It Came From Outer Space (Mira-Charma13 and Dip)

[Mira-Charma13]

After the branding Rhapsody was the one who examined and cleaned the brand to ensure that it wouldn't get infected. It turned out nicely, though the skin around it had darkened to an uglier green as it bruised from the impact. After a few days it would be as if nothing happened at all! While examined the blotchy mark, Jazz huddled with the most senior members present to discuss just how much information they would be leaving out of their small meetings until they knew Bohemian could be trusted.

Rhapsody happily showed off how easy it was for Irken Resistance members to recognized each other, as well. Under normal light, the brand seemed like nothing more than a run-of-the-mill black Irken Insignia--a sign of unwavering loyalty to the Irken Empire. She then retrieved what appeared to be an Irken good luck charm from her pocket. Irkens weren't the most superstitious of creatures, but good luck charms were one thing that carried on from their ancient days into their modern society. While the charms varied in size and color, they were all the same shape--circular with small raised sections (sometimes metal, sometimes precious jewels) that were often a different color from the rest of the charm. They resembled tiny PAKs. Rhapsody's charm was black with exotic purple gems.

This was no ordinary charm, however. She pressed the largest jewel and a blue light shot out from the front. It illuminated the new brand on Bohemian's chest. The invisible ink brand was instantly visible--white lines that curled into extravagant feathery wings on either side of the Irken Insignia. She promised Bohemian that she would have one made for him in any color he wanted.

Jazz called the group to attention at this point. He began the meeting by discussing Dib. The human was a hot topic of discussion in these meetings purely because of how easy it was for him to get close to the Tallest. Their Tallest was a reclusive loner, after all, and never really made strides to be friendly toward his own people. The human was special and they were sure of it. Jazz talked about Bohemian's plan for the human, which seemed to go over well with everyone. It was a place to start. If the human could convince the Tallest not to pillage and destroy, which was a feat in itself...what else could he influence?

The rest of the meeting consisted of smaller topics. Evidently they weren't going to delve far into sensitive matters with such a green member present, but they did mention several interesting things. For instance, the Resisty--the non-Irken Resistance--was close by. This was because they were waiting for the usual food drop. Once a month the IR raided the Massive's kitchen for leftover food and bundled it up into a nice care package for the Resisty--as long as they trailed after the Armada at a distance the group would never go hungry.

Jazz reminded the group that tensions were still high on planet Vort, though he didn't mention why with Bohemian present. The imprisoned Vortians and other great minds of the Known Universe were (against the advice of both the IR and the Resisty) planning to revolt in the next couple of months and try to overthrow their Irken occupiers. If they did so...they wouldn't win despite their overwhelming desire to be free. Many lives would be lost. Loskora seemed especially sullen as this was brought up. It irked her to no end that Jazz didn't have confidence in her people to free themselves.

Salsa piped up to reveal that the Meekrob, who worked closely with the Resisty but knew nothing of the Irken Resistance, were closer than ever to finding a cure for one of the most damaging and widespread diseases in the Known Universe--Padulian Rot, originating from planet Padula. Once infected, the host body would slowly start to rot from the outside in. It wasn't always fatal, but without fail left disfiguring and revolting injuries to anyone lucky (or unlucky) to survive. While the Meekrob would never share this cure with the Irkens, the Resisty was willing to do so--for a price, of course. Nothing was ever free. That price had yet to be determined.

There were a few other minor topics. Jazz once again asked everyone to be respectful and polite to the human as long as he did so in return. He also expressed concern about how far away the Armada still was from any significant part of the Universe, and how long it was taking to get back to civilization--with the Massive in tow they couldn't use Warp Drives, after all. There was some discussion about weapons shipments, though no exact dates or locations were given. Loskora warned the group of a possibility of a Meekrob attack in the next few months. The creatures were growing increasingly restless due to the inactivity of the Irken Armada and feared plotting was at hand. Therefore, they would almost certainly strike when the Armada drew closer to their stomping grounds.

The meeting was disbanded after about an hour. Everyone went their separate ways...except for Rhapsody, who had to head back to work alongside her superior.

---

---

While Zim held a grudge against Tak initially for attempting to hijack his mission, the animosity between them had cooled off over the past three Earth years or so. When Zim came face to face with her again for the first time since becoming the Almighty Tallest (during his coronation party, which was just as boring and stuffy as it sounded), he was gripped by an unrelenting depression at the time. He paid no mind to her anger and disdain for him. Eventually, in an attempt to drive her away, he nonchalantly waved her off and guaranteed her a position in the next Invasion Operation. She was the only Invader in history, unless Zim himself was counted despite his mission being false, who never had to qualify on her own and was instead assured a spot.

He assigned her to one of the most suspect planets on the list he and Skoodge created together--after many, many weeks of blood, sweat, yelling, bickering, fist-fighting, and calling each other every name in the book. He had full confidence in her ability to conquer Damogran despite her lack of experience. Skoodge was never that confident, and it was because of her lack of experience...and the fact that because of the power outage on Devastis she never actually passed her Elite Irken exam, which was a requirement for becoming an Invader. The Control Brains didn't approve either.

So...Zim did something very Zim-like. He threw a childish tantrum! While Skoodge was for the most part spared (after Zim held him down and threatened him until he rescinded his disapproval), the newly-crowned Tallest spent several days heatedly arguing with Control Brains. He eventually caved in to part of their request and asked Tak to make the trip to Devastis and take the exam again, even though legally too much time had passed and doing so would delay the Invasion Operation. Naturally, she passed with flying colors. She did so spectacularly, in fact, that the Control Brains ignored the amount of time that had passed and granted her Elite Irken status anyway.

Despite all this special attention, Zim preferred to ignore Tak just like he ignored most other members of his species. He paid just enough attention when she reported in, giving the usual "Hmm," "Mm-hm," and "Fascinating," replies while he relied on Skoodge to jot down the most pertinent of details. He was laughably bad at remembering specific details about each Invader's status on their assigned planet, so he conveniently forgot to send a small team of Armada ships to Damogran to help Tak control the conquered population. Unless it was an emergency of the highest degree the entire Armada never came to the aid of a single Invader, though small strike teams were often sent out to assist Invaders after they succeeded and to support them until the Massive could arrive with the Almighty Tallest and the rest of the Armada in tow.

Apparently, that was a mistake that could very well prove fatal to Tak.

Every Irken in the Bridge of the Massive jumped a foot into the air when Tak's frenzied and distressed hail came through. Skoodge fell straight out of his chair with an undignified wail and hit the ground with a thud, which prompted some nervous laughter from the other startled Irkens. The Head Advisor was quick to scramble to his feet, though he was much slower to respond. Zim wasn't here, so technically he was in charge...and everyone else was staring insistently at him, waiting to see what he would do.

...What was he going to do...?

Skoodge wrung his small hands together, gritted his teeth, and made a split-second decision. "We're heading to your position right now! Navigators and Pilots!" He stood up straight. "Chart a course for the nearest artificial Warp Drive! We're changing course immediately and heading to planet Damogran!" There was a split second of hesitation. Skoodge's short stature made it difficult for the other Irkens to take him seriously despite his unspoken position as the second-in-command of the Irken Empire. Eventually, though, there was an outcry of "Yes, Head Advisor!" and the Bridge team quickly got to work. They broadcasted the changed course to the rest of the ships and began to turn the Massive as fast as they could. The Massive was clunky and slow to turn because of its size, and it didn't appreciate the fast pace--the ship lurched and groaned in the process.

"I'm going to find the Tallest!" Skoodge declared, already bolting across the room. "Pick up the speed! We've gotta go!"

He already knew that Zim was on the top floor in his private quarters, so it didn't take him too long to reach that exclusive elevator. Zim's Computer let him up without protest--Skoodge was one of the few creatures permitted access to this level. The Head of the Council was surprised to find the door to Zim's quarters wide open and no one inside. "Um..." He peered around, his antennae standing straight up. "Where's the Tallest?" "Oh, he's with the human," the Computer supplied, sounding as bored as ever. "They're sleeping."

"Sleeping? Together?" A hint of suspicion tarnished his voice. That was...unusual. Irkens didn't like to sleep. Doing so made them vulnerable. They would only sleep in the presence of someone they trusted one hundred percent. How was it that the human had earned Zim's trust so quickly, and with such little effort...?

...What was he doing speculating and almost getting jealous?! There was an emergency at hand!

He scuttled back out into the hall and began to bang on the blue door that led to the human's private quarters. "My Tallest! My Tallest! You have to come quickly! There's an emergency!" Despite this exclamation, which was repeated four separate times, it was ages before there was any semblance of a response. Zim could be heard stumbling his way to the door, hissing and spewing foul language as he did so, before the door eventually opened. He looked livid despite being horrifically groggy, with his antennae flat against his head, his teeth bared, and his eyes narrowed into slits. Zim hated being woken up when he was in a good deep sleep.

"This had better be good," he growled in a low and threatening tone. "And don't you say a thing about Zim being in this unflattering fuzzy pink robe!" Skoodge was not impressed. "There's an emergency!" he repeated, sounding frustrated. "Invader Tak--" "Zim is tired," the Tallest interrupted in a bitter voice. "Can't you just go away?" "My Tallest, Invader Tak requires--" "Deal with it yourself. You are Zim's Head of the Council, yes?" "But Invader Tak needs--" "You're annoying Zim."

"ZIM!"

There was a spell of stunned silence. Skoodge only resorted to calling the Tallest by his name when he was really pissed.

"Invader Tak is under attack!" the stumpy Irken finally managed to say, anger tainting his voice. "If we don't hurry, she'll be killed and we'll lose Damogran! It's a full-scale attack by the entire population of Damogran!" Zim rubbed at his eyes with one hand, still not completely awake. "Just send a strike team," he muttered sourly. "I, uh..." Skoodge twiddled his fingers, looking quite nervous. "I think we should send the entire Armada. We knew Damogran was going to be difficult. I don't think a single team will be sufficient." "That will leave the Massive vulnerable," Zim retorted simply, his voice still heady with sleep.

"Exactly. So..." A sheepish smile curled Skoodge's lips. "Maybe we should do something...reckless." Zim's antennae instantly perked. "Ooh." A devilish grin stretched its way across the weary Tallest's face. "What's this? Responsible, careful, realistic Skoodge wants to be chaotic? Like ZIM? What about all those lectures you like to give him about being consistent and taking careful steps?"

"It's not chaotic!" the rotund Irken protested immediately, a darker green tint briefly attacking his cheeks. Zim openly laughed. From somewhere within the room GIR laughed as well--he was still curled up on Dib's bed, unwilling to get up. "Go on, then." Zim sounded awfully smug. "Zim will humor you." Skoodge cleared his throat. "...I have the Armada heading for the nearest artificial Warp Drive." "Uh-huh." "We'll have all the ships go through except for the Massive. And then..." "Ahh..." Zim suddenly seemed more interested than before. "You want to send the Massive through, too." "...Yeah." "The sheer size of something as gloriously large as the Massive will brick the Warp Drive," he reminded his second-in-command. "It may become damaged beyond repair. Is it an important Warp Drive?" "I don't think so..." Skoodge mused. "It's pretty far out from everything else. I think we can manage it."

"Well, all right then." Zim glanced over his shoulder. "Dib-thing! Go with Skoodge and help hold down the fort in the Bridge, would you? Zim has to change. Take GIR with you." GIR sat up on the human's bed, instantly reaching toward Dib and asking to be carried.[/hr]

 

[Dip]

While the human wasn't even remotely awake when Tak's may-day transmission was sent out, he was subconsciously glad that he wasn't able to see Tak at her weakest and most vulnerable point. She was so strong, and so... competent. She was so prepared for someone who wasn't even an Invader! Seeing her beg for assistance would probably change his point of view on her, but anyone in dire need of assistance would look vulnerable to those comfortable.

Dib had never seen an alien so focused on a single mission. While Zim was always focused in his own way, he never really followed through with any of his plans. If something went wrong, he abandoned it instantly and sought out something knew. There were many plots to take over Earth that proved to be quite a good example, but Tak had one solid idea and went through with it before she was forcibly removed from the planet.

While she was a piece of space-scum that tricked both Zim and Dib, she was good at scumming about! She had an excellent disguise for both herself and her SIR unit, people skills that even the dumbest of humans (not that Dib was dumb or anything) could grasp, and she played her character quite well! She was a normal Skool girl, and Dib saw nothing wrong with her whatsoever. It was Zim who saw through her ploy first, and saw her for what she really was. If all honesty, Dib would have never guessed. He liked her! And she hated Zim!!

Tak watched as the decorated Irken Invader assured her someone would come to help. She turned her head wildly to the side, and her eyes grew as large as the moon she had previously destroyed. Her antennae stood straight up as she heard the sound of screams in a foreign tongue, and loud bangs about her door. She grabbed her monitor as if she could reach through her Command Station and shake the living daylights out of Skoodge herself.

"Head Advisor, it is of the utmost importance that the integrity of this mission is NOT compromised! I have selected three of the most intelligent Damograns to bring back to Irk as Scientists and Engineers to work on technologies that could further advance the colonization of the Galaxy. When The Massive storms the planet Damogran, I implore you, do not kill the Damogran Scientists! They are easy to spot, and they are the sole creators of the Improbability Drive aboard the--" She looked rapidly about her base for the sounds that seemed to bug only her, and soon she shifted her gaze upwards. "Oh my Irk, they're on the roof-- MiMi, ATTACK! MIMI!!"

The howling of the Invader was the last thing that was heard before the transmission was cut out.

The violent attack on the door had almost done nothing to rouse Dib from his sleep. He had told Zim that there would be no chance that he would fall asleep, but someone between when they stopped talking and the cricket's songs grew louder, he had made a little home against the glass window he had been leaning on. Dib really only woke up when he heard the Irken monarch spit and cuss his way to the door that had been previously destroyed.

The human rubbed his eyes, groping blindly for the glasses he had placed down the night before. As he did, Dib took extra precaution to move the sleeping Minimoose from his lap. Once he had found his oculars, he pushed them against his head and watched with rapt attention as the Head Advisor stated that there was an Emergency involving... "Invader Tak?"

Dib knitted his eyebrows together as he listened to how the Tallest handled the situation-- which he clearly didn't! Why did it seem that Zim didn't care? Dib looked about, and thought it would be best to dress himself quickly. He had luckily laid a pair of black pants out the day before, and he slipped them on as quickly as he could. He didn't bother changing his all-black Moth-Man hoodie. He slowly pushed himself up from the ground, and continued to watch as the two talked.

The Irken Invader versus an entire population? Dib could see why she needed backup. The humans were far too dim-witted to see that Tak was an alien, but... he was shocked to know how intelligent this strange race must be to see through Tak's plot.

It wasn't long before Dib was called to attention, and he followed as he was asked. He slipped his shoes on in record time, and grabbed whatever he thought was valuable within an arms length. He soon reached the same arm out to scoop up GIR, and he moved as quickly as he could out into the hall, following the rotund Irken as fast as his tired legs could carry.

Exactly what was happening? The human had no clue.

