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Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you for the support, loyal servant!

Invader Johnny: With Dib learning about the truth of Zim's recent change and that they both now share a common goal, their feelings are on the back burner now.

Chapter 4: Tides

A purple alien was holding hands with the young child, Ena, as they walked throughout the broken castle that belonged to Gargon. The alien had short white hair, blue sclera with white eyes, a purple cloth-like off the shoulder sweater that reached down to her thighs, black leggings, and white gauze wrapped around her feet.

"Nomi, where are we going?" Ena asked, her gaze remaining down the hallway.

The purple alien sighed. "Why do you ask every time…? We're going to the others."

"Because I hope you take me somewhere different every time," Ena replied.

"You know I can't do that. Gargon wouldn't allow you anywhere out of this castle's premises," Nomi said as she looked down at the child.

"One of these days I hope you can break my father's rules and take me out of this castle."

"Ah, so you want your caretaker to die… understood," Nomi jokingly said.

"If that's what it takes, so be it."

The purple alien instantly deadpanned as she sighed lowly. "Anyway, we're here."

The two of them arrived at two large double doors on the left corridor wall. Nomi squeezed Ena's hand as she opened the doors and they were both greeted by darkness.

Nomi stared in the darkness and groaned. "Why in the name of Crosnilgrof are you guys sitting in the dark?!"

A pair of blue eyes glowed in the dark. "Ah… if it isn't Coordinator… glad you could join us," a deep and grumbly voice spoke.

Nomi narrowed her eyes. "We're not to use our code names when we're not on missions, Crosser, or are you incompetent and forgot all about that?"

His response was low growling, but before anything could escalate, a pair of brown eyes glowed high above the room.

"Now, now, let's not get into a fight when Gargon's child is here with us," the eyes spoke in a high, feminine voice.

"Jeez, you two can never not fight, huh?" Another voice said in the darkness.

"Ugh, we are not discussing in the dark!" Nomi declared and flicked the light switch on, illuminating the room up.

There were four distinct figures in the mostly blank room. There were white blocks set up on the opposite side of the room from the door and three of the four figures were sitting on them while the other was upside down on the ceiling.

Starting from right to left, the figure was a black bipedal wolf with a deep purple mane, black sclera and blue eyes. To his right was a figure in a black bodysuit with a gray open hoodie and gray sneakers.

To his right, the figure was a man that had yellow, flaming hair, an orange cloth around his eyes with a yellow circle around his left eye. He was wearing a yellow long coat over a red suit with a black tie and had on black dress pants and slacks with black gloves; the symbol of the sun on the back of them.

The last figure on the roof was a girl with brown hair in two buns, brown eyes, and was wearing a white off-the-shoulder kimono with a blue cloth wrapped around her waist. The girl stopped sticking to the roof and flipped before landing and bowing.

"So, you brought the kid… I assume this means we have to play babysitter once again?" The wolf guessed as he huffed.

"Yes, Gargon is planning, you already know this, Viryop," Nomi responded.

"I was hoping it'd be a different reason," the wolf mumbled, placing his chin on his hand.

"That's what I said hoping I wouldn't have to see you," Ena added, pointing at Viryop.

"You're a little shit, you know that?" Viryop insulted as he pointed at Ena.

"Alright enough, I don't need you insulting a child, and Gargon's at that, got it, Viryop?" Nomi interjected, asking the wolf.

"I don't give a damn who I'm talking to. If they insult me, I'm insulting them. Also, why are we babysitting a child? We weren't hired for this, Nomi," the wolf responded.

"Ugh, how many times am I gonna repeat information today…?" Nomi asked herself with a sigh. "Look, first of all, we weren't hired, we were given to Gargon under the jurisdiction of Honcoul, so if you have a problem, you can go back to Tietie and discuss it with him. If Gargon asks us to do something, it is in our control as Astrobik members to pursue it done, understand?"

"Yadda yadda yadda, yeah, yeah whatever…" The black wolf looked in a different direction.

"Haha, you got scolded," Ena pointed out as she pointed at Viryop again.

The wolf whipped his head at Ena and bared his teeth growling. "You little shit!"

"Anyway, let's move on to something else, like Khisa's group," the figure in the black suit suggested.

"Hm? What should we concern ourselves with regarding them, Rohm?" The brunette wondered.

"Well, I'm just curious… how powerful do you think they all are?" Rohm asked, looking at everyone in the room.

The brunette started giggling. "Surely not more powerful than us. We can beat them with our eyes closed."

"Well no duh! I'm just saying in general, y'know?"

"Well, the strongest one out of all of them is definitely Azerika. Khisa's an obvious second, Jelial third, Boetan fourth, Ura fifth, Leivy sixth, Krynlea seventh, and Marshta eighth," the man with flaming yellow hair spoke.

