"What the hell!" Dib saw the shadowed figure standing with his arm blaster aimed towards him and the others. The only features visible in the darkness were the lights on his gun and his two red eyes. Dib helped Kor stand up, she was still clutching her wound, the laser had gone straight through her causing her great pain. The figure watched as Kor's wound sealed itself up and looked as if she was never shot.
"So the dossier was right, you really can't be killed, at least not easily," He spoke.
"Living on a planet where global slaughter is as normal as breakfast does that to you," Kor answered.
"Ha, well my immortal target, you're gonna make this hunt really fun."
"Woah, wait, hunt? What the hell is going on!" Dib yelled, "And who are you?!"
"Me? I was never given a name, my superiors just call me Squadron Scavenge Soldier Unit X-001. Oh, and I'm basically here bring your mangled corpses to Tak while giving her some quality entertainment to pass the time."
"Tak knows we escaped already? And already sent someone to find us?"
"Hey Dib, I know having intel is good and all but mangled corpses sounds painful," Daj said, "and since we only have a laser-blade as a means of defense, I think we should run."
"Sure, I want a challenge, it makes things more fun, I'll even give you a good five minute lead," The SSS Unit said.
"Wait, I need answers!" Dib shouted.
"Dib, shut up and run!" Kor grabbed Dib and the four started running away. The SSS Unit just stood and watched them, and after five minutes, he slowly walked in the same direction.
"Come on, come on," Red was getting impatient at the monitor. It has been trying to establish a connection for five minutes.
"Red, do you want a cookie?" Purple held out a plate of cookies towards Red, "I sent this Irken to get us some. He was really round and short, let's shoot him at a star later."
"Sure, I could eat something while we wait for the monitor to work."
"I know we saw Zim's name on that holofile but are you sure Zim could be the Irken that's destroying all our planets?"
"When an Irken dies their PAK is disconnected from the Irken mainframe, meaning they can't be monitored or tracked. Also you need Invader level insight to be able to find all our essential planets and take them out as strategically as that."
"But Zim is so...stupid, could he really take over all those planets in such a short time. Didn't he spend cycles just trying to take over that rock?"
"I know, but Zim's the only Invader whose PAK mysteriously disconnected several cycles ago, and yet we saw him recently."
"But Zim's so...stupid."
"I know, but what's the one planet he has harmed the most in his lifetime?"
"Irk! My Irk, it makes so little sense, and yet, it makes so much sense!"
"Exactly, but hopefully Zim is still stuck on that rock as long as Skoodge did his duty. We just have to connect to his base, I'm getting a faint signal from it so we just have to wait until it stabilizes."
Red and Purple continued to stare at their giant monitor, hoping to prove their suspicions wrong. Now if only they could connect to Earth.
"COME ON ALREADY!"
"How come we can't ever find a peaceful planet, you know, where something doesn't try to kill us every two seconds!" Dib was frantically running with the others. They couldn't fight that thing with only a laser sword, Daj and Kry were unarmed, and Kor's gloves and boots weren't functioning properly. They had to find someplace to hide.
"I think you just have crappy luck," Kor said.
"Hey, has it been five minutes yet?" A laser shot out and skimmed Daj's head-scales.
"Yes," Daj said plainly. Dib looked behind him and saw the hunter's figure in the distance, it was growing in size.
"My dear prey!" The hunter shouted, "Next time provide a greater challenge by not running in one direction!"
"Oh man, think, what can we do?!" Dib yelled.
"Run faster!" Daj said, even though they all knew they were running as fast as they can. Dib looked back to see the hunter running faster and readying his laser. However, Dib felt the ground disappear beneath him, and he'd have fallen if Kor didn't grab him. Dib saw that they had reached a cliff that overlooked a lower part of the devastated city. The footsteps of the hunter grew louder, so Dib decided to do the only logical thing.
"We're gonna have to jump!" Dib ordered.
"Woah, wait, I know I can survive but your species is kind of fragile," Kor said, "We should think-"
"1, 2, 3, jump!" Daj grabbed Kor, then he and Dib leaped across the cliff with Kry, just as a laser flew over them. Daj and Kry were aiming to land on one of the buildings, they weren't even close. They saw the hunter approach the edge of the cliff, then sighed in relief when he turned back, only to grimace in anger and disbelief when the hunter jumped after them, then he started charging his laser.
