OKAY IMPORTANT!
NEXT WEEK'S UPDATE WILL BE THURSDAY NOT FRIDAY! (I'm going to be distracted by family on Friday!) There WILL be an update. But it will be THURSDAY! :D
As always! Let me know what you think!
"Why didn't you tell me about the Control Brain?" Therron wasn't letting the topic go, and Voel found himself surprised by the persistence from his former co-ruler. Therron had never taken much interest in CB before.
"Because I thought it wasn't going to come up?" That was the honest truth of it. The idea of outing CB's true nature just seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. Voel had seen into the mind of this particular Control Brain, he had seen how it was viewed by the others. "I thought our Rebellion would have some military training."
"Don't you dare try to pin this on me!" Therron's eyes narrowed. "Yes, I fucked up. But it isn't like you were the perfect ruler either! You almost started a war because you were too lazy to research Trifoolian Culture and he insulted their High Lord!"
"How was I supposed to know that the word for 'King' in their language also meant 'Shit'!?" This again? It seemed like every time Voel and Therron fought this particular incident would surface.
"Because it was in my notes that you said you read!" Honestly? Voel was a little surprised by Therron's reaction. He had not really expected his fellow disgraced leader to be so upset by one little secret Voel had kept to himself.
Well...
Maybe it wasn't exactly a little secret...
"I should have told you... but I really didn't think it would come up like this." It also wasn't really his secret to tell. It sure sounded like Skoodge knew about everything too- and he didn't speak up. It was really up to Zim. But now, they were all informed. Perhaps it wasn't under the best circumstances that the information came to light, but it was out there now. "So, what do you think we should do?"
"Oh now you want my opinion? Now that your Generals," he said the word with disdain, "have run off in search of the human?"
"I know you're mad about the General thing, but we need them. We don't have a lot of Irkens to choose from right now." Voel stood firm on this issue.
"I am mad about everything! This planet sucks, this Rebellion sucks, and I am pretty sure now Irk sucks too. The only way we can get it all to not suck is to do something Zim, of all Irkens, suggested and that is what sucks the most!" Therron heaved a defeated sigh and flopped half way over the table in the middle of the war room.
"So, you want to do Zim's plan? Use CB to recode our Irkens as Invaders?" Voel sat on the table beside him.
"All things considered; it's our best course of action." Therron mumbled, still face down.
"You don't sound happy." Voel mused looking down at him.
"We are about to trust ZIM! Of course I'm not fucking happy!" Came the muffled reply.
"It's our best option..." Voel couldn't even fake enthusiasm.
"And that is a terrifying thought." Finally, Therron lifted his head. His expression was far from pleased, but he mostly just looked tired.
"You have to look more convincing than that. You know how bad I am with talking; Skoodge might even be worse than I am; Zim can speak with passion but his metaphors are confusing; Tenn is a little too aggressive; and Tak is technically Syndicate now, not Irken. If we are going to sway these Irkens into doing this plan we need a voice they will listen to."
"Zeke." Therron replied flatly. Voel scoffed.
"Okay then, a voice they can actually trust." Therron had a point, Zeke got people's attention. However, public opinion on the tiny reporter was heavily divided.
"Yes, well, you have a point." Therron reluctantly pulled himself into a sitting position. "The people do love and trust me."
"Exactly. " That was the old Therron, brimming with a somewhat deserved self-confidence. Therron had to be on board. The Irken people still saw them both as the Tallest and while Voel had been the Military brain, Therron was the socialite.
"We'll need to start working things out with that Control Brain. Zim is- unfortunately- probably the closest thing we have to a PAK technician, so if his Control Brain- thing doesn't program properly, it'll have to fall on him to fix it." Therron rubbed the sides of his head as it seemed reality was finally starting to settle in.
"Right now, I think it's upset." Voel knew the human had run off somewhere and that Zim, Skoodge, and CB were desperately trying to find him.
"It will have to get over that. It's a Control Brain, it has more important duties now." Therron countered. It was a little ironic that Therron of all Irkens was complaining about CB being emotionally compromised considering that Voel had to once move an entire Holiday because Therron was sad.
"We'll... talk to it; see it we can't get it to focus a little more." Voel was at least a little more empathetic. He understood CB had a higher emotional capacity than the Control Brains back on Irk which mostly worked in their favor. Hopefully that part of CB would keep him loyal to the Irken cause.
