Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Dib, can you move your head please?!”

“It’s not that big!”

“I didn’t say anything about it…”

“Well, I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

“MY HEAD IS FULL OF BEES!”

“That’s not surprising.”

“Nyah!”

“Will everyone shut up and give me some space!?” Tak glared, narrowing her purple eyes at them all, “Do you want me to crash us!?”

“Well, it’s kind of hard to do so given that we don’t have a lot of elbow room,” Gaz muttered, trying to play her Game Slave as best as she could under these circumstances.

Dib nodded in agreement as he looked around and wondered how he got into this mess.

Right now, he was with Gaz, Tak, MiMi, Skoodge, his SIR unit, Bob, GIR, and finally Minimoose. All crammed together in this one ship, heading towards Space Prison once more. Flying beside them was a blue-and-grey Spittle Runner piloted by Tenn (apparently Zim had a sister. And they had a slightly more healthier relationship than he and Gaz had)

Why were they heading to another Space Prison?

“Why are we doing this again?”

“To rescue Zim,” Skoodge said cheerfully.

“And why am I doing this again?” Tak groused.

“Well, as we said,” Gaz rolled her eyes, “You hate the Tallest and the Tallest hate Zim.”

“Therefore helping us rescue Zim would make the Tallest so upset. It would ruin their day.”

“And like I said, flawless logic,” Tak then sighed, “I just wish that I didn’t have this many butts in this ship.”

“What’s with you, your ship and butts?”

“Well, it’s because, by Irken standards, I have a really nice—.”

“Anyway!” Gaz coughed loudly to interrupt them, “Can you tell me what’s so special about this second Space Prison? What makes this one different from Moo-Ping 10?”

“Well, other than the number, Moo-Ping Prime is the homeworld of the Gellaxis,” Skoodge began, “They have turned their entire planet into a cube-shaped prison with it holding millions of prisoners from all across the galaxy. Irkens, Vortians, Planet Jackers, you name it.”

“Why isn’t it called Moo-Ping 1?”

“I don’t know,” Skoodge shrugged, “Anyway, the other Moo-Ping prisons were built to reduce the prisoner population somewhat. I heard that they were planning on expanding them or building another ten due to the increase in demand.

It’s the most secure out of the prisons since the majority of the Gellaxis live here.”

“And we’re all heading straight into a space battle with the best wad-hating prison guards in the universe,” Tak groused once more, “To rescue…Zim of all people. Why him? Why not someone else that’s actually helpful?”

“He’s my brother,” Tenn said, glaring at Tak, “And let us not forget that you owe him one for saving you from dying by magma.”

“And let us not forget that he’s the one who caused me to be in that situation,” Tak countered, returning the glare.

“And the Resisty and Irken rebels want his help, remember?” Dib chimed in to try and calm down the situation. As much as he didn’t like Zim, he knew when to put it aside for the greater good. When there was a threat that one of them couldn’t handle on their own.

…Except for that one time with the Planet Jackers. Man, he was so stupid. It was reasonable but then again…if Zim was out to get him that time, why didn’t he do so when he was already inside?

Either way, Earth had nearly paid the price for his actions. More than once.

He shook his head to clear out those thoughts. Now wasn’t the time for this.

“Listen, we have a job to do. Once this is all over, you can two can beat the dookie out of each other all you want,” Dib said, a bit frustrated, “Right now, we need to work together if we want to have a shot at pulling our mission off. And ruin the Tallest’s day at the same time. Can we please just get this through without any fighting?”

“…Fine,” Tak and Tenn both sighed.

“Though that leads me to my next question…why can’t we get the Resisty to help us? Why does it have to be just us?”

“The Resisty is already stretched to the limit trying to protect our holdings and keeping our bases secure. We’re the only ones available at the moment—,” Suddenly, a beeping came from both ships’ consoles, “Ah, we’re here.”

Dib looked up and his eyes widened as he tried to hold back a curse. Gaz didn’t bother, “HOLY SHIT!”

Right in front of them was a massive green cube-shaped planet with glowing orange lines running across it. And surrounding the planet was several squadrons of Gellaxis fighters.

“Welcome to Moo-Ping Prime everyone,” Tenn announced.

“So where’s…Zim?”

“I’m sending the coordinates now,” Tenn said, “I’ll try to draw their attention while you rescue Zim. Once you have him, get out of there and head to Ironsand on Scorchius. Don’t wait for me. I’ll meet you there.”

“Are you sure about this?” Skoodge asked, raising an antennae.

“Not really but…hopefully, the modifications and upgrades will allow me to handle myself,” Tenn gave a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about me. Just get to Scorchius. There’s a safehouse there for Irkens like us. Tell them that Tenn sent me if I’m not there.”

“Alright,” Skoodge let out a nervous breath.

“Here we go,” Tak muttered as they flew towards the prison planet…