"I think Bestiary's standings are pretty concise and clear. If Gargon made more of them then there might be a debate to be had," Nomi added as she shrugged.

"Yeah, that's a fair point, but how do y'all think they're gonna do on this mission?" Rohm asked.

"Well with Azerika being a last resort, they might have a pretty high chance of failing," the blonde man pointed out.

"Huh? How so, Daer?"

"Because they're facing off against Sun Wukong," Daer answered. "He could even give us more trouble than Azerika can."

"They can't all be that weak can they?!" Rohm asked as he leaned back.

"If it was the actual Sun Wukong, then yeah. But remember what Gargon said? This isn't the same Sun Wukong in the past; this is a different one, and a weaker one at that. So yeah, they do have a pretty good chance at beating the current Sun Wukong," Nomi weighed in. "Just not against us."

"Oh yeah, you're right—"

"You're wrong…"

Everyone turned to look at the wolf as he stared at the white floor.

"… What do you mean 'I'm wrong'?" Nomi asked as she quirked an eyebrow. "Who could beat us?"

The wolf didn't answer immediately, making everyone else in the room question what Viryop was trying to get at.

"K—… Krynlea is…" the wolf finally answered. Silence fell on the room again as everyone had wide eyes, trying to gauge Viryop's face to see if he was joking or not.

"K-Krynlea…?" Rohm repeatedly. "Y-You're joking… right?"

"… I'm not. My Power Instinct tells me that she could kill us all," Viryop stated as he looked at the black suit. "… I was hoping none of you would bring her name up…"

"Wait… how can she kill us all…? Isn't she just a succubus? And she was taken from Dentroleus at that, how can she kill us?" Nomi questioned as she raised an eyebrow.

"… Well… You guys remember when we were told we were gonna be under Gargon's command from Honcoul?" The wolf asked as he looked around. Everyone nodded their heads. "Right, after that and the information he gave us about Bestiary, I looked into them a bit. Of course, everyone besides Azerika and Krynlea were made out of Earth's animal parts, nothing much on that front. Azerika comes from Edotuktan, and she pretty much had a boring life, so nothing too shocking came from that either.

"But when I looked into Krynlea's planet… there wasn't any information at all about it," Viryop told. Rohm tilted his head while the brunette and blonde raised an eyebrow. Nomi looked away as she thought about that.

"That piqued my interest, and so I went to different planets for some information, but either no one's heard of it… or they also don't have a clue about the planet either. After that, I took it upon myself to explore the planet. But when I got there…"

"What, what'd you see?! A giant monster?! A mass murder?!" Rohm guessed frantically.

"… Nothing."

The room went silent once again as everyone processed that.

"What do you mean by… 'nothing'?" Nomi asked.

"There was literally nothing there. The land was barren and so were the skies. There was literally nothing there. I could've sworn I explored the planet twice and didn't see a single sign of any life form there…"

"Wait, but that's not right. When I'm with Krynie, she tells me a lot about Dentroleus," Ena joined, tilting her head slightly.

"… Krynie?" Daer repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"It's her nickname for Krynlea," Nomi quickly responded.

"Huh? But how is that possible? Dentroleus is just… nothing," Viryop questioned. "What has she told you about it?"

"That it's very pink and there's a bunch of small creatures that wander around and live together peacefully. The water there is super clean and is a bright teal color. Rainbows appear without rain, the weather is always fair. There's no natural disasters like tornadoes or earthquakes. And even though there's no sun, it's bright, same with the moon. Whenever there's a problem, the magical monster named Budagong appears and settles everything with a flick of his wrist," Ena responded. "I forgot more, but she's told me a lot about her days there and it always sounds like she misses it dearly."

"What…" Viryop reacted as he furrowed his brow.

"Okay now I'm thinking either A: she got some sort of brain injury that mixed up her memories and is thinking Dentroleus is a different planet… B: she's lying to us, or C…" Rohm trailed off as he turned his head, not wanting to finish his sentence.

"… Are you trying to say Krynlea doesn't exist?" Nomi wondered, crossing her arms and quirking an eyebrow. "And I don't think she's foolish enough to lie so half-heartedly like that."

"Fair point. From what Ena says it sounds like she genuinely means what she said about Dentroleus. But with what Viryop said… the planet is literally just blank. If there isn't even a single life form or even natural geography… then where the hell did she actually come from? Why make up Dentroleus? And why lie about it if she did?"

"Wait, if that were the case… then where did Khisa get her from? He even said he got her from Dentroleus…" Daer wondered.

"Did she… alter his memories?" The brunette wondered, putting a finger to her chin in thought.

"Can succubi even do that?" Rohm wondered, peering over to look at the brunette.

