"Gaz! Gaz!"
Why did people always have to scream her name? Was it Kor again? No, she was eaten.
"Wake up!"
The voice sounded stupid. Dib? No, it had the same level of annoyance but she didn't feel annoyed with it. Actually it made her feel warmer, but who else would shout her name so desperately?
"Damn it human, wake up!"
"...Zim?"
"There! Target sighted!"
"I can see that, Zim. A giant moose is hard to miss." Tel was sprinting in the Dibship, with the giant mech copying his movements. Zim was outside the Dibship, using a cable to hang onto the shoulder like a rock climber, along with Dib and Gir who shared one cable. Zim had rushed to finish repairs the moment Skoodge's and Daj's communicators returned nothing but static. Gaz didn't answer her's either, but it wasn't static yet. There was nothing at the intercept point, but the thunderous sounds of the moose led them in the right direction. Zim gave Tel one order when they saw the monster:
"Charge it."
The moose was just standing there. When it turned its head towards the sound of the Dibship's large steps, it was met with a tackle. The size combined with the speed of the Dibship was strong enough to send the moose flying into the city wall of Irk.
"Now! Activate protocol 39X8VGY!" Zim shouted into his datapad.
"Don't you mean 39X8VGZ?" Tel replied.
"Hurry up!" Tel turned his head to a side monitor and activated a virtual keyboard and entered in the code. The scythe-like appendage on top of the Dibship's head split down the middle, once open it shot an object into the sky. Automatic protocols took over as the Dibship raised one arm to catch it.
"A giant metal pole?" Tel said, "That's your secret weapon against the moose?"
"It's a Doom Staff! Now use it, the moose is rising!" Tel aimed his focus at the moose who was getting back up. Tel charged it, wielding the pole like a sword with both hands. Tel felt the pains of electricity flow through him when the moose suddenly rammed him with its head. If it wasn't for the magnets Zim used to connect him, Dib, and Gir to the ship, they would've flown off.
"Zim, don't you think staying on the shoulder of a giant robot as it fights a giant monster a bad idea?" Dib said.
"Fine, Dib, I'll drop you on the ground to get squished by a moose hoof while I stay safely attached with this cable." The moose rushed at them but the Dibship used the pole to parry the moose and flip it over.
"Wouldn't I have a greater chance of avoiding the moose on the ground if it's attacking the Dibship?"
"No!"
"Any reas-"
"I've traced her!"
"Traced? Did you find-"
"Cyber-monkey, head towards these coordinates!"
A virtual map showing the location Zim had marked was shown to Tel. "But what about the moo-"
"Go now!"
The Dibship began moving to where they had initially tackled the moose. Dib was wondering why they didn't attack the moose while it was down, and why Zim kept interrupting him. "Hey, why are you being impatie-"
"I found Gaz."
"WHAT?! Oh god, is she okay? I knew it was a bad ideaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-"
Zim activated something on his wrist causing the cables to suddenly repel. Zim was able to control his pace but Dib just fell, and probably would've gotten something broken if Gir didn't regain control and landed cleanly. Zim landed soon after.
"Monkey, keep the moose away from this area at all costs."
"Got it-AAHH!" The Dibship was suddenly rammed by the moose, shocking Tel. He worked through the pain enough to grab the moose as he was charging and used the pole to continuously whack it. The moose pulled free and bit into the Dibship in the shoulder. It was a good thing Zim, Dib, and Gir got off. As the moose's teeth pierced the outer layer of the Dibship, electricity flowed into the beast's mouth causing it to pull back before it caused heavy damage. Tel pushed the moose off and using the pole like a bat to whack the moose in the chin. The moose stood back on its hind legs and brought two hooves down in an attempt to stomp the Dibship. Tel held the pole horizontally with both hands to block it, but the moose was strong enough to eventually force the Dibship to bend back.
"Gaz! Gaz! Oh god, G-OW!" Zim slapped Dib in the face to keep him from going hysterical. They were in a half collapsed room, Zim had locked onto the communicator he gave Gaz, what he found was exactly what he expected. Gaz was on the ground, a head wound with a flow of dark, red blood running down her pale face. Kor was nowhere to be found, only a single arm that Zim was very careful to avoid remained.
