I do not own invader Zim or Waking life. This was only inspired by them and I do not own them at all. Thank you. I do own the made up names tho and some of the made up language such as prisoner 777's name Fevir.
Thank you for reading and please review
Dib: "this is the question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I, or the others crazy?" words spoken by Albert Einstein.
Chapter 3- Dream is Destiny
Dib quickly rushed into his house knocking the door out of his way and quickly headed for the lab.
"DIB, how dare you leave me alone at skool-?"
"NOT NOW GAZ!" cried Dib. "I need to help him!"
"Who?"
"ZIM!" cried dib.
"You're crazy!" shouted the girl from the couch.
"Am I? Am I crazy? Am I losing my senses? I'm panicking here!" cried dib running for his father's lab.
Skoodge following closely behind along with gir and minimoose.
"Come on hurry!" skoodge cried carrying Zim over his shoulder. His PAK beeping hysterically giving the idea that something was horribly wrong.
"What the-?" Gaz opened one brown eye to stare at the scene.
She never really expected this...
- down at the lab
"What can we do?" asked dib clearing a table.
"I don't know. GIR, stay upstairs and watch TV. Minimoose make sure he stays up there and in the house." said skoodge putting Zim down.
"So what can we do?" asked dib again, nervous.
"I don't know. His PAK is slightly damaged and his body is at the brink of shutting down due to the lack of blood, I don't even know how to help him... I don't think his PAK will support him much longer... I wish we could use his lab or just have someone help us." said skoodge frustrated. "The PAK can't reactivate... and the power core is slightly damaged by the shock...unless we can find a way to modify the PAK and get it to reactivate and keep Zim alive... I don't know what to do..."
Dib stared at the unconscious irken on the table.
"Hang on... the PAK serves as your brain and life support right?"
"Sort of. The irken PAK has many things, it holds our life support, our memories, our personality, our status, it helps circulate our blood and in moments when we lack nutrition it can help us regain proteins and such. it also serves as an extra set of lungs sometimes or as a flash cloning when it comes to organs and such, let's just say it's like a living computer." said skoodge as fast as he could.
"Hang on. You said the PAK helps circulate blood. Like a heart?" asked Dib thinking.
"Sort of."
"Ok it has a power core right?"
"Yes."
"How much power will we need in order to reactivate it the core or just plain fix it?"
"A ton of power, but why?"
Dib smiled at skoodge and took out a remote to the garage.
"Because I just thought of a way we can perform CPR on the PAK."
"That's impossible." said skoodge. "What's CPR?"
"It means you can save someone's life by restarting their hart sort of." Said Dib.
"Like I said, that's impossible! That kind of reactivation will probably mess with zim's systems, possibly his memories, his personality; everything will be erased while the bodily functions of the PAK will continue to function."
"You said the PAK was like a computer."
"Yes?"
"Maybe we can back it up? You know put all the data somewhere just in case the PAK erases anything." said dib eyes wide.
Skoodge just stared at him.
"You're crazy... I like you! And it's a good idea; now let's just hope it works."
"Then let's get him connected."
And the two started to work.
Whose hand is this?
Oh that's right...it's my own...
Isn't it?
Who am I?
Where am I?
Zim opened his eyes and looked around. His ocular implants adjusting to the light.
It was the training facility on Devastis! He'd recognize this place anywhere.
It was Devastis.
The underground training facility for smeets, this was right after Zim caused the blackout on irk... but why was he here? What could possibly be happening?
"Come on Zim just play!" said a voice behind him.
"Huh?" Zim turned around and saw the nursery. He remembered this...it was back when he was about two years old...
And he saw it, he saw himself as a smeet...
He couldn't help but stare in awe.
Young Zim was with skoodge and Sneakyonfoota in the nursery back when Sneakyonfoota was zim's friend, and before he grew a little.
They were playing a game of gorf, the equivalent of the fortune telling game that young humans would play.
