A/N: And here's the next chapter. Yet another bit of fun filler I've been looking forward to. Don't worry, there'll be more story arc-related stuff coming soon enough, but for now, enjoy the small stuff. I think we all need a little fun right now, with what's happening in the world; once again, I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy amidst the pandemic.

Anyway, going into this chapter, I'd like to remind everyone that the New Adventures version of Gaz is an extension of her mostly one-dimensional show canon self, not the more nuanced comic/movie version. Just something to bear in mind.

Oh, and anyone who didn't read the latest entry in the Mature Edition and missed the announcement, kudos to the DA artist IEPH for the New Irken Order flag now being used as cover art for this series.

And on a final note, as of this chapter we're now past 100,000 words. Woo!

That all being said, read on!

Last time, on The New Adventures of Invader Zim: Zim's attempt to harvest cosmic energy during a rare event was crashed by both Tak and Dib's teams, triggering an explosion that tore open a dimensional tear and deposited all three teams in a universe where everyone's personalities were reversed. Eventually coming into conflict with the evil counterparts to Team Save Earth, they were all able to return to their own universe. And unbeknownst to the others, thanks to GIR, Zim managed to walk away with a crystal containing a portion of the cosmic energy, which he may one day make use of.

But that's for another time. Right now, it's other people's time to shine.

Disclaimer: I own only the OCs, excluding Nyx and Ying, who belong to nightmaster000. Everything else belongs to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon.

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The New Adventures of Invader Zim

Season 2

Episode 8: Space Road Trip

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From the outside, it looked to just be another average day at Doomsville Middle Skool. However, inside was a different story, as everyone was buzzing with an excitement not normally seen in the building. And that was because they wouldn't have to actually be there much longer — it was the last day before Spring Break, those glorious two weeks when they wouldn't have to deal with homework, teachers, annoying fellow students, the creepy janitor, or disgusting cafeteria food. All they had to do was get through a few more hours, and then they'd be free.

And while Miss Bitters was using what time she had left to further drone to her students about how Spring Break was just an endless string of debauchery that was only good for momentarily distracting oneself from the meaningless nature of life, Mr. Elliot was putting a more positive spin on things. Which, as far as some of his students were concerned, was just as bad.

"…And that's why you should always remember, sunblock is your friend even if you're in a park and not at the beach," the teacher said cheerfully, while his class blocked him out, all of them paying more rapt attention to the clock on the wall as it approached 3 o'clock.

"Oh, come on, just let the day end already," Gaz silently mused, shooting a mild death glare at the clock as if that would make it move faster, "If I have to listen to this moron blather on with his vacation advice much longer, I'll tear his head off, to hell with the consequences."

She was hardly the only one feeling this way, she knew. A quick look around showed that Nyx was slumped in her chair looking half-asleep, Tenn was tapping her fingers on her desk rapidly, and everyone else fell somewhere between those two extremes. Even Gaz was feeling herself starting to fidget, when the bell finally rang.

"Okay then, kids, have fun and see you all-" Mr. Elliot started to say, only for everyone to rush out of the room before he could finish.

Maintaining her usual outward calm, Gaz nevertheless walked faster than usual as she made her way down the hall towards the skool's front doors. Reaching them, she watched as Nyx and Tenn traded glares on the sidewalk before the latter walked off.

"Well, at least you two are quiet about how much you hate each other," she commented as she walked up to the anarchist, "Dib, Zim, and Tak would all be shouting insults at eardrum-piercing level by now."

"I'd like to do a lot worse than that, but Zim says I shouldn't do anything that might make people suspicious of us," Nyx replied.

"Like any of these morons would notice if you started blowing stuff up," Gaz snorted, gesturing towards the other skoolchildren heading off in every direction. As the pair started walking down the street, the Goth turned to her friend and asked, "So, any plans of your own for the break, or are you going to help Zim turn everyone into giant mushrooms or something?"

"Why would we do that?" Nyx asked, blinking.

"I dunno, seems kinda like the stupid sort of mindless scheme he'd do," Gaz replied with a shrug. Nyx frowned at the insult towards her idol, but didn't comment on it.

"Anyway, nah, I don't think Zim's got anything big planned. Not soon, in any case," she said instead, "Then again, he doesn't usually tell me in advance. But I'm sure he'll come up with something. What about you?"

"Meh, nothing really. There aren't any new games coming out, so I guess I'm stuck playing my older ones for a while," Gaz replied, frowning in annoyance at the thought.

"Really? That sucks, but I guess that's what happens when you only have a single planet's game companies to count on," Nyx commented casually. Gaz froze mid-step next to her as she heard that, a memory being triggered.

"Hold up," she said, catching Nyx's attention, "When we first met, you told me that there's an entire planet of video games, right?"

"You mean Arcadikon?" Nyx asked, "Yeah, though it's not just video games. There's consoles, arcades, VR setups, interactive battlefield simulators, old-fashioned physical games… pretty much any form of entertainment there is."

"Great. I wanna go there," Gaz said. Nyx blinked slowly as she processed that.

"Really? I thought you didn't care about space stuff?"

"What I don't care about is all these pointless fights you and the others get into, which is all that ever seems to come out of anything related to space," Gaz clarified, "But an entire planet full of every kind of game imaginable? Now that has got my interest, and I want to see it."

"Oh, okay then," Nyx shrugged, "I mean, I'll have to get permission from Zim to go, just in case he does actually need me for anything. But I don't think that'll be a problem, and I'll call you if I get permission."

"Good. See you then," Gaz said. With that, the two split up and went their separate ways down the street.

Nyx soon made her way back to base, entering to find Skoodge and GIR eating snacks on the couch and watching TV, while Minimoose floated aimlessly nearby. As she shut the door behind herself, Ying approached from the kitchen, carrying a tray holding a soda.

"Welcome home, Madame," he greeted as she took the soda, "I trust you had as pleasant a day as possible at the human educational facility?"

"Eh, not bad," Nyx replied, taking a sip and looking around, "Is Zim in the lab?"

"He went down as soon as we got home," Skoodge commented from the couch, "Said he was going to work on 'the Big Plan'. Pretty sure he actually managed to pronounce the capital letters, somehow."

Nyx couldn't help but grin at that. "The Big Plan" was the codename for the plan Zim was putting together based on the data she'd gifted to him (he kept saying he was going to come up with a better one); the thought of him dedicating himself to what she'd provided for him never ceased to give her a warm feeling in her squeedlyspooch.

"Well, I'm going to go talk to him," she said, putting down the soda, "Ying, go warm up the ship and make sure that it's ready for a long-distance flight. If I get permission from Zim, we'll be going on a trip soon."

Ying cocked his head to one side for a moment, before nodding in acknowledgement. Skoodge, meanwhile, looked at her in confusion.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Eh, just a little road trip. I'll explain later," she said as she discarded her disguise and made her way to the trash can elevator. Hopping in, she rode down to the primary lab level and quickly walked towards the main chamber. As she expected, she found Zim sitting at a console, the data scrolling about on the screens while he jotted notes onto a data pad.

Nyx cleared her throat to catch his attention, and he looked up in annoyance at the interruption.

"What? I'm busy," he said tersely.

"Sorry. I was just wondering if you'll me needing me for the next couple of days? I promised Gaz I'd take her to Arcadikon," she explained, Zim's antennae arching in response.

"Really? I didn't realize that your friendship with the Dib-sister had advanced past the point of merely talking during your spare time," he said.

