Good news, everyone! I've officially graduated from college! And I finally got a bit more time to work on The Smeet series. Don't worry, I won't be abandoning Shades of Purple, I'll get to work on that story later too.
Anyhow, here I bring you the official fourth arc of The Smeet series! I'll explore a bit more on the characters relationships and backgrounds. I hope you enjoy it.
Vindictive
Chapter 1- Family Time
To say that she hadn't missed the Massive would be a lie. Her bed here was far more comfortable than the sleeping bunks in the Academy. Besides, she had more privacy. Her roommate wasn't that bad, at least until he learned who her father was. One can imagine how things got after that.
She heard a gentle, purr-like growl to her right. Giggling, Ilk shifted to look at Blue. Her mate was curled up in the bed while she nestled in the middle. Why do Kryvtors sleep in this position, anyway? She didn't really mind it, though. It made her feel comfortable.
"Good morning." Ilk whispered into Blue's ear canal.
"Mm... Mother, it's still three years until Spring..." Blue mumbled in his sleep, trying to hide his head under the blankets. Ilk giggled again and tenderly scratched on a spot under the Kryvtor's lower jaw. Blue stirred awake, opening an orange eye to look at her.
"It still works, it seems." Ilk mused.
Blue stretched out his stiff limbs with a loud yawn. "Ilk, I thought we had talked about using my weak spot." he groaned.
"You wouldn't be awake otherwise." Ilk climbed out of bed to stretch out herself. "Come on, let's go before Uncle Pur eats all of the donuts."
"He can eat all of the snacks for all I care," the Kryvtor responded with another yawn. "They are far too sweet for my liking. Besides, too much sugar."
"There's also the crispy daatras bacon you like so much!"
Blue bristled his feather crest. Ahh, Oraidian daatras bacon! It's his favorite treat! He could recall all the times he'd beg his mother to buy it as a hatchling. Naturally, the promise of such a delicacy was enough to bring him out of bed.
"Alright, let's-" He didn't get to finish the sentence when the doors whisked open.
"Sweetie, I made you some-"
"DAD!"
Red dropped the tray of bacon and turned away with a frightened yell. It wasn't because of Ilk; he had seen her undressed ever since she was a smeet, after all. What scared the hell out of him was seeing the lizard naked. He didn't need yet another image of that. He had enough with having seen Captain naked, thank you very much.
Blue merely stood there, staring at his father-in-law with an annoyed expression. With no external reproductive organs to hide, he felt no embarrassment whatsoever at being undressed. Rather, it was the lack of privacy that soured his day.
"Didn't you ever learn that you should knock the door before entering someone's private chambers, your Tallest?" he asked with crossed arms.
"When on Irk did you get here, lizard?!"
"He arrived yesterday, Dad. You didn't notice because you had already gone to sleep." Ilk explained,
"Couldn't you at least leave a note that said 'Dad, the scaly alien-meat I have for a husband is here' or something?" Red frowned at Blue. "And you, lizard! You are supposed to inform me that you're showing up here!"
Blue frowned. "With all due respect, your Tallest, I'm don't need your permission to see my wife."
"No, but you do need it to set a food onboard the Massive, lizard!"
Ilk smacked her forehead. "Really? Can't you two spend one day without arguing?" she scolded with a frown.
"He started it!" Both cried out simultaneously, pointing a finger at the other. Ilk sighed.
"Dad, would you mind going outside while I get dressed?"
"Sure, sweetie!"
Red hurried out of the room and towards the lounge, silently cursing Blue. Purple and Lena were already enjoying some fresh donuts on the kitchen table; Red smelled warm chocolate syrup scurrying out of one. Hopefully Purple left him one of those.
Purple swallowed a mouthful of donuts. "You okay? You look like you just saw Zim."
"Trust me, even a non-corporeal fella who left his body behind..."
"A ghost?"
"Yeah, that! Even a ghost would be better than a naked lizard!" Red snapped, feeling a shiver down his spine.
