I am SO sorry this chapter took so long you guys, but I wanted to get a little ahead in the story before I started uploading again. It'll take a little while before the next chapter too. But hopefully not as long as this one cause I've been in such a writing mood lately!
Enjoy and Review!
Zim knew the minute the door was open that he had to run. Five police officers clad in bullet proof everything forced their way in to Zim's home, breaking the door down in the process and knocking him almost clear across the room, but not before he got a look outside his home where only MORE police officers were hiding behind cars and aiming various models of guns at his house.
Instinct kicked in when an officer grabbed his arm and tried to force it behind his back to cuff him but he yanked his appendage back and made a break for the stairs past the monkey idol, knowing he could never escape these guys on foot, needing to get to Tak's ship and hoping the repairs were done.
The police officers followed Zim up the stairs, freezing when they saw what was contained in the attic.
That is until Zim tried to climb into the ship to which they took aim and fired a few warning shots, one ricocheting off Tak's ship and embedding itself into Zim's calf.
"Shit!" Zim yelled in pain, falling back onto his pak and head, watching the authorities crowd around him before everything went dark.
"Dib!" Was the response the human was met with when the door opened as well as a face full of a plaid blanket as his mother smothered him with a hug. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." Dib said, hugging his mother back. "How are you feeling."
"Better, now that you're here." She replied, smiling down at her son then ushering him into the house.
"Where's Zim?" She then asked, looking around curiously.
Dib looked down sadly. "He… couldn't come."
"Aw, why not?" His mother asked, sitting down on the couch in the living room, patting the seat next to her.
"He said it was too short of notice for him to leave what he was doing." Dib said with a sigh.
The woman frown at the sigh. "What's wrong?" She asked, him, rubbing his shoulder as he sat down next to her.
"I think he's mad at me." Dib replied sadly, leaning against his mother and she wrapped the blanket she held around them both. "I was kind of a jerk to him last week."
"Did you two get into a fight?" Dib's mother asked in a way that told Dib that she already knew the answer, but he told her anyway.
"Yeah, we did. And I feel really bad about it now." Dib said. "I thought he'd be over it by now though."
"Maybe you should apologize." Dib's mother offered.
"I should." Dib sighed, snuggling against his mother and she snuggled back, the sound of the news on TV was the only sound around them for quite a while.
Zim awoke to a slap in the face in a dark room, the only light around was shining down on him, not that he couldn't see through the dark, a fact at which he smirked.
"Wipe that grin off your face before I do it for you." A human to his left growled.
Zim only smiled wider. "And how are you going to do that?"
Another swift slap to his left cheek had him wincing.
"Now then," The human, Zim could see there were five in the room though couldn't make out anymore than that, said, putting his hands behind his back and pacing slowly. "Tell us, ALIEN, what are you doing here on Earth?"
"Alien?" Zim asked confusedly, that was when he felt his antennae free and twitching and his eye sight was unusually clear. "M-my disguise…."
"Fell off when you hit your head." The human said smugly.
Zim growled and tried to will his spider legs out to impale this human when he realized his pak openings were stuck. He let out an involuntary squeak and looked back to see what was wrong, discovering his pak to be covered in about five layers of heavy duty tape, elastic and who knew WHAT else.
A large hand forcefully turned his head back around as the first human asked again, "What are you doing here on Earth?"
"Visiting," Zim said, trying to will the uneasiness out of his voice. "I was TOLD Earth is lovely this time of year."
Another slap.
"Don't take us for fools, scum." The first human said. Zim could make out the human's form pulling something from behind his back, something which he then brought into the light.
The thing looked like a photograph, but upon further inspection Zim found it to be a stilled frame of a security camera, one showing him impaling a certain filthy doctor.
"Recognize anyone in this picture?" The human asked, feigning politeness.
"Nope," Zim said, turning his head away, earning him yet another slap.
"Stop that," A deep voice said sternly, making all the other humans turn to him. "If you damage him too much we won't be able to perform a proper study."
"Listen you," The first human said, his voice holding not nearly as much authority as the second. "Your job may be important, studying, poking, prodding, but my job is to protect this world from these things, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."
The first human turned back to Zim, asking once more, "Do you know who's in this picture?"
"Me and some dead doctor." Zim growled, baring his teeth to the human.
"That's right, and you killed this doctor, didn't you?" The human asked, his voice once more taking on the tone of fake politeness.
"Yes, I might have." Zim said with a shrug.
"Why!?" The human yelled, finding himself becoming angry with Zim's indifference.
