Episode 2: Welcome to the Resistance (Part 2)

3rd period PE was their personal battlefield!

Cadet Scamooch's eyes narrowed to his target; he smiled wickedly as the human worm; Joseph met his gaze with a stern one of his own.

'He just keeps bouncing back up, no matter what I do!' It was true, the Cadet had done everything to make the boy cave and yet here he was, standing before him on his own two feet, ready and willing to endure more! 'I admire that in an enemy. After all, it's the constant never-ending hunger for victory that makes a true adversary worth fighting.' Of course, the Cadet didn't tell him this; instead, he took his dodgeball and threw it as hard as he could.

Joseph dodged the ball with ease and readied himself for another blow. He was surprised that this sport wasn't banned like all the other human sports were. Why they were banned still remained a mystery, but Joseph figured it was because most of the sports either encouraged humans to be violent, or have self-confidence, or maybe a mixture of both.

Cadet Scamooch laughed as the other fifteen cadets on his team all threw their balls at Joseph in unison. Of course the human worm was the last player on the human team; he always was, and he was pretty good at the game, too!

Joseph dived down into the push-up position as the balls flew over his head. He silently cursed the Tallest for the fiftieth time that day.

'Dodgeball… out of all the sports that have been banned, why didn't they ban dodgeball?!' Of course he already knew the answer; it was simple really. The game was only allowed because it allowed cadets to afflict pain on their human peers without any restrains of possible punishment. Plus there was the fact that the humans didn't try to hit the cadets out of fear of said punishment, which meant that the Irken scum always won!

"Ready to give up, worm?" Cadet Scamooch taunted.

Joseph got to his feet slowly, trying desperately to restrain himself from strangling the Cadet mercilessly. It was almost completely impossible to play with the constant pain running up and down his spine, but now that the head-splitting migraine was back. He knew he wasn't going to survive much longer.

One of the cadets rushed a ball over to Cadet Scamooch. "Here you go, sir!"

'Suck-up.' Joseph smiled at the thought. If there was one thing Cadet Scamooch hated more than anything, it was a suck-up! Which, he thought, was funny when considering the fact that Joseph himself was the biggest suck-up in the school, and yet Cadet Scamooch still wanted him as his minion; the irony of the situation was far more than he could take! To be fair though, Joseph was only a suck-up because it kept his brother out of harm's way…

Cadet Scamooch smiled; the human was slower than usual…

'Perhaps he is sick,' the Irken thought. 'Good; another advantage for me!'

"Well go on and bring it!" Joseph jeered as he saw the Cadet prepare to throw. 'I bet this is how Dib use to feel when we were enemies, put up against each other in gym.' He smirked at the thought. 'It's funny how fate turns the table on people, and everyone says she has no sense of humor!'

Joseph was pulled from his thoughts as Cadet Scamooch finally fired.

Joseph watched as the ball came at him a little too fast for comfort. He knew he had to let it hit him; after all, if he didn't give in now the Cadet would fight him until he won, even if that meant keeping him from lunch. 'Speaking of lunch, I still need to find some recruits…' His thoughts were interrupted as the ball hit him square in the face. He allowed himself to fall face first to the ground as the Cadets laughed around him.

"Not bad, for a human," Cadet Scamooch jeered as he walked by. "Maybe next time you'll finally beat me."

Joseph smiled as he waited for the Cadet to walk away before he got to his feet. Of course, he could have won against the Cadet easily, but that was not the mission. His mission was to find four recruits before lunch, which was only 15 minutes away.

Joseph couldn't help but laugh in spite of his pain. 'And to think I could have gotten out of this; oh well,' he said to himself as he raced off to get to work, promising himself that next time someone offered to put him out of his misery that he'd take the offer without a second thought.

(Back with Mark…)

The Anger...

It boiled up inside of him like a pot of sizzling grease. 'He deserves to die.' Mark popped his knuckles one by one as the last 40 hours and 55 minutes played threw his mind over and over again. 'The Irken scum; it's his fault our lives are this way in the first place! And he thinks he can just wipe the slate clean and start all over, but I know it's all an act; he'll be the death of us all!' Mark groaned as the bell sounded around him, pulling him away from his vengeful thoughts; he grabbed his books and headed for the cafeteria.

It was already time for lunch, and he was no closer to finding any possible candidates to join their ranks. Rachel said that they should each try to recruit four people to join the Renegades; that would give them twenty new recruits. It wasn't a lot, but they all agreed that it would take time to teach them and get them up to speed, to the same level of training as the rest of them. Of course, Zim would be training them, just as he had trained his four human comrades previously.

