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As the bells rang to signal the end of the skool day, students started pouring out of the building. Though while most were so desperate to escape the horrible halls of academia that they stampeded for the doors or even leapt out of the windows, more reasonable-minded children made their way out at a more sedate pace. The latter happened to include Dib and Gaz, who were only now reaching the front doors, long after most everyone else had exited already, as was usual for them.
What wasn't usual was that Dib was carrying the remains of a poster board he'd used for a presentation in class today, which his sister had broken over his head after taking one look at it.
"Was this really necessary? I worked hard on this," he protested.
"Yes, it was. Because I don't mind you talking about Halloween, but did you have to bring that crap up as part of it?" she snapped in return, gesturing towards a fragment of the board where the word "Samhain" was prominently written.
Just seeing that word made Gaz's eye twitch, memories coming back to her of last Halloween. After she'd spitefully destroyed an offering Dib had been making to the Celtic god Samhain for good luck on that day, she herself had ended up with bad luck to the point of having the most humiliating and annoying night of her life. Of course, Dib had connected the dots and said that it was divine retribution for destroying the offering, but Gaz refused to acknowledge that any higher power had any control over her, so had consistently shut down any attempt by Dib to bring up the subject again. Even when it wasn't directly aimed at her, like right now.
"The project was to discuss the origins of any holiday of our choice, and for Halloween, that meant its Celtic origins," Dib said, before sighing, "Okay Gaz, calm down, I get it, you were upset that Dad and Clembrane went on a science expedition to reverse the polar ice caps last October — though why Clembrane went along I have no idea — and it made you angry and bitter to black dress level for the whole month."
Gaz grunted but listened.
"And while you did have to experience an experiment, Dad decided to stay home and help you with your loopiness, and Clembrane went back to check on you as well… arguably unfortunate, but the thought counts."
Gaz began to slightly ease up, which Dib took as a good sign.
"Now all we have to do is go back, give a proper ritual to Samhain, and you should have a good Halloween this year."
Gaz tensed again, "No way in hell."
"Oh, come on!" Dib snapped in exasperation, "Neopagans in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate Samhain on or around May 1. I figure if we do it around that time, we should be able to appease him."
"First of all, I still refuse to admit that messing up your dumb ritual caused all that. Secondly, if it did, he gave me a bad Halloween way out of proportion to what I did, so I refuse to apologize to that jerk," Gaz said.
"I'm sorry, did you say you had a bad Halloween?" a voice asked. Both turned to see Zim walking towards them with an annoyed expression, with Tenn following, looking slightly curious.
"Yes," Gaz growled.
"Bah!" Zim mocked, "You do not know the true terror of that holiday!"
"Come on, Zim, if you really learned what happened that day, you'd know my sister had a really bad Halloween last year," Dib stated, annoyed at his nemesis barging into the conversation.
"Your sister had a bad Halloween? Mine was eight times worse! Twice in a row!" Zim growled.
"My father's idea of getting rid of the cavities I got that night was to use an experiment on me that made my teeth all fall out and new ones grow in!" Gaz growled.
"I was held hostage in a nightmare dimension by horrible creatures and broke half my body escaping!"
"I was kidnapped by a deranged paranormal investigator who thought I was a sugar fairy!"
"Bill," Dib groaned.
"I was attacked by feral children, force-fed so much candy I was ill for days, and had to watch GIR eat a man who was turned into candy!" Zim said, clearly disturbed by the memory.
"I was so stressed out by the end of the night I was ready to go full-on apeshit on Dib and barely restrained myself with punting him through a wall and leaving him with a 'stay there till tomorrow' threat," Gaz spat out.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask if that really had anything to do with Samhain or if you were just reminded of the Shadow Hog incident instead?" Dib asked.
Both ignored him, as Gaz and Zim looked ready to attack one another. Tenn, meanwhile, just sighed in annoyance, any interest she'd had in the conversation having quickly evaporated.
"Right, I'm about at my limit of stupidity for the day," she said, before walking off without another word or glance at the situation. Dib watched her go, then turned back to the argument, wondering if it was worth the effort to try and break it up.
"I had to watch GIR bloat himself into a fat monstrosity on candy! Twice!" Zim snapped, face twisting in disgust.
"The stupid costume shop lost the costume I actually wanted, so I had to go trick-or-treating in a hideous pink girly fairy costume!" Gaz shot back in outrage.
"I had to actually save Dib instead of laughing at him while the Halloweenies tortured him!"
"Yeah? Well, I had to listen to him brag about being right about a stupid Halloween god cursing me!"
"Eh?" This last comment snapped Zim out of his self-centered anger, and he blinked in confusion, "What do you mean, Halloween god?"
In response, Gaz snatched Dib's report out of his hands and held it up for Zim to read it, which the Irken did with narrowed eyes.
"Who is this Sam Heinny?" he demanded.
"It's pronounced Sa-Winn," Dib corrected, rolling his eyes at Zim's further butchering of the common mispronunciation, "And he's a Celtic god whose ancient rituals were twisted over time into modern Halloween traditions. Gaz interrupted a sacrifice I was making to him last Halloween, so she had bad luck all day."
"And I still say that was a coincidence!" Gaz snapped.
"Wait, are you telling me there's a GOD of Halloween and he can FORCE people to SUFFER on this holiday?!" Zim exclaimed, his left eye twitching sporadically.
"Yes," Dib said, enjoying the look on Zim's face. He doubted Samhain had anything to do with Zim's bad Halloweens, but he'd take any opportunity to see Zim be angry at something outside his control.
"Revenge on Sam Heinny!" Zim shouted, "No one forces Zim to suffer the horror of Halloween, twice! He shall suffer as no creature has ever suffered in the history of suffering!"
And with that declaration, Zim ran off, leaving the siblings behind to stare after him as he ran out of the building and disappeared down the street.
"…Should we be worried about that?" Dib asked after a moment, still staring after where Zim had gone.
"I'm sure you'll obsess over it nonstop, but I won't," Gaz replied with a shrug, "Either nothing happens, or Zim gets blown up by a god, or maybe he even pulls off a miracle and actually wins, in which case a divine jackass suffers for messing with me, without me having to lift a finger. No matter what, it's a win."
"Er, I guess that's a fair point," Dib reluctantly admitted. He continued to stare after Zim for a moment, then turned back to Gaz, "So, about that ritual…?"
Gaz groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering if it would be worth it to punt him through another wall.
Zim, meanwhile, was running down the street, mind whirling as he tried to determine how exactly he would make Sam Heinny pay for daring to interfere with Zim's glorious life. Admittedly, he'd never fought a god before, but he'd faced plenty of horrible monstrosities (some of them of his own making), so how hard could it be?
"Hmm, what do I know about gods?" he muttered to himself, slowing down slightly so he could think more clearly, "They're powerful, and exist beyond the physical plane… wait, not physical? That's it! Zim knows just where to go for answers! It's perfect!"
