The New Adventures of Invader Zim: Season 2

by Zim'sMostLoyalServant

Norlock might be gone, but the adventures continue. New action, new laughs, new allies and enemies, and more! Newest: Dib and his friends face a revenge plot by… wait, who is this guy?

3. The Hunt of Doom

A/N: And welcome to Season 2, Episode 3. Sorry about the super long wait, but the writer's block was worse than usual this time around.

Anyway, this is going to be a fun one, and will be important in the long run… and that's all I'm saying on that front, before I spoil anything. On a separate note, this is the 25th chapter in total in the whole TNAIZ series. Yay for first milestone reached!

Read on!

Last time, on The New Adventures of Invader Zim: Nyx and Ying assimilated to life on Earth, with the former posing as Zim's sister at skool and striking up a surprising friendship with Gaz. Later, to cheer Zim up after he failed to blackmail Gaz into serving him, Nyx convinced him to go on a rampage with a mech, destroying a chunk of the city before being intercepted by Team Save Earth. A brief but intense fight followed, ended by the humans blasting Ying into the mech as a makeshift projectile, destroying it and forcing the Irkens into retreat.

But unbeknownst to Dib and his friends, Nyx has sworn revenge on him for the damage done to Ying during the fight. And she'll soon make her move…

Disclaimer: I own only the OCs, except for Nyx and Ying, who belong to nightmaster000. All canon characters are the property of Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon.

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The New Adventures of Invader Zim

Season 2

Episode 3: The Hunt of Doom

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The cafeteria of Doomsville Middle Skool was bustling as it always was during lunch. Students filed in, picked up their slop from the old ladies behind the counters who dished it out robotically, sat down with their friends, and tried to force the food down without being killed by it. This was all the same as it was virtually every other day at this skool.

Also happening as normal was the three-way face off taking place off to one side of the room. As had become their custom for some time, Team Save Earth were sitting at one table, while Zim and Skoodge sat at another and Tak and Tenn sat at a third, the three groups all seated in a way to keep a close eye on each other. As they made their way through their lunches, they kept shooting each other death glares and occasional spoken insults, though for the most part ignored each other as much they could, while the rest of the skoolchildren all did their best to pretend the group as a whole didn't exist.

Well, most of them did.

"Look at him, with that smug look on that dumb giant head of his," Nyx muttered angrily from her spot at her own table, "Thinking he's so clever cause he manages to get under Zim's skin by being annoying and always somehow getting in the way of his plans."

"Uh-huh," Gaz commented half-heartedly from where she sat next to Nyx, as had become her own custom over the last few days. This still got a few incredulous looks from the other students, but most had managed to adjust to the still unusual sight of her now having a friend.

"I mean, big deal, so he's managed to get lucky a few times to stop some of Zim's better plans," Nyx continued, not really registering that Gaz wasn't fully invested in the conversation, "He really thinks that makes him impressive or something? All he's good for is cheap shots and attacking poor defenseless military grade robots! You get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, because you've been saying it all week," Gaz replied dryly, cracking open an eye to glance at her, "You know, if I wanted to listen to people pointlessly threaten each other, I'd be sitting over there with Dib and the other idiots, right?"

"I'm trying to make a point!" Nyx said defensively, deliberately ignoring the fact that Gaz was probably grouping Zim in that "other idiots" comment.

"No, you're whining," Gaz shot back, "Stop that and try doing something about the situation if you're that upset about it."

A part of Gaz acknowledged the fact that she was encouraging a psychopath to inflict harm on her brother, and that she should probably be feeling bad about that. The rest of her didn't give a damn, if for no other reason than she knew that, given the general competence level among Irkens, the odds were probably in Dib's favor.

"I'm not whining," Nyx pouted, "I'm swearing vengeance."

"Right," Gaz said flatly, "Let me know when you move past that towards actually doing something."

Nyx could only huff in response to that, crossing her arms and lightly glaring in Dib's direction. Much as it annoyed her to admit it, she knew that Gaz was right — she shouldn't just be constantly complaining about how much she hated Dib, she should be doing something to deal with him. After all, the sooner he was out of the picture, the sooner Zim could focus on eliminating the Drone and the wannabe Invader, conquering Earth, and using it as a stepping stone towards overthrowing the Control Brains' corrupt system and leading the Empire into a glorious new age.

But how to go about it? Simply blowing him up was her default thought, but that wasn't viable. It'd be easy, sure, but it would attract too much attention; even the generally idiotic humans would note if someone as noteworthy as the son if the world's smartest man was killed in an explosion, no matter how hard she tried to make it look like an accident. And she couldn't afford to risk exposing Zim's mission just for the sake of her own vendetta.

So what could she do? That really just left dealing with Dib in whatever fight was next to occur, and it kinda defeated the whole purpose of trying to eliminate him before he could interfere with any of Zim's future plans if she waited until being in the middle of one of those plans to do it. So, how was she supposed to destroy him before that happened?

"Hang on," she thought, smirking as a bolt of inspiration suddenly hit, "Now, who says that I have to personally destroy him? I mean, as long as he's eliminated, what does it matter how it's done? Hmm, yes, that could just be exactly what I need to do…"

Gaz arched an eyebrow as next to her, Nyx started chuckling evilly. However, she merely shrugged it off, ignoring it as the Defective quietly mapped out her newfound revenge plan.

Planet Slumia, Later That Day

As a primarily civilian world belonging to a military-dominated species, Slumia was different from other planets in the Irken Empire. Aside from the snack production factories and military outpost in one small sector, the rest of the planet was free to operate without much imperial government oversight. And as a consequence of this, law enforcement wasn't a particularly strong concept on most of the planet, leading to the rise of numerous criminal organizations.

Of particular note was the Green Claw Syndicate, the largest such group on the planet. They dominated the black market and criminal underworld on numerous planets across the Empire, with their headquarters and main power base being on Slumia, centered in the Black Hole Lounge, Casino & Day Spa, one of the most popular entertainment facilities on the planet.

Currently, the building was bustling with activity, as it usually was. In the cavernous main hall, large crowds of both Irkens and non-Irkens gathered around slot machines, roulette wheels, card game tables, and other games of chance, all eager to throw away their hard earned monies for the slim chance of winning even greater rewards. Meanwhile, just as many people were passing through the room on their way to the other forms of pleasure available to them, be it the various bars and restaurants, the video game arcades, or the relaxation suites, all providing relief from the daily grind for a fairly large yet fair fee.

And overlooking it all from a balcony attached to his office several floors up was the Black Hole's owner, the undisputed leader of the Green Claws, a moderately-tall male Irken named Grissom. Or, as he was also known, Green Grissom, on account of how that color described everything about him — from his emerald eyes, to his three-piece suit, to his matching top hat, to even his PAK, which he'd had painted green to go with the rest of his theme.

At the moment, Grissom was leaning one hand against the balcony railing, a glass of Vortian firewhiskey held in the other which he was sipping from while looking down at his customers and listening to the report being given by the aide standing behind him.

"…profits for the Black Hole are showing a 12 percent overall increase over last quarter," the aide was saying, "Though the accountants are certain that's just due to the most recent influx of displaced Impending Doom refugees coming to drown their sorrows, and that numbers will even out back down to their usual levels over the next several months."

"Mhm, well, better be sure to cook the books on that a little," Grissom said, "Otherwise the next time the military governor sends an inspection team, they might actually have the gall to ask for a larger bribe than usual."

"Already working on it, sir," the aide responded.

"Good. Now then, what's the word from our people on Foodcourtia?"

"Many of the non-Irken business owners are complying fairly easily on the protection taxes," the aide said, "Apparently they've been showing upticks in business due to several strikes at the Irken-owned restaurants, and are willing to pay a little extra to avoid having anything interfere with that."

"Strikes?" Grissom asked, arching an antenna in confusion.

"Inspired by the Miz broadcasts, sir. Apparently he did one on how most Food Service Drones are reduced to virtual slave labor at the whim of the Fry Lords, and it's really been catching on."

Grissom chuckled at that, taking a long swallow of his drink. Miz had been a blessing for Irkens like him, upsetting the Empire's establishment and providing openings for the syndicates to grow and profit. Now, Grissom was no revolutionary, hell he considered himself a dutiful patriot. After all, he'd been programmed as a Business Drone, tasked with being part of the carefully monitored private sector like so many others in order to give the Empire a successful and necessary economy separate from the military. It wasn't his fault that the Control Brains hadn't specified that the businesses he got involved with had to be legitimate. And he'd had to go into crime, honestly — the Empire kept such a close grip on everything that it was almost impossible for any business not connected to the military-industrial complex to flourish. So, anything that loosened that grip even a little got a mark of approval in his book.

