A/N: Good god you can stop spamming now! I'm sorry I'm slow! T^T I hope this is worth it, Kirby Town! Sheesh!
Chapter 33 - Sudden Understanding
"You don't know what you're doing, Bill! This is a mistake!"
The words felt fuzzy in Red's head and a loud ringing overpowered them. His muscles ached, screamed, as if they had been tensed for hours holding some awkward and strenuous position. Trying to simply move his fingers sent a wave of needles up his arm and down his spine.
"Why? Because you can't pay back those alien friendly traitors?" Whose voice is that?
"It's Bill. Can you move yet?" Zim's thoughts entered his pak and forced their way through the distracting pain, leaving Red relieved to be able to respond without having to use his voice.
"What happened?" He remembered talking to Zim in the darkness, though it came back to him slowly, but he couldn't remember how they got there, or what happened before they were there.
"Run a diagnostic on yourself. Is everything working?"
Red did so and winced when he started to shake his head and send another wave of needles prickling down his spine. "No… critical circuits are dangerously corroded. There's tears in my left infraspinatus muscles or… a burn? The damage readings are all messed up… What happened to me?"
"What do you remember?"
It was faster to give him access to Red's memory banks than to explain with messaging. The speed of their conversation amplified by the computers, as it were.
"Bill shot you with an electromagnetic burst. It shorted out your pak for probably no more than 0.73 seconds…"
"The power dampeners… it must have forced a restart on them and caused the energy outflow to overrun my circuits."
"Probably."
Zim's eyes were open and his back was turned to the humans but he could tell by the sound that it wasn't going well. Bill continued raving madly, and Dib foolishly continued trying to explain with words. That wasn't going to work!
"So what do we do now? I can try to move with emergency automata override. But that will-"
"Cause more damage?" Zim finished. He had long run out of his pak's emergency medical supplies, but Red's morphine tank was still full. "How long do you need?"
"I've never done it before… so 5 seconds to activate and maybe 30 for the painkillers to kick in?" Text could only convey words, not the feelings behind them. They both knew this wouldn't be easy for Red, but at this point they didn't have much of a choice.
Bill yelled, raising his gun to aim it at Dib. "Too late kid. You ignored my warnings for years, now I have to clean up your mess. Step aside." His finger tensed on the trigger.
"I refuse!"
"I don't think we have that much time."
"Can you control the override for the first 30 seconds?"
Zim almost choked aloud at the thought. "Do you realize how much pain you'll be in?"
"I'm starting now!" Red replied. Time was up and they had to move.
"Have it your way."
Red barely kept himself from passing out at the first lurch. Practically dragged by the cord on his pak, his muscles screamed as Zim's override sent the smallest electrical signals it could to force the tightening and release of his muscles. Zim put the shield up first, not forcing Red's body to do more than he absolutely had to.
The blast ricocheted, hitting the ceiling and leaving nothing more than a small scorch mark. Bill cursed. "Don't you monsters ever die?!"
Red: Stand me up properly! I need more time!
Zim: But you're-
Red forced himself to stand at full height. They had to look like they could win. Zim nodded and applied the needed pressure to hold the posture for him.
Red: Morphine released. 20 seconds and I can take it from there
Perception of time could change based on many factors. The computers in their paks, or stress and anxiety speeds up the mind, allowing one to think far faster than Humanly possible. Whereas tension or shock would seem to freeze the world around them, and seconds would be agonizingly slow. In this already cold room there had to be a way to freeze time for the enemy but allow their allies to…
Zim started to laugh. It was a low maniacal laugh, deep from the throat. A crackle in his voice sent a chill down the spines of everyone in the room, except Red who almost choked at how ridiculous it sounded. Bill stumbled back several steps. His eyes bulged as if they would pop out from his skull. A memory flashed through his mind, but vanished with the next tick of the clock which did not exist in this room.
