Hold your popcorn kiddo's! Prepare for the prank of the millennium!
Featuring an old skool pop culture reference, Nova showing off her art, Teal photobombing his own pictures, Mary turning ammo into paintballs and Stell showing her mad pyro skillz!
Enjoy!
Resisty
Grover caught up to Doon around the corner. He was slumped against the wall, head back, eyes closed.
In his tight grip, he held one of his dog tags.
"Doon? What's wrong son?"
After all these years, he'd like to call this man his friend. But he never asked about those tags, or even that antique locket. Not his place.
Grover did, however, catch a name: Jayne Bellows.
The only one by that name he recalls was an old Dib from one of Mary's research projects. Somewhere around 200 or so into the Tradition, he believes. Jayne was Grover's idol as a kid, you hear stories about him passed down in the shelters Grover was raised in.
Maybe an old ancestor?
Doon looked at him. His gaze startled Grover.
Doon was smiling, tears staining his cheeks.
Wiping his eyes, he patted the spot next to him.
"Did I ever tell you about my old friend Jayne?" Doon asked softly.
"No…" I prompted, curious.
"Well… he died a long time ago now."
"Oh?"
Was this a different Jayne?
Possible.
"Jayne was an old Dib from way back when. I was the Invader assigned to him."
Before Grover could so much as twitch, Doon had two PAK legs out and held Grover in place.
"Please, sir… Let me tell you his story. It may be my only chance." Doon looked at him, Disguise rippling away to reveal the Irken beneath.
Hands shaking, Grover nodded.
After a moment, Doon nodded and put back his disguise.
You couldn't even tell!
Doon pulled out the locket to reveal Jayne and his kids on one side and Doon with his Gir Unit in his lap.
"Jayne was a soldier like you when I first arrived. His first battle really." He laughed a little. "He had a team with him, trying to recon against the Resisty of the time. Zim was on his way to the Field, they must have followed. I remember the feeling of being watched. Zim didn't take too kindly to being followed there."
"No… I suppose not. Especially after what Red just revealed."
"Indeed. But… what he left out was important. The field was the self-made graveyard where Dib died. Zim continued to bury all the Dibs in his care."
"He buried them?"
"Yeah… Even though they were enemies, to Zim, he still cared for their wellbeing. They were kids, just like Dib was."
"Jayne sounds like an adult, though."
"Nah.. Jayne was a child soldier of a desperate Shelter who lost most of their of-age would-be soldiers."
"He was already a child soldier? What happened to the others?"
"From what I gather, it was a civil war with another shelter, a dispute over food supplies and distribution. Completely unrelated to us, surprisingly." Doon shrugged.
"Huh…"
"Anyway, here was Jayne and a dozen other kids with guns trying to get a glimpse of the Almighty Zim himself!" He rolled his eyes. "They tripped up an old mine field from a past warzone which killed all but Jayne. It was just within hearing range too. We came back to see what the ruckus was, and here we are seeing a wailing Jayne trying to collect the tags of his friends." At that, Doon dug into his coat and pulled out a chain with a dozen other Dog Tags on it."
Grover stared in wonder. "You kept them?"
"Of course! Here was this kid, a survivor. They were his friends! When he saw us, he dropped his gun and feinted. We brought him back to base and fixed him up. I collected those strange necklaces and fixed them up and reinforced the metals. While he was out of it, I hacked the system to get photos of them and put them on the backs."
Doon took off the chain and handed it to Grover. He gently flipped them over to see children and pre-teens in various slice of life photos.
"They were just kids…"
"After he recovered, he thanked us for saving him and explained the importance of these to us. Zim then made him a Dib."
"Just like that? How does he decide that anyway?"
Doon was quiet for a moment.
"From what Red told you, Dib was important to Zim. But he didn't tell you the whole story. Zim told us on arrival so we knew right off the bat why we were here."
"And why is that, son?"
"You were right in there, Zim was a delusional banished Invader. He was constantly being mocked and belittled every time he checked in. Dib… He was more than just a rival. Dib was… really. The only one who even understands Zim. They had a similar background after all. The longer Zim was on Earth, they went from enemies, to rivals to frenemies. They had each other's backs as easily as they would stab it!" Doon laughed.
Grover snorted at the mental image.