"We ever find out who Miz really is, we should send him a gift basket," Grissom said, "First he inspires all those riots, which makes it so much easier for us to steal all those Elite-level goods, and now this. Whoever's under that mask has been the best ally we've ever had, even if it's been unintentional."

Any reply the aide had was cut off as a beeping sounded from the interior of the office. Grunting in annoyance at the interruption, Grissom walked into the office and over to the desk, where a light was flashing on the touchscreen surface, alerting him to an incoming message. Seeing who it was from, he gave a small smirk.

"We'll discuss the rest later," he said, waving the aide off. Accepting the dismissal, the aide bowed her head and exited the room. As she left, Grissom put down his drink and sat down, before hitting the "Accept Call" button. In response, a holo-screen popped into existence over the desk, displaying Nyx.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite anarchist," Grissom greeted her warmly, "Didn't expect to hear from you again so soon after I just got you that data you were so eager to get your hands on. If you've actually figured out a way to make use of something like that already, I'd have to admit to being very surprised."

"Eh, I was never going to use it myself," Nyx replied, waving the comment off, "I just got it into the hands of someone much more qualified to use it. Anyway, that's not why I'm calling. I need you to pass a message along to the Bounty Hunter Guild."

"You're putting out a hit on someone?" Grissom asked, arching both antennae in surprise, "That's new. You usually prefer to do your own dirty work."

"Yeah, well, circumstances won't allow that this time. Long story. Anyway, here's the intel on the target," Nyx said, typing at the console on her end and causing the screen on Grissom's side to split, a picture of Dib coming up next to her, with an inset containing spacial and planetary coordinates.

"Huh. Big head like that should make him stand out and be easier to locate," Grissom commented, "So, anyone in particular you want for the job?"

"Nah, make it an open contract," Nyx replied, "I'm not taking any chances. Anyone willing to make a million monies is welcome to come take a crack at it."

"A million?" Grissom asked, incredulously, "The hell did this guy do to piss you off so much?"

"You don't need to know that to put out the contract," Nyx replied, frowning, "Just do it, and after I get confirmation that he's dead I'll transfer you the money to pass along, with an extra 20 percent as your fee."

"For an old friend like you? Let's make it 15," Grissom said. Nyx nodded in acknowledgement and then cut the transmission, leaving Grissom staring at the picture of Dib.

"Well, don't know who you are or what you did to get on Nyx's bad side, but I wouldn't want to be you right about now," he said, chuckling lightly. With that, he brought up another screen, and started composing a message to the Bounty Hunters Guild.

Across Slumia, Same Time

In a plaza just outside the main military headquarters on Slumia, a small group of Irkens were standing at attention, clearly waiting for something. Most of them were armed soldiers, but the apparent leader of the group was something else, being dressed in elegant white robes. And despite not being visibly armed, the other Irkens gave this one a wide berth, all seemingly unnerved just by being in his presence.

After a few minutes of waiting, a small hovercraft approached the group, coming to a halt a few yards away. The cockpit slid open and a figure stepped out of the craft. It was another Irken, but a very unusual-looking one. Specifically, he was a full-fledged cyborg — all four limbs were clearly robotic, cables and framework extended from his PAK to wrap around his torso, and most of the upper left portion of his head had been replaced with a metal plate, complete with his left eye having been replaced with a mechanical optical implant.

"Hello there. Lovely evening, isn't it?" the cyborg greeted the group with sarcastic glee, smirking at them and giving a wagging wave of his fingers.

"Spare me the pleasantries, Havok," the white-robed Irken replied with a frown, "You said you'd acquired the target?"

"That's what I like about you Consulars, always right to the point," Havok said, smirk not wavering. Walking to the back of his craft, he popped open the trunk and pulled out another Irken, who was bound, gagged, and heavily wounded, bruises and blood covering his face and clothes.

"As requested, the ringleader of a few of those recent riots everyone's so worked up about," Havok said, walking halfway towards the Consular and dumping his prisoner on the ground, eliciting a moan from the other Irken as he hit the pavement.

"It rather defeats the purpose of having him captured alive if he's not conscious enough to interrogate," the Consular noted dryly.

"Like you need him to talk in order to interrogate him?" Havok countered. The Consular grunted in response, before closing the distance between them and kneeling down next to the prisoner. Reaching out a hand, he pressed the tips of his two main fingers against the prisoner's forehead, and both his and the prisoner's eyes started glowing. After a few moments of this, the Consular broke the contact and stood up, turning back to his guards.

"It's definitely the right person," he announced, "Take him inside and restrain him so I can conduct a more thorough interrogation."

"Hang on, first thing's first," Havok said, raising an arm and projecting a holo-screen from it, "There's still the matter of my payment."

The Consular rolled his eyes but complied with the request, pulling out a datapad and typing in a command. A moment later, Havok's screen emitted a chime and a row of numbers rolled across it, eliciting a grin from the cyborg.

"Nice doing business with you," he said, giving a lazy salute.

"Bounty hunter scum," one of the guards muttered in disgust as she and another picked up the prisoner and started carrying him inside. In response, Havok merely sneered after her.

"And where would the high and mighty Empire be without us scum?" he asked, "Hell, just look at this guy. I had to chase him all over the sector for you because Slumia's the only planet around here totally under Irken control, and even here, you regular troops don't have enough of a presence to properly track targets down. Face it — I'm just as important to the Empire as you lot are."

As Havok hoped, that seemed to incense the guards, but before he could get anymore of a rise out of them, the Consular raised a hand, silencing them.

"Enough. You've done your job and been paid, Havok. Leave," he said firmly. Havok frowned at the dismissal, but didn't press the issue. Instead, he gave a mocking bow, before turning and getting back in his hovercraft, then turning it and flying off back into the city.

A short while later, he pulled up in front of a building that was slightly less rundown than was usual for Slumia. A sign over the main doorway marked it as the local HQ for the Galactic Bounty Hunters Guild, an organization that existed as an oversight umbrella for the galaxy's various bounty hunters, both Irken and non-Irken alike.

Parking his hovercraft and offhandedly activating its security system, Havok got out and strolled over to the door, flinging it open and stepping inside. The interior of the building looked like a mildly cliche gritty bar, with dim lighting, pool tables, and rough-looking characters of all kinds of species assembled at tables and the bar itself. Many of them gave Havok dirty looks as he walked towards the bar, but no one dared do anything worse towards him.

"The usual, Corlac," he said to the bartender, a gelatinous Amoeban, tossing a handful of monies on top of the bar.

"Good job completed, Havok?" Corlac asked with a bored tone, as he scooped up the coins before mixing Havok's drink, a strong Boodie-Nen ale.

"Well, I don't know about good, but it was well-paying," Havok responded, taking the glass handed to him and taking a deep drink from it, "A little too easy, though."

"Most bounty hunters don't complain about easy jobs," the battle-scarred Vortian sitting a few stools down the bar commented.

"And I'm not most bounty hunters," Havok shot back, gesturing to his cybernetics, "I was a soldier before this happened to me, built for combat. And I haven't had a decent fight since. Most of the people I get bounties for are spineless wimps who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag! Someone give me a real challenge for once!"

Almost as if the universe were answering his plea, a bell sounded, instantly catching everyone's attention. Every bounty hunter in the room turned their attention to the holo-screens scattered around the room, which all interrupted whatever they were showing to flash an alert of an incoming message, which could only mean a fresh bounty. And indeed, a moment later they were all displaying the image of Dib, coordinates to Earth and his general location on the planet, the name of the person posting the bounty, and finally, the bounty itself, which caught a lot of the viewers by surprise.

"A million monies for one measly human? That's a steal!" the Vortian said excitedly, jumping to his feet.

"Only if you get to him first, Syrax," Havok said, finishing his drink and also standing up.

"I thought you wanted a challenging fight?" Syrax asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Hey, for that kind of money I don't care about the challenge," Havok replied, "Besides, who knows — maybe this smeet will be more impressive than he looks."

"Doubtful," Syrax snorted, as they started walking towards the door, as did several other of the present bounty hunters, all eager to go after this new prize target.

Unnoticed by any of them, however, was the figure sitting at a table in the corner of the room. Tall, wearing heavy armor and a vaguely biker-looking helmet, he was quite imposing. The black visor of that helmet stared silently at Dib's image on the holo-screens for a few moments, before the figure quietly got to his feet and walked out the door, as the area surrounding the bar was filled with the sounds of various ships taking off and beginning to the journey towards Earth.