"Zim made it," Therron had a skeptical expression. "I doubt it even knows the meaning of the word 'focus'."
"You have a point." Was this really how far they had sunk? Relying on a defunct AI to overthrow a system that had been working since the beginning of recorded Irken History. This was the best they had?
"Well, we trained those Rising Tallests. We can train this AI." Therron spoke with assurance. The words made Voel cringe a bit. Though Therron had not used the names, even speaking about their successors left Voel's squeedleyspooch in knots.
"Ca... can you not bring them up?" He felt physically ill. It was true they had made progress with Xia and Vero, but it was colossally evident now, that they had not been ready to ascend to Tallest. Vero was technically a traitor and Xia was a power-hungry monster.
"Sorry." Surprisingly, Therron quieted. Silence settled as Voel stared at the map of Irk as if expecting some secret pathway to illuminate for him. They would need a base of operations for this to have any chance of success and it would need to be in the Wilds of Irk. There was an old Mothra temple out that way but it hadn't been used in ages- at least Voel didn't think it had been. He vaguely recalled the Mothra Elite saying it was overrun with wildlife. They had been meaning to send out a squad of Elites to battle the unwanted squatters and clear it back out- but he was pretty sure they had never actually gotten around to it. For once, that laziness might be useful. If the Temple was overrun the Mothra Elite would not be using it and it would provide a great shelter- as those under Mothra used little, in any, technology- meaning they would be out of reach for the Control Brains.
Voel occupied himself with trying to remember where in the fuck that Temple had been located. He was so focused; he didn't notice someone else had come in until he heard Therron greeting the Captain. "Good to see you Captain Rose!" Therron had been all niceties with the Captain ever since he figured out she had the most power out of the Syndicate he knew. She gave him a polite nod.
"Tallests Red and Purple, we have received a hail from a nearby ship. They... it sounds like they are looking for you?"
"Another excuse to be with us, Captain," Therron sighed placing a hand to her shoulder, "really?" She looked to the hand on her and looked back up at Therron without much of a reaction.
"The ship is Vortion." She ignored Therron's comment and instead looked to Voel.
"Why would the Vort be coming to Earth to look for us?" Voel paused, turning back to look at his map. "They should still be under the impression that we're dead."
"It's fabricated so Captain Rose can spend more time with me." Therron had dropped his grip on the Captain and instead swept an arm around Voel's shoulders, failing to whisper his theory. It was definitely loud enough for the Captain to hear. "She's been charmed by my wits and good looks."
"I... I don't think so, Therron." Voel patted the hand on his shoulder.
"Then why would she be making up a story about the Vort?"
"I don't think she's making it up."
"Oh, so a Vortion ship just happened to come to Earth looking for us? And the Captain is the one who just happened to get the hail?" Therron scoffed. "A likely story!"
"Yeah. Incredibly likely. She's the Captain, Therron. People are going to tell her when there is a hail."
"Okay. Fine. But when we get there and this just ends up being a love confession, you are going to feel silly."
"Isn't the Captain bonded? Didn't the Medic say something like that?" Voel didn't completely recall, as the romantic life of the Syndicate was far from a pressing matter for him. "I don't think Tangeans can have two bonded like Irkens can."
"If she is than it is even worse! She's throwing her family away," Therron twirled around placing his hands to his chest with a tragic sigh, "for me! Which- yes I am worth it- but I don't return her affections!"
"So... are you both going to get the hail? Or should I tell them to call back?" The Captain asked loudly, still standing behind the two former leaders as they conversed.
"Yeah, we're coming." Voel turned back toward her.
"Oh Captain," Therron sighed, sadly shaking his head as he looked at her. "Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain... you poor lovesick thing."
"Oh...kay?" The Captain looked between the two before shrugging off Therron's strange behavior. "Meet in the main hall. I will collect the others."
"It will never work between us!" Therron called after her as she hurried down the hall.
"I'm crushed!" The Captain called back, sounding anything but crushed.
"It was better to let her down easy." Therron sighed. "Now I have to tell Carrius to stop being in love with me."
"The Romulan Security Chief?" Voel blinked.
"Yes, he's always bringing me love letters to sign." Therron sighed wistfully. Voel was ninety eight percent certain that these "love letters" were just the various forms the Syndicate required; however, he realized this fight wasn't worth the effort.
