Chapter 12
Danny turned to see Jaz and Dib come back into the main control room. "There you guys are. Dib, you okay?" She asked, concerned for the boy's wellbeing.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Dib replied, more interested in getting a look out the window.
"Where did we land?" Jaz asked.
"I landed the Voot in a secluded spot. Zeikranians don't trust the Irken race, ever since they warded off that Invasion during Impending Doom I." Danny replied, as if this was a simple matter. "I need you guys to stay here. I'll be back as soon as I can." A holographic disguise engulfs her, giving her the appearance of a humanoid fox. Her Irken uniform replaced by clothes similar to those found on Earth.
"Wait a minute." Jaz intervened. "You mean they don't know you're an Irken?"
"Of course not." Danny replied matter-of-factly.
A cold chill ran down Jaz's spine. "But, that means..." She began, quickly becoming angry. "Why didn't you tell us this before!?" She demanded.
Danny shrugged, walking to the airlock. "It wasn't important up until now. But now you know."
Jaz slapped her forehead and groaned.
Danny turned back to her. "Jaz, relax. I have a plan. Just trust me, okay?" And with that, she stepped into the airlock, the door closing behind her, and she was gone.
Flik walked up to Jaz, looking up at her. "So, we just wait?"
Jaz remained with her hand on her forehead for a moment before looking down at him. "We get the weapons ready, just in case." Flik saluted and ran off. Jaz turned to Dib.
"We need to make sure Zim stays safe." She said calmly. She then ran off to the medical bay.
Dib followed after her. "You don't really think they'll attack, do you?"
Jaz scooped Zim's limp body up in her arms and turned to Dib. "I have no idea, but if they do, we need to be prepared. Help me find a place to hide him."
Dib barely had a chance to so much as glance in one direction when Flik came charging into the room.
"Jaz, Dib! You gotta SEE this planet! It's AWESOME!" He squealed. Before either of them could respond, he was gone again, still shouting. "Look through the window!"
Dib and Jaz exchanged glances before following him out into the main room and over to the control panel.
"You see?" Flik said excitedly, pointing out the window. What they saw left Dib speechless for once. Jaz, however uttered three little words.
"Oh...my...gosh..."
They were parked on the top of a mountain, the highest in its range. Before them was a vast, green valley, dotted with sparkling blue lakes and ponds. Small villages were scattered here and there, one bigger than all the rest and nearby was a large towering castle. Though to them the castle was merely a speck. Beyond the valley was a dense forest, and further still was a clear blue ocean.
Jaz stared out onto the scenery in awe. "It's like a cooler version of Earth." She blurted out.
"More like what Earth USED to look like..." Dib corrected her, just as entranced as she was.
Flik added his own two cents in. "DAMN, what I would give to invade this planet." Dib and Jaz looked down at him, less than impressed.
"Smeets." Jaz sighed.
Flik ignored them as he continued to stare at the landscape with wide eyes.
"Okay, enough of that. Help me find a place to hide Zim, you guys!" Jaz said, walking off. Dib turned and followed her while Flik kept his face plastered to the window.
Jaz looked around, getting frustrated. "Crap, this is hard!" She turned her gaze down to Zim. "And you think it would be easy to find a place to stick him in, considering his size."
Dib was opening and closing compartment doors, finding they were either packed with supplies or were too small. Eventually, he found one that was mostly empty and seemed to be the right size.
"Jaz!" He called over his shoulder. Jaz went over to him.
"That's perfect!" She exclaimed, placing Zim inside. She closed the door and turned to Dib, looking slightly worried, and threw her arms around him. Dib, though slightly startled, returned the gesture.
"Hey. It'll be ok." He assured her. "Danny said she had a plan."
"That's a good idea. Stay optimistic." Jaz replied, hugging him tighter. After a bit, she pulled away and lifted a hand up to his forehead. "You feel pretty normal now." She said, withdrawing her hand and smiling.
"See?" Dib replied. "I told you I was fine." Jaz answered by giving him a quick peck on the cheek, then turned to the smeet at the window.
"Flik! Stop goofing off and come over here!" She said firmly. Flik turned to look at her and quickly hopped off the control panel, running over to them.
"Okay, guys." Jaz said, addressing the two of them at once. "We have to protect this ship. But we can't kill or hurt anyone either. We simply have to defend it. Heck, we don't even know how strong or weak this species is." She turned to Dib. "Dib? I'm going to give you your own weapon." She turned and walked over to another compartment, opening it and revealing all of the weapon inside.
"Hey!" Flik complained. "Don't give him the Death-Ray-Gun! That one's mine!"
"No one is using that gun!" Jaz snapped, rummaging through all the alien guns. "Hey Dib," She said, turning to him. "why don't you pick out one you like?"
Dib walked over to her and glanced over all of the high-tech weapons. A small pistol-shaped one caught his eye and he picked it up. "What's this one do?" He asked.
"That one immobilizes its victims by electrocuting their bodies." Jaz answered.
"So it's not lethal?"
"if you don't put the setting to 'DOOM'. Keep the setting on 'PAIN'."
"Right."
"And Flik..." Jaz looked over all of the weapons, pulling out an even smaller ray gun and handing it to him. "You get this one."
"AH, YOU SUCK!" Flik shouted angrily.
Jaz ignored him. "As for me," She said, pulling out one of the biggest, if not the biggest weapon of the bunch. "I'M gonna be using the badass weapons here, boys."
Flik glared at her.
"How is THAT thing not lethal?" Dib asked.
"It LOOKS lethal, but it really just shoots out custard." She replied innocently.
Dib looked at her oddly.