Kor tried to think of someway to avoid that laser, even though it wouldn't kill her, she knew from experience that the laser burns hurt more than the fall. She looked to her boots and got an idea, but unfortunately her boots and gloves were malfunctioning after the crash. Seeing as how she couldn't tinker with them until they worked, she did the only thing she could do, hit them. She placed her soles against Daj and started kicking them against each other. Just as the hunter's laser shot, Kor's boots lit up and pushed Daj and Kor away from each other, causing the laser to hit the empty space between them. The thrust from the boots launched Daj, who Dib was holding onto, farther into the city, unfortunately this also had the effect of launching Kor in the opposite direction, diagonally into the face of the cliff, then falling to the ground. Kor would've rather been hit by the laser.
Kor starting getting up, catching a glimpse of something crashing into the building closest to her. She was about to turn to it when something else landed in front of her. For the first time, she saw him clearly. He was in full armor, the metallic breastplate, the shiny boots, that annoying laser strapped to his left hand, all topped off with his menacing helmet with two large, horn-like objects projecting from it. Then she saw the inside of his laser.
"The Fefian," he joyfully said, "You know, invading planet after planet gets very tiring and repetitive after awhile."
Come on, Kor, she thought to herself, don't psyche yourself out, no matter what happens you won't die.
"So when Tak told me that I was gonna participate in a hunt, at first I was overjoyed."
Alright, what to do. I can't rely on my gear to bail me out again, guess I can only drag what's left of my body after he shoots me. This is gonna hurt.
"But then I realized that this will pretty much be similar to an invasion, only on a smaller scale, then all the joy went away."
It shouldn't take longer than five minutes to heal from a shot like this, hopefully during that time he won't try to disintegrate me with multiple laser shots, it wasn't fun the last time it happened on Fefa.
"Then I read your dossier, and I became happy again. The unkillable being, no matter what's thrown at you, you just regenerate rapidly."
Daj and Dib shouldn't be too far into the city, hopefully I can find them.
"The fact that I can't kill you with one shot anywhere on your body like most of my prey makes you the hardest and the most interesting target out of the group. Of course, if there was absolutely no way to kill you, that would make the hunt boring, which is why we developed a way to kill you."
Wow this being can talk, can't he just shoot me al-...wait, what? Kor saw the hunter open a hatch on his laser and pulled out a large vial, then replacing it with a dark green one.
"We found test subjects and gathered experts of how to kill your species and this was made. I'll spare you the details, but all you have to know is that one good shot in the head and you won't be regenerating anything."
"No way, you're lying!" Kor said.
"You can believe that, and I've only been told it works, so let's test it out right now."
Kor felt it for the first time, a mixture of fear and sadness, it was her mortality. She realized that at this moment, her life was going to be over. There was no avoiding a laser mere inches from her face. The moments after she realized this were the longest moments of her life, she just laid there, feeling hopeless.
"ARRRRRRRRGH!" The SSS Unit was knocked over to the ground, a large beast biting at his arm.
"K-Kry?" Kor said the beast's name. Kry had pounced from the rubble he had landed in earlier since Kor didn't push him away with her boots. Kry attacked the hunter relentlessly, using all four of his limbs to claw his way through the armor, constantly shifting his weight to try to keep the hunter grounded, all while biting down on his left arm to prevent him from using the laser.
The hunter used his free arm to push Kry off of him, allowing him to reach a kneeling position, but Kry still had his arm. The hunter clenched his right hand, causing two spikes to jet out, then he quickly tried to strike Kry. Kry saw the spikes and jumped back, unfortunately having to let go of the hunter's arm. The hunter stood back up and braced himself.
"You want to fight me, beast!" He screamed, "I'll mount your head on my wall!"
