrekt and Kryvtors actually exhibit their battle scars like peacocks exhibit their trains; you could say it's part of their courtship, the more scars, the more attractive you'll be.
* Sobrekt Culture Trivia: During the actual wedding, the bride and groom are completely naked. This is because since they will become one, there's no longer any need to hide their bodies each other. In a few exceptional classes, such as an interspecies marriage where one of the couple has external reproduction organs or doesn't feel comfortable with being naked in front of a big crowd, they are allowed to wear a small, semi-traslucid robe, but no real clothing.
*Reference to the monster Scylla from Greek mythology, which is my Scylla's namesake.
Yaaaay! Only one more chapter, and we're done! I mentioned that I was going to take a tiny hiatus to The Smeet series to work on another IZ fic that's heavily inspired on Harry Potter and Little Witch Academia. I'll go into more detail in the next chapter.
See ya!