"I guess it has," she said with a shrug, "So, can I take her?"

Zim hummed in thought for a few moments, tapping his fingers against his arm rest, before finally nodding.

"Very well, you have Zim's permission," he said, "This sort of bonding experience should help bond Gaz to you further, and by extension bring her ever closer to being under my command."

Nyx wasn't quite sure that logic followed what she knew of Gaz's personality, but she knew better than to comment on it. Instead, she just smiled widely at him.

"Great, thanks!" she said, "I'll probably only be gone a few days, but I'll call and let you know if it takes any longer."

"Yes, sure, whatever," Zim said distractedly, having already lost interest in the conversation and gone back to his work. However, he paused as something occurred to him and glanced back at her, "Oh, and see if you can't get a view from the ground of how well my message as Miz is spreading. That could be useful intelligence going forward."

"Yes sir!" Nyx said, giving a salute and turning to walk off, mentally going over everything she'd need to get ready for the trip.

This was going to be fun.

Membrane Household, The Next Day

Gaz woke up earlier than she usually would on a day without skool, and quickly went through her usual morning routine. She then stuffed a few basic supplies — change of clothes, toothpaste and brush, snacks, a few books, her Game Slave — in a travel bag, before making her way downstairs. Dumping the bag by the front door, she then went to the kitchen and made her breakfast.

As she was chewing through her waffles, Dib came downstairs, having just woken up himself. Seeing her at the table, he stopped and stared at her.

"Since when do you get up early on non-skool days?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I have plans," she replied. And before Dib could ask her to explain, a hover-screen flew into the room, displaying a live video connection to their father.

"Good morning, my children!" the Professor greeted, "I hope you're enjoying the first day of this unnecessary break from your education!"

The siblings both rolled their eyes at that, well aware of how their father felt about the public skool system's yearly schedule. Rather than comment on it, however, Dib merely went to get some cereal, while Gaz took the rare opportunity to actually pass a message to her father directly.

"Hey, dad?" she said, catching the Professor's attention, "A friend invited me to go on a trip. It should only be a couple of days."

"Really? Why, that's wonderful, sweetie! I'm so glad to hear you making friends! Have fun and stay safe," the Professor said, before his screen floated away. Dib, meanwhile, paused in eating his cereal to look at her suspiciously.

"Wait a minute, the only friend you have is Nyx!" he exclaimed.

"How do you know I don't have other friends?" she asked, glaring at him.

"…Do you?"

"Well, no, but you shouldn't have assumed that, jerk," she muttered, swallowing the last of her waffles and then carrying her plate into the kitchen. Dib watched her go, perturbed, before shaking his head.

"Don't try to change the subject," he said, "Where are you going on a trip with her? And why would you want to spend days alone with a psychotic anarchist?"

"Not that it's any of your business," Gaz said, shooting him another glare, "But we're heading to this planet Nyx told me about that's completed dedicated to gaming. And I like hanging out with her because she's fun."

"But she's insane!" Dib protested.

"So what? At least she's not annoying or boring," Gaz said. And before Dib could even try to come up with a counter-argument to that, there was a knock on the front door. With a slight twitch of the lips that might have been a smile, Gaz walked over to the door and opened it, revealing Nyx standing there in her disguise, her ship parked on the front yard.

"Hi! Ready to go?" the Irken asked.

"Yep," Gaz replied, grabbing her bag and waving halfheartedly over her shoulder at Dib, who jumped up from his seat and started marching towards them.

"Now wait a minute! There's no way I'm letting you-" he started to protest, only for Gaz to grab a lamp stand next to the doorway and toss it at him, the impact knocking him flat on his back.

"Whiner," Gaz snapped, Nyx snickering as the two of them made their way to the ship, the side of the van-sized vehicle sliding open to let them enter.

"Welcome, Miss," Ying greeted Gaz as she walked into the slightly roomy space taking up the back of the ship, the robot holding a basket of various snack bags, "Would you care for a snack?"

"Nah, not right now," she said, lightly tossing her bag in the back and joining Nyx in the cockpit, where the Irken was already in the pilot's seat and flicking switches on the control console.

"So, how long will this take?" Gaz asked as she settled in the other chair.

"Should only take about half a day to get there," Nyx said, typing in a command and bringing the engines online, "That gives us a half day on Arcadikon, then rest for the night — they don't have hotels, per se, but they do have designated sleeping areas — then another half day there and half day back. Unless you wanna spend a whole second day there, and we can come back on day three?"

"Eh, I'll wait to see what they have to work with before I make up my mind," Gaz said, getting comfortable. Nyx nodded, and a few moments later the ship took off, soon zooming off into the sky and vanishing from sight.

Meanwhile, Dib had emerged from the house just in time to watch the ship take off. Watching it disappear, he slumped, a frown forming on his face and only deepening as he looked around and saw that there was no one else around.

"Of course there's no one here to see that," he grumbled, "And my ship still isn't working, so I can't follow them. Dammit."

Muttering angrily, Dib walked back into his house and shut the door behind himself.

Several Hours Later, Deep Space

Gaz leaned back in her seat, looking out of the ship's viewscreen at the passing stars. Next to her, Nyx was singing along to a song playing on the console's radio, which Gaz could only assume from the lyrics was called "Flibba Dibba Hoinka Smeedge"; she didn't understand what the words meant, but she still found herself nodding along to the beat.

She'd never admit it to anyone, but Gaz was a bit impressed by the sights they passed by while in-between hyperspace jumps. They'd seen nebulae, asteroid field, gas giants, and other stellar sights she'd expected. But she'd also seen some rather surprising things — pods of giant whale-like creatures, skyscraper-sized swarms of glowing amoebas no bigger than her head, star-shaped crystals the size of cruise ships orbiting each other, and other things she couldn't even properly name.

Of course, they'd also passed what appeared to be giant billboards floating in the void and advertising stuff like "The Galaxy's Largest Space Donut". Apparently roadside attractions were a thing even in space.

"How much longer?" she asked, turning to look at Nyx. The Irken blinked at being addressed, having gotten really wrapped up in the song, and shook her head before answering the question.

"Another couple of hours," she said, "Unless you want to stop somewhere to stretch your legs, maybe take in the sights?"

"No thanks, I don't wanna waste time looking at giant donuts," Gaz replied dryly yet firmly.

Nyx snorted at that, but before she could say anything else, a light started flashing on the console. Frowning, she switched off the radio and hit the light, causing a message to pop up on the console screen.

"Problem?" Gaz asked, being unable to read the Irken writing.

"Nothing major, but looks like we're going to have to make a detour after all," Nyx said dourly.

"What? Why?" Gaz demanded, sitting up straight.

"Another friend of mine just sent a message saying he needs to see me in person, urgently," Nyx said, typing in adjustments to the navigation, "And he's too important an ally to just blow off. So if he says we need to meet up, then we need to meet up. Sorry."

"Seriously? This trip was supposed to be about us having fun, not you meeting up with other people I don't even know!" Gaz snapped with a scowl, not at all happy with the idea of a diversion. Seeing this, Nyx held up a hand to hold off any further outbursts.

"I swear I'll make it as fast as possible," she said quickly, "And then it'll be right back on the way to Arcadikon!"

"…Fine, whatever," Gaz said, leaning back again, crossing her arms and looking away, scowl still firmly in place.

