Author's Note: Yah, I forgot to say it last chapter, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows I don't own Zim. I sorta semi-own the Neemons, cause they're based off some aliens I saw in a few of the episodes. I also don't own the Butterfly Effect, I havn't even seen it. I just thought it sounded cool as the title(plus I couldn't think of anything better).
On with the story!
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Once again, Dib was facing the floor.
He looked around, relieved to see he was back in Zim's lab. His camera was miraculously unbroken, and he grabbed it before Zim, who was also now face down, could pull himself together and try to take it away.
Zim stood up, obviously unhappy that Dib had made it back to the present.
"YOU! YOU MESSED WITH MY MACHINE!" he yelled, pointing a finger at Dib. "This'll take FOREVER to fix the damages!"
Dib chose not to argue back. His camera held actual photos of an alien planet, and he'd have to make sure it stayed safe. Cradling it under his arm, he started heading slowly to the exit, as Zim stood griping about the machine.
Zim noticed him out of the corner of his eye. "COMPUTER! Capture the Dib!" he screamed for the second time that day.
Like a deer in headlights, Dib watched as a thick mechanical arm shot towards him. He bent his knees, ready to jump back, but just before it reached him, the arm disappeared.
"WHAT IS THIS! COMPUTER!" Zim yelled, banging his fists on the time machine. The lab started morphing, little things here and there changing. The time machine, which by now no longer had the swirling vortex, shook a little, and some of its parts disappeared. Dib watched, extremely interested in the changes.
"COMPUTER! COMPU-"
All of a sudden, Zim felt a pressure in his chest. The air suddenly became harder to breath. The change was small, but he could feel it. He felt his PAK morph, and could no longer feel the majority of the devices hidden inside it. Was it malfunctioning?
"Yes, master," the computer bleeped out, its voice more monotonous than before. "What do you want?"
"Do a scan on the PAK, check to see if everything is working properly." Zim said slowly, still getting used to the change in the oxygen.
"PAK is running normally."
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Dib returned to his slow escape. Once he was on the first level, he almost dropped his camera from the shock.
The base was much smaller, with only a single room. A glance out the window showed no lawn gnomes, and the only things inside that he could see were a few random tables covering up the elevators, the couch, and the painting of the monkey.
"What…happened?" he asked allowed. Now that he thought about it, GIR was nowhere to be found.
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Zim ignored the computer's diagnosis and started pacing. "I should call the Tallests, they'll know what to do," he said, approaching the large control panel. He pushed the button for the screen, but it never came.
"Computer! Call the Tallests!" What was wrong with the base lately?
"Cannot call from this room. Must be in the same room as the monitor," the computer's new voice bleeped out.
"I AM in the room with a monitor!" Zim called, fed up with all the interruptions.
"There is only one monitor in the base, on the upper level," the computer explained patiently.
Zim, sick of putting up a fight, stepped in the elevator and rode to the top floor, where he shared the same reaction as Dib, who was busy looking at the outside of the base.
He shook his feelings of unease off, and called his leaders, hoping they would help.
When the screen opened up, yet another scream rang out, this one louder than all the others.
He saw his Tallests, wearing the same simple outfits he had seen on the pre-PAK Irkens. They were both holding drink platters, carrying them to the middle of the room. Where the Tallests normally sat were 3 cloaked figures, with only their eyes visable.
One of them grabbed a drink from the platters with his slender, shriveled fingers. He brought it up to his unseen mouth, then threw the remainder on Red. He and the other 2 started laughing as Red and Purple bowed and slinked away.
Zim screamed again and cut the transmittion.
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Yah, I know I promised a history lesson, but it'll have to wait, cause I think this chapter's too long for more. I don't really want to cut some parts of it, it wouldn't seem the same. So you'll just have to put up with this until I post again, which, by the way things have been going lately, will probably be tomorrow.