"Finally!" Zim crowed, "There's a single smart human who can see past the guise of our forms. I guess not everyone is as stupid as this boy here." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at Dib. "You even almost killed my partner here. Oh! And thank you for the info about him being a Tallest-gene match. Once we get back I'll be a hero for saving his pathetic life."
Behind him Dib's voice came out weakly. He had also stepped away, though he had much less space to go. "Zim… what are you-"
"And FURTHER MORE~" Zim yelled, cutting him off. "You Pathetic Human, Once I report your treatment of us, know that you'll have the worst death of anyone on this pitiful, albeit surprisingly inventive, planet." Zim turned sharply to face Dib, causing the human to stumble and fall to a seat. Dib couldn't believe it… was it really all a lie? It couldn't be. Then, his back fully turned away from Bill, Zim winked. "The Irken Empire doesn't take kindly to terrorists." His voice remained haughty and cruel.
Zim stomped forward and jabbed a pak leg, pointing directly at his heart, meanwhile a small lump was shoved into the folds of his shirt. Dib reached quickly to stop it from falling out and clattering to the floor. He disguised his movements as slapping the pak leg away. Zim laughed again.
Like they had hoped. Bill was too stunned to move, but it didn't last for long. "You~!" His voice cracked, "You think you'll make it out of here?! You'll never tell them, and they'll never get PEG!"
"And how are you going to stop that? By blowing up Peg and killing yourself along with us?"
"That's EXACTLY what I'll do!" He screeched and opened fire. Blast after blast hit the shield and rebounded wildly. M dove to the side when one nearly went through his leg. More shots narrowly missed, and as he tried to stand GIR dove onto him swinging its little metal arms and trying to scratch at his face. He yelled out and covered his face, taking the brunt of the attack on his arms.
"M!" Dib tried to move to him, but the shield held strong, locking him in with the two irkens.
Zim: How you feeling?
Red: Numb…
Zim: Good. I'm releasing control now.
Red nodded under his own power. He couldn't feel anything! What kind of face was he making? Well… he knew what it was because the computer had full control over his muscles. The pulsing electrodes within him felt like bugs crawling under his skin but also like his limbs were being moved by a puppeteer's hand. It itched fiercely.
A crackling static filled the comms of their Paks. Skoodge groaned from the floor.
Red: Oh good you're alive.
Skoodge: …
Zim: Status?
Skoodge: Sore but nothing's broken. I'm out of the enemies' line of sight.
Red: Nice. You can sneak attack-
Zim: No, not yet.
Bill's weapon clicked several times without firing. Out of ammo? Skoodge used the moment of distraction to sweep at Bill's legs, knocking him to the floor. Red dove for the weapon as it flew into the air, as Zim maneuvered himself behind Peg, dragging Dib along with him.
"Where else can I plug into PEG?" Zim had pulled Dib so quickly that the poor human could barely follow what was happening. He was forced to repeat himself. The port that Red had used was damaged, so Dib's eyes darted around for a moment before he pointed to the opposite wall.
"Over there… But what is this thing?" He held up the bundle Zim had dropped on him earlier.
Zim pointed at the main mechanism; the heart of the perpetual energy generator. "Hold it on top of there when I say so."
"But what-"
"Just do it!"
Zim dashed and grabbed the converter he'd made from the original port and scurried around PEG and off to where Dib had indicated. Red's description of the power surge was under exaggerated, to say the least. It felt like a hot plasma coil had been shoved into his pak and ripped through every nerve ending of his fleshy body. Zim opened his vents and started blowing out hot air as fast as his cooling system would allow. It stung but the voices in the back of his mind yelled that they were ready. "RED NOW!"
Red shot a coord from his pak and it pluggedinto an open port on Zim's pak.
"DIB!"
"I have no idea what this is going to do but here goes nothing!" Dib unwrapped the bundle and it unfolded like a pop-up birthday card forming a strange spiral shape. He pressed the base of it to PEG and to his human senses. Nothing happened.