Nyx frowned, not happy at the situation either, but not knowing what else to say. So she just focused on flying the ship, making the quick series of hyperspace jumps that soon brought them to their temporary destination — the overcrowded and rundown cesspool of a planet that was Slumia. Finding a landing spot close to where she was heading but not close enough to risk being seen in the vicinity by any of the sparse local law enforcement (her reputation proceeded her, after all), she brought the ship down in a particularly wide alleyway.

"Okay," she said, as she powered down the engines, "This shouldn't take too long. I'll just head over to my friend's place, see what he wants, and get it out of the way. We'll be outta here before you know it!"

Gaz only grunted, which Nyx took as an affirmation. She then stepped out of the ship, Ying falling into step behind her as she started making her way out of the alley and down the street.

"If you'll forgive me for saying so, Madame, your friend seems to be quite a selfish little brat," Ying commented, Nyx frowning at that.

"Don't be mean. It is a bit much to expect her to just roll over and accept a sudden change to a trip she was looking forward to," she said.

"Perhaps, but she shouldn't act like it's your fault," he countered.

"Maybe," Nyx shrugged, "But anyway, it doesn't matter. Let's go see what Grissom wants, get it over with, and get out of here."

With that, the pair slipped into the street and made their way towards their destination.

Meanwhile, back on the ship, Gaz was still scowling out the screen, grinding her teeth in annoyance at the situation. She hated having to make changes to things she had planned for herself, especially when the cause didn't have anything to directly do with her. And that was the truly annoying thing, the fact that she had no control over this detour interrupting the trip. After all, it wasn't like she could just take the ship and leave… well, she could, but aside from the fact that she had no idea where Arcadikon was, that would mean leaving Nyx behind. And sure, if it were Dib or Zim or anyone else, she wouldn't have cared about that, but Nyx was her only real friend, so that just didn't feel right. And she was already feeling somewhat bad for snapping at her and giving her the cold shoulder, when it wasn't really her fault…

"Ugh, is this what guilt feels like?" she muttered, "This is terrible. Why do people thing that being capable of feeling this is a good thing?"

Deciding to take her mind off of things, and that she was tired of staring at a dirty alley wall, Gaz got out of the chair and started walking towards the back of the ship to retrieve her Game Slave. Before she could reach her bag, however, the ship suddenly shook, sending her stumbling and almost falling over.

"What the hell?" she muttered, running back to the cockpit. Looking out the viewscreen, she saw that several large magnetic clamps had latched onto the rear of the ship, connected to what appeared to be some kind of high-tech truck with hover pads instead of wheels. It was moving away towards the other end of the alley, dragging the ship with it.

"Is… is someone carjacking the ship?" she asked in disbelief, "That's something that actually happens? Ugh, great, this is just what I need on top of everything else. Well, I better go take care of this."

Looking around for a weapon of some kind, Gaz saw something under the console. Reaching for it, she pulled out a metal baton with a button near one end. Arching an eyebrow, she gripped the portion of the baton underneath the button and then pressed it; this caused the other end to extend to twice its length, and start crackling with purple electricity.

"Nice," she said, smirking.

Meanwhile, in the cabin of the truck, a Vortian with a broken off horn was at the controls, an Irken with a series of facial scars seated next to him.

"Hee-hee, can you believe someone left a high-end piece of merchandise like this just lying around, Manax?" the Irken asked, propping an elbow in his door's open window frame.

"Tell me about it, Cavik," the Vortian replied with a smirk, "This thing's gotta be worth thousands of monies! And that's just if we sell it whole; we chop it up for parts and sell 'em individually, we can double the profit!"

The pair laughed at this, but paused as something thudded on the roof of the truck. And before they could even try to see what had caused it, a shock staff suddenly smashed through the windshield and slammed into the main console, which exploded in showers of sparks as it subsequently overloaded. In response, the truck's hover pads fluctuated randomly, causing it to swerve out of control and slam right into a wall before the pads went dead and the truck dropped to the ground.

Everything was quiet for a moment, then the truck's doors popped open and Cavik and Manax fell out onto the pavement.

"Gah, what happened?" Manax groaned, rubbing his horn stump. A sharp whistle sounded in response, drawing the pair's attention to the top of their truck, where Gaz was standing, slowly twirling the shock staff in one hand.

"Hope you guys have insurance," she said with a smirk, gesturing to the crushed front of the truck.

"…The hell are you supposed to be? Some kind of purple monkey?" Cavik asked.

"Who cares? Shoot it!" Manax shouted, whipping out a blaster and opening fire at Gaz.

In response, she casually swung the shock staff, which absorbed and redirected the plasma bolts back at Manax. The Vortian yelped and jumped out of the way, while Cavik deployed his PAK legs and fired several blasts of his own. These, Gaz didn't even try to counter with the staff, instead leaping into the air, flipping over the attack to land on her feet right behind Cavik; before he could react, she spun and slammed the staff into his PAK.

As Cavik fell screaming and twitching to the ground, Manax opened fire on Gaz again. She ducked out of the way of the attack, twisting around to toss the staff at him. It slammed into his shoulder, shocking him and making him drop his blaster. Gaz then charged forward and slammed a fist into the Vortian's stomach, doubling him over, before grabbing his good horn and using that grip to throw him against the opposite wall of the alley. Watching him settle in a slump on the ground, looking like it'd take him a few minutes to get back up, Gaz turned back towards Cavik, seeing that he was getting back to his feet. Smirking again, she started walking towards where the shock staff had landed… when a metal sphere the size of a basketball suddenly fell from nowhere and landed on the ground between them.

"What the…?" was all Gaz managed to say, before the sphere popped open and unleashed a shockwave of magenta energy. It slammed into Gaz and Cavik so hard that both were sent flying to slam into the alley's walls, while Manax was actually lifted up from his slump before being slammed into the wall as well. All three were kept pinned in place for several minutes as wave after wave of energy buffeted them, before the sphere finally shut off, allowing all three of them to collapse to the ground, either completely unconscious or right on the edge of it.

As the sphere shut off, a pair of hover bikes descended from the sky, each carrying an Irken security officer. Reaching the ground, they hopped off the bikes, one of them standing guard with a plasma rifle while his partner walked over to examine the crashed truck.

"Aha, told you this looked suspicious!" he crowed as he finished his inspection, "No towing or scavenging licenses. This was a jacking, not anything official."

"Yeah? Well I still say that we should have come down here and confirmed that before dropping a stun sphere, but whatever," his partner said with a shrug, while looking around, "So, what happened? They get into a fight over the ship and crash or something?"

"Probably. I mean, it looks pretty expensive," the first officer said, before pausing as he noticed Gaz, "Huh? What's this thing?"

His partner joined him, and they looked down at the mostly unconscious human in confusion.

"I don't recognize the species. Do you?" the second officer said, nudging Gaz lightly with his boot.

"Nope. And there's nothing on the Irk-Net databases either," the first officer said, checking a data pad extending from his PAK. As he did that, the second reached down to lift Gaz's head to examine her more closely… and acting purely on reflex, she proceeded to bite down on his hand.

"Ow!" he yelped, ripping his hand from her grip and letting her head fall back down, as she finally slipped fully out of consciousness, "It bit me! Who does that?!"

"It's probably just some animal then, if it's acting like that," his partner said, looking Gaz over from a safe distance, "I don't see a collar, though, so I don't think it's a pet. Someone probably smuggled it on planet, and then it got loose."

"Well, I'm sure not letting the Irk damned thing keep wandering around," the first officer said, glaring at Gaz as he clutched his injured hand, "Call the Animal Catcher."

"…Do we have to? That guy's so weird," the second officer groaned.

