(Nobody's POV)
"That's strange. Why do you think they would discharge an entire termination squad? I wonder what they did wrong."
"I don't know."
"Kinda sucks that they all got let go. I found out that the squad responsible for the extermination of that Zin person, was squad H-1. But, the information is almost useless because all members of H-1 were fired and exterminated."
"Who cares, Red? We got our connection with Zim abled to be reprocessed, so let's just forget about the dumb mystery thing and call Zim. That'll liven things up, AND it's less work."
Red hovered over from the station he was working at and placed himself by his fellow ruler. "Alright, Purple. ... hey you!" He pointed at a passerby in the distance, who instantly stopped. A look of fear appeared on the pointed's face.
"Ye-yes, my Tallest. Is there something I can do?"
Red and Purple gave each other amused looks, clearly finding it funny that this poor guy thought he was in trouble.
"Why, yes. There IS something you can do for us. Step closer."
The visibly shaking Irken did as he was told. He came up 'till he was about five feet away from the two leaders.
"We need you! ... to! ..." Red built up as much suspense as possible. "..go and! ... call Zim. When you hit him up, send it through to the Massive's main screen."
"Oh, uh, okay. I'm a navigation specialist though, so maybe I could go fetch a communications specialist instea-"
"We didn't ask a comfluterionist blah-bee-blah! We asked you! Now, go!"
(Zim POV)
"If I put the coolant compartment here, .. then maybe, no. That's stupid." I was fiddling around with the laser cannons on my Voot Cruiser, trying to find a way to make them more efficient. So far, I was going no where. I had the left side cannon completely tooken apart as I sat next to my ship. I set my tools down and stood up. "Zim requires a break." Pulling out a mic that connected to my PAK, I called for my robot companion. "Gir! Come up to the attic!" I slid the mic back in and tapped my foot, waiting.
"Here I am!" He crashed up through the floor. Of course. Great, something to ask the computer to fix later.
"*sigh* I need you to stand over there." I pointed at a spot, just behind my ship.
"That's my favorite place to stand!"
Favorite place to stand? He doesn't even hardly come up here. I'll never understand what goes on in his mind.
Gir happily skipped over to where I needed him to be. "Good. Now, I need you to stay there. I'm going to take my cruiser for a spin. It'll take no longer than thirty minutes. The motor has been enhanced, thanks to my mighty engineering skills. What will happen is, I will take flight in the Earth 's stratosphere to test it out. I expect everything to go smoothly, so the ride should hopefully be a good mental relaxer for Zim." Flying was one of my ways of cooling down after a hard day's work. And today had been especially hard, what with attempting to modify my lasers and bettering the motor.
"What I need YOU to do is, when I come back, and you see that I'm about to land, you are to shine your night vision lights up at me so I can land without any trouble. Do you understand?"
There was a blank face on my SIR unit's face the whole time I spoke, which worried me. I really needed him to do what I asked. If I accidentally crashed, the commotion might disturb the sleep of my hueman neighbors. And that would cause them to come outside and check to see what was up, and then things would get bad from there. Can't be useful to Irk if I'm dissected before I can discover anything more for them. One genetic finding was certainly not enough.
The expressionless look on Gir quickly changed into a look of determination. "Okay! Will do!"
"So, just to be clear, you will stand there until my return, and upon my return, you will flash your night lights at me. Can you follow through with that simple instruction?"
"Sure can! You can count on me!" I highly doubted it, but I didn't really have a choice. I climbed into my cruiser, entered in a command on a keypad that opened up the roof, and took off.
Warning.
"Hello, Zim?! *sshh* Please answer!"
Warning.
I woke up, startled, to my ships proximity emergency warning, and to someone trying to contact me through my radio. "Huh? Was I asl- Oh goodness!" My eyes adjusted to the situation and I was able to see clearly out my windshield. I was coming in fast towards my attic, where a frantic, lit up Gir was running in circles, trying to get my attention. Screaming in fear, I shifted in my seat as I made a motion to hit the emergency-B landing switch.
Emergency-B landing engaged.
My ship slowed down harshly, causing my body to lurch forward and my face to hit the glass. My screams ceased. "Ow." I peeled off the windshield and gave out a relieved breath when I saw Gir down in the open attic waving and smiling. He seemed happy that I was no longer in danger of crashing. "*ssshh* Zim! Hello, are you there?!" Oh, yeah, my radio. That voice sounded awfully familiar. I couldn't quiet make it out though because there was too much of a staticy background noise.
I clicked a button on my chairs armrest that would allow me to respond. "This is Zim. Who is this?!"
"It's, uh, ... Dib. Hey, are you good up there?" Dib!? What?
"I'm about to land back at my base! How did you know I was flying around?! And how are you talking to me!? This is an first-generation Voot ship! Only Irken technology can reach through to it!" The cruiser landed and the roof closed up.
"I'm kinda, calling from down in your lab ... " Down in my lab!? MY LAB? DIB? HOW DID HE GET IN THERE? As soon as the top of the Voot came up, I took off for an elevator, grabbing Gir along with me. I reached a hall elevator.