"Because he was hurting someone!" Zim yelled back, glaring at the human with intense hatred.
The human smirked.
"Aw yes," He said with an air of smugness at finally having broken through the alien's game. "The little crazy boy, Dib, right?"
"Look at your own damned picture! His blood is all over the place! He was KILLING Dib!" Zim yelled, pulling against his restraints, his pak trying to open up.
"So says YOU, but there was no evidence on the security footage to support your claims." Said another human, much leaner looking that the first human, his voice softer but still holding an air of authority much like that of the first human's.
"Yeah, how do we know YOU weren't the one hurting the boy?" The first human said.
"Because if I was going to hurt him I would have done it a LONG time ago." Zim said with a growl. "And what OTHER motive would I have for attacking that ONE human that ONE day?"
"To make yourself sound logical." A female human spoke up.
"YOU'RE the alien here, SCUM!" The first human yelled, holding the picture up in his face. "And I say YOU'RE the one who hurt the boy, then when the doctor came home, only to find his home being used as a torture chamber you KILLED HIM!"
"There's a few problems with your theory," Zim growled, antennae up and trembling with anger. "One, NOTHING you just said made sense! WHY would I use HIS house to torture an almost unrelated human when I have a BASE FULL of stuff I could use to harm Dib with!?"
"I don't know, YOU'RE the alien, you tell US!"
"ANOTHER THING!" Zim yelled, ignoring the first human's comment. "DIB is the only pathetic human on this planet worth SAVING! HE'S the only one I will allow to live when my plans finally come to fruition and he will be the ONLY ONE to be alive with me to see the end result of all my hard work and planning, and it will be HIM ALONE that will help me rule any and all remaining life forms on this pathetic ball of DIRT!"
After a bit more questioning and a few more slaps to the face Zim was led to a cell where he was securely chained to a wall, his arms spread apart so as to insure that he would be unable to remove the bindings from his pak.
The alien grunted as he tugged at his bonds, alas, in vein. He could feel them watching him, whoever those human's were. They were surveying him through almost unnoticeable cameras placed throughout the room, all of them currently being pointed at his cell.
With a groan he slumped a little, being held up by only his wrists which, after three hours of tugging and pulling, were aching something fierce.
Suddenly his thoughts went to Dib and he visibly tensed. He had no idea as to the condition of his base but he was sure it was swarming with police officials and government men, just waiting for the poor human to get back… if he even wanted to come back.
The alien wilted, his antennae falling limp to the back of his head. Dib had been so excited about his mother's house being vacated by the police, and he'd brushed the human off. He shouldn't have been so quick tempered with him while he was depressed, he'd probably ruined their new found friendship.
He wilted more, his form displaying his downright depressed mood in it's purest form.
"And now we bring you updates of what is to be called the most bizarre find of the century," The newsman carried on, almost like he was excited about his job, as Dib and Mom sat on the couch, leaning against each other as they sipped some hot chocolate and watched whatever it was that was going on, on TV.
"Just a few hours ago police stormed the strange green house of loan student, only known as Zim. But, inside they found no escaped lunatic, or even the resident high school student, but a greened skinned, bug-eyed ALIEN!" The newsman cried, throwing his hands up in the air, only making a mockery of the news cast.
Dib sat up quickly, almost spilling his hot beverage and knocking over his mother in the process, who was also stunned beyond belief.
"Mom," Dib asked weakly as he listened to the newsman go on about this detail and that detail, the ship, and questioning the doctors who put Dib under the care of the mental institution.
"Yes, Dear?" Dib's mother asked in an equally weak voice.
"Do you think…." A gulp. "Do you think this was the lead the police told you about?"
"Yes," A nod. "Yes I think it was."
Suddenly video feed, though blurry and dark, of the unmistakable form of Zim, chained to a wall and looking absolutely miserable.
Dib gasped, finding breathing a much more difficult task all of a sudden. "That's him… Mom, they have Zim… they have Zim… and they're going to… they're going to…." Dib didn't even want to think of what they were going to do.
No one noticed as Zim's cloaked ship circled the culdasak, hoping to gain entrance into the base there, but, sadly, no luck.
"What am I going to do?" Dib asked no one in particular. "There's no way in. But I have to find a way to save Zim."
Several government men were taking stuff out of the home. The couch, the TV, and various other pieces of furniture were all being piled outside of the home in the front yard. They were obviously looking for a way into the alien's lower base, but so far, it seemed they were having no luck.