"Gir, medical supplies." The robot opened its head and an assortment of medical supplies popped out; stethoscopes, bandages, popsicle sticks, scalpels, rubbing alcohol, real alcohol, bed pan, nurse outfit, several needles. He then turned to Dib, "Listen, Dib-worm, I have no idea how to remedy your primitive human biological functions when they're damaged. You would be the only one who would know how to deal with your sister so the last thing I need is for you to go into one of your manic ramblings!"
Dib didn't like it when Zim was his voice of reason, it meant something was really wrong with him. Zim was right that he was the only one who could help his sister, he had some medical knowledge from survival guides he read when he would go on his two-three day excursions into the woods to search for cryptids. He grabbed the bandages and rubbing alcohol from Gir's pile of supplies and moved towards his sister. First he poured water and rubbing alcohol on his hand in an attempt to sterilize them before realizing there were gloves. He checked her pulse, letting out a sigh of relief once he felt it. He found the source of the bleeding, a nasty gash underneath her bangs. He poured the water, washing away the blood and wiping it up with a sponge, then he applied the alcohol, though he didn't know how effective it would be against alien bacteria, and then bandaged the wound gently around her head. He took off his jacket and used it as a pillow for Gaz.
"There, that's the best I can do for now. we really need an actual medic on the team," Dib said as he washed his sister's blood from his hands, "I'm not trying to complain but I'm wondering, why did you sound so worried about Gaz?"
"Gaz is the most useful being among you sacks of liquid, second only to Skoodge and that's only because of his fierce allegiance to me," Zim continued to inspect the room, "She's also the only one who could possibly handle Tak, other than me of course, increasing her value."
"Wow, you make it sound like you really care about her."
"Care?! Zim does not hold petty, feeble, unnecessary attachment for living things like your pathetic, weak, pret-uh, petty sister. No, no, no no, I am a superior being who refuses to look towards any of you expecting interpersonal relations!"
"That was sarcasm, Zim."
"I do not need you chasms of sar, Dib-slime!"
"...What-"
"Tel, how goes the situation with the moose?!" Zim suddenly turned to his datapad to communicate with the pilot of the giant robot that was protecting them right now.
"AAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!" Tel screamed back through the open channel.
"Monkey! Why is it taking you so long to handle the moose? The Dibship Mark III was built for this!"
The moose had pinned the Dibship and was stomping on its torso with both hooves in a repeating motion. The protective plating of the Dibship kept it from breaking, but the lack of cracks only motivated the moose to keep stomping until it did. Inside the Dibship, Tel felt the constant pain of electricity with only half seconds to breathe between shocks.
"Sir, what are your orders?" Plun, the second in command Heboadian on board, awaited Tel's orders.
"AAARRRGGHH-ugh, ha- AAARRRGGHH-ugh, ha- AAARRRGGHH-" Tel screamed in agony.
"It's okay, sir, I'm patient." Tel really shouldn't be surprised by how dense his people can be. Another Heboadian ran up to Plun and handed him a holofile. "Sir, missiles have been restocked."
Finally, Tel thought. He forced his arm to move despite the shock and punch a button on one of his holo-monitors. A circle opened on the Dibship's torso and missiles shot out at the moose. The giant monster roars in pain but it only stunned the beast, however, it gave Tel enough time to unpin himself from the moose. He grabbed the pole that fell and used it to continuously beat the moose. The moose was pummeled with a flurry of strikes, crushing the metal plating and giving no time for the moose to retaliate. Tel raised his mechanical arm, activating the flamethrower. He released an ocean of flames onto the moose, letting the waves of fire consume the beast until his fuel tank had completely emptied. The flames eventually subsided until only the frame of the giant moose was left, still blanketed in a burning blaze. Tel let out a sigh of relief.
Plun was handed another holofile and spoke to his leader, "Sir, I've received the bio-scan data. The moose isn't dead."
"...Boad dammit...AAARRRRRHHHH!" Tel was suddenly met with shocking pain. The moose had rammed him, this time the antlers had pierced the Dibship's outer armor. The Dibship was sent flying and slammed into the Irken wall. Once the pain stopped, Tel looked at the monitor to see the state of his opponent. The moose looked like it swam in lava, every open patch of fur and flesh the moose had was now completely black and charred, the metal armor plating was half-melted, the liquid metal mixing into the open wounds the moose had sustained from the beating.
"Monkey! Why is the moose still alive?!" Zim's voice rang through Tel's ears from the communicator.
"What the Boad can I do? I did everything!" Tel replied.
