Arco VI
"I'm so glad you remember who I am, because I sure remember you," Qui said calmly hopping off her seat to approach the two humans. Dib tried to move forward to face his foe, but was quickly stopped by the barrel of a laser gun held by a guard. Qui seemed to lock eyes on Dib like a hawk hunts a rabbit. She looked him up and down then straight in the eyes. The pale boy attempted not to flinch, but it was hard, for it felt like her eyes were burning through his. However, he did manage to scowl, which caused the irken to smile, making Dib uneasy.
She swiftly pulled out a knife and just as quickly held it up under the boy's chin. Red looked on with horror as Dib couldn't help but squint his eyes. Qui pressed the cold blade to Dib's chest causing Dib to freeze in fear. With one rapid movement, she slashed at Dib from the middle of his chest to his stomach. He yelped while Red let out a short scream. Yet, they both stopped when they noticed that Qui hadn't even touched him at all. Qui laughed along with the other irkens, who were standing about the room.
The knife-wielding alien then thrust the edge at the boy, who hastily moved to one side. She then jutted the knife back out at him to which he ducked. She laughed again, but this time it sounded as if she had found the greatest treasure there ever was.
"I think we have the right one," Qui said, putting the knife away and staring at the human.
"What do you mean? What do you want with us?" Red said, looking into Qui's blue, cold eyes.
"Us, no my friend, just him. However you do look smarter than for your own good," Qui grinned, turning to the girl.
"Well, then what do you want with me," Dib asked trying to divert attention away from his friend. To his relief, it worked. He had a feeling that most irkens had the tendency to reveal their plans.
"I'll give you the short version, human, or should I say Arco," the irken started.
"What's an Arco?" Dib asked.
"You are, I hope. But it's not a thing it's a person, means bringer-of-doom in a language you wouldn't understand. Now keep quiet! Long ago the Irken Empire was the greatest military force in the universe and still is mind you. The only thing that could get the best of an irken was, in fact, another irken. However the planet Inteligente Invasion, known as double I, was our only rival. They could not fight us face to face, those cowards, but technology was on their side. Every time we went out seeking them, they'd relocate their entire planet." She paused for a while making sure the humans were understanding every word.
"But one day the intels kidnaped, or abducted as you refer to it, a small child from a different planet that we had never heard of. The Tallest could never get the name of it."
"So, what does this have to do with me?" Dib said a little louder then he wanted to. He remembered being abducted when he was a baby, but he couldn't remember what exactly happened, he could barely remember the incident at all.
"Well, if I find the threat that the intels created, I'll be the most respected, distinguished irken on the whole planet, but first I must be one hundred percent sure," Qui replied signaling for the guards to grab both of them.
"First I'll experiment, run some tests, and then if you are, turn you and your planet over as the single threat to Irk's mission."
"Well, let her go, she didn't do anything," Dib pleaded, referring to Red. Qui beamed and shook her head 'no' and waved them off. As Red and Dib were dragged kicking and screaming, three figures made their way to the Membrane household. One was in the lead and quite short, another who was taller by far more followed after the first. The last was very tiny and noisy with its turquoise eyes shining brilliantly. It was Zim, Juelia, and Gir that crept up to the home and looked up where Gaz's window was.
"Gir bring me to the top of that window," Zim commanded to which Gir obeyed even though he woke half the neighborhood doing so. Once at the pane of glass, Zim tapped on it, hoping to get the one inside's attention. Gaz roused non to happy with the disturbance and opened the window.
"What are you doing here?" she growled.
"Your brother's in trouble, we must leave now," Zim stated trying to remain balanced on Gir who for some reason found an ant interesting.
"Huh? What are you talking about, he's in his room," Gaz replied, giving the green one an odd look.
"Check for yourself, he probably is not even on Earth right now, neither is Red," Zim said with annoyance. Gaz decided to take Zim up on his offer to check on her sibling. She reached her brother's door with a feeling of dread. For some reason, she felt that Zim was right, but another part of her kept saying to forget about it. She rested her hand on Dib's bedroom door and stood for a moment fighting whether she should open it or turn back. Finally, the purple-haired girl opened the door and saw that the irken was right, no one was in the room.
"I told ya, there's signs of another irken around here," Zim said from behind her, causing her to turn around sharply. "In fact, there are some signs going around town and in this house," he continued, looking down at what looked like a wristwatch. Gaz observed as the irken moved away down the hall back to her room. She followed, not knowing what to make of the situation yet. When the gothic girl reached the room. Zim was holding up a sheet of paper and turning it over several times. She recognized the paper, for it was the one that fell out of her dad's note.
"What is it?" she asked seeing he was interested in it.
"Its irken, but its much older material, only ten years though," Zim said, opening his pod and taking out what looked like a flashlight with a purple beam. He shined it on the blank piece of paper and irken letters came in on the page in dark green.
"It's like one of those secret code messages," Gaz said.
"Yes, except this is part of a whole book . . . wait, Pos Arco . . .it can't be. How did you get this?" Zim asked with shock and surprise. Gaz tried to respond, but Zim cut her short. "Never mind, we must go to my labs and get your brother back, or it will spell doom for your planet." He grabbed Gaz by the arm and leaped out the window upon Gir.