"Blue's here?" Lena asked curiously.
"Unfortunately, yes. He came in last night and didn't bother to notify me! I wanted to surprise my baby with a nice breakfast on her bed and I was the one who got a nasty surprise!"
Lena shushed her mate sternly. "Lower your voice!" she whispered, looking down at the small bump in her abdomen.
Oh, right! Red quietly walked closer to his wife and took a small peek into the newly-sewn pouch on her robes. There he was, curled up safely and suckling on his thumb as he napped, unaware that he was being watched. The smeet looked like a tiny green ball! Red smiled at the sight. Lena soon joined him as she tenderly stroked the pouch.
"He's dreaming..."
"Of course he's got good dreams! He gets to sleep all night!" Purple whined. "Don't take me wrong, he's adorable, but it's hard to get a decent sleep around here ever since he hatched!"
Ignoring the comment, Red introduced a long finger into the pouch. "Rouge, it's time to wake up." The smeet frowned and stirred when his father playfully poked his nose and tried to push the finger away. When it didn't work, he tried nibbling on it. Lena giggled at the sight.
"Come on, sweetie. It's time to come out."
Rouge twitched his tiny lekku at his mother's voice; shifting inside the pouch and stretching out, he let out a yawn. Rouge opened his aqua-green eyes and peeked out with an inquisitive squeak. Purple chimed in happily, leaning his body so that his face was close to the pouch.
"Hi, Rougie!" Sadly, the volume of his voice startled the smeet back into the pouch again.
"No, no, sweetie, it's okay." Lena carefully lifted Rouge out of his little hideout. He tried holding unto the edge of the fabric with his tiny hands to no avail. Feeling exposed, he curled up into a tiny, trembling ball.
In the past, newborn smeets spent most of their time inside their mothers' pouches for the last week of the egg's incubation and the following cycles afterward until they were too big. Nowadays, genetic engineering removed the pouches, and smeets were rarely raised by their parents. However, traces of parenthood remain. There's even a selection of motherhood robes with sewn pouches emulating the natural ones to incubate eggs and house smeets.
Red noted that Rouge was far more attached to Lena, always trying to be as close to her as possible. He'd wail whenever she was out of sight. It was just like Ilk when she was a smeet and got pretty clingy to Red (though she never looked for any pouches). He'd once read that mothers had stronger bonds with their children.
"Here, Rougie, curly fry!" Red playfully waved said snack above the smeet's little head. Rouge looked up tentatively; his eyes lit up as he reached out for his favorite snack, squeaking excitedly.
Ilk and Blue left the former's bedroom right then, properly dressed this time, though Red still shot the kryvtor a frown. Ilk instantly went to greet her little brother. As she cheerfully poked his head, Rouge retaliated by nibbling on her finger with adorable growls.
"He certainly got someone's attitude..." Purple subtly glanced at his co-Tallest.
"Why do you think we picked that name, genius?" Lena coughed loudly, frowning. Red winced. "Err... I mean, Lena was nice enough to pick it because she's great at naming stuff!"
Ilk had heard about the issue from Uncle Pur. Apparently, 'rouge' is an Earthen word meaning 'red' in one of the planet's many languages. Lena named the smeet 'Rouge' as an homage to Dad. He was thrilled until they noticed that Rouge had Lena's greenish-blue instead of his crimson eyes. Dad wanted to pick a more fitting name, but Lena refused stubbornly.
Rouge was placed on a small napkin on top of the table's slippery surface. As he clumsily tried to crawl back to Lena, Red placed a curly fry in front of him. This drove the smeet to change direction towards the snack instead. Rouge ate the fry with little bites, making happy sounds.
"You feed sugar to your hatchlings?" Blue asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They need as many calories as possible, Blue. However, too much sugar can put smeets in a sugar rush." Lena explained. Red shot Purple a frown, to which the latter slurped his drink.
As Blue approached the table to grab his promised bacon, however, Rouge whimpered and curled back into a tight ball again.
