Y/n ducked---
*ZAP!*
Zim's PAK had zapped him when he tried to destroy Y/n. He fell down like a rag doll before carefully getting back up.
Y/n had ducked waiting to be vaporized, but that never came.
Cautiously she peeked over at Zim to see he had collapsed.
''Are you ok?'' Y/n asked.
''RRRRRRGGG!!! WHY CAN'T I DESTROY YOU?!'' Zim said more to himself as he tried to turn his head around enough to see his PAK, but failing.
''Hey um, is that backpack thing important? I think it got damaged during the flood,'' Y/n said cautiously.
''eH? Hwuh? ...WHAT?!!!"
Y/n was taken aback by Zim's shock, she concluded to herself it must've been important.
"Wuh-what does that thing even do anyway?" Y/n curiously asked.
"What? THIS 'THING' IS IMPORTANT. Your inferior puny mind wouldn't understand it, but a PAK is essential to an Irken. The PAK is everything that I am, it contains my memories, YOU have NO idea how important it is," Zim then muttered to himself falling to his knees,"...If the Tallest finds out about this, they might classify me as defective and a failure..."
Warily Y/n moved to be looking down on him and for a repeated time Y/n asked, " Are you ok Zim?" While realizing his 'PAK' must be broken.
"OF COURSE ZIM IS OK! THIS IS JUST A MINOR SET BACK!," Zim lashed out causing Y/n to jump back a bit.
Y/n wasn't sure what to do in this situation, she never really dealt with other people's emotions and problems. More than less she tried to avoid other people's problems, because how could she help? But, Y/n felt she didn't have much of a choice, she felt she had to say something, do something, as if maybe it would be more degrading and awkward if she didn't.
''Zim, I don't understand much about your species, but is there any way to fix your 'PAK'? Is there any way I can help?"
Zim sighed," THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH MY PAK!"
Y/n gently places a hand on his shoulder," Maybe we can try? I mean if you are this 'defective' which I assume is bad. If we try and trying didn't work, then you would be just as better off as if you didn't try if it is unrepairable. So, we might as well try."
Zim grimaced,".....How do I know my PAK hasn't been tampered with by you. OBVIOUSLY, you're trying to trick me!"
"Trick you?!?! I'm not trying to trick you!!! I want to help."
Zim rolled down onto the floor hugging himself,''*sigh*, the damage is already done. The Tallest will never accept me this way, they'd probably just have me deactivated anyways...I can't even remember what planet I'm on. And who are you again?''
Y/n looked at Zim and thought he looked practically dead laying on the floor there, she worried he might be dying.
So she picked him up, holding him close to her like a big sack of flour and placed him on the couch. Surprisingly and luckily he was fairly light. What shocked Y/n, even more, was his lack of reaction. Didn't kick or flail at all, and she was hesitant on picking him up because she thought he might put up a fight.
''How can you already forget my name? I told you my name was Y/n a while ago.....And you're on Earth.''
Y/n took a seat next Zim on the couch.
'' Earth? Ick, what a HORRIBLE name. Earth? Earth? What kind of name is 'UR-TH' "
Y/n stifled a laugh at Zim's opinion in the name of the planet.
''Do you have any idea what happened to your memories? Why can't you remember anything?"
Zim seemed frustrated with Y/n's question trying to think of an answer," Memories? I, well-I. I don't remember. I don't remember. I don't know...But Zim knows everything."
'' You said your 'PAK' holds your memories, right? Well, maybe the memory part is broken. Maybe we can fix it.'' Y/n suggested.
''It doesn't work exactly like that W/n (wrong name). I don't even have the parts to fix the PAK. I don't even remember how to possibly make the parts. Plus, I don't even know exactly what's wrong with my PAK."
*COFF-COFF* EH-HRM! * A deep voice from above said, "I believe I am able to assist, honestly it's been getting boring monitoring. Would you like me to proceed with a scan of the PAK?"
The loud voice took Y/n by surprise, but she recognized it as Zim's computer. "Yes, please. Maybe we can then move on from there," Y/n said.
Suddenly two solid metallic but flexible wires zipped down from the ceiling and attached themselves to Zim's PAK, Lifting and pulling him to be hanging in the middle of the room.
"SCANNING, SCANNING, SCANNING.....SCANNING"
'Well this is taking quite a while,' Y/n thought, "I'm going to go see what Gir's doing, ok?" Y/n said as she left the room---
"HEY! You're just going to leave Zim here?!" Zim objected
"Well um......Just until the scanning is done," Y/n quickly left to see what Gir was up to in the kitchen or where ever he was.