"Just do it," the first officer snapped, as he took out some cuffs, "Then we can get these two booked. With any luck, they're on the Green Claw payroll and we can get our hands greased letting them go. Now get to it."

The second guard didn't bother protesting, just sighing and pulling out a communicator while his partner went about restraining Cavik and Manax.

The Black Hole Casino, Shortly After

Reaching the Black Hole, Nyx and Ying quickly made their way through the crowds to the private elevator at the back of the building. The guards flanking it, recognizing Nyx, merely nodded at her as she entered and started ascending towards the penthouse.

On the way up, Nyx reflected on what she'd seen on her brief journey from the ship to here. Specifically, the numerous examples of NIO graffiti tagging various buildings, ranging from merely the symbol to messages like "Miz Rulez!" or "Down with the Tallest". And judging by the signs of recent damage she'd also passed by, there'd been a riot sometime in the last few days, maybe several.

"Zim will be happy to hear about this," she mused, "Then again, Slumia is a backwater, so the population supporting us here only does so much. Arcadikon is more of a commercial hub; seeing what kind of support we have there will be a better measure of things."

Nyx was pulled from her thoughts as the elevator reached its destination and the doors slid open. Walking out of the elevator and down a short corridor, she passed through a pair of elaborate doors into Grissom's office, finding the green-suited gangster seated behind his desk.

"Nyx, my dear! So good to see you in person again," he said cheerfully, standing up and taking off his hat to give a melodramatic bow, "Please have a seat."

"Yeah, yeah, good to see you too, Grissom," she said, dropping into the chair in front of the desk, "But can we make this quick? I was in the middle of a trip with a friend."

"Ah, I was wondering how you got here so fast," Grissom said as he sat back down, "Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I find myself in need of your particular set of skills."

"In other words, you require the Madame to blow something up," Ying commented from his spot next to Nyx's chair.

"Precisely!" Grissom said with a grin, "More specifically, I need something blown up in such a way that it won't be tied back to me. The act itself would be good for business, but culpability for it wouldn't be."

"I know how this works, Grissom, it's not the first time you've hired me for this stuff, remember?" Nyx said, rolling her eyes.

"True, but it's been a while, and I know you don't have the universe's best attention span," Grissom replied dryly.

"Hey!"

"Moving on to the point," Grissom said with a chuckle, ignoring Nyx's indignation and tapping a command onto his desk's touchscreen surface. In response, a hologram of a planet, its surface colored in alternating strips of pink, while several orbital screens proclaimed "We Are Open".

"Foodcourtia?" Nyx asked, arching an antenna.

"Yes. I own the protection racket on the planet, which has been seeing a boom lately, ever since Miz's broadcasts started agitating the Irken portion of the population," Grissom explained, Nyx biting back on a smirk upon hearing that, "But recently, another gang has nabbed a foothold and is starting to muscle in on my territory. And that's where you come in."

"Your soldiers can't take care of it themselves? I thought you hired heavy muscle."

"I do, but these guys apparently bought off the planetary governor," Grissom explained, "Admittedly, I did too, but these guys were clever — while I've been profiting from everyone else's reactions to the unrest Miz is causing, they're pandering to the Empire over it. Apparently, in exchange for a promise of cracking down on Miz sympathizers for the government, they're being granted immunity for their crimes and high-end military-grade weaponry, above what I have access to. Plus, if I make a move to act against them, the government will know it's me and act against me."

"But I'm a freelance anarchistic terrorist, so no one will question it if I decide to blow them all up," Nyx commented, "Fine, I'll do it. Do you have any specific information on them?"

"Of course," Grissom replied, pressing a button on his desk. Moments later, the office doors opened and Grissom's assistant, a red-eyed female Irken, entered the room, "Lidette, please retrieve everything we have on that new Foodcourtia gang."

"Of course, sir," she said, nodding in acknowledgement, before handing him a data pad, "This just came in from the local security garrison, by the way. Minor criminal conduct in our territory by non-members of the syndicate."

Grissom frowned at that, taking the pad from Lidette and looking it over as she left the room again. Nyx, meanwhile, couldn't help but pity whoever was stupid enough to pull a job on the Green Claws' turf without their approval; the syndicate was rather notorious for retribution on that sort of thing.

"Uh, Nyx?" Grissom suddenly said, sounding nervous, "Your ship is a modified Mark 3 Magda Cruiser, right?"

"Yeah. Why?" Nyx asked, confused by the subject change.

"Well, it looks like someone just tried to jack it," Grissom replied, turning the pad to show an image of Nyx's ship hooked up to a hover truck.

"What?!" Nyx yelled, jumping to her feet and face twisting in anger.

"Calm down," Grissom said quickly, holding up his hands placatingly, "The local security forces — who are very much in my pocket, I assure you — have apprehended the culprits and impounded the ship. I can easily have it released free of charge to yourself, and if it makes you feel any better, you can have a crack at the perpetrators when I have them brought here for punishment."

"Yeah, fine, that works," Nyx said, before her eyes widened as something occurred to her, "Wait, what about Gaz?"

"Who?" Grissom blinked.

"My friend who was traveling with me. She stayed with the ship while I came here to see you," Nyx explained, feeling panic start to bubble up.

"Hmm, nothing about her here," Grissom said, checking the pad, "But I'm sure they probably took her into custody too as a precaution. I'll just tell them to bring everyone involved over here."

"Thanks," Nyx muttered, collapsing back into her chair and slumping. Ying leaned over and placed a comforting hand on her knee.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Madame," he said, "My feelings on her personality aside, Miss Membrane is more than capable of taking care of herself."

"You're right," Nyx said after a moment, smiling slightly at that, "I'm sure she's just fine."

Slumia Central Pound, Same Time

Gaz groaned as she regained consciousness, head pounding.

"Ugh, what hit me?" she muttered, rubbing her head and sitting up… only to almost immediately bump against something, "Ow! What the hell?"

The impact knocking her fully awake, Gaz forced her eyes open, and then they actually opened completely in surprise as she took in her surroundings. She was sitting in a metal cage that was barely bigger than she was, giving her maybe a foot of extra space in any direction; if she sat in a crouch, she'd be able to avoiding bumping her head against the low ceiling. The back of the cell was a blank metal wall, but the front was an opening covered by a laser grid too tight for her to fit more than her fingers through, while the two walls to the sides were a strong-looking metal mesh. Through that mesh, she could see more cells, the one to her left containing a two-headed orange bird slightly smaller than herself, and the one to the right holding a green blob covered in eyes which filled the entire cell.

"Where am I?" she immediately demanded, glaring at the other creatures.

"Ark! Ark!" the bird thing chirped in response, while the blob merely gurgled.

"Well, that's useless," Gaz muttered. Rolling around as much as she could in the cramped space, Gaz got onto her hands and knees and crawled to the front of the cage. Getting as close as possible to the laser grid, she peered through it to see what was outside the cages, finding a large room, both walls lined from floor to ceiling with identical cages, all of them filled with a wide variety of bizarre alien creatures.

"Is this some kind of alien jail? Why am I here then? It was those two morons who were stealing the ship!" Gaz growled, before raising her voice, "Hey! Whoever's in charge here, let me out right now!"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, just when Gaz was about to shout again, a door at the end of the room was flung open, and a large alien entered the room. It was about ten feet tall, and looked like a humanoid frog, with yellow skin, a large head, and big bulging green eyes, wearing a red bodysuit with the emblem of a collar and leash on the chest. Next to the emblem was a name tag which read "LEASHLOR THE RELENTLESS".

