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minaim-blog · 5 years

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DaTr Date Night - Part 2 - Skool SNAFU

Second to last period before the weekend and Dib can’t wait for it to end. But before school lets out he gets a message from a certain someone. Can he answer the call or is this a problem that requires at least two people to solve?

“I cannot love her, nor will strive to do't.” Dib said, with as much enthusiasm as a sloth. He was all but drooling over his textbook, but it was from an attempt to remain conscious, as opposed to a profound interest.

“Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose.” Replied his professor enthusiastically.

He was trying his hardest to breathe life into the reading while explaining what was happening every few sentences to a nearly comatose classroom. Unfortunately for the professor, besides a few members of the class, everyone was as interested in it as Dib was or worse. He was just barely paying attention so he knew when he had to read, as the professor had the brilliant idea of giving roles to the classroom to force them to pay attention. Today Dib was Bertram, Gretchen was Helena, Keef was Parolles, and the professor was the King. He only remembered this because he knew he had to speak if he heard one of them talk. English class was the only place Dib could be caught reading anything even remotely related to Shakespeare. It was also one of the few classes he questioned why the education system still deemed it necessary to teach in Skool, as he found it provided absolutely nothing to his “education”, if he would even call it that. The fact that it was his least favorite class didn’t help either, but thankfully it was also his second to last class for the day.

He was half paying attention while the professor and Gretchen exchanged lines between his. After he finished the professor explained to the class what was happening and thanked Dib for reading. This was his que that he didn’t have to read for a while, hopefully not for the rest of class, but it was dragging on like the horizon of the black hole Zim had thrown him into a month ago. The mere thought of which nearly sent him into a panic attack. Zim had completely brushed off his concern after he pulled him out of it, which Dib thought was so very typical of him. “You’ll be fine. You haven’t really space traveled unless you suffer from some mild time displacement.” Zim had said that to Dib after he saved him, and if he hadn’t been almost completely catatonic at the time he would have thrown Zim into the black hole himself. He did throw him into some space monster’s den later, but that was for the benefit of the mission they were on. The purpose of which was related to some disaster Zim had caused with an Eldritch abomination that Dib couldn’t even be bothered to remember completely. Even though he had made Earth his home Zim still had a knack for getting himself and the rest of the planet into a mess. Thankfully he was usually able to reverse the damage, and when he couldn’t Dib was there to help him. Not to say Dib didn’t mind, he was angry every time Zim put the Earth or themselves in danger, but saying Dib didn’t get a thrill every time they were in danger wouldn’t be close to the truth at all.

Since Zim had made himself his own force for good, and even well before that, Dib has admired him for his tenacity, creativity, and his own unique form of brilliancy. Now he could most definitely call Zim his closest friend, but if he tried to pinpoint when exactly they became friends, even when he was enemy of Earth, he couldn’t tell when that point in their relationship had happened. All he could say for certain is that they both thought of each other as friends, even if they got on each other’s nerves more often than not. It was for that reason that he got a pit in his stomach after he felt a vibration coming from his phone.

Only one of four people could be texting him right now, really only one. His dad would only be texting to remind him of a family gathering the same night, which he rarely ever did unless it was about a public event him and Gaz had to be at. More often Gaz would be the one to tell him about a family gathering and to keep his weird paranormal stuff out of it. He went over the family schedule in his head and couldn’t think of anything either one of them would message him about. His dad was out of the house for the weekend and Zim and Tak were coming over tonigh to play video games and watch movies, but he knew Gaz wouldn’t bother texting him about that. Tak never texted him when they were at Skool, even during break, so she was out of the question. That left the only possible person who could be texting him now to be Zim. The only time he ever heard a text from him was when something was wrong, apart from the occasional meme Gir sent him when he stole Zim’s phone. Considering that Gir was in Middle Skool now, and that Zim had been very strict about him not skipping class he doubted Gir was the culprit, especially since if he was his phone would be blowing up by now. His last class for today was chemistry with Zim as his partner. Meaning even before he started mixing chemicals Zim had figured out how to turn a baking-soda and vinegar volcano into a planet destroying bomb. He was just about ready to pull out his phone and text Zim that whatever mess he made today was his to deal with when he pulled it out and saw that it was Tak and not Zim who messaged him.

Her text read: [Can you sneak out of class real quick?]

Dib thought this was very unusual for her, she was too studious to be caught texting in class. If only for the sake of her disguise she would get A’s in all of her classes, even the dumb ones like English. He knew the only way she could do it was by cheating, not that he disparaged her for it, he just wished she would offer to do it for him too. The fact that she was messaging him now meant something was very wrong.

He texted back to her: [Maybe… I’m kind of stuck reading here. What’s going on? You okay?]

He stared at his phone while the icon for Tak ticked away indicating she was spending a lot of time working on or thinking about her response. Eventually after a few seconds she responded back.

Tak: [I’m fine, but I got a problem.]

“That’s vague.” Dib thought to himself. He wasn’t sure why Tak was being so ambiguous. She had mentioned to him before that her own “phone” allowed her to message him without the worry of outsiders listening in on their conversation, so they didn’t need a code language to discuss anything alien related. He had even asked her to make one for him so he didn’t have to worry about the CIA or NSA busting down his door in the middle of night for being in contact with aliens. She told him it wasn’t necessary for his phone to be off the grid as her messages wouldn’t even register on the system if she sent any to him. “Plus, we both know I’ll be the only one sending anything important.” Tak had said to him at the time, which he didn’t think was true, but knew it would be impossible to convince her otherwise. So he continued using his regular human phone the CIA was using to spy on him like everyone else on the planet. He was at least comforted knowing that her “problem” couldn’t be anything too serious because of that fact, he thought her indirectness was very out of character for her, but he had a hunch at what the reason was.

He texted back to her: [What kind of problem?]

Tak: [You know how I get an itch in a place I can’t scratch?]

The phrase, “An itch I can’t scratch” was practically too telling for Dib, and he was almost certain he knew exactly what her problem was. Over the years Dib had learned about the many intricacies of Irken antennas, and their particular quirks with grooming. One such oddity was that after periods of intense or prolonged stress their antennas would get extremely sore and cramped, which he assumed was caused by their muscle spasms in their antennas during those times. The soreness would eventually dissipate but the length of time it took varied from instance to instance, and it was a frequent problem Tak ran into where the soreness would last for almost days at a time if she did nothing about it. He had offered to help Tak with it once before, but she was very hesitant to let him help her the first time. Eventually he learned what way to massage and not massage, and now Tak had become almost entirely dependent on him to help her. Just to be sure though (and because he loved to tease her whenever he could get away with it) he prodded her to be a little bit more specific.

Dib replied: [Should I lather up for your massage or are you feeling particularly royal today and want my mini-backscratcher and felt brush for your antenna?]

Tak: [NO! It’s not that, but I can’t talk about it.]

[What do you mean you can’t talk about it?]

There was another pause between her messages until she replied: [Because. It’s a very /personal/ area Dib.]

Dib replied: [Personal area?]

Tak: [More like every area, like all over.]

[It’s not what I think it is? Is it?]

[Yeah, it probably is. So I need you NOW!]

Dib felt his face blushing slightly before he responded back: [And you’re okay with it? With us going there and you yourself doing that? Or am I misreading this and all you need is just a bit more handsy kiss?]

Tak: [No just a kiss is not what I need! It’s a lot more than that, but I /really/ can’t talk about it.]

Tak has had a very difficult time dealing with anything emotional, at least for the first few times around. Their first few hugs when they started dating had been a major uphill battle for her. Even though the two of them knew she loved having them, she was always so awkward when she tried to be the initiator, or she would become embarrassed when someone else caught the two of them hugging. Half of it was due to her inhibitions she got from living under the Irken Empire about self-expression. The other half was just her negativity about feeling emotions, this was also rooted in her life in the Empire but it went much deeper than that. In the few instances that Tak had allowed herself to open up to Dib she told him that even something as simple as a hug, which she knew made her feel so good, would inspire within her a feeling of great discomfort and disgust. She told him that the disgust wasn’t in the act of hugging itself as she did enjoy it, but in the fact that she wanted the hug, and that her own feelings and desires were disgusting to her.

At the time Dib equated it to some feeling of inner shame Tak held onto for whatever reason, but looking back on it Dib found a lot of similarities to her statement and what happened to her at the arcade the other night. Tak had this problem of “feeling bad about having feelings”. Whether it’s a coping mechanism she developed from her hardships throughout her life or merely a part about living as an Irken under the Empire Dib was unsure, and he didn’t know what he could do to help her aside from supporting her in any way he could when she felt that way. He didn’t like that just being there for her was all he could do, since largely he just had to hope that Tak would be able to overcome any negative feelings she had on her own, but thankfully he knew she could. Tak had gotten very comfortable with hugging after they had been dating for a while, and eventually Tak built up the courage for them to try kissing, of course before that she had to build up the courage to talk about kissing. She was a mess the first time she ever brought it up to him, Dib wasn’t even sure what she was talking about as she couldn’t even mention kissing by name at that point, just that she wanted “A higher degree of physical closeness out of our relationship” as she had put it. He told her that he’d be ready for her to try whenever she wanted too, when that did finally happen he was caught completely off guard.

