Hello all :) In celebration of the 15th anniversary of Invader Zim, I've decided to take a break from my usual style of storytelling and write a more original, less traditionally romantic fanfic. I actually started writing this years ago but never posted it for reasons. After marathoning though the show recently, I decided to re-visit this story and fine tune it to suit the show and the characters a little more. Here's hoping I succeeded and can make the great Jhonen Vasquez proud.

And don't worry, I havent given up on my other fanfics. I'm still working on them, but also wanted to post this while the anniversary is still going on.

Also, obligatory disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim nor the characters associated with it.

Chapter 1: The Device

It was another typical day at Skool and Ms. Bitters was giving another lecture on the history of the town.

"Where the ice cream parlor is…there was nothing!" Ms. Bitters spoke in a raspy voice. "Where the grocery store is…there was nothing!"

Most of the students sat in their seats, staring mindless at their teacher, drooling onto their notebooks as their minds gave way to boredom. One particular green skinned student however, was not paying attention at all as he fiddled with something under his desk cover.

"Where city hall is…there was nothing!" Ms. Bitters continued. "Where the park is…there was nothing! Where the chemical waste dump is…there was a flower shop."

Zim squinted as he inserted a small screwdriver-like pen into a flat rectangular device and began tinkering around with its screen. He had spent all night building the thing and was close to completing it. If only he didn't have to waste time in stupid Skool.

"Zim!"

Hearing his name, Zim quickly stuffed away the device, knocking his screwdriver pen off his desk in the process which then rolled across the floor. It soon came to a stop by the desk of Dib, who had been watching Zim out the corner of his eye the whole time. Seeing the pen roll against his foot, Dibs eyes lit up and he bent down to retrieve it.

"Is there something else you found more interesting than my lesson on historical insignificance?" Ms. Bitters asked Zim hastily closed the top of his desk.

"Why…no teacher!" Zim responded in a fake sincere tone. "I was merely uh….taking notes! Yes! Taking notes! So that I don't miss a single word of your uh, precious wisdom." Zim then sat with a fake smile as Ms. Bitters eyed him suspiciously from behind her glasses.

"Speaking of which." Zim continued. "I seemed to have dropped my pen, which I was using to take said notes. Could you tell Dib to give it back to me?"

Dib looked up from the pen he was examining and held it tight in his fist. "But this isn't a pen! You saw him using it a few seconds ago. It's some strange tool Zim was using to build his alien technology!"

Everyone in class sighed and rolled their eyes, having the heard Dibs 'Zim is an alien' rant numerous times before. Zim narrowed his eyes resentfully at him as Ms. Bitters approached Dibs desk.

"Enough of your nonsense Dib. Return Zim's pen to him so we can resume the lesson."

"I will not give it back!" Dib proclaimed holding onto the pen. "Think of all the advanced alien knowledge we can learn from this device!"

"Like why you has such a big crazy head?" a purple haired girl Zita yelled out, to the laughter and amusement of the class.

Ms. Bitter growled and with one swoop, grabbed the pen out of his hand. "I will not tolerate thievery in my classroom!"

"But, but, alien-" Dib pleaded.

"No more interruptions!" she hissed as she swooped over to Zim's desk and handed him back the pen. "All of you, pip down now before I start feeding students to the underground classroom."

As the class ceased their laughter, Zim smirked as took the pen and stuck his snake like tongue back at Dib who grimaced angrily.

"Now, take out your spreadsheets and get ready to draw notes on how to identify the inside of a squirrel's head." Ms. Bitters said, opening up her book of grotesque looking animals. Dib looked sideways at Zim, who opened his desk up and used the pen on the alien device to power it down.

"Just you wait Zim." Dib muttered under his breath. "I will find out what you're up to. And I will stop you."

The lunch bell had sounded and all the kids had filed into the cafeteria. As usual, Zim sat alone at the far end of the back table as he continued to work on the strange handheld device. The other kids were too preoccupied with eating their lunches to notice or care about the weird device Zim was working on.

"Stupid teacher with her pointless lessons. Wasting my precious time." Zim mumbled to himself as he fumbled through his bag. "She'll pay dearly once I've taken over this pathetic planet. Now where's that power accelerator?"

Zim then pulled out a small metal lunchbox that had the Scary Monkey Show logo on its side and rummaged through it. He pulled out a small metal fork device and pressed a small button on the handle, causing the tips to extend and light up with blue sparks, which he then inserted under the device's screen.