"Hello, my pretties! Are we all having a good morning?" the alien asked in a deep yet chipper voice with a slight croak, getting various noises from the other cell inhabitants in response.

"Hey! You!" Gaz snapped, the alien blinking at the sound and looking down at her, "Get me out of here right now, or I-"

"Wow, you can talk?" Leashlor said in excitement, "What a neat trick! You'll make someone a great pet!"

"…Pet?" Gaz echoed slowly, not sure she'd heard him right.

"Yep! We here at the Central Pound have a long and proud tradition of finding happy homes for all the animals we take in."

"This is a pound?" Gaz asked in disbelief, "And what do you mean 'animal'? I'm a person, not a damn animal!"

"Well, I admit I don't recognize your species, but the nice Irken security officers brought you here instead of a jail, so you must be an animal," Leashlor replied, "And as this planet's Chief Animal Catcher, it's my job to keep all wild animals locked up until they can be claimed by new owners."

"But I'm talking. We're having an actual conversation," Gaz pointed out, dumbfounded at the alien's attitude, "That means I'm a person! Those stupid space cops or whatever who dropped me here obviously made a mistake!"

"Security officers don't make mistakes. If they did, they wouldn't be any good at their jobs, so they'd quit and get other jobs that they'd be good at," Leashlor said, sounding as if he'd just said something completely obvious. The sheer stupidity he was displaying was making Gaz's eye twitch.

"You know what, I'm done with this crap. Let me out right now, or when I eventually get out on my own, I'll rip your limbs off and shove them down your throat!" she snarled at him. Leashlor blinked at that and stared at her for a few moments, before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a remote. He aimed it at Gaz's cage and pressed a button, and the laser grid disappeared. Gaz smirked at that — and then Leashlor lashed out with surprising speed and wrapped a hand around Gaz's torso in an iron grip.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" she demanded, struggling futilely as Leashlor lifted her out of the cage and held her aloft in the air. He didn't respond, instead walking over to a corner of the room that Gaz hadn't been able to see from her cage, where a desk and several filing cabinets were set up. Opening one of the cabinet drawers, he rustled around in it with his free hand, he soon pulled a metallic strap, and before Gaz could get a good look at it, he slapped in onto her neck.

"Gah! What?" Gaz yelped, as the strap wrapped around her neck and locked into place with a click, followed by several short spikes popping out around its circumference. Gaz blinked in incomprehension as she registered what had happened, before she caught a glimpse of herself in a small mirror on the desk, and it fully dawned on her what Leashlor had just done.

"Did… did you just put a collar on me?!" she exclaimed, glaring at the alien.

"Yep!" he replied brightly, "Just a little warning to your prospective owners that you have a temper. Our policy here is to give fair warning of that sort of thing."

"Goddammit, seriously?!" Gaz yelled in utter disbelief, "What's it gonna take to get this through your thick head?! I. Am. Not. An. Animal!"

"You're being held here in the pound, and you're wearing a collar. You look like one to me," Leashlor replied, sounding slightly smug, as if he'd just proved a massive point.

"You just put this thing on me yourself! Like 20 seconds ago!"

"I put it on you because you're animal, which is why you're in here," Leashlor said, "You wouldn't be here if you weren't an animal, and if you weren't an animal you wouldn't need a collar."

Gaz felt her brain tying itself into knots trying to understand the logic that Leashlor was operating on. In what way did any of that justify treating a clearly sentient being like a stray dog or something?

"Anyway, now that that's out of the way, we can get down to business," Leashlor said, "Since you're properly awake, we can get you groomed."

"Groomed?" Gaz sputtered.

"Of course, we need you looking your best for when potential owners show up," Leashlor stated, "And frankly, you look like you could use it."

With that, Leashlor carried Gaz off to a back room, ignoring her offended protests and death threats. It was, in his mind, all in a day's work.

The Black Hole Casino, Same Time

Lidette had brought in a data pad containing copies of everything the Green Claws had on their new rivals, but she'd barely glanced at it, unable to focus on it. Instead, she just handed it off to Ying and sat fidgeting in her chair, foot tapping anxiously against the floor.

"Would you please calm down?" Grissom said, pouring himself a glass of Vortian fire whiskey, "I'm sure everything's fine."

"She's my friend, she's here because of me, that makes her well-being my responsibility," Nyx said, trying not to snap at him. That wouldn't help matters any.

"I understand, but I told you, I have things well in hand," Grissom said, a slight smirk crossing his features, "I own this planet. Nothing happens here without my say-so. And if it does, I strike down on the perpetrators like a wrathful god."

"Your humility is inspiring, sir," Ying commented, actually managing to earn a snort from Nyx, while Grissom merely shrugged, conceding the point. Then there was a beeping from the desk. Looking to its screen, Grissom nodded and typed in a command, before looking to Nyx with a smile.

"And behold, they've arrived," he said, Nyx instantly perking up. She jumped up from her chair and turned to face the doors, which opened a few minutes later. A group of large Irkens holding blaster rifles and wearing the trademark green armbands of the Green Claw Syndicate entered the room, flanking a pair of regular Irken security officers, and a pair of prisoners — an Irken and a Vortian — who were handcuffed and gagged.

But there was no sign of Gaz, Nyx noted with a frown.

"Hey, Grissom," one of the officers greeted, sounding slightly smug, "Well, here are the two dumb kisgarees who thought operating on your turf without your permission was a good idea. Now, I believe the standard price for this kind of delivery is-"

"Where is she?" Nyx demanded, cutting off the officer as she walked up to glare at him directly from only a couple of feet away.

"Wha? Who?" the officer said, blinking in confusion.

"My friend," Nyx growled, frustration building as she held a hand up, "Yay tall, purple hair, black dress, permanent expression of 'I will kill you if you annoy me' on her face. Ring any bells?"

"That was a person?" the other officer blurted out, he and his partner traded worried looks.

"Yes, she's a person! Now where is she?!" Nyx demanded, PAK legs deploying so she could tower over the officers threateningly.

"He sent her to the pound!" the first officer shouted, pointing to his partner, while Nyx's eyes widened.

"You did what?!" she screamed, while all the Green Claws took cautious steps backwards.

"You're the one who said she was an animal!" the second officer protested, glaring at the first one.

"It's not my fault the Irk-Net didn't recognize her as a sentient species!"

"Yeah, well I-AK!"

The officers' argument was cut off as Nyx suddenly grabbed them both by the throat. Ignoring their gurgled protests, she carried them over to Grissom's balcony and promptly tossed them over it. They fell several stories with twin screams, which came to a sudden stop as the pair landed in a large fountain in the middle of the room.

"Were you aware that was there, Madame?" Ying asked, peering over the edge of the balcony.

"Nope," Nyx said flatly, while noticing that the casino patrons were ignoring the officers floundering in the fountain, "And how come no one is reacting to a couple of guys getting tossed off this balcony?"

"You think this is the first time that's happened?" Grissom asked, as he scribbled something on a scrap of paper, then got up from the desk and walked over to hand it to her, "Here's the address of the central pound. That's the one they most likely sent your friend to."

"Thanks," Nyx said, taking the paper from him and walking out of the room. Grissom watched her go, before turning to the captive Cavik and Manax, a slightly sadistic gleam entering his eyes.

"Well, gentlemen, now that we have the room to ourselves, let's discuss how you not only operated without my consent, but in doing so tried to rob a friend of mine," he said. At a gesture from him, his men put away their blasters and pulled out a variety of blunt objects.

