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Fanatics 63.1

The entire city has been abducted by aliens, all except for Squee and a couple of his neighbours. With all of his friends now prisoners to this alien menace, Squee has no choice but to rescue to them. But Zim and the others won't take this lying down either. The Plitletians were first introduced in the Summer Fun special, here! Previous! Next!

Abductions Part One

Space: vast, infinite, dark.

Within it, planet Earth: a magnificent blue and green marble.

Suddenly, a massive alien spaceship approaches, Earth in its sights.

Within the cockpit, a group of aliens pilot the ship with their multitude of tentacles. One of them approaches a pedestal in the middle and taps it, displaying a holographic map of Earth. They garble an order to another alien that quickly hurries over.

They tap on the map, zooming in on a continent the locals call ‘America’, into a region the locals call ‘California’, settling on a city that not even the locals have a name for. They garble to the first alien. They nod and bark out an order. The other aliens reply affirmatively.

Within the city, morning has arrived and everyone is waking up and beginning their day. All is normal and quiet as they eat breakfast, get dressed and cleaned up, and prepare for their daily activities.

Suddenly, a harsh siren sounds throughout the city. Everyone rushes outside or pokes their heads out windows to see what the noise is. Nothing could have prepared them for this.

The sun has been blotted out and taking up a majority of the sky is a giant spaceship.

All of a sudden, hundreds of long tubes shoot out from the bottom of the ship, spreading out through the entire city. They smash through windows and doors or just hang over the streets and start sucking people up.

Everyone screams and cries as they’re pulled away, disappearing up the tube and into the ship. Nobody can fight back. Every person in the city gets abducted.

Or so they thought.

Within the ship, an alien officer watches the abduction run smoothly on a screen. They make their equivalent of a smile as they watch the number of people on the surface dwindle and the number of prisoners on the ship rise. Then they notice something odd and call over their captain.

*All alien dialogue will be translated to English for your convenience.*

“Captain, we appear to have a problem,” they say.

“What is it?” the captain asks as they come over.

“Well, there appears to be a clog in tube 77 Z,” they reply as they point at the screen. It shows a large number of tubes with coloured dots going up. But in one of the tubes, there’s a large cluster of dots stuck near the bottom.

“How is that possible?” the captain asks.

In the city, over Grave Road, Johnny digs his unnatural sharp fingers into the surface of the tube. Hanging onto him for dear life is Squee and all of their neighbors: Colton and his family- Mia, Lloyd, and Kay- Amanda and her daughter Emily, and Shane and Sage.

Johnny lifts his hands, one by one, down the tube. He slowly but surely pulls himself down, dragging everyone with him, and gets closer and closer to the ground.

Back on the ship, the aliens gasp with bewilderment as the cluster of dots starts moving down the tube instead of up. Nothing should be able to fight against this amount of suction.

“Retract the tube!” the captain orders.

The officer types on a keyboard and the tube starts retracting back into the ship.

On the surface, Johnny stretches his right hand out of the tube and reaches for the ground. But before he can make, the tube starts lifting up.

Everyone watches hopelessly as the ground slowly moves farther and farther away.

Nny look back and meets Squee eyes. They stare at each other worriedly.

Without warning, Nny suddenly grabs the back of Squee’s shirt with one hand and whips him out of the tube. He lands hard on the ground, away from the suction.

“Johnny!” Amanda cries, “do Emily too!”

“And Colton and Kay!” Mia adds, “please!” “Mom, no!” Colton exclaims but it’s too late. Johnny already grabs him and tosses him out, followed by the two young girls. They all bounce on the ground next to Squee.

“Mommy!” Amanda wails.

“Mom! Dad!” Colton and Kay cry.

“Johnny!” Squee exclaims.

The kids watch hopelessly as their families get pulled out of sight, disappearing into the ship.

They sit there, dazed for a few minutes. Amanda and Kay both cry while Colton and Squee just stare into the sky. Nobody can say or think anything; they’re all too shocked.

“Squee,” Shmee hisses.

Squee looks back and sees something hovering down the street. It looks like a little, round robot with a flashlight on the end of a short tentacle coming out of the top of its head. The flashlight shines around as if it’s searching for something.