"The point is… Dib and Gir were all Zim had. Dib was THERE for Zim. He SAW Zim. Zim craved the attention Dib gave him. Successful or ridiculous plots aside, Dib always had his eyes on Zim. Zim felt he existed when Dib looked his way."
Doon looked at Grover in all seriousness.
"You asked how Zim picks these kids? It's simple. Myself, and all other Invaders under Zims command here on Earth are the same as Zim. We're the odd balls of the Irken society. Most Irks operate in a hive mind sort of way, but there are others like Zim and myself with a personality. We were considered Defects. Defects was the term to describe us back when Tallests Red and Purple were in charge. You make enough mistakes and they kill you. When Zim started this tradition it was to help others like him who were never given a chance if he DIDN'T take over. We're here to LIVE. Zim picks these kids because Dib Membrane made it feel like he existed. Saw him for who and what he was and saw him as a threat. And, eventually, a friend. Zim felt ALIVE with Dib. These kids were to help the rest of us live as well."
Doon trailed to let Grover absorb all that.
Grover collapsed against the wall and fell down to sit.
"So that's why… All these kids… Mary!"
"Yeah… Stell was a fanatic and always trying to impress."
"Mary's a hard one to impress." Grover smirked. Doon snorted.
Grover handed back the chain. Something unspoken attached to the gesture.
"Jayne Bellows was the 200th Dib." Grover started. "You kept him safe and even respected his old team. From what I read about him in his battles against you and the old Resisty, I actually idolized him as a kid. Jayne was my hero. I'm honored to know his story on how he came to be. He was a good soldier."
Doon put the chain around his neck where it belonged.
"The best."
A rumble in the distance. A flash of lightning.
He shut the locket and gently tucked it away.
He stepped away, to turn and hold out his hand.
"You are a good soldier as well. He would've liked you."
Grover smiled and took his hand.
It started to rain.
~/~
Mecha
As they neared the spot where they were ambushed, Stell thought back to this morning.
Stell is the LAST Irken made with the LAST scraps of DNA left.
That also makes her the last Invader in this Tradition.
Mary would be the last Human Ranked: Dib.
Zim picked Mary to help Stell feel alive. Even a small fraction of what Zim and Dib went through…
Bright lights of missiles lit up the sky.
A young female stood under a blanket, ready to fire at Stell.
Mary looked unimpressed again, easily poking holes in her ideas and finding flaws like beacons in the night. Just once. Just ONCE-
The kids in skool parted away from Mary everywhere she went. No one wanted anything to do with her. Mary confessed once wondering why she even bothers with going to Skool. She has no one to-
There's an old woman dressed in black at the end of the hallway. Mary is talking to her. It seems that everyone else wonders who the woman is. The woman then slinks away in the shadows-
"PLEASE… I don't need you losers, I have Stell!" Mary grinned back at her. "You with me?" Another game of dodgeball, another game no one wanted Mary or Stell on their team. Did she mean that-? (The girls won in under a minute, it was a massacre! Nova recorded the whole thing and showed it to Zim and Blue-)
The girls smirked.
Let's do this! Blue yelled out with a maniacal laugh.
"Bring it on!" Tary grinned back at Stell. "You with me?"
Stell can't help thinking of that day. Her grin was the same.
Stell smirked and nodded.
They evaded and even showed off a few aerial maneuvers a little in the process.
Blue zipped on ahead. The girls would be fine, even captured. Blue, however, wanted to get in (possibly find Red and Clary, no biggie if he doesn't) and wreak havoc on their security and overall systems!
Oh… he was going to enjoy this.
The Mecha landed with a splash, lightning having epic timing behind them, as the Mecha stood tall and aimed both laser cannons at the ones below.
On the ground was a small army of nearing 90 soldiers. (Though Soldiers are putting it lightly). By Mary's descriptions, there were
20 Self-trained crazies.
A dozen or so braggarts who brought their weapons in shiny cases.
A few odd ball aliens who lost their worlds generations ago and joined.
A large crowd of punk 'rebel' teens and young adults.
30 actual soldiers.
The crazies and teens cheered at the fight, the braggarts and oddball aliens resigned themselves to die.
The soldiers actually were organized and worked with the former and told the latter to stay back.
