Tak stood at the base of the tall Vortian tower, the only building that Tak was told to leave alone, so because of that it was where she parked her ship, aka the Resisty ship she had taken command over. The Employer was the one who gave her the order, he was looking for something locked inside, a lock that only the Irkens and high ranking Vortians knew, something Tak discovered after they had already killed everyone. It's the only thing keeping Tak on Vort, it's the only reason why there was a Scavenger Squad on Vort, to find any Vortian that could open that lock.
That lock was not her focus now, she just saw the newly broken window and the opened door. There were beings inside. She would kill all of them.
Two blaster, a laser rifles, a laser sword. Gaz was going through the supplies Crax had given them and equipping herself with any weapon she had found. She pulled out some weird round objects, she had Zim identify them. They were explosives, activated via button press, just what she wanted. She pulled out another blaster, but the barrel had a claw jetting out from it, apparently some grappling hook according to Zim, more utility than weapon. Finally, she found a metallic, box-like object with a screen taking up one side.
"That's an Irken Hacking Device." Zim said.
"Can it kill anything?" Gaz said.
"Not unless you're a robot."
"Here," She tossed the device and the bag at Zim, "You're probably the only one who can use it anyway."
Zim placed the device back into the bag, he saw that she had also given him a blaster, an explosive, and the grappling gun, "We're on the level twenty-two, it's gonna take a while to get to Crax's box."
"Then let's just take this elevator."
"What are you talking about?"
"The lift or whatever you call it in space."
"Zim knows what an elevator is! Don't mock me! What elevator are you talking about?"
"That one," Gaz pointed to the lit up metal door behind him.
"What the-that shouldn't be powered!"
"How would you know?"
"Because that would mean there's power in this building, why would Tak leave this building powered?"
"Does it matter? I like having two hands, so I'm gonna push the button."
Zim was very suspicious, but he liked his right hand also and the elevator would save a lot of time, so he followed Gaz.
Level ten.
"For an Research and Development center for the strongest race of beings, there isn't anything really interesting here," Dib had just walked through the building and were taking a break, glad that things were actually calm for more than ten minutes.
"What were you expecting?" Daj asked.
"I dunno, giant glass cylinders, secret spacecraft, cruel, inhumane experiments on beings?"
"What kind of sick labs do you have for your planet?"
"Uhh..."
"AH!" Kor was sticking her head out a window to look over the area but when she looked up shards of glass pierced into her face, "WHAT THE FEF!"
"Woah, what happened?" She started ripping the shards out and healed over the gashes on her face.
"There's a limit for how many times one can get killed in a single day without wanting to kill something yourself!" Dib and Daj took a step back.
"So what wer-"
"I swear, if I find out some being caused that glass to fall I will kill them!"
"So-"
"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG!"
"...Are you done?" Kor took a deep breath.
"Yeah."
"So what were you looking at?"
"The giant Earth moose is heading back here." A giant roar sounded as Kor finished talking, spooking Dib.
"Crap, really?!"
"Well, time to keep moving then," Daj said.
"What? Why?! What if he breaks the base of the building! Going higher won't save us!"
"For weapons! We need something that can kill a giant beast!"
"Yeah, but-"
"WEAPONS!" Dib let out a sigh.
"I doubt I can talk you out of it, let's just get to the next floor."
The trio walked to the end of the room, nothing caught their sight. There was nothing but desks, computers, a few test tubes, but nothing stranger than what Dib saw in his dad's lab. They made it to the eleventh floor and suddenly, they found themselves in a dark room full of nothing but giant crates.
"Boxes! Yay!" Daj ran towards a box
"What are you getting worked up for?" Kor asked.
"Boxes means storage, storage means weapons, weapons mean happy Daj."
"Wouldn't weapons be stored in smaller boxes? All of the boxes here are taller than you."
"Giant weapons!"
"Daj, how are you gonna open this anyway?" Dib said, "I know it's dark but I can't find a crevice anywhere."
"But there are weapons in here! I can feel it! Whatever is in here will cause mass destruction! I just need to find a way to get inside." Daj pondered for a bit before grabbing his looted arm blaster and firing it at the box, it did nothing to the box, "Seriously?"
"Come on, Daj, we shouldn't waste time, there's a twenty-plus feet tall moose coming to destroy the building."
"But there are weapons in here! I can feel it in my right hand!"
"You don't have a right hand."
"Oh, right, I forgot about that, then what's this feeling on my right side?"
Dib and Kor shrugged their shoulders. Daj moved to the other side of the box and he still felt that pull in the same direction. He moved across the room, keeping his hand stretched out to avoid bumping into the other giant boxes that were scattered across the dark room. Dib and Kor followed closely behind until Daj came to a stop.
"This feeling, I think it's my right hand..."
"What's with the smell?" Dib closed his nose in disgust.
"Didn't you say the thing that came out of Dib's head ate it?" Kor said.
"Yeah, but that's the only explanation for this feeling, however at the same time it doesn't feel right. I'm trying to get back the feeling in my fingers but it's been separated for so long and I couldn't even feel it tug until we got in this room," Daj said, "It feels like my hand is stuck in something, I wish it was brighter so I could actually see what's wrong with it."
On cue the lights on the room turned on and Daj stared at the disgusting lump from where he felt his hand is in.
"Woah," Dib said.
"Woah? This doesn't exactly scream woah, more like dead carcass whenever I find that tiny thing!"
"Not that, I saw that coming when I smelled it, I'm talking about that!" Dib pointed in front of Daj. They were standing in front of a giant door with the number twelve painted on it. There was a square hole about a foot and a half wide that went through to the other side. Dib was intrigued by what was on the other side because his dad always told him that giant doors held secrets. As Daj was dissecting the lump to free his hand, Dib looked through the opening, spotting a staircase on the other side.
"We have to get to the other side!"
"Sure you can get through?" Kor asked.
"Yeah, if we ju-wait, what did you mean by that?"
"Mean by what?"
"You were referring to my big head, weren't you?!"
"Well come on, Dib, you can't really deny that you head is larger than most beings we've seen."
"She has a point you know," Daj said.
"Besides, I doubt Daj can fit through also, and his head is almost normal."
"Yeah, wait, almost normal?"
"Alright, since neither Daj or I can fit through then I guess that means you volunteer, thanks Kor," Dib said.
"What?" Kor was pushed by Dib towards the hole, "Why should we go through anyway?"
The loud roar of a moose shook the building. Kor quickly jumped through the hole and wriggled her way through to the other side.
"Do you see anything that can open the door?"
"How are you so sure there is something like that?"
"Because doors like these are suppose to be easy to open from the inside, usually just something like a switch or button."
"You expect a high security building that holds secret plans for the strongest race in the universe to be easily opened by a simple-..."
"Kor?" After a pause, the giant doors opened, revealing Kor next to a giant red button.
The trio walked up the stairs into level twelve. The sliding door opened and they entered the windowless room. It was just as Dib imagined; giant tubes with several species floating in them, rotting corpses of half dissected beings, several partially finished gadgets as well as completed trinkets, weapons were hung along the walls.
"I guess I shouldn't be so surprised since this is an Irken facility," Daj scanned the walls, "Oh hey, weapons!"
Daj immediately ran towards them and started inspecting them, trying to figure out how they shoot and their power. Kor started looking through the trinkets that were lying around, almost impaling herself when one of the gadgets shot a spike towards her. Dib inspected the different aliens floating in tubes, he's never seen such a variety. There were some with a humanoid body structure, four ligaments and a head structure, like one with what looked like a crystallized body. The ones that lacked any humanoid features were almost indescribable to Dib, he couldn't even tell if they were once living beings.
Dib eventually stumbled across another door, one that was slightly shorter than he was. He touched the door and it collapsed, it wasn't connected to it's frame at all. Dib stepped inside the room and found rows and rows of shelves, with what looked like components for larger machines and purple papers with designs drawn on it. He saw that one corner of the room had components that were misplaced, missing, or fallen compared to the neatly placed components around them. As he got closer he saw that the shelf space was deeper than he thought. The area was storing small boxes. They were stacked neatly except for a few that looked like someone had opened them recently. There was a separate box that sat away from the others, out of curiosity Dib took it. It was different from the others by having a padlock and being colored green.
