A/N: And here we go, season 2, episode 2. Sorry for the long wait — blame the usual mixture of writer's block, stuff happening in RL, and finding new stuff to distract myself with (such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and all the awesome fanfics for it out there). In the meantime, however, I'm glad to see that this series has continued to draw in readers and favs; Season 1 recently surpassed the 20,000 view count.
Anyway, this is really just a buildup chapter, allowing Nyx and Ying to fully integrate themselves into the setting. That said, a few seeds are sown for later developments, so keep an eye out for those; they won't exactly be subtle.
Not much more to say here beyond that, aside from my continued thanks for all the love. Read on!
Last time, on The New Adventures of Invader Zim: As Team Save Earth continued to fight with Tak and Tenn in a status quo, lower class Irkens inspired by the speeches of Zim's disguised persona Miz began to rebel against the Tallest and Control Brains. Among them is a Defective anarchist named Nyx, a longtime admirer of Zim's. Deducing he is Miz, she and her SIR companion Ying traveled to Earth to join him. While initially wary, Zim was impressed after they prove themselves in a fight with the other teams. More importantly, he was thrilled when they presented him with a mysterious data file, which he believed was the key to reworking an old plan into a guaranteed conquest of Earth. As a reward for bringing this to him, he fully accepted Nyx and Ying as his new minions.
Now, it's time to introduce Zim's new servants to the rest of the world.
Disclaimer: All canon characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon. Nyx and Ying belong to nightmaster000. All the other OCs are mine.
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The New Adventures of Invader Zim
Season 2
Episode 2: New Girls and Explosions
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Zim sat before the main console of his base's control room, watching the information displayed on its screens. As had been the case for pretty much the entirety of the past few days since she'd given it to him, he was going over the information that Nyx had used to buy her way into his service. So many possibilities of how to properly utilize it flew through his mind, reflected by the notes he was jotting down. Yes, he could see it now; soon, he'd be able to-
"Master, not to interrupt, but you told me to alert you when it was time to head to skool," the Computer spoke up, breaking Zim's concentration. He glared at the ceiling in annoyance, but huffed in acknowledgement. Saving his notes, he removed the data chip from the console and slid it into a secure compartment.
"Speaking of skool, Computer, have you also finished registering Nyx for that filthy place using the ingenious cover story I devised for her?" Zim asked, as he got up and made his way to the elevator.
"Yes, master," the Computer replied, an arm holding a data pad extending from the ceiling, "She's fully registered, and the skool authorities should be expecting her arrival today."
"Good," Zim said, grabbing the data pad and entering the elevator. A few moments later, he emerged out of the trashcan in the kitchen, where Skoodge was just finishing up breakfast.
"Morning, Zim," Skoodge greeted his fellow Invader, who merely grunted in response, paying more attention to scanning the room, which was currently empty aside from the pair of them.
"Where's Nyx?" he asked.
"She and Ying are still in their ship out back," Skoodge replied, before blinking as a thought occurred to him, "Speaking of which, shouldn't we bring it inside? And, you know, maybe give them a room to stay in?"
"Meh, I'll think about it," Zim replied, instead heading towards the door leading to the back yard. Exiting through it, he stopped and blinked as he noticed that the usually overgrown yard was now neatly trimmed, leaving a perfectly suburban picturesque scene surrounding the ship sitting in it, which Nyx was sitting besides on a lawn chair. Ying was standing next to her, holding a tray containing a pitcher of lemonade, which matched the glass Nyx was sipping from.
"Did you mow the yard?" Zim asked as he approached them.
"Yeah, Ying did that," Nyx replied, setting her glass down, "He's a little OCD about stuff like that."
"Respectfully, Madame, I think anyone would have reacted the same to seeing the travesty of a state this place was left in," Ying sniffed, giving Zim a disdainful look, "Really, sir, don't you have any sense of self-respect for the appearance of your home?"
"Do not question Zim's aesthetics! And I never use this yard for anything anyway, so who cares?" Zim snapped, glaring at Ying for a moment before composing himself and holding the data pad out to Nyx, "Anyway, take this. I've enrolled you in that disgusting educational facility we have to go to in order to maintain our cover, and compiled a cover story for you — if anyone asks, you're my younger sister who has returned from a foreign exchange program."
"Really? I get to say I'm related to you?" Nyx asked happily, taking the pad and beginning to skim through its contents, "Awesome!"
"That's right, feel honored!" Zim crowed, allowing his ego to be stroked for a moment before continuing, "All the important details are in there. I expect them memorized by the time we get to skool. Understood?"
"Yes sir! I won't let you down!" Nyx replied, gaze locked on the data pad.
"Good," Zim said, turning to reenter the house, "And grab a disguise from the backup supply in the closet on your way out. There should be something in there that'll work for you."
Nyx only nodded in acknowledgement, her focus entirely on learning her cover. She may have slightly impressed Zim with her performance in the recent fight, and bought her way into his service with the data file, but this was her big chance to truly show him how capable she was in aiding his mission in every aspect, and she wasn't going to blow it.
Membrane Household, Same Time
Dib sat at his computer array, the various screens allowing for a conference call with the Swollen Eyeball Network. As usual, all the other members were reduced to red-eyed silhouettes, save for Steve and Viera, who were calling in from their own house; the general consensus he and the twins had was that they worked closely enough on a regular basis that there was really no reason to follow the usual secrecy procedures there.
"So, now you claim there are two more aliens, in addition to all the others you already say were present?" Agent Nessie asked.
"Technically one alien and her robot, but yes," Dib said, pulling up a composite picture he'd put together of Nyx and Ying.
"And what excellent evidence you've provided of it, as usual," another agent commented dryly. Dib didn't recognize this one, whose silhouette suggested he was in his and the twins' age range. Regardless, Dib responded with the usual glare he reserved for his more condescending critics.
"We didn't exactly have time to stop to take photos," Steve said, coming to his friend's defense and giving a glare of his own.
"Funny how that always seems to be the case," the agent sneered, "Especially since there's three of you. What, not one of you has ever thought it might be a good idea to document any of these alleged fights you all get involved in?"
"Well, you've obviously never been in any kind of fight in your life," Viera said, "This isn't some bad kung-fu movie where all the bad guys stay off to the side while fighting the heroes one at a time. It's a free-for-all melee; there's no time to focus on anything but surviving and winning."
"Even so, I-"
"That's enough, Agent Spider Monkey," Agent Darkbootie cut in, shooting a glare of his own at the younger agent, "Given that you yourself have never provided any evidence of paranormal encounters beyond a few blurry Bigfoot photos, you're hardly in a position to judge anyone else."
Spider Monkey, as the agent was apparently called, grumbled in annoyance, but conceded the point and stopped talking. After watching him for a moment to make sure he was done inflaming the situation, Darkbootie turned his attention back to Dib and the twins.
"Now then, Agent Mothman," he said, "As blunt as Agent Spider Monkey is, he's not entirely incorrect. You, and more recently Agents Silverfish and Silver Sparrow, have consistently failed to provide any evidence on Subject Zim or any of these other aliens you claim are present in Doomsville. But, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt in regards this new pair. Continue observation, and confrontations when necessary. Understood?"