"You stupid cyborg, what do you think I gave you the stick for?!"
"The stick?" Tel's eyes turned to the pole and he knew what Zim meant. The moose began charging at him. This time, Tel charge also, the pole held with both hands and aimed forward. Seconds before the collision, Tel drove the pole forward, pushing it through the moose's body as if it were butter. The pole curved downward, stabbing the ground as well. The moose had its limbs laid out, it showed seconds of motion before becoming motionless. The Heboadian never knew why the Irken was so insistent on making him stab things with blunt instruments when a blade would work better, but at least it did work.
"...I...I think I did it..." Tel relayed to Zim. The exhausted Heboadian fell back into a sitting position, the Dibship following it's movements.
"Finally! Use your processing cells for once!" Zim yelled back. Tel just took the insult as Zim's way of saying good job. "Now hurr-"
"Wait...no..." Tel didn't want to believe it. It was faint, but the thought of it terrified Tel. He hoped that it was just fatigue, he was hearing things. The second growl was louder. "...No, no, no, no, NO!"
"Monkey! MONKEY! What's going on?!"
"...it's alive..." The moose began stirring, slowly and with a pole in the middle of its chest. At the moment it was pinned to the ground by it, but it wouldn't hold the moose forever. Tel was frozen, he had thrown everything at it, he couldn't continue the fight. He tried to move but his body wouldn't listen. "Dibship, switch to A.I. Control!"
"...szzznk-HUA-SH-ate-szznk-veon-ksshh..." Nothing happened, and judging by the response the A.I. Must be severely busted from the fight.
"It's over. I...I can't do anything. It won't stay dead."
Damn it, Zim thought. He could tell from Tel's face that he couldn't fight anymore even if forced. Kor was the initial plan and the Dibship was meant to be the back-up, now both had failed. He couldn't believe anything that had the healing abilities this thing had could be so destructive. The moose was healing, like "...a Fefian."
Zim looked back at the dismembered arm of his own Fefian. If she had been crushed she should have recovered by now, yet Kor's body was still nowhere to be found, there wasn't even a trail of her liquids if she had wandered off. The building was also peculiar, even though it was half gone, there was no debris from the building near it and the shape of the missing pieces were oddly shaped.
"Zim, what are we going to do?" Dib asked, "We're going to be stranded without the Dibship and possibly die to that moose!"
"Yay vacation!" Gir said, "I'll suitcase the packs and bring the dead human."
"She's not dead yet!"
"Awww."
Zim ignored the two and opened the channel to Tel. "Monkey, bio-scan that moose, multiply the sensitivity by ten, and give me the data now!"
Tel only nodded. Tel entered the sequence for the bio-scan and sent the data to Zim, never taking his eyes off the struggling moose. Once Zim got the data on his datapad, it confirmed what he suspected. The bio-scan read two beings, but the second one was barely noticeable even on high sensitivity thanks to the huge size of the moose. Zim homed in on the faint trace of the second location of the being, it was in the throat.
"According to plan!" Zim yelled, startling Dib. Quickly, he changed screens and entered in a code. It would cause the datapad to emit a frequency that would act as a trigger. There was an explosion.
Tel saw everything. The explosion was small, but there were multiple booms. At first the Heboadian thought it came from somewhere else, until he looked at the moose, it stopped moving. It seemed nothing had changed visually, Tel mustered up the strength to walk closer to it. Once it got closer, the vibrations of its heavy steps revealed the damage; the moose's head fell off. It was a messy split in the neck, with fresh blood pouring out like a waterfall.
"Cyber-monkey!" Zim yelled into Tel's communicator, causing him, and the robot, to jump. "Don't just stand there! Mash that moose until it's nothing but a waffle!"
"Don't forget the syrup!" Gir said into communicator.
"Yes! The body must drown in its own bloody syrup!"
Tel had seen this thing survive being burned alive and having a pole shoved through its chest, he only had one word to reply with, "Understood."
Zim and Dib could hear the strikes Tel delivered to the beast from the distance. Dib turned around to ask Zim what to do next when a bag was thrown right at him. It was the same one Zim had given Gaz earlier.
"Gir, take the Dib-worm to the moose," Zim instructed.
"What? Why would I have to go there? Besides, I should stay with G-oof!" Dib felt pressure on his chest. Gir had lassoed him with the cable.
