A/N: Here we go, the next chapter of "Evolution". Just plot development, but trust me, there is plenty of action on its way. Until then, you'll just have to be patient.

Read on!

Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters are mine. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.

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Zim bit back on his laughter at the looks the Tallest had on their faces. Their jaws looked unhinged, and their eyes seemed about ready to pop out of their sockets.

It was understandable, really. Over the course of the past few years, ever since he had modified his height, Zim had been careful to hide his new stature from his leaders – it was against Irken law to increase one's height artificially. Zim had known this, of course, but he had been so desperate to preserve his mission that he had broken that law in order to make it seem that he was continuing to grow just like a "normal" human. That had been his only concern; it was only after Jana had arrived and revealed his destiny that he had seen the potential for power that his increased height provided. And now all that stood between him and that power was the two idiots gaping at him from the holo-screen before him…

Speaking of whom, they seemed to have regained their powers of speech.

"What… you… tall… how?" was all that Purple was capable of stammering out. Red, meanwhile, was still spitting out pieces of the doughnut he had been choking on a few minutes earlier.

"Oh, you noticed?" Zim asked, trying very hard to maintain the naïve and slightly stupid personality he had shed when he had grown. The Tallest would already feel threatened because of his height, no reason to let them know that he was now smart enough to be an actual threat to their power.

"Yeah, this just happened," he continued, lying through his teeth, "I guess because of this stupid spinning ball of filthy dirt's lighter gravity, my amazing body was able to grow past its normal bounds. Isn't that great?"

He was fairly sure he was going to make himself sick if he kept this up – was this really the way he used to talk?

By this point, Red had managed to compose himself, and was giving Zim a suspicious look. Floating closer to the holo-screen on his side of the transmission, he narrowed his eyes slightly. His antennae lowered into a guarded position, showing that the scarlet-eyed Tallest was angry, but was trying very hard to control it. This was also understandable, considering how much he hated the Irken before him – seeing him so tall, the most coveted thing for Irkens, must have really ticked Red off.

"So, this just happened?" he asked.

"Yep," Zim responded, nodding while forcing a stupid smile onto his face, "I figured Probing Day would be the best time to tell you – along with my most brilliant plan ever to take over this filthy planet!"

The Tallest seemed to relax at this, seeing that Zim's personality apparently hadn't been changed any by his increase in height. Red's antennae shifted into the stiff position of mere annoyance, rather than outright anger.

"Yeah, that's great Zim," he said with an eye roll, "But we're kind of busy right now, in case you didn't notice."

Purple nodded as he picked his dropped clipboard back up off the floor. "Yeah, so why don't you just blow yourself up now and get it over with so that we can get back to hurting… I mean, inspecting the other Invaders?"

Red snickered a bit at that, while Zim's hands clenched in anger. The air around him began shimmering, but he quickly took a calming breath and focused, stopping the pyrokinesis before anything exploded. After making sure that he had himself under control, he forced an obliviously calm look back onto his face.

"Actually, my Tallest," he said, forcing himself not to spit the title out, "This plan doesn't involve blowing things up. At least, not right away."

Both Tallest blinked.

"Then… what's the point?" Purple asked, raising his antennae in confusion.

Zim merely grinned and pressed a button on his console. This caused a holographic image to appear on the Massive's bridge, slowly rotating as everyone looked at it in varying degrees of shock. After a few minutes of silence, Red spoke up.

"What in the name of Irk is that thing?" he said, a combination of fear and shock evident on his face.

"I call it a Genetically Engineered Super Soldier," Zim said, grinning widely at the reaction his creation was receiving, "Or GESS, for short. I've got a whole army of them growing in my basement lab. I just collected DNA samples from several of the most powerful, most deadly animals on this planet, and fused them together into one lifeform. Once my army is completely matured, I'll just release them into the outside world and let them tear the Earth-monkeys apart, like the disgusting bags of filth that they are."