"I... um..." he could let Therron have this. It didn't seem like the Syndicate were particularly bothered- just mildly amused. "I am sure he will be devastated." Voel headed through the increasingly busy Syndicate Halls. He saw Skoodge talking to one of the Medical staff that had arrived on the GST Solar not terribly long after the Tallests had arrived. Seeing Therron and Voel approach in such a rush, Skoodge looked over.
"What has you two in a hurry?"
"The Captain said they received a Vortion Hail." Voel replied.
"Really?" Skoodge's antennae perked up. "They are kind of far from home, aren't they?"
"Very much so." Voel nodded. He could only assume what Skoodge was doing, but he decided to go with his theory. "Did you find that human Zim is looking for?"
"He left with the GST Nova's medic a little while ago." Skoodge's instant reply let Voel know he had guessed right about why Dib was talking to this medical personnel.
"Well, we best get to the conference room." Voel nodded to Skoodge walking past. "You are welcome to attend as well. You are a General now."
"I think I will attend." Skoodge affirmed as he fell in line behind the other two and they entered the conference room where Captain Fluorine and Tak were already in wait. They were standing on either side of the Captain's chair as a large screen took completely over the opposing wall, currently frozen with the image of a Vort mid-maniacal-laugh.
"My Tallests!" Tak immediately saluted to her superiors as soon as they entered the room. "We are glad you're here."
"The Vortion was asking about us?" Voel looked over at the screen in mild confusion.
"Sort of?" Tak made a face. "It was being stupid. He was trying to say something about having kidnapped one of you? I think he meant that he had kidnapped someone for one of you? Like maybe like a sacrifice or an offering?"
"We do like offerings." Therron seemed agreeable enough on the matter.
"It's all a little confusing." Captain Fluorine looked over her notes. "After all, how did they know to come to Earth? Did they see our message on the Irken channels? Or were they monitoring the Syndicate?"
"Yeah no onewillingly goes to Earth." Therron confirmed. They conspired a little longer about what might have inspired the Vortion to reach out before Captain Rose returned with Zim, the human cadet, the medic, the First Officer, and the Control Brain in tow. The Captain sat in her seat, Voel saw Zim looking after the human, but the human was focused solely on the Captain.
"Everyone stay quiet." Captain Rose instructed as she changed the focus of her camera to only include herself, Tak, Carrius, and Captain Fluorine. "Let me do the talking."
"She's still trying to show off for me." Therron sighed, shaking his head, folding his arms over his chest. Voel quickly shushed him as the video went live and the Vortion stood looking rather annoyed at having been kept waiting for so long. The Captain sat straight, shoulders back, eyes locked on the screen.
"Sorry for the delay. I needed my First Officer." She gestured to Carrius who saluted. "As you know big decisions can't be made alone."
"Of course not, of course not. You are Syndicate after all." The Vortion nodded, knowingly. "As I was saying: word in space is that the Syndicate has finally had enough of the Irkenmachine- no offense to First Officer Tak-"
"You are lucky you said no offense, otherwise I would have been plenty offended!" Tak grumbled, but was promptly ignored as the Vortion simply continued talking over her.
"And we hear you are looking to go to war." Voel cringed as he heard the disdain in the Vortion's voice. Was that how other planets were viewing the Control Brains' attempts to frame the Syndicate? They allegedly assassinated Therron and himself and people were still siding with the Syndicate?
"The matter is complicated." The Captain replied diplomatically.
"You allegedly murdered their leaders." The Vortion blinked. "How is that complicated?" Captain Rose gave a little shrug as if to indicate she was reading off a script and the Vortion smirked. "Ah yes, can't say too much, I see. Too many plans still in the works. I get it. I get it." He didn't seem to actually get it at all but Voel bit his tongue. "Well, the Resisty offers our full support to you, Captain, and your mighty Syndicate!"
"Lard-Nar, we told you this many times, 34 times according to our records, the Resisty is not an officially recognized resistance group according to Syndicate law." The Captain spoke very calmly. "If you would like to apply for that recognition, we have sent you the paperwork on many occasions. "
"It was four hundred pages!" The Vortion's shoulders drooped, the pincers on its head wilting in defeat.
"Yes. It was." Captain Rose sounded remarkably unempathetic.