Dib thought Tak was mad at him right before their first kiss, but she must have been trying to build up her nerves. Tak had mentioned having a similar problem to the one in her text message, that a feeling was coursing through all of her body. Dib had remembered Tak saying that it felt like she wanted to completely envelop him, or have Dib envelop her. He had even started to get a little handsy with her and lifted up the back end of her shirt, but Mimi interrupted them with a bite to his hand before he could have gone any further. He wasn’t as angry at Mimi as Tak was at the time, but later he thought it was probably best Mimi stopped them then, as it would have made things more awkward for them after the fact.

It still was very awkward. For a while they didn’t kiss or even hug after their first kiss, part of it was Dib’s own realization that things were different now with him and Tak, and a lot of it was just Tak being Tak. Eventually they found each other’s comfort zone, and now they kiss each other regularly in varying degrees of intensity. Tak had even become the primary initiator of their kisses most of time, which Dib attributed to Tak’s emotional and physical-contact starvation.

All of this, and the text messages they had been sending to each other, led Dib to believe Tak was now asking for a closer level of physical intimacy between them. While Dib was excited for this he was also very embarrassed and unsure of himself, and was beat red as he typed:

[Can’t you wait until after Skool for this?]

Tak: [NO I CAN’T WAIT! I NEED YOU NOW DIB!]

“Shit Tak. Calm down a bit jeez.” Dib bit his lips as he whispered to himself. He knew Tak was starved for physical touch but this seemed extravagant to him. He still had some level of excitement over this new prospect, but the urgency with which Tak was treating it was giving him anxiety. Tak could already be a handful for him at times, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to see her be as needy as she seemed now. So subconsciously, or perhaps purposely, he tried to weasel out of seeing her for the time being.

Dib: [Like now now?]

Tak: [Like I need you right NOW to come help me with it NOW!]

[But I’m stuck in class?]

[Then get out of class and come help me! I’m in the supply closet by my class. Don’t keep me waiting!]

Dib whispered another profanity to himself, but his school-boy arousal and alien fascination won out against his anxiety and trepidation. So in an odd combination of reluctance and eagerness he texted back to her:

[Okay. I’ll be there as soon as I can.]

Tak: [Good. Knock on the door when you get here and I’ll unlock it for you.]

With that their text messaging ended, and instead of getting up and immediately asking the professor to be excused Dib was hunched over his desk and looked down at his phone. “Are we really going to do it in the Skool broom closet? Should I grab something? Do I even need to?” Dib thought to himself as other more vivid thoughts raced through his mind that may have strayed a bit far from reality. He knew he did want to be on that level of intimacy with Tak eventually, he would be lying if he said he never once thought about it, but he was questioning if he was ready for it, and if Tak was ready for it. She definitely seemed sure of herself now but what would she be feeling next week, tomorrow, or even an hour from now? Would he find her locked up in her lab trying to create something to suppress everything all because she couldn’t handle how she felt? All of this was swirling around in his head, until something pulled him back to reality.

“Dib? Dib Membrane?” the professor all but yelled to Dib. He jumped up out of his seat at the sound of his name and dropped his phone out of his lap without noticing. He looked up to his professor who said, “Did you finally fall asleep on us?”

Dib was completely dumbfounded and embarrassed from both his situation with Tak and from being caught unawares in class, the entirety of which was now staring at him. He knew there was no way for any of them to know what he had been thinking, but he was caught like a deer in headlights from all of the class’s eyes being on him. Knowing not what else to say he opened his mouth and said, “Could I uh…be excused?” and almost immediately regret saying it as a few of his classmates chuckled in response.

The professor looked at him disappointed, “It’s a bit late for that now Dib, we’re waiting on you to read your lines. And didn’t you go to the bathroom at the beginning of class?”

“No that was for… something else. Now I have to use the bathroom.”

His professor sighed, “Finish reading this act, and then you may be excused. Don’t take too long this time.”

Either he was getting annoyed with him and just wanted Dib out of the class, or the class’s un-enthusiasm was beginning to rub off on him and he didn’t care. Dib thanked him and looked down on his book, hoping to get done with his lines as quickly as possible and see Tak. He looked down on his book but he didn’t see any lines for his character and flipped a few pages trying to find them. His professor saw him flipping through pages and said to Dib:

“We’re on line 1170 Dib. Lafeu has just left the stage leaving Parolles on when Bertram enters. Did you find your place?”

“Yes I did.” Said Dib.

“Good, you can start when you’re ready.”

Dib read his lines, with a bit more bounce than before, “Undone, and forfeited to cares forever!”

To which Keef replied with much ado, “What's the matter, sweet-heart?”

“Although before the solemn priest I have sworn, I will not bed her.”

* * *

Dib wandered through the halls of High Skool’s science department. Tak’s current class was anatomy at room S129, and there was only one supply closet a few doors down from it, which Dib assumed Tak was in. He felt lead in the pit of his stomach as he walked towards it. He was going over in his head whether he wanted to just go with whatever Tak wanted and sort out any mess that it makes later, or sit down and talk with Tak about their relationship and how she was feeling. He hadn’t even come close to making a decision when he made it to the supply closet, he tried the door but it was locked. He waited a moment for Tak to unlock it but she never came. He was about to start looking for another closet or text message Tak to ask her what room she was in when he remembered she had asked him to knock. Not knowing what else to do and still hesitant about meeting up with her, he leaned against the wall next to the door and knocked on it.

“Tak, you in there? It’s me.” He said trying to sound calm. He heard the door unlock and open a crack, he tried to see what was inside but the lights were off.

“Dib?” Tak’s voice said meekly.

“Yup. It’s me.” Dib said rubbing the back of his head, trying to force himself to be energetic. He went for the doorknob and began opening it, but before he could move it another centimeter the door slammed shut and Tak screamed out, “Wait!”

Dib jumped out of his skin at Tak’s action and screamed back to her, “What!?” He wasn’t as loud, but he was much more annoyed. After a second the door reopened a crack and Dib heard Tak say,

“The other night, when we were at the arcade? I was feeling bad so you got me a stuffed turtle to make up for it. What color was it?”

Dib didn’t hide his confusion as he spoke, “I didn’t get you a turtle. I got you a mongoose. And it was brown, I’m pretty sure. Why-?” Before he could finish speaking the door opened just enough to let him squeeze in as a gloved three fingered hand grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him inside. Tak threw him into the wall as she pulled him in with one hand and closed the door behind them. She heard him bang against a shelf and grunt in pain in the unlit room.

“I’m sorry.” Tak began in between quickened breathe, “I should have told you a password for you to use when you got here but I wasn’t thinking and panicked when you tried to open the door.” Her breathing subsided a bit as she continued but it was still laced with stress, “But that’s okay. You’re here now. So now you can help me fix this.”

“Yeah, and uh Tak, about that…” Dib started sheepishly while rubbing his side that hit into the shelf, “I know I said I’d help you and all, but don’t you think maybe we ought to think about this?” Tak then grabbed onto the front of Dib’s shirt, and wouldn’t let go.

“What do you mean think about? There’s nothing to think about! You said you’d help me! You have to help me! You can’t leave me like this!” Tak spoke quickly in a hoarse whisper, with a touch of desperation and betrayal in her voice.

“I mean yeah, and I am. It’s just…aren’t we kind of -you know- going through this kind of quickly?” Dib stammered out as he was trying to put his own conflicted feelings into words. He was thankful the lights weren’t on in the closet so Tak couldn’t see him blush.

“Quickly? Yes, that’s how I want it! Help me fix this mess now, then we’ll worry about how it happened later.” Tak’s voice was racing as she spoke, and she sounded like a convict bargaining on death row. Her face was close to Dib’s and he could feel her breathe on his face.

“But I don’t think quickly is what you need right now.” Dib pleaded with her.

“What makes you think you know what I need better than I do? I know what the problem is Dib! I just need another set of hands.” Tak’s concern in her voice transformed as she spoke, turning into frustration and anger. She began to shake him as she spoke, “If you won’t help me then-Then I’ll get somebody else who will! Gaz! She’ll help me! I’ll get Gaz!”

“Gaz!?” Dib said absolutely thunderstruck, “But isn’t she-aren’t you-aren’t we-”

“Friends?” Tak interrupted him while he rambled. She stopped shaking him, but held onto him tightly with their faces close to each other’s. She spoke with deep contempt in her voice, “I thought so too Dib. But friends help each other when they’re in need. And if you don’t want to do that, then I guess we’re not friends anymore!”

