A/N: And here's the next chapter of "Evolution". Like I said last chapter, this will probably be the last filler before Gor arrives on Earth. So, I'm taking an opportunity to have a bit of fun here, before the major action starts. Hope you all enjoy.
Read on!
Disclaimer: The GESS and all non-canon characters belong to me. Everyone else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.
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The High Skool, Two Days Later
Zim took a deep breath to calm himself and focus his mind, before walking up the stairs and through the building's main entrance; after another two days of training, he was now certain that he had enough control of his telepathy that he could be in crowds without their thoughts overpowering him. And this was the perfect way to prove it.
Pushing open the doors, Zim braced himself as the thoughts of his fellow students filled his head with the familiar white noise. Before any of the thoughts could become coherent, however, Zim pushed back against them, reducing the noise to a buzzing at the edges of his mind.
Grinning slightly at his success, Zim made his way to his locker and quickly grabbed what books he would need for the day – at least, he thought he did. Considering he never really paid that much attention to any of his classes anyway, it didn't really matter which books he took with him, so he never bothered to check.
Shutting the locker door, Zim turned to see Dib closing his own locker down the hall. Dib looked up from the books he had just pulled out, and locked eyes with Zim. It only lasted a moment, but during that moment the Irken noticed something unexpected flash through Dib's eyes.
Fear.
Zim blinked in surprise as he watched his nemesis turn and quickly walk off down the hall. He had never seen Dib truly afraid before… well, not when he wasn't trapped in one of Zim's more ingenious plots, anyway. The organ harvesting and "Room With A Moose" incidents came to mind for that example, but right now the two of them were just in the Skool.
'Could he just be nervous about Jana and the GESS?' Zim thought, 'But no, that doesn't make sense. He wasn't this afraid of Jana before, and he doesn't know exactly what the GESS are, so what is he afraid of?'
Something didn't add up here, and Zim was going to figure it out. Calling upon his new speed, he nearly sprinted after Dib, being careful not to move too quickly and draw attention to himself. A few moments later he had caught up with Dib, and stepped in front of him just as he was about to round a corner. Yelping in surprise, the young human jumped and almost fell to the floor, but quickly composed himself.
"Well now, is it just my imagination or are you a little jumpy today?" Zim asked, lips curling up into a smirk.
Dib glared at his enemy in response, though Zim still saw a slight flicker of fear in his brown eyes.
"Jumpy?" Dib asked, a slight tremor in his voice. He attempted to laugh it off, but the laugh came out more like a croak. "Why would I be jumpy around you, Zim?"
Zim's smirk grew, and he let out a chuckle. "I never said you were jumpy around me, Dib. I just said that you were jumpy in general."
Dib grimaced as he realized his slipup. Before he could come up with an excuse, Zim leaned forward and looked him straight in the eye, the smirk having turned into a frown.
"Don't bother trying to lie to me, Dib-Monkey. I am a trained soldier; I know how to read my enemies. And you are afraid of me or something related to me."
At this point, Zim leaned back, his smirk returning.
"So please, don't be shy. Tell Zim what amazing feat of his has you so rattled."
Dib glared again as he asked, "Anyone ever tell you that your ego is the size of a gas giant?"
Zim returned the glare, but before the conversation/argument could continue, the bell rang for the next class. Glaring at each other for a few moments longer, the two mortal enemies grabbed their books and walked off to their respective first-period classes – though Zim did glance over his shoulder and direct a small telekinetic blast at Dib's legs, causing him to fall to the floor and scatter his books.
As Dib tried to figure out what had just happened to him, Zim laughed quietly to himself and ran off.
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The High Skool Cafeteria, A Few Hours Later
Zim used his plastic fork to poke the food on his tray that the Skool's food service drones had said was "mashed potatoes". Now, Zim was still far from an expert on Earth food, but he was fairly certain that potatoes weren't supposed to move even before they were mashed, let alone after. So why they were squirming now was completely beyond him.
Deciding to tread on the cautious side, Zim slid the tray away and turned his attention to elsewhere in the room. Dib sat at his usual spot, also prodding his food for signs of life. His sister sat next to him, not even bothering with the food before her and just playing her latest version of the GameSlave. While this was how the Membrane siblings usually looked during the lunch period, Dib seemed to be poking his food a little more listlessly than usual. His mind appeared to be elsewhere, and Zim had a feeling that it was important for him to know just what it was that his enemy was thinking.
