"First thing is first," Voel pulled out his communicator, beginning to dial a number. Zim's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "If we are having this conversation, again," for some reason Voel was looking directly at Zim as he said this, "then I need to make sure we cover all our bases."

"What are you talking about?" Zim crossed his arms looking annoyed. "That story was perfect. You just missed most of it."

"I know. But I had heard the story before." Voel was clearly mistaken, but Zim would be happy to let him just stay wrong. However, the screen of the communicator illuminated, and Zim saw that Voel had called Skoodge.

"Voel?" Skoodge looked around, a bit perplexed. "Zim? Why are you all in Gavin's room? Why is Gavin still awake?"

'Hi Papa Skoodge!" Gavin gave a wave. "Dad was just telling me about the first Mothra Festival."

"Was he?" For some reason Skoodge had the same expression as Voel. "Right. I'll be right there. You call Therron, I'll call Tenn."

"This is excessive." Zim was hoping to avoid the utter embarrassment that was bound to befall Voel when the truth inevitably came to light. "Gavin has the whole story. Vero and CB even agreed that everything was correct."

"They're lying. Vero is lying to avoid conflict because the smeetery failed us and made him lazy to a fault."

"Thanks pops." Vero gave him a thumbs up. Voel ignored him and continued.

"And CB is lying because he was a bad Control Brain."

"Nonsense. I would never."

"Actually, at the beginning, before papa Zim started the story, you did say that you remembered things going badly..." Gavin pointed out. CB looked appalled- Zim had to admit, that he didn't really recall one way or another, but CB, as was often the case, could be wishy-washy on his answers.

"I think given the circumstances surrounding the event, we did things to the best of our ability." Surprisingly, II's voice came over the speaker on Zim's gauntlet. She was always the left gauntlet. CB had preference to the right. Zim secretly wondered if this was coincidence or if, for some reason, the two Control Brains had worked out who was to appear where.

"Don't defend him." Voel scolded. "He isn't going to learn if we make excuses for him."

"I was doing my best, father." CB protested. "And overall, things were very successful. You can ask Zeke."

"Zeke has to tell Zim's side of the story. It's literally, . his job." Voel countered.

"And he is so good at it too." Zim nodded, knowingly. "Which is why we should ask Zeke."

"No, I think we have this." Skoodge walked in with his communicator out. Zim could see Tenn in the holographic display, she looked a bit sheepish. Voel managed to get Therron on the line on his communicator. "Zim, you need to know what really went down that day. And I guess I should start."

"Try to focus on the Mothra Festival. Your Tallest commands it! Now begone!" That was the last thing Zim had said to them as everyone was dispersed to take care of things for Irk's first big festival after the change in power. Skoodge had the task of handling food. It shouldn't have been too much of an issue, he was working with Sizz-Lorr after all, and the Fry Lord had handled multiple Foodenings. This really shouldn't be an issue for his experienced staff. This might actually go well. It NEEDED to go well. Or else... well... it was going to go well.

Not all Irkens were completely enthralled with the new Era of Irk. There had been a bit of pushback, fortunately, nothing the current regime couldn't handle, however, the last thing they needed right now was to stoke the flames of discontentment. Irkens had already begun to arrive, as Skoodge made his way to the area that had been designated as a food court. He could see Irkens hard at work, serving hungry guests that were just starting to line up. The smell was quite intoxicating. Skoodge would be lying if he said he wasn't at least slightly excited about being in charge of the food.

"Tallest's bonded Skoodge!" One of the server Irkens, a blue eyed taller called Dav, greeted him as he arrived. Skoodge remembered Dav as a customer service, obsessed, friendly-to-a-fault type. Skoodge had had the distinct pleasure of trying to teach him to shoot during his bout in the Irken resistance. "Greetings!"

"Long time no see Dav." Skoodge nodded politely. Dav's antennae wiggled excitedly at the acknowledgment.

"The Tallest's bonded remembers my name!" He was practically beaming. Skoodge had to admit it was kind of nice to get this sort of respect. Even after he had conquered Blorch and become the first success of Impending Doom II, he had been constantly tossed aside and forgotten about. Other Irkens had overlooked him simply due to his size. Now that Zim was in charge, things were finally starting to change. There was just one, little detail... "I am excited you could come oversee us despite your untimely demise!"

"Yes. Thank you." Skoodge let out a sigh. He really wanted Zim to fix this whole 'being dead' thing. It made things just a tad more difficult for Skoodge to get things done when everyone kept trying to give him their condolences. The only solace he got was the fact that Voel and Therron had to deal with it as well, which made him a bit happy.

"It really is a good omen that the dead are walking amongst us during this festival." Dav beamed. "Is there anything I can do for you today?"

"Yes." Skoodge replied politely. "I am just checking on the preparations for today. I see you're already serving customers. That's a bit unexpected this early, isn't it?" Skoodge's PAK informed him of the time, and the festival was not expected to be in its full swing for several more hours. Dav looked over as he saw his fellow server-Irkens bustling around serving a small line forming at the window. Skoodge was pleased to see a few of the newly formed family units- complete with smeets in their arms- buying some of Sizz-Lorr's take on traditional Irken cuisine. (Skoodge had actually had the opportunity to try the menu ahead of time- one of the perks of his new position- and as far as he could remember, it seemed like a viable take on traditional Irken food. There were, however, a few things on the menu he knew to be distinctly from Earth- but no one else should know so, he would keep his mouth shut for now). Dav looked back to Skoodge after taking a moment to assess the line.

"Yeah, it's a little unexpected, I'll be honest. But Dan says that Irkens from all over the planet have been arriving for the past few days."

"Employee of the Month Chef Dan?" Skoodge thought he was still working on the Massive. It would have been a rodamn shame to lose his culinary skills.

"Oh no. Dan from Hospitality. I only wish Employee of the Month Chef Dan was here, but he's too important now." Dav sighed. "Did you know he was once entrusted with the password for the rule-change on the Massive?"

"Oh yeah, Vero told us about that."

"To have worked with Almighty Tallest V must have been incredible!" Dav had such sparkle in his eyes, that Skoodge felt it was in poor taste to point out that Dav, himself, had worked alongside 'Almighty Tallest V' during the rebellion.

"So, Hospitality Dan said that we're getting quite a few Irkens from outside the capital?" Skoodge gently steered Dav back on topic. At one point, before he had started training the rebellion, he had wondered how a taller such as Dav had ended up in food service, but after a few conversations with him, Skoodge realized why it was.

"More than 'quite a few'. Dan is the head of Therron's Bead and Breakfast."

"Therron has a Bed and Breakfast?" Skoodge blinked. This felt like something that would have come up in the time he had been forced to spend with Therron.

"Oh. No. That's just the name of the hotel chain. Apparently, Dan had to get it approved by the Tallests and that was the only name that Tallest Purple would agree to."

"That..." Skoodge sighed a bit, "that makes sense... Listen, you can tell Hospitality Dan that if he wants to submit a name change to the current Tallest, he is more than welcome to. We'll even wave the application fee. Call it... a gift." (The only problem would be stopping Zim from naming it the Zimbassy Suits or something).

"Oh, that's great! I'll let him know! It might be a bit before he can get around to it. He's booked out for the festival."

"Really?" Skoodge was a tad surprised. He knew there might be a few more Irkens than normal in attendance, however, he had been present when Red and Purple had first been inducted as Tallest, and he didn't really recall it being too crowded. He had no trouble finding a room on the day of the festival- and that was before he had conquered a planet. It wasn't like Irkens even really needed to sleep. The hotels were mostly for Irkens to pamper themselves and bask in luxury (though the newer family units had, according to Zeke, been using them to give the smeets a space to unwind or nap as, while they had PAKS, their little bodies had not fully adjusted to the Irken way of life. "Is this one of the higher end hotels?" Skoodge pulled out his reader, quickly typing in the name. While it wasn't the pinnacle of luxury, it was a nice, well reviewed, place for food and rest. He also saw: NO AVAILABILITY written across the top of the page in bright red lettering.

"Most all of the hotels are booked out. We're lucky. Sizz-Lorr booked us all rooms in advance. This is going to be quite the event!" Dav sounded excited.

"Um...well, this is good?" Skoodge was really trying to convince himself of this fact as it seemed that Dav was quite happy with the report. "More Irkens just means more overall satisfaction." He was sure Zeke could spin this, so long as nothing blew up directly in their metaphorical faces. "This is the reason we have the service drones."

"Oh yes!" Dav clapped his hands together. "About that: when are they getting here?" Skoodge blinked for a moment.

"They should have been delivered this morning."

"Oh! Well, I have not personally seen them, but I am sure that's fine." Dav gave a shrug. Usually, Skoodge would have thought this comment was some sort of back-handed sarcasm, however, he was starting to get Ven-vibes from Dav. Optimistic to a fault. He wondered briefly how old Dav was and if this had just been a flaw in the hatching group- but Dav seemed to be quite a bit older than Ven, so this was likely just an unrelated personality trait.

"Right. Can I speak to Sizz-Lorr?"

"Of course! I better get back to serving anyway, Nik looks like she is struggling." Dav opened the counter and allowed Skoodge into the kitchen. Things were a bit busy, but it looked under control. He saw Sizz-Lorr going over a checklist as he simultaneously was stirring a pot.

"Fry Lord."

"Oh! Vice Tallest Skoodge!" He paused for a moment. "I-is that what I'm supposed to call you? I... it seems to change."

"We're... we're workshopping it." Skoodge waved a dismissive hand as this was truly not a pressing matter at the moment. "You can call me whatever, really. I just wanted to check in with the food booths. It seems like you guys might get a little bit more of a crowd than we were expecting."

"Yeah, if these early patrons are an indicator of what's coming, this might be quite the crowd. If I was in Shloogorgh's it wouldn't be a huge deal because I'd have my whole restaurant, but these little pop-up bases are great for Invaders, but they don't necessarily have everything for food service." Sizz-Lorr and the other food service Irkens had been granted access to Invader technology to try and help accommodate them for the Mothra Festival. (Especially since the Irkens were not currently Invading and the technology had to go somewhere.) However, it seemed that they were still not quite up to the Fry Lord's standards, but in Skoodge's defense, they had not had a great amount of time to prepare for the festival at all- nevertheless for a crowd of this size.

"Right, but that's why we were going to use the service drones." Before this had all begun, there had been a plan in place to use a bunch of table service drones that had been borrowed from other eateries that would be closed for the festival. (Most Irkens were happy to oblige any request the Tallest asked of them).

"That was the plan. Yes."

"Was?" Skoodge echoed.

"They never showed up." Sizz-Lorr gestured around him. Indeed, there was the distinct absence of buzzing, busy drones.

"What?" Skoodge paused for a moment before clearing his throat. "Sizz-Lorr, may I use your back office for a moment?"

"Of course." The Fry Lord stepped aside and Skoodge walked past him to a small office in the back. He closed the door securely behind him. He wasn't entirely sure what news he was about to receive, but he figured it would be best in private.

"CB! II!" He called out, looking vaguely in an upward direction.

"I am sorry, but the number you have called has been disconnected." A voice that sounded distinctly like CB came out of one of the speakers in the wall. He was glad he had isolated himself, as some of the Irkens were still a bit jumpy around AI's- especially those that had been directly controlled by IX or the others.

