Tak smiled a sweet grin that had no place on her face. "I'm here to destroy you," she snapped, shoving her gun further into Zim's back.
"Wait!" Skooge squeaked. "W-what are you doing?"
"Stay out of this!" Both Zim and Tak yelled at the poor Irken.
Skooge backed up and watched the small drama unfold before him with wide eyes. His hands shook and he felt his mouth go dry but he dared not take a step forward for fear of his own life.
Tak took in a deep breath but did not talk. She did not waste words on stupid people. She merely began to squeeze the trigger slowly, savoring the moment that she had.
Suddenly, the Titan's jet came out of nowhere and began to land nearby. Tak glanced over for a split second, but that was all Zim needed. Fool he may be, but he was still a soldier and his Pak still knew how to react in a life and death situation.
As soon as Tak glanced, Zim ducked low and shoved his body weight backwards into Tak's left side where she wasn't holding the gun. She glanced down in surprise at being caught off guard and cursed herself loudly as Zim grabbed her right wrist and held it high above his head. "Gonna shoot?" he asked, grinning.
"You!" Tak squealed, turning a dark green and deploying her spider legs from her Pak. She pushed them against the ground and shot herself up, like a rocket, wrenching herself from Zim's grip and flying over his head. While she was in the air, she took careful aim and began to fire down on Zim.
Zim was quick enough to deploy his own spider legs and create a force field around himself. The shots from Tak's gun bounced off the shield and ricocheted into the surrounding area, forcing Gir and Skooge to duck in cover.
Tak landed neatly on the other side of Zim and propelled herself into the nearest tree, turned around and began to shoot at Zim again from her vantage point. In retaliation Zim propelled himself into the tree next to hers with his force field still up.
For a second Tak paused in order to get a better grip on the tree with her spider legs and Zim took the opening. He pulled out his own gun from its holder and went on the offensive, shooting at Tak through his force field.
Meanwhile, the Titans were getting out of their jet and running towards the grove in order to see what was wrong. They saw a taller, purple Irken and Zim shooting at each other with what looked like laser guns and a small, short Irken with large red eyes looking at the battle with his hands covering his mouth.
Starfire flew over to comfort the Irken, feeling a tiny bit of compassion for the creature that displayed his emotions so freely. "Are you all right?" she asked him.
He whirled around and stared at Starfire, took a few deep breaths then nodded. Finally he pointed at the battle and squeaked out, "Tak's trying to kill Zim!"
"Who is trying to do what now?" Beast Boy asked as he cocked his head to one side.
The short Irken gave them an odd glance, as if he was about to ask a question, then apparently decided against it. Instead he turned and pointed to the purple Irken who was still trying to blow Zim's head off with her laser gun. "Tak," he said slowly. "Is trying to kill Zim," he said while swinging his hand over to point to Zim who was trying just as hard to kill Tak.
"Well that is messed up," Beast Boy said slowly while watching the battle in the corner of his eye.
Robin turned to face the round Irken head on. "Why?" he asked him.
He shrugged and shook his head, glancing up at the battle, frowning. "I don't know," he said quietly. "I was just sent here to check up on Zim. I never thought it would turn out like this."
There was a long pause as everyone listened to the sound of gunfire over their heads. Finally Raven asked, "Who are you?"
The small Irken gave them a wan grin and pointed to himself. "My name is Skooge. Invader Skooge, I'm the conqueror of Blorch and…" Skooge smiled sheepishly, "I'm Zim's smeet mate. I was born right after he was and have been in all classes with him since."
"A friend?" Starfire asked.
"If Irkens can have them," Skooge muttered as he turned to face the battle. "Maybe."
The Titans fell silent and then exchanged glances, everyone asking the same silent question. Should they interfere or not?
Tak swore loudly as her weapon ran out of energy and stopped firing. She heard Zim laughing like a maniac and quickly jumped out of the way as he jumped over to her tree. Zim stood on the branch above her, grinning and pointing his gun down at her, ready to blow her force field to bits if need be. Tak shrank away from the weapon as Zim pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
Zim's eyes grew large and he began to pull the trigger again and again, each attempted firing growing more and more frantic. He hissed something in Irken that only Tak caught and jumped out of the way as Tak swiped at him with a spider leg.
"You low rate solider!" she snarled. "You have no right to call yourself an Irken elite!"
Zim snorted and threw his gun down. He pushed himself to where she was perched and blocked her attack with his own spider leg. "I don't," he said in a low, angry voice.
