Dib sighed and stopped typing for a few minutes as he gazed at his computer screen. The glum blue light that radiated from the monitor hurt his eyes so he leaned back in his chair and closed them for a moment. When he opened them again he glanced at the clock in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. The clock read 3:30 in the morning.
Dib yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Late," he muttered to himself and leaned forward to turn off the monitor. Just before his finger reached the button a light began to flash on the bottom of the screen.
Dib frowned and glared at it, wondering if it was worth his effort to see what it was. Most of the time when the warning went off it was just another asteroid passing one of the satellites he had wired to check for alien activity. Then again, if it was a real threat he would probably end up regretting it the next day.
His tired body battled with his curious mind as the alarm flashed repeatedly. Finally, his curiosity won and he opened the file. At first it appeared that there was nothing there and Dib sighed in disgust but then a small flash caught his eye. He zeroed the camera in on the small light and tried to get it into focus. The light winked out but Dib already had whatever it was caught on his camera. He grinned and continued to type away and turn the camera onto infrared mode. "You can't hide from me," he told the monitor.
As the camera switched lenses Dib's eyes began to widen. He shook his head at the monitor and hissed angrily. "No."
Robin heard his communicator go off. He sighed and rolled out of his bed, fully dressed and ready for anything that may come to attack. He picked up the communicator silently hoping that it wasn't anyone too far away. He flipped it open as he ran his fingers through his bed ridden hair in an effort to look at least slightly more awake then he actually felt. "What's up?" he asked.
Dib's face appeared on the small circular screen. The pale teen looked terrified and distraught. "They're here," he said quietly.
Robin frowned, trying to make sense of what Dib just said. "Who's here?" he asked.
"Them," Dib replied exasperatedly. "The Irkens."
Robin's grip on his communicator tightened. "How many?" he asked.
Dib sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know," he replied truthfully. "I only saw a few of the ships that were there. I'm guessing a lot though because I only saw one part of the force and I didn't even see the Massive."
"The Massive?" Robin asked.
"The mothership," Dib replied simply. "It's the Irken stronghold."
Robin nodded and looked around. "All right. There's one Titan who is closer to you then we are right now. I'll call him and ask him to go help you to see what's going on. Meanwhile I want you to stay where you are and monitor the situation. The rest of us will get there as soon as we can."
Dib nodded and Robin watched as he glanced at something off the screen. "What is it?" Robin asked.
"The satellite is detecting more and more ships. They've numbered over 400 now," Dib replied nervously. "I think they're seriously invading."
"Then we have no time to loose," Robin replied. "Keep calm and work on what you're doing."
Dib nodded and the screen went blank.
Robin sighed and set the communicator to make another call.
Danny curled himself around a pillow underneath his sheets. He had finally gotten into bed around midnight and he had made plans to sleep long into the next morning.
Suddenly, a loud beeping permeated Danny's room. He groaned and practically fell out of bed in his slow effort to get to his communicator. He finally got to it and flipped it open. "Wazzit…" he asked sleepily.
"Phantom, we've got problems," Robin said sternly. "I need you to go back to Dib's house and help him."
Danny sighed and rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up a little more. "What happened?" he asked.
"We're being invaded," Robin replied simply.
Danny jumped to his feet, wide-awake. "What?" he gasped loudly.
"I need you to go help him get more data and also calm him down before we get there. This is something that's going to take all of us, Phantom."
Danny nodded and quickly transformed. "I'll be there in about a forty-five minutes if I fly as fast as I can."
"We'll be there in an hour," Robin replied. "I need to get everyone up and ready. We're probably going to grab a few things that can help us too."
Danny nodded and went intangible. "All right, see you in a little bit then."
Robin gave Danny a small grin for his benefit. "Good luck."
Danny laughed hollowly. "You too. We're going to need it."
Robin nodded his agreement and the communicator went blank. Danny sighed and shut it with a click. Then he went intangible and flew out the window into the cool night.
Danny closed his eyes as he flew through the air as fast as he could. He went intangible and was vaguely aware of the trees, houses and telephone poles that passed through his body. However that's not what he was thinking about. He was less concerned with his flight and more concerned for its purpose. What did Dib mean when he said they were being invaded? And what reason? If Zim wasn't apart of the Irken Empire anymore then it wasn't them they had to worry about. So who was it and why?
Danny's mind burned with questions as he flew towards Dib and whatever he discovered. He hated not knowing what was going on but he had a bad feeling that Dib didn't know much more then him.