Level five.
Tak was making her way up to the rooftop where her ship was parked, hoping to meet and kill Zim and his followers on the way. The only thing stopping her was the twelfth floor, which was locked from level eleven and up to level sixteen. She had to reach level ten on foot first then take an elevator to get to level sixteen.
She recalled when she had to examine this part of the building, the first ten floors were dull to her, lacking anything of real information or use. Levels sixteen and up was where all the maintenance rooms, completed projects storage, and Irken living facilities. Levels twelve to fifteen was blocked off from her, it was where all the experimental projects were made, tested, and stored. Levels one through ten was for Vortians; entry checkpoints, chain-tightening rooms, punishment rooms, torture rooms, punish and torture rooms, punish and torture for fun rooms, gruel-in-a-bucket room, chain-to-a-wall-and-close-your-eyes-until-tomorrow room, just all the stuff she was used to seeing.
There was a ringing.
"What?" Tak answered.
"..."
"Hello? Hello!"
"..."
"If that is you again Five I will grab each of your brain cells-"
"Twelve is open."
For the first time since Tak had met SSS Unit-05 he spoke. Just three very important words.
"I guess priorities have changed."
Level sixteen, Zim and Gaz stepped out of the elevator after it wouldn't go any lower. They immediately ran to the door that would reach level fifteen, a giant gate with the number fifteen painted on. Gaz tried to open it herself, through force, it had no effect.
"You done?" Zim asked.
"Yeah," she answered.
"This door, Gaz, is constructed with the strongest Irken and Vortian metals, making it indestructible to infantry scale firepower, so it's obvious that your barbaric and brutish techniques would have no effect on it."
"Brutish?"
"This situation calls for intelligence! Specifically my unique and superior intelligence! Zim's! And an Irken hacking device." Zim place the device over a console next to the door and started typing on the screen. "First I must get into the main systems of the building by bypassing several firewalls and blocks as well as a weird trial where I collect orbs as a worm."
"Zim."
"This worm refuses to turn around this corner! Turn I say! TURN! Ah, okay, next I shall find the specific port for this level. Quintuple restricted access? Ha! Feeble security system! Feel the wrath of my pointy fingers!"
"Zim!"
"Huh? That's strange, according to this there's already someone who's controlling the basic functions of this building."
"ZIM!"
"What, Gaz?! Can't yo-" Gaz kicked Zim, knocking him down and avoiding a barrage of lasers. They both got to cover behind some crates and lasers continued to fire upon them. "What's going on?!"
"While you were busy feeding your ego a bunch of turrets appeared and started firing at us!"
"Ah, yes, that's usually our security for when we want to restrict our prisoners from certain areas."
"How many turrets are there?"
"The usual is thirty and one automated mini-gun."
"I hate your stupid race," Gaz activated one of the round explosives and threw it in the direction of the lasers, a bang went off and the sound of metal falling to the floor followed, but the sound of lasers still filled the air, "How many do you think I got?"
"Do you really think one explosive would be enough to destroy several turrets?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"Yes, if I can get back to the hacking device I can cut the power to this entire floor, deactivating the turrets."
"How are you gonna stop the turrets from shooting at you?"
"That's your part, the turrets are designed to prioritize non-Irken and aggressive targets, if you draw their attention first, I'll be able to get to the hacking device."
"So you want me to jump out at a bunch of turrets and attempt to dodge hundreds of lasers."
"Or we can just wait here and count until the lasers tear through our cover or the timer on our wrist runs out and cuts off our right hand. I can always attempt to make a replacement robot hand but I don't know what you'll do, seeing as you lack the knowledge-"
"Fine! I get it. I just had to mentally prepare myself for this."
"Don't worry, I trust your combat skills the most out of all the fools I know."
"Alright, one, two, three, go!" Gaz sprinted in the opposite direction of the door, immediately the lasers focused her as she reached more was able reach the hacking device and started working on it, he looked over his shoulder and had to quickly duck to avoid a laser headed towards his head.
"Hey! You have to keep the lasers focused on you! Hiding won't help at all!"
"I know!" Gaz threw out another explosive, destroying a few of the turrets and redrawing their focus.
She got out her rifle and analyzed her surroundings. To her left was the stack of crates that had served as their previous cover, she saw that the lasers had severely damaged them, melting parts of it and revealing the contents of the inside, she knew she couldn't stay under the same cover for too long.
To her right, about seven feet away was the next set of crates she could use for cover, after that she would have to continue to sprint from cover to cover until Zim was done, whenever that was. That would've been the most annoying way to handle this situation, however.
Gaz aimed her rifle from the left side of the crates and blindly fired at the turrets, focusing their attention slightly to the left. She then turned right and sprint across the seven feet gap and fired her rifle at the turrets, spraying lasers at any in her sight and destroying several of them. The remaining turrets were turning towards her and tried to fire but she was faster. She slid behind the new set of crates and started preparing herself for repeating the process. She shot blindly over her right shoulder and sprinted to her left, once again destroying several turrets. She repeated this process and the sounds of laser-fire was lessening, however, she could tell she still had the stupid minigun to deal with.
Gaz was sprinting across back to her original cover again, as she was taking cover a laser shot right in front of her and she quickly lowered her body to avoid the hit. She looked at where the laser had come from and saw that a hole had melted through the crate. She got back to her feet and sprinted to her right. Once she was behind the crates she saw that the original crates were almost completely melted in the front.
She found a piece of reflective metal on the ground and used it as a mirror to see how many turrets were left. It was only the minigun that continuously shot at her. She had two explosives left. She grabbed one and used the metal reflector to try to aim it, however, she knew that this throw would be mostly luck, but she had to try it. She threw it over her shoulder and it was flying towards the minigun. She felt a brief moment of hope, only to turn to anger when the reflector showed the gun shooting the explosive and detonating it in midair.
"Seriously?!" Gaz yelled in frustration. One explosive left. She couldn't blindly throw it anymore, she had two choices. Either throw it while facing the minigun allowing the explosive to be thrown at full force while it's focused on her, however it meant she wouldn't be sprinting at full speed across the gap, or throw it at something to ricochet the explosive at the minigun. A throw with the highest risk of killing her or a throw with a one in a million chance of working. Gaz knew she wasn't that lucky.
Gaz sighed at her options but became alert when a laser flew right in front of her, her crates weren't going to hold out any longer. She started to sprint with the explosive in her right hand. As she left her cover she turned towards the minigun that was rotating to fire at her, it was the first time she had a direct view of it. She brought her right hand as far back as she could and then threw the round explosive. The ball flew towards the minigun with incredible speed, the machine still turning to fire at Gaz. She felt time slow down as the explosive flew closer, that's when she saw it, if the explosive kept flying in the same direction it would miss hitting the minigun. The lasers were catching up to her and she was still halfway until reaching the already half-melted crates. She acted on pure instinct. Her right hand grabbed the rifle she had and quickly leveled it before firing a shot. She started tumbling to the ground while watching her laser collide with the explosive just as it was right next to minigun. What followed was the sound of broken metal and a lack of lasers.
Gaz breath a sigh of relief before picking herself up. She made her way to Zim, still working on the hacking device. After a few more seconds he stopped.
"Haha! Once again, I, Zim, am victorious!" he said.
"Want to be useful?" Gaz said.
"Huh?" Zim looked at the mass of scrap metal behind him, "What are you talking about, I destroyed all the turrets with my hacking apparently!"
"No, I did that while you were trying to stop the turrets."
"Well that seemed like a waste of effort."
"Considering waiting for you meant more lasers melting my cover, I don't think so. So are you going to open the door or what?"
"That would take more time."
"Great, and who knows what else will be thrown at us, maybe an army of robots."
"Well I did find out something while I was deactivating the security."
"What?"
"His location."
Dib walked out of the closet with the green box in his hands. He saw that Daj had pretty much removed all the weapons from the walls and Kor was filling a bag with all the trinkets she could find.
