Deep space, miles away from Vort, a small pod was drifting freely when a ship zoomed by and sucked it up. The ship then sped away until it reached total blackness. No nearby planets or rocks to reflect the light, no nearby stars to illuminate the way. Then the ship itself became a part of this darkness. It had docked onto the Mothership, a massive battle space fortress of doom.
Inside, an Irken with a SIR unit walked out of the ship and was escorted by a tall, armor-clad moose. They walked through the ship, the Irken noticing the elite moose troops all around the ship, all doing various jobs, some were crafting weapons, forging stronger armor, cloning grass to graze on. As they walked through a tube, they could see outside the ship, they were still expanding, moose soldiers in moosey astronauts suits were using tools and lasers to increase their already massive warship.
Finally, the moose used a pad to open a door, he stood by as the Irken and robot entered the room. It was a circular chamber where it was only lit on the edge of the room, the center was completely dark.
"Uh, Sir?" The Irken spoke.
"Si, Tak, es yo! It is I! El Employer!" The velvet voice came from within the shadows.
"Why is it so dark?"
"I like it, it makes me muy misterioso."
"Okay? Anyway, I have completed my duties on Vort."
"Si, I know, that was why I sent my ship to pick up your escape pod. So where's el component?"
"Well, I don't have it-"
"¿¡Qué!? That was the whole point of us even being on Vort! Aside from our desire to completely obliterate all life on it!"
"Hold on, I don't have the component, it wasn't in the vault on level twelve of the VR&D like we thought, but I did get the blueprints for it." Tak pulled out a small, rectangular frame from Mimi's head. She pulled on the edges to expand it and a hologram filled the area, revealing detailed instructions.
"Hmm, this will be just as useful, bueno Tak, however it would take time for us to complete this and thus cause a delay in el plano."
"I understand."
"And what of the Resisty? Did they meet their grisly fate on Vort?"
"I neither know or care, I just stranded them on that planet."
"I see, es no importa, it just means I won't have to keep my promise of giving them back their planetas. Besides, my moose clones makes them replaceable."
"How are they functioning by the way?"
"Bueno, except they cannot understand me because someone gave me the wrong language disc when I was programming my original moose warriors."
"I still apologize for that incident, but I do have great news!"
"¿Qué?"
"I killed him," A big smile crept onto Tak's face as she said those delicious words.
"¿Him who?"
"Who else? Zim!"
"Really? ¿Zim esta muerto?"
"Uh, excuse me?"
"Of the dead! You need to learn something other than that primitive Irken speak."
"Yes, sir."
"So where is it?"
"Where's what?"
"The body!"
"I don't have it."
"¿¡Qué!? ¡Idiota! How can you know he's dead if you don't have the body!?"
"But I threw him from an extreme height! There's no way he could've survived that!"
"Oh really, and did you see his cranium splatter when he hit the ground?"
"Well, uh, no. My pod was already miles away before I could see it."
"¡Idiota!"
"But I am absolutely, one-hundred percent certain that Zim didn't survive that!"
"AAAAARRRRHHHHHHH! WHAT THE IRK HAPPENED?!"
"Shut up and stay still!"
A hand flew and collided against green skin, sending pain throughout his body.
"Gaz! If you hit him that hard, you'll knock him unconscious, again."
He recognized that voice, the whiny, useless tone. He was trying to remember, the being was fleshy, wearing a tattered black jacket, a weird pointy hairdo, he felt like he was forgetting something about him in that description though, something big.
"Yeah, you're right, Dib, I'm just too used to hitting him when he overreacts like this."
"I think that's a natural reaction for someone in his situation."
"SHUT UP AND TELL ZIM WHAT'S GOING ON!"
"I said to stay still!" Gaz pushed back and restrained him.
"Let go of me! You-you, who are you?!" Zim had apparently suffered some brain damage, Gaz knew only one method to deal with head trauma, she cracked her knuckles, "AH! AH! Gaz! You're Gaz!"
