Torch= flashlight.

Lift= elevator.

- -- - - -- ---

Zim let out a breath when they arrived at his base. GIR was out, which meant he couldn't give Zim away. Or, at least, give him away any more than he already was. How had this stupid human found out? He had mae it very clear while they were walking that he knew Zim wasn't a regular human.

'Stay here.' Zim said, indicating the front room. 'I'll go and get paper and stuff.' He went into the kitchen and searched through cupboards until he found GIR's drawing tools. Why couldn't that robot be moore like any other SIR unit? or even like an Irken? Instead he had to "draw" and "dance."

Torque grinned when Zim left the room. He shed the clothes he had been wearing, then slid through the cracks in the floor. 'Where are you going?' The computer asked him.

'To the power core.' He replied, still sliding down through layers of metal tubing.

'Oh. Well, it's more to your left.' Torque accepted the directions and veered slightly. The computer internally grinned. That was his good deed for the day.

-----

Zim dragged the equipment out to the front room, still grumbling about GIR. 'Eh?' he said, when he turned around. 'Torque? Where are you?' Stupid human! This wasn't the time to be playing games. 'Get out here right now!' Zim waited for TOrque to respond. 'Computer! Where did the Torque beast go?'

'Subject: Torque is currently on his way to the power core. Torque has al-'

'What!?' Zim interrupted the computer, 'He's going to the power core?! Computer! Take me to the power core!'

Computer shrugged and carried Zim down. At least he had tried to tell Zim that Torque was a grey shape-shifting blob, but it wasn't his fault that his master had ignored him.

Zim lost his balance when the lift jerked to a halt, and the lights went out. 'Eh? Computer, what are you doing?' He asked from the floor. He didn't get a response. 'Computer? What are you doing?' THe computer still didn't answer. 'Computer?' He stopped for a few seconds. 'Oh. The power's been cut. Stupid computer. You should have stopped the human.' He brought out his lasers and blasted a hole in the side of the lift. 'I'll have to get there myself.'

Zim went throught the hole and shone his torch around, finding he was in the hologram room. 'Close!' But he was still 50 metres above the power core room, and too far to the right. He went to the door and pressed the button that opened it.

'Why won't you open!?' He shouted at it. Then he gave a slight laugh. 'Power's out.' He levered the door open with his spiderlegs and stood in the corridor, looking about. Left was that way, and he was sure there was a lift shaft he could blast a hole into and climb down to reach the power core room.

He walked down the hall, tapping on the walls occasionally. The shaft had to be around here somewhere. He just had to think of a suitable torture for the Torque human. He had always wanted to know the side effects eating too much had on humans, but had never had a specimen to test on. It would be humourous to see the child burst open like the balloon GIR had once. He had just kept on blowinng it up, fuller and fuller, until it popped, making GIR cry and forcing Zim to buy him a new balloon, and blow it up himself. Imagine that, a fully traned Irken soldier reduced to blowing up balloons for his SIR unit.

Zim continued tapping on the walls, still not hearing the echo that would suggest the lift shaft was nearby. Maybe the coomputer had moved it when it was cleaning. Stupid computer, had to clean up every Spring. Said it was traditional. 'Tradition! Ha!' Zim then looked about embarrased. Luckily nobody was around to hear him.

He had started tapping on the other side of the hallway when his torch started to flicker. He looked down at it, confused. Irken products don't break, and it was stocked with Everlast batteries. They never failed. Put the Vortian company out of business, but that was their problem.

He pulled out the batteries and looked at them, squinting to see with just the regular ocular implants. Stupid GIR had stolen his night vision goggles. 'These are human batteries!' GIR must have taken his Everlast's and replaced them with inferior human batteries. Zim threw them to the ground, then threw the torch after them. "stupid GIR!' he shouted, banging on the walls.

'Oooooh' he banged on the wall again. It was hollow! This was where the lift shaft was. He was about to burn a hole in the wall when he felt... things grab him around the waist and pull him back against a soft, squishy surface.

'Aaaaah!' Zim screamed, before a tentacle entered his mouth, stifling his cries.

'Shhhh, Zim, shhhhh.' Zim heard, or at least, thought he heard. The words were definately there, but he didn't know where they had come from. 'Don't panic, though the taste of your fear is so very, very sweet. I now understand what they all were on about' A tentacle wound up Zims back, sliding behind the PAK and threatening to pull it voice moaned at the increase of fear from Zim. He reluctantly removed the tentacle. 'But i was always told not to play with my food. Do you know what I am, Zim?' He removed the tentacle from Zims mouth.

'Who are you!? How did you get in here? What are you talking about? I'm not food.' Zim started thrashing about. The creature held him tighter, threatening to snap something if Zim moved again.

'I am a Spith, though you may know me as Torque Smacky. I-'

'Torque! I knew there was something odd about him.' Then the rest of the sentence caught up with Zim. 'A, A Spith? But you're nothing but stories told to us by army trainers. You're all dead, or you don't exist. You can-' He was cut off by a tentacle being shoved into his mouth, choking off his words.

'I've only been Torque for a day, so anything strange was just him. And concerning your objections, I do exist and I am here. There aren't many of us left, though, and we've been living off these /humans/.' He said the word with disgust. 'You can just imagine my surprise when I found an Irken living here. I've only heard about you lot. But from what I've tasted so far, the tales aren't wrong. i have also heard that one Irken can last for months, or even years, if you eat them sparingly, and let everything grow back. I'll have to see if their right about that one, too.'

Zim stared up a muffled protest. He was an invader! He wasn't food for some dead fantasy creature!

'What's that? I can't eat you? Why don't we find out?' Zim felt his left hand get engulfed by the same substance that the creature was made of. His hand started burning, as if it was being placed in a big vat of water. He started screaming as the burning continued, his screams echoing louder than the moans of pleasure coming from the spith.