Once out of the base, it didn't take Iiek long to find Gaz and her brother. As she rounded the corner to a nearby alley, the shouting that she had been hearing from over a block away became much more clear.
"Your brain is as small as your head is big, Dibstink! Even if you had discovered Tak's plan, there's nothing you would be able to do in the overwhelming face of Irken technology!"
As she turned into the alley, Iiek was met with the sight of Zim practically screaming in the face of Dib who looked just as irate
Cloaked in her disguise, Iiek saddled up the Gaz, "So what are they arguing about now?"
Gaze gave her a shrug, not at all surprised by her sudden appearance, "I don't know. I stopped listening the second Zim opened his mouth."
She turned to look at Iiek, giving her a once over as the Irken did her best to ignore the way her searching eyes felt, "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Iiek nodded, "Yeah, Tak apparently wasn't concerned with encrypting or hiding any of her important files so I was able to download nearly every file in her base onto this." She retrieved a small disk from her disguised PAK, holding it up for the other girl to inspect, "It should tell us everything we need to know about Tak's base and her plan. Along with whatever else she happened to have on file in her system." She smirked.
Gaz's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, before a small grin came to her face, "Wow, that's pretty cool. You got all of that in just a few minutes?"
Iiek almost visibly preened at the praise from her crush, "Oh it was nothing, trust me. Tak apparently didn't think that anybody on this planet would be able to decrypt her base's standard security. It was actually rather simple to-"
"HEY!"
Both girl's jumped, whirling around to find Zim and Dib staring at them, Dib with slight disgust and Zim with blatant disbelief. The Irken stomped towards them, staring at Iiek.
"That's a SIR Unit's memory disk! How did you get that you stinking human!?" He reached for the disk that Iiek was still holding for Gaz's view, only to be shoved back extremely hard by Dib who appeared in front of her suddenly.
"Hey! That's our disk! Back off!" Dib yelled, standing between the alien and his sister.
"I'm the only one here with the technology to decode the files!" Zim yelled at the big headed boy, practically steaming with anger at his rival's audacity.
"And we're the only ones here with the files to be decoded! Face it Zim, you need us!" Zib yelled right back, apparently forgetting Iiek existed in the first place and that they didn't really even need Zim or his base to decode the files.
Iiek shared a small look with Gaz and the girl raised an eyebrow. The disguised Irken thought for a moment before shaking her head. She would really rather not reveal her existence to Zim if she could help it and there wasn't really any reason to use her own base in the first place.
And besides, this was basically a way to gain free intel on Zim's base. Sure she could have probably planted a mole inside his system at any time, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in its orifices or whatever the saying was. She'd let Dib helpfully allow her access to Zim's domicile, unwittingly or not.
"Your base, our disk Zim!" Dib demanded, staring into the angry Irken's eyes, "Let us see the base!'
Zim's face twisted angrily, but apparently he decided it was a lost cause arguing with the human, "Once we're done, I'm going to feed your brain to my robot." He said lowly.
Dib gave the Irken a sharp grin, leaning in until they were practically touching foreheads, "Deal."
There was a long moment where the two just stared into one another's eyes while the defective SIR Unit cheered happily behind her. Gaze turned to Iiek who was staring at the scene in disturbed fascination.
"Do your robots actually eat brains?" The girl asked. Iiek tore her eyes away from the scene in front of her to answer her crush's question.
"Ram doesn't. SIR Units don't possess a functional stomach as there's not really any reason for it." Iiek said, slowly looking back towards the blue-eyed robot. It noticed her look and gave her a happy wave. IIek shivered, looking away again, "I imagine his probably can though. Not sure why. Just a feeling."
"Huh." Was all Gaz had to say, though Iiek could see her brain working behind her eyes as she stared at Girl, "Interesting."
Iiek hadn't actually had a chance to go over the data she had collected from Tak's base in full, so preoccupied with escaping before she was caught, and so she took the opportunity to do so while they made their way to Zim's home.
