Last update for a little bit - got some things to take care of, but should be back soon. Enjoy! - S.

Invader Zim woke up a few hours later on the back table at Planet Express to find everyone sitting around staring at him – and no one had a smile on their face. Well, Gir did, but Gir often wasn't all there to begin with. If looks could kill, the looks from the Planet Express people would have annihilated the Irken soldier where he sat.

Leela sat there with her arms folded across her chest, as did Fry, Bender, the Professor, Hermes and Amy. Dr. Zoidberg sat there a tad nervously, hoping Gir wouldn't whip out a stick of butter again and try to make him into lobster bisque or some other dish. Gir, though, was too busy munching on a king-size chocolate bar to consider Zoidberg as a second course.

"Ah, what a glorious rest!" said Zim, yawning and stretching his arms over his head before sitting up and finally looking at everyone around him, all of them still looking highly irritated.

"What's wrong with you stink people?" asked Zim, not really caring to know. He just liked hearing his own voice.

"What do you think?" snapped Leela. She wanted to kick Zim in the head again, if only hers didn't hurt so much from the blow she had sustained aboard the ship.

"What?" replied Zim, flabbergasted. He looked past Leela to see the Planet Express ship was back in the bay, looking the same as always except for a few broken windows and some metallic scarring along the green nose that revealed the bare metal underneath.

"This ship is fine, it just needs some paint!" stated Zim, waving his hand. "What is everybody else so upset about?"

"Sweet gorilla of Manila, we're upset because you're a danger to us all, mon!" offered Hermes from across the table. "Ya have absolutely no regard for anyone else's health or safety, and it's a wonder we still have a company after a week with you!"

"Yeah, you're a menace, Zim!" said Fry, his eyes growing larger. "The longer you stay, the more we're in danger - and I've flown with Bender!"

"Hey!" spouted Bender, blowing a cloud of cigar smoke towards Fry, who started coughing.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to ask you to leave, Zim," said the Professor directly, his hands folded in front of him. "I can't afford to have you destroy everything I've built up!"

Zim looked around nervously, starting to sweat a little bit as he often did back on 21st century Earth when he was confronted by others. At least he wasn't wearing those stupid scratchy contact lenses or that stupid pointy wig - aliens and androids were so commonplace on 30th century Earth that hardly anyone outside Planet Express had given Zim or Gir a second glance these last seven days.

Zim's anxiety, though, increased as someone else entered the room - an executioner, perhaps? - and he wished his pimply friend Pustulio, a zit that had taken on an identity of its own, were here for support. Too bad he had popped long ago.

The mysterious figure, still shrouded in shadow, came even closer, and Zim went on the attack verbally as his irrational fears got the best of him.

"Who are you?" shouted Zim, pointing at the trespasser.

"Ah'm …" started the newcomer.

"Who are you?" repeated Zim.

"Ah'm …"

"Who are you?"

"Ah'm Scruffy, the janitor," said the little-seen Planet Express handyman, who sat down complacently at the table, propping up his legs and resting his hands behind his head.

"Good thing you're here, Scruffy," said the Professor. "You can help fix the damage Zim did to the ship!"

"Ah'm on break," replied Scruffy, pulling out a magazine and starting to read it.

"Damn it!" retorted the Professor, who then promptly fell asleep and began snoring.

"So," said Zim, rising up and placing his fists on his hips, his confidence renewing as he saw that the one called Scruffy posed no viable threat. "You think you can just get a member of the Irken elite to - pack up and go?"

"Pretty much," replied Leela, getting up from her chair, as did the others except for the still-snoring Professor and the still-reading Scruffy. Zim's nervousness began to return as he felt himself surrounded now, and he looked around frantically for an escape route before spying a small space between Amy and Zoidberg. Instantly Zim extended his spider legs from his PAK and darted off the table past the intern and the physician.

"Gir, to me!" cried Zim as he made his way to the center of the launch bay by the Planet Express ship. Gir just sat there, oblivious, still polishing off his chocolate treat.

"Gir! Extraction, Gir!" yelled Zim again as the other figures in the room turned and began advancing on their unwanted guest. He'd have to return for the Voot Runner, but for now Zim felt he needed to escape.

Gir dropped his empty candy wrapper and spun about, his coloration altering to red as he ignited the thrusters in his feet and jetted towards his master. He didn't slow down when he reached him, either, nearly knocking Zim over as he grabbed his master at full speed and rocketed straight towards the exit door - which refused to budge, the impact knocking both Zim and Gir unconscious ...

Zim awoke much later in some sort of closet to find himself bound head-to-foot with some filthy sort of string. Gir lay next to him, also bound, but smiling in his sleep. Not much bothered the little bot, except when the fridge was empty or the cable TV was on the fritz. Zim scowled and struggled against his bonds, but they didn't budge. He wondered if he would be executed as a prison of war, although he had neither heard nor made such a martial declaration in his time here in this century. The people of Planet Express, though, would pay dearly for this indignity - oh, how they would pay!

Zim could still feel his PAK attached to him beneath his bindings; it had to be there, or else his body would have collapsed into emerald dust only ten minutes after it had been removed. The PAK held his sensory array, communications gear, life support system, field database and all his high test scores, and it had never failed to get him out of a jam before. It would not fail him this time, either, and he smiled wickedly as a sharp-edged spidery limb ripped through the metallic mesh hobbling him. Victory for Zim - and woe to Planet Express ...

But first he had a call to make.

TBC