Chapter Five - Down The Rabbit Hole

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"So, you're saying that if we kill all six of them, each of us will get a full pardon from the Tallest's, you guys?", Kona asked speculatively.

Tallest Red waved his hand, "Yeah, sure, whatever.".

The vortian turned off the view screen and began to wonder about killing four irkens at one time. That would be a capital offence to the Irken Empire, but that was the Tallest. They could get off scot-free… Kona rubbed his horns as one of his crewmates, a skuan walked up to him. The Skuans were monstrous beings, standing a head taller than most average irkens and vortians, but Kona knew some grew to be even taller. A skuan's face was by far the most frightening feature. The lower jaw was split, so that when a skuan spoke or ate, or did anything with their mouths for that matter, the lower jaw would open down and to the sides in quite a shocking manner. In many alien horror stories, a skuan would be the main antagonist, and would be considered a demon for their large teeth, their four red eyes, and the way the let their long irkenesque tongue out. Their heads were smooth skinned, but with females especially, they would have featherlike protrusions they would treat like other aliens would treat hair. They had no tail but were otherwise reptilian or serpentine. They had three fingers including an opposable thumb, long legs, and have a somewhat skeletal structure along with a blue-green skin. Skuan's are also digitigrades, meaning they walk on their toes, or in their case, talons. "Sir? The men are getting restless and are a little… Upset, financially. I myself am a little tired of being unable to go into irken space or have financial backing for our businesses as it were.", said the skuan, shifting uncomfortably.

Kona could understand Jin's feelings. But, the Tallest's call was awfully convenient. "Why not?", Kona muttered, and he cleared his throat, "Jin, take us to Earth, we have a job from the Tallests.".

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It was the third day into their capture, and Gaz couldn't complain much. Mar and Sen let her have her Game Slave 2 without question, and it wasn't like they were making Dib happy. The food wasn't bad, and at least their robot carried a much better conversation than Zim's. Taco, was it? Oh well. She could easily escape from there, but she didn't see much point. The male irken, Mar, surprised her with that needle. She thought about giving him a hard time, but thought that as long as they were nice to her, or at least, not nice to Dib, Zim, or even Tak, she would just worry about her stupid brother. Speaking of which, she thought, there he goes again. Dib banged his fists on the large sealed doorway that held them in. "Let us out! You cant just keep us here! Can you hear me?!", he yelled into the metal door.

"Be quiet, I'm on level 10.", she replied.

As the argument took place, Taco growled and shifted the signature fishnets that he wore. The SIR came from his relatively small room and walked across the hallway to the two rooms that the prisoners were being held in. He just noticed that Zim and Tak began to argue too. Taco leaned back onto a wall as he thought about how to solve this problem. Putting them in separate rooms might be just a bit risky if they were attacked, but then again, they could have those doors open automatically, then close and lock. But, keeping them in the rooms they were in now would be, if anything, more troublesome. So would setting girls in one room and the two boys in different rooms. Separate rooms it was then. Taco went into the irken's room first and took Tak out. "What are you doing?", she asked harshly as he took her arm.

"Taking you to a separate room so I don't have to hear both of you argue.", he replied darkly.

She complied and actually smiled somewhat while he lead her into her new room. She looked around and sat on her bedding as he closed the door and went to lead the paranormal investigator wannabe into his new room. As he opened the metal door and the seal hissed slightly, Dibs reaction was sudden. He saw his chance to escape and he took it, throwing Taco into the wall behind him, popping one of his arms off and spinning to the ground. "Let's go Gaz! We can escape!", he said frantically to his gothic sister.

She just looked at him from her game then said, "Meh.", and continued playing.

Dib began to shift in place, uncomfortably, wondering whether or not to leave Gaz or go back in and drag her with him. As if on cue, a little voice came into his head and said to him, "The fate of the world is up to you, Dib!".

And that did it. He sprinted down the deep purple hallway that was in the bowels of the base into what was either certain doom, or escape. The corridor was long and, quite frankly, creepy, Dib thought. The exposed wiring, pipes, and other tubes of unknown use seemed to overgrow most irken technology. Not to mention, it was always in a shade of purple, or red, or even vary rarely, blue. The further he ran, the more the corridor felt alien, if that was possible. It was almost as if he was Alice going down the rabbit hole. He stopped at a fork in the hallway and looked around desperately. "Which way?", he thought audibly.

The moment he turned to look behind him he bumped into a giant bluish lizard. He stumbled onto the hard floor and looked at what wasn't a giant lizard, but a rather large alien. It shifted to get better footing as it pointed the gun it held to Dib. At this point, all Dib could think of was, Is this how I die? Does it all end here? At that moment, the aliens head exploded in a purple torrent. The other alien behind the lizard-thing yelled and began to shoot past the paranormal investigator who was now soaked in blood. He slowly turned his head and eyed what was behind him widely. It was Mar. He was hunched over and was clenching his zipper-like teeth in obvious anger as he shot a long rifle at what he now remembered was a vortian. It was then that he knew for certain that you don't mess with a Irken Black Operative. As he saw the small scale battle unfold before his eyes, it was if there was no sound. Mar had scored a hit on the vortian's left arm, and ran up next to Dib, mouthing angrily at him. All Dib could do was watch and stumble as the irken picked him up and pushed him against a door and then turn his attention back at the various otherworldly creatures.

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Kona wanted revenge. It was plain and simple. The mere fact that the pink thing that was in front of Jin when his head was shot off didn't register to the vortian. All he knew or saw were the energy bolts, and the irken holding a Vortian H24 Plasma Rifle, the same that Kona had. As he got behind cover he evaluated what the situation was: Jin was obviously dead, and was right at the irken's feet. The Skuan Twin Shot Energy Grenade Launcher, or put simply, the Twin Shot, was out of reach of both him and the irken. The worst part about it was, he was pretty sure, it would end up with both of them going for the tide turning weapon and the fight would end there with questionable results. But, the H24 had a holographic scope, so, in theory, he could use range to his advantage. The hallway was long, and the irken only grazed his shoulder once. The only problem was that the enemy had the same rifle and the same scope since it was standard and was non-detachable. Kona didn't like his options. The little vortian sighed and chuckled to himself until he noticed that the Twin Shot was pointed right at him be the little green man that was the irken. "… Crud.".