Invader Zim ZADR: How did we get here?

Chapter 22: No power outage here

It seems that there was a certain someone invited to the party, to Dib's surprise. While Dib tries his best to talk himself out of suspicion, Zim is in the meantime crawling through dusty vents. Let's see if he can manage to cut the power and if Dib can manage to talk to his dad for more than five minutes.

Zim let out a lengthy cough, as he accidentally inhaled another puff of dust. He had only crawled for a minute or so, and already the dirtiness of the vents had increased exponentially. Zim could easily imagine how the humans had never cleaned the vents more than a few meters inside, out of laziness or just sheer stupidity. It was nothing like Irken structures and machinery. There every nook and cranny would be looked after and cleaned so that even the insides of the pipes in the most gigantic generators were shining. Of course, the ones sent to do such tasks were the smallest of the Irkens, as they had an easier time fitting into the cramped spaces. And because the process of cleaning would usually lead to a horrific death, or just being lost inside the structures and machinery, never to be seen again. Until the next Irken came to clean up their corpse. But since it was so dangerous, Zim had always been chosen to do such tasks when necessary. Which of course, was the only reason for why the Tallest would make him, the amazing Zim, do the cleaning.

As he continued to crawl, he kept reminiscing about his times inside the machinery of Irken warships, cleaning oil spills and fixing broken wires. He even missed the sharp corners he usually had to look out for or else they would pierce his body. Compared to that, the human vents were awfully dull. Not even any flesh-eating giant space rats to fend off. Only small ones that occasionally would nimble at him before he would hiss at them. Whereupon they would run further into the darkness, to warn their brethren of the terrifying Irken invader in their territory. However, he didn't feel as fearsome as usual, as he wiped cobwebs off his face. And not when he looked down at his otherwise shining uniform, covered in muck and dust. His human disguise, including the dress, he had already packed away in his PAK. The wig he had taken off so his antennas could listen to the vibrations in the vent. And the contacts so his Irken eyes could see better. And the dress...the dress he wasn't so sure about. For some reason, he had prioritized taking it off so it wouldn't become dirty, instead of his proud invader uniform. He dismissed it thinking that his uniform was made for missions anyway. But he couldn't deny that he had gotten some kind of silly attachment to the thing. Perhaps just because it looked nice. Not that anything wouldn't look nice on him. And there was the time when Dib saw it for the first time. He couldn't shake off the memory of the human's face. He can't remember Dib looking at him like that before. He wasn't sure whether to feel flattered or offended.

He had over the years formed other silly attachments as well. His base of operations, his robot GIR, and...the human as well. He had even gotten to respect The Dib's sister for her ferocity and extremely scary demeanor. Not that he was scared of her of course, he could just instinctually tell she was scary to everyone else. Attachments were not something a prober Irken invader should concern himself with if it was to anything but the Tallest. But...Zim had for a while not seen the problem in entertaining the idea. After all, he was one of the Irken empire's greatest invaders! He wasn't going to be swayed from his mission by a bunch of stupid feelings! No...only orders were making him leave. Orders...from the Tallest...He wanted to think of something else.

The vents seemed never-ending and as complex as those on an irken ship. Going up and down, then left or right, and sometimes all those directions at once. It was a good thing he had memorized the building's schematics so that he knew where to go. Or else he would be stuck in a maze of vents. If it wasn't for the fact he could just blow himself out. But it was a stealth mission, so while he wished very much to cause some undeniably useful explosions, he had to hold himself back. Besides, it wouldn't be too long before he would reach the central power bank for the building. There, all he had to do was cut the power, and the Dib-beast would just need to do his ONE job. But still, he couldn't help wondering for a moment what the human might be up to. He looked at his 'walkie-talkie', and considered for a moment to call him. But in the end, he let the idea go.