Tak said this with such ferocity and desperation in her voice that Dib didn’t know how to process it. His mind raced over everything Tak told him and then he said, “I-I mean I… Aww fuck it.” Dib decided whatever hesitation about being intimate with Tak he was feeling earlier he wasn’t feeling now. Since Tak was being so persistent, and very clearly stressed beyond belief, he thought it was best to appease her at least partially and then work out whatever problems she was going through when she calmed down a bit. He brought his mouth to hers and began kissing, but was surprised when she didn’t kiss back, and speechless when Tak pushed him off of her.

“What on Irk do you think you’re doing?!” Tak yelled back to him.

“What, you called me here for?” Dib said slowly, and confused.

“I didn’t call you here for that! I told you this wasn’t for a make-out secession!” Tak said infuriated, and from the tone of her voice Dib could tell she wasn’t here for what he thought she was.

Still confused he said, “It wasn’t-Then what did you call me here for?”

Tak fumbled around in the dark for the string connect to the lightbulb. After she pulled it Dib could make out all of the items in the cramped closet. It had shelves of cleaning supplies, a mop, a dirty sink, a broken mirror, and Tak without her disguise on and an angry look on her face.

She pointed to herself and said, “This is the reason I called you here for!”

Dib just stared at her without her disguise on in the supply closet for a second, still confused at what exactly was the problem. Then suddenly he grasped what was going on and almost yelled as he blurted out his realization,

“Your disguise isn’t working!”

“Yes! That’s what I was trying to tell you! What did you think I was talking about?” Tak raised her hands into fists as she spoke to him.

Dib wasn’t sure how to tell her, or if now was the best time to do so, or if he even wanted to admit what he thought she was talking about. He fumbled through his words as he tried to decide while he spoke, “I mean uh…the way you were saying it…it made it sound like…like…Why didn’t you just text me that your disguise wasn’t working?”

“Why do you think?” Tak shriek out, “My equipment doesn’t just stop working for no reason Dib. Someone or something has sabotaged me. One second I’m sitting in class, minding my own business, the next my disguise is malfunctioning, and now it won’t even turn back on along with anything else.”

“Wait, but even if you think someone managed to compromise your disguise why not just text me that’s what happened? Didn’t you tell me before your phone’s off the grid?”

“Dib, if they can hack into my system remotely and deactivate it, they can definitely pick up any message I send through a modified earth phone!” She yelled back at him.

“Did anyone see you without your disguise on?” Dib said looking towards the door, his own set of paranoia setting in. He didn’t think the faculty had a policy for aliens on Skool property, but considering he once had to spend the night in quarantine at the Elementary Skool for a lice infection he wouldn’t put it past them.

“I don’t know.” Tak said nervously, “Someone definitely saw my disguise glitching out before I was able to excuse myself. I was going to the bathroom to try and fix it but it crashed on me as soon as I stepped out of class. I ducked in here to save myself and now I’m too scared to leave in case they catch me.”

“But what about your cloaking device, or Mimi?”

“Didn’t you hear me Dib? They got everything!” She yelled at him and then hunched over, sounding like she was on the verge of crying as she finished, “I can’t even use my communicator to get in touch with Mimi.”

“But then how did you text me?”

“My phone is not the same as my communicator Dib! But it doesn’t matter.” Tak stepped away from him as she spoke and turned towards the wall, “She’s as good as dead out there, we both are.”

“Tak relax, we can fix this.” Dib said approaching her. He tried to reassure her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

“No Dib you don’t get.” She swiped Dib’s hand off of her and said, completely hopeless, “Mimi’s disguise is broken too, and I haven’t heard from her since I messaged you, not even static.” Her voice changed as she went on, going from hopeless to a full panic, “That means she’s out there with her parts strewn out over this ugly planet, or she’s been captured by whoever’s after me, and then they’re going to break her apart and cannibalize her for scraps. Then they’re going to find me and cut me open on a dissecting table, and put my organs in glass jars for me to look at while I’m still awake, or they’ll torture me until I tell them everything I know, and then they’ll lobotomize me or my pack and barely keep me alive so I can just do what they tell me to- and then- and then…”

Tak ended her monologue with a string of profanities as she clutched both of her antennas in her hands. Her voice and breathing accelerated as she went on, to the point where she was hyperventilating. Seeing this Dib immediately grabbed Tak in a tight hug and tried to calm her down with words of reassurance and an attempted plea for her to try to slow down. He tried breathing slowly and told her to focus on his breathe but it seemed to do little for her as she wasn’t able to match his. She tried to match his pace but all that did was put her into a cough, and Dib wasn’t sure but it sounded like Tak was crying in his arms. He tried to assist in massaging her antennas, and shushed to her as she leaned into him. That ended up working and the two of them stayed that way for a moment. Tak leaning into Dib in a deep hug while he massage an antenna with his free hand. Finally, after how long neither of them where sure, Tak had managed calmed down.

“Okay.” Said Dib still hugging her, “I think now’s a good time for me to take a look at your system and see what I can do to help.”

“What makes you think that you can fix it when I can’t?” Tak said angrily as she brought her head up to look at him.

“What reason did you call me here for if you didn’t want me to help?” Dib asked, not angry just confused.

“I…” Tak started as the anger faded from her eyes. That was the reason she called him over, but her mind was a mess from everything and she was so very confused. She brought her head to his chest and look down from his face as she brought her left arm up to it. On it just below her wrist was what looked like a touch screen about the size of a fist.

Dib activated the interface and said optimistically, “Alright, so what’s causing the problem?” He was trying to sound positive to help Tak’s mood.

“Don’t know.” Tak said flatly, her voice muffled by Dib’s chest.

“I thought you said you knew how to fix this but needed help?” Dib said looking down at Tak surprised.

Without looking up and her voice still muffled she said, “I panicked when you said you weren’t going to help me and said that to try to get you to stay.”

Dib didn’t say anything else to Tak after her explanation. He wasn’t sure what he could do that Tak couldn’t to try and fix it but he figured having a second, and calmer, set of eyes inspect it couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t his first time handling Irken technology, or even his first time handling Tak’s, but it was his fist time handling anything recent of hers with as much free reign as he had now. He was perplexed by how closely the Irken operating system, and Irken technology in general, match Earth’s. The first time he realized it the fact went completely over his head as a twelve year old; though to his credit he was also just concerned with escaping Zim’s trap alive at the time. Tak’s system wasn’t completely offline, but all of her systems reported a fatal error and could not operate. He attempted to diagnose what was wrong with it and troubleshoot but to no avail. He folded his hands on attempting to fix the problem, but from what he could tell it at least didn’t look like a malicious attack which comforted him a little bit.

He didn’t say anything to Tak after he was done looking at her system, but Tak took her arm in her other while she inspected it and responded, “I don’t know what I was thinking when I called you here to help. Like I said, I panicked and called you over without thinking.” When she was done talking another look of hopelessness washed over her face.

“Hey we’re not done yet, there’s still more we can try.” Dib said trying to bolster her spirits.

“And what exactly do you plan on trying?” Tak said arguing for her own defeat.

“Well” Dib began, dreading the argument he knew his suggestion would start, “We could ask Zim for help.”

Dib was surprised that Tak didn’t immediately berate him for even thinking about asking Zim for help. Not too surprisingly, she crossed her arms and responded, “I think I’d rather go to the dissecting table then to him.”

Dib didn’t say anything to her statement but looked at her exasperated beyond belief. Tak didn’t respond to his grimace, but she softened her own as she looked at him. She knew herself that she would rather ask help from Zim than go to the dissecting table, but she could never admit that. Dib was about to open his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by the Skool Bell for the next class, which earned a slight wince from Tak.

“That’s the bell for the next class! I’ll text Zim and tell him to meet us here.” He reached for his pants pocket where he kept his phone but Tak grabbed his hands before he could.

“No, don’t call him! He’s probably the one who caused this.”

“What reason, what benefit, would Zim have in turning you in? If they find one Irken they’d be crazy to think there’s only one.” Dib thought this was a unprecedented level of paranoia against Zim for Tak, but he thought it must be the stress of the situation that was getting to her.

“I don’t know but I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s the only one here who has the means to break my system, and even if he didn’t, messaging him would draw too much attention to us. I already think it was a bad idea for me to text you on my phone if they got everything else.”

“But Tak when I looked at your stuff it didn’t look like it was from an attack, just a system failure.”

“But that’s exactly what someone who knows what they’re doing would make it look like! We can’t take any chances in using anything that can be traced.”

“If that’s the case then I’ll go get him myself.” Dib said confidently.

“No! You can’t leave me here!” Tak pleaded again before she softened her demeanor and squeezed his hands tightly, “Please don’t go.”