"Let's go Cow-Man!" Gir jumped off, dragging a screaming Dib with him.
Zim turned to Gaz. She was still unconscious but he could hear her faintly breathing. I have to wake her up.
Zim had to pause himself for a bit after thinking that, a bit confused as to why he would say that. Then he remembered that Gaz would heavily increase the chances of success for him. He sat by her side and did what came naturally to him.
"Hey! Wake up!" Yelling didn't seem to help. Zim was stumped. Medical disciplines was never something he had to do, it was always better to just replace the expendable being or dump them in a vat of healing liquids, he couldn't do either. Gaz was strangely unique to him, unfortunately she was also a fleshy and replacing parts was more complicated. He wished she was just a robot so he can just pull out the faulty wires and gears and put in new ones.
Zim tried to think what he could do next. He tried to recall all the methods he saw the Earthling use to revive one of their own on the gunk Gir would watch on their TV monitor; electric shocks, chest punching, closing their face holes, mouth hole on mouth hole contact. He couldn't do any of those. He remembered a year ago when he accidentally tripped and had grabbed onto Gaz's face, he got a punch in return. He didn't have anything that could emit an electric shock on him. The chest had gotten him beaten three-fourths to death in the past.
Zim had an idea. He grabbed his laser-blade and faced the handle towards Gaz, repeatedly jabbing her in the arm with it.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"
Zim was expecting her to suddenly object to his shouts like usual, but nothing happened. He was getting frustrated and desperate, he probably should have left this to her filthy brother. He reverted back to what his instincts to him to do.
"Gaz! Gaz! Wake up!" Zim had moved his head until it was only a few inches away from Gaz's face. Yelling up close apparently wasn't working, that's when instinct took over. Zim reeled his hand back and yelled at her as he set the hand in motion.
"Damn it human, wake up!"
"...Zim?"
Zim had stupid instincts, and he knew that if he had actually slapped Gaz his probably wouldn't be able to feel his hand, or face, for the next day. Fortunately, he was able to stop his hand from applying any force, unfortunately it was still touching her face.
The first sight Gaz saw waking up was Zim, face within five inches of her and a hand on her cheek like in a cheap romance flick. Still, she blushed and quickly pushed Zim off. Her heart was racing for a bit, and her head felt dizzy and had a headache. She felt the bandages around her forehead and realized that she had been knocked out for who knows how long, but when she looked around the room she realized that she was still in the same building.
Zim held up his arms to shield him, believing the push was a sign of attack. Once he realized she wasn't going to follow it up, he returned back to the sitting position he had when he was trying to wake Gaz up. He was glad to have her awake and surprised he was only greeted with a light, well light for Gaz, shove.
"So, uh, it's good you're awake," Zim said awkwardly.
"Yeah...thanks. What happened to the moose?" Gaz asked as she laid back down.
"Dead. Hopefully."
"Hopefully?"
"That moose should've been dead twice before this time! The Dibship is mashing it right now."
"Glad to hear it. So did anyone die?"
"The Dibship and the Cyber-monkey will be fine. I'm trying to trace Skoodge and the lizards through their communicators like I did for you, and your brother was the one who tended to your wounds." Gaz just now noticed it was Dib's jacket she was resting on, she also remembered that he was inside a moose not too long ago wearing that thing. She pushed it away.
Gaz had just noticed the severed arm in the room, the same one she saw right before she lost consciousness. "What about Kor?"
"The Tinkerer should be fine."
"She was eaten by the moose."
"I know. She'll come back."
Gaz knew Zim was right. Kor is virtually immortal, she would've gotten out, one end or another. Thinking of the closest thing she had to a friend made her recall the conversation they had on Vort. She figured now was the best time to ask Zim since they were alone and nothing too life-threatening was happening at the moment.
"Hey Zim, what are you planning on doing after all of this?"
Zim was hesitant to answer, he didn't think Gaz would ever ponder about his interests. He shrugged it off and figured this was just the human way of passing time, "As the tallest of my people, I, Zim, will take my rightful place as the leader of Irk!"
"Isn't your planet pretty much a craphole now, and aren't all the Irkens dead?"
"Eh, I'll manage. Once I control everything I'll go about conquering the rest of the universe."
Only Zim would say that so casually, Gaz thought. She propped herself up and sat against a wall so that she wouldn't have to look upwards to talk to Zim. "So after this, will we never see you again?"
