Disclaimers: I do not own Invader Zim
Author's Notes: So, this chapter use to be like 15 pages long but then I thought it was too long, so I cut it in half, anyway with that said all the good stuff is in the second half which you won't see until next week. Yes, I am torturing you on purpose! Don't lie and say you hate me; because you know you love me! Anyway, Thanks for all your support and reviews, it really helps!
(Present Day: Saturday Morning)
[Back with Zim...]
Watching...
He could feel them watching him...
Yes, Zim was sure of it, this secret organization that Dib had been talking about had their eyes on him, and he could feel it.
However, such news did not worry him, or stall his efforts.
No, Zim knew that once he weaved his web of lies that this group of alien fighters would be watching him, so naturally he was prepared. How? You might you ask?
Simple, he just had to learn to be in two places at once.
You see when you're a well-known Invader like Zim, the enemy always secretly suspects one of their own to be none other than invader Zim himself. And why shouldn't they? After all they didn't call him the scourge of the universe for nothing! The Irken Zim was a one-man army of destruction, capable of taken down entire planets single handedly, and such a reputation required him to be prepared to be constantly watched. So, what was his solution? How did Zim take over worlds when the enemy's eyes are constantly on him?
Simple, he creates a duplicate of his disguised self to take his place whenever he needs to get some work done.
Yes, the enemy was watching a robot double of Miz, and not the actual Invader himself. This strategy would allow Zim to move freely about his work and deter any suspicion that might be focused on him. It was a method that he had used at least a thousand times now, and every time it worked without fail. Once the enemy saw Zim, and Miz together in the same space, on opposite sides of the battlefield this organization would welcome him with open arms.
However, there was one flaw: this method required constant role playing on his part. Forcing Zim to have little time for important things like sleep. Sure, he hated sleep, but every now and then he had to give into the need, or risk dying.
"Master; what are we doing" GIR asked as Zim let out a yawn.
"I'm looking GIR." Zim answered, scanning the security feeds of his home.
"Looking for what?" GIR asked.
"The enemy." Zim whispered, as something caught his eye. Right there in camera 7 was a house fly. Or at least that's what it looked like upon first glance, but Zim's ocular implants saw right through its outer disguise, and into its fleshy parts. Correction, its metal parts. Zim smiled wickedly. "There you are." He mused, pressing a button on his controls.
Zim watched as a small device latched itself onto the fly unnoticed.
"OOO what that do?" GIR asked, watching intently.
"That device is synced with my PAK." Zim explained to his deranged Sir Unit. "And now that it's hooked up to that spying device, I will see everything it sees, meaning I will know when it is watching me. Allowing me to know the perfect time to switch with my robot double. Not only that, but within minutes I will be able to use this spy bug to track down their lair of operations. There I will use this very transmission link to hack into their systems. Yes, soon I will be able to see everything that goes on in their little base!"
"Oh, I see." GIR said, looking confused.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" Zim asked.
"Not a clue." GIR admitted.
Zim rolled his eyes.
"Doorbell activated." The computer brain reported.
Zim took a deep breath and activated his disguise, the link between him and the spy bug was working perfectly, and at that moment he could see that it was focused on who was at the door. It's Dib, who is no doubt here to play video games as promised. "Now is the perfect time for me to switch back with my double." Zim said aloud. "GIR stay down here, and monitored the computer's progress." Zim ordered.
"Yes, my Lord." GIR answered.
"Computer." Zim said turning to the computer in question. "I want you to start crafting me a drilling device."
"Drilling Sir?" The computer asked.
"Yes, as you know I have decided to keep the planet free of my oppression and gather materials for the war effort in secret." Zim explained. "I can't afford to try to take over before I know everything there is to know about this alien hating organization. However, that doesn't mean work shouldn't get done."
"Very well sir." The computer answered. "I will start constructing your drilling machine right away."
"See that you do." Zim said, before his robot double stepped into the lab. "Right, I am needed upstairs." he said entering the elevator. "And GIR?"
"Yes master?" GIR asked.
"You remember what to do right?" Zim asked.
"Yes, my Lord." GIR stated. He and Zim had arranged a little surprise for the owner of the spy bug, one that was to ensure a speedy entry into this secret society for Zim.
"Good now don't touch anything until it is time!" Zim ordered before the elevator started its climb up.
"He does know I'm goanna touch everything right?" GIR asked the computer.
"Yes, yes he does." The computer admitted.
"Thought so." GIR mused before exploding into a button pressing fit.
The computer sighed. Why did he always have to put up with this broken robot?
(Back with Dib...)
Dib pressed the doorbell again...
What was taking his new best friend so long?
Dib shifted nervously, looking over his shoulder. Ever since Dark Booty told him that he might be being watched by some unseen alien enemy he couldn't help but be paranoid.
Finally, the door opens.
"Sorry I was in the bathroom." Zim said.
"It's okay." Dib told him trying to hide his paranoia.