Zim's Base, Soon After
"You want me to do what?" Tenn questioned, shocked.
"Build me an energy containment device for a god," Zim explained.
"…Ignoring the fact that gods possibly exist on this planet, how the hell do you expect me to do that?"
"Oh, come on! You've been on Meekrob, and that planet's infested with beings that ascended their physical form, you have to have something," Zim said, frowning at her not immediately agreeing with his brilliant idea to use her experience to do all the hard work for him.
"Well, yes, but for something like that, then I would need a valuable, extremely rare orb of concentrated neutron matter created from the heart of a collapsed star. Only that would be theoretically capable of trapping something as strong as a 'god'," she explained, making finger quotes, "And there are only a handful of those in the known universe."
"And where would we find one of those?" Zim demanded.
"How the hell would I know? That's my point!" she snapped back at him. Zim growled in annoyance, but before he could say anything, GIR spoke up from his spot on the couch.
"Ooh! Ooh! I know how to find one of them thingies!" the robot said happily.
"Zim doubts that very highly, GIR, but go ahead. Maybe your stupidity will so revolt my brain-meats that they'll come up with a good idea out of self-defense," Zim grumbled.
"Why don't ya ask Mr. Goat Head? He knows lots of stuffs!" GIR suggested.
"Mr. Goat Head?" Tenn echoed incredulously.
"He probably means Prisoner 777," Zim replied, frowning in thought, "I've been using him as a source of off the record information for years, since he somehow still has access to information networks despite being locked up. He's even the one who helped me get ahold of the doomsday device I used as a basis for Minimoose."
"Nyah!" Minimoose squeaked as he floated by, causing Zim to chuckle.
"Heehee, good one!" he laughed, while Tenn rolled her eyes.
"Yes, very cute. Too bad your source probably escaped Vort during the prison break and won't be willing to do anything for you anymore," she pointed out.
"Aha, shows what you know! 777 hasn't been on Vort for ages," Zim crowed, "I managed to arrange for him to be transferred to Moo-Ping 10, and the Gellaxis still have him. And between that and me holding his children hostage, he has no choice but to obey Zim!"
Tenn blinked as she processed that, while Zim walked towards the kitchen, GIR hopping off of the couch to follow after him. After a few seconds, however, she snapped out of it and followed them.
"Wait a minute, you have the Vortian who had a major hand in creating the Massive in your privately-paid-for captivity, and to make sure he's cooperative also have his kids held hostage?" Tenn muttered in surprise.
"Yeah, what of it?" Zim asked defensively.
"That's… honestly kinda brilliant," Tenn conceded.
"…You're mocking me?" Zim questioned, staring at her suspiciously as he paused by the open trashcan elevator.
"No, this is me being genuinely impressed. Sure, the Massive's been modified over the years, but it still relied on the original design. Heck before I was banished, the only software patch they made was so that no one could remotely pilot the ship anymore. With this, we can reroute delivery by making it seem like the Massive is ordering the specific dropout," Tenn said.
"…Yes, that's why I did it, yep!" Zim said quickly. And before GIR could open his mouth to point out that his master had never even considered that idea, Zim kicked him into the elevator. The robot gave a happy yell as he was punted into the open can and fell down the shaft.
Tenn arched an antenna at the display, but decided to not waste time questioning it. Instead, she just got into the elevator with Zim, the two quickly descending to the communications room. She stood slightly behind him as he approached the console, allowing him to take the lead since it was his contact. As she watched, the screen came to life, static quickly resolving to display a very tired-looking purple-skinned Vortian in an orange prison uniform.
"What is it this time, Zi- there's two of you now?!" the Vortian started to say, only to yell as he noticed Tenn standing there too.
"Yes, yes, Prisoner 777 this is Invader Tenn, she works for Zim now," Zim said quickly, only to yelp as Tenn slapped him upside the head.
"I work with you, not for you," she stated firmly, glaring at him. Prisoner 777, meanwhile, blinked as he took in what Zim had just said.
"Wait, Invader Tenn? The one who was assigned to Meekrob and then ran away when it failed?" he asked.
"I did not run away, I tactically retreated!" she snarled at him, hating being reminded of the official report on the events of her exile. Apparently, the Tallest had been so opposed to admitting to any kind of delivery error that might look like a mistake on their part that they had decided that the destruction of her base had been a "mysterious accident" that Tenn had blown out of proportion and run away from, which they used as an excuse to exile her before she could contradict them. It was a blatant insult, and hearing it repeated was giving her a strong urge to gouge out this stupid Vortian's eyes and strangle him with his own tongue, even if she couldn't actually reach him through the screen.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" he yelped, flinching back as if he knew what she was thinking, 'H-how can I help you?"
"We require enough concentrated neutron matter to form an energy containment orb," Zim declared, earning an incredulous look from the Vortian.
"Are you kidding me? Zim, that's one of the most incredibly rare substances in the universe! I can't just snap my fingers and get you some!" 777 protested.
"Well, you best find some somewhere, if you know what's good for your spawn!" Zim snapped, hitting a button and bringing up another screen, this one displaying the holding cell containing three young Vortians… and GIR, who for some reason was juggling them. For their part, the children didn't seem to mind, and were in fact giggling as they moved up and down through the air.
"Er, okay, that undermines my point a little, but you know what I mean!" Zim said. 777 scowled at the Irken, but sighed in resignation.
"Fine, look, I don't know how reliable this is, but I've heard rumors that a fairly large amount of neutron matter was recently purchased by the Duke of Smook," he said.
"Duke of Smook?" Tenn echoed, narrowing an eye at the name.
"Yeah, I think it's a dumb title too," 777 replied with a shrug, "But apparently when his ancestors colonized Planet Smook and made themselves the leaders, they decide to call themselves Dukes instead of Kings or Emperors because they liked how it sounded."
"Never mind the stupid naming conventions! You say this Duke has some neutron matter?" Zim demanded.
"Like I said, that's the rumor," 777 said, "They say he's planning on building a statue of himself out of it, which is dumb, but apparently, he's that kind of nobility. You know, the kind with more money and privilege than common sense."
"So, where would he be keeping it, if indeed he does have it?" Tenn asked.
"Probably in the vault of his palace's treasure room," 777 mused, "His family's always bragged about how impenetrable it is. Heck, recently he even boasted that it could even keep out the Grey Panda."
"Eh? What are you babbling about? Pandas aren't grey, they're black and white!" Zim pointed out.
"No, you idiot, don't you ever listen to galactic news?" 777 rolled his eyes, "The Grey Panda? The legendary master thief, who they say has managed to steal from even the most secure locations in the universe? Stating that they can't crack a vault is a major claim."
"Oh, okay… it's still a stupid name!" Zim protested, "And why are they named after an Earth animal?"