The one with the folded paper.
"Okies. I'll play." sighed the young Zim in defeat.
Sneakyonfoota had the paper.
"Uhhhhm, pick a color."
"purple." said young Zim standing on his toes trying to see what his outcome will be "that's my favorite color."
"P-u-r-p-l-e...pick a number."
"eight." he responded again.
"1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Pick one more number."
"Fifteen."
"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15...pick another number."
"Six."
The trio waited for young Zim's fortune.
"okay." said Sneakyonfoota flipping the paper to read the fortune behind it.
"Dream is destiny."
"Downloading complete. All his memories and personality functions are now safely saved... in seven computers." sighed Dib.
"Better than nothing... ok his vitals read that he is comatose due to the lack of air." said skoodge reading information off a data pad.
"Got it. The pulse is ready, we just need to make sure it works." said dib typing away on his laptop.
"Got it! Man, he has a lot of brain activity. Okay my computer is recording anything he's thinking up now, and it will send the pulse to the core. Let's just hope this thing works."
"Where are you getting all this power anyway?" asked skoodge.
"I have an irken ship, that thing caused a black out once so I know it will work on Zim."
"Irken ship? Wait a sec... The only other ship on this planet other than my ship and zim's voot cruisers is Tak's! You're using Tak's ship!" said skoodge
"Wait a sec... now I remember you, you're that guy Zim hates! Your dib-stink!" he growled.
"Yes I am." said dib nervously.
"You are not going to do anything." hissed skoodge threatening.
"It's not what you think. I want to help him! I DONT WANT HIM TO DIE EITHER." said dib through clenched teeth.
"Why are you helping me then?" asked skoodge threatening dib by taking out his PAK's spider legs.
"I don't know..." said dib" but I do know that I don't want him to die either, look I understand that your uneasy, but trust me I don't want to hurt him. I swear on it."
Skoodge looked at the boys eyes, he was telling the truth, but still... just in case.
"Fine, I'll let you work, but I want you to swear on your balls." said skoodge with a smirk.
"My what?"
"Swear on your balls." said skoodge again.
"WHAT?" dib immediately covered the spot that skoodge was talking about.
"That's the one thing males don't want to lose, so I'm telling you...swear on your balls and if you're telling the truth I won't rip them off." said skoodge with a grin.
"You're pure evil! Fine ill swear on them, but I'm telling you the truth." said dib nervously.
"Then you have nothing to worry about." said skoodge smiling. "Make sure you don't change anything about him either...okay everything is set up. Let's get started." said skoodge returning to the data pad.
"o-okay." said dib nervously. Irkens sure were evil.
"Okay the pulse will be up in about thirty seconds." said dib typing away on his computer.
"What if we don't have enough?" asked skoodge.
"Then... we wait." said dib pressing enter.
"PROGRAM STARTING." said a robotic voice.
"Come on Zim." whispered skoodge, hoping that the plan will work and that it would save his only friend.
(A.N. - take note that Zim is dreaming, and he will act a little out of character but oh well, my story, my rules.)
Zim stood on a side walk on irk. He was at the landing station and was waiting for a friend to pick him up.
Only his friend was late and Zim was starting to lose his patience.
So he decided to call his friend.
"Dammit skoodge where the hell are you?" asked Zim to no one in particular, he grabbed his communicator and dialed Skoodge's com number.
322.0031 HD 113...that was Skoodge's number...
"*beep* yo, this is skoodge, I can't pick up right now, so call me back or just leave me a message."
"Grr. I hate you." hissed Zim to Skoodge's answering machine.
Then he saw her. An irken female, standing at the corner of the sidewalk. She was purple eyed, and she had a custom made uniform and a strange device coming out of her left temple.
Who was she?
Zim couldn't help but stare at her, and smile politely, and then she caught sight of him and smiled back.