“But what else are we going to do?” Dib asked her, but she couldn’t meet his eyes. He turned her face to his and raised their hands together as he said, “I’m going to get Zim. Lock the door and keep the light off until I get back. The password will be ‘mongoose’, don’t open it for anyone unless they use it.” He let go of Tak’s hand and went for the door but Tak was still pleading with him not to leave. Dib said, “Text me if anything happens, I won’t keep you waiting.” He made sure to only open the door enough to let himself out and closed it shut behind him as he went to find Zim.

The other students had already made it to their classes so the halls were empty. Dib remembered he left his backpack in English class, but he hoped someone would turn it in to the office so he could get it back later, as he had more pressing matters. The walk to his Chemistry class wasn’t too far as it was still within the science department of Skool. He was sure Tak’s malfunction wasn’t caused by outside forces, but he still founded himself scanning the halls for anything suspicious in case Tak and Zim were both targets. He made it to his Chemistry class without incident and looked inside, the professor was writing the lab’s agenda for the day, and a few of the students took this time to either goof off or prepare in advanced. He scanned the room and found Zim at their usual station with his disguise working fine, so if it was an attack Zim was not a target as well. A few years back when Zim’s and Tak’s banishment was made official Tak insisted (really forced) Zim to dump his old wig and contact lens disguise in favor of her hard-light hologram. Barely anyone questioned when Zim came in to Skool one day wearing normal clothes, not green, and not missing ears, and the ones who did were satisfied with the explanation that Zim’s skin infection got better. His disguise gave him a pink sweat-shirt with red jeans and a backpack where his pak would be, he had a few prefabricated outfits he cycled through but he never went overboard with it. As opposed to Tak who seemed to have an entire virtual wardrobe of clothes she went through each day. Now he was wearing lab goggles and delicately attending to the inert chemicals they were working with today.

Dib approached him and said as casually as possible, “Hey Zim, got a sec?”

Upon hearing this Zim jumped up from shock and responded, “AAAh! Dib do you mind? I’m trying to secure these chemicals so they don’t melt our faces off!”

“It’s vinegar Zim. It’s not going to melt anything.” Dib had always been surprised the lengths Zim went to in the lab, whether at Skool or his real one. He always dotted his I’s and crossed his T’s when following lab procedure no matter how redundant it was. Unless he was in one of his creative moods, in which case he threw all caution to the wind. Dib guessed his time as a technician on Vort must have imprinted on him a real sense for the laboratory, and he thought Zim and his father would get along great in the lab if they were ever able too openly discuss it.

Zim removed his chemistry goggles from his face and said annoyed, “Well sure, it might not melt your face off Dib but after the incident with the raw sewage last week I’m not taking any chances.”

“Oh yeah.” Dib laughed, earning a glare from Zim, “I almost forgot about that. Did you ever get that mark off your arm where the sewage hit?”

“Eventually. After a week of nightly salt baths and chemical cleanings.” Zim Shuddered, “It still smells like filth. How do you and Gaz survive on this stink planet?”

Dib shrugged, “It’s just a part of life here. Plus having our own filter system courtesy of our dad means we only really deal with it outside the house, which is okay I guess.” Dib got close enough to Zim after saying this so he could whisper to him. “Do you think we could hold off on Chemistry until we fix something?”

“I didn’t break anything.” Zim said aloud, not bothering to whisper.

Dib cringed at Zim’s abrasiveness, and still whispering to him said, “I know you didn’t, Tak did.”

Zim asked relieved, “Oh. What did she break?”

“It’s her…” Dib started to say, but looked around the room and thought it’d be better to be discreet. He brought his forearm up and tapped on it with his other hand, mimicking a keyboard.

“Wrist?” Zim asked confused.

“Her disguised.” Dib whispered flatly, he could be there all class playing charades until Zim got it.

“Oh. Tell her to fix it then.” Zim said dismissively as he waved Dib away while taking a seat at the counter. Dib took a seat next to him and continued whispering,

“She can’t fix it, we need help.”

“So she wants my help?” Zim said skeptically, whispering now.

“Well…she says she doesn’t, but you know her. I at least want your help.”

Zim looked away from Dib with his head resting in the fold of his arms on the counter. He tapped his fingers, thinking about what he wanted to do but didn’t say anything. Finally Dib asked, “Your disguise hasn’t had any problems at all, has it?”

Zim replied annoyed, “I would have told you if that was the case. What’s even wrong with it that she can’t fix it?”

“We don’t know. But it’s not just her disguise, it’s her whole system. Tak thinks it’s an outside attack, but I thought it just looked like a system error.”

“It could be a disguised attack.” Zim said looking up from his arms intrigued.

“Tak said the same thing, but she also said you could’ve caused it.”

“She thinks I did it?” Zim whispered shrilly, still not lifting his head off the counter.

“No, but even I can’t think of anyone who’d know how to attack it, besides you.”

Zim growled and Dib replied hastily, “I know you didn’t do it. But what could have made it just stop working?”

“Weirder things have happened to us before.” Zim groaned out.

“Or we’ve been the weirder things. You’ll help us?”

Zim sighed, “Chemistry sucks anyway.”

The two of them excused themselves from class and made their way to the closet Tak was cooped up in. When they got to it Zim tried the handle and was annoyed when he found it locked and shook it violently. Dib calmed him down and apologized for not telling him the password. He knocked on the door and cleared his throat before he said, “Mongoose” and then they heard the door unlock. Dib opened it just enough to let himself inside, then Zim opened it almost completely as he let himself in. Tak berated him,

“What are you doing Zim? Do you want people to see me like this?”

Zim said, “What could they possibly see? I couldn’t see anything in here with the door open, let alone now.” Zim squinted in the dark but no one could see him do so. Tak replied with pulling the string connected to the light, illuminating the closet along with everyone in it.

Zim saw her without her disguise and said jokingly, “Wow Tak. You know I always thought you wouldn’t be caught dead without your disguise on in public.”

She replied hostile, “If you caused this, I swear to Irk I’ll-”

“I didn’t, okay.” Zim replied irritated, “Even Dib thinks so, and he’s the ones with all the crazy constipation theorems.”

“Conspiracy theories.” Dib said placing a hand over his face, exhausted by the two of them.

“Whatever.” Zim said “Let’s just finish this up so we can all go out tonight.”

Tak extended her left arm out to him, “Fix it.” She commanded curtly.

“A simple ‘please’ would be nice.”

“Please fix it.” Tak said, her tone unchanged.

“Like you mean it.” Zim said playfully.

“I’ll show you what I mean you little shit!” Tak said advancing toward him, but Dib stepped in preventing her.

“Tak-Zim. Come on. We’re supposed to be working together here.” Dib said to the two of them while he wondered if the CIA knowing about Tak would be worse than whatever they would do to each other if left alone.

“I am helping!” Zim said offended, “But is it too much to ask for a little ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ for all the bullshit Tak’s given me over the years?”

“It’s going to be a lot more than some Earth shit exploding all over you if I ever make it out of here alive!”

“That was you!” Zim said furious as he turned from Tak to Dib, “Did you know about this?”

“I-I mean I didn’t know.” Dib said trying to play innocent. He didn’t know what exactly caused the raw sewage incident last week but he did have his suspicions.

“In that case I want an apology too before I help.” Zim said.

“Right after you apologize for causing that blackout on Devastis!” said Tak.

“Not like I’ve never said that before but sure. Sorry I caused that blackout that made you miss your test.”

“Now apologize for ruining my life!”

“I did not ruin your life. Or if I did I’m not the only one, your life would have sucked without me or not.”

“I would not be stuck on this miserable dirt ball of a planet if it wasn’t for you!”

“Yeah but you’d be stuck somewhere. We both know why.”

“DON’T YOU DARE EVEN SUGGEST THAT YOU MISERABLE LITTLE-!” Tak was about to mention the unutterable, but was interrupted when Dib stepped between them again.

He said, “TAK-ZIM! Both of you shut up! You’ve both been through shit and a whole hell of a lot has happened to you in the past six years. You both came here to destroy Earth, then got banished here together, then I thought you two got better with each other after you gave up on conquering and just set on living. You’re both a far cry from Irk now and a few things have come and gone here. From you both getting taller for whatever reason, to the us all becoming friends, and to Skoodge coming and leaving.”

“And Mini-Moose.” Zim said, sadness in his voice.

“Yeah. Mini-Moose too.” Dib said a bit gentler than he had been speaking. He often forgot how much Mini-Moose meant to Zim, he was almost as close to him as Gir was. Dib continued, “The point is that if we’re all going to live here without killing each other or letting other people do that for us we got to start working together.” Everyone was silent for a moment as they reflected on what Dib said. Zim was the one who broke the silence he said,

“I still want Tak to ask me nicely to help.”

“You’re not getting anything-” Tak started to get angry again but Dib grabbed onto her and said between his teeth,

“Tak. Just let him have this.”

