Zim followed Zutch outside to testing field 8. It was huge. It stretched on farther than he could see. He recognized some of the obstacles as those used in training, but there were others he wasn't as familiar with. Far in the distance, he could barely make out a few small figures running the course. As he'd expected, the first group of trainees had already been sent out; he'd have to wait for the second group.

As Zim took in his surroundings, he heard the mechanical click of the door locking behind him. Zutch had gone back inside without another word. That was fine—Zim had no need of him now.

Zim spotted the remainder of his sector in a line, standing with their backs to the building as they waited for the first group to finish. It looked like they were lined up according to height. Again.

So, Zim tagged onto the end of the line, behind Skoodge.

Skoodge was, of course, the only one to notice him.

"Hey Zim, everything okay? You were in the medic's lab a while." When Zim still hadn't shown up by the time the first group had started testing, Skoodge had been a little concerned that he hadn't passed his physical.

Zim narrowed his eyes, "Of course! Don't be ridiculous."

Just then, Zim saw Dr. Nix and a few other medics bringing an injured trainee off the field course and into the building. He was strapped on to a hovering gurney, but was angrily telling off the medics.

Zim could make out what he was saying as he got closer. "…I'm telling you; he pushed me! That stupid Red; he pushed me off—it's his fault! I don't deserve to fail!"

It didn't look like anyone was listening to him. Dr. Nix used her ID badge to unlock the building, and the hovering gurney and other medics followed her inside.

The door locked behind them once again.

Zim stared at the door where they had disappeared, then turned to Skoodge.

"Did you hear that, Skoodge?" he asked the other Irken. "I can't believe it!"

Skoodge shook his head, "Yeah, Red's a real jerk-"

Zim cut him off, beaming, "Red is so cool! The way he sacrificed that other guy—"

Skoodge tried to interject, "I think that was Bob," but Zim kept talking.

"—so he could reach the goal—that's the resolve of a true invader!"

Skoodge leaned back against the wall and sighed. Zim had looked up to Red, as well as a few other, taller Irkens in their sector, as long as he could remember. It didn't seem to matter to him what they did; as far as he was concerned, anything they did was cool because they were tall. Trying to argue with Zim would be pointless. So, he didn't.

Luckily, Zim didn't care if Skoodge had nothing to say on the matter. Zim was the kind of Irken who would talk to anyone who didn't outright threaten him into shutting up. So, like most of their conversations, Zim talked and Skoodge listened.

"The realization that the most important part of anything is success—no matter how it is achieved—is the key to unlocking one's true potential." Zim paced back and forth as he ranted, "If you can do something, then you should! Consequences are irrelevant."

Skoodge twitched an antenna. That sounded like a philosophy destined to fail. Perhaps Zim was still thinking in regards to the holographic simulations they grew up with. A soldier with disregard for consequences…that was a dangerous combination.

There was a static noise from above. An automated message played over the speakers from the building:

"Hello, Trainees. Your goal is to complete the course ahead of you. This course is designed to simulate all potential obstacles Irken soldiers face in battle. Success is determined by completion. If you are injured and unable to complete the course, you will receive a failing mark and be taken to the infirmary. Death during the test is also coinstantaneous to failure. The Soldier's Test will begin when you hear a buzzer."

The remaining members of sector R-61 made their way to the starting point. Skoodge looked out at the long stretch ahead of him, calculating the best way to get through the obstacles he could see. He knew he wasn't much of a runner, but what he lacked in speed he made up for in careful planning.

Zim on the other hand, was beside himself with excitement. He could barely stand still; the anticipation was unbearable. He wanted so badly to prove himself to be a worthy member of the Irken empire by becoming an elite invader, and passing this test would lead him one step closer to that goal.

The buzzer sounded from above.

And everyone ran.

Despite his small size, Zim was able to keep up with and even outrun some of the taller members of his sector. Up ahead, the first obstacle was a wall. Naturally, the objective was to get past it. This could be done via climbing, or, if one was particularly ambitious, even digging. Zim however, saw things a little differently than most.

If it's in the way, then the best thing to do is blow it up.

Still running, Zim aimed the lasers from his PAK at the wall and shot a concentrated beam of energy at it. The wall crumbled, and Zim jumped over the rubble with ease.

The Irkens that had been running alongside him slowed pace and fell back a tad, eyeing Zim warily. Zim grinned as they backed out of his line of vision; success!

Skoodge was far enough behind everyone else that he wasn't worried. Even if he could, he knew better than to get close to Zim during something like this.

The next obstacle was a bit more complicated. It was a long, deep trench. There were two, narrow walkways parallel from one another leading across. Every few seconds, one of the walkways would light up, crackling with electricity, while the other became dormant. There was no pattern; it was completely random as to which walkway was safe and which was electrified. However, the path did flash brightly before it became electrified, and the intervals between electrocutions appeared to stay the same.

Zim stopped before the pathways, panting. He looked back and forth between them, waiting to perfect his timing. Then, he jumped onto the non-electrified path, using all fours to balance himself initially, before standing up. He took careful, deliberate steps forward. He could feel the electric currents around him. He saw a brief flash beneath his feet, and he quickly jumped to the other side.