The sounds on the casino floor drowned out most of the subsequent screams.

Slumia Central Pound, Soon After

Gaz sat crosslegged in her cage, arms crossed and a scowl on her face as she glared at nothing, stewing in her anger.

The "grooming" that Leashlor had put her through had been the most humiliating experience of her life. He'd tossed her in a glass box that was barely bigger than the cage, where she'd been sprayed down with several high-pressure streams of some kind of pink liquid soap which smelled like daisies, a scent she couldn't stand. And while she'd been sputtering for breath, he'd run a wire brush all over her, which had been mildly painful, but more annoying than anything. No, what had really crossed the line had been how he'd then taken her carefully-maintained monster jaw-style hairdo and put it all up into braids, of all things, with several ribbons tied into them. Pink ribbons!

And for some reason, he'd then splattered glitter all over her. Honestly, it felt like he was treating her more like a doll than a pet at that point.

"I guess I should consider myself lucky that moron hasn't realized my clothes aren't part of my body," she mused, "Otherwise he'd probably change me into some kind of pink abomination of a dress. Still, I will kill him for this."

As if on cue, Leashlor reentered the room, now carrying a large bag of some kind, marked with symbols Gaz couldn't read.

"Lunchtime, my pretties!" the moronic Animal Catcher announced. Pressing a button on his remote control caused a tube to pop up from the floor, into which he poured the contents of the bag. Moments later, following the sounds of machines whirring, panels opened in the floor of all the cages, out of which emerged bowls filled with some kind of purple sludge.

While the alien animals all happily chugged away at the contents of their bowls, Gaz stared at hers in disgust, before turning her glare on Leashlor.

"There is no way I'm eating this," she said flatly.

"But you have to if you want to grow big and strong and get a nice shiny coat. Like my mama always said when she was Chief Animal Catcher, a well-fed pet is a happy pet," Leashlor said, sighing respectfully and bowing his head towards a portrait on the wall that Gaz had overlooked, which depicted another alien identical to Leashlor, except with blue skin, pink eyes, and a name tag which read "TAMMY THE RELENTLESS".

"Is 'the Relentless' a title that goes with the job or something?" Gaz asked, mildly curious.

"Nope, it's a family name," Leashlor said happily, before frowning at her, "Now, are you going to be a good girl and eat on your own, or do I have to make you?"

"Try it, and I'll be the one feeding you," Gaz snarled, "Specifically, your own organs."

"I guess it's going to be the hard way, then," Leashlor sighed, turning towards his desk, "You just hold still while I get the funnel, and then-"

BOOM

Leashlor was rocked back on his heels as the front of the room suddenly exploded. As the smoke cleared, Nyx marched into view, Ying at her side as she glared up at Leashlor.

"…That door wasn't locked," he commented after a moment, looking down at her curiously.

"I don't care," Nyx replied flatly, "I'm here for my friend. Let her go, or I'll be blowing up more than your entrance."

"What took you so long?!" Gaz called out.

"Sorry! I swear I just found out about this!" Nyx called back, not breaking eye contact with Leashlor.

"Oh, are you her owner?" Leashlor asked, "You should have said so. And kept her properly tagged before letting her out of the house."

"What?" Nyx asked, blinking in confusion at Leashlor's statement, "What are you talking about? She's not a pet, she's a person!"

"I've been telling him that since I got here. He doesn't care," Gaz sighed, already knowing what Leashlor was going to say.

"She was registered as an animal, that makes her an animal, no matter what she says," Leashlor said, crossing his arms and staring Nyx down, "Now, are you going to fill out the paperwork to get her out of here properly, or am I going to have to kick you out of here?"

Nyx stared at him for a few moments, before sighing and pinching the space between her eyes.

"I don't have the patience for this. Ying, would you?"

"Of course, Madame," Ying said, shifting into Battle Mode. Before Leashlor could process this, Ying lashed out with a vicious uppercut, sending the Animal Catcher flying upwards, his head smashing through the ceiling. He dangled there for several seconds, before the section of ceiling surrounding him collapsed, dropping him to the floor and burying him in ceramic, plaster, and insulation.

Walking over to the groaning and mostly unconscious Leashlor, Nyx patted him down until she found his remote. Studying it for a moment, she pressed a button, and the laser grid on Gaz's cage shut off, the human immediately scrambling out of it. Upon reaching the floor, she turned to glare at Nyx.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through the last few hours?" she demanded.

"Kinda?" Nyx said awkwardly, looking Gaz over, "Uh, nice ribbons?"

Gaz blinked at that, before she remembered the monstrosity her hair had been turned into. Scowling, she ripped the ribbons out and pulled her hair out of the braids; it left her hair a ragged mess, but frankly that was an improvement. As for the glitter, she rubbed what she could off of her face, but wrote off the majority as a lost cause for the moment.

"Come on, let's get our of here," she said, walking past Nyx, "I need to go find those idiot cops who sent me here."

"Oh, don't worry about them, I tossed them off a balcony when I heard what they did," Nyx said, turning to follow her, "And the ship jackers whose fault this all was in the first place… well, considering where I left them, I doubt they're having a much better time."

Gaz paused in mid-step as she heard that, before actually snorting in amusement at the mental images.

"Well, that's satisfying. Speaking of which, I just had an idea. Hand me that remote," she said, holding out a hand. Nyx arched an antenna, but complied, handing over Leashlor's remote. Taking it in hand, Gaz also grabbed the bag of pet food from where the Animal Catcher had set it down and walked over to where he was still buried under the rubble. She then proceeded to dump all the sludge left in the bag onto him, before hitting several buttons on the remote and shutting off the lasers on every single cage. As she expected, every animal leapt out and descended on Leashlor.

Gaz took a few minutes to enjoy the alien's screams as the animals in his care bite into him in their eagerness to get all the food off of him, before turning again and once more heading towards the hole in the wall where the exit used to be. Nyx and Ying followed her, none of them giving Leashlor a second glance.

Slumia Sewers, A While Later

After a brief detour to the secure (as in, Green Claw-controlled) parking lot where Nyx's ship was now being stored in order to pick up Gaz's spare clothes, Nyx had then led her to the hidden bunker that the anarchist had used as a base before first traveling to Earth. While not happy about the location, Gaz was more than willing to accept the use of the bunker's shower to wash off the glitter and lingering scent of whatever Leashlor had washed her with. Though she was in such a hurry to do so that she somehow managed to overlook a much bigger lingering mark of what he'd put her through.

Namely the collar. Which wouldn't come off.

"Seriously? I thought Irkens were super high-tech, and you can't unlock this thing?" Gaz grumbled, as she sat on a stool and let Nyx poke around on the collar with a set of tools.

"I'm trying, but this thing is crazy advanced," Nyx said, prodding at a circuit cluster with a micro-welder, "Seriously, how did that guy even afford something like this? And who puts tech this advanced into a nonessential field like catching stray animals? Seems like a total waste of-"

ZAP

There was a sudden surge of sparks from the collar, and the tools went flying out of Nyx's hands to embed themselves in a wall. Nyx and Gaz stared at the new wall ornaments in silence for a few moments, before Nyx broke it.

"Well, that's not a good sign," she said, rubbing the back of her head and looking at Gaz awkwardly, "I don't think I'll be able to get it off. Unless you're willing to let me try a plasma cutter on it."