"Zim, you should listen to her," Dib said, "You're not in good condition right now, actually, it'd be more accurate to say your condition sucks, really bad, horribly."
"You, you're the useless, foolish, stink-slime-scum Earth monkey-human-worm!"
"Yea-"
"With the big pig head!"
"...yes. Seriously, Zim, you should be moving and yelling so much."
"Why? What happe-AAARRRRGGGHH! THE PAIN! THE HORRIBLE PAIN!"
"I'd listen to them if I were you." That voice came from behind Zim, he recognized that sick and twisted tone.
"Crax?! Is that you?! Why are yo-AAARRRGGG-"
"I told you to listen to them," Crax said, "This is a delicate operation that takes extreme precision...hmm, that wasn't suppose to go there."
Zim was about to speak his mind again when Gaz closed his mouth with her hand.
"Zim, right now Crax is working on your PAK." Zim looked on the ground near him and saw his PAK casing, he tried to scream but only managed a muffled yell. "It was damaged, when you fell, because of...Tak."
Gaz said that name with great disdain and on instinct Zim grimaced in disgust.
"Then after you're fleshy friend came to me with you in her arms and she was begging in tears, 'Please, Crax, save him!', I couldn't deny such passion so I said yes, just as I told her that should anything happen to me, Zim won't survive for much longer."
Gaz lowered her fist that was aimed towards Crax. She got up and decided to leave them alone for their own safety while she cooled off.
"Where are we?" Zim asked.
"Look around you," Dib replied.
"Alri-AHHH! AHH! AHH! AHHHH-" Zim turned his neck and heard a snap, sudden pain overwhelmed his senses.
"And that's why we told you shouldn't move," Crax snapped Zim's neck back in place.
"AHHH! AHHH! AAAHHHH-You planned this, Dib! AHHHH!"
"No, I swear!" Dib said, "Just because I find it hilarious that you did that to yourself does not mean I planned it!"
"YOU LIE!"
"We're at the plaza, Zim," Crax said.
"Plaza?"
"Yes, how about your pointy-headed friend there retell the tale of what's happened while you were on the brink of death."
"Pointy? You mean the Dib-scum? Yes, what did happen?"
"Alright," Dib found some rubble to sit on, "So Tak had beaten us up..."
"Zim! Come on, wake up already!"
I was lying on the cold, metal ground, all bruised and battered. My body was sore-
Get on with it!
Okay, okay, I'm just building up suspense.
"Ah, geez, what the he-" I slowly got up to my feet, all around me was nothing but broken metal. When I turned and saw the VR&D building lying in rubble I could only wonder, how the hell did I survive.
"Dib! How badly are you hurt!" It was Kor, she had no signs of damage on her aside from torn clothing and a broken glove that was sparking every other second, I was thinking about how nice it would be to be a Fefian right now.
"I'm not hurt too badly, I think. I can stand, arms are fine, robot hand is broken. So what happened?"
"I was the first to wake up, soon after I found Gaz, then Gir with Tel stuck in his head, Skoodge lying in rubble, Kry on his back, and Daj had both his hands and feet stuck under a slab of debris. Overall, our injuries aren't too pressing."
"Where's Zim?"
"...I think you should see for yourself." Kor was solemn in her tone. She guided me away to where everyone else was, they were already huddled in a circle on the ground. One of them was Gaz, the person who's voice I heard earlier, and in her hands she was holding you, Zim.
"Gaz, is he..."
"No, he's not! I've-we've seen him go through worse than this over the years and he always came out fine!" Gaz pulled your body up a bit and that's when I saw it, a collection of circuitry and wires attached to your back, pieces of the covering lying on the ground, it was your PAK.
I remembered the time I had taken your PAK once years ago, you couldn't survive for too long without it. Gaz was in denial, I thought, well, had thought you were dead.
"There's nothing we can do, Gaz. We don't have anyone with any medical knowledge here, which just now makes me question how the hell we've survived for so long."