"Hurry Zim, I think some people have heard us," Juelia said as she stood a waiting for them to land.
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Gaz said, irritation leaking from her words.
"That's just it, we're not sure what's going on," the former commander said as the three reached the ground.
"We might now, look at this," Zim replied, showing Juelia the slip of paper. She read over it through the purple beamed flashlight and gasped when her violet eyes rested on the word Arco.
"It can't be," she began.
"Can't be what?" Gaz asked.
"Come on I'll explain on the way back to the base," Zim whispered as front lights of homes began turning on. They moved out through the shadows towards Zim's house.
"Okay, start explaining," the gothic one ordered.
"Well, first I and Juelia had picked up a disturbance which we thought was just your planet's weather," Zim started.
"However it turned out to be another unmarked Irken ship," Juelia finished.
"Yes, after skool, Juelia told me there were trances of irken material throughout town. I went with you guys to that baseball game to see if I could pick up some signs," Zim continued.
"But he didn't, so I used that to scan the area," Juelia said pointing to Zim's wrist watch.
"And," Gaz prompted feeling a little overwhelmed by the information.
"We found you, and this, but it's your brother and Red who have been triggering this thing off so much," Zim said.
"Yes, but now we can't locate them anywhere, we'd been looking for the past eight hours," Juelia said.
"Wait, I remember, they were in a back alley. They were in a trash can," Gaz blurted as a flood of memories surged forward.
"That explains it, metal rebounds the signal," Zim murmured.
"Yeah, but then, I can't remember what happened up until eleven, but I went out at eight-thirty," Gaz affirmed.
"Well if my guess is right, and I hope it's not, they've found your brother and want to destroy him," Zim said.
"Why I thought you took care of the irkens," she said, turning to Juelia.
"This is different. Dib might be the one that all of Irk has been looking for, and if that's the case we're all in trouble," Juelia stated. They neared Zim's green structure without incident and quickly went inside.
"The thing that confuses me is the fact that their not following standard procedure," Zim voiced, referring to the new threat.
"Okay, you're telling me some irkens have Dib and want to kill him, and this all puts us in danger because . . .," Gaz said, trying to understand fully.
"Look, I'm still trying to take it all in as well," Zim commented.
"Arco, whoever has your brother must think he's the bringer-of-doom. This page goes to a book about it. A planet tried to rival Irk and had taken a creature from a different planet to fight against the Irken Empire, being their cowards. If it is true, and Dib is Arco, then Earth is doomed for harboring him, we're doomed for helping him escape, and he's doomed for being him. Only if the Tallest find out," Juelia informed Gaz.
"Yes, now we must go into space and um . . .I don't know . . . I guess save Dib and blow up their ship," Zim explained striking a dramatic pose.
"Yea we're doomed," Gir shouted joyfully. While Zim, Gaz, and Juelia lowered themselves down into the underground lab, Dib and Red stood in a bedroom sized room. The walls and floor were entirely made of some kind of metallic material, however, the ceiling seemed to be made up of sharp, jagged spikes. Dib had a feeling they weren't there for decoration either. He glanced at Red and noticed her worried expression as she looked up at the ceiling. He was about to say 'don't worry' or something to that accord, but was interrupted by a loudspeaker to their left.
"Alright, first test. You're going to love it," it said with malice dripping from each word. Without warning the roof began to lower allowing the ceiling of dagger-like edges to near the floor at an alarming rate.
"What kind of a test is this?!" Dib shouted as Red screamed. The only answer given was sinister laughing.
"Okay, don't panic. There's got to be a way out, right?" Dib uttered.
"Panic . . . I'm past panic. We have to get out of here," Red cried watching as the spikes approached. Dib allowed his eyes to search every inch of the room for any weakness or crack but found none. It was smooth, unflawed metal. He glanced up to see the menacing ceiling come closer and closer, its sharp corners gleaming in the light. 'Wait. Light? Where is the light coming from?' Dib thought as he noticed light beams were cast downward. He looked harder and saw that sections of the roof didn't sparkle, but instead shone, and appeared to be transparent. He cracked a smile as he went to stand under the now apparent light fixture.
"Red come here, there's the way out," Dib exclaimed, pointing up.
"Are you okay?" Red questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Watch." Dib jumped up to the now dangerously close top. To her surprise he passed right through, unharmed.
"It's a hologram," the girl pointed out.
"Yes, all we have to do is stand here, it will pass right over us," Dib explained. They stood and watched as the ceiling past without incident. Dib and Red looked at one another with giant grins of relief, however, it didn't last long. A thick yellow gas crept into the area causing the humans to cough and gag. Eventually, they both past out and were dragged out by some Irken guards who came in through another slide through door. Qui watched as they were taken in for the second test, to which she smiled.
If the human went through all eight tests and remained alive, while also keeping the other safe as well then he had to be the one. With such a prize she would become great among her people. After telling them for years that the Arco was a human all along, this was the most wonderful moment of her life. What made it even greater was the fact that Zim would play right into her hands. And she couldn't be more correct as Zim, Gaz, and Juelia had located her ship near the moon.
*~Alright here's chapter six. I do agree that Thunderstorm started out in action and was better in that sense. This is just a conclusion to that story. I thank you all for the reviews and hope you enjoy.