"Who cares?" Tenn snapped, "Don't lose focus on what matters. You want this neutron matter for your dumb grudge, and I could probably find good uses for it beyond that, but that requires us actually getting ahold of it. So, how do we get it from this Duke?"
"Well, if he does have it, you can forget about buying it off of him. He's notoriously greedy, and once something's in his possession, he never gives it up," 777 explained.
"Bah, forget about buying it, we'll simply take it!" Zim declared haughtily.
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Tenn asked, "And don't say we just go in guns blazing!"
"Why not? It always works," Zim replied, looking genuinely confused.
"Only if we just want to blow up everything. Which would probably include the neutron matter, rendering this whole thing pointless," she said firmly, "Much as it must pain you, Zim, we need to actually think strategically about this."
"Hey! Zim can be plenty strategic!" Zim protested.
"Then prove it and come up with something more complicated than just a smash and grab," she said, folding her arms over her chest and frowning at him.
"If I can offer a suggestion?" 777 butted in, "Not that I care if you succeed in pulling this off for the sake of whatever insane reason you want the neutron matter, but if you don't then I know you'll just bother me about it even more, and-"
"Get on with it!" both Irkens snapped together.
"Right, right, okay. So, the Duke holds an annual gala, where he invites other rich people from around the galaxy to mingle at his palace, mostly so that he can brag about how much richer he is than all of them," 777 explained, "It might take a little doing, but I should be able to hack the two of you onto the guest list for this year's party, which is next week, actually."
"Well, that's convenient," Tenn mused, "But that just gets us inside, we still need to find a way to access the vault. Hmm…"
And so, the three put their heads together (reluctantly, in 777's case) and worked out a plan to rob the Duke.
Planet Smook, One Week Later
It had taken some doing, but a plan had been put together, and today was the day to put it into action. The Voot dropped out of hyperspace over Planet Smook, a dirty-looking green and yellow planet orbiting a blue dwarf star, and quickly descended towards the coordinates that had been on the invitation that 777 had managed to whip up.
Breaching some clouds, the Voot's passengers were greeted by the sight of a large castle, sprawling across the top of a mountain, with various tall towers ringing it, giving it the appearance of a giant crown.
"Hmm, the Duke clearly knows how to show his superiority over his planet's subjects. Zim approves," Zim commented as he flew towards a landing pad sticking out of one of the towers.
"You would," Tenn said from her spot next to him, rolling her eyes and finding herself wishing yet again that she had her own ship; at least then, she'd have some peace and quiet on long pre-mission trips like this. But choosing not to dwell on it, she instead asked, "Are you sure sending Minimoose ahead on his own was wise?"
"Bah, do not insult Zim's minion! Minimoose is perfectly capable of handling his part of the plan on his own! It's not like we're talking about GIR," Zim said, grumbling the last part as he turned around in his seat to look in the rear of the ship, where GIR was currently chugging from a large bottle of mayonnaise.
"Why did we even bring him along for this?" Tenn groaned.
"GIR can be useful… sometimes… look, worst comes to worst, if things go wrong, we can just throw him at people!" Zim snapped, as he brought the ship in for a landing, seeing a group of guards standing nearby, armed with shock staves, "Now stop complaining, and let's get this done so that Zim can get his revenge on Sam Heinny!"
"Whatever," Tenn sighed, still not invested in why Zim had hatched this plot in the first place. She was just going along with this out of professional courtesy and for the challenge, honestly.
"State your business," the lead guard, a large hulking ogre-like creature, said as the Irkens and GIR got out of the ship, with the flat tone of a bureaucrat who had done this so many times that he didn't really care anymore.
"We're here to attend the Duke's gala," Tenn stated, holding up the holo-pad displaying the invitation, which the guard scanned with his own pad. When the relevant data came up, he frowned as he looked them over.
"This says it's an invite for two," he said, pointing towards where GIR was standing behind the pair, gazing absently into the middle distance.
"He's not a guest, he's luggage," Zim scoffed. When the guards blinked at him, he slapped GIR's head, causing it to pop open, and reached in to pull out a soda bottle, "Want a drink?"
"Er, right," the lead guard said, staring for a moment as Zim put the soda back in GIR's head but shaking his head and saying, "Okay, that's fine. But, uh, you're not planning on attending while dressed like that, are you?"
The Irkens raised their antennae at that comment, and looked down at themselves, still attired as usual in their uniforms.
"What's wrong with how we're dressed?" Tenn demanded.
"The Duke has a strict dress code for these events, and such… utilitarian outfits don't match it," the lead guard sniffed haughtily, "Invitation or no invitation, if you don't meet the requirements, we kick you out. Fortunately, we have tailors on standby for just such situations."
Tenn saw Zim scowl and open his mouth, probably to say something stupid that would only make the situation more complicated than it needed to be, so she quickly moved to jab her elbow into his side, sending him into a harsh coughing fit that cut him off before he could start.
"Thank you, we'd be happy to accept your hospitality," she said before Zim could recover. The guards arched eyebrows at that, but shrugged and gestured for the group to follow them inside. They did so, with Zim stumbling after Tenn once his breathing returned to normal.
"Why are you wasting time on such a ridiculous notion? Invader uniforms are far superior to any ridiculous fancy dress," Zim scoffed in a whisper as they followed the guards through the building's corridors.
"Obviously," Tenn replied with a shrug, "But think of it as being undercover and having to alter our appearances to fit in. It's an annoyance, but it's necessary for the mission."
"Hmph, fine. Just as long as we're not stuck with anything too ridiculous," Zim grumbled, Tenn rolling her eyes at his petulant tone.
Really, how bad could it be?
Shortly
Zim and Tenn had been taken to separate changing rooms, where robotic tailors had descended on them and quickly gone to work. Measurements were taken, outfits were selected and modified to allow for the presence of the Irkens' PAKs, and both of them were soon changed into their new clothes.
Zim grumbled in annoyance as he was finally allowed to leave the changing room, tugging at the tight collar of the uncomfortable suit that the robo-tailors had selected and made him put on. It was his favorite shade of red, but that was the only good thing he had to say about it. The pants were too tight and stiff, as was the shirt, which had stupid-looking frills all around the collar and at the end of the sleeves, and on top of all that the coat felt like it was twice as heavy as it should have been thanks to the large gold-colored shoulder pads it was sporting.
"Why don't they just give me a powdered wig while they're at it?" he muttered angrily, "I swear when this is over, I'm going to use this outfit to strangle that Duke for his stupid dress code. Or maybe I'll-"
And then Tenn stepped out of the other changing room, and Zim trailed off, eyes widening.