Squee flinches. A drone.

“We gotta hide,” he orders. He grabs Colton and the girls and shoves them towards his house. They hurry inside and follow Squee through the living room. He throws open the basement door and ushers everyone through. Then he leads them down a ladder, underground, and stops.

They stand there, panting fearfully, and stare at the ceiling. When nothing happens, Emily and Kay break down again. They fall to their knees, sobbing and crying for their moms.

“Squee, what’s happening?” Colton asks frantically.

“I don’t know,” Squee moans worriedly and grips his hair. “It-it looks like an abduction. A city wide abduction."

“What do we do?”

“Uh…just a sec.” Squee grabs his cellphone and calls Devi. The call doesn’t go through. He tries Tenna and it also doesn’t go through. Then he tries Pepito, Zim, Dib, and Gaz and none of those go through. Finally he tries the Night Terrors but it still doesn’t go through.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no,” he whimpers fearfully. “Are they all on the ship? Are we the only ones who made it?”

His chest starts heaving as he kneels down, panting with panic. “No, no, no, no. What do I do? Shmee?”

“I…I don’t know,” Shmee admits.

Squee grips his shirt and breathes heavily. He looks back at Colton, Emily, and Kay. The girls are both still sobbing and Colton looks like he’s trying to hold tears back, as he lightly holds his sister.

Squee blinks back tears and forces his breathing to regulate. He takes a few deep breaths to calm down and stands up.

“I have no choice,” he says, “I’m going to have to help them.”

“What?” Colton exclaims, “by yourself?”

“It’s our only option,” Squee points out, “if I don’t, all of my friends will be abducted and used for who knows what.”

“Uh, what about the rest of the city and potentially the world?”

“Yeah, okay, them too.” “What are you going to do?” Colton asks.

“Whatever I can,” Squee replies, “you guys stay down here. Go upstairs to get food, blankets, or use the bathroom or whatever but don’t stay up their long. I don’t know if those drones will spot you not but you’ll be safe down here.”

“You-you’re gonna get Mommy back?” Emily asks between sniffles.

Squee smiles shakenly. “I’m gonna try.”

With that, he climbs the ladder and proceeds to the house.

He peeks through the basement door and eyes the front windows. When he sees no movement, he scurries across to his bedroom. Keeping low to the floor and out of sight from the window, he grabs his black sweater and bag, throwing them both on.

He stops when he hears a meow and looks back as Nugget crawls out from under the bed.

“Nugget, you’re okay,” Squee smiles and cuddles her. She purrs as she nuzzles his chin. Tugging Nugget under his arm, Squee peeks out his bedroom door and looks at the front windows. Again he sees no movement, so he hurries over to Johnny’s bedroom, closing the door behind him.

“What do you need in here?” Shmee asks.

“I saw something in here once that might be useful and kind of cool,” Squee replies as he opens the drawers on Johnny’s vanity. He sees mostly knives, small axes, and other bladed weapons, but in the bottom drawer that has some clothes, he sees a couple of belts. He grabs a short one with two horizontal sheaths that would be the perfect size for large knives.

He wraps the belt around his waist so the sheaths sit on his lower back, then he slips his two knives into them. He examines himself in Johnny’s cracked mirror.

“Hm, cool,” he comments.

“Okay, this is all great and heroic,” Shmee says, “but do you actually have a plan? How are you gonna get up to the ship?” “I’m gonna get to Zim’s,” Squee replies, “he’ll probably have something I can use to fly up there.” “But what if the ship takes off before you can make it? Or even after you make it?” “I’ll have that covered too,” he says as he grabs a notebook, pen, and lighter from his bag. He scribbles out a note then burns it.

“Nugget, get in,” Squee orders as he holds open his bag. Nugget lies inside, poking her head out. Squee then hangs the strap across his chest and rests Shmee on his head.

He hurries out of Johnny’s room to the backdoor and slips outside. He trots past the lumpy graves to the fence surrounding the backyard and pushes on a loose board. He slides through the opening and out into the back alley.

Squee looks around nervously as he hustles down the alley. He squeaks as he reaches the main road and spots a drone hovering by, shining its light around. He ducks behind a garbage can, barely out of the drone’s sight.

