Here is the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I, Elana Vital, do not own any of the terms or characters from the Invader Zim TV show. I've only admired them :)

Sally came in from the barn with a fresh container of napalm. "Bobby! Dinner!" she called, slamming the kitchen's screen door shut. She gingerly put the metal tube in the table. The lights seemed strangely bright in here, she noticed.

"Bobby?"

She heard his country music playing upstairs, and Garth Brooks was singing about the time he called his daddy out and came crawlin' back to the house. Bobby loved Garth Brooks, and even though Sally herself hated country music, she bought about 8 cds from FYE and tickets to see Garth Brooks live in concert for Bobby's 13 month birthday. He went nuts, picking his mother up and swinging her around like a rag doll shouting, "Thank you thank you thank you omigosh Mom you're so cool!!"

He was quite a big boy for his age. He was already taller then his mom by a foot and three inches. He was a good kid who worked hard out on their little sustinance farm, and far more clever at school then your average 13 year old earth boy. He was growing up so fast and so advanced academically that he had to take online homeschool courses more suited to his pace. He would usually finish the entire week's schoolwork on the first day. Right now he was in the middle of 11th grade curriculum, and be moving on the 12th in about two weeks. And what would Sally do with him then? College? At 14 months?

Well, he certainly was big enough to pass for a college student, but Sally wasn't so sure he was mature enough. All he liked to do was watch Mysterious Mysteries and play silly little video games about space aliens...Sally paused a minute, checking herself. Well, maybe thinking about space aliens wasn't all that immature with all things considered.

"Bobby, come down for dinner, hon", she called, knocking on his bedroom door. The door swung open of it's own accord, and Sally had to shield her eyes from the burning brightness of Bobby's night table lamp. Something electrical buzzed and zapped within the walls of the house, making the lights flash brighter. "What in the blazes is that boy up to now?"

"Bobby, where are you?"

Sally searched the house calling for him. Finally she heard his voice coming from down in the basement. "I'm down here, Ma! Come here! You've got to check out what I made!!"

Sally came down the basement stairs to see Bobby hunkered down behind a rather large machine. It looked like some sort of generator, as it rattled and buzzed noisily.

"What is this thing?" she asked.

"Isn't it awesome? It's our very own nuclear powered generator-slash-computer system!" Bobby said proudly. "I call her Baby."

"Did you say nuclear powered generator?" Sally asked, blinking dumbly.

"Yup! Isn't she beautiful? And just think about it. Everything our house needs is right here. Think of all the money we'll save. No more stressing about how we'll make ends meet. No electricity, water, or phone bills, no more having to pay for the internet..."

" What a minute, what're you talking about? What's this thing got to do with our bills?"

"Well look at this. I've hooked up everything in the house to rely on Baby for power, and I've drilled you a water well out back with it too. Then I took care of our phone with this here," he picked up what looked like a telephone reciever/computer modem hanging off the side of the machine. Holding it up, Sally could hear a clear, distinctive dial tone. "Voila! Our very own fully independant, fully functinal phone line service, free of charge."

"Bobby...How did you..." Sally stammered, but Bobby chattered on proudly.

"...This thing's got a free-line frequency transmitter, and I hooked it up to the old satellite dish on the roof. It's sorta like hot spot technology, only way way cooler. We're hitchin a ride on the phone companies' satellites for now. That is, until I can get our own satellite running, and then we'll have-"

"Bobby, bobby, slow down, honey! We can't just go about building nuclear generators and satellites and things. I mean, is any of this even legal?"

"Probably not...Hey, did you say something about dinner?" Bobby said, heading up the stairs.

"Robert..."

"Oh relax, Mom. Baby's practically untraceable; I made sure of it. Besides, those power and light companies are all jerks, you know. Their monopolizing the industry", Bobby said, entering the kitchen.

"Oh no. He's getting up on his soapbox again," Sally laughed.

"Well, it's true, Mom. Our society has become too dependant on these corporate monsters for the developement of our own use of technology. And it majorly sucks. If people would just apply themselves to learning more about technology on their own, we all could be self-sufficient. Hey, whatcha eatin' tonight?" Bobby said, peeking into the pot on the stove, sniffing.

"Beef stew and potatoes."

"Uggghhhh, gross, Ma. That's so disgusting! How can you eat that stuff?"

"Don't be rude," Sally scolded, bopping him upside the head. "So, what you're saying is that everybody should just build their own nuclear generated computer systems, and we'd all be peachy keen?"

"Well, yeah. It's not that hard," he said, sitting down at the table, guzzling his can of napalm. Sally laughed, sitting across from him.

"Well, maybe not that hard for somebody like you, but for the rest of us who aren't as talented with fancy gadgets as you are... For the love of God, Bobby, slow down or you'll get gas again."

But it was too late. Turning his head he belched, and a big column of flames left his lips, setting the curtains ablaze.

"Oh! Sorry sorry sorry!" he said, quickly grabbing one of the house's many fire extinguishers and spraying the curtain. After all the carbon and smoke settled, Bobby smiled at his mother sheepishly. She sighed, shaking her head.

"Sorry mom... I love you... I'll buy you new curtains..." he said, trying very hard not to laugh.

Sally rubbed her forehead. "What am I going to do with you? Would you please just sit down and finish your dinner. And please pace yourself, for crying out loud."

Bobby sat down with a smirk, sipping his can daintily. Suddenly with aloud zapping noise, the power went out, and the two were left sitting at the kitchen table in darkness.

"Well, maybe Baby's still got a few bugs in her..." Bobby murmured.

E.V.