"There. All tied up. Who knew that Irkens would get so weak for this stupid snack..."

Said snack was held up in front of the tied down Irken laying on a metal table. Dib gazed at the orange-chicken flavored chips, not even sure how old they were. But boy was he glad his dad hated throwing the last of anything away. He'd always swore that this bag of chips was the last of its kind out there, and that nobody /ever/ made /any/ more. Maybe that's why Zim had been so mesmerized by the stale, crunchy snack; it made perfect sense.

From what Dib had learned about Irkens, was that they tended to treasure snack foods over most other things, including each other. Which Dib thought was sort of stupid. But then that reminded him of how his own people could be with /killing/ others for bits of inked paper and intangible things like pride. Which didn't make it seem /as/ stupid, but still stupid. Shaking his head from his badly straying thoughts, Dib threw the bag onto another table in his lab, turning back to Zim. Circling around to the back, he moved to hop onto the table that Zim was tied down to straddling the back of his legs which were secured to the table as well.

"Now, to have a bit of fun. Geeze Zim, I should have tried to piss my dad off long ago with those snacks. I would've caught you so much easier, so much earlier."

If his dad knew that the snacks were in Dib's hands, and not stored away like they were supposed to, Membrane would be royally pissed off. Thankfully none of them broke. Dib would have time to do that later. He still needed them incase Zim started to get rowdy; a crinkle of the plastic or the crunch of a few crumbs was all that it would take to keep him from using his Pak or having him struggle so much.

There was something Dib didn't know about why Irkens treasured snack food so much! They ate it because it helped fuel their Paks. Thus the importance of it. It gave them more energy, you see. Not that Dib would clue him in on that little fact. Instead he angrily thrashed around but unfortunately couldn't get anywhere due to the restraints binding him down.

"Release me! Release me or /horrible/ things will befall down on your family and children!" Roared the enraged Irken, antennae pinned back in an oh-so aggressive manner! ...In all honesty, he was a bit fearful of Dib - for once - considering his pod was exposed and the human was capable of doing anything to it! What if he broke it or something? It was very high tech and doing such a thing would be really hard...but not impossible! Just what was he up to? He didn't want the human fool messing around in there!

Dib smirked, rolling his eyes. "Pipe down, spaceboy."

He was SO glad that his newest spying attempt had actually worked this time. It was totally random, he hadn't been prepared at all really; he had planned on going to do something horrible to the chips to make his dad mad. Just because. He would've recorded it too... But instead he had found himself at Zim's house. Fighting ensued, but when the crinkling of the bag had been heard, Zim froze.

Dib took advantage of that, and tackled him taking the bag of chips out and crinkling them softly. That got Zim to stop squirming and quickly, as he had eyed the chips. The rest was easy really. Well sort of. His belt hadn't made too good of a restraint but he managed to get Zim back to his lab without breaking any of the chips. Grinning very evilly, he scooched up a little on his lower back to have better access. Letting his finger roam over the outside of the Pak first, he took verbal notes for his computer to record.

"Subject; Pak." he began, "The Pak of an Irken is...very smooth. Even though it's quite hard, when pressed in the right places--on the pink coloured plates and just at where the metal meets the skin--it is actually a bit softer. The skin around the Pak is..."

Dib stopped before moving to let two pointer fingers trace around the Pack from the top to the bottom, trying to gauge Zim's response to the skin touch.
The Irken hissed venomously at all the poking and when he finally touched bare skin. Again he jerked his body violently in hopes of escape but apparently he wasn't going anywhere.

"You will pay for this /Dib/! Mark my words!" Growled the Invader, glaring daggers towards the human boy. Or at least he tried to. It was hard to look around in his position, and crane his neck back that far to see him. He couldn't believe he let himself get in this position in the first place. He never would have thought Dib could capture him in such a pathetic display. Then again, he never would have thought the boy could succeed in his capture period, either. Looks like he'll just have to figure a way out of this! And that the Irken was confident of. He could...figure out something...Hopefully.