 

[Mira-Charma13]

GIR instantly latched onto Dib when the human snagged him, crawling to a comfortable spot on one of the Earth creature's shoulders. While he now rode happily on Dib's shoulders whenever he was picked up, unless the human opted to carry him like a newborn Earth baby (which he openly loved and wouldn't move an inch if he found himself in), the coveted seat on the human's head was a place the little SIR avoided. Apparently, that was an affectionate tactic reserved solely for Zim. GIR could often be seen perched high atop his master's smooth hairless head, standing taller than every other creature present as a result, and trying to control his movements through his antennae like he was some sort of massive mech suit.

Mind you, that sometimes did work. Irken antennae were infamous little things. The antennae were incredibly sensitive when it came to hearing, able to pick up even the tiniest vibrations in the air long before most other species. They were also physically sensitive--very physically sensitive. Any pain inflicted on them was excruciating, as Zim wordlessly revealed one day when GIR tugged a little too hard on one of them and in response he grabbed him and threw him across the room, but gentle touches were magnified exponentially. GIR was a distraction in every way to Zim whenever the two of them attended official meetings together because of this little fun fact. The tiny robot loved to pet his master's antennae. Doing so made him purr like a soft little kitty cat!

"We gonna go through a Warpy-Thingy?" he piped up as their trio trekked along, cheerful as ever. Skoodge kept up a brisk pace and didn't even glance backward. He didn't say anything until they were safely in the private elevator heading downward. "Yeah. We're going through the Warp Drive. Mm..." Those small magenta eyes, which were almost identical in color to Zim's, briefly flickered to the human's face. "I think you might know this already...but all Warp Drives have size restrictions. Artificial ones have more lax restrictions...but even so, there is only one Warp Drive in existence that can move something as big as the Massive and not destroy itself in the process--and that one's right outside of Irk. We'll be destroying the Warp Drive we enter and the one we exit from, too...so we'll be causing a lot of damage and destruction."

"Woo!" GIR pumped a fist in the air just as the ding from the elevator sounded and the doors opened. "I like me some destruction!" the happy robot continued as Skoodge hurried out into the hallway. Every Irken on the Massive seemed to be on high alert, running around at mach speed. Some of them were now clad in clothing that varied from the standard pink uniforms. Some sported protective suits of purple armor reserved for Elite Irkens. Others were in the middle of pulling an extra thick layer of armored clothing over themselves. Irken Slavers and Guards, who were all required to be five feet or taller in height and who often ate hearty diets high in protein to maintain a more muscular build, stood out the most in their armored regale.

It was...a bit disconcerting. Irkens truly were a proud warrior race--ready to defend themselves at any given point in time! It was nigh impossible to catch a truly vigilant Irken off-guard, let alone the unimaginably large number of Irkens traveling with the Armada!

"The entire Armada has to go through first because the Massive will inevitably break any Warp Drive it goes through," Skoodge elaborated, glancing back every once in a while to make sure he hadn't lost the human and his robotic charge. "This leaves the Massive at a huge disadvantage and vulnerable to attack. On its own it doesn't pose nearly as much of a threat as it does when it's surrounded by the Armada ships. It's slow and takes forever to turn. If we were to be attacked from behind...we'd be in a lot of trouble."

"Trouble?" GIR tilted his head to the side, suddenly looking sad and concerned.

"We do have a couple of hangars here on the Massive..." With Skoodge's brisk pace, they would be reaching the Bridge in no time. Even though he was one of the tiniest Irkens in the entire Empire he somehow managed to avoid being bumped into or trodden upon by his frenzied kinfolk running around. "They house emergency strike team ships. Battleships, like Viral Tanks, Ring Cutters, and Rippers. There are a few smaller ships to provide back-up. Shuvvers and Spittle Runners."

There was a split second pause. "The Tallest claims that you acquired a modified Spittle Runner in the past," the Head of the Council mentioned, curiosity saturating his voice. "Can you pilot one? Are you any good at it? Ah, better question...do you have a space suit yet? If you do..." His antennae bounced. "Maaaaaybe I can let you pilot one to help defend the Massive if anyone attacks us. All PIT members are permitted to join battles if need be, after all."

This was something Zim was vehemently against for the time being. He was strangely overprotective of the Earth creature. He insisted that any form of ship piloting had to wait until Dib had a PAK of his own. His intentions were good. Competent Irken technology, including Irken ships, tended to react...badly, to say the least, if a non-Irken tried to operate it without an Irken with proper certification present. Even Tak's highly modified Spittle Runner rejected Dib once Zim remotely activated the dormant Security Defense System contained within it.

What Zim failed to mention to Dib was that the SDS could be disabled easily. He just didn't want Dib in an Irken ship by himself in the first place without a PAK. He secretly believed that the human would make easy pickings for anyone who wanted to do him harm if he was by himself in a space ship. Skoodge, as he demonstrated during his many training sessions with Dib, was a hands-on sort of mentor. He was actually just as irritable as the human was about Zim's unusual smothering and overprotective behavior.

And if Dib wanted to, oh, sneak off and prove to the Tallest that he could do this thing on his own...well, Skoodge certainly wasn't going to stop him.

The chaos seemed amplified in the Bridge. The Navigators were desperately trying to get in contact with Tak again, but there was no response. They were beginning to fear the worst. Skoodge bustled through the room and clambered up onto the raised circular platform in the middle, which was usually reserved for the Tallest. He graciously offered the single tall chair to Dib--after all, he didn't want to get startled and fall from that ridiculous height again. He preferred to stand anyway.

"The Tallest should be here soon," he informed the other Irkens. While some of them looked relieved, others just seemed annoyed. Zim tended to panic when things went wrong and made rash and stupid decisions...but maybe with Skoodge here and the Earth creature, whom he cared very much about, around he would be able to think clearly.

Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on their part!

"How long until we reach the Warp Drive?" There was a noticeable pause in response time. These Irkens, so dead set in their ways, would likely never truly respect Skoodge. After some time a male Navigator broke rank to provide an answer. "A couple of minutes at the most." "Good." Skoodge did a fantastic job of pretending that the disrespect never happened at all. "The Tallest should arrive just in time."

 

[Dip]

Dib had heard all about Warp Drives from the Almighty Tallest the night before, so he was pretty much an expert on the topic by now. Why the Irken Empire didn't ensure the Drives to be completely fool-proof and safe for all kinds of spaceships, the Massive included, he had no idea. The Irkens were wealthy with resources, and were able to destroy anything they wanted. Free labor should be something completely new to them!

Dib looked to his shoulder when the Irken software whooped and hooted for total death and destruction. The human couldn't help but stutter as the SIR unit's words were emphasized by the masses of armor-clad Invaders, Pilots, Slavers, Guards, Elites, and so many more. It made the human feel very much like he was underdressed, and he didn't know how to fend off his embarassment. As much as he loved his Moth-Man hoodie, maybe it wasn't the most important thing to wear at the moment.

Keeping up with the smaller Irken was easier than it looked. All he had to do was make sure his strides were long, and he kept his gaze down. There was so much commotion going about, his attention flipped and flopped from one thing to another. Dib listened as closely as he could about the logistics of the mission, trying to understand exactly what Skoodge was up to, and how the human would be able to help at all.

The human seriously doubted the probability of someone ambushing the Massive, but the more he thought about it, the more it became a logical concern. The Massive was... well, Massive. And may spaceship could best it in speed, but the unguarded gargantuan going toe-to-toe with an alien foe? That was certainly something to be frightened about.

Dib listened as the other spoke about their arms aboard the Massive, and his nerves were settled once more. If need be, they would simply deploy their own armored Irkens into the vastness of space to fight for the glory of Irk. There seemed to be nothing to worry about! The human paid no mind to the SIR unit who voiced his own concern of trouble, simply because Dib had no fear of any trouble. The Massive was armed and ready, wasn't it? Slow as it was, it was ready to take on any foe.

The pause troubled him somewhat, until it was about his past. Dib perked up, confirming his abilities. "I can pilot! I can pilot real good!" While 'I can pilot real good' wasn't close to proper grammar whatsoever, Dib didn't care. The Irken had given him his space-suit just a week prior, and it fit like a glove. Quite literally! The space suit clung to the human's skin in all angles, but it seemed to serve a purpose. It was air tight and temperature change resistant, and a lot less bulkier than the ones on Earth,

Dib had tried his suit on only one other time, and when he did, it took him a little while to get out of it. Mostly because he looked so good in it, but also because it was a bitch to slip on and off. His space suit consists of a bubble-like air helmet, which can turn invisible, and a jet-pack for the ability to move in space. The space suit is dark blue in color and appears to be armored, with jutting soldier pads and an upstanding collar.

There were a few modifications, per request of the Tallest. While there usually was an open back for the PAK unit, it had been replaced with a simple covering of armor. His gloves were modified to fit the length of his fingers, and his boots were altered to fit someone with much larger feet. All of the modifications asside, he was still thankful that he was able to wear his trench-coat over it. He had done so in the mirror, but he never had the change to try it out in space...

Until now.

"I just got my space suit!" He added, as he beamed downward towards Skoodge. "I piloted Tak's old ship for years! I can manually over-ride one with just my laptop! I mean, I have done it to Zim before, you know." He recalled the rivalry fondly. "So, you're telling me that you want me to pilot, right? Is that what I'm hearing? Because that's what I think I'm hearing." Dib started.

"I think I heard you say, 'You can pilot a ship? You're good at it? I can let you pilot one to help defend the Massive if anyone attacks us!' " Dib's eyes were wide with excitement at this point. He moved his arms over his head to grasp at the SIR unit gently, placing him down on the floor as he began to jog backwards in the opposite direction. It seemed that the human had already made up his mind on the matter. "Skoodge, I'll see you in less than two minutes! I know exactly where the hangars are, I just need to grab my computer and my-my suit, duh, and just-- I'll be ready!" By this point, Dib was nearly half-way down the hall. "DID YOU HEAR ME WHEN I SAID I'D BE READY?! I SAID I'LL BE READY!! READY!!!" Dib turned around as fast as he could, and began to sprint down the hall in a very childish excitement.

While he was nervous about fighting some very strange armed creatures in the depths of space, he was entirely confident in his ability to pilot and manage a ship. It had been years since he had flown Tak's ship, but he knew he had the muscle memory. If all else failed, he could just connect his computer to the cockpit's main frame and hook up an X-Box control to his laptop. It'd be like Frogger, but far more deadly and with less logs to jump on.

Dib made it to the elevator in record time, and zipped his way back towards his room. He spent no time at all getting down the hall, and was like a lightning bolt when he raced into his room.

The Navigators worked as best as they could when it came to contacting the Irken Invader, but it seemed that the Damogran people had taken to the roof, and began dismantling every piece of Irken technology they could find. Tak had encoded the distress signal with her coordinates, and she knew that she was going to make it out of that planet alive or die trying.

 

[Mira-Charma13]

Skoodge and several other Irkens in the Bridge watched with reactions ranging from interest to amusement to rapt fascination as the human seemed to have a strange yet cheerful sort of meltdown and then raced out of the Bridge at mach speed, shouting as loudly as he could. There was silence for a while, with half of the Irkens still worriedly trying to make contact with Invader Tak and the other half sharing bemused glances.

"That is one strange pink thing we diverted our mighty Armada's course for," a male Irken with a deep voice commented from the second story catwalk. "It's very loud and easily excitable," a female chimed in from below, splitting her time between twisting knobs and pulling levers to voice her own opinion. "It mirrors our Almighty Tallest in many ways." "Can it really pilot one of our ships, though?" This male, with a higher-pitched voice, sounded skeptical at best. "It doesn't even have any formal training."

"I've got that taken care of already," Skoodge interrupted. As he tapped away on his work tablet GIR craned his neck to peek at what he was doing. GIR was just a slight bit shorter than Skoodge, after all. "Commander Jazz will watch over him if we need to send out the emergency strike teams. He knows full well that the Earth creature doesn't have any training...but he's still a member of the PIT. So I'm sure he'll keep a close eye on him. There's nothing to worry about!"

This didn't reassure any of the other Irkens, but for the time being they wisely chose to keep their mouths shut. Skoodge bustled about the Bridge as activity picked up, with a team of heavily-armored Irken Guards taking up their usual post outside of the Bridge. GIR chattered happily with whoever would listen. He seemed outwardly concerned when he found out that Tak was in trouble, but proudly declared that his master would swoop in to save the day!

And speaking of Zim...

He must have taken a different route to the Bridge than the one Dib took to rush back to his room. He wasn't visible, but his loud and screechy voice was certainly hard to miss from even a mile away.

"STOP FOLLOWING ZIM!"

"My Tallest, it is protocol to provide you with a heavily armed escort in times of potential crisis."

"Protocol, shmotocol! I am your Almighty Tallest and I am ordering you to get out of my face!"

"That goes against our very job description, sir. As members of the Royal Guard we are sworn to protect--"

"Blah-blah-blah, big deal! Now shoo!"

"With all due respect, my Tallest, we are the Royal Guard and will not leave your side during a time of potential crisis."

A sound of exasperation escaped Zim. "You imbeciles are like a bunch of idiot parrots."

"Uh...what's a parrot?"

"Zim said no such thing!"

"But you just said--"

"Lies! Blasphemous lies! Just shut up and keep your distance if you really want to protect Zim!"

"Um...yes, sir."

Zim's posture was tense and tight by the time he finally reached the Bridge of the Massive. He was hovering, which wasn't a good sign to begin with--it meant that he was so irritable that he didn't even want to deal with walking--and the look on his face suggested that he would very much like to murder someone with his bare hands right about now. He was trailed on all sides and from behind by a group of seven Irkens--six big, burly males and an equally powerful-looking, but marginally slimmer female. Their close proximity clearly made Zim uncomfortable, but once he reached the circular platform they spread out and stood at attention around the platform itself rather than crowding him and he instantly felt better.

"Hey," was Skoodge's simple greeting as the Tallest took his seat, grunting as he slumped back into his chair. "Sorry for waking you up. But it's an emergency." "Mm-hm." "Still sleepy, eh?" "Yep." "Why don't you just recharge?" the stout Irken inquired, sounding genuinely curious. "It's much easier than sleeping." "Felt like sleeping." "But it's a waste of time, isn't it?" "Zim doesn't have any work to do." "That's because I'm doing it for you. And I shouldn't be." A low chuckle escaped the Irken monarch.

GIR tottered over to his master and was in the process of scaling his royal regale when Zim noticed a rather important creature was not present. His head swiveled about as GIR plopped down in his lap, comfortable as could be. "Where is the Dib-human?" He sounded immediately suspicious. "And why is GIR not with him?" Skoodge grinned. "He'll be back soon. Your SIR doesn't need to watch him all the time, my Tallest. He'll never learn to be independent if you keep him on a leash." Zim shrugged his shoulders, a bitter expression creeping its way onto his face.

"Well, hopefully he will return soon." The Warp Drive was just barely visible in the distance. It was surrounded by a stagnant grouping of space rocks, which indicated it wasn't used very often. "Zim would like him to see this." "Approaching Warp Drive," the Head Navigator announced. "Shall I send the first wave of ships through?" Silence. "...My Tallest...?" "...What?" Apparently, Zim had forgotten that now that he was present the other Irkens wouldn't take orders from Skoodge any longer. He wasn't completely awake yet! "Oh. Yeah. Sure, whatever. Send smaller ships first with two larger ships in tow. Make it groups of fifty and pause in-between, or we run the risk of destroying the gate with too much traffic at once." "Understood, sir."

