Fanfic / Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends

Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends is an Invader Zim fanfic by SaintAndreas.

Months after the events of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, things have settled down on Earth, with Zim being constantly prevented in his schemes by a newly united Dib and Gaz. And then to make things more annoying for him, multiple other Irkens show up on Earth, seeking a place to stay as the Empire falls apart. Reluctantly accepting the aid of these newcomers, Zim engages in a new series of conflicts with his enemies, while more players show up to throw their hats in the ring. Who will reign supreme in the end?

The story is ongoing, but goes on hiatus in-between story arcs.

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Tropes in this story:

• Abnormal Ammo: The Amoeba Gun, first wielded by Bob in Chapter 8 before it becomes his primary weapon later on, fires acidic Blob Monsters at people.
• Accidental Hero: In Chapter 7, the fight between Zim's team and Tak ends up spilling into Aldrich's office, interrupting him before he can murder Dib.
• Accidental Misnaming: Zim keeps referring to Aldrich Coathanger as "Coatrack".
• Actor Allusion: As Iggins doesn't have a last name canonically, the author gives him the name "Greenberg", a reference to his voice actor on the show.
• Actually a Doombot: In Chapter 19, Aldrich uses several of his robots equipped with holograms of his appearance to show up at both his election day rally and a fight with the Enemy Mine against him, while he safely observes everything from a third location. Similarly, Lex uses the Hard Light tech Aldrich provides him as part of their alliance in order to be present at the fight without actually being there.
• Albinos Are Freaks: Aldrich Coathanger is an albino, as well as a Mad Scientist and a psychotic child killer.
• Alliteration & Adventurers: Fizzmitz mentions a game called Wizards & Warrens while trying to convince Dib to get more excited about learning the Vancian Magic-style rules of Poopmancy.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Given the number of factions fighting each other, this happens a number of times:
  • In Chapter 2, Zim and his minions launch a day-long siege of the Membrane house to try and breach its defense.
  • In Chapter 6, Tak announces her return to Earth by attacking Zim's base, intending to kill him and his minions and take control of the base for herself as a replacement for her nearly defunct Deelishus Weenie base.
  • In Chapter 8, Zim returns the favor by ordering his minions to assault Tak's base in an attempt to kill her.
  • In Chapter 12, Tak attacks the Membrane house in an attempt to recover her ship.
  • In Chapter 13, Tak and Lex launch a full-scale assault on Zim's base to try and steal Minimoose.
  • Chapter 14 starts with Aldrich giving Iggins control of a drone, which he uses to attack the Membrane house and Zim and Tak's bases, which quickly transitions to a High-Altitude Battle as all three factions fight back.
  • A downplayed example in Chapter 15, wherein during an argument with Lex, Tak is suddenly hit with the worrisome realization that with the small army of DIRs at his disposal, he's effectively taken over her base during the course of their partnership. When their alliance eventually breaks down in Chapter 18, Lex seizes complete control of the facility from her.
  • In Chapter 19, Lex and Aldrich announce their Villain Team-Up by sending a CADIR to attack Zim’s base.
• Apologetic Attacker: During their first fight, Skoodge apologizes to Dib for it, saying he'd prefer not to but has no choice due to being allied with Zim.
• Appropriated Appellation: Zim starts referring to Gaz as "Gaz-Beast" as an insult, but she decides that she likes the ring of it.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Chapter 17, when Tak once again gloats about being superior to Zim, Lex questions why if that's the case that she constantly feels the need to prove it, which stops her short for a moment before she angrily shakes it off.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Professor Membrane's home security system includes rooftop missiles, rubber bullet guns, a remote control mech, flamethrowers, grenade turrets, and a perfectly normal honey badger.
  • In Chapter 11, the charges filed against Zim by Aldrich's lawyers include breaking and entering, theft, patent infringement, property damage, and "general hooliganry".
• Ascended Extra:
  • Bob featured in only one episode of canon, but becomes a major character here as one of Zim's henchmen.
  • The Announcer is an even bigger example, being just a prominent background character in a couple of episodes, but like Bob becomes one of Zim's minions.