Dib typed furiously as his computer continued to count the number of ships that were hovering outside of the earth's atmosphere. The sheer amount of numbers made his mind boggle painfully. Currently the count was at 897 and continually rising. "Why do they need so many ships just to take over one planet?" Dib wondered out loud. There really was no reason to use that much force except perhaps to show off how powerful they were. And judging from the way Zim acted that explanation wasn't too far out of the picture.
"What's going on?" a voice asked behind him.
Dib jumped a foot into the air and whirled around to face the speaker.
Danny grinned sheepishly as Dib turned to face him. "Sorry, I was trying to get here as fast as I could so I phased through your roof. Do you mind?"
Dib opened his mouth then closed it awkwardly. He was trying to come to terms with the fact that there was a ghost in his room, talking to him. He shook his head and rubbed his temples, "this is so weird," he murmured.
Danny blinked, not sure what to say.
Dib shook his head and smiled for Danny's benefit. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. And no, I don't mind. At least you don't destroy things when you get my attention."
Danny smiled and shrugged. "I try not to, at least. Doesn't always work out."
Dib snorted. "Well, if it were Zim, he'd just blow it up for the fun of it. So, at least it's not intentional."
"Well, not always," Danny said with a small, mysterious grin. He looked back at Dib who was looking at him with an eyebrow raised and he cleared his throat. "Um, anyways, what's going on?"
"We're being invaded," Dib replied as he pointed to the screen.
Danny looked at the screen and saw hundreds of red dots on a map of the earth. More and more seemed to be appearing as time went on. "Are those… aliens?" he asked.
"Ships," Dib sighed. "Ships with an entire crew on each one of them."
Danny bit his lip nervously. "Who?" he asked. "And why?"
"The Irkens," Dib replied. "I know that much, this energy signal is exactly the same as Zim's. And I really don't know why," he said sadly. "I think I know someone who does, though."
"Zim?" Danny asked.
Dib nodded grimly. "Now, if he actually bothers to listen to me is another matter. And if I can understand what he's saying to me."
"So, he talks like that all the time?" Danny asked.
Dib shrugged with a small laugh. "Actually, when we last met, he was more coherent then I've heard him in awhile. Sometimes he just makes stuff up for the heck of it."
Danny leaned over and pointed at the screen. "Is it still going?"
"Yeah," Dib replied. "So we're just going to call Zim. It's worth getting any information we can about this."
Danny nodded and Dib minimized the window he was working on to open another.
Zim snarled at his screen as he watched the Irken armada come into range of his sensors. "How dare they," he hissed. "They confront ME? The almighty ZIM?"
"They wanna keel you!" Gir said perkily as he jumped around Zim's underground lab.
Zim's antennae lowered so much that they were pressed flat against his skull. "Thank you, Gir. That helps so much."
"You welcome, master," Gir said with a grin. Then the small robot looked slightly worried. "They won't keel you, will they?" he asked.
Zim laughed boisterously. "No Gir. Not even the impressive Irken empire can bring down the amazing ZIM!"
"Glad to hear it," a voice said.
Zim jumped and looked at his monitor. Dib appeared on it with one of the teens that he had fought a few weeks ago. He couldn't remember the other kid's name but he didn't really care so it didn't matter. Zim grinned devilishly. "Dib."
Dib sighed. "No arguing," he told Zim. "We need answers."
Zim crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Why would I give answers to filth like you?" he asked. "Unless you make me."
"I could," Dib snapped.
Phantom cleared his throat. "Um, can we just please figure out what's going on?" he asked pointedly.
Dib glanced up at Phantom, then back down to Zim. "Well?"
"Again, why would I?" Zim asked.
"Because you have nowhere else to go," Dib pointed out. "No where to run. Come on Zim, didn't you say you were going to be the one to take over the earth? Are you really going to let the Irken's take it over?"
Zim stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It's true," he said with a smile. "This pathetic planet is my goal. And NO ONE will take it over except me. Fine, but I'm only helping so I can have the PLEASURE of destroying you all myself."
"I know," Dib replied while giving Danny a thumbs up behind his back. Danny hid a smile but Zim didn't seem to notice. "So why are they here?"
Zim reclined in his chair. "That much should be obvious," he said. "They came here to destroy me."
W00t Plot time peoples! Well, the first part anyways. It gets pretty intense here on out so bear with me.
Sorry for the lack of updates. School kinda got to me and I have my SAT's coming up next saturday so I've been studying. Here's an update for you though. Enjoy :3 Hugs and cookies to my reviewers.