Dib and the twins all nodded in acknowledgement, and then the other agents logged out, leaving just the three members of Team Save Earth staring at each other.
"Well, that was pointless," Viera muttered with a frown, "All he did was order us to keep doing what we were already doing."
"As usual," Dib sighed, "Though at least no one was too dismissive this time."
"Except that Spider Monkey guy," Steve pointed out, "What was that jerk's problem?"
"I have no idea," Dib replied, "I'm pretty sure I've never met him before."
"Pretty sure?" Steve asked, arching an eyebrow, receiving a shrug in response.
"He might have been at some of these larger group meetings? I dunno, a lot of the lower-tier members kinda blend together to me," Dib admitted, before checking a nearby clock, "Anyway, we'd better get going. I'll see you guys at skool."
As his friends said their own goodbyes, Dib switched his computer off and started quickly gathering his skool supplies. As he did, he felt a slight feeling of foreboding — Zim hadn't made any kind of move since Nyx and Ying had arrived, but Dib just knew that his nemesis wasn't going to fail to take advantage of a new asset like those two. And given how dangerous they were…
Shaking off his concerns for the time being, Dib finished grabbing his stuff and left to meet up with Gaz downstairs and head to skool.
Doomsville Middle Skool, Mr. Elliot's Classroom, A Short Time Later
As was for usual for her, Gaz sat at her desk, tapping away on her Game Slave. Class hadn't started yet, but she'd probably continue to focus on the game even when it did; even after the rough patches she'd been through over the last several months, she was still too feared for anyone to tell her what to do.
As such, she didn't even bother to look up and acknowledge Mr. Elliot as he walked into the room. However, she did notice as the rest of the class started muttering amongst themselves in surprise. Arching an eyebrow in confusion at that, Gaz actually paused her game and looked up to see what everyone was so worked up about. And then her eyes actually cracked open a bit in surprise of her own.
Standing next to Mr. Elliot was, quite clearly, another Irken wearing one of Zim's brand of awful disguises. Namely blue contacts and a blonde wig done up in braids, with nothing being done to hide her green skin or her PAK. That said, a quick glance around showed that, judging by everyone's reactions, her classmates were just surprised by the new girl's presence rather than her appearance.
"Idiots," Gaz mentally snorted, "I'll never get why Dib keeps wasting his time trying to expose Zim to a bunch of morons too stupid to see through disguises as moronic as this. Glad I'm not obsessed with it too, or I'd drive myself as crazy as him."
Her train of thought was interrupted when Mr. Elliot introduced the poorly-disguised alien as their class's newest student, Nyx. Gaz recognized the name, from all the longwinded expository rants Dib gave at home, as if she cared what he had to say — this was the "psycho fangirl" who had apparently teamed up with Zim in the most recent fight Dib's team had with him and Tak and Tenn.
"Speaking of which…" Gaz thought, glancing over her shoulder to where Tenn was seated, glaring at Nyx and noticeably digging grooves into the surface of her desk, "Well, she's not happy. Still, if she's going to make a thing out of this, she better be smart enough to remember my warning about dragging me into these pointless fights, and wait until I'm not around before she does anything. I've got more important things to do than get dragged into a stupid alien feud. And oh, look, Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky is still talking."
"-And we should all do our best to make her feel welcome," Mr. Elliot wrapped up, before turning to look at his new student, "Anything you want to say, Nyx?"
"Not really," she replied, a rather forced smile on her face as she rocked back and forth on her heels; it didn't take a genius to see she was already bored and trying not to show it. Mr. Elliot didn't seem to notice, however, his usual cheer not wavering a bit.
"Okay then. As for your desk, we've got a seat for you right over there next to Tenn," he said, gesturing towards the desk in question.
Despite herself, Gaz smirked at both Irkens' reactions to that proclamation. Tenn's eyes bulged out and she actually broke pieces of her desktop clean off, while Nyx blinked in confusion, apparently not comprehending what she'd just heard, staring at the human-disguised Tenn. However, after a moment she finally seemed to realize who she was looking at, and her jaw dropped while one of her eyes twitched.
"…Can I sit somewhere else? Anywhere else?" she asked as her mouth closed, speaking through teeth that were visibly grinding against each other.
"Uh, no?" Mr. Elliot responded, blinking in confusion, "That's… all we have available."
"Fine," Nyx muttered, shuffling slowly over to her desk. Despite this resigned sullenness, however, she still managed to find the energy to shoulder-check Tenn as she turned to sit down, almost knocking her out of her own seat.
"Oops," she said flatly as she took her seat, "Sorry about that, Drone."
"Watch yourself, Defect," Tenn hissed, keeping her voice down and gaze level in order to avoid Mr. Elliot's attention as he started the day's lesson, "You're going to regret ever coming to this planet. Mark my words on that."
As the two Irkens settled into silently glaring at each other, Gaz finally lost interest and turned back to her game, ignoring them and Mr. Elliot's lecturing, satisfied that nothing was going to happen that she'd get dragged into.
XXXXXXX
A few hours later, it was time for lunch, and the various classes filed into the cafeteria. Team Save Earth took their usual table, as did Zim and Skoodge, as well as Tak, forming a rough triangle that allowed the members of the three factions to all keep an eye on each other. Meanwhile, Gaz took her own seat at another table nearby, while Tenn quickly scuttled over to sit next to Tak and started speaking to her quietly but urgently.
But what really caught everyone's attention was when Nyx walked over and sat down next to Zim and Skoodge. Between her status as a new student, her rather unique appearance, and her choice of eating companions, she rather understandably became the focus of a lot of people, who stared in surprise and started muttering amongst themselves.
"…I know I'm going to regret this, but I'm going to do it anyway," Dib said to his friends with a resigned sigh, before standing up and raising his voice to catch everyone's attention, "Okay, seriously? Is no one going to say anything about there suddenly being another person in skool with a 'green skin condition' and who happens to be hanging out with Zim?"
"And here he goes again," Torque snorted from a nearby table, "The new girl an alien too, Dib?"
"Obviously! Aside from what she looks like, why else would she want to sit with Zim?" Dib pointed out, triggering some more mutterings.
"I hate to say it, but that's kind of a good point," Carl commented.
"Yeah," Aki said, nodding in agreement, "Why would anyone wanna hang out with a freak like Zim for?"
Nyx looked downright murderous at hearing that slander towards her idol, but before she could shoot anyone or blow anything up, Zim reacted first, jumping up to stand on top of his bench.
"Zim is no freak! Zim is the most perfectly normal human worm-baby ever and everyone should want to sit with me!" he yelled, before composing himself and sitting back down, "And of course Nyx is sitting with me. She's my sister!"
As if to prove his point, Zim threw an arm around Nyx's shoulder and pulled her close in what was presumably meant to be a hug, though considering how awkwardly he was shoving her up against himself, it was clear he didn't exactly know how hugs worked. Despite that, Nyx seemed perfectly happy with what was happening, if the wide smile she was sporting was anything to go by.
"Sister? You really expect everyone to believe you suddenly have a sister out of nowhere?" Steve asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Yeah, where's she been all this time?" Viera challenged.
"Your accusations are baseless, Not-Dibs," Zim scoffed, shoving Nyx aside, "She has simply been away as part of a foreign exchange program in another country."