She shoved Dib’s hand off of her but seemed to resign to Zim’s request. After a brief pause she said, “Please Zim… Please help me fix my disguise so I can go home and not end up on the dissecting table.”

Zim nodded in affirmation and said gently, “Okay. Okay was that so hard?”

Tak only groaned and gave him her left arm to examine her device. Zim navigated through her interface and brought it to what resembled a BIOS. After looking it over briefly he said, “Geeze Tak. What did you do to this thing anyway?”

“Nothing. Like I told Dib: one minute I’m sitting in class perfectly normal, the next my disguise starts acting up, and now nothing on it works.”

“Where’s Mimi?” Zim asked, some concern in his voice.

“Radio silence.” Tak said emotionlessly.

Zim was still looking over her device quietly after she spoke, and after a moment he said, “If she doesn’t turn up by the end of the day I’ll send Gir out to find her.”

After a pause Tak genuinely said, “Thank you” and it last thing any of them said for a while. Zim continued looking through her system’s BIOS and after exhausting any solutions through it brought out his tools from his backpack which included a pair of magnifying goggles and some electrical probes. He opened up her device without request, and the three of them stayed in the closet in silence while he toiled away at it. Dib watched Zim work his alien tools on the device, he hadn’t removed his disguise the whole time they were in the closet and was surprised by the lengths Tak went for them. Irkens only had three fingers, but he wouldn’t have known that just by looking at Zim’s hands as he worked, as the extra two digits seemed to flow perfectly into whatever finer work he was doing and they never seemed to blend into one of his other fingers like he would have expected. After a fair amount of time Zim finished whatever work he did to Tak’s device, and after putting it back together tried to boot it up. The three of them saw Tak’s human disguise show up briefly and then fade away into distortion as it completely destabilized and collapsed. After seeing this Zim turned to Dib and pointed behind him to Tak with his thumb as he said,

“Shit’s fucking broken.”

“We know it’s broken.” Tak said, her annoyance returning, “How do we fix it?”

Zim shrugged and said, “Don’t know, it could be anything from hardware to a coding issue. I’d have to take the whole thing apart in my lab and analyze everything before I’d find out what the exact cause was.”

Tak brought her hand to her head as she groaned, “Augh, useless! Why did we even call you here? I already knew that.”

“Relax Tak, it’s not the end of the world.” Said Zim.

“Maybe for you it’s not, you’re not the one with an alien hunter on your ass!”

“I actually don’t think it’s that. Nothing about your system seems out of the ordinary, apart from not working anyway.”

“If it’s not someone messing with my system then what? What could possibly be causing my system to just fail suddenly?”

Zim shrugged again, “It could be sun spots.”

Tak gawked and struggled to find words before she said, “Irken technology does not fail because of sun spots on planet with a hair thin O-Zone layer.”

“That’s what the Empire wants you to think Tak, our stuffs good but it’s far from perfect. All it takes is one rouge gamma ray to pass through imperfect plating and change a zero to a one or vice versa and your whole system collapses. I’ve seen it a hundred times when I was a technician on Vort.”

“You’ve seen this before? This exact thing?” Tak said with a mixture of skepticism and optimism.

“Well…” Zim dragged on, “When I say a hundred times it’s really only once or twice. We ran into this problem where a computer we were using had a complete system failure for no discernible reason. I suggested it was rogue gamma rays but no one believed me at the time, and we never figured out what the problem was.”

Dib chimed into conversation, “That sounds more like Vortians purposely sabotaging the Empire’s work than sun spots Zim.”

Zim said, “No, the Empire was working together with the Vortians at the time as a collaborative. Tallest Spork was the one who brought us to war, and eventually enslaved them, which was a policy Red and Purple maintained.”

“That still doesn’t apply to me. My device is not made by obdurate Vortians.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Zim said in sing-song and then continued normally, “Like I said that was a problem even before they started making bad stuff for us. And your tech isn’t much better than the Empire’s.”

“I know it’s not, it’s vastly superior.” Tak said proudly.

“Sure, once you get past all your coding redundancies.” Zim said.

“Redundancy? You’re one to talk. How many times have you tried fitting a square peg into a round hole before you broke something?”

“Guys!” Dib groaned to the two of them.

Tak shook her head back and forth as she said frustrated, “Alright, alright fine. It’s sun spots. Great! What am I going to do then? It’s not like I can just leave School grounds as an alien!”

“Well that’s the real reason you called me here then isn’t it?” Zim said proudly as he reached into his backpack again, “You always know I’ll pull through for you.” He pulled out a pair of blue eyed contact lens and a long mangy black wig as he finished speaking and presented it to the two of them.

“No. No, no, no. No.” Tak started, “I am not wearing one of your greasy wigs and old pair of contacts.”

“Do you prefer losing your organs on the dissecting table or your pride?” Zim taunted.

“This has nothing to do with pride Zim. They’re not going to be fooled by this.” She said pointing to the items in Zim’s hands.

“I don’t know Tak.” Said Dib with regret while rubbing the side of his arm, “I…Think it might work.”

“Maybe for Zim it might. But my disguise was flawless when I first came here.”

“Tak, your skin color was an off shade of green and you had only three fingers when first you came here.” Dib said peeved.

“My knowledge of human anatomy was a bit incomplete at the time, but I’ve seen students at our school with twice that amount of digits on their hands. I could’ve been one with only three. And need I remind you that it fooled everyone on this planet.”

“Yeah and so did mine.” Zim said shaking his wig and contacts in front of Tak.

“I am not wearing that.” Tak said pushing it away.

“You got a better idea?” Zim said as he pushed it back.

Tak groaned and grabbed both of her antennas as she dragged her hands across them towards the back of her head. “Give me that!” She said as she snatched the disguise out of Zim’s hands. She went over to the mirror and put on the wig, trying hard to hide her antennas underneath it. She looked at the inside of the contact lens and gaged before she turned on the faucet to wash them. Before she put them under the water Zim let out a concerned moan, he tried the same thing a long time ago and it had very negative effects. “Right, not the lab, bad idea.” Tak said as she shut off the faucet. She tried scrubbing the inside of the lens with the back of her sleeve and spit on it to clean it better.

“Hey, I’ll want those back.” Zim said concerned.

“Then you can clean them when you get them back.” Tak said discomforted, “Why do you even have this stuff?”

“You know Tak I wouldn’t expect you to understand style.”

Tak scoffed at Zim’s remark as she continued getting the rest of the disguise on. She opened her lid with her opposite hand as she guided the lens over her eye. It took her a few attempts and her eye got puffy and teary until she was able to fit the first one in. She blinked a few times as she adjusted to the feeling of it, then she put in the second one which went a bit better than the first. After she finished she starred at herself in the mirror while adjusting her hair and then she said, “This isn’t going to work.”

“We already told you it will.” Zim said unconcerned.

“No it won’t, I’m green!” Tak said turning around to both of them. “I can hide that I don’t have ears under my hair but there’s no way they won’t notice anything.” She nervously adjusted her hair as she said this, trying to hide the tube connected to her head.

“I think you’ll be fine Tak.” Dib started to say, “I mean I tried to expose Zim for years but nobody noticed anything. And they didn’t even care when he walked into Skool one day without a skin infection.”

“But just look at me!” She said pointing to herself, “Everything about me screams alien!”

“What’s your great idea to get you out of here, huh? I’d love to hear it.” Zim said sick of Tak’s nervousness.

“Maybe…” She fumbled around with her hair and hands as she started, “Maybe we can wait until tonight for the school to close to sneak me out.”

“Oh! Should I get a laundry cart to smuggle you out of here too?” Zim said mockingly.

“That might work.” Tak said, she was so tense she didn’t even notice Zim’s sarcasm.

“With the Skool’s night watch? No thanks, I don’t want to get shot.” Zim said leaving, “You and Dib can mess around in the closet all night if you want but I’m going home. And I’m taking my wig back, you can keep the contacts.” He said while snatching the wig off Tak’s head, she grabbed onto it as he pulled it away and the two of them were in a grapple while they shouted at each other.

“No I’m keeping this!” Said Tak.

“What for? You said it’s not going to work.” Said Zim.

“It’s better than nothing!”

“Careful! You’re going to tear it!”

“Guys! Both of you stop!” Dib said watching them, not sure what to do.

“If you want it so badly then take it!” Zim said as he let go of the wig and pushed Tak away from him with his foot. While the two of them were in a grapple they spun around the closet and Tak ended up crashing into the door as she went back. She had managed to place the wig back on her head but the door wasn’t closed properly which caused her to open it as she landed out in the middle of the hallway. From inside the closet out of view Dib and Zim heard a shrill scream from someone other than Tak outside. They looked at each other for a second as they shared a look of shock and concern before they both ran to the entrance. Outside was Tak hunched in hiding and Zita standing over her catching her breath, papers and books were scattered on the floor around them. Zita had her hand over her chest and said in between breathes,

“Oh…Tak.”