“How are we gonna get to Zim’s with those things flying around?” Shmee asks.

“I uh guess we’ll have to take a different route,” Squee replies.

He waits until the drone is gone then runs out onto the road. He checks to see if the coast is clear then dashes to a nearby manhole. He draws one of his knives, sticks it in under the manhole cover, and pries it open. Then he jumps through the opening, letting the cover close after him.

He lands with a grunt in deep darkness. He turns on the flashlight on his phone and shines it around.

They’re in a large, dirt tunnel that extends forward and backward, disappearing into pitch blackness. Unidentifiable noises can be heard echoing in the distance. Squee swallows hard and pants nervously.

“The underground labyrinth?” Shmee questions, “are you sure? You know the rumours about this place. We could get stuck down here for eternity, just like many others have.” “I know,” Squee nods, “but it’ll take us forever to reach Zim’s if we have to keep hiding from those drones. At least this way we can move freely… uh hopefully.”

“Alright. Well, I’ll protect you from any evil down here at least,” Shmee says.

“I know.”

He starts walking, nervously but purposefully, his flashlight breaking up the seemingly endless darkness.

Up in the spaceship, Mr. Fuck, Psycho Doughboy, Sickness, and Reverend Meat look around curiously. Aron and Serena are with them, equally confused and a little frightened.

They’re in some sort of large, metal room surrounded by hundreds of people. They’re all packed in here like sardines; there’s barely any room to move.

Aron starts breathing heavily and kneels down. “I’m starting to get claustrophobic. Where are we?”

“Have we been abducted by aliens?” D-boy asks.

“How cool is that?” Eff exclaims excitedly.

“You won’t be thinking that when these aliens start probing us,” Serena points out.

“He probably will actually,” Reverend Meat argues.

“What do we do?” Sickness asks.

Before anyone can answer her question, the Doughboys blink with surprise and take off their hats. They each pull out a similar piece of singed paper.

“Looks like our Little Boss can answer that question,” Eff says and begins to read from the paper. “Find my friends. Keep the ship from taking off.” “Find his friends but not him? Reverend Meat questions.

“Maybe he’s with his friends,” D-boy suggests.

“In any case, how are we supposed to find them in this sea of bodies?” Sickness asks.

“I got an idea,” Eff declares, “Reverend Meat, kneel down.” “Alright,” he nods and takes a knee.

“Now, Psycho Doughboy, get on his shoulders,” Eff orders.

D-boy obeys, somewhat hesitantly, and sits on Reverend Meat shoulders.

“Now hold still.” Eff leaps into the air, does a front flip, and lands perfectly on D-boy’s shoulders.

Sickness, Serena, and other nearby people clap with admiration.

“Oh, thank you,” Eff says and bows.

“Why do you get to be on top?” D-boy asks.

“Because it was my idea,” Eff replies, “now, Reverend Meat, stand up.”

He does. The Doughboys sway slightly but manage to hold it together until he’s upright. Eff’s head nearly touches the ceiling.

“Do you see them?” Reverend Meat asks.

“No,” Eff replies, “but I don’t have to because they’ll see me.”

Throughout the room, jammed into this large crowd, everyone who recognizes Eff sees him immediately, poking out of the horde like a lighthouse. Johnny quickly leaves his neighbors behind and starts shoving his way through towards him. Devi and Tenna, who were abducted together along with everyone else in their building, do the same.

When Zim spots him, he blinks curiously. “That’s one of Squee’s minions. Skoodge, come on.” “Zim, wait,” Skoodge squeaks as he tries to squeeze through people’s legs. Everybody just ignores.

Zim sighs, picks him, and tugs him under his arm before marching through the crowd.

Dib and Gaz were abducted with their dad. Dib’s spent the last couple minutes trying to convince Professor Membrane that they’ve been abducted by aliens.

“Now, now, son,” Membrane says dismissively, “that can’t be true. Aliens aren’t real.”

“Then how do you explain this?” Dib asks.

“Perhaps it’s just a mass hallucination caused by a gas leak,” he suggests.

“Oh, a gas leak. That’s a relief,” a nearby civilian sighs.

All of the surrounding people nod and murmur with relief. Dib glares at them with annoyance.