"Uh huh." Skoodge put his arms behind his back, looking directly at the speaker. "CB, dude, what the fuck?"

"I am not CB. I am an automated response."

"Automated responses don't respond directly to being called CB."

"Listen."

"CB, where are the service drones?"

"We are working on that."

"We?" Skoodge's antennae perked up.

"Affirmative. WE."

"Then let me talk to II."

"Why? I have said that things are being handled."

"Because I want to."

"One moment please." There was a bit of a pause before Skoodge head: "This is II." In a voice that was clearly CB doing a very bad impression.

"CB, where is II?" Skoodge's tone became a bit more severe. It was true he trusted CB, more or less. The AI had been instrumental in their survival, as well as the overall rescue of their planet. However, whenever the AI dodged questions, it made Skoodge (reasonably) nervous. After all, he was still new as a Control Brain. "Did you eat her?"

"For the last time I do not EAT other AIs. Please stop calling it that. It is a very weird way of putting it and it makes me sad."

"I am here." at last Skoodge heard II speak.

"There you are, I was beginning to worry." Skoodge felt a wave of relief as he heard II speak. The small part of him that had been worrying about CB was put more at ease when he heard her voice. It could be possible that CB was just improving on his imitation, but II and CB had distinctively different speech patterns that seemed to stem from II speaking mostly Irken, and CB having spent a good deal of his life alternating between English and Irken.

"My apologies for the delay. I was busy searching for the drones. I cannot, I am afraid, apologize for CB's poor impression of me."

"Wow, rude. I thought I did a good job."

"Factually speaking you did not."

"That is hurtful. But I will dismiss it because I am aware that you are speaking from a place of stress and therefore your words are meaningless."

"It is true. I also acknowledge that your processes are stretched more thinly due to our current situation, and perhaps you were unable to put as much effort into your impression as you would be able to under normal circumstances."

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

"Um- hi?" Skoodge waved at the speakers, instantly feeling a little silly as neither speaker had a camera attached, however, there was a camera in the office, so he assumed the gesture wasn't entirely lost on the AIs. "I'm glad the two of you just had a moment or whatever it was I just witnessed, but I'm here about the drones?"

"Oh. Yes. Those. We are working on locating them." II replied. Skoodge was now entirely convinced this was II because CB was never so straight forward, especially not with bad news.

"What do you mean by 'locating'? They were supposed to be stored in the warehouse on the corner of Glor and Furntz."

"Affirmative. We knew that. We were at the meeting too, father." CB sounded a bit annoyed by Skoodge's question. "If they were at the warehouse, I do not think we would be struggling to find them right now."

"What happened to them?" Skoodge demanded.

"Clearly, we do not know that, father. If we did, we would not be looking for them currently and you would have them here."

"Okay then, smart ass, did you check the cameras?" While Skoodge did appreciate CB, there was a small part of him that missed the robotic efficiency of the other Control Brains. (Not that he would ever question Zim publicly on the matter, but it did seem, at times, as if there were issues derived from putting what was basically a teenage-to-young-adult AI in charge of an entire Empire with what was essentially just a single, older –and slightly damaged- AI as guidance).

"Affirmative. And I am smart. Thank you."

"What did the cameras see?"

"Unfortunately, cameras appear to have been tampered with." II spoke up. "We are trying to fix the footage; however, things have been very difficult to reconstruct with only a part of our brains available for this particular task."

"Can I see the footage? I am an ex-Invader. I might be able to see something you guys are missing since you're both running so many other tasks."

"I suppose that can be arranged." II replied agreeably enough. "Having you look into this will allow CB and I to better attend to other tasks."

"Show me what you have."

"Skoodge, with all due respect, you're boring everyone." Therron interrupted the story rather quickly. "Look at Base Baby, he's practically unconscious."

"Gavin." Zim corrected. "We're supposed to use his human-name. Otherwise, you will give him a complex."

"Huh?" Gavin blinked. Zim saw his head was on the pillow already. Maybe Skoodge's story was boring him. Zim thought it was interesting enough (if not somewhat unrealistic), but Gavin's attention span was not as good as Zim's.

"He's sleepy because it's late." Skoodge looked at the time on his communicator, "relatively speaking at least."

"I mean if you really think about it, time is a construct created by Irkens to conceptualize the infinite expanse of our existence." Vero replied from his spot on the floor. He had picked up the controller and was back to playing Gavin's game, though he had changed it to a single player mode. There was a long pause as everyone looked at him in silence.

"You okay there, Vero?" Voel looked a tad concerned.

"Oh yeah. Why?" Vero grabbed a handful of chips from a bag that Zim had not seen before. "I'm just enjoying the story."

"How? How can anyone be enjoying Skoodge's story? It lacks the most important thing a story should have: Me!" Therron looked appalled by the lack of attention he was getting. Zim had to admit Therron was a lot more tolerable over the screen of a communicator. If he ever got to be too annoying Zim had the option to just turn him off. "And I'm the one who really, truly suffered during this absolute disaster of a festival!"

"Sweet Mothra, I said I was sorry!" Tenn retorted sounding annoyed by Therron's outburst. (Maybe she, too, was interested in Skoodge's story?)

"You are not sorry ENOUGH. Do you have any idea what I went through? This whole thing was a PR disaster! You're so lucky that Zeke is good at lying to cover it all up. He's had years of practice telling lies about us."

"Actually, most of Zeke's articles about you guys were true, weren't they?" Skoodge never seemed to miss an opportunity to remind Voel and Therron of this fact. "And the stuff he writes about Zim is also all true, he's just a bit more selective. You shouldn't say he lies, he's pretty adamant about being a voice of truth to the Irkens."

"Then WHY was he so much harsher on Voel and I when we were the Tallests!? That little asshat was tearing us apart every chance he got."

"Oh, he just didn't like you guys." Vero mumbled through a mouthful of chips. "You like... denied him some farm-stuff he needed or something one time and called him short." Again, there was a moment of silence as both Theron and Voel looked as if they had been slapped across their respective faces. Zim had not seen an attack take place, but he could no longer rule one out based on the expressions of those around him.

"Ex-fucking-cuse me, THAT'S why Zeke doesn't like us?" Voel spoke up.

"I mean I guess he likes you fine now." Vero shrugged. "He thinks you're both kinda loud and annoying, but he likes you more in your current jobs."

"How can Zeke not absolutely adore us? I mean- I guess I get not liking Voel, he's a bit loud, brutish, and hot headed- but me? I'M an actual GIFT."

"Can we get back to the story?" Gavin complained. Zim figured this might have been a good time for an interruption because if they needed to list everything wrong with Therron, they would be here well into the late hours.

"Right, the story-" Skoodge began but Therron cut him off.

"Let me skip to the important part."

Dictating the celebratory elements of the Mothra Festival was no minor task, so of course, it had to fall on Therron to carry it out. There was the matter of the Parade, which, while Zim needed to have final say, Therron had gotten to help organize and arrange. Working with the Mothra Elite so closely reminded him of his time as Tallest- though admittedly- the Control Brains really handled most of this. Therron really only recalled signing off on a form here or there and the rest of the festivities just sort of fell into place. In fact, the last festival he had gone to, all he really remembered was Voel complaining about not getting to fight in the competition because he was Tallest now and it was against some sort of rule for him to fight. (Sym had been really insistent on it- she basically followed them both throughout the festivities to make sure Voel wasn't sneaking off). While things were a bit more complicated without the Control Brains to ease the transition, it was a bit of a welcome change to be more involved. The Mothra Elite had even added animatronics to the floats this year.

"Thank you for all your help, dead ex-Tallest Purple." Mothra Elite Dae nodded to him, her antennae wiggling beneath the veil.

"Just, Tallest Purple is fine."

"But you are no longer Tallest."

"Don't you have to respect the dead on this sacred holiday?" Therron raised one of his antennae, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hmm." Dae's expression was obscured, but Therron could tell from her tone of voice that she wasn't really considering this option. "While that is true, it is acceptable to only honor requests that are within reason, Dead Ex-Tallest Purple."

"Therron. Just... call me Therron."

"As you wish. Thank you for your help, Therron, we will have the Tallest go over the parade order and the route. He will get final say, but I must admit you have done quite a wonderful job with your organization. In fact, if the Mothra Elite could get bonded, I would be honored to be bonded to one as handsome and clever as-"

"Okay Theron, tone it down, I don't think Dae tried to bond with you." Voel drummed his fingers on Gavin's nightstand looking rather annoyed.

"Can the Mothra Elite really not bond?" Zim asked uncertainly. He had never tried to bond with the Mothra Elite, as he already had two bondmates.

"It doesn't matter, Zim, Therron is going to lose his story-telling privileges for lying." Voel replied, leaning back against the wall.

"Well excuse me for adding some creative flair to keep things engaging for your smeet." Theron scoffed. "Fine. Let me continue:"

"Therron, you are a perfectly believable amount of amazing." Mothra Elite Dae nodded, in respect. "Once this is approved, we can continue to move forward with our plans. Thank you "

"You are welcome." While it was different having to answer to Zim, it was still nice to have a position so deeply involved in something that was sacred to the Irken people. "Unless you need anything else from me, I have other things to tend to, and other orders to give."

"Of course, we will be in touch." She clasped her hands together. "And may Mothra help your spirit find peace in the beyond." Therron bit back the urge to say something, however it was in poor taste to snap at an Elite on a religious holiday. So, he just sighed softly.

"Thank you." He took his leave. As he entered back into the capital city, he noticed how many more Irkens had filled the streets. It was actually quite busy out. It was still early and yet the crowd reminded him of the peak crowds at his own first Festival as Tallest.

"Therron!" There was a voice in the crowd that sounded familiar. Therron paused, the Irkens around him began to whisper and shockingly, a path was forged as Irkens hurried away from the speaker in question. As Therron saw who it was calling to him, he heaved a heavy sigh. Of course.

"Captain can you not let this obsession go?" There she was, Captain Rose, hanging off the arm of a short, blonde human male. "For the last time, it would never work between us."

"Right." While her expression was a bit difficult to read, Therron could see her cardiac-spooch shattering behind her pale blue, glassy eyes. "You remember my husband, Gary?"

"Heyo!" The humans waved cheerfully. Therron hadn't often spent time in the presence of the Captain's bondmate as it was incredibly awkward to have her fawning over him in the presence of her actual mate.

"Yes, hi Gerald."

"Actually, it's just Gary-" the blonde tried to correct him but a few Irkens in the black security uniforms had stepped in between the Therron and the love-stricken Captain. The security Irkens looked concerned, turning to Therron.

"Is everything all right deceased Tallest Purple?"

"Yes yes. You can't blame the woman for being smitten, I mean, look at me? It's not my first hopelessly in love stalker." He sighed. Poor Captain Rose, she was just embarrassing herself and the Syndicate by proxy.

"She's in love with you?" The security Irkens looked back to the Captain who had her face in her hands. Therron didn't mean for her confession of love to get so much attention. The poor woman must have been mortified.

"It's understandable." Therron tried to wave the security away, but they weren't moving.

"Is that why she killed you?" The lead guard asked uncertainly.

"What?" Therron blinked. The Captain had her hand up to her face and she brought it down slowly with an aggravated sigh. Her eyes were narrowed.

