A/N: And with this new chapter of "Evolution", I hereby deliver that which you have all been waiting for – the GESS invasion of the city (and by extension, the planet). Also, a bit of angst on the Zim/Jana front, but that should be expected considering what happened with them last chapter.
Anyway, read on!
Disclaimer: Jana and the GESS are mine. Everything else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.
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Zim's Base, The GESS Lab, An Hour Later
The first GESS that had been awakened had quickly established itself as the alpha of the group; the fact that several other GESS were now sporting slight limps and fresh scars was a tribute to this. Now, it stomped through its fellow living weapons, making its way towards the back of the chamber – they had received fresh orders via the control chips in their brains instructing them to prepare to leave through the tunnel that opened in the chamber's rear. And if the pack was leaving, its alpha had to be in the lead.
Pushing through the last row of GESS, the alpha found itself in front of the rear wall of the chamber, which was quite predictably marked with the Imperial Irken symbol. A nearly invisible line ran straight down the middle, marking where the door would slide open – and a few minutes later, it did just that.
With the rumbling of large gears, the two pieces of the wall moved away from each other, revealing the opening to the tunnel. A few seconds after it had completely opened, new orders were downloaded into the GESS' control chips and translated by the visual cortex into text messages that played across their sight. These messages were simple, in order to make it easy for the basic intelligences reading them to understand:
GO.
KILL THE HUMANS.
"Kill humans," the alpha-GESS repeated in a growl. It then threw its head back with a roar.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!!!" it howled, before throwing itself onto all fours and bounding off down the tunnel. The rest of the GESS echoed the battle cry in a deafening chorus and followed their leader, rushing down the tunnel after him.
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Zim's Base, Main Control Room, Same Time
Far above the departing GESS, their master watched them on his main computer monitor.
"And so it begins," Zim said with a smirk as the last few rows of GESS disappeared down the tunnel, "The beginning of the end of this world. It's beautiful, isn't it Jana?"
Silence answered his question.
"Jana?" he asked, turning around in his chair and finding that he was alone in the room.
"Computer, where's Jana?"
"She left the base a few minutes ago, master," the computer replied in a tone that suggested that it should have been obvious.
Zim blinked in surprise. "She left? What do you mean she left?"
"Just that master. She said she had personal matters to deal with, then she activated her cloaking field; my infrared scanners were able to track her past the base's outer perimeter, but after that I don't know where she went."
Zim sat in confused silence for several moments while he pondered this situation, then realization dawned and he slapped himself in the head.
"Oh, you over-zealous idiot," he muttered, "What are you trying to prove?"
"Sir?"
"It's because of what happened earlier, computer," Zim said with a sigh as he got to his feet, "I can only assume that because of what I said earlier, Jana feels she has to prove her worth to me… and I think I know where she's going in order to do so. I just don't get why she'd suddenly act so irrationally."
"I can think of a good reason," the computer said with a smirk evident in its voice, "but you told me to never mention it again."
Zim flushed in embarrassment as he realized what the computer was talking about. Shaking it off, he walked towards the elevator, grabbing his disguise as he did so. However, just before he reached the elevator he paused, looking down at the wig and contacts in his hand. After a few seconds of thought, he closed his fist around said items and ignited them. A few moments after that, he opened his hand and dropped the ashes of his former disguise to the floor.
"Uh… why'd you do that?" the computer asked as Zim entered the repaired elevator capsule.
"Zim no longer needs to hide from the humans," the mutant Irken said with a grin, "It is time for them to behold the face of their destructor."
With that, the doors of the elevator closed and ascended to the surface… a surface that was even now being thrown into chaos by the GESS.
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Swollen Eyeball Headquarters, Downtown Business District, Several Minutes Earlier
For a secret society, the Swollen Eyeball Network wasn't so secretive about its location. The former corporate building used by the Network's chief agents had a sign out front that clearly stated, "SWOLLEN EYEBALL NETWORK HEADQUARTERS."
On the other hand, there was a smaller sign beneath the first one that read, "IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF US, WE DON'T EXIST. IGNORE THE SIGN, AND FORGET YOU WERE EVER HERE."
Dib ignored the rather idiotic signs as he dashed through the front door and flashed his SEN ID at the large, bulky security guards sitting at the front desk in the building lobby. The guards blinked in surprise, but by the time they had registered what had happened, Dib was already in the elevator. Hitting the button for the top floor, he finally seemed to notice the cuts on his hands; the wounds had mostly stopped bleeding and had begun to scab over, but just to be on the safe side he pulled some bandages out of an emergency packet in his coat pocket and quickly wrapped them around his hands.
