Author's Note: Boogie's Boys might get their hands on Zim's space ship? Nothing about that seems safe to me. Not that safety matters. After all, most of the characters in this story are already dead. The dead folk belong to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which I enjoy greatly but do not own rights to. The people, and alien creatures, which are alive came from Invader ZIM, a brilliant series that I had no part in creating in the first place. Now, using and abusing the characters for my own fictional gain? That I do admit full responsibility for.
"He was gonna tie me up! Big headed weirdo," Shock said to Barrel as they got closer and closer to the end of the corridor.
"Let's hide in that room," Barrel said to Shock, pointing to a circular doorway straight ahead of them.
"Yes, Barrel, because no one's going to think of looking in the only room this hall leads into," Shock said sarcastically.
"Got any better ideas?" Barrel asked, smirking when Shock didn't answer.
"Like taking what's in this room?" Lock asked, door opening to reveal that he had been waiting for Shock and Barrel.
"Finally! Jack brings a whole bunch of people trying to catch us and you run off," Shock complained as she dragged Barrel into the room.
"What is this place?" Barrel asked as Lock closed the door behind them.
"I don't know, but it has something really neat," Lock said, pointing to something just ahead of the trio.
"Whoa," Shock and Barrel said in unison as they saw what Lock was pointing at.
'Whoa' was the perfect word to describe it, whatever it was. Sitting atop a platform made of cables was some kind of dark pink and purple… thing. It could have been a car, if it had wheels. Still, it looked as if one could get inside and move it around. Maybe it could fly too, if they found the right buttons. Without another second of hesitation, the three ran up to it and banged on the windshield, only to have it open with quite a surprise.
"So you're the ones everyone's looking for," Gaz said smugly from the inside of the cockpit.
"Don't even think about trying anything," Lock said to her.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" Shock asked.
"Doesn't matter who I am. And if you think each room has only one entrance, you're wrong," Gaz said.
"Why are you telling us this?" Barrel asked.
"Don't you know help when you see it? Great, there is a world stupider than this one," Gaz said sarcastically.
"Take that back," Shock said.
"You don't want to get on my bad side, so I suggest you all shut your traps and listen to me," Gaz said, watching the trio grow silent with a touch of fear. "Good. Now, this thing I'm sitting in is Zim's space ship. You can get out of here in it, if you steer it the right way."
"Which way?" Lock asked just as the door to the room opened again.
"My VOOT CRUISER!" Zim screamed. "Get your filthy non-Irken meat out of my ship!"
"That's for you to find out," Gaz said as she jumped out of the cockpit, allowing the trio to hop in.
"Dibsister? You horrible traitor!"
"Shut up, Zim," Gaz said.
"Shut up? No one tells almighty ZIM to 'shut up'. NO ONE!"
"Yeah? Well, I'd move if I were you."
"Never! Nothing will move me from this spot."
"If you say so," Gaz said, nodding to the Voot Cruiser slowly rising in the air behind her.
Meanwhile…
"Quick, this way!" Jack exclaimed to Sally, dragging her into a room.
"Eat your weasels!" the RoboMom said, following them in there.
"No, this way," Sally said, leading Jack into another room.
"We need to spend quality time together," the RoboDad said, electrifying his claws and chasing after them.
"They're everywhere! How can they keep following us?" Jack asked Sally as they ran out of that room and further down the hall.
"Jack?" Sally asked.
"Yes?"
"Why are we leaving little white spots behind us?"
"Little white spots?" Jack asked, pausing to look behind them. Sure enough, there was a trail of white where they had just passed. "How odd," Jack said.
"It's powdery," Sally said, bending over to feel one of the spots before getting a closer look at Jack. "I know what it is. Jack, you're still covered in flour."
"Really?" Jack asked, looking as his suit. "Hold on," he said, turning intangible. Sally watched all the flour that had gathered on him fall into a pile on the ground. "How about now?" Jack asked once he turned visible.
"It's all off," Sally said just before a rather large head passed them and then came back.
"Oh no!" Dib exclaimed.
"Well, we're happy to see you too, Dib," Jack said in a slightly cynical tone.
"No, no. That's not it. If I'm here with you guys, I'm obviously going around in circles! Zim! He left me to rot in this horrible maze," he ranted as he began to walk away from Jack and Sally.
"You don't want to go that way," Sally said.
"Why?" Dib asked before a wooden spoon hit him in the forehead.
"Do your homework!" the RoboMom yelled to Dib, appearing at the end of the corridor.
"That's why," Jack said to Dib.
"We can ditch them by getting up to the house, follow me," Dib said to Jack and Sally as he now ran ahead of them.
"Should we tell him about his sister?" Sally asked Jack as they followed.
"After we've made it to safety," Jack replied.
"There has to be an elevator around here," Dib said, looked around the halls before pausing in front of a seemingly endless pitch-black corridor. "What the-"
"Lights?" Jack asked, looking at what seemed to be to headlights off in the distance.
"I hear something too," Sally said. "Something… familiar."
It was familiar. It was a scream, indignant and a bit afraid. It was Zim! Yes that voice was unmistakable, but why was Zim screaming as two headlights came towards Jack, Sally, and Dib? The answer came when the Voot Cruiser steered by Lock, Shock, and Barrel made it into some light, revealing that Zim had his back to the windshield and could not move from the sheer force of the cruiser's speed.