'I wonder,' Zim thought absently, 'I know that I can tune out the thoughts of all around me, or hear them all at once. Perhaps if I can focus hard enough, I can pick the thoughts of one person out from a crowd?'
The telepathic Irken considered that for a few moments, before an evil grin appeared on his face.
'What am I saying? Of course I can. I am Zim – nothing is beyond my reach!'
Looking directly at Dib, Zim narrowed his eyes and focused. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then the buzzing in Zim's mind built up again, the mental voices of the humans surrounding him shouting in his head for several unbearable seconds, before suddenly they all died down.
All but one.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid,' Dib was thinking – and judging by how tired his mental voice sounded, he'd been saying this to himself for a while.
'I can't let Zim know what it is that I'm afraid of. If he knows that I've found out what the GESS are – that he plans on unleashing an army of monsters – then he'll know that I've found a way to get through his security system. Then he'll destroy my spy cameras and I won't be able to keep an eye on him – and now is definitely NOT the time to not be able to see what Zim is planning. If I don't know what his strategy is for the GESS, I won't be able to plan a defense against them.'
By this point, Zim was gripping his fork so tightly it was biting into his gloved hands. He couldn't believe it – how in the name of Irk had Dib beaten his security systems? His computer had been installed with a Vortian-designed Electronic Security Field, the most advanced digital security system on the galactic market. It blocked all hacks and produced a jamming frequency that disabled all spying devices; it was supposed to be impenetrable… so how had Dib beaten it?
Before he could ponder it any more, more of Dib's thoughts made their way over to him.
'Oh, c'mon, what am I thinking? I'm Earth's only hope; I've got to stay positive. I've just got to get the recording to the leader of this inspection team that's coming. Once they see that Zim's planning on killing his own leaders, they'll deal with him. Hey, maybe they'll at least let me keep some of his lab stuff…'
SNAP!
The fork in Zim's hands was snapped in half as he was suddenly gripped by rage and a small but noticeable amount of fear.
'He knows,' Zim thought with snarl, as he pushed Dib's now rambling thoughts out of his head, 'He knows what I plan to do, and worse, he has proof. I don't know how much of what I said or when I said it that he's managed to record, but I cannot let him show any of it to the inspection team. Obviously I can take them if they try to apprehend me, but if the Tallest never hear from them again, they'll know I had something to do with it – I need them to lower their guards in order to kill them, damn it, not go on red alert. I need that recording destroyed!'
Jumping to his feet, Zim quickly strode out of the cafeteria, ignoring the cautious but inquisitive look Dib gave him as he left. Once in the hallway, Zim made his way to the nearest men's bathroom, and made sure it was completely empty. Once confirming that it was, he then locked himself in one of the stalls and activated the communicator in his PAK. Setting it to the frequency used by Jana's PAK, he was about to make a call when he suddenly paused.
He and Jana hadn't spoken to each other since the rather awkward-ending training session from two days previous. That was mostly Zim's fault – though he would never admit it, he had been rather embarrassed by the whole incident, and the computer's comments to him afterwards hadn't helped any. The truth was, he had never been that close to any female of his own species before, least of all one of Jana's caliber. She was unquestionably loyal, brilliant, an amazing fighter, and as for her physical attributes…
'Well, it's not like she's not attractive,' Zim mused, 'She is. One might even go so far as to say "beautiful". Those bright eyes, her lithe form, the way her antennae are curved only slightly instead of being all bunched up like Tak's were…'
The militantly trained part of Zim's mind mentally slapped the part that was currently fantasizing – an act that actually hurts when one has telepathic powers.
'Focus you idiot!' he screamed at himself, 'You don't have time for this! There is a threat to your power, one that you must eliminate now!'
Shaking himself off and swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, Zim activated the communicator.
"Zim to Jana," he spoke into the mouthpiece, "Come in."
There was silence for a few moments, before Jana's voice came through the communicator.
"Yes, milord?"
"I have a mission for you," Zim said, his voice hardening as he thought of what he needed his loyal servant for, "Dib somehow has found a way to breach the base security systems and spy on us."
"What?! But how? The Electronic Security Field-"
"Is apparently useless. I just read the Dib-Stink's mind; he knows exactly what the GESS are, he knows that we are planning to assassinate the Tallest, and worst of all, he has a recording of me admitting to it!"
"Etchuta!"
Zim blinked in surprise. He'd never heard Jana curse before; she was usually very calm and collected, rarely if ever showing anger. She must have been just as worried about this sudden turn of events as Zim himself was. Snapping out of his shock, he went back to giving orders.