"They can, but you have to remember: Khisa didn't turn her into one until after he caught her… and her being into a newly-turned succubus couldn't have known she could alter minds," Nomi speculated.

"But they've been together for a while, surely she knows of her powers somewhat, right?" Daer guessed.

"But Khisa must've kept a lock on them. After all, he wouldn't want her to turn on him," Nomi pointed out.

"Maybe… was there a work around?" Rohm guessed.

"Who knows… only she does… and I feel like if we prod too much about her, she might kill us," the brunette assumed with a sigh.

"But… what would be the point of playing along with Khisa if she could just kill him?" The figure in the black suit asked. "Feel like that'd be a waste of time."

"Maybe she's after something that Gargon has and acting too rashly would get her killed?" the brunette theorized.

"No, Poi… she has the power to eradicate a whole planet. Dealing with Gargon can't be that difficult," Viryop stated, looking at the brunette. Nomi and Poi's eyes widened while Daer's eyebrows rose.

"N-Now you gotta be joking… she can't eradicate a whole planet… right?" Rohm checked.

"My Power Instinct has never been wrong before… why would it be now?" Viryop questioned, looking at the black figure from the corner of his eye.

"But… if that's the case, why hasn't she killed Khisa yet? We know he took her by force… well, supposedly, took her by force… She could even reverse the roles if she so wanted to," Daer pointed out.

"She probably doesn't know she has this amount of power," the wolf concluded with a sigh. "Otherwise, she'd surely be done with Khisa."

"If she had goals… I can't understand what they are now…" Rohm admitted, slumping his shoulders.

"I highly doubt she would want anything from Gargon. If she did, she could've brute forced her way to him, and he'd have to submit to her… If that's not her goal… then I also can't fathom what it is…" Viryop stated, crossing his arms.

"I… don't think it would do us any good to theorize what she's after if we don't have a clear sign of it. That girl's been acting like she's enslaved to Khisa. If she knew about her power, then we surely wouldn't be in this situation, now would we?" Nomi suggested.

Poi sighed. "You're right… we should just let it go for now."

"But, just in case: Ena, use your Black Insight the next time you see Krynlea to see what her power is," Nomi told the little girl.

"Sure, I can do that."

"You know, now that I think about it… Ena and Viryop's Insight and Instinct go hand and hand, don't you guys agree?" Daer noticed, looking at everyone.

"What?! I don't want my Power Instinct to match with her dumb ability!" Viryop declared, baring his teeth at the blonde man.

"Ew, I don't want my Black Insight to match with a stinky wolf," Ena said as she waved a hand in front of her face.

"You little shit!"

"Hm… now that I think about it, you're kinda right, Daer," Nomi agreed.

"Huh?!" The wolf declared.

"Are you serious?" Ena asked, looking up at her caretaker.

"Yes. Viryop can determine the strength of someone's power, while Ena can detect what it is. With that knowledge, we could make a plan to go around that, don't you think?" Nomi responded, looking between the wolf and the little girl.

"Yeah, Nomi's right about that," Rohm agreed. The other two agreed also while Viryop and Ena looked at each other.

"Fuck you," they said in unison.

"ENA!"

"VIRYOP!"

Ena found Krynlea out in the garden, looking up at the starry sky.

"Hi Krynie," Ena greeted as she sat next to the succubus.

"Oh! Ena, hi, hello! How nice of you to come see me," Krynlea greeted back with a smile.

"Eh, I just got bored hangin around Nomi and the others," Ena said with a shrug.

Krynlea looked off to the side and chuckled. "Ah, of course…"

Ena looked at her and narrowed her eyebrows. 'Black Insight!' Her magenta pupils and white iris changed to black and gained a thin, white ring inside her eye. The child's vision turned black and she couldn't see anything for a second before she could see only the spot below her feet.

'Red ground…?' Ena asked herself as she tilted her head. She looked up into the darkness before walking a little bit forward. She soon stopped when she could see a silhouette sitting with one knee close to its chest.

Ena stared at the silhouette before a golden yellow gleam could be seen and Ena was instantly rooted in place. She tried looking away, but her head wouldn't move. She tried closing her eyes, but they also wouldn't move. The child was forced to stare into the golden yellow gleam as she sweated and tears started building up in her eyes.

It was dead silent as the two stared at each other. The silhouette stopped sitting and tapped the ground with one foot. The tears in the child's eyes quickly rolled down her cheeks as she shook.

"You shouldn't be here," a deep, feminine voice spoke.

Ena was quickly brought out of the dark place and started silently gasping for air. Her eyes were wide and she was slightly sweating as she looked at the ground. Krynlea turned to her and raised her eyebrow at her.

"Hey, uh… you okay, Ena?" The succubus asked.

"Y-Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine…" she answered, turning away from the girl.