"Computer, down to the lab now!"
"Is we going to chop up pototAtoes together!?"
"No potatoes, Gir. But maybe some chopping."
The elevator dropped quickly, and stopped. The doors opened up, and I burst out. I could see him standing by the monitor with a communicator in his hand. MY communicator in HIS filthy hand! The look on his face when I tackled was priceless.
"Zim! Hold on!"
I rolled our bodies so I would be atop him. A memory of what happened at the park entered my thoughts. I better avoid looking in his eyes. I kept my gaze focussed away from Dib's face and stared at his chest, instead.
"What are you doing in Zim's base?!" I grabbed his arms in a lose grip.
"I- I was walking to no where in particular when I saw your ship zooming around. You were like, almost crashing into everything. I came in here to see if maybe I could, uh, reach you so you wouldn't crash into some persons home and ... kill somebody." How embarrassing that he saw that. I needed to figure out what was wrong with me now if it was affecting me that badly.
I grounded my teeth. That still didn't explain how he got in.
"Very well, but Dib-stink, how did you get IN?."
"I, I just walked in." The house itself seemed to speak up.
"Sorry, that would be my bad. There was a message being received from the Massive, so I wasn't paying attention to intruders. Some navigation specialist popped up and said that you should call them when you get the chance. When I finally noticed Dib, he was contacting you. I thought it was a good idea to let him finish considering you were flying like a half-brained smeet."
"Computer, .. repeat your second and third statement." Did I just here what I think I just heard?
"There was a message being received from the Massive, so I wasn't paying attention to intruders. Some navigation specialist popped up and said that you should call them when you get the chance." The ... Massive? My eyes shut as I processed the news. Oh, dear Glorb. They changed their minds! They want me back in communication with them! I pumped my fists in the air, and wriggled about in excitement.
"Uh, Zim?" My eyes opened and I looked up from Dib's chest to his face. It seemed to have changed color from white to pink. And it also looked like someone other than myself had damaged it. I looked back to his chest. I immediately stopped my wriggling and felt my own face heat up. That was awkward. I released my grip from one of Dib's arms and placed a claw under his chin.
"It looks like you get off easy today, Dib-meat. You're lucky that there is something important I must tend to." I removed myself off the Dib and made a gesture towards the elevator. "Gir, escort him out. Oh, and Dib, those icky bruises on your face really quite compliment the mark I gave you during our last encounter. Wherever you got them, you should go back and get some more."
(Dib POV)
Gir led me out, and I booked it home. Zim was going to call his leaders, I think. Gir had done what I asked before, and put in my cameras, and there was one set up right where Zim's screen communication, thing was set up. As I ran home, I thought about how lucky I really was. Zim totally looked like he wanted to shred me to pieces for breaking into his base. He also noticed my bruises.
I got home and rushed into my room, being careful not to be loud. I wouldn't want to wake Gaz. I hoped on my bed and grabbed my laptop from under my pillows. I lifted the screen and and clicked on the section that would show me the lab. There. I saw Zim's computer thing going staticy and Zim patiently waiting in front of it. I heard him mumbling something in another language as he played with his hands. He seemed, ... hopeful about something.
I almost yelped when I saw two, tall, green figures appear on the screen in Zim's lab. They were so, .. tall. I guess that's why they were called the Tallest? Huh. I watched the scene play out. I didn't really understand all that well, considering that nothing was said in English. I noticed, though, that the tall guys did at lot of snickering towards Zim. Zim, however, seemed oblivious to it, and spoke to them with a big smile. Wow. Even I didn't need to speak his tounge to be able to tell that he was being made fun of. That kinda hit a soft spot in me, but I pushed it aside.
He's definitely planning something with them, 'cause after their little chat, I watched as he started gathering things into a giant bag. My cameras showed him going around the house and grabbing food, clothes, hygienic supplies, and squeeky pigs. Whatever it was, it required him ... leaving.
An image of Zim wiggling on top of my flashed through my mind. I slapped myself. "What the heck brain. Hmmm ... if Zim is leaving, that must mean that his plan requires him to be. I can't let him go then."
(Nobody's POV)
"Di-did you see his face! Oh my gosh!" Purple bent down, doubled over with laughter. "He, he actually believed me!"
The Tallest had just finished their transmission with Zim. Red had 'apologized' for cutting Zim off, and said that the PAK issue was almost resolved. Purple had chimed in and told him that they needed Zim to hold off on invading and focus on finding his 'wanted' brother. And that if he found his brother, they would reward Zim greatly. They told him a lot more than just that, too. And it was basically all load of Bull.
"I know! I can't believe you tol- told him that Zin was alive!"
"Well, we just got done talking about the Zin thing before we called, so it was fre-esh in my mind! I can't believe that Zim had a twin!"
"Too bad he's dead! Ha, I can't believe he's actually going to look for someone who's dead!"
Bare with me, there is more to come and more explanations, 'cause I know that there are a lot of questions that this chapter brought up.