The Adventures of Mip Membrane

Chapter 3: The Insidious New Girl

"S-She's over there! B-But just know, once you go to the reject table, there's no coming back!" Moofy threatened, attempting to remain in control of the situation and failing miserably.

The new girl walked right over to my table and sat down between Louie and I. The moment she had finished her social suicide, everyone went back to their business, ignoring her.

"Hello, Mip. I hear you and I have a lot in common. I hope we can be friends." She held out her hand for me to shake, and I took it, still not sure what to make of her.

"Hi there! I'm Louie! Welcome to the table! Us rejects gotta stick together!" Louie greeted cheerfully. The new girl turned to him, expressionless.

"Indeed. Anyway, Mip, we should talk during recess. I have much to discuss with you."

"Sounds great! We can play this new card game I just got!" Louie added.

The new girl laughed. "I'm sorry, Liam. But this is a 'girls only' sort of thing. I'm sure you understand."

"Oh. Um... okay, I guess. See you later, Mip."

As soon as the bell rang, Louie left, looking sad. I wanted to go after him, but I had a feeling this new girl wouldn't be happy with that, and I really didn't want to cross her.

We went outside to the playground, and sat on the bench. "Your disguise is impressive." She whispered. I nearly fell off the bench. How did she know!?

"Relax. I'm Irken too. My name is Tak." She greeted. Something didn't feel right. What was another Irken doing at skool? I crossed my arms, desperately trying to show I wasn't scared of her.

"Prove it." I stated. She took my hand and walked me behind a tree, then deactivated her disguise.

I was absolutely in awe. All she had to do was remove her disguise, and I was able to learn so much about Irkens that I didn't know before just by looking at her.

She had dark purple eyes, a color I had not seen on humans, though that wasn't too surprising, since Zim has pink eyes. Then there were her antennae. They were curled at the ends, just like mine. That was probably a trait exclusive to females.

Her outfit was also similar to Zim's, only her's was purple like her eyes. As much as I liked the Earth clothes Dad got for me, I always thought Zim's Irken clothes were neat.

Her PAK was perfectly round. At first I thought the shape of my PAK was a gender thing as well, since my PAK is bumpy and Zim's is round, but seeing Tak's PAK ruled that out.

The most interesting, though, was that tubey-looking device sticking out of her head. I'd never seen anything like it before, and I wasn't sure what purpose it served.

"Alright, enough staring! It's time to go. The Tallest require your presence."

"Uh... Who's that?" I asked. She facepalmed.

"The Almighty Tallest? The leaders of the Irken Empire? How do you not know this? I understand you playing dumb to blend in among the humans, but as you can clearly see, I'm not one. Don't tell me you're actually this clueless!"

"I'm sorry. I don't know anything. I've been on Earth most of my life, which hasn't been very long, to be fair, but still, I don't really remember Irk, and my family won't tell me anything." I explained.

She paused, looking me up and down. "Your... family? You let yourself get adopted by humans? And they know you're an Irken!? You... You disgrace! The sooner we get you off this planet, the better."

Tak reactivated her human disguise, then peeked out from behind the tree. No one was paying any attention to us. "Perfect. It's time to make our escape! Come along, Mip. We have to get going."

"Wait! I should check with my dad to make sure it's okay first."

She rolled her eyes. "The Tallest are waiting for you, we don't have time for your stupid Earthly attachments."

I stamped my foot and crossed my arms. "Then I'm not GOING!" I shouted. A bunch of kids turned to look at us, a few laughing at my outburst. Tak almost looked embarrassed.

"Fine. You can go say goodbye to your dad. But after that, we're going." She said with a growl.

After skool, we went back to my house. Before we even got to the door, Tak stopped in her tracks and looked at the garage. I heard something banging on the door from inside, along with a muffled voice screaming out.

"My old ship?" Tak asked aloud. She walked up to the garage door and pried it open with her PAK legs, and sure enough, there was a spaceship in there.

"Tak!? Is it really you?" The ship asked.

"Yes! But... what are you doing here?"

The ship dragged itself out of the garage. "I've been here ever since you left Earth. That annoying human boy found me and claimed me as his own. I hate him!"

Tak looked over the house. There was a big piece of the story that I was missing, and it was making me uneasy.

Before I knew it, the front door slammed open, and Dad ran outside.

"TAK!!! You stay away from her!"

He took a defensive stance in front of me. At this point it was obvious that she and Dad knew each other, but I still had no idea what was going on.

"Dib. You look different from the last time I saw you. Though it seems you've kept up the hobby of stealing Irken property that doesn't belong to you. I'm going to need my ship back..."

"Take your ship. Just take it and leave us alone." Dad stated, trying to remain calm.

"I wasn't finished. I'm going to have to take Mip as well. It's a direct order from the Tallest."

Dad turned his head to look at me. "Get in the house, Mip." He instructed as quietly as possible.

He wasn't quiet enough.

The ship heard him, and it wrapped its huge cable around me, threw me down into the seat, and the seatbelt tightly strapped me in, restraining my arms.

Tak hopped in afterwards. "NOW!" She shouted. The ship took off, and all I could do was watch helplessly as the ground fell below us and Dad disappeared from sight. I didn't want to know about Irk anymore. I just wanted to go home.