Gaz flinched at the thought of something like being near her face and neck. Frowning in contemplation, she felt the collar with a finger, glancing at a mirror and taking a good look at how she looked with it on.

"You know what? Forget it. It looks pretty cool, as long as no one knows how I got it," she eventually said, Nyx sighing in relief.

"Well, I'm glad that's settled," she said, "Now we can get back to the trip."

"Madame, you seem to be forgetting your promise to deal with Grissom's problem on Foodcourtia," Ying spoke up.

"Hey, he just said he wanted it taken care of, he didn't say it had to be right away," Nyx said, waving it off.

"The favor you had to come to this planet for just sends you to a different planet?" Gaz asked in mild disbelief.

"Well to be honest, I mostly just had to come here to find out what the favor actually was, and it just happens to require going to another planet to fulfill," Nyx replied, "But like I said, it can wait. I promised you a fun trip, and after what you've been through already today, I'm not going to make you wait any longer just so I can blow up some losers when that's not a priority."

"…'Blow up some losers'?" Gaz echoed, cracking open an eye to look at Nyx inquisitively, "You know what? I want in on that."

"Really?" Nyx blinked, "But I thought you just wanted to go to Arcadikon?"

"I still do, but honestly? Blowing stuff up sounds like a great way to vent a little over what happened earlier," Gaz said, "Besides, Ying said it was on some food court planet. I'm guessing they have pizza?"

"They have everything. Can't promise it's as good as what you're used to," Nyx replied with a shrug.

"Then we can grab lunch, deal with these losers for your friend, and then get back on the way to Arcadikon," Gaz said, getting up from her seat.

"Sweet! Let's go," Nyx declared, turning to the exit, Ying and Gaz following behind her.

Foodcourtia, A Few Hours Later

Nyx and Gaz walked down the streets of Foodcourtia, Ying trailing by a respectful distance. The crowds of various aliens also on the street passed by without paying them any mind, aside from the occasional curious glance at Gaz, but most of those shrugged it off upon seeing her collar and writing her off as a pet. Those that didn't received side-eyed death glares from her and quickly looked away.

"Hmph, not bad," Gaz commented, chewing away at a slice of pizza topped with slices of some kind of alien meat, "Glad it doesn't taste like pork. I haven't been able to stand that since the whole Pig Girl thing."

"Yeah, I remember you telling me about that. Sounds pretty terrible," Nyx said, as she looked around. The NIO graffiti wasn't as widespread here as it was on Slumia, and what little she'd seen was being scrubbed away by Janitorial Drones under the strict eye of security officers, but it was present. And while she couldn't see any clear signs of recent riots, there was a certain nervous energy she detected at the pizza restaurant they'd stopped at which led her to believe that things weren't as stable as they looked on the surface.

"Honestly? It was more embarrassing than anything, being made into a spectacle like that," Gaz replied, shuddering at the memory. Shaking it off, she asked, "So, who are these people we're looking for again?"

"Er, to be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention," Nyx admitted awkwardly, "Ying, did you grab the file Grissom gave us?"

"Of course, Madame," Ying said, holding up the data pad and looking it over, "The group we're looking for is known as the Happy Fun Times Death Clan."

Both girls paused and turned to stare at him incredulously.

"You're kidding, right?" Gaz asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I am not," Ying said, "I don't understand it myself, but that is apparently what they have decided to call themselves. And they are evidently headquartered in a warehouse a few blocks from here."

"Right then, let's go find the stupidly-named gangsters then," Gaz said, finishing the last of her pizza and tossing the paper plate into a nearby trash can, the three continuing towards their destination. As they turned a particular corner, however, Gaz paused as something caught her eye.

"Is there a reason Zim's face is plastered all over that restaurant's billboards?" she asked. Nyx blinked and followed Gaz's pointing finger to the restaurant in question, which had a large model of some kind of creature stuffing its mouth sitting on the roof. And, as Gaz had said, several floating screens surrounding the building were displaying an unflattering image of Zim, along with the word "Wanted" in Irken lettering.

"Oh. That must be where Zim got exiled to work the first time the Tallest tried to get rid of him," Nyx said, frowning at the restaurant and the insult it represented to her idol, "He was demoted to Food Service Drone and made to slave away serving every disgusting slob that entered that place, until he finally escaped to join Impending Doom 2."

"Huh. Guess they're still bitter about that," Gaz commented, before shrugging, having lost interest.

"Yeah," Nyx said flatly, still frowning, "Do me a favor and remind me to do something about that place before we leave. I think Zim would appreciate it."

"Sure, whatever," Gaz replied halfheartedly, not really caring.

The trio continued on their way, turning several corners and crossing several more streets, before finally reaching their destination. Standing across the street they observed the building, a warehouse the size of a large aircraft hanger, patches of rust dotting the purple metal it was constructed of. And, oddly, various bits of graffiti depicting what appeared to be angry clown faces. The girls exchanged a look, then carefully crept across the street along the side of the warehouse until they reached a window, Ying shifting into Battle Mode and lifting them up so they could see through it. Peering through the window, they saw that the interior of the warehouse was filled with various stacks of crates, some of which were open or partially open to reveal weapons, food, and other contraband, which was being looked over by a group of about two or three dozen Irkens.

All of whom, for some reason, were dressed up like clowns, complete with makeup and wigs.

"…The hell kind of gang dresses up like clowns?" Gaz asked, eyeing the scene before her in disbelief.

"I dunno. I mean, I've seen some weird stuff over the years, but this…" Nyx said, trailing off in confusion. Shaking it off, she then said, "Anyway, it doesn't matter what they look like, they're still dangerous. Probably."

"Meh, I think we can handle it," Gaz said, taking out the shock staff and activating it, while Nyx blinked in surprise.

"Did you take that off my ship?"

"Yeah, I used it on Slumia against those guys trying to steal the ship, figured I could use it here too," Gaz replied, before shooting a smirk at her friend, "Shall we?"

"Let's," Nyx replied with a smirk of her own, pulling out My Little Friend.

Meanwhile, inside the warehouse, one of the clown-costumed Irkens was looking over a clipboard, while his associates were taking stock of the boxes surrounding them.

"Looks like everything's here that was promised, boss," one of the other gangsters said, looking up from crate of plasma rocket launchers.

"Good to know the government's so eager to help us out," the chief clown said, looking up from his clipboard with a grin, "This should be more than enough to take out the Green Claws, those NIO freaks, and anyone else who tries to get in our way. This planet's ours now, boys, and nobody's gonna stop us!"

BOOM!

One of the walls suddenly exploded, the force of it knocking over most of the gangsters. As debris fell and the smoke cleared, they scrambled to their feet and looked to the source of the blast, finding a large hole where the wall used to be, standing in which were the armed Nyx and Gaz, Ying towering above them.

"Who the hell are you?" the head clown demanded, glaring at them.

"Oh, just the people who are gonna wreck your caragash up," Nyx said brightly, before opening fire with her massive gun. The gangsters all screamed and scattered, while the rain of plasma bolts tore through the crates, triggering more explosions.

While a laughing Nyx quickly set most of the warehouse on fire, several gangsters mustered their courage and came charging at her with PAK legs deployed and a variety of weapons in hand. However, before they could reach her, Gaz jumped in front of them, body-slamming the nearest Irken and sending him stumbling into the one next to him, the pair both falling to the ground. She then spun around and slammed her shock staff into the PAK of another gangster that passed her; when he collapsed, she smacked the butt of the staff into his skull for good measure. Then she spun again, shutting off the staff and gripping it horizontally with both hands as one of the gangsters she'd knocked over got up and charged her with a knife, catching the blade on the staff. The Irken pressed against her, only for Gaz to smirk and let herself fall onto her back, flipping the gangster over and letting him slam headfirst into the ground with a significant cracking sound.