From across the room, Dib was trying to spy on Zim while slowly eating his tuna sandwich. Sitting next to him was his sister Gaz, who had barely touched her ham sandwich as she stared almost unblinkingly down at the hand held Game Slave 2 she always played.

"He's up to something, I know it." Dib said between bites. "Probably some sort of weapon or mind control ray. I bet he's close to finishing it too! Probably gonna put his plan into action by the time we get back to class."

"Uh huh…" Gaz said, not paying attention to her brother's ramblings. There was a loud beeping noise as she destroyed another boss creature in the game. It was then followed by victory music and a robotic voice that said 'Congratulations! You have saved the president! Now it's time to MELT HIS BRAINS AND TAKE OVER HIS BODY!"

"Is that Super Space Conquerors?" Dim asked looking over her shoulder as she continued to rattle away at the buttons. "I thought you beat that game months ago?"

"I did." Gaz said not looking up. "Super Space Conquerors 2 is coming out in three days and I need to practice if I want to beat my high score against the rival invaders."

Dib raised an eyebrow. "How is it you're more willing to fight aliens in a video game, then you are in real life?"

"Hey, do you I tell you what to do with your spare time?" Gaz responded, scowling briefly at him. "Now shut up. I need to concentrate for this level."

Dib glared at her in annoyance and went back to eating his tuna.

Across the room, Zim had closed the cover on the device and stowed away all his tools and gadgets. He then held up his device and pressed the activation button, causing it to light up and start beeping.

"Ha! I've done it!" Zim proclaimed triumphantly. "My electricity disruptor has been completed! Once I turn this red dial, it will send out a frequency that will shut down all electronic devices within a two mile radius! With it, I shall sneak into the nearest military base and commandeer the most powerful weapon available, using it to forcibly overthrow the humans and take over the world!" Zim then threw back his head and laughed out loud.

At the table next to him, a boy and a girl were watching him laugh and stared at each other in confusion.

"Is that green kid talking to himself again?" the boy Chunk asked.

"Just ignore him." the girl Sara shrugged, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"And now, to use it to make my escape from this wretched hive of stink children!" Zim said as he jumped onto the table and pointed the device at the overhead light. "Let Zim's terrifying reign of terror begin…NOW!"

He turned the red dial to the right. Nothing happened. Zims smile faltered and he turned the knob again. Still nothing happened. Looking at the device, Zim shook it and began turning the knob repeatedly. "What the heck is wrong with this thing?"

As usual, none of the skool children batted an eye at the strangeness of Zim standing on a table talking to himself and continued to ignore him. Dib however dropped his sandwich in a panic upon seeing the device in Zim's hand.

"He's finished it!" Dib said leaping up. "I must stop him!"

"Uh huh…" Gaz said, not looking up as Dib raced toward Zim.

"Why…won't….this…WORK?" Zim yelled out as he began smacking his fist against the knob, which was smoking and emitting sparks.

"HEY ZIM!"

Zim then turned to see Dib jump onto the table and point at him. "Drop that device!"

Dib then lunged at Zim and grabbed him around the middle. The two fell off the table and onto the floor, each struggling to grab the disruptor as a few kids glanced over at them in bewilderment.

"Give me that device!" Dib yelled as tried yanking it out of Zim's hand.

"NEVER!" Zim yelled as he kept a tight grip on it. Grabbing the disruptor with both hands, Dib accidentally turned the knob in the opposite direction.

Now activated, the disruptor began powering up and shot a blast of energy at the ceiling. It struck the overhead lights but instead of shutting them off, it caused them to glow brighter. Kids finally began noticing the commotion as it quickly became brighter and hotter in the room, with their lunches and drinks starting to bake, boil and even spontaneously combust under the lights. One unlucky kid felt his eyebrows catch on fire and ran off screaming.

Zim and Dib stopped fighting and shielded their eyes as the intensifying lights grew brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the bulbs exploded all at once, spraying the children with glass and plunging the cafeteria into semi darkness.

The kids screamed and ran around the room in a panic. Both Dib and Zim dove in different directions to avoid being trampled, dropping the disruptor in the process which was then kicked across the floor.

"NO! My device!" Zim exclaimed as he drove into the crowd and began searching amidst the chaos.

While that went on, Gaz continued to play her game and ignore everything else going on around her. Suddenly, one of the louder bald headed boys named Screamy, tripped over a bag as he ran by and knocked into Gaz, causing her to drop her Game Slave which then slid across the floor.