Kry glared at him and let out a roar. They charged toward each other, but Kry's larger frame and faster speed knocked the hunter down. The hunter was quick to push him off before he bit down again, getting back on his feet and slicing rapidly at the beast. The Darvon watched carefully and dodged all the strikes, each time the spikes skimmed his scales, then he saw an opening and lunge at the hunter, but the hunter swung his left hand, knocking Kry to the ground. Quickly, the hunter charged his laser and aimed it at the fallen creature. Kry recovered quickly and rolled out of the way, narrowly dodging the dark green laser launched from the hunter's arm. He used this opportunity to lunge again, this time spinning the hunter around to fall face-first on the ground.
The hunter got back up only to find the beast had disappeared into the ruined city. He scanned to area and discovered that his helpless, Fefian prey had disappeared too. He looked into the city, frustrated at his failed capture. He walked forward, thinking at how interesting things got.
"Why must you always ruin my plans?"
"Ruin? I always have to save your ass when you do something incredibly stupid! Which happens way too often."
"Please, if I was as stupid as you say then how come my genius plans always work?"
"Because everything always worked out smoothly in your plans, right? We didn't almost get killed five times over on Fefa, those crazy cultists on Heboad didn't try to sacrifice Dib, and Dib didn't lose his hand on Oberox!"
"What are you talking about, those all happened."
"...I would hit you, really hard, right now, if it wasn't for these stupid chains."
Zim and Gaz were bounded by their wrists and to the wall. They've been left alone by Tak while Mimi stood guard for over an hour, the two decided to spend the majority of their time arguing. Their verbal assaults towards each other ended when Tak walked in.
"Oh no, don't stop because I'm here," Tak said, "You two are almost as entertaining as watching your friends flee in terror."
"I take it some of my meat-shields have fallen already?" Zim asked.
"Well...no."
"Ha!"
"But they were close! I'm probably missing out on the SSS units skinning them right now."
"My team can handle your stupid hunters, they all know that I would kill them if they were to die to your troops!"
"As much as I want to call you stupid because of that sentence, actually I will, you're stupid, I came here so my boss can finally talk to you." Tak pulled out a flat monitor then turned it on. The screen filled with static before the image of a shadowed figure took the screen. The shadow was trapezoidal in shape, and only the eyes in the center of the shadow were visible.
"So you're the Employer."
"¡Si! ¡I am, El Employer!" The shadowed figure shouted.
"Okay, hold on, I have two questions before this gets any stupider," Gaz said, "One, what the hell is with the Spanish accent?"
"What Spanish? This is the native language of my species!"
"And two, what kind of evil overlord name is 'The Employer', doesn't exactly scream master of the universe."
"¡¿You DARE mock my name, chica? ¡You will FEAR El Employer!"
"Oh no, fear El Employer, he's gonna dock your paycheck."
"¡Silencio! Why are you alive, anyway? I have no business with you. Tak."
"Yes, sir?" Tak said.
"¿Por qué vive?"
"I don't speak your language, sir."
"Why is she living?"
"Oh, I just haven't decided how to torture her yet. I know her personally, so I want to make the moment special."
"Si, I understand. Now for you, Zim."
"Why are you destroying Irken colonies?" Zim asked.
"Oh, for power, like most tyrants. Me gusta power. How do you gain power? By finding the biggest force in the universe, and crushing it, which just happened to be the Irkens."
"It was my idea first! How dare you take Zim's goals!"
"Jajajajaja, no, I've planned universal conquest before you even had brain cells." Zim got irked by the Employer. Despite the Employer's smooth voice, horrendous use of the Spanish language, and how he resembled a decapitated triangle, Zim kept in mind that he had orchestrated all those invasions. The Employer had invaded more planets than Zim has even been to. That made Zim really irked.
"What do you want from me?"
"Zim, I want you to join me."
"Like I'd join you and your filthy crew, especially with Tak on board."
"I agree, Sir," Tak said, "Zim's a moron, and our moron quotient is way past the limit at the moment."
"No, Tak, Zim has done well in his role, I simply want to reward him."
"What are you talking about?" Zim said.
"Do you think it was a coincidence that I conduct my invasion the same time as yours? I was using you as a pawn, as a scapegoat for the Tallest to focus on while I wait in the shadows to strike, and according to my informant on Irk, it's working."
"I still won't join you."