"Head to Dib's house and destroy that recording. Don't report back until you have. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. It shall be done."
The communicator went dead as Jana hung up. Zim quickly retracted it back into his PAK and made his way towards the bathroom door. Just before he could open it, however, it slammed open and hit him right where his nose would be if he were human. Grunting in pain, the Irken clutched his face, where a small cut had been opened by the force of the impact. Glaring at the offending door, Zim felt his temper rise as Torque waltzed through, apparently not caring that he had just injured a fellow student.
"Move it, freak," Torque said, pushing Zim aside and heading towards one of the stalls. Zim watched him enter, glaring the whole time, before he began wiping the blood away from his wound… and paused as he realized that the wound had healed up completely.
'Strange,' he thought, 'My PAK shouldn't have healed it that fast. Perhaps this is a new ability?'
He thought it over for a few moments, and decided to have the computer run a few more tests when he got back to the base. But first…
"No reason not to have a little fun," he muttered to himself with a grin. Closing the bathroom door completely, he locked it and then leaned against it, waiting for Torque to get out of the stall.
A few minutes later, the jock emerged from the stall, showing no sign of noticing Zim glaring at him. It was only after he was in the middle of washing his hands that Torque glanced up and saw Zim in the mirror.
"You still here?" he asked, "Beat it ya shrimp, before I knock your lights out."
"You know, Smacky," Zim said casually, not moving from his spot against the door, "I've been – what's the expression? Ah, yes – taking your crap, for a long time now. While the Dib-Monkey has been the biggest irritant in my life, you've run a close second, with your constant insults and occasional beatings. It's gotten to be quite annoying."
"Blah, blah, go cry about it," Torque sneered, "Now out of the way loser. I still have a few minutes to smoke outside before lunch ends."
Torque made his way towards the door, but Zim didn't move. Torque raised an eyebrow at that, but then cracked his knuckles.
"Well, I guess this is as good a way as any to vent my anger over that last F I got. Come here ya freak!"
Torque aimed a punch at Zim's head, but the Invader merely held up a hand and froze his attacker in place. Torque blinked in surprise, but before he could say anything Zim gestured with his fingers and sent the jock flying backwards. He hit the mirror hard, cracking it and eliciting a sharp yell of pain from the human.
"What the f-gah!" Torque started to exclaim, before Zim clenched his hand into a fist and began remotely crushing Torque's throat.
"Oh don't worry, Smacky," Zim said as he raised his other hand, which became engulfed in flames, "This will only hurt a lot."
Torque's choked screams were quickly drowned out by Zim's maniacal laughter as the mutant Irken went to work.
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The Membrane Household, A Little While Later
Jana cursed under her breath as she searched through file after file on Dib's primitive computer. She'd been looking ever since she had broken into the house and made her way to Dib's room, and she had yet to find any sign of any recording.
"Where is it?" she hissed to herself, "Where did you hide it, you filthy little monkey?"
When her tenth complete look through every last byte of the computer's memory once again came up empty, the Shadow let out a scream of frustration, then picked up the computer itself and threw it against the wall. The machine smashed to pieces and fell to the floor, sparking for several seconds before going completely dead. Jana barely noticed, as she had begun tearing up the rest of the room.
'He must have downloaded the footage onto a disc and hidden it,' she thought, 'It must be in here somewhere.'
She began ripping drawers out of the desk the computer had been sitting on, and when that didn't reveal anything she took out her energy sword and began hacking the desk itself apart. When she still couldn't find anything, she stalked over to the dresser and repeated the process. When this also had no positive results, Jana yanked open the closet and began flinging out clothes and boxes of disused objects.
Still nothing.
"Grr, how hard is it to find one fragging disc?!" Jana snarled, tugging at her antennae in frustration. She had to find this recording; she could not let her master down. Not this time, when her failure meant leaving Zim's plans vulnerable to exposure.
Still trembling with anger, Jana grabbed the edge of the bed and flipped it over, sending it crashing to the ground. Just as she was about to leave to check the rest of the house, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. On the bottom of the overturned mattress, near one of the corners, was a lump… a lump just about the shape and size of an average computer disc.
"Clever little monkey," Jana said with a grin, "but not quite clever enough."
With a quick slash of a spider leg, the mattress was ripped open and Jana removed the disc. She held the disc in both hands, and took a moment to look at it, pondering over how such a simple object could be such a nuisance, and then with a simple flick of her wrists snapped it in half.