"...sensitive it seems." Dib smirked at Zim, reaching to pat him on the head in a condescending fashion, tugging gently on a lekku before returning to his notes. "There doesn't appear to be a way of opening visible to the eye..."

Dib ignored Zim's protests, letting his full weight sit on the smaller below him. Letting a hand move over the Pak, he made to feel around the surface, before he found a little indent near the bottom of the Pak. Digging a nail into the little indent, all three of the panels popped open and disappeared into the Pak so that they were out of the way.

"Ah. There is a small indent at the bottom of the largest panel. When pressed, all three panels open and retract into the Pak for easy access." Dib practically purred, moving up further to lean in towards the Pak.

Carefully, he let a hand reach into the device, fingers caressing and stroking at the wires almost lovingly; this was just so much! Dib was like a kid in a candy store that just got a 20 dollar bill to spend on whatever he liked!
Zim felt violated in the oddest fashion.

"Dib!" The Irken growled dangerously as his hand plundered the inside of a storage port, making his body tense. His Pak was part of him and he could feel everything he was doing. It was literally attached inside him from wires that protruded from the underbelly too. He just hoped Dib didn't plan on removing his pod...

Dib couldn't help but smirk wider.

"Oh, did that hurt?" he teased. Talking once more to his computer, he continued, "There are a multitude of wires and small switches. They aren't labeled of course, seeing as one could assume the only person to do work on a Pak would be the owner of said Pak. I will now see if I can get something /interesting/ out of the attached subject: Zim."

Glancing back down at the exposed wires, he let fingers roam around, feeling up all the wires near the bottom panel. Those were mostly orange and pink wires. The top panels also had different coloured wires and switches. The left one held green and blue coloured ones, while the one on the right held red and yellow ones.

The Irken was thoroughly frustrated with the way Dib talked to his computer. He hated being referred to as some kind of subject and hated even more as Dib repeatedly violated his personal space! But what more could he do but rant and yell? ...Rant and yell some more!

"Stop it! I mean it! I know witch craft!" But unfortunately he really didn't.

Now he wished he would have practiced the strange human taboo.

He'd use his extra appendages to aid him if the brat hadn't disabled them from the start. They were detached and laid off to the side much to his disappointment.

"Witch craft? Trust me, the only person that really knows that stuff is Gaz." At the mention of his younger sister, he gave a shiver. The shiver caused his fingers to move as well, as they brushed against a small button. Looking down, Dib tilted his head. "I seem to have found a small button of sorts. It's glowing red, but is very small. About the size of the head of a pin."

Smirking, even though he didn't know what it was going to do, he pressed it down hard then let go. It stopped blinking altogether, and stuck as it had been pushed down. Zim's eyes widened as he realized he knew of which button he was talking about now.

"W-Wait!" But it was too late. A jolt of electricity shot through his system as the Irken grit his teeth in pain. It all happened in a matter of seconds and suddenly the alien lost consciousness. The Pak whirred strangely before returning to its normal state and inevitably leaving Dib in a wave of confusion and pain.
Dib gave an alarmed shout, falling off the table and onto the ground.

That had shocked him too!

Panting, he lay on the floor before saying, "Computer, run a scan of subject, Zim." He paused, waiting for the command to register. But it never did. Looking around, he barked, "Computer!" No response.

So that stupid shock had somehow short-circuited his entire LAB.

"Jeeze Zim...such a pain in the ass..." Standing slowly, he moved to shut the panels, done with messing with them for now. Shuffling to stand in front of Zim, he leaned down so he was face-to-face with the unconscious Irken. "...Zim?"
The alien was still breathing if Dib paid close enough attention. He wasn't dead, but he was still out cold from whatever happened.

Obviously the Irken knew but couldn't get it out fast enough. This definitely wouldn't be good for him. The human may not know what he had done, but soon he'll know just what had happened. Blinking, he moved to carefully untie him, flip him over--he had all his tables fitted with a hole just in case--then tie him again.

