Chapter 1: The great disturbance (Continuation) Professor Membrane stood in his lap in complete silence for a full minute before placing the beaker and flask back on the desk in front of him. Leaning forward with one hand on the desk and the other rubbing his head he turned his head to his right to look at the small calendar. It was still ten days away until family night so he wasn't forgetting anything. He picked up the calendar any way whilst rubbing his chin, looking at it intently just in case he was missing something. Upon further inspection he discovered that there wasn't anything he should be concerned about. Then why did he feel so strange just a minute ago?

"Curious." He said, still pondering.

"PROFESSOR MEMBR"-*THONK*.

Membrane turned to face his large closed metal door with a see through. It sounded like someone was calling him and ran straight into his door. He then heard someone go "Ow." confirming what he just thought. Sighing, he put the calendar back on the desk and walked towards the door, opening and looking down to see one of his employees, face down on the ground. Membrane, after clearing his throat spoke to him.

"Yes Jamieson, what do you need?"

Jamieson shot back up breathing heavily. He was covered in sweat, his hair was messy and he looked generally frightened and nervous. He tried to speak with his employer but it was clear that he had great difficulty to get out a single word.

"The-there wa-was-there was a sig-"

"Take a breath, take a breath" Membrane reassured him putting his hands up.

Jamieson took slower and less panicked breathes before finally getting out what he was trying to say "There was signal we just manage to pick up, an-ener-an energy reading of some sorts it's...strange, you need to see it."

Membrane looked off to the side for a second 'could...that be?' he thought and then looking back at Jamison, nodded and responded with "Very well, lead the way."

Professor Membrane and Jamison walked into a large room with multiple screens and panels displaying different sections of the solar system and smaller panels reading and calculating the atmosphere, weather, overall climate, magnetic field, energy readings, ect. Membrane turned to Jamison and asked "Which panel is it?"

Jamison pointed at the one on the far right, where many other scientists have gathered around and Membrane could see that they looked scared and confused. Walking over, many of the other scientists parted so their employer could see the screen as well. The second Membrane saw it he stopped. Displaying on the screen was indeed an energy reading, but it was unusual. He didn't know the in and outs of this branch of science, but he knew that this was the first time he seen readings like this and he could tell all the others weren't familiar with it as well. He hummed looking closer at the screen.

"Interesting" he spoke "For a moment I thought this was what would happen if a black hole exploded, but this seems...impossible."

"Impossible?" Someone behind him asked, as he stood up "Yes, this is..." he turned to the rest who all looked at him "I want everyone to get as much information of this signal as you can, it's origin when it accrued, how long it lasted, all of it!". Everyone in the room stood to attention and some even saluted.

"YES PROFESSOR!" as they all got to work. Membrane turned back to the screen with his hands behind his back with an unsure expression hidden behind his googles and collar. If his own theory that he didn't spoke allowed was correct the reading was foreign...to the universe. But that was a rash judgement and it would be 'unscientific' to do that. He hoped he was wrong.

Dib and Gaz both walked through he front door, silent and looking at the ground. Gaz was playing on her Game Slave 4, but was not doing as well despite being an expert and knowing everything about the game. That same damn feeling was still there and it distracted her, but that wasn't the only thing that was bothering her. She walked to the couch and sat down and watched Dib go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He was silent the entire time causing her brow to furrow. When he drank it he put the glass beside the sink. Still silent, and she grow more annoyed. She continued to watch him walk from the kitchen, through the living room and to the stairs not saying a damn word. That was when she lost it.

Jumping off the couch she pointed at her brother and yelled "WHY ARE YOU SO QUIET?" causing him to stop and turned to her when he was already half way up. Did he hear that right?

"What?" he asked, confused at the strange question.

Her angry only grew as she marched forward to the bottom on the stairs "Don't you 'what' me Dib. Every sense that weird thing happened during lunch, you have been so quiet I thought I was going deaf! You haven't even accused Zim of doing the...the...GOD!" she finished raising her voice again. Dib didn't say anything for a moment realizing that she was right. He had been silent and it must have been weird for him not to accuse Zim of something, especially after what happened that morning. He scratched the small amount of facial hair he had on his chin.

"Well...I was going to accuse Zim of being the one responsible of whatever...that was. But when I looked at him, he looked just as confused and...scared as we were."

Gaz crossed her arms and looked away and mumbled "I wasn't scared.". She then turned back to him pointing looking almost looking desperate, "Well how do you know he was pretending to be a wimp so he could trick you or-or not look like a suspect?"