'Comrades? He doesn't know the meaning of the word! And if he does he definitely wouldn't consider any human as one.' Mark shook his head and forced himself to think about the mission at hand. It wasn't an easy task, but he knew that there had to be way more than twenty people who wanted to take back this planet. But which ones had the nerve to fight back?

Most would think they didn't have a chance…

'Do we have a chance?' It was a question that had haunted him since day one! After all, the Irken Empire expand across over fifty-five galaxies... 'How can we stand up against an Empire that massive? We're only one planet, and the whole planet isn't even on the same page! Some people just want to survive in the new world…'

'NO!' He refused to think that he and the others were the only ones that wanted to make a stand! 'There has to be others who have the skills and the desire to take back Earth!' Mark combed the halls with a stern gaze, seeking out the chosen few that had what it took to stand against the ever-growing threat; and it wasn't long before his eyes found what they were looking for.

A girl, just a few rows of lockers ahead of him, had her lavender hair up in her usual pigtails as she walked down the hall, Irken cadets would pull those pigtails. As hard as they could, but the girl just gritted her teeth and kept going. The girl was Gretchen Homes, and she was probably the least-likely choice… or so you would think. With her larger-than-life dorky glasses and blinding metal braces, no one would guess that this girl was anything but completely ordinary. But Mark knew better; Gretchen was a wiz with computers and was so smart that she already possessed an IQ of 180. If Zim could teach her how to hack Irken computers then there would be no limit to what they could accomplish!

Mark watched as she hurried passed him; their eyes locked briefly, but only long enough for Mark to see the fire in her eyes. She wanted to make her presence known, and she wanted to show them that Earthlings were not the ones to mess with; he could just feel it coming off of her in waves. 'And I can offer her just the chance she's been looking for,' he thought as she continued on her way. 'That's one down and three to go.' He smiled at the thought. 'Maybe we do have a chance after all...'

(Back with Kathy…)

Hatred...

She had never felt such hatred. Kathy bit her tongue as she watched a girl with lavender hair walk down the hall in front of her. The girl was enduring torture from the Cadets, who each pulled at her pigtails and laughed like it was some sick game. 'The monsters!' Oh, how she wished she could tear them all limb from limb!

"Kathy, are you even listening to me?"

"What- uh?" Kathy turned to her sister, Jamie, who at the moment was giving her a look of pure disappointment.

"I said 'how was your first few classes?'" Jamie couldn't help but sound annoyed, and for good reason. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was having to repeat herself over and over again, and her sister Kathy was famous for making her do just that!

"I hate this school," Kathy groaned.

"Gee, what a surprise!" Jamie said as sarcastically as possible as she stopped to dump her books in her locker. "Kathy, we talked about this. I need this job, so please behave."

"Behave? How can you say that?! Don't you want to do something, anything, to get things back the way they were?!"

Rachel froze at her locker, which was on the other side of the hallway. Did she just hear what she thought she'd heard?

"Of course I do, but we just can't, okay?" Jamie whispered harshly as she tried to get her messy thick brown hair into a decent-looking bun. "Now stop talking nonsense before someone hears you," she warned.

"But if we could, if someone gave us the chance, would you?" Kathy asked, practically pleading with her eyes.

Jamie sighed, "Of course I would, but the chances of that happening are slim to none."

Rachel smiled. Two possible members where sitting right under her nose! She knew she had to act now before someone knocked their spirts down. She closed her locker and walked over to them. "Hey Kathy, you off to lunch?"

Kathy turned to see a girl that looked somewhat familiar. "Do I know you?" She asked.

"Um, yeah, I'm in your second period with Coach Richardson." Rachel smiled as she looked towards Jamie. "You must be Jamie, Kathy's big sister." She held out her hand.

Jamie shook it looking hesitantly. "Uh, yeah. How'd you-?"

"Oh, Kathy told the class about you in her introduction." Rachel could tell she was freaking them out.

Jamie gave Kathy a look. "And exactly what did you tell them?"

Kathy gave a nervous smile. "That you got a job here... and stuff?"

"And stuff? Gee thanks, sis. Good to know I can count on you to vouch for me," Jamie teased.

"Anyway, I was wondering if you guys wanted to have lunch with me and my friends." Rachel went on.

"Really?" Kathy asked, somewhat surprised.

"Yeah. The Irken Cadets can be real jerks; especially during lunch! I thought that we humans should stick together, you know?"