Dib flew the ship a small ways off and landed, feeling he would have a better chance of getting in if he knew what was going on. So, using the stealth skills he'd acquired over the years, he crept up to the house next to Zim's, listening as the many government men discussed breaking into the base.
"Why don't we just take a jackhammer to it? We all know it would be easier than trying to find some secret button or something." One said.
"Because we can't risk damaging any equipment we find." Another replied. "There could be things in there that could benefit all mankind. Or at least ourselves."
Laughter was shared all around.
Dib growled. That was Zim's technology! Mankind wasn't ready for such advanced things! Not that he could really say that Zim was. But it belonged to the irken anyway and these men couldn't have it!
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Came several screams from inside the base, men and women of the police force and the government either running or being thrown out of the house, cords and wires either chasing them or doing the throwing.
"Of course!" Dib thought to himself. The computer could help Dib get inside. It also could have saved Zim. The human shook his head. Why didn't that alien ever use his head?
Dib didn't give himself much time to dwell on that though as he made his way to an over looked part of the base. In other words, the neighboring houses. He climbed up one of the fences, making sure he was out of sight, before grabbing a hold of one of the wires connection Zim's house to the ones next to it.
Dib was thankful for the darkness outside, letting him slip along the wire to the edge of the house, which he knocked on and quietly call for the computer to let him in.
A hole appeared in the side of the house and Dib slipped in, thankful that no one was trying to get into the base so he could slip into the lower levels undetected.
"Computer I need… I need something, anything to help me save Zim!" He called once in the lab.
"You'll have to be a little more specific than that." The computer said, huffing at having been disturbed.
"Ok, ok," Dib said, going over to the main consol and typing in a few things. "From what I saw on the news he was in Dad's lab. Do you have any data on the building I could use, you know, to help identify exactly where he is?"
"I might, hold on." The computer sighed boredly. Flashes on information began to show up on screen and Dib took his hands from the keys, letting the computer do all the work.
A complex map of Membrane Labs appeared on the screen, a blipping red dot showing in the newest wing.
"When did Dad add that?" Dib asked to himself, but it was the computer who answered.
"About two months ago."
"Thanks, now how do I get in there?" He asked, staring intently at the screen. "I can't just walk in there like usual."
Dib gasped as a harsh banging sound came from above. THEY WERE BREAKING THROUGH!
"Computer!" Dib shouted quickly. "Is there any equipment I could use? I need to get to Zim!"
"Check the storage cabinet." The computer said lazily. A bit of screaming came from above where the pounding was, showing the computer was doing a good job of protecting the base. "I'm sure there would be something in there."
"Thanks," Dib said, not dwelling on the fact he just thanked a machine. After all, Gir thanked him.
He tore through the closet, pulling out various machines, most of which made him think of those international spy movies.
Guess they weren't that boring after all, eh Zim?
Dib grabbed a belt and began attaching this and that to it, barely paying attention as the pounding began again.
"Is there a way for me to get out of here!?" He asked as the pounding only seemed to get louder.
"You could always use Tak's ship." The computer said, seeming to put some actual thought into this response. "The repairs aren't complete. But it can fly and has some basic weaponry. The cloaking might fritz out on you every now and then though."
"It'll have to do." Dib said, making his way to the lift. "Take me up to the ship."
"Whatever." The computer said, lifting the elevator to the proper level.
The human was quick to get into the ship, about to tell it to take off when he remembered Zim saying he'd had to wipe the AI personality completely, unable to reprogram it using his own computers. But the controls didn't seem that different from Zim's.
How hard could it be?
Taking off took some time to figure out, but after that it was smooth sailing. The house opened up for him and he sped off, hoping to make it to the labs undetected.
But, as the computer warned, the cloaking did indeed fritz on his every now and then, causing a commotion. He paid it very little attention though. The human race was of no importance to him now. He didn't even care that people who had mocked him were now eating their words. Aliens were real, everyone knew now, and Dib couldn't have cared any less if he physically tried. He just wanted to get Zim back.
He touched the ship down in one of the warehouses, thankful the cloaking held up while in range of the security cameras.
He hopped out of the ship to peer through one of the windows in the giant warehouse at the much larger building taking up the space next to it. Security was tight, very tight. This was going to be a challenge this time.
But it was something he needed to do. Zim had saved his life many times before now. It was time to return the favor. So, with a determined look set on his face, he pulled out his laptop and, with a direct link to both Zim's base and the Membrane labs, he set to hacking the cameras. Step one of his plan.
SAVE HIM DIB! SAVE HIIIIIM!
Ok, hope you liked. Let me know what you thought in a review, kay?