Tak looked up to her unsure of what to say and how she recognized her, “Y-yeah…?” was all she said.

Still puffing for breath Zita said, “Sorry, you came out of now where.” She bent down reaching for her papers but stopped midway to examine her. “Hey Tak, did you do something with your hair?”

“Uh…” Tak said as she looked to the side and spied her antenna sticking out past her wig. She tucked it in hastily without saying anything else.

“Did you get hair extensions? And your hair’s black. Is this your natural hair color!?” She ended he statement thrilled.

“Uh, yeah.” Tak said, still barely making eye contact with Zita.

“It looks really good on you!” She finished picking up one of her papers and straightened up, looking to the closet where Tak came out of with Dib and Zim still in the doorway looking at them. “Uh…What where the three of you doing in the closet?” Zita said, some concern in her voice.

“None of your business.” Zim said rudely as he came out of the closet and carelessly picked up a pile of the papers on the ground. “Here, you dropped this.” He said pushing the pile into Zita’s hand.

“Alright, asshole.” Zita said, trying to catch the papers but most of them fell out of her hands again. Dib came out and helped pick up the papers.

“What are you even doing here? Class isn’t out yet.” Zim said dubiously to her while raising an eyebrow.

“Well it’s none of your business Zim!” She said to his face while taking the papers handed back to her by Dib. “But I have an appointment today so my professor let me out early.”

“Finally getting your brain examined so you can stop losing your house keys?” Zim said.

“More like you’re getting your head checked so you can stop being a freak.” Zita said back to him.

Zim pointed to her and said, “Watch it.”

“You watch it. I liked you better when you were green.”

“And I liked when you stopped talking, but we can’t get everything. You have your papers, go to your doctor’s appointment.” Zim said as he picked up the rest and pushed Zita along.

Zita pushed him back and started going, “Alright asshole I’m going. Bye Tak, see you Monday in English class! Be careful with the freaks over the weekend.” She said back to them while waving to Tak who was hardly looking up at her.

“Yeah you watch yourself. Bye, bye now.” Zim waved her away and looked to Dib and Tak. Before he could say anything else the Skool bell rang for the end of the day and all the students poured out the classrooms. Tak froze into place as the hall filled with students making their way. People brushed up against her and told her to watch where she was going and all she did was meekly standby and apologize quietly. They were doing the same to Zim who boldly told them to watch where they were going themselves, thankfully nothing happened and the sea of people brushed past them without incident. After the students left the hallway Tak’s anatomy professor came out of his classroom and addressed each of them by name. He said Dib’s, then Zim’s, and then stared for a moment as he addressed Tak, but he was staring in disappointment as opposed to some sense of suspicion. He then left the three of them in the hallway without saying anything further and when he was out of line of sight Tak raised her head, Dib could see total disbelief wash across her face.

She went a bit ahead of the group and raised he arms in exasperation as she said, “You have got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Told you it would work.” Zim said flatly as he pulled out his phone from his pocket and began texting on it.

“But I’m green. I have three fingers. I’m wearing an outfit I’ve never worn before!” Tak said as she turned around to look at them.

“You really think the last one should be a sign you’re an alien?” Dib said confused.

“Zita noticed that I had a different hair style, but not that my skin was green, or that my eyes are just giant contacts, or that they’re the wrong color!” Tak said still completely stunned.

“You know Tak, last time I checked humans don’t have purple eyes.” Zim said still not looking up from his phone.

“They’re not purple they’re violet! And they do too. Elizabeth Taylor had them and so did Helen Rivers from I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Tak said with her arms crossed.

Zim looked up from his phone and said to Tak, “You know when you put it that way it sounds like your disguise is just some edgy OC I’d see on the internet.”

“It is not! And what are you doing on your phone?”

“Texting Gir. Also in case you were wondering I was being an ass to Zita so she didn’t pay attention to you. Thought I’d tell you cause you know, she’s your friend or whatever.” Zim said as he finished typing. “Are we done here yet?”

Tak didn’t say anything but a look of concern came over her face again. Dib walked up to her and grabbed her hand and said, “Come on, we’ll be fine. Let’s go find Mimi.” This seemed to calm Tak, and at mention of Mimi she found a new purpose. So the three of them, with Tak holding tight onto Dib’s hand out of nervousness, made their way out of the High Skool. When they got outside they heard the soft sound of a cat mewing from the bushes along the side of the building.

Tak gasped, “Mimi!” She let go of Dib’s hand and ran to the bush were the sound came from and said softly, “Mimi, Where are you? Tak’s here.”

Dib and Zim ran around to where she was looking into the bushes and saw Mimi without her disguise on hiding in the bushes still acting like a cat. She mewed again to Tak who said, “Oh Mimi, you poor thing.” She then petted her as she mewed. “What happened? Did you see anyone?” Mimi mewed again, “You didn’t see anyone? Nothing at all?” She mewed again. “Well okay, just stay here until I can fix this. We’ll have to cancel tonight.”

“You don’t have to, Gir should be-” Zim started to say but was interrupted by a familiar voice.

“ZIIIHIIHIIIM!” Said Gir as he grabbed onto Zim, pulling him into a tight hug. He continued with tears in his eyes, “I’d thought-that I’d never see you again.”

Zim replied annoyed, “Gir you were in Skool, remember? It lasts the same amount of time everyday you’re there.” Since Zim and Tak had started getting taller Gir pestered Zim to upgrade his design so he could be taller too. After ages of persistence Zim finally gave into Gir’s request and updated both his design and disguise from his dog to his little brother. Zim was still a full head taller than him, which made Gir the shortest one in the group after Zim.

“I know.” Said Gir a bit more cheery, “But sometimes it feels a lot longer than that.”

“I know Gir.” Zim continued impatiently, “Did you get the disguise I told you too?”

“I did! Where’s Mimi?” Gir said as he rummaged through his green dog backpack and pulled out a small black cat disguise. Mimi mewed in excitement and Gir called out her name ecstatic as he ran over to her in the bushes. He pushed Tak aside and helped Mimi get her disguise who was more than happy to oblige.

“Where do you get these things?” Tak said bemused as she turned to Zim.

“It’s one of Gir’s old disguises, and he likes to keep things in his locker. And it looks pretty good on Mimi.”

Tak turned around and saw Mimi already in the disguise as she attempted to groom herself. Since the disguise was only a felt suit it did not have a tongue, so all she did was brush her arm against her mouth before rubbing it across her head.

“No. You are not wearing that, you look like a toy!” Tak said to Mimi.

“Then just have her pretend to be a toy. You’ll be able to take her home that way.” Dib suggested.

Tak then scooped up Mimi in her arms and said to her, “Don’t move a wire until we get back home and don’t say anything.” Mimi growled in response but Tak was satisfied with her answer. She then turned to Dib and asked him where Gaz was to which Dib responded that he didn’t. Almost on queue the three of them heard behind them,

“Alright, what’s this I hear about Tak’s disguise not working?” It was Gaz, and the three of them turned around to face her. Gaz saw Tak in her wig and Mimi in her felt suit and turned to Zim to say, “Oh. My God. You actually convinced her to wear one of your crappy disguises?”

“Hey it’s not crappy! It’s an ingenious disguise which just so happened to fool everyone on this planet. Except you and Dib.” Zim said defending himself.

“Yeah but everyone else on this planet’s an idiot.” Gaz said.

“Everyone? Even your father?” Zim said teasingly pointing to Gaz.

Without changing her blank expression she grabbed onto Zim’s hand and started squeezing, causing Zim to bend over in pain. He struggled for a moment before Gaz said, “You were saying?”

“Ah, I take it back. Your father’s a brilliant man. I love him!” Zim said in between groans of pain.

“Good answer.” Gaz said releasing him. Zim grabbed onto his other hand and massaged it.

Tak let out a giggle before saying, “Thanks Gaz.”

“For defending my dad?”

“No, but don’t get me wrong. Your father’s a credit to your entire species. But seeing Zim in pain always brightens my day.”

“Yeah, yeah, same to you.” Zim said, “If we’re all set I just want to get out of here before-” Again, Zim was interrupted.

“Oh hey Zim!” Said Keef with two backpacks slung over his shoulders.

“Oh, Keef. Great to see you.” Zim said regrettably, “But don’t you remember me telling you I needed some personal space for a while? Like forever?”

“Oh yeah I remember Zim, sorry. But I’m here for Dib.” Keef said this as he took one of the backpacks off and handed it to Dib. “You forgot your backpack in English class and when you didn’t show up I thought I’d make sure you got it.”

“Aw thanks Keef.” Dib said a little hesitantly. He was thankful for him getting his backpack but Keef was always a strange one. He was especially weirded out by Keef’s red eyes, and wished Zim could give him his old ones back, but Zim told him that would be impossible.