Her hologram hid her actions from sight as she surreptitiously placed a copy of the Memory Disk she had stolen into her PAK, analyzing the data stored there.
She sifted through random files from possible experiments to entire books on human culture and anatomy. It seemed that Take was taking her invasions seriously, much more seriously than Zim ever had.
Eventually, she came across what she was looking for, data on Tak's base itself. The building itself wasn't Tak's base, Iiek had figured that out the moment she was inside. Instead the actual base was underneath.
The schematics to the base didn't interest Iiek as they were rudimentary at best. Tak had clearly not prioritized setting up a proper installation on the planet apart from the building that acted as her cover. Her base consisted of merely three rooms, one for her personal use, one for her AI and computer, and one which held the power core that powered the base and the building above it. The last was what interested Iiek.
Specifically, the power it was outputting.
When she had first detected the core weeks ago, Iiek had simply assumed the large output was only due to Tak having a base and by extension, a power core the same size. That was incorrect. Horribly, horribly incorrect..
Tak's power core was woefully small for the amount of power it was outputting and not only that, it was made almost entirely of salvaged ship parts and was almost certainly not up to code.
There was no way that Iiek was going to allow an unstable piece of Irken technology to stay on the planet she would soon rule. That was just asking for trouble, especially in regards to a power core of all things.
Currently, she was doing the calculations for exactly how much care would be required when shutting the thing down so they could render the base defunct in case Tak somehow escaped their clutches.
And if her calculations were correct, the best way to safely deactivate the core would be…
Oh. That wasn't good.
Iiek checked her math again, mind whirling as she went over the equations with painstaking slowness inside of her head as the group reached the door to Zim's base, only to once again come to the same conclusion. Her heart sank.
She had known that Tak's power core was hodgepodge and barely functional, but she didn't think it was this bad! The data that she had collected indicated that the machine was leaking entropic energies at an alarming rate, practically saturating its surroundings with it. Those energies were highly volatile and would no doubt be energized even further if anything were to happen to the core itself.
That meant if the power core was destroyed or even deactivated without someone there to contain the energy, it would explode with a blast radius larger than the city itself as the energy lit up like a damn grain silo! The radius would be more than large enough to catch every single other power core in the area as well and then blow a hole in the Earth's crust large enough to fit their oceans inside several times over!
And that wasn't even the worst part! Even if left completely alone, just a week from now the core would detonate anyway! The thing was so unstable that the only reason that Iiek had been able to detect it was because it was leaking like a Gellaxis with a punctured biosuit!
What the hell was wrong with that woman!? Was she so caught up in her little revenge plot that she couldn't be bothered to do some basic maintenance on her own base!?
The only way to safely deactivate the power core was to be there and ensure it shut down with minimal energy leakage. Unfortunately, minimal energy leakage was still more than enough to vaporize any organic thing within several meters. Zim no doubt knew that as well, meaning that Iiek wouldn't be able to convince the other Irken to go down and take care of it himself, thus ridding her of two problems at the same time.
No, Zim may have been an idiot in nearly every aspect of life, but technology was not one of those aspects. Utilizing it? Sure, but technology itself actually happened to be one of Zim's rare talents. That, and destroying nearly everything he touched.
She would have to simply come clean about the issue, much as she didn't want to do so.
Zim's base was a bit rudimentary and the robotic parents were more than a little annoying, but other than that his home was a pretty standard drill fabrication. That meant that it also came with the standard security that thefabricated bases normally did. Good. That would make this next part extremely easy.
As they passed a truly horrific portrait of some sort of green monkey, Iiek's hand darted out, placing a tiny device directly on the wall. It stuck there, quickly fading into the background as the cloaking module activated, hiding it from sight and scanners as it set about its task of finding the nearest outlet deeper into the base.
Eventually it would worm its way into Zim's AI core, digging itself deeply into the core as it secretly siphoned data from the base and sent it back to Iiek's. She would be able to keep an eye on Zim's activities without him even knowing she existed.