"Hey, Dib," Kor said when she saw him, "What's with the box?"
"I found it separate from a bunch of other boxes and it's colored differently, usually that means there's something awesome inside, also I had no idea what to do with all the other things in there."
"More gadgets? I'm gonna take a look then." Kor slipped by Dib into the closet.
"Got enough guns there, Daj?"
"There are so many guns that I have no idea how to work or use, why can't I carry them all?!" Daj was trying to find a way to carry as many guns as possible, "I'm really envious of your thingies that connect your hands to your torso right now."
"Just take what you can strap onto yourself, too much would weigh you down anyway."
"Why? Are we in a hurry?" Another loud roar was heard, "Oh, right."
"Kor, come on! We have to get ready for giant moose in power armor."
"Wha? Oh right!" Kor got out with her bag stuffed with random junk
"I see that you both have been feeling greedy."
"It's not like the dwindling population of Vort is going to need this."
"Whatever, we've been distracted for to long." Dib walked towards the door that would lead them to level eleven. He opened it and immediately closed it.
"What happened?"
"There's an army of scary looking robots down there, I'm going to run in the other direction." Dib started to frantically make his way away from the door.
"What?"
The sound of metal clanging against each other came from the door. Loud bangs were heard followed by the sight of the door bending and breaking. Finally the metallic door flew across the room, barely missing Dib. In the doorway stood several robots, silver with cyan lights, two cone-shaped eyes, two antennas, two slim robot arms, one hand featuring three claws, the other hand in the shape of a cone with three holes in a triangular formation, completed by two long cone-shaped legs.
The robots just stood under the doorway looking straight ahead. Kor and Daj slowly backed away with Dib. Daj slowly reached for one of the various blasters he strapped onto his back, he then aimed it at the doorway and pulled the trigger. It hit one of the robots square in the head and it fell. The other robots looked at their fallen comrade then immediately turned towards Daj and the others, their cyan parts turned red and they started pouring through the doorway, running with one of their hands raised and unleashing a torrent of lasers.
Dib and the others quickly ran through a door that led into a different floor. It was apparently the room used to build their technology, giant pieces of equipment were everywhere alongside workbenches. They quickly jumped over one of them and took cover as the robots broke though the door.
"Do you have to shoot at everything?!" Dib yelled.
"I can't help it, it's what I was always taught," Daj said.
"You have such a one track mind," Kor said.
"Come on, it's not like you guys expected the robots to not shoot at us, did you?"
"You have a point." Daj poked his head over the bench and saw that the robots were marching in a line towards them while firing lasers in random directions.
"So what do we do?" Dib spotted a staircase on the left corner of the room, it was the closest exit they could see.
"We'll have to make our way over there but we'll need a distraction for all these robots," Dib said.
"Already on it," Kor was tinkering with the machine that was placed next to the workbench, it was similar to a giant robotic arm coming out of the floor, except with a giant drill for a hand. "We should move."
Kor, Dib, and Daj ran towards and ducked behind another workbench. The robots saw them and started running at them. One of them had a clear view of the sitting trio and aimed its lasers, lights could be seem in the three holes on its hand as it was charging, then it disappeared. The hand stopped charging and sparks and scrap metal flew from its chest as a giant drill went through its body. The drill was going berserk, rapidly flaring in any direction, impaling any robots within its radius.
As it was turning the robots into metal donuts they refocused their attention on the machine, reading it as a priority threat. They destroyed the machine with their lasers but the trio had escaped from their previous cover. The robots saw them climbing the staircase and escaping through the door. They quickly rushed to the door but was met with a giant saw-blade slicing into the head of one of them. The room became a battlefield of machines versus machines, weaponized SIR units against mechanical saws, claws, hands, screwdrivers. Dib caught a glimpse of the battle before closing the door behind him.
"How do you know how to rewire the machines like that?" Dib asked Kor.
"I don't, I just used my tools to open some panels and pulled some wires," she replied.
"Wow, that's pretty lucky."
"For once."
Daj found a table to attempt to barricade the door with, they had to move somewhere quickly. They turned around to get the first good look at the room they were in. The room was extremely large, with short barricades set up into rectangular sections, like a station. The walls were covered with red splashes, contrasting against the white ceiling. As they walked through the room, they found the sources of the red liquid, bodies upon bodies of gray skinned aliens laid at their feet.
"I've never seen carnage like this," Kor tried not to stare at any of the bodies for too long but found it hard since there was a corpse no matter where she looked.
"Tak's soldiers are ruthless! How did we even survive up to this point?" Daj said.
"Something's strange though," Dib said, "We haven't seen any corpses in the building until now."
"They could've all escaped into this room before getting trapped and slaughtered, you know, just like our situation."
"There's something else also," Dib got closer to the bodies to confirm his suspicion, "All the bodies here were killed by a bladed weapon."
"So?"
"Tak's army uses blades and lasers, but there aren't any scorch marks here at all. They also lack the signs of being mangled by eight feet tall cyborg moose, like bent spines, stepping marks, droppings, you know, the stuff we saw around when we were in the city."
"This is pretty observant of you."
"I know, I assume it's from years of hunting cryptic beasts and conspiracies that made me notice details like this. Do you smell something?"
"What's a smell?"
"Right, your species lack nostrils. It's probably just the alien corpses, it smells really...odd."
As the trio searched for an exit, avoiding the bodies the best they can. As the amount of bodies they saw increase, their morale decreased. The corpses made them think about how hopeless their situation was. They were heading up, for one thing, with a robot army following them. Unless they found something in the next series of floors, they had no way of going back down. Then there was the lingering thought of the giant moose that will probably destroy the building with them in it. Even if they survived that, they were still stuck on a ruined planet with a broken ship with two psychopathic Irkens. They couldn't help but see their futures in the Vortians laying in the room.
"AH!" Kor slipped on a pool of blood. Dib helped her up but was quickly shoved away, "I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS STUPID PLANET!"
"Kor, calm down. You've been through a lot worse," Dib said.
"SCREW YOU DIB! AND SCREW THIS PLANET!"
"Geez, can we just go on before the situation becomes worse?"
After the long walk to the end of the room, they saw hope, metallic rectangles that would be their exit, but their hope was crushed once they reached it. The door was welded shut, the wielder of the torch sat slumped next to it, a pale gray alien, alongside a dropped blade and with a slit wrist while wearing a smile on his face.
"STUPID! INSANE! MASS-MURDERING! BEINGS!" Kor shouted as she banged against the sealed door, "Why must my life be filled with them?!"
Daj just looked down and stayed silent, he put his hands around his body to comfort himself.
"Come on, guys," Dib tried to repair their spirits, "There's got to be another exit somewhere, we just have to keep looking."
Dib's spirit was broken by a loud bang that echoed through the room. The robots had gotten through the door. Daj and Kor continued with their overly emotional actions while Dib panicked. They had no way of escape and the amount of metal clanking against the floor told them that there were too many robots to overpower. Dib tried to think of any option that would get them out. He activated his laser-blade and tried to melt through the door. He pulled the sword out and saw that it wasn't long enough to reach the other side. They had no options left. Dib did the only thing he could think of, scream.
"We're doomed! There are no logical escapes possible for us! There's nothing we could do!"
"Shut up, Dib-stink!"
The insult was all too familiar to Dib. He looked around to look for the Irken.
"Zim?! Where are you! Your voice sounds like it's coming from above us but that's impossible!"
"I'm on a speaker system you stupid Earth-monkey!" Zim berated Dib, as usual.
"Oh, that would make sense, but I don't see a speaker box anywhere." Dib's voice came through the circular speakers on the console. Zim and Gaz had traced the location of the being who activated the turrets into a room on the eighteenth floor. They had charged into it with rifles armed; they found the lights and electronics still activated, a toppled chair, but no being in sight.
The room was circular, with a main platform where a console was, as well as two wide gaps on the sides that were several feet deep at the very least, Zim explained to Gaz that they were trash chutes as well as filthy Vortian deposits.