Earth, Doomsville Woods, A Few Days Later

Deep within the woods outside Doomsville, Team Save Earth sat ensconced in a makeshift camouflage tent set to the side of a clearing. In the clearing itself, a decoy camp had been set up, complete with a fire burning in the middle of the camp.

"Remind me again why you think this works as Bigfoot bait?" Steve asked, as the three kept a close eye on the camp via binoculars.

"There have been numerous sightings among campers in this area recently," Dib replied, "For some reason Bigfoot's been raiding camps a lot, so it stands to reason that if we leave one lying around, he's bound to show up."

"You sure about that? Cause we've been here a while already and he's a no-show," Viera pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, but let's sit it out a little while longer, in case he does actually show up," Dib said, before muttering, "Of course, knowing my luck, while we're out here he's probably breaking into my garage to use the belt sander again."

"…One of these days, you have got to tell us that whole story," Viera commented, Steve nodding in agreement.

"Later. For now, let's focus on the job," Dib said. With that, the three went back to focusing on their stakeout… unaware that they themselves were being observed as well. Above them, hidden by the various tree limbs, was a small floating metal sphere, with a red optical lens in its center, which was focused on the three young humans, transmitting what it saw further into the woods, where its owner was waiting.

Said owner was perched on a chair onboard the bridge of a relatively small spaceship, which was in turn sitting in the middle of a large web spread between two large trees. This individual was a pale-skinned female humanoid, wrapped in dark purple armor, with eight limbs that ended in clawed phalanges and a spider-like face. This was Arachnos the Spiderion, one of the most feared members of the Bounty Hunters Guild, come to stake a claim on Dib's bounty.

"Hmph, his head is even bigger in person," the spider-woman noted to herself, before shrugging it off, "No matter. His physical disfigurements have no bearing on anything. He'll fall all the same; my ingenious traps will ensnare him like all others before him."

Arachnos turned her multifaceted eyes towards other screens, which were displaying views of her handiwork. Throughout the woods, in all the places she felt the humans were likely to go from their current position, her webs had been spun. Lines of webbing were laid over the ground and between trees, near invisible to the naked eye, each grouping setting up an elaborate mechanism — upon making contact with a strand of webbing, the victim would be dragged at high speed towards a larger web, which would catch and then slingshot them through the air towards another, with the process repeating itself again and again until they would finally land here on her ship's main web, where she could then cocoon and reel them in.

It was simple, but perfect. It was elegant genius in its purest sense and it-

TWANG!

-was suddenly triggered as a butterfly landed on one of the strands. Arachnos blinked in surprise as it was slingshotted through the network of webs, quickly finding itself embedded beneath her ship.

"Well," Arachnos said after an awkward moment of silence, "That's somewhat embarrassing. Still, it's okay, I have more-"

TWANG!

"Really?" she sighed, as a hummingbird landed on the web next to the butterfly, "Fine, whatever. There's still plenty-"

TWANG!

TWANG!

TWANG!

TWANG!

Arachnos' eyes twitched as several more web snares were triggered, a variety of woodland life ending up on the main web.

"Oh, come on!" she screamed as she took in the sight, "What is wrong with this planet? Doesn't any creature here know how to respect a proper trap?!"

Grumbling angrily to herself, Arachnos popped open the cockpit of her ship and ambled out, crawling down to the web, venting her frustrations by ripping the animals out of it and tossing them away.

"I mean, honestly, can't these foolish things respect how much hard work I've put into this?" she muttered, as she pulled a fox off the web, "I waited until the human and his companions entered this forest and then completely covered their every possible exit route with these traps, and now all these filthy, stupid animals are ruining them!"

"Maybe overthinking trap?" Bigfoot commented from his spot on the web.

"Who asked you, you hairy turd?" Arachnos snapped, tossing the fox at his head, "There is no such thing as a too-complicated trap! And you know what? It doesn't matter how many of my snares you furry freaks set off. I have plenty left over to catch that human and his huge bounty, and nothing is going to stop me!"

TWANG!

Arachnos could only stare in disbelief at the mountain bike-style motorbike now sitting in the web, complete with a very confused-looking cyclist sitting in it.

"Uh, little help here dude?" the cyclist asked. In response, Arachnos gave a wordless scream of rage, before grabbing Bigfoot, ripping him free of the web, and tossing him at the cyclist, whom he hit head on. The force of the impact sent both Sasquatch and human flying off to disappear amongst the trees and sent the bike flying as well. However, it wasn't quite enough force to break the bike free of the webbing; the strand it was connected to stretched quite a distance, before suddenly snapping back. Now the bike broke free, at just the right angle to slam right into Arachnos.

"Oof!" the Spiderion exclaimed at the impact, which was strong enough to send her flying through the air back towards her ship, through the open cockpit, and smashed into the main console in a burst of sparks. As Arachnos groaned in pain and disorientation, those sparks increased in strength and frequency, as the damaged console began to overload.

"Ugh, what hit me?" Arachnos asked, her eyes all blinking out of sequence with each other, before widening in shock as she took in the numerous alarms and sirens blaring around her.

"Oh come on. That's… that's just not fair," she moaned in despair, before a final surge ran through the ship, causing the power and engine cores to erupt in massive fireballs.

BOOM!

"Did you guys hear that?" Dib asked, he and the twins blinking and looking around in confusion as the sound of the explosion echoed through the forest, while a column of smoke billowed into the air unseen some distance behind them. Seconds later, a large portion of one of Arcachnos' ship's engines slammed into the ground in the middle of the campsite, the surprise and the shockwave from the impact briefly throwing the three of them into the air.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" Viera exclaimed in, the three jumping to their feet and frantically pulling out their weapons, trying to keep an eye on both the smoking engine and their surroundings.

"I don't know," Dib replied, eyeing the wreckage closely, "I don't think this is Irken tech, either. Then again, that could just mean Zim or Tak got ahold of something from somewhere else. Or maybe someone else is invading Earth! Or-"

"Maybe we should actually examine it instead of just coming up with random theories about it?" Steve suggested dryly.

"Er, right," Dib said with an embarrassed cough, "Let's see if we can make some kind of makeshift sleigh for it, and then-"

BOOM!

As the humans looked on, the engine exploded, vaporizing itself and the campsite, leaving the humans staring in disbelief at a crater.

"…But, it looked like it had already blown up," Steve pointed out faintly, "How could it blow up twice?"

"I don't even question that kind of thing anymore," Dib sighed, pinching the space between his eyes, "Let's just get out of here. I kinda doubt that Bigfoot is going to show up after this."

With that, Team Save Earth packed up their equipment and left the clearing, heading back towards the city. Five minutes later, Bigfoot entered the clearing from the opposite direction, patches of webbing still clinging to his fur in several spots. Including the one currently keeping the cyclist stuck to his back.

"Yo, a little help here? Anybody?" the cyclist called out. When no response came, he sighed and turned his attention to Bigfoot, "Guess we have to keep looking until we find someone who can separate us, big dude."

"Yay! New friend stay longer!" Bigfoot said cheerfully, walking off into the woods with a smile on his face.

Doomsville Middle Skool, The Next Day

Students were slowly trudging their way into the skool building, unwilling yet prepared to face yet another mind-numbing and soul-crushing day in the accursed place. Unnoticed by any of them, a figure was standing atop a conveniently-located nearby hill, observing them all. It was a centaur-looking creature, with a humanoid-like upper torso, arms and head, and an equine lower body, complete with four legs, all of it covered in a thick blue fur. This was Ma'lack the Garatron, another of the bounty hunters come to Earth.

"Let's see," he mused, high tech binoculars held up to his eyes, "Normal sized head, normal sized head, oddly shaped head, Irken in a very poor disguise, normal sized head — ah, there we are! Huge headed human youngling."

Shifting the controls on his binoculars, Ma'lack zoomed in on Dib, who was just entering the building with the twins. Making quick calculations on Dib's distance and probable direction, Ma'lack put the binoculars away in a pouch tied to his side. He then braced all four legs, before bolting forward at such speed that anyone bothering to watch would have only seen a blue blur. That blur zoomed down the hill and across the street, closing the distance with the skool within seconds and slamming through the doors. Once inside the building, he shot down the hallway, towards where Dib was walking, oblivious to the threat approaching, just unknowingly waiting to be smashed into jelly by the outstretched fists approaching him at near-sonic speeds…

…And then, just before Ma'lack could impact with him, Dib turned a corner to walk down a different hall. Caught off guard by this, Ma'lack tried to turn and follow, but without any time to slow down beforehand, this sent him skidding down the main hall, before his momentum knocked him off his hooves. Now completely out of control, he rolled down the hall in a high speed ball, before slamming into a pair of doors and flying out of the rear of the building. He then flew through the air before coming to a crash in an open dumpster, which promptly slammed shut on him.