Zim sees it as plain as day, the kid was nervous about something. He could only assume it had something to do with the story he told yesterday. Good if his enemy was nervous then that meant he was unfocused, and Zim could already tell that he would need any advantage he could get when it came to this boy. "My parents are out job hunting." He told Dib. "So, we have the house to ourselves."
"Cool." Dib said as Zim let him in. "Wow." He looked around to see a beautifully decorated living room, with a surround sound.
"Yeah, my mom likes to decorate, and my dad's obsessed with TV. He's determined to find a way to make our living room sound like a theater, so we don't waste money on a movie we'll likely gonna buy on DVD later anyways."
"Makes sense." Dib said. "We are playing games in here?" he asked as he notices the Xbox one counsel on the entertainment center.
Zim nodded, "I have an Xbox one in my room too, but it doesn't have surround sound." He explained.
"Well don't keep me waiting." Dib teased. "Give me the tour!" He insisted.
Zim laughed, as he began to show Dib around, of course he knew what was really going on. Dib's partner wanted to see the whole house, and since flies couldn't open up doors, he needs Dib to do it for him. However, Zim is not worried, no Irken tech was located at the ground floor, and the only way to go down to the lab was the elevator.
Speaking of the elevator, Zim smiled as he stopped in the kitchen. "Behold the kitchen!" He exclaimed dramatically, earning a smirk from his friend.
Dib looked around, "Nice marble." He said complementing the counter tops before opening the refrigerator.
Zim stiffens for a moment for you see the elevator was hidden behind the fridge, but it was not supposed to open for anyone who didn't have the biometric make up of Zim or GIR.
So, if Dib were to touch the fridge, like he is doing now, it should not rise from the floor and reveal the secret door to the elevator. No, instead he'd open it up to see some left-over spaghetti. And to Zim's relief that's exactly what happened.
Speaking of Human food, Zim was surprised to find that he could actually eat most of it, however meat was awful, and made him throw up soon after he ate last night's spaghetti. Fortunately, the mother bot threw it out, and created another batch with tofu meatballs instead.
"Hey, is that your mom's famous spaghetti she told me about?" Dib asked.
"Yeah, but its vegetarian spaghetti." Zim informed him. "My family doesn't believe in killing animals and eating them. So, the meatballs are made with a tofu substitute." Yes, it would appear the tofu meatballs worked well into his backstory as an extreme animal lover, who knew?
"I've had tofu before." Dib said. "It's not so bad."
"Well then I guess we can have that for lunch." Zim said with a smile.
"Hey, speaking of animal's where's GIR?" Dib asked, looking around for the small pup.
"Oh, he's due for some vaccines soon, so my parents went ahead and decide to register him with the local vet while they were already out." Zim explained.
Dib's face looks upset for a moment. "Oh, I was hoping to meet him, you speak so highly of him and all. I just wanted to meet the greatest pet ever!"
"He's more like a brother to me than a pet." Zim explained.
'Wow he's really serious this about animals are equal thing.' Dib thought. "Hey, you're okay that I'm a meat eater, right?" he asked feeling worried that he might lose a friend over something as trivial as what he chooses to eat.
"I don't like it." Zim said. "But I'm not gonna force you to change for me, just please don't do it around me okay?"
Dib nodded. "I guess that's fair." He agreed closing the fridge. "So, what else is there?"
"Well, there's the garage." Zim said opening a door in the kitchen which led to a two-car garage. Zim pressed a button on the wall and the garage doors open, leading to the back yard. Which was strangely littered with rubber pink pigs.
"Your driveway is in the back?" Dib asked amazed, trying to ignore the fallen rubber swine around him.
"Yeah, it's backwards." Zim admitted. "My Dad likes it though because the privacy fence goes around the backyard, so it discourages burglars from snatching away our cars, because they're not out front so they assume there are none to steal."
"That's kind of smart." Dib said. "But if no one appears home, won't that encourage fugitives to break in, and you know crash while the heat dies down?"
"Maybe but I'm not worried." Zim said. "I can handle myself."
Dib gave him a look.
"I mean I know how to defend myself." Zim clarified.
"You mean like martial arts?" Dib asked. Sure, he knew how to fight thanks to Dark Booty's private lesson's that started six months ago. After the first meeting Dib received a letter in the mail from a dojo in the local mall. The invite informed him that he was signed up for fighting classes once a week. Of course, he was shocked to receive an invitation since he had not signed up himself. However, when he asked the fighting instructor about it, he told him that a Dark Booty had paid for his classes in full. So, naturally he knew this was part of his training, and took it very seriously.
"Yeah, after the whole alien thing I got kind of paranoid, so while we were in Japan, I took a lot of classes." Zim explained. "Why?"
"Oh, you just don't look the type." Dib told him.
Zim smiled. "I bet I could beat you up." He challenged.
"Well considering I only started learning self-defense six months ago, I'd have to agree." He told his friend.
Dark Booty's eyes narrowed as he took some more notes on his iPad. So, the boy took self-defense after the alien encounter. Sure, this seemed reasonable, but was he really a paranoid child, or was he a clever alien covering all of his bases?