If Irkens were mammalian and had the requisite curves, Zim would have been enthralled by how the strapless scarlet dress that Tenn was now wearing hugged them, while also baring her shoulders and arms. As it was though, being insectoid meant that none of that was happening; while seeing all that normally covered skin now exposed was quite intriguing, what really captivated Zim was the number of jeweled rings that had been slid onto Tenn's antennae, making them sparkle at every minor movement and shift, creating an almost halo-like effect over her head. Zim frankly couldn't stop looking at it…
"Zim, my eyes are down here," Tenn snapped, planting opera glove-covered hands on her hips and scowling, a noticeable flush on her cheeks. Zim blinked, snapping out of his daze, and blushed himself as he realized he'd been staring at Tenn's antennae, which was quite a taboo among Irkens, second only to touching them with his own without permission.
"Er, right, sorry," he muttered, clearing his throat and looking away, "I, uh, was too distracted by how uncomfortable this suit is!"
"Tch, what are you complaining about? At least you can walk properly in yours!" Tenn grumbled as she walked over towards him, Zim narrowing an eye as he saw she was barely moving past a waddle, "My legs barely have any room to move. This thing should be used as a prison uniform, not fancy dress!"
"Fashion is about looking good, not comfort," the lead guard sneered from where he and his cohorts were standing nearby waiting for them, GIR seated on the floor next to them. Being officially classified as "luggage" instead of a guest, he hadn't needed any clothes and was allowed to just wait outside.
"Ooh, Master, you and pretty lady look pretty!" GIR commented happily.
"Shut up, GIR," Zim snapped, before glaring at the lead guard, "Okay, we're wearing the stupid clothes you told us to put on. Can we get to the party now?"
"This way," the guard replied, leading them down a hall. It was slow going due to Tenn's limited mobility (which Zim forced himself not to make a joke about, if only to avoid getting punched in the teeth), but soon they reached a grand set of doors, which slid open at their approach.
Stepping through the doors, the pair were greeted by the sight of a large ballroom, ringed by tables stacked with expensive foods, with dozens of beings of just as many species milling about, the murmurs of their numerous conversations filling the air. Many of those stopped as much of the crowd turned to stare at the Irkens as they entered the room, then picked up again to discuss the sudden new topic.
"Are those Irkens? I thought the Duke had class."
"Who invited those freaks?"
"Maybe we'll be allowed to shoot at them for a party game?"
"Bah, worthless maggots, insulting their betters," Zim muttered, "We should blow this place up on our way out."
"While I agree in principle, we're supposed to be discrete for this, so stay cool," Tenn muttered back.
Zim frowned and looked like he wanted to argue further for extreme violence, but before he could say anything, there was a small burst of static as the room's speaker system came to life.
"Testing, testing, okay, I think we're good," a thin alien who looked like a humanoid squid in a butler's uniform spoke into a mic, "Welcome, ladies, gentlemen, and assorted other beings, to this year's annual Smook Gala. It is my great honor to introduce your host, His Grace the Duke of Smook, Kurrquz XXIX!"
As the crowd gave polite applause, the curtains covering the far side of the room parted, a spotlight coming to life to illuminate the Duke. Who, as it turned out, was an incredibly fat being whose surprisingly disproportionately thin arms and legs looked like useless stubs next to the sheer bulk. Which was probably why he was using a hover palanquin to move around on, floating in to rise up and look down at his guests.
"Sweet Irk, he makes Skoodge look thin by comparison," Zim muttered to Tenn, who surprised herself by snorting at the comment before she composed herself.
"Welcome, social elites of the galaxy who are nonetheless inferior to me!" Duke Kurrquz said in a guttural croak of a voice, "As always, it is lovely to see you all go out of your way to come here, because you know how much of an honor it is to be in my presence, and bragging about it will make you feel superior to everyone else who isn't here."
There were some grumbles and dirty looks from the crowd, but no one openly spoke up against the blatant insults. Was that just part of being rich, flinging barbs like that and taking it? Tenn didn't know, but also decided that she didn't really care; she wasn't here to make friends, after all, let these one-percenter nitwits waste their time however they wanted.
"But anyway, enough about how great I am, let's get this party started!" Kurrquz declared, only for the butler to cough and give his employer a pointed look, causing the Duke to roll his eyes, "Ugh, but apparently I'm legally required to address any questions or concerns anyone has before things kick off and the alcohol starts flowing. So, anything from anyone?"
"If I may make an inquiry, Your Grace?" asked one guest, a thin, yellow-skinned alien wearing a tuxedo, a top hat and a monocle, and holding a cane in one hand.
"Ooh, lookit! It's Mr. Peanut!" GIR giggled, pointing to the speaker.
"Quiet, GIR! …even if it is a pretty good comparison," Zim snapped, before trailing off as he also noted the similarity to the human food mascot he'd seen on TV.
"Yes, what is it?" Kurrquz sighed, clearly annoyed that he'd actually have to answer questions.
"I'm just curious. Is it true that you have a vault here in your palace that not even the Grey Panda can beat?" the guest asked, "I'm just curious if you really were brilliant and magnificent enough to pull off such a thing."
"Yes, it is true, and yes I was," the Duke croaked, puffing up in pride, "The vault is in the bowels of this palace, protected by the most impenetrable security in the galaxy!"
"Ooh, fascinating! Thank you for being generous enough to tell me that, Your Grace," the guest said with a bow.
"You're welcome, peon whose name I can't remember," Kurrquz replied cheerfully, "Anyone else? No? Okay, now we can get the party started!"
"Woo!" a random guest yelled in excitement.
"But before we get to the real fun, according to traditions set forth by my ancestors, we have to start with a formal dance," Kurrquz said, gesturing to the butler, who responded by pulling out a remote and pressing a button. This caused the speakers to start playing soft classical music, and the guests started moving from the various tables to start pairing off in the open space of the room's middle. Before long, Zim and Tenn were the only ones left not slow dancing.
"Pft, as if Zim would ever waste his time on such frivolous- Hey!" Zim started to say, only to bark in protest as one of the guards prodded him sharply in the back with his staff.
"All guests are required to participate in the opening dance," the lead guard stated firmly, "I mean, hell, even your 'luggage' is doing it."
"Eh?" Zim blinked, and turned to see GIR on the floor, dancing a bit more wildly than all the other guests, a pig in his arms as he did so.
"…Where'd that pig come from?" Tenn asked in exasperation.
"Inside his head. Thought you knew about it," one of the guards grunted.
"GIR! Why did you bring the swine?!" Zim snarled.
"Pig wanted to party!" GIR replied with his usual oblivious cheer, causing his master to facepalm.
"Okay… but anyway, the dance is mandatory, so either do it or we kick you out," the lead guard said after watching GIR's nonsense for a moment.
"How many of these stupidly strict rules do you have?" Tenn demanded.
"Several. Now, either get dancing or get packing," the lead guard said with a mild glare. The Irkens glared back at him for daring to order them around, but with a quick exchanged look reminded each other of why they were here, so with reluctant sighs they turned and walked out on to the dance floor. Finding an empty spot, they faced each other… and stared for several minutes.
