Author's Note: I admit, that last chapter was kinda useless. Sorry about that. I'm not professional at this kind of thing. And even if I were, I think I'd still make plenty of mistakes.
I am shit tired but I'm gonna write anyway because I want to get this story going along again.
Zim is not mine. That's why I killed him off. Muahaha!
Flamers shall meet the same fate.
=== DOOM ===
A shrill wailing sound wakes me from my deep, dreamless sleep. Thinking absently that it's my alarm clock, I slap it. The sound doesn't go away, and I remember that my alarm beeps instead of wails. It's a siren. Not a police siren, either; the sound doesn't have the generally fast-paced whirring-like wailing of an emergency vehicle. It reminds me of the sirens from that movie about the giant tornados.
My clock tells me that it's two in the afternoon. I don't remember how I got into my room. It must have been complete luck that no one noticed or woke up as I somehow snuck in, delirious with shock and exhaustion. I must have made a ton of noise.
Someone bangs on the door. "Tia, let's go!" says Dad's urgent voice. I hop out of bed immediately and throw on my shoes, still in my black pants and hoodie from last night.
"Coming!" I call back, grabbing my laptop and running out the door. Dad and I rush to the van and I manage to squeeze in with my siblings. Raemi, who's terrified, insists on sitting on my lap. Nobody argues when she climbs up and holds onto me for dear life.
Dad drives to the city through heay traffic, and eventually he gets all of us out of the van when five minutes pass and we haven't moved. I carry Raemi, leaving my laptop on my seat, and all seven of us follow other citizens, who are heading towards the City Hall.
Surrounding the hall is a huge crowd. Possibly every single person in this backwater city has migrated here. There is a giant screen attached above the sign that says what the building is, and it's blank for now. Dad manages to find us a place in the crowd that is somewhat near the great stone building, so we can see the steps and the podium that the mayor will no doubt speak at.
We don't wait for very long when the sirens cease and the mayor approaches the podium. He's a stout, fat man with a big gray mustache and small feet. He coughs to the side and the screen turns on, an image of the mayor spreading across it. "Hello, my dear citizens," he says into the microphone. "It's come to our attention that a great threat has been made against America. The president has issued mashal law on the entire country, and such he has given me as well as every mayor the requirements for said mashal law."
Murmurs of awe and fear ripple through the crowd. My siblings each turn to one of my parents and hug them tightly. Raemi tightens her grip on my neck slightly, burying her nose in my shoulder. "What's marshal law?" she asks me in my ear.
"It's like house rules, only everyone had to obey them," I explain in a whisper. "It's for emergencies."
"What's the threat?" calls a man from behind us. A few other people add to his question, and shouted demands of information raise up into the air. The mayor waves his hands and urges the crowd to calm down.
"It is a matter of national security and the actual threat hasn't been disclosed to us as of yet," he says into the microphone, his voice booming over the crowd. He wipes his brow with a hankerchief, and I can see on the giant screen that he's sweating like crazy. He must be under some severe stress, since for summer it's not that hot out.
People to my right make angry outbursts and shouts of pain. A flash of purple hair and a lightning bolt catch the corner of my eye. "Tia!" calls Dib's voice.
I turn and see Dib and Gaz pushing their way through the crowd to be at my side. I call their names and urge them to come to me. Raemi lifts her head and waves at my friends. They come closer, and I can see that even Gaz has a look of worry in her normally pinched eyes.
"What's wro-" I start to say, but I'm cut off by cries that erupt from nearby people. Someone points to the screen, and I look to it in curiosity.
The entirety of it is black, with the exception of glowing, bloody red eyes glaring at us from the electronic screen. "Humans," says a mechanical voice I vaguely recognize, "today, your world will end. I have destroyed your capital, your leader and soon I will destroy your planet. Your only hope for survival is to surrender and become slaves to the Irken empire. If you do not comply, you will be burned with the Earth. You have an hour to give me your surrenders."
The screen goes to static, and something that I can only guess is the Irken symbol blinks into the foreground of the blizzard. I turn my bewildered stare to Dib and Gaz. I meet the boy's eyes, caramel melting with fear and determination, and we nod in understanding that we, and possibly only we, can stop it.
I hand Raemi to Dad, and he looks at me with raw fear in his eyes. The sight almost makes me want to cry, but I fight the urge. "I gotta go," I say.
"What? Where?" Dad asks.
"No!" Raemi protests loudly, reaching for me. I push her hands away.
