Kinda a short chapter today. Once again, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. It's much appreciated!

A special virtual cookie for Moga for discovering the meaning behind Vim's name. Good job!

In response to The Architect MkII: Yes, the story will end with a definite conclusion, but said conclusion will be a bit open. Depending on time and response, I may turn this into a series of related stories. I do have a story arc already laid out in my head.

But before I do, I want to work on some other projects. So, we'll see where the future leads!


Chapter 8: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Stuff, Part 2

Poised over the junk planet, the Irken Armada sat waiting, the collective shadow casting the surface into an unnatural night. A deep spaceship-shaped impression could be seen on the surface of the planet; an ugly scar on an even uglier heavenly body.

Aboard the Massive, Tallest Red waited impatiently for a report from the surface as Purple sat in a snack-induced stupor on a comfortable chair. Suddenly, the door to the Massive's bridge opened, revealing one of the landing party send to investigate the garbage world.

"Well?" Red asked as the smaller Irken soldier approached.

"We couldn't find any clues, my Tallest," the soldier reported, "Except for this." The solider then presented Red with a small opened box.

"'ToastSnax'?" Red read from the box surface, "What is this? This is ALL you found?"

At that moment, Purple awoke from his self-induced near unconsciousness. "Man, that was a nice rest. Oh, hey! Snacks!"

Before anyone could stop him, Purple had floated across the room and snatched the box from Red, thrusting a hand deep into the box and pulled out a claw full of the square, swirly snacks.

"No, don't! Those are--" But Red's warning was too late. Purple stuffed the alien snacks into his maw and chomped on them noisily. The bridge was silent as they watched; no one was sure what would happen.

"WOW!" Purple exclaimed, staring at the box in wonder, "These are amazing! I've never tasted anything so good! What are these, I've never had 'em before. Try one!"

The bridge crew and Red stared at the Tallest for a moment before Red plucked one of the squares from the box and eyed it warily. Cautiously, he put it in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"Hey, wow, you're right!" Red agreed enthusiastically, "These are fantastically amazing!" His eyes narrowed dangerously, "That means... whatever alien race stole the Colossal has superior snack technology to us! We can't allow this to continue! You!"

Red whirled on some random soldier who looked back and forth before saluting smartly.

"Take this down to the lab and have the Snack Scientists look it over. We MUST have the secret of the 'ToastSnax' for our very own! Go now!"

The solider saluted again and took the box, hurrying off to the Massive's Snack Laboratory.

At that moment, Zim's image suddenly burst forth on the screen, "My Tallest!"

Both Tallest let out a cry of surprise as they whirled on the viewscreen, staring in horror. "What the... hey! We're in silent mode, Zim! How did you contact us?!"

"Oh, I took control of the Massive's long-range communication systems once I realized you were unreachable. Neat, huh?" Zim replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "I knew you'd want to hear the amazing victory of Zim in identifying the horrible alien on earth."

"Yeah yeah yeah, that's great Zim," Purple said dismissively, "But we really need to get back to, uh... what we were doing."

Red nodded in agreement, "Right! So, if you'll excuse us, Zim..."

"My Tallest, wait! It's very imp-" Zim was cut off when Red smashed the long-range communicator.

"There," Red stated, tossing an Irken Shock Stick to the side, accidentally electrocuting some unlucky solider, "That should keep him away from us for the time being. Get someone down here to repair the console and change all the access codes again."

"Yes, sir!"

Back on earth, Zim stared at the static on his viewscreen protruding from his PAK and growled lightly. "Clearly the Tallest require more information before they will be satisfied," Zim said to himself, "Very well! I will follow the yellow slug home from skool today and get more data. Oh, such data will I get..."

The portable viewscreen folded up then returned to the small Invader's PAK as Zim turned and walked out of the stall and exited the bathroom.