"Are you sure, Zim? After my invasion is complete I can let you have Irk, I can't rule every planet after all."
"Hey, you promised me Irk!" Tak yelled.
"¡Silencio, Tak!"
"Why would you give me Irk when I'll be conquering it myself?"
"Jajajaja, do you honestly believe that you and some Earth/squishy/cyber/scaly monkeys can defeat all the Irkens?"
"Yes, and nothing will deter the fact that I am superior to you in every way, meaning that I will conquer Irk before you. You cannot bribe or force me to join no matter what your feeble minds thinks of to say. So you shou-"
"You're dying."
"What?" Zim was stunned by the Employer's statement. There was only one thought going through Zim's head, how did he know?
"What the hell is he talking about, Zim?" Gaz asked.
"Yes, what are you talking about?"
"As a future ruler of the universe, it pays to have ears everywhere. It's like I'm some horrendous mutant with multiple ears, and I've had one of them on you. I know about your situation, Zim, how your PAK is disconnected. It means you can't be detected by the Irken mainframe, but, it also means the control brains stop feeding you orders."
"How do you know about the control brains?"
"Ears, Zim, ears! ¡Muchos oídos! I also know that getting your PAK disconnected stops all transmissions of vital nutrients and energy that you Irkens need to live as long as you do. The rate at which you deteriorate isn't as drastic as the removal of your PAK, but it's taking affect. It's a fail-safe to stop rebelling Irkens, like what you're doing now."
"Fine, so what if you know, are you implying that you can fix it?"
"Of course, after all, I was the one who disconnected it in the first place."
"WHAT?!"
"I've been watching you for years Zim, and at the right moment, I removed you from Irk's grid, just like I did with Tak."
"So that's how you got her to obey you."
"Si, and if you join me, I can help you like I he-"
"I want to join."
"What?"
"What?"
"¿Qué?" Tak, Gaz, and the Employer were shocked by how quickly Zim agreed.
"Come on, I said I'd join, now release me and fix my PAK!" Zim demanded.
"Jaja...jajaja...JAJAJAJA! So quick to let me hold you in the palm of mi mano. No."
"No?"
"No."
"You were the one who asked me to join!"
"Not until I see you beg, and say por favor." Zim scowled at him and reluctantly did as he said.
"Let me join, por favor." Tak and the Employer laughed at how pitiful Zim was.
"Okay, okay, now say moo!"
"Moo?"
"Like a cow!"
"I WILL DESTROY YOU! I WILL BURN YOU IN IRK'S CORE! ZIM WILL NOT MOO FOR YOU! YOU WILL DIE! DIE AND BOW TO ZIM!"
"Jajaja, I can't bow after I'm dead, Zim. Also, because of that illogical statement I'm not going to let you join me, ever!"
"Then what was the whole point in talking to me?"
"To get some enjoyment from your anguish before I have Tak kill you. Make sure you record his death too, I want to watch it for years to come."
"Yes, sir," Tak said gleefully. Tak starting walking away with the monitor, leaving Zim to wallow in his anger.
"So how are the rest of the operations going?"
"I'm watching the SSS units hunt down Zim's crew members."
"Excelente, I shall watch with you." After they left the room stayed quiet for a bit. Mimi silently watched Zim and Gaz while Zim kept the same pissed off look on his face when the Employer made a fool out of him. Gaz was still taken aback by what she had just heard.
"Hey, um, do you...do you know how long you have left?" Gaz awkwardly asked.
"No," Zim answered.
"Oh."
"I could die in one-hundred Earth years, or ten, or within the hour."
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I learned about it just recently, when I was doing a bio-scan on myself, but the worst part wasn't finding out that I was going to die, it was finding out I've been dying since three years ago."
"So you've already-"
"Wasted three of your measly Earth years? Yes." Gaz didn't know what to say anymore. Knowing that Zim was going to die at any moment hit her hard, so she remained silent. "Why do you care anyway?"
Gaz didn't know how to answer that question. She couldn't say it's because she had feelings for Zim, she didn't even want to say it was because he was her friend, since when does she have friends?
"I-I was just curious."
"Curious? Half the time you threaten my life with impending doom from your fists! Now you're worried that I'll suddenly die?"