"That is what I was TRYING to tell you, Therron. The Irkens still think I murdered you and Voel."

"I don't know what you want me to DO about that." Therron retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. Just because he had rejected her, didn't give the Captain the right to be 'snippy'.

"Tell them the truth?" She gestured to the gathering crowd.

"Oh, Captain... you poor, naive Tangean. That isn't going to work." Therron had been dealing with this for a while, and he knew that her simple solutions of logic would have absolutely no effect on the Irkens still reliant on the Collective. And stupid Zim still hadn't updated anyone's status. "Watch." Therron turned to the onlookers. "Hey! It's me! Your beloved Tallest! Captain Rose didn't kill me because I'm not dead! See? Not dead!" He waved his arms dramatically and the Irkens he drew near, all scurried away when he got close.

"Sir, is your killer bothering you or not?" The security Irkens looked rather unamused by the display. Therron took a deep breath. The Captain was right, this was going to need to be addressed, one way or another.

"I have returned from the great beyond, a wiser and more understanding Irken." Therron spoke with authority and instantly he knew the crowd was hanging on every word.

"So, you admit that the Captain killed you!?" There was a voice in the crowd. A taller, male Irken stepped forward. Therron's eyes narrowed, his antennae tilted back.

"Who are you?"

"Korq, I'm with the INN." The Irken replied. Therron scanned his PAK and sure enough the story checked out. "Irkens want to know why our 'New Tallest' would willingly invite murderers like the Syndicate to Irk during a time of peace and celebration."

"The Syndicate were framed, isn't that common knowledge?" The Captain looked concerned; Therron knew that she was worried about scaring him off. But this was a far more pressing matter.

"Our dead Tallest just admitted that YOU killed him!" Korq retorted.

"No, I just admitted that I died. Pay attention." Therron snapped his fingers to get the attention back on him where it belonged. "In the great beyond, I was told that my death was part of Mothra's great plan. She needed to ignite a spark in the Irkens, she needed to fill us with fire and vigor. My death was a part of Mothra's great plan to inspire YOU to fight the Control Brains. And it worked." There was an awed silence as he finished addressing the crowd.

"So, you WERE murdered by the Syndicate?" Korq was pressing for a confession and Therron knew it. But he wasn't going to be so easily manipulated like some of his peers.

"In the grand scheme of things, I was murdered by IX." He replied pointedly. "And that's what really matters."

"What about the Parasite?"

Great. Now Therron was going to have to defend Q and that fucking sucked. No one, Irken or otherwise should have to be forced to deal with taking a Parasite's side. "If you're talking about anything bad that happened, you're talking about M. Not Q. Q was the good Parasite" if there even was such a thing, "that helped save the Irken Resistance. That's why we call him the Great Hero Q. It's not at all because he's an insistent, annoying asshole. It's the admiration."

"But how do you know it was M? M loyally served Tallest X!" Korq was starting to get on Therron's last nerve.

"And Tallest X served IX. So again, bad stuff was M. Good stuff was Q. And if you can't understand that it is simply because you can't tell them apart and it's your own fault. But don't be too hard on yourself because they are shapeshifters. It's okay to admit you are wrong. We won't shame you for it."

"You can tell the Parasites apart?" Korq sounded a bit incredulous.

"Of course I can, because I have the wisdom from beyond gifted to me by Mothra."

"That makes sense." The security officer nodded and the Irkens under her command, stood down. "My apologies, late Tallest Purple. We were only trying to ensure the safety of all of the Irkens in attendance."

"It's fine. Not everyone can be enlightened like I am. Now come along Captain, you absolutely must try one of our traditional Irken games!" He grabbed the Captain by her arm, dragging her through the crowd with a bit of force. She came along willingly enough, though she was still dragging her bondmate behind her. Therron found a quiet corner and stopped walking, releasing the Captain's arm. He assumed if she had not wanted to go with him, she simply would have ghosted away.

"You deescalated that well. I'm surprised." She looked relieved.

"They still think you guys are murderers? I thought we addressed this." Therron rubbed the area of skin between his eyes, sighing in frustration.

"It seems like local Irkens or Irkens that were nearby when we first deactivated IX are aware of the situation, however the Irkens from further out are confused by our presence." The Captain explained. Therron understood, to an extent. This wasn't entirely Zim's fault.

"With only two Control Brains operational, it seems as if there is a bit of a delay on getting information through the Collective. Unfortunately, Zim has to have II and CB focus on maintaining a decent quality of life for Irkens so large-scale changes to the Collective are very slow to spread- if they even happen at all. Hence, why I'm still dead. Which, let me tell you, is incredibly inconvenient. Did you know it's illegal for a dead Irken to order custom robes? It's an actual law! Who would write such a crazy thing?" He scoffed. The Captain didn't really reply, she just nodded quietly.

"I suppose we can just focus on making as little of a fuss as possible. We can have everyone on their best behavior. I'm not too worried about my medic and science officer, historically speaking they're good about rules. The High Council Chairman and General have been in more delicate situations than this, so I'm sure they will be fine. It's my first officer and the... Membranes I'm most worried about." She looked thoughtful.

"How much damage can the Membranes do without their lab?" Gary was trying to be comforting. Captain Rose gave him a look and he paused. "Right, well that was one time, and they did apologize and give the school a lot of money."

"How do you even set a hurricane on fire?" The Captain's question must have been rhetorical because the obvious answer, to Therron, was: from a safe distance. "We can talk to them about being on their best behavior."

"See? Crisis averted. You're welcome." Therron smirked.

"Now it's just a matter of finding them." She looked around for a moment. "Do you know we're Tenn is? Usually, Carrius likes to hang around her. They have a club or something."

"She's in charge of the games. I can take you to her." Therron didn't envy Tenn for getting an easy job like 'entertaining smeets' it was clear Zim had just wanted her to feel included since she had helped save Irk- despite getting herself possessed and nearly starting a war. Therron lead them back into the crowd to a large plaza lined with lots of little booths with vibrantly colored games. He recognized a few of them from Earth, and he had mastered many of their primitive games while he had been trapped. He found Tenn behind a booth with bottles of Irken soda stacked one on top of the other in some sort of elaborate tower. "There you are Tenn!"

"Hi!" She smiled brightly. She was handing a large, stuffed Floryihgan to a smeet that had successfully knocked over some of the bottles in the tower. The toy, with all of its spindly legs, was larger than the smeet itself and the parental figures were trying to help it carry its new prize. "You here to play?"

"We need to talk to Carrius, is he with you?" the Captain asked politely. Tenn perked up.

"Yeah! Hang on!" She ran behind the stall and came back out with Carrius in tow, in full Syndicate uniform, three smeets hanging off of him.

"Why do you have smeets?" Therron raised an antenna.

"Oh. We're wrestling." Carrius explained as he continued to walk about as normal while the smeets crawled over him. "I'm helping Tenn with the games. Are you guys going to play any?"

"I can try!" Gary volunteered.

"Ooooo, okay!" Tenn seemed pleased by the response. "Now these are Irken games, so don't be worried if you're struggling."

"They kind of look like Earth games. I mean, that's monopoly." Gary gestured to a group of smeets gathered around a board with stacks of fake monies. Tenn blinked.

"Yeah, some of them are Earth games. But with an Irken twist. So, for this game you gonna knock over as many bottles as you can without toppling the whole tower."

"Kind of like the baseball throwing game meets Jenga?" Gary tilted his head to the side.

"I really liked Jenga." Tenn confirmed. "Now the bottles are heavy, and some are adhered together because Irkens are really strong, so just be aware."

"It's okay, on Earth these things are always rigged." Gary took the orange, slimy ball in his hand and with surprising strength, he knocked a few if the bottles clean off of the tower. "Fortunately," he rolled up his sleeve revealing that his arm was completely metallic. "I have a robotic arm."

"Did the Membranes give you that?" Tenn was briefly in awe. "They're always talking about robot arms."

"Nah, I've had this since before I started dating Allison." He laughed. Tenn reached up with her PAK legs and pulled a large fluffy Tribble plush from the prize wall and handed it to Gary. He grinned, handing it to the Captain. Therron didn't blame him for trying to woo her back after she was constantly still pursuing him. It must have been hard for Gary.

"We are having trouble with the prize situation. We're running out of things to give. There are more smeets than we were expecting. And some older Irkens want to play the games and get prizes too." Tenn explained. "We're going through our stock quicker than expected."

"Then get creative." Therron waved off her concern. "You were an Invader, Tenn. Use some of that ingenuity."

"I can tell you right there is where you messed up." Skoodge was the one to interrupt this time. He looked more amused than anything else. "You told her to get creative."

"Exactly!" Tenn gestured emphatically toward the others. "I was just following orders!"

"Are you defective?! You went completely insane!" Therron was still very clearly upset.

"I was being creative."

"Her logic checks out."

"Stay out of this CB." Therron pointed angrily in the direction of the body. "This is between Tenn and I- and to a lesser extent Carrius."

"Wait," Zim looked thoughtful, "Korq, was that the reporter that went all angry when the Membranes blew up that building?"

"One in the same." Therron confirmed. "He's a rodamn pain in the ass for all of us."

"So, then who was the saboteur?" Zim squinted uncertainly.

"I don't know, Zim. I was dealing with anarchy incarnate over here." Therron pointed to Tenn.

"Let it GO, Therron." She scoffed at him in return.

"Never! I will NEVER let it go!"

"I was the one dealing with the saboteur." Skoodge cut off the argument before Tenn and Therron could get too loud. "But Therron cut me off."

"Zim needs to hear more about this whole 'service drones' fiasco'. It is clearly the more important plot. Right Gavin?" Zim turned to his smeet who was halfway under the covers.

"Huh?" Gavin blinked.

"He agrees." Zim patted him on his furry head. "Continue, Skoodge."

"Maybe we should continue this tomorrow, Gavin's looking a little tired..." Skoodge lowered the communicator for a moment.

"Nonsense he wants to hear the end of this story so you can all be told how wrong you are. Isn't that right, my little smeet?"

"Yeah... who blew up the building?" Gavin rubbed his eyes, sitting up on his elbows a bit.

"The Membranes, but I'm getting ahead of myself." Skoodge took a deep breath. "Allow me to continue..."

CB and II had been telling the truth about the footage. As Skoodge surveyed the cameras around the warehouse he could see the footage had been looped to cover any sign of intrusion. It was a clever technique, but it was one which he was familiar with. This was clearly someone with Invader training, which only made them more dangerous. Skoodge would need to expand his search. He began searching through each camera in the area, running through the footage, looking for looped footage. When he found one that had been looped, he would mark it on a map. Eventually, Skoodge was able to construct somewhat of a path from the warehouse into a less occupied area of the city where cameras were scarcer.

This would be the root of the problem, someone had taken the drones further into the city and whoever had done it, didn't want to be found.

Great.

He headed back to the food court only to see that Sym was now there, talking to Sizz-Lorr. Judging by their demeanor and the fact that Sym was laughing, it didn't seem as if they were talking at all about work. In fact, it appeared as if Sizz-Lorr was on break as this was about the only time Skoodge had seen the Fry Lord outside of the kitchen. While the new Irk did encourage breaks, Skoodge hoped the kitchen wouldn't fall too far behind in Sizz-Lorr's absence. To his surprise, the line was moving quickly, and the kitchen was running flawlessly.