XXX
Gaz awoke to what felt like punches in her left side, or stabs? Repeatedly shooting pain radiating out from her thigh and up into her hip and on. The pain was so distracting it took her a moment to realize she was being carried. She was thrown over a small shoulder of someone who was full on sprinting. Each stride slammed into her gut and instinctively she tensed up her abdominals to try and lessen the force slamming into her.
"Hang tight Gaz! Try not to pass out on me, now!" Agent Kelpie was one of the agents in better than average shape, but she already felt winded. "Right turn!" She yelled to the boy five steps ahead of her. His speed nearly threw him past the turn but he banked with a push off the brick wall. Through the alleys they ran, until they circled back to one of the broken hydrants. The street was flooded by now. "Straight across."
They could hear the Irkens curse in their native tongue as the water spray threatened to burn them. Their shields would protect them from the spray but they still had to tread carefully across the shallow river running down the street.
"Put me down," Gaz yelled.
"No time. Sorry. Hang tight."
She yelled several more directions at the boy and yanked him over a fence that his adrenaline barely pulled him to the top of. "Honestly, what were you thinking? Mothman told you to-"
"Dib." Gaz shot the words out with as much venom as she could muster, considering the pounding her body was taking. "I don't know who Mothman is."
Agent Kelpie skid slightly trying to turn under her speed and both their weights, but still managed the energy to roll her eyes. She'd forgotten. Mothman's sister had been opposed to everything related to the organization. That's why he had retired at all. To protect her. Well where the hell was he now?
"Dib told you to stay put."
"I never listen to him, anyway."
"Gazalene Membrane this is serious. Your father's work is putting the planet at risk and you're making things worse."
"I was buying time."
"By getting yourself hunted?"
Crossing the water had allowed them to gain some distance on the soldiers but not enough. Irkens are a far more advanced species and their scanning technology could pick out a specific acorn in a entire north american deciduous forest. Ducking into a building and hiding was not an option. Our only hope is getting far enough off their course that they decide to return to their main objective.
"How many others were in your little group?" Gaz mumbled something that Kelpie couldn't hear over the stomping of her own footsteps. "HOW MANY?" Kelpie yelled at the girl.
"Fine! There were 12 but I planned it so that all but Iggins and I would go home after turning on the hydrants."
While running, the thought about Gaz's detailed roleplay story suddenly made sense to Iggins. "You knew these were REAL ALIENS?!" He yelled, using air that his lungs just didn't have. A missed step later and he went skidding into a garbage can with a crash.
Agent Kelpie slid to a stop and released Gaz in favor of helping the boy up. Gaz's leg gave out on her the moment it touched the ground. "We need to move," Kelpie said, extricating the teen from the pile of refuse.
"How much farther?"
"We just have to keep going until they-"
A shout came from ahead of them and echoed off the walls. "Halt! State your intentions!"
The voice was spoken in Irken.
All of them froze. The teens followed Agent Kelpie's lead as she raised her arms. "Sorry I don't speak Irken. Can you please speak English? Language entry 100724B."
The Irken stared at them for a moment before repeating himself in fluent english. "State your intentions, and how you know our language coding system."
A cold wind whistled through the alley. Agent Kelpie took a deep breath and spoke slow and calmly. "I am Agent Kelpie of the Swollen Eyeballs Organization. You may not have any record of us but we returned a fugitive to one of your soldiers years back. The languages of this planet were added to your systems then. The organization has informed me of the code since we knew the empire had returned."
The irken stared at them for a moment more. "Confirmed. Now state your intentions. Why did you attack us?"
"This wasn't an attack. These two," Kelpie said, indicating the two teens, "are children. They played a prank on the 'aliens' and didn't realize how serious it was." Please let him believe this.
More irkens rounded the corner, raising their weapons to aim at the humans. Their eyes glanced back and forth among themselves as an electronic exchange of information occurred. Weapons charged, and then… nothing.