If she survived the week, it would be a great boon to know what her extremely destructive counterpart was doing at any given time. Just to make sure he didn't accidentally open a wormhole or, mother-forbid, a Florpus Hole.
Gaz gave her a smirk as she quickly rejoined the group, one that Iiek returned. Dib gave both of them a suspicious glance but went back to what he was doing without saying anything, continuing to snap pictures of the base around him, completely unaware that the lens cap was still on his camera.
As they reached what was obviously Zim's main lab, Dib and Gaz made their way to his computer, no doubt so Dib could plant something in a similar way to Iiek. The disguised Irken took the opportunity and walked over to Zim, preventing him from following the two of them.
"Hey, I need to talk to you for a second." She said, grabbing him by his sleeve. He gave her a look like she was something particularly disgusting he had found on the bottom of his shoe and she stepped back, not wanting him to cause some sort of outburst and draw attention to them.
He made a show of brushing off his sleeve as he turned to her, "What do you want, filthy human? Zim doesn't have to answer your questions about the obvious splendor of his base."
Iiek raised an eyebrow at his arrogance, "Riiiight. Well look, I was running some tests on the data that I took from the base and-"
"You? Run tests on Irken technology?" Zim's voice was disbelieving, "Do you take Zim for a fool? There's no possible way that a mere human would be able to comprehend the sheer magnificence of Irken engineering. Especially not one with such a… normal sized head."
Iiek growled, not in the mood for the other Irk's signature sycophantic nationalism, "Listen Zim, actually, just look." She urged, pulling out a tablet and powering it on. Her fingers flew over the surface, pulling up relevant data, "Here. These are the latest specs on Tak's power core that I was able to retrieve from her database. You need to see this."
Zim gave her a suspicious look, before leaning down to look at the face of the tablet, scrutinizing it intently.
Proving her earlier point, it didn't take Zim long to cotton on to exactly what the data meant, analyzing it astoundingly quickly. A harsh frown pulled across the other Irken's face as he practically snatched the tablet from Iiek's hands, causing the girl to scowl.
"What is this!?" He demanded, scowling down at the tablet, "I knew that Tak was insane but I didn't think her PAK was malfunctioning to this degree! There's no way the radiation shielding would ever be able to contain half of this!"
"It isn't. Look at the leakage it's producing. I imagine she's losing over half of the energy she's producing and is just overclocking the generator to compensate." Iiek pointed at the readings, the bright red line indicating an abnormal abundance of energy, "She's saturating her entire base with the radiation."
Zim spat, "That fool! That much entropic radiation in one place would charge the air itself! She's one stray spark away from blowing herself straight to the underworld!" He snarled, practically tossing the tablet back to Iiek as he turned away.
"This planet is doomed. I might as well return to the Massive and report my mission failure to the Tallest. They will no doubt forgive me due to the sabotage though I might have to pay a sizable amount of credits for the inconvenience." ZIm muttered to himself. Iiek's eyes widened in panic as he continued, going on about food supply for the journey and contacting the Tallest to inform them of his arrival.
"Wait! Don't leave! I have a plan that should take care of it before it detonates." She said, voice slightly pleading. Zim froze in his muttering and his antenna twitched slightly at her sudden insistent words. Slowly, he turned towards her, eyes staring into her own and indicating he was listening to whatever she had to say.
Her plan, if it could even be called that, was more of a sacrificial hail mary than anything else. Entropic meltdowns were notoriously finicky and Iiek wasn't even really sure if she would be able to stop it safely or at all.
She swallowed lightly, wondering if she was actually about to offer this. Was she really going to sacrifice herself for this filthy ball of mud before she had a chance to conquer it?
She could just leave like Zim had been preparing to do. When the rest of them went to stop Tak, she could simply go back to her base and prep her Shuvver for departure. The warp drive was long since repaired so it wouldn't take her more than a week or two to get to Kreesh, the planet she was originally bound for in the first place.