Too... flawlessly...

Like a well-oiled machine...

No.

He wouldn't.

"CB." Skoodge didn't want to panic the Irkens getting food. He walked straight to the back. "You had better have a good fucking explanation."

"It is... not what it looks like?" The voice came from the speakers as it had last time. Skoodge's eyes narrowed, his teeth were borne, antennae lying flat against his skull.

"Really? Because it looks like you've possessed a whole restaurant staff and are using them like puppets. Which, by the way, is the entire reason we had to turn our last Control Brain into toast."

"I do not want to be toast."

"Then explain."

"It was not our first choice." II spoke up as well. It was good to know that both of the Control Brains had gone rogue. "However, it was a suggestion from the staff. They were struggling to keep up with demand without the drones."

"So the staff just LET you take them over?"

"Affirmative." CB sounded a little sheepish. He was quiet for a moment as Skoodge soaked in the growing anger inside him. "You... are upset."

"Of course I'm fucking upset! You are literally doing the one thing we came to Irk to STOP!"

"But" CB tried to counter, "we are doing it with express permission... which makes it okay?"

"No! No it doesn't! Sweet Mothra CB!" Skoodge grabbed one of the service Irkens from the hall dragging them into the office. It was Nel, one of the cook Irkens. "Let her go."

"..." There was a pause before the PAK lights on Nel's back flickered and her stiff posture became more natural. She blinked looking around. Skoodge half expected her to break into a run, but she seemed fairly well put together.

"Greeting Tallest's bonded Skoodge! Did I die?"

"No. You're not dead. I just want to know what happened at the food court. You are all acting... unusually."

"Oh," she laughed. "That's because we told the Control Brains to help us keep up with the demand. We figured if they could run a massive army capable of taking down the Syndicate, they could help us deal with the crowds. Things have been stressful; we don't have enough food supply to be able to afford a lot of mistakes. We didn't want to let Tallest Zim down."

Skoodge let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. CB and II were... telling the truth. "You don't need to get controlled by the Control Brains just to serve the crowds. Mistakes are okay, they make us Irken."

"Yeah, usually it's fine. But without the drones, we're really struggling to keep up with the demands. This crowd is like the Foodening, but we don't have access to our usual Foodening supplies." Nel explained. "Hopefully it doesn't trap us here for twenty years because we definitely don't have supplies for something like that."

"We can't become reliant on the Control Brains like this, it sets a bad precedent." Skoodge was a bit floored by the fact that he was having to explain this, especially to Irkens that had been in the resistance and had FOUGHT the brainwashed masses. Nel should understand that becoming a puppet wasn't a quick fix.

"But the Control Brains said it was fine." Nel protested. "And they always know what's best for Irk, except for that one time they tried to start that war. But I mean the odds of that happening again have to be pretty low, right?"

"The Control Brains were trying to help, I think " sweet Mothra he wanted to believe that this was just a rookie mistake from CB. As for II, Skoodge assumed she was just overwhelmed and being run ragged. Strained processing power might account for some of her poor decision making. "But you have to remember that being completely controlled by them is a bit of a step backward. The Empire wasn't built in one swoop- it's okay to make mistakes."

"Usually yeah, but we saw this reporter skulking around trying to get dirt on Almighty Tallest Zim!" Nel replied quickly. "They were arguing with Zeke, saying that our service was proof that Tallest X was the leader we were meant to have..."

"Irkens are still loyal to Tallest X?" The news hit like a blow to the chest. Skoodge knew there was always a possibility that some Irkens might not like all the changes Zim was bringing to Irk. However, he assumed they would just want to re-instate Tallests Red and Purple. The idea that Tallest X was even something they considered left him feeling a little sick. This was all starting to make a little more sense. "You can go back Nel."

"Okay! Can CB take me over again? It wasn't bad, I was still able to talk and stuff..." She had picked up on Skoodge's discomfort. Skoodge had to admit, the relief he felt when he realized CB had allowed the service Irkens to stay conscious was quite palpable. He still wasn't happy about the situation, but things had not been as bad as he first thought.

"No. I think we can deal with this, without the use of the Control Brains." He sent her outside, closing the door. "In fact," he looked directly at the little intercom, speaking in the tone of a disappointed parent in one of the many Earth-sitcoms he had watched with Zim during his time on the planet. "I think we can let all of the Irkens go, don't you?"

"We... panicked..." CB's voice sounded genuinely guilty, though Skoodge couldn't be entirely sure of his feelings since he wasn't using one of his bodies. "Papa came by, and I did not want to upset him... or make him look bad. I mean... we did ask first."

"Upon further reflection, this may not have been our best course of action." II admitted, she did not have the same emotional scale as CB, so rather than guilt, she simply sounded contemplative about her actions.

"I do not think it was. No. But I see where you were coming from," Skoodge sighed a bit. "So, I'm not mad-" He was cut off by CB.

"Do not say it! Do. Not."

"I am disappointed."

"Nooooooooo that is so much worse! Father why have you done this?" Skoodge could almost hear the distress in CB's voice.

"Is that worse?" II seemed puzzled.

"Affirmative. You do not understand it now, but you will. We have failed our families and now we must change our names and move to Acrillia."

"That seems excessive; however, you are more experienced with the matter, so I assume this is our only course of action."

"It is."

"Calm your spooches. Both of you." Now that Skoodge realized this was not going to be a rehash of IX, and instead, this was simply a mistake born from inexperience, he was much calmer. "We need to figure out what happened with the drones. I have a possible location for them; however, I'll need both of you to help me triangulate an exact position."

"Oh. That is computer stuff. We can do that!" CB sounded suddenly much more optimistic. "This is much easier than dancing."

"Dancing?" Skoodge looked confused.

"Do not worry father. It is nothing."

"I'm going to put that on the backburner for now. Right now, we need to focus."

"Okay. Back to me now." Therron clapped his hands together, startling everyone who had been involved in Skoodge's story.

"Really? You're cutting me off again?" Skoodge spoke up.

"Your story has a distinct lack of me in it, and without me, how will the smeet ever be able to focus. It needs a main character, Skoodge, and no offense- you lack that main-character appeal." Therron gave him a dismissive wave. Skoodge scoffed.

"You're a comic relief at best."

Therron either didn't hear him or was simply ignoring him (which was probably for the best as Zim knew the only one in the room with main-character appeal was himself). So Therron continued his own rendition of events:

Therron made his way through the grounds, things were mostly progressing normally. There were a great many Irkens present now, many of whom were doting attention on him as he passed. He saw Irkens doing traditional dances. He stopped to watch for a bit, everything looked familiar enough, so he moved on.

He circled back to the games, however, in the time it had taken him to walk across the city and turn back around, Tenn had somehow started some sort of rebellion. That was the only way to describe the scene before him. Tenn and Carrius had turned the game booths into a fortress and an army of smeets now armed with guns larger than their bodies, were standing guard.

"ARM YOURSELVES MY SOLDIERS!" Tenn barked orders as the lights of the laser sights of the guns had turned all at once onto Therron. He briefly got war flashbacks from the water-wars back on Acrillia. "HAULT!"

"Tenn, what the fuck!?" Therron had no idea how things had spiraled so completely out of hand in the matter of only a few hours.

"Oh, hey Therron!" Tenn waved cheerily from behind her gun. "We ran out of prizes, so we started giving out weapons; then we found out there might be a Parasite on the planet! So, we started to hunt it- the family units love that their smeets are getting early Elite training. Anyway, that's the abridged version of how we got here."

"Parasite? Tenn, are you talking about Q? Zim invited him!" Therron looked to Carrius, "he came with YOU on YOUR SHIP!"

"Yeah not Q. Though, we'd shoot him too probably." Carrius really wasn't exactly the best at upholding the peaceful image that the Syndicate prided itself so much on holding. "There have been all these weird things going wrong, or missing, or getting tampered with, like the Ferris wheel, some of the food and prizes, even the parade floats! Then someone said they saw a Parasite sneaking around before everything went all crazy."

"Sweet Mothra," Therron sighed, "first of all, it's called a 'Therron-Wheen' no one knows who Ferris IS and I have name recognition. Secondly, if there were things going missing, I would totally have noticed. And lastly: how would anyone know if there was a Parasite hanging around? They're SHAPESHIFTERS! If it was actually trying to be subtle it would pretend to be someone else to sneak its way past the defenses."

"That's a good point..." Tenn lowered her weapon for a moment. She looked deep in thought, "too good of a point to have come from Therron!" Instantly all the sights were once again on the former Almighty Tallest. Therron wasn't sure whether he should have been more annoyed, or offended, so he decided to be an ample amount of both.

"LISTEN, I have great ideas! I actually took the time to study about the Parasites while we were trapped on the Nova! Remember?" He looked directly at Carrius. "I mean YOU have to remember right? You were THERE in the archives with me!"

"Dude, you didn't know my name for like six months. Why would I vouch for you?" Carrius replied flatly. "Okay, fine. If you can tell me who on the ship I'm related to, I'll believe you're really Therron. We spent a year together in space. You HAVE to know this."

Therron froze.

"Trick question. There were no other Romulans on the ship. Therefore, you're trying to trick me!" He figured out the deception. Carrius raised his gun back.

"Lor."

"What?" Therron recoiled.

"Lor is my baby brother. Seriously man? Or should I say: Parasite!" The smeets let out a loud cry as they charged forward, swarming over Therron and dragging him into a makeshift prison. All the while he protested wildly.

"How can he be your bother!? You're not even the same species!" However, it was no use, as Therron was trapped by a tiny, adorable army. He wasn't sure how long he was trapped there, days, years maybe. However, he was under constant surveillance. It felt like an eternity before finally he was approached by an Irken wearing a Syndicate uniform.

"Why is Tallest Purple in prison?"

"Oh! Hi Tak!" Tenn immediately perked up. "That's not the late Tallest Purple! That's a Parasite! We caught it posing as Theron. Very convincingly so, too. Even his PAK says he's Therron. I think they're learning."

"Or that's really Tallest Purple." The Syndicate Irken, who's name Therron knew the entire time to be Tak, came to his defense. "I mean it's clearly not Q. I saw him hanging around Zeke for some reason, and plus he can't change his color."

"Then it's M." Tenn replied.

"Tak! Please help me! I'm being held against my will!" Therron brought his hands to the bars they had constructed from pieces of the booths.

"No that's Tallest Purple. It sounds like Tallest Purple, and we know M can't mimic voices without a translator." Tak defended him.

"She might have a translator." Carrius countered.

"Not one that convincing."

"So then why is it, that when we trapped 'Therron' all of the chaos stopped?" Tenn gestured around her at her little fortress.

"I don't know that. But that's not M. Carrius you are embarrassing yourself as a first officer, taking a diplomat hostage like this." Tak was the only loyal Irken left in this crazy world. Therron was ready to give her a raise.

"You're the one defending a Parasite. Unless... you're a Parasite too?" Carrius paused, looking at Tenn for confirmation.

"No." Tak replied flatly. "That's stupid. What other Parasite do we even know?"

"H." Tenn and Carrius replied together.