Krynlea stared at Ena confused. 'This girl is usually stoic… what happened to her for her eyes to go wide like that and sweat…?' She wondered. 'Oh well… better not push it, she could kill me on a whim after all.'

It was the next day and as Zim was walking through the skool, he heard everyone talking about the beast attack. He also found it oddly suspicious how none of the bullies interacted with him after he scared off Kiko and Rose, but he chalked it up to them not saying a word to the others because of how scary he looked. The alien smirked at the possibility of that being the case.

After teaming up with Dib, he and Zim exchanged contact information on their watches and would communicate secretly through it.

'I just hope that we don't find any beasts in the skool… that would be a disaster…' the disguised alien thought to himself with a sigh. He looked up and his eyes widened slightly as he saw someone with orange hair walk up to him. The orange haired kid was wearing a black open jacket with an orange shirt underneath it, jeans, and orange sneakers. Behind him were five boys. One had red hair, another had blonde hair, another had black hair, another had purple hair, and the last one had green hair. Zim narrowed his eyes as he recognized four out of the six boys in total.

'Jason, Ty, and his two little henchmen… What a great way to start the day…' Zim thought as he took a deep breath. He watched the group of boys walk up to him before stopping. Someone noticed and gasped, alerting the hallway to the two opposing parties in the middle of it.

Zim was now at Jason's height, and was slightly taller than some of the boys behind him. The two stared into each other's eyes. Zim with a glare, and Jason with a relaxed look and smirk.

"So, you're the kid I was sackin' a month ago? The hell happened to you to get as tall as me? You were about as short as a fifth grader last time I saw you," Jason recalled, looking Zim up and down. "And you were green, and smelled like shit."

"Growth spurt, and skin condition cleared up," Zim responded.

Jason scoffed before turning around to look at his friends. "Ya hear this? He said 'growth spurt'."

"How else do you explain how I got as tall as you?" Zim asked, slightly tilting his head.

Jason got closer to his face. "Dunno, good question."

"Are you trying to go for a kiss? Zim isn't gay, Jason," Zim asked as he backed away from the orangette.

The boy looked at Zim with an incredulous look as someone in the hallway let out a little chuckle, causing a chain reaction and the whole hallway was laughing at the interaction. Jason looked at all the students laughing before looking back at Zim with anger.

"After skool, meet me in the back, I'm gonna beat the shit out of you for this one," Jason stated.

"Alright," Zim complied simply. The orange haired boy turned around and his friends glared at Zim before turning around and following Jason down the hallway. Zim watched them leave before he walked down the hallway, ignoring the students now making a fuss about the fight that was now happening.

When Zim got to Miss Bitters' class. He sat down at his desk and closed his eyes to relax. Not even a second later he felt a presence standing at his desk. It was energetic and he could already tell it was Keef. The disguised alien opened his eyes as he sat back up. He was correct in thinking it was Keef as the redhead was staring at Zim with a wide smile.

"... Yeah, Keef?" Zim asked.

"Are you really gonna fight Jason?" He asked.

"Of course I am. I kind of have to now."

Keef lost his smile as he looked at Zim. "You know… he's kinda strong…"

"So what? Zim can bet he's stronger. You shouldn't worry about him, he'll win," the disguised alien stated with a smirk.

"Heh, alrighty, I believe you," Keef said as he nodded, regaining his wide smile. "But… I have to ask… what made you change?"

Zim closed his eyes as he smiled. He relaxed back in to his seat. "I was just tired of who I was. Realistically speaking, I couldn't get anything done, so I thought why not change? So far, I think it's been working out pretty well so far."

"Heheh, I think so too. You're so nice now, it's amazing!" Keef commented.

"Seeing smiles on your faces is actually quite nice, surprisingly. Zim never thought a reaction like that would feel nice to see."

Keef giggled. "Definitely an improvement. I could handle your rudeness… but now I don't have to tolerate it!"

"Wow, Keef, tell Zim how you really feel," the disguised alien sarcastically said.

Keef giggled again before calling down. "So… you hear about the news about those alien beasts? Pretty crazy, huh?"

"Yeah, it's all that everyone's talking about. Hard not to hear about it."

After that, Keef remained silent as he looked at Zim's desk with a downhearted smile. Zim raised an eyebrow at how Keef was acting.

"Zim… I have a question for you. Mind if I ask it?"

"Uh… okay, go ahead, what is it?"

"… Are you an alien, Zim?" Keef asked, looking up at the disguised alien. Zim's eyes widened for a moment as he heard the redhead's question.

"What? No, why would you ask that, Keef?" Zim asked, tilting his head. '… How did he guess it?'

"… After seeing the news, I thought back to what Dib was ranting about years ago… about you being an alien and whatnot. Then, I thought of you and how you used to look. I got curious so I tried looking online for your symptoms… and I couldn't find anything like them…" Keef told, looking off to the side.