"You're the only one that can take me home, that's it!"
"The Dibship has an autopilot and I'm certain Kor knows how to set the coordinates for your pitiful rock!"
"Then I don't care if you die! You can drop dead right now!" Gaz waited for Zim to say something but he never did. She looked at him and saw that he remained completely still, with his head facing down. She thought it was obviously a trick, so she stuck to her previous statement and taunted Zim about not caring that she's sharing a cell with his corpse.
She kept waiting for Zim to give up his ruse, but as time went by he remained the same. She waited for what seemed like hours but Zim still didn't move, causing her to become increasingly worried. She kept telling herself that he was faking this, there's no way that he could be dead, but what if she was wrong?
"Come on, Zim, stop faking already!" Gaz said nervously, "I know th-that you're not dead, i-it can't be real, right."
Gaz waited longer but still no answer, she looked down and said silently to herself "I don't want you to die."
"HA!" Gaz was shocked and looked to see the Irken staring at her. Her first reaction was to hit him, hard, but they were too far apart for her to reach. "So you were lying."
"What?" Gaz really hoped that Zim didn't hear her.
"I heard you." Damn, she thought.
"Heard what?" Gaz said, playing ignorant.
"You didn't want me to die."
"I didn't say anything like that!"
"It was similar to the time on Oberox when you saw my robot duplicate get destroyed, there was also that strange moment on Heboad in the forest, and you took care of my paralyzed body on Fefa."
"That...that was-"
"That's not like you, something changed since we left Earth. What happened, and why did you do all those thing?"
"Because I do care about you!" Gaz shouted that in anger, but quickly looked away from Zim after she just realized what she just said. Zim was a little shocked by her answer, he kind of knew that the answer was leading to something like that but he didn't know what to say now. He couldn't taunt her for her pitiful Earth feelings, nor could he gloat that he was able to force her to say it. He felt something else, the same feeling he got that made him want to do a bio-scan earlier. The two just became silent once again, but now with increased awkwardness.
"Hey," Zim spoke after deciding that they were wasting time.
"What," Gaz still didn't look at him.
"Do you want to get out of here?" He didn't pursue the earlier topic like Gaz had thought.
"You didn't have to pretend to be dead for so long."
"Long? I was only staying still approximately five Earth minutes."
"What?" Was it all in her head? She thought.
"You haven't answered my question yet."
"Huh?"
"Do you want to escape?"
"Oh, sure." Zim used his leg to press against the ankle of his other leg, causing the binding to open and the force-field to deactivate. The two ran out of their cell, meeting Mimi blocking the door out of the room. Mimi pounced at them but Gaz caught her and threw her in their old cell. Zim pressed his ankle again to reactivate the force-field, trapping their guard.
"How did you do that?" Gaz asked. Zim pulled out a button from his boot.
"I've always had a means to escape the cell, I did go into the detention center's control room, I made sure to pick up the device the Vortian guards use to open the cells." Zim replied.
Zim navigated their way through the corridors until they reached a closed door. Zim was about to open it when an alarm was heard. Zim grabbed Gaz and they ducked into another corridor. The door slammed open, showing Tak holding the monitor with the Employer on it.
"Ugh, so Mimi messed up," Tak said in disgust. She ran towards the cell room, running right by Zim and Gaz. Once it was clear the two ran into Tak's room. There were dozens of monitors, all showing live footage of the area outside, including all their crew members and the Dibship. Next to the monitors was a large map that used the live footage to mark the locations of each member and the five hunters in the area.
"I knew she would use this room," Zim said. He activated his wrist device and pulled out a cable from it and connected it into the console controlling the monitors.
"How do you know about this place?" Gaz asked.
"I told you, I've been here plenty of times. I even worked on some of the technology used here." After a few minutes Zim disconnected the cable, "Alright, now we have a wireless connection to this room and I downloaded the map. It'll constantly update and we'll use it to find the others."
Tak arrived at the cells, the alarm had come from Mimi who was trapped inside. Tak deactivated the cell, letting Mimi out and deactivating her alarm.
"Mimi, what's wrong?" Tak asked.