The first wave of Irken ships, consisting of forty-eight smaller Shuuvers and Spittle Runners and two huge Viral Tanks, made its way clean through the Warp Drive. The ships moved at a rapid pace. The quicker they got this done, the less of a chance there was of an attack.

Little did anyone but the Irken Resistance members know that the Armada was being followed and knew exactly what the Massive was up to. They lay in wait, eagerly anticipating the exact moment when the Massive would be completely alone.

 

[Dip]

Dib paid no mind to the comments of others-- to tell the truth, he was running far too fast for him to hear anything! The only thing he knew was that he was just assigned a mission, and his mission was to protect the Massive and finally pilot an Irken ship after such a long time! Dib wished that he had never dismantled Tak's ship, but he managed to learn his way around it rather well for someone who knew very little about the Irken software.

While he was never formally trained, his self-taught knowledge had helped him in a long run. Necessity was the mother of invention, and at one point or another, Dib needed to make some modifications here and there. He was sure that a few minor modifications to the machine he would meet would mean nothing, and would only prove to help him in the long run! If he was going to do some modifications, he would need to bring his backpack, with a few tools in tow...

He made a mental list of all the items that he knew he would need. His laptop was a necessity, and that was something he knew he absolutely needed! A backpack with a few wrenches, maybe a few flash drives... If he was lucky, he might still have a few old programs on his computer that he made specifically for Tak's ship. While Dib had gone off on a tangent a few years ago, and turned his back on space and everything Irken, he never bothered to delete anything from his laptop. His personal computer, he wiped clean, but his laptop was free game!

He had old home-movies that he made at the tender age of 11, old battle plans for fighting off a hoard of Bigfeet, and of course, almost all of his old blueprints and software! He would have to do some serious digging to look for it, but he knew it was there somewhere. Within the thousands of files that he had on hand, he knew that he had stored his Alien memorabilia somewhere!

Dib flew through the door into his room as fast as a bolt of lightening, and managed to trip himself into the room. He fell flat on his face, but that did nothing to stop him. He sprung up, jumping straight into action. He raced to his closet, and found his spacesuit. It was pressed and clean, and it was beautiful. Dib grabbed the garb from the hanger, pulling it from the closet. He raced to his bathroom, and stripped as fast as he possibly could.

The human hung up his suit near the door, and looked over his half-naked frame in the foreign mirror. He looked over his tired being and decided that brushing his teeth was first and foremost. He wanted to take the time to actually wash himself, but he didn't think he stunk all that bad! An extra layer of deodorant would go miles, so he settled on smearing antiperspirant over his armpits and across his chest with his left hand as he brushed wildly at his teeth with his right. Once his deodorizing was finished, he worked on fixing his hair that seemed to suffer terribly from bedhead.

He swished the cleansing jell back and forth in his mouth before he spat it down the sink, wiping his mouth of any foam. He turned towards the space suit and smirked as he grabbed it from the hanger. He went to town on dressing himself, doing so quickly and efficiently. He was pressed for time, and he needed to make it to both the Bridge and the Hangar! It wasn't long at all before the human finally managed to slip on every single aspect of his space-suit, and he spent a good minuet and a half inspecting himself in the mirror.

Dib did this, until he realized that he still had a lot that he needed to do. He pushed his way through the door, and grabbed his backpack and began to fill the bag with anything he would need. This included extra cables, a few jump-drives, external hard-drives, miscellaneous tools and other things he found important and useful. Dib didn't bother pushing his laptop into the bag, because he opened it up instantly and went to work on finding anything he could on Tak's ship.

"Computer! Find 'Blueprints'."

His computer, unlike Zim's couldn't respond, but still did as it was asked. The computer searched, and as it did, Dib added teh finishing touches to his space suit. This included his translation device, his gloves, and the pièce de résistance, his trench coat. The computer loaded over three hundred examples of any 'blueprints' that Dib had saved, and the human spoke again.

"Keep 'Blueprints', but widen the search. Find 'Irken'."

This resulted in a screen that simply read ERROR.

"Find 'Alien'."

ERROR.

"Find 'Paranormal'?"

ERROR.

"What? Seriously? Ugh... I dunno-- Uhm, 'Little Green Men from Outer-Space'?"

The computer began to load everything it could find, and Dib smiled a wide and toothy grin. He tossed the backpack over his shoulder and scooped his laptop into his arm. He mentally double-checked that he had everything, and decided to bring his phone along just incase. Incase of what? Dib had no idea, but it was best to always come prepared!

Dib whizzed out of the room almost as fast as he came in-- almost. He had important technology with him, and the last thing he needed was to trip and fall on his most important piece of equipment! Dib typed frantically with one hand, his eyes tripping and tumbling over old images and poorly translations of the Irken language. He shoved inside an elevator, and sped up to the bridge as quickly as he possibly could, making sure to pass each and every floor quickly and efficiently.

He stepped out, and slowed his gaut as he neared the bridge. He felt like he fit in a little more, now that he was properly dressed for any occasion. He saw a few others just out of the corner of his eye as he strolled the halls, and those rare couple of people looked very much like he did at that time: dressed their best, ready to serve, and that was exactly what Dib planned to do!

Dib could imagine the look on Zim's face when he saw Dib, and he hoped that the Irken would share his enthusiasm and his excitement. Something inside the human told him that Zim wouldn't like it one but, but... well, he would have to deal with that himself. Dib finished up his typing, and closed his laptop as he walked inside of the Bridge. He tucked his laptop under his arm, and he smiled as he caught the eye of the Tallest. He spread out his arms away from himself, to let the alien get a good look.

"Eh? Ehh?? What do you think? Pretty snappy, huh?" Dib pushed his arms near himself again. "I don't think I look half bad!"

 

[Mira-Charma13]

Zim wasn't expecting to hear Dib's voice. When it rang out through the Bridge he jumped, somewhat startled, and quickly turned around. And then...silence. He stared profusely at the human, clad in his shiny new custom-built space suit, with antennae raised straight up into the air and eyes as wide as those ridiculous 'flying saucer' spacecrafts that featured on an episode of that X-files Earth program that the Dib seemed to like so much. GIR was quick to chime in with a cheerful giggle. "You look nice! Is it fireproof?" He paused before a manic grin stretched across his face. "Wanna find out? That would be fun!"

"No. No, it wouldn't." Skoodge spoke gently even though he was chastising GIR. It was never a good idea to be unpleasant to that little SIR, after all--Zim would instantly lash out at anyone who dared to scream at GIR. "Fire's bad." "Ohhhhh." GIR blinked, apparently surprised by this bit of information.

Zim's magenta gaze took in every detail of the human's space suit. Sure, he'd seen it before...but somehow it seemed vastly different now that it was actually on the Earth creature's body. It was definitely form-fitting and he had to give it to the Scientists, Engineers, and Stylists who worked on it--it fit him perfectly. They covered the open spot where a PAK would normally jut out of the suit with reinforced armor, but that could be easily removed once the Dib received a PAK of his own. Just as GIR suspected, it was fireproof...and bulletproof, to an extent. It would certainly protect the squishy pink creature from pretty much anything that wanted to harm him, and that was reassuring. But the Tallest suspected that the Dib had other intentions lurking beneath the inherent desire to protect himself from harm.

"Why are you wearing that?" He sounded terribly suspicious.

"Oh, I asked him to grab it." Skoodge answered for Dib, hoping that if he made his involvement in the matter clear that his leader wouldn't take out all of his frustrations on the human.

"Why?" More suspicion.

"Because, you know..." Skoodge's antennae wiggled playfully. "We might get attacked. And it'll help protect him. And also, aren't all members of the Planetary Investigation Team required to suit up just in case we're attacked? They serve as an emergency strike team, after all."

With his suspicions confirmed in an instant Zim bristled with anger and dropped his mouth open, preparing to unleash a verbal lashing the likes of which the Dib had never even imagined. Before he could manage a single screechy and furious word of protest, however, things took a turn for the worse.

"The last fifty ships have made it through the Warp Drive!" a female Navigator called out, watching as the Drive (which morphed from a single color, green in this case, to a literal rainbow of colors when it was in use) reverted back to its original deep green color. "We should prepare to turn the Massive." Wary of being attacked the Pilots had the Massive situated on a sideways angle, so they had a good view of the Warp Drive and what would be behind them when they started to turn.

"No."

Several Irkens, including Zim, glanced at Skoodge when he spoke. The diminutive Irken was standing as tall as he possibly could, squinting through the windshield. No one said a word for what seemed like an eternity. Skoodge raised an arm and pointed at a field of stagnant gray asteroids in the distance. "Zoom in on that a few times, would you? I want to make absolutely sure of something."

The Irkens did as asked, zooming in a certain distance and then zooming in again and again. At the third zoom, a thick wave of tension blanketed the room. Because Skoodge wasn't just seeing things. Sensing that their cover was blown, one of the 'asteroids' suddenly lit up with brilliant sky blue lighting and came charging out of the field. It wasn't an asteroid at all, but a large gray ship (not nearly as big as the Massive) with blue lighting. It was looked almost like a horseshoe, but with straight edges and lines rather than curves. Several of the smaller 'asteroids' revealed themselves to be ships as well, though on a much smaller scale. There were five ships in total including the big ship, all with varying shapes, sizes, and colors. None of them were Irken. All of them were making a rapid beeline for the Massive.

Chaos erupted in the Bridge. "That's a Vort Ship!" "It's the Resisty! They've been following us!" "The Massive is alone! We don't have the Armada!" "What are we going to do now?! Can our emergency strike teams really fend them off alone?"

Skoodge's experience in the military and his eagle eye paid off again! Zim's attention was instantly torn from the human and his snazzy new space suit as he whipped his head around, staring with wide eyes at the approaching freedom fighters. It took him a few seconds, while his subordinates panicked in the background.

"Computer!" he blurted out, standing taller than he had before. "Sound the alarm and call the Irken people to battle! The Massive is under attack!" At once a shrill alarm pierced the air, occasionally accompanied by an "Strike teams, prepare for battle!", "The Massive is under attack! Defend your Almighty Tallest!", and "Strike teams to battle stations!" "Turn the Massive immediately!" Zim shouted--his orders were immediately followed as the gigantic ship tried its best to turn quickly, groaning and lurching with the effort. "Prepare for battle!" Skoodge quickly waved the human off, looking dead serious. If the human really wanted to prove his worth to these people...now was certainly the time to do it! Zim was far too distracted now to stop him.

---

---

"Now, remember what I've told you all!"

This heavily accented voice rang out through the lead ship of the Resisty. Several creatures, none Irken and none human, turned to face the owner of the voice. Though he had grown considerably over the past few years he was still relatively small, standing at a mere five feet, three inches in height. He was definitely Vortian, with slate gray skin and small yellowish-green eyes and thick goat-like appendages poking out from the top of his head. He was seated in a chair on the second tier of the Vort ship's bridge.

"Our goal is not to kill anyone if we don't have to." He spoke with the unwavering confidence of a leader. "We have intel that leads us to believe that there is a very important creature aboard the Massive now. One that is rather close to the Almighty Tallest. This is a creature we cannot afford to harm under any circumstances, for he could be our ticket to earning the trust of the Tallest."

"How are we gonna know what it looks like, Captain?" The ever-cheerful pyramid-shaped creature, which stood dutifully by the Vortian's side, sounded excited about this whole prospect. After all, if they could win over the Tallest...maybe they wouldn't have to fight the Irkens anymore. And they could all take a nice siesta for once instead of working.

"It's tall and pink with a head full of black fur, Shloonk" the Captain replied simply. "That's all I know about it. So be on the lookout for such a creature. I'd like to get a good look at it if I can. This reclusive Tallest doesn't seem to like anyone...so why is he so fond of this alien creature? Irkens are normally xenophobic scum."

"Lard Nar?" A tall blue-skinned creature from the crowd chimed in. "Our mission? What is it?"

"Oh. Right, yes." The Vortian had the decency to look abashed by how easily he managed to get distracted. "Our first priority is rescuing prisoners of war. We have a list provided to us by the IR members within the Armada, with names, ranks, locations, and pictures. Any other apparent prisoners of war are to be left alone, for they play important rules in the IR and cannot afford to be rescued at this point in time."

"Okey-dokey! What's next?"

"A food raid."

"On the Massive?" The blue-skinned creature sounded aghast. "But we'd have to go in. Won't that be dangerous?"

"We have no choice, Frost," Lard Nar explained as gently as he could. He had one eye on his teammates and the other on the windshield, watching as the Massive struggled to turn to face their attackers. "We're low on food. And we're far out from any planet that supports life. We won't be able to use this Warp Drive after the Massive goes through--as you know, it is so massive that it destroys any Warp Drive it fast travels though. We won't get another chance to confront the Massive like this for some time."[/hr]

 

[Dip]

Dib felt all the more confident in his appearance as the other looked him over closely. He stood proud, letting the other take in all of the glory that was Dib Membrane! "Thank you, GIR! I do look nice, don't I? The color looks great on me." All he needed to survive was food, water, and people to feed his massive ego. He wanted to show off to everyone how great he looked, and how professional he seemed to be. Dib his laptop into his coat, and took a few short steps towards the two Irkens. Well, he did, before he was assaulted quickly by a rather suspicious Irken.

"Well, I-" He tried before Skoodge answered for him. He was thankful that the other managed to answer on the human's behalf because he would have hated to throw him under the bus. He continued taking his steps and hovered nearby as he changed his gaze from the Irkens in front of him to the beauty of space.

Dib only turned back once and winced when he saw Zim physically prepare himself for a verbal confrontation. Why? Shouldn't Zim be happy that he's all bundled up and ready to defend? Shouldn't he be happy that he was basically invincible? The human couldn't understand why he was so upset about him being ready to defend. Shouldn't he be happy for him? He was gonna go out and do stuff! Do stuff for the Massive, and the Irken race! This should be plenty to prove to them, shouldn't it?

Then why was Zim trying to take it away?

Dib turned from the Irken to the stiff-collard Navigator and watched as the Drive displayed a plethora of colors and hues. It was beautiful. He turned to view it better, his eyes dancing from one side of the spectrum to the other, until it settled back to the green color it must have previously been. The human only turned away for a second, and that was then the other Irken spoke.

Dib watched as they zoomed in, and Dib copied Skoodge's action of squinting. He mumbled under his breath that there was absolutely nothing there, or perhaps it was just an asteroid or a comet, or something of that space-like nature. At least, it seemed like that, until they erupted into a brilliant blue light and exposed themselves as ships that were very much un-Irken. Dib took a step back and looked around at all of the commotion that took place instantly.

The human watched with rapt amazement as the Head of Council and the Almighty Tallest began shooting orders, and he craned his head towards the ceiling once he heard the call to battle. That meant... him, right? The human only hesitated for a moment, but his thoughts were confirmed when he saw Skoodge give the command to jump to action. Dib nodded and turned on his heels. He left the Bridge as fast as humanly possible as he, much like the Vort ships, b-lined to the Hangars.

Dib grabbed his laptop from his coat and held it in his hands. He would connect his computer to the ship as soon as he got there, and work to make sure his programs still complied with the Irken software inside the ships. Dib raced to the end of the hall and pressed the 'elevator' button rapidly. He knew exactly where to go, and he knew exactly how to get there, but he needed an elevator to do so.