"Well once you hear our dramatic tale of escape from the cold, evil clutches of the Irken Empire. No offense, again, To lovely First Officer Tak." Lard-Nar nodded to Tak who let out a frustrated little noise, clearly upset by the constant bashing of her home- despite the fact that the Vortion had clearly stated: no offense. Thus, Tak couldn't actually be upset.
"All right, Lard-Nar," the Captain leaned forward, chin resting atop her interlaced fingers, "tell us what happened."
It was a cold, vile day on the Massive- of course Irkens prefer cold so it was always cold- but this day in particular was especially cold. I was being kept, hostage in the prison cells. They had plans to interrogate me for information on the Resisty! They were trying to break my spirit! But I was too strong for them!
It took everything Voel had to not speak up. First of all- he didn't really remember who this guy even was, and, judging by the way Therron was squinting at the screen, neither did his fellow ex-Tallest. So, it was highly doubtful he was being kept for any type of investigation. But he allowed the story to continue, uninterrupted.
I was planning my very expert escape when I was confrontedby the Almighty Tallests themselves! They stopped before my cell, scowling. They were sizing me up, trying to decide if I was still a threat. They could tell all of their best Irkens had failed to break me. I could see the fear in their eyes.
"So, you have finally come back!" I called to them, anger swelling within me. I could see the glint of their razor-like teeth in the dim lighting of the cell as they leered at me. "Well," I scoffed at their intimidation tactics, "you can pump me for all the information you like, Tallests, but you get nothing from me!"
I braced myself against the bars of the cell-
Voel very clearly remembered that the cells on the Massive were forcefield based and thus, did not have bars, but he was curious where this story was going.
"NOTHING!" I reiterated my point with fervor, with a passion Irkens could only dream of. "THE RESISTY LIVES ON!"
"What in Ghidora's name are you talking about?" Tallest Red was addressing me, I had never seen him so angry- so afraid. He knew what I was saying was true.
"You heard me Tallest Red!" I stood my ground against his fury.
"That's right," he bared his teeth to me, trying to frighten me but failing! Oh! how he failed. "I am the Tallest. And you will do well to remember that."
"You changed your armor." I had seen the difference, but had yet to find the reason.
"Silence you brave but foolish Vortion! Your Resisty has people looking for us. We had to hide." I knew it pained him to admit the influence the Resisty had over him.
"Never!" He could capture me- but he would never win my silence!
"Now never speak to me again, Lard-Nar of Vort. Every moment that I am reminded of your very existence is a moment of my life haunted by the ever-present shadow of the Resisty." And with that he turned and ventured into the cell at the end of the hall. I could hear the Tallests discussing their plans to smother the Resisty, but they were distracted by something to do with that big scary cell at the very edge.
Voel felt his cardiac-spooch seize for a moment in his chest cavity. The scary cell at the end of the hall? Could he be talking about M? The prison aboard the Massive did house a particularly dangerous Parasite that had been caught by Tallest Miyuki and held for quite some time in hopes to learn more about the psychicly oriented race. However, M was known to be volatile, unpredictable, violent- a little like a more dangerous version of Q who had been injured and seemingly lost some of his lust for the hunt. (However, Voel found M to be remarkably more tolerable given he couldn't understand her. He missed not being able to understand Q.) What were Xia and Vero doing messing around with M? They were far too young for such an undertaking! M would tear them apart! They must have brought their guards or something- Lard-Nar was just too stupid to remember that detail.
That was it. This can't have been Xia's idea to punish her co-ruler. Voel was not hearing his smeet's last moments from a mentally unstable Vortion prisoner. This had to be before Xia had figured out about Vero.
"Just a moment, Lard-Nar of Vort." The Captain held her hand up bringing the rebel to silence. "I must take a mandatory five-minute break. Syndicate orders."
"A-ah! Ah yes!" The Vortion was stumbling over his words. "Of course! I knew that!" The screen froze again and Rose looked over to Voel with surprising concern.
"You all right?"
"O-oh... um... yes." He nodded after a moment of thought. "Just think this guy is full of shit is all."
"Who is he though?" Therron was squinting hard at the monitor. "He looks kind of familiar. Did he work for us...? Was he that old pizza guy?"