"What?" She asked. "It looks cool." She hoisted the weapon over her shoulder and placed a hand on her hip, posing proudly. "And knowing Flik, he'd probably custard everyone to death. Literally."
"You still suck." Flick stated.
Before anyone could say anything further, the airlock opened, grabbing everyone's attention.
Danny was the first to step inside, still wearing her fox disguise. Accompanying her were two humanoid felines. A tall gray tabby male, and a snow-white female.
Jaz and Dib stared at the newcomers nervously, unsure of what to do. Flik, on the other hand, watched them calmly, holding his weapon ready at his side.
Danny turned to the two cats. "Silver, Starlet, these are the Irkens and the human I told you about."
Silver, the tabby, glanced at her then looked back at the others, eyeing them suspiciously. Jaz shrunk in response and scooted a little closer to Dib.
The white cat stood slightly behind her companion, unsure and bit nervous.
Danny turned back to her other friends. "Jaz, Flik, Dib, these are the two friends I was telling you about." There's a hint of desperation in her voice as she tried to ease the tension in the air.
Jaz, on the same page as Danny, slowly lifted a hand and waved. "H-hi..." She stammered.
Silver's emerald green eyes narrowed in response.
Starlet stepped around him, feeling a little braver, and managed a smile. "Hi..."
"I'm Irken Jaz, commander of this ship." Jaz, trying to keep her voice steady. She gestured to the smeet in front of her. "That's my assistant, Flik."
Flik merely nodded his greeting.
Jaz continued on, hugging Dib's arm. "And this is Dib, my boyfriend."
This caught Danny's attention.
"WHAT!?" She demanded.
Jaz glared at her. "Shut. Up." She hissed.
Danny stared at them both, confused. Then, deciding it wasn't worth her time, shrugged it off, frowning. "Whatever." She grumbled.
"Boyfriend?" Starlet asked. "But he's human. Irkens aren't exactly known for their loving nature..."
"Yes, I know." Jaz answered calmly. "But we are Defectives. We're more capable of expressing love than 'normal' Irkens."
Silver raised an eyebrow.
"Actually," Jaz added. "we need your help with one of the Defectives."
Silver finally spoke up. "What kind of help?"
"One of the Defectives is in serious danger." Danny answered. "We just need your help to get to the control Brain on Irk. Once we get there, we need to take it over. Once we do THAT, we'll have control over the entire Empire. And we'll have what we need to save our friend."
"He's actually a very close friend of Danny's." Jaz chimed in, trying to help. "He's her new boyfriend."
This caught the two felines off-guard. Danny shot a nasty look at Jaz.
"Thanks a LOT." She hissed.
Silver looked at her, shocked and horribly confused. "You have an IRKEN boyfriend?"
Danny whirled on him. "Yes I DO! You got a PROBLEM with that!?" She demanded.
"Hey, I'm just trying to point out that Irkens really CAN love and that we're not just some race of savage, blood-thirsty monsters!" Jaz interrupted desperately.
Silver backed away from Danny, looking at Jaz. "Uhh..." He looked back at Danny. "No. I don't." He looked away in defeat.
"Good." Danny replied icily.
"Are you willing to join us?" Jaz asked.
"Of course we are." Starlet replied.
"We wouldn't be here if we weren't." Silver added.
Jaz nodded, tossing her weapon aside. "Thank you so much. We are very grateful, you have no idea."
Silver looked at Danny, not quite ready to let her live down the recent news. "So...where's this boyfriend of yours?" He asked, smirking.
Danny turned to him, highly annoyed.
"We'll show you." Jaz piped up, going over to one of the compartments. She opened it and gently took out the tiny Irken. "This is him." She said, turning back to the others.
"What was he doing in there?" Danny asked.
"Uhh..." Jaz began nervously. "Forget it." She turned to face the two cats. "He may look like he's dead, but his PAK has just been messed up. He went crazy and one of his chips fried. He's unable to respond to anything. But he still breathes, so we know he's alive."
Starlet cupped her hands over her mouth in horror. Silver blinked in confusion. This was too much for him to wrap his mind around.
"I should also mention his name." Jaz continued. "It's Zim."
Silver and Starlet turned their attention to Danny, Starlet lowering her hands and holding them close to her chest. Danny walked over to Jaz and took Zim from her.
"So..." Silver said, still trying to understand the whole thing. "...this is why we're going to Irk? To fix one Irken? Why do you need us?"
Jaz looked at him. "This one Irken was and, when he's active, is the greatest threat to our Empire. But now there's an even greater threat. Our own leaders, the Tallests. Zim was sent on a fake mission to Dib's home planet to invade it. Zim didn't know that it really was a fake until just today. He became so furious that he wanted to destroy the Almighty Tallests himself. He has actually killed two of our previous Tallests before, so he wasn't afraid of doing it again. But Zim is honestly not that bad..." She looked at the tiny Irken in her friend's arms. "He actually just wants to make things good...in his own way, I guess."
The entire ship was silent.
After a while, Danny piped up. "But he's not our only priority. We want to change the Empire for the better."
"Yes." Jaz agreed. "And we're not able to do it without your help."
Silver slammed a fist into his hand, cracking his knuckles. "Alright. Let's go kick some sorry green ass." He said with a toothy grin.
Flik returned the enthusiasm, pumping a fist in the air, shouting. "HELL YEAH!"
Jaz walked up to the two felines, holding out a hand. "Welcome to the team, Silver and Starlet!" One by one, they both shook her hand.
"Well, Jaz," Danny said. "this is your ship. Let's get it off the ground."
"Right!" Jaz exclaimed. She marched proudly over to the controls. As the engine revved up, she couldn't resist the urge to punch the air above her head. "RED AND PURPLE, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" And with that, the ship launched into the air and into space.