The room contained dozens, possibly hundreds, of monitors, more than Zim and Gaz can keep track of, it was pure luck that they even found Dib. Then they noticed the item in Dib's hands. Zim quickly got to the speakers on the console and set it to the floor Dib was on. He activated the hacking device on the console and got a log of past activities. The elevator, lights, turrets, and experimental SIR Soldiers V2 were all activated recently.
"Dib! If you don't want to face my wrath you will protect that green box with your life!"
"What?" Dib looked down and saw that he was still carrying the green box from two floors down. "Oh, what's so important about it?"
"That's not important right now, listen, you're in the VR&D Test Chamber right now, and someone activated a gas to be emitted when you stepped into the room."
"Really? That must be what the smell is. What does it do?" Zim looked at the specific process and found a file containing information on the gas.
"It's Formula Zero-3 IZ, known for warping your pitiful weak brains. Based on my observation, it would be why the squishy tinkerer is slamming her fists against the door and the lizard-stink is pitifully sulking."
"I see, that makes sense, but how is it affecting me?"
"From how you're talking, it made you logical, making you useful for once."
"Damn it, Zim, I would argue against that if it didn't make so much sense!"
"You're also hallucinating."
"I see, then what I'm seeing isn't real. I know, there really isn't a robot army isn't there?! It's all a lie!"
"No you stupid Earth-monkey, those are real and will kill you!"
"Then it's the dead Vortian bodies! Tricks on our mind to instill fear and destroy all hope!"
"No, those bodies have been rotting for days."
"Then it's the door! It's not actually welded, it's just an illusion!"
"Shut up already!"
"Then how the hell am I hallucinating?!"
"The speakers, you said you couldn't see them, they're right above you."
"What?! That's useless information!"
"Is it, Dib? Or it is a secret detail I'm giving you to foreshadow a futu-"
"No! Just get us out of here before the robots kill us already!"
"Fine," Zim started hacking into the controls of the floors to find an exit for them, "There, I opened a vent that leads straight up into the next floor, it's in the corner to your left."
"I see it, it's that opening in the ceiling," Dib saw a section of the white ceiling slide away, revealing the exit Zim opened. Dib dragged his two hysterical comrades to it, but saw that he couldn't reach the opening at all, "Zim, can you drop like a ladder down or something? There's no way I could reach that height."
"Do you think I could control every single object from this console? That'd be unrealistically convenient! That vent is just used to send objects down into the test area, there's not suppose to be a way up!"
"Then how am I suppose to reach it!?"
"Must I solve all your problems for you and your pea-sized Earth brain?" Dib had to think quickly.
"Daj! You're tall enough to jump for that! Grab it and we'll climb on top of you!"
"We can't!" Daj sulked, "There's no hope!"
"It's right there! Hope is just a stupid jump away!"
"We're doomed!"
"Dammit Daj!" Dib had to get through to him somehow. Based on every movie and book he's seen and read, most mind alteration victims can be shocked through something they really cared about. Dib quickly grabbed one of Daj's guns and threw it through the vent.
"My guns!" Daj immediately leaped towards the vent to follow his weapon. He barely grabbed the ledge of the vent and was dangling.
"Quick, Kor, let's go!" Dib threw the box onto the next floor then grabbed Kor's hand and they climbed to the next floor using Daj's body. Once up, he pulled Daj up where he was reunited with his misplaced weapon.
"Dib, next time you throw one of my guns away, you're losing head mass."
"Zim, we've made it!"
"I can see that," Zim voice was coming from a different speaker on the new floor. The vent closed, making sure none of the gas leaked through to them, "There, the lizard-stink was shocked out of the mentality change, it should wear off quickly for you and the jelly-like tinkerer."
"Alright, Kor, how are you feeling?"
"Calmer, I guess, now that I don't have to see a mutilated body every step," she replied.
"Good, the gas is wearing off."
"What? No, Dib, I'm not affected by fumes or gases."
"Then why were you acting so pissed off back there?"
"Because I get angry when I'm trapped in a room with rotting corpses and about to be shot endlessly by robots."
"Oh."
"Dib, get ready to move," Zim's voice was tense, "I have to get you access to the next floor, however there are two gates, both equally difficult to hack into and open."
"Can you do it?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course, I can do it, I'm Zim! It'll just take time. I just need to know that you can stay alive until then."
"Stay alive, against what?"
"So the gas has worn off on you."
"What?" Dib saw a laser fly straight up right in front of him, "Right, killer robot army."
"Turn around and run to the end of the room, set up a barricade of some kind while I start hacking into the doors."
"Alright," Dib and the others followed Zim's instructions. Once at the door they toppled the nearby shelves to act as cover. They would stack them and hesitantly use the experimental substances stored on the shelves, such as anything sticky, to hold it together. They watched from a distance as lasers shot through the floor and metal claws turned it into shrapnel.
"This floor is the VR&D Observation chamber, where all tests are observed and controlled under the mighty Irken fist! Each experiment is ti-"
"Zim, shut up! There are robots that are trying to kill us, just start opening those doors!"
"I am! I just felt that this room needed some exposition, and gaining knowledge of your surroundings is important."
"Zim, now's not the tim-AH!" Kor pulled Dib down as a laser flew near his head and burned a bit of his hair. The robots had started climbing into the room, the first one shooting towards the barricade.
"See, if you had carefully observed you're surroundings, you could've dodged that yourself."
Dib ignored Zim's belittling and started to focus at the danger creeping up on them.
"Daj, hand me a gun."
"Woah, Dib, I don't even know what these guns do or their capabilities. What if they do something dangerous and we hurt ourselves?" Daj replied.
"Then how will defend ourselves against though robots?!"
"I still have the cyber-moose laser thingy."
"One laser against all those robots isn't gonna do much."
Kor let out a sigh, "Just hand me the guns."
"Huh?"
"I know that this conversation is just going to lead to me testing the guns out since I'm immortal so lets save time and just skip to that part."
"Really, Kor?"
"Just hand me the stupid weapons already," Daj slid the guns to Kor, "Just stand back a bit."
Kor grabbed a purple rifle and leaned over the edge and aimed at the robots. They started focusing their shots and her and she pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang, but the robots were all fine. Dib saw the explosion that had just occurred. The rifle was now nothing but bits of metal, miraculously no shrapnel had hit him, while Kor was left with her arms missing as well as her head. Her body slumped back while her head and arms regenerated.
"Uh, Kor, are you ok-"
"Dib, I'm used to this by now, I just want to know what kind of idiot designs a gun to explode."
"That design is genius!" yelled Zim over the speakers.
"I should've guessed," Kor picked up her glove and put them on her freshly regenerated arms before reaching for another gun. She pulled and held the trigger, the weapon had four prongs that spun rapidly, creating a ball of energy before firing it and causing a concussive blast, easily breaking the robots.
"Ooo, I want that one," Daj said. Kor tossed him the gun before moving onto the next one. Eventually Kor went through most of the guns, including an energy disc launcher, a rapid-fire multi-shot rifle, a gun with homing bullets, and one that fired solid, spear-like lasers. Dib and the others felt like the blasters gave them endless resources, unfortunately the robots' numbers were equally endless.
Zim was using the hacking device to get into the main controls as fast as he can, it wouldn't take as long since he got past some of the security checks when he was hacking into the turrets, however trying to open the doors was still the most difficult task he's ever had to do; all the encryptions, locks, and passwords, there were so many and would take the average beings hours to bypass and decrypt, Zim would finish within the next five minutes.
"Gaz!" Zim called out to the purple-haired human watching the monitors, tracking Dib's and the others' movements.
"What?" Gaz had been watching everything from the monitors, from the moment they discovered the vacated room to the point where Dib was fighting off robots.
"I'm almost done with this, I'll need you to use the monitors to navigate a path from Dib to us."
"Fine." Gaz carefully looked at the upper left corner of each monitor where they labeled the floor of the building. Currently, Dib, Kor, and Daj were in several cameras labeled "L15", in various angles. She found a clear pathway that would lead Dib to the turrets she destroyed on level sixteen, from there it was easy to find a route that would lead to level eighteen where Zim and she were. Then something caught her eye.