She then took a moment to look around the room that she had just trashed; scattered amongst the clothing and debris were old files Dib had stored about Zim, including pictures, notes, and diagrams of various Irken technologies. Why he had all this evidence just lying around, Jana had no idea – perhaps he'd tried showing it to other humans and they hadn't believed him, or maybe he was stockpiling it for one huge attempt at exposure. Jana didn't know, but whatever the reason, she couldn't afford to just leave all this evidence intact.
Grabbing a trash bin from the corner of the room, Jana began collecting the files and dumping them in. And just for good measure, she dropped the pieces of the disc in as well. She then set it in the middle of the room and reached into one of her bodysuit's subspace pockets, pulling out a palm-sized capsule. Opening it, she poured a small amount of dark fluid into the trash bin, making sure to soak as many of the files as she could, before closing the capsule and returning it to her pocket. She then reactivated her energy sword, and after lifting it in mock salute touched its tip to the contents of the trash bin, which promptly burst into flames.
Jana deactivated the sword and put it back on her belt, then took a few moments to watch the flames. After making sure that everything was burning completely, she turned on her heel and walked out the door, activating the communicator in her PAK as she did so.
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The High Skool, Same Time
Zim carefully peered out at the hallway through the cracked-open doorway, and when he was sure that it was empty he casually stepped out, letting the door close behind him. He highly doubted anyone would find what was left of Torque anytime soon – Zim had flushed the smaller pieces down the toilet, and had stuffed the larger ones in a trashcan. It had been quite exhilarating, actually; how long had it been since he had killed an enemy with his bare hands? Not since basic training, and that had been most of a century ago. The nostalgia, combined with the possibilities presented by his new powers, had made the kill truly enjoyable.
'Can't wait to try some of those techniques on the Dib,' Zim thought with a smirk, 'But, I suppose I should wait until the GESS are unleashed first… don't want to draw any attention to myself before then.'
He was pulled from his musings when his PAK extended its communicator, which was beeping. Quickly checking that the hallway was still empty, he grabbed the communicator and activated it.
"Yes?" he asked.
"It is done, master," Jana's voice answered, "I have destroyed the recording, as well as the human's computer and all his hardcopy files on you. The mission is secure."
"Excellent," Zim said, his earlier smirk widening into a full grin, "I don't suppose in the process you found out how the stink beast breached the ESF in the first place?"
"I'm afraid not, milord. I turned the house upside down looking, but all I found were the remains of that Spittle Runner I destroyed. There is no way that could have helped him at all."
Zim scowled, before saying, "No matter. We'll simply have to settle for destroying his spy cameras."
He paused for a moment, and then a genuine smile crossed his face.
"You've done well, my dear. I'll see you back at base."
Zim hung up and began walking towards his next class, then stopped dead in his tracks as he realized something.
"Did I just call her 'my dear'?" he asked out loud, cheeks darkening.
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The Membrane Household, A Few Hours Later
Dib stared wide-eyed at the destruction visited upon his bedroom. His computer was smashed, his furniture was in pieces, his clothing and personal belongings were scattered around the room, and a trash bin was sitting in the middle of the room, burned black and filled with ashes. Carefully shifting through the ashes – after making sure that the flames were completely out – Dib confirmed his suspicions when he pulled out what could clearly be seen to be a mostly destroyed half of a computer disc.
"Jana," he muttered under his breath – he couldn't think of anyone else who could have done this much damage. And he had a pretty good idea of why, too.
"How the hell did she and Zim know about the recording?" he asked as he dropped the remains of the disc back into the trash bin.
Dib was pretty upset about what had happened to his room – he'd probably be sleeping on the living room sofa for a while – but he probably would have been even more upset if he hadn't taken precautions for something like this. In addition to the main copy of the disc hidden here in the house, he had also made a second copy, which he kept with his laptop aboard the escape pod, which he had moved to an old warehouse formerly used by his father's labs before it had been abandoned. There was no way he was going to leave his one sure shot of stopping Zim or his only viable piece of alien technology vulnerable to destruction, like he had with Tak's ship.
So he still had a chance of exposing Zim's conspiracy to kill the Tallest to the inspection team (and by extension, stopping his attempts to take over the planet); but that still left him with the problem he had brought up earlier:
How had Zim and Jana known about the recording?
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A/N: Well, that about covers everything I needed to before Gor's arrival. I know Zim seems to be more vicious now than in the past, but I figure between the new chemicals in his bloodstream affecting his brain, and his previous psychosis, of course he's going to be different now. Hope it didn't scare any of you off.
Next chapter: Gor arrives… and the GESS awaken.
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