Mip was a secretary working on the Irken homeworld of Irk. She decided that, since there wasn't that much work to be done, she would listen to some music. She put on her wireless earphones and turned on the radio embedded in her PAK. The first station it came to was Radio R, the pirate radio station of the Irken Freedom Fighters battling against the "harsh oppression" of the Empire. For a misfit gang of space "freedom fighters", they had good taste in music.

The song that had been playing eventually faded to silence, but the DJ didn't speak for a few seconds. Then, there was the sound of someone inhaling.

"Are you doing something dirty?" the DJ asked quietly.

Mip rolled her eyes. It was DJ Spearmint, who always played the music around this time of day. She was very, very strange.

"Are you doing something... that your superiors don't know about?" the DJ continued, quieter still.

Mip fidgeted.

"Are you... breaking... the law...?" There was a pause. Her words were barely audible. "Are you... breaking... the rules?"

Well, she was listening to this when she wasn't supposed to...

"Great! This is DJ Spearmint beaming the tunes directly from the flagship of the noble resistance! We bring the music, and the power, to the people!" Spearmint shouted. "Are you on the Homeworld or surrounding space? Are you listening to this?"

Well, yeah. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to hear DJ Spearmint say that.

"Spectacular! The next piece of music is coming right up after this. Remember, if you're tired of your life working for the tyrannical Irken Empire, join us! Fly down to sector twenty-six outside of Irk's solar system and hail the flagship. I'll be waiting for you to show up, and so will Captain Quent, noble leader of the resistance!"

Mip reached back to her PAK to switch it off. She would be leaving work soon, and she didn't need to be caught during the last half hour there…

"Oh, and..." Spearmint began quietly, "Think of me when you come."

She guffawed, and reached to turn it off, but then...

"What?" DJ Spearmint asked. There was some whispering, and then a siren went off.

The secretary paused and waited.

"Uh... There's some bad news, listeners! Um..." she trailed off. "Uh, yeah. We're under attack. I'll get back here for more DJ-ing in a little while if we all don't die. In the meantime, here's another song."

She switched it off.

Three Days Earlier…

"Bad news, GIR." Zim walked into the room.

"Yay!" GIR shouted.

"GIR, bad news is bad."

"Oh." GIR cocked his head. "Yay!"

"Why do I bother…? ANYWAY!" Zim shouted. "Your rubber piggy collection mysteriously caught fire and has melted."

GIR's eyes widened. "Yay!"

"You took that well," Zim commented. "Also! I have some good news, too. And stop saying 'yay'."

"Woo!" GIR yelled.

Zim shot GIR a glare and sat on the sofa. "The Tallest have invited me to an extremely special event!" he explained.

"Why's it special?" GIR asked.

Zim chuckled. "GIR, it's always special when the Tallest invite you."

"Or you don't know why," GIR commented.

Zim grimaced. GIR grinned.

"It matters not!" Zim yelled. "I am sure it will be special if they had to call on the great Zim!"

"When do we go?" GIR asked.

"We depart immediately after I complete Skool today," Zim replied.

"Ooh. You're late, by the way."

Zim chuckled. "Ah, GIR, don't be ridiculous, I have plenty of…" he looked at the clock. "Oh." He began to scream.

At Skool…

"Good morning, class," Ms. Bitters greeted. She rubbed her hands together. "Although, why it is 'good' escapes me. All I can see is a miserable group of doomed students."

Zim sighed. He had been on Earth for five years, and was now in High Skool. He had been free of Ms. Bitters for four of those five years. However, two years ago she had become a High Skool teacher. Also, for the past five years, not a single one of his ingenious plans had actually worked. Rather than be discouraged, he continued to try, albeit a bit less often, to conquer Earth as one of the last few Invaders from Operation: Impending Doom II. The other Invaders who were still having trouble had only been kept from succeeding by the efforts of an anti-Irken Empire resistance faction. Zim hadn't been adversely affected by them, but he would still fail on a regular basis.

