Okay folks! It's been a long time coming thanks to that accursed Real Life and all, but here she is... the next chapter in the Competition Saga! Enjoy and give feedback.

Things will definitely heat up in Chapter 12.


Chapter 11: Prelude to the Invasion of Earth

Tallest Red and Purple stared down at the tray presented to them by the small Irken with a chef's hat. Each took one of the small squares from the tray and sniffed them lightly. Both Tallest then cautiously tasted their respective snack squares.

Both then gagged and spit them out, the saliva-coated snacks smacking the poor Irken delivery drone in the face.

"I can't believe this!" Red cried out in frustration, waving his arms, "Our best Snack Scientists can't reproduce these ToastSnax(tm) things? I mean, c'mon! What could they possibly be made of?"

The poor Irken with the tray shrunk back from his leader's tirade. Fortunately, he was spared any further abuse by a transmission from Earth.

Both Tallest groaned then turned towards the main viewscreen, which showed the scratched and bruised form of Zim.

"My Tallest!" Zim stated in greeting, saluting smartly, "Forgive me for not reporting earlier, but I had to avert an attack by the big-headed boy using an army of dancing beavers."

Purple arched and eyebrow, "I thought you had the army of dancing beavers, Zim?"

"Nonesense!" Zim exclaimed,"I had to defend by base from the pitiful attack, that is all! It was nothing for me, of course, and my incredible strategic genius. Anyway"

Zim was cut off by Tallest Red, who narrowed his eyes at the small box Zim was holding in his other hand, "What is that?"

"Eh?" Zim asked, looking down at then holding up the box, "Oh, this. A filthy box of inferior alien snacking, my Tallest. I was just about to destroy it. In fact, why don't I do that right this moment?"

"NO!" exclaimed both Tallest in unison, waving their claws at the screen. Zim paused, looking askence at his leaders.

"That's a box of ToastSnax(tm)!" Tallest Purple stated in a sotto voice to Red.

"I know! Does that mean the Earthanoids stole the Colossal?"

"That doesn't make sense... Zim said they barely had space flight, much less the ability for intersolar travel."

Purple shook his head, "Obviously, Zim was wrong. But besides that, the Earthers have ToastSnax(tm) technology! We must have it!"

"My Tallest?" Zim questioned after the pause, "Hello?"

"Yes, Zim!" Red stated, turning back to the screen, "Well, uh... we've decided that you've done such a good job with Earth that, uh... we're going to come and conquer it with the fleet!"

Zim blinked, "But... my Tallest, I have not quite prepared the world for destruction..."

"That doesn't matter, Zim!" Purple replied, "You've, uh... you've weakened... yes, weakened! Them enough that we'll just take the Armada and do the rest. Good job, Zim!"

Zim blinked again, mild confusion spreading on his features. But he saluted dutifully anyway, "Of course, my Tallest, you are wise beyond belief. I shall... prepare these hideous creatures for your coming."

"You do that, Zim," Red said with a nod just before the transmission cut off. He turned to one of the Irken soldiers and barked an order, "Set a course for Earth, maximum speed!"

"But sir," replied the Irken underling, "At that speed we'll leave most of the Armada behind. It'll take them hours to catch up with us!"

"Who cares?" Purple stated with a dismissive wave of his claw, "These earthers couldn't possibly do anything to damage the Massive. What could possibly go wrong?"

With those fated words, the underling laid in the course for earth and punched it at maximum speed. Quickly, the majority of the fleet with the exception of some of the larger vessels just barely keeping up, descended behind the gigantic Irken flagship.

Meanwhile, back on Earth in Dib's room, Dib and Vim watched a monitor in which the previous scene replayed. Dib gasped in horror. "Oh no, Vim! It's finally started! THE INVASION OF EARTH! Someone has to do something!"

Vim pondered a moment, frowning deeply before her lips began to curl upwards into an evil, vicious smile. "Yeah," she remarked slyly with a nod, "Someone should." With that said, the Flargian soldier leaped up and jumped from Dib's window and deftly flew down the side of the house before running off.

"Wait! Vim, stop!" Dib shouted from his window after her retreating form, "Were are you going! The earth is in danger!" If Vim heard his desperate pleas, she gave no response. Dispondant, Dib flopped back in his chair and sighed.

"Poor girl. She must have been overcome with the realization that the earth is soon to be doomed. But no!" Dib jumped from his chair and struck a pose, "I can't just sit here while Zim's race conquers the planet! I've got to DO something! It's all up to me! Dib, savior of the world!"

Having talked himself up to it, Dib immediately summoned some flying video conference viewers. "Agent Mothman calling the Swollen Eyeball Network. I have urgent news! The alien I told you all about is about to invade! We need to inform the President, and the Press, and the military and"

"Agent Mothman," a dark figure appeared on one of the screens, "What have we told you about using the network for this sort of thing?"

"But it's true this time!" Dib insisted, "Look at the screen!" Dib pointed to his computer which showed Gir happily snacking on a Monkey Suck.

"Uh, okay, it WAS there," Dib replied, "Look, you gotta believe me, Agent Darkbooty! The world is in danger!"

"We'll take it under advisement, Agent Mothman. Agent Darkbooty out."

"NOOOOOO!" cried Dib as he frantically tried to redial the SEN only to be greeted with an automated message: "We're sorry, you are far too crazy to be on this network. Usage is rescinded." Dib groaned and banged his head against his desk. Remaining there for several moments, Dib finally looked up, "Okay, so the Swollen Eyeballs won't be any help. I guess I have to go inform the populace myself!"

Dib stood up and quickly ran through the door and out of the house, heading in the direction of the city.

"So, you see, now would be the perfect time to strike at the Irkens with a surprise attack!" Vim finished telling the three computers that stared down at her from up high.

"Hmm... well, not a bad idea, Solider," said the middle computer, "But, as we said, we calculate that we won't be able to go up against the Irken Armada with our own current military."

"But we can field test our new weapons!" interjected the right computer, "Surely some of them will be able to do some damage. And it's not like they'll be expecting anything. I think Vim's plan is perfect!"

"Yeah!" chimed in the left computer, "We can have all our refitted ships at the Earth's system within the hour. Hoy, maybe even lay a few mines in that asteroid belt they got there!"

"I don't know..." the middle computer waffled.

"C'mon, pleeeeease?" the other two computers whined.

"Oh, okay. Fine. We'll do this sneak attack thing. Maybe it'll be fun!"

"Excellent," Vim replied with a proud smile, "The Irken Empire will feel the brunt of Flargian military might!"

"End of line."

The holograms all ceased to function, leaving Vim once more in her home away from home.

"Lookie what I found, Mistress!" Rid exclaimed cheerfully, running up to Vim and waving a deep purple small rounded device covered in jam and butter, "I tried to toast it, but I don't think it came out right."

Vim blinked and took the device from Rid, examining it curiously. She wiped a bit of butter away from the top, exposing the symbol of the Irken Empire. Vim glared and snarled, "Zim! He bugged my house! He knows about the plan! Quickly, Rid! To the Interceptor! We need to stop Zim from warning his leaders!"

"Yaaay, we get to use the big toaster!" Rid happily skipped along behind Vim as she quickly headed into the garage were her personal transport was kept.