Getting a little flustered with himself, he leaned down placing an ear to the Irken's chest; a soft thump met his ears. Well he wasn't dead. Eyeing Zim suspiciously, he sighed in irritation. After a couple of minutes, leaving Dib guessing when the alien might stir awake, he finally began to move. His antennae twitched and a soft groan emitted from his lips. Eyelids fluttered open as he tried to place where and what was happening. When he tried to move his limbs, he soon learned they were immobile! He was stuck - tied down!

"Whoa...What's...What's going on?"

Oh good. He woke up. Letting out a breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding in, a slight worry ebbing away quickly enough.

Placing a smirk on his lips, he said to the tied-down alien, "Jeeze. I thought I was gonna get lucky and dissect you today." He gave a heavy sigh as if this was troubling. Which /was/ in a sense that didn't...make sense. Or something likes that. "Eh, whatever. I might as well flip you back over and see what else I can do. You short-circuited my computers by the way."

Dib glared, kind of hurt that he'd manage that. Next time Dib would invest his birthday money into some plastic tables instead of metal

Zim held a rather confused and unnaturally frightened look in his eye. Just what was happening here? Who was this large headed boy? And why was he trying to kill him!?

"Let me go! Who do you think you're messing with?" Apparently not even he knew. He was shocked - what was his name? He couldn't remember anything! "I...Wh-Who are you!?"

Dib gave him a flat look.

"That's not gonna work you know!" he replied in a sing-song voice, eyes traveling over Zim to look at him. Well...there did seem to be something different about the Irken laying on the table.

Beside the fact that he suddenly got very meek-looking, and...scared. Scared? Since when was Zim ever afraid? At least since when was he afraid of Dib? Blinking a moment, he couldn't quite understand what was going on.

Eyeing him warily, he asked, "What is my name?"

The Irken continued to pull at his restraints and squirm on the table, baffled as to why he was here, and why he couldn't remember anything. "I don't know!" He spat angrily and looked up at him, eyes glinting in panic. "Just tell me what you want!" Whatever it was, surely they could talk this over! Why would the boy want to kill him? Dib's eyes widened, looking suddenly fearful.

Zim...couldn't be playing with him, could he?

"You don't...know who I am? Do you know where you are?" he asked. Watching Zim try and struggle out of the restraints sent a slightly painful jolt to his stomach. That was...almost pathetic. He found himself moving forward, trying to get him to calm down.

"Calm down, calm down. I was joking I won't hurt you..." he said in a softer voice, placing a hand on the alien's chest and pushing him against the table. "I'll let you go if you calm down and answer my questions." The former invader wasn't so easily convinced, though. He heard the intent in that voice! He must be aware of his current amnesia, which was pretty obvious.

He narrowed his eyes up warily at Dib but he did stop struggling. "Fine, just ask me." He didn't care what the questions were he just wanted up and out of here! ...But then where would he go? As he scrambled his brain, he couldn't find a thing that'd aid him in this situation, not a friend, relative, or even where he lived! He was completely in the dark about everything. The untrusting look he received made him recoil back a moment, before stepping forward again.

"Alright. Do you know where you are right now? Or how you got here?" he asked, trying to hide the fear growing in the back of his mind; what exactly was he afraid of? He couldn't be sure.

But it was getting scary, whatever it was.

He thought real hard but nothing came to mind. This just further agitated him. "No. But I have a good clue as to how I got here." He gave him an accusing look although he had no clue what this human was to him. Apparently, considering his current state, their relationship wasn't good. Dib gave a short sigh, the fear growing more.

"Um...right. Uh, do you know why you're on this planet?" he asked, wanting to take a step back but making himself stay. Out of a natural curiosity he usually withheld, he reached out and took a lekku in his fingers, stroking it gently.

How odd!

He groaned in frustration. His head hurt to even think this hard but he tried and ended up with no results. "No! I can't seem to recall anything." Which just intensified the uncharacteristic fear in his eyes. What had happened to him? Of course he wouldn't know that either. But since this guy was hovering over him, he must have something to do with it! "What did you do to me!?"

"C-calm down, calm down." he said, stroking a little harder at the appendage without thought. Not too hard though. "I--I have no idea...I was...looking in your Pak because...yeah. So...I pressed this button that was in there, and...you got shocked, and you short-circuited everything. I'd show you the tape but...I don't know if I can recover it or not. Um...err...I don't know. You must remember enough to talk. And move. Your Pak didn't erase everything."