Dib blinked at her. The way she was acting wasn't normal for her and for what she just said it was like...no it was exactly that. She was trying to make him suspicious. Him not acting overly cautious was off character for him, and it must be putting Gaz out of her comfort zone. It was like that time he almost gave up on exposing Zim and Gaz literally came looking for him, asking why he wasn't annoying her. The routine was broken again and she didn't like it.

"Well Zim is a really bad actor, and that was the reason why we knew he was an alien. Anytime he pretends to be human or try and look convincing to people it's so plain and obvious that he was a fake. We knew he was an alien, but everyone else thought he was...weird. Or challenged or whatever, but today he seemed...honest? If that's even possible?" Dib stated, remembering all the times Zim would scream 'I'M NORMAL' whenever people started to notice something off about him.

Gaz spoke up "Then what about-"

"No, it wasn't Tak either." Dib interrupted.

"Then what do you think all of that was?" asked Gaz, with her hands on her hips.

Dib only turned to the stairs and quietly replied with "I don't know." before he walked up to his room.

Gaz stood there unsatisfied with Dib's answer and walked to the couch and plopped down holding her face with her elbows on her knees. She didn't want to think about. She tried to forget it, but she just couldn't. That wretched 30 seconds never left her mind and it distracted her from school and work and more importantly it kept her from playing her game. It was another five days until The Game Slave 5 came out and she wanted to make sure she was at her best before she got it and she wouldn't let anything distract her. And now she was been distracted. She was prepared to go to anyone to help her. Anyone. Oh no. Sighing loudly she stood from the couch, putting her G.S.4 in her pocket and went to the door where her scooter was leaning against the wall. Opening the door, she turned to the stairs and called out "I'm going out to clear my head."

"K" she heard Dib call back.

Closing the front door behind her, Gaz readied her scooter and got on whilst saying to herself "I can't believe I'm doing this." and went down the street.

Dib was still in his room, still unsure how he was supposed to think about the day. Maybe at family night he could talk to his father about it and then maybe Gaz-

Dib almost shot up and quickly walked out of his room and looked at the front from the top of the stairs. Since when did Gaz go out to 'clear her head'?

Zim almost kicked his door down and had then violently slammed it behind. Pushing past his robot 'parents' who greeted him, he ripped his disguised off and threw his bag on his couch. To call today as 'extraordinary' would be an understatement. Zim had never felt like that before in his entire life and he would not jump to the opportunity to feel it again. He couldn't pin point the exact definition, but it had kinship with terror and uncertainty. Frowning at the ground he looked up and yelled with a demanding shrill voice.

"COMPUTER!"

"Uh...whaaaaat?" his computer/AI security system droned out.

"Did you manage to read any strange energy signals or other unusual readings at the Earth time 11 hours 29 minutes and 30 seconds?" Zim asked walking to the bathroom and stepping inside the toilet elevator. After a few seconds of silence the computer reported back.

"Affirmative: There has been an energy wave that passed by and surrounded the entire planet at that time."

Zim blinked in surprise as he processed what the computer told him. An energy wave, surrounding the entire planet and beyond? Something like that didn't happen a lot and when it did, it never effected the lifeforms on different planets. This must be some sort of energy wave he wasn't aware of. Getting out of his elevator and walking into his lab he called out again.

"GIR!".

Silence.

"SKOODGE?"

The third Irken residing on Earth had stumbled out into the shadows and walked in front of Zim. Ever since he discovered that the Tallests hated him and he was going to be discredited even further, Skoodge had been living in Zim's basement. He rarely left the basement and when he did it was just so he could get food or when the basement bored him to much. He was to nervous to go outside. The last time he did, just before the 'Florpus' incident, GIR, Zim's annoying little robot assistant who was outside at the same time, spotted him, screamed "DOGGY!", grabbed him in his mouth, somehow swallowing him, and launching him into space. He crashed through a satellite and stayed there until it was ended up back in Earth's atmosphere. He never wanted to step outside ever again after that, in case he was mistaken to be a dog again by GIR.

Skoodge stood in front of him nervously and rubbing his hands. "Yes Zim?" he quietly asked. Why did he always sound so terrified for? Did the planet of giant rat people scar him that much?

"Where's GIR?" Zim asked looking around, expecting his little assistant to fly in and jump on his head offering or demanding food. He was even a bit surprised he didn't see him on the couch when he got to his house watching his 'Monkey show' or whatever he called it.