"Hey man, it's me. Um, I just got back into town. I thought maybe I could bum a ride off you or something, but that's cool. I could probably just take a cab, something like that. Um - Yeah, I guess I'll hang out with you later, or something like that." said Zim, not really thinking about what he was saying, he was still distracted by the female.
"Hey kid!" called out a voice.
Zim looked around and saw a car hovering over to him.
"A custom made hurududu?" thought Zim looking onto the car, it was different from the others; it looked almost like a mix of a convertible and a vootcruiser.
"Hey there kid! You need a lift?" asked the irken driving.
"Oh, um, yeah, actually, I was waiting for a cab or something, but if you want to ..." said Zim rather surprised and uneasy.
"Alrighty then, come on get in or you'll miss the flight." laughed the other irken opening the door so Zim can get in.
He gets in.
"Hey, thanks." said Zim. There was something strange about all this, the two irkens seemed...familiar.
"Not a problem. Blast off!" laughed the irken driving, he was tall, very tall, and he had small green eyes that shined like emeralds.
"so what's your name kid?" asked the other irken, this one was female, she was also very tall, and she was beautiful, wielding sapphire blue eyes, and long curled antennae.
"I am Zim!" said Zim rather proudly.
"Zim huh? Cool name! My name is Miyuki, driver over there is named Spork." she said pointing at the driver.
"Pleasure to meet both of you." said Zim rather nervous, these tall irkens were treating him well; something odd was going on, tallers don't really treat the smallers like equals, or as friends. The only time when they would treat a smaller well was if the taller would stare at the smaller at eyelevel and curl its antennae around the smallers in friendship...but that was rarely done. So why were these tallers treating Zim. A smaller, as if he were their equals.
Spork then cut off zim's train of thought.
"So what do you think of my little vessel?" asked Spork.
"She's pretty. Custom made?"
"Hell yeah. She's what we call "see-worthy." S-E-E. See with your eyes. I feel like my transport should be an extension of my personality. Voila. And this?" said Spork pointing to the wind shield window.
"This is like my little window to the world, and every minute it's a different show. Now, I may not understand it. I may not even necessarily agree with it. But I'll tell you what; I accept it and just sort of glide along. You want to keep things even; I guess is what I'm saying. You want to go with the flow. A sea refuses no river. The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. Saves on introductions and good-byes. The ride does not require an explanation. Just occupants." said Spork.
"Yeah, and that's where I think you guys come in. It's like you come onto this planet with a crayon box. Now, you may get the 8-pack, you may get the 16-pack. But it's all in what you do with the crayons, the colors that you're given. And don't worry about drawing within the lines or coloring outside the lines. I say color outside the lines. You know what I mean? Color right off the page. Don't box me in. BE AND INDIVIDUAL, see the problems, work it through, don't let them control you, were not drones or machines, I'll tell ya that." said Miyuki smiling and winking at Zim.
Zim couldn't help but smile and stare up at the pinkish sky of irk, feeling the wind run through his antennae.
"So where do you want out Zim-roo?" asked Spork smiling.
"Uh, who, me? Am I first? Um, I don't know. Really, anywhere is fine." said Zim not really caring. He didn't really want the ride to end.
"Well, just - just give me an address or something, okay?" said Spork.
"Uh -" Zim then heard Miyuki speak.
"Tell you what, go up three more streets, take a right, go two more blocks, drop Zim-roo off on the next corner." she said smiling a little.
"Where's that?" asked Zim, antennae twitching in curiosity.
"Well I don't know either, but it's somewhere, and it's going to determine the course of the rest of your life." said Miyuki flicking an antenna on zim's neck.
"Ha ha ha ha ha." Zim laughed as he felt Miyuki tickle him.
"I like you two." said Zim.
"Hopefully we'll see each other again Zim-roo, hopefully." said Spork.
"SPORK LOOK OUT!" shouted Miyuki.
Suddenly Spork screamed as he saw a creature before him.
"What?" Zim looked up and recognized the creature.
"Cthulu?"