"Oh for dolog's sake. Why does this happen every time a target turns a corner?" Ma'lack muttered angrily to himself, "This tears it — first thing I'm doing once I get that bounty money is getting someone to make me a breaking mechanism of some kind. Now, where did that brat go?"

Ma'lack attempted to push the dumpster lid open and take stock of his location, only to frown in disbelief as it refused to budge.

"Come on, really? Open up, you piece of schoolock!" the bounty hunter cursed, kicking at the lid with all four hooves, attempting to force it open.

XXXXXXX

A few hours later, lunch had rolled around, and the students filed into the cafeteria to receive their daily helpings of barely-edible "food". As Team Save Earth made their way to their table, Dib made a quick detour over to Zim's table, the Irken glaring at him as he approached.

"What do you want, Dib-Stink?" he sneered.

"Part of a blown up spaceship crashed in the woods near where me and the others were hanging out yesterday. Did you have anything to do with that?" Dib asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. In response, both Zim and Skoodge looked confused, glancing at each other and shrugging; Nyx, sitting nearby at her and Gaz's table, perked up as she heard that, but as Dib wasn't looking in her direction he didn't notice.

"Zim has even less understanding of what's coming out of your mouth flaps than usual, human," Zim replied, waving Dib away, "I have done nothing involving exploding spaceships recently. Now shoo! Begone with you, so that I may go back to eating my disgusting slop like a normal human worm-baby!"

"Sure, whatever," Dib said, rolling his eyes at the response and walking back towards his table. Midway there, he passed Tak's table and paused. Turning to her and Tenn, he opened his mouth to ask them the same question, only for Tak to hold up a hand to cut him off.

"No, I had nothing to do with whatever ship you saw in the forest," she said, not bothering to look up at him as she spoke. Dib blinked in surprise, before frowning in suspicion at her.

"Oh yeah? Then how'd you know what I was going to ask?" he demanded.

"We could hear you and Zim from here," Tenn stated dryly, "Your voices really carry."

"Oh. Uh, right," Dib said, coughing awkwardly and beating a hasty retreat.

"Well?" Steve asked, as Dib sat down at their table.

"They're both denying it," he replied as he took his seat, "And between the fact that Zim can't convincingly lie to save his life, and that Tak wouldn't really have anything to gain by lying, I'm inclined to believe them."

"So, back to square one, then," Viera commented, "Any theories yet on what that thing was or where it came from?"

"Not really, considering that I didn't get a chance to actually examine it," Dib said, "Which is bad, because I can't shake this feeling that it's part of something important."

"As long as it's not another long-lost alien superweapon, I'm good," Steve said, earning a snort from the others.

Deciding to let the situation drop for now, Dib turned his attention to his food, only to drop his napkin as he tried to pick it up. He leaned down to grab it… seconds before a blue blur shot through the air next to the table, part of it passing right through the spot where his head had just been, before continuing on its way across the room, violently knocking several people over and disappearing through the doors into the kitchen by the time that Dib straightened back up.

"…What?" he asked, noticing the surprised looks on his friends' faces.

While the twins were trying to explain what had just happened to Dib, Ma'lack was lying in a heap in the kitchen, having slammed into a wall before he could bring himself to a controlled stop. From his spot, he glared at the ceiling, fuming in silent rage.

"Of all the times for him to duck. Why can't he just sit still and let me kill him already?" the bounty hunter grumbled to himself as he pulled himself to his hooves, "Grr, I'm starting to think I should just tear this whole building down and drop it on his oversized head. In fact, if my next charge doesn't do the trick, I think I just might!"

With that, Ma'lack threw himself forward into another zooming sprint, only to quickly come up short as pain suddenly blossomed in all of his ankles. Crying out in surprise and agony, he collapsed back to the ground. Groaning, he pushed himself up into a sitting posture and looked down at his legs to see what had happened. To his utter shock, he'd apparently run into a set of bear traps, which were all locked firmly just above his hooves.

"Wh-what?" he managed to sputter out through the pain. A cleared throat from nearby caught his attention, and he looked up to see that a terrifying figure had appeared to loom threateningly over him.

"Congratulations, blue boy," Nny sneered sarcastically, hands tightly gripping the chains connected to the bear traps, "You actually managed to get me to care about some of the weird shit that happens at this skool. Unfortunately for you, you did it by breaking my one rule and threatening children. That ain't gonna fly, pal, so now it's time to teach you a lesson."

With that, Nny turned towards a nearby meat locker and flung the door open, before beginning to walk into it, dragging Ma'lack behind him by the chains. The crippled bounty hunter screamed and begged, hands scrambling for any kind of purchase to halt his movement, only for it all to fail. He disappeared into the locker, screams quickly being muffled as the door slammed shut behind him.

The kitchen staff, who had observed all of this without comment, shrugged it off and went back to work. They weren't paid enough to interfere with the creepy janitor, after all.

Havok's Ship, Lunar Orbit, Same Time

Havok leaned back in his seat in the cockpit, taking in the various holo-screens surrounding him, which were displaying the video feeds from the surveillance drones he'd dispatched down the planet below. He'd arrived quite some time ago, and had been spying on the target ever since, including watching as his competition arrived and kept utterly failing.

"Heh, amateurs," he chuckled, re-watching the video of Arachnos blowing herself up and the new footage of Ma'lack running himself right into a horrible fate, "Everyone knows you're supposed to stake out and monitor your target before making a move, rather than just rushing into a confrontation. I'm honestly survived they lived this long, if this is how they operate a job."

Shaking his head in mild disgust, Havok went back to taking his own advice, looking at the live feeds from his various drones, which were monitoring both Dib himself, as well as everyone he interacted with and every place he visited, all to ensure that he had the most complete picture of what Dib was capable of and what resources and allies he had access to. Right now, that meant watching him at skool, but he was also closely watching several other locations, including his house.

"Speaking of which," Havok muttered, bringing up the feed from that drone, and was only slightly surprised to see that a familiar figure was currently skulking around the exterior of the building, "Hello, Syrax. Trying to lay an ambush for the human smeet in his home? That's rather clever… but not as clever as letting you go in first to test his security measures for me."

Havok chuckled again, leaning back into his chair again to watch and see what happened.

XXXXXXX

Syrax crept stealthily outside of the Membrane household, dashing through the foliage of the woods just beyond the backyard. He'd chosen not to perform a frontal approach not just because that would make him more likely to be seen by the other humans in the neighborhood, but because the main entrance of a domicile would be the one most likely to be the most heavily defended. By contrast, rear entrances tended to be more often overlooked in regards to defense measures.

And, indeed, his scans showed only simple locks on the house's rear door, and no surveillance equipment monitoring it. Smirking at how easy this was turning out to be, the Vortian approached the door, quickly picking the locks and entering, finding himself in a kitchen. A quick exploration of it and the rest of the ground floor followed, after which he concluded that it wasn't an adequate place to set up a proper ambush.

"Hmm, should I hide in the basement and launch an attack from there?" he mused to himself, eyeing the door that led to Professor Membrane's basement lab, before shrugging it off, "Nah, I think I'll just hide in his personal quarters and blast him when he gets home. Now then, those are probably upstairs, so let's see what we're working with."

Syrax walked up the stairs carefully, one hand hovering over the blaster holster on his hip, keeping an eye out for any boobytraps or security measures he might have overlooked. Nothing happened, however, and he reached the upper floor in short order. Once there, he paused, looking at the various doors, trying to figure out which one was Dib's room.

"This'd probably be easier if I knew anything about him other than what he looks like," Syrax muttered, before deciding to just check every room for clues until he knew which one was the one he wanted. Picking one at random, he opened it and walked into the darkened room beyond. Fumbling along the wall for a moment, he found the light switch and triggered it, revealing him to be in a bedroom that was, in a word, dark — from the black-painted walls to the creepy dolls scattered around the room, everything about it was creepy and somehow disturbing.

