SETTLING IN
Lisa sat in her underground bunker/laboratory where she spent most of her free time building under the Loud's new home. The little mad scientist took out an audio recorder and began her monologue, "Data Log Entry, family unit has officially settled into the new home. I've also completed construction of the new bunker where I can conduct my experiments in silence and secrecy."
"Hiya Lisa!" came the warm voice of Leni.
Lisa quickly stopped the recording, "Leni? How did you get in here?"
"I used the door of course!" Leni smiled, proud of herself.
"The door was locked with a triple bypass code! How did you get past it?"
"Oh that? You set your password to your birthday again."
"Curse my creative shortcomings..." Lisa groaned.
Leni approached with a few head pats, "Aw, but I like you short!" the dim girl then noticed an odd-looking backpack sitting on a counter, "Ooh! What's that?"
The little scientist cleared her throat, "That there is a prototype I'm working on. Please do not touch it."
The fashionista took a closer look at the backpack, "Ooh, it looks a bit like the one Zim has!"
"Yes, well, Zim's robotic membrum inferius reminded me of one of Lincoln's arachnid-based graphic novel protagonists. I had the idea of making one for myself-"
"OMGosh, this backpack doesn't fit your style, like, at all!" Leni took out what looked like paint from seemingly out of nowhere and started to add paint to the prototype.
Lisa got up and ran over to Leni, "Stop! What are you doing?"
"A little bit of this and a bit of that and done! That is totes better!" When Leni was finished, the prototype backpack was now brown with green spots adorned on it.
"...at least it didn't go off."
Just then, metal limbs came out of the backpack and it started to flail around on the counter. Sparks started to shoot out of it as well. "Did my paint bring it to life?"
...
Lori was folding laundry while watching Lily who was playing around a bit in the warm clothes.
"I've got the touch!" Loudly sang Luna as she performed a power slide into the room with a guitar, "I've got the POW-ER! YEAH!"
The baby giggled at the sudden performance, Lori smiled, "Did the videodate go well?" She asked.
"Dude, it went SUPER well! Sam and I are gonna give this long-distance thing a chance!"
"That's literally the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. I'm happy for you."
Just then, there was a knock at the door. All three girls turned towards the sound, "Who's knock-knock-knocking on our door?" Asked the rocker.
The eldest got up and answered the door to find Mr. Elliot on their doorstep, carrying a briefcase. "Good afternoon! Is this the Loud residence?" He asked with a smile.
"Uh, I literally don't know who you are." Lori slowly started to close the door.
"Ah, sorry! My name is Mr. Elliot and I'm a teacher at the Skool! I have paperwork..." the man opened up his briefcase and showed the eldest Loud sister his school ID.
Lori stopped, and opened the door a little, "Did you need to talk to my parents?"
"Ah, yes, are they in?" He asked as he tried to take a step inside.
Just then, Lily started to yell baby gibberish at the man.
"Whoa dude! What's gotten into you?" Luna asked as she picked up the toddler, rocking her gently to try to calm her down.
"No! No!" Lily pointed at Mr. Elliot who stayed still in the doorway.
"Oh my, I believe I'm making your baby sister upset." Mr. Elliot observed.
Lori gave her baby sister a concerned look. "That's odd, Lily is usually okay with strangers. I'm sorry Mr. Elliot."
The teacher smiled, "It's quite alright, I'm fully aware that I can't please everyone. Although, I would still love to meet your parents as I need to talk to them about Lincoln's future-"
Suddenly, a diaper flew through the air and hit Mr. Elliot in the face, Luna and Lori were stunned with shock.
"Poo poo!" Lily giggled.
"...on second thought, I think I'll just talk to him after class."
...
Lana and Lola were out walking Charles, Cliff, Walt, and Geo around the neighborhood. The princess wearing her Girly Rangers outfit and carrying a few boxes of cookies as well.
"Hey, are those any good?" Lana asked, pointing at one of the boxes of cookies.
Lola picked up one box, "I wouldn't know, but people buy them up and that's all that matters!" she walked up to a house and the door opened with a shaky arm holding some money.
"HERE! TAKE IT AND LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE!" screamed the neighbor as they dropped the money.
The Girly Ranger handed them the box of cookies, "Thank you! Enjoy!"
The door slammed and Lola hummed as she came back to her twin. "You never tried it? Even when that guy really wanted it?" Lana asked.
"Lana dear, you never get hooked on your own product. That's rule number one."
The red-capped girl was a bit dumbfounded, not fully sure what her twin meant by that. She snapped out of her daze when she noticed the Louds' pets were surrounding something, "Hmm? What's up guys?" Lana walked over to see the pets interacting with a brown chihuahua with a chipped ear, one brown iris and a stitch across its head.
Lola followed soon after, "What are you- oh, that poor thing! What happened to its ear?"
Charles got a bit closer, sniffing the new dog. The little dog sniffed back.
"Hey, he doesn't have a collar!" Lana pointed out.
"Aww, so he's a stray?"
Charles gave a few barks and the chihuahua barked a little in return.
"Whoa! Did you hear that?" Lana asked her twin.
"Uh, it barked like any other dog?" Lola asked.
"I forgot, you don't speak canine. The little guy said that he never had an owner and kind of relies on scraps thrown out by the neighbors and sometimes just steals meat from the meat man."
Lola was dumbfounded, "You can speak dog?"
Her twin shrugged, "I'm kinda paraphrasing, he's barking with an odd accent."
"So...wanna take him home?"
"Yeah!"
...
Lincoln was gaming with Gaz in the living room of the Membrane house when Clembrane approached the two with pudding, "Hiya Gaz! Yous having fun wif yous boyfwiend?"
