[I'm really honored you guys like this, because I don't honestly think it's my best work. Oh well. I am loved!]

Tak, Skoodge, and Zim stood around Tain's table. Red, however, had distanced himself in one dusty corner, studying the cobwebs like they were the most interesting pieces of weavings he'd ever seen. Under his breath, he muttered about pagan rituals.

Tain ignored him, shuffling the thick deck of partially worn down yellow cards. "Now you, Zim, will be the Querant. Pick out the card that will represent you."

"Do you have a MASTER of doom card in there?" Zim asked, peering at the deck.

After a moment, Tain dryly extended a wrinkled hand holding a worn card. "I have strength."

"Zim approves!" he nodded, his antennae bobbing. Tain sighed and laid the card down, folding out the rest of the cards.

"Hopefully, this will give us some clue where to look for the other tallest."

"That's another thing," Red noted loudly from the corner. "Why TWO tallests?"

"Because you two are the exact same height."

"But couldn't we just… kill Spork now, make me tallest, and find him later?" Red asked, continuing to stare straight ahead at the cracked brown walls.

"I'm afraid we need both of you there when Zim… eliminates… Spork, or else the transport back to his own world might not work."

"So, who cares if he gets back to his own world?" Red asked with a shrug, ignoring the stares that were then being directed at his arched back. Zim narrowed an eye suspiciously at the would-be tallest before turning back to the cards.

"The cards are telling me that we need to look closer to home rather than further away."

Tak frowned. "That could mean he's on Delphi, or one if its moons. He could even be in a nearby building, if it wants us to look closer rather than further."

Tain nodded, pulling out a withered map. "Tak and Skoodge, you two search to the North. Zim, you take Red and go to the South."

"Shall we continue to use the story that we're trying to reunite separated brothers?"

"Sounds decent to me. Just be careful to avoid any Irken enforces that might be on Delphi. The last thing we need is Spork getting word of our plans."

Back on the Massive, Violet's head dangled lifelessly to her side. Her arms were suspended over her head, tied in place with thick, black rubber ropes. Her legs, held apart at a highly awkward angle, were bound tightly with metal cuffs. She was flat on her back on top of the mattress of her bed, bound tightly to the bedposts.

Spork smiled, sliding a finger under her chin and bringing her burning eyes up to meet his cold grin. "My little birdies tell me you've been a very, very bad girl. Mixing with rebels! Tsk, tsk, my love. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Eat me," Violet replied weakly.

Spork grinned. "I never mix business with pleasure." He slid easily across the floor, never touching it. His hover belt hummed out a quiet, dark little tune that seemed to match the aura floating about him as he moved.

"So a stranger who is supposedly from another world is searching for the means to bring me down. Well, I'll just have to make sure he doesn't find it, will I?"

Violet turned her head away, shifting slightly. Her arms and legs were beginning to ache from being stretched out to near-impossible lengths for such a long period of time. She almost wished her limbs would simply rip out of their sockets and end the stretching pain.

"My spy has done well, bringing me this information. You may have been a very good traitor, Violet, but I assure you that my mole in their little group is much better than you'll ever be. After all, they," he emphasized, "haven't gotten caught yet."

"So why don't you just kill me now and be done with it?" Violet asked. "If I'm such a horrible Irken?"

"I'm not letting you live for you. I'm letting you live for my egg, which you have yet to lay. This time, you won't be able to poison yourself to bring on a miscarriage. I always suspected you were, but until now I had no proof. You really should be more careful whom you talk with at clubs, Violet. After all, you could end up suspended from someone's wall like a trophy." He glanced over at her and burst into harsh, ear-sawing laughter. "Oh, you already did."

"You are pretty clever. Tell me, which one of them was the mole? Was it Tak? The little insane shorty?"

"Oh, you'd like to know who betrayed you, hmm? Who put your life in my hands?" He grasped her antennae and kissed her face. "You'll know their face when your little rebel compatriots join you. I've reserved places on your walls for them," he said, gesturing to the manacles that she was horribly familiar with from her position as head torture master.