"If you mean you're planning on returning to your pathetic rock, then yes."
"So you wouldn't miss anyone?"
"...Of course not! You're all nothing but expendable meat-shields to me."
"Is that really how you feel?"
"Feel? What do Zim feels have to do with anything? Zim feels nothing but victory!"
"Come on Zim, you can't be that oblivious. Can't you be a little honest, at least with...me?" Gaz was hesitant to say that last part. She was a hypocrite, she knew that, trying to pry into Zim's feelings while trying to hide her own, but Zim didn't reject the proposal immediately, meaning he had to be considering it. Gaz knew Zim had some positive feelings in there somewhere, even she had them, much to her disdain. Sometimes she wished her feelings were nothing but a void to be filled with contempt, spite, and gaming like she was when Zim first landed on Earth, but other times she thought the feelings were "nice".
"...Fine, Gaz. I'm not as idiotic as you claim I am, certainly not to the level of the Dib-filth! I am a gajillion billion times smarter than that-"
"Zim." Gaz didn't need Zim to start giving himself a chain of compliments right now.
"...Yes, I know that my plans aren't always 'successful'."
"There, was that so hard?"
"Yes, never do that to Zim again!"
"Too bad, I'm going to ask you a harder question, and answer honestly."
"Zim hates honesty."
"How do you really feel about everyone?"
"They're all meat-"
"I said honestly."
"Zim is speaking truthfully!"
"No you're not. While I do believe the whole hyper-arrogance thing you do is real, I don't think you're as dumb as you act, mostly. I think you're aware that inside you have some emotion, human emotion. Call it a side-effect from staying on Earth or whatever, but you have them. You've saved Dib before, all your plans never involve sacrificing someone, except Kor, even if it would make the task easier, and you even found me when I was dying."
"That's just because you all have some value that I can exploit!"
"If we were nothing but tools to you then you wouldn't have to keep repeating it! I think you're just creating a shell to hide whatever sliver of good feelings you have and you strengthen that shell by continuously expressing yourself, loudly."
"And how would you know that?"
"Because...because that's what I do." Gaz spoke softly. It wasn't often Zim would hear Gaz speak in such a passive voice. It was a rare occurrence, almost as rare as Gaz being wrong.
"...I don't want you to die."
"What?"
"Any of you, everyone that I gathered, I don't want them to die, it would be...detrimental." Gaz could tell Zim wasn't being a hundred percent honest with her, but it was a start. "Well, I wouldn't care that much about the lizards and metal-monkeys, the Fefian is immortal, Skoodge and Gir are the only two actually loyal to me, and if Dib died then you would kill me, but you've all proven yourselves to be useful in one way or another."
Gaz noticed he left out one person when he spoke. "So what do you...think about...me?"
"You're the strongest human I've ever seen and probably the only human I can hold in high regard. You're the most useful out of everyone."
Gaz didn't like the way Zim made her sound like a utensil. "Is that it?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"It's...peculiar. I've grown to fear you from all those Earth years together, yet I don't despise you at times. It's...it's like..."
"You care?" Both of them were reminded of their time locked up in the Vortian prison where Gaz had used that word and created extremely awkward tension between the two.
"W-what?! Preposterous! No! No! Why are you even asking Zim these questions?"
"Huh?"
"What about you?! Why must Zim be the only one to get his deep, bottled up soft feelies poked at!?"
Uh oh, Gaz thought, she didn't expect Zim to suddenly redirect the question at her. For someone who usually would never shut up about himself, he was quick to do it now.
"Well, Gaz? Why are you so interested in Zim's psychological innards?!"
"Because..." Gaz didn't want to say anything. She wanted to just hit Zim and end the conversation like that, but her body was still weak and she couldn't think of an excuse to dodge the question with. She shouldn't have started this conversation while she still had a headache, it was a poor decision. She decided not to make anymore decision while she still experienced head trauma from now on.
"Gah, I don't get why all of this matters anyway!" Gaz was surprised, did Zim dodge the question for her, or did he just get impatient. "You should all just become my slaves!"
"That's not an option." Gaz replied calmly.
"Indentured servitude is always an option!"
"Zim, we have lives."
"Pathetic lives!"
"Shut up." Gaz threw Dib's jacket at Zim, but she was half-smiling when she said that.
"Ugh, this jacket is disgustingly filthy!" Zim had unfolding the piece of clothing and held it away from him like it would give him a disease.