"Uh, do you actually know how to dance?" Tenn asked awkwardly.
"Er, I think I downloaded some information on it once," Zim replied, just as awkward, "Let's see… yes, I think we do this, and uh…"
Stiffly and not completely certain of what he was doing, Zim took one of her hands in his and held it away from them, then guided her other one to his waist before then putting his free hand behind her, carefully avoiding her PAK as he pressed it against her back. He then started swaying as much in tune to the beat of the music as he could, leading her in doing the same.
It was a completely foreign experience for the two Invaders, who both felt incredibly uncomfortable with the situation as they swayed and tried to avoid stepping on each other's feet. However, as it went on, they found themselves settling into the motions, growing more comfortable with what they were doing. And oddly, as they stood there doing all this, staring into each other's eyes across the very small distance between their faces, they both felt a strange warm feeling bubbling up from their squeedlyspoochs. Neither had any idea what it was, but it wasn't unpleasant, and they found that they didn't want it to stop.
Unfortunately, it was brought to a sudden halt as one of the guards jabbed Zim in the back, causing him to stumble into Tenn, nearly knocking them both over.
"Stop doing that!" Zim snapped as he untangled himself from Tenn and glared at the guards behind him.
"The music stopped two minutes ago," the lead guard said flatly, gesturing to the rest of the room, where the other guests had indeed all stopped dancing, most of them looking at the Irkens in bemusement.
"Oh, er, right," Zim said with an awkward cough, he and Tenn both blushing at the attention and feeling oddly embarrassed. They quickly stepped off of the dance floor and made their way to side of the room, while the Duke floated up over the crowd again.
"Okay, now that that boring stuff is out of the way, let's get to the real partying!" Kurrquz declared, gesturing to the butler, who examined a card he pulled out of his pocket before speaking.
"Sadly, the entertainment we hired for the evening was sucked into a random black hole last week," the butler said, "Fortunately, we were conveniently contacted by another act looking for a job shortly after. So please, put your hands and/or equivalent appendages together for DJ Little MM!"
The ballroom's lights shut off, except for a spotlight that illuminated the same area where Kurrquz had emerged from, as the floor split open to allow a platform to rise up. On that platform was a fancy turntable, and floating over that was Minimoose – who now had a gold chain hanging from his body, a gold cap on his tooth, gold-rimmed sunglasses over his eyes, and a backwards-facing baseball cap between his antlers.
"Nyah!" Minimoose squeaked, before telekinetically bringing the turntable to life, heavy techno music filling the air as strobe lights started flashing.
"Woo!" the same overexcited guest from before exclaimed, before the crowd threw decorum aside and started dancing wildly, a mosh pit quickly forming.
"Ha! And you doubted Minimoose's ability to blend in and create a distraction!" Zim crowed, watching the scene unfolding in front of him.
"No, I just doubted the logic of this particular distraction," Tenn replied, looking to Minimoose with incredulity, "I still don't see how he even knows how to perform like this."
"I blame GIR," Zim said flatly, "He dragged Minimoose along to that club he visits one time, and got him hooked on the music. Next thing you know, this happens. It's undignified for my greatest minion, but it occasionally has its uses."
"Well, it's definitely working to keep the other guests busy. But what about them?" Tenn said, gesturing discretely to the nearby guards, who were standing between them and the doors, and were side-eying the Irkens, presumably because of the multiple faux-pas they'd already made. Zim frowned as he noticed that, trying to think of how to get rid of them so that they could implement the rest of the plan, when a solution presented itself.
"Party Pig, party!" GIR shouted, chucking his pig in the direction of the mosh pit. And unfortunately for the guards, they were standing directly in the way.
"What the- oof!" the lead guard started to say, only for the pig to slam into his chest like a cannonball and knocking him into his colleagues. And then, against all likelihood and probably several laws of physics, the whole group flew backwards with the pig still pressed against the lead guard's chest, landing in the middle of the mosh pit, where they were all soon being crowd surfed.
"Hey! Put us down! We're on duty!" the lead guard protested, which was ignored as the guests continued to move him and the others (and the pig) around the room.
"…That works," Tenn said after a moment to process what had just happened. Shaking her head, she made her way towards the nearest wall, where several cables ran along the floor, barely covered by a rug. With Zim standing in a strategic position to block her from outside view, she pulled a cable and data pad out of her PAK, the former attaching to one of the floor cables and causing the latter to ping to life with lines of code streaming across its screen.
"Okay, accessing the palace's internal systems… there's the security cameras… and there we go, they're looping, no one will see us moving through the halls," she said after a few minutes of quickly hacking her way through the coding, "And I have the layout of the building, I know exactly where we need to go."
"Excellent, let's move," Zim said. After grabbing GIR from where he was watching the mosh pit, the Irkens quickly but discretely made their way to the doors and slipped out of the room. Once in the hallway, they started making their way in the direction Tenn indicated, though they soon found themselves moving slowly as she kept lagging behind him.
"Would you hurry up, already?" Zim snapped, shooting an annoyed glare over his shoulder at Tenn, who was shuffling as fast as she could with her legs practically pinned by the tight dress.
"I'd like to see how fast you could move in this thing!" she snapped back at him, before deciding that since they weren't bothering with their cover anymore, she didn't need to worry about the state of the dress. Popping a PAK leg, she quickly used it to cut a slit in the side of the dress from the hem up to midway up her thigh, allowing her leg to move more freely.
"Ahh, much better," Tenn sighed in relief, doing a few quick stretches before pausing as she noticed Zim staring at her, "What are you looking at?"
"Uhh…" Zim muttered, brain failing to put together anything to say as he found himself for some reason unable to look away from Tenn's bared leg. However, after a moment he was able to snap himself out of it, shaking off the strange feeling and quickly saying, "It's nothing. Let's just go."
Tenn narrowed an eye at him confusion, but decided that it was probably just more of his usual moronic insanity and put it out of mind.
The two started moving again, Tenn now able to move fast enough to take the lead and guide Zim and GIR through the corridors of the palace, the group occasionally having to cling to the ceiling to hide from patrolling guards. It took longer than either Irken would have liked, knowing that sooner or later Minimoose's performance would wrap up and their absence would likely be noticed. But eventually, they found themselves deep underground in the lowermost level of the palace, staring at a massive vault door set in the wall of a large shaft that had taken them five whole minutes to climb down from the next level up.
"Hmm, solid unobtanium," Tenn mused, knocking lightly on the door, "It'd take about 2 weeks straight to cut through this. We'll need to override the lock if we want to get it open, but- what the?!"
To Tenn's surprise, the door suddenly unlocked and swung open on its own. Looking around in confusion, she saw Zim standing in front of a control panel set into the wall next to the door, clearly having just entered the door's entry code.
"How'd you do that?" she demanded.