"The prisoners escaped!" The bot replied.
"Of course they did! Why else would you sound the alarm?"
"Then why would you run to the cells first? The place they obviously wouldn't be in!" The Employer yelled at Tak.
"Because, uhh, don't worry, the only way to escape is through the gate. I can get there before they do and cut them off!" Tak and Mimi ran out of the room, hoping to reach the gate before Gaz and Zim.
"Idiota."
"Hurry up, we should get to the gate before Tak gets smart and realizes she can cut us off there," Gaz said.
"We're not using the gate," Zim said.
"Didn't you say that was the only way out?"
"It's the only way out that Tak and the previous inhabitants know of."
"There's another exit?"
"It's the one my psycho roommate used to come and go as he pleased."
"Then why didn't we use that one earlier?"
"Because I wanted to get captured, I wanted information about who Tak was obeying, so I needed to make sure I had a way out. If we had gone to the secret exit, Tak would get suspicious when you're all gone and the gate never opened."
"So now since she thinks the only exit is through the gate, we can get out without her noticing."
"Exactly. Now let's move quickly, we have one more stop to make." Gaz followed Zim out of the room, towards his secret exit. They didn't talk about what happened in their cell earlier, and both privately decided not to bring it up, at least not now.
"You won't get away with this! I'm important you know! The rest of my team will come for us and you'll all suffer!"
"Will you remain quiet, I didn't want to gag you but now I'm reconsidering." Tel had just finish tying up Tel and his group of Resisty members.
"I will not be silenced! I am justice, I will have vengeance, I will-AHH!" Nar cowered at the sight of a small, cyan robot. The other Resisty members also started trembling when the little robot approached. "Please, I'll be quiet, just get that thing away from us."
"Geez, what did you do to them?" Tel asked.
"I did things," Gir said with a smile on his face.
"Yeah but what specif-"
"Things." Gir said that in such a creepy and robotic tone that Tel decided it was best for him not to know.
"Skoodge, Skoodge! Where are you?" The short Irken popped out of a hole in the Dibship where several Heboadians were working to remove the explosives from the Dibship. "What's the analysis?"
"Everything is trashed and we won't be leaving anytime soon. No bodies of my Tallest or the others could be found, oh and these explosives won't come off." Skoodge jumped down from the Dibship, "We should be looking for Zim anyways! Who would I follow if he dies?"
"You'll listen to me, I may not be as tall as Zim or the others, but I am slightly taller than you."
"Okay."
"Besides, we have to wait for my recon team to return, I don't want to get lost on this planet. They should be back any moment now-"
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" A group of Heboadians frantically ran past Tel and Skoodge in fear. Tel quickly grabbed one of them.
"What the Boad is going on?"
"It's coming," said the Heboadian, "El Chupacabra!"
"What the?"
"Sir, what's a Chupacabra?" Skoodge asked.
"Oh, the Dibship made my people watch a horror movie featuring some Earth monster from Dib's movie collection. It's partially the reason why some many of them are acting like idiots by running around in circles." Tel turned toward the Heboadian he was holding, "There is no Chupacabra or whatever Earth monster you saw."
Suddenly, a giant being leaped down in front of Tel, Skoodge, and Gir. It wore metallic armor all over its body, had gauntlets with two large, claw-like blades attached to them, and it wore a helmet that covered its snout, with markings lining the snout area to mimic the image of sharp teeth. The creature let out a large roar in Tel's face.
"...RUN! EVERYBODY RUN FROM THE GIANT MONSTER!" Tel screamed. Tel and Skoodge ran from the thing but Gir just stood there.
"Awww," Gir said affectionately, "It's a moose!" The creature swatted Gir away.
"Yes! Yes! YES!" Shouted Nar, "The SSS unit has come to free us! Now you'll all pay for going against The Resisty!"
Despite Nar's proclamation, the SSS unit just ran past them, accidentally knocking them down in the process.
"Don't worry boss," Spleenk said, "I'm sure he'll free us eventually."
The creature continued to wreak havoc on all the small beings around the Dibship, even catching a couple of them with his blades. Tel was horrified by the beast, he tried to think of a way to stop the beast but his people were too disorganized, and things would only get worse if things continued.