As she was looking at a monitor of the room she was in, her focus shifted onto a monitor labeled "L20". There sat a figure in dim light, a figure she knew she didn't know, yet a bit familiar. She looked at more monitors of the same room in different angles and better lighting. The figure was tall and was in full armor. Though she still couldn't recognize the figure, she easily deduced that he was the one they were after, that's when it hit her. She could see everything from here, who enters the building, who leaves, who uses the stairs, and whoever got close to this room.
The figure looked like he was watching something. Gaz found a monitor that gave a view the figure from behind, he had a device in his hands.
"Dib-worm and other meat-shields, the doors should be opening right now!" Zim yelled into the mic.
"Zim," Gaz kept her eyes on the monitor, "I need you to zoom in on this monitor."
"Didn't I tell you to find a path for your pig-headed brother? Besides, I have to work on deactivating those robots."
"Just do it." Zim gave in to Gaz's demand.
"What's the full label of the monitor?"
"L20, A32." The monitor Gaz was looking at was projected as a large hologram for both of them to see.
"Who is that?"
"Who do you think?"
Gaz was wondering why the hell he was just sitting there. If he was trying to run from them then why would he just be two floors above, it would've made more sense to try to escape the building. She kept trying to think of reasons why someone would just sit there.
"That device in his hands," Zim zoomed in further, "It looks like some sort of countdown."
Countdown, Gaz easily made the connections in her head, but that would mean...
Suddenly Gaz heard beeping. Red, blinking lights started circling the room.
"Crap."
BREAK
"AHHHHH!" Dib, Kor, and Daj had ducked for cover, not from the lasers of the remaining robots but from the explosion. They quickly realized they were unharmed and ran through the doors that Zim opened and onto the stairs.
"What was that?" Dib asked while running.
"I thought Kor blew up another blaster," Daj replied.
"I didn't," Kor said sharply, "None of us got hurt, right? Then obviously it didn't happen near us."
"Right, we'll think about it later then," Dib said, "We have bigger problems right now anyway."
The robots had reached the makeshift barricade and were starting to climb over it. The trio ran through the door on the sixteenth level and took cover behind it as the robots funneled through below them.
"Zim! We've made it through! Can you either close the doors or deactivate these robots now, it'd be really helpful!" Dib waited for an answer but none came. "Zim! Come on already! We still have your green box thingy!"
"Dib, I'll try to suppress the robots until you decide what we're going to do," Daj readied a rapid-fire rifle and sprayed into the mess of robots that were trying to file through the door from the floor below. The high ground and inability for the robots to move freely allowed for Daj to shred through them.
"Remember that explosion from earlier?" Kor asked, "I think it isn't unlikely for that explosion to have come from the speakers."
"Hmm, that would explain why Zim can't answer back," Dib glanced at the endless stream of robots Daj was still shooting at, "We should try to reach Zim and Gaz quickly."
"Dib, the explosion came from the speakers, meaning the room they were in was probably blown up. I don't think even Zim could survive an explosion."
"Kor, don't be ridiculous. Daj, let's get going."
"Do we have to?" Daj said, "I'm tearing these bots apart!"
"Your gun's smoking."
"What? Ah!" Daj's rifle glowed red from overheating, he dropped the gun from the sudden heat and it fell down the stairs. The robots watched the blaster that had torn apart their fellow robotic brethren apart, then they turned their sights towards the former wielder and raised their blasters. "Uh oh."
Daj quickly ducked behind the door and the robots started firing. Even though there were less robots than usual, the laser-fire was more concentrated and endless, almost like a continuous stream. Daj tried to ready another blaster but the moment he tried to blindly fire through the door the lasers quickly concentrated on it and melted the blaster down the middle. He had made them more aggressive, and deadly.
"So, have any idea where to go?" Daj asked.
"Absolutely none," Dib answered, "But, staying here won't help anything. We're going to head up, as quickly as possible, and with any luck, we'll find them."
"But how can you be so sure we'll find them?" Kor said, "You can't seriously be ruling out the possibility that they we-"
"They're alive."
Dib was certain Zim was alive, after all, he had her by his side.
He wished he could've seen it. The look on their faces when the bombs started beeping, that was the downside of using this method of extermination. Tak and the master would've been pleased with his work but it lacked the enjoyment. Fortunately, he was about to have more fun.
"I really want to shoot you right now," the voice came from his right, it was a pale, purple headed being, one of the beings from the dossiers he had been given.
"However, after what you've put us through, I'd rather have you as a prisoner, so that I may extract every bit of your knowledge and plans, painfully," that voice came from his left, from the Irken that annoyed Tak at the mentioning of his name. Both aiming blasters at his head.
"Next time, don't give us so much time to duck into the trash pocket," Gaz said.
Of course he knew about the trash pockets. He was hoping they would use it to escape, because he really wanted this.
"Now stand and surrender," Zim commanded.
The hunter did as Zim said. It was time.
"Hey, what are you holdin-"
Boom. Gaz and Zim crouched and put their arms over their heads as debris fell beside them. The lights became broken, and the room became dark, but light still shined from above. It was natural light, from the outside, the hunter had rigged explosives all throughout the remaining ten floors, creating a series of gaping holes in the ceiling.
Gaz quickly re-aimed her gun and tried to fire but the Hunter was faster and fired a strange blaster. It shot a spinning cable that hit Gaz's legs, tying them together and causing her to fall over. A metal box on the cable started beeping and a spike shot straight through one of the holes in the ceiling.
"AHHHHHhhhhhh..." The cable retracted and took Gaz with it. The hunter knew Tak would like the gift. He then quickly jumped to the side, avoiding two shots that flew towards him. It was just the Irken left, their leader, the most valuable target, the one who's head he wanted as a personal prize.
Zim continued firing his blaster at the hunter, he dropped the cable gun and raised one arm into the air, launching another cable from his gauntlet through a hole and retracted into the next floor. Zim looked around him and saw that the entrances that he and Gaz used were blocked off by the debris from some of the explosions, Zim had only one way to go.
"Fool!" Zim shouted, "Do you think you can escape me, Zim?!"
Zim pulled out the grappling hook gun from the sack he was carrying and shot straight into the hole right above him and got into the next floor. Zim looked around, the floor was cleared of everything but some debris from the explosions. He slowly backed up until his back hit a wall, only it wasn't like the regular walls of the building, they were rough and uneven, the hunter had made a barricade from the items in the room. He closely examined the floor and the dim lighting revealed that the barricade trapped him. He shot the gun into another floor to confirm his suspicions, he had done this to every floor.
The hunter had crafted his hunting ground, a place with no hiding spots for Zim, but with enough shadows for him to stalk, with enough light to reveal Zim's bright green skin and purple outfit and eyes, with enough darkness to shroud the hunter's darkened armor.
"So, you plan on using this incredibly over-elaborate setting to take me down!" Zim moved away from the wall, "You realize, you're not the only one acquainted with darkness."
Zim quickly turned around and fired, hitting the hunter as he was dropping from the floor above.
"Wow, I guessed corr-I mean, Ha! You cannot beat me, Zim! I will be your destroyer! I shall-HEY! OW! AHHHHHHH!"
The hunter had shot a spike at Zim that he barely dodged. It attached to the wall and he used it to leap towards Zim, knocking him down another hole and crashing onto the floor below.
Zim landed on his PAK, he felt pain in all his limbs. He looked up at the hole he fell from, the hunter stood there. Zim saw a large, bladed object in the hunter's hand, he didn't like where this was going. The hunter jumped down, the blade pointed at Zim. Zim fired his grappling gun and avoided the blade headed for his head. He got to his feet and fired into another hole, entering another floor.
He continued to find a hole in the ceiling and advanced into another floor. He paused to scan the new floor, it was just like the others, barricaded. He kept jumping floors, each the same as the others, each equally dark, he was hoping as he went up there would be more light to limit the hunter's cover. Zim backed into the barricade to avoid an ambush from behind.