"The code was the fat ugly Duke's name," Zim replied with a smug smirk, "Zim figured that someone that egotistical would also be that stupid when it comes to security."
"Oh? Remind you of anyone?" Tenn asked teasingly. Zim huffed in response but surprisingly didn't go into a tirade; if anything, she thought she saw the corners of his mouth twitch in suppressed amusement.
Huh, weird. They were being practically friendly on this mission instead of just tolerating each other. Maybe they'd finally adjusted enough to being a team to have some actual camaraderie?
Deciding that was something else that didn't matter right now, Tenn walked into the vault, Zim and GIR right behind her. As they entered the room, lights flashed on, and they were nearly blinded from the sudden glare.
"AH! My eyes! It's some sort of light trap!" Zim screamed, covering his eyes.
"No, you idiot, it's just reflecting off of something!" Tenn snapped in annoyance, squinting her own eyes against the glare until her vision adjusted, and then looked to see what had caused it. At which point her jaw dropped in shock.
"Oooh, sparkly!" GIR said happily, looking out past the edge of the balcony they were standing on, which was positioned over a room the size of a football stadium. There were a few other elevated platforms scattered throughout the space, holding what looked like high-tech cargo containers. But what really caught their attention was that most of the vault's interior was filled with gold – ingots, coins, and jewelry of all kinds completely covered the vault's floor from one wall to the next, creating a virtual sea of the precious metal.
"I am not easily impressed by things done by anyone but myself, but this is rather noteworthy," Zim said, sounding slightly awestruck.
"Indeed, it's a very impressive treasure-trove, isn't it?" another voice said from behind them, causing them to jump. They spun around, only to blink in confusion at the sight of a familiar face from the party.
"Hi, Mr. Peanut!" GIR greeted the yellow-skinned alien with the monocle and top hat.
"Eh, you? What are you doing here, whatever-you-name-is?" Zim demanded.
"Why, I'm doing what I do best, my friend!" the alien laughed. With a flourish of his hand, his suit was torn off and thrown aside, along with his hat, monocle and cane, leaving him standing there in a black bodysuit with various gadgets attached to it.
"…That explains nothing," Tenn said flatly. The strange alien only seemed to find this amusing, as he gave a hearty laugh.
"Isn't it obvious? I am the legendary master thief, the Grey Panda!" he declared, causing the Irkens to blink in surprise.
"You're the Grey Panda?" Zim scowled, "That name makes even less sense now! You're yellow!"
"Exactly! So, everyone will be looking for someone grey-skinned, not yellow!" the Grey Panda said proudly.
"…Okay, that's kinda clever," Zim admitted, before frowning again and saying, "But that still doesn't explain why you're named after an Earth animal!"
"What's an Earth?" the Grey Panda asked, blinking in confusion.
"Enough of this stupidity!" Tenn snapped, cutting into the argument, "We're here for the neutron matter, and if you try to stop us-!"
"Neutron matter? Why would I want that?" the Grey Panda scoffed, "I'm here for as much of that pretty precious gold as I can carry. But first, I'm going to swim in it!"
"What?" Tenn asked flatly, Zim likewise narrowing an eye at the non-sequitur.
"It's something I saw a duck do in a cartoon broadcast from some primitive planet once," the Grey Panda said, as if that absurd comment actually explained anything, "I've always wanted to try it myself, but never had enough gold to do it. But now, I can do it at the Duke's expense!"
"Can you actually do that?" Zim asked Tenn, looking deeply confused.
"No, for a number of reasons," Tenn said, hating how much things had been sidetracked, "First of all-"
"Woohoo!" the Grey Panda shouted, swan-diving off of the balcony.
CRACK
"AHHHH!" the Grey Panda screamed from where he was now lying on top of the gold, body broken in various places, "It's not a liquid at all! It's a great many pieces of solid matter that form a hard, floor-like surface! The cartoon duck lied to me!"
The Irkens stared down at him, GIR standing next to them giggling obliviously at what had just happened.
"Well, that was pointless," Zim finally said, "Shall we get back to it?"
"Gladly," Tenn said. With that, the two hopped off of the balcony and landed easily on their feet on the gold. Once they'd done so, Tenn took out a scanner set for the neutron matter's energy signature, and started walking in the direction it pointed.
"AH!"
GIR, meanwhile, dropped onto the Grey Panda, further breaking the odd thief's body, before hopping off and following after his master without a second glance.
Following the scanner's directions, the group soon found themselves in front of one of the containers, the scanner beeping loudly. Glancing at the container's door and seeing nothing more than a simple lock, Tenn brought out a PAK leg and cut through it, allowing her and Zim to pull the door open. This revealed a chamber illuminated by the glow of several anti-gravity beams being projected from the corners of the room at its center, suspending an orb of pitch-black material the size of Dib's head (so therefore pretty big) in midair.
"Success! Another victory for the brilliant genius of Zim!" Zim cackled in delight, earning a flat look from Tenn.
"You do remember that I helped devise this plan, right?" she asked dryly, before shaking her head, "Never mind, let's just grab it and get out so that we can get home and you can settle your stupid grudge."
"Or you could both just surrender," a voice once again said from behind them.
"Oh, now what?!" Zim demanded as he and Tenn spun around to face the latest intrusion – which, to their immediate tenseness, turned out to be Duke Kurrquz, flanked by his butler (who was casually holding a large blaster of some kind) and the guards, who were glaring at the Irkens (but mostly at GIR).
"Let me ask you something," Kurrquz said with a smug smirk, "Did you really think I wouldn't notice when a couple of Irkens suddenly showed up on my guest list at the last minute without me inviting them? Especially when one of them was the notorious Invader Zim?"
"You know me?" Zim asked in surprise, and not a small amount of egotism.
"Meh, only by reputation," Kurrquz shrugged, "By which I mean that Fitzoo-Menga never used to shut up about you at the annual Rich People and Social Elites Barbeque."
"Fitz… wait, that's Virooz's real name! You're friends with that obsessed weirdo?!" Zim exclaimed angrily.
"Well, 'friends' is a strong word. We ran in the same circles, so we tolerated each other," Kurrquz clarified.
"Hang on, I've heard that name before, back on Cyberflox," Tenn said, brow furrowing in thought, curiosity momentarily overriding her battle instincts, "Who exactly is this Virooz?"
"He was this super obsessed fan of Zim's who tried to steal my body, so I trapped his mind in a couch," Zim explained offhandedly.
"…You have fans?" Tenn asked in disbelief.
"Yes, Zim has fans! Why is that your takeaway from what I just said?!" Zim demanded.
"Enough banter!" Kurrquz snapped before the conversation could spiral any further, "The point is, I could tell you two were up to something, so I kept my eye on you from the moment you arrived. Very nice distraction with that adorable moose's sick music skills, I'll give you that, but I saw you leave the room and overrode your overriding of my security cameras so that I could track you. And as soon as I realized that you were coming for the vault, I came after you. I don't how you beat my state-of-the-art security, but-"
"It was just a big door with your name as the password," Tenn said with a roll of her eyes, "Literally anyone could beat that."