"Dib-beast-stop-the-ship-AHHHHH!" Zim screamed very quickly, almost unintelligibly.
"How are we going to stop that?" Dib asked.
"We might not be able to stop it, but we can keep track of it," Sally said as she held out the net Shock had thrown on her earlier.
"Stop-stop-stop-stop-STOP!" Zim screeched as the cruiser got closer.
"Zim, catch the net!" Dib said as he grabbed the net from Sally and prepared to throw some of it to Zim before stopping. "Wait. Why am I even bothering to save Zim? He's evil!"
"Oh, here. I'll take the net," Jack said impatiently as he took the net from Dib and threw one end to Zim, who caught it.
"Jack?" Sally asked before the three of them jumped to one side of the corridor to let the ship pass.
"There, now that wasn't so hard," Jack said as the ship flew right by.
"Jack?" Sally asked once more.
"Yes?" Jack asked.
"You'd better hold on to your end of the net very tightly," Sally said, grabbing his free hand.
"Why?" Jack asked before he felt the force of the ship pull the both of them into the air.
"Guys? Wait! Dib yelled, running as fast as his legs could carry him. "No, no! Slow down, slow down!"
"Missed them?" asked a voice behind Dib.
"Gaz?" he asked, turning around to face his sister.
"Maybe that head of yours slowed you down."
"Why does everyone think it's big?"
"Because it is big."
"I don't have time for this. I have a ship to catch."
"On foot? Good luck," Gaz said sarcastically as she walked to another hallway.
"Where are you going?" Dib asked Gaz.
"I've seen you fail miserably with no chance of redeeming yourself. I'm going home to enjoy the rest of the day."
"Wait, I'm going too. I have to get out of here before I completely lose the cruiser."
"Dib, it's a pink and purple space ship, how can you lose it?"
Meanwhile…
"Press the red button. The red one!" Lock said to Barrel as Shock checked what Zim was dragging behind them.
"I don't think that'll get rid of him," Barrel said, referring to the screaming alien on the windshield.
"Just do it," Lock said.
"Guys, you'd better take a look at this," Shock said to Lock and Barrel, pointing at something Zim held in his left hand.
"When did he get that?" Barrel asked.
"I don't know, but I don't like it," Lock said just as Zim's screaming started to turn into cackles.
"What's he laughing at?" Shock asked.
"He's snapped," Lock said, shaking his head and smiling. "Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll jump off," he finished before he, Shock, and Barrel heard a knock.
"Play time's over, kids," Jack Skellington said, holding on to the netting Zim had in his left hand and looking quite sternly through the windshield into the cockpit.
"Red button, Barrel!" Lock yelled once more.
"Got it," Barrel said, practically jumping on the button.
Unfortunately for the terrible trio, the button allowed the windshield to open in half, allowing Zim, Jack, and Sally to fall into the cockpit. Now, the Voot Cruiser wasn't that large a ship. It was meant only to fit Zim and GIR on their mission to conquer the Earth. That was it. Now, with roughly six people in the ship, the controls were basically impossible to get straight. This resulted in the Voot Cruiser crashing through ceiling after ceiling until it hurled out of the Base itself, right behind GIR and Minimoose.
"Oooh! Master's going on a trip! I'm gonna go too, wanna come Minimoose?" GIR asked.
Minimoose made a sour face and squeaked.
"But it'll be fun! We can dance with the weenies and chase leprechauns."
Minimoose squeaked sternly before facing the television again.
"Okie dokie!" GIR said, saluting with his tongue out before shooting off into the sky and following the out of control Voot Cruiser.
Minimoose squeaked in relief at the thought of having the television and the Base all to himself. At least, before he heard the sound of bickering. He squeaked inquisitively at the desk next to the kitchen entrance before it slid over and the floor beneath it opened. Out stepped Dib and Gaz, who apparently were arguing over how getting the Voot Cruiser back on Earth mattered to the inter-dimensional crossers.
"You don't understand, Gaz. If the Voot Cruiser goes out of atmosphere, those dead kids could regroup in one of Zim's outer space doom scheming places," Dib said, pausing at the hole it left.
"So? They looked pretty stupid. Bone Face probably doesn't want them home anyway," Gaz said.
"Of course he does! If he didn't want them home then he would have gone back without them. Besides, it's bad enough having Zim on this planet. Those dead kids are just as bad, worse since you can't kill them," Dib said.
Minimoose squeaked in an irritated tone to Dib and Gaz.
"I know, he is stupid, isn't he?" Gaz asked Minimoose.
"I'm not stupid, I'm the Earth's only hope!"
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, try getting back out without my help then, Earth's only hope," Gaz said, pushing Dib into the pit left by the Voot Cruiser and smirking as the scream he let out faded until all that was heard was a very faint thump.
Gaz looked over to Minimoose, whose eyes were wide open and jaw hanging in shock. It squeaked quietly before Gaz left the Base, not caring at all about whether or not Dib would find his way out. Minimoose looked into the pit and squeaked once more before turning to watch more TV. He would've gone down to help Dib, but, well, this was a really good show.
To Be Continued…