Zim the Warlord Chapter 4 Preview

"Come out, Zim! It's time to end this!" Dib yelled loudly as he banged on the door. "I'm ready for any-huh?" he stopped as the door opened to reveal an annoyed and impetient Zim, holding a stack of boxes in his arms. "How did you open the door?" he asked in confusion.

"Is there something Zim can help you with, Dib-stink? We are very busy today," Zim informed flatly.

"We?" Dib repeated as he craned his head to see that Minimoose, GIR, the Roboparents, and even the house's robotic tentacles were busy packing boxes. "Wait, are you leave?! Yes, score one for earth!" Dib cheered, becoming smug in his percieved victory.

Zim robbed his eyes. "No, Dib-worm, you have not driven me from your miserable dirtball. I am merely preping for an emergency evacuation," he informed as he moved to put the box in a corner, glaring at his robot companion. "Gir! Stop stuffing burittos into the knick-knack box!"

"But they'll get looooneley!" Gir whined before screaming out. "AND I LIKE BURITO-KNACKS!"

Zim just shook his head before placing the box down in a corner, with many more. "Wait, evacuation?!" Dib exclaimed in surprise, his enermous brain searching for an answer. "You'd be gloating if it was your leaders coming to wipe us out! Which can only mean.....another alien race is invading!" Dib declared with both certainty and fear.

Zim face palmed at that. "There is no invasion, Gaz-sibling! I have reason to believe your father may unintentionally cause the end of your planet and/or race," Zim informed in exasperation.

"My dad? What could...the keystone? The bracelets?" Dob guessed with a scruched brow. "But they just generate peace."

Zim actually stopped midstep at that, apparently surprised by that information. "Computer?" Zim called out.

"Chance of Earth's destruction raised from 3% to 15%," the machine explained.

"What?! Come on, how does peace raise the chance of earth's destruction!?" Dib asked in annoyed disbelief.

"Dib, I'm from a race of planet-conquering warriors. We have a LOT of philosophical arguements in the name of war," Zim stated bluntly before folding his arms. "What your male spawner is doing with these inventions of his is not the true issue: what they use is."

"I really don't get the "Energy from children" thing, I admit," Dib stated, scratching his chin in confusion.

"Dib," Zim stated very seriously. "I want you to comprehend the implication of that statement: A natural energy source spawned by the immature, post-infanitile memebers of your race."

"Yes, Childergy, Energy from.....children." Dib's eyes went wide as understanding dawned on him. "This isn't just a human thing, is it?"

Zim nodded as Computer decided to be helpful, bringing up several screens. One was a silent feed of his father announcing something of television, the other two blank for now. "Every race goes through this stage, where they discover the biological energy produced by all organic lifeforms," Zim explained, motioning to a screen that now showed outlines of four creatures: two humans and two Irken, seperated into one set being adults and the oter two being a children.

"If that size comparison is right, you guys are born really small," Dib remarked as he eyed the tiny image labled "Smeet".

Zim cleared his throat as the images now displayed an energy feild around all four of them. "Due to the quanity of energy never changing on its own, it is often found first in younger spawns, where the smaller bodies make it seem to be in greater abundance and more noticable," he paused to motion to the other screen until Dib interrupted.

"This...sounds a lot like magic or mutant powers," Dib noticed suspiciously, wondering if he was being pranked.

Zim however just nodded sagely. "Yes, it is often the sourrce behind many mythical events and legendary beings native to each world," he acknowledged before motioning to the screen showing four different scenarios: A large group of dots expelling a large amount of energy, a spread out net of them radiating a small amount of it, one's energy growing larger as others disappeared, and a line of them with the energy rushing back and forth through them. "And, invariably, something happens that will change that kind's entire existence, once they're use of it reaches a critical mass for the first time. It can be as minute as creating a new element in the region of the event, foreign to the rest of the world.  Sometimes its greater, but unharmful in the long run, such as changing an subterrainian race into an aquatic one."

"How is that NOT harmful?" Dib countered with a raised eyebrow.

"Will you let Zim finish!" Zim yelled, maknig the boy go silent. "Thank you, where was I? Ah yes! But there is always, ALWAYS a chance of it will cause a world ending amounts of bad dodo, Dib! Hear Zim! Your days may just be numbered!" Zim warned, pointing dramatically at a very freaked out Dib before calmly turning away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some packing to do."

"W-wait, can't you do something to stop it? Your computer just said it rose, how do we make it fall?" Dib asked hopefully.

"Why would I aide you?" Zim asked, severely unconvinced.

"Because you want to conquer or destroy earth yourself!" Dib reasoned with a glare.

"Eh, Zim will claim the victory, and we Irken are not above letting out enemies do the work for us. But if it makes you feel any better, I will be sure to collect my Gaz-slave in the event of your kind's extinction. And as the last human, I'd be literally obliged to preserve my trophy-slave for as long as I can," Zim assured in what Dib was sure Zim thought was comforting, if mocknig tone.

"My sister will NEVER be your slave!" Dib swore, pointing dramatically at Zim-

who proceded to use his pak's tentacle to slam him against the wall, keeping his head pinned there while covering his mouth. As the paranormal obsessed child struggled against the mechanical limb, his enemy approached with a severely unimpressed look. "You're trying my patience, Dib-stink," Zim informed, pinching the space between his eyes.