"Indeed, which is why it was no challenge for the Grey Panda!"
"Are you still here?" Zim asked in annoyance, seeing that the strange thief had suddenly popped up behind the Duke's group, somehow now heavily bandaged and armed with a pair of blasters, "And what do you mean, it was no challenge for you? You didn't even do anything!"
"No? Or did I cleverly let you do all the hard work for me?" the Grey Panda replied pretentiously, before returning his attention to Kurrquz, "Now then, Your Grace, tell your men to put down their weapons and start gathering up gold for me, or I'll-"
ZAP
The Grey Panda was cut off as the butler fired his own blaster, unleashing not a bolt of plasma but a ray of prismatic light that washed over the thief before he could even register it. When it subsided, the Irkens were stunned to see that the Grey Panda had been transformed into a gold statue, still in the same almost-threatening pose he'd been in mere moments before.
"Cool, right?" Kurrquz chuckled, "Cost me a fortune to have this thing developed, but it's more than made up for it. Whenever someone tries to rob me, bam! They become a piece of treasure I can sell off to the highest bidder."
"Ooh, deviously clever," Zim said, genuinely impressed.
"Well, I'm glad you think so, because you and your little mate here are the next people I'm gonna do it to," the Duke sneered.
"MATE?!" Both Irkens screamed simultaneously in shock and embarrassment.
"I wouldn't mate with this egotistical idiot if he were the last Irken in the universe!" Tenn shouted, her cheeks looking noticeably flushed.
"Hey! You're not exactly a catch, either!" Zim snapped defensively at her, also clearly blushing.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Tenn growled. Oddly, there was an undercurrent of hurt in her words which she herself barely seemed to notice.
"Okay… I'm thinking I opened a can of worms here, and it's making me feel awkward," Kurrquz said with a grimace, "So, let's just get you petrified and sold already."
Nodding at the implicit order, the butler aimed his blaster at the Irkens and pulled the trigger – and at the exact same moment, Zim suddenly lashed out, grabbing GIR and throwing him at the butler. The robot impacted with the barrel of the blaster just before it could discharge, bending the metal closed with a crunch, and causing the energy to backfire.
BOOM
The blaster blew apart in the butler's hand with a flash of light, and when it cleared, everyone saw that the butler was now a golden statue too, face now permanently frozen in a look of surprise.
"Well dang, now I need a new butler," Kurrquz said in stunned shock, before shaking it off and glaring at his guards, "Don't just stand there, you idiots! Get them!"
The guards snapped out of their own shock and charged the Irkens, who quickly counterattacked. Moving in unison, they both reared up on their PAK legs and opened fire, each of them managing to hit one of the guards and sending them flying out into the depths of the vault. The lead guard managed to close the distance before they could turn their weapons on him, spinning his staff around in a wide arc, knocking them both on their backs.
Sneering as he stood over Tenn, the guard brought the staff down towards her head, only for her to roll out of the way and dodge it, letting it slam into the floor. Growling, he started to lift it to take another swing, only for Zim to suddenly jump onto his back, legs wrapping around the guard's neck while he started clawing at the guard's face.
"AGGGHH! Get off, you little bastard!" the guard growled, dropping his staff to try to grab Zim and pull him off. Thoroughly distracted, he didn't see Tenn grab the discarded weapon, which she then swung like a bat at his legs, managing to knock him off of his feet. He fell with a yell of surprise, Zim hopping off of him before he could hit the floor, which he did with a thud. Disoriented by the fall, the guard didn't have a chance to react before Tenn brought the staff down on his head like he'd tried to do to her, knocking him out.
"Ha! Was that the best you could- Whoa!" Zim started to crow as he turned to face the Duke, only to yelp and stumble back to avoid a buzzsaw swinging at his face. He barely managed to do so, the saw cutting clean through the shirt of his suit and missing his skin by millimeters, before retracting towards the Duke's hover palanquin, which had several such weapons projecting from it on robotic arms.
"Did you seriously think someone in my position wouldn't take every possible precaution to defend myself?" Kurrquz sneered, weapons waving around him defensively.
"Yes actually, I was hoping that was the case," Zim muttered, examining the cut in his shirt, Tenn doing a doubletake as she noticed that this exposed a surprisingly well-toned chest. She never saw him do any physical training, how did he get that chiseled?!
Blushing as she realized she was staring, and grateful that he didn't seem to have noticed it, Tenn forced herself to look away from Zim and focus on the much more pressing matter at hand, namely trying to figure out how to beat Kurrquz and get out of here with the neutron matter.
"Master, do you still want this big marble?" GIR suddenly called out innocently. The Irkens and the Duke both turned to face him, finding that he'd wandered into the container at some point and was now standing next to where the neutron matter was being suspended.
"Yes, GIR! Grab it and take it back to the ship while we keep this hideous thing busy!" Zim ordered, causing the Duke to blink in confusion.
"Wait, hang on, did you seriously just tell him to grab concentrated neutron matter with his bare hands?" Kurrquz asked incredulously.
"Yes, why?" Zim asked in return, as GIR grabbed the neutron matter and started to pull it out of the anti-gravity beams.
"You idiot! Stop him before-!"
RIP
SMASH
And before Kurrquz could finish yelling, GIR pulled the neutron matter completely out of the beams. With gravity taking hold of it again, its sheer weight caused it to immediately fall towards the floor, tearing his arms out of their sockets in the process. Then it smashed through the bottom of the container, the platform that the container was sitting on top of, the piles of gold beneath it, and finally the vault floor underneath that as well.
"Look Ma, no hands!" GIR said, waving the sparking stubs of his arms around.
"What just happened?" Zim asked, dumbfounded.
"You imbecile! Do you have any idea how dense concentrated neutron matter is?!" Kurrquz screamed in rage, "Why do you think I was using anti-gravity on it?! It probably weighs more than this entire palace! Now it'll probably drill a hole straight down to the planet's mantle!"
"Really?" Zim asked, before turning to glower at Tenn, "Why didn't you warn me about that?!"
"What makes you think I'd know about it? I told you from the start I had no experience with this stuff behind the hypothetical!" she snapped.
"Well, you're supposed to be the smart one!"
"…Did you just admit that I'm smarter than you?" Tenn asked, indignant anger vanishing in an instant at the unexpected remark. Zim, realizing what he'd just let slip, blushed brightly and stammered as he tried to come up with something to say in response to that. However, before he could, the room suddenly shook violently, nearly knocking them off their feet.
"Now what?" both Irkens exclaimed in exasperation.
"I told you, it went all the way down to the mantle!" Kurrquz yelled as he started fleeing as fast as his palanquin could hover, "And now all that pressurized magma has an escape valve!"