The human waited about ten seconds before he heard something very familiar... it sounded like PAK legs on the floor, clittering and clattering as fast as possible. He turned behind him, and saw a rather small Irken clambering towards him, with his eyes squinting and his fists balled. The Irken was wearing a space suit that was almost identical to the other but donned a spot for his PAK instead of

"Human-Creature! Are you dumb, or are you stupid? Did you not hear the call for Strike Teams? What do you think you are doing!" The creature crossed his arms over his chest, looking the human dead in the eye. If it wasn't for the other's PAK legs giving him a height boost of over four feet, the brown-eyed Irken would hardly reach his hips!

"I did, thanks for asking. I was there when they made the announcement!" Dib sneered back. "I have to go to the Hangars, and this is the fastest way possible. Skoodge--"

"Fastest way possible? The elevators will take far too long! The battle will be over by the time you make it to the correct floor. Ceedid will show you a shorter way to the Hangars." The Irken took it upon himself to grab Dib by the scruff of his trench coat, and drag him down the hall to the left, his TAK legs working overtime to move at a speedy pace.

Dib grabbed the other's gloved hand and ripped it off. He adjusted his collar with one hand as he ensured his laptop had not been damaged whatsoever. "You can lead me, but touch me again and I'll--"

"You'll what?" Ceedid laughed. "Hit me with your fleshy-pink-smelly-meat-clubs? I highly doubt it, Human-Face!"

Dib shivered as he ran down the hall. "Okay, there's all kinds of things wrong with the phrase 'smelly-meat-clubs'. And 'Human-Face?' You need to get more creative with your insults." Dib kept a fast pace as he raced down halls and through small rooms. Ceedid was right, it was a much faster way. The two pushed through a set of tall revolving doors and entered a rather large industrial room.

It seemed that the two managed to beat a good chunk of the other Strike teams, who seemed to take differing routes to the Hangars. Dib watched a few select Irkens board their own ships, and he saw as Ceedid quickly clambered onto a ship of his own, making himself comfortable in the seat of the cockpit. "Wait!" Dib moved towards the smaller Irken urgently. "Do I just... pick one?" Ceedid turned to his and squinted one eye as if he couldn't understand why someone could be that stupid.

"No, you have one assigned to do. Have you never Piloted a ship before?"

"I have so!" Dib returned. "Just... not recently. Not on the Massive, at all. But I have! And I'm pretty good at it!"

Ced groaned, and pushed himself from the seat. He scanned the Hangar quickly, looking about as fast as possible. "Every member of the Planetary Investigation Team is assigned their own Spittle Runner. You know it is yours because it has this: YOUR. NAME. WRITTEN. ON. IT." Ceedid pointed a short arm out, motioning to a Runner on the other side of the Hangar. "That one is the Humans. See? D-I-B. You have to get better at reading the Irken language, you idiotic simian." Ceedid fell down into his seat and prepped for take-off.

While that was helpful to the human, he didn't take too kindly to being called an 'idiotic simian'. He was impressed that the Irken knew what a simian was! Dib opened his laptop as he walked quickly to the Runner. He took a minute to inspect the machine, old memories flooding his thoughts as he looked over the very similar designs and colors. While it was nothing like Tak's Spittle Runner, it was still one at heart.

The glass windshield was raised up to expose a clean and comfortable cockpit. Dib took off his backpack and threw it onto the seat, opening it wildly and pulling cables and cords from its depths. He connected four cables into his laptop and waited to connect anything to the Runner. "Computer, prepare for a manual take over! Run a memory-recovery test before I connect to the ship." He knew this would be a gamble on whether or not the Runner would accept the foreign software, or even if it would prove sufficient in overriding the Irken technologies! He had the utmost faith that nothing would go wrong, but you could only be so faithful.

Dib crawled into the cockpit, pushing his bag onto the ground, and inspected the control panel as his computer ran tests on recovery and processing. Dib ran his gloved fingers over the buttons and knobs, trying his best to recall exactly what each and every one did. Dib quickly grabbed a screwdriver from his backpack and went to work on taking off the main frame. He worked quickly and diligently, knowing that his screwdriver didn't exactly fit the correct shape of the Vortian screws.

Dib would have originally connected each of the cables into the side of the ship, seeing as there was a manual panel that could be lifted with ease, but that would house a problem when it came to the actually flying and piloting within space. Dib valued his life, and would rather not have it be jeopardized. The human tucked the four large screws into his pocket and lifted the frame onto his lap. There was an opening at the top of the board that would have been used as a vent to pump oxygen into the ship, but Dib used it more as a way to feed the cables into the inner-workings of the Runner.

He connected the cables where he had remembered most clearly, and turned back to his computer as he pushed the mainframe back into place. He pulled the screws from his pocket as he spoke. "Computer, open connection drives 3, 2, and 4. Initiate Standby Mode." Dib screwed in the hardware as he watched his screen closely, seeing three progress bars fill the screen and almost instantly turn to the phrase 'CLEAR'.

He shoved the screwdriver into his bag and tucked it deep before his seat. "Open connection drive 1," Dib said to his computer. He looked about for only a moment, seeing the others initiating take-off. Dib turned to his computer and felt a happy anxiety rise through his being. "Computer, complete connections and boot up the ship!"

The Spittle Runner roared to life, and Dib nearly squealed. This was easier than he thought!

---

The Resisty members listened carefully to what their Vortian leader had to say on the matter of attacking and invading-- well, the hood-clad members listened intently under their cover, while a multi-limbed creature bit absentmindedly at his many fingernails.

While both alien beings agreed that it was a good idea to not kill anyone if they didn't have to, one simply didn't like the idea of being anywhere near the massive whatsoever. The four-armed alien recalled what had happened the last time they got in a tangle with the Massive, and it wasn't all that pretty. Prisoners of war, both Ixane and Spleenk agreed, were also good ideas. They would have an easy enough time finding the POWs and bringing them along, but locating the new pink creature would be a bit more challenging.

There happened to be a lot of pink creatures in space! What exactly did it look like? What did it sound like? Did it smell? Who knew for sure! All the aliens knew what that if someone hurt a single blade of fur on that pink-thing's head, there would be hell to pay.

Their mission seemed straight forward. Rescue prisoners, sure, and possibly try to make it out without killing a single person. But a food raid? This would take some serious working out.

Ixane didn't like the idea of boarding the Massive one bit, but she knew she had no choice in the matter. If she had her way, she would simply offer to fight them from a distance then come face-to-face with the enemy when they least suspected it. But, that would never work, and she knew it to be true. She wanted to voice the question of how they would ever come to collect food, but it seemed that someone already raised that question.

"What if... instead of boarding the Massive, we just hold out until some of us die, and we... eat each other?" Spleenk asked.

"Absolutely not." Ixane shot at the ridiculous alien. The other hooded figures nodded and chirped in agreement. Cannibalism and eating creatures of any kind would not be tolerated among the Resisty, no matter how delicious anyone looked.

"How are we gonna get the food then?!" Spleenk screeched. "I don't want to go on the Massive. I don't wanna! They'll kill us! AND IT'LL HURT. What will we do on there, anyway? Just walk right on into the food court, grab all the food, and run? Or are we just gonna walk in there and ask for the food?" The four-armed alien crossed his arms over his body as if to rest his case. He did stop to pause, and thought for a moment. He turned to Lard Nar.

"...Hey. Great idea. Hear me out. Why don't we just... ask them for food? I mean, the worst they can say is no, right?"

 

[Mira-Charma13]

"Consuming the meat of other intelligent beings is out of the question." There wasn't so much as a hint of hesitation in Lard Nar's calm and collected voice. "That was one of the cardinal rules you agreed to when you decided to join this group, Spleenk, and I expect you and everyone else to abide by it." Ruling as leader over such a mixed bag of species could often prove difficult. It was a meshing of cultures and customs, and the clashes that resulted from their numerous differences were oftentimes violent and unsavory.

Lard Nar was the one who founded this group several Earth years ago. Before doing so he drafted a list of important rules that each and every member would have to swear up and down, on their lives, to follow no matter what happened. These rules included, but weren't limited to 'Scientific facts must always be put before religious beliefs,' 'Never leave a soldier behind,' and 'Don't kill anyone unless doing so is absolutely unavoidable.'

The Captain's words started a murmur among the crowd as the Resisty members, who varied in shape, size, colors, genders, and species, debated amongst themselves on what would be the best course of action to take. Several members wanted to storm the Massive in a hail of gunfire, which wouldn't work. The Irkens outnumbered them nearly a hundred to one and were far better versed in the art of combat. Others wanted to take control of the Warp Drive and bargain with the Massive over several days until they willingly surrendered the food. That wouldn't work, either. If the Massive took too long making its way through the drive, the rest of the Armada would surely come back through looking for it.

Other members openly laughed at Spleenk's bright idea. Frost folded his arms behind his back, looking doubtful but mildly intrigued. The pyramid-shaped creature gasped. "I never even thought of that! Why didn't we think of that before?" "Because it's unlikely to work," Frost explained as gently as he could. "Unless...I mean...you're going to use the 'old friends' bargaining chip."

He met the Captain's gaze as evenly as he could. "Captain, you used to work alongside the current Tallest, right?" A dull murmuring broke out in the crowd as Lard Nar shifted in his seat, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "I did," he confirmed in a tight voice. "He cost me my position as a top Scientist back home when his experiment consumed mine. He was responsible for the dissolution of the peace treaty between Irk and Vort, as well as the death of the then-Almighty Tallest--Miyuki. We are not friends. ...But..."

"But?" Shloonk pressed, waiting expectantly for the answer.

"...But..." He seemed the slightest bit uncomfortable. "I could try to ask him," the Vortian relented quietly. "I can't make any guarantees. The prisoners of war he will not surrender willingly--I already know how that conversation would go. But the food...that may be a different manner. And we could use it as a distraction."

"A distraction?" The blue-skinned Cantabile blinked, looking intrigued.

"Yes, a distraction." The Captain leaned forward in his chair. "While I'm asking about the food, we can send our smaller ships straight to the Massive to extract the prisoners. The IR members should have them in the right position by now--in a room close to the Hangars. Our smaller ships should move forward as quickly as they possibly can and try to land in the open Hangars. We can grab the prisoners and send them back on two of our satellite ships and the other two ships can hold their positions and wait to see if the food bargaining goes over well."

"The Tallest gets easily distracted," Shloonk piped up. "I should know, haha! 'Cause I'm the same way and all, y'know. He won't even be thinking about our saddle-ships--" "Satellite." "--if you give him a call!"

"Right." The Vortian nodded sagely. "Let's do that, then." He tapped a button on the side of his chair. "Satellite ships, head straight for the Massive's open Hangars! Evacuate the prisoners of war stashed in the location provided for us! Two ships will return with the prisoners and two ships will stand by and await further instructions!" The ships moved in time with the orders of their Captain, zigzagging preemptively even though there were no Irken ships in sight.

"And now...to hail the Massive and bargain with the Almighty Tallest..." Lard Nar paused before glancing around the room fervently, his eyes wider than normal. "Everyone get into position! Look imposing, but not threatening! We don't want to spook the Tallest into attacking us with full force." Several members chortled but did as asked. They struggled to look like a force that was actually threatening most of the time, especially when they dealt with the ever-imposing Irkens. Lard Nar was unbelievably self-conscious about being taken seriously by the enemy!

---

---

"Zim is going to skin you later, Skoodge."

"What?"

"Perhaps he will fashion a lovely tapestry from your hide and suspend it from a wall in his private quarters."

"That's, uh...that's disturbing."

"It is."

"And why are you going to make a tapestry out of me, now?"

"Because." Zim gritted his teeth while he talked, refusing to turn and face Skoodge--all of his attention was focused on the approaching Resisty. "Because why?" Skoodge stood several feet away, his arms folded across his chest and his attention split between the enemy forces and his leader's peculiar outburst. "Because..." Zim growled under his breath. "Because you put the Dib in danger!"

"Oh, yeah, right." Skoodge's antennae twitched irritably. "You've been treating that Earth creature like a delicate smeet for ages, now. It's nice that you care so much, but you're smothering him." "I am doing no such thing!" "Well, he's not gonna admit it to your face, you know." "Silence!" "You've gotta let him take risks, my Tallest, or he'll resent you for years to come."

Zim grunted and dropped the subject, his antennae drooping and his focus on the situation at hand waning dangerously. It wasn't until a beeping sound echoed through the Bridge that the Irken monarch stood at attention again. "They're hailing us," one of the Navigators revealed in a low and unsettling voice. "What should we do?" "They're attacking us," Skoodge retorted hotly. "We decline!" "Ehh..." Zim shrugged his shoulders. "Answer it." "But..." A defeated sigh escaped the Head of the Council.

In an instant the two distinctly different bridges were connected. The Captain and the Tallest, as well as the Irkens and the Resisty members, had a silent stare-down for several grueling seconds before Lard Nar broke rank and spoke up.

"Hello, Tallest Zim."

Several Irkens, including Skoodge, hissed with anger. It was outright disrespectful to refer to the Almighty Tallest by his or her name. Zim didn't seem all that bothered, though, as he gazed at the Resisty Captain with half-lidded magenta eyes. "Captain Lard Nar," he replied as simply as he could. "What is it you want from Zim? In case you haven't noticed, I am a very busy Tallest and have important Tallest things to attend to. So make it quick."

"Well..." The Vortian sat back in his chair. Even when surrounded by his closest allies he still felt uneasy in the virtual presence of the most powerful creature in the Known Universe. "We don't want to fight you," he explained as calmly as he could. Zim smirked. "Because you fear that Zim will crush you like vermin underneath his mighty Irken boot?" "No." There was no hesitation in that response. "Because it's pointless. The Massive is slow and unwieldy, but powerful and full of highly-decorated warriors. We are faster and more agile, but not nearly as well-versed in the art of battle. We are evenly matched without your Armada present."

"Uh-huh." Zim's tone of voice suggested that he very much doubted that. "Your word vomit displeases Zim. Get to the point or I'll blow you up!" "Very well." Impatient, wasn't he? Some things never changed. "We were wondering..." A pleasant little smile alighted on his face, "...if you would be so kind as to share some food with us. We're out of food, you see. We're very hungry. Please?"

"Whoa. Hold up." Skoodge held his little hands up in the air, looking incredulous. "Food? This is about food?"

"Yes."

"But that's...just stupid."

"That's a matter of opinion, Head of the Council."

"And you think it's perfectly okay..." Skoodge had to pause to catch his breath. "You think it's fine and dandy to corner us when we're alone and then just...ask nicely for food?"

"Yes."

"You're mental."

"Again, that is a matter of opinion."

Zim said nothing while Skoodge and Lard Nar went back and forth. The two of them never did like each other and always argued viciously whenever they encountered one another. Zim worked with this particular Vortian a long time ago. Intelligent fellow--a prodigy that started inventing impressive things before he could even talk! He was always stiff and proper, and not much of a talker either. It was pretty gutsy of him to corner the Massive like this and then just sweetly ask for some leftover foodstuffs--Zim had to give him that! But was it impressive enough to warrant giving away some choice snack items...?

...Maybe he would wait to see how those satellite ships reacted to the strike teams. If they tried to take the ships down in a lethal manner, rather than disabling an engine or something similar, then maybe he would disregard the request entirely and blow them up after all.[/hr]

 

[Dip]

The human, while he knew time was of the essence, hesitated to look over his handiwork. He inspected each detail, each cord position, and each major progress point on his laptop to make sure everything was done and done double. It was easy to hack himself into the ship. In fact... it was almost too easy. Dib watched as one of the ships slowly hovered a few feet from the air, and he followed the steps closely.

