Vindictive

Urth

Ilk felt a pang of nostalgia as the Ibris approached Urth, recalling the last (and only) time she was here during her smeethood years. The Armada was to dispatch a fleet of enemy ships and Dad didn't want her to be there during the confrontation, so he sent her to Irk. Or at least he wanted to send her to Irk, but Ilk had hacked the ship's computer to go to Urth instead, where she spent three entertaining days with Zim. Despite his... difficult personality, the Invader was nice to her in his own, strange way; she even got to help him with one of his schemes.

She had so much fun that she had completely forgotten about her father. When he received word that she never arrived to Irk, he thought she had been kidnapped by rebels and scourged the universe for a trace of her, torturing people along the way. It wasn't until Ilk called Skoodge that she learned what was going on. Dad grounded her for a month afterward.

"This is Urth? It's not that impressive," Foxtrot pointed out, taking a gulp from his grootbeer.

"Well, according to the scans, this planet is composed of 70% water and 40% ground. The atmosphere is breathable, but the water is overly contaminated with toxins that are harmful to... well, foreign life forms."

"What kinds of toxins?" Echo inquired, eyeing Masouri inquisitively.

"I'm not sure, maybe Zim can tell us when we're down."

The Ibris descended through the stratosphere until they were a few miles above the city Ilk had pointed them to. Masouri flew the ship towards Zim's neighborhood. 

"Where do we park?" he asked, noticing all the vehicles stood next to the sidewalk in some areas, leaving him no free area to land.

"Wait, Masouri!" Ilk cried out before he could fly any lower. "Hyoomans have never gone beyond their own solar system; they might react badly if an alien ship just lands in the neighborhood."

Echo chuckled. "Relax, from what Zim has said about these mammals, they wouldn't see anything is amiss even if we walked around with signs that read 'we're aliens'." she stood up, stretching out her back. "Anyway, I'm going to get a drink. Coming?"

Once the girls were gone, Masouri rubbed his hands together, snickering. "Today's the day, gentlemen!"

"You'll finally go to the dentist to correct your overbite?" Foxtrot asked, uninterested.

"What? No! Today," Masouri laughed. "I'm asking Echo out!"

"Why? You don't want her on board the Ibris anymore?"

"That's not what I mean, you jerk! I mean that I'm asking her out on a date!" Foxtrot snickered; Masouri frowned. "What?"

"Nice meeting you." Foxtrot shrugged without lifting his gaze from the console.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember the last time someone asked Echo out on a date? She wouldn't talk to anyone and spent her time beheading dummies for an entire month." Blue shivered. "Geeze, I'd never seen her so mad before that particular episode."

"Hey, I'm different!"

"In what sense? I mean, something could go wrong if you do manage to ask her out, and if that happens it'll ruin both your friendship and working relationship."

"Foxtrot, if that's your way to make me feel better, you're fired!" Masouri tried his best to sound more annoyed than nervous, but his voice was trembling.

As much as he hated to admit it, Foxtrot had brought up a good point: what if something went wrong? What if he screwed something up and his relationship with Echo broke beyond repair? He was no fool, he knew that friends-turned-lovers-then-broke-up never went back to the way they were; sometimes they don't even talk to each other.