Gaz giggled, on the inside, faintly, very faintly. She would kill everyone if she actually giggled out loud. Still, it was nice, this brief moment of playfulness she and Zim shared especially after a conversation like that. She wouldn't mind more moments just like this, but she knew this would never happen again.
When Zim told Tel to make that moose into a waffle, Tel really did turn the moose into a waffle. Tel had pounded the moose flat, leaving dents similar to the impressions of a waffle, and this waffle was drowned in "syrup". Dib was disgusted when he saw this. The cable that Gir had dragged Dib with had loosened enough for Dib to get out, right before Gir had jumped into a pool of "syrup".
"SYYYYRRUUUUPPP! I loves it!" Gir shouted as he swam about. Dib really hoped that Gir knew the difference between syrup and blood since he's eaten Gir's waffles before when he infiltrated Zim's house once, and the syrup was homemade.
The bag Zim gave him was strapped onto Dib's bag. When he looked inside all he found was a weird blaster and a set of Gaz's clothes. Dib was really curious as to how Zim got a hold of Gaz's clothes.
Dib carefully stepped around the pools of blood even though it was all over him earlier. The Dibship was lying flat on its back, apparently Tel was napping after such an intense fight. Dib didn't know why Zim even told him to come here in the first place, he began to think it was just to watch over Gir while he played around. A hand shot out and pulled Dib into the blood.
Dib was shocked and disgusted. First he thought Gir had pulled him in but saw that the robot was five pools away from him. A pillar of blood began rising. Dib brought his arms up to defend himself and panicked, Oh man, this is like one of my horror-scifi movies where a new monster would be born within the corpse of a giant monster to feast on my entrails for nourishment! I'm going to be eaten by a baby moose spawn!
"This is disgusting." The voice was female, one Dib recognized. He lowered his guard and saw that the pillar was forming a more humanoid shape.
"Kor?" Dib was almost certain it was his Fefian friend.
"I swear, if you make one joke about how we both ended up inside a moose I'm going to shove you right back into its neck-hole." By now Kor had regrown her arms and the blood was sliding off of her, an advantage of being partially slime based. As more of her skin began showing Dib realized that she didn't have any clothes on and covered his eyes, though he didn't really know if he had to be embarrassed or not.
"Uh here, this is probably for you." Dib held out the bag Zim gave him. Kor took it and climbed out of the pool. Once she was done putting Gaz's clothes on she pulled Dib out. The clothes fit Kor, it wasn't any different than the usual black clothing she usually wore, the only thing missing were her boots and gloves which were still with Gaz.
"I hate these things. All I was suppose to do was get inside the stupid cut, drop off the bombs, get out, and blow up its leg. Instead, I get eaten and clung for my life in its throat."
"Does stomach acid kill you or something?"
"It would be very hard to heal from it."
"At least it all worked out in the end, I don't think blowing it's leg up would even cripple it for long. You should have seen how crazy that thing was in the fight!"
"I felt it. So how did you guys figure out I was inside that moose, did Gaz-wait, Gaz, is she alright?"
"She's alive, so she should be fine. Hopefully."
"Hopefully?"
"I had to be the one to treat her, but it's not like my medical skills amount to much. You sounded pretty concerned."
"Of course, she's my friend. She probably doesn't see it that way though."
"I think that's the first time I've heard any of us say the word 'friend'. We're a sad bunch of people aren't we?"
"Well, maybe you are." Dib looked notably saddened by this comment. "Come on, you know I'm joking. You and Daj got pretty close over time, and I consider you a friend at least."
"Woah, really?" Dib brightened up a bit.
"Yeah...this is the first time you've had friends isn't it?"
"What?! N-No, of course I've had friends!" Dib was a bit too defensive with that reply but Kor decided to drop the conversation before it got too emotional. They walked around the edges of the moose until they ran into Gir.
"My head's blinking for you!" The antennae on Gir's head was blinking just as the robot said. Dib didn't know what to do but touched it hoping it would do something. He was right as Zim's voice emitted from Gir.
"Dib, did you find the Tinkerer yet?" Zim said.
"Yeah. Also, I'm pretty sure the moose won't be healing back anytime soon," Dib replied.
"Thanks for the extra set of clothes by the way," Kor said.
"Master! How did you get inside my head?" Gir said.
"Gir, we've talked about this. I'm just using a communicator to talk through you."