"What country?" Tak asked, watching the exchange from the side. As she expected, Zim and his minions all froze up at that; clearly, she noted with an amused sneer, Zim hadn't put enough effort into Nyx's cover story as to include that particular detail.
"Um… Tibet! I mean, Ecuador! Er — Tibecuador!" Zim said hastily, "Yes, Tibecuador. So lovely and… foreign."
"That is not a real country," Dib said flatly. In response, Zim scowled at him, before quickly ducking under the table. After a moment of apparently rapid movements just out of sight, he popped back up and placed a globe on top of the table, one with a sticky note taped onto it in-between the Americas. A squiggly oval was drawn on the note, with "Tibecuador" written in the middle of it.
"See? It's a real country," Skoodge said, gesturing to the globe while Zim smirked and looked down his nonexistent nose at the humans.
"Looks legit to me," Zita said with a shrug, the rest of the students all nodding and vocalizing their agreements.
"Seriously?" Viera deadpanned, watching everyone lose interest and go back to their lunches.
"Why do I even bother sometimes?" Dib muttered, face-palming.
"I'm more curious where he got that globe from," Steve commented, gesturing at it, "Seriously, were you just carrying that around with you on the off chance you'd need it?"
"Zim is always prepared!" Zim shouted, "It's just one part of what makes me so extremely impressive!"
"'Impressive'? That's what you call presenting your deluded fan as your sister?" Tak snorted, "You just ripped off the cover story I invented for Tenn! Right down to the exchange student part!"
"That's what you're choosing to focus on?" Tenn asked dryly, "Not the fact that there's a psychotic Defective who's blatantly anti-Empire sitting right over there?"
"Because we already have one psychotic Defective running around. So what's one more?" Tak snarked, pointing to Zim, who scowled at the insult.
"You dare call Zim a Defective?!" he snarled, "If anyone's a Defective here, it's you!"
"What did you just say?!" Tak snapped, shooting to her feet.
"You heard me, you pathetic wannabe," Zim sneered, enjoying his rival's outrage. Growling like a wild animal, Tak tried to charge at him, only for Tenn to grab her and hold her back.
"Calm down," she hissed, "As pleasing as it would be to see this traitor get his face caved in, we can't afford to blow our cover over a petty argument."
"You call this petty? I'm not going to sit here and be called Defective by someone who can't even beat a big-headed human smeet!"
"Oh, come on! I wasn't even part of this conversation anymore!" Dib protested, throwing his hands up in aggravation, "And my head's not big!"
As the argument between the three groups degenerated into insults being traded by the three leaders, Gaz sat off at her own table, easily blocking it all out. Her focus was instead expertly divided between eating her food and playing her game… until a shadow fell over her. Frowning, she paused her game and looked up to see what was blocking her light.
To her surprise, Nyx was standing next to her, peering over her shoulder to look at the screen of her Game Slave. Gaz growled and gave one of her best death glares, hoping to scare the alien girl off, but all she did was shift her attention from Gaz's game to Gaz herself, looking utterly unaffected by the unspoken threat. As such, Gaz decided to switch to spoken threats.
"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, her tone just short of a snarl. However, this seemed to continue to fail to intimidate Nyx in any way.
"Oh, don't mind me," she said, gesturing to where the three-way argument was still ongoing, "I thought that was going to break out into an actual fight that Zim would need me for, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay at the yelling level, which is boring. Then I saw you playing your game, like you were back in class, so I thought I'd watch; it looks a lot more interesting."
Gaz grit her teeth. While this wasn't as annoying as getting dragged into Dib's pointless fights with the Irkens, it was still an intrusion into her comfort zone, and she couldn't abide that.
"Look, newbie," she said with barely-contained rage, "Clearly no one's warned you about this yet, but I hate it when people interrupt my games. Especially when it's one of those rare games that I'm actually having trouble beating a boss on. So, I'm going to give you one chance to walk away, or-"
"Left, up, A, B, B, A, right, down," Nyx said, cutting Gaz off.
"…What?" Gaz asked, anger forgotten for a moment as she blinked in confusion.
"It's a cheat code. Should temporarily max out all your stats," Nyx replied casually. Gaz arched an eyebrow at that, but deciding that she didn't have anything to lose (as she'd already hit a save point, so she wasn't risking being set back too much), she turned her attention back to her game and input the code. To her utter surprise, it did as Nyx had said, boosting all of her character's various abilities as far up as they would go. Taking advantage of this, she soon found herself near-effortlessly taking down the same boss monster she'd been unable to beat for days.
As the triumphant musical cue sounded out, Gaz turned back to the smug-looking Nyx and cracked an eye open to give her an appraising look.
"How'd you know that?" she asked, "I didn't even know about that code."
"Meh, it was mostly a lucky guess," Nyx admitted with a shrug, "But I've found that most video games on most planets, through some weird coincidence, all use the same basic core coding, so that cheat's kinda universal. Heh, literally."
"…There's video games on other planets?" Gaz asked, both eyes now partly open, her interest firmly caught.
"Duh," Nyx said, as if it should be obvious, "Just about every species that develops computers creates them eventually. And don't even get me started on Arcadikon, the gaming planet."
Now, Gaz was staring in so much surprise that her eyes were opened wide enough that it was actually possible to see what color they were. After a few seconds she blinked, then shook her head, composing herself. And then she did something that was, for her, utterly shocking — she scooted over on her bench to make room, and pointed at the open space.
"Sit down," she ordered, "I want to hear more."
Blinking for a moment, Nyx shrugged, and then took the offered seat. This did not go unnoticed by the room at large, and soon nearly everyone was staring at the pair in disbelief.
"AAAHHH!" a student screamed, jumping up and pointing at them in terror, "Gaz is being friendly to someone!"
"It's a sign of the apocalypse!" someone else yelled.
"Run for your lives!" another student shouted. With a series of panicked screams and yells, most of the people in the cafeteria fled the room, either stampeding out the doors or, in a few desperate cases, throwing themselves out the windows. After a few moments, the cafeteria was empty, except for Gaz and Nyx, who were willfully obvious to anything outside their conversation, and Team Save Earth and the other Irkens, who had noticed the stampede and were now staring at the cause of it.
"…Ordinarily, I'd say something about everyone overreacting to something so small when they usually ignore bigger problems," Dib commented, watching his sister happily chatting with Nyx, "But this is just… I mean, that's-"
"Deeply disturbing?" Tenn suggested.
"Yeah, that."
"What's it say about her that the first person she's actually friendly towards is a psychopath?" Viera asked, only somewhat rhetorically.
"Zim hates agreeing with any of you, but I will on this," Zim said, eying his new minion and his archenemy's sister interact with a wary and thoughtful look, before standing up and adding, "But Zim has no time to be disturbed! I'm leaving."
With that, he turned and walked away, exiting the cafeteria. Everyone else, disquieted and exhausted from their previous arguing, looked at each other before silently calling a truce. Skoodge scampered off after Zim, with Team Save Earth and the pair of Tak and Tenn heading towards separate side doors, leaving Gaz and Nyx alone in the room.