The Invaders' eyes widened in horror as they reached the same realization at the same moment. Without wasting a moment to discuss what needed to be done, Zim snatched up GIR and they bolted out of the container, charging across the gold towards the vault door. Just as they reached it, there was a mighty roaring sound as a huge geyser of magma burst out of the hole in the floor, quickly spreading across the vault and consuming everything in its path.
"NOOO! My money!" Kurrquz yelled, apparently not caring that his minions had just been obliterated too. Turning to the Irkens, eyes burning in rage, he deployed several plasma cannons and opened fire.
Acting on instinct, Zim grabbed ahold of Tenn and activated his PAK's jets, sending them flying up the shaft, the Duke firing haphazardly after them.
"Damn you both! I'll- AHHHHH!" Kurrquz tried to scream curses after them, only to then just plain scream as the magma burst out of the vault and washed over him, and started rapidly filling up the shaft.
Meanwhile, the Irkens rocketed up the shaft, barely slowing down as they reached the next level, at which point Zim's jets shut off. With their thrust cut off, they dropped to the floor, GIR sent flying from Zim's grip as he and Tenn rolled across the floor for a few seconds before coming to a halt. Both were left disoriented from all the movement and sudden stop, which was probably why it took several moments before they realized the position they'd landed in – namely, Tenn lying on top of Zim, their faces very close together.
"…" The two stared at each other silently, both hit with the strange sensation of not liking this, yet not wanting to end it. Neither knowing how to react, they remained frozen like that until the nearby rim of the shaft started to glow, a clear sign that the magma was rising up to meet them.
"Er, we should probably get out of here while we still can," Zim said, uncharacteristically nervous and quiet.
"R-right," Tenn replied with a slight stutter, rolling off of him and stepping aside to allow him to stand up. Once he'd done so, they quickly took off down the hallway, followed by the nearly-forgotten and oddly quiet GIR, who had watched the whole exchange with a wide smile and slight giggle.
They ran through the corridors of the palace, trying to make their way back to the ballroom so that they could find their way to the Voot from there and escape, all the while aware that the magma was working its way through the building after them. Which was presumably why, when they weren't halfway there, alarms started blaring throughout the building.
"Attention all palace residents and guests," a monotone voice announced, "This building's structural integrity has been compromised, and collapse is imminent. Please, very calmly, flee for your lives in a blind panic."
"That statement seems contradictory," Zim said, squinting in confusion.
"Never mind that, you idiot! Just keep moving!" Tenn snapped.
Before long, they reached what they recognized as the floor they'd started off on, where the gala's guests and guards were indeed running around in a panic. The only exception to this was Minimoose, who floated down the hallway towards them, GIR's pig dragged through the air behind him.
"Why did you bother saving the swine?" Zim demanded flatly, in no mood for this.
"Nyah!" Minimoose squeaked in response, flipping GIR's head open to shove the pig back in, "Nyah!"
"No, we didn't get the neutron matter, it fell through the floor and broke the planet, so now the building's being destroyed by magma!"
"Nyah!"
"Well, I wouldn't say it was a total waste. You got to practice your music skills, and more importantly, getting rid of that other entertainer so that you'd have an opening was good practice for your ability to manipulate dark energy by making a black hole, and-"
"Can we save this discussion for once we've gotten to safety?" Tenn cut in, feeling the floor start to rumble under her feet.
"Er, oh, right! Move it!" Zim said, bolting in the direction of where they'd landed the Voot. They quickly reached the ship and piled in, launching into the air practically before they were all even seated. They flew up into the lower atmosphere amidst various other ships fleeing the palace, but came to a stop to watch as the palace of the Duke of Smook collapsed in on itself in a pile of magma and debris.
There were a few moments of silence, as they came down from the adrenaline rush of their near-escape from death, until Zim finally broke it.
"Well, I think that went pretty good overall," he said, causing Tenn to look at him in utter disbelief.
"Are you serious? We didn't get what we came for, we almost died, and we even lost our uniforms in the process!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the wrecked formal clothes they were both still wearing.
"Uhh, er, yeah," Zim coughed, suddenly very much aware again of how much skin Tenn was showing, and the way the light in the Voot's cockpit was reflecting off of the rings still on her antennae, "I, uh, just mean that we survived, and we managed to defeat a powerful foe! That is a victory worth celebrating!"
"I wouldn't call that idiot a 'powerful foe'," Tenn scoffed, "In any case, you'd better hope that the Computer will be able to make new uniforms for us when we get back. If we have to resort to wearing human clothes, I swear to Irk…"
"Calm down. You think I've never had to replace my uniform before? You forget who I live with?" Zim asked flatly, pointing behind himself to GIR, who had somehow acquired new arms when they hadn't been looking and was now messily eating ice cream he'd grabbed from somewhere.
"Hmm, well, at least that's a silver lining," she muttered, before sighing and adding, "And I'm probably going to regret asking this, but are you going to keep up your stupid vendetta against that Halloween god even after this mess of your one chance to deal with him?"
"Zim is incredibly tempted… but, er, maybe it's not worth the effort. Even Zim knows when to call it quits sometimes," Zim reluctantly admitted.
"Well, that's a pleasant surprise," Tenn said, settling in to get comfortable for the trip back to Earth as they started flying away from Smook. In the process, she unconsciously crossed her bare leg over her lap in a way that Zim definitely noticed, though she didn't register his gaze, as she was doing her best not to look at him and his bared, distractingly muscular chest. With the chaos of the mission out of the way, there was now nothing keeping them from thinking about the odd feelings they'd been having, which only seemed magnified from being stuck in this cramped space next to each other.
This was going to be a long ride…
Meanwhile, in the ruins of the Duke's palace
As the pressure of the magma finally died off, it settled into a large lake, dotted with slowly sinking piles of debris that used to be part of the palace. If anyone had remained behind to watch after the place had collapsed, however, they would have seen some of the magma and debris rise up in a bubble, soon sliding away to reveal Duke Kurrquz, still on his hover palanquin, which was projecting a forcefield.
"Well, glad I paid for this personal protection upgrade," he grumbled to himself, looking around at what used to be his ancestral home. Centuries as a symbol of his family's status and power, and now it was all gone, all because of those two green idiots!
"Oh, you will pay for this, Invader Zim and… uh, whatever the other one's name is," he said, trailing off a bit as he realized he'd never gotten the female Irken's name, before shaking that awkward tidbit off and continuing on, "I don't care how long it takes or what it costs me, but I will track you down and make you suffer! So swears the Duke of Smook!"
CRACK
And that was when a nearby tower of debris that used to be a wall collapsed and fell on top of Kurrquz's forcefield, driving him back under the magma.
"…Ow," he said flatly before losing consciousness, delaying his plotting of vengeance.
But it would come eventually. Oh yes, it would.