Tak laughed a high pitched laugh that sent shivers down everyone's spines. Then she stepped forward and sent all four of the leg attachments at Zim's head, forcing Zim to roll over in order to dodge. Zim fell off the branch and landed none too gracefully on the branch below as Tak stood over him, grinning her sadistic smile. "Oh please," she said. "You've been given Invader status again. My Tallest don't just hand that out like candy. Trust me, I know. You wouldn't have that title if you didn't care, so don't play the pity game with me!" she roared as she jumped onto the branch below, trying to pin Zim under the leg attachments.
Zim was on his back, looking up at Tak as she gave her little speech. As she jumped down, he quickly used his arms and scuttled out of the way of her attack just as she landed on the branch. He glared at her and stood up, sinking into a battle position. "I didn't do anything!" he shouted. "I thought I was an Invader up until I was summoned to my Tallest and so I would have no reason to even try what you just said. Your story of stupid is dumb and makes no SENSE at ALL. Maybe you should SHUT your idiotic NOISE TUBE and don't SAY things you don't know about!"
Tak rolled her eyes and tried to sweep Zim's feet out from under him. The smaller Irken jumped out of the way and onto a higher, sturdier branch. The two gave up on talking as they sank into the heat of the battle. Tak jumped up and let the top two spider legs glow with the laser attachment. She began to swing them around her head in wide arcs in order to keep Zim from attacking her from above.
Zim jumped out of the way, hissing as one of the lasers grazed his arm and cut through the skin, leaving a long, shallow scratch. Zim covered it with his hand, but dark green blood could still be seen oozing between his fingertips. Zim winced but held out his own spider legs in the force field position as Tak came at him.
Tak jumped at him with her legs held out like spears. Zim dodged several thrusts but caught another blow on his shoulder. He gasped as me took a misstep and fell down several boughs, landing a good 15 feet below Tak, stomach first on a small branch. He coughed and gasped for breath as he scrambled onto the branch, wincing in pain and shaking his head vigorously. Tak snorted and jumped down to Zim's level, landing gracefully on the branch and continuing her attack in the same way. She thrust her lasers at Zim's head and chest, trying to impale him on the ends of the sharpened weapons. Zim quickly dodged as much as he could and finally saw an opening and caught one of the arms in his hand.
Tak growled and tried to pull out of it but Zim was too quick. He pulled her towards him and ran forward, pushing her up and off the branch. Then he jumped upwards so that he was directly over her and began to fire his laser attachments down at her.
Tak swore and brought up her own force field in order to protect her body from the hail of lasers. She winced as the projectiles of energy slammed into the shield, making it weaker and weaker and finally she was forced to let it down and take a few hits in order to get to a better position. She hissed as several of the laser shots hit her arms, legs and torso but she noted with pleasure that the damage wasn't too severe.
She jumped up several feet and fired two warning shots at Zim, trying to get him to overreact to something. He wouldn't and instead turned and began to fire back, trying to get a few more hits in before jumping to another tree entirely.
Tak followed him and did her best to land on a branch above Zim's. When she was above him, she began to fire down at him, and finally succeeded in knocking him off balance. Zim fell sideways and Tak jumped down to where he was in order to get a better shot. Zim grinned and deployed two spider legs and stuck them on the branch next to him. He pulled and gained back some balance, then used his other spider leg that glowed with the laser edge and thrust it at Tak. Tak turned sharply but the leg went clean through her shoulder.
She cried out in pain and glared at Zim with fury in her eyes. Then she used her own leg to stab blindly at Zim. Zim jumped out of the way and tried to make it to a higher branch but not before Tak managed to stab Zim in the leg. The momentum of the jump caused Tak's spider leg to drag through the pierce it made in Zim's leg and caused the Irken obvious pain. Zim scrambled onto the branch and panted, holding his leg and glaring at Tak who was holding her shoulder and grinning wickedly.
Starfire had about as much as she could take and got ready to go help Zim. Robin reached out and grabbed her wrist in order to keep her from taking off. Starfire turned to Robin, her eyes wide and her breath shaky. "Why?" she asked.
"He's fighting, Star," Robin said quietly. "And he's fighting another Irken. Not only is this probably something of an interracial problem we shouldn't get mixed up in, it's also Zim's fight. He wants to battle. Look at him," Robin said, pointing. "He's smiling."
Starfire looked up and saw that the small Irken was indeed smiling. He was enjoying every minute of his fight and even though he was loosing, it appeared that he had no intention of giving in.
She knew that Zim was going to fight to the death.
Heh, okay now THIS is an action scene. May not be IC but damn if I can't write action. I dunno if it went on for too long but the battle will end next chapter. Enjoy the fighting doom of Tak. I go to bed now, love and cookies to you all!