"W-Well there's such thing as hypochromic anemia! That causes the skin to go green!" The alien responded quickly.

"Yeah… but not to the degree of yours. Zim, you look like the definition of green. No illness just causes that… also not to mention, but you never showed any of the other symptoms like shortness of breath and energy. You were always shouting and screaming…"

Zim's eyes widened as he looked off to the side. He remained silent for a moment before opening his mouth. He was about to say something but Keef beat him to it.

"Well, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and won't assume you're an alien based on Dib's psychotic rantings… but you aren't human," Keef stated, looking at Zim with a serious expression on his face.

"… What's your point?" Zim asked, eyes slightly narrowing.

"All I'm saying is that I might have to start trusting Dib more. Sure, his alien talk can be extreme… but with this recent event… maybe he isn't as insane as we thought…" Keef responded, putting a finger on his chin. "My other point is that… you're definitely a main cause in this, somehow."

Zim raised an eyebrow. "Because I was green in the past?"

"I find it amusing how you still think you can trick me into thinking you're not an alien."

"What's with the attitude and sudden change of demeanor, Keef? I never would have expected this from you."

"Sorry, Zim, but my life is on the line here. I don't know if you noticed, but alien beasts are coming in from out of nowhere and have already killed people. That could have been me, and all I wanna know is how to keep myself alive, understand?"

"… Yeah, I do—"

"Then if so, tell me the truth." Zim stared at Keef with narrowed eyes while Keef stared back. A moment later Dib entered the classroom.

"Oh, hey Keef and Zim, how are you two doing?" Dib asked his classmates as he walked up to Zim's desk.

"If you want to know how to stay alive, then stop asking questions you aren't ready for," Zim stated.

Keef clicked his tongue before turning around to face Dib. "Hey Dib! I'm doing great, thanks for asking!" Keef responded, going back to his cheerful self as he turned away from Zim.

"… And Zim is doing fine, also," the alien said with a head nod. Dib gave one back.

"Oh! Dib, did you hear about the news?! Some alien beast targeted the City!" The redhead informed.

"Yeah, it was a bit surprising to hear that they attacked this city… luckily they didn't do too much damage, but it's unfortunate to hear that people lost their lives," Dib responded as he looked down.

"But, they did get avenged, so let's look on the bright side!" The redhead added.

Dib looked up with a slight smile. "Yeah, you're right, Keef." A second later and more classmates started walking into the classroom talking to one another. "Alright, I'll talk to you two later."

Zim and Keef watched Dib walk to his desk before the redhead turned and looked at Zim with a serious expression. He then leaned down to where only Zim could hear him.

"I'll get the answer from you soon," Keef told.

"Sure."

The boy didn't get a chance to add anything else when Miss Bitters walked into the classroom.

'… Has Keef always had a serious side to him…?' Zim asked as he glanced at Keef. He met the redhead's eyes before turning back around. 'Well, he's already on to me, might as well tell him the truth sometime soon.'

During Miss Bitters class, while Zim was paying attention to the old woman's lecture, he could feel the presence of someone focused on him. Before he could think more on that, something was coming for the back of his head.

The alien ducked, pretending to scratch the back of his neck and he saw a spitball fly over him and hit the wall. As soon as it did, Miss Bitters stopped talking and whipped her body around to the class. The teacher quickly scanned the room before her eyes locked on someone in the back.

"Torque! Are you throwing paper balls in my class?!" The teacher questioned.

'Ah, so that's who was targeting Zim,' the alien thought as he let out a sigh. 'Jason must have asked him to mess with me… what an idiotic plan.'

Later during the school day, lunchtime arrived and Zim was in Rina's classroom with the addition of Gaz and Oni.

While the large group was having a light argument, there was a knock on the classroom door. Everyone turned to it out of curiosity; Oni got up and walked over to it. She opened the door as Maverick stood there. He looked down at her and she looked up at him.

"So, you just gonna leave me alone at lunch? You know Onyo ain't here, right?"

"Whoops," the girl responded with a shrug. "You wanna come in? We have a large group." Maverick looked up from Oni and surveyed the room before looking back down and gave her his own shrug.

"Sure." Now Maverick joined the group and they continued their conversation with the boy chiming in every so often.

Around fifteen minutes later another knock came from the door. Oni got up and answered the door to see Dib standing there.

"O-Oh! Hey, didn't expect you to answer…" Dib spoke. The girl ignored his comment as she peeked out of the classroom, looking down both hallways to make sure no one else was coming.

"You're alone, right?" Oni asked the Membrane son.

"Uh… yes, I am."

"What're you here for?"

"Um… Gaz, mostly. We usually sit together at lunch and I noticed she wasn't there so I looked for her," Dib answered.