"So let me get this straight: you both are convinced that M somehow got Tallest Purple's PAK operational, is wearing it, doing a perfect impression of his voice with an electronic translator that she's hiding SOMEHOW. And on top of that, H, who lives on Acrillia, has flown ALL THE WAY to Irk for a festival she has probably never even heard of, to rescue M- who she doesn't even like. Am I following your train of thought?"

Tenn and Carrius exchanged uncertain glances. Finally, Carrius spoke, though it was just to Tenn. "I'd say she might be Q but that makes even less sense trying to rescue M."

"We may have made a mistake..." Tenn frowned.

"Hey Tak, you won't believe what we just- oh hey bro." They were interrupted as the Kryptonian flew over, looking a bit winded. "Why is Therron in jail?"

"Long story, it's fine though." Carrius waved dismissively.

"Is it though?" Lor looked skeptical.

"IT IS NOT FINE!" Therron replied from in his well-guarded prison. They were all distracted by a rather loud explosion in the distance. Lor heaved a very heavy sigh.

"I swear the Rao it is one thing after another today." He looked back at the others. "I'm gonna fly away and pretend I didn't see any of this if our moms ask, okay?"

"Thanks bro, love ya." Carrius gave him a thumbs up.

"No don't leave Kryptonian! Make them free me! Shoot them with your face lasers!" Therron begged, but it was too late as the medic was gone in the blink of an eye. Tenn sighed as she opened the gate to the little jail.

"Oh, calm down, you're fine. We may have made a SLIGHT miscalculation here."

"SLIGHT!?" Therron parroted, quite offended as he crawled out of his cell.

"It was still a good learning experience for the smeets, I stand by it." Tenn replied folding her arms defiantly over her chest.

"The question is: is M really or here? Or is that just an allegation?" Tak looked rather serious as she surveyed the group.

"THAT'S the question!? Not: Oh, Therron how are you feeling!? Are you traumatized? Can we get you some comforting snacks!? You worry about M!?" Therron was aghast.

"You're fine." Tenn assured him. "You're already dead anyway."

"M is definitely around, by the way." Everyone in the group jumped as Q appeared from behind one of the stalls Tenn had torn apart to create her fortress. "In case you were all wondering about that." He crossed his legs, floating in the air, seven eyes watching the group.

"How do we know YOU'RE not M." Tenn narrowed her eyes.

"I can hear his real voice, that's Q." Carrius assured her.

"How long have you been here?" Tak looked him over.

"A while, actually." He smirked.

"And in that whole time," Tak made a grand gesture around herself, "you didn't once feel the need to use that weird recognition power you have to inform anyone that Almighty Tallest Purple, was not- in fact- your genetic doner in disguise."

"I thought about it," Q admitted, "I REALLY did. But in my defense, this was pretty fucking hilarious. So my hands were tied."

"That's Q." Therron, Tenn, Tak, and Carrius all announced in unison.

"The one and only." His grin grew wider.

"I thought you were with Zeke." Tak narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, I am, he's over there." He gestured vaguely in a direction and Zeke came running up looking out of breath.

"Rodamnit, she's not here either."

"She's close though..." Q mused.

"We've been chasing that slippery white wyrm and trying to put a spin on all of her little antics. But this stupid Korq is hunting after MY stories, trying to play this like it's all somehow Tallest Zim's fault." Zeke looked tired.

"I mean it is a little," Tak muttered under her breath.

"M's sabotage isn't going to reflect on the Tallest. At least, not while I'm head of PR." Zeke perked up a bit. "But this chase has been going in circles."

"Then we need to stop the chase..." Tenn perked up. The look in her eye reminded Therron of when he had first given her an assignment during the great assigning. "We need to get her to chase us, then we'll trap her!"

"Awe yeah!" Carrius pumped his arm excitedly. "Let's Scooby Doo this shit!"

"I think I got that reference, it's an Earth thing, right?" Tenn looked at him and he nodded. "Right. Then let's go! We have what M wants the most, right?"

"Do we?" Q tilted his head to the side. "I mean, we can feed on the youngest of the smeets as their PAKs haven't fully integrated yet..." his seven eyes flicked to one of the smaller smeets who scurried to hide behind Tenn. Therron shivered.

"Oh, I do NOT love that bit of information."

"Neither do I." Tenn looked for a moment as if she were staring into the void, but she shook herself. "But no. Not the smeets. I mean YOU."

"I don't like where this is going." Q's smile instantly faded.

"Yeah, you're not gonna." Tenn turned to the kids. "Shoot him."

"WHAT!?" Q made a sound that, surprisingly, Therron could actually hear. It was somewhere between a growl, a shriek, and a yowl and it made him briefly dizzy as suddenly the smeets opened fired on Q. Tenn quickly communicated the plan to the other Irkens through her PAK.

Make it seem like he's M. She won't be able to resist watching him suffer.

Therron and Tak nodded. Carrius seemed to either realize there was a plan, or just really enjoyed firing at Q because he was VERY in character chasing the Parasite around the grounds. Q was making a rather destructive escape attempt, knocking down walls, tossing bits of the jail back at his attackers in a frantic attempt not to get shot by the swarm of bloodthirsty smeets.

"I'm NOT M!" He was desperately trying to weasel away. Therron stayed a bit back, getting ready for whatever might come next- and also staying as far away from Q as he could because honestly, Q was kind of freaky.

"NICE TRY M!" Tenn shouted angrily.

Q continued trying to get away, things were becoming more and more rowdy. It was getting more difficult for Therron to avoid the brunt of the fight. Finally, they heard what they'd been waiting for. Q shouting! "THAT'S M YOU ASSHOLES!" Therron was the furthest out, and thus the only one close enough to see an Irken poking her head around a corner. His PAK legs sprang out, and without thinking, he tackled the Irken to the ground. The PAK felt... fleshy under his fingertips as he wrestled the squirming form underneath.

"GET HER MY TINY ARMY!" Instantly Therron was assisted by raging smeets. In the ensuing chaos. Tak, Tenn, and Carrius managed to get some sort of Syndicate issue cuffs around M's wrists and the tendrils on her back.

"See? She fell for my trap!" Tenn pulled her up. "Sorry Q."

Q was clinging to the side of a tall building, the scarf-like appendages on his neck poised to strike. He let out that horrible, guttural sound again, and Therron was briefly glad he couldn't hear his real voice. (Who was he kidding, Therron was always glad he wasn't able to hear Q constantly.) "I don't believe you're sorry."

"You're right. I'm not." Tenn shrugged. "All right my little smeets, time for you to go home with your respective family units! You fought well today!"

"YAYYY!" a chorus of tiny cheers erupted from the army.

"Tak, Carrius, can you help with that? We need to turn this criminal in so the Tallest can deal with this." Tenn gave the two a pleading look.

"Yeah sure." Carrius nodded. "Have fun."

"That's how you caught M?" Zim had to admit he had wondered about that, however, he had always just sort of assumed M had just turned herself in out of fear.

"And she attacked me, don't forget that part." Therron huffed. "I feel like we are all overlooking the imprisoned and attacked part."

"I'm more impressed you went THAT long without realizing the Kryptonian and the Romulan were brothers." Voel noted a bit bemused.

"And if I'm being perfectly honest, Therron, you kind of deserved that whole thing when you told Tenn to, oh what was it: 'get creative' with her prizes?" Skoodge smirked. "You kind of dug your own grave with that one."

"See?" Tenn stuck her tongue out. "I was just following instructions. AND I caught M. I'm pretty much blameless here."

"She did catch M, Therron." Zim nodded seriously.

"Sh- SHE caught M!? Did you miss the part with me tackling her to the ground!?" Therron demanded, mouth agape.

"And then Tenn defeated her with her smeet army. Yes. Zim remembers." Zim nodded. He had literally just heard the story. Skoodge made a face.

"Maybe don't call it: Tenn's smeet army, my bonded. You know, for PR reasons."

Zim didn't get it, but he nodded anyway. He turned back to Skoodge "So now that Therron finished his story, you can tell us what happened with the food service drones, right? Zim feels as if that still hasn't reached a conclusion."

"No. It hasn't." Skoodge replied. "Mostly because I kept getting interrupted." His eyes narrowed looking directly at Therron.

"I already explained the main-character thing." Therron replied dryly. "I'm not going into it again; you can continue now."

"Right." Skoodge took a breath, "so this is where things start to come together."

"I'm still uncertain of the exact location of the drones, but the area is right here." Skoodge explained to one of CB's bodies as they walked through one of the more abandoned areas of the city, far from the festivities. "I was hoping you two might be able to get a better idea."

"This area is under construction." II explained helpfully from a small, electronic toy that was sitting on CB's shoulder. "Many of our systems are not fully operational out here."

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Skoodge sighed heavily.

"It is not really, no. I would call this turn of events quite unfortunate, if we are being honest." II replied sounding a bit puzzled by Skoodge word choice.

"That is sarcasm, he says one thing, but he actually means the opposite. It is like lying but more socially acceptable." CB replied helpfully.

"Oh. I see. Many of my previous conversations now make more sense with this context. Thank you ver much CB."

"It is okay to be confused, II, we computers are above such a primitive form of wit."

"Oh, come ON." Skoodge couldn't believe CB could say that with a straight face. "You are literally worse than Dib. You don't get to say that."

"I can say what I want." CB countered.

"Stop." Skoodge's antennae perked up as there was an unfamiliar patter of footsteps in the distance pounding on the uneven road.

"You cannot tell me wha-"

"SHHHHHHHH" He stood on his PAK legs and covered CB's mouth with his hand, fully aware that it would do nothing to actually stop him from talking, however, it did make enough of a point, as CB fell quiet. The sound of footsteps quickened and was accompanied by a louder, closer sound of scraping metal. Sliding over the rough, unfinished Irken street. Skoodge drew his weapon just as something silver, long, and quick darted from a narrow alleyway. He was quick with his gun and fired, but the laser had little effect. CB grabbed the strange silver creature and managed to hold onto it as the other footsteps grew louder, giving way to none other than the Membrane parental figures. Doctor and Professor Membrane both looked slightly out of breath, but overall, not too winded despite how much they must have been running. Doctor Membrane also, for some reason, had the tiny human smeet Zim had decided to adopt, in her arms.

"Oh, you found our Robra!" The professor's booming voice sounded cheerful as he gestured to the silver, metallic thing in CB's arms.

"Your... what?" Skoodge tapped his PAK trying to figure out if this was some sort of error with his translator.

"I am still not sold on the name, darling." Moira looked unconvinced, as she bounced the baby in her arms. Gavin made a series of happy little noises as he reached to grab at her hair.

"Nonsense! It's the only logical choice: robot plus cobra equals: Robra. It's basic word-math my love." Diego Senior countered.

"Look there is a lot happening right now, so I am going to need both of you to explain what it is I'm looking at exactly." Skoodge piped up.

"A Robra, apparently." CB held up what Skoodge could now see to be an oversized, wiggling, robotic recreation of the ammo from the cobra guns. Skoodge gave the AI an annoyed look.

"CB, shh."

"It's a prototype we were working on. We like to bring side projects on long trips into space." Moira explained.

"Right. So why is it slithering around? And also, why do you have our son?" Skoodge gestured to the baby in her arms.