"None of us know anything about Irken physiology also," Daj said, "Well, except for the mini-drone and Gir."
"My training did not heavily cover Irken recovery, they told us our assigned SIR unit would take care of our maintenance," Skoodge said. We all turned to GIR who was standing there with his tongue out. He turned to us and smiled as if he completely understood what we wanted, then he jumped on your stomach and opened his mouth, he grabbed your tongue as if he was expecting a pulse. After waiting for several minutes, Gir let go and lifted a piece of the broken PAK.
"Master's backpack is broken!" We really shouldn't have expected much from him. Gaz responded by picking the robot up and shaking him furiously.
"We already know that you stupid robot!" I thought she was gonna tear Gir's head off, "What we wanna know is whether Zim's actually dead or not!"
"Master's sleeping!" Gaz stopped shaking Gir and slapped you on the face, obviously you didn't wake up.
"How the hell is that sleeping?!" Gir just looked at her stupidly.
"Well, the robot's sort of right." We were surprised by the unfamiliar voice, some of us thought it was another moose and readied their weapons but by the time they aimed at where the voice came from they saw nothing there, the being was already squatting next to Gaz. It was a gray alien of medium height, he had horns facing different directions and scars all over his face. None of us knew who he was, except Gaz.
"Crax?! What are you doing here?!"
"I was just casually waiting for my delivery when I saw the VR&D building collapse. I figured either something happened to you or Zim went overboard again," Crax then turned to the rest of us, "You must be the beings that Zim 'enslaved'. Hi, I'm Zim's former partner in innovation, technology, and the science of destruction."
Most of us were cautious of him, especially since he admitted to being your equal in terms of crazy.
"Uh, Hi," I was creeped out by him, "I'm Dib."
"Yes," He walked up and started examining me, first at my hand and then he pulled my sleeve and started poking my arm, "I wonder if Zim would mind parting with you, considering he has a spare."
You can have the Dib-monkey, Crax.
Zim! Stop interrupting my story, and don't give me away to your crazy friends like I'm some sort of newly discovered Cow-man.
But you were a Cow-Earth-monkey that one time.
And I still have the scar from getting that toy removed! Anyway...
"Hey, Crax! Stop playing around with Dib and tell us what you meant by Gir being right!" Gaz demanded.
"Right," Crax turned towards you body, "Zim isn't dead."
"Really?!" I said in shock.
"At least not yet, despite his PAK being broken he hasn't shown any signs of shriveling up from lack of nutrients, meaning the body is still able to feed off the PAK for now. I suspect that Zim will expire soon if left alone," as Crax finished your face started to slightly wrinkle, "...maybe sooner."
"Does that mean you can fix him?" Gaz asked.
"Of course, I just need to get some supplies. Drag Zim towards that direction until you get to a circular clearing. I'll be there soon."
Crax ran off in different direction and left us. We did as he said and brought you to the clearing, which is the plaza you're in now. Soon after, Crax suddenly appeared in front of us with a sack of tools.
"Where'd you come from?" Gaz asked.
"I had to retrieved these from the bunker," Crax replied.
"What?! You said the only way to get in an out of your bunker were through force fields that required great force to pierce, and you don't look like you were just shot out of a cannon."
"Of course, why would I shoot myself out of a cannon? That would be crazy!"
"WHAT?!" It was like watching a matador roll around in red paint while eating a steak in front of a bull, that was on fire, with jet thrusters.
"Before you plan on using my body as a way to repaint Vort, remember that I'm the only one who could save Zim."
Gaz turned away from Crax and punched the ground next to your body, there were cracks and a fist mark left behind, I wasn't surprised. Crax walked to you and propped your body up in a sitting position and started working on your PAK. He laid out several tools beside you and a frame with a holographic picture on it, I noticed an image of a PAK on it.
"How do you know how to fix Zim?" I asked.
"I've experimen-er, treated several Irken PAKs in the past. They are intriguing bio-mechanical machines, being the life-source of an entire race, imagine if one could control it..."