Zim suddenly remembered they were his tallest...
"Zim get out of here now!" shouted Miyuki. But it was too late; they were all in the beasts fangs now.
Then darkness followed.
Zim woke up in sweat and in horror of what he just dreamed up.
Now he was in Mrs. Bitter's class.
"Zim you were asleep for ten minutes in my class, now read the survival manual out loud to us!." said Mrs. bitters angrily.
"yes sir." said Zim still a little shaken, as he opened the book he noticed that there were no words in it, it was all blank, then he looked at the clock and noticed that the numbers weren't focused, they seemed to be dancing around.
"What's wrong Zim? Can't read our human language?" asked dib laughing from the other side of the room.
"I can't read it." whispered Zim. The skool bell suddenly ringing.
- After skool.
"Hey Zim." as Zim was walking down the steps to the side walk he heard a voice call him. It was Gaz.
"Dib-sibling?" asked Zim.
"Yeah, let's walk home together." said Gaz hoping down the steps and taking out her game slave 2.
Zim was hesitant to follow.
"Are you coming?" asked Gaz turning around and opening a brown eye.
"Alright Gaz-beast, but don't try anything funny." said Zim glaring.
"I wont." said Gaz walking off, Zim following.
After a while Zim noticed that they were not in Gaz's home block. They were somewhere else. And they were walking in the middle of the street.
"Don't worry, cars won't come by here." said Gaz almost as if she was reading Zim's mind.
Zim looked around at the houses and at the street. It was so peace full.
"So I heard you tried to commit suicide. What's wrong? Self destruct button doesn't work?" asked Gaz, playing her game slave.
"What? Oh yeah, it doesn't work. The Tallest's deactivated it so I may suffer in this horrible planet- WAIT A MINUTE!"Shouted Zim. "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT-"
"News spreads quickly when dib stalks you, and of cause when I meet gir at bloaty's pizza hog. I can tell you that much." she responded coolly.
"Oh..." Zim continued to walk with Gaz.
"You have allot to live for Zim, but tell you what. A self-destructive man feels completely alienated, utterly alone. He's an outsider to the human community. He thinks to himself, "I must be insane." What he fails to realize is that society has, just as he does, a vested interest in considerable losses and catastrophes."
"But I'm not a human you worm baby." said Zim.
"I know. But just go along with it." said Gaz, not looking up from her game.
"Anyways, these wars, famines, floods and quakes meet well-defined needs. Man wants chaos. In fact, he's gotta have it. Depression, strife, riots, murder, all this dread. We're irresistibly drawn to that almost orgiastic state created out of death and destruction. It's in all of us. We revel in it, and it's funny because we all preach of peace and unity when ironically we do all of this stuff." said Gaz still playing her game.
How can she not trip while looking at that thing?
"Sure, the media tries to put a sad face on these things, painting them up as great human tragedies. But we all know the function of the media has never been to eliminate the evils of the world, no. Their job is to persuade us to accept those evils and get used to living with them. The powers that be want us to be passive observers. There is an actual problem going on and all we can say is "well that's too bad" and then we go back to eating our dinners and keeping ourselves entertained. Funny how they succeed. Pshh, America." said Gaz waving her game slave as if to emphasize.
"Hey, you got a match?" she suddenly asked.
Zim looked through his pockets and surprisingly he found one, and gave it to Gaz.
"Thanks. And they haven't given us any other options outside the occasional, purely symbolic, participatory act of voting. You want the puppet on the right or the puppet on the left?" said Gaz putting her game slave away and keeping the match in hand.
They were not in their neighborhood anymore. They were somewhere else. Where the humans had tiny eyes and pale round faces.
What did they call them? Oh that's right, Asians, they were called Asians. They were somewhere in Asia.
Zim suddenly saw someone sitting cross legged in the street, he was soaked and there was a gallon of gasoline next to him.
The man was bald and was wearing bright orange robes with beads. Where was this from?