"Oh, we found him." She replied quickly. Skoodge wasn't fully satisfied with that answer as Gavin was supposed to have been with Voel. However, before he could question further, Diego Senior began to explain more.

"The Robra was actually on the ship, so we're not exactly sure how it got out. If our inventions are coming to life while we're away, again, I'll need to call some people back on Earth and have everyone report back to the fallout shelters."

"Now now, let's not rush into anything." Moira waved away his concern. "There is a chance it got activated by accident. Sorry for any inconvenience. It's not particularly dangerous."

"No no," Diego Senior agreed, "we programed it with only two purposes: to hunt and eat through steel, and to play sick electronic dance music. It can do the first part, but for some reason it only plays smooth jazz, which is relaxing, but not what we wanted. We really need it fixed before this year's science conference."

"Wait... it can hunt metal? Like... seek it out?" Skoodge perked up.

"Yes, live steel. That part it does great, but the music..." Professor Membrane was looking the snake up and down, clearly deep in thought. As if in response, the Robra opened its mouth, and soft jazz quickly filled the alley.

"That IS relaxing," Skoodge admitted.

"But it's not 'science conference' music, if you get my drift." The professor replied over the soft music.

Skoodge didn't really understand, but he nodded anyway. He had an idea, and he needed the Membranes to be agreeable to it. (Not that the two humans seemed to have many- if any- limits when it came to science.) "Could you reprogram it to seek out a different type of metal?"

"Oh, yes. Easily. That part works just fine." Moira assured him.

"Great, if I give you the composition of an Irken metal, could you have the Robra seek it out?"

"Sure, what for?" Moira took her bondmate's arm and rolled up the sleeve. She pressed a button and a screen and holographic keyboard popped up. Gavin tried to reach over and touch the screen, but Moira turned her body so that his tiny arms couldn't reach.

"We're missing a lot of service drones. I checked the security footage but there's nothing." Skoodge explained. He pulled up the molecular structure of the metal most commonly used in Irken drone construction on his reader, holding it up so Moira could see.

"That's suspicious." Diego Senior laughed to himself. "I mean, it sounds like an attempt at some sort of political upheaval, at least that's what personal experience dictates. But Moira and I haven't overthrown a government in years, so I might not be up to date on all the new-age sabotage techniques." As he spoke, he was trying to make his usual dramatic gestures, but Moira kept pulling his arm back.

"Darling, don't stir so much, I'm typing."

"Sorry dear, you know how excited I get about political espionage."

"I know." She smiled, seemingly understanding, if not somewhat amused by the enthusiasm of her bonded.

"I could just take over the Robra, save us time." CB offered.

"No, you and II are already spread pretty thin." Skoodge had his concerns about what they might find waiting with the drones.

"I'm almost done." Moira assured them. She did a bit more typing before closing the screen and rolling her husband's sleeve back down. "There we go, just set it down and he will go on the hunt." Skoodge looked at CB who was still holding the wiggling, musical serpent. The thing was fast. They would need some way to keep up with it.

"Does it have a tracking device on it?" Knowing the Membranes, Skoodge was fairly certain that it did, however he had to be sure the tracker wouldn't explode or something- as that also seemed fairly typical of the mad Earth-scientists. (Skoodge couldn't believe he had ever thought Dib was insane, compared to the rest of his family, Dib was downright normal.)

"Yes, of course, but we also have this!" The professor reached into his coat and pulled out some sort of green rope. He wrapped it around the neck of the Robra and it immediately tightened to fit perfectly around it. "You can let it go. I've got it!" He assured the Control Brain still holding the robotic snake. CB hesitated for a moment but put it down. The Robra stopped for a second, craning its head around as if searching for something, before starting to slither away. Membrane Senior followed behind, keeping it on the snake-leash.

"Oh, she smells something big~" Moira began following her bondmate with interest. Skoodge tried to keep a bit ahead of the humans. Despite what the Membranes might think of themselves, they were fragile when compared to their Irken counterparts. The Robra came to a stop in front of an older building and began to try to bite at the metal making up the base. It was actually, surprisingly, successful and Skoodge had to make a motion for the Membranes to get it to stop.

"Stay out here, I don't want to make a scene." Skoodge kept his voice low. He looked at CB's body that was standing a bit back from the building looking up. Skoodge tried to read his expression, but it was still difficult to do with the helmet over half of his face.

"I do not like this." CB's voice made Skoodge's blood run cold.

"What's in there?" He kept his voice low.

"I am... unsure."

"II?"

"The signal is... difficult to read. My apologies."

"Nothing good is in there." CB drew a weapon from his belt. "I can feel it." He started to creep forward. Skoodge stopped him, this called for more experience.

"We're going to need some degree of backup..." Skoodge couldn't rely on anything mechanical, given the uncertain nature of what might be within. He thought for a moment, an Irken security team could be a liability, even the Membranes had cybernetic enhancements, and despite their willingness to commit war-crimes, they were (as far as Skoodge knew) inexperienced in this matter. Skoodge heard footsteps again, too heavy to be an average sized Irken. He turned in the direction of the sound to see the General coming down a different side street looking at her communicator. Skoodge quickly made a motion to flag her down, signaling her to be quiet.

"What's going on, Mister Skoodge?" Fortunately, she kept her voice low, lightening her step, and sliding into the little group.

"I can ask you the same question. What are you doing here?" Skoodge was a bit suspicious, but the General didn't seem too offput by it. Being from a military background, she probably understood the hesitation.

"I got a text with a location on it from jazz-snake."

"Robra." Diego Senior corrected.

"I like 'Solid Snake'." Moira offered.

"And also, it isn't supposed to text YOU, it was supposed to text my work phone." Diego looked at the snake as if expecting an explanation from it, but only receiving the sound of soft jazz in return. The General turned her communicator to show the group the screen and sure enough there was just a text, in English, reading:

HISSSSSSS

"Hmmm. I guess it's a good thing you can speak snake." Diego shrugged off the apparent malfunction.

"I can't, I just traced the location it sent me." She put the communicator away. "Your work number is similar to mine since you technically work for the Syndicate Rangers. Maybe Jazz-Snake just got confused."

"He's hiss-lexic." Professor Membrane nodded understandingly. "Sorry for the disturbance."

"This isn't the first time." She shrugged. Skoodge didn't have time to question what other weird devices the Membranes had created that were texting the General, because this gave him an idea.

"General, do you think you could help us get into this building? We're thinking there may be an attempt to sabotage Almighty Tallest Zim."

"That would explain a lot actually." She drew her gun. "I can ghost us inside. Take my arm." Skoodge grabbed one arm and CB took the other. II used her little toy body to crawl onto the General's head. "Membranes, await further instruction." She nodded to the scientists before taking a deep breath and sliding through the wall.

Skoodge could see perfectly despite the darkness. The building looked as if it had been abandoned for some time. He could see CB looking around, the light on his helmet scanning around them. "It appears to be a storage house for the smeetery... it has not been used in some time."

"This area has been under construction since the death of Tallest Spork." II explained quietly, the tiny lights of the toy's eyes scanned through the mostly empty room as well. The only things left were damaged bits of furniture. "There was damage that was to be repaired, then was made worse by Impending Doom I, and then was completely forgotten about because Tallest Purple wanted to build a ride."

"That pretty much sums up the previous regime." Skoodge made a motion to roll his eyes as he carefully stepped along the dusty floor. "There isn't a single drone here, do you think the Robra was wrong?" He tried to see if there was more of that particular Irken metal in any of the remnant counters and cabinets that remained, but it was mostly a construction alloy.

"It is a possibility. However," II's lights finished scanning the area, "these types of buildings have large underground storage space."

"Though it appears as if the way to the basement areas has been blocked due to damage." CB was stopped before a crushed lifeless door, surrounded by heavy debris that looked as if it hadn't been moved in years.

"I got it," the General grabbed Skoodge and CB again and they phased through the door to a dark stairway. The path was still quite difficult to navigate, so she kept hold till they reached the bottom. She released the others and CB's helmet light fell on a room full of sleek, inactive service drones. There they were, all the ones that they had been missing, shoved together into the basement.

Skoodge's antennae twitched. He could hear something moving in the dark. He started to move toward the sound but stopped when he saw CB kneeling over almost as if he were in pain. Skoodge put a gloved hand on the shoulder of the robotic body. The lights on CB's helmet flickered as he looked up.

"We need to leave."

"Invader Skoodge." Skoodge didn't recognize the voice that called to him. A light came on over the form of a male Irken. He was a taller, looked to be an Invader judging by his outfit. Skoodge didn't dare scan his PAK. "It figured that you would be the one to stumble on this. You always were good at your job. Too good, some might say."

"Do I know you?" His eyes were narrowed, his stance aggressive, weapon drawn and pointed at the other Invader.

"No, we've met in passing, but we aren't close." He was leaning on one of the drones.

"Who ARE you?" Skoodge planted his feet firmly on the ground.

"A concerned citizen."

"You are under arrest." Skoodge stepped forward but the Invader clicked his tongue shaking his head.

"I think I disagree." He pressed a button and the service drones under his arms illuminated with its single red eye light. Suddenly, the others began to power on starting from the one he touched and moving in an outward pattern. "And I think you're outranked here. Wouldn't you agree," the drones shifted, moving almost as one unit as the lights all turned on Skoodge, "Control Brain?"

"Your hard work will be rewarded, child of Irk."

Skoodge froze... that voice... there was no way...

"AHHHH!" The cry of pain from the synthetic voice confirmed his suspicion. Skoodge watched CB drop to the ground. II's lights began to flicker. She let out a very soft:

"Oh no." Before her little toy body began to topple off of the General's head. Fortunately, Andromeda was able to catch her.

"Hello traitors." IX was here. He was in the fucking drones. Skoodge realized the building being so old must have been the reason it was overlooked when they were searching for all the copies IX had made of himself. They hadn't thought about areas like this; they hadn't known about them.

"Father!" CB reached up toward Skoodge weakly. "I am locking down the building. Nothing can get out. But I do not know for how long."

"You're doing good." Skoodge took his outstretched hand. He knew this was a fight CB would lose, even with II as backup. He also knew that if IX got hold of his PAK they were fucked. As much as he hated to admit it, he was a liability in this fight. There was a rush, the drones surged forward in one motion attempting to get to him. "General!" He called to her, and she grabbed him. The drones moved through their bodies like a knife through butter.

"I can take care of myself, get help. And light this fucker up if you get a chance." The General pulled Skoodge to a wall and shoved him forcefully through it.

The downside of this was that they had been in a basement, underground. Skoodge found himself surrounded by a crushing weight of Irken dirt. His PAK went into overdrive, clawing and digging a tunnel upward, under the street. He had to torch his way through the street and took a deep breath as he reached the surface, his ribcage finally able to expand fully. He shook the dirt from him and looked up to see glowing yellow eyes and a fang filled mouth pumping out the sound of soft jazz. The Robra was looking for him dead in the eyes.

"Oh, hello there!" Diego Senior greeted him. The Membranes were also crouched beside him. He was aware they had both most likely been watching him struggle to break through the road. "You aren't a zombie, are you? Legally, you have to tell us if you are."

"No." Skoodge spit dirt from his mouth.

"Slightly disappointing, but very well. We can put up the weapons." Moira did look a little let down. Skoodge grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Wait." He swallowed, trying to get his breath back. He needed to shut down the area, to get security, he had a lot to do, but first: "I need you two to blow up a building."

