Finally! Last week of class! Holidays! Hopefully I'll have more time to draw more fanart and write.

Things are going to heat up a bit between Ilk's party, you'll see why soon enough. AND we get to learn more about the planet they're in.

Enjoy!

Lost

Chapter 12- Secrets

"Can I play with it?"

"For the hundredth time, GIR, no!"

"Whyyyy?!"

Zim grunted. "Because you'll end up breaking it!" This caused the little robot to burst out in yet another hysterical fit.

"Would you two be quiet?!" Red snapped from his spot near the fire. He rubbed his temples. "It's bad enough I have to put up with you already, Zim! Besides, who said you could play with the map?"

"Given that Captain-beast has gone to vent off somewhere, I'm taking the liberty to trace our next route to rescue Tallest Purple."

"More like tracing the path to our doom…" Red stared at GIR skeptically as the SIR snatched the tablet from Zim and ran around the camp. It was hard to believe this was the same robot who had saved his life from the mendigo. It had happened before, right? Back on the cliff he had gone… functional for a few brief seconds, long enough to suggest something useful.

It had to be the thing messing with technology. Perhaps GIR's… unique properties caused the opposite effect. Instead of not working properly or deactivating, the loose screws in his head went back into place or something (literally)*.

When GIR ran close to him, Red snatched him up by his single antenna. "Okay, you little metal menace, let me check something out…"

GIR didn't even protest as the data pad was taken from his hand. Instead he took out the fake, second-hand piggy Zim had made for him. "Can I play with Piggy?"

Red rolled his eyes. "Whatever, just don't move." He said, connecting GIR's auxiliary cable to the tablet.

"My Tallest…?"

"What are you doing, Red?"

"I'm trying to see if I can trigger his duty mode, or at the very least see if his scanners and communications can be used to better the pad's."

Zim almost went pale. He still remembered the last time that happened. "M-My Tallest, I don't think that's a good idea… I'm afraid to say GIR's duty mode is defective. When I tried to do that he turned against me, his master! He even went as far as to say I was a threat to the mission*!"

Red rolled his eyes. I wonder 'why'.

"It's the first time I've seen a SIR unit behave in such a way, actually…" Lena pointed out. GIR had proceeded to make mini snow-pigs to eat them, or throw them at Zim and Fury in a playful manner.

"I'll explain later…" Red murmured, sending yet another array of codes into the pad. Okay, if what he had in mind worked he should go into duty mode in about…

GIR's eyes flashed crimson and his posture went to a stiff salute. "Reporting for duty, My Tallest!"

Zim yelled and hid behind Ilk while Blue leaned in, interested. "What did you do exactly?"

"I worked with a SIR of my own back when I was an Invader, so I know a trick or two about the duty mode." Red said with an undertone of pride.

"GIR, who is you master?" Ilk asked the robot. She had to make sure her father hadn't programmed him in secret to kill, hurt or somehow harm Zim in any way. Yes, she did believe him capable of that.

GIR blinked and searched the camp; he spotted Zim just as he took a nervous peek from behind Ilk's back. "Irken Zim is my master. However, since the Tallest is present, his orders can override any given by master." Zim visibly relaxed. GIR didn't seem to remember the last time.

"Okay, GIR, now that you're connected to this… pad-thing filled with information that is most likely important, can you tell me who are these Hothians?"

"Yes, sir! Compiling data from vortpad..." GIR's eyes started to rain with long lines of numbers and letters. Ah, so it is a Vortpad? It certainly didn't look like one. "Planet Hoth is not registered in the Empire's databases, but I have found several pieces of information within this Vortpad. Permission to assimilate information into databases."

He could even do that? "Fine, just tell me where on Irk we are!"

"Assimilating…" Another rain of codes on GIR's eyes. "Assimilation complete. Hoth is the sixth planet in a yet-unnamed star system. Climate: template. Inhabited: yes."

"Template?" Blue asked skeptically and gestured vaguely to their ice-covered surroundings. "Aren't you seeing where we are?"

