Whew, finally! Here it is, the action packed chapter for the fate of Earth! Who will win? What will happen? Can I pass my finals? To find out, read!

Oh, and after this? Just one last chapter to go. We're almost to the end, people! Woot!


Chapter 13: The Battle for Earth

Zim's Voot cruiser soared up into the sky, quickly passing into the stratosphere and into space beyond. "We must hurry, Gir!" he stated to his robotic companion, still dressed in his lime green doggie suit, "The Tallest will be here any second!"

"Yaaay! I's finally gonna be a moooon-baby!"

Zim glanced over at the small insane robot and was about to say something when the entire voot cruiser was rocked. "Eh!" Zim exclaimed, his hands flying over the controls, "What was that!"

"Hello, Zim," Vim said as she appeared on one of the monitors in the cruiser's cockpit, a vicious grin on her features, "You didn't really think I'd let you escape and warn your leaders about my little trap, did you? Ah, a fine day, indeed. Caught by surprise and with your own technology to aid us, we'll obliterate your space fleet. Victory will be ours!"

"Understand this, vacuous meat-thing," Zim replied with a scowl, "There is no way you're pathetic fleet will be a match for the great Irken Armada! You'll all be destroyed like so much puffy... space... rice... stuff. Of exploding!" He waved a hand dismissively, "Besides, nothing can stand against the Massive. Not even you with your insignificant attempts at reverse engineering."

"Oh no, Zim?" Vim replied slyly, "I think we have a way of dealing with the Massive. Oh, yes."

"Eh?" Zim asked suspiciously, "Impossible! There's nothing that can threaten the height of Irken engineering!" He paused briefly then continued, nearly shrieking, "NOTHING! TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW, INFERIOR HOSEBEAST! TELL ME!"

Vim merely smiled then cut the communications channel. Again, Zim's voot cruiser was rocked by an explosion. He hissed in disdain, "First I'll deal with that yellow pest, then I shall warn the Tallest. With my abilities, this shouldn't take long at all!"

Zim's cruiser shook with an impact as he was hit, warning lights blinking and an alarm klaxon howling. Zim and Gir screamed, but the Irken Invader quickly recovered his wits and put his hands back on the controls, swirling around in space with Vim's more angular ship. Zim's eyes narrowed, "All right, Vim. Let's see your pathetic skill."

Back on earth, Dib raced towards home, stopping only briefly seeing Gaz playing a game on her gameslave.

"Gaz!" Dib shouted excitedly, "We're being invaded! Zim's race is going to conquer earth if we don't do something!"

Gaz growled low in her throat but didn't answer.

Dib looked agape at his sister, "Don't you even care that we're all about to be subjected by a vicious evil alien race!"

Gaz's eye twitched as she glared at her brother. The look sent Dib stepping backwards with his hands up before he turned and raced downstairs. He, alone, would have to defend earth, it seemed.

"Dad!" Dib said as he jumped into the lab where Professor Membrane was working, his back turned and an erie blue glow siloutting him, "I need to use the asteroid repulsor!"

The older scientist turned and looked down at his son, "Mmn? The asteroid repulsor? Why do you need that, son? I haven't detected any asteroids on a collision course for earth."

"We're being INVADED!" Dib cried, sounding very much the madman, "By ALIENS! I need to stop them and the asteroid repulsor is the only thing that will work! Please, dad, for the good of all mankind!"

The Professor paused then chuckled, shaking his head as he dug in his pocket and procured a small key with a rabbit's severed foot attached. He tossed the key towards Dib and raises a hand, "Here you go, son. Go ahead and play. But I don't want you to destroy the earth this time."

"Dad, I'm trying to save the earth!" Dib replied as he ran out, key in hand, "Thanks, Dad! I'll give it back after the world is safe!"

Professor Membrane sighed and turned back to the bench, shaking his head, "My poor insane son. Well, back to welding this cat and curious dancing beaver I discovered." The blue light once again filled the lab.

Back in space, the Irken Armada were fighting desperately for their lives. Disorganized and outnumbered, even the superior technology and military training of the Irkens was proving to be inadequate for fighting the Flargian troops. Still, it was a war of attrition and the Flargians were taking many more casualties than the Irkens were; nearly three ships to one.

Alarm klaxons blared on the panicked bridge of the Massive, military personnel running around as they tried to keep the ship operational and firing. The old repaired Colossal had proven to be quite formidable; her weapons even managed to pierce the Massive's armor and take out one of the huge power generators that the vessel required. Still, the Colossal was not undamaged, with quite a few holes in her own hull and some severe damage to internal systems.