Just as he finished, the elevator doors opened. Sprinting out into the hall, Dib quickly came up to the doors leading to the boardroom that the leaders of the SEN used to meet in person. He didn't even bother knocking, but just threw the doors open and ran in. The assembled senior members looked up from their discussions and blinked in surprise as Dib entered, panting heavily.
"Agent Mothman? What are you doing here?" Agent Darkbooty asked from his spot at the head of the shadowed conference table.
"Ten bucks says it's about that green kid he's always yammering about," Agent Disembodied Head muttered to Agent Nessie, who nodded. Dib overheard that, and glared as he finished getting his breath back.
"Yes, it's about Zim, and this is serious! He's got a whole army of genetically engineered monsters, and he's about to release them on the city! We've got to get a defense organized, and fast, if we want to stop him!"
"And do you have proof of your claims for once?" Darkbooty asked, the wrinkles on his aged face creasing as he frowned at the lower-ranking agent. Dib grimaced at that question and began to sheepishly rub the back of his neck, only to stop when he remembered his wounded hands.
"Uh, actually, my recording kinda got destroyed…"
"How convenient," Agent Tuna Ghost sarcastically commented, as she leaned back in her chair and put her booted feet up on the table.
Dib glared at the elder punk-dressed woman. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"All I'm saying is that whenever you try to convince us that this Zim kid is an alien – and that you're not insane – all of your evidence just happens to get lost or destroyed, and we end up having to just take your word for it," Tuna Ghost replied with a shrug, "Remember that meeting you organized a few years ago? You got pretty much the whole Network together for that farce, in order to see all your supposed 'proof' that there was an alien among us – and then when you finally showed up, you were empty-handed!"
"I explained that then and I've explained it a million times since!" Dib snapped, "I lost the briefcase with all my evidence in it while going through my father's security in order to get him to sign the permission slip you guys needed for me to go to that meeting in the first place! Speaking of which, what kind of secret society needs permission slips for its members to attend meetings, anyway? That's just-"
Dib stopped as he realized what he was saying, then he threw his hands up in frustration as he shouted, "How'd you get me off topic like that?! I'm telling you, this city is about to be attacked by the most dangerous creatures I've ever seen, and this is just a start! Once Zim's done here, he'll spread out to the rest of the state, then the country, and then the rest of the planet!"
"Right… And then you take your medication," Nessie quipped, earning chuckles from Tuna Ghost and Disembodied Head. Darkbooty glared at his fellow agents, then turned back to Dib.
"Mothman, you know I've always supported you, out of the belief that you have great potential," the de facto leader of the SEN started, "However, look at it from our perspective. You've been telling us about Zim and his supposed threat for six years – that's over half a decade. And in all that time you have never brought us one shred of substantial evidence. I'm sorry, but we will not commit any Network resources to this without any proof on your part."
Before Dib could even begin to come up with an argument to that statement, the doors to the room were once again flung open; this time, they opened so forcibly that they slammed into the walls. This was so sudden that the occupants of the room jumped and the pigeon perched on Disembodied Head's shoulder flew into the air with an annoyed screech. Turning around, Dib saw that a security guard was the one who had entered the room, and he had apparently run in, since he was red-faced and panting for breath.
"Now what?" Tuna Ghost groaned as she pulled herself back into the chair she'd fallen out of.
"Sorry for the intrusion, ma'am," the guard apologized as he regained his breath, "but you and the others have to see this."
Without explaining what he was talking about, the guard picked a remote off the conference table and pointed it at the back of the room. The shadows there were dispersed as a large plasma-screen TV turned on, filling the room with its glow as the guard switched over to a news channel. The channel was currently showing the view from a floating news drone that was hovering in what appeared to be a higher-end residential district of the city. The otherwise pleasant looking area was currently packed with police cars and crowds of curious bystanders – however, it was what they were surrounding that caught the attention of the Swollen Eyeball agents.
A giant metal tube had burst up through the asphalt in the middle of the street, protruding several feet into the air at a 45-degree angle. The end of the tube was capped by a panel marked with an insignia that, out of all the viewers, only Dib recognized – the Imperial Irken symbol.
The police had cordoned off the area and were apparently trying to get the pedestrians to leave the scene, but that's when there was the hissing sound of atmospheres equalizing, and the panel at the end of the tube slid open, lowering to the ground to act as a crude ramp. For several seconds nothing happened, and one of the present police officers cautiously stepped forward to investigate.