Zim's Base, Same Time
Ying stood in the middle of the living room, multiple arms extending from within his open head, holding various cleaning tools. There were dust rags wiping down the furniture and the cables in the ceiling, cloths and sponges scrubbing the windows and floor, and even a full-sized vacuum was being pushed around, picking up anything the sponges missed.
"Not that I'm complaining, given that this is the cleanest the base has been since that time that the master had that obsessive fear of human germs, but don't you think you're overdoing it?" the Computer asked.
"If the Madame is going to be living in this place, I'll not have it be a hovel," Ying sniffed.
"Alright, suit yourself," the Computer replied, with a vocal shrug. After a few minutes of silently watching the black SIR unit work, it decided to broach another subject, "So, there's been something I've been meaning to ask. Why do you call Nyx 'Madame' instead of 'Mistress'? That seems a little informal."
"Which is why she insists on it," Ying replied with a resigned sigh, "When she decided she needed assistance in her various schemes, she stole me from a manufacturing plant — which she promptly blew up, of course — and upon finding my preset personality too dull, reprogrammed me to have free will and a personality of my own. Afterwards, the first thing she asked of me was that I not call her 'Mistress', as a sign of the fact that she does not see me as her servant."
"Squeak!" Minimoose commented from where he was floating nearby, aiding in the cleaning by balancing a bucket atop his antlers that Ying was wringing his various sponges and cloths into.
"That's a good point," the Computer said, "You are serving her, and now she's serving the master. So how does that not clash with her whole anarchist, down-with-the-system, power-to-the-people thing?"
"It's quite simple, really," Ying replied, "What the Madame believes in is freedom, yes, but most specifically freedom of choice. She was trapped in her role of a Tech Drone before Zim caused the power surge that gave her the ability to find another path in life for herself, just as I was doomed to just be another mindless SIR until she freed me from that. Now, I choose to follow her, and she chooses to follow Zim, for the same reasons — gratitude, and belief in what the person we're following stands for."
There was silence as Minimoose and the Computer quietly processed both what Ying had said, and the sheer intensity of the conviction in those words… and then the moment was utterly ruined, as the front door burst open, and GIR walked in holding a pig over his head, both of them covered in mud.
"Pig came over to play. We're going to roll around now, 'kay?" he said cheerfully. Without waiting for a reply, he dropped the pig to the floor and started rolling around, the pig blinking in confusion before copying him. Ying watched the pair of them spreading mud and dirt around the floor he'd just finished cleaning quietly, only the twitching of one of his eyes betraying how he felt about the situation.
"Yeah, you're gonna have to get used to that," the Computer sighed in sympathy.
XXXXXXX
Back at Doomsville Middle Skool, the remaining hours of the skool day trickled by, and finally, the end of day bells rang. The students, or at least those who hadn't fled the building from the mind-breaking sight of Gaz Membrane being friendly with someone, exited the building, happy to be free from its clutches.
Speaking of Gaz, she and Nyx exited the building side by side and were now walking down the street, still continuing their earlier conversation.
"-And that's not even getting into all the online games available on the Irk-Net," Nyx was saying, "Which are fun, but like everything else there, they're monitored by the Control Brains. So, I haven't been able to play any of them in years, since otherwise there's a chance they'd be able to track me down. You know, what with being a wanted a criminal and everything."
"Yeah, I can see how that'd get complicated," Gaz commented, "Kinda sucks for you."
"Eh, it's okay," Nyx replied with a shrug, "They keep me from playing games, I blow up a bunch of their infrastructure. I'd say that's even."
Gaz actually chuckled a little at that, imagining herself venting her own gaming-related frustrations like that. Despite herself, she found she was actually liking Nyx's company, beyond merely her knowledge of alien games. She had a wicked sense of humor, zero tolerance for the mindless stupidity most of the people around them expressed on a regular basis, and even her refusal to be intimidated by Gaz's mere presence (without daring to openly defy her, like that bitch Viera) was oddly endearing. Really, the only downside was her blatant hero worship of that idiot Zim, but hey, no one was perfect.
"Well, isn't this a charming scene?" a familiar voice suddenly spoke up from nearby.
"Speak of the devil," Gaz thought with annoyance, frowning as her good mood was spoiled. Looking to the source of the voice, she found Zim walking next to her and Nyx, albeit whilst standing on top of a short fence they were walking past, for some reason. Skoodge was also present, hanging a few feet back, actually on the sidewalk, but who cared about him?
"I must say, Dib-Sister, I'm surprised to see you actually interacting with someone without reducing them to a pulp of blood and agony," Zim commented.
"Most people are annoying idiots. Nyx is cool," Gaz replied, before shooting Zim a glare, "And I have a name. Use it."
Zim wilted slightly under the glare, but shook it off, huffed, and turned his attention to his newest minion, "As for you, Nyx, I'm surprised to find you acting so… friendly with one of the Earth-monkeys, even one as moderately impressive as the Gaz-Beast."
"What can I say? She's fun and has good taste in entertainment," Nyx replied with a shrug, while Gaz silently debated whether she should take being called a "beast" as an insult or a compliment. Deciding to split the difference and just ignore the comment altogether, she cracked open an eye to give Zim an appraising look.
"Did you actually want something, or are you just being annoying like usual?" she asked dryly.
Zim frowned at the mild insult, but shook it off and responded, "Just a little warning, I suppose. You should be careful about openly engaging with Zim or any of my minions. It might tip the Dib-Stink off that we're allies."
"Allies? Yeah right," Gaz snorted, causing Zim to blink in surprise.
"Eh? But you helped me before, when you gave me the coordinates to the Meekrob weapon!" he protested.
"Yeah, 'cause I wanted to spite Dib and thought you'd kill Viera in the crossfire. Not that you could even do that right," Gaz said, "That aside, though, I have absolutely zero desire to be part of your pointless pissing match with Dib and Tak."
Zim scowled, and even Nyx was frowning a bit.
"Hey, you could be a little more respectful," she said, only to receive an eye roll.
"Whatever. Just because you put him up on a pedestal, you shouldn't expect me to," Gaz said, starting to walk away, "I kinda like you, so it'd be a shame if I had to doom you for trying to force me to pretend I like this lunatic."
Zim continued to scowl after her, before shifting to a smirk as inspiration suddenly struck. Walking quickly atop the fence to keep up with Gaz, he said, "You're right, Little Gaz, that would be a shame, but it would hardly be the only one."
"Who are you calling little? We're the same height, dumbass," Gaz snapped, not breaking stride or turning back to look at him, "And what are you talking about, anyway?"
"Oh, nothing much," Zim said, mock-casually, "I'm just saying that it would be a shame if your worm-baby of a brother were to somehow find out about you telling Zim where to find Project Domination. You may have convinced yourself it was just some small thing, done to prove a point, but I imagine that the Dib would take the situation much more seriously."
Gaz froze mid-step, before turning to look up at Zim with an incredulous look on her face.
"Are you actually trying to blackmail me?" she asked flatly.
"Well, that's such a nasty word… but yes, let's go with that," Zim said, looking utterly smug as he leaned over to smirk down at her face to face, "So, unless you want Dib to find out about how you stabbed him in the back, I'm confidant that you'll be sure to remember where your loyalties belong now."