Crax gained a really creepy smile and we backed away from him.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Kor asked, it took me a second to realize that she was directing that towards me.
"Why are you asking me?" I replied.
"Should I not?" That's when I realized, they were looking at me like a leader. For once in my life, I was the one who would be respected and listened to. They entrusted me with making all the logical decisions and decide their lives. It was so glorious. It was-
Dib-worm, stop your incessant babbling already!
Come on, let me have my introspective character moment!
NO! It's nothing but pointless words I have neither the care nor time for!
Fine...
"I guess we should scavenge for...anything really."
"I have to find and regroup my people," Tel said, "I'll require the assistance of Skoodge and we'll come back here once we've found everyone."
"Kry and I are gonna look for weapons," Daj said.
"I'll go look for anything salvageable then," Kor said.
After that they all went their separate ways. I thought about how great it was to be in charge, the power, so delicious...
"...glorious power!" Dib finally finished his story to Zim's satisfaction.
"Yes, power is delicious. Where's Gir?" Zim asked.
"He's been here the entire time."
"What?"
"Hi Master!" Gir popped up in front of Zim, wearing his temporarily stuck together PAK casing as a mask, "I'm your sack."
"Gir! Give that back! It's a very important component of the machine that supplies me my life!"
"...I see..." Gir stared at the PAK casing intently before putting it back on and running around in circles.
"Gir! You-Huh? AHHH!" Zim reached out to Gir with his right hand and noticed the brace still attached to it, "The bomb! My right hand! AHHHH!"
"Oh, looks like I forgot to remove it," Crax grabbed Zim's right hand and started unhinging it.
"Quickly, before the timer runs out!"
"What? The timer ran out a long time ago."
"My right hand!"
"Don't worry, Zim, the explosive was just a fake."
"Oh, what?!"
"The purple one had the same reaction, and once again I must repeat what I told her, I'm the only one who can fix you."
"Crax, I'll-"
"Besides, I wouldn't waste an explosive on you two, I need them for my Vortians. I let them out to search for more survivors and supplies and attached explosive collars to their necks," Crax brought out a rectangular box with a number pad and a small screen, "See, I just enter the number of the collar and press this button to make them detonate. You can even watch it!"
Zim watched Crax's demonstration and saw as a helpless Vortian appeared on the screen, the next second its head disappeared.
"Ew, but intriguing, I wonder what it would take to build such devices..."
As Zim and Crax started discussing necessary components for building the exploding collar, there was something that's been itching in Dib mind the entire time, he thought it was time to act on it.
"Zim, there's something I want to talk to you about."
"What, Dib?"
"I think..." Dib took a second to really think about what he was going to say next. There was some doubt, but all reason and logic told him it was right, "I think it's time we give up."
"Hmm, I see, yes...WHAT?!"
"Give up your goal of conquering Irk."
"WHA-I, do you even understand the words coming out of your mouth-hole Dib-worm?! You are asking me, Zim, to give up?! Zim cannot believ-no, I've known you for a long time, I can believe that you would think up such idiocy in that spacious head of yours!"
"Come on, Zim! This is getting ridiculous, even by our standards!"
"Ridiculous?! We're taking about an Invasion, the most serious and important event for us Irkens! You even agreed to the idea!"
"That was when I thought all we were facing were aliens as stupid as you, or at worst, Tak, but things are different now! Tak's group severely overpowers us and if the Irkens can beat them then what chance do we have when we could hardly handle five of them!"
"So you want this to just all stop? Where would we even go, back to the puny rock planet?"
"Yes! You can come too, you even said you couldn't bring yourself destroy Earth."
"I did not!"
"Yes you did, and that means at least I can count on you to not destroy the planet...on purpose...maybe you can live on the moon..."
"I refuse your offer of moon-land! I do not want to hear this insolence anymore! I, Zim, will leave!"
"That's not a good idea during the operation, Zim," Crax said.
"...You win this round, Dib!"