Nothing from above, he carefully watched the various holes, at least the ones he could see, not below, right, lef-
Zim pressed himself against the barricade as much as he could, a sharp pain came from his chest. The hunter's blade had sliced him but the wound wasn't deep, this was the opening Zim needed. He pushed the blade away with his left hand and fired a point blank shot with his right. The hunter recoiled back before falling backwards.
"Hah, now beg for mercy under my mighty, iron Irken might!" Zim moved forward to finish the hunter off but then he felt something brush against the side of his body, it was a wire, attached to the barricade behind him, Zim became frustrated, "...I hate you."
The hunter used the wire to launch himself at Zim, crushing him between his armor and the wall. Zim felt dizzy, he couldn't think straight and dropped his grappling gun and blaster. The hunter reeled back and swiped at Zim, but he stumbled under the blade. He tried to run but could walk straight, let alone run, and fell into a hole. The hunter quickly jumped down another hole to follow, just as Zim hoped. He pulled himself up from the hole he had grabbed the ledge to and picked up his gun and blaster.
"Just like a fool to be outsmarted by one who is superior, and that one is Zim!" his victory was brief as he heard a spike fly up from the hole he was just in. Zim quickly advanced onto another floor, but he was still shaken from earlier and couldn't move much. He couldn't continue this fight much longer, but he didn't need to, he had one plan left.
Zim started jumping up floors again, the hunter pursuing him. He didn't have time to look around like he wanted to, he just had to keep jumping. Finally he reached the top floor. Zim could see the sky for the first time in a while, but he couldn't stop here. The light here was brighter than the other floors, but he couldn't fight the hunter here. Quickly, he ran to another part of the room as the hunter reached the same floor. The two eyed each other, then Zim fell.
The hunter followed Zim, but fell down a separate hole, falling at the same rate as Zim. This was an opening. Zim fired at the hunter, the flash of light traveling across the rooms, each shot missing the hunter. He cursed his aim, but he saw it, it was time to kill the hunter.
He shot his grappling gun to stop himself. The hunter saw him stop falling, and stopped on the floor below Zim. He shot a spike up, expecting to follow his prey just as before, he didn't expect the Irken to charge at him. The spike detached and the hunter was knocked to the floor, Zim quickly moved off of him and fired his grappling gun up, but not before firing a shot at the hunter's head.
One floor up, Zim wasn't being tailed by the hunter yet. He waited a second before seeing the spike fly up, then he fired his. Two floors up, Zim started running to another hole but stopped until he saw the hunter, then he fired and zipped up onto the next floor, the hunter following. Once there, Zim ran under another hole and stopped. The hunter paused a bit, wondering what he was planning, then he started running at him with his blade. Zim started firing at the hunter with his blaster, but with nothing hindering him, he was able to dodge each shot. The hunter slashed at Zim as his grappling gun zipped him up towards the next floor, he fired his own spike almost impaling Zim from the bottom up. The hunter was preparing himself, each time he got closer and closer to Zim, he would not escape him anymore, he readied his blade to cut the Irken in half once they hit the next floor, that's when Zim let go of his cable.
Zim turned around before letting go of his grappling gun, colliding in midair with the hunter, both of them crashing back down to the floor below. The hunter felt the full force of that crash, probably revenge for crushing Zim earlier. He knew Zim would still be near so he turned around, staring at the barrel of Zim's blaster, the only thing keeping Zim from pulling the trigger was the blade at his throat. Despite feeling the cold metal on his neck, Zim smiled, this was what he wanted, this stalemate.
"I've learned quite a bit about you," Zim said, "You keep a facade of being a cold, silent killer. You're efficient in your methods but you have too much pride. Having this elaborate and excessive setting just to chase me around with no laser-based weaponry."
The hunter found more enjoyment with using blades to kill prey over guns.
"And most importantly, I've found your weakness. You can be a cyber-moose warrior-hunter thingy-assassin, but you still fear your imminent death."
The hunter feared nothing, his master had told that to him and the other moose warriors.
"If I'm wrong, then slice my neck now, but I will pulled the trigger, and despite my failings to kill you with shots to your triangular head, I wonder how this third shot would go against your cracked, dented, damaged helmet."
Maybe the master had lied to him.
"Here's something else for you to consider, how much do you know about Irken anatomy? Does cutting my neck really kill me, or can I just reattach my head? Are my vital innards actually at the center of my body or my arm? Can you really kill me before I pull the trigger? Which is why I advise you to move your spike away."
The hunter decided to listen to him, and lowered his arm that his cable was attached to.
"Now, one question is at the forefront of your pitiful, moosey mind. Why? Why would this vastly superior being want to be in a situation where he would potentially die? I'll tell you a secret. When I said you weren't the only one acquainted with darkness, I wasn't talking about me."
Half a second. That's how swift the death was. The laser sword went straight from the top of the hunter's skull through the bottom of his jaw. The hand holding the blade being held back by a striped sleeved arm. The hunter fell, the blood flowing around the boot of his purple-haired killer.
"Your laser almost hit me," Gaz said.
"It was the only way I could find you quickly," Zim replied.
"Can you stand?"
"Barely," Zim started falling to his knees before Gaz caught him.
"You're such a burden."
"And you're dark and twisted, very reliable traits."
"You were just lucky I had a laser-blade to cut myself down." Zim motioned Gaz to where his fallen grappling gun was, he fired it until they reached the last floor, leaving the dead rotting corpse of the hunter.
Once there, they saw that the barricade was still surrounding them. Gaz dragged Zim to the barricade of compacted junk, she dropped him on the floor, he let out a cry of pain, and started examining the barricade closely using her laser sword's faint light. Despite all the stacked crates, tables, chairs, other machinery looking like they were just thrown together the construct was extremely sturdy, the pieces were either too heavy or too stuck together to budge. She decided there was only one solution, cut through it with her laser sword.
The purple colored sword went into the mass of junk smoothly and Gaz slowly made a cut from the bottom up. As she was about to make an arch in the barricade she noticed a blue colored laser-blade going down. She quickened her pace in order to connect the two cuts. Once she did, the blue laser had reached the floor and retracted. She had an idea who it was, she kicked the mass of junk.
"Ow!" Her suspicions were right, the junk had hit her big-headed, moronic brother with his laser-blade-hand. Despite the insults, she was glad to have found him, "Gaz?"
"Took you long enough to find us," she replied.
"We were...busy," Dib pointed Gaz towards the passageway that Kor and Daj were busy barricading and holding together. A robot limb punched through the barricade and was flailing around, trying to grasp at something. "And we still are, where's Zim?"
"Down here, Earth-scum," Zim was still lying on the floor, "Now assist me."
Dib and Gaz both shouldered Zim, "Alright, we should get out of here."
"Hey, it's the drone and the scary Earthling," Daj said, "You didn't die after all."
"Before we start catching up and reminiscing about our adventures in the last hour, we should-AH-come up with a plan of escape," Kor could feel the robots pushing harder, "A specific and clea-"
"To the rooftop!" Zim shouted.
"And the vague and general plans continue."
"Dib, you still have the green box, right?" Dib held up the box in front of Zim's face, "Put it in my bag and protect it with your life."
The group started running away from the robots, Dib and Gaz were having trouble keeping a steady pace with each other and with Zim's weight. They ran around the barricade and reached a ramp leading to the roof. They heard the blockade Daj and Kor made break and started making there way to the the door. Gaz blasted down the door and the light shined on them.
They stepped out on the top of the VR&D building. Gaz noticed that the holes that the hunter had made were confined to about a fourth of the area. The rooftop was mostly bare, the only things noticeable about it was a ventilation shaft, the doorway that had led them there, and a giant dumpster sitting across from them. They all ran behind the dumpster to hide and take cover.
"So what now?" Dib asked.
"Now we make our escape," Zim said, "You see, I knew we would be in this situation, which is why I have this!"
Zim reached into the backpack he was carrying and pulled out a large sheet.
"The parachute?" Gaz said, "You kept that thing?"
"Of course!"
"How'd you even fit that thing in there?"
"That doesn't matter at this moment, we'll make our escape by calmly descending to the ground!"
"Wouldn't our combined weight just make that thing useless?" Dib asked.