*SCANNING, SCANNING, SCANNING*
-----THREE HOURS LATER---- Zim had nodded off while the computer was scanning him. All while Gir decided to have Y/n play monopoly with him, in the elevator. Y/n mostly regretted her decision. Monopoly was a seemingly never-ending boring game, while Gir mostly made up the rules which didn't make sense to Y/n. Gir would occasionally press as many random buttons as he could on a side panel in the elevator. Which would make the elevator shoot up at roller-coaster speeds, or down with Y/n and Gir practically hovering.
Y/n got sick of this, so when the elevator stopped Y/n dizzily got up and said," Gir I think we should check on Zim,"
Gir only smiled, "OKEY DOKEY!...OH, YEa I ALMOST FORGOT! I'M GONNA MAKE WAFFLES!" Gir ran past Y/n as the door opened, Y/n still dizzy more or less stumbled out the door into the hallway.
Making her way through the kitchen she heard the computer's voice, "SCANNING COMPLETE."
Zim was abruptly awoken when the wires detached from his PAK dropping him on the floor--"HUh?! HUh? Where am I?...........oh."
"WelL!?" Zim said crossing his arms expectantly" What are the results?!"
"SIR, IT APPEARS YOU ARE MISSING SOME FILES>>>>FAILURE TO RECOVER FILES.>>>>>>>>SYSTEM ERROR _PK_408490_ER_480521200910000_ERR_000000000000.
SOME FILES HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFULLY REPAIRED........
_PK_408490_ER_480521200910000_ERR_000000000000."
"WhAt?!" Y/n and Zim said in unison.
"What does THAT mean?!!!" Zim questioned.
The TV then turned on, displaying many numbers of codes and strange writing in a foreign alien language she did not understand. which didn't make much sense to Y/n other then there's an obvious error. Which she already knew for the most part.
Y/n's brows furrowed as she stared at the screen," Is there any way to fix the error? What do we do? What about the other files."
The screen then changed to show a diagram of Zim's PAK, with many words written in the unfamiliar language. 'What is that space-Chinese??'
"IN THE PAK THERE ARE A FEW MISSING IMPORTANT COMPONENTS MISSING, A MEMORY HARD-DRIVE IS MISSING. HARD DRIVE IS EXTREMELY SMALL RUFFLY 20 MILLIMETERS IN LENGTH AND WIDTH.
MEMORY-DRIVE IS MORE THAN LIKELY LOST FOREVER. I DID WHAT I COULD TO REPAIR WHATEVER FILES AND PIECES I COULD. BUT WITHOUT THE MEMORY-DRIVE ZIM WILL MORE THAN LIKELY NEVER REMEMBER THE LOST INFORMATION. SUBJECT IS A LONGTIME DEFECTIVE, MANY CORRUPTED FILES AND DATA. PAK IS BEYOND REPAIR."
Zim was confused, "Defective? How can I be defective??? I AM THE MIGHTY ZIM! I HAVE NEVER FAILED, I'M THE GREATEST IRKEN INVADER IN THE IRKEN EMPIRE! OBVIOUSLY, IT IS YOU WHO ARE DEFECTIVE COMPUTER!!!!!!! HAVE YOU GONE MAD!???
THERE NO POSSIBLE WAY CONCEIVABLE THAT ZIM IS A-A DEFECTIVE!"
Zim then began to march to the trash can in the kitchen only turning to glance at Y/n expectantly, as if to say 'are you coming??'
Y/n nodded and followed.
luckily they were both able to fit in the trashcan, which was an elevator in transparent pink tube. allowing Y/n to see some levels and floors of the base.
Once down in the base Y/n stuck close to Zim, especially with there being quite a few hallways and many futuristic doors. At least the place was more colorful than the school. Zim's base had many pinks, purples, and magenta colors, even some blue lights here and there. The colors almost made Y/n feel welcome.
"What are you doing now? Shouldn't we try to find the missing drive?" Y/n asked.
"Silly W/n----"
"Y/n," you corrected.
"W/n, Y/n, PSH whatever. Anyway if you are one of my henchmen you wouldn't be deceived by the defective computer, I might not be missing any of my memory-drives. Though obviously there is something suspicious here, I can't seem to recall much. With that being so, I can't be so sure about your loyalty I'll have to keep an eye on you. And if you are the loyal servant you say you are then I should have you by my side. And a true henchmen would never question or doubt the AMAZING ZIM! And I'm going to--uh...I'm going to. RRGGH-----,"
"What does the memory thingy look like? Maybe I could look and see if it's missing,'' Y/n suggested while they both stopped in the middle of the hallway.
"WHAT?!?! NO!----" Zim was torn between thoughts. On one side he wanted Y/n to check if something was missing because if there is then he would want to get it back so he can remember what he forgot.
But on the other side, he didn't want to admit he needed help, he didn't want to prove the computer right in claiming him defective. Because he's not a defective! Right? And functioning invaders don't just lose memory drives like that, it can't be missing. Deep down Zim knew something was missing, but admitting something Is missing was something Zim was not so willing to do. He doesn't want to know the truth..........But he also really wanted his memories back, and he couldn't let the tallest see him like this if there is something wrong and missing.