"Yep." the girl replied nonchalantly.
Lincoln nearly dropped his controller, "Wait, boyfriend?"
"Don't get distracted."
The boy got off the couch and got in front of the huge orange being, "Hey uh...you, what did you mean by that?"
Clembrane looked a bit confused and set the pudding down onto the coffee table, "Well, yous is a boy and yous is her fwiend rights?"
"Yeah, exactly. Lincoln, get back here, you're making this too easy." Gaz started to sound irritated.
Lincoln stood there, a bit dumbstruck as Clembrane walked out of the room.
The girl turned her attention to the distracted Lincoln, "...Are you okay?"
The boy wasn't sure how to answer.
...
Dib handed Lynn what looked like a spray can with a green cross near the top, "Here, spray yourself with this. It's full of nanodoctors that'll heal up your bruises."
Lynn shut her eyes and sprayed herself and soon enough all the visible damage was repaired, "Hey, my joints are feeling a lot better!"
"I find it hard to believe you'd lose a fight. You fight dirty." Lucy remarked.
The jock shrugged and handed Dib back the spray, "Eh, he got lucky and caught me off guard by hitting me first. Then he called the other girls to dogpile on me."
Dib put the spray away, "You said his name was Skoodge, right?"
"I guess. He yelled something like: 'I, Skoodge, claim this victory!' Just to rub it in."
"You're one to talk..." Lucy muttered.
The amateur paranormal investigator scratched his head a bit, "I've...never heard of him. We're gonna need to get some info."
Soon enough, the three kids opened up the garage in the Membranes' backyard and Lucy got a good look at all the random junk and the moderately sized ship that was playing video games.
"Shut the door, the light is going to cause screen flare." Tak's ship complained.
"Ship, we need your help." Dib announced.
"Of course you do, you don't talk to me otherwise."
"Can you tell us anything about Skoodge?"
"Yes."
There was silence for a moment.
Lynn groaned, "Will you tell us?"
"No."
"Well you better! Or I'll spoil you that Floopsy-"
The ship moved its glass bubble into Lynn's face, "I HAVE BINGE-WATCHED ALL FIVE HUNDRED SEASONS SO GO AHEAD! YOUR SPOILERS CAN'T HARM ME ANYMORE!"
"Excuse me." Lucy spoke up.
The ship let out a high-pitched wail and brought its attention to the gloomy girl, "INTRUDER! Where did you come from? I've been monitoring all the entrances!"
"I walked in with the others." she answered without even the slightest hint of a flinch.
"Curious, your presence is so unremarkable that my sensors didn't pick up on you!"
Lucy sighed, "Story of my life."
...
Out of a convenience store came Skoodge wearing an afro wig and sunglasses, carrying a handful of snacks. He started walking back to Zim's house down an empty sidewalk when he suddenly stopped. He looked over his shoulder and spotted someone shadowing him from behind a corner. "I know you, you're that washout who thinks they're an invader."
Out of the corner came a girl wearing a backpack, "You will address me as Tak."
Skoodge shook his head, "No, you're a washout who was sent to planet Dirt. You're lucky I'm too busy to arrest you." With that, he turned to leave.
Tak jumped and landed in front of him, "Hold up! I need to ask something!"
"What is it? I need to get these rations back to base."
"Who sent you here? I know the Tallest couldn't get away from that Florpus hole, so who gave you the order to come here and play babysitter to that walking disaster?"
Skoodge shrugged and walked past her, "Let's just say the Irken Empire has gone through a few changes."
Tak ran in front of him, "Hey! What do you mean by changes?"
With one hand, the elite invader lifted the renegade up off the ground, and kept the snacks safe in the other, "You don't have the clearance to know, and I don't have the clearance to say. Do what you want, fugitive, but do not mess with my mission."
...
Luan was in the City Center Mall's food court where she set down a soap box and climbed on top of it, "Can I have your attention please?"
A mall cop pointed at her, "Hey! Soap box speeches require a permit!"
"I am a comedian by trade, and until recently I've got paid to make people smile and brighten up their days. Well, the burden of trying to make anyone so much as smirk in this bleak city has been weighing too heavily on my identity and my sanity. And my grip on sanity isn't strong to begin with!"
The same mall cop took out a radio, "Sergeant, we got a 5-27 in progress at the food court..."
"This is not a joke, do you know what's going on in the world? What I've seen is horrific! People like you are acting so awful to one another! Nobody knows how to take a joke let alone appreciate one! You know what I think? I think it's time I become something more than a comedian!"
A group of mall cops approached the soap box with a Crazy Bucket, "Alright miss, you made a crazy spectacle of yourself. Time to go to the Crazy House for Girls."
"I must become...THE PRANK-STAR! PUTTING A SMILE ON ALL OF YOUR FACES!" the deranged comic laughed as she opened up the soap box and unleashed hundreds of rabid pink-dyed hamsters onto the screaming public as she ran off laughing.
...
Zim sat in the center of the couch with GIR and Minimoose messing around to his left and Kim nuzzling the Robobaby to his right. The aspiring invader formed a huge grin on his face and began a speech, "After all this work I've put into making my siblings and trying to procure a new energy source, I believe it's time to come up with a new plan to take over the world!"
"FINALLY!" GIR cheered.
"NYA!" agreed Minimoose.
"Gah!" added the Robobaby.
"Like, what's the plan bro?" Kim asked.
Zim's grin slowly went away as he tried to think up a plan, "...eh, I can't think tonight; let's just watch TV."
ARC ONE: END