"How'd you know she was in here?" Oni wondered, raising an eyebrow. Dib pulled up his phone and saw a radar on it with a red dot flashing every two seconds.

"You don't find that a bit creepy?"

"I was worried, okay? She has the same thing on her phone too."

The platinum blonde looked back at Gaz. The girl sighed as she rubbed her face. "Yeah, let him in."

She nodded before grabbing Dib's shirt and throwing him behind her. He let out a yelp as he looked around at the group of students.

He saw Zim and his eyes slightly widened.

"Hey, Dib," Zim greeted with a slight hand wave

"Didn't expect to see you here, Zim," the Membrane boy said as he grabbed a seat.

"Ooo how secretive! We have our own little club now!" Rina noticed as she smiled giddily.

"Tch. Not really secret when Kiko and Rose know about this classroom," Morgan retorted, rolling her eyes and placing her chin on her palm.

"Whaddya mean? Zim scared 'em away! I don't think they're comin' back for a while!" Seina reminded. The girls nodded besides Gaz, Dib, and Maverick.

"Zim did what now?" The Membrane daughter asked as she looked at the disguised alien.

"He scared off two bullies," Kayla summarized.

"Huh, did what happen to you with Jason and Ty harden you, Zim?" Maverick wondered.

The alien looked at Maverick and shrugged. "Meh. I was just tired of getting pushed around."

"Fair enough."

"Oh yeah, speaking about them: Kayla, you haven't been hanging around with Arc lately. Why is that?" Rina wondered as she looked at the brunette.

The girl sighed as she put her head down on the table. "He said I was too draining, and that I looked kinda lame to hang around.

As everyone settled down, they resumed their conversation with Dib adding his own two cents into it. Throughout the conversation, Kayla got notably more tired through it and was taking involuntary naps through lunch.

As Rina was talking about one of her trips to a different state, Zim's eyes widened at feeling the present of a beast. He shot his head up and looked around, feeling it very close by. The alien slowly looked at everyone as his senses were peaked to the max to find this beast out. He moved his eyes to Kayla and could feel the presence of a beast on her, but it quickly went away when she opened her eyes.

The girl gave out a long yawn as she stretched.

"You alright, Kayla?" Seina asked in concern as she looked at her friend.

"Huh? Yeah, I am. Just a bit tired is all," the brunette responded, laying her head on her arms.

"Fair enough, this school is draining. And there's also those alien beasts roaming around!" Rina exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table.

Everyone murmured about that while Zim looked at Kayla from the corner of his eye to gauge her reaction. The girl was slightly frowning; he couldn't tell if it was because the situation was brought up to act upset, or if she just didn't want to hear about beasts when she is one herself. He then glanced at Dib and the boy glanced back. They didn't say anything before looking around at their friends.

"Now we have more stuff to worry about. How fantastic," Morgan stated, rolling her eyes.

"And we still have skool too, it's ridiculous," Seina chimed in.

"'As long as the beasts don't attack our school, then we should be fine to continue going,' is probably what the skool thinks," Oni guessed with a shrug.

"And now, magic is apparently a thing," the mixed noirette added, gaining everyone's attention. For some odd reason, as everyone looked at Seina and nodded, the disguised alien had a feeling that almost everyone in the room had an inkling that magic was already real. He shrugged it off as the group moved past that point and decided to talk about something else.

After lunch and the rest of the skool day, Zim went to the back of the skool and found Jason waiting there with Ty, Garrett, a kid with spiky red hair, a kid with purple hair, a kid with blonde hair, and a kid with black hair that for some reason stood out to Zim the most. He looked behind the group of bullies and could see Kiko and Rose behind them.

The disguised alien then heard voices behind him.

"Oh, look! It's really happening!"

"Wait what? That kid's fighting Jason?!"

"He's so dead."

"Are we gonna see a kid get murdered?"

"Is he dumb, or stupid?"

He could hear these kinds of comments get louder as more people started coming out and surrounding them.

"Heh, looks like we got a crowd, huh Zim?" Jason asked as he smirked. The name sparked some recognition between people and were surprised by the sudden change in appearance.

"Zim isn't surprised you riled up a crowd for this," he responded, narrowing his eyes. He quickly glanced around and could see his English classmates in the crowd as well as Keef, Dib, Gaz, Maverick, Oni, Seina, Rina, Morgan, and Kayla. 'Oh, I have support, how kind of them.'

Zim's eyes landed on a short girl with king brown hair, and strange reddish-brown eyes. She was wearing a simple orange dress with black stockings and black boots to match. She didn't display it, but the alien knew she knew of him way before somehow.

The former Irken sighed. 'Today has been full of strange occurrences…' He then returned his gaze back to Jason. "When exactly are we starting? I don't want this to take all day."