"Silly Dib-worm, you asked such stupid questions. Maybe you want to escape on one of our jetpacks or something that your stupid mind would come up with."
Dib just sighed, knowing Zim would be too stubborn to listen to logic, though he felt like he was forgetting something important. Zim pulled himself towards the ledge.
"Now I, Zim, shall lead-" Zim paused mid-sentence once he looked down the building. He retreated back to the dumpster, "New plan, we will kill all the robots!"
"What happened to jumping off the building?" Gaz asked.
"There's a giant cyber moose thing down there that's about to strike the building." On cue, the building shook and a roar followed it.
"Great..."
"That's what I forgot about!" Dib said, "That was the why we were heading up in the first place."
"Well, now the second reason we were running up the building just appeared," Daj pointed to the robots marching out of the door.
"Lizard-stink, Tinkerer, Gaz, Pig-headed Dib, destroy the robots!" Zim commanded.
"At least if we're gonna die, I'll get to enjoy some shooting," Daj was the first to lean out with his blaster. Immediately the blaster was shot from his hands, "I think we're pretty much doomed at this point."
"Tinkerer, go out and draw their fire while the rest of us shoot at them!"
"Can I object to that idea?" Kor asked.
"No!"
"But I'll be obliterated if I so much as stick my han-OW-d out there!" Kor showed Zim her now missing right hand before regrowing it.
"I see no problems with this idea."
Unfortunately Kor didn't see many option they could take without her feeling immense pain, making Zim's idea the best option for them. Kor peeked out and quickly pulled back her head before the laser barrage could melt it. The robots were gathered in a big cluster, but they weren't moving. They were waiting to see any sign of life before they all started shooting. She really hoped something good would happen right now.
"What's that noise?" Gaz asked.
"You mean the giant moose that's making that punching this building?" Dib replied.
"No, it's something else, kind of like a giant laser."
Everyone else started hearing it too. It grew louder and it came from behind the dumpster. Cautiously, they all looked behind it and fortunately, the robots had noticed the noise too, they were focusing their attention on a cliff. A purple blob came soaring from the cliff, Zim and the others couldn't believe it.
"It's the accursed Dibship! And it's flying!" Zim shouted.
"No, it's falling!" Gaz said in shock. She was right, the cliff made the Dibship fly upwards, but the laser pushing it had stopped and it started falling towards the rooftop like a meteor. The group watched as the robots started firing at it as it drew closer to them. The robots were crushed. The impact resonated throughout the building, causing the group to fall against the floor of the rooftop.
Dib was the first to notice the crater left by the Dibship, a collection of crushed robots and cracked or broken flooring, but no ship, it had bounced. He looked up in horror as he saw it falling towards them.
"LOOK OUT!" Dib screamed, but they couldn't move in time, all they could do was cover their heads as the ship grew larger. They braced for their imminent crushing and screamed when they heard and felt the impact. They continued screaming until they realized they were completely fine. They looked up and saw the Dibship balancing on the giant dumpster they were hiding behind.
They got up in relief but became cautious when the ship started shaking. This was Zim's first look at the Dibship in a long time. It was horribly broken with parts missing everywhere. They all walked around it and saw that it had lost a good chunk of its mass, probably from the crash or flying through the city. It was also covered in strange black circles. Zim wanted a closer look but then the building shook again, the moose was still continuing its fight against the sturdy structure. The Dibship started shaking to the fright of the group. Then something-no, someone fell from a hole in the ship in front of them.
"Tel?!" Dib said, the Heboadian was soon followed by a scaly reptilian being.
"Kry!" Daj shouted in joy. Kry got up and shook its head to get focused. He grabbed a black glove that was attached to his side and gave it to Kor, she thanked him. Finally, a robot and a pudgy Irken fell, landing on top of Kry.
"Sir!"
"Hi master! I missed you!"
"Skoodge! Gir!" Zim said, "What in the name of Irk happened?!"
Tel got up and bent backwards to loosen himself before he spoke, "Some sort of armored being attacked us."
"And it caused the ship to fly over here?!"
"No, that was Daj's giant laser Gir was firing."
"My Giant Fraction Blaster!" Daj said excitedly.
"Its probably stuck in the ship somewhere."
"Do not touch the ship, Lizard-stink," Zim commanded Daj, "It's unbalanced now and if we want to get off this planet, we shouldn't damage it anymore. Now where's the rest of my armada?"
"They fell off the ship while the laser pushed us here. I'm sure they're alive, they've survived worse."
"Good, but we have bigger matters to att-" Zim paused when the building shook again, "-end to."
"Quick, let's head down the building," Dib said, "I'm sure with all of us and the weapons Daj found we could take down that moose."
"Hey, I give the orders, Dib-slime, me, Zim! Now lets head down and slay that moose."
"I wouldn't move if I were you."
That voice made Zim and Gaz instinctively pissed off.
"Tak," Zim said disdainfully. The group turned to face the female Irken holding a rifle in her hand. She was also carrying a sack, strapped to her side as well as having her SIR unit, Mimi, standing right by her. Zim stared at her and released himself from Dib's and Gaz's shoulders, ignoring how sore his body felt.
"Step away from my ship, Zim," she said scornfully.
"Your ship? This purple broken mess with heavy attitude problems is property of Zim!"
"Not that inoperable piece of trash! My ship! It's right behind you." Zim didn't know what she was talking about, the only thing behind him was the dumpster.
"Wait, this dumpster is your ship?!"
"And it smells like one on Earth too, but don't play dumb, Zim. I know you know it's my ship. I know that you plan on using it to get off this technological wasteland."
"I did? I mean yes! Of course! Because I'm a genius!" Gaz shook her head at Zim's idiocy.
"Now step away from it."
"I don't think you're in any position to be demanding anything from me." Daj had given Tel, Skoodge, and Kor blasters and aimed them at Tak. Gaz also aimed her rifle, Dib activated his laser sword, Kry got ready to pounce, and Gir outstretched his arms like he was about to give a hug.
"On the contrary Zim, you see, you're all standing near the fuel tank of the ship, and if I shoot it, you'll all be engulfed in a big fiery explosion."
"Lies! You're lying! No one puts a fuel tank on the outside of their ship! It's incredibly inefficient and stupid."
"Stupid designs by stupid builders, but I could test it out if you want." Zim couldn't tell if she was lying or not, he couldn't even see that the dumpster was a ship. There was also the giant moose to deal with, but the last thing Zim wanted to do was give in to Tak.
"Well, Tak, I have explosives set where you're standing!"
"You're bluffing." Gaz sighed at Zim's stupidity.
"No I'm not."
"Then where's the detonator?" Zim couldn't think of anything to back up his bluff. That's when Gir walked up to him. He looked at his servant as Gir opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue that was balancing a box with a switch on it. Zim was slightly disgusted but he took the box anyway.
"It's right here!" Zim smiled, though now he didn't know what to do. They were in a stalemate at best, which is not something Zim had time for according to the counter on his wrist, "Tak, there's a giant cyber moose down there trying to destroy this building. We don't have time for this."
"I don't care!"
"You'll be destroyed too!"
"I have means of survival."
"I'll make sure you won't sur-"
"Uh, Zim," Dib interrupted.
"What?!"
"The Dibship fell."
Zim turned around and didn't even notice the Dibship falling down the building. Also the Dumpster ship was sliding away also, teetering over the edge. Tak just now noticed this as well and a look of concern spread on her face. The building was actually slanting slightly now, and they all thought it was just going to get worst, but the shaking stopped once they heard a loud crash. The Dibship had landed on top of the giant moose. Zim and the others wondered if it was really dead when they heard an extraordinarily loud roar, causing the building to vibrate and making Tak's ship fall as well, making them all express their frustrations.
"Crap!"
"Crud!"
"Blast!"
"Joy..."
"Yay! Click!" Gir shouted in joy before activating the switch Zim was holding. A large explosion was heard from the base of the building, Tel just realized that the detonator was for the explosives on the Dibship. The force of the explosion caused Tak's ship to fly up into the air as the building started slanting even more.