"I'm just going to go away somewhere," Dib started walking away from the stubborn alien but stopped to give Zim a final message, "Zim, I want you to really think what you're getting yourself into this time. I know you won't give a damn about the well being of most of us but think about yourself, remember, you almost died this time. Do you really think you'll survive next time?"
Zim didn't give Dib a retort like he usually did, he just stayed silent. Dib left him to his repairs.
"So, he said you started caring about his home planet. I've never heard about such a phenomenon in your race," Crax was interested in the concept, "...uh, Zim, after this would you mind helping me in some...research-"
"Shut up, Crax, I'm making my brain juices flow."
"...and then, we unleash the mutated robo-rodents on him and we pepper his body with cheese powder, and watch as they gnaw him alive! Gnaw! Hahahahaha-so what do you think?" Red had spent the majority of the time thinking of counter-invasion plans after learning Zim was on Vort. Meanwhile, Purple had ordered the forces of Irk to prepare for an oncoming threat; fitting the soldiers with armor, loading the weapons, providing ship maintenance. Though as time went by he grew increasingly worried that his friend was becoming the being they were fighting against.
"It sounds like a great plan, except we don't have mutant robo-rodents, or cheese. Seriously, Red, that plan is crazy, and stupid." Purple saw that his friend was going to jump off the deep end soon.
"Good! However, was it crazier and stupider than what Zim would think of?"
"Honestly, no, I'm certain Zim would be dumber than that."
"I will not stop until I out-crazy and out-stupid Zim! Muahahahahahaha!"
"Red, calm down! Please, have a cookie! It's glazed!" Red looked at the sugar loaded treat before taking it and savoring every bite.
"Thank you, I needed that."
"Are you back to normal yet? I don't like someone as crazy as Zim with your power being around."
"I think so. It's just, we've never been invaded before! At most we've had minor rebellions here and there but nothing like this! To make matters worse the one at the head of this destruction is Zim! I have no idea how to deal with him. We send him to a random rock and he contacts us with plans of invasion, before that, he gets sent to Vort and brings back a planet destroying mutant that killed the Tallest, twice! Now we ignore the annoying thing and he shows up with increased height and enough power to conquer our colonies!"
"It'll be alright, Red, remember, we're the strongest race in the universe. We destroy stuff and pillage snacks! We have the best soldiers, technology, and snacks. We'll be prepared for whatever Zim throws at us, with snacks, for us, not him. I even sent a ship to Conventia to get reinforcements already."
"Wait, did you just say Conventia?"
"Yes."
"That's it!" Red opened a hologram of their territory with all their colonies.
"Red, what are you doing?"
"Look at all the colonies Zim conquered, he destroyed several colonies like Foodcourtia but left some, like Oberox, alone. It almost seems random, but when you connect all the lines together, it forms...a smiley face!"
"Gasp!"
"And look here, in the middle where we are. If we draw a line from Conventia to Irk, it forms...the nose!"
"What does this mean?"
"It means Conventia will get destroyed before we do, thus we could set a trap!"
"A trap?"
"Yes, Purple. When he gets there, we will use...the button!"
"Why are you being really dramatic?"
"For emphasis! Now toss me another glazed cookie."
Night finally settled over Vort. Everyone had made it back to the Plaza, all back with various items; Tel and Skoodge found the remaining members of the ZMDA, Daj and Kry found a bunch of weapons, both broken and usable ones, including Daj's G.F.B., Kor came back with a bag of components, some of which were most likely junk. Gaz had miraculously found the GameSlave Zim gave her and it even worked, she was playing it to relieve the stress from the day. Dib was trying to find any sort of light source, after hours of finding nothing, he just settled with using Gir. Kor and Crax tinkered with Gir so that he would glow brighter, he was amused with his bright self and everyone else encircled him.
"Alright, that's as much as I can do for today," Crax put his tools away and back away from Zim, "You're going to have to wait until tomorrow for me to finish, but you can move around. I've found several problems with your PAK you know, and not just from the fall, it seems several functions of your PAK have been in disrepair for a while, as if it had absorbed the force of several crashes. Some of the broken functions include your spider legs, some lasers, and a weird knobby thing."