Well, he did take some liberties to these steps, he had to admit.

For one thing, he didn't understand why all of the Spittle Runners weren't performing the most important half of their names: Running. They were more like Spittle Leasurely-Meanders! They moved slowly and deliberately, like they were hesitant to battle. He lifted off of the ground almost as soon as he started his ship, and he pushed gently on the controls, gaining speed as he exited the mouth of the Hangar.

The human pilot left a little faster than the rest of the other Irkens, actually. He left so fast he cut about three off! It didn't hot Dib until he left that.... maybe someone was giving orders to the Irkens. Well, that made more sense. Dib turned his gaze from the window before him to his laptop, that displayed a blueprint of the Spittle Runner. "Computer... Enable Radio Transmission?"

ERROR.

"Error? Why??" Dib asked. "I hooked everything up right, didn't I? Well, duh, I did. If I didn't, I wouldn't be flying! Hmm... Did I disable satellite signaling? Wait..." Dib looked about the empty space as he pushed forward. "We're nowhere near any satellites, huh? Well, that explains why... Huh. Computer, Enable Spittle Runner Communications System."

The computer hummed and booted up a program that seemed to be entirely in Irken. Dib read quickly as he piloted, his eyes moving from screen to windshield, to screen again. It was basically... a sign-up page, with technical information on communications via 'Space, the Universe, and Everything'. While it was hard to pilot and translate at the same time, he managed to do so."The Irk-Irken... Pilot installs his or her....own personal... Com-Com...puter? Computer! Computer system once the Irken...Spit-tle Run-ner initiates....the start-up boost...?" Dib read softly, mumbling as he read aloud.

"Huh-- Ooh. OOOH! Wait, so, let me get this straight... I can't enable any communication systems, because... Hah! Because I never really started the ship! Duh, Membrane, you genius, you!" Dib started the Spittle Runner by hacking into it's mainframe, and piloting forcibly. The Runner's computer system was Dib's computer system! It wasn't long before a small group of Spittle Runners appeared over the horizon, and they all looked to be... watching. It looked much like a Mexican stand-off at that point, with the Runners... almost awaiting any signal to fight.

Dib stopped his Runner, hovering softly as he did. He watched closely, unsure if it was a smart idea to push through the crowd and fight himself, or wait for the others to go first. Dib took this time to look over the controls, and he turned to his screen. He looked back at the windshield, studying the beginnings of the battle as closely as possible. "Computer, pull up the Weapons Catalogue."

The computer buffered for only a moment before a list of weapons were pulled up in the Irken language that he learned to hate. "Computer, translate to English." He sighed. The computer loaded slowly, but one by one, strangely-named weapons appeared on the screen before him. He looked them over quickly, ooh-ing and awh-ing as he looked over the strange names of each one. He knew a couple that he was bound to use when the time came.

Dib watched as shuttles passed him as he halted away from the cluster. He felt like... waiting back was somehow a good idea. He looked back to his computer screen and compiled a small list of weapons he wanted to try.

---

The three-headed alien knew three-fold just how important his task was. All three of him knew how important it was, and not a single one of himselves wanted to mess this up for the Resisty! Kloopian awaited his instructions for departure, and was assured that this plan would go off without a hitch. Kloopian was briefed with the details of the mission only once, but he remembered it as well as anyone with three heads could.

The alien's beefy fingers gripped the steering wheel of the small Vortian cruiser, and watched. He was currently hiding behind the Resisty's ship with his second partner, while two other sattlite ships were parked at the front of the ship. Kloopian knew that the ships at the front were more likely to take the most damage, but that was something that was accounted for. Their ships were the most reinforced, while the ships near the rump of the Resisty were in a worse state of disrepair.

It wasn't long before Kloopian heard the words executed from his captain three-fold. "Satellite ships, head straight for the Massive's open Hangars! Evacuate the prisoners of war stashed in the location provided for us! Two ships will return with the prisoners and two ships will stand by and await further instructions!"

Kloopian took the action to heart, and moved as fast as he possibly could. He, unlike his partner, hovered above the ship and flew clear above both the Resisty and most of the Spittle Runners! Kloopian knew that this mission was going to be a piece of cake-- er, well, he did, until he saw the lonesome Spittle Runner standing all lone.

Kloopian watched with rapt attention as he prepared for battle. Well, he did prepare for battle, until he noticed some key features about the pilot. The pilot was... pink. With... Black fur atop his head. For some reason that none of his brains could recall, this creature was somehow important.

The pink creature in question had to take two looks at the Vortian ship before it regestered in his abnormally large head that this was the enemy. Dib pointed a finger at the ship, as if to say, "LOOK LOOK LOOK EVERYONE LOOK! LOOK OVER THERE! LOOK AT THAT!! L O O K!!!" Dib grabbed ahold of his controllers, and chased the Vortian cruiser at top speeds.

Kloopian didn't worry when the strange pink-beast took two looks at him. One of his heads wondered why in the world the other was pointing like that, but all three collectively decided to abandon post once the Spittle Runner managed to catch up to them in no time flat. The three-headed alien swerved wickedly to the left, and then back to the right, as if he was trying to shake the strange pilot.

Dib gritted his teeth, feeling something much like adrenaline pumping through his veins. It was either that, or some form of gasoline. At that moment, he felt that he was an extension of the-- of his Spittle Runner. He felt that he could take on the whole galaxy from just his cockpit! "COMPUTER! PREP THE WEAPONS!" The human screeched in a fit of nervous excitement and rapt anxiety.

"Stand-By Mode! Charge... The-The... Uh, the...Plasma Canons! Yeah!! DO THE STUFF!" Dib watched as the strange creature zig-zagged all over the map, and he wondered how fast his Spittle Runner could really go. "Computer, how fast can I go?"

The screen loaded a figure that seemed rather impressive, and Dib smiled. He pushed forward on the clutch of the Runner, gunning it at top speeds. While he did manage to catch up to the Vortian pilot, he also managed to ram into the side of the ship. The sound of metal-against-metal sounded like a hellish scream in the humans ears. He was thrown wildly about the cockpit by the force of the ships colliding. He felt his glasses leave his face, and he felt himself hitting his head against the glass of the windshield in the process. He felt his head pulsate with pain, and something... drip from his nose.

Dib paused only to touch his nose, and he looked at the windshield. Well, he managed to donk his nose pretty badly against the glass, seeing a large splatter of blood mixed with saliva. Dib wiped it from his face, and turned to see the three-headed alien also disorientated. Dib took the moment that the alien had to recover, and used it for good.

"Computer," Dib groaned, trying his best to keep the blood from dripping onto the seat of the Spittle Runner. "Initiate Plasma Canons." Dib groped blindly for his glasses, and once he planted them firmly on his face, he watched as the Plasma Canons were ready to be used. "Computer, lock onto the target, and fire!"

---

A rather average-sized armor-clad Irken bursted into the Bridge like a bolt of lightening. She pushed himself through the doors, and saluted stiffly. "HEAD OF COUNCIL, SIR! MY TALLEST, SIR!" The militant Irken spewed, before she was put to ease. While she dropped her hand, she was still as uneasy as he could possibly be. She neared the platform silently, completely aware that she was interrupting something important.

"I have come to report a rogue pilot, My Tallest." She started nervously, but stood as tall as she possibly could. "They have disregarded basic safety, disregarded direct orders, completely ignored the Laws of Piloting, gone over the restricted speed limit, and failed to wear proper safety belts during flight! My Tallest, they are flying the Spittle Runner D-I-B, and they have successfully taken out one of the Vortian Cruisers, but they have completely endangered themselves and their co-pilots in the process AND their captains in the process!"

The moment Spleenk heard this, he screamed. "THEY TOOK OUT A CRUISER?!? ALREADY??!? Wow. Oh man. Oh man oh man oh man OH MAN OH MAN OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--" The strange four-armed alien was soon thrust into a fit of nonchalant screaming. He alien fell to the ground, and began spasming like a fish out of water, flopping about crazily on the ground near Ixane.

The hooded figure, while she did panic, didn't do it nearly as gracefully as Spleenk managed to do it.

 

[Mira-Charma13]

While Skoodge flipped around in an instant, apparently alarmed by the tone of the newcomer's voice, Zim just grunted with distaste. He hated to be interrupted, even during conversations that weren't all that important. This conversation, however, was extremely important, which made her interruption all the more aggravating. "What?" he practically spat out, his gaze still honed in on the Resisty members. They were silent for the time being, observing the conversation taking place.

The Tallest and his Head of Council had very different reactions to the news. Skoodge seemed to shrivel, his gaze uncertainly bouncing to his leader. Zim, on the other hand, simply smiled, folded his hands behind his back, and leaned down until he was almost on Skoodge's level.

"You will be scrubbing floors and cleansing rooms for a full week."

"What?!" Skoodge visibly deflated, pouting at the Irken monarch. "But...!"

"There is one very simple reason why I did not want the Dib to pilot his own ship yet!"

The Dib? Lard Nar rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Was that the name of the pink creature? Or its species? Commander Jazz was unusually tight-lipped whenever he spoke of this creature during their monthly meetings. Perhaps it was because he feared that the Resisty would pass this information on to the Meekrob. Lard Nar himself would do no such thing...but he was well aware that there were many members of his group that would rather decimate the Irkens than rescue them from the hold of the Control Brains. Those members would surely have no problem giving the Meekrob intimate details about this creature, and how to use it to their advantage to lure the Almighty Tallest into a trap.

The Tallest slowly rose back to his full height, glowering at Skoodge with the white-hot intensity of a thousand Earth suns--Skoodge wilted like a fragile Earth flower in response. "He has not been trained!" he snarled, his hands clenching into fists. "He is an untrained pilot with only minimal knowledge of how to work Irken technology! He hasn't even memorized the entire Irken alphabet yet! And you had the gall to unleash him into open space with a ship he doesn't know how to handle yet!"

Skoodge bowed his head, antennae drooping and expression downright mortified. "I...I'm sorry, my Tallest. I just thought you were being hard on him on purpose. I should have listened."

"Of course you should have! Zim knows better than you when it comes to the human!"

Human? A new term. Dib sounded like a name...human sounded much more like the name of a species. Lard Nar squinted suspiciously out of the windshield of his ship, watching his disabled satellite ship and the Irken Spittle Runner nearby that downed it. He couldn't spot the supposedly rogue pilot from this distance, but he was almost certain that it was this...Dib-human-thing the Tallest spoke of.

The Resisty members panicked in their own ways, murmuring amongst each other in a worried fashion. Almost all of them rolled their eyes at Spleenk's over-the-top reaction, though. Lard Nar just palmed his face with his sharp-clawed hand, sighing heavily. Spleenk was naturally timid, but sometimes he did overreact. There was a time when he himself overreacted as well...but that was when he was new and fresh on the scene of the rebellion. Now he was harder and more seasoned.

The Irkens openly laughed at the state of their so-called enemy. "Look at that coward! Bawling like a smeet!" "Shall we crush them? I'd like to crush them." "What about the Big Laser? That'll snuff 'em out!" "There will be no snuffing of any sort!" Zim interrupted his subordinates, peering irritably at them over his shoulder.

The distraction was working perfectly. The other Spittle Runners were so distracted by their Tallest's outburst that they failed to stop the other three Resisty satellite ships. The ships barreled straight into the nearest open Hangar. They met no resistance from Irken soldiers--it turned out that only members of the IR volunteered to stay behind to guard the Hangars. They pretended to fight with some of the Resisty members while the others rushed to retrieve the prisoners of war. By the time the Tallest stopped ranting and raving at his subordinates and his head of Council and had started arguing with Lard Nar again, one of the ships (loaded with the rescued prisoners) was already on its way back to the main ship. On the way it stopped to tow the broken-down ship back to the main ship, and that finally seemed to garner a downtrodden Skoodge's attention again.

"Hey, wait a minute." His antennae perked. "Where are the other two ships?"

No one answered him. Zim growled and several Irkens cowered in response. "No one was watching?!" Nervous chuckles bounced around the room and one Irken even muttered "Well, neither were you," from somewhere within the rabble. The Tallest gritted his teeth together and pointed angrily at the Head Navigator, who flailed with fright. "Tell the other ships to return to the Hangars!"

"So..." Lard Nar twiddled his fingers together. "Almighty Tallest, will you be so kind as to give us some food? That is all we ask for. We'll leave peacefully. As I said, we would rather not fight you. After all...you have an Invasion Operation to tend to, don't you?"

Something about the way the Vortian said that made both Zim and Skoodge terribly uncomfortable. It was as if he knew there was an emergency waiting to be resolved.

Skoodge opened his mouth to protest, to perhaps tell the Resisty Captain to get lost before they blew them up, but Zim beat him to the punch. "Fine! Whatever! Zim doesn't care!" "You can't be serious!" "Just get them some stupid food!" the Tallest demanded, pushing past a couple of bewildered Royal Guards in the process. "Throw some stupid snacks at their stupid faces so they beat it and leave Zim alone! We have more important matters to attend to! We don't have time to waste fighting a stupid battle with the stupid Resisty!"

The Irkens in the Bridge and the Resisty watched him storm out of the room, bristling with unbridled fury.

"...He's certainly in a sunny mood."

"Yeah, tell me about it."

The Resisty Captain had a hard time suppressing laughter, which was unusual for him. "...Are you really going to have to scrub toilets?"

"Don't forget to flush!"

"Shut up!"

---

Zim wasn't supposed to be traveling without an armed escort while the Massive was in danger of being attacked. Nevertheless, he wasn't stopped by any other Irkens during his journey. Perhaps it had something to do with the enraged aura that surrounded him. No one wanted to piss off the Tallest when he was already so very much on-edge. He could explode at any given moment, and none of them wanted to be on the receiving end. They wisely avoided him and gave him ample amounts of space as he rocketed through the hallways.

When he reached the Hangar, he was just in time to see a group of reluctant Irkens, armed to the teeth, handing off a few large food crates to some Resisty members. Both parties paused, staring without blinking at the angry Tallest as he whizzed straight past them. Zim stood tall on the far end of the room, his thin arms folded stiffly across his chest, and just...waited, staring out into space.

The hand-off continued in the background, though now the two groups seemed warier of the irate Tallest in the background than each other. The Resisty members were quick to file back into their ships once the packages were stowed away, and in a few seconds' time they were gone like the wind. The strike ships returned one by each, each pilot pointedly avoiding eye contact with the Tallest as they landed.

He was obviously waiting for Dib. And he looked...angry. Furious, in fact. But something was...off. The way his antennae constantly drooped and twitched...the wideness of his eyes...and the tension in his shoulders...

He was worried.[/hr]

 

[Dip]

Dib watched with rapt amazement as the computer screen displayed various progress bars, and it even projected a mirror image of what Dib was looking at. The human opened his eyes as wide as saucers, smirking as he felt a certain kind of anxiety and excitement fill his very being. This was such a new feeling to the human-- the feeling of success, and the feeling of hard work finally paying off.