"Aww, there, there. I know that evil lizard is scary. But don't worry, daddy won't let him eat you." Red cooed, holding the smeet close to his chest. Then he shot Blue a frown. "Do you mind, lizard?"
"Let me eat him? Seriously? What do you think I am, a cannibal?" Blue growled.
"It wouldn't surprise me, considering that your kind eats raw meat. Speaking of which, shouldn't you be making sure the rest of your... group you hunt and run together with..."
"Pack."
"Shouldn't you be making sure your pack isn't devouring our snacks?"
Blue twitched a talon claw, mumbling under his breath. Basically, the Tallest was telling him to get out of his lounge' in a semi-polite manner. "Fine, your Tallest."
Before Blue could grab his handful of bacon, however, Red snapped his fingers. A long, wide tube lowered from the ceiling and sucked him in. His pained yells echoed through the walls for a moment before they faded away. Ilk sighed in dismay.
"Dad, why don't you just let him use the elevator?" she asked, shooting her father an accusing glance.
"And get his dirty alien germs on it? No way!" Red retorted. "Besides, he'll be fine! He'll land in the main deck near the cafeteria, so I saved him a lot of walking."
Echo furrowed her brow at the food in the cafeteria. The Massive's buffet supposedly had a great variety of meals, but so far they had only seen nachos, fries, pastries, and foods with high amounts of sugar. Guess this must be what Irkens take for variety. They hadn't seen a single slice of meat! Heck, she was so hungry that she'd even take a vegetable by now!
"And they wonder why they're so short," Foxtrot murmured. Glancing around, he motioned a service drone to come closer. "Hey, do you have any actual food?" The tiny Irken seemed to cower.
"What are you looking for?" he whispered timidly. He jumped a few steps back when Echo slammed her hands on the table.
"Anything that is actually edible!" she nearly shouted.
"Raw meat of any kind." Masouri summarized sheepishly.
The drone shifted uncomfortably. "Um, we don't serve raw meat. It's always cooked to medium or whatever term the customer wants."
The kryvtors exchanged dismayed looks. They picked the ashwinder thigh filet with no other choice and went to the nearest empty table to wait for Blue. Foxtrot tentatively poked at the breaded, oil-fried meat. It was still hot. He cut it in half and found a tiny piece of thigh within the overly-thick layer of bread. Echo stared at it, her eye and talon claw twitching.
"Are you bloody shitting me?" she snapped to no one in particular.
"Look at it on the bright side. They do have meat!" Masouri shrank under the table when Echo bared her teeth at him. It wasn't an aggressive gesture perse; she was just hungry and took it out on whoever was unfortunate enough to be nearby.
"How can they have the gall to call this puny thing meat?!"
"Anyhow," Foxtrot said loudly, glancing around for any guards. The last thing they needed was to get thrown into this ship's detention area with a starving Echo. "Did you guys see that photo of the Tallest being freaked out by Zimkro?" Thankfully, that got Echo's attention.
"No, where?"
"Spacebook."
Echo typed into her wrist communicator to display a holographic screen. Entering Spacebook, she typed 'Zimkro' on the search bar. Most of the posts came from Hitorken Zim, but she also saw a few from the crew of the Massive and even from the Tallest themselves. The latest photo depicted Zimkro pressing the side of its face against the Massive's windshield, its tongue sticking out. Meanwhile, the Tallest were hiding behind one of the rows of control panels, looking scared out of their wits. The status read:
SOMEBODY GET RID OF THAT ABOZIMATION!
"Wait, what?" Echo reread the sentence. "Abozimation? Don't they mean abomination?"
"Skoodge explained it to me. They had recently ended a call with Zim and Tallest Purple came up with the word by adding Zim's name to 'abomination' because he's the 'worst abomination ever'. Everyone's been using it ever since." Masouri explained.
"You know, it kinda sounds cool," Foxtrot added.
"Of course it's cool! It's got Hitorken Zim's name on it."