"I'm getting to that, Kryvtor. Approximately 100 Earth years ago, Hoth was struck by a great asteroid, obliterating 60% of life on the planet. This event caused the temperature to drop dangerously, particularly by sending thick layers of dust into the atmosphere and thus blocking what little sunlight was received due to its distant position from the system's star."

"Okay then, what's messing up with technology?"

"And the Hothians? How can their technology work?" Lena added quickly.

"Permission to run a scan to find the cause."

"Granted."

GIR silently stood there for a few seconds with a seemingly-vacant expression. Suddenly his arm lifted and pointed toward the brightest spot in the cloud layer, which wasn't much. "The Hothian sun is going through an unusually large and strong geomagnetic solar storm. The magnitude provokes electrical disruptions, blackouts and communication line damage*." The group let out dismayed groans. No wonder nothing (except GIR) worked! Even the Massive experienced technical problems when it passed by a star going through solar storms.

"The inhabitants of Hoth didn't previously possess the technology to leave their planet. Not long after the meteor struck Hoth's surface, however, the solar storm started messing with spacecraft passing through the system, causing them to crashland on Hoth's surface. The Hothians took whatever could be repaired to create their own vehicles, but they lacked the skills to successfully create one capable of space travel. The crash-landed ships within that category were broken beyond repair."

"Technically, what you're saying is that they're stuck here because no ship they fix is big enough and they lack the proper equipment to leave the planet's atmosphere." Ilk concluded.

"Affirmative."

"But you didn't answer my question, GIR. If the solar storm causes the ships to malfunction, why do theirs work?" Lena pointed out.

GIR's vacant expression returned. This time he was staring down at the vortpad. "This vortpad has been upgraded with a metal not found in the Empire's databases, but with properties that repel the solar storm's magnetic waves. Additionally, the battery is made from a substance with similar characteristics."

"Perhaps it's something native from this planet," Ilk pointed out. "It would explain why it's not in the Empire's databases. The Hothians could have discovered their effects and implemented them on the craft they repaired."

"Sir, there's a signal coming from a building not far from here. It's monitoring the transmissions between other vortpads. Should I pick it up?"

Monitoring transmissions? Was it possible the others had found a way to do that? "Pick it up." Red ordered.

The vortpad's screen turned momentarily static as GIR sent a call to the source of the signal. Seconds later a very familiar face appeared on the screen.

"Red?!"

Hothian Base, at the same time...

There was a brief debate when suddenly their tablet received a remote transmission. Purple wanted to take the call in case it came from a ship, while Foxtrot thought it would be wiser to ignore it, it might as well be any of the other guards contacting the Hothian this pad belonged to. If they answered it they'd know they had stolen it. Finally Dib rolled his eyes and pressed the button to hail the transmission though.

Before they could reprimand him, Red's face appeared on the other side of the call.

"Red?!" Purple cried, bringing the screen closer to his face to make sure he wasn't hallucinating this. "Is that you?!"

"Purple?! How on Irk did you get a vortpad?!"

"Are the others with you?!" Foxtrot snatched the vortpad from Purple's hands to take a look. "Are Blue, Captain and Hitorken Zim okay?!"

Red rolled his eyes. "Of course you'd ask about Zim."

"We are all safe and sound, sobrekt-beast!" Zim's voice yelled from the other side even though he was nowhere to be seen.

"Give that back!" Purple snatched the vortpad back with a frown. "Red, where are you?!"

"In the middle of nowhere trying to reach you! How about you, are you still prisoners?"

"What makes you think that? The fact that we're inside the sobrekt ship being forced to repair it?" Dib asked sarcastically.

"Don't you talk to Tallest Red like that, Dib-worm!"

"Hey, where is Captain?"

Blue momentarily pushed Red aside from the screen, looking uncomfortable. "Captain is… venting off." That was all Foxtrot needed to know. One of the Irkens must have upset him somehow, or a topic of conversation brought him… uncomfortable things back to mind.