Gir opened his chest panel and began reaching inside himself. "Don't worry master, I'll get you out of there!"
"Anyway, Dib, I found Skoodge's and the lizard's communicators so head back. Also make sure Gir doesn't damage himself too much. I already told the cyber-monkey to come back and get us through the wall." The communication ended and Dib and Kor began to walk back. Dib grabbed Gir so he doesn't go wandering off again but he seemed preoccupied with searching for Zim in his chest cavity.
"Master, I got you! Oh, that was a bunny."
When Dib reached the building Zim was waiting in, he was overjoyed to see Gaz standing. He immediately ran and hugged his sister and was immediately kicked in both his shins. He would've been more worried if she didn't do that to him though. Kor and Gaz both expressed to each other that is was good to see them still moving and Gaz returned Kor's boots and gloves.
They found Skoodge tangled in vines, unable to reach his communicator or anything else. He was joyful to see his leader alive and coming to his rescue. Both Daj and Kry had half of their body pinned under large chunks of rubble. Daj was happy for once to see the Irken show up in front of him. All three were injured though. Skoodge was bandaged like a mummy by Gir. Kry had to wear a brace of his neck and head. Daj injured the lower half of his body and had to be placed on a stretcher. Afterwords, Zim sent everyone into the Dibship where they prepared to break down the wall into Irk's capitol.
Most of them didn't expect this level of devastation. They had a better chance of finding someone alive than a building that was intact. Fires still burned heavily throughout the city and corpses were littered everywhere. Zim's memories of Irk's capitol was of a highly advance, purple utopia. Now it was just a purple hell with streaks of red.
"Congratulations on living so far, Zim." A loud booming voice swept over the city. It was the Employer.
"It's that stupid shady guy!" Zim yelled. "Does he know where we are?"
"Honestly, I can't tell if you lived or not but it would just be too convenient if you died to that moose. However, only you would attempt to continue this conquest."
"Foolish...thingy! I will make jelly out of your blood...or...whatever liquids flow through your body!"
"I'll get to el point. You want to kill me. Yo quiero matarte. I also have a holofile."
"Holofile? What's on-"
"It contains all the data of what I did to your PAK, and how you can fix it."
"What?!"
"Zim, I don't think he can actually hear you," Dib pointed out. "He's probably just talking through a really big loudspeaker or something."
"Then how is he responding to my comebacks!"
"He's probably just guessing," Gaz said, "Your comebacks tend to be predictable."
"My speech is not predictable! That dumb shadow thingy certainly wouldn't be smart enough to guess what I say!"
"Call me dumb as much as you want, but you'll always be una idiota grande compared to me." The Employer replied.
"See?" Gaz said. Zim decided to just stay quiet.
"I'm a kind, tyrannical overlord, so I'm giving you dos choices. Uno, come to me and we'll fight for this holofile. I'll be in my ship, waiting in the secondary command room. O dos, you run and live the rest of your short life until I visit whatever corner of the universe you're in and step on you. If you take the second choice, then I'll just tell you that you'd be nothing but a scared, pequeña almohada. You'd be a scared, little pillow. That's right, Zim, I just called you a pillow." The Employer's voice stopped.
"HOW DARE HE CALL ME A PILLOW! Zim does not have feathery softness on the inside! There are only organs of victory!" Zim shouted.
"He's obviously baiting you," Kor said.
"But he is a fool! For him to even think that I'd run from the likes of him!"
"Of course." No one really expected anything else.
"I vote we blow up the Employer with the Dibship, it would save us some time," Daj said from his stretcher.
"For once your sense of violence had lead to a good idea, lizard-stink," Zim turned to the Dibship's manual controls but was stopped by Gaz.
"Wait, if you just blow up the ship he's in then you blow up the holofile," She pointed out.
"Arrgh, lizard-stink, I take back my praise, you're still stupid." Daj didn't seem to care.
"That is if the holofile is even real."
"If it isn't then I will extract his brains or whatever storage thingy he uses and probe it with pointy needles!"
"We can't just go running in there though," Dib said, "You don't have a concrete plan yet and some of us aren't at 100 percent." Dib glanced at Gaz when he said then.
Zim pondered about his options. Certainly the numbers and fire power were in his favor but injured minions do hurt his chances. When he gave his order, everyone was shocked. No one expected Zim to ever give them this type of command.
"We'll wait."