"Heh, let's get started right now then, fucker!" Jason exclaimed as he rushed forward with a fist reeled back. When he got in Zim's face, he threw the fist forward, but the alien cocked his head to the left, effectively dodging it and looking unimpressed.

"What a lame opening. Who rushes forward like that?" The disguised alien then kicked Jason in the stomach, pushing him back.

The orange-haired boy looked up at Zim with gritted teeth. "Oh what do you know about fighting?! I was beatin' the shit out of you a month ago!"

"To be fair, Zim was quite small then. He couldn't have done much at the time," Zim said with a shrug. "But now that he's taller, well… simply put: he's better than you."

"Fuckin' creep… talking in the third person… I'm not losin' to this shit…" Jason grumbled as he stood up and put his fists up.

Zim cracked his neck and loosened up his hands. "Alright, I guess it's my turn now." The alien walked towards Jason and the boy waited before Zim got closer. Right when he thought he was close enough, he threw a punch but Zim dodged it. He threw his second one and he dodged it again. He threw an uppercut; Zim dodged it.

Jason then threw another punch but Zim deflected it before elbowing the boy's face, making him back up as Zim cracked his nose.

"Agh! Fuck!" The orange-haired boy shouted as he held his nose. Zim walked up to Jason before putting his fists up. The alien then relentlessly threw punches at Jason's face harder than when Jason did it to him a month ago. The alien could feel some people cringing from this, but he had to show Jason where he belonged now.

As Zim landed another punch, Jason was about to fall back, but he grabbed his collar and brought him close to his face.

The alien then leaned into his ear. "How does it feel being on the receiving end?" He let go of his collar and pushed him back before doing a roundhouse kick, connecting it with Jason's chest and making the boy fly back. His friends caught him before he landed on the ground and all asked if he was okay.

Zim then looked up at the black-haired boy that caught his attention and could see him looking at him with a slight frown. The alien stared back.

'He doesn't seem like a threat at all. He may be stronger than his friends, but that might just be it,' the alien thought before breaking the stare off and looking at Ty. The boy gritted his teeth as he glared back at Zim. The former Irken then looked at Kiko and Rose. The black-haired girl looked troubled that Jason went down pretty quickly. Rose on the other hand just stared at him with wide eyes.

'… Am I not tuned into human emotions enough to detect Rose's expression? How interesting…' Zim thought before Jason's friends got his attention.

"Damn you, motherfucker!" The kid with spiky red hair shouted.

"Don't blame me when Jason was the one who started this whole fight to begin with," Zim told.

"Garrett, Jackson, Noah, let's gang up on his ass!" The spiky red ordered as he looked at the blonde, the purplette, and the black-haired boy next to him.

"Alright, that's enough," the noirette with green eyes said.

"B-But Arc—"

"We don't wanna get caught by the teachers now, do we? We're lucky enough none of them bothered to check a bunch of students coming to the back of the skool, so let's keep it that way, alright Eric?" The boy named Arc told the spiky-haired kid. Eric only nodded as Arc walked past them. He walked up to Zim and they both stared at each other, with Arc being an inch taller than Zim.

Arc's frown turned into a smile. "We'll admit defeat today, Zim. But if there is a next time, you won't be so lucky."

"Hire an MMA Fighter. You might have a better chance," Zim stated, narrowing his eyes.

The noirette chuckled as he took out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth. He took out a lighter and held it up to Zim. "Light it for me, will ya?"

The alien looked at the lighter, then at the cigarette, then at Arc. He took it from Arc and flicked it on before lighting the cigarette. The noirette took the lighter back from Zim and pocketed it.

"Thanks. Next time'll surely be different," Arc said before turning to the crowd. "Everyone get the fuck out of here before we're all caught."

The crowd dispersed, a mix of many different conversations about what recently happened. Zim watched Arc and his group leave with an unconscious Jason, before he heard people walk up to him.

"That was anticlimactic," Gaz started.

Zim just shrugged. "All Jason knew was street fighting, and he wasn't very good at it either, just got lucky in the past."

"You beat his ass anyway! That was pretty cool!" Rina pointed out with a grin.

"Yeah and your dodges were cool as well, it looked like you were barely trying with them," Morgan noticed.

"That's because I was. Jason was quite predictable with his punches," Zim confirmed with a shrug.

"You should teach me how to fight someday!" Seina suggested as she threw some mock jabs.

The alien slightly smirked and chuckled at that. "Sure, why not."

"I'd be careful around Arc though, Zim. I don't know what it is, but he just seems off," Maverick advised as he glanced over at the group just as they turned a corner.

"I got the same feeling too, but I'm sure it's nothing too egregious," Zim said. "Anyway, I'm going to leave early. Take care everyone."