Except… The girl turned her eyes to the side, spying the purple-haired girl that had consumed her thoughts for the past several weeks. If she left, Gaz would no doubt perish along with a sizable portion of the human population. Her father may be smart, but even he couldn't figure out a way to stop an entropic meltdown in only a few days, they would be doomed to an end scattered among the ashes of their planet.
She couldn't do that. Couldn't leave the girl she had come to actually cherish to such a fate. She took a breath, reaffirming her decision, before turning back to Zim who was staring at her with suspicious red lenses.
"Listen, you don't have to leave. I've got a plan." Iiek spoke steadily, placing the tablet back into her disguised PAK, "But I want you to promise that you won't tell Gaz or her brother about it."
He gave her an odd look, "Why wouldn't I tell the Dib-stink or his admittedly horrifying sister about this plan? That would be moronic."
Iiek growled, "They don't need to know because it doesn't concern them. If they knew about it they'd no doubt try to stop me or figure out another way which we simply don't have the time for!" She took a breath before her anger got out of hand, "Just… promise me. They don't need to know about what I'm planning to do."
Zim stared at her for a long moment, before nodding, "Very well, you have my word that I won't tell them. Now tell me this plan before I lose my nearly infinite patience, human." He ordered.
Iiek rolled her eyes but acquiesced, "Alright, well first of all, I need you to distract Tak to make sure that she doesn't try to come back to her base. I won't be able to do anything if I'm interrupted halfway through. Gaz and Dib will deal with the machine."
"And then while the three of you deal with Tak and her plan, I'll sneak down into the base itself. I've done it once and Tak didn't know I was there so she has no reason to put added security down there." Iiek explained, "When there, I'll find the core and manually jettison the radiation safely into the crust of the Earth. Nothing will grow in the area ever again but it should at least allow me to shut down the core before it goes critical." She offered.
What she left unsaid was that the likelihood of her returning from such an endeavor was practically zero. That much radiation in one place would be like an extremely potent acid, burning her skin through even the strongest biosuit available to her. She'd give herself less than five minutes inside the chamber before she dropped dead as her eyes sizzled out of her skull.
Zim stared at her like one might look at a particularly dimwitted animal, clearly knowing that as well as she did, "I don't expect your species' limited intelligence to be able to understand, but to do what you are suggesting would mean-"
"I know!" Iiek interrupted, and Zim scowled angrily at her audacity. The disguised Irken looked over to the Membrane sibling to make sure they weren't eavesdropping before looking back to Zim.
"I know what will happen." Iiek spoke quietly, "I only wonder why you care? You're planning to exterminate all the humans right? Why would you care if one does it for you?" The blue-haired girl challenged.
Zim stared at Iiek for a moment before grinning sharply, "You are correct, Zim does not care. Very well stinky human, we'll do it your way. Just don't expect me to attend your funeral. Or give you one in the first place. I imagine your ashes will be rather hard to find."
Iiek nodded before turning to rejoin the others. She would have to get Gaz alone to tell her the full plan without her brother overhearing. She just hoped the other girl could forgive her.
A few minutes of talking later and they had a set plan of attack. Zim would handle distracting Tak while Dib and Gaz would take care of shutting off the machine itself before it sucked the Earth dry of all of its red-hot filling.
"So what will you be doing, Iiek?" Dib turned a curious look towards the disguised Irken. Said Irken blinked as she looked up from the IRK brand tablet she was typing on, finding the rest of the room's occupants staring at her.
"Oh um, I'll be taking care of the base itself." She said, stowing the tablet away into her PAK once more, "From what we've been able to tell, anything having to do with Zim is like a beacon to Tak. So long as he's distracting her I should be able to slip into the base itself and deactivate the power core."
"Why can't you just leave it alone?" Dib asked curiously. Zim scoffed, giving the human a sneer.