"Bring us around for another pass!" Tallest Red called out his order, "And when will the rest of the Armada arrive as backup?"

"Not for another half hour, sir!"

The bridge was rocked by another explosion as the Massive was hit again, the lights dimming slightly.

"My Tallest! The auxillery generator has been hit! We have automatically switched to emergency power!"

"Bring primary power back on-line!" Purple shouted, "We can't fight them just on emergency power!"

"But sir! The system integrity grid is down to thirty-percent of norms and--"

"JUST DO IT!" both Red and Purple shouted in unison. The soldier nodded and went to work, Red turning to purple, "I don't know how, but I know somehow someway this is all Zim's fault."

"GIR! This is all your fault!" Zim screamed at his little robot companion, the control panel of his Voot Cruiser sparking from the damage sustained, "If we had just stayed home and CALLED the Tallest--"

Zim's recriminations were cut off my the smiling, static filled face of Vim on one of the monitors, "Forget it, Zim. You can't win against me. Surrender now and maybe I'll just stuff your spindly little body and mount it on my wall as a trophy of war!"

"How!" Zim seethed at the monitor, "How did you become so adept at flying? No one could be this good. NO ONE IS AS GOOD AS ZIM!"

"That's my little secret," Vim replied, patting the GameSlave beside her off camera, "But will you surrender? This is your last chance!"

"NEVER!" Zim cried out, shaking his fist, "I'd sooner be blasted into the miserable earth sun than surrender to the filthy likes of you!"

"That can be arranged, Zim," Vim hissed back, cutting off the communications channel and slowly approaching the crippled Voot Cruiser, hanging beaten and broken in space. Vim grinned evilly. This was it. Nothing could stop her now. Nothing.

"I'm the only one who can stop them!" Dib shouted to himself as he sat in the huge gun-like contraption, pointed at the sky. He placed the requisite helmet on his head and looked through the scope, only to be shocked at what he saw.

A fierce battle raged in the heavens, hundreds of ships locked in mortal combat, dozens on fire and burning in the vacuum of space. One one side were clearly the Irken Invasion Force. But on the other, some unknown aliens.

"This is strange," Dib remarked to himself, "Who are they? Why are they helping us? Do I trust them?" Dib frowned in thought before nodding, "Right. I have no choice. I have to trust them. Okay, time to lob some asteroids at these would-be conquerers!" Dib seized the controls and picked out a nice big asteroid, maneuvering it into position until he could fire it towards the warring vessels.

Back in space, Vim closed on Zim, savoring the moment she would deliver the coup de gras and snuff out the annoying Irken once and for all. Her illusionary thumb hovered over the controls for a moment then began to descend.

Just then, though, her ship was nicked by a large asteroid. Out of control, the Flargian soldier careened towards Zim's Voot Cruiser and smashed into it, the pair of them heading for earth, fire from friction in the atmosphere boiling away around them. A hail of screams came from the occupants of the two ships as they raced back towards earth. The glow from their superheated ships and smoke from the damage made them eyesores for the few humans that looked up and gawked at the pair.

"Yes!" Tallest Red exclaimed happily as the rest of the Irken Armada finally arrived, turning the tide of battle immediately in favor of the Irkens, "Right, let's show these humans who's boss!"

Just then, an asteroid rammed into the side of the Massive, causing several control panels to erupt in a hail of sparks. "What was that!"

The main viewscreen changed to show several large asteroids hurling though space towards the Irken Fleet. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Purple stated, watching the screen in horror, "They're throwing asteroids at us?"

'This wouldn't be a problem if the Massive was at full power. But with all the damage we've sustained..." Red's voice faded off before he turned towards a subordinate, "Okay, that's it! We're pulling back for repairs. Tell the fleet we're retreating, but we'll be back. Oh, yes... we'll be back and take revenge on these Earthanoids!"

The soldier paused briefly then nodded, relaying the retreat order, the Irken Armada quickly pulling away from the system. The Flargian fleet, badly damaged and reduced to a fraction of their original numbers, also turned to limp home. But they had scored an important victory; the Irkens were not undefeatable. The myth of Irken military control had been seriously shaken up.

