Skool finally let out for the day, after a long, disturbing lesson on the most efficient way to bury yourself. By the end of that class, the students weren't bothering to climb out open windows. Nope, they simply leapt right through the glass, ignorant to the pain.
Zim didn't take such extravagant measures, as he was still sore from the flight in the Voot Cruiser. Tak cackled, and pretended to be ignorant to her horrible driving.
"Do you want me to drive us back?" She asked innocently enough, trying hard not to cackle.
"Ah, no!" Zim cried, leaping back as if bit.
"Are you sure? Because I think I can get the controls better the second time."
"NO! You are NEVER to drive my ship again." He growled, at which Tak grinned inwardly. She should have tried this approach ages ago. So busy plotting how to hurt Zim next, she didn't notice the clouds darkening, and the distant sound of rumbling thunder.
"AH! Rain's coming! Tak, get back under here!" Zim cried, as the ignorant Irken continued to walk farther and farther away from the protective cement overhang. He himself had bought an 'umbrella' a while ago, and kept it in his pocket (which, unlike the human's primitive pockets, was able to carry things far larger then most would think would fit). It had never rained while Tak had last visited Earth; she knew nothing about its deadliness.
"What's the matter, Zim? Afraid of a little water?" Dib taunted from the doorway.
Zim turned, brandishing his umbrella defiantly. "Foolish human! I have figured out how to use this pathetic piece human technology against your filthy rain!" Looking back at Tak, he tried again. "TAK! Get back here! I command it!"
Tak pretended not to hear. What in the name of Irk would an idiot like Zim know about Earth that she didn't? With a smug smile, she continued down the sidewalk.
Zim looked nervously up at the sky. Cautiously, he started walking out from the protective overhang. No sooner had he taken a step, the clouds burst, and rain began to fall. With a cry, Zim fumbled his umbrella, trying to figure out how to open it. He wasn't paying attention to where he was swinging it as he struggled with it, so when that annoying Zita girl cried out in pain, it could be because he stabbed her in the eye with it.
At last it opened, and he clung to it desperately. After a few seconds, and there was no screaming pain on his skin, he figured that the umbrella was working. Tak, on the other hand, was completely vulnerable.
"Hm?" She looked up at the rain in confusion. What was this? She'd never seen anything like- "Ah!" What happen- "Ow!" It hurt! The rain was burning her, the hologram not offering any protection. "Ouch! Ah!" Looking around desperately for cover from this horrid water, she could only see a tree. Lunging for it, and missing it by several feet, she struggled get up, to get to that safe patch of dry…
"Eh?" Suddenly, the downpour above her stopped. Glancing up, she found it was Zim, standing next to her with some kind of Earth object that blocked that rain.
"Come on, get up." He said testily, as if he himself had not done something very similar a few days after he arrived on Earth. "It's only an inferior Earth fluid."
She stood up, puzzled by Zim's sudden act of kindness. As if reading her mind, he said, "I expect all my henchmen able to work at all times. I don't want to have to spend any extra time taking care of you."
With narrowed eyes, Tak mumbled suspicious thanks, and refused to look at Zim the whole time they walked back to the ship.
Meanwhile…
"Hey Gaz, why do you think Tak's back? And how'd she get here? And why she's hanging out with Zim?" Dib asked as he and his sister walked towards their house.
"Dib, Dad said that I had to walk with you. He didn't say I had to talk to you." She glared, trying to play her GS 2 with one hand, holding her umbrella with the other. He had been talking about the exact same thing at lunch, and quite honestly the topic bored her.
"This calls for some spying! Tonight, I'll sneak into his base and plant a camera so I can figure out what their up to! Maybe I can get one of his robots to help…"
"Didn't you already try that?" She asked, not looking up from her game.
"Well, yes…but you know what they say, third time's the charm!" He replied, refusing to be daunted. No matter what, he was going to get to the bottom of this, and now that there were two aliens, he'd have twice as easy a time getting proof!
A/N: Nothing to say today, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's been getting easier to write, but I can't tell if that means I'm getting used to the characters, or I'm just getting lazy. Let me know if I'm getting out of character.