Because of Dib.

Zim saw him in the corner of his eye. He hated him. He hated him so much. He would have conquered this filthy rock years ago if not for him. But, he would not give up. He would continue until he succeeded, and the Tallest would be so proud…

Zim snapped back to reality when the lunch bell rang.

"Enjoy your 'food'," Ms. Bitters muttered, using the hand gesture for quotation marks.

Upon arriving at the cafeteria, Zim took position in the line, grabbed a tray, and waited for his turn to have industrial grade elephant poison ladled to him. Zim maintained a dead expression and sat at his usual, empty table. He sat the tray on the table, poked the goo twice with his spoon, and then leaned back in his chair while all of the other students began to eat their disgusting lunch. He looked over and saw Dib and his sister Gaz sitting at their usual table. Gaz had been promoted to Middle Skool in lieu of her last year of Elementary Skool because of her extraordinarily high grades. If only her attitude matched her Skool performance. She was hunched over in her seat, furiously playing her Game Slave 5, which had been released just a few weeks ago. It was praised for stunning visual effects in a hand-held gaming console, as well as proving its title as the longest running series of consoles by the same name.

"Gaz." Dib shook her shoulder.

"This better be good, Dib."

"I was going to tell you earlier today, but you were playing that game thing…" Dib began.

"I'm still playing it."

"Yeah…" Dib cleared his throat. "Anyway, I intercepted an alien transmission being sent to Zim! He's leaving for some sort of meeting after Skool today."

"And I care why, exactly?" Gaz asked, still button-mashing.

"Um… I don't know."

"Maybe that's because I don't."

"But, Gaz, don't you see? I could sneak on Zim's ship and investigate the aliens' defenses, do research, take pictures… and then no one would be able to say that I'm crazy ever again!" he began laughing maniacally.

"Um, yeah, or… you stowaway on his ship and never make it back and die in the cold expanse of space," Gaz muttered. She grinned. "Actually, scratch that. It sounds like a great idea."

"You know, Gaz, sometimes I wonder why you're so mean."

"Sometimes I wonder why your head is so huge," Gaz shot back.

"My head's not big!" Dib yelled, clutching his massive noggin. "Anyway, I just know that people will believe me if there's some photographic evidence."

"Whatever you say, Dib."

After Skool...

"GIR!" Zim shouted. "Hook the snacks up to the Voot and get in. I'm leaving in one minute, with or without you!"

"Okay!" GIR shouted. He hooked a massive, multi-portion crate to the Voot Cruiser and hopped inside.

"This is my chance…" Dib muttered to himself. He walked up, opened a compartment, and climbed inside. "Wait…" he said quietly. "Is there going to be any air in this box?"

There was a rough jarring as the Voot took off.

"Zim, are you leaving on time?" a voice asked over the radio.

"Who is this?" Zim shouted.

"It's me. Red. You know. Leader of the Irken Empire," Red answered.

"Oh. My Tallest!" Zim screamed, saluting.

"Yes, yes, just try not to crash into anything on the way to the Massive… I'm sending you our coordinates now," Red muttered, and then yelled at a crewman to send the coordinates.

"You know, Red, maybe we should let him crash into something," Purple whispered.

"What was that, my Tallest?" Zim asked quizzically.

"Oh, uh..." Red cleared his throat. "Nothing, Zim."

"Toodles!" Purple yelled.

The transmission went dead.

"Hi!" GIR yelled.

"Silence, GIR."

"Hi!" GIR repeated.

"GIR! What have I told you about disobeying orders?" Zim asked with a glare.

GIR stared blankly at him. "Hi!" he repeated again, waving.

Zim's eye twitched. "GIR."

GIR continued staring. "Yep?"

"Stop saying 'hi'."

"Okay." GIR sat back and stared forward with a blank expression.

Zim did the same and continued flying the ship out of Earth's atmosphere.

"Hi," GIR repeated.

"GIR!"