The Tallest stared at Zim wide-eyed. Then they looked at the hologram of the GESS. Then they looked back at Zim. This continued on for several minutes – Zim was half-considering getting something to eat while he waited – before Red finally spoke up.

"That's… that's not a bad plan," he said slowly, not believing what was coming out of his mouth, "You actually came up with a brilliant plan for taking over that planet."

"But of course," Zim replied coldly, "I am Zim."

For a moment, the Tallest could have sworn they saw an evil smirk on Zim's face while he said his favorite sentence, but then they blinked and all he had on his face was his usual enthusiastic grin.

"The GESS should be mature enough to awaken from their growth tubes in about a week," the Invader continued, "Should I expect you to arrive with the Armada to bare witness to the doom I will then unleash?"

Purple opened his mouth to answer, but Red cut him off.

"Give us a minute to discuss this."

The Tallest moved off-screen and began talking in hushed tones. Zim frowned and narrowed his eyes in concentration, attempting to read their minds, but he got nothing, not even the familiar background buzzing.

'Damn,' Zim cursed to himself, 'Telepathy must not work over long distances.'

He broke his concentration and silently fumed until the Tallest reappeared on the screen. When they did, he quickly slipped back into his facade of a loyal soldier, letting the fake smile spread across his face.

"Well?" he asked, making sure to try and speak in a positive tone, rather than an impatient one.

"We've decided that this plan of yours does seem more likely than not to succeed," Red said, "But just to be on the safe side, we're sending an inspection team."

Zim blinked in surprise. "You mean you're not coming yourself?"

"Not right away," Purple said with a shrug, "Considering your, uh, not-so-good record with making horrible monsters as living weapons, we want to make sure that these GESS things won't go on a rampage and kill us or something."

The maroon-eyed Invader frowned. "I have perfect control of my creations."

He nearly snarled out the statement, but managed to control himself and say it in a respectful manner. Not noticing his attitude, the Tallest continued.

"Yeah, that's what you said about your Absorbing Blob-thing, isn't it?" Purple asked, causing several of the bridge technicians to shudder as they remembered the monstrosity that had eaten two of their Tallest in the past.

"Exactly," Red nodded in agreement, "You wouldn't want these things to kill us, would you?"

"Of course not," Zim said through clenched teeth, hoping that would hide the sarcasm in the statement. Composing himself, he then asked, "So when can I expect the inspection team?"

Red shrugged. "You said about a week, right? We'll send the team then."

Zim saluted, hating every moment of the act of servitude. "As you wish my Tallest. Until then, this is Invader Zim, signing off."

He then flicked a switch on his console, sending both of the holo-screens into static as he cut communications.

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The Membrane Household, Same Time

Dib, pale in the face, gripped the laptop tightly in his hands to keep from dropping it in shock. He had heard everything; he had wanted to find out what Zim was planning, and now that he had he felt like he was going to throw up and pass out… though not necessarily in that order.

"Well, at least I know what a GESS is now," he muttered weakly, "Now what the hell am I supposed to do?"

He'd caught a glimpse of that hologram of the GESS that Zim had transmitted to the Tallest. He didn't think he could fight one of those things, let alone a whole army of them. The only solution he could think of was to stop Zim and Jana before they could wake that army up – but how?

Dib was pulled from his thoughts when, on the screen, Zim sat down and put his feet up on the communications console.

"Well, that didn't go quite as I planned, but all this means is that I adjust my schedule a little," Zim said as he leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.

"I notice you didn't tell them about your new abilities," the computer said.

Dib blinked in surprise. Abilities? What abilities?

"Of course not," Zim said with a sneer, "With these abilities, I have what the humans call an 'ace in the hole'. On the odd chance things go downhill, I'll still have a few tricks up my sleeve. No reason to make Jana do all the hard work."

The computer was silent for a few moments, before asking, "So, what do we do about the inspection team?"

Zim gave a noncommittal grunt as he crossed the legs that he had resting on the console.

"We do our best to impress them. If we do that, then the Tallest will come."