“You’re welcome Dib. But Zim while we’re all here do you think we could hang out some time?”

“Ah yes we would, but I’m afraid we’re all rather busy.” Zim said while trying to push Keef away.

“I’m not! We could hang out!” Gir said excited.

Zim was about to chastise Gir for even suggesting to hang out with Keef but before he could say anything Keef said, “That would be great! I’d love to hang with you, uh…?”

“My names Gir!”

“Gir? Gir, that’s right. You’re Zim’s little brother. But I thought Gir was the name of your green dog?” Keef said looking up to Zim.

“We named him after Gir.” Zim said not even bothering to look at Keef.

“Which one? The dog or your brother?”

Gir wailed and grabbed onto Keef as he cried, “My doooooog! Oh why? I loved you doggo!”

Zim pulled Gir off of Keef as he said, “Gir! Great, you set him off! Now I have to take him home so he can calm down.” He looked to the rest of them and walked off with Gir crying on his shoulder as he said, “Sorry guys, I’ll see you all after the weekend. Come on Gir.”

Keef followed after them and said, “I’m sorry I made you brother sad Zim. I can make it up to both of you though! Gir, do you like Pokémon? We can play together on the bus ride home.”

“I love Pokémon!” Gir said as all sadness left his voice, he jumped onto Keef’s arm after he said this and Dib, Tak, and Gaz could see the two of them fight for Gir during their walk to the bus. The three of them watched them in silence until Gaz asked,

“He knows we’re all hanging out tonight? Or is that cancelled on account of Tak?” She said turning to the two of them.

Dib said, “No, I just think he doesn’t want Keef to know about it. But, how did you know about Tak’s disguise?”

“She texted me.” Gaz said.

“When was this?” Dib said to Tak, to which she responded.

“After you went to get Zim. I know I said it was too dangerous to use our phones but I panicked. Again.”

“Yeah well whatever. I told you everyone’s dumber than a sack of bricks.” Gaz said as she pulled out a GameStation hoodie from her backpack and tossed it to Tak. “Here’s my sweatshirt I promised.” Tak thanked her and put it on. She then placed Mimi inside of it much to her disapproving, and she poked her head out at the top so she could see.

“This should make my walk home a little less nerve wracking.”

“Right, so are you two going to walk home together cause I’m going to catch our bus before it leaves.” Gaz said. Tak never liked riding the Skool bus with the others, so she always walked home herself, even though she lived further into the city.

“That won’t be necessary. I should be fine on my own now.” Tak replied, much to Dib’s surprise.

Dib said, “Are you sure? I don’t mind walking you home and we can look over your system together.”

“Yup.” Tak said as she pulled the hood over her face and pulled the strings in each hand to close it tight. This pushed Mimi deeper into the hoodie, putting her out of sight. “I should be fine.” She said muffled behind it.

“Well okay.” Dib started, some concern still in his voice, “But if you need anything just text me.” He reached down for his phone but didn’t feel it in his pocket and then a realization came over him. “I left my phone in English class. Or Keef has it. Shit!” Dib said sharply through his breath.

“She can text me or Zim if she needs anything, alright? Are you coming Dib?” Gaz said annoyed.

“You go on ahead I’ll catch up.” Dib waved her away.

“Okay, bye Tak.” She waved to the two of them, a small bit of concern going over her face as she did, but it only lasted for a second. She walked away to the bus leaving Dib and Tak together.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Dib asked still concerned.

Tak pulled the hoodie down to free her mouth and said, “I should be fine, you go on ahead.”

“Okay, just text Gaz or Zim if you need anything, okay?”

“I heard Gaz fine Dib, you don’t need to repeat for her.” Tak then leaned into Dib and kissed him lightly on the lips, it lasted for a moment before Mimi let out an annoyed mew.

“Shush Mimi! You’re a toy. Toy’s don’t talk.” Tak said, but Mimi mewed back, “I don’t care if you think the disguise is good enough. Do as you’re told!”

“You’re going to be okay Tak?” Dib said again.

Tak started walking away and replied annoyed, “Yes, yes. I’ll be fine. We’ll see you tonight okay?”

Dib and Tak said goodbye and went their separate ways. Dib slung his backpack over his shoulder and went to his bus, and Tak began her long walk to her base. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her and then said to Mimi,

“Status report: my system’s still down but my pak and all its defensive capabilities are operational. Are your defenses operational as well?”

Mimi mewed and responded, “Yes Ma’am. All defensive systems are operational.”

Tak responded, “Good. Let’s just hope we don’t need to use them.” With that, the two of them began their long walk to their base. Tak had been looking forward to their meetup tonight all week, she hoped she was still going to be able to attend it.

* * *

This work is inspired by a piece of fan-art by an nameless doodle anon.

#invader zim #zim #gir #dib #gaz #tak #datr #tadr #datr date night

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thecosywriter · 7 years

Text

The Afterglow C5 (Yondu x OC)

The Ravenger crew were not overly pleased with their interruption, as many men scattered to pull up their trousers their crewmates armed themselves and ran out of the brothel into the ambush. Yondu made his way down into the chaos, his haka arrow piercing through the flesh of the enemy at unsightly speed; he couldn't help but let his mind wander to his engineer who he had left behind in the snow.

He knew that X'antia was well able to take care of herself, and he was slightly pissed that her and her team were the cause of this battle – however, he couldn't help but feel uneasy about the situation, something was not sitting right with Yondu and as he looked up at the ominous clouds which had started to circle the city, it bothered him more than he would care to admit. Stretching out his shoulders and shaking the daunting feeling from his mind, the captain sped up towards his crew oblivious to the chaos which was going on a few meter behind him.

X'antia had run. She had run for her life – never in the last decade had she been so scared of a group of people. She knew why she should be scared, even with her gun and whip she was no match for Grabbers – as a slave, she had been transported by Grabbers to her last Master. They were vicious, evil creatures who took particular pleasure in collecting and gathering would-be or past slaves for a price and selling them back into the slave trade. The engineer had managed to outrun the group of men before hiding behind a wall near the brothel – watching the battle go on. Pulling out her gun she began shooting at a number of foes in the head and back covering her crewmates as much as she could.

Crouching back behind the wall, X'antia pulled out her transmitter and called the Eclector and quickly scanned the area around her as she waited for the call the go through.

"What's up X'antia?" Kraglin's face appeared on the screen after a few moments making the yellow haired alien jump for a moment before hushing the nineteen year old.

"Kraglin – we have a problem, we are under attack down here. We are dealing with it as best as we can, I can't tell just yet how it will end but I need you to do something for me." X'antia whispered as she peered around the corner catching sight of the group of Gatherers which were making their way down the hill.

"Yeah, Tia what do you need?" Kraglin asked as he sat up alert in his chair, removing his boots from the table.

Looking away from the Grabbers for a moment X'antia took in the scenes of the battle which were taking place a few meters away from her; swallowing hard the young alien turned back to the screen. Clenching her fists, digging her nails into her palms she could feel the cold golden liquid leave her skin as she pierced her palms.

"There are Grabbers in the city, they have just found me. I need you to make sure that the Captain and you all get away from this planet – these guys are packing some heavy machinery that could do some real damage to the crew." X'antia said in hushed tones as she moved slightly into the shadows away from the line of sight of the Grabbers.

"So what do you need me to do?" Kraglin asked worked up by the new information being fed to him.

"I am going to lead the Grabbers away from our ship yard; they seem to like the look of me. I will keep them distracted and hopefully board and steal their ship and get back to the main ship as soon as I can." X'antia whispered as she continued to slowly shuffle away from the men hunting her. Gasping slightly as she caught her back on a piece of shattered glass discarded from the newly bombed hostel.

"Under no circumstances are you to let the Captain know that I am not on the ship. Tell him I am sulking in my room or some shit, make something up you're good at that." X'antia snapped quietly as she looked over the broken bits of concrete, noticing the group of men approaching her.

"You want me to lie to the Cap'tn?" Kraglin exclaimed.

"Please Kraglin!" X'antia exclaimed before covering her mouth and moving from her position trying as much as she could to hide from her hunters. "Fine….but you owe me!" Kraglin replied shaking his head as he moved to turn off the transmission.

"Kraglin, how is the kid?" X'antia asked gently, her thoughts for a moment going to the young Terran boy – who she hoped had no idea the danger she or his crew was in.

"He is asleep." Kraglin said quietly, turning the screen to show Quill asleep on the floor, covered by jackets and a blanket – making X'antia smile momentarily before she swallowed and turned off the transmission.

Poking her head around to check on the position of the Gatherers, X'antia's heart stopped for a moment when she couldn't locate the men amongst the rush of the crowd. Amidst the turmoil of the on-going fight X'antia managed to fight her way through the cluster of men and aliens before she collided with a large hulking figure.