Red pushed him aside again. "Anyway, are you alright over there? What have you been doing?"

"Well-"

Bob cried out, "Guard is coming!" Purple quickly hid the vortpad under the couch pillows before laying down himself and putting down the best sick expression he could muster. When the Hothian climbed half the stairs enough to take a look into the lunge, Dib and Bob started whistling innocently; Foxtrot tried to do the same, but his long snout and inflexible lips prevented him from recreate that sound*. The guard shrugged and went back outside.

Bob took a peek through the stairs. "Coast clear."

"Pur? Are you there?"

Dib snatched the vortpad from underneath the pillows before Purple or Foxtrot had a chance to sit up. "Now's not a good time to chat! How about we call you back in a few hours?" He barely missed getting the vortpad snatched from his hands.

"Put Purple back on the screen, hyooman!"

"Dad, he's right, we could get them caught if there are Hothians nearby."

"Yeah, listen to her!" Dib added quickly after running underneath Foxtrot's legs. "You already got this vortpad's transmission number, so it won't be a problem, right?! Okay, talk later!"

"Don't you dare-!" Those were the last words he heard from Red, along with his angry grimace, before cutting off the transmission. Okay, now he'd have to deal with a fuming Irken and kryvtor.

"I'm going to murder you!" Purple was the first to lunge after Dib, but wasn't quick enough and landed straight on top of Foxtrot. The kryvtor snarled. "Get off me!"

"Before you kill me, use your heads! These guys returned that," Dib pointed at the incubator on top of the couch," because they believe we think they have Zim and the rest! What do you think they'll do when they learn we discovered they don't really have your companions?" As the words sank in, he noted their body language relaxing (even though their brows were still furrowed). "Exactly. As long as they think they still have a leverage, those who are here will be safe."

"I hate to say it, my Tallest, but the Dib-hyooman is right." Bob pointed out timidly.

"Nobody asked your opinion, Bobby," Purple said bitterly. Seconds later he sighed in dismay. "But I guess the hyooman is right in that sense."

"Of course I am!"

"Shut up and go record your 'evidence' or something."

Dib let out a dismayed grunt. "The camera ran out of battery."

Thank Irk for that, it was annoying every time the hyooman just popped out with that thing in his hand. Foxtrot shrugged and went to sit on the opposite couch, closing his eyes. Purple wondered how he could be so calm about this when their comrades were out in the wilderness at the mercy of… who knows what.

Purple noted the incubator, along with the indokuro egg, had been left on his side of the lounge. He warily glanced at Foxtrot, but the kryvtor didn't seem to mind he was so close to it. With that in mind he picked the incubator up and put it on his lap; Irk, it was heavy. Definitely it felt almost like it would hatch sometime. "Can I ask you something, Foxtrot?"

Foxtrot opened one eye in surprise. "Is it me or you just called me by my name?"

Putting the little comment aside, Purple inquired. "Why are you carrying an indokuro egg around?"

"Oh, that. Our main task was to retrieve the smeet you call Ilk, but every now and then we'd receive a secondary mission. The latest assignment was to recover a stolen indokuro egg." Foxtrot went on to explain how they had snuck into a black market auction aboard a space station just outside the Empire's borders to retrieve the egg, but had been informed about a 'chance' to capture Ilk. Captain had Masouri drive to the Armada without giving them time to return the egg to the I-KCADCOM facilities on Sobr.

"The what now?" Bob asked.

"It's Indokuro Control and Distribution Committee in short."

Purple snorted. "Short? If that's your definition of short I don't want to imagine the 'long' one."

When they were taken back to their 'cell' that night there was a brief argument as to who got to hold the vortpad while they talked with their missing comrades until Dib volunteered for the job as a 'neutral' party. Surprisingly, Purple and Foxtrot didn't protest much.

To avoid overcrowding the latter drew an imaginary circle around himself, Dib and Purple. The others could sit, lie down or do as they wished as long as they didn't cross the line.