"NO!" she gasped as she watched the Game Slave get kicked across the floor by the screaming kids.

"DUH, SORRY GAZ!" Screamy shouted stupidly.

Gaz then turned angrily to the boy. "You idiot! I swear, if you made me lose that level, I will put you in a world of pain!" She then grabbed Screamy by the collar and threw him across the floor. "Now go get it!"

The boy let out a frightened squeak and proceeded to look around for the game system, leading him to search in the opposite direction. Gaz pushed past the panicking kids and dove under the tables looking for game console.

On the other side of the room, Zim was on his hands and knees searching desperately for his disruptor which kept getting kicked across the floor by the panicky crowd.

"OUCH! Stop trampling me you fools!" Zim cried out in frustration as another kid stepped on his hand. He then felt something grab his leg and turned around to see Dib scowling at him.

"Give up Zim!" Dib called out over the screaming. "That device is mine!"

"We'll see about that!" Zim retorted and swiftly kicked Dib in the head before scuttling forward into the thick crowd of kids. Dib stumbled back, dazed and disoriented, as he quickly lost sight of Zim.

Finally Zim spotted his disruptor as it slid toward the condiment table and under the table cloth. Forcing his way past the kids, Zim quickly crawled toward it.

On the other side, Gaz was elbowing and punching any kid that crossed her path as she searched in vain for her lost game system. She finally spotted it as it was kicked under the condiment table and made a running dive for it.

Reaching the table at the same time, Zim and Gaz plunged their hands under the table cloth, grabbing the first thing they could get their hands on.

"Finally!" Zim said grabbing the handheld device. "The device is- HEY!" He then felt a sharp set of fingers dig into his hand and pull him forward. Looking to the side, he spotted the dreary purple haired girl as she tried wrenching the device out of his hand.

"You! Let go you filthy dirt child!" Zim shouted at her.

Gaz looked up at the green alien, but merely grimaced as she attempted to yank back the device. Because of the darkness, she did not realize it was actually the disruptor she was clinging to and not the Game Slave. Zim tightened his grip and put his other hand on top of Gaz's in an attempt to wrench it free.

"I said let go!" he shouted at her as he attempted to wrestle it out of her grip.

"You let go!" she yelled back, pulling even harder to the point where she was dragging Zim under the table towards her. Zim tried with all his might to hold on to his disruptor but even with two hands, he felt his grip slipping. He then spotted her game system nearby and thinking he could switch it, reached over to grab it.

Across the room, Dib stood up and rubbed his bruise covered head. He looked around desperately for a sign of Zim and finally spotted him, his legs thrashing from under a table cloth as Gaz attempted to pull him out.

"Hands off it freak!" Gaz said as she pulled harder on the device.

"Gaz!" Dib gasped. Quickly, Dib looked around for a way to help her and spotted the fire alarm. Forgoing the consequences, Dib ran over and pulled the lever down, causing the alarm to sound and all the sprinklers to activate. All the kids screamed as they were drenched from head to toe and raced quickly out of the cafeteria.

"Got it!" Zim had finally grabbed the game system, which was still on and beeping. He was about to switch it with the disruptor when he felt a burning sensation on his legs. To his horror, he saw water seeping under the table cloth and felt his skin start to sizzle.

"GAHHH!" Letting out a piercing scream, Zim quickly stood up knocking the table over, releasing his grip. Gaz fell backward onto the floor with the disruptor in her hands as Zim, who was now drenched and wailing in agony, ran straight out of the cafeteria with the Game Slave still clutched in his fist.

Gaz sat up shaking her head and ran out of the cafeteria with the other children to avoid the sprinklers. Once she was in a dry spot, she went to check on her game and realized to her horror that it wasn't her Game Slave that she was holding on to.

"What the!? NO! Where did it...ZIM!" Seething with anger, she chucked the disruptor back into the cafeteria before racing off after him.

Just then Screamy, who was still searching for Gaz's Game Slave on the wet ground, felt something hard strike him on the head. "YEOUCHY!"

Rubbing his forehead, he then noticed the device on the ground and picked it up. "HEY GAZ! IS THIS THE THINGY YOU WANTED ME TO FIND?"

"I'll take that." said Dib as he appeared behind Screamy and took it out of his hand before he had time to respond. Dib then looked at the device in triumph "Finally! Zim is going down!"

Stowing the device in his pocket, Dib ran off toward the halls, leaving Screamy standing alone in the still drizzling room. "I WET MYSELF!"