"No, I think he was the cable repair guy..." Voel wasn't really sure who Lard-Nar was either- or his little resistance group. Obviously, they had left very little actual impact on Irk.
"So, about these mandatory five-minute breaks," Therron had given up on remembering who Lard-Nar was supposed to be, and had instead turned his attention back to the Captain. "We get them too, right? When we do our community service?"
"No. They're not real." Her reply was expected, but still a little disappointing. "I made them up to check on Red. He is still sensitive about the current Tallests."
"I'm not sensitive!" Voel's antennae lay flat as he shot the Captain a rather hateful little stare.
"That isn't a bad thing, Tallest Red." Her expression softened. "Never mind. We'll continue if you are sure you are fine." She turned back to the screen, unpausing it. "Continue."
Right! So there I was, planning my amazing escape when what should happen but a power failure aboard the Massive! All at once the cells opened allowing myself and other rebels to run free! All the cells except the one on the end. That big scary door had closed. Which was good. Between you and me, Captain, I did not want to meet whoever they had locked up in there. Sometimes I can hear it whispering in my head and it's just... just weird!
Anyway! I knew this clever jail break must have been coordinated by my fellow Resisty! So I just needed to bide my time until I could make my oh-so-brilliant escape from the Massive. I cleverly pretended that I was lost in the labyrinthine service tunnels that snaked through the Massive's underbelly. I saw the core! Not once, not twice, but four times to be sure I understood its power.
"Sounds like he was lost." Voel heard Tak grumbled, but the Captain shushed her quickly.
"No no! Not Lost, dear First Officer- plotting my next move. For you see, when I managed to expertly navigate my way back to the prisons, I came upon a key to the Resisty's success!" At this point the Vortion was nearly out of his own chair with excitement. "I have a gift to you, Syndicate. An offering from the Resisty to your oh-so-noble cause to fight the Irken Might!" He relaxed back, clearly trying far too hard to look collected as he clapped his hands loudly. "Hostage! Come forth so I can offer you properly to the Syndicate!"
"Oh noooooo..." the unenthusiastic groan from off the screen made Voel's squeedleyspooch do a small flip. "Not the Syndicate. Anything but them. I told you they were my one weakness." It couldn't possibly be... "You didn't go to the ones on Earth at least, right? I mean," the voice was so familiar, so welcome, so horribly bad at acting. "I mean I specifically asked you not to take me to those Syndicate because I was super weakagainst them!"
"AH HA! FOOLISH IRKEN!" Lard-Nar jumped up, standing in his seat. "I DID, in fact, take you to the Syndicate base on Earth!"
"Noooooooooooooo." Voel nearly teared up at the unconvincing cry of anguish.
"Silence hostage! Before I feed you more salty chips and soda!"
"But my poor, delicate Irken squeedleyspooch can't consume such delicious treats!"
"Hurry and come forth!" Lard-Nar reached off screen and brought forth none other than: "Behold! For I have caught: Almighty Tallest Red!"
"VERO!" Voel couldn't stop the name as it tumbled from his mouth. Voel was reeling from the revelation. Vero... that stupid, foolish, little smeet was okay...
His stupid, foolish, little smeet...
He wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. Vero and Lard-Nar both blinked in confusion, exchanging a puzzled look as Voel recalled that he was not actually visible to the Vortion or his smeet. Captain Rose cleared her throat, giving Voel an annoyed little look as she turned back to face Lard-Nar.
"Well you see that was what I wanted to discuss in more detail with you, Lard-Nar of Vort. You can't have Tallest Red because," she pressed a button and the camera expanded outward to reveal the entire group watching the exchange, "we have him. Purple too."
"What!?" Lard-Nar recoiled in surprise. "Th-that's impossible."
"Is it?" Vero gave a skeptical little smirk. "I mean how can I be tallest Red, if I'm wearing blue?"
"You said even you were Tallest Red, you ass!" Lard-Nar glared up at the looming Irken beside him.
"Oh yeah. Nah, I was lying." If Voel had ever thought this was a trick, the smug expression on Vero's face confirmed it could be no other Irken but his smeet. "But to be fair you thought Xia was Tallest Red too and she's female."
"I thought Tallest Red sounded different..." the Vortion remarked pensively. "Regardless! You were there to recount my brave, thoroughly planned abduction of you! I have wowed the Syndicate with the tale, you see. They will surely love the Resisty now!"