"Grr, just die, whatever you are!" one of the other gangster growled, stabbing at Gaz with his PAK legs. But Gaz rolled out of the way, and as the metal legs pierced the ground she reactivated the shock staff and whacked it into the gangster actual legs. As he dropped to the ground, she jumped up and kicked him in the head.

Smirking, Gaz turned to find more gangsters to fight, and paused as she found one standing nearby, holding a pair of nunchucks, of all things. She arched an eyebrow as she watched him spin them around in an exaggerated fashion that was probably meant to be intimidating, while making ridiculous sound effects. He then whipped the weapon towards her face… and she casually grabbed it with one hand, using it to pull the surprised Irken towards her and jabbing him in the neck with the shock staff.

"Idiot," she muttered, letting the unconscious gangster drop to the floor. Turning to look around, she saw another group of gangsters standing nearby, looking at her anxiously and fidgeting their grips on their weapons. Seeing how afraid they were, Gaz grinned and raised her staff towards them in challenge.

"Bring it, Bozos," she said, before charging them.

Meanwhile, Nyx had finally stopped firing her gatling gun and was taking a moment to admire the damage. As she did, several of the gangsters popped out from whatever cover they had hidden behind and opened fire on her with their own blasters… only for Ying to swiftly step protectively in front of her, the plasma bolts splashing harmlessly off of him. He then reached for an intact crate, picked it up, and through it at the gangster. They screamed and tried to jump out of the way, but several were still crushed, and the rest caught in the blast when whatever was in the crate exploded.

"Wow, this really is some high-grade stuff," Nyx said, ignoring the explosion to examine some explosives that had spilled out of a knocked-over crate, "You could punch a hole right through the hull of a Ring Cutter with one of these."

"Yes, very impressive, Madame," Ying said politely, not really interested.

BANG

And then something large smacked into him hard enough to send him flying into a stack of crates, which collapsed on him.

"Ying!" Nyx shouted in alarm. Turning to see what had attacked him, she was greeted by the sight of a Maim Bot looming over her, arms still raised from the attack and the leader of the clown gangsters visible in its cockpit.

"Alright, I don't know who you are, but you just wrecked my base and interfered with my business," the gangster growled, "And nobody does that and gets away with it!"

"Yeah? Well no one hurts my robot and gets away with that!" Nyx growled, picking up My Little Friend again. The gangster raised one of the Maim Bot's arms and fired its cannon, but Nyx dodged out of the way, returning fire as she did so. The stream of plasma cut across the Maim Bot's legs and torso, singeing the metal but not seriously damaging it; seeing this, the gangster smirked and brought the mech's arms slamming down into the ground, missing Nyx but the shockwave sending her flying.

"Flirk!" she cursed as she hit the ground, and more importantly noticed that her gun had been set skittering in the opposite direction. However, her gaze fell on some of those explosives she'd been studying earlier, and she smirked. Dashing forward, she grabbed an armful of them, and then jumped up to avoid another blow from the Maim Bot's arms.

Landing on one of those arms, Nyx quickly jammed one of the explosives into the seam between its cannon and the main arm, then ran up the arm. Before the gangster could process what she was doing, she reached the cockpit and jammed another explosive into the seam surrounding its base. Then she jumped over the back of the mech, and as she hit the floor spun around to toss the remaining explosives to land in the space between the mech's feet. She then leapt away, deploying a PAK leg as she did to fire a shot at the explosives on the floor.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

The explosives detonated, the force from them triggering the others, blowing the Maim Bot apart and sending its pieces flying in every direction.

After a few moments of silence, Nyx emerged from the pile rubble she'd sheltered behind and cautiously approached the wreck of the Maim Bot, picking up My Little Friend along the way. Reaching the main chunk of wreckage, she walked around it to face the shattered cockpit, and froze as she saw that aside from some blood, there was no sign of its operator.

"Great. Where'd he get to?" Nyx muttered, looking around for signs of where the gangster might have crawled off to — and was caught off guard as he came running out of the smoke with a battle cry, slamming into her. Unable to react in time, she could only drop her weapon and gag as he grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wreck of his mech.

"You little pest," the gangster growled, blood from a forehead wound mixing with his smeared makeup. Holding her firmly with both hands as Nyx clawed desperately at them, he deployed his PAK legs and aimed them at her, "Any last words?"

"Actually, yeah… what's with the clown theme?" she gasped out. The gangster blinked at her, rage overridden by confusion for a moment.

"Because clowns are disturbing, that's why!" he sputtered defensively, "And do you really want that to be the last thing you ever say?"

"Nope, I was just distracting you," Nyx replied, her panic disappearing and replaced by smug confidence.

"What-?"

"Hey, Pennywise," a voice said from right next to him. Turning to face it, he had only a second to see the calm fury in Gaz's eyes before she slammed the shock staff into his face like a baseball bat. The force of the blow sent him flying away from Nyx and several yards across the warehouse before he dropped into a heap on the floor, unconscious and missing most of his teeth. And for good measure, a recovered Ying walked over and dropped several crates on top of him, crushing him.

"You okay?" Gaz asked with a rare note of concern as Nyx rubbed her sore throat.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied. Looking around at the burning warehouse and numerous prone gangster bodies, she nodded in contentment, "Well, I think this accomplishes about everything we needed to do here. Let's go. Oh, and Ying? Grab a couple of crates to go."

"Of course, Madame," Ying said, grabbing a few of the crates while Nyx picked up and pocketed My Little Friend. The three then made their way towards the hole in the wall they'd entered through, though Nyx paused to toss a grenade towards the pile of weapons the lead gangster was buried under for good measure. As they quickly crossed the street, the resulting chain reaction of explosions leveled what was left of the warehouse, and they disappeared into the shadows as security officers and curious onlookers arrived on the scene.

A short while later they had arrived back at Nyx's ship, Ying back in his normal size after placing the crates aboard and the girls sharing a laugh.

"That was surprisingly fun," Gaz said, actually smiling slightly, "We should do this more often."

"Yeah. I knew you were tough, but I didn't know you were that good in a fight," Nyx complimented her.

"Eh, I guess some things just come naturally," Gaz said, looking at the deactivated shock staff in her hands, "Hey, you mind if I keep this? I like it."

"Feel free, I never really used it," Nyx replied, before glancing at her watch, "Well, we better get going if we still want to get any time at Arcadikon today."

With that, the friends and Ying got in the ship, which took off and was soon zooming away from Foodcourtia… though not without first pausing to drop a few bombs on Shloogorgh's Flavor Monster. As its roof caught fire and a certain Fry Lord screamed in confused rage, the friends laughed and flew off towards Arcadikon… where, surprisingly, the remainder of their trip went off without a hitch, with no further interruptions, detours, or fights, just fun and games.

All in all, it ended up being a wonderful trip.

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End Episode 8

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A/N: And done. Hope no one minds me not actually showing them on Arcadikon, but the chapter was running long, and nothing of interest was going to happen there anyway aside from showing them finally having their fun visit, so I decided to just cut it.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so I hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Nothing else to say, except to once again remind everyone to stay safe and healthy out there.

Next time: Team Save Earth infiltrate a fan convention for serious reasons.

Until then, please review!