Invader Zim ZADR: How did we get here?

Chapter 18: What do we need to do?

"What we're trying to build." Dib corrected Zim, whose expression quickly soured.

"Or did you already forget that?" He continued, with a sly smile on his face, remembering all the times that Zim had questioned his memory. The alien glared at him for a few seconds before letting out a grunt and continuing to inspect the plans. He continued like that for a few seconds, with Dib sitting impatiently by his side, wondering what he was even doing there.

"Are you just gonna look at that piece of paper, or are we gonna do something?"

"SHH! I'm going over the plans, so it would help if you would shut your mouth hole!" Zim retorted though Dib wasn't keen on waiting for him for who knows how long.

"Isn't there something more productive we could do? You have the tracker, but it's just missing some components, right? So can I at least get a look at it?"

"Sure, whatever human. It's over there." The alien replied rather unenthusiastically, before pointing over to the other side of the room, while not lifting his eyes from the schematics.

It took a good long moment before Dib even reacted having expected Zim to just tell him to wait like a good smeet or whatever else. Hesitantly, he stood up from the floor, before quickly walking over to where Zim had been pointing, feeling a surge of excitement that he had been desperately waiting for.

Finally, something I can actually get data from! I might not have any idea of how to understand Irken language or spelling, but I can fairly well understand how they put things together.

With an almost giddy eagerness, he looked around the room and messy floor, covered in all kinds of mechanical parts. He couldn't for the life of him see where the tracker was supposed to be before he noticed a fairly obscure pile of machine components laying on the floor, with a small sticky note stuck to it.

"Locational-Tallest-Tracker, or just TRACKER if the stupid Dib-thing is reading this."

Dib studied the small pile of scraps for a moment, his face slowly twisting into an exasperated grimace. He then turned to face Zim, who was still looking at his precious plans.

"Really? THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT'S LEFT!" Dib yelled, crying internally to himself upon realizing that he hadn't just agreed to fix the damn thing but rebuilding it completely from the ground up. Zim seemed just as miffed as he was, looking up at him with a face that told the story of how he had already grieved over the said realization.

"MAYBE THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE OF IT LEFT IF YOU DIDN'T KEEP DESTROYING MY INVENTIONS!!!" He yelled back while standing up, taking one of the papers with him as he started walking over to Dib.

"OR MAYBE IF YOU DIDN'T KEEP RIPPING YOUR PRECIOUS MACHINES APART TO BUILD A NEW DEATH ROBOT EVERY MONTH OR SO!!! IT GETS OLD, ZIM! OLD!!!" Dib shouted at Zim, who was standing right in front of him, grinding his teeth together, while they were practically butting their heads against each other.

"YOU LIE!!! ZIM DOESN'T SOLELY RELY ON DEATH ROBOTS!!! Besides, maybe I would have had time to be more original IF YOU DIDN'T RUIN EVERY NEW INVENTION I COME UP WITH!!! I'VE SPENT SEVERAL HORRIBLE YEARS ON THIS PLANET, WHILE COMING UP WITH NEW MACHINES TO HELP DESTROY IT WITH, DIB! EVEN MY GENIUS IS GONNA RUN OUT OF IDEAS AT SOME POINT!!!"

There they were, pushing their heads together in some insane attempt to make the other give in as if it would help solve their argument. They could end up spending hours like that if the situation became heated enough. But surprisingly, it was Zim who was the first to back down, letting out an angry growl before pushing Dib to the side and walking over to the scrap pile, essentially giving up in their little fight. At first, Dib wanted to let out a very smug and annoying 'Yes!', but stopped himself after realizing that it had been Zim who had given up willingly, without that much resistance. It even made him a bit embarrassed at how he was the one to start shouting. Not that Zim seemed to mind that much, as he went right back to looking at the schematic in his hands, while also glancing at the pile on the floor. After a few annoyed looks, almost like he was hoping for something to magically appear in the pile in front of him, he let out a tired sigh and walked back to Dib. When he stood by the human's side, he spread out the paper in front of them, making sure both of them could see it.