Jamie nodded. "Sounds great! We just have to go get our little sister, Mary."

"No problem," Rachel said as the girls began to walk towards the Middle School Division.

'Rachel seems nice.' Kathy smiled at the thought and stopped as her eyes fell on a familiar face walking by. It was the boy who had talked to her during second period. 'What was his name? Oh yeah, Keef.' Kathy's smile grew wider as she got an idea. "Hey, is it okay if I invite someone to eat with us?" She asked.

Rachel smiled. "Sure! Who did you have in mind?" She asked.

"Just wait here," Kathy ordered and ran off to catch Keef.

Rachel watched as Kathy grabbed a red-headed boy by the arm and raced him back over to them.

"Guys, this is Keef. His sister was in the Marines, just like Mom and Dad," Kathy said as she introduced him.

"Ooh, what platoon was she in?" Jamie asked excitingly.

Rachel couldn't help the smile that found its way onto her face. She had done it; she had found three possible candidates, and if you counted the sister Mary that made four! 'Well that was easy enough,' she told herself. 'I wonder how well the others are doing...?'

The lunchroom...

It was a battlefield of potential victims with only one safe haven, but getting there was almost a suicide mission… almost being the key word there. And Joshua Campbell was an expert when it came to navigating under the radar, or at least he'd like to think so. He forced an uneasy smile as he led four students to the outside courtyard where he and the others usually had lunch. 'Wow, it's only lunchtime and I've manage to find all four candidates…' He was surprised to admit that he was just now realizing this. 'I wonder how well everyone else did?'

"Uh, Josh, are you sure we're allowed to eat out here?"

Josh turned to one of the four students that were walking beside him. Audra Perkins had to be the shyest girl he had ever met, but she was tougher then she looked. She and her cousin Steven had been learning Karate since before they started attending grade school! And if they would be willing to join then they could pass that skill onto the rest of them. Josh was confident that they would join because, well, why wouldn't they?

"Trust me, my friends and I eat out here every day," he assured them.

"And they don't care?" Steven asked, obviously surprised.

"The Irken Cadets don't like watching us eat; they say we wolf our food down like wild animals," Josh said with a roll of his eyes. "So they'd actually prefer us out here where they can't see us."

"Those Cadets are so rude!" A girl to his left growled in a way that reminded him of Gaz. Shyann Mosley was definitely as tough as they came. She was known to be the only girl on the football team, back at her school before the invasion, though she didn't look like the type to be tough. That was actually a good thing though; people wouldn't suspect her, especially not the Irken who were so blind to human customs. When Josh had heard she played for the team he thought she was joking. The girl had muscle, sure, but she wasn't exactly the tomboy muscle-buff girl he'd expect.

"I know, what jerks!" A boy to Josh's right agreed.

Now Dallas Thomas, on the other hand, looked exactly like a football player was supposed to look. He was big and buff and was used to taking hard hits, which is exactly why Josh chose the guy. The group would need a lot more muscle for more dangerous missions.

"Here we are," Josh announced as they arrived at their destination. It was a large tree that sat in the middle of the courtyard. Several other students were gathered around it and Josh could tell that every one of them were possible recruits. He knew this because usually only he and his friends sat under the tree. "Guys, this is the big Oak Tree!" He said proudly.

"YO, Josh! You made it! We were getting worried, man!" James said.

Josh was amazed; there were so many people around the tree that it actually took him a few seconds to find his friend! He sat down beside James, feeling good about the number of people they had all managed to gather up. "Guys, this is James. James, this is Audra, her cousin Steven, Dallas, and Shyann." He pointed each of them out as he spoke.

"Cool! I'd introduce my friends, but Rachel says we'll do introductions when Joey gets here," James said casually.

"He's late again?" Josh asked.

"No surprise there," Mark said as he and four other students took their seats around the tree. "He's always late."

Josh rolled his eyes. He didn't want to hear this right now, and luckily, it would seem he didn't have to because, for the first time ever, Mark actually stopped there. The thing that worried Josh the most is that Joey never used to be late. Only a week ago he would have been the first one there, but just recently he'd been arriving later and later, and it worried the younger brother considerably… Josh let this thought drop though, for now, as Joseph soon showed up with four more people.

"Sorry I'm late," Joseph huffed as he sat down. It was obvious that he was in some kind of pain, and Josh couldn't help but feel concerned.

"You okay?" Josh asked worriedly.