He had felt this feeling only a few other times, but he never felt it on such a scale like this before! This must be how Gaz felt when she played her Game-Slave, beating every level in one quick swoop. Dib felt the tips of his fingers itch as he longed to fire the cannons. The Spittle Runner adjusted it's position with every shift and shake of the Vortian ship, and it seemed that this was going to be a score for the human race-- er, Irken race!

Kloopian knew Irken ships, and he never heard of an Irken ship moving as fast as that one did! The three-headed beast was almost as jarred as the human was, but he was far less battered and bruised. The alien was smart enough to fasten his seat-belt before he ventured into the deep empty vastness that was outer space. The alien shook his heads, and tried as best he could to keep his vision from tripling.

Once Kloopian figured out exactly what had happened, he worked as fast as he possibly could to escape the situation he had placed himself in. He tried everything-- thrusting his boosters, restarting his engines, and he even tried turning the ship on and off again! It seemed that the sideways collisions jarred more than just the three heads, it ruined the entire ship! And the Plasma Canons? Well, that was just going to be the cherry on top of the awful, terrible, miserable cake.

With a single press on the keyboard, the Canon was fired. This resulted in a very serious string of events taking place:

1. The pilot of the Vortian Cruiser, while he wasn't dead, wished that he was.
2. The Vortian Cruiser, though not a certain being, was also dead and thrown into a complete state of disrepair.
3. The Spittle Runner, because it was currently being piloted by a complete and utter moron, was thrown into a state all it's own.

Because Dib had never properly flown an Irken spaceship, he had never properly learned how to attack with one. And because of this, he failed to put in place proper fail-safe options when firing large weapons like the Plasma Cannon.

The sheer force of the Plasma Cannon sent both ships flying in separate directions. While Kloopian got the frontal force of the blast, Dib got the full-force. He was propelled backward and sent tumbling all throughout his cockpit. His laptop followed suit, being pulled and yanked and tugged in every direction as the Spittle Runner tumbled like an ungraceful ballerina. Dib, being the one-track genius that he was, continued to neglect the need of a safety belt.

Dib hit the windshield, lost his glasses, hit the chair, and hit the windshield. It was like a slow-motion car-crash, but it seemed to hurt a lot more. The fleshy body of the human had managed to screw him over in the end. The human's body flailed like a rag doll, and landed itself on nearly every single button on the control board. Blinkers flashed, warming alarms rang, windshild-wipers swished and swoshed this way and that, and Dib was thrown around like a cheap whore.

The space ship continued to spasm in the depths of space, and Dib could do nothing but scream, hold down the contents of his stomach, and grab pathetically for his tumbling computer.

Kloopian, on the other hand, was doing his own fair share of tumbling. The Vortian ship, while it wasn't nearly as fast as the Irken ship, was built to take hits. It had survived the Plasma Cannon, but it didn't look nearly as pretty as it had before. Because the engines had malfunctioned, there was no way to reestablish a proper balance, and so it seemed that the two space ships were Fouettés across the stage that was the universe.

"CompUTER." Dib managed, grabbing the command chair and holding on with all his might. It worked for a while, before the computer he requested hit him in the face. "OOPH-- COMPUTER-- DISABLE EVERY SINGLE COMMAND PROMPT GIVEN IN THE LAST THIRTY SECONDS!" Dib screamed, as he pushed his feet towards the windshield of his Spittle Runner.

He used his long legs to stop the constant rag doll of his body. The computer registered the request, and one by one, began disabling the actions that were mistakenly given. Soon, the ship moved slower and slower, and soon parked itself at a standstill. Dib took a moment to heave a sigh of relief as he let go of the seat he clung so tightly to.

His head was spinning almost as fast as the ship was just a few moments earlier, and he took a moment to recover. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands, and sighed deeply. "Computer... Sorry I yelled at you like that." He apologized. He pulled his hands from his face, and looked for his classes slowly, still trying to regain his own form of balance.

Dib took his sweet time recovering. Most of this time was used to decide whether or not he would ralph. He didn't, in the end, but his stomach continued to whip and churn like a dancer on the stage. Dib slowly turned the ship around, and watched as small quadrants of Spittle Runners returned to the Massive that seemed... a lot farther away than it had been before.

The human pushed forward. Bloodied face, sore hands, dizzy eyes, and everything. The feeling of a successful mission felt much like a dizzy spell, and the feeling refused to leave. The feeling played a trick on his features, forming his mouth into a smile and dazzling his light-brown eyes and brightening his skin-tone.

The ship sputtled itself across the space it had inadvertantly traveled, and soon, the ship flew himself into the Hangar. The once brand-new ship was thrown into a state of half-chaos. One side of the ship was entire shred to pits, paint chipping and scrapping off from where the human had collided with the alien enemy. The windshield still had trace amounts of blood from when Dib had decided to kiss the glass with his nose, causing a bloodied mess.

The human parked the ship as best as he could, and let go of the controls. "Computer, disengage the hacking prompt, and turn off the Spittle Runner." He spoke, a smile still playing on his face. The ship turned off quickly, and Dib pushed the glass dome of the cockpit up and over himself. He began unplugging cables from the laptop, but he paused when he came face-to-face with a rather tall and angry looking Irken.

"Zim! Hey!" Dib smiled, excited as ever. He took the sleeve of his space-suit and wiped away any blood that had been stuck to his face. He pointed a thumb outside the Hangar, into the depths of space, but it seemed that he was pointed to the dilapidated side of the Spittle Runner. "I don't know why you didn't let me do this sooner. I was all like, 'computer, listen to me!' and then the Spittle Runner actually... It actually listened to me! I hardly had to hack a thing!!...So, uh... did'ya... did'ya see me out there?" He asked, a large and childish grin still plastered to his features.

"Pretty, heh, pretty cool, huh?" He laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm the best Pilot on Earth, so I understand if you're angry that the Irken Strike Teams couldn't match my expertise."

It seemed that his attempts hardly did a thing.

 

[Mira-Charma13]

"Don't."

Zim's voice was deathly calm and quiet. Steady, too. These were all warning signs that terribly bad things were to come, because calm, quiet, and steady were not Zim-like in the slightest. He took a couple of slow and deliberate steps backward in an attempt to put some much-needed distance between himself and the battered human. Even from a distance, it was easy to see that something was wrong with him. He was shaking with anger, but his expression seemed rife with turmoil. His antennae were drooping but stiff at the same time.

It was a sight to see, that was for sure. Zim's emotions were a tangled jumbled mess. The ordinarily pale pink panels on his PAK had transformed to a blinding crimson and were flashing like strobe lights, a telltale sign that he was about to completely lose control of himself.

"You...!" He stomped a foot on the ground and was unable to continue his statement. He forced himself to pause and heave in a few choked breaths, trying to decide precisely what he wanted to say. The other Irkens, the ones exiting the strike ships and the ones who handed off the food drops, began to quickly file out of the room. Every instinct in their war-torn bodies screamed at them to vacate the room before their unpredictable powder keg of a Tallest blew them all to smithereens.

The only ones who moved at a leisurely pace were Jazz, Salsa, and a few other members of the PIT, who strolled by the scene casually. Zim didn't quite know how he felt about that knowing little smile on the PIT commander's face. He didn't feel good about it, but at the same time he didn't want to rip Jazz's head off. Instead he waited for the PIT members to leave, and as soon as Jazz's long coattails swept out of the room he took action.

He strode straight across the room, rapidly closing the distance between himself and Dib, snagged him firmly by the shoulders, and began shaking him like a rag doll. A string of indecipherable sounds escaped him. It was a language that the human had probably never heard before in his life. It consisted of harsh-sounding words, clicks, and hissing and popping sounds. It almost sounded like German with feline and reptilian sounds thrown in for good measure.

It was Irken. It was the Irken language, completely unfiltered by the PAK on Zim's back. And judging by the tone of this alien language alone, Zim was cursing the fuck out of Dib. It wasn't until a few seconds passed that Zim's PAK finally regained control of its host and began translating his words.

"--stupidest thing you could have possibly done!" he roared at top volume. "You have no formal training, you dim-witted human worm! And now you're leaking your acid Earth blood all over the place!" And all over Zim's regal Almighty Tallest desire, as well, since Zim was shaking the shit out of him right now. "You could have killed yourself!" he continued, seething with anger. "You could have been blown up! And you went and did it anyway! And now you're injured and leaking and bruised and battered and you destroyed an Irken Spittle Runner! And you made Zim worried sick!"

He didn't seem to care that he allowed that last tidbit to slip. In fact, it seemed as if the deluge was now open--because he kept on talking. "You're one of the only creatures that means anything to Zim! And I could have lost you! I almost did lose you! Because you wanted to be stupid and operate a ship you have no business operating without formal training!"

He shook Dib a final time before dropping him and taking a few steps away, shuffling his feet against the ground and turning to the side. The cheek that was still visible to the human seemed to be dusted with a darker emerald green color. Apparently he was just now thinking about what spewed out of his mouth and was mortified by his own admissions. "Don't do it again! Or I'll...or I'll..."

"Awww."

GIR suddenly appeared in the Hangar doorway. The door whooshed shut behind him as the hatches that lead to space outside began to close. "Ain't that so cute!" he gushed, his little metal hands popping up to his cheeks. Zim turned slowly toward him, fixing his lovable minion with that same enraged stare that Skoodge was unlucky enough to be subjected to earlier. It seemed to have no effect on GIR, however, because the tiny SIR dared to speak up again with the cheekiest grin in the world stretching across his face.

"Aren't you gonna give him a hug?"

GIR knew long before his master did that that statement wasn't going to go well, because by the time Zim lunged for him GIR was already screaming and running from the room. Zim missed and tripped over his own feet, just barely managing to catch himself on the side of the one of the undamaged Spittle Runners. He stood there for a long time, half-hunched over and clutching the cold metal for dear life, and said nothing.

The Irken monarch seemed conflicted, unsure if he should be throwing punches, breaking down and wailing, or taking GIR's advice. The panels on his PAK were still flashing and the device itself was squealing and trembling. It was a warning sign, but Zim had no idea whether or not to take it seriously. The impending punishment was rarely delivered anyway unless there was a medical emergency--why would the PAK bother following through now?

He was just glad there weren't any Irkens left in the Hangar to see him in this state. This was a tell-tale sign that something just wasn't right with the Irken in question.

 

[Dip]

Dib, in the moment that the former Invader spoke, knew only one thing: He fucked up. He took note and instantly shut up, the happy expression depleting entirely from his face. He watched as the alien backed up, and he felt like he had somehow offended the Almighty Tallest with his appearance. Dib knew that he probably looked a lot less attractive than when he entered the Spittle Runner, but was he really that bad?

Dib watched as Zim began to shake with rage, and every single color in his face slipped down the drain like water. It was like a bad rave, with no one dancing, and everyone watching the strobe-lights. The only thing that made this situation better than it could have been was the fact that the only people who were in the Hangar were Dib and Zim, save for a few stragglers, such as Ceedid.

The small Irken almost took it upon himself to give the human the beating he deserved-- Ceedid was one of the pilots interrupted by the stunts Dib pulled!-- but the moment that he saw the Tallest, he knew that Dib would get more from him than any other Irken. The small PIT member walked with his feet planted on the ground for only a moment before his PAK legs emerged to carry him out the door.

The nosey brown-eyed Irken watched for a moment, until his Tallest stomped a foot on the ground. Ceedid's antennae soared up as he watched the Tallest... lose control! He decided that this wasn't a good time to watch. He was the first of the PIT members to skitter out of the room, like a cockroach hiding under the refrigerator. While Ceedid wanted to watch Dib get pulled apart at the hands of Irk's best, getting caught doing so would be a punishment he didn't want to live to see. In a way, the short alien did manage to hear the chewing out that the human got, because the Tallest nearly screamed the lid off of the entire Massive! He could hear him from halls and halls away.

It seemed that Zim was only speaking in one-word phrases, and as much as Dib wanted to point back at himself and ask, "Me?", he held his tongue. Dib watched Zim struggle to catch his breath, and much like the alien, he was conflicted. He wanted to ask what was the matter, what was wrong, but he kept his mouth shut. It wasn't long before the Irken closed the distance rapidly, causing Dib to push himself back into the cockpit.

That, however, was futile. The Irken grabbed the human by the shoulders with three sharp-tipped fingers, and began shaking him like a red-headed step-child. Dib's glasses flew to and frow, threatening to fly off of his face. The human grabbed at Zim's gauntlets and he tried to stop the other, but the prior joy-ride had done nothing to help his case. The dizzy feeling flooded his being, causing Dib's head to spin much like the ship before. He wanted to open his mouth to ask why the alien was attacking him like this, but he was taken aback by the sound of...

Was that the Irken language?

He had heard only a few phrases before, never a whole entire phrase-- not even a sentence! It was a guttural language, but it was attractive in it's own way. It sounded like a mixture of some Earth languages, mixed with those ambient sounds that filled Dib's room only the night before. The human moved one of his hands down to Zim's wrist as he tried to keep the distance away from the angry Irken.

It was hard to believe that just a few short hours ago, they were sleeping within the same room, content with eachother's company. Now it seemed that the exact opposite was happening! What happened?! It wasn't long before Zim's language translated back to the Earth language that he knew and loved, and Dib knew exactly what he was spewing at him. He wasn't offended when the alien was clicking and clacking at him, but stupid? Dim-witted?

"I-I-I-I," Dib tried, as he was shaken back and forth. "I was-wa-was fine!" He finished. He didn't die! He wasn't blown up! He wasn't destroyed! He wasn't anything!! Everything was fine, save for the bloody nose and a few scratches, but that can be completely avoided next time. Well, if there was a next time.

Soon the human was dropped back into the cockpit, and he took the moment to readjust his glasses. He watched as the Irken turned away from him, and Dib grunted as he pushed himself back upward in the cockpit. He wanted to jump out of the side and onto the ground, but his feet felt like led and his legs felt like jello.

He was about to protest every single thing that the alien said, before he was interrupted by another foreign being: GIR. He raised an eyebrow at the Irken software as he asked if the other was going to give Dib a hug, and that did nothing for his master. Dib, on the other hand, couldn't help but melt into a less-angry state of dizziness.

He couldn't imagine the Tallest willingly giving hugs-- infact, he could hardly imagine the other touching anyone in a non-threatening way, period! But perhaps... things had changed even more than Dib could imagine. He watched as the alien lundged, stumbled, and nearly fell. Dib jumped, unsure if the other was going to take a nosedive onto the hard floor of the Hangar.

The human slowly lifted himself from the Runner, his feet longing for the floor of the Hangar. The dazzling lights of the PAK unit were entrancing, and Dib had no idea what any of the colors meant. The human wanted to attack the Irken much like in his childhood, and he wanted to make it clear that the human was a force not to be reckoned with, but... Zim did have a point, for the most part.

Dib used his sleeve to get rid of any trace amount of his red blood, and slowly began shuffling towards the Irken. He had no idea what to say, but had a million ideas at the same time. Zim was mad for all the wrong reasons, but scared for all the right reasons. He moved one foot in front of the other, and slowly made his way to the Irken. The human being had no idea where to start when it came to calming down the Irken superpower, but he was willing to try anything once.

Dib slowly pushed a hand out infront of him, and placed it on Zim's PAK. Not in a threatening way, not in a way that would be comparable to the sound thrashing that Dib got. It could be likened to what his own father had done a few times in his early childhood, when he got his feelings hurt, or had one of his ever-famous night-terrors. Dib didn't apply any pressure to the PAK, but he simply offered the feeling that Dib was still there.

