Arco VII
"Listen, I don't know what we're up against, but it's not pretty, I can tell you," Zim said as he led the group to a re-modified Vootrunner. He had enlarged the cabin so that Juelia could fit with more ease. Gaz looked the ship over and grinned.
"Now, we won't have to be sitting on top of each other," she said.
"Ya know Zim, this is very odd. Maybe we should research the Arco some more," Juelia advised.
"It's my brother right. Trust me, there's not a lot of research to be done," Gaz replied dryly.
"Besides, there's not enough time," Zim said. Suddenly something tan and fuzzy landed on the top of the Vootrunner causing all three to release a short-lived scream.
"What is that?!" Zim shouted the loudest closing his eyes in fear.
"Meow."
"Max," Gaz scowled as she motioned for the cat to come to her.
"Stupid fuzzball, I swear one of these days," Zim breathed.
"Well come on then. If we're going to leave, let's leave," Juelia said as she directed the hatch to open.
"Gir, come to Zim," the irken commanded as he climbed into the spacecraft. It wasn't til Gaz got in that Gir came running in.
"Kitty!" he screamed as he saw the little cat in the gothic girl's arms.
"Come on Gir," Juelia said as she helped him into the cockpit. She then hopped in herself and Zim prepared to take off.
"You might want to close the hatch first," Gaz pointed out.
"Yes, of course, I was just going to do that," Zim said, trying to cover the fact he just forgotten. The former invader opened the roof of the house and started the launching process. With one quick motion, the spaceship shot out into the sky, leaving the house to close off for itself. As the rescue team made their way to Earth's natural satellite, the victims found themselves in another room, this time constructed of wood.
Red looked up and glared when she saw that the ceiling was composed of what looked like glass, and Qui looking in on them. She hated to be watched. The trenchcoated girl looked at her partner who was still unconscious. She sat up and tried to clutch her head, but soon found shackles kept her arm to the floor by a heavy chain. With all her strength she left the chain up as she stood. There was only a foot of space between her head and the glass peak Qui smirked as she walked over to a control panel located to the left of the glass floor.
"Hope humans like baths," she laughed brushing her finger across a blue panel. Red was startled when she was sprayed by some watery substance from behind. Turning quickly the girl noticed tiny spouts of water splashing in. To her horror, the tiny spouts grew into gushing rivers. Dib woke up the second cold liquid touched his skin.
"What's going on?" he asked glancing around the room.
"There's water, or something, coming in. We need to get out but these," Red answered as she held up the chain wrapped around her wrist. Dib looked down at his hand and saw his own bonds.
"This is not good," he panicked, standing up out of the ankle-deep water.
"There must be a way to get this off," Red exclaimed, handling the shackles. Dib glimpsed the room over and noticed the glass ceiling with Qui standing over them. He growled a bit, hating to be watched like an animal, but he had to focus.
"Look for a way out," Dib shouted over the noisy falling substance.
"You don't have to tell me twice," the girl said gladly taking up the task. Dib tried to work his hand out of the chain but to no avail. He tried pulling the link out of the floor, however, could not. Red wasn't having much luck in finding a weak spot or a door, for that matter, anywhere.
"How do they get us in here?" she yelled, becoming agitated not to mention spoked by the now hip deep liquid.
"Maybe the glass is breakable," Dib said looking back up at the ceiling, receiving a smile from Qui. Red and Dib both reached up and felt the cool surface of the glass with their palms. Dib knocked on it and found it had to be thick. There was no way they could break that, and even if they could it would be useless with the chains. The metallic room was only the size of a car and it didn't take long until they were up to their necks in a strange purple solution. Both humans began to panic as the air grew less and water grew more. Qui's face also changed into one of disappointment and anxiety. Dib and Red pounded on the glass looking up in terror, eyes darting back and forth, for a way out.
"What are we going to do," Red yelled as she quit hitting the transparent wall. Dib didn't answer immediately but then whispered into Red's ear. As he whispered, her expression drew from one of panic to a solemn, dreadful one. She, however, lightly nodded, and just bobbed in the still rising liquid as so did Dib. Eventually, the substance had reached a point where the ratio between it and the air was a hundred to none. Qui watched as the humans went motionless.