And that was when the alpha-GESS came bounding out of the tube, landing on all fours not five feet away from the officer. Lifting its head, the GESS took a moment to sniff the fresh air and adjust its eyes to the natural light, and then its gaze fell on the man standing in front of it.
"Kill humans!" the alpha shouted, repeating its orders before acting on them; the officer only had a glimpse of its shark-teeth before they sank into his neck.
The crowd burst out in panicked screaming, which increased tenfold moments later when the rest of the GESS began pouring out of the tube. Just as the police began opening fire, the TV screen went to static. Darkbooty and the other senior agents turned, almost comically slow, to look at Dib, who looked both horrified and justified at the same time.
"Is that enough 'proof' for you?" he practically spat at Darkbooty as he regained his composure.
"That footage was taken three minutes ago," the guard said, apparently unaware of the argument that had been occurring prior to his arrival, "Those… things are already spreading out of that area of the city. The police forces are having no luck in slowing them down."
A shocked silence filled the room as the agents registered that, but then Dib's eyes widened as he realized something else. Spinning around, he grabbed the larger man by the collar and pulled him down so they were face-to-face. The guard blinked in surprise, and then Dib started shaking him.
"Where was that happening, exactly?" he asked, "Where?!"
"Uh, uptown," the guard said, "East side, around Fifth and Sixty-Second."
Dib let go of the guard, and then pushed him out of the way as he moved towards the door.
"Hey, where're you going?!" Disembodied Head called after him.
"My house is only a couple of miles from where that happened," Dib said as he walked out of the room, "My father's probably still at his lab, but my sister's home by herself, and I've got to make sure she's safe."
"You can't leave!" Tuna Ghost shouted after him, "You're the only one who knows what's going on and how to fight back!"
"Oh, so now you notice!" Dib spat over his shoulder as he entered the elevator.
For a few moments there was silence, then Nessie turned to Tuna Ghost and said, "You know, he's got a point. You've never been real supportive of him."
"Me?!" Tuna Ghost shouted indignantly, "What about you?! You said, not five minutes ago, that he should be medicated!"
"Yeah, and you implied that he was insane. At least I was completely forthcoming about my opinion, you punk bi-"
"Enough, both of you!" Darkbooty shouted, "Mothman was right, we need to act now! Contact all agents and tell them we have a code red, tell R&D we need those energy weapons they've been working on for the past few months, tell our contacts in the military and National Guard that we need reinforcements ASAP, and tell the Laundromat to be on standby!
"This is it people! What the Network's been preparing for, ever since it was founded back in '47. Time to show what we're made of!"
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Upper East Side, GESS Invasion Ground Zero, Same Time
Officer Pambrey pumped his shotgun from behind the cover of his police cruiser, before jumping to his feet and unloading the weapon into the GESS heading right towards him. The genetic chimera stumbled slightly, but its tough hide either deflected or absorbed the buckshot that slammed into it, and it kept coming. Pambrey jumped out of the way just as the GESS lowered its head and charged into his car.
The ram horns tilted the car back onto two wheels, and the GESS followed up on that by grabbing the undercarriage and completely flipping the car over. The GESS then turned around to face Pambrey, who was attempting to get back on his feet. The GESS wasn't going to give him a chance to do so; but just as it prepared to jump at him, a group of SWAT troopers noticed it and opened fire from their position down the block. The GESS howled in pain as the large amount of rapidly fired projectiles from their submachine guns slammed into it.
A few of the bullets managed to penetrate the rhino hide, and the GESS gave a final shriek as several of its organs were shredded, then it collapsed to the ground. Pambrey turned to shout a thanks to the SWAT team – just in time to watch a group of GESS overrun their position. Pambrey shut his eyes and looked away as they were torn apart limb-by-limb.
"What the hell are these things?" he muttered as he quickly began searching his overturned car for any other weapon he could make use of. Unfortunately, he was out of shotgun shells, leaving him armed only with his service pistol and an emergency flare gun he found in the trunk.
"Damn, could this get any worse?" he hissed. He got his answer a moment later, when the car thumped from an impact. Looking up, Pambrey's eyes widened at the sight of the alpha-GESS perched atop his overturned vehicle. It looked at him, turning its head slightly so as to also look at its fallen comrade. It then turned back to fully face Pambrey, baring its teeth in a snarl.