With dramatic flair, Stell screamed as she pushed the buttons needed to fire.
Now dodging with ease (remembering that they can actually damage the Mecha now) the girls sneakily set it to autopilot to continue fighting, before quickly donning Stells rainy day supplies and raincoat, they ejected themselves and ducked behind their vehicles.
Stell remotely made the Mecha fly off before it was shot down in the same area as the vision.
Hearing the group cheer, then heading off, they stowed away on their transports and just waited before they went back to base.
~/~
Base
Purple and the Computer worked in tandem.
No one kills Gir.
No. One.
Like Red, he also looked over each of these Base's specs.
Unlike Red, Purple actually paid attention to Zim's reports. He had each of Zim's approval requests for various changes and upgrades to his Base from before the Florpus. These requests were actually brilliant. He kept it secret from Red the more he showed disinterest in Zim altogether.
One of Zim's requests was even used to save Invader Tenn once from the Meekrob. Before an unrelated incident with a mail switch-up caused malfunctioning SIR units to be sent to her. She returned to the Massive, a shell of her old self.
In short, Red is assuming this base is still the standard Base.
In the last few hours since his arrival…
Purple noticed how much this base has been customized almost unrecognizably.
In fact, he was shocked that even those few codes Red used even still worked!
Zim was here in an ever changing environment for several thousand years. The other Invaders were planet side for a few months, tops!
Of course he adapted.
He kinda had to with Gir-
Right.
Focus!
Purple typed away on the console as he was hooked up to the mainframe. The computer's AI guiding him and showing him the changes.
He should've asked what was the same to save time!
Hmmm…
What remained the same was the codes to all entrances and exits, as well as minor power levels in select areas. Such as the House portion.
That's it.
That was all Red had access to.
In other words, he won't get very far.
Next, he spoke to the Gaz's in the room with him. Telling them to spread out, lead Red to an empty room to trap him. They'll hold him there for Zim later.
The computer helpfully told him about the room that Zim and Blue trapped a group of Humans in…
Potential… But no.
Then, it hit him.
No, literally.
Something from above jumped him!
Groaning, he found himself on his stomach as someone sat on his back.
"Hold still, Pur!" He froze as he heard Red growl above him.
He was so deep in thought, he didn't notice he was alone in the room and all exits sealed.
Purple struggled to look back at his old friend.
"This won't hurt a bit-"
Welcome home son!
A pair of voices sounded from somewhere as two robots sped out and pulled Red off him and various cables shot out to get Red off him. Purple used that distraction to help shake off Red and close his PAK again.
Both jumping to their feet, they stared each other down. The mom and dad units on either side making them stand in a square.
"Red."
"Purple."
~/~
Resisty
The guards on the roof manning the spotlight grew bored once the Mecha was shot down. Too short! Their jobs were boring enough as it was!
Well…
Their complaints were short lived due to Blue sneaking up on them in each tower and quickly killing them.
Nova and Teal were his lookouts. Any he missed, they'd kill too.
Leaping back down on the roof, grateful he put on paste ahead of time, he parked the cruiser where it was in the vision and activated the cloak.
Taking a few steps to the door, he paused.
Looking back he mentally recalled Stell screaming in Zim's arms holding a dead Mary.
His hands shook.
Like Stell, he too, couldn't get what Zim said out of his head.
He and Stell were the last-
Taking a shaky deep breath…
He cared for Mary like a kid sister. No… his sister was Stell. Mary was obviously her crush.
He took a moment to fantasize.
With all this talk of cloning and time travel, he took a moment.
If things were normal… If they were Human, before the Takeover, what would they have been like?
Just this morning, seeing Stell and Mary all dressed up was like a shock to the system!
He's never seen Mary look so happy!
Stell never bothered with disguises, so seeing her outside of uniform…
Ok, I'm thinking blonde hair. I can totally see her rock it!
If Stell did do a disguise, they would look like normal kids.
Normal.
So long as Mary wears that black coat, she'll never be normal.
Will he and Stell ever be normal?
Will they even be able to go back to the past with them?
They couldn't earlier.
Why..?
In the darkening skies of the storm, Blue-
Looked almost grey.
~/~
Apparently the girls had good luck. They hid in a vehicle that someone took to the Resisty when the others went to the Mecha to ambush them.