Giving a small groan, he placed a hand to his forehead as his own headache began to surface. Zim looked considerably worried. His Pak erased his memories!? What??

"Wh-Why did you push that button? What were you looking in my Pak for? Who are you?" Came the long line of questions, not liking any of this. He felt terribly vulnerable and utterly clueless. Who knew what was going to happen to him now?

"L-look, I didn't know what it would do! I was curious! And really, I was just trying to piss you off...I'm...sorry that I did that...I didn't know!" he exclaimed, withdrawing his hand from the Irken's head as if he had gotten burned.

Holding his hand against his chest, he glanced around. He knew now what he was scared of. This wasn't right; this was a taboo. It had to be! To see the Irken so helpless looking and scared just wasn't right. He was going to get smited or... or... /something/!

Turning away from the Irken, he looked to his computer. One of the keyboards weren't smoking, and he moved over towards it quickly. Pulling up a screen, he typed in a command; a robotic arm came down, and taking aim, pierced a needle into the arm of Zim, injecting a clear liquid. It withdrew, and Dib turned back towards Zim, looking very nervous and worried now.

Trying to piss him off? The more Dib talked, the more questions that flooded his head. As he sorted them out and started to ask why he was rather startled by something.

Zim's eyes widened fearfully at the sight of the robotical arm and what it held. He gave a high pitched yip at the needle that pierced his skin tissue and he was injected with some unknown substance.

"W-What are you doing?!" He was terrified that the human was going to kill him! Or may have already with some poison! "Look, I don't know what's going on, but I'll do anything you want!"

"D-don't...don't talk like that! Just, be quiet--that's all I want right now!" he begged, starting to panic as well. Looking around, he glanced at the clock. "I injected you with a bit of anesthesia that'll knock you out in a few more seconds. Just...just know that I'm really sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen..."

Moving forward again, his stomach gave a painful jolt at the pair of ruby eyes gazing back up at him fearfully. "Just...don't worry. I /swear/ you'll be safe. I know you have no reason to trust me now, but I swear...I'll...have to take you back to Gir..." Despite his reassuring words, he looked reasonably upset, regardless. Why did he have to knock him out?

He felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier...It got a lot harder to focus and by the time that couples of minutes were up, the Irken was knocked unconscious yet again. Leaving Dib to wonder just what to do with him now. Giving a heavy sigh, he looked around and saw that it was about nine o' clock at night.

Ick...at least his dad wasn't home yet.

Looking back to Zim, he moved forward to lift him bridal style in his arms. He felt a little heavy because he was passed out, but really light otherwise. He was such a thin creature. Shaking his head, he moved out of the lab and out of his garage, passing up the still under-construction ship.

It was currently powered down. He really needed to work on getting the A.I. in it to work right.

Walking down the sidewalk, he shifted Zim in his arms trying to stay away from the Pak. Occasionally he'd pass someone up, and they usually gave Zim worried looks. Dib wondered why the HELL nobody bothered to notice that his lekku twitched atop his head, or occasionally his Pak would make a loud whirring noise. Moving to approach the freaky glowing green house, the gnomes not attacking because of Zim in his arms. Kicking at the door twice, he shifted Zim in his arms waiting for Gir to meander his way to the door.

The alien stayed out of it the entire time, adding no more to the human's stress. His antennae swayed, twitching from time to time in a dream his subconscious worked up.

Who knows when the Irken would get his memory back? He didn't exactly /lose/ it, like one would have with amnesia. And with amnesia, it usually comes back. No, it was deleted thanks to Dib's irrational urge to poke and plunder in his Pak. He should have at least figured out what the button did before pushing it!

But then that would be saying he cared about what happened to Zim. Considering how he was behaving now, you'd almost wonder if he did. The door handle jiggled, before a dog-suit clad robot opened the door.