Kry had carried Kor deep into the middle of the city, once he decided they were far enough from the cliff he put Kor down. She was still stunned at the thought of a weapon that could kill her. Kry looked at her and motioned to her that she had to keep moving, so she got up slowly. Then she felt something pulling on her back, it wasn't Kry since he was in front of her, so she reach back to find out what it was. It was Daj's hand.
At first she freaked out a bit at the sight of the dismembered hand, but realized it came from the moment Daj grabbed her when they jumped. The shock of seeing a dismembered hand cleared her head. As she was holding it, the hand was being pulled towards something. She wondered what was happening to it, then she thought that maybe it was trying to reach its body. It was going to lead her to Dib and Daj.
Kry walked closer to her, she saw for the first time that Kry had a gash running down his side. She looked back at the hand and remembered her friends, then she realize something, she was being stupid.
So what if they found one way to kill me, everyone else had faced much worse situations while knowing they weren't immortal, just from what I've seen, they've all should have been dead ten times over!
Kor took out a small toolkit she kept on herself and started working on her gloves, she had a plan. She got one of her gloves to work completely, the other one kept powering on and off, she gave the working one to Kry.
"Kry, I know you're much faster than me, so it's easier for you to find the Dibship. When you find it, just wait there, I can track you down as long as you have that glove, I'm going to find Daj and Dib," Kry was hesitant to leave, "I'll be fine, now go!"
Kry obeyed and sprinted off. Kor turned towards the direction the hand was pulling her, she told herself she shouldn't be scared, she just had to learn how to dodge lasers.
The hand had led Kor to one of the Vortian buildings. She took a second to rest after running for so long. She stepped inside, it was just like the detention center, dark, ruined, and blood stains all over the place. The hand pulled her towards a metal door, against it was the body of a dead Irken. She moved the body aside and wiped some of the blood away. In the door, she saw a reflection of herself, and the green light over her shoulder.
She ducked as a green laser hit the door. She turned around to see the hunter, standing in the doorway on the other end of the room.
"You missed," Kor said.
"Well let's see if I miss again," the hunter began charging his laser.
Kor quickly opened the door and slipped in. She found herself at the top of some sort of manufacturing room, she looked down into a chasm of conveyor belts and the distance from her position to the other end of the room, where the hand was pulling her. She quickly jumped on the conveyor belts, using them as platforms across the room. She was halfway through when she was suddenly pulled back. The belts have been activated, each belt moving rapidly in random directions, and Kor had to keep running just to stay in place. Above Kor a door slammed open, revealing the hunter, a sign on the door said "control room".
"Can't have you running away again," he said.
"Screw you," Kor shouted back.
The hunter jumped down on one of the conveyor belts and started firing at her. Kor stopped running, letting the conveyor belt push her back at high speed. She landed on one of the lower platforms and used it to moved forward. The hunter appeared in front of her and sliced at her with a blade. Kor leaped to the side on a belt going in the opposite direction but she was hit by the blade during the jump. The cut quickly healed and Kor tried making her way to the exit.
Kor tried to jump to one of the belts but she slipped when it pushed against her, making her land on a different belt. The hunter took advantage of this and leaped towards her, plunging his blade straight through her body, pinning her down. He aimed his laser at point plank range but they reached the end of the belt causing both of them to fall. Kor used him as a platform to leaped towards a different belt, this time it was in the direction Kor was heading. The wound from the hunter's blade was healing slowly, causing her fluids to spill as she moved.
The hunter recovered and looked up at his prey that was going to get away again, he grew angry and let out a loud roar. He leaped from belt to belt with increasing acceleration, become more savage and primal. He was gonna get to the belt behind her and pounce, he was thinking of maiming her until there was nothing left but her head then blast her.
Kor could see the door that would take her out of this stupid room, but she also saw the hunter getting closer to her. She wanted to leap down but saw that the hunter would be able to catch her no matter which side she jumped from, she couldn't run from him, but she didn't want to.