"Whoa," as Echo scrolled down Spacebook, she saw a particular alert that caught her attention. "Did you notice? Tallest Purple changed his status to 'seeing someone!" Foxtrot and Masouri leaned their heads closer, crests bristled in interest.
"Purple? That guy's got the mentality of a six-month-old hatchling, I don't think he's ready to court anything yet."
"Does it say who the lucky guy or girl is?"
"No, but take a look at this." Echo searched for another profile. "Akkono Makroto changed her status to 'seeing someone' too around the same time."
"Akkono? That name rings a bell..."
"I think she's the kryvtor he teamed up with in the last task of the Indokani Exams," Masouri said. "But honestly, I thought they hated each other."
"And who do you think he took to Ilk and Blue's wedding as a companion? Her identical twin?" Foxtrot sneered.
"I guess I didn't recognize her in formal wear... Oh, look, it's Blue! Hey, Blue, over here!"
The kryvtor nearly missed Masouri's calls. The loud murmur of thousands of Irkens and the soreness all over his body had all his attention. Blue would have probably walked by if Masouri hadn't been waving his arm in the air.
"Whoa, did you get trampled by a gaikubi or something?" Ignoring Masouri's remark, Blue dropped onto the chair and let his body fall to the table.
"Tallest Red didn't want my 'reptilian presence' in his elevator and sent me through a tube. Again. He didn't even give me time to grab my bacon!" Blue rubbed his sore head. "Owow... I swear, that Irken hates my guts." And he'd never done anything to at least dissimulate it.
Foxtrot snorted. "Why would he? I mean, it's not like you wooed his daughter when she was technically still a child."
"Wow, that makes me feel better! Please tell me you have any food, I'm starving!"
"Well, there's this... thing." Masouri pointed at the remaining breaded filet. "It's supposed to be ashwinder thigh, but you probably won't recognize it without the tender juicy texture and bluish color."
"It's more of a ball of fried bread than meat if you ask me." Echo crossed her arms bitterly.
Blue poked at the ball of breaded meat. Warily, he took a sniff. It didn't smell that bad for a fried dish. Hunger overcame caution and he ate it in one bite. Blue quickly regretted it as it burned his tongue, but instead of spitting it out he swallowed it and took a bit gulp of water. Echo was right; there was no meat flavor at all.
Once he got over the commotion, Blue looked around for a speck of black. "Hey, where's Fury?" A loud crash and panicked yell from within the kitchen followed almost on cue. "Nevermind."
The kryvtors found the kitchen a complete mess. Pieces of porcelain from broken plates, cooking utensils, and pots were scattered all over the floor. A group of fast-food drones was fearfully peeking from behind the kitchen counters. The other group pointed whatever pointy tool they had at hand at Fury as the indokuro rummaged from the pantry in a feeble attempt to get him away from the food. There were pastries and snacks scattered around Fury all over the floor; he was looking for meat and couldn't care less about these. Blue did see a bit of whipped cream smeared on his indokuro's snout, though.
"Looks like someone's going to have nasty indigestion," Foxtrot muttered.
"Fury, no! Bad boy!" Blue made his way through the disaster, apologizing to whoever he passed by. "Get away from there, that food is not yours!" Instinctively, Fury growled and raised his spines. Blue bristled his crest and stood his ground, locking his gaze with him. "Step back!"
After some moments of tense silence, Fury grumbled in defeat and walked out of the pantry.
"Lizard, your 'pet' just ruined a week's amount of the Tallest's snacks!"
"Sorry, I'll cover the costs!"
"That's not the problem! The problem's that if the Tallest want something and we tell them that it's out of stock, we'll get thrown out of the airlock!"
"Why? It's not your fault that you're out of stock!"
"At least not this time around." Masouri glanced at Fury.
"They don't care!" The fast-food drone continued. "Someone's got to be thrown under the bus, and that's usually the shorters! That means us!"
"Okay, okay, how about this? We'll help you cook all the snacks Fury ate to make up for it. Does that sound fair to you?" The drones exchanged glances. "What?" Blue inquired.