"Yes, I realized, the Dibship doesn't have the necessary maintenance that my base had and I had tasked Gir to bring the necessary tools and machines to repair them," Zim looked at Gir who was lying there while flailing his arms, "I should have expected the nest of ladybugs."
Gir opened his mouth and a small cluster of ladybugs flew out.
"Your SIR unit is one of the most peculiar and strange piece of tech I've ever seen, so strange that I do not even want to think about how it functions."
Zim got up and stretched his body and moved around after staying stiff for so long. After a while he was working out the aches and was making sure his squeedily-spooch didn't deflate.
"Yes, everything feels good, I feel rejuvenated! Yes! Now noth-AHHHHH!" Zim felt a sharp pain the moment he raised his arm.
"Oh, your left arm might be broken also, but that's not my expertise."
Zim continued screaming for an extended period of time until Gaz threw a rag at him to shut him up. He used it create a sling for himself, it was still in pain but the pain was subsiding.
"Alright, now that that's done, it has come to my knowledge that some of you do not want to continue with this conquest. This knowledge came from one of you, who will be anonymous," Zim was circling the plaza, looking at each member of his crew, "It was Dib!"
"Hey!" Dib shouted.
"I'll admit that I don't care for your petty wants and needs, but I've been thinking as well. The Dib-monkey's whines have made me curious, so now, I will allow each of you to speak of any complaints you have so far."
Everyone stayed silent for a little bit, at first Zim thought it was because no one could think of anything to say, then he found out it was because they were all thinking about the several reasons they had.
"First off, I was dragged along because you're stupidly stubborn," Gaz was the first one to speak.
"I'm finding that I'm dying way more times traveling with you than living on Fefa," Kor said.
"I've stayed because I am a being of my word," Tel said, "However, if given a choice I'd want to leave, you're a terrible employer."
"I have to spend my time living with a drone I can't shoot at," Daj said.
"This whole idea was ridiculous from the start," Dib said, "At first I just wanted to go into space again and didn't think you'd actually get far, and I'll admit that once you did, the idea of conquering an evil alien race sounded cool, now, in retrospect, this whole idea is ridiculous!"
As Zim was about to speak he was interrupted by them, and they continued to give their reasons as to why they wanted to stop in the same order.
"I have my Vendetta List back, which was why I went along with this."
"I have experienced many new things for the first time after leaving the planet, almost all of them killed me."
"You have introduced my people to the art of combat, I see nothing good coming out of it once this is over."
"Kry has a hard time digesting the food on the ship."
"I lost my hand! Though I'll admit this robo-hand is pretty cool."
"Trying to live with you on a daily basis is torturous and I could just feel my brain cells depleting every hour."
"Pretty much all your plans include me getting killed or mutilated in some way."
"My people don't have their 'prophet' to listen to anymore so they don't really want to be continuing with you."
"Well actually I found this today," Kor pulled out a voice-box with a bunch of wires, cables, and tech attached to it.
"Screw off!" said the voice coming from it, Tel's people immediately recognized it.
"Oh, never mind then." As Tel finished his sentence, Daj started up again.
"Your training room and armory are incredibly lacking for this type of operation."
"We will die the next time we see Tak!"
This continued on for a long while until everyone said their last round of grievances.
"We've probably missed months of skool, so looks like I'm repeating a year."
"I thought I left Fefa to avoid getting killed."
"We should be working on restoring our civilization, I've found that my time with you has been counterproductive."
"Drones suck."
"I am sick of all the big head jokes you keep making!"
After everyone had finished Zim just kept the same glare that he had when they were ten minutes into their complaints. Skoodge came up to him and offered the only words of support among the crew,
"Sir, I will always be loyal to your tallness," Skoodge saluted Zim to finish it off, Zim still had the same look on his face until he spoke.