He saw it somewhere.
It was a Buddhist monk.
"I feel that the time has come to project my own dissatisfactions into the sociopolitical and scientific schemes, let my own lack of a voice be heard." said the monk taking the match from Gaz and set himself on fire yelling "down with the diem regime!"
And so his voice was heard.
Rebellion.
Zim and Gaz and other people watched in horror at the scene.
Zim couldn't move.
He couldn't help.
Why did he want to anyways was the bigger question.
"You have a lot to live for. You just need to find a way to reclaim a purpose." said Gaz. "Let your voice be heard." she said handing him a broken megaphone and walking away.
"Practice what you preach." she said disappearing.
And then Zim felt the world shake.
"Pulse Active." said the computer.
"It worked! Oh thank irk!" shouted skoodge.
"Come on Zim!" said Dib anxious.
"Recovery mode activated- reactivate." said a voice in the PAK and then it pulsed and flashed.
"Yes!" "Yeah!" the two celebrated, waiting for Zim to come back, and to regain consciousness.
"Memory flow is good! Circulation returning and organs functioning!" said Skoodge reading his data pad, tears forming in his eyes.
Zim suddenly found himself on planet Vort, he was in the middle of the street with some vortians and other species, and he was the only irken there.
All of them were crammed together facing one direction, staring at a stage.
And who was on that stage.
None other than Lard Nar, leader of the Vortians and the Resisty, behind him stood prisoner 777, otherwise known as Fevir.
Lard Nar had a megaphone in his hand and he started shouting into it.
Zim looked up to see who Lard Nar was shouting to.
It was the Massive.
"You can't fight Irken hall, death and taxes. Don't talk about politics! This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket saw it all through the Century, and now it's time to stand up and realize that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze. We should not submit to slavery devortianlization (A. N.-think de humanizing). I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world. I'm concerned with the structure. I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more! I want freedom! That's what I want! And that's what you should want!" he shouted to the people listening.
"It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and show them the greed, the hatred, the envy, and yes, the insecurities because that is the central mode of control - make us feel pathetic, small so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny. We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale. Start challenging this corporate slave state! This is going to be our new century, not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance and classism and all the rest of the modes of control! It's going to be the age of vortian kind standing up for something pure and something right! Freedom!" shouted Lard Nar, the crowd cheering.
"What a bunch of garbage - Tallest, Irken law, product and force. It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin. Two management teams bidding for control! The job of Slavery, Incorporated! The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies, banquet of false promises. I'm sick of it, and I'm not going to take a bite out of it! Do you hear me?" shouted Lard Nar at the Massive.
"Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing. Vortian kind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers! We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be Vortian beings! We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and the dynamic spirit that refuses to submit! Well that's it! That's all I got to say! It's in your court." he shouted smashing the Megaphone on the floor.
He suddenly looked at Zim who was in the cheering crowd.
Zim was the only one not cheering. He was in shock.
"Now it's your turn kid." said Lard Nar before disappearing off stage.
Zim suddenly realized something. "This is a dream." he whispered. "Am I crazy?" he asked himself.
"You're not crazy Zim you're just going sane in a crazy world." said a soft, familiar, female voice.
"You got that right." said another.
"So we can't just ignore the problem. We have to find room in our contemporary world view for persons; not just bodies, but persons. And that means trying to solve the problem of freedom, finding room for choice and responsibility, and trying to understand individuality." said the familiar female voice.
Zim turned around and saw his former tallest. Miyuki and Spork.
"Go get 'em kiddo." said Miyuki.
And then a flash of light, and a flash of darkness.
"Wake up!" shouted a voice, and Zim did so.
He bolted upwards sitting up and gasped for air desperately.
to be con10ued...
well thats it folks. the lesson here is stand up to opression and to be an individual against others so your voice can be heard. sorry it took so long. im sick :P
well i hope you enjoyed and review!
love yours truly
sakiko of soleana