"We didn't think your kind cook. I mean, you eat raw meat."
"Just because we like raw meat doesn't mean we don't cook other things." Masouri retorted with a frown of his own. "Besides, kryvtors have quick reflexes and perfect eye-to-hand coordination. We'll make things easier for you and the Tallest won't even know."
Though still uncertain, the drones ended up accepting the offer. If anything did go wrong, at least they wouldn't be thrown out of the airlock.
Ilk sighed in dismay as she walked down the corridor towards the cafeteria. This once, she was glad that Blue had been sucked by the tube; he didn't get to see Dad and uncle Pur's reaction when she informed them of their plans to visit Zim.
"You sure, sweetheart? There's plenty of other places you can go!"
"Yeah, why not Vacatio? It's sunny, fun, and Zim isn't there!"
Ilk sighed. "Dad, Uncle Pur, I want to visit Zim. It's been a long time ever since I was on Urth. Besides, Blue and the others have been begging me to go to Urth."
"I knew the lizards had something to do with it!" Dad snapped. He gave her a concerned look. "Sweetie, why visit Zim at all? I wouldn't want you to get blown up!"
"Zim won't blow me up, that!"
"Not on purpose, but he certainly can do it!"
The argument lasted for twenty minutes until they conceded. However, Dad asked her not to leave just yet. Ilk saw no trouble with it since the Ibris was in maintenance and wouldn't be ready until later.
She looked around for signs of the Raptor Squad in the cafeteria but found no signs of them. That's odd, they should be here. Or maybe they went to explore the Massive? They're the first non-Irkens aboard the Irken flagship not in the detention cells, after all.
As she passed by a table, the pleasant smell from the occupants' food made her glance their way. Their snacks seemed unchanged, but on close inspection, Ilk noticed that they looked more... appetizing. The donuts looked crisp but not too crunchy, while the frosting was colorful and light. The pilots were enjoying their pastries so much that they had even taken off their masks to devour them.
"What do you have there, Jack?" Ilk asked curiously. The navigator in question froze for a moment, then looked at her.
"You... know my name?"
"Of course! You're Jack, one of the senior navigators aboard the Massive. You've been working here before I arrived... I think." Ilk noted the tension in the Navigator's shoulders. "Is something wrong?"
"N-No, miss! It's just..." Jack sighed. "As you said, I've been working onboard the Massive for cycles and yet the Tallest never even bothered to learn my name."
"You shouldn't feel bad about that; dad and uncle Pur rarely call their workers by their names. Anyhow, I was asking about your snacks."
"Oh, that! The snacks are far tastier than usual, almost of the same quality as the Tallest's own!" Jack held out one of the doughnuts. "Here, try one, miss."
Just like she imagined, the dough had a soft, but not too crispy texture. It didn't have the usual amount of oil leaking from it, only enough to keep it moist. Her lekku were twitching wildly at the warm, sweet smell. Ilk couldn't resist it any longer and gave it a bite. She was instantly overwhelmed by a swirl of flavors; vanilla filling, strawberry frosting, and tiny hints of chocolate in the sprinkles. Jack was right, these are just as good as the highest-quality food available in the Tallest Lounge.
"Soo good!" Ilk spoke in-between munching. She couldn't help herself and unashamedly grabbed another donut. "Who made it? Is there a new Frylord on board or something?"
"Not as far as I'm aware, miss. However, I heard some of the customers around here say that your... mate and his entourage went into the kitchen a while ago and are yet to come out."
No way! Could they be...? Thanking Jack for the donut, Ilk rushed towards the kitchen and froze on spot.
"Hey, Ilk! About time you appeared!"
They were cooking. Blue, Masouri, all of them were cooking. Not only that, but they seemed pretty good at it too. Foxtrot was chopping ingredients with surgical precision using his bare claws. Echo was handling the dough like a professional patisserie drone; firm grip, but delicate hands. Masouri handled the frying station at the speed of lighting; when one batch was ready, he'd place them on the nearby bowls and put the next dough into the oil. Then there was her Blue; he helped some of the fast-food drones with the final touches while keeping an eye on the rest of the stations.