"It can't be. He supposed to be the one," Qui shouted angrily as she stormed over to a control panel on the right and pressed a red button. The solution drained through the floor and both children lowered to the ground with it, face down. Once the area was free from the purple water, Irkens came into the room and unlocked the two from the chains. Qui walked in just as the last guard stood from the pair.
"What do we do now," one said.
"Leave them here, we'll deal with them later," Qui said quite annoyed as the three turned to the spigot. "They could have escaped through there, I just don't understand it, I thought he was the right one." While their backs were turned, Dib opened one eye. He looked at the open door and smiled. He tapped Red on the shoulder and motioned for her to stay quiet while he stood up. She smiled and followed him right out of the door. They took off down the hall leaving the death trap behind. Qui twitched an antenna and turned to find her prisoners gone.
"Maybe I jumped to conclusions to fast," she grinned wickedly.
"Dib this way," Red whispered pulling him behind a corner as guards marched down the hall.
"Thanks," he voiced as they continued their run to freedom.
"Where are we going?" Red asked as they rounded another corner.
"Control room," Dib answered hitting a green button on the wall sending the door up into the divider. Dib was expecting a room filled with irken standard equipment. What he found shocked both him and Red. It looked like a normal library with pictures, posters, and maps of a tiny blue planet they knew as home. However, what caught Dib's attention nearly made him cry. Meanwhile, Zim, Gaz, and Juelia had finally reached the irken spacecraft and docked in, undetected. Juelia looked around the place making sure the coast was clear. Zim, after minutes of arguing convinced Gir to stay and watch the Vootrunner.
"Come on, we can go down this hall," Juelia directed pointing to the passage that lead out of the docking bay. Zim and Gaz, who was still holding, followed the taller irken out into the hall. None of them noticed the camera watching their every move nor did they see the flashing warning light behind them.
"How are we going to find him?" Gaz asked as the group crept along.
"Alive, I hope," Juelia answered.
"We need to find out who's behind this," Zim said.
"That won't be necessary," a booming voice echoed through the halls, startling them all. It was an intercom that scared the group. Max hissed at the sound and jumped from Gaz's arms, before arching his back. Zim turned along with Juelia, who took out her small laser, and stood on guard.
"Think we would have learned last time to check for a security system," Gaz mumbled.
"No reason to get tense guys," the loud speaker continued as irken guards filled the far end of the hallway.
"Get em," cried one soldier as he charged along with the other fifteen irkens, armed with a small pistols.
"RUN!" Zim shouted as he turned on his heel and high tailed it. Juelia soon followed knowing her tiny gun was no match for sixteen. Gaz, however, spotted a different option as so did Max. She opened a latch on a small flap in the wall to which an opening was revealed. Gaz jumped in quickly along with the small cat so as to avoid being seen by the soldiers. Unfortunately, as Dib had found months ago, it was a garbage shoot. Gaz and Max went screaming and yellowing all the way to the end. Luckily the gothic girl grabbed the edge of the slide, before sailing off into the blender of trash. Max wasn't as lucky in that sense as he almost fell to his death, but Gaz snatched the feline by the end of his tail causing the animal to let out a painful, yet grateful howl.
She looked around for a way out of her precarious situation, and found it in the shape of another equal sized opening. Praying it wasn't a laundry shoot, she swung in landing on the other side of the flap to the docking bay.
"What are the odds," she said, taking off for the Vootrunner with a now cautious cat behind. The girl knew the other two had to have been captured, and now it was up to her to save everyone.
"This is great, just me a cat and an insane robot. And I still don't know what to do," Gaz groaned, glancing around. She climbed into the vehicle that transported them there. "I can't do this by myself, but who am I suppose to get." She started up the ship with ease, and called for the sandy colored feline to get in. Max flicked his tail and stared up at the girl with eyes that said go on without me, before he bounded off. Gaz shrugged and took the ship out of the docking bay, with Gir starting a round of the doom song.
*~Sorry again and again that my updates are so slow going. Here it is though, and thanks for the reviews. HAPPY EASTER! JESUS LIVES! And because he lives I can face tomorrow.