The Invader paused for a moment, and then began chuckling darkly.

"And when the Tallest do come," he continued, a Cheshire Cat smile on his face, "then we eliminate them. Once those two buffoons are out of the way, the path will be clear for me to ascend to the throne. I shall secure my destiny as leader of the Empire, and finally destroy this pathetic planet, all in one fell swoop."

Dib stared in shock. Had he just heard what he thought he just heard? Sure, just before the incident with the EMP Cannon, Zim had been bad-mouthing the Tallest, but to talk about actually killing his own leaders…

"Boy, is he lucky that they didn't hear him say that," Dib muttered. Then, his eyes widened as inspiration hit him like a ton of bricks.

"That's it!" he shouted, and quickly inserted a disc into the computer before he began frantically typing away at the keyboard. A few minutes later his work was complete – he had copied the footage of Zim openly plotting to kill his leaders when they arrived onto the disc. Now, all he had to do was try and get this information to this "inspection team" that was coming; hopefully, whoever was in charge would then use this obvious act of treason to deal with Zim for Dib once and for all.

He doubted it would be hard to do, all things considered. After all, this inspection team thing sounded pretty important; they'd probably send someone who was smart, rational, and levelheaded enough to know how to handle the situation.

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Planet Irk, Tallest Tower, Same Time

"Why do I have to do it?!" Pretty-Mighty Third Tallest Gor whined.

On the room's main holo-screen Red and Purple rolled their eyes at Gor's childish attitude. Sort-Of-Mighty Second Tallest Arnor also rolled his eyes, while sitting in the main recliner-throne in the center of the room and helping himself to a soda.

"Because," Red said, sounding like he wanted something a little stronger than soda, "This inspection is an official visit, which therefore requires an official member of the Imperial government to head it. And Pur and I are way too busy to waste time on it."

"Plus, it's Zim, and we hate him," Purple stated bluntly.

"So do I!" Gor shouted, waving his arms in the air, "Anyway, why can't Arnor do it? Isn't it the Second Tallest's job to do stuff that the Tallest can't or don't want to?"

"Yeah, but it's the Third Tallest's job to do things that the Second Tallest can't or doesn't want to do," Arnor replied with a smirk. He took a sip from his soda, and then added, "Dooky rolls downhill."

Gor glared at his technically-superior officer, but before he could say anything Red spoke up again.

"Look, Gor, just go to Earth and check these GESS things out," the crimson Tallest said tiredly, "If it turns out that this plan is as foolproof as Zim seems to think it is and he can control these… things, then congratulate him, authorize him to use them, and get the heck out of there."

Gor scratched the side of his head in thought. "But what if he can't control them?"

Purple shrugged as he helped himself to some curly fries. "Let 'em eat the little Defective, for all I care."

"But won't they try to eat me too?"

Both Tallest paused at that. They were quiet for several seconds before looking at each other, and then at the holo-screen.

"Err, sorry Gor, didn't quite get that, your transmission's breaking up. I think we're going through an asteroid field," Red said very quickly. He then made a discrete hand motion to a bridge technician, gesturing for him to cut the transmission.

"Hey! Wait a minute!"

Gor's protests went unheeded, and seconds later the holo-screen shut off, turning back into a window that offered the occupants of the room a spectacular view of Capital City. Rather than enjoy the view, however, Gor merely frowned and crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. Hearing Arnor chuckle behind him, the violet-eyed Irken turned around and gave him another glare.

"Oh shut up!" he snapped, before storming out of the room.

Arnor watched his colleague leave, still chuckling slightly. Then, with a grin still on his face, he picked up a remote and set the holo-screen to its TV function – Blood-Sport was on in a few minutes.

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A/N: Well, there's that filler chapter out of the way. I'm thinking there'll be maybe one more before Gor arrives on Earth and the major action begins. Hope you can all wait until then.

Next chapter: Zim and Dib both prepare for Gor's arrival. Meanwhile, Zim gets to have a little fun with his powers.

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