"Thoroughly planned abduction? You mean how you got lost and wandered back into the prison?" Vero leaned forward a bit, grinning just slightly.
"I wasn't lost! I needed a hostage." Lard-Nar protested, indignantly.
"You needed me to show you how to get out."
"All part of the plan, my friend!" The Vortion seemed unphased by the accusations from his so-called hostage. "I knew the Tallest would know the quickest, most effective way out. I was simply using your knowledge for the Resisty! For later!"
"We both got lost." Vero explained turning from Lard-Nar to look at the camera. "I mean it was kind of funny? Might have been funnier if Xixi wasn't trying to have me executed for treason- but did you know we had a day spa on the Massive?"
"Um obviously?" Therron looked annoyed. "It's on the sixth floor but that isn't near the prison or the exit!"
"Like I said, we got really, really lost." Vero gave an emphatic little gesture with both of his hands.
"Idiot smeet." Voel didn't intend to sound as choked up as he was feeling, but his voice betrayed him. He had never felt such relief and annoyance at the same time. Sneaking out with a rebel Vort was stupidly brilliant.
"Speak for yourself, old man. I got us here, didn't I?" Vero must have heard him, because the response was nearly instantaneous.
"Wait! Hold up!" Lard-Nar lifted a hand to Vero's mouth to momentarily silence the renegade. "I thought you didn't want to go to Earth! Remember? You said, and I quote: 'Oh no. Mothra please. Anywhere but the Syndicate on Earth. They are so scary and mean.' Did you know the Tallests were here!?"
"Hmm." Vero made a noise that wasn't really an answer due to the fact that Lard-Nar's clawed hand was still over his mouth. But the Vortion seemed to believe this was enough, and continued.
"Don't tell me soda and salty chips aren't really your ultimate weakness!" Vero gave a shrug.
"Well, you see, what had happened was-" his muffled explanation was cut short as Captain Rose finally decided that she was done with the small talk.
"Fortunately for you, Lard-Nar of Vort, we actually do have interest in your Irken hostage. Did you want to negotiate for his release to us or...?"
"Ah... hm... yes." Lard-Nar cleared his throat straightening his posture. "We wanted to gift him to the Syndicate, to show the Resisty supports your cause! But seeing you with the Tallests-"
"We'll give you a medal." Captain Rose cut him off. "And we think the Resisty might be able to help us in a current crisis. You're Vortion, a lot of Irken technology has Vortion roots. We could use an intelligent, brave rebel such as yourself in the Syndicate- assuming proper paperwork is filled out, of course."
"Oh! O-of course!" Lard-Nar blinked, completely thrown off by the offer. The Captain was right, this might actually pan out in their favor. A great deal of Irken weaponry had been commissioned from Vort. Even if this one seemed a little crazy, it wasn't a bad idea to have him as an advisor.
Plus, he had Vero. Voel was ready to give him most anything he wanted.
"Bring your fellow..." she sighed, visibly bringing herself to say the name. "Resisty members. We need all hands on deck here. And the Tallest will be delivered straight to us."
"Of course! Of course!" Lard-Nar's pincers wriggled in excitement. "Permission to land, Captain!"
"Granted. We will send a Syndicate escort to properly guide you to our base. And welcome aboard Lard-Nar. " She cut the feed and shook her head. "Who came up with that name?" She whirled around in her chair to face the Tallests.
"Don't look at us!" Therron recoiled in horror at the accusation. "We don't even know who that guy was."
"He looks familiar though..." Voel really did feel like they had come across Lard-Nar at least once.
"You imprisoned him. How do you not know who he is?" The Captain looked a tad incredulous at the reply.
"I mean..." Therron shrugged. "We imprison a lot of people. Well, we used to. But only if they were really bothering us." Captain Rose and Fluorine exchanged a look and Therron immediately began to double back on his words. "And of course, if they deserved it for like treason and stuff! It's not like we were bad leaders."
"Hm." The little noise has come from Skoodge.
"Right." Captain Rose cleared her throat as she stood. "Well, we need the help; regardless of whatever history you two may have with Lard-Nar. It is doubtful he has any knowledge of the Control Brains or their plan, but he knows what we may be up against in terms of an arsenal." The Captain looked to her Medic who was talking quietly with the human. "Lor, go and bring our guests in."
