Crashed and Stranded: Invader Lyn's Tale (part 2)

Lyn drove the cruiser she had recieved from Zim up higher and higher into the night sky. How glad was she to get off Earth, away from stupid Mrs. Williams and stupid Claire! Just then, the ship lost altitude. "ZIM, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Lyn screeched as she plummeted back down toward Zim's house, landing in the hole made just a few minutes ago. "Eh?! What are you still doing here?" asked Zim, bewildered, as Lyn leapt out of the malfunctioning cruiser and started toward Zim. "Zim, I swear, I &mdash;" "Master is being threatened!" said GIR, his eyes flashing red. He stood in a stance like he was about to annihilate Lyn, then a rubber piggy popped out of his head and his eyes turned blue. Zim ignored his faulty robot and continued to back into the corner of his living room. Lyn withdrew the lasers on her PAK, looking absolutely murderous. "ZIM &mdash;" "Whoa, wait!" he cried, putting his hands up. "Can you explain what this is about?" "I'll tell you what it's about!" shouted Lyn, jabbing him with one of the spider legs on her PAK as she spoke. "You and your" &mdash; she jabbed him again &mdash; "stupid" &mdash; jab &mdash; "malfunctioning" &mdash; jab &mdash; "machinery! There's a reason why you're not a real invader!" Zim looked at her. "Okay, it's not my fault that all the machinery I own is bad. Have you considered contacting the Tallest and asking them for help &mdash; ?" "YOU MORON!" yelled Lyn. "I HAVE NOTHING TO CONTACT THEM WITH! Thanks to you and your stupid Voot cruiser, I'm stuck on this slimeball!" After a while, Lyn calmed down, while Zim stood there, looking like he was both amused and scared. When Zim was sure that Lyn was not going to vaporize him, he said conspirationally, "Look. What if we team up together to take over this filthy ball of dirt? We can destroy the Dib monkey first, then..." As Zim elaborated on his plans to Lyn, she because more and more skeptical, but decided to go along with it. Hey, she thought. Maybe I'll get out of here if I team up with him. Outside, a certain black-haired boy hung upside down from a nearby tree by his knees, looking through a pair of video-recording binoculars, while Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb were on the sidewalk, looking up at him. "You're very conspicuous," said Ferb. Phineas and Isabella nodded. "I don't care! This is great!" said Dib. "Just wait until I show this to Mysterious Mysteries!" He's insane, thought Isabella. This group, they're all kinda sketchy. Just then, RiRi jumped out the window and sawed off the branch. Dib plummeted to the ground, screaming, and Zim laughed maniacally. "Well!" said Isabella brightly. "Who wants to go to my house for snacks?" Phineas and Ferb stared at her awkwardly, and she turned pink. Inside the house, Zim was becoming more and more far-fetched. "It begins tomorrow," he said. "Tomorrow we shall show no mercy! THE SCHOOL WILL BOW DOWN TO THE ALMIGHTY LYN AND ZIM!" Dib's head popped out of the bushes. "Oh my gosh!"

The next day at school, Dib arrived early, decked out in alien-tracking gear. When he had heard Zim scream, "THE SCHOOL WILL BOW DOWN TO THE ALMIGHT LYN AND ZIM!" he had assumed something dramatic and exposing, such as roaming the school without their disguises on. No such luck. Zim and Lyn arrived looking as normal as they were the day before. Lyn had arrived home, declared she was out walking with her "human friends", Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella, then locked herself in hers and Claire's room until the next morning. Isabel eyed Dib's paranormal stuff. "Does that actually all work?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yes," Dib said defensively. "I made it myself." "Then it must not work then!" remarked Isabelle, screaming with laughter. Dib sighed and rolled his eyes, addressing the onlooking crowd of kids gathered in the parking lot. "Fellow students!" he called. "Today... you will learn that I'm not crazy." "But you are crazy!" shouted a voice from the crowd. Dib glared, and then said: "These little beauties right here" &mdash; he patted his goggles &mdash; "they can see through Irken disguises." The crowd was dispersing, and Dib felt this crumbling before him. He scrambled and said, "Look! Look! See?" He had managed to turn on the goggles, along with a screen protruding from them that allowed him to show others what he was seeing. He had the goggles focused on Zim, and they worked! He could see through his disguise! Lyn, thinking quickly, walked up to Dib and patted him on the back, ignoring the swooping in her stomach that she always got when she was around him. "Cute animation, Dib." "Yeah, he's just a phony!" said Isabelle. "A fake!" added Isabel. "But &mdash; I &mdash; AUGH!" He dropped the goggles on the ground and ran into the school. The screen shrank back into them, and Phineas picked them up. "You think these really work?" "Phineas, don't fall for how stupid Dib is!" Isabelle cackled. "Obviously he's just an attention hog!" "You could be good friends, then!" called back Isabella. Isabelle's face went stormy and Phineas put on the goggles, choosing at that moment to look toward Lyn. He blinked a couple times, trying to decide if the green-skinned, blue-eyed alien he was seeing was either a figment of Dib's imagination or real, then he shook his head, took off the goggles, and sighed. Lyn was definitely human. Or so he thought. The day passed on quite normally; Lyn, Phineas, and Ferb answered all the answers correctly in class, while Isabel and Isabelle offered stupid, nonsensical answers. "What can we do to save water?" asked Ms. Tarchi. "Yes, Phineas?" "Spend less time in the shower," he said. "Good, good! Do you have any ideas, Isabella?" "Let the rain water your lawns." "Awesome." Ms. Tarchi called on Isabelle, whose hand was waving wildly. "Yes?" "We can dilute it!" Phineas burst out laughing.