“Dib,” Gaz whispers and points at Eff. They share a look and look back at their dad. He’s so busy talking to the civilians that he hasn’t even noticed, so they slip into the crowd.

When Pepito spots Eff, he smiles excitedly, “the Doughboys!” Then he looks questionably at his mom.

She smiles and pats his head. “I’ll be okay. Go help your friends.” She kisses his forehead. Pepito smiles before rushing off into the crowd.

Everyone arrives at the Night Terrors location at nearly the same time. They all look at each other with a mix of surprise and relief.

“Ha! I knew that would work,” Eff cheers before flipping off D-boy. Then D-boy hops off Reverend Meat.

“But where’s Squee?” Sickness asks.

“He’s not with you guys?” Pepito questions.

“Squee’s not here,” Johnny says, “I got him out of the tube just before we got pulled up. He’s safe on the surface.”

“Oh, good,” Devi sighs with relief. “At least one of us is okay.”

“But then why’d he send us this order to find you guys and keep the ship from taking off?” Eff asks.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Zim scoffs, “he’s coming to rescue us.” “You really think so?” Dib asks.

“Absolutely,” he nods.

“Alright! Squee to the rescue,” Tenna cheers.

“But how will he even get up here?” Gaz asks.

“He’ll figure it out,” Zim says confidently, “he’s our strategist after all. But in the meantime, we should do what we can to keep these aliens from flying off. After all, we can’t let Squee have all the fun.” “So what do we do?” Pepito asks.

“First, we gotta bust out,” Zim declares then points at Eff. “Did you see anything that might be a door?” “Uh well I saw a part of the wall that’s a different colour over that way,” Eff replies, pointing off to the right.

“Perfect. Let’s go, team,” Zim orders, “it’s time for a prison break.” “I’m coming too,” Serena says.

“No, you stay here,” D-boy orders, “try to keep Aron from completely melting down.”

They look at their anxiety-ridden friend curled up on the floor, mumbling feverishly about losing all of his work and getting torn apart by aliens.

“Fine,” Serena groans.

“Don’t worry. We’ll come back for you,” Sickness promises. Then they all disappear into the crowd.

Zim leads the way as they push through the sea of people. It takes a few minutes, but they eventually make it to the wall. Eff was right; it’s a lighter grey than the rest of the wall.

As they approach, they notice someone else standing there, examining it. It’s Kat, the Irken Tak in her human disguise.

“Kat!” Pepito chirps, “you’re here too.”

“Yes. It seems they abducted everyone in the city,” Kat says.

“Good. We could use all the help we can get,” Gaz says then glares at Zim and Dib. “Right?”

They mumble in half-hearted agreement.

“So is this a door?�� Johnny asks.

“It is,” Kat replies, “I detect lifeforms on the other side, that aren’t human.”

“I don’t suppose it has a knob,” Devi grunts.

“Looks like it slides into the floor,” Dib says as he examines it. “It can probably only be opened from the other side.” “Alright, stand back,” Reverend Meat orders as he rolls his shoulder. “I’m gonna break it down.”

He pulls back his large fist and prepares to punch it, when it suddenly slides up.

Everyone freezes as it opens, revealing two creatures standing on the other side. They’re well over seven feet tall and incredibly thin. They stand on masses of swirling tentacles and have two more tentacles at the top of their torsos. They’re both wearing dark goggles and have short tendrils hanging over their chins where their mouths would be. One is dark yellow with bright yellow spots and is wearing a sort of black onesie with a utility belt while the other is green and is wearing a white onesie with three orange stripes.

“Our captors,” Kat states.

“What are they?” Pepito asks, “Zim?”

Zim doesn’t reply. Just stares at the aliens in shock, along with Dib and Gaz.

The yellow alien takes something off its utility belt. It’s a small, square device with a red button in the middle and a speaker on each side. It presses the button and the green alien says something in its garbled, alien language. Its words are translated into English through the speakers.

“Remember us, Earthanoids?” Zim, Dib, and Gaz gasp with surprise. They recognized these aliens as soon as they saw them; it’s hard to forget faces like theirs.

The Plitletians, Gle’lep and Smugmar.