The disguised alien got a round of goodbyes before leaving the skool premises. As he was on his walk home, he could feel someone trying to catch up to him. He slightly slowed down as Keef appeared next to him

"Hello, Keef," Zim greeted.

"Hey Zim!" The redhead greeted back cheerfully. "So about wha—"

"Yes, Zim is an alien."

Keef was stunned for a second, leaving the two in silence. As they continued walking, the redhead blinked a couple of times and shook his head.

"O-Okay… uh… why did you just blurt that out…?" The boy wondered.

"You wanted to know, right? So there you go, now you know."

"Y-Yeah but… t-that was just so sudden!"

"Deal with it."

"W—" Keef groaned as he facepalmed before taking a deep breath. "Okay. Anyway, do you play a part in this?"

"I do."

"And what is that part?" Keef asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Being Earth's defender."

Keef was shocked again. "W-Wait… what? Y-You're not trying to take it over…?"

"You saw me kill that beast on TV, did you not?" Zim asked, quirking an eyebrow at Keef.

"Wait, that was you?!"

"… You didn't at least assume that…?"

"N-No… I thought that was a different case… I thought you were causing the beasts to come here…"

The two boys stopped walking as they looked at each other, both in shock. They stood there for a couple of minutes before Zim heavily sighed.

"Alright Keef. Yes, that was me on the news. I can do magic. And yes, I am a main cause in this but not in the way that you're thinking. My race of aliens had banished me because of my wrongdoings by sending me here thinking I was on a mission to take over the planet. Only recently did they tell me face-first that I wasn't on a mission, but was sent here to get far, far away from them in hopes I never returned. But just in case I ever had the idea of returning, they wanted to stop that by sending a bunch of beasts we captured long ago here. Now, I'm trying to kill the beasts so that they can't kill any humans. Do you understand?"

Keef stared at him for a moment before slowly nodding. "Yeah, I got all of that."

"Are you happy now?"

"Well… how are you gonna kill them all?"

"I have Dib helping me locate any that I'm not aware of," Zim replied.

"I see… so you'll kill all of them?"

"All of them."

Keef looked at the disguised alien for a second. "Well, you better not let our casualties be greater than theirs."

"I won't let that happen."

"Mm. Well, see ya later, Zim." Keef waved before turning a corner. The alien watched the redhead go before turning around and continuing his way back home.

When Zim arrived home, he saw Gir on the couch watching TV. Zim glanced at what he was watching and saw the news.

"Welcome back, Zim," Computer greeted.

"Hey, Computer," Zim greeted back, eyes on the TV.

"Over in Japan, their casualties have been quite low, only reaching the hundreds, but they won't stay that way forever. These alien beasts are killing us more quickly as time passes and the national governments don't seem to have a way to counter some of these creatures," the news anchor, a pale woman with blonde hair and green eyes, reported before taking a deep breath. "No one seems to know what to do. And our only savior is… a magic man no one knows… Are we really going to have to rely on… magic to stay alive…? That's all for today, Angela Conin with the afternoon news."

Zim stared at the TV before clenching his fists. 'Tch, what am I doing wasting time with fights against skool kids? There's more pressing matters here!' The alien tore his gaze away from the TV before taking out his watch. He tapped it and it activated before he pressed a button on the side.

"Call Dib," he simply said. The watch made a buzzing noise for a few seconds before it stopped.

"Hey, Zim, what's up?" Dib asked.

"Locate any beasts nearby," Zim answered.

"Alright, gimme a sec," Dib said. "Hm… okay, there seems to be one in the forest about north of your location, that's the closest one to you."

"Thank you. Talk to you later."

"Good luck."

Zim hung up and turned to leave. "I'll be back, Computer. Watch Gir for me."

"Of course, good luck, Zim."

The alien ran through the forest at high speeds, jumping over any branches that might've fallen and swirling past any obstacles in the way. He jumped on a tree trunk to another one before flipping over some branches. He landed with a skid as he felt an unwelcoming presence nearby.

"Get out here," Zim told before he looked up. The leaves high above rustled before something dropped and landed with a loud crash. The disguised alien watched the cloud of dust before it settled and revealed a dark yellow monkey-like creature. Its face looked close to a macaque's but it had pointy ears and teeth that extended out of its mouth. Its dark yellow body was quite big and large, making it taller than Zim as it had bones coming out of its chest. Its arms had black swirls on it as well as gashes. The beast was foaming at the mouth as its fully red eyes stared at Zim, growling in what could only be hunger.

'Must've fought against other animals,' he thought as he glared at the beast. Zim then deactivated his disguise and removed his wig. He took out Ruyi from his PAK and transformed into his Wukong Form. His antennae grew longer and changed to a flaring red as his red eyes changed to orange. The alien then smirked maniacally as he leaned down.

"Give me a damn good show, Mufdareshgi."