A Parade of Indignities

Chapter 9: Of Dire Straits and Defective Zim

Chapter art created and owned by faithfulwhispers and cdarkheartzero. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The Tallest sat back in their chairs, staring at the large computer screen aboard the massive in heavy, stoic silence. They had long since returned to their own leisurely roles of monitoring the progress of Operation Impending Doom II immediately following their return from Conventia. As it was, though, the goings had grown increasingly stagnant in recent time. It gave them an abundance of alone with each other, their thoughts, and their snacks.

Tallest Red shoved a handful of chips in his mouth and glanced around himself at the gargantuan control room. The usual array of technicians and navigators were deep in their respective tasks, headsets in place and tuning out nearly everything around them.

Beside him was Purple, slurping loudly on a soda and stuffing his face with their ever-bountiful supply of foodstuffs straight from the finest vendors on Irk. Everything was reasonably quiet and not unlike it had always been. And yet, a growing uneasiness had been welling within Red for days.

"It was a mistake," he said finally, in a barely audible yet obstinately firm tone.

Purple paused mid-chew and turned to him. His movements gave the indication of nonchalance, but there was just a hint of apprehension there as well. "What was a mistake? The chips? Yeah, we should've gotten the cheese flavored—"

"—No!" Red said a little louder, "I mean we never should have used the toxin to get rid of Zim."

Purple gazed blankly back at him, wordlessly urging him to elaborate.

"Imagine the consequences if it ever got out! If it got back to the rest of the Irken population, or worse, the Control Brains that we were in possession of it!"

Purple shifted a bit where he was sitting. His eyes, perpetually half-lidded, flicked up. "What do you mean? If they knew we were in the middle of a successful invasion of Meekrob and that we'd retrieved that stupid toxin, they would probably hail us as the greatest Irkens to ever live."

"Not if they knew we used it to try and kill one of our own kind against the will of the Control Brains."

"Nobody's going to find out. Besides, no one cares about Zim. I doubt anyone even remembers him anyway...except us. He makes sure of that." Purple flicked his eyes towards the enormous computer monitor that Zim had frequently utilized over the years to send out updates on his "mission".

"That's not the point. The toxin can't be identified by the Control Brains after death."

"So? That was the entire reason we used it. What is your point?"

"It can be identified before death. And that runt is out still there, walking around with it in his system. Imagine what would happen if he were to be examined by a medic, or even if he received a biological scan! That information would go right back out to the Control Brains. And then what? We'd be doomed!" Red's voice, carefully leveled to avoid eavesdropping from their communications team, began to waver in volume.

At this, Purple set down his bag of chips and turned his body so that he was facing his counterpart head-on. "That won't happen, right? That's why we sent that weird-looking soldier...uh...Lerp."

"Larb."

"Yeah, him. He conquered Vort, surely he can take care of Zim before it becomes an issue."

Purple seemed entirely too calm about the matter. Likely, he was trying to convince himself, too, that everything was fine. They had taken preventative measures, and it would eventually sort itself out.