"I just gotta. I've known this was gonna happen, and I think I know how to stop it," I admit. "That's why I've been in my room so much. I've been tryna figure this out. Dib and Gaz are gonna help, I won't be alone. But I gotta do it."
Dad guffaws in shock. I hope I didn't overload him. "I... I always knew you were clever, Tia..." he says quietly. A tear falls from his eyes, and he seems to be in a memory. "I'm not gonna be able to stop you, am I?"
"Nope," I say.
"All right, then," he says. "Go on. Go save the world like your mother always promised me you would."
I swallow the lump in my throat and kiss him on the cheek. "Bye, Daddy. I love you," I say in a low voice, and I mean it with all my heart.
I ignore Raemi's cries for me as I run off with Dib and Gaz. I tell them that I need to get my laptop from the van first, and we manage to track it down and snatch it. "How are we getting to the bomber?" Gaz asks as we sprint in the direction of Zim's base, following Dib.
"Zim's little ship," he answers over his shoulder. "We can use the map on Tia's laptop as a guide to it." He checks his watch and curses. "Fifty minutes to go. Shit, we'll never get there in time!"
A car intercepts us and causes us to fly into one another as we skid to a halt. The professor steps out out of the car. "What do you three think you're doing!" he berates us. "You get back to the rest of the town right now!"
"No, Dad! We have to get to Zim's house! It's important!" Dib tries to reason.
"You can look for your little foreign friend later, Dib. Right now we have to stay together," Membrane declares. He starts to push us towards the panicking crowd despite our protests. I decide then to pull something out of a hat and pray it works.
"Professor, wait! Would your wife want you to ensure the world is destroyed?" I shout. Membrane freezes, possibly in shock of my statement. I continue, since it seems to be working to my advantage. "I know, sir. I know that your wife disappeared ten years ago and no one was able to find her, dead or alive. I also know that she had to have loved you very much, and you her."
"Tia, what are you doing?" Gaz whispers in my ear.
"Trust me," I whisper back. I look at Membrane, who seems to be deep in thought. "Sir, we can stop that person. We have the tools, a plan. We've been working on it for some time. Do you think that your wife would want all that to go to waste? Let her children die either along with the Earth or in slavery?"
"We're running out of time, Dad, and we might be able to buy some more. We just need to get to Zim's house," Dib adds. I nudge him with my elbow, silently telling him to shush.
"You've known this would happen?" the professor asks me, his voice low with surprise. I nod.
"For a week or so, sir. We've been working on a plan." That part is a lie, but if it sells to Membrane, then we can stop wasting time and get to the bomber.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" He looks to his children now, and I decide to let them speak for themselves.
"Well, Gaz didn't think it was gonna happen until just now, and you never listened to me anyway, so I figured it would be useless to ask you for help," Dib explains.
"I've kept it from my family, too," I add, just in case it gives Membrane something to grasp. "We've all kept it a secret. We knew no one would help a couple of paranoid kids." Professor Membrane stares at his children. I see Dib's worry from the corner of my eye and I grab his hand and squeeze it.
"But you're just children. What can you do?" Membrane asks.
"A hell of a lot more than you think we can," Gaz says. "And even if we can't stop him, I'm not going to be a slave for the rest of my life. I'd rather die with the Earth." Dib and I agree verbally, and suddenly all three of us have taken a secret oath between us: Win or die trying.
I'm not sure what it is; it could be our unity, or the prospect of his wife's broken heart were she here, but we somehow sway the professor. He instructs us into the car and he drives us to Zim's base, speeding like my dad did when Raemi was born. We take a lot of detours that eat up our time because of road blocks and traffic congestion, but we make it somehow within fifteen minutes. We all clamber out and I stay behind for one second to thank Membrane. "Don't surrender," I urge him. "Please."
"I will not, trust me. Now go, my children are waiting for you," Membrane ushers. I give him the quickest of hugs as a second thanks and we all rush into Zim's base.
Dib finds the ship almost immediately in the roof, and he powers it up as Gaz and I climb in. It's a strange, small round ship, with a dome windshield and purple and pink thrusters, barely worth the title of 'spaceship'. "The power in the base is still down, so we won't be able to get the roof to open," Dib says as he presses on the dash.
"We'll have to crash through it. I hope Zim doesn't mind," Gaz says as she sits in a back seat. I look at Dib. He motions to the seat next to him and we sit together.
"This is your co-captain speaking. Please keep your seats and trays in the upright position as we take off and buckle up. Thank you for flying Air Save The World," I joke, since the stress and tension is killing me and I need to laugh. We all giggle and Dib presses a button on the dash.