"…Right, three problems with that theory," Gaz said after a moment of quiet thought, holding up three fingers, "Problem number one, I don't care what Dib thinks about me. And even if I did, that just leads to problem number two, which is that Dib would never believe anything you have to say anyway."
"And what's problem number three?" Zim asked, slightly disgruntled. And then yelped in surprise and panic as, rather than answering in words, Gaz's arm suddenly shot out and grabbed him by the collar. Then, without any visible strain on her part, she lifted him up and threw him through the air, landing smack in a nearby puddle.
As Zim screamed in pain from the water burning his skin, and Nyx and Skoodge looked on in surprise and a little fear, Gaz stalked over to stand over the squirming Zim. Just as he registered this, she stomped her foot down hard on his chest. Confident that she now had his full attention, she said, "That's problem number three — thinking that you can tell me what to do. I don't work for you, Zim, and I never will. Get that through your thick skull, or next time I'll rip whatever your equivalent of a digestive tract is out through your mouth and strangle you with it. Got me?"
Barely able to breathe, Zim still managed to nod in acknowledgement. Accepting this, Gaz stepped off of him and walked away without another word. As she disappeared from view, Nyx and Skoodge snapped out of their stupors and ran over to help Zim stand up.
"Are you okay, Zim?" Skoodge asked, only to get shoved aside hard and sent sprawling onto the ground, "Yeah, you're fine."
"Infuriating she-monster," Zim hissed, as he quickly pulled out some paste and rubbed on the parts of his skin that were still burning from the water. Nyx watched this with concern, while shooting angry glances in the direction Gaz had walked off in.
"Flirk. I really kinda liked her. Guess now I have to blow her into atoms," she muttered, beginning to rummage in her PAK for explosives.
"No," Zim said, slapping Nyx's hands away from her PAK, to her surprise.
"Huh? Why not?" she asked, genuinely confused.
"As infuriating as Gaz is, she could still be useful," Zim explained, "I don't know why you chose to try and befriend her in the first place, but keep doing it. She may not wish to serve Zim yet, but perhaps you can slowly coerce her over time."
"Wow, that's oddly well thought out," Skoodge commented, before wincing as he realized what he'd just said.
"Are you questioning Zim's planning abilities?!" Zim snapped, rounding on Skoodge, who held his hands up defensively.
"No! I just meant, you usually don't go for such long-term stuff," he said quickly.
"Hmph," Zim scoffed, "Zim prefers results fast, but that doesn't mean I can't take the long view occasionally."
With that apparently being the last word, Zim turned on his heel and started walking. The others followed, and soon the trio found themselves back at their base. Entering the house, Zim paused, squinting an eye in surprise as he saw GIR bouncing around the living room. Not an oddity in and of itself, except for the fact that GIR was currently inside a large plastic ball.
"I'm a hamster," he said happily.
"…Okay?" Zim said slowly. Looking back at Skoodge and Nyx, he received only matching confused looks and shrugs.
"Yeah, you can thank Ying for that," the Computer explained, "He got annoyed by how GIR kept making messes when he was trying to clean the base, so he stuck GIR in that thing."
"I stand by my decision," Ying said, entering from the kitchen, carrying a tray holding a soda and doughnuts, which he walked over to Nyx, "Welcome back, Madame. Was your first day at the human educational facility satisfactory?"
"Meh, it was okay," Nyx replied, grabbing the soda and one of the doughnuts. Zim made to grab one as well, only for Ying to smack his hand away.
"Gah! How dare you strike your master?!" he demanded, glaring at the SIR, who returned his gaze stoically.
"A small correction, sir," Ying said, "I serve the Madame, not you. Don't confuse the matter just because she has chosen to serve you."
"Play nice," Nyx scolded, lightly bopping Ying on the head and handing Zim one of the doughnuts. Scowling, Zim snatched it and stomped over to the couch, tossing aside his disguise as he did so. While the others did likewise, Zim sat down and absently ate his snack while glaring into the middle distance. After only a few bites, however, he made a disgruntled sound and tossed the doughnut aside, much to Ying's visible annoyance.
"Something wrong?" Nyx asked.
"Bah. It just occurred to me, that in spite of how exciting your arrival here has been, it hasn't really changed much," Zim explained, "Sure, that data you brought me is invaluable, and in the long run will ensure Zim's victory. But in the short term I'm still stuck just sitting here, not doing anything to advance my destiny as conqueror of this mud ball, all while that wannabe Tak keeps rolling out plans, even as pathetic as they are!"
"This again?" Skoodge muttered, surprised that Zim was letting himself slide back into his funk once more. Speaking up, he said, "Come on man, don't let that get you down again. You'll get over this block and be back to dooming the humans in no time!"
"Ooh! I can help with that!" Nyx said happily, "Ying, what do I always say?"
"'Death to the Control Brains'?" Ying suggested.
"What? No… well, yeah, but I meant the other thing."
"'Boom'?"
"No! The other other thing!"
"'If in doubt, blow things up'?"
"Yeah, that's it!" Nyx said, nodding happily, "I find that when I'm suffering from a block, it's easiest to just go back to basics and blow random stuff up. That really gets the old brain gears spinning again."
"Hmm," Zim mused, rubbing his chin in thought, "Well, I do like blowing things up… okay then! Meet me in the armory; we'll see what we have lying around for blowing up some pig-smellies!"
Now sounding almost giddy, Zim jumped up and ran towards the trashcan elevator, hopping into it and descending into the lower levels.
"Wow, that worked fast," Skoodge said, blinking in surprise.
"Yep, and I'm sure that by this time tomorrow he'll be churning out world conquest plans like never before," Nyx said, walking over to the toilet elevator, "Anyway, you coming along?"
"Nah, I think I'll sit this one out and watch the base. You go have fun, though," Skoodge replied, sitting down. Nyx shrugged and flushed herself down into the labs, Ying following after.
"Really? You're not interested in this?" the Computer asked.
"Not really. Zim just needs to blow off some steam, so I shouldn't get in the way of that," Skoodge explained, watching GIR bounce around in his bubble, "Besides, it might be a good idea to let just him and the new guys do this on their own. A nice little team-building exercise."
That said, Skoodge got comfortable, while down in the labs, Zim and Nyx began arming themselves for conflict.
Membrane Household, Same Time
As was usual for their more official meetings, Team Save Earth were gathered in Dib's garage. Diagrams and displays were set up on several floating hover-screens, many of them showing Nyx's minigun or Ying's Battle Mode, drawn from memory as best as possible. The three young humans were seated against the side of the Spittle Runner, looking over these displays and their written-down notes.
"Okay, so once Ying makes himself bigger, he's incredibly strong," Dib noted, looking over one of the relevant screens, "But he seemed to move slower than a normal-sized SIR Unit is usually capable of."
"Over a distance, maybe, but up close he's still pretty quick," Viera pointed out.
"So the key there, I guess, is to keep him at a distance and try to wear him down," Steve suggested.