"Well, this is… something," Syrax said, slightly unnerved by feeling of dread that seemed to permeate the air. He took a step further in, only to jump back in surprise as the eyes of all the dolls suddenly lit up with a red glow, and their heads slowly turned to face him, blades emerging from limbs and mouths in the process.

"What the hell kind of security system is this?" Syrax asked incredulously, even as he whipped his blaster free and opened fire. His first few shots hit home, destroying the dolls they hit, but just as the Vortian was starting to think that this was going to be an easy fight, the dolls adapted, and began moving faster, easily evading his shots. Too panicked and surprised by this for it to even occur to him to try and flee the room, Syrax soon found himself overwhelmed by the dolls and dragged screaming to the floor.

XXXXXXX

"…Well, that's different," Havok said, blinking in surprise as Syrax's fate played out on the holo-screens before him. After a few minutes of stunned shock, he snapped out of it and turned towards analyzing the situation properly, "Okay, so, the house is obviously well-defended. Might just make a confrontation there a bit interesting. Still, I should make a few contingencies to deal with those things, just in case they're even tougher than they look."

As Havok turned to make a note on a datapad, an alert sounded from his console. Looking at it, he saw that another ship had entered Earth's orbit and was heading towards the surface. Assuming this was another bounty hunter, he checked its transponder code for an identification, and arched an antenna in surprise as he read it.

"Huh, didn't expect him of all people," he mused, "He never struck me as being ambitious enough for a mark this big. Hmm, well, when he fails, I can still get some useful data out of it for when I eventually make my move."

Turning his attention back to his spy drones, Havok prepared to see how this next fight would play out.

Membrane Household, Same Time

Skool having let out for the day, Team Save Earth was making their way towards Dib's house, all of them now more bewildered than ever. Several other people had seen the blue blur that the twins had witnessed nearly hitting Dib, and while they'd all brushed it off with a wide variety of explanations, that at least confirmed it had actually existed, even if it left them with no idea what it actually was. The fact that all the Irkens had seemed confused as well hadn't helped that any.

"Maybe the skool is haunted?" Viera suggested, as they approached the house.

"I doubt it," Steve replied, "If only because any ghost would probably be too scared of Miss Bitters to stick around."

"Plus, there's no way it's a coincidence that this happens the day after that ship wreckage crashes right in front of us," Dib added, "There's something going on here, and I can just tell it's important, but I can't put the pieces together in a way that makes sense."

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure it even…" Steve started to say, only to trail off as a humming sound filled the air. Looking up, Team Save Earth were greeted by the surprising sight of a small, sleek spaceship that looked somewhat like a giant lawn dart. It zoomed through the air over them, before swooping down to come in for a landing on the Membrane lawn.

"And of course no one's around to see this," Dib muttered, noting that aside from the three of them, the neighborhood was currently completely empty. Shaking off his annoyance at that, he quickly pulled out his gauntlets and put them on, the twins likewise whipping out and priming their own weapons as the three of them carefully approached the ship. Just as they reached it, a hatch on its side slid open, and a figure emerged from the interior — tall and humanoid, wearing black heavy armor and a matching biker-like, face-concealing helmet.

"Dib Membrane," the figure said in a digitally-distorted voice, "I have come for you-AH!"

The figure was cut off with a yelp as they had to jump aside to avoid the streams of fire and plasma launched at him. Hitting the ground in a heap, they looked up to find the trio leaned over them, weapons all fully charged with energy and aimed right at them.

"Wait, wait, wait!" the figure shouted, waving their arms frantically, "That wasn't a threat! It- wait, let me take the helmet off first."

The team warily watched as the figure fumbled with its helmet, and then stared in surprise as it was pulled away to reveal that the figure was apparently human. He was male, early middle-aged, and white, with black hair and a small goatee. Then Dib's eyes widened in even further shock, caused by recognition.

"Mr. Dwicky?!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Who?" the twins asked in sync, blinking in confusion.

"Hey Dib, good to see you again," Dwicky said cheerfully, "And look, you've actually made some friends. That's great!"

"Seriously, you know this guy?" Viera asked, arching an eyebrow at Dib.

"Unfortunately," Dib sighed, rubbing his forehead, "Steve, Viera, meet Mr. Dwicky, the former skool guidance counselor. I got sent to him once, and he decided to 'help' me by pretending to believe me about Zim just so he could humor me until he could figure out what my 'real' problem was."

"Wow, that's a jerk move," Steve said bluntly.

"I'm sorry about that, if it helps," Dwicky commented awkwardly.

"It doesn't," Dib said flatly, before continuing his explanation, "Anyway, he helped me set up a trap for Zim that got crashed by some other aliens, who invited him to go into space with them, which he did… and he took my camera, which had actual evidence exposing Zim as an alien on it, with him."

"Sorry about that too," Dwicky said as he got to his feet, "Bet that probably would have helped you out some."

"Ya think?" Dib asked bitterly, while giving Dwicky's armored form a closer look, "What happened to you after that, anyway? I mean, look at you!"

"Well, it's a long story," Dwicky replied with a shrug, "But the short version is that after a series of thrilling adventures, I discovered I have a talent for fighting with alien tech, and took up a career as a bounty hunter."

"…That seems really unlikely," Dib said after a moment, "But that aside, why are you back now, when you've apparently got such an awesome life out in space?"

"I came back because of this," Dwicky responded. Holding out an arm, he tapped a button on a wrist-mounted console, out of which popped a holo-screen displaying Dib's face and alien writing.

"A picture of me?" Dib asked, he and the twins blinking in confusion.

"It's a bounty alert," Dwicky explained, tone turning more serious, "Someone's put a price on your head."

"What?!" the three younger humans shouted.

"Yep. And considering how high a price we're talking about here, it means someone really wants you dead," Dwicky continued, "As soon as I saw this, I figured I had a responsibility to come warn you about it, especially since I saw how many other bounty hunters were planning to come gunning for you."

"That'd explain all the weird stuff that's been happening lately," Steve commented faintly, he and the others still in vague shock at Dwicky's revelation.

"Who the hell would… no, wait, this has Zim written all over it," Dib said, shock turning to anger and his face morphing into a scowl.

"Really?" Viera asked, "I always thought he had that whole obsession with killing you himself. Now as for Tak, her I can see putting a hit out on you."

"Well, whoever it is, going for the source seems the only way to stop this before it gets worse," Dwicky said, tapping buttons on his wrist console and causing Dib's bounty poster to be replaced with a scanner map of the city, several icons flashing on it, "Now then, according to my scanner, there are a couple of Irken bio-signatures over at the city mall. I don't know if that's the ones you're talking about, but it might be a good idea to confront them somewhere public."

"Right, let's go," Dib said, leading the way, "For the record, Mr. Dwicky, I'm not saying I've forgiven you, but I am willing to let you help out on this to make up for it."

"That works for me," Dwicky replied as he followed after Dib and the twins. The group disappeared down the street just in time to miss seeing Gaz's security dolls emerging from the house dragging a bloody sack containing the remains of Syrax, which they dumped in the garbage, before retreating back into the house.

City Center Mall, Shortly After

Team Save Earth and Dwicky arrived at the mall in short order, and it didn't take much longer beyond that to find who they were looking for. They simply had to follow the sounds of yelling, which led them to a hallway where they found Zim screaming threats and obscenities at a rather bored and annoyed-looking Tak, who was holding a shopping bag. MIMI stood on guard behind her mistress, while GIR stood behind Zim, dragging a small wagon stuffed with bags behind him and drinking absently from a Suck Monkey, perking up as Dib's group approached.

"Hi Big Head!" he said happily, waving at Dib and catching the Irkens' attention. It said something about the seriousness of the situation that Dib didn't bother refuting the comment about his head.

"Eh? Dib! Not-Dibs! And, uh, who are you?" Zim yelled, only to trail off in confusion as he took note of Dwicky.

"I'm Mr. Dwicky. We met briefly during that thing with the Plookesians?" Dwicky offered.

"Oh, right," Zim replied, tone making it clear he didn't actually remember the incident in question, "Anyway, what are you doing here, Dib-Stink? Can't you see I'm in the middle of gathering supplies for an ingenious new plan to conquer this pitiful planet?"

"Oh please, you bought out the surplus stock at a failing electronic store's 'everything must go' sale," Tak commented dryly, "I'm pretty sure that's just a bunch of random junk you'll bang together until it's been reduced to scrap. Some 'ingenious plan'."

"Yeah? Well what big idea are you working on that you're buying stuff for?" Zim demanded, glaring at her.

"Sorry, telling everyone the details of a plan in advance is your thing, not mine," Tak shot back.