With a mighty roar, the alpha-GESS ran forward to throw itself at the officer, who acted on instinct and fired the weapon in his hand, which happened to be the flare gun. The flare shot forward and slammed into the alpha's face just as it jumped off the car, causing it to shriek in pain and slam into the ground several feet away from its target. As it attempted to beat out the flames that were consuming its face, Pambrey decided to take the opportunity presented to him. Quickly pulling out his pistol, he got as close as he dared to the wounded monster and aimed at its nearly extinguished head, ignoring the high-pitched whine that it seemed to releasing along with its howl of pain.
However, just as he was about to shoot, the GESS's ears twitched, and it suddenly lashed out with one of its clawed hands. Despite the fact that it couldn't possibly see him, it struck Pambrey directly in the throat, sending him flying back into his own car. Pambrey clutched at his torn throat, attempting to stop the flow of blood, but it was futile.
The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was the blackened face of the alpha-GESS, its ruined eyes staring back at him. And then he was gone.
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Neighborhood Of The Membrane Household, Same Time
Dib, panting for breath and with a stitch in his side, steadied himself against a lamppost as he came up to his street. The area looked mostly untouched, filling Dib with relief… until he got to his house.
Dib's face paled as he saw that the front door had been broken down, and the part still attached to its hinges was splintered by claw marks. Just as he began to run forward, there was a howl from inside and a blood-covered GESS came flying out of the door to land on the doorstep. Dib stopped short and started thinking of ways to defend himself, when he noticed that most of the blood covering the GESS seemed to be coming from wounds on its body. The GESS also didn't seem to notice Dib; instead, it looked over its shoulder back into the house. Whatever it saw must have scared it, because it howled again and started trying to crawl away, only for something to grab it and drag it back into the house.
For a few moments, Dib cringed as he listened to the sounds of the GESS experiencing a painful death. Having a pretty good idea of what was causing it, Dib waited until the sounds died down before entering the house. As he thought, Gaz calmly sat on the couch, surrounded by several dead GESS and her security dolls, which were covered in gore.
"Uh… are you alright?" Dib asked, stepping over one of the still-twitching GESS to get as close to his sister as the dolls would let him.
"Let me guess," Gaz asked, without answering Dib's question, "Zim's got something to do with the dead freaks on the floor, right?"
"Yeah, and he's got a whole army of them running loose in the city. I seriously think this time he might actually win, and – hey! Where are you going?"
As Dib had begun to rant, Gaz had grabbed her coat and GameSlave, and was now heading out the door with her dolls following. When Dib asked his question, Gaz turned around and gave her brother a dull look.
"Where else? Dad's main lab has that bunker in the basement; if that green idiot's finally come up with a plan that works, that's probably the safest place in the city to be."
"Good idea," Dib said, heading towards the basement stairs, "I'm going to grab some stuff from his home lab, and then we can going. Maybe Dad and I can…"
Dib trailed off as he glanced over his shoulder and saw that Gaz had already left.
"Of course," he muttered, before heading down the stairs. Once in his father's home lab, he grabbed a box and started stuffing it with any and all equipment that looked like it might come in handy. He then hurried back up the stairs, but halfway up he froze as a familiar burning sensation appeared on the side of his face.
"Oh, no."
"Oh, yes," Jana's voice responded, before her invisible fist slammed into his chin.
The box of equipment fell out of Dib's hands as he went flying down the stairs and landed in a heap. He quickly attempted to get back to his feet, but Jana brought her foot down on his chest, pinning him in place. As Dib tried to pry her off of him, she de-cloaked, and he blinked in surprise as he got a good look at her.
Jana's normally calm demeanor seemed to have disappeared; she was shaking with pent-up emotion, and the edges of her eyes were puffy, as if she had been crying. In fact, Dib could faintly make out a pair of trail marks down her cheeks, still glistening slightly.
"I'm going to make you suffer," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "I've done everything my master has ever asked of me, without even hesitating… and now he hates me. He hates me, and it's all because of you! And for that, human, you will PAY!!!"
With that, Jana pulled out her energy sword and ignited it. And then, with a savage cry, she brought it down, aimed right at Dib's head…
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A/N: Hope you all like the cliffhanger, and the GESS invasion scenes – I wanted to put more detail into them, but I had trouble with that, so I hope I put in enough. Also, what did everyone think of my interpretation of the SEN?
Next chapter: Zim intervenes in Jana's assassination attempt… so that he can pull it off himself.
Read, review, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!