"I'm... sorry. I'm sorry, Zim." He said softly, almost hesitantly. He looked off to the side for a moment before he began to speak again. "I thought I knew what I was doing-- well, I did know, but I didn't really. I got excited! I could have blown up, gotten myself killed, but I didn't. I'm totally fine--- er, well... I forgot to put my seatbelt on-- and the ship isn't that destroyed, you should have seen the other ship! Er.... but that's beside the point." He tried, already knowing that there would be small bruises all over his body for weeks on end.

"I didn't mean to worry you. And I'm sorry that I did worry you... I won't do it again." Dib slowly lowered his hand from the other's back, bringing it back to himself. "I... promise."

 

[Mira-Charma13]

The human creature very nearly made a fatal mistake by putting his hands on the PAK of a vulnerable and highly Defective Irken. Zim instantly tensed, but did not strike. His PAK, on the other hand, shook violently in an attempt to dislodge the foreign object from its smooth, shiny surface, squealing like a mouse struggling to escape a trap. It eventually settled down after it realized its host didn't feel threatened, but the ordinarily pale pink panels still flashed between black and luminous crimson.

Zim took deep and deliberate breaths, trying to calm his frayed nerves. He made no attempt to shake the human's hand from his PAK, which was a telling sign--Irkens tended to be quite sensitive about anyone, even other Irkens, touching their PAKs. Even a simple accidental brush from another Irken in a hallway was enough for tempers to flare and fights to start. This was especially true in Zim's case. Over the past couple of months he clearly displayed that he hated to be touched. He hissed and spit at any creature who was unfortunate enough to bump into him or accidentally cut him off while he was walking. He even beat and stomped on an Irken who tripped him without meaning to last month.

A thick antenna quirked in Dib's direction when he began to speak, starting off with an apology that, to the Tallest's surprise, sounded rather genuine. Graciously he waited for the human to make his point and finish his spiel before opening his own mouth.

"Don't promise that." He scowled at the human, finally gathering enough courage to meet his darker gaze with his own vibrant magenta eyes. "Because you are like Zim. Reckless and chaotic. You will do something like this again at some point. And Zim will worry again, without fail."

He paused to take a deep breath. "Zim told you before that you can operate an Irken ship, because he knows that you did so in the past. But simply operating the ship and piloting it into battle are two vastly different monsters. Understand? To pilot a ship in battle requires intensive training, which you do not have."

His large eyes narrowed dangerously at the Earth creature. "Not only do you not know anything about proper piloting, you also have no idea how to behave in a proper battle. You do not know our laws of combat. You don't know how to dodge, how to prepare for recoil from your own weapons...and you even forgot to wear your own seat belt! You were careless!"

The Irken monarch took another slow breath. His PAK was now still and silent, but the panels were still flashing bright red like strobe lights. "That being said..." His antennae bounced somewhat. "Despite all of this you did manage to disable an enemy ship. And that is impressive. But..." Zim turned to face Dib, straightening his delicate spine out. "Don't do it again. You need proper training before Zim will allow you to pilot an Irken ship once more. I understand that you want to prove yourself to Zim--that you want to be seen as a competent soldier..."

He averted his gaze again, looking solemn and uneasy. "But...Zim doesn't want to lose you, especially not to something as stupid as this. Okay?" He sounded firm, yet terribly awkward. "You're injured. You will be injured for several days. It will impede your work. You have also lost fluids. And how are we supposed to replenish those if you lose too much, hmm?" The Medics had yet to find a species whose blood could be used in the event that Dib needed a transfusion...so every bit of blood in the human's body was precious. "Once the Massive goes through the Warp Drive, I will escort you to the Medical Wing. And you will be examined for broken bones and the like."

The Irken leader's antennae twitched and he hesitantly met the human's gaze. "I don't want to be alone again," he admitted with relative ease. "I don't ever want to be alone again. You are important to Zim. More important than the Spittle Runner. More important than some stupid pointless battle with the Resisty and their annoyingly level-headed Captain. More important than the other idiot pawns he willingly sent out to battle for him! So act like it! If you try anything like this again, Zim will chase you down himself!"

Zim turned away so that he wasn't facing Dib anymore, his shoulders high, his head bowed, and his antennae droopy and twitching. Though he was certain the human wasn't aware of it, this was about as close as any Irken in his or her right mind would come to admitting their true feelings for someone else. They were tight-lipped when it came to romance and rarely spoke about their true feelings, but any talk of pursuing the other party was a telltale sign that the Irken in question was head over heels!

In the back of his mind he wondered how the Dib would feel if he found out that some of the very first words he spoke to Zim, something about waiting forever for him and being willing to chase him from the ends of the Earth to the depths of the ocean, were akin to a declaration of love in Irken culture.

"Understand?" He didn't sound quite so confident now as he tried desperately to hide the color in his cheeks. "If you do..." He sniffed and began hovering toward the archway that led back into the Massive's sprawling highways. "We should get going. Back to the Bridge. You have seen the Warp Drive in action...but Zim is sure that you will want to see what it looks like going through a Warp Drive."

He didn't want to talk about his feelings with Dib. Not right now, anyway. There was an emergency going on, after all, and Invader Tak's life and the planet of Damogran were both at stake. Perhaps...he would be willing to explain his emotional outburst later. Not the nature of his feelings (because he still wasn't sure what he wanted from the human in that regard), but the reason why his feelings were so difficult to control in the first place.

 

[Dip]

Dib knew just how valuable the PAK was to an Irken. He knew that without it, the host would die, but somehow, he felt that placing his hand anywhere else wouldn't illustrate the same feeling. It was an impulsive decision-- something that the human was known for-- that managed to pay off in the end. He felt Zim tense and slowly calm down, and that was enough for Dib to know that what he was doing was okay.

The human looked rather guilty when the Tallest told him exactly what he was trying not to think. He would do it again. It was fun! He'd do it plenty more times! He got a taste of what his job entailed, and he was excited to get more and more and more from it. Dib was just glad that he didn't have to admit to Zim that he would get his feelings hurt again. It was strange to know that someone was worried about him, but it was... still a good feeling.

The human knew that piloting and operating were different, but they entailed the same thing, right? Both involved flying and both involved precision, which Dib clearly beheld. If he had known that there were special precautions that had to be taken, special ordered that needed to be followed, he would have listened more closely! He would have made sure to follow through with installations, command prompts, and the whole like.

Dib hated to admit it, but he would blame Skoodge for the lack of information. While he knew he was in no place to do so, Skoodge should have at least briefed him before he pulled an Agent 007 solo recon mission. But, then again, it wasn't Skoodge's place to direct the human around. He simply mentioned that Dib could help defend the Massive. He had no one to blame but himself.

He felt Zim's eyes on him like a swarm of bees, stinging him mercilessly. Zim was right when he said that the human didn't know how to properly pilot without the aid of a computer, and he was right that he didn't how to behave within the atmosphere of battle, and he was right that he didn't know the laws of combat. He was right on just about everything, except for the seatbelt issue. That wasn't his fault! There was no flashing signal to remind him that he needed to fasten it! The recoil...? He felt the welts under his space suit... those were his fault.

But the playing field was set when Zim told him that what he did manage to do was impressive. That made the score Irken Armada: 0, and Dib: 1. The Strike teams had nothing on Earth's finest Pilot! He hid any smile that managed to slither across his face when the Almighty Tallest turned to face him with large, magenta eyes. The human didn't like the sound of waiting to pilot again, but... if it made Zim feel a little less anxious, he would take into account his feelings.

Dib watched the alien as he shifted once more, and Dib still felt the magenta eyes locked on his being. He felt butterflies threaten to burst through his core, like in that one scene in Alien Versus Predator, but somehow more meaningful. It was a strange thing to know that someone was scared to loose you, and Dib to atone to that one. Zim obviously knew that Dib didn't want to loose him, either. He denied the thought of Zim leaving him for about three years! Now that the alien was back in his life, he... he didn't want him to leave again.

He wanted to stay with Zim.

While he was injured, he wasn't in a total state of disrepair. His nose was sore, and he knew he would feel a few things in the morning, but he was fine! Entirely! Surely Irkens experienced nose-bleedings-- oh... right. But, the point was, Dib could regenerate all of the blood he lost with just a simple nap or two. He would be fine, and a visit to the medic would not be needed at all. Dib nearly rolled his eyes to the back of his head when Zim mentioned that his work would be delayed for a few days. Just to spite him, he would work right after this entire situation was over!

He knew for a fact that he had no broken bones whatsoever, and if anything was broken, it would be the cartilage inside his nose. But he was fine! The bleeding had stopped for the most part, and his nose was just sore and tender. If he needed anything, it was a bath and a change of clothes. As much as he loved his space suit, it did nothing for the fact that the human race was an entirely sweaty class. Being stuck in a hot cockpit with a charging canon does nothing but worsen that.

Dib seemed to watch each one of his words tumble out of his mouth. He turned away from the alien, his own color flushing his cheeks and the bridge of his bloodied nose. He felt like he needed to hold his stomach to contain the fluttering. He almost wanted to tell Zim not to say stuff like that, in case he might explode and get his pink and red human guts all over the place.

Dib was forever grateful that the other turned away from him. The idea of being important was still quite a hard one to grasp, but like everything, it would get easier within time.

"Understood." Dib said quietly, with about the same shread of confidence that the Almighty Tallest had. He looked up to see the Tallest hovering away from him, out of the Hangar. He agreed that they needed to get going, and he couldn't help but smile when the other mentioned the Warp Drive. He caught up with Zim, taking a few short steps and slowly standing near his side.

Dib was just about as inept when it came to his feelings as Zim. If there was one thing they had in common, it was how secluded from their own race they were. Maybe that's what really drew them to eachother in the first place.

 

[Mira-Charma13]

Oh, Skoodge would be getting his comeuppance very soon. Zim would make certain of that. The Head Advisor would be reduced to the equivalent of a Cleaning Drone for the remainder of the week, scrubbing floors, clearing tables, washing trays, and thoroughly scrubbing cleansing rooms. He also had lofty plans of forcing Skoodge to obey any order Dib felt like giving him, just to make up for his mistake. He couldn't blame Skoodge entirely for what had happened, but he was fully prepared to saddle the smaller Irken with half of the blame.

And now, as a result of this, Zim was intent on teaching Dib how to pilot an Irken ship himself. After all, with Skoodge and the Council of the Tallest stuck doing most of the work he had oodles of free time. He tended to be just as reckless as the human in battle, and his piloting skills often suffered because of his rash, impulsive nature, his eagerness to fight, and his inability to control his temper.

The raw skill was certainly there, however. Out of his entire Hatching Group on Devastis, Zim scored the highest piloting skill during his virtual reality exam with Red coming in at a close second. The two former Tallest wouldn't even look at Zim for a whole week--they were infuriated that he was better than both of them when it came to ships.

The Irken monarch stiffened when he caught sight of Dib approaching out of the corner of his eye. His expression and stiff antennae suggested that he was strangely uncomfortable as the two of them traveled down the hallways side by side, but his relaxed posture and the lax state of the rest of his body language contradicted that. The strange jumble of emotions he felt just wouldn't untangle themselves and go away. So...he was stuck with the puzzling sensations for now, he supposed.

Zim was so distracted by his own mixed-up feelings that he failed to notice the pitter-patter of little metal feet tagging along after them. GIR was smiling in that traditionally dopey manner of his, but this time he wisely chose to say nothing about his master's predicament. Maybe it would be better if he didn't interrupt this at all, because it was kind of cute to watch!

As the trio trekked along they passed by several other Irkens, who were hesitantly coming down from their hostile and angry pre-combat high. All of them were still clad in their combat-ready armor, unwilling to calm down. Understandable, really. Though Zim sincerely doubted they would have much trouble suppressing the attacking Damogran people with the full force of the Irken Armada, there was always a chance that something would go wrong.

"I have to decide who I want to send straight to Tak's base to recover her and her SIR Unit," the Tallest suddenly muttered under his breath. "I think I may send a trio of the most senior Commanders in the Armada." One Irken was too few and four were too many. Two would have a difficult time being vigilant, especially if one ended up having to carry Tak. Four or more would attract far too much attention to themselves and would almost certainly be ousted by the attacking Damogran people. Three was the perfect unit size. "Jazz will be one of them," he continued in a low voice, almost to himself. "Perhaps I will send Skoodge, so that he can begin making up for his mistakes."

There was a brief pause before the Tallest turned slightly to fix Dib with one large magenta eye. "Any recommendations as to who else I should send?"

This was a rarity, and Zim definitely sounded hesitant. He seemed eager to show Dib exactly what it was he did as the monarch of the Irken Empire and insisted that one day Dib would have the same authority that Skoodge did (simply because Zim liked him so much). But this was one of the first times Zim bothered asking Dib for his input on something so very important. He hoped it wouldn't be too jarring for the human to be put on the spot like that.

Perhaps now that Skoodge would be taken out of the picture for a while for his punishment, Dib could hop in and fill that void...if he wanted to, of course. Zim wasn't going to force him, no matter how much he wanted the Earth creature to step up and give it a go.

The Irkens in the Bridge all stood at attention when their Tallest hovered back into the room with the human in tow. Skoodge was the only one who reacted to Dib's newly-acquired injuries--he winced, wilted, and then glanced uneasily in Zim's direction. Zim bared his teeth in response and Skoodge dropped his gaze to the ground respectfully. Zim said nothing to his second-in-command and instead slipped between two Royal Guards, using one arm to hold them apart so that Dib could join him.

"We're ready to go through the Warp Drive, sir," one of the Pilots affirmed. "The Resisty have backed off." "Good." Zim didn't sound all that enthused, though he did make a point of keeping a close eye on Dib. Maybe seeing that familiar fascination that always cropped up whenever the human experienced something new and enthralling would make him feel better. Thankfully his PAK seemed to be back to normal now, the panels a pale translucent pink once again.

It was a little strange that he didn't even mention the peculiar behavior of his PAK. Irken PAKs weren't supposed to change colors, move, or make squealing sounds like that!

"Go on, then." A hint of impatience tainted the Almighty Tallest's voice. "Head through the Warp Drive." His magenta eyes darted upward. "Computer! We are heading through the Warp Drive! Advise everyone on the Massive to grab onto something!" "Will do." GIR decided to latch himself onto Dib's leg rather than use his own magnetized feet to keep himself grounded. "We gonna see the pretty colors?" he asked, beaming at Zim. "Mm-hm."

The Pilots gave everyone on the Massive about thirty seconds to get themselves situated and safely grab onto something before taking action. The Massive lurched forward, toward the Warp Drive ahead. It began to twist and warp as the gigantic ship drew closer, the metal ring stretching and popping as it increased in size to accommodate the oversized Irken flagship. And as soon as the Massive was close enough...

Whoosh!

The ship jerked forward, almost knocking a couple of Irkens out of their seats and toppling the smallest Royal Guard, and into the artificial wormhole. The gravity changed at sporadic intervals, though never too drastically, and the turbulence was wild--understandable, given the sheer size of the Massive. The view beyond the windshield was a stunning array of colors and indiscernible shapes, flying by at what seemed like a billion miles an hour or more. GIR squealed with delight, cyan eyes as wide as saucers as the stunning rainbow of colors whizzed by them.