After school, Zim cornered Lyn. "Come to my base," he said. "I have an EXCELLENT plan!" "Do you seriously need to talk in that loud of a voice?" asked Lyn, but she agreed to come over. Dib, still badly disguised, lay on his stomach on the top of the building, looking down at the kids. "Hey, whatcha doin'?" Isabella asked, walking up with Phineas and Ferb. In her head, she added, Phony. "SHH!" Dib cried, but it was too late. Lyn and Zim looked up, then RiRi leapt up and got herself tangled in Dib's hair. "His hair's pointy!" RiRi cried as Dib flailed around, trying to get the mass of navy blue fabric and metal off his head. Behind him, Isabella was holding in giggles. She knew it was rude to laugh at someone else's pain, but this was hilarious. "DIB-MONKEY!" yelled Zim, looking up. "HOW DARE YOU INTRUDE ON THE SECRET CONFERENCES OF &mdash;" "C'mon, nutcase." Lyn grabbed Zim's hand and dragged him off. Meanwhile, the snarky trio of Isabel, Isabelle, and Kenzie lurked behind a tree. "Ooh! Lyn likes Ziiim!" squealed Kenzie. "Probably not," said Isabelle, looking devious, "but it's enough to cause a rumor! Girls, we need to think up a story..." "So what's this brilliant plan you've thought up?" Lyn asked, letting go of Zim's hand once they were out of earshot of everyone else. "My PLAN," said Zim, "is simple. I know I promised the moon to GIR, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and we need to show these... FILTHY... humans that we're serious. So we're going to obliviate the moon together! It's genius, right? DO NOT DENY ZIM!" He shook his fists in the air, and Lyn rolled her eyes. "Zim, if we wanted to show them we were serious, wouldn't we do something serious? They don't use the moon for anything. They can't breathe there. They'll die." "GOOD POINT!" shouted Zim, and Lyn winced. Yes, she understood that he had to be loud and pushy to be an invader, even if he wasn't really one, but the kids were staring at them in the parking lot, sniggering from time to time. "Here's my solution," said Lyn. "We take the moon as just the beginning, and then we go for the Earth." "INGENIOUS!"

Later that night, Lyn was at Zim's base. They were repairing the Voot cruiser Zim had given Lyn. "Move," Lyn commanded, pushing Zim out of the way. "Hey!" cried Zim. "HOW DARE YOU PUSH ZIII &mdash;" "Be quiet," Lyn said, bending over the Voot cruiser and rewiring. "I'm making the tractor beam stronger." RiRi had gotten into the cruiser and pushed the tractor beam button. It hit GIR, who floated up in the lime-green glow. "WHEE-HEE!" he cried. "I'M FLYIN'!" Lyn leapt into the cruiser and shut off the tractor beam, causing GIR to flop and hit the ground. "GIR! Quit fooling around!" shouted Zim, as he and Lyn bent over the cruiser once more. It took them a while to iron out every single issue that Lyn had with the Voot. Once it met her standards, they hopped into it and took off. Just then, Dib sat up in bed. "I just heard a spaceship." He leapt out of his bed and into Tak's cruiser, not even bothering to change out of his pale blue pajamas. As he was flying off, Phineas stuck his head out the window. "Hey!" he called. "Where'ya goin'?" "Space!" cried Dib, and he took off. "Space," repeated Phineas. "Vague, but cool. Hey, Ferb, do we still have Meap's ship, or did he take it with him?" Ferb pulled a tarp off a large mass in the corner of the room. Isabella was awake too, because Phineas had uttered a variation of her catchphrase. "Hey!" she called. She didn't know where they were going, but hey, if Phineas was there, it had to be good. "Where'ya goin'?" "Epic space battle!" he called back. "Hop in!" "Phineas, where are we going?" asked Isabella. "We're following Dib," Phineas said, twisting around in his seat to face her. "We just don't know where he's going." They followed Dib higher and higher, until they were finally not in the Earth's atmosphere anymore and were headed towards the moon. "Oh my gosh!" cried Isabella, looking out the window. Lyn and Zim were both on the moon, small as specks, but still visible. Tak's ship landed, and another speck got out, which Isabella assumed to be Dib. A fight broke out, and Lyn eventually had to keep Zim in a headlock in order to keep him from completely vaporizing Dib. "Hey! Get off me!" he was yelling as Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella got out of Meap's ship. "What's going on?" asked Phineas. "The squirmy Dib-filth is here!" Zim cried. "And, uh, come to think of it, so are you. Go away." Just then, Phineas's phone rang. He picked it up and was greeted by Candace's shrill voice. "PHINEAS, YOU ARE SO BUSTED, YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL I..." "How are you getting cell service up here?" Lyn asked as Candace continued to rant in the background. "...AND SHE'S GONNA BE SOOO MAD! YOU JUST WAIT!" There was a click and Candace hung up. Phineas blinked and