"It's just a headache," Joseph assured him. 'A headache that's mighty close to splitting your skull in half,' he added to himself. He forced a smile and did his best to pretend it wasn't that bad as he began to wolf down his lunch.

"Okay guys, let's get started," Rachel said, grabbing everyone's attention. "My name is Rachel Hearting, and my friends and I have decided to reach out to you all in the hopes that these brief lunches with friends will help us all get through our days here at Westville High." She stopped as James, Mark, Josh, and Joseph stood up. "I'd like to start by introducing them, my personal closest friends and aids in this effort, and I'd like us to go around and introduce ourselves to the group. How does that sound?"

Everyone seemed to nod at this, so she continued. "This is my boyfriend; James Carter."

James fist-pumped the air as if it was a great honor to be Rachel's boyfriend. Of course, he was the only one who would know if it was or not.

Rachel smiled and continued. "And his cousin; Mark."

"What up?" Mark said half-heartedly as he kept a sharp eye out for possible spy drones that could be lurking around them.

"And finally, this is Joey and his twin brother Josh."

Josh held up a rock-and-roll sign on his hand in greeting while Joey half-heartedly waved, silently hoping that it just came off as shy and not pained.

"Now everyone else, It's your turn! Let's start with you," Rachel said as she pointed to Keef.

Keef smiled nervously. "Hi, I'm Keef! Some of you may already know me..." He stopped, looking to Kathy to save him from his obvious embarrassment.

Of course Kathy, being the nervous wreck she always was, was no better than he…

"My name is Kathy, and I have two sisters…" She stopped there, too shy to go on. 'Really? Two sisters?!' She blushed, obviously embarrassed. 'Out of all the things you could have said you chose to say, 'I've got two sisters!' like an idiot?!'

Jamie smiled. "I'm Jamie, Kathy's older sister, and I work at the water factory."

Everyone looked impressed at her words; and why shouldn't they? The water harvesting factory was the highest paying job in town, right alongside mechanics and scientist.

A blond girl with glasses stood up to introduce herself. "My name is Mary, I like to write stories, and I'm currently in the school newspaper. Oh! And I'm their youngest sister," the girl said with a perfect smile as she motioned to Jamie and Kathy.

Kathy was instantly fuming. 'Now that is an introduction!' She told herself harshly as the girl with lavender pigtails stood up shyly.

"Um, my name is Gretchen, and I'm really good with computers. I guess I'm also smart, especially at math. In fact, I can really solve pretty much any math equation you can throw at me, so..." She let her sentence die off and shyly sat back down.

'I bet I could think of a few equations that would leave your head spinning!' Joseph thought to himself. He had no doubt about who had chosen her to join the group, but he tried not to let the fact that it was Mark cloud his judgment. It had to be Mark, since he'd talked about her to the group before, so he probably actually went to her first. Mark had once said that she had an IQ of 180, which was impressive for a human. It was definitely high enough to hope that she could master the ways of Irken Technology; or at least, that's what Joey was hoping for.

"H-hello. My name is Audra, a-and this is my cousin Steven… we're both black-belts in karate," Audra said very quietly. The introductions continued down the row after a moment of impressed nodding.

"Uh, my name is Shyann, and even though it's no longer a school sport, my team and I still play street football in the field by the old Bloaty's Restaurant," she said as Dallas stood up.

"And as team captain, I, Dallas Thomas, declare you are all invited to our next game on Saturday!" He smiled, obviously proud of the fact that he was the football team captain and was brave enough to still play the sport, even though it was banned from school.

A tall and rather skinny boy stood up next; he rocked on his legs, back and forth nervously, as he tried to introduce himself. "My name is Brian Rhodes… I don't exactly have anything cool to say, but I'm pretty good at decoding hidden messages and I once accidently hacked into a government computer for a secret cooperation. Of course it was my brother's computer, but how was I supposed to know he was an undercover agent?"

Josh's mouth fell open. 'And he doesn't think that's a cool thing to say?!' He forced his mouth shut as he noticed the grin on his brother's face. He instantly knew who recruited this computer geek. 'Not bad, Zim,' he admitted to himself, 'but if you tell me that you only recruited him because he reminds you of me then I swear I'll kill you!'

Another girl with dirty blond hair stood up next. "My name is Elizabeth Evans and I like doing extreme sports."

'Is jumping onto a moving train while fighting off a bunch of Irken Military personnel extreme enough for you?' Mark chuckled to himself as he continued to keep an eye out for anything that would see this circle as a suspiciously unauthorized assembly.

