I don't own Invader Zim okay? Since my first two pet IZ fics are finished now (Taboo and Minutes to Midnight) I am working on my new pet Zim projects of this one and Journey to a New World. But you didn't come here to know that, just to read the fic. So enough of this A/N, on with the fic!
"Reencoding finished. Carry on with your duties Tallests Ceus and Sizz-lorr." The Control Brains said. "Tallest Tower is yours."
"Nice." Sizz-lorr said sarcastically.
"No need for an attitude like that." Ceus said as she headed towards the door to head to the command room in Tallest Tower. "You and I can reign in this empire, eliminate the Meekrob threat and rebuild it to something that we can be proud of. That someone with your former training doesn't have to run and hide in food service. And I am sure that the throne room is way better than the manager's office at Shloogoroth's."
"Well, maybe but it was mine. And I didn't think I was running from my past. I had a job, I was good at it." Sizz-lorr said.
"Or what you were running from made you good at it." Ceus said.
She's nagging me like a wife who keeps pushing her husband to do better...Sizz-lorr thought. "Well you are right we need to get to the throne room and get this mess sorted out."
"Glad to see you are so agreeable my co-Tallest." Ceus smiled.
"Maybe with you..." Sizz-lorr moaned.
Dib lay in the medical wing in a dazed state. The anti venom had been given quickly but he was also placed under a morphine drip and antibiotic at the same time to make sure that he healed and there was no infection that came from the bite. He stare up at the ceiling, thinking of all that had happened in the past week that led him to be laying in a hospital bed, staring at the white, very white ceiling with bright florescent lights flashed above him. I save the planet and it's a fucking snakebite that has me in the hospital. He thought as the nurse came in and checked on him. "Vitals look okay, treatment moving along as to be expected."
"When am I getting out of here?" Dib yelled.
"We we are sure there is no sign of the venom left in the body and infection is kept at bay." The nurse said.
"But Zim and the Tallest are still out there!" He pleaded.
"Didn't your sister head out back to where you had the accident in the first place?" She asked.
"It wasn't an accident. It was an attack on me!" Dib yelled sitting up.
"We may need to up your morphine. Or put you on a different pain killer. Some people react aggressively against others when exposed to opiates." The nurse noted on the chart. "Ibprophne is not as powerful and would need a higher dose but we cannot have you heading out too soon."
"I JUST TOOK DOWN THE FUCKING MASSIVE A FEW DAYS AGO! I WAS ABLE TO RUN AROUND THE VACCUM OF SPACE WITHOUT A SUIT!" Dib yelled sitting up. "I would think these powers that allowed me to do that, would allow me to get over a fucking snakebite."
"I think that is what may be causing the morphine to have a negative reaction." A familiar voice said from the doorway.
"Oh fuck me up the ass. I am thirty fucking two years old. This victory and mission is MINE!" Dib yelled blasting sparks at the doorway where an older man with pointy grey hair came though.
"Now now son, I do not recall raising you to have such a potty mouth." Professor Membrane said.
"Funny because I strictly recall me doing a lot of my own rasing." Dib sulked ignoring his dad.
"I would not take too much offense to what he says Professor Membrane sir." The nurse said. "From what I can tell this is all from an interaction between what he has dubbed his 'Meekrob powers' and the morphine."
"Very possible but there is an old Latin saying I was told after I showed up to my required humanities class drunk in college that the professor told me when I tried to backtrack what I said so he wouldn't fail me." Dib looked up at his father shocked. Dad actually got drunk in college? I mean it was like the 80s or so, but come on.
"You, got drunk in college? You Dad?" Dib laughed. "Well your hair would have fit right in with some of that weird 80s Flock of Seagulls crap."
"I did. It's only natural for one who had just legally become an adult and had all parental supervision pretty much terminated to fully indulge in the legal vices they are now exposed to. But back to the story it was 'in vino vertias' which translates to 'in wine there is truth'. To cut the philosophical crap, it means when one is intoxicated they will let lose with their true thoughts as inhibition is lowered. And in my case, the professor passed me with a C because he admired my drunken courage. That and being a pastor's son who absolutely hated the upbringing I had, he decided to cut me some slack." Dib looked over at his dad surprised he finally revealed this much about his family.
"Ummmmmmmmm this is all stuff you NEVER told me! I mean I would have liked to know more about the Membrane family heritage and get closer to you before you retired!" Dib said looking at his father shocked. "I could have DIED fighting the Massive."
"I had a feeling you wouldn't." Professor Membrane said taking the chart from the nurse looking it over. "Be thankful the boy's mother isn't alive. She'd be watching him day and night and her being a skilled doctor she would oversee this whole thing with no one coming between the two."
"JUST WHAT IS GOING ON?" Dib said as the nurse and Professor Membrane looked at him. "I mean I get bit by a snake, I am not going to die from it but this mix of drugs and powers is pissing me off, and you come and start opening up about your 20s and mom and the grandfather I never met now. After all these years, now! Who let you in here, this is my operation."
