//------------------------------//
// On the edge of my seat. 
// Story: To be an Invader 
// by FaelaArts 
//------------------------------//

After quite some time, Zim stopped working, and breathed out. It felt like had had been working for months, when in fact it had only been a few short hours. In that time, both the spaceships had been completely demolished, and a half built device stood in front of him. Affixing another piece of the debris to the tip of it, he pressed a button, opening the radar.

“That should just about do it,” he spoke, pressing some buttons to bring up a countdown on the screen. Dib walked over, curious. It looked like alien letters to him, but that didn’t make his relief any less soothing. Zim began to pile the remaining debris into a pile, and walked over to Gir’s taco machine. Taking one, he began to quietly munch it, looking toward the setting sun.

“Wait, so we can go home?” Dib pointed to the machine, and Zim just narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Dib glanced toward the sun, noticing how it set much quicker over here. He quietly wondered about it for a moment, before picking up a taco for himself.

“It is going to take some time to download Dib. Especially considering I’m without any sort of guidance chip to insert into it. Hopefully it will be ready by tomorrow.” Zim pulled out a device, and clicked it, bringing up a screen. Drawing a house on it, he picked out an open area, and placed it on the ground.

As the house built, it beeped, notifying Zim it was running on emergency power. Disregarding that message, Zim opened the door. The Mombot and Dadbot answered, and he swiftly ordered them to shut down. Gir skipped inside, arms full of tacos. Taking a seat on the couch, he was saddened to find out there was no TV.

“Computer, how many hours of power do we have?” Zim stood in the living room as Dib slowly crept inside. After a moment, a robotic voice answered that they had 24 hours. Zim absorbed this information, closing his eyes and putting a hand to his chin. After a moment, he pressed a button on the wall, exposing a panel.

“Computer, energy saving mode. Place a laboratory in the kitchen.” Pressing a button, Zim watched as the kitchen dissolved, and a sort of laboratory was haphazardly smooshed into the kitchen. Zim payed no attention to the substances that fell. Most of them were items he wouldn't be using. Closing the panel, Zim stepped inside, and headed for the small computer in one corner.

“Wait, what about sleep?” Dib frowned as Zim raised an antenna. Gir walked in, skipping around and singing the sleep song. Gritting his teeth, Zim caught Gir, and tossed him back toward the couch. Hopefully the annoyance would find something to amuse himself with.

“Irkens do not require sleep. If you require sleep, you can sleep on the filthy couch like a filthy human.” Narrowing his eyes, Zim watched Dib fold his arms, and stomp toward the couch. Gir shuffled over, before standing up, pulling out some paper, and heading into another room to draw.

Zim got to work on preparing the vessel that would see them home. Inputting the amount of resources he had, he grimaced at the list that he required at a minimum. A lot were hard to build from scratch. This would take a lot of time, time that could have been better spent planning the doom of Earth.

Dib shivered as the cold air swept right through the thin walls of the house, hugging himself as he tried to keep warm. Closing his eyes, he silently hoped it would only be for one night. For a moment, he remembered his sister, and wondered what lengths she was likely going to to find him. After all, Dad wouldn’t let her go alone, right?

Zim paused, putting a hand on the counter as he stared at the computer screen, deep in thought. His antenna lowered, and he closed his eyes. Opening them, he continued to work for a while longer, before glancing into the lounge room, seeing Dib apparently asleep. The human was shivering like crazy, and Zim put a hand to his chin.

Zim quietly stepped outside, digging into the remains of the ships to pull apart the cockpit of one. Ripping off the fabric, he quietly stitched it together. Stuffing the seat stuffing inside it, he once more stitched it up. Flapping it, he ensured the stuffing was sitting properly. Zim used his claws to carry it back inside. Dumping it on Dib, he headed back into the kitchen to resume work.

Dib felt something land on top of him, and blinked his weary eyes open. Pulling his head out from the lumpy thing, he realised it was some sort of makeshift blanket. Glancing around, he saw nothing that revealed who had done it. As the blanket began to warm him up, he discarded it. Such questions could wait until the morning.

Zim finished typing in his calculations, and printed out a list, giving a small shiver of his own. Glancing it over, he tried to work out the best method to creating the items out of raw materials. If he was lucky, these Poenies had basic electricity. Or at the very least, access to some sort of mining operation.

Zim stepped out of the lab, and looked out the front window at the moon. It was likely the Poenies slept like the earth monkey, so there was little use to heading down of the night. Sitting down in the corner, Zim looked upward and out, thinking silently to himself. After a moment, he stretched, and curled into a ball. A moment later, Gir curled up beside him like a cat. 


Zim closed his eyes, knowing that he would wake the moment the sun rose in the morning. After that, he just needed to procure the resources for their escape. If all went well, they would be able to return home in just under 24 hours. Give or take construction time. Thinking of how to enact revenge on Dib for their predicament, Zim smiled, giving a quiet chuckle.

Lasers, Zim was thinking Lasers.