With a reluctant sigh, Zim made a decision," All right, you can check....the memory disk should look like a small blue-chip, it should be in a slot next to other memory disks.''
Y/n nodded and carefully moved toward Zim, the PAK opened in a seemingly complex way and movement. The pink circles lighted up and moved aside as the shell opened while other moving pieces and gears moved aside allowing Y/n to see.
Y/n didn't understand anything she was looking at, never really having messed with electronics.
But there seemed to be many little pieces on boards, a cluster of dark blue circuit boards. There were little lines of gold on the circuit boards where electricity would flow.
Along with the circuit boards, there were many wires protected by what appeared to be metal casing, some wires seemed to be melted. Pieces soldered to the circuit boards were melted with a yellowish boogery goo along with a dust similar to what happens to old batteries.
And soldered on the circuit board was a verticle slot thing with little blue tiny hard drives inside. Y/n assumed those must've been the memory hard-drives.
She noticed one slot seemed to be empty, it was on the outer edge.
"Um, well on one of the slots it appears something is missing..."
Zim only nodded, " how much damage is there?"
"Well, a lot of things here look burnt and melted."
'no, no, no that can't be right........but it is, but it can't be,' Zim mind raced, he could feel his body begin to heat up in frustration, too focused on his disorganized thoughts he began to pace with his hand on his head.
"Zi---," Y/n began before feeling a familiar burning feeling, her body felt like it was on fire, as her vision was filled with white. Y/n had a gist of what was happening, and as the burning feeling stopped and she could see again she realized what happened.
She had reverted to grasshopper form again, and even though she had an idea what happened she was still very dizzy and had to adjust to the sudden changes of everything.
"Y/N?!!?" Zim turned around to see Y/n was no longer behind him, Zim felt betrayed until he looked down to see a strange f/c grasshopper (grasshoppers come so many different colors).
Zim was utterly confused by what he was looking at, it was some sort of small creature with big eyes, large long wings, two strong back legs, two antennas between under the eyes with a long face. To Zim the creature looked like a strange monster, and how did it get in here he thought?
'What if it ate Y/n???? Like the Snarl beasts of Sylvestra, I just need to calmly back away and hope that it doesn't attack.'
Zim stared at the insect while slowly and cautiously moving backward.
Y/n didn't understand what Zim was doing, she wanted to get his attention somehow. So she leaped forward, her legs springing her forward like a catapult. ---
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," Zim screeched as he threw his hands in the air and ran away as fast as he could.
While Y/n watched Zim move in slow motion, she tried to catch up with him, but just couldn't. It almost like one of those dreams to Y/n. The kind of dream where you're running away or chasing something, but you can't seem to run fast enough. Well, this was backward, instead of Y/n moving slowly it was Zim, which confused her.
But then she felt something on her back, her wings, her wings fluttered pushing her more forward. She was finally getting closer and closer to catching up with Zim.
Zim glanced back to see the approaching grasshopper, he knew he was doomed. He had already ran himself into an oncoming dead-end. It was either fight or die now he thought.
Y/n was so close now, so close she could jump on his shoulder. But mid-flight------
*FWACK!*
===============Back at the school===
Dib had been waiting in the lab, being told to wait there by Professor Hopper. But finally, Mr. Hopper had came back, maybe Dib can get out of this lab. Dib wasn't sure how he felt about Mr.Hopper, why would a doctor need such a huge needle for a blood test?
Dib sat up on the examination table as Mr. Hopper entered the room.
"Sorry, we've had a few setbacks. Now, I'm going to have to ask a few questions. I would like to where the green kid went."
Dib was a little confused at first," Zim left?"
"Yes, we caught some footage on a camera of him escaping from the quarantine. Our lake cameras caught footage of an aircraft he might of escaped in. Do you have any idea where he might've gone or been taken---"
Dib interrupted jumping up off the table," YOU CAUGHT FOOTAGE OF HIS SHIP! YOU KNOW HE'S AN ALIEN, RIGHT?! He probably went back to his base!"
"His base hmmm, and do you think you could give me the location of this base young man? If this child is an alien as you say, we could help you and even give you recognition as the kid who discovered an alien."
Hopper's offer caught Dib's interest immediately, " YOU CAN HELP ME PROVE THE TO THE WORLD ALIENS ARE REAL!!!!!? SO THEN NOBODY CAN CALL ME CRAZY?!!!!"
==============a/n
Ok, ok to be honest this part kind of sucked. been struggling with time. With springtime ahead, I am becoming more busy and busy. But the good thing is I'm feeling less depressed, maybe it's the weather. but hopefully, the next part will be updated sooner and be better than this one x_X.
But if you're worried I've run out of inspiration, worry not about that. Because I do have ideas (sort of lol xD) for this fic.