Dib re-dialed the same vortpad number from before. "Pur, are you there?"

If there was something all those cat-mouse chases and ambushes from Zim had taught Dib, it was that Irkens were naturally very impulsive and tended to overreact over tiny things. Thanks to this he was able to see it coming and jumped off his spot just as the other Invaders leapt at him for the tablet upon hearing their missing leader.

Purple and Foxtrot weren't so quick, unfortunately. Purple started yelling and snarling things at his soldiers while Foxtrot let out a series of high-pitched shrieks which Dib interpreted as insults.

"Foxtrot, watch your tongue! There's a hyooman hatchling present!" Masouri cried out, forgetting momentarily that Dib could not really understand their language.

"What's going on over there?!"

"Let's say they're pretty desperate to know you're still in one piece… I think." Dib said.

"Get Purple over here, hyooman!"

Okay, this is… embarrassing. "All of you, to the corner! NOW!" Purple bellowed, sending the other Irkens straight to the other side of the empty room, all of them trembling. Then he glared at Echo and Foxtrot. "You too!"

"Why us? We didn't scramble on top of you like animals-!" Echo protested, but a glare from Purple and a subtle motion with the head from Foxtrot silenced her. With a grunt she and dragged Masouri over to join the Invaders.

"Okay, are you done acting like kids?" Captain asked from off-screen. "Foxtrot, status."

"Masouri is stalling the repairing as much as he can, Captain, but he can't do that too much or the Hothians will become suspicious."

"I could have told him that myself…" Masouri muttered from the back.

"How about you guys? Everything okay?"

"Other than having to put up with Zim and his defective robot, yeah, we're good." Red muttered and glanced offscreen. Purple guessed he and Captain had walked aside from their campsite so they could talk without interruptions.

"Thanks to Hitorken Zim's robot you learned quite the information, didn't you?"

"Yeah, and I did all the work while you were off mopping for… something."

Foxtrot intervened when he noticed the two leaders were exchanging irritated glares. "What information did you gather, your Tallest? We have learned quite a bit ourselves."

The next twenty minutes were spent exchanging information on both parties, particularly the reason why technology didn't work, except for the Hothian equipment. Foxtrot slipped out the battery from Dib's camera; like the hyooman said, it had ran out. The greenish glow was gone and instead looked like a discarded piece of equipment.

Then there was the issue with the planet's atmosphere. This confirmed Red and Purple's suspicions of why the Sobrekt and Ilk had been so sick lately-Captain looked like he wanted to murder Red for withholding that information from him, but was wise enough to save it for later-, which meant their condition would worsen if they stayed any longer in that place.

Foxtrot theorized that was the reason the Hothians were so desperate to leave their own homeworld; they too would perish in time.

"Hey, Masouri, how long would it take to coat all of the Ibris's electrical equipment with the hothian metal?"

"If I work a whole day with every single hand available, about two days." Masouri glanced at the battery. "And if we could somehow obtain more of that, whatever it is, we could power up the engines."

Purple looked down at the screen. "Think you could get here in two days?"

"If we go on interrupted, yeah."

"Good. Meanwhile, we'll try to fix the Ibris without giving these guys a clue as to what we are doing." A small, red icon on the vortpad warned them the device was running out of juice. "We gotta hang up; running out of battery."

Captain nodded. "Foxtrot, Masouri, Echo, take care until we get there."

Foxtrot saluted, and though they were not within sight Echo and Masouri mimicked the gesture.

"Take care, Red. And make sure Ilk and the doc make it here on one piece."

Red nodded. "I will. Oh, and Pur?"

"Yes?"

"Save me some doughnuts from that machine that materializes food out of thin air."

Purple chuckled. "There will be a whole bag of doughnuts waiting for you and Ilk, don't worry."

The transmission was cut.

"Sir, we have the location of the other vortpad."

Iraa nodded and coughed into an old napkin. "Capture them alive and bring them here. Do not kill them."

"Yes, sir!"

