Title: And They All Fall Down

Title of Chapter: Downing the System

Author: Tany Gem

Chapter Two

Monday had arrived, and it was time to go back to skool even if Zim did not feel like it. Though the aches have lessen, the headaches did not, and he knew he was going to be interrogated by Dib all day about his missing pak.

After an agonizing walk, Zim barely made it to class on time to see Miss Bitters shoot flaming balls from her eyes. The sound of shutting the door turned her attention over to Zim.

"Zim! You're late!" She growled; her eyes glowed hideously. Deciding today was not a good day to argue with her, Zim walked backwards to his seat, never turning his back from the creepy teacher. Miss Bitters glared hatefully at her students before speaking.

"As I was saying before Zim interrupted with his tardiness, since you all trashed your desks last Friday, the school board decided that it was time to buy new and improved desks."

Zim looked around. Indeed, the desks looked shiny and advanced but it disturbed him that everyone was bind to their seats by a metal strap, creasing any movement. He vaguely noticed that Dib's desk was empty. Zim raised his hand.

"Miss Bitters, why is everybody bound to their seats?"

Miss Bitters looked down at him. "To prevent students from leaving when they're not suppose to!"

She pushed a button on her desk. A metal strap bound Zim tightly to his chair. His back was still tender, and it took all his might not to cry out in pain. Satisfied with the results, Miss Bitters went back to her desk and sat down.

"Today, children, we are going to talk about evolution and why some people are devolving."

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Gir was in the refrigerator, searching for food to eat, when he heard the door banged open and slammed shut.

"I wonder who that is?" Gir wondered to himself before returning to his search. Zim stumbled into the kitchen, looking as though he was about to collapse.

"I hate humans." He mumbled, rubbing his sore back. "At least the Dib human wasn't at skool today to bother me. Computer, did you call the Tallest today?"

'Uh, no, I did not.'

Zim ripped his wig off and took out the eye contacts, ignoring the computer's tone of voice.

"That's all right. I will try to contact the Tallest myself tomorrow. It wouldn't hurt me to stay home from skool for a couple days to completely recover."

Zim felt a tugging on his uniform. He looked down to see a tearful Gir.

"There's no food in the fridgy-ate-her."

"Huh? That can't be. I just bought you lots of filthy human food a week ago."

Zim walked over to the fridge with Gir still clinging to his uniform. Gir was right; the refrigerator was wiped clean. Zim turned back to Gir, glaring angrily at the little robot.

"How can you consume so much in so little time? You don't even need to consume!"

Gir's eyes filled with tears again as he gripped Zim tightly around the waist. Zim grind his teeth in pain as Gir began to cry.

"But I wants it! I wants to eat! I need food!" He bawled, hugging Zim even tighter. Zim tried to push the robot away but Gir would not release him.

"Alright! Alright, Gir! I will buy you more Earth food! Just…let go!"

Gir squealed happily as he ran to look for his disguise. Grunting painfully, Zim bent down and picked up his own disguise. After putting everything on, Zim grabbed the leash from the table and clipped on the disguised Gir. He looked up at Zim and smiled widely as his little tail wagged. Zim could not help but smile for half a second before getting a grip on himself.

"Let's go. We need to hurry, though; I want to start resting as soon as possible. And no repeating what happen last time."

SPACINGSPACINGSPACINGSPACINGSPACING

It was dark when a cab drove in front of the spooky green house. Gir jumped out of the open window and ran to the trunk. Zim opened the door and stepped out of the cab, looking like he had been through a battle zone. He flung money at the cab driver and walked over to back of the cab. Gir emerged from the trunk, looking like a living plastic sack monster. He waited with unusual patience as he watched his master grabbed the rest of the grocery sacks. The cab drove away before Zim could push the trunk lid down. Uncaring, Zim walked next to Gir.

"I thought I told you not to repeat that."

Just as Zim was about to make his way to the house, he noticed something that made him drop the bags. The door was wide open.

"Someone's in the house!" He whispered loudly. The sack-covered Gir glance at Zim, then skipped towards the house.

"No, Gir! Come back!" Gir continued to skip into the house. Zim screamed and chased after the little robot. Entering the house, Zim could see Gir putting away the groceries. He glanced around the area, making sure nothing was moved out of place or stolen. Then he checked the kitchen. Everything seemed to be in place.

"Computer, do an intruder scan to all the underground levels."

The computer did not response. Zim's antennas dropped and he franticly rechecked the kitchen until he noticed that the trash can lid was open. Zim narrowed his eyes. The only person besides himself and Gir knew where his secret entrances were and that person was Dib.

"Computer, if you can hear me, answer me!"

Again, the computer did not response. Zim could not help but feel very vulnerable. His pak was his one true defense; Gir can be very unreliable in crucial moments. Without his pak, he had to fully rely on Gir and this was a frightening thought, especially now that he was weak. Zim grabbed a chair and threw it against the floor, breaking it into several pieces. He took an unbroken leg and swung it like a baseball bat. That was going had to do for his defense. Gir walked into the kitchen with a handful of grocery sacks.

"I found them outside."

Zim blinked. He did not realize that Gir left the house.

"Gir, I need you to accompany me to the lab. I think the Dib stink is down there, and I cannot properly defend-"

Gir shhh-ed him. "The food needs to go to their new home."

He pointed to the refrigerator. Zim growled and waited impatiently as Gir put away the food. When he was done, he turned to his master.

"Okay."

Zim motioned Gir over to the trash can and put his finger on his lips. Gir looked confused. Zim frowned and pulled the little robot close to him.