"Your intelligence must be deteriorating dirt-monkey. Even the smallest Irken Smeet knows that if a standard power core is left alone for extended periods of time without any maintenance, it will self-detonate. Tak was on planet Dirt for over fifty years before she came here and I doubt her core is up to normal standards. We likely have little time before it goes critical. I doubt I need to tell you how bad an explosion in the middle of your absolutely disgusting city would be." He spat.
Iiek was slightly surprised that Zim was keeping the true reason hidden from the boy as he had promised. SHe had half expected him to immediately tell them just to spite the filthy human telling him what to do. Guess he had some common sense after all.
Dib's face grew red, "How was I supposed to know tha-wait Tak's fifty?" His rage gave way to slight horror as he processed Zim's words.
Zim gave him a look, "Tak is certainly not a Smeet. She is likely twice that age at the very least." He put a hand on his chin, "If I had to guess, I would say she is near my own age."
"And how old is that?" Dib asked, and Iiek noticed Gaz looking on with minor curiosity.
Zim hummed, "Hmm… I believe in Earth years I would be a bit over one hundred and eighty. A single year on Irk is equivalent to ten of your inferior human ones, though not exactly. We mature as a species much slower due to the magnificent amount of intelligence we are required to process."
Dib's mouth dropped open at his words, completely dumbfounded, "O-one hundred and eighty!?"
Gaz looked just as surprised at Zim's words, eyes shooting over to IIek for confirmation, "Wait seriously? How old are you?" she asked, quietly so her brother and Zim could hear.
Iiek stepped closer to the other girl, "I'd be sixteen in your human years. Give or take a few months." She said just as quietly.
Gaz did the math quickly, noting that Iiek was around her age in terms of species maturity. Her eyes then widened slightly as she realized something, "You're younger than Zim?" She said in surprise, "But you're so much… better than him."
Iiek hummed, watching as Dib and her fellow Irken got into another argument in the middle of the lab, "Zim is… not very smart for his age and exceptionally immature besides that. His PAK is most certainly malfunctioning which probably only exacerbates his worse personality traits."
She frowned, "It's too bad really. Zim has or at least had the makings of a rather remarkable Irken. The Tallest ruined that when they reassigned him without wiping his personality though. A shame."
Gaz nodded, taking in her words,"Huh, interesting. Still, one hundred and sixty huh? Cool. I guess I always did have a thing for older women…" Gaz muttered, clearly not intending for Iiek to hear that last part. The Irken did however, and she couldn't help the small flash of pleasure that coursed through her at the words.
"Argh! Enough of this useless chatter! We have work to do to prevent the destruction of this pitiful ball of dirt and rock!" Zim shouted suddenly, raising a finger into the air as he turned away from the smug Dib. Clearly whatever argument the had been having hadn't gone in his favor
He looked towards his robot assistant, "GIR! Prepare to Voot Cruiser! We are taking the battle to Tak immediately! I'll show her who the superior invader is!"
The robot's eyes flashed red and he gave a sharp salute, "Yes, my master!" They became blue again, "Can we get tacos on the way?"
"Absolutely not! I refuse to step foot in that filthy restaurant ever again! Not after that incident with… the beans!" He shuddered in phantom pain. The robot made the most pitiful face Iiek had ever seen in her many years alive and the girl was pretty sure she could see actual tears beginning to form.
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwww-okay!"
He got over it quickly.
"Wha-Hey! Wait for me! I'm not walking all the way to the stand!" Dib chased after the Irken and his robotic assistant, leaving Iiek and Gaz alone in the dimly lit room.
Gaz sighed, moving to follow after them, "Guess we'd better get going. I don't want Zim siccing his robot on Dib or something stupid like that."
She was stopped by a hand gripping her wrist. She turned, raising an eyebrow as she saw Iiek holding onto her, staring at her with somewhat cautious eyes.
"Gaz… Can I talk to you for a minute?"