The path he was on just a second ago lit up; high voltage arcing around it. Determined, he continued onward. He didn't dare look back.

He was eventually able to count the seconds between intervals and predict the change before the path he was on sparked to life.

Zim was nearly to the end when he tripped;

He tried to right himself, but it was too late. He fell off the walkway and had to use his PAK legs to catch onto it and pull himself back up. It only took a few seconds, but it threw his timing off. The walkway he was standing on snapped to life, electrocuting him.

His vision swam and his heart beat painfully in his chest. Zim grit his teeth and held onto the walkway with everything he had. He'd been electrocuted before—all Irkens had. For them, electricity was life-giving. They needed it for their PAKs. But it could also be life-ending.

Luckily for Zim, there was not enough electricity in the walkway to kill anyone; just enough to give them a nasty shock.

The second it stopped, Zim pitched forward and grabbed onto the ground on the other side of the trench. He scrambled away from the metal walkways, trembling slightly.

He stood up, feeling dazed. He shook his head as though to clear it, then looked back at the walkways proudly. He did it.

"Victory!" he shouted.

His voice startled some trainee on the walkway, making them look up at him. They were promptly electrocuted as well. They were unable to catch themselves with their PAK legs, and fell into the trench below.

Zim laughed at their misfortune, boasting, "Ha! Truly none can compete with Zim!"

Zim turned around and continued running the course, looking readily ahead.

He ran in the front for a while, but eventually was passed by some of the taller trainees. After that, he was passed by a few more Irkens. He couldn't figure out how everyone was suddenly so much faster than before. It wasn't until Skoodge appeared beside him that he realized the others weren't speeding up, rather, he was slowing down.

Skoodge jogged at a moderate pace; he didn't mind being in the back. There was no time limit on the test, and it wasn't like he had anything else to do today afterwards. He was a little surprised when Zim fell back beside him, though. He'd figured Zim would just use his PAK legs to stay in the lead when his legs got tired.

Zim mentally cursed his luck—that electrocution had disabled his auxiliary PAK functions. No lasers, spider legs, nothing. He was stuck in the back with Skoodge until he caught his breath, which was not coming as easily as it should've been.

Up ahead, he could see the next obstacle; a line of motion detecting turrets mounted on pillars on both sides of the field. The turrets rotated slowly, searching for a target. As the turrets on the left rotated to face the outside of the field, the turrets on the right rotated to face inward, and vice versa. Timing would be crucial.

Skoodge stopped a good way before the turret field, taking a moment to both regroup and strategize. Zim stopped next to him, wheezing.

Skoodge was taken aback by the sight of Zim; the smaller Irken was doubled over with his hands on his knees, taking in desperate lungfuls of air. The usually silent mechanisms in his PAK were whirring loud enough that Skoodge could hear them.

Skoodge was by no means the most athletic Irken in their sector, to put it mildly, but even he wasn't having that much trouble with the course.

Turret field forgotten for the moment, Skoodge looked at his comrade worriedly.

"Zim?" He started, "Are you…okay?"

Skoodge was hesitant to ask; Zim had a tendency to blow up into a rage anytime someone showed concern for him. He didn't know why, it was just…something Zim had always done.

Zim "answered" him by face-planting into the dirt.

Skoodge immediately knelt down next to him. "Zim!? Zim, can you hear me?" he asked, doing his best to keep the worry he felt from creeping through into his voice.

Zim said nothing, but the bottom port on his PAK flashed red off and on.

Skoodge was neither a medic, nor an engineer. Ever since he and Zim had escaped to the surface as smeets, there was almost an unspoken rule of "wherever you go, I'll go" between them. Skoodge had always been very obedient; he was told to do something and he did it, no questions asked, to the best of his ability. Zim was the opposite; he was told to do something, and he wanted to know why. If the "why" was an acceptable answer, then he would do it, though not necessarily the way it was supposed to be done. And if the "why" didn't suit him, he didn't do it at all.

Escaping to the surface had been the most exciting part of his young life, and Skoodge felt grateful to Zim for taking him along. That was why when tiny, loud, smeet-Zim wanted to become an invader, quiet, impressionable, smeet-Skoodge had wanted to follow him.

Unfortunately, this meant that Skoodge had never pursued any other type of education. He did not know how the mechanics of the PAK functioned, and he certainly had no experience with the inner workings of the Irken body.

What he did know, was that if Zim stayed where he was, unmoving, a medic would be sent to the field to retrieve him and he would fail the test.

Skoodge looked up. Most of the other trainees had made it past the turret field now. There were a few scorch marks on the ground where the turrets had fired, and one of the turrets was missing from its pillar entirely.

That was strange, where was the—?

A ground-shaking crash reverberated through the field as the mangled remains of the severed turret landed less than five feet behind them.

He stared up at the smoking heap of scrap metal, then looked down at Zim. The smaller Irken was still unconscious, but his gasping breaths had slowed considerably. Skoodge looked pensive.

Zim's words from earlier echoed in his mind "…If you can do something, then you should!"

Skoodge's gaze flicked back to the turret, and he bit his lip, "Well," he thought, "this would certainly be something."