Red ducked another low-hanging clothesline as he followed Zim, trying to avoid getting any wet substances dripped onto his head. Sometimes they were harmless, sometimes they were like water and sent burning shocks of agony from his frail body. "So, we're looking for someone who looks just like me?"

"I already told you that three times," Zim sighed. His stomach rumbled. He wished he'd condescended to eating that gruel Tain had mixed up, even if Invaders didn't put such vile things into their digestive tracks. "But with purple eyes."

"Light or dark purple?" Red asked.

"Well, kind of light, but also dark… more light than dark… medium purple?"

"Like a nice, light lavender?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Found him." Red said shortly.

Zim froze. "What?" he asked, whirling around on one heel. The uniform creaked with a rubber sound as he did. Vinyl was not attractive on the Irken form in any way, shape, or style.

Red pointed up. An oversized poster loomed over them, featuring a relatively pale Irken with deep, reflective lavender eyes. He was dressed in a loose, black flowing outfit and seductively leaning on a pole covered in dried flowers. In front of him stood a short female Irken with bright, burning red eyes similarly dressed in black and clutching a microphone in her lace-gloved hands. Two other black-clad Irkens loomed in the background, apparently hooked together like Siamese twins. In dramatic, curved letters the poster declared "Ruby Eyes, Violent Tones: Irken Gothic."

"That… can't be…" Zim muttered.

"It has to be… I heard they were filming their new music video on one of the moons of Delphi." Red commented. After a pause, he threw in, "Not that I read tabloids or even like that kind of music!"

Zim stared back in response, crooking a brilliant ruby eye at Red. "Right, my tallest," he commented dryly. "So, what now?"

"Now, we go tell the others. Then we figure out what to do about it."

~

Zim stared at himself in the mirror. He was dressed in a black trenchcoat that would have been far more fitting on Dib, with a see-through mesh shirt underneath. The shirt alone made him feel he was naked despite the weight of the thick trenchcoat. He had fake piercings on his antennae. A dark black squiggle extended out of what seemed to be his left eye in the mirror and down under his chin. His usual black gloves had been replaced by a pair of tight-fitting vinyl gloves, and the buckle-up boots on his legs were so heavy he wondered how Tak could move in them, let alone be so agile.

Tak was finishing up powdering her face to the point where the green had turned nearly entirely white. When she sneezed from the flowery smell of the powder, a white storm cloud would blow about her face. Knotted red and purple ribbons hung from her antennae. Her outfit was a long black dress with puffed sleeves and a crimson corseted middle. The vinyl high heels alone threatened to cause her to trip and break her neck.

Skoodge was wearing a top hat and a black cape with a red lining. Underneath, he had a dapper black business suit. He'd drawn on a fake mustache. He grinned at them, tapping his fake-diamond tipped cane. Tain, meanwhile, had chosen the simple route and had draped only a black cloak over his usual outfit.

"Come on out, Red," Skoodge and Tain coaxed to the closed bathroom door.

"No! Goth is evil! Goth is sin!"

"Oh for the love of… you'll be able to spread the word of the laser once you're tallest, remember?"

There was a pause. "Yeaaaaaaaaaaah… but… I still look silly."

"You can't stay in the bathroom forever."

"Why not? All I need is food and I've got everything I need to survive in one place."

"Well, we're not going to give you food in the bathroom. So come on out."

There was a heavy sigh from behind the splintered door, then it slowly creaked open. Red, with streaks of his namesake color decorating his face and antennae, slowly crept out. He was wearing a black vest over a deep red crushed velvet dress that hugged his rather curved hips in a gentle manner, making him look more feminine than perhaps the priest would have desired.

Tak snorted. "Dude looks like a lady," she whispered.

Red took one look at her before darting back into the bathroom. He probably would have stayed there and cried all night had Tain not stopped him from shutting the door and dragged him back out.

"Now," Tain commented dryly. "To get into the nightclub."

"I hear they're really, really selective."

"Well, let's hope at least one of us looks Goth enough to get in, let alone get close to Purple," Tak replied before sneezing from her makeup again.

"To us!" Tain shouted. "To the mission."

Everyone else simply stared.

And now, this must "To Be Continued"… as I have finals.