"Attention guards, the most recent prisoner has escaped. Keep an eye out for someone who doesn't look like they belong. Soldiers are ordered to kill on the spot."
"Are you proud of yourself, Gir?" Zim whispered after hearing the announcement, still crouching somewhere in the vent system. "Now everyone knows I've escaped, and no doubt Gaz told them I'm in the vents."
Gir looked down, and Zim rolled his eyes. "It's not gonna work this time, Gir."
He saw tears dripping down from Gir's face.
"I've lived with that act for 1,000 years, Gir," his voice was beginning to crack a bit. Gir's shoulders began shaking. Zim sighed.
"All right, I forgive you."
"You're not mad anymore?" Gir said quietly.
"No, I'm not mad anymore," Zim said, defeated.
"YAY!"
"Sshh, Gir! And it won't be so easy to gain forgiveness next time, do you hear me?" Gir nodded happily.
"Alright, well, since they know we're in the vents, and hiding in the castle would be suicide, let's change the plan a bit."
Gir stared expectantly.
"Okay, instead of going through with the original plan, we'll do Part A, then skip Part B and go straight to Part C. If Part D is succesful, we may not even have to worry about Part B. If not, we have Plan B."
"I didn't understand anything you just said!" Gir exclaimed. Zim sighed.
"Alright, then just do what I say when I say it, okay?"
"Okay!"
"Good, Gir."
Zim started crawling forward again, then realized he had no clue where he was going. He ordered his PAK to show him the hologram he had downloaded while he was still dodging the guards outside the castle.
A 3D map-like image of the huge castle was projected in front of him, with a little red dot somewhere in the vent system.
"Damn," he whispered, letting the projector retract back into his PAK. "The only possible exit is all the way across the castle. Since we don't know where our objective is, it will probably take a while before we can escape successfully."
"I like tacos," Gir whispered back.
"Of course you do, Gir." Zim was looking down into the openings in the vent. He hoped that the objective was nearby.
"So, I was thinking..."
"Mmhmm." he replied, not really listening.
"That, maybe when the mission is over..."
"Mmhmm."
"Well, maybe we can stop by Earth..."
"Mmhmm."
"You know, for some tacos?"
"Mmhmm."
"'Cause, you know, I really like tacos."
"Mmhmm."
"And, well, I gave you my last one, and you threw it against the wall in the prison cell thingy..."
"Mmhmm."
"And I'm really hungry..."
"Mmhmm."
"And I did a good job giving you the drill..."
"Mmhmm."
"And-"
"Wait, Gir, sshh." Zim said suddenly, over one of the vent openings. Through it, he noticed a supply room. Thinking ahead to his mission, he undrilled the cover and pulled it in before it could crash on the floor.
A worker was facing away from a shelf that had some duct tape on it. Zim thought it would be very useful, so he attatched his suction cup beam to the top of the vent and signaled Gir to be absolutely silent.
Checking to see that the worker was still facing away from him, he quickly lowered himself down and grabbed the duct tape, pulling himself back up just in time. The worker turned around and looked at the shelf, staring at it strangely.
Zim reattatched the vent cover and crawled away quickly and silently. He cringed when he heard a crash and a cry, realizing he had forgotten to screw the nails back in. He crawled more and hoped that knowing he was just there wouldn't help the soldiers find him.
Ah, well.
"So, anyway..." Gir said quietly.
"Hold that thought." Zim turned around to face Gir. He pulled out about a foot of duct tape, ripped it off, and stuck it on Gir's mouth. He placed the little robot on his back and kept crawling, relieved to have some quiet.
He looked down into the next opening and saw a dark room. Suddenly, a door opened to his left and let light flood in. Someone flipped a switch, and he could see about 10 soldiers walk cautiously into the huge ball room, followed by Gaz.
Zim grinned evilly.
The objective had arrived.