"Enough already!" Dib snapped, before Zim could fire off a retort, "We're here because someone put out a hit on me, and we want to know which of you it was."

"What?!" Zim exclaimed, while Tak blinked in surprise. In response, Dwicky brought up the bounty alert again and showed it to the Irkens.

"So, are you going to admit it was you?" Dib demanded, narrowing his gaze at his nemesis.

"How dare you accuse Zim of outsourcing?!" Zim snapped, catching the humans off guard with the vehemence of his tone, "You think Zim would dilute the sweet nectar of your demise with some middle person? Never! The nectar of your destruction is for Zim alone to succor as he dances upon the field of your end in glorious glory!"

There was a moment of awkward silence as everyone stared at Zim, before Viera finally broke it.

"Okay… disturbing wording aside, that pretty much holds with my theory," she said, before turning to Tak, "Anything you want to say?"

"Only that I wish I'd thought of something like this myself," she replied with a shrug, glancing at the alert, "Also, even if I were to put a bounty out on you, I wouldn't pay this much — I'm not made of monies."

"Well if neither of you ordered this, then who did?" Dib demanded, "I don't have any other alien enemies. Not that I know of, anyway."

"It doesn't matter!" Zim declared, "Whoever's doing this is, I shall find them, and they shall taste my mighty fist of doom for daring to infringe on Zim's vendetta!"

With that, Zim grabbed GIR by the collar and dragged him off, their wagon apparently forgotten in the rush. Everyone else watched him in go in silence, before Tak eventually spoke up.

"I'll take that as my cue to leave. I'd wish you luck with all this, but I hate you," she said bluntly, before likewise walking away, MIMI following behind her.

"Great, so now we're back to square one," Steve grumbled, "Now what do we do?"

BOOM! CRASH!

A wall suddenly exploded down the hall from where they were standing, and out of the smoke emerged a floating metal sphere covered in glowing spikes and eye sensors. At the same time, a creature who looked like a small purple goblin with wings and carrying a large blaster rifle came bursting through a skylight and swooped down to hover next to the robot.

"Out of the way, Dwicky! The bounty is ours!" the goblin shouted, priming his weapon.

"Friends of yours?" Dib asked Dwicky warily.

"TRL-69 and Gabbrot," Dwicky replied, pulling a large blaster out from the holster on his back, "Pretty bottom barrel on the bounty hunter hierarchy. Surprised they bothered to take such a high-level mark."

"Who are you calling bottom barrel?" Gabbrot snarled, "Just for that, I'm gonna blast you too! TRL, get the other humans!"

The floating robot trilled out a response in beeps and whistles, before several of its spikes glowed brighter and it fired off plasma blasts at Steve and Viera, who dodged to the side and took cover behind a wall column. At the same time, Gabbrot opened fire at Dib and Dwicky, who jumped behind a clump of benches and decorative plants.

"Stay down!" Dwicky shouted to Dib as he rose over their cover and fired back at the other bounty hunters, "I'll handle- huh?"

Dwicky could only stare in surprise as Dib suddenly jumped up, gauntlets in place on his hands, and punched a wave of plasma at Gabbrot. Nearly simultaneously, the twins popped out from behind their own cover and returned fire at TRL with their own weapons. The bounty hunters gave cries of distress and leapt through the air, barely avoiding being hit.

"Yeah," Dib said a little smugly to the stunned-looking Dwicky, "I've gotten a little tougher since the last time we saw each other."

"…I can see that," Dwicky said faintly, before ducking as Gabbrot opened fire again. After that, conversation lulled as the fight raged on.

Zim's Base, Same Time

Skoodge and Nyx were sitting on the couch, watching TV, while Minimoose floated nearby and Ying stood at attention next to the couch. Nyx reached over to a nearby snack bowl, only to frown as she noticed it was empty.

"Ying? Could you go grab us some more snacks?" she asked, receiving a nod in response.

"Of course, Madame. I think we still have a few bags of Nacho Munchins in storage on the ship," Ying replied, before turning and walking towards the rear door.

"We really should get around to moving your ship inside the base," Skoodge commented, watching Ying leave.

"Meh, I'm fine with it," Nyx replied with a shrug, "I figure that's a perk I've gotta earn. But, I think I'll be getting on Zim's good side enough to earn just about anything soon enough."

"Really? For what?" Skoodge asked, blinking in confusion.

"Well, it was going to be a surprise, but I guess I can trust you," Nyx said with a smirk, "You see, I-"

SLAM!

Whatever Nyx had been about to say was cut off as the front door was suddenly kicked open and Zim stomped in, dragging GIR by the collar. Dropping GIR to the floor, he slammed the door shut again, before tossing his disguise aside and muttering in incoherent rage. Nyx and Skoodge, who had jumped off the couch in surprise at the door's opening, stared at him in confusion, before finally daring to react.

"Uh, Zim?" Skoodge asked carefully, "Is everything okay?"

"Someone put out a bounty on Dib!" Zim snapped.

"What?" Skoodge blinked in surprise, while Nyx arched an antenna.

"Why are you mad? I thought this'd make you happy," she said.

"Wh- you knew about this?!" Zim sputtered.

"Sure I did," she responded, "I'm the one who put out the bounty."

"…What?" Zim asked flatly, eyes narrowing and antennae flattening against his skull. Skoodge, recognizing the barely concealed anger in that tone, winced and slowly backed away. Meanwhile Nyx, oblivious to this, kept talking.

"Yeah, I realized you'd have an easier time of conquering Earth without him around," she explained, "Plus, I wanted payback for what he did to Ying. So I made a call to a friend and-GAK!"

Nyx was cut off as Zim suddenly grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the nearest wall, hard enough that it cracked from the impact.

"Who said that you could try to kill Zim's nemesis?" he hissed, face contorted in rage.

"I was… trying… to help," Nyx gasped out.

"Dib is mine to destroy!" Zim snarled, "He has stood in my way for so long, I will not allow anyone else the satisfaction of finally killing him, least of all some hack mercenary!"

To punctuate his point, Zim then turned and threw Nyx across the room, where she slammed into and knocked over a chair. As she landed in a heap atop it on the floor, Zim walked over to lean over her menacingly, glaring intensely.

"Call off the hit," he ordered, "And just so I'm clear — if you ever do something like this again, I don't care how useful you are, I will end you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir," Nyx croaked, rubbing at her sore throat.

Grunting in response, the still angry Zim then stomped off towards the trashcan elevator. For a few minutes the room was quiet, except for the TV that GIR was now the only one watching, and Nyx's coughing as she stood up and kept rubbing her throat. Skoodge and Minimoose stood off to the side, neither quite sure what to do in response to what had just happened, and then they both started in surprise as the back door opened and Ying reentered the house, carrying a large snack bag. He walked into the living room and paused mid-step.

"…Is everything alright, Madame?" he asked, eyes narrowing dangerously as he took in the cracked wall, smashed chair, and bruises on Nyx's throat.

"Yeah, it's fine. I just have to go make a call," Nyx said quickly, before all but bolting out of the house and towards her ship. Ying watched her go, and paused only long enough to glare at the room in general before following after her.

"Squeak!" Minimoose commented after they left.

"Yeah, that did not go well. This is going to make things awkward for a while," Skoodge sighed, before turning towards fixing the damage from Zim's outburst.

Havok's Ship, Shortly After

Havok watched eagerly as his spy drones fed him live footage of Dib's group's fight against TRL and Gabbrot. It had since expanded out of the mall, by means of TRL getting blasted through a wall and out onto the street outside the building, Gabbrot soon retreating after him, with Dib, the twins, and Dwicky chasing after them.

"Honestly surprised you had the nerve to pull a stunt like this, Dwicky," he muttered, sparing a look at the older human, before turning his attention back to Dib, just in time to watch him catch a plasma blast on his gauntlets and then punch Gabbrot hard enough to send him flying into a lamppost and dent it, "And you, smeet, are proving to be just as exciting as I had hoped. Yes, I think this is going to be just the fight I was looking for, and-"

BEEP! BEEP!

Havok was pulled from his musings as an alert sounded on his console. Hitting a button to bring it up, his organic eye widened in disbelief as Dib's bounty poster came up, with a red icon now flashing on it, marking it as cancelled.

"What the flirk is this?!" he shouted. Ignoring the video feeds, and the sight of Steve using plasma shots to herd TRL towards a fire tornado Viera had conjured, Havok activated his communications equipment. Within moments, a screen popped up, displaying Grissom's face.