"Sounds like the best plan with what we have available right now," Dib said, "Now, as for Nyx-"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sudden sound of a series of explosions in the distance cut any further conversation short. Jumping in surprise, Dib and the twins hesitated only a moment, before grabbing their weapons and running outside, seeking the source of the noise. Looking around, it soon became clear that the explosions weren't anywhere close by, but were actually coming from further downtown, where columns of smoke were starting to billow up, even as more explosions sounded. After a moment of staring at this, Dib turned and ran back into the garage, his friends right behind. Reaching one of the hover-screens, he switched it over to a newsfeed, trying to see if the cause of the explosions was being covered.
It was, as it turned out, and the cause quickly became apparent. Namely, the large semi-humanoid-shaped mech that was currently stomping down a street, arms smashing anything they could grab, while laser cannons built into the sides blasted everything else. And there, sitting quite prominently inside the glass dome serving as the mech's head, was Zim; he was working the controls and, despite it not being audible, was clearly laughing maniacally. Meanwhile, a grinning Nyx and a stoic Ying were standing behind him, the former clearly enjoying the show as everything around the mech was destroyed.
"This is Jeff Sheffy, live from downtown," the reporter on the screen, who was standing on the sidewalk as if everything was normal, was saying, "Where what appears to be some sort of unscheduled movie production is underway. It's leveling a good chunk of the city, but I have to say, at least it looks pretty cool. It'll probably make a bundle at the box office."
"A movie production? Seriously?" Steve asked in a disgusted deadpan.
"I gave up on trying to justify people's ability to rationalize stuff like this a long time ago," Dib said, starting to run out of the garage again, "Now come on, we need to get down there while there's still a city left to save."
"And do you have a plan for dealing with that thing?" Viera asked, as she and Steve chased after him.
"I think I have something that might work," Dib replied, "It's not foolproof, but it'll have to work. So, here's what we'll do…"
Dib laid out out the plan, as he and his friends ran towards the continuing sound of explosions.
Deelishus Weenie Building, Same Time
Tak and Tenn stood in their central control room, watching Zim's rampage on the main screen. Tak was scowling, arms crossed, as she glared at her nemesis, while Tenn had a matching glare aimed at Nyx.
"Really? Getting in a mech and aimlessly destroying everything around him?" Tak scoffed, "Please. He could at least be a little strategic in what he targets, but no, he just runs around like a Digestor in heat during mating season. And he wonders why no one ever took him seriously as an Invader."
"This whole thing was probably that Defective's idea," Tenn said, not breaking her gaze from Nyx, "I mean, at least Zim's somewhat subtle most of the time-"
"Zim wouldn't know subtle if it punched him in the face," Tak snapped, "You're just looking for a reason to be more obsessed with his new lackey."
"You're calling me obsessed?" Tenn asked, incredulously, "You take literally every opportunity to go out of your way to insult or attack Zim even when there's no real benefit in it, and that was even before he turned traitor. And you're looking down on me for simply recognizing the threat posed by this blatantly psychotic anarchist?"
"Oh please, she's just boosting what Zim was already like. You're just mad that she bit you," Tak said dismissively.
"Of course I'm mad she bit me! Who does something like that? She…" Tenn started to rant, only to shake it off as she realized something, "Why are we even arguing about which of them is worse? Shouldn't we be focusing on stopping them?"
"Why bother?" Tak countered, "As much as I enjoy the thought of kicking Zim's treasonous c'horta up and down the street, this little exercise of his is hardly a threat. Besides, if I know Dib as well as I think I do, he and his little friends are already on their way to deal with this. So, I say we simply sit back and watch our enemies fight each other, saving us what would otherwise be a waste of time and resources. Agreed?"
Tenn didn't answer right away, instead crossing her arms and returning her gaze to glaring at Nyx on the screen. Seeing this, Tak rolled her eyes.
"Aren't you the one always calling me out on acting 'unprofessionally' for how I focus on Zim? Are you really going to do the same with some no-name lunatic?" she asked. Tenn turned her glare on Tak, but when Tak matched in evenly, she finally huffed and looked away.
"Okay. Maybe you're right, and I'm making something out of nothing regarding Nyx," she said, "So we sit this fight out. But I'm going to make contingency plans to deal with her anyway, just in case my instincts are right and she turns out to be more of a threat than you're willing to admit."
"Fine, whatever," Tak replied, already turning her attention back to the screen. Tenn shot her another dirty look, before turning on her heel and briskly leaving the room. Tak didn't bother watching her leave, instead focusing on the screen. Despite herself, she found her gaze turning towards Nyx.
"I don't know where you come from or what your deal really is," she muttered to herself, "And I don't care. You're just a bit player in the grand scheme of things here. I survived Zim actually having someone competent on his side, I'll have no problem dealing with a lunatic fangirl like you. This is my planet to conquer, and nothing will get in the way of that."
Monologue complete, Tak fell silent, waiting to see what would happen next, anticipating watching her enemies coming to blows.
Downtown Doomsville, Same Time
Zim laughed with maniacal glee as he blasted another building. Even as it collapsed into rubble, he picked up a parked truck in the mech's hands and tossed it through the air to smash into a gas station, which promptly went up in a fireball.
"Woo!" Nyx chimed in, watching the explosion, "That was one of the best ones yet. Definitely a solid 8."
"Eh? Only an 8?" Zim asked, offended, "That was a magnificent explosion!"
"Yes, but it only destroyed that one facility without triggering any secondary blasts that then spread to surrounding buildings," Ying commented. At Zim's surprised look, he said, "The Madame programmed with a full list of criteria for critiquing the, and I quote, 'awesomeness' of explosions."
"Okay…" Zim replied, blinking, before shrugging it off, "Then Zim will simply have to demonstrate what real explosions look like!"
Zim scanned his surroundings, searching for a suitable target. Spotting a particularly large skyscraper nearby, he powered up both of the laser cannons to maximum capacity and aimed at it. But before he could fire, twin streams of plasma shot in from nowhere, entering the turrets of the cannons. The sudden influx of foreign plasma caused that which was being gathered within the cannons to destabilize, resulting in it bursting out any way it could-
BOOM!
-which naturally meant exploding, leaving the mech with huge holes in its sides and stumbling about as Zim tried to recover from the shock and regain control of the machine. Finally managing to get it stable again, he looked around for the source of the attack and growled as his suspicions were confirmed — Team Save Earth were standing a little further down the street, Dib's gauntlets and Steve's blaster still smoking from what had clearly been their attacks, while Viera stood behind them, Eye of Fire clutched in one hand and a bag thrown over her shoulder.
"Dib! How dare you interfere with Zim's recreation?!" Zim shouted, voice broadcasting over speakers surrounding the mech's "head". Dib blinked in surprise at that statement, before scowling as it fully registered.
"Recreation? You mean this isn't even some plan? You were just bored?" he demanded, sounding utterly disgusted.
"That's just pathetic," Viera said, Steve nodding in agreement. In response, Zim snarled, raising the mech's arms aggressively.
"Zim will show you pathetic!" he said, charging the mech forward and slamming its arms down towards the three young humans, who quickly jumped out of the way, leaving the mech's hands to smash into the street.
"Well, we got his attention at least," Steve commented dryly, "Now let's just hope we actually survive the rest of the plan."
"Complain later, move now!" Viera shouted, launching a fireball at the mech before darting off down the street. Steve likewise fired off a few shots, before running after his sister. Zim started chasing after them, only for a plasma blast to rock the mech. Looking to where it had come from, he saw Dib with his gauntlets still outstretched and smoking from the attack. Upon seeing that he'd gotten Zim's attention, Dib turned and ran off, in the opposite direction from where the twins had gone.