"I need you to be very, very quiet." He whispered lowly. Gir nodded and stuck his tongue out. Zim climbed into the trash can, followed by Gir.

"Elevator," Zim whispered, "take me to the lab."

The elevator did not obey.

Zim glared down at the floor. "Elevator, I need to go down to the lab."

No reply.

Zim stomped on the elevator's floor in frustration. Nothing seemed to be working. He jumped out of the trash can with Gir trailing behind and leaped into the toilet. He pulled the string and was flushed downward into one of the underground compartments. Landing roughly, Zim noticed immediately that it was pitch dark.

"Gir, I need some light to see." He said quietly, groping the air with one hand and swing the chair leg with the other.

A flash of light lit the room. A large flashlight appeared from Gir's head. Zim looked around the room, eyes filled with worry; they were in the control room. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"Why is everything not working?" He wondered out loud, forgetting to whisper. He motion Gir to follow him to the control panels; he needed light to find the reboot button. There were hundreds of buttons and it took Zim a while before finding the right one. He pressed the button, expecting results. There was none.

He pressed it again. Nothing.

Zim could feel the panic rising in his chest. This was not good. If there was something wrong with the control panel, (which he previously thought it was impossible as it was universally known that Irken technology was invincible) then it could not be fixed, not now. The control panel controls everything. Everything. If it was broken, the tools to fix it could not be used (the tools are controlled by the computer) and messages to the Massive or anywhere else could not be sent. The only way to repair it was to use the tools in his pak.

Zim stared at the panel, not really seeing it. Something was wrong. Did Dib do something to the computer? No, it could not be the human child; after all, Irken technology is greatly superior to anything the humans can make. But he could not think of anyone else who would do this. No one on this planet knew who he really was but Dib. If it was Dib, how did he do it?

Zim felt a sudden weight on his head. He looked up and saw Gir looking down at the panel.

"What does this do?" He pressed a button. Nothing happened. Gir frowned and looked at his master. "It's broken."

Zim glared at the robot. "I know."

Sighing, he gave the room one last look before snatching Gir from his head and placing him on the ground.

"Gir, I need you to take me up to the surface." He pointed up at the hole in the ceiling. Gir's eyes turned red and saluted. Grabbing Zim by the arm, he turned on his rocket jets and flew with lightening speed up to the surface. Once reaching the surface, they hit the ceiling and ricocheted to the floor. Gir recovered quickly and ran to the refrigerator. Zim, however, had a harder time to recover. He crawled his way to the table and use one of the chairs to help him stand. He glanced over at the open refrigerator door and frown. Gir was going to be the death of him someday.

"I don't think the Dib human is still in the base anymore, if it was him. I need to figure how to repair the control panels. The human tools are too primitive to use, and I cannot contact the Tallest or the Vortians to send a new one. "

Zim climbed up the chair and sat down. He felt helpless. He did not know what to do and it was stressing him out. He cannot rest now, not when his base was completely defenseless. He will have to stay up all night but that was not the problem; he could go on for weeks without sleep. No, the problem was skool; should he go or not? If he does go, the base would be unguarded. Gir has been known to leave the base for hours when he should have been guarding it. If he does not go to skool, the humans would be suspicious and he could not afford them being so. Zim laid his arms on the table and rest his head onto them. He had all night to figure out what to do.

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The Tuesday sun rise from the city's horizon as Zim was walking down the skool's sidewalk. He never felt this horrible in his life. His head felt like it was splitting in half and his mind was sluggish. All he wanted to do was to go home and sleep but his mission and his life was on the line. He had to go to skool.

He entered the classroom and took his seat. The metal strap rapped around him just as he sat down. Zim glanced over at Dib's desk and found that it was occupied by the stink child. He was mildly surprised to find that Dib had not paying any attention to him. This was very strange, especially since the young human was always watching his every move. A slam of the door snapped Zim's attention to the spooky teacher in front of him.

"Zim, I've receive a note stating that you need to leave at once. Go home now."

She pressed a button on her desk and the strap released him. Zim blinked and jumped down from his desk.

"Who gave you that note?" He asked, eyeing his at the teacher.

Miss. Bitters growled viciously at the little Irken and pointed at the door. Zim turned and left the room. Zim walked down the hall and before he could wonder what just happened, he heard a door closing just behind him and footsteps walking toward him. He turned around and saw Dib right behind him. Zim glared hatefully at him.

"You! How dare you enter my base and de-"

"You're in no position to yell at me, Zim." Dib interrupted, crossing his arm. "Actually, I'm surprised that you're alive. Most of your race wasn't so lucky."

Zim opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it when Dib mention his race.

"What do mean my race was not so lucky?"

Dib smiled evilly and turned away. "Oh…nothing."

Zim grabbed the back of Dib's coat and slammed him into the wall. Zim stood in front of him, looking very imitating.

"Did you play any part of this?" Zim shrieked, pointing at his pak-less back. Dib smirked and roughly shoved Zim across the hall.

"You might say that."

Zim sent him a deadly glared but he remained unnerved. "The reason I got you out of the classroom is that I personally wanted to tell you that I won."

Zim cocked his eye at the human. "You won? What do you mean you won?"

"The battle for Earth. You can't conquer it now, not without your advance alien technology. Earth-no-the universe is safe now that the Irken Empire has been shut down."

Zim stood there, stunned. The Irken Empire has been defeated? That was nonsense!

"Impossible! The Irken Empire cannot-"

"Check out your pak, Zim. Oh, wait, where is your pak?"

Zim's eyes widened and his fists balled up at his sides. Dib grinned and walked over to the door.

"I'll tell you everything but afterwards, you'll have to surrender to me, Major Dib of the Resisty!"