"He went out to get food not to long ago. I actually thought you would've seen him, you two should've passed each other." Skoodge answered him.

Zim looked down in thought for a few seconds and furrowed his brow. He didn't see GIR nor heard him. He must've been more distracted than he thought, that he didn't even notice his loud and unstable robotic servant fly over head.

Zim walked passed him speaking "Tell me Skoodge, did you feel anything...unusual today around the time of 11 hours 29 minutes and 30 seconds?".

Skoodge froze for a second with and looked even more nervous "You felt that too?"

"So that's a yes?" spoke Zim turning his head to look behind him.

"Eh, yes, yes." Skoodge quickly said.

Zim hummed and looked up again "COMPUTER, I want you to compare the readings of the energy wave to other power surges and other power waves. Compare them to any other reading you have until we find a match."

"What's the magic word?" The computer asked instead.

"NOT NOW!"

"Uh, ffffffiiiiinnnnneeeee." it droned again.

Zim walked over to the main area of his lab where there were five larger screens with Skoodge following behind him. Sitting down on his chair he watched as the computer rapidly compared the new energy readings with currently known energy readings. He saw that on the left side the new reading was shown and that every second, multiple other ones where flashing on screen. Skoodge stood just behind him rubbing his hands nervously.

"Oh, is that it?"

"Yes, apparently the entire world might've felt it."

"Do you think were under attack!?" Skoodge asked frightfully, beginning to sweat and shake.

Zim waved him off. Under attack? Not likely. And if they were, who ever was attacking was bad at it. It was half three in the afternoon, four hours after the incident and it only lasted for thirty seconds and from what he knew so far, no form of technology was damaged or even hindered in any matter. Plus the computer would've told him.

"No, no we've would've known earlier.". He chuckled a little and then stood up from the chair with his fist against his hips "And besides who would be stupid enough to attack a planet that will soon be conquered by THE ALMIGHTY ZIM!?" he finished with a fist raised in the air.

Skoodge looked a bit relieved but still not entirely relaxed. When he had the strange feeling, he was using the computer to look around on the internet. He was half asleep and lazily eating the food that he had and when the wave washed over him he fell out of his chair and stayed on the ground for a few minutes not daring to move. He thought that something was wrong with his PAK, but when he asked the computer he didn't detect anything wrong.

"Analyzing complete: No match."

The computer stated. Zim stiffened before he turned quickly to the screen with a shocked look "WHAT!?"

Slamming his hands on the table Zim yelled at the computer "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NO MATCH'? You must have at least compared it to at least over two thousand other readings and you haven't found anything similar?"

"Yep."

"IMPOSSIBLE, DO IT AGAIN." Zim shrilled at the screen.

"I better get paid for th-"

"COMPUTER!"

"Fine, fine okay geez."

Zim slumped back down on his chair rubbing his face. No match? How can that be? The computer must've had readings of solar flares, planets exploding, meteor collisions, super novas, worm holes, black holes, THE FLORPUS! And somehow this...thing was so indifferent that no match was found? Now him and Skoodge knew that they weren't under attack, how could anyone make a new type of energy?

"INTRUDER IN COMING." The computer suddenly spoke, causing Zim to jump and Skoodge to dive for cover underneath the table. The screen on the bottom right displayed just outside Zim's front door. Someone was on the porch wearing a dark hoodie covering their head and face and in their right hand, there was something long and metal. Using their left hand, they knocked three times on the door. Zim looked closer to the screen as Skoodge peeked up from underneath the table. Zim turned around and ran to the elevator

"WHO DARES?" he declared.

Skoodge crawled from out from the table and stood up and turned to the larger center screen. The computer finished analyzing and comparing again. Still no match. But there was something else there. Watching Zim go up the elevator he turned back to the screen and pointed at the other result.

"Wha-what's that?" he asked nervously. There was silence for a moment as if his question went unheard of.

"Computer?"

"Huh, what? Oh, sorry, yeah I also managed to pick up a recording of some audio." the computer said.

Skoodge eyes widened "W-why didn't tell Zim?"

"He didn't ask."

Zim stepped out of the toilet and turned to the doors direction, noticing Mini Moose, his second assistant, a small purple ball with a face, stubby legs and a pair of antlers, already floating towards the door to answer it. Rolling his eyes he walked under the moose reaching his hand up and pushing him away.

"My base, I'll answer it." Zim stated.

"NYAH." the small moose responded with as he pounced of the wall.