It was amusing to watch their 'guests' plotting behind their backs. They really thought they weren't being watched. Did they take them for fools? They might not be as gifted in engineering and machinery as other species, but they were cunning. He knew the prisoners would not talk as openly if they knew their captors were listening to every word. Iraa had learned this with previous prisoners.

Ironically a few decades ago he didn't even imagine there were other worlds until the apocalypse, when dozens of outer ships of differing sizes, designs and colors started falling from the sky. Sometimes there were survivors, sometimes there weren't. Those that made it died trying to leave their doomed planet.

His people used to simply watch until they started to die; soon they realized the air had been poisoned by the same substances that blocked the sunlight. Using whatever machine that didn't explode in the crash landing they manage to clean certain areas, but soon the realization came crashing down upon them: if they stayed they would die.

As mentioned before Hothians did not know enough of engineering to properly fix the bigger ships, so they tried to have whoever made it alive to fix them. They would provide the pilots with the Othium and radioactive energizer, which allowed machines to function normally by repelling any interfering magnetic waves, in exchange of safe passage out of Hoth.

Those liars took advantage of their desperation to rob them of their resources and leave them behind. Iraa had watched it happen countless times until he decided they'd stop playing nice.

A few weeks ago, at least that was the impression he got, a mysterious message arrived in the form of a capsule with a written paper. It informed them a 'Sobrekt' ship in perfect conditions would arrive soon, courtesy of the unknown remittent. The Hothians could keep it and use it to escape their doomed homeworld. The 'benefactor' only asked for one thing in return:

Make sure the passengers aboard the Irken vessel that would arrive shortly after the Sobrekt did never made it off.

Iraa would make sure of that.

For the survival of his people he had to.

The Campsite, meanwhile...

"When in the Ancestor's name were you going to tell me?!"

"Captain, calm down!"

"CALM DOWN?! You do realize what could happen to us, Blue?!"

Red was certain the Sobrekt would have killed him if Zim hadn't intervened at that moment. "Sobrekt-beast, knock it off! Surely my Tallest had his reasons to withhold that information!"

For the first time ever since they landed, Captain growled at Zim. "With all due respect, Hitorken Zim, I don't think you understand the magnitude of the situation! You, the doctor and your Tallest have your PAKs to filter out the air you breathe, but we don't!"

Oh, that felt so good! After seeing that croc licking Zim's boots ever since the crash it was nice to see him snap at least once.

"He does have a good point, dad! Why didn't you tell us about this?!" Oh, snap. He forgot Ilk was there.

"Sweetie, at the time I didn't think it was relevant…"

"You didn't…?!" Ilk groaned and smacked her own forehead. "Dad, seriously?! You thought the fact that the air here killing me wasn't relevant?! What were you planning to do when I got ill-?!"

"I assumed the… flower in your DNA would heal you or something."

"It doesn't work that way, Irken. The flower only heals flesh wounds and virus-transmitted diseases, not respiratory issues." Blue frowned.

"Have the guts to admit you were hoping Blue, Fury and I would die from the poisoned atmosphere, your Tallest!" Captain snarled. The only thing that prevented him from attacking Red was Fury standing between them while staring warily at the Sobrekt.

That had been his intention, alright, but he wasn't going to say it outloud, especially not in front of Ilk and Lena. Why did he care about what Lena thought of him, again?

The angry mood was broken when GIR came forward with a serving of waffles. "Who wants waffles?!" They would have declined, but they hadn't eaten anything since leaving their last campsite. Besides, Zim was eating one and didn't seem to grow sick so it seemed to be edible, not to mention they weren't in the mood for GIR's tantrums. They grabbed a waffle each, but Captain, Blue and Fury moved a bit away from the Irkens to eat silently.

They felt betrayed. And they weren't completely wrong.

"Is it true, dad?" Ilk asked, looking up at her father with a deep frown. "You did hope they would die of poisoning?"

Red glanced at Lena for help, but she merely kept eating silently. 'Your idea, your consequences.' That's what he imagined she was saying. In desperation he turned to Zim, his last hope. When did he stoop so low?