"Me?" He blinked. "Shouldn't Carrius go?"
"You don't need a ship. It will be more subtle to send you."
"Right..." he looked a little uncomfortable with the request but saluted obediently. "Of course, my Captain." He looked back to his human companion, whispering something to him before running off in a flash.
"You must be happy to see Vero." Skoodge spoke, looking up at Voel. "Now you don't have to fly all the way to the Massive to go get him."
"Using the Vortion to escape is so brilliant it almost sounds like a plan I would have had." Zim remarked with an approving nod.
"What can I say? He's got his moments." Voel was still a little overwhelmed by the realization that his smeet was alright. He had spent the last- Mothra knows how long- trying to convince himself that Vero was just sitting in a cell somewhere and not-
It didn't matter.
"At least Vero has Elite training." Skoodge looked thoughtful. "That will definitely be of some help. We can use some of his combat coding too. I am sure there have been upgrades to the Elites since our school days."
"Many." Normally this would have been a moment of pride for Voel, but it just made the end goal seem all that much harder to achieve. Still, they had made real progress. "CB, can you see how much father the ship is?" Voel was getting a little impatient, though he knew it was probably still a bit away.
"Not too far." The robot was clearly looking in the direction of the human who was looking anywhere else but at the Irken group.
"Focus up, CB. You have an important task ahead of you. I know you're upset, but... you can't get distracted right now." This was bad. They were supposed to be putting the fate of their tiny Rebellion in the hands of this AI. The robot sighed but nodded.
It wasn't too much longer before they were able to reach the landing platform just as the ship was opening the door. Lard-Nar strode out, looking confident despite being dwarfed by the looming form of Vero. (Still shorter than Voel- the red eyed Irken noted with a sense of satisfaction- but he had now reached Therron's height.) As Voel saw him, he couldn't hold back, he rushed forward, nearly knocking Lard-Nar out of the way, gripping his smeet by both of his shoulders looking him up and down.
"Hi old man." Vero gave him a grin. Voel wanted to yell at him for the dumb nickname but he also just wanted to cry for some reason.
"You're okay..." it was all that would come out of his mouth. He pulled the smeet close, gripping him tightly. "You dumbass! Why was your communicator out where Xia could find it!" He quickly pulled Vero back to an arm's length. "What part of secret Rebellion didn't you get!?"
"Sheesh, angry much?" Vero made a motion as if rolling his eyes. "Please, I've been doing secret stuff for Zeke for way longer. I know how to be sneaky. Rude." Voel had almost forgotten Vero was Zeke's little informant.
"So how did Xia get your communicator then?"
"Um, Elite tactics?"
"Elite tactics?" Voel repeated, not remotely convinced.
"Yeah, she found it when it fell out of my pocket. The Tallest Armor does not have the deepest pockets, I am learning. Though also I was rolling around on all the cushions in your lounge."
"They are nice." Therron conceded. Voel narrowed his eyes.
"Vero that is the stupidest way to-"
"Hey, don't get onto me, Pops. My informant days were numbered. I am pretty sure I was about to be caught regardless. "
"What did you just call me?" Voel's antennae perked up slightly.
"Oh... Pops, it's human slang that I learned. It means-"
"I know what it means." It was a little weird that Vero had picked up a taste for Earth, but he had always been a bit of an oddball.
"Do you hate it?" There was a sing-song teasing nature to Vero's voice.
"Yes. It's terrible. Don't ever stop using it." Voel tightened his grip on his smeet's shoulders once more, using every bit of his Elite training to stop the tears from spilling from his eyes. He was the Red Death, Mothra damn it! He wasn't about to look soft.
"While I am hesitant to interrupt this very touching moment, I feel like I must." Voel nearly jumped when he heard the electronic voice behind him. "Because it seems as if Vero is still coded as the Tallest."
"W.. Wait... what?" he looked to Vero in disbelief. "Xia didn't recode you?"
"What can I say, she gets angry and doesn't think. I just took advantage of her temper."
"This is good, right?" Therron looked genuinely unsure of the answer.
"I mean on the one hand yes." Skoodge took the opportunity to speak up. "Because it seems like Xia is stuck without Vero. On the other hand..." he sighed rubbing the area right between his eyes looking concerned. "The Control Brains are going to be looking for him. So, we really need to step things up."