"That does explain the explosion..." Zim frowned. "But IX? Are you sure, Skoodge? I feel like I would have known if IX was back."

"You did. We told you Zim." Skoodge reminded him. "You pretty much had this same reaction; if I'm being honest." Zim frowned.

"Oh yeah..."

"I do not like that part of the story." CB was sitting against the wall, staring at the floor. He took one of Gavin's stuffed toys and held it to him.

"You did good, CB." Zim assured him by patting him on the shoulder.

"Even knowing that was coming, it still makes my spooch churn." Voel made a face. "It makes what happened at the tournament feel... less bad by comparison."

"Or worse," Therron gave a shrug, "if we're being honest."

"But it being so late, we can probably just forget about that whole tournament thing..." Vero suggested. "After all, Gavin needs his sleep."

"So," Zim ignored him, "what exactly did happen at the tournament? You are the only one who hasn't told Zim some crazy story that apparently Zim, with all my amazing Invader training, did not uncover myself."

"Ugh," Voel sighed, leaning back into the wall. "Where do I begin?"

"This is stupid, I don't even know why you dragged me here if not to put all these idiots in their place." Xia's complaining was getting on Voel's ever last nerve. He didn't recall her being quite this... whiney when she had been an Elite training under him on the Massive.

"Because you love fighting and you're being punished." Voel replied. He felt a bit like he was also somehow being punished because he was having to keep an eye, not just on her but also on Base Baby who was strapped in a device to his chest, and Vero, Ara, and Ven who all must have been allergic to staying in the same spot because they were all wandering off. "Wait, where's Ven?" He saw both Ara and Vero behind him, but now Ven was gone, because of course he was.

"Who?" Xia didn't even bother turning to look.

"He went to go look at the weapons." Ara replied pointing in the direction of the battlefields. "He's just excited. This is his first year participating."

"He can look later, can't he?" Voel sighed "We're supposed to be checking the capacity of the stands. The tournament sold out this year."

"That's a lot of Irkens that you'll be disappointing with this lineup." Xia replied holding up the entrant list with a look of utter disgust. Voel ignored her, as now he had to go all the way back down the steps to collect Ven. He made it to the base of the stairs and found Ven looking excitedly at the array of weapons that had been laid out over a table. The Elites that were in charge of the setup wiggled their antennae in respect as Voel entered.

"Ven, this can wait." Voel was glad he was excited- that made one of his smeets. Vero and Ara seemed rather indifferent, and if he heard Xia complain one more time about not being able to participate, he was about to find a way to launch the whole planet into one of the two suns. (Well... Gavin seemed excited, but at this age he was excited by pretty much anything. He got that from Zim, Voel assumed, as both were easily distracted).

"But look! They have a spear!" Ven pointed to one of the many weapons on the table.

"That's a halberd," Voel corrected, "and also, you can play with them later. We're checking everything out first and I'm in charge of keeping track of all of you, so you don't miss your time slots." Vero was notorious for being late for battle "Now come along."

"Okay..." Ven sighed and followed him back out of the registration building. It was fine, Ven was already registered to fight. Voel surveyed the area.

"Xia, you and I can take north, Ven, check the west, Ara take the East, and Vero should examine the south gates. You want to make sure the stands are stable, and the security gates are properly manned." He did not trust Xia on this task, or any task, if he was being perfectly honest. He turned around and counted the Irkens in the group. One... two... three- of course He sighed heavily. "Rodamnit, where did Vero go!?"

"He's getting food." Ara pointed to one of the tiny snack tables.

"VERO GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!" Voel didn't bother chasing him down. Vero turned at the sound of his genetic doner's annoyed screaming and gave a large, overly friendly wave. He shouted something back that Voel couldn't hear, and then proceeded to point excitedly at the food. Voel put his hand over his face and began slowly dragging it down. "Ara, please get your brother."

"Is Vero my brother?" Ara looked skeptical. "I mean, my genetic doner was the great Invader Skoodge, not you..."

"Clearly." Xia scoffed.

"Listen," Voel put his hands on the shorter Irken's shoulders, looking her dead in the eyes, "in Earth families he still counts as a brother, and I think that is what Zim is basing this whole Family-Unit thing on that he's trying to instate. So, I'm going to say: yes. Vero IS your brother and now at least, in part, is your problem, so go get him."

"I can NOT take you seriously with that human smeet strapped to your chest." Ara remarked flatly. "But alright." She turned and went to grab Vero from the food table. Voel took the initiative to hold Ven and Xia both so they couldn't wander off until Ara returned.

"Vero," as soon as he was close enough, Voel barked out instructions as quickly as he could before someone ELSE decided to run off. "Secure the south gate. Everyone else already knows their assignments because they were actually here listening. We will meet back here as SOON as you are done. Do NOT go running off to look at weapons, OR eat food OR," he looked to Ara, "actually you've been pretty well behaved."

"Thank you." She replied.

"C'mon." Voel grabbed Xia and began to head to the Northern side of the arena. He used his ocular implants to run a quick analysis of the structural integrity of the stands. Everything was up to code, despite the building itself being quite old. With that established, he was able to check the security at the gates. The Irkens stationed at the entrances were the best of the best, Elites that had topped their classes throughout the years, but for one reason or another, chose not to participate in the event itself. The Northern gate guards were both quite tall and lean. One male and one female, both were actually older than Voel himself.

"Deceased Tallest Red." They nodded to him as he approached. Voel bit back the annoyed growl and decided to let the title drop.

"We are expecting quite the crowd, is everything up to your standards?"

"Affirmative, sir." They nodded in perfect synchronization.

"Like I said, a lot of Irkens and even more blatant disappointment." Xia was standing behind him her, arms crossed over her chest.

"Almighty Tallest X, are you not competing?" The female guard spoke up. Voel quickly whirled around, antennae flat against his head.

"Do NOT call her that. She is NOT Tallest. She is Xia. She WILL be referred to as such. Do I make myself clear?"

"I cannot take you seriously with that smeet on your chest." The female replied looking down at base baby then back to Voel's face.

"Ignore the baby." his hands slammed down on the table, startling Gavin who made a whimpering sound. "Listen to my words. I- I was Tallest before her. If you- YOU do not respect my current position, respect my previous one- or you will be reassigned, do I make myself clear?" The guard looked to the baby who had begun to sniffle, then back to Voel.

"Yes sir."

"Good." Voel quickly turned away and walked a good distance away before starting to bounce Gavin in the little carrier. "Heyyy don't cry little guy. I wasn't yelling at you." Xia had followed him, thankfully as Voel was not about to hunt her down too, and she was watching him, her crimson eyes narrowed as she took a seat in one of the chairs labeled RESERVED.

"She's right, you know. You look fucking ridiculous."

"I don't want to hear it." Voel snapped. "You are going to sit with me in the judges stands. You are NOT voting, you are watching. If you can behave yourself in the future and NOT almost destroy our civilization, you might be able to participate later."

"Then you'll really sell out." She kicked up her feet, lying across the entire bottom row. Voel sighed, sitting down to wait for the others to finally make their way back. This was going to be a harder talk than he thought. It SHOULDN'T have been as Ara, Ven, and Vero were all supposed to be fighting in the tournament, but Voel was beginning to wonder if they should have hosted the event at all. It took a bit before the other three returned- Vero very clearly had stopped again for food, but at this point Voel couldn't be bothered to care.

"Is it time to line up?" Ven was practically bouncing.

"Go ahead." Voel sighed. "But if you get eliminated, I want you to come back to the judge's stand with me. Understood?" Xia surveyed the group as her head hung off one of the seats, upside down, her antennae nearly touching the ground.

"You mean WHEN they get eliminated."

"May Mothra be with you." Voel ignored her. "And Vero," Voel reached to his belt removing the hilt for his beloved spear. He held out Red Death toward his smeet. Vero looked at it for a moment in silence. "I think you fight better with this."

"I... um..." Vero looked away for a moment. Voel was waiting for the snide or sassy comment, or some half assed joke, but instead he just got: "thanks, old man." in a slightly quivering voice. Vero took the spear and hurried off. Xia snorted.

"Talk about having favorites."

"You sided with an evil computer and tried to start a war. Once you're not grounded anymore, we'll get you an heirloom weapon too." Voel assured her.

"Like I'd want one. My ax could beat your spear any day."

"Then WHY are you complaining?"

"I'm not. I'm just pointing out your obvious favoritism to help inspire Evan- and to a lesser extent- Ara to rise up against you one day and join the winning side."

"How do you get Ara's name right, and still not Ven's?" Voel looked at her for a moment, genuinely floored by her inability to remember her younger brother's name. "Also, get out of those seats, they're not yours."

"I'm guessing this thing is rigged for Lazy McFuckface to win?" Xia swung her legs around and sat up in a fluid motion, "given your obvious bias and the fact that you're apparently one of the judges this year." She stood and followed Voel as he headed to the Judge's booth. He wasn't sure if he was glad, she was following of her own free will, because on the one hand that saved him the trouble of having to drag her around- but on the other hand her attitude was absolutely dragging HIM down.

"I'm not an actual judge. I'm just sitting here because we're important and it's a spot the media shows often. It was Zeke's idea. The judges are the usual, the teachers from the Elite Academy." Voel opened the door and the three actual judges turned around. Sig, Jax, and Lena all immediately backed away from Xia as she followed behind. She smirked, seemingly pleased with the reaction, tossing her antennae and taking her seat behind Voel.

The tournament itself went about as Voel expected. Poor Ven was knocked out early. Ara actually held on for several rounds, taking out Elites twice her size. Voel could see the influence of Skoodge's genetics. She was a slippery thing for sure. She was eventually knocked out of the fight by a far more experienced Elite. That just left Vero. Vero was doing shockingly well, considering he had shown up late to three of his fights, one time actually holding a Shloogorgh's coffee cup in his hand. He even had the stupid cup through the entire fight.

"He's not taking this seriously." Sig sighed. "He's going to lose points for it too."

"I don't know why you're acting surprised; he never does." Xia commented from the back. "It never mattered before because in the past he knew he was never going to win. He's never beaten me. So why even try?"

"His score is still high," Jax noted, ignoring Xia all together. "It's a shame they moved him to PAK technician training, he actually had good potential if he applied himself."

"He can't apply himself because Vero is a fucking joke." Xia had slid upside down in her chair again. And had her feet kicked up against the wall.

"I'll talk to him." Voel sighed. He took Gavin off his chest. "Ven, Ara, watch him, okay?" Xia was right, no one was going to take him seriously with a baby. He looked back to Xia. "YOU stay put." He opened the door to the booth, heading down the path toward the center field. The seats were absolutely packed. As he walked by, he could hear Irkens whispering. He stood straight, tall, embodying the role he used to bare as Tallest. He looked at the scoreboard, Vero was neck and neck with another Elite. Vero SHOULD have been ahead, but he was getting points deducted constantly for being late, eating during fights, and one time his head did fall off but that was an actual accident. "Vero!" He walked to the edge of the field where the competitors for the final fight were lining up.

"Heya pops!" Vero waved to him, leaning over the wall.

"What are you doing?"

"Fighting?"