"Ah, Havok, I had a feeling I'd be hearing from you," the crime boss greeted, "Well, not you specifically, but someone, and you seemed like one of the most likely."

"Can it," Havok snapped, "What's the deal with cancelling a contract while the target's still alive?"

"Client called off the contract," Grissom replied with a shrug, "I'm as surprised as you are, but hey, sometimes things happen. Sorry for the lost payday."

Havok growled in annoyance, gaze flickering back to the other screens, watching as Dib threw himself in-between his friends and the bounty hunters (who clearly hadn't received the message yet), absorbing the plasma from their attacks and then throwing it back in a wave. Gritting his teeth, he watched the fight for several more moments, before slamming a fist on one of his chair's arms.

"Screw the money!" he said, "For a decent fight like this, I'll do it for free!"

"Yeah, I had a feeling that was coming too," Grissom sighed, "Look, you want to waste your time like that, go ahead. But I've worked with the Guild long enough to know that pursuing a cancelled contract for your own amusement isn't going to look good for your reputation. In fact-"

Rolling his organic eye, Havok hit a button on his console, cutting the transmission.

"Boring conversation anyway," he said, before taking the controls and setting course for the planet's surface.

Downtown Doomsville, Same Time

The street surrounding the mall was wrecked, everything from the buildings and the parked cars to the street itself cratered and smoking. In a particularly large crater in the sidewalk, the burned scraps of TRL surrounded a scorch mark roughly shaped like Gabbrot's body.

"Well, I definitely didn't realize that robots were that combustible," Dwicky commented, surveying the scene with Team Save Earth from down the street.

"I think anything is if it's hit with that much concentrated energy," Dib commented, glancing around the empty street, "And again, there's no one around. Why does this keep happening?"

"On the bright side, that means there's no one around to blame us for the mess," Steve commented with a shrug. Any responses that anyone had to that were preempted by a beeping sound from Dwicky's wrist console. Checking it, he arched an eyebrow in surprise.

"Huh, that's weird," he said, "The contract on Dib's been cancelled."

"Wait, really?" Viera asked, she and the boys blinking in confusion, "That makes no sense — why would someone do this and then just undo it?"

"I don't know, and right now I don't care," Dib said, "I'm calling it a day. Tomorrow, we can-AH!"

With yelps of panicked surprise, Dib and the others jumped aside to avoid a sudden plasma blast that came out of nowhere. Scrambling back to their feet, they looked up to see a moderately-sized ship hovering over them, weapons still smoking. The cockpit popped open, and Havok leaned out to smirk down at them.

"Hello there. Lovely day, isn't it?" he said, giving a mock-friendly wave.

"What the hell, Havok?" Dwicky demanded, "Didn't you hear? The contract's been called off!"

"I know. I just don't care," the Irken cyborg responded, turning his gaze on Dib, "It's been too long since I had a decent fight, and this smeet's shown he can provide me one. So forget the bounty, I just want to face him."

"…That is both flattering and terrifying," Dib said after a moment, he and the twins staring at Havok in disbelief.

"It's also not gonna happen!" Dwicky said, aiming his blaster at Havok, "Back off now, or else!"

"Ooh, I'm shaking!" Havok said sarcastically, before leaping out of his ship, PAK legs deploying midair and catching him as he hit the ground. Smirking, he then threw his arms out to his sides, and with a sound like a switchblade being flicked open, broadsword blades shot out of his wrists, edges brimming with plasma. Snarling in anticipatory glee, he withdrew the PAK legs and then charged forward towards the group.

Dwicky fired off a few shots, but the cyborg deflected each of them with his blades as he continued to advance. Within moments he'd closed the distance, and with a swing of one blade, cut Dwicky's blaster in half; the same movement allowed him to spin-kick Dwicky in the chest, the powerful blow sending him flying through the air to slam into a dumpster. As Dwicky slumped into an unconscious heap on the sidewalk, Havok turned his attention towards the younger humans, ducking just in time to avoid a fireball to the face, then coming back up in time to deflect some plasma bolts with one blade and catching Dib's gauntleted fist with his other hand. Smirk widening, Havok then swung Dib through the air, sending him flying into the twins, knocking them all to the ground.

"I hate to compliment the bad guy, but he's got moves," Steve groaned, as the three of them scrambled back to their feet.

"Thank you," Havok said, before charging forward and bringing his blades down in overhead slashes that just barely missed the dodging humans and sliced deep into the concrete. Ripping them out, he spun around, driving the humans back before they could counterattack. He then charged the twins, only to suddenly jump back as they attempted to defend themselves; while they floundered in surprise at the feint, Havok's PAK legs shot out before he could hit the ground and propelled him further into the air. Reaching his apex, he turned and dropped towards Dib, blades first. Having been running forward to attack Havok from behind as he had charged the twins, Dib stumbled at the Irken's actions.

Time seemed to slow as Havok fell towards Dib, who tried to turn and bring his gauntlets up into a proper defensive position. But it seemed it wouldn't happen in time, and Havok's blades were soon inches from Dib's head-

ZAP!

-When a plasma blast shot in from nowhere and hit Havok dead center, sending him flying through the air to smash through the side of a building. Team Save Earth stared in utter confusion at this, before turning to see where the attack had come from. To their further surprise, they were greeted by the sight of Zim's Voot Cruiser hovering in the air over the street, the exiled Invader himself leaning out of the cockpit to glare at the cyborg he'd just blasted.

"Really?" Dib asked flatly, arching an eyebrow.

"No one kills you but me, Dib-Stink!" Zim shouted, before turning his attention to Havok as the latter pulled himself out of the hole he'd smashed through the side of the building, "So leave now, cybernetic meat-sack, or face the wrath of Zim! And why are you even still here? Nyx called off her stupid bounty!"

"Wait, Nyx was responsible for all this?" Viera asked, blinking, "Huh… actually, that makes a lot of sense."

"Come to think of it, why didn't we consider any of the Irkens other than Zim or Tak?" Steve thought out loud.

"Silence, Not-Dibs! Zim is trying to be threatening!" Zim snapped, not taking his gaze off of Havok, who was giving him an unimpressed look.

"So, you're the infamous Zim, huh?" the cyborg asked, "Honestly thought you'd be shorter, from all I heard. Anyway, like I already told the humans, I don't care about the monies anymore — I just want a good fight, and they're giving me one."

"Well then go join a fight club or something, but leave my nemesis out of it!" Zim snarled.

"Nope," Havok replied flatly, "But tell you what. You get out of the way, and once I'm done with the human, I won't kill you too and drag your corpse back to the Tallest for a reward."

Hissing wordlessly in rage, Zim responded to that threat by opening fire again. However, Havok dodged and, redeploying his PAK legs, quickly scuttled up the side of a building before jumping through the air to land back in the cockpit of his waiting ship. Withdrawing the PAK legs and his blades, he took the controls and was soon zooming across the sky, engaging Zim in a dogfight.

"So, should we just let them kill each other?" Steve asked, the group watching as the Irkens flew back and forth around the surrounding buildings, blasting at each other, "Cause that would kinda solve a lot of problems."

"That is so incredibly tempting, but no," Dib said, "This Havok guy is a way more serious threat than Zim is. We need to make sure he doesn't win this."

"How?" Viera asked, "Our ship is back at your place, and even if we could get to it fast enough… I mean, it still doesn't work."

"Right, so we improvise," Dib said, taking a quick look around their surroundings, before saying, "Okay, follow me. I'll explain on the way."

As the three young humans ran off to prepare, the dogfight raged on. Zim's Voot Cruiser and Havok's somewhat larger ship zipped around buildings, each trying to get in position to fire on the other without exposing themselves. This briefly worked for both, each of them getting a few shots at the other, but it was clear that this wasn't going to work for either of them in the long run.

Then Havok broke the stalemate, flying out into the open over a street and flying right down it.

"Ha! Fool!" Zim crowed, following Havok and firing repeatedly. His focus now solely on bringing the bounty hunter down, Zim didn't pay any attention to where Havok was going; as he suddenly swerved and flew up the side of a building, Zim's only concern was keeping him in his sights and how close his shields were to collapse.

Then Havok's ship reached the roof, and the cockpit swung open, allowing Havok to lean out, arm blade extended. Before Zim could even register this, the blade had been swung right through the base of the rooftop water tower, which almost immediately collapsed.

Zim screamed, but was unable to react in time before the falling mass of wood, metal, and water hit the Voot like an avalanche, slamming it down into the ground below. Observing from above, Havok smirked as he watched the dust settle.