"Grr," Zim growled wordlessly, watching his enemies running off in different directions, before turning to Ying and snapping, "You! Make yourself useful and go after the Not-Dibs while I pursue Dib!"
Ying didn't respond, instead looking to Nyx, who merely nodded at him. Nodding his acknowledgement back, he pressed a button on a nearby console, causing an opening to appear in the glass dome. Stepping through it, he casually stepped off of the side of the mech and dropped towards the street, shifting into his Battle Mode as he did so. Hitting the ground, he began pursuing the twins, while Zim turned the mech to chase after Dib.
Not paying any attention to the mech as they moved away from each other, Ying focused on the twins, who had just rounded a corner. A few moments later he rounded it as well, only to be brought up short as he found himself being pelted with a barrage of plasma blasts. Steve was laying down atop a parked car, a blaster in both hands and alternating between which one was firing, allowing him to circumvent the precious few seconds needed for recharging and keep up an unending stream of fire. Meanwhile, Viera was standing a few feet away, holding the Eye of Fire in both hands and quietly chanting something.
Ignoring Viera for the moment, Ying focused on Steve. Raising his arms in front of himself as a makeshift shield to deflect the plasma blasts, he charged forward, heading straight towards where Steve was perched. As he closed the distance, Steve's eyes widened, and at the last minute he jumped out of the way, rolling across the pavement while Ying slammed into the car, sending it flying through the air to crash in a heap further down the street.
Turning in the direction Steve had gone, Ying paused as he took in the sight of Viera, whose chanting had increased in volume and speed, her amulet now glowing intensely. More disconcertingly, the flames from the surrounding buildings which had been blown up by Zim's mech were starting to fluctuate and throb in a very unnatural way. And as Ying watched, they started streaming through the air, flowing into the Eye of Fire, its glow only growing in intensity as this happened.
"Hmm, that's troubling. Best nip this in the bud," Ying commented calmly. He began running towards her, only to stumble as a plasma blast hit his knee, more from surprise than actual damage. Turning to face its source, he caught a glimpse of Steve standing nearby, just before another plasma blast him, this time square in the helm covering his face. While most of the plasma burst harmlessly against the helm, some of it managed to squeeze through the eye slit in it, hitting Ying right in the face.
"YARRGH!" Ying screamed, clutching at his face as one of his eyes as the optics burst and melted, half-blinding him. As he stumbled about, trying to reorient himself, Viera's spell finally reached a crescendo, all the flames in the surrounding area absorbed into the Eye of Fire, which was now glowing like a spotlight. Face lit by that glow, Viera narrowed her eyes as she thrust the amulet in Ying's direction.
"Incendo Maximus!" she yelled, discharging the spell. With a roaring sound, a fireball the size of a double-decker bus burst out of the Eye and soared through the air. It hit Ying head on, and the force of the resulting explosion sent the robot flying into a partially demolished building, smashing through the wall, causing the whole thing to collapse completely.
As the dust and debris finished settling, Viera breathed a sigh of relief, feeling somewhat drained from the mystical exertion of what she'd just done. Meanwhile, Steve walked over, eyeing the collapsed building warily.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm good," she replied, wiping some sweat off her brow, "Nice move with shooting him in the eyes, by the way."
"Meh, lucky shot," Steve said with a shrug, still keeping an eye on the building's rubble, "Think there's any chance that took him out of commission?"
Before Viera could respond, part of the rubble flew apart in a spray as Ying came bursting out. His armor was scorched and dented, and only one eye light was visible through his helm, but other than that didn't appear to be seriously damaged.
"…Clearly not," Viera said with a resigned sigh, she and Steve lifting their weapons again as Ying started to slowly approach them.
"I admit to rather admiring your ingenuity and tenacity," the robot said, an undercurrent of anger audible in his usual stoic tone, "But now I'm afraid you've managed to infuriate me. Well done. Now please stand still while I kill you."
With that, Ying charged once again, the twins turning and running in response.
"Well, this is working wonderfully," Steve said dryly, while firing a few shots over his shoulder.
"Shut up and just keep ahead of him," Viera replied, hoping that Dib's side of the plan was working as well as theirs was.
XXXXXXX
Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Dib was literally running circles around Zim's mech. As he'd expected, its bulky size and overall design meant that it was ill-equipped for quick movements or trying to grab something as comparatively small as a human child. As such, with its weapons disabled, only it could do was stumble around and try to stomp on or swipe at him as he ran around its feet, dodging the clumsy attacks and either launching plasma blasts from his gauntlets or using them to inflict enhanced punches on the mech's legs.
Up in the mech's cockpit, Zim was getting increasingly angry at the situation. Especially when he spotted Dib shooting him a smug look after dodging a strike from one of the mech's hands and hitting it with a plasma-infused punch. Growling in rage, he looked around for some other means of attacking, in place of the destroyed plasma cannons, when his gaze fell on Nyx, who was glaring down at Dib as he dashed around the mech's feet.
"Nyx!" he shouted, quickly gaining her attention, "Give Zim your big gun so that I can obliterate Dib's gigantic head!"
"Er, maybe I should just do that myself?" Nyx suggested awkwardly, "My Little Friend's got kind of a kick to it-"
"Do not question Zim!" Zim snapped, "And no one kills the Dib except me! Now hand it over!"
With a slight hesitation, Nyx obeyed, pulling out the compacted form of My Little Friend and unfolding it into its full minigun form, before handing it over to Zim. Hitting a button to open a hole in the dome, Zim stuck the barrel of the weapon out that hole and took aim at Dib. Grinning as he lined up the shot, he pulled the trigger… and was immediately bowled over as the recoil hit him hard, knocking him off his feet. As a result, the stream of plasma from My Little Friend went wild, not only completely missing Dib but also cutting through the mech's control panels, destroying them.
As the mech lurched to a stop, effectively lobotomized, Zim struggled to his feet, glaring back and forth between Nyx and My Little Friend, before kicking the gun away.
"I tried to warn you," Nyx said, picking up her weapon while Zim shot her another glare.
"Be silent! If you're so good with that oversized monstrosity, you use it! But only wing Dib, so that I may finish him off myself!" Zim commanded.
"Yes sir," Nyx replied, bracing herself and taking aim, before opening fire. To Zim's annoyance, she didn't even slightly rock from recoil, her aim staying true. Dib, who had stopped to see why the mech had ceased moving, gave a yelp as he saw the attack coming and dodged out of the way just in time, the plasma barely missing him.
"Hold still, kisgaree," Nyx muttered in annoyance, shifting My Little Friend to make the constant stream of plasma follow Dib as he ran and rolled across the street, "You can't outrun this. Just a few seconds and it'll be all- what the?!"
To Nyx's surprise, Dib did stop running. More to the point, he suddenly held his gauntleted fists in front of himself, allowing the plasma to slam directly into them. The nodes lining them lit up as they absorbed the constant stream of energy being poured into them, and by the time it finally occurred to Nyx to stop the attack and cut the flow of plasma, the gauntlets were now glowing so brightly they looked like they were actually made of solid energy.