They were in a braggarts fancy car.
Shorter than they expected they could see Blue taking out the guards on the roof since they knew to look there.
~/~
Making quick work to the main computer, the security was laughable.
Amatures . Blue rolled his eyes.
First thing's first.
He looked for Red and Clary.
.
.
.
.
They're… not here?
Not good.
The alarm sounded. He made his way back to the roof via the vents.
The duo may be MIA but he can still ensure that Tary doesn't die. (He tried very hard not to think about that that is the very reason they made her in the first place)
~/~
Nova and Teal stood in the rafters above the empty mess hall. She got an idea.
They looked at each other and grinned.
Pulling out spray cans from their heads, they laughed as they leapt to the ground.
~/~
Setting a game plan earlier, the girls decided to both sabotage, and to prank them. Nova and Teal already dispatched, the girls split up and set to work.
Tary swiped all the ammo when they weren't looking and traded them for blueberries or peas from the Mess Hall Teal handed her when Nova took over every few minutes. Stell swiped all the wheels from the ground vehicles, and parts from their ships engines, to start a bonfire in the parking lot (after knocking out the guards).
Tary caught a glimpse of Nova having fun quickly dodging under foot, out of site, spraying her paint on the ground unnoticed.
Looking up, Tary was struck with a brilliant idea. She waved over Teal and whispered her idea.
He actually stared at her in wonder for a moment before saluting and flying off.
Catching Stell looking at her curiously, Tary merely gestured to the roof spotlights.
Why did seeing Tary's devious grin make Stell blush?
~/~
While Blue attempted to blend in like a ninja on the roof, Teal didn't bother. Teal headed for various scraps on the roof and set to work before dragging its creation to the lights.
Once Blue caught on, he snorted.
Then he snickered.
Before full on laughing his ass off.
"Need help?"
Teal smiled widely.
~/~
Nova stared at her piece of art proudly:
An epic hero-poster style piece of Almighty Zim and Tallest Purple, arms crossed and laughing with Gir between them holding a taco in victory at an unflattering cartoony piece of Red below them as a chibi crying as a sore loser with a hat that said 'Loser'.
~/~
On the roof, Teal and Blue stared proudly over their masterpieces of a Bat signal on each spot light. One was the Irken logo, another was a taco, another was a flaming piggy, a skull, and so on.
~/~
Stell and Tary laughed as the Resisty was scrambling like headless chickens wondering what was going on! Explosions outside indicated Stell's masterful bonfire roasting all their ammo surrounded by all the tires and engine parts from their ships and cars.
~/~
Making it to the roof, Blue called Mary via video call, as a few guards caught them going to the roof.
Teal totally took pics wherever he could since their arrival!
~/~
Base
Vents
Galloway quietly grumbled as he crawled through the vents. He didn't sign up for this! But hey, bright side. He's actually in Zim's Base!
Alone.
His team is definitely dead.
Red's doing his own thing.
What now?
What to do, what to do…
He heard talking.
Mary..?
Reaching an opening to what appears to be a floor vent, he sees what looks like a storage room. Quietly opening the gate, he was beyond relieved to get out and stretch.
It was short lived.
Quickly ducking to the floor, he saw there were a few Irks, Mary and a young Human male.
Everything was covered in cloth except for the round ring-thing on the other side.
The smallest Irk whipped her head in his direction. He quickly hid under a cloth as she passed.
After a minute, he took out a knife and cut a small hole facing the Ring-thing, one facing the door, and another where Mary and that man is.
Now he just has to sit and wait.
~/~
Resisty
Doon left with a contemplative Grover and rushed back to base when they saw an explosion.
He blinked.
Grovers jaw dropped.
They stared at each other.
When the others pass them did they feel safe enough to laugh their asses off!
They eagerly ran to catch up to see what those kids did. (Doon totally recorded everything)
Grover quietly asked for copies.
Doon couldn't keep the camera straight due to how hard he laughed.
Shaking his head, Grover covered for them as they made their escape. He's starting to understand Zims motives for picking these kids.
A mutual look passed between them that this was a one time thing. Doon nodded in thanks.
They made their way to the transporter.
Blue took the Voot cruiser back with Teal and Nova.