"Well Gaz called me, thinking I could handle this better than the standard staff. She took over pursuit of Zim when you could not anymore. Trust me, I do not want to be those Irkens right now." Professor Membrane said as he looked over the notes. "Those aliens have messed with his DNA so I will need a recent sample to see if there is any interactions to the treatments."
"He did experience the symptoms typical of being bitten by a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake upon arrival." The nurse explained.
"I see that here." Professor Membrane said as he pulled one of Dib's hairs out.
"OW! Dad!" He said.
"I needed a sample. And I am getting older now son. And in age I realize what I missed out on and cannot fully get it back, but can spend some time with my son, now that he is the Greatest Person Ever to Live and a man. I am so proud of you." Professor Membrane said twirling Dib's hair in his fingers.
Dib paused and looked at his father speechless. That phrase was something he had sought so desperately for in his life. He chased the paranormal to his dismissal until he caught Zim, till he had proven ghosts real and the Lake Spooky Monster, along with many other creatures that apparently lived in that lake, to be fact. All those got a few 'good jobs' but this was something new. "You're proud of me?" He paused.
"Yes son, I am proud of you Dib. You've done better than I had ever hoped for. Took risks and chances that never would have been seen before despite the adversity against you, some that I regret to have had a hand in. And as touching as this is, I need to do some studies to make sure we find a treatment for you that won't have you ripping innocent nurses' faces off because you are frustrated you are not on the front lines. You are a fighter son, but part of leading is knowing when to delegate. And you delegated well with Gaz."
"She just took over. I know better than to piss her off." Dib said.
"Well I am off. I should have this cracked by sunset." Professor Membrane smiled.
"Are you okay Doctor Membrane?" The nurse looked at Dib.
"Yeah...yeah...that was just kind of unexpected is all..." He said.
"Good because god knows it's time for your second round of anti venom and I don't want you attacking me." She said as she changed the bags on the IV drips.
Zim groaned in futility as he tried to get the engines on the escape pod to start up. It did not need to move far, just enough to get them time. He didn't even need it to leave the Earth's atmosphere, just to go somewhere else. Somewhere where Gaz would not be looking for them. "Any luck with getting Red on a stretcher Purple?" Zim sighed.
"Yeah. I found a few branches and an abandoned tent where those dried out human husks were." Purple said pointing to a sunbaked van where a few people were lying, dead from a mixture of dehydration and excessive drinking and drug use. Zim looked over at the vehicle and while it looked like a 25 year old beat up minivan that the people had likely just gotten from their family, Zim saw it as their chance to get away.
"Did you see any of the guards from the base looking at that thing before you used it for the stretcher?" He asked.
"Not really, they seemed to just laugh at it as it seemed to be a comical fate for humans in the desert." Purple said.
"And they laughed at those who tried to get into Area 51 a few years ago on an internet joke..." Zim said as he tapped his foot. "New plan. I may be able to get an old internal combustion engine to run off the fuel rod from the escape pod better than I can get the pod back running. I mean an escape pod is just that, for escape. Once you've escaped, you can't expect much more from it." With this Zim pulled a green nuclear fuel rod from the escape pod and then followed Purple to the van and smiled. "This, I can get us running on. Right now, we just have to get to safety. I know a bit about this smelly dirt planet. I am an Invader after all. I know what is harmful to us and what gives humans a hard time." He found the gas tank for the van, pulled it out with a laser wrench he had scavenged from the pod and replaced the tank with the nuclear fuel and linked it up. Turning the key, he found the ignition sparked to life. "And we're going." Zim threw the body in the driver seat out and got in. "Clear that corpse out of here, put Red in its place and we are gone."
Purple paused but shrugged knowing there wasn't much use in arguing and threw the corpse out and placed Red on the second row of seats and buckled him in. Once he was comfortable with the rough accommodations, he got in the passenger seat and buckled himself in. "I guess we're off."
"Good. And with the escape pod's mighty Irken perpetual fuel rods, this thing will never need to stop." Zim smiled. But I have no clue where to go to. "We're heading north right now. Up to this place called Devil's Tower in Wyoming. There isn't a lot of people between here and there if I follow the right routes."
"Why there?" Purple asked.
"Better place for a distress signal." Zim said. At least if some of Dib's stories of sightings are correct. He said similar things about phenomenon in Sedona Arizona but that involves passing too many humans...
"I hope this works Zim." Purple said.
"Me too." Zim said.
So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I know it's been awhile since I updated but I have more time on my hands now and will update this more often than I did before at least. And with the whole Membrane family getting on the case in one form or another, things are about to get really heated. And Irken politics and the Resisty will show up later too, don't think I forgot about that. Anyway remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,
otherrealmwriter
aka
Realm.