The hunter was almost at Kor's conveyor belt, his rage and frustrations fueling his instincts. With one final leap he reached her platform, ready to rip her apart, but she wasn't there. The hunter was shocked, she couldn't have fallen without him noticing, she wasn't ahead of her, then he turned around and saw her for only one second. She was in the middle of lunging at him, the platform she was on was spinning in his direction at a rapid rate, she had used it as an accelerator. In the next second he felt the force of her glove hitting him, causing him to fall off the platform. In the final second he saw blood, her blood, staining the conveyor belt above the one she now stood on.
Kor watched the hunter fall into the chasm. She breath a sigh of relief and quickly ran to the door. She still held onto the hand after through all that, and the force of the pull was getting stronger, Dib and Daj were close, they could even be on the other side of the door. She opened it and the sight saddened her.
It was a bridge connecting to another building, only it was broken, as was the building on the other end. Kor got to the end and looked down, it was a long fall. She felt the pull of the hand again, this time it was heading straight down. She didn't like the idea of jumping from this height, it was gonna feel worse than the cliff jump. Worse than that, she saw the hunter behind her.
His armor had bumps all over it, red liquid spilled between the cracks, and he was walking on all fours. Kor knew the obvious and logical thing to do was jump, survive the fall, and hope she would recover before he found her again, but she was sick of this crap, she wanted to kill him. No more running scared from this freak, either he was gonna die or she was. She raised her gloved hand, at that motion the hunter pounced. So far, her malfunctioning equipment hasn't failed her yet, it saved Daj and Dib from a laser, and it worked when she hit the hunter on the conveyor belt, she questioned whether it was actually malfunctioning. Whether this strike works would determine her life. She swung straight down.
The bridge broke immediately, causing the two beings to fall with the rubble. The hunter was shocked and didn't know what to do, Kor kept looking straight down, staring at the ground, until impact.
Kor felt it through her entire body, pain, the curse she was born with. Kor didn't want to move, nor could she when the hunter, battered, limping, and bleeding stood above her with his laser raised at her again, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to blindly stare into his laser, waiting for the shot like she did last time, instead, she just watched Daj's hand, flying past the hunter to its original owner. The hunter lowered his laser, not because of will, nor was it because of force. The hunter didn't think of anything, the only thing running through his head was the blade of a laser-blade attached to the hand of a human. Kor watched the body fall in front of her, then she smiled before closing her eyes.
Dib and Daj sheltered themselves in an abandoned building, bringing with them Kor and the dead body of the hunter. They had been walking for hours, following the pull Daj felt. Dib was rubbing the sore spots on his back after they crashed into a building when Kor launched them.
"It's been hours now," Daj said, "You shouldn't be hurt that badly, especially considering that you used me as cushion."
"You have tougher skin than I do," Dib said, "I was gonna die otherwise!"
"Whatever."
"Still, I don't think we suffered the most," Dib looked at Kor, even though her Fefian biology healed her of any sign of damage, her clothes were even more torn than usual and she was missing one of her gloves. Dib then looked at the being he slayed, Daj had dragged it along so they could salvage its weapons, but the more Dib looked at it, the more familiar it looked to him. He walked towards it for a closer inspection.
Daj heard a moan and saw that Kor was waking up.
"Hey Kor," Daj said, "Thanks for finding my hand."
"Thanks for finding me," she replied.
"You woke up quickly."
"Being a Fefian has its advantages," she looked at Dib who was kneeling over the corpse of the hunter, "What's Dib doing?"
The first thing Dib noticed about the hunter was the red liquid covering its body, it looked like blood, Earth blood, blood he has seen several times whenever his plans failed in a horribly painful way. He tried to remove a gauntlet, but found it too hard pull off, so he used his laser sword to separate it.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Dib's shouted caused Daj and Kor to run over to him.
"What?" Daj asked.
"This-This is a hoof!"
"What's a hoof?"
"It's a type of Earth animal appendage, but that can't be possible! There's no way! If my suspicions are true, then it will be the craziest and dumbest thing I've ever seen!"
"What is?" Dib looked at the hunter's helmet, where he had drove his blade through. Using his sword he cut the metal off, making sure not to impale the flesh and moved carefully around the snout. He couldn't believe it.
"IT'S A MOOSE!"