"I did it!" Dib cried in elation, jumping up with joy, "I saved the world! They ran like... uh... like... runny things that run fast when they saw those asteroids coming for them. Yeah." Then Dib heard the faint murmur of voices emanating from the street below. He looked over the edge of the raised platform where the repulsor sat, eyes widening at seeing a crowd below, armed with bats, rakes, scythes, a chihuahua with wide staring eyes and a lobotomy scar... anything they could pick up. Leading them was that filthy hobo Dib had spoken to earlier. Curious, Dib made his way downstairs.

"I got everyone I could!" the hobo stated proudly to Dib, "Told 'em about the alien invasion and all. We're ready to fight 'em!"

Dib blinked. Several times, in fact. "Uhm, heh heh," he stated sheepishly, "Well, you don't need to worry about that anymore. I saved the earth from the aliens. They're gone!" Dib smiled proudly.

"Hey!" one of the people in the crowd shouted, pointing a melting ice-cream towards the boy, "I know him! That's Dib!"

"Crazy Dib?"

"Yeah! The crazy one always talking about aliens and bigfoot and all that other crazy stuff! He's crazy!"

"Wait, no!" Dib called out desperately as the mob turned to go, "There was an alien invasion this time! I swear! You gotta believe me! I'm not crazy!"

"I can't believe I fell for this crazy kid and his hobo."

Dib sighed and turned away, shoulders sagging. "Well, again, no one believes me. But I saved the world, right? Yeah. So it's still a victory. Right." A large shadow spread across the ground over Dib, the big headed boy turning around to peer up at the very angry hobo looming over him.

"You have humiliated me in front of the town!" The hobo began, "By ancient hobo law, you now become my slave until such time as the debt is repaid."

"Wait, what hobo law?" Dib asked with an upraised eyebrow. His expression quickly changed to one of terror, a scream escaping from his lips as the hobo grabbed him and dragged him off down the street.

With a resounding crash, the two ships smashed into Zim's house, depositing the contents of each into Zim's living room. The force of the impact had dislodged Zim's contacts and hairpiece, the Irken sneering, "Well, it seems your pathetic display has played right into my hands. You are at my mercy!"

"What are you talking about, Zim?" Vim asked, brushing herself off and pointing at the wreckage of his Voot Cruiser, "You lost! I had you right where I wanted you!"

"That's what you think, fleshpod!" Zim growled, "House! Intruder alert!" Instantly, robotic hands flowed down from the ruined ceiling and began firing lasers at Vim, Zim howling with evil laughter.

"Rid!" Vim stated, dodging a blast from the house computer, "Help me!"

"Gir! Defensive mode!"

Rid and Gir both glowed bright red and saluted their masters turning towards each other and narrowing their robotic eyes. A cashe of vicious looking tools and implements of destruction popped from Gir's head, moving threatening towards Rid. The other little Sir unit concentrated a moment before two slices of toast popped from her head, the robot offering Gir one slice.

"Toast!" Gir squealed happily, the menacing instruments retreating back into his head as he grabbed the bread and sat down with Rid to watch the battle between Vim and Zim, absently gnawing at the toast.

Vim leaped off the wall, hands outstretched to grab the Irken about the throat, a stray laser bolt knocking off her watch and causing her form to shiver and reveal her in all her alienness. With her claws around Zim's throat, and Zim's pack opening up to reveal his spider legs about to impale the other alien from behind, both combatants stopped and slowly turned towards the door.

Or, where there should have been a door.

Instead, the door was knocked off it's hinges and a crowd of amazed people stood, staring at the two aliens. Both Vim and Zim smiled widely for the audience before creeping away to gather their disguises, returning themselves to human form.

"Nothing to see here, folks!" Vim stated, "We were just, uh... practicing. For the school play! Costumes!" She waved her hands wildly to illustrate.

"Yes! Costumes! For a play," Zim added with a vigorous nod, "Bow before the mighty thespian abilities of ZIM!"

Apparently mollified by this reaction, the crowd of people slowly began to disperse, leaving Vim and Zim glaring at each other.

"This isn't over, Zim," Vim hissed, pressing a button on her watch which caused her space craft to lurch from it's embedded position and fly off into the sky, headed for home.

"Indeed it isn't," Zim growled back, "You will beg for death before the end, trout-child!"

"What does that even mean!" Vim asked exasperatedly before shaking her head and walking to the door, "Nevermind. I'll be seeing you, Zim. Don't you worry. And you'll wish you hadn't. Come, Rid! We go home!"

"No, my yellow stink-beast," Zim purred dangerously to the retreating forms of Vim and her robot, "It is you who will wish you never crossed paths with Zim!" He whirled on his own robot, "Gir! Begin repairs! I shall be in the lab."