"Come with me girly."

Looking up from her position, a gasp left her lips as X'antia stepped back and ran away in the opposing direction, running into the . He could see her neon yellow dreadlocks, poking from behind a tree in the distance; grinning to himself the hunter followed the brightness of the hair. The long dreadlocks, mixing in with the snow covered bushes and trees behind the rubble of the brothel. The hulking Gatherer following behind her, fast for his size he soon caught up to the Valkurian.

The gatherer watched as the alien ran away, she was a pretty prize indeed he thought to himself as he watched her move behind the trees. He had not seen many Valkurian since the destruction of Valkar, she looked very much like the rest of her kin. The creamy lilac skin which was littered with scars, the long pointed ears that poked out from her lengthy tangled dreadlocks, she was shorter than others of her kin, not obscenely so but enough to notice the difference – maybe she was a runt in her family? He thought to himself as he slowly followed behind her into the trees. She was toned, even muscular to some extent, he noted as he watched her body move between the trees, her tones calf muscles contracting as she ran and her toned arms, grasping onto the trunks of the trees and pushing herself from trunk to trunk, leaving hand marks upon the snow covered wood.

Yes, she was a pretty prize indeed.

Not entirely able to get a good look at the alien anymore, he managed to catch a glimpse of her every now and again running and hiding behind the trees and there he waited, silently for the battle to end and for the Ravengers to leave before making his move to catch his prize.

Yondu POV

That bloody woman! This was all her damn fault – if she hadn't had attacked their Captain, me and my men wouldn't have just had to go toe to toe with a pack of fucking lunatics! Half of my men still had erections! How can I ask my men to fight another man with an erection? That ain't fucking right! Men take no pride in that kind of fight!

I had sent up a transmission to Kraiglin asking about the state of the main ship, he had told me nothing had attacked them directly and that X'antia had made it on board like I ordered.

As my men and I flew our way back to the main ship, I looked back at the smoking brothel as we flew further and further away from the city and then the planet itself. Wiping off traces of blood from my face, I looked back at my men, who were tired by revved up from the battle none the less; half of them still a little confused about the whole thing. One minute they are balls deep in a robot – the next minute they are dodging bullets and trying to pull up their kegs. That was one sight I was happy to not have seen up close.

Pulling into the loading bay on the main ship I stormed out from my ship, making my way down to the engineering bay. I had to have this out with X'antia – I was almost ready to kill the damn woman.

"Alright girly we need to talk!" I bellowed as I pushed open the door to her workshop, half expecting her to be sat in bed asleep or fidgeting with some new toy passing the time away waiting for us to finish the damn battle.

I looked around the room, and expected some kind of reply – looking over at the drawn curtains by X'antia's bed I tried to make out if I could see or hear the young alien behind the fabric. "Don't ignore me woman! I am your Captain and you will answer me when I talk to you!" I shouted as I pulled back the curtain, expecting to see a half asleep engineer but to my surprise, the bed was made and empty.

Taking a moment to look around the room once more made my heart sink; I could feel the blood pumping around my body faster and faster as I tried to predict where my engineer had got to. Nothing in the room looked out of place, everything was tidied up as it would usually be before a mission or a docking on a planet. I started to panic slightly as I realized X'antia may not have actually got onto the ship after all. Where else would she be? Kraglin said she was on board – this is the only place she would be…

Leaving the room as I found it, I made my way back up to the control station. "Bring up the cameras over the last hour." I barked as I made my way over to the centre of the ship, after a few moments the screens around me flashed to the recordings of the last hour – all the recorded images of the rooms in the ship, all comings and goings of the crew flashed before my eyes but amidst the blur of the sped up imagery I couldn't find my yellow haired prize.

"Kraglin, get your ass in here boy!" I bellowed as I watched the recordings over and over, she hadn't boarded the damn ship – she hadn't even stepped into her shuttle to get her to the ship! As the lanky young man made his way over to me I could already read his expression – he knew that I knew.

"You be telling me X'antia is on board – I look at these cameras, ain't no engineer step foot back on this ship!" I growled before I whistled, shooting my arrow at the neck of the young man making him nervously shake before stumbling over his words.

"Capt'n she asked me not to tell you..." I could feel my blood boiling, he had lied to me. How many men knew, she wasn't on the ship when we took off?

"Not to tell me what!?" I barked as the arrow edged closer to the man, the end of the metal lightly piercing the stubble on the young man's skin making him whimper.

"Grabbers!" He stuttered stepping back against the metal wall behind him, wincing when the cold metal hit his skin. My arrow following him to the wall I could feel myself getting more and more anxious and uptight – I knew Grabbers all too well. I had been sold as a kid to slavery by my the bitch who birthed me and her husband – I had been on the receiving end of Grabbers and their antics – if there were Grabbers on that planet and they were near X'antia this was not going to end well and I knew it.

"S-She called up and said she had come across a group of Grabbers, Capt'n." Kraglin spoke out making me tense up, lowering my arrow from the mans neck. Taking in the information that I already knew was coming.

"She looked scared and she said they were tanked up enough to wipe a lot of the crew out. So she was gunna lead them away from the ships and then head back to us but she ain't never made it back yet." Kraglin blurted out before I let out a roar and called back my arrow, picking the young man up by the scruff of the collar and threw him across the room to the computers.

"I will deal with you later! Get me the location of them Grabbers. I want their ship on radar now!"

X'antia POV

X'antia, you stupid pointy eared fool! You should have stayed on the bloody ship. Why did you have to go out and get sexual with a robot…why didn't you stay on the bloody ship?! You are now stuck in a cell, by a group of Gathers….you stupid fucking Valkurian. Why did you need to leave the ship?

Pacing back and forth in my cell was not helping me at all. I never liked to admit I was scared but these Gatherers scared me to death. Flashbacks kept sweeping into my mind as I was brought back to my childhood – the years of slavery and how the Gatherers treated me as a child. The marking on my skin, still left the scars of the trauma.

I was silently praying to myself that the Captain hadn't noticed that I was gone, but then another part of me was hoping in the back of my mind that someone will have noticed I was not there – just not the Little Terran….not the kid, it wasn't fair on him to find out. Slumping down in my cell, I had a look at the chains that were on my feet and arms keeping me attached loosely to the wall.

Crawling over to the bars of my cell, I poked my ear between the bars and tried to locate the footsteps of the Gatherers on the ship, they sounded far enough away to not notice me tinkering away at the lock around my ankles. Crawling back to the wall I began to slowly unscrew the metal bolts and needles from my locks. Laying the items out in front of me I took each piece and screwed them together into a make do screwdriver – pressing into the lock and waiting for the click I smiled as the cuff fell away onto the floor.

"Childs play." I snickered to myself as I crept over to the main lock of the cell and began to work away at the large iron lock, listening well for any footsteps that may be approaching from the distance. After a few minutes the lock broke open; I held my breath as I slowly opened the large metal door, tiptoeing out of the cell and shutting the door silently behind me.

Looking down the long dark corridor of the ship, I slowly made my way down to the end following the small flickering light down the end of the corridor. As I made my way down the corridor, I began to feel sick, I could hear the moans and screams of other captive slaves – I could only imagine they were first time slaves from their cries. Some of the captives sounded young, really young and it broke my heart.

"P-please…I don't want to go to him…"

I wished I could get them out but it was going to be hard enough getting out on my own, without causing much of a fuss – a group of slaves would be way too obvious and sadly, as a slave you are alone – you learn to take care of yourself or you are in for a very rough life. That is something they will learn quicker than most.

Groaning to myself I blocked out the sounds of their screams and cries for help; hoping that the Gatherers would not think anything was out of the ordinary from their screams. As I left the containment area, I looked around at the dark damp ventilated main area of the ship – I could see the outline of shadows of the Gatherers in the cracks of the light hitting the walls. Swallowing hard I pulled off my jacket and pulled it over my hair – I knew well that Valkurian hair like mine would glow in the darkness. I never really understood why but right now I was cursing my race.

I tried to push past the rush of cold that travelled up my spine and the thudding of the blood in my ears which was mustering any sounds I thought I could make out as I snuck my way to what looked like the loading room, the room was dark and I could make out what seemed to be ships in the darkness. My plan was to hijack one of the planes and head back to the crew before the Gatherers noticed I had gone.

Pulling my jacket off of my head, I let my hair light up some of the room around me, following the musky orange glow I looked for the nearest ship I could steal, noticing the medium sized ship in the corner I rushed over to the door and took hold of the manual lever – trying to pull down the manual doors I let out a groan before I heard footsteps behind me.

"You know your hair glows in the dark girl."

Shit…

#yondu udonta #yonduudonta #yondu x reader #yondu imagine #yondu x oc #yonduxxantia #xantia #yondu x xantia #fandom #gotg #gotg2 #guardians #guardians of the galaxy #marvel

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