Opening the door Zim had just realized that he hadn't had his disguised on so just when he opened it he tried to cover himself and tried to close the door. "Eh wait, I'm...NAKED!" he tried to excuse while he rubbed his hand on the ground, searching for his disguise.

"Drop the act Zim, it's only me." a familiar voice spoke from behind the half closed door keeping it from closing all the way. Zim recognizing the voice uncovered his face and peeked his head out from behind the door. His eyes widened in surprise but then narrowed out of suspicion. It was Gaz, looking down at him with an impatient look. Her hood was up hiding most of her head except her face and some of her hair. The metal thing in her hand was actually her folded up scooter. What was she doing here? Opening the door more Zim took a stance against her.

"DIB-SISTER, HOW DARE YOU COME TO MY BASE!" Zim yelled pointing at Gaz. He looked around her and spoke again "Did Dib-stink put you up to this, WHERE IS HE?"

Rolling her eyes, she walked past Zim into the living room while saying "Shut up, he doesn't know I'm here, I came here for my own reasons."

This confused Zim further. Her own reasons? Zim is pretty sure he doesn't have anything that Gaz would want or that there is anything about him that she would need. Zim marched up to her mumbling something in his native tongue in frustration. He looked up to face her and shouted at her again.

"Who do you think you are walking into my base uninvited and expect me to give something to you?" using his spider legs from his PAK, he used them to make himself taller than Gaz so she would need to look up at him instead as he continued to speak. "Must I remind your inferior mind that I'm an elite soldier from the greatest empire in existence? I am not some play thing you can use when your bored!"

He leaned in closer "Now answer Zim this, why. Are. You. here?"

Gaz stood there, unflinching and not the least bit intimidated. Pulling her hood down and shaking her head to let her hair out, she looked back up at Zim. Still silent she was thinking of the right words to say without making herself look pathetic. Her pride wouldn't let her. Taking deep breath she answered.

"Bother Dib." she simple said.

"Eh?" Zim lowered himself a bit and raised a brow.

"Bother Dib, try to take over the Earth, plant a mine in the local park, paint the entire school red, just get Dib's attention so he can be...loud." Gaz looked away a bit feeling slightly embarrassed.

Annoy Dib? But doesn't she?

"Doesn't Dib annoy you as well?" Zim asked, feeling suspicious.

"Yeah, yeah he does but...him not annoying me is somehow worse."

Zim put his spider legs back into his PAK looked up at her again. How in the world can someone be more annoyed when someone isn't acting over obnoxious? He thought for moment as an idea formed in his head. Perhaps he can use this to his advantage. He crossed his arms and smiled.

"What's it in for-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

A scream of pure terror suddenly made it's self known through out the entire base, causing the alien and human to whip around to the toilets direction, where the lab was. Gaz turned to Zim with wide eyes.

"Who was that?" she asked.

"Eh...no one."

"Master Zim, Skoodge is currently having a panic attack, he may need assistance." the computer spoke aloud.

"Skoodge?" asked Gaz tilting her head. Was there someone else here other than Zim, GIR and the moose thing?

Zim rubbed his head in annoyance"Oh son a-SKOODGE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he then exclaimed walking to the toilet and stepping inside. Standing in it her looked at Gaz, pointed at her and said "You stay here, Zim will be with you soon."

Gaz watched him go down with a raised brow.

Stepping out of the elevator Zim looked around for Skoodge but for some reason he couldn't see him a first. Where is he? He has to still be in here. Opening his mouth to call out his name, he was stopped when he heard whimpering and stuttering from where the monitors were. Trying to put on an angered look he marched to where he heard the sniffling Irken.

"SKOODGE, WHAT ON IRK'S NAME ARE YOU DOI-" he stopped.

Skoodge was on the ground in the fetal position, shaking. Zim walked closer beginning to hear the panicked Irken mumbling to himself in his native language between sobs, gasps and coughs. Zim was barely out of the lab for a minute and somehow Skoodge went from an already nervous alien to a complete wreck. What just happened? Zim was less mad now and instead more hesitant.

He bent down and nudged him "Skoodge?". No answer. He did it again "Skoodge?". Again, no answer. She shook him vioently this time "SKOODGE?". Finally he answered by whipping his head to face Zim who recoiled at the sight.

Skoodge was pale and covered in sweat and tears. He was still shaking and mumbling and in a bit of a daze. It looks like he just watched the entire Irken Armada being slaughtered in front of him.

"Computer, what happened." Zim sternly spoke not taking his eyes off Skoodge.