"Don't be so hard on Tallest Red, Ilk-smeet. Perhaps he didn't want you to worry."

Ilk's frown was now directed to Zim. "Really, you're on his side?" This really didn't surprise her, though, it wasn't like Zim had any other choice. Ilk glared at Red again. "You could have at least told them."

"Would it have changed anything?" Red responded a bit more firmly than before. "What would they have done even if I had told them? Hold their breaths until we escaped this planet?"

"They would have been forewarned, dad! You say you don't like to be the last to find out about anything but you keep things from people!"

"Don't you talk to me in that tone, young lady!"

Ilk growled and flattened her antenna against her head. "You're doing it again! You just don't…! ARGH! Just forget it!" She turned on her heels and walked away from the fire, ignoring dad's protests.

"Ilk, were are you going?!"

"I need to be as faraway from you as possible for a few hours, if you don't mind!"

"Ilk, don't-!" Red winced at clutched his injured abdomen. Damn it. "Zim, go with her and take your… SIR with you!"

"As you wish, my Tallest!" Zim grabbed GIR by the antenna and dragged him after the young irkenette.

"That's not going to help, you now," Lena finally spoke. She stared at the spot the trio just disappeared into. "The last thing Ilk needs right now is a bodyguard that's always behind her back."

"Don't bring that up, Lena. Please, not now." Red said, glaring at the bonfire. It was just like he told her days ago, Ilk just didn't understand how important she was to him. The part of his brain, both his organic one and the PAK, that felt guilty about lying to her responded that she didn't know because he didn't tell her. She'd understand better if he just told her of…

Red pushed those thoughts aside. It was for her own good.

But if that's the case why wouldn't the feeling go away?

Meanwhile...

"Big, bossy dummy!"

"Ilk-smeet, wait up!"

Ilk only stopped because after a long day of walking her legs were still hurting, and there was an fallen log nearby. The wooden cover was just as gray and sickly-looking as the rest, and now she knew why. She started coughing again, but it didn't last as long as before. With a grunt Ilk hopped unto the log and sat down, crossing her arms while glaring at nothing in particular. She just wanted to be mad at something.

"Are you sad?" GIR innocently asked and took out a rock from his head, offering it up to her. "Here! You can have my rock!"

She didn't have the the heart to hurt GIR's feelings by rejecting it, so she grabbed it. "Thanks, GIR." At the very least he tried.

"Your welcome. Oh, a mushroom!"

Zim went to sit down next to Ilk when GIR ran into some bushes to pluck odd-looking mushrooms. "You shouldn't be so hard on Tallest Red." he said.

"Zim, you don't get it, do you? He kept a secret from me again! It's always the same thing, he keeps treating me like a smeet!"

"Well, technically since you have yet to go to the Academy you're still a smeet by Irk's legal standards."

"That's not the point!"

"Tallest Red just wants what's best for you. It's what parental male units do in most species. You're lucky to have a parental unit at all, you know, it's a luxury not every Irken has…" Zim whispered with a small overtone of sadness. Ilk looked at him sympathetically; she had forgotten most of their people, Zim himself included, didn't have any parents but the 'cold, unfeeling robot arm' that shocked cloned smeets into life.

She wondered how her life would have been if she had been birthed in a smeeterie. She probably would have been one more soldier in the Empire and dad probably would have never learned he was a father at all.

There was a small rustling of leaves as Blue joined in. His orange eyes, displaying great tenderness, fixed on llk. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"More or less, how about you?"

Bue coughed once. "Other than feeling like my lungs are starting to hurt, I'm fine."

"I offer you apologies on behalf of Tallest Red, Blue-beast. He didn't have any bad intentions on withholding the… information," Zim said apologetically. "But your efficiency in combat and other things would have declined considerably if you had that in your mind bugging you constantly."

Blue sighed and went to sit down next to Zim. "I guess so… Captain sends his apologies for snapping at you earlier, Hitorken Zim."