A big and really buff kid stood up next, and Joshua swore inwardly; he had a good reason behind the curse on his lips. He was purely surprised to see that the kid was a giant and could easily pass as an adult. "My name is Daniel Jenkins, but most people just call me Jenkins, and I used to be on the wrestling team before it was BANNED!" He yelled.

'No joke…' Joshua held in a laugh. This kid could definitely take out a soldier or two. After all, wrestling was an effective form of fighting, and his size would certainly be an advantage.

"My name is Jack." a tall boy with shaggy dark hair said. "And these are my friends Elisabeth and Diana," he gestured to two girls with long red hair beside him. "We used to all team up in the extreme sports Olympics before…" he stopped looking at Jenkins knowingly. "Well you know." He sat down then, giving Elisabeth and Diana each a high five as he went.

The girl beside Diana stood up next. "I'm Katlyn Newhouse, and these are my friends Robert and William." She gestured to the two boys beside her as she spoke. "Our parents were all stationed here before the Great War."

Rachel couldn't help but wince at her words. A lot of kids in town were 'Military Brats'; they had parents in the Military. She couldn't help but feel sorry for them; each of them was missing someone dear to them right now. If they were lucky it was only one of their parents that was gone, and if they weren't lucky… well, then they'd be like Josh and Joey; trying to scrape by on their own. She couldn't imagine how hard that must be…

'Would they even have time to stand and fight? Would they even want to?' She could only hope so. After all, a Military Brat has had the opportunity to travel all over the world. She could only imagine what skills they had learned and what connections they still might have with friends in allied countries that they had met in their brief times that they were stationed there...

"My name is Amber Hammons and I'm a gymnast." A tall lanky girl spoke as she stood to introduce herself. "I've done gymnastics since I was four. I miss it a lot, it used to be so much fun…"

"Nothing around here is fun anymore," the girl beside her said bitterly. "They took it all away." She stood then. "My name is Gwynn Taylor; Victor and I use to be part of the track team." She gestured to the last kid in the circle, who was sitting quietly beside her. "We were just voted the best track team in the nation the day before the war, and then it was all taken away…"

"Everything was taken away," Victor whispered sourly.

Joseph cringed as some of the others mumbled their agreements. 'If this is how they feel about my race now, then how are they going to feel towards me when they find out I'm not human…?' It was an uncomfortable thought, to say the least, and Joseph couldn't help but feel that feeling of yearning for the world he once knew. A world where things made sense, and he felt at home. Of course he saw Earth as a home, after Gaz had shown him its beauty, but there were so many things here on Earth that still didn't make sense to him. Even though he was comfortable in his new life, it was starting to become exhausting, pretending to be something that he obviously wasn't.

He sighed deeply. 'I want to go home…' He reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the skull necklace that lied there. It was the one thing that kept him going because, in his mind, Earth was a home, sure… But it wasn't the home he yearned for, and neither was Irk. Sure there were other Irkens there, and other lifestyles and terminologies that actually made sense, but he never felt like he fit in there either...

No. It was Gaz; she was his home, and right now, he missed her more than anything. 'I wonder if she misses me too. Does she ever stop to think about me?' Suddenly the bell sounded, pulling him away from his thoughts.

"Okay guys, meet us back here tomorrow for lunch!" Rachel said as all the kids began to rush off to their next class, leaving the four Renegades alone by the tree. For a long moment none of them spoke until, finally, Rachel cleared her throat. "So what do you think?"

"Well, I think they've all got what it takes," James said. "They just need a little training, really."

"What if they all chicken out and don't come?" Mark asked the obvious.

"Then we'll search for more," Josh answered before turning to his brother. "You sure you're ready for this?"

Joseph watched as the four humans looked at him, waiting for his reply. 'Am I ready for this? Am I ready for the possible ridicule and harsh judgment that's bound to come?' His grip tightened on the necklace, and that's when he knew the answer. It didn't matter if they judge him harshly or ridiculed him for his pass transgressions. No. The only thing that mattered now was saving Gaz and correcting the wrongs he had done.

With a deep sigh and determined look, he spoke. "Yes. I am ready," he finally answered.

"Then it's settled! We drop the invites into their lockers and… wait to see if they come…" Rachel spoke the last part gravely.

"I'll do it," Josh said boldly. "I have free period right now, so I have plenty of time," he assured them.

"Then let's get moving!" Joseph warned. "We can't afford to be seen lurking after the bell."

The five Renegades all nodded their agreement, and, after a brief farewell, they parted in their separate ways…

-To Be Continued