"Well, it's been a terrible experience, Zim, but at least I've made sure you have no means of escaping this planet!" Tak pulled out an orb from her sack to show Zim.
"The Dibship's core!" Zim shouted.
"I stripped it from the ship when you first crashed, Hahahahahaha-" Tak continued laughing as her ship started falling on her side of the building, sliding down the slanted structure. Tak walked backwards with Mimi and they both started sliding as well.
"After them! We can't fly without that core!"
They all sprinted towards Tak's side of the building, which grew harder as the rooftop became steeper. They reached the edge and jumped over, the nine beings were now sliding down the thirty story Vortian building, facing Tak and Mimi.
Dib, Daj, Kor, and Zim fell as they tumbled down the building, making them easy targets for Tak, but as she aimed, Gaz fired two shots at her. Both shots missed but it prevented her from firing. Kry sprinted down the building on all fours, he was too fast for Tak to hit easily and Gaz was giving him cover fire. He tried to pounce but was caught off guard by Mimi, who grabbed his head with her claw-like appendage and slammed it through a window on the building. The glass broke and Kry became unconscious.
"HOOOOO-HAAAAAA!" Skoodge leaped at Mimi, firing two blasters at her as he fell. Mimi dodged Skoodge when he landed and let the pudgy Irken roll past her, then she was blindsided by Tel. The Heboadian tackled her while having his flamethrower on, becoming a mini-cyber-monkey fireball. She had scorch marks covering her and Tel brought out his stick that he carried. They sparred, claw versus wooden stick, and parried each others' strikes. Tel saw an opening, he drove the stick forward towards Mimi's chest, unfortunately Tel did not master the art of piercing metal with a stick. Mimi swatted him to the side when Gir grabbed her head. He proceeded to lick her antennae.
"You taste like me, let's be friends forever!" Gir started hugging her Mimi's head. Unamused she ripped him from her face and punched the top off Gir's head with her claw. Then she grabbed Tel as he came at her with his stick again and shoved him into Gir's head.
"I've got head-monkeys!" Gir screamed. Mimi turned to throw the two downwards when she saw Skoodge right before he tackled her. He held on tight and the four started tumbling down the building as a ball of metal and flesh.
Tak ran by them and used her sliding ship for cover. The other had were able to steady themselves as they slid down, allowing them to consistently fire at Tak. She reached into her sack and pulled out two discs. She pressed a button on the center of both discs and threw them on the building. They stuck, Gaz was the first to see and recognize them, they were just like the ones in the control room.
"Bombs!" Gaz yelled. She and Zim tried to slow themselves down. Dib, Daj, and Kor were closer to the bombs than Zim and Gaz and tried to sprint past them. The bombs went off, creating a mass of black smoke, the force of the explosion launching Dib, Daj, and Kor flying forward.
Tak saw this as an opening. As Daj was falling she ran upwards, thrusting her knee into his chest. Then she slammed him down, grinding his head against the metal of the building before firing three shots into his back. Dib had gotten to his feet and ran at Tak with his laser sword. She caught his arm before he could strike her and used it to turn him around, she grabbed his other arm and bent it behind his back to further constrain him. She took control of Dib's sword-arm and used it to pierce through the head of a charging Kor. She cried out in pain before Tak used Dib's sword to cut her in half at the waist. Both pieces of Kor tumbled downwards Tak them slammed Dib against her ship before throwing him towards the rest of his fallen comrades.
Then she saw Zim and Gaz, both running towards her with lasers raining down towards her. She decided that she had her fun and climbed up into her dumpster ship. The ship sprouted wings and part of the metallic covering drew back to reveal thrusters and a visor covering a cockpit. Tak started activating everything when a robotic, claw-like hook broke the glass, she saw that it was attached to a long cable, at the end of that cable was a gun, holding that gun were her two least favorite beings.
Zim and Gaz used the grappling gun to pull themselves towards Tak's ship. They landed on top of the glass and started firing lasers through it. Tak found cover behind the seat of the cockpit. She started firing back wildly, using the lasers to cover for her as she flung the control of her ship, swinging the ship and causing Zim and Gaz to fall off. However, she heard the sound of Zim's maniac laughter. Tak was puzzled until she saw a round ball with a blinking light. Tak cursed and broke the glass with her blaster and leaped through as the explosive went off. The explosions caused the fuel tank on the ship to explode as well as Tak rolled away from it, turning the ship into chunks of metal.
The slant of the building was flattening and everyone was slowing down. Tak was lying there, dizzy from the explosion when she stopped sliding, and felt immense pain. Her right hand had been pierced by a purple laser sword.
"AHHHH! MY IRK! WHAT TH-" Tak became silent once she saw the barrel of a rifle wielded by her Earthling enemy. "Wait!"
"If you're gonna give me a reason to not kill you, you have three seconds," Gaz cocked her rifle.
"I have this!" Tak pulled out a purple and black book, one all too familiar with Gaz, "If you shoot me, I'll make sure this gets vaporized with it."
"Tak, I've written you name in there over five-hundred times, I don't care."
"Fine, then you can have it back!" Tak threw the book in Gaz's face and swatted the gun away with her free hand. She pulled out the laser sword as Irken fluids leaked from her hand and tried to thrust it at Gaz but she blocked it with her rifle. Tak kicked Gaz away before dropping the sword and running, Gaz wondered why she was running before noticing the disc-shaped souvenir attached to her rifle.
"F-" Gaz tried to throw the rifle away but it exploded in midair. The building now only had a slight incline and Tak quickly ran to the base of the building. As she jumped a laser shot her from behind and she was sent tumbling to the ground.
"Ow! You shot me in the PAK! What's wrong with you?!"
"Everything! Wait-no! I mean nothing! I am Zim!" The green spike that's been piercing her brain for the past five years stood above her at the edge of the fallen VR&D building. "I am the strongest, invincible, and I will-"
Tak threw an object at Zim.
"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP! I do not want to hear another second of your incessant boasting after suffering through it for years! You are nothing more than a lowly smeet that was for some reason allowed to take up mass on the same planet-no, on the same universe as every other being! Even now you're nothing but a convenient pawn!"
"Haha! You foolishly threw my ships core! Wallow in your failure!" Zim held up the orb that Tak had thrown in triumph.
"Did you just ignore everything I said? You-nevermind! I'm sick of you, let's go Mimi." Tak ran off to the wreckage of her ship and activated a circular console. Metal, waist-high walls appeared as Mimi jumped in. Tak pulled a lever and it started to hover, "By the way, Zim, that core's a fake!"
"What?!" Zim watched as the orb he held broke into several pieces, "Curse you, Tak! Curse you!"
"Hahahahahaha-huh?" As Tak's craft was hovering away it suddenly shaken. A grappling hook had attached itself onto the console and Zim was flying towards her. "You're really stupid, aren't you?"
"Of course not, I just really despise you and want my core back. Now hand it over so I can blast you!"
"You moron, look at you. Your pathetic plan had no chance of succeeding the moment it farted out of your head. Your ship spends most of his time either sniveling or belittling, your armada is the most pathetic force I've ever seen, unable to handle just five of my troops, and then there's you yourself. A complete mockery of the Irken race and every life-form in the universe. You lack the common sense and capabilities of real invaders, the only thing you have is stupidity to the infinite degree that somehow hasn't killed you, until now."
Zim just shot her with his blaster. The laser skimmed her face, leaving a burn.
"You spend an unbelievable amount of time talking."
Tak swatted the blaster out of Zim's hand.
"You know, Zim, from this height, I wonder if your PAK can survive the fall," Tak grabbed the grappling hook, letting Zim dangle from her grip, "Goodbye, Zim, you lose."
Tak let go. Zim watched as a glass visor close her pod and it disappeared. Zim was falling faster and faster until he reached the metal ground of Vort. Most of his body was numb, his mouth was warm, filling with some sort of fluid, he couldn't tell what it was. He used all of his willpower to move his arm, he felt a piece of metal near him. He picked it up and held it over his eyes, it was silver with a broken pink circle, it was a piece of his PAK. His hand fell, he couldn't move anymore. He closed his eyes.