Zim was forced to deactivate his hover belt, as it almost sent him careening across the room. Eventually he stumbled and nearly took both Skoodge and the human down with him--the rotund Irken huddled down on the floor to avoid being slammed into. Zim made a desperate grab for one of Dib's arms and held fast, holding both of them up in the process. He grinned impishly at the human. "Bumpy ride, yes? What do you think? We'll be here for a couple of minutes at the most."

 

[Dip]

The trip up to the bridge could be described in one simple and easy to understand word: Awkwardly. Dib awkwardly said nothing, his legs still adjusting to being on the ground. He awkwardly walked next to the alien, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat as he walked in utter silence. He didn't really know how to feel at that point, but decided that whatever he was feeling, it was described only as awkward.

Dib perked up for a moment when he heard the soft clattering of Irken software hot on their tail. He turned slightly, catching the large automaton grin on the Irken software. Dib watched as he slowly caught up to the two, and he turned back to face the hall before them. it felt like a million years since he raced down the hall with the smaller Irken Ceedid, eager to start something new and to get ready to pilot again.

Dib watched as a few battle-garbed Irkens hooted and hollered with eachother, ready to take eachother down in a friendly sparring match. Of course, they calmed down and suppressed the urge to butt heads with their Almighty near them, but as soon as they were a good distance away, they began their conversation once more. Dib wondered if he would ever get the chance to battle with the folds of the senior-warriors, but he highly doubted it. Zim freaked out when Dib got himself into the cockpit of a Spittle Runner, imagine the look on his face if the was dressed head-to-toe in armor, ready to tear heads off!

Zim would do more than flip his lid, he'd probably kill Dib himself.

Hell hath no fury like the Almighty Tallest.

Dib turned his head a quarter of the way towards Zim as he spoke about what he had plans to do. Dib nearly forgot that they were going to an unknown planet-- Damogran, he thought it was called-- to recover the Invader he knew on Earth. He wondered for a moment if Tak would recall the human, but he knew that she wouldn't remember him in a good light. The last thing Dib did was ruin her mission and repossess her Spittle Runner as his own. He almost didn't want to see her face around the Massive, sure that she would have some choice words to say to the human.

Dib said nothing as the Tallest mentioned his ideas of who to send. Skoodge was intelligent, and he was well trained when it came to battle. He recalled a few training lessons, with him, and he knew that the little space creature would have no problem defending himself against some strange creatures. Jazz had a height advantage, and Dib would never want to be on his bad side. He was, much like Skoodge, competent in battle, but he seems to have some kind of alternative motives...

Dib looked back at Zim as he asked for his opinion. Dib open his mouth to blurt his answer, but he knew that if he let the two letters M and E fly out of his mouth, those would be the last things he would ever say. He closed his mouth suddenly, but opened it once more, when he had something competent to say. "I don't really know a lot of people, yet." Dib admitted. "I-I don't know how helpful I can be with this, but..." He figured he would give it a shot. Dib started with the people he did know: the people in his PIT unit. "Trillian seems able-bodied. He's a genius, but he's not all that strong..." What Trillian lacked in strength and speed, he made up for in technology.

While Trillian did look useful as far as technical issues went, he couldn't really see him helping all that much. Maybe if he was heavily armed with a rather large mech suit, he would prove useful (Dib has seem some sketches that Tril made of his own mech suit. They're rather impressive and detailed, right down to the circuiting and welding!).

"Nuul-Yhar is... no, she's just as bad as Trillian." He recalled a time when she tried to break up a small scrape between himself and Ceedid, but she ended up taking more scratches than Dib did! But... that did bring up a good point. "...What about Ceedid?" Dib asked. "He's short-- really short--waaay too short, but he's fast, resourceful, intelligent, strong, and he's too annoying to argue with." Dib shrugged. "And he's an Intergalactic translator, so... I mean, that can't help Tak much, but, y'know, he knows how to read and stuff. He could read Damogran maps and writings." He could see Ceedid leading out the mission in a blaze of annoying glory, but he wasn't so sure how successful he'd be at it.

Dib strolled into the bridge a little timidly as he hoped that a certain Irken wouldn't see what had happened to him. Sadly, he did. Dib tried to smile and shrug, like a child who was caught stealing from the cookie jar, but it was rather lackluster. Really, Dib wasn't that badly hurt! A small stomach cramp from the spatial jostling and the Irken jostling, and a simple bloody nose! A few bumps, a few bruises, but Dib had worse injuries in the past.

The thought back to Serloz, and shivered. Far worse...

Dib watched as Zim parted the guards like the red sea, and he took his place next to the Tallest. He made himself as comfortable as he could. He wanted to apologize to Skoodge for what had happened-- well... he mostly wanted to apologize for getting himself hurt, and ruining a perfectly good Spittle Runner, and endangering the lives of other pilots, and not wearing his seat-belt, but... mostly he wanted to apologize for his bloody nose and his busted lip.

Dib looked down at the SIR unit as he hold onto his space suit, and he turned back upwards. He did as was suggested of him, and pressed his palm onto the wall nearest to him, and turned anxiously to face the scene that was slowly unfolding before himself. He loved watching stuff like this, and he was excited to see what would happen.

While Dib was thrown into a perpetual state of heightened anxiety and nervousness, it was beautiful. He felt his stomach sink to the ground and his head grow both heavy and light at the same time. Dib nearly went tumbling when he felt the Irken monarch grabbed at his arm. Dib responded by using his other hand to wrap around the Irken's, much like a snake would to a dying animal.

Dib snaked his arm around the thin ligament, and turned to the other for only a moment as he spoke. The rainbows reflected off of his thin eyeglasses and he smiled. "I just--" He started, unsure of what to say. "Wow. Yeah-- This is bumpy-- but wow."

 

[Mira-Charma13]

Zim nodded thoughtfully as his human companion spoke, running those suggestions through his mind. As capable as Trillian was, he was a Vortian. It would be unwise to send anyone other than a purebred Irken to fetch an Irken Invader in distress. Irkens were xenophobic to begin with, but being approached by a non-Irken in a time of such horrific crisis would surely end in disaster. Irken Invaders were taught to never trust anyone but Irken technology and members of their own species while they were on the job, because non-Irkens could easily prove to be a threat to the mission.

The Tallest didn't speak of his plan again until the two of them were safely in the Bridge and the Massive was careening through the artificial wormhole. "Skoodge!" "Y-yes!" The round Irken seemed startled, having his name suddenly shouted out like that. He was understandably on-edge now that his leader was angry with him. "You will fetch Commander Jazz and ask him to bring two of his team members, Ceedid and Salsa, with him. Jazz, Ceedid, and yourself will serve as the infiltration team in charge of infiltrating the overrun Invader base and rescuing Invader Tak. Salsa will coordinate."

There was a brief pause, during which leader and second-in-command just stared at each other. Zim leaned down ever so slightly, his eyes narrowed into slits. "Go." As if struck, Skoodge stumbled and then bolted out of the room.

He had faith in that hand-picked team. They would be able to rescue Tak with little difficulty!

Zim's antennae stood straight up when Dib entwined their arms like so. He said nothing about it. Strangely enough it didn't look like he was annoyed by the action despite his own apparent aversion to being touched. His posture was relaxed, though his antennae quivered sporadically. He made no move whatsoever to dislodge the Earth creature's arm from his own. Thankfully the other Irkens in the Bridge were far too distracted with the Massive's controls, and with keeping themselves from falling flat on their faces, to notice the unusual physical contact.

That was fortunate, to say the least. Public displays of affection between Irkens were already looked down upon, but such a display from an Irken and a non-Irken...? That was bound to garner the wrong kind of attention!

Seconds later the Massive jerked again, though this time Zim managed to keep himself steady with the human as an anchor (several other Irkens weren't quite so lucky and went flying). The brilliant rainbow of colors outside was gone, instead replaced with the familiar view of space...as well as a swarm of Irken ships. The rest of the Armada seemed to be crowding the Massive, inspecting it for damage. It took an unusually long amount of time for the Massive to come through, so of course they were worried sick! But it seemed like everything was a-okay...on the outside, anyway.

The state of the Warp Drive they just exited from was not quite so pristine. As the Massive turned, it became apparent that the Drive was badly damaged. It was little more than a large metal ring floating in space, now, sparking wildly. Zim made a mental note in the back of his mind to send a repair team out here once the dust had settled to try and fix it. It would be difficult to fix the other Warp Drive, which was ridiculously far out and not simple to reach.

"Computer!" Zim bellowed, standing tall. "Make sure this next transmission reaches the entire Armada!" He gave the AI a few generous seconds to do as he asked before clearing his throat and glancing around at nothing. "This is your Almighty Tallest speaking! Chart a course for planet Damogran! We will rescue our Invader in peril! Listen, and listen closely. We will fight to capture and imprison, not to kill. Which means we will have to put Irken boots on the ground. Surround the entire planet! Blanket it with ships! Use whatever means necessary to avoid killing! Throw them in pens! Toss them in big boxes! Dig a pit and chuck them in there! Destroy as little as possible--Zim isn't entirely sure what he wants to do with this filthy alien planet yet and would rather leave it in good condition. No Organic Sweep! No blowing it up! Understand? ...Good! Then get moving!"

The countless number of ships moved to get themselves in position, as did the Massive. Their formation was impeccable, creating a literal cloud of ships around their flagship. The Armada moved as one intimidating unit, advancing on Damogran--which was just barely visible in the distance. They would arrive within ten minutes' time.

Zim sniffed, rubbing at one of his eyes with his free hand. He was still tired. He hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep before he was oh-so-rudely interrupted by Skoodge, and then he had to deal with all of this nonsense. Despite being exhausted, though, he tugged in a surprisingly gentle manner on the Earth creature's arm.

"Zim wants you to be checked out by a Medic," he muttered under his breath. He tried not to make it sound like he was still worried sick. "Just in case. Your human bodies are different from our Irken bodies. They acquire damage much more easily, especially on the inside."

---

Skoodge just barely managed to catch the PIT leader, surrounded by PIT members, before they settled down in the Cafeteria for a meal. "Commander Jazz...!" "Hmm?" The sapphire-eyed Irken watched with mild interest as the much smaller Head of Council jogged into the Cafeteria, almost completely out of breath. Skoodge bent over slightly as he caught his breath, apparently exhausted now.

"The Tallest...the Tallest has put the two of us in the infiltration team." "To rescue Invader Tak, you mean?" Jazz's antennae bounced. That sure sounded like fun. "Yes...! And..." His widely-spaced eyes scanned the sea of PIT members. "Salsa is to be in charge of coordinating our actions." The orange-eyed Irken rolled his eyes, apparently not enthused about his role. "And Ceedid is to join us in the operation. An efficient team of three. So...we should get moving. Right now."

"Will you be leading the group?" Jazz asked, amusement dancing on his features. "You are senior to me, after all." "I, uh..." A sheepish smile stretched across Skoodge's face. "I think you should lead. The Tallest is already peeved with me--I made some questionable decisions today. I'd rather not push my luck."[/hr]

 

[Dip]

Dib was almost entirely surprised when it seemed that the Irken Monarch was going to listen to what the human had to say on the matter. Dib could only imagine the look on Ceedid's face when he found out that he'd be storming the planet Damogran. Dib wished that he would be taking the alien's place on the planet, but he doubted that even mentioning that would be a good idea. Dib mostly wanted to explore, but he knew that this mission was more than just collecting and gathering facts and statistics.

Dib gripped the wall tightly, watching as the large Irken zipped out of the bridge faster than Dib zipped out of the there just a few hours ago. He watched him leave, and wondered how he was able to run about so easily. Not being he was rather large and bulky, but because they were gliding and riding through space at unsurpassable speeds. Dib had linked arms with Zim for this very reason!

The human took no notice to the other being thrown into a state of high alert as he was touched. He was just stunned that something so beautiful seemed to be unfolding before his very eyes. While he always seemed to have these revelations (always stopping in the middle of conversation to point out a rather interesting commit, or stopping anything he was doing when they were passing by a large and beautiful planet. This got him in trouble quite a few times, when there was work to be done).

The second lurch nearly threw the human off of his feet, but he had managed to keep his place because of two key factors. GIR, and Zim both holding onto him tightly (mostly because Dib was holding tightly onto Zim, but vice versa). The beauty of space didn't deplenish, but rather change into a more simplistic beauty that Dib knew and loved. It wasn't long before a small number of ships popped into view, inspecting the nose of the Massive for any damage. He knew there had to be more than what he was seeing, and wondered just how many people were fighting for the Massive.

Dib watched as Zim spoke, and he thought that the other was rather... Regal. That was an understatement, seeing as Zim was the sole leader of an entire race of aliens, but it was just something different than that. He seemed to carry himself differently when he spoke, and he brought on a certain nostalgic feeling within Dib. He sounded rather close to his old self, presenting something in class or defending himself at his home base.

But it wasn't entirely there. He was different, somehow jaded. He was no longer excited as he spoke, and Dib likened his attitude to a blunted Dictator over a group of people who needed no persuasions. Dib was pulled away from his thoughts when he realized that he was staring at the leader unwaveringly. Dib looked down, and untangled his arm from the Irken Dictator.

Dib listened to the rest of the alien's speech, and felt mildly uncomfortable. He imagined the order being delivered to planet Earth, and that sent a shiver down his spinal cord. He hoped that a mass extinction of the planet-- either of them, really-- wouldn't be necessary. He had never step foot on Damogran, and he had never heard of it before in his life, but that didn't mean that there was no use in saving it!

Dib turned to the Irken when he spoke about being checked on, and Dib used every fiber of his being to suppress an eye-roll. "Fine," He said, trying his best to sound the least bit exasperated. He knew he was fine, and he knew there was no use in wasting Bohemian's time. If he had burst an appendix, he would have known by now! Internal bleeding was a painful process, and Dib hated being in pain. "I know I'm fine, but if it'll make you feel better, I'll stop by Bohemian." He said.

He decided that he would change first, into something a little less tight-fitting, but surely Zim would be fine with a little pit-stop. Maybe a sandwich on the way? He would just see how he felt a little later. Dib tried turning, before he realized that the adorable little SIR unit was still clamped to his leg. He had a feeling that Zim wouldn't let the human within ten feet of the medical wing without the little unit hot on his tail, so he didn't even bother asking.

---

Ceedid was parked nearest to the window as he sat and ate, munching loudly as he spoke about his day. "...And then the meat-pilot had the audacity to cut in front of me in formation! Doesn't the creature know that C is before D?"

Trillian made a face as the other spoke. "Ceedid, don't be gross. It's a human. Hu-Man. Not a meat-pilot."

"You sound just like him! 'Ceedid, I'm not a meatball', 'Ceedid, I'm a human!', 'Ceedid, I'm annoying and stupid and a screw-up from my homeland!' "

"I know for a fact that the human never once said he was stupid. I mean... have you seen his head? How can something so big have absolutely nothing in it? It's just--"

The two stopped their conversation when they saw a very out-of-breath Skoodge. They both readjusted momentarily, wondering if this was something important. They listened quietly, until the smaller Irken's antennae shot up excitedly. "Really?!" The Irken asked, his PAK legs shooting out and planting themselves on the ground, ready to spring into action in a moments notice.

The Irken remained quiet, practically vibrating with excitement.