"Skoodge listened to the audio recording that I managed to pick up, a recording that has some connection to the energy wave." the computer informed him.

"An audio recording? From the energy wave? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME-" Zim stopped himself, looking at Skoodge more. That could've been him.

"Do you wish to listen to the recording?" the computer asked.

Zim stood in silence weighing the options before saying "No I don't think I will." perhaps it was better that the computer didn't tell him.

But...just what did Skoodge listen to to put in in such a state?

"What the?" a voice behind him spoke causing Zim to whip around in anger knowing who it was right away.

"Didn't I just tell you to stay?" he asked Gaz who was standing a few feet behind him.

"An audio recording you say?" Professor Membrane asked.

After the long 4 hour investigation, Jamison had managed to pick up some audio that played at the same time the energy wave was detected. It maybe possible that the two are connected and the recording could reveal the secrets of this...ghastly event.

"Affirmative" Jamison said. "Should we listen?"

Membrane stared at the screen. Hopefully if they listened to the audio they could figure this all out and pin point this to something already known, just extremely rare. It was unlikely that an audio would do that however, but Membrane was accepting any chances for answers now. He hoped that he was correct.

"Yes, what's the worse that can happen?" Membrane said with a nod. When he said that, he felt dread build up within him. Why is he getting himself so nervous for, it's just an audio...right?

"Yes Sir. Playing audio." Everyone in the room listened with intent, wonder and slight fear. Maybe it was going to be big understanding and they can laugh about this later over lunch. Getting worked up over nothing? How childish, how-

ASHSNJSCNKSAHGZSDSJDHJSJSHAMXKAHADAHADTYESLVJEQBCSMEGHDKIUYTFCFGHYDRFGVHBIUYGBSASKSFWEKDIWECRIKJADHWJDNJADHJWERTYTRDFVBHGFFICEAKFJMKFEUQWIFDNEVLKJHGFDSWERTYUIMNBVCDRTYUIOERYIUHKHTHOIUYTFDCVBNKLINGWSDRFVBHNPOIUHTOOIUHJKLMNHME.

The room was dead silent. No one would understood any of what they heard, but they knew it was something horrible. It was so cold. Then hot. So tense. Yet not. It was if cosmic order was crying out for help as blasphemous monsters ripped it apart, silencing it. After more seconds of stillness, the room's silence was replaced with maddening screams.

Tak was sitting down on her couch in her standard quality apartment, looking at her screen. After she ended back on Earth, she moved into a small apartment not to long away from the Skool and installed her computer system into the room she had. She managed to get the computer to print money so she could pay for rent and buy anything she needed. Ever since she attempted to take over the Earth and failed and not being able to defeat Zim in the SIR competition, she would circle around the planet watching Zim in a rather run down ship. Until, of course it was sucked into the atmosphere and she crashed leaving the ship damaged beyond repair. She had sent signals for help, but every time she did the message was ignored or an excuse was given on why aid wasn't sent to her. At first she thought she was abounded, but she brushed that off as her being paranoid. The Tallest's wouldn't just leave her like that would they?

"Analyzing complete: No match."

Tak groaned at the results and rubbed her head. That was the third time her computer had compared this new signal with current known signals as it still came up with nothing of use. She was getting no where with this and she grew more impatient with each passing second. she was ready to give up, but for some abnormal reason, she was fixated on learning about this energy wave. She looked around the local news about it and it appeared that the entire world had felt it.

She stared at the screen again where it showed all the current information of the vile reading. Her computer showed the time it happened, how long it lasted and how fast it passed by Earth. Apparently the reading was somehow traveling exceedingly faster than the speed of light and it wasn't visible to the naked eye. It's mass was also unknown, but so far it was enormous. It was much larger than the Earth and possible the sun. She shifted her eyes to the bottom of the screen where the computer had given her an option to listen to some recording that may have been connected. She wanted to, but something inside told her not to.

"Do you wish to compare the readings. again Master Tak?" her computer asked.

She waved it off "No, no, I believe that's enough."

she looked at the clock beside her to her right.

15:50

It was still early, but right now she just wanted to sleep. Rubbing her eyes she got up from the couch and walked towards her room.

"If you need me, I'll be in bed." she said to the computer.

"Affirmative."

Tak plopped down on her bed. The room was decent enough. A single sized bed, a dresser with a mirror, a bathroom (Not like she needs it) and a large closet for clot-weapons and other gadgets. Crawling under the sheets, she poked her head out and looked at the ceiling. maybe tomorrow will bring better results.