Dark Booty couldn't explain it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that this boy was anything but normal. The kid was the first new kid in this town for years, he was interested in the same things as Dib, and he just so happened to see an alien. If the owners of that transmission were watching Dib, and planning to eliminate the Swollen Eyeball. Surely, they would see Dib as the perfect ticket to get inside and gain their trust.
And yet, Dark Booty could find no flaw in the child. Sure, he was strange, but so was Dib, and anyone else for that matter. Yes, everyone had some element of strangeness about them. Could it just be a coincidence? Was it possible that this was all just by some strange chance?
He was starting to think so.
"Anyway, this is where I play with GIR." Zim went on, and picked up one of the rubber piggies that littered the yard. "He really likes these things." He explained.
"Yeah, I was wondering about all the Piggies." Dib admitted. "Anything else?"
"Well, you already saw the front yard when you came in." Zim stated. "I guess I can show you the bedrooms." He suggested leading Dib back in the house, and up the stairs.
"Okay." Dib stated. He was glad that this was going well, he really wanted Miz to be a part of the team, because then they would have no reason not to hang out. It was strange, Dib had never noticed the need for a companion before. However, once he met another person who was just like him it was like a drug he just had to have, he craved it, needed it. The feeling that the person beside him actually cared about the words coming out of his mouth, it was addictive to say the least.
Strangely, Zim couldn't agree more, since Red and Purple became the Tallest; Zim had lost that source of companionship, leaving him in the mist of the boring conversations of his peers. However, Dib had a way of captivating his attention, which was a difficult feat for most since Zim got distracted so easily.
"Well, this first door is the guess bathroom." Zim said opening the door.
Dib stared in awe as he was greeted with an ocean themed bathroom, with sea green walls, and matching towel sets. "Your mom is really good at this whole decorating thing." He admitted aloud. "Maybe she should do our house."
Zim laughed. "Don't tempt her, she really can't help her decorative passion." He warned. "I couldn't even keep her away from my room." He said, opening the door across the hall.
Dib saw a room engulfed in navy it covered the walls as well as the bet set and curtains. It flowed perfectly with the cherry wood floor and a matching desk, and dresser. Finally, there was a few UFO posters that looked to have been recently added that covered the ceiling. He smiled because it instantly looked like the kind of place he would stay in, right down to the over tidy organization of the room itself.
"And here's my bathroom." Zim stated, opening the door.
Dib looked around, again the walls were navy blue, but this time it was tile. "You must really like navy blue." He told him.
"I do, but not this much." Zim admitted. "But what was I gonna tell my mom? That I hated all the work she did?"
"Yeah, I guess that would have been pretty cruel." Dib admitted turning on the water faucet.
Zim eyed the water, he of course knew what it was, (thanks to his human studies) but had never bothered to touch it. Heck, he didn't even know his house had running water, and yet it made sense to have it in case he had a human friend over like he did now.
Dib watched as Zim placed his hand under the water. He could be so stupid at times.
Zim cursed himself as he felt instant agony, like hot acid was being poured onto his skin. If he had not been well disciplined in the art of pain, he would have screamed bloody murder. Instead, he took a deep breath and removed his hand slowly. It was torture to do so, but this was the Irken way.
You see once upon a time Irkens looked quite different than they do today. Zim did not know what they looked like before, but he heard that at one time the Planet Irk started dying due to overuse of resources. This forced the Irkens to either learn how to adapt or end up dying with their planet! So, they created the PAK which allowed them to adapt to a planet with no Oxygen.
This was one of the main purposes of the PAK, not only did it keep a history of past test scores, and downloaded knowledge, but it also helped Irkens adapt to new environmental challenges and downloaded it into the PAK systems. Once they died, whoever wear the PAK next would already be immune to whatever the Irken before them had been exposed to.
For example, Irkens could travel through stars, like the sun and not get more than a slight sunburn. This was because their PAKs had allowed them to adapt to hot climates like that on planet Mercury. Therefore, Zim held his hand under the water no matter how painful it was, because the more he exposed himself to it, the faster he would adapt.
And once he adapted, he and whoever wore this PAK after him would be immune to the water's dissolving effects.
"Wow that's cold." Zim said drying his hand off with a nearby towel.
"I know right, must be because winter is coming." Dib reasoned as they walked back into the hallway.
"Well, that's the whole house." Zim said. "Besides my parent's room." He opened the door to the final room.
Dib looked around to see a wild Africa themed master bedroom. "Wow she's really amazing at this."
"My Dad had a job in Africa before I was born, he says mom fell in love with the place." Zim explained. "She wants to go back one day, but we've been touch and go for like ever."
Dib laughed, secretly sighing in relief. His friend Miz was normal, so he decided to make his move. "Look I haven't really been honest with you." He admitted.
Dark Booty held his breath, this was it. The moment that would make them or break them. Dib was about to tell Miz everything about the Swollen Eyeball!
Would Miz prove to be the enemy he thought he was?
Well, they were about to find out, and the suspense of it all was killing him little by little. Like a noose slowly tightening around his neck.
It was a very unsettling feeling… a very unsettling feeling indeed!
-To Be Continued