awkwardly replaced the phone in his pocket. Just then, another unfamiliar ship landed. Gaz? "DIBSISTER!" cried Zim, struggling against Lyn's headlock. "Let me go, will you?" "You promise not to annihilate Dib?" "Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever," Zim said, rolling his eyes and glaring at his enemy. Lyn released him from the headlock and he stumbled toward Gaz. "DIBSISTER!" "I do have a name, you know." "Dib stole your Gameslave!" cried Zim, a look of clever malice crossing his face. "He told me today at school!" "What &mdash; I &mdash; THAT'S NOT TRUE!" said Dib, infuriated. But his fury was zilch compared to Gaz's. "You took my Gameslave... without asking?!" she screeched, running toward Dib. "I'm gonna kill you, Dib!" Lyn tackled Dib and used a force field from her PAK to shield him. Gaz attempted to stop running, but hit the force field and went flying back. "You're lucky you have your girlfriend there, Dib," she said, getting to her feet. "Otherwise I would have totally torn you apart." Zim's plan had backfired, whatever it was. Lyn could see him thinking quickly, and he said, "Dibsister, I just remembered, I &mdash;" "I'm not going to listen to you unless you call me by my actual name." "Go away!" cried Zim, shoving Dib. "You're not wanted here!" "What are you going to do with the moon?" Dib demanded. "You... humans have no use for it, so it shouldn't be an issue!" "Oh, but it is!" said Dib, narrowing his eyes. "I like my moon, thanks!" "That was probably one of the stupidest things you've ever said, and you've said a lot of stupid stuff," said Gaz, not even looking up from the Gameslave she had in her pocket. Zim pushed Dib into Tak's ship, but before he could shut the door, Lyn turned invisible and ran into the ship, too. She had just barely made it in when Zim slammed the door, causing the Voot to automatically start. "WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?!" Dib cried as the cruiser started up and began to take off at a slow pace. Isabella retreated into Meap's ship, Phineas and Ferb following her, and Zim leapt in his Voot, smiling maniacally. He took off and went to trap the moon in a tractor beam. "Dib." "Who's there?" he cried, looking scared. Lyn appeared. "I am." Dib's expression softened slightly. "What are you doing here?" Then his face hardened. "You're spying for Zim, aren't you?" "No, I'm not," said Lyn. "I'm here to save the moon. Can you land somewhere?" "I don't know..." "What about your space stations or whatever? Can't you land there?" "I suppose." Dib piloted the ship down to a space station, where Lyn opened up the Voot and started making the same adjustments she had made to Zim's ship &mdash; tenfold. "What are you doing &mdash; ?" asked Dib, as Lyn made the final adjustments. "Can't tell you," said Lyn, grinning. "Top secret. Seriously, though, let me drive." Reluctantly, Dib slid over in the seat to make room for Lyn to get in on the drivers' side. She started up the cruiser, and away they went. Zim had the moon in a tractor beam, and was shrinking it so it could fit into the Voot comfortably. "Just wait until the Tallest see this," he said gleefully. Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella hovered around in Meap's ship, trying to decide on something to do. "What do we do?" asked Isabella. For once, Phineas didn't have the answer. Lyn was positioned right in front of the moon, just right so that she could grab it. "The button, the button, where's the button?" she muttered furiously as she searched for the button and found it &mdash; six feet away. "Dib!" she said. "Hit that turquoise button right there!" Dib did as he was asked, and a large green ray, ten times bigger than Zim's, shot out and held the moon. "Yes!" said Lyn and Dib at the same time as Lyn pulled the moon away from Zim, resized it, and sent it back into orbit. "DIBFILTH!" cried Zim, and as Tak's cruiser drove by, he saw Lyn in there, and his eyes widened. "WHAT &mdash; ?" Lyn waved and drove off to join Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella. "That was great, Lyn," said Phineas, while Ferb and Isabella nodded behind him. "Let's go back down to Earth," suggested Ferb. They landed a few moments later in front of Zim's base, just as Zim went crashing through his ceiling. "This isn't over yet, squirmy!" he cried, running out the front door and toward Lyn. "You! I thought you were part of the impending doom!" "I am!" "Clearly you're not, or otherwise you would have helped ZIM!" "Look at it this way," said Phineas. "She technically did a good deed... just not for the Tallest." Lyn nodded. "I can no longer trust you, Lyn!" said Zim. "You and the filthy meat child &mdash;" "I am not a filthy mea &mdash;" Just then, Lyn ran towards Dib and kissed him. It was out of the blue; everything froze in time for a moment, and then Lyn waved a hand over herself and she was gone.