"Heh, just as narrow-minded and foolish as everyone says," he chuckled, "Enjoy digging yourself out. Now then, where did that human-GAH!"

The ship rocked as a wave of plasma slammed into it. Righting himself, Havok scanned his surroundings, and soon found the source of the attack — Dib, standing on the roof of another building down the street, next to the fire escape he'd clearly just run up, if his apparent lack of breath was anything to go by.

"You've got guts, human, I'll give you that," Havok mused, sounding impressed, before turning and flying towards Dib's building. Within moments, he was only yards away… at which point Viera, standing on the street below, held up her amulet and unleashed a literal tornado of flame, which engulfed the ship.

Shrieking in panic, Havok lost control of the ship, which began spinning in circles in the air. Meanwhile, standing on the fire escape of another building, Steve took careful aim with his blasters, and fired, the shots hitting the ship's engines. Their fuel cells ruptured, and the alien chemicals within were ignited by the flames still coating the ship, the back half of which exploded with a deafening BOOM. Now reduced to a burning hulk, the ship careened through the air towards the rooftop where Dib was still standing; he jumped aside just in time, barely avoiding being crushed as it hit the roof and skidded across, coming to a halt just in time to be left teetering on the opposite side of the building.

For a few moments, everything was silent, except for the sounds of the flames. Dib got to his feet and cautiously approached the wreck, ready for anything. As such, he was only partially surprised when the side of the ruined ship was suddenly slashed open and Havok burst out of the hole. The cyborg was scorched and bloody, patches of his clothing still smoldering, but despite this he was sporting a wide grin, the same manic glee reflected in his widened organic eye.

"Yes, yes! This is what I wanted!" Havok laughed madly, "It's been too long since I had an opponent worthy of my skill! A fellow fighter who understands the glory of combat! A-"

"Dude, shut the hell up already," Dib said, charging forward and swinging a plasma-charged punch at Havok, who ducked and rolled out of the way, "At least when Zim rants, it's mildly entertaining. You just sound like some action movie villain cliche!"

Insult not even registering with him, Havok jumped back to his feet and swung his blades at Dib, who dodged them and then punched Havok in the face. The Irken flew back a few feet, before his PAK legs popped out and caught him, then sprung him forward at Dib again. Dib ducked under the blade swung towards his face and caught one of the PAK legs as it shot towards his chest. Gripping it tight, Dib channelled a burst of plasma through it, causing it to snap off of the PAK, which started to spark.

As Havok snarled incoherently in pain, energy surging through his PAK and other cybernetics, Dib clenched his fists and started gathering plasma in his gauntlets until they were crackling like Tesla coils. The moment they couldn't hold anymore, he started running straight towards Havok, who saw him coming and turned to face him. Growling in total bloodthirsty madness, he charged to meet Dib, blades charged and ready to strike.

Just before the two reached each other, Dib thrust his fists forward, unleashing all the plasma at once. The attack being virtually point-blank, Havok was unable to do anything but try and shield himself with his blades. This proved inefficient, however, and sent him flying through the air to slam into his wrecked ship, entering through the exit he'd carved and hitting the opposite wall. Disoriented from the impact, the Havok didn't notice as it caused the ship to start tilting over the edge of the roof. By the time he did, his eye widening in shock, he could do nothing but scream in defiance and disbelief as the ship plummeted towards the street below.

Dib ran over to the edge of the roof, looking down just in time to watch the ship hit the pavement and explode, anything combustible that hadn't ignited in the first explosion doing so now. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that — either in the impact or the explosion — a hole had been blown clear through the street and into the sewer below.

"Wow, that was a lot more intense than I thought it was gonna be," Dib said, practically collapsing as the adrenaline rush started to wear off. Meanwhile, down on the street the twins, who had been running towards Dib's building since Havok's ship had first hit the roof, skidded to a halt and stared at the hole in surprise. At the same time, Dwicky ran up the street, clutching his sore head, only to skid to a halt and blink in confusion at the hole.

"…What'd I miss?" he asked.

XXXXXXX

It had taken some time, but Dwicky and Team Save Earth had managed to scour the sewer, finding nothing but debris from Havok's ship so thoroughly charred it was just useless scrap; of the bounty hunter himself, there was no sign, leading the humans to the conclusion that he had been vaporized. Similarly, by the time it had occurred to anyone to check on Zim, he and his ship had disappeared from where he'd crashed, probably having recovered and escaped at some point during the battle.

As such, with all the day's excitement finally at an end and no reason to stick around, they had all returned to Dib's house, where Dwicky was preparing to board his ship and leave Earth again.

"Well, I won't say this has been fun, but it has been good to see you, Dib," Dwicky said, "I really am glad to see you've done so well for yourself since last time."

"Yeah, well, it took a while to get here, but it was definitely worth it," Dib replied, sharing a smile with his friends, "And I guess, for what it's worth, I forgive you for being such a jerk last time. Mostly."

"I'll take it!" Dwicky said, waving cheerfully, "Well, see you again someday, maybe!"

With that, he got in the ship, which was soon zipping off into the air, quickly disappearing from view. The trio watched it fly away, until Steve blinked and turned to Dib.

"Uh, it just occurs to me, but couldn't we have asked him to provide us with some technology, or pictures, or anything else that could help prove the existence of aliens?" he asked.

"…" Dib stared silently and blankly into the distance, before burying his face in his hands and groaning, the twins patting him awkwardly on the back in comfort at the missed opportunity.

Zim's Base, Same Time

In one of the lower levels of the base, Zim stood in a secure lab, Skoodge and a slightly nervous Nyx standing a respectful distance behind him. He barely registered their presence, instead focusing on what was before him — a containment tube, within which floated what was left of Havok.

Zim had gotten the Voot out from under the collapsed water tower just in time to watch Havok's fiery crash. Having been about to accept that as the end and leave, he had instead been struck by a sudden thought, and quickly entered the sewers, where he'd retrieved the near-dead cyborg from the blast zone and spirited him away before Dib and the others could arrive on the scene. Now, the bounty hunter floated unconscious in the tube, his cybernetics wrecked and the rest of him heavily scarred.

"So, why did you do this?" Skoodge asked, finally breaking the silence, "I mean, saving people isn't really your thing."

"Of course Zim is not so foolishly soft! But this cyborg is a competent fighter; he might be useful in the future. And it'd be nice to get something out of this mess," Zim explained, turning to glare over his shoulder at Nyx, who flinched slightly but didn't respond, realizing that it'd probably be best to let Zim simmer until he got over all of this, rather than try and defend her actions again.

"Master, given the subject's condition, I doubt he'll even regain consciousness in the foreseeable future, let alone be able to exit the containment tube," the Computer chimed in, "The damage to both his core organic material and his cybernetic enhancements are extensive. Without us supplementing his PAK's life support systems, he'd be dead already."

"Meh, whatever," Zim shrugged, "Keep him alive for now, and we'll deal with the rest when it becomes relevant."

With that, he turned on his heel and marched out of the room, the others following after him. As the door closed behind them, the room's lights switched off, the only illumination left being that from Havok's artificial eye as it glowed dimly. For just a second, it brightened in intensity before dimming again, in response to a momentary spark in brain activity.

The Computer was right; Havok wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. But he would eventually, and then there'd be Hell to pay…

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

End Episode 3

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A/N: And finally, it is done. Sorry for how exposition-heavy this chapter was, but one of my goals for this season is world building the TNAIZ universe, and those two things tend to go hand-in-hand. Anyway, hope everyone liked the chapter regardless; the basic idea of Dib having an intergalactic bounty put on his head comes from an old plot bunny that I never got off the ground, so I decided to incorporate here.

Also hoping everyone liked me using Dwicky. The idea of him becoming a bounty hunter comes from the awesome fic Becoming A True Invader, which I highly recommend.

Now, about Havok. Fun fact — back when I was first envisioning Season 2 (which was early in Season 1, actually), he wasn't going to be left in a coma, but instead immediately go into service as Zim's new muscle. However, that idea came about due to my early plans about Skoodge defecting to Tak and Tenn during the hunt for Project Domination leaving Zim's faction undermanned. Since Skoodge's character development changed those plans, and nightmaster000 later offered me the use of Nyx and Ying, I decided to take Havok in a different direction. Oh, he'll be back later this season, but in a very different role… and that's all I'm willing to spoil, so just stay tuned.

Next time: It's Career Day once again. And if you thought things were crazy in canon, wait until you see what happens here.

Until then, please review!