Zim shrugged. He partly understood why had had done it. "Zim forgives the Captain-beast."

"Blue, mind if I ask you something? For how long can Sobrekt hold grudges? Will you stay mad at dad for the remainder of our… stay here?"

"I can put that aside for the sake of survival. Captain, however, is another story altogether, especially when it has to do with your tallest Red."

"Does Captain have a grudge against dad or something? You make it sound as if he has a personal vendetta…"

"It's not a vendetta, but he does pin the blame on him for…" Blue stopped.

"For what?" Zim asked.

Oh, ancestors. If Captain found out about this, he'd be in so much trouble. "All I'll tell you is he lost someone dear to him to Drilo's disease."

No wonder he was angry at dad. He had stolen the only way to cure the illness, dooming whoever Captain had lost. One life for another. Ilk couldn't help but feel sorry for the crocodile. He wasn't just a bloodthirsty-barbarian like everybody said. None of these sobrekt were.

"GIR?" Zim looked around upon noticing his SIR had not yet come to bother them. "GIR, where are you?!" Zim groaned and left his seat next to Ilk, muttering something about a leash as he went deeper into the woods.

A part of Ilk didn't want to be left completely alone with Blue after learning he was… courting her. Sobrekt and their strange customs. If they don't give flowers or anything like that, what manners did they have regarding courtship other than bringing her lots of smaller prey to eat. Ilk sneezed and rubbed her forearms. Damn it, maybe it wasn't such to walk away from the fire with this climate.

Ilk jumped when she felt something wrap around her waist and looked down to find a long, reptilian tail getting a gentle hold of her. She fell backwards unto the snow with a yelp.

Okay, that wasn't the reaction he was expecting at all. Stupid, Blue, she's an Irken and has no idea of what this gesture means! Wrapping your tail around somebody's waist is a way to let someone know you're interested in them in a romantic way.. Or maybe she DID know what he was implying and didn't like it. He knew it, he should have waited a bit longer.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention…!"

"It's okay, I'm fine, don't worry!" Ilk said hurriedly as she got ot her feet, subtly rejecting Blue's hand. "Just… don't do that out of nowhere, I thought it was a snake-like animal or something!"

Blue's crest was completely bristled in embarrassment. "Are you sure you are okay?"

Okay, she better deal with this issue before he got any more illusions. "Look, Blue, don't take me wrong, you're a nice kryvtor and all that, but… I'm still a smeet and I'm not ready to think of relationships." Besides, if dad found out about this she thought him capable of declaring war against the Sobrekt. Again.

"You don't look that young to me."

"Legally I am." oh, what a good argument, Ilk.

Blue whipped his head around towards the trees with slit pupils. "Did you hear that?"

"Are you trying to avoid the topic?"

"Ilk, be quiet."

"No, we should settle this issue right here and right now!"

"Please, I need to listen-ARGH!"

"BLUE!" Ilk panicked when suddenly Blue hissed in pain and collapsed unto the snow, clutching his abdomen. She knelt down next to him and stared at his plasma-burnt hide.

"Get them!"

*Given that GIR is not... well, you know, normal, I think it's natural he wouldn't be affected like a fully-functional SIR would. Come on, he wouldn't be the GIR we know and love if he were, right?

*Events of 'Gir goes crazy and stuff'.

*This came from a suggestion made by InvaderJohnny, which also got me into researching it. I found about the Carrington Event, a powerful geomagnetic solar storm that occurred in 1859 and damaged to electric equipment worldwide, at that time mostly telegraph stations. Scientists said that a solar storm of that magnitude today would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts and damage due to extended outages of the electrical grid. So I figured THAT could be the cause of equipment not working on Hoth. So thanks for that, IJ!

*From what I've seen in my pet snake, reptiles don't have flexible lips like humans do, so I think they wouldn't be able to do things like whistling.

Next chapter: Conflict arises between Red and Ilk after a long battle, while Lena deals with her first fight...