"After thinking about and hearing all your complaints, I have come to a conclusion," Zim became silent and slowly walked around the area again, "Nothing will stop my Invasion! All shall bow down to me and sniff at my elite superiority! So you all can either get stranded on this rock or come with me on my conquest!"
"Alright."
"Fools-wait, what?" Zim wasn't expecting such a response, essentially just a plain okay, and from Gaz. "Weren't you just complaining about everything that has happened so far?"
"Of course, I had to make it clear because you're dense to a stupider degree than stupid. Also, just because I have tons of reason as to why this idea was stupid doesn't mean I need just as many to go with you," Gaz threw a metallic sculpture at Zim's feet, carved using a laser-blade. It was in the shape of an Irken's head with the antennas slicked back and with a metal attachment, "All I need is one."
"I'm going too, because of this," Kor pulled out a green vile, "Apparently, whoever we're up against has developed a weapon that can kill Fefians."
"And you want to destroy them all to protect your people?" Tel asked.
"No, I want to take it all and introduce them as weapons capable of killing on Fefa, causing conflicts with highers risks and, with any luck, war and death."
"Oh. Well my people has gotten the words of the Dibship back so they'll follow you and I am bound to my word anyway."
"Drone, living with you makes me wish I could disrespect my brother's wishes," Daj said, "But if going with you means I get to shoot drones by the dozens then it'll be worth it. Kry agrees too."
Zim was surprised at first but quickly regained his composure.
"Yes, all of you have come to your senses and clearly realized that my plans are the best," No one felt like combating Zim's ego right now and just went along with him. He then grabbed Gir like a flashlight, "Now I must gloat. Haha, Dib-wor-hey, where'd he go?"
Zim had shined Gir in the spot where Dib was sitting to find it empty. Everyone looked around them but Dib was nowhere to be found. Zim shined Gir farther back and saw a glimpse of flailing legs at the corner of a building.
"Over there!" Gaz shouted, she got up and ran, shoving Zim and taking Gir from him and using the robot like a flashlight. Everyone immediately followed Gaz. As they turned the corner the light revealed that Dib's arms had been tied and his mouth was gagged by some sort of brown rope as he was being dragged away until it disappeared into a building. Everyone followed him into the dark room.
"Dib! Where are you?!" Gaz called out. The room lit up as power flowed into it. In the center was a circular machine with triangular objects that ran along the rim. On top was a cylinder where Dib's head was shoved in and where they saw the identity of the kidnapper.
"The monkey..." Zim said coldly and disdainfully, recalling that this mess was its fault.
"Can I have your autograph?!" Gir shouted, "I love your show!"
"Be quiet Gir!"
The monkey let out a loud screech as Gaz was starting to run towards its but the monkey pulled two levers and the triangular spikes aimed towards her and the others. Zim pulled Gaz back as a small cylinder jetted out from each spike like a blaster barrel, it started charging like one too.
"Everyone move!" Crax shouted. Everyone quickly jumped away from the area the spikes were pointing at. White lasers fired from there tips before colliding with each other, creating a loud bang and a shockwave that pushed them back.
When Zim and the others looked around there were expecting destroyed sections of the building, laser-burns, or melted metal, but all they saw was a portal. It appeared from the collision of lasers, just spinning and spinning, the only thing they could see was black covering the entire thing, until they saw a hand.
It was silver, then another hand appeared, followed by a head, then the body. The figure that stood before them was in a silver and black jumpsuit, equipped with various utilities, and also weapons. It wore a helmet over its head, a plain metallic helm with nothing but slits for eyes and a few more, possibly for breathing. It reached up and grabbed its helmet and started removing it until its face was finally revealed to everyone.
"Sir," Skoodge said, "Isn't that a-"
"Human?" Gaz couldn't believe it, "And doesn't he look...familiar?"
Zim was shocked, he knew who this being was, how he wished he had never known this being in the first place. The eyes, the hair, the stupid grin, without a doubt, it was his worst nightmare.
"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"