Pink tongue sticking out, his mouth opened wide in a smile and he replied in a high-pitched tone, "MILK MAN! YOU CAME BACK FOR MEEE!!" Flailing his arms, the android squeaked, moving to the side to allow Dib passage.

Dib grinned. He kinda wanted to pet Gir for letting him in, but he had arms full of an unconscious Irken. Not knowing his way around the upper floors--the lower ones were more his forte--he looked down at Gir. "Gir, take me to Zim's room. He lost his memory...so he needs rest."

Gir blinked, tongue dripping slightly with what looked like... soap? Nodding enthusiastically, he munched on the bar of white soap before marching to the refrigerator. Kicked once, it popped open. Gir stepped through, smiling and waiting for Dib.

Dib made his careful way in, and when standing right, the lift moved down. After a minuet or two, Dib shifting Zim occasionally, the door moved open and they were presented with a large, circular room. Gir didn't seem very worried about his master being in the hands of his enemy. At the moment he couldn't even remember Dib was the bad guy.

With his tongue sticking out goofily, and why a robot had a tongue in the first place never brought to question, Gir walked into the room where Zim had his private times. There wasn't much to it, but there was a bed for him to be laid down on.

Dib moved over quickly enough, and lay the petite frame on the bed. Covering the last inch of chartreuse skin, he turned away before his heart sunk a little more. Moving over to Gir, he picked him up and patted him on the head.

"Now Gir...I need you to watch Zim...he won't remember you when he wakes up...but /please/ try to take good care of him. Try to tell him everything that's going on okay?" Giving him a pat on the head, he waited for some sort of response at all. Gir stared at him as if he had problems registering what he just said.

It all kind of just whooshed past him so he remained quiet as if the human was going to repeat himself. At this point Dib should safely conclude that leaving him with the robot would be a death sentence. Of course, he really should have already figured that out.

Dib gave a heavy sigh, taking him over to Zim.

"Alright Gir, look." He pulled a chair out of nowhere, setting Gir down in it. "If you watch Zim, and take care of him, I'll buy you TWO chocolate bubble-gum suck monkeys, okay?" Honestly he didn't want to be near Zim right now...he didn't want to be responsible for him right at the moment. At the moment...

Gir took another moment to think before suddenly giving Dib a thumbs up!

"Gotcha!" A couple of suck monkeys seemed awfully good right now though who knows how long Gir's attention would hold up? He had problems with short attention spans and may forget a second later. But hopefully for Zim's sake, the robot will be able to shed some light on things once he's woke up. Rubbing at his temples in a fashion that really conveyed the headache pounding his brain, he scratched behind Gir's ear, and the robot gave a whine of happiness.

"Good then, Gir. Now, if you don't take care of Zim, no suck monkeys, okay?" The little robot nodded, smiling with his tongue sticking out. "Right. I'm leaving now...be good Gir. And try not to scare Zim too badly when he wakes up..." Another nod, before Gir stared at Zim. Sighing for the umpteenth time within the hour, he moved back over to the elevator and asked the computer to take him to the living-room floor.

The computer obliged while Gir was left staring at Zim. The robot wouldn't take his eyes off of him and waited patiently for him to stir...and struggling madly not to lose focus. It was a real challenge for the android! Especially when so many other things were just beckoning him to lose attention off his current task and put that attention somewhere else.

The dancing muffins... they were calling...

Stepping out, Dib glanced around the base. Oh, such a strong temptation to poke around.

"I wouldn't, you know. I may not care one way or another, but I can't control other defenses that Zim has put up. So...explore at your own risk." a voice from nowhere, yet seemingly everywhere, offered in a bored manner. Rather like it would /love/ to be anywhere but here at the moment.

"Uh...yeah. I'll leave then. I know Gir will probably screw something up...so watch out for Zim, alright?"

A loud, irritated sigh came, and the computer replied, "Sure, sure...Oh, by the way I turned the gnomes off for you. But you've got five seconds. I can only turn them off once a day."

Blinking rapidly, Dib dashed out the front door. As he reached the end of the sidewalk, lazars began shooting at him. Yelping almost pitifully, he hightailed it down the street and back towards his home.