"The tardiness, the food, Vero come on."

"Sorry..." the goofy façade fell for a moment. "I heard there was trouble with the food, I was trying to check in. Thought I could get back more quickly, and I couldn't." Voel frowned, he hadn't been expecting such a serious answer.

"Is Skoodge okay?"

"Yeah."

"Who told you there was trouble? Why not go to me?"

"CB." Vero gestured to one of CB's bodies that was sitting on the competitor's bench, swinging his legs like an excited child. Seeing Voel looking over, CB waved. Voel narrowed his eyes and gestured for CB to join them at the wall.

"What's going on?" Voel hissed as CB wandered over, seemingly in no rush.

"Nothing. Things are fine."

"I don't believe you."

"That is your prerogative."

"Some final this is." Xia's voice made Voel freeze for a moment. "Is that seriously the highest scores? I've had that same score in round two. This is actually laughable." The chattering of the crowd had gone suddenly very quiet.

"Tallest X, are you fighting?" It was that fucking guard from the North gate again. "I bet you could take both of the champions!"

"I would surrender my position for Tallest X." The Elite Vero was supposed to fight suddenly spoke up. "It would be an honor."

"XIA. ISN'T. FIGHTING." Voel spoke as loudly, and precisely as he could. "Listen Irkens! She is NOT your Tallest! She is NOT your champion."

"Let Tallest X fight!" The guard placed her hand on the table. Once. Twice. It was a purposeful, rhythmic pattern.

"This is not good."

"Tallest X!" BANG. "Tallest X!" BANG. More and more Irkens were joining the chant the guard had started. Voel turned to see Xia soaking it all in, her arms extended forward. "TALLEST X! TALLEST X! TALLEST X!"

"All right all right! I'm an Irken of the public, what can I say!" Xia dodged passed Voel, jumping over the wall into the arena in one swift movement. The Elite Vero was supposed to fight, dropped to one knee, offering Xia the ax he had chosen. Voel went to go after her, but he was grabbed by Ven who looked rather distressed.

"Dad, I don't know where Gavin went."

"Sweet fucking Mothra." Could anything go right today? Voel took a deep breath. "CB, find Gavin. Ven, get your father." Ven nodded and grabbed Voel by the arm. Voel stopped for a moment, taking a deep breath in, and slowly exhaling before gently removing Ven's claws from his arm. "Ven." He put a hand on both of the smeet's shoulders. "Your other father."

"Right!" He took off running.

"I can try to keep the crowd at bay, but this is really bad." CB stood up, jumping the wall to join Voel in the spectator side of the stands.

"Here we are again, Vero." Xia trailed the laser blade of her ax in the dirt of the battleground, circling Vero who had activated Red Death and was standing, poised to strike. "And just like every year before- the crowd is screaming MY name."

"Not ALL of them." Vero's eyes narrowed. "A vocal minority does NOT make the voice for Irk." His hands tightened in the handle. Voel thought Vero was going to pounce, but instead he turned to the crowd, raising the spear up in the air. "ISN'T THAT RIGHT IRKENS!?" Voel feared, for a moment, Vero had inherited his inability to give a speech.

However,...

"Tallest V!" Softly in the crowd. "Tallest V!" Another chant was starting to ring out. "TALLEST V!" Louder and louder.

"TALLEST X!"

"TALLEST V!"

"Not... what I was going for..." Vero lowered the spear looking a bit sheepishly at Voel. "But it's... progress?"

"Your dad is on his way." Voel hoped sincerely that he was close. But the crowd was starting to lose control. Irkens were getting out of their seats, there was pushing, pushing turned to shoving, turned to punching and shouting. "Annnnnnd...this is turning into a riot." Voel scrambled up onto the wall. "STOP! IRKENS STOP!" He was losing complete control. How was it that they were able to control these things in the past!? He NEVER remembered a fight like this breaking out during his reign, or during Tallest Spork or Miyuki's respective reigns as Tallest. "STOP THIS!"

The fighting was getting worse. Some of the security Irkens were trying to break up the fight but others had begun to egg on the chaos.

"STOP!"

Blue light surged through the crowd. Everyone came to an immediate stop. The Irkens quietly all took a seat. CB was stood, arms outstretched as if trying to physically hold the mob back. Voel was temporarily frozen, horrified by what had just happened.

"Dad's coming." Vero tilted his head to the top of the arena. His eyes remained solidly on Xia who was looking ready for blood.

"Zim!" Voel waved him over. Zim brought Sym along behind him, which Voel thought might have been for the best.

"What is the meaning of all of this?" Zim was looking around, clearly trying to piece together the story of what happened from the few context clues.

"Things have gotten out of hand." Voel kept his tone rather serious. He didn't want to alarm Zim, but at the same time, this had spiraled out of control. "We are trying to fix it- but SOME of us may have the wrong idea about how." His eyes narrowed at CB.

" I am simply doing my best. "

" I told you we should have tried something different." The voice of II piped up from Zim's gauntlet. Voel wasn't sure if a SECOND Control Brain was really needed right now.

" This worked last time."

" Temporarily."

"Last time!? You did it before!?" Voel felt his spooch churn. This was not the news he wanted to get right now.

" Let us just say that this has been a difficult transitional period for me."

"What exactly happened!?" Zim looked around at the crowd. There were Irkens around that looked ready to fight while others were pulled away in fear, and still others looked excited.

"Zim, listen-"

BOOM!

There was no time to explain as something in the distance went completely up in flames with a sound that shook the ground beneath them.

"Voel," Zim looked him in the eyes, "I'm going to have to respond to that. Are you okay here?" He did sound concerned, and Voel realized that he would probably need to handle this himself. Despite the horrible way he had gone about it, CB had stopped the worst of the fight. Voel took a deep breath before nodding.

"Y... yeah we have it handled. Go see what that is."

"You are welcome, Irkens! Sym, stay here and make sure everything is handled. Ven, you can be the new Sym until she gets back." Zim grabbed Ven (so much for having him help find Gavin) and took off running. Sym took a look around.

"What happened here?"

"Tallest X supporters." Voel replied, looking at the crowd. "CB was able to stop the fight, but it wasn't... great." Sym, if anyone, should understand why Voel was upset about the way CB had chosen to handle things.

"Small glitch in the system, everyone." Sym suddenly spoke up quite loudly. "If anyone's PAK was affected by the reset, we will gladly have you examined by a PAK technician at your earliest convenience."

"Did it have to do with that explosion?" One of the Irkens close by asked uncertainly. Sym didn't miss a beat.

"Yes. There was a completely planned system purge that usually coincides with the Mothra Festival. But since we missed last year, the systems just got a bit overloaded. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause."

"Enough of this stupid purge! Are we fighting or not!?" Xia swiped the blade of the ax so violently across the ground it left scorch marks.

"I'm sorry, but you are still considered a criminal by Irken law and are thereby unable to participate in the tournament this year based on Law 31 subsection L4." Sym looked at her reader and back to Xia. "Maybe next year."

"I liked you a whole lot better when you were possessed by IX." Xia spat, throwing the ax down in frustration. "And that's saying something because you still fucking sucked." Sym's expression didn't really change.

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"Thank you, Sym." Voel let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"I'll alert the Tallest's guard to question the more vocal of X's supporters," she wasn't really looking at him, she was rapidly typing away on the screen. "And Voel?" She had stopped typing, and when Voel looked over he saw those brown eyes looking directly at him. "You owe me."

"Is that why Sym has like... twice the vacation days of everyone else?" Zim blinked. "Zim just thought it was seniority, but actually it was blackmail. Zim respects this." He clapped his hands together looking amused.

"I did win, in case someone wanted to know." Vero replied waving his hand a bit.

"Yeah. We know. We were there." Voel made the motion to roll his eyes. "But mostly by default since your opponent surrendered his position to Xia."

"The best way to win." Vero made little guns with his fingers and made a motion as if firing them at Voel, complete with making a 'pew pew' sound with his mouth.

"It was a good story, yes, but Zim still thinks you are wrong." Zim stood up, stretching out his arms and legs a bit. "I would definitely have remembered half of this stuff."

"You missed most of it, and Zeke and Sym kinda covered up the rest." Skoodge pointed out. "We couldn't let this cause panic."

"No, no no. You have to be mistaken." Zim shook his head.

"Zim... you do this EVERY time." Skoodge sighed.

"Zim, we're right. You're wrong. Learn to deal with it because that is the state of the universe." Therron grumbled.

"You can hang up on Therron." Zim waved to Voel.

"Don't. You. Dare." Therron's eyes narrowed.

"I can vouch for most of Therron's story. There was some embellishment, but not as much as usual." Tenn replied happily.

"This won't do. We need to solve this mystery of who is right and who is wrong." Zim crossed his arms, looking thoughtful.

"What mystery!? Zim! We're literally right! We JUST told you there was a coverup!" Therron gestured exasperatedly toward everyone in the room.

"No. Zim needs to hear from a third, unbiased source. If the story aligns more with mine: I'm right. If it aligns more with yours: I'm still right, but less so."

"That doesn't make sen-" Therron tried to protest but Zim ignored him and continued.

"We need to hear from the Syndicate." Zim pulled out his own communicator, calling the only Syndicate member he could trust. It rang, and rang, and rang and-

"Zim!?" Dib answered looking disheveled, his glasses were crooked, he was clearly sitting in the bed, covers over his lap. "Is everything okay?"

"Do you remember the Mothra festival?" Zim asked. Dib's face immediately went from concern to annoyance as he flopped back on the bed, pulling the blankets over his bare chest. He still had his glasses on as he glared at the screen.

"Jesus fuck Zim, it's 2 AM here."

"You don't sleep." Zim countered.

'I'm married to a doctor; I have to sleep now." Dib reminded him. As if to prove a point, Lor's head popped up beside Dib in the screen. He reached across for his glasses.

"Babe is something wrong?"

"No. Go back to bed."

"Yes! We need to know about the first Mothra Festival! It's a bedtime story for Gavin and he cannot rest until he has ALL THE FACTS!" Zim insisted. Dib looked around the room for a moment, squinting in the light from the communicator.

"Dude, Gavin's asleep."

"Oh." Zim looked down, and sure enough Gavin was quite asleep on the bed beside him. Zim figured it was probably Therron who had bored him to the point of sleeping. "Very well. You are dismissed... for now."

"Uh huh." Dib rolled away from him.

"But be prepared pitiful human!" Zim pointed a finger at the screen as both Dib and Lor took their glasses off and began to roll over to go back to bed. "For tomorrow, you must tell us your version of what happened that night!"

"I'm going to sleep Zim."

"TOMORROW HUMAN SCUM!" Zim gestured dramatically toward the screen.

"SHHHHHHHH!" Voel, Skoodge, Therron, Vero, CB, and Tenn all shushed him, gesturing to the sleeping form on Gavin in the bed.

"Oops." Zim muttered softly. "I mean: tomorrow, human scum."

And with that. Dib hung up.

Author's Note: Woohoo! More update! And still more to come!

Do you like these random surprise updates? I have a few more ideas that might make fun little spin off chapters here and there!

Are you guys interested in anything specifically? Anything that wasn't really covered during the actual story? Prequel or midquel stuff?

Please let me know in the comments below! And there is STILL another part to the update!

STAY TUNED!