"What... is...?"
"Fury ate all of your dad and uncle's snacks and we're helping them make more to make up for it." Echo said bluntly, deeply focused on her task. Ilk glanced at the indokuro. Fury didn't seem to be sorry about the whole thing; instead, he was staring intently at the floor, attentive at anything that might fall.
"It was that or being thrown out of the airlock," Masouri added quickly while placing another fried batch. "Echo, I need more dough!"
"And does dad know that you're cooking his food?"
"The whole point is that he won't know about this so we don't get thrown out of the airlock." Touché.
Ilk found herself helping with the rest of the snacks, particularly in the decorating department. After all, no one knew the Tallest's particular tastes better than her. Before long, the pantry was fully re-restocked and the kryvtors were free to go; they had to drag Fury out of the kitchen before he could eat it all again.
"Guys, the Ibris is as good as new, so we can finally go!" Masouri chirped as they left the cafeteria.
"Why did you send it to maintenance, anyway? There was nothing wrong with it."
"Are you kidding? Do you have any idea of how many space roach entrails I've been seeing on the windshield every morning? It's disgusting!"
"Wouldn't it be easier if you installed a whipper, genius?"
As Masouri said, the Ibris was already waiting for them on one of the hangars. And waiting for them at right next to the Ibris was none other than...
"Hey, Ilk, have you tried these? I don't know who made them, but whoever he is, my compliments!" Purple said in-between munching mouthfuls of crispy, golden-brown donuts. The raptor squad looked away absentmindedly.
"Hello, your Tallest." Blue greeted. He tried to sound indifferent, but he couldn't help but feel complimented; earning the Tallest's compliments is quite a feat.
Ignoring the kryvtor, Red stepped forward; to his side, a table drone stood with wobbling legs due to the weight of all the things on top of him. "Sweetie, since you probably won't change your mind about visiting... Urth no matter what I say, I figured you could at least need a few things just in case."
Before Ilk could even try to protest, her father started placing a variety of items over her arms, including fresh clothing, a pillow, a helmet, an Irken manual swiss laser-knife, amongst other things. Echo and Foxtrot snickered behind her; Ilk could imagine Blue trying his best not to join them. Ilk blushed deeply, shooting the kryvtors a frown. Echo saw the cue and dragged her male companions towards the Ibris.
"...some clean underwear, your favorite snacks, and hot chocolate if you get hungry, but be careful not to burn yourself! There's also a plasma gun and a taser in case one of Zim's creations goes awry-"
"Daaaad!" Ilk snatched whatever remained on her father's hold with her PAK-limbs. "Come on, it'll be fine! It's not like I'm going to a danger zone or something!"
"Ilkie, any place with Zim on it is a danger zone." Purple pointed out.
Lena placed a comforting hand on Red's shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll be only a few days. Besides, you've seen that Zim can be reasoned with... somewhat." Or so it seemed. Lena herself had witnessed how the Sobrekt got Zim to keep her pregnancy a secret during her 'smeet shower'; she didn't exactly understand how, but they didn't need to directly ask him to keep quiet. Foxtrot had called it 'planting the idea inside his head'.
Red hesitated for a while, but finally, he conceded. He shot Blue a deep frown, cracking his knuckles. "You better keep my baby safe or else..."
Far from being intimidated, Blue rolled his eyes. "With all due respect, your Tallest, if I received a raise for every time you've told me that..."
"Whoa, look at the time! It's getting late, we should go!" Ilk interrupted before this turned into yet another argument. Kissing her father goodbye and hurriedly hugging Lena and Uncle Pur, she started pushing Blue towards the Ibris. "See you later!"
As the staircase closed behind them, Red made sure to remind Ilk to change her underclothing every now and then.