The ship leaps into the air, shattering the rooftop as we go through it. It jolts us around inside but we aren't harmed except maybe for minor whiplash. "Jesus, Dib, where'd you learn to drive?" Gaz snaps.
"I haven't," Dib snarks back. I open up my laptop as we ascend into the upper atmosphere. The green blip on the map is a couple of kilometers north of Washington D.C. As we climb straight into the sky, I search the dash for a compass or something of the sort. An idea enters my head as I find that there isn't something that can tell direction.
"Hey, Dib, can we input these coordinates into the ship and have it steer us there?" I ask. Dib starts typing on the dash again.
"Uh, I think so..." he says under his breath. Gaz huffs and stands up.
"Of course we can," she says. "That's how I got us to Bloaty's that one time Zim captured you. What are the numbers?" I tell her the coordinates and Gaz taps a few times on the dash. The little round screen blinks.
"New course set," says a computerized voice. The ship springs forward and makes a U-turn. "Destination time; five minutes."
Dib checks his watch. "We've got less than half an hour," he says, and he lays back in his chair. He looks exhausted. I wonder if he slept when he got home.
Gaz sits in her chair again and stares out the window. I wait for a few minutes, gazing at Dib, and then I grab Dib's hand again. He looks at me.
"Before we do this, Dib, I just wanted to... well." I bite my lip and avert my eyes from his. My face burns with the heat of a blush and I clear my throat, trying to find the words I want to say. Dib squeezes my hand reassuringly.
"What?" he presses.
"I just... never kissed anyone before. I don't wanna die without knowing what that feels like," I admit.
"You won't die," Dib says.
"You don't know that," I retort. "Any of us could die. We could all die. Or we could all survive. We have no way of knowing until the time comes... Anyway, before we have to know-"
"Tia, we're all going to make it, including you. Especially you," Dib cuts me off.
"Me?" I scoff. "The girl who can't even talk to a large group of people? I'm gonna survive and save the world from utter destruction?"
"Heros have been made out of less," Gaz pipes up. I dismiss her and keep staring straight ahead, not looking at either of them.
"What makes you so sure?" I ask the windshield.
"Because I'll give my life to save yours, if it comes to it," he says softly. He turns my head with his free hand and stares at me. My heart pounds as I can see everything he wants to tell me but doesn't have time to.
"Why?" The word falls from my lips in a whisper, unbidden. Dib's hand caresses my cheek and he leans closer to me, our faces inches apart.
"Because," he mumbles. I don't let him finish. My lips meet his and suddenly I feel better, more sure of myself and our incomplete plan. Dib kisses me back, taking his hand from mine and using it to tilt my head a certain angle.
The computer voice alerts us, "Target in range." Dib and I separate reluctantly, and, lips tingling and heart pounding, I look out the window.
The bomber is a huge ship ten times the size of our little thing, and like the base it reminds me of a pink-and-silver Romulan warbird from Star Trek. A metal dish covers the top of the ship, and a point that resembles a machine gun hangs below. I tremble at the sight of it, but I grab Dib's hand and recompose myself.
"Jesus Christ, that's a big-ass ship," mutters Gaz over our shoulders.
"Well, let's embark," I say.
"Wait, what's the plan, captain?" Dib asks sarcastically.
"We get in there, find the bridge, and stop the dude before time's up."
"The bridge?" Dib and Gaz ask stimutaneously.
"Where the captain's chair is, you know, command room," I clarify. "Jeez, you guys need to watch more Star Trek."
"All right. How do you suppose we stop the bomber?" Gaz snarks at me.
"I, uh... well, I don't know. But we gotta try," I say. "At least we can say we died trying when we go to heaven or hell or wherever we end up."
"I like it. It's better than what I had in mind," Dib says to Gaz. She sighs and hops to the front.
"Fine," she grumbles. She steers to what seems to be the loading dock and Dib squeezes my hand.
"Ready for this? Ready to save the world?" he asks me. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, and for a moment I force myself to relax and focus on the feel of Dib's warm hand in mine. I swallow and nod, opening my eyes to see the giant ship looming dangerously before us.
"Yeah. I'm ready," I say in a whisper.
=== DOOM ===
FINALLY! Hehehehehe! *boom*
So, action and adventure and more squishiness galore! It shouldn't take many more chapters to finish this up.
Happy Thankgiving, lovies! Can I have a couple of reviews as something to give my thanks to?
EDIT: I reread it and fixed a few things. Typos, bits of information I forgot to put in. I was tired when I wrote this, after all.