"Huh. I forgot he could do that with those," Zim said, blinking in stunned shock.
Anything Nyx had to say in response to that was preempted as Steve and Viera came barreling around a corner, followed a few moments later by Ying.
"You better be ready!" Viera called out to Dib, while flinging a fireball over her shoulder at Ying, who tanked it, "He's really pissed off!"
"I am!" Dib shouted back, "Do it! Steve, cover her!"
"Got it!" Steve confirmed. Spinning around, he charged his blasters to maximum capacity and fired. Not at Ying, whom he knew it wouldn't affect, but at the ground just in front of him. As he'd hoped, Ying was in too close proximity to the resulting hole, and moving too fast, to avoid it. As a result, he ran right into it, falling in and finding himself stuck as his waist, much wider than the hole, got lodged in place.
"Do you really believe this will hold me?" Ying asked, as he began to pound on the pavement, tearing the hole wider open.
"Nope. But it's not supposed to," Steve replied with a smirk, glancing over at his sister. While all this had been going on, she had reached into the bag she was carrying and pulled out a spell drive. Now, having found the spell she needed, she hit the activation button, triggering it. A blue glow spread from the drive, coating her whole body before coalescing in her free hand, which she then threw forward, the light zooming through the air and striking Ying.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Ying shot Viera a not-quite-smug look… and then he started glowing. He could only stare at himself in confusion, before the spell kicked in fully, and he found himself torn out of the ground and left floating in midair.
"Hey!" Nyx shouted, indignation snapping her out of the confusion she and Zim had been in since Ying and the twins had come back on the scene, "Put him down!"
"You want him back?" Viera asked, "Here, have him."
With that, Viera waved her hand, and Ying went flying through the air towards the mech. At the same time, Dib threw his hands forward, the gauntlets discharging all its collected plasma at once, in a concentrated beam that hit Ying head on. Between the momentum of Viera's spell and the force of the attack, he shot forward so fast that Zim and Nyx barely had time to panic before he slammed into the mech like an artillery shell. He smashed into and through the dome, bursting out the other side and taking the Irkens with him, the three soon disappearing over the roof of a building in the distance. Meanwhile, the plasma that had been propelling Ying dispersed as soon as he hit the mech, spreading throughout the machine, frying what was left of its control mechanisms and burning down through its body.
Team Save Earth watched as the mech collapsed, melting from the inside. Only then did they allow themselves to relax, breathing sighs of relief and slumping as the exhaustion kicked in.
"Man am I glad that's over with," Steve muttered, shooting Dib a wry look, "You think next time we can come up with a plan that doesn't involve so much running?"
"Hey, it's good cardio," Dib replied with a smirk, while wiping the sweat off his brow, "And anyway, it worked — Zim's down a war machine and we managed to prove that Nyx and Ying aren't the game-breakers Zim was probably hoping they were."
"Which hopefully means he won't go all out with them in the future," Viera commented as she put the spell drive back in her bag. Pausing to look at the destroyed mech in thought for a moment, she added, "Speaking of proving things, you think we should take some pictures of this thing for the other Eyeballs? It'd be nice to have some proof about all this to show them for once."
"Especially if it shuts up that Spider Monkey jerk," Steve added.
"Yeah, it would be," Dib nodded in agreement, "Let's grab a camera, and then-"
BOOM!
With a flash of light and near-deafening roar, the remains of the mech exploded, as its power core was compromised by the spreading damage and detonated. Within seconds, all that was left of it was some smoldering debris around a smoking crater, which the three humans stared at in awkward silence.
"…That figures," Dib sighed in resignation after a moment, "Okay. Guess we'll just call it a day, then. Let's go, before someone who realizes all this damage is real shows up and blames us for it."
The twins couldn't argue with, and as such, the three quickly left the scene.
Zim's Base, Some Time Later
In one of the auxiliary lab spaces deep inside the base, Nyx stood over a table, goggles in place over her eyes as sparks flew every few seconds. Ying, back in his main form, was lying on the table, cables and wires connected into his head as Nyx worked him over with tools.
"How's that?" Nyx asked, as she finished installing a new eye to replace Ying's damaged one, micro-welding the last of the optic coils into place and inserting the eye into the socket.
"The replacement is fully functional, Madame," Ying replied, rolling the eye around and blinking a few times to make sure it was working right, "And auto-repairs have already restored the rest of my systems to 89 percent efficiency."
"Not good enough! Flirking big-headed human; how he dare he blast a beautiful piece of technology like you? Now I know why Zim hates him so much," Nyx ranted, flinging the welding torch against a wall.
"Yes, he did seem rather perturbed at losing this fight," Ying said, thinking back to how Zim had screamed and raved all the way from where they'd landed to when they'd arrived back at base. In fact, Ying was fairly certain he was still doing so, judging by still being in the middle of it when they'd left him on the surface level, yelling at Skoodge, who'd made the mistake of gaining Zim's attention by innocently asking what had happened, while they slipped away down here so that Nyx could start on Ying's repairs.
"Well, better him than either of us," Ying thought dryly.
"I'm not surprised by that," Nyx muttered angrily, "Imagine having so many plans — far more important than a fun excursion like this was supposed to be — ruined by that smug, huge-headed, stupid-looking, precious-robot-smashing monkey!"
"I fear you may be taking this a tad personally, Madame," Ying commented, noting the manic gleam starting to appear in Nyx's eyes.
"You're damn right I'm taking this personally! You're mine, and no lower life form's allowed to hurt you!" she practically screaming, grabbing him and pulling him into a tight hug, which he quietly returned while she breathed heavily. After a few minutes she composed herself and pulled away, continuing, "Anyway, this isn't just about me. That stinking human is the reason Zim hasn't been able to conquer this planet and show the whole universe how awesome he is. And what if he somehow finds out about Miz and the New Order and starts screwing all that up too?"
"That seems highly unlikely. And even if he does, Zim already wants the human dead, so wouldn't such a situation just give him extra incentive to act on that?"
"Probably," Nyx admitted, grabbing another tool from the nearby workbench, "But he really shouldn't have to, not when he's got much more important things to worry about. And as both a loyal supporter of Zim's amazing cause and someone else who can now say that I hate Dib with a passion, I owe it to Zim to clear the way for him, so he can claim his victory without any pests getting in his way."
"Madame, all things considered, I don't believe a unilateral decision like this is the wisest course of action," Ying protested calmly, as Nyx went back to work on him.
"Of course it is," she said firmly, tone making it clear her decision was final, "He needs to pay, for being in Zim's way for so long and for what he's done to you. And mark my words, Ying, he will."
Seeing that he wouldn't be changing his mistress' mind, Ying stayed quiet. For her part, so did Nyx, who continued to work on repairing him, even as her mind was already elsewhere, plotting revenge.
"Oh yes, you will pay, Dib," she thought darkly, "You will pay in droves…"
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End Episode 2
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A/N: And there, finally done. I apologize if this chapter was a bit of a letdown after the long wait, but the writing just wouldn't come to me. I hope that what came of the final result was still worthwhile.
Next time: Nyx hatches a revenge plan on Dib. But Zim won't be too happy about that, now will he?
Until then, please review!