  • Fizzmitz was an ally of Dib's in one two-part story in the comics, then never appeared again. Here, he joins up with Dib and Gaz after they cross paths at NASAPlace and he finds out about the threat posed by the Irkens and Aldrich, agreeing to help them and even becoming their mentor in learning Poop magic.
• Attack Drone: In Chapter 14, Aldrich gives Iggins access to one operating like a video game, having him use it to attack the Membrane house and Zim and Tak's bases. As part of the resulting High-Altitude Battle, Gaz counters with one of her own that's part of her father's home security system.
• BFG: In Chapter 18, Zim's team sets up a giant cannon capable of turning anything into amoeba goo, which they plan to use on Aldrich when he makes his Election Day speech. Thanks to interference by Tak and Lex, they never get a chance to do so, though Bob does use it against Lex's DIRs, turning the tide of battle against him before the cannon breaks down.
• Back for the Finale: James Conroy, the brainwashed attorney who Zim's team use to beat Aldrich in court in Chapter 13, is summoned by the Minion Trio in Chapter 19 to help sabotage Aldrich's Election Day plans.
• Bad Boss: Zim is a terrible master to his minions, showing them no respect, constantly treating them as expendable, and blaming them for his mistakes.
• Batman Gambit:
  • When trying to find the mystery beast that the Zoo Crimes Division is hunting for so Zim can use it for himself, the Announcer feeds the media the idea of a bogus big money reward for tips leading to its capture, with the tip line being routed to Zim's base. This allows the Computer to sort through the countless tips to find useful information, while the ZCD is tied up by all the people out looking for the creature to earn the reward.
  • Tak deliberately gets herself thrown into solitary confinement on Moo-Ping 10, so that she can take advantage of the lack of surveillance to dig her way out of the cell to a spot that enables her to retrieve MiMi and access a teleporter she can use to escape.
  • The minion trio manage to steal back the Ceramic Clown Puppy with a multi-staged one of these: they lure Dib to an abandoned building by using a light show to make him investigate what he thinks is Zim's latest scheme, then tar and feather him. While he limps home from this, Bob insults him along the way, until the Announcer holographically disguises himself as Gaz to meet him outside the house, "scare" Bob off, and give him a desperately-needed pep talk to gain his confidence, and then follows him inside past the deactivated security system so he can steal the Puppy before Dib realizes what's happened.
  • During the Courtroom Episode, Conroy riles Aldrich up by mentioning past allegations against him, eventually causing him to blurt out a confession about being a child murderer. This causes Aldrich to resort to throwing money at the judge and jury to cover it up, leading to a free-for-all over the cash that causes the whole trial to collapse, letting Zim off free from the charge of having stolen tech from Aldrich to begin with.
  • In Chapter 13, when she's overpowered by the Minion Trio, Tak deliberately hits Skoodge's Berserk Button by mocking his one-sided friendship with Zim in order to make him attack her in a blind rage, which leaves him vulnerable to her skewering him with her PAK legs.
  • Tak carries out a fairly simple one at the start of Chapter 15 — hearing that Aldrich is making a public announcement, she simply waits for Dib and Zim's teams to show up and confront him and each other, and while the three factions are fighting each other, she sends into the melee a DIR that's been modified to act as a bomb and blow them all up. And the only reason it fails is because Aldrich sees the DIR and loudly acknowledges it as a bomb, resulting in Minimoose tossing it safely away.
  • In Chapter 17, Zim challenges Aldrich to a Humongous Mecha fight, then leaks news of this so that the Membranes and Tak will also show up, intending to deal with all his enemies at once. Later on in the same chapter, when Gaz starts losing to Aldrich, she provokes the Irkens into fighting him for her simply by suggesting whoever succeeds in doing so will by definition proven superior to her as well; this buys her enough breathing room to get her second wind against him by the time he beats the Irkens.
  • In Chapter 18, the Membranes tell Tak about Zim's plan with the BFG so that she and Lex will go after him, keeping all the Irkens busy while they infiltrate Aldrich's headquarters without distractions.
• Berserk Button:
  • When Skoodge accidentally breaks her Game Slave during their fight in the first chapter, Gaz enters an Unstoppable Rage against him.
  • Bob hates being reminded of his former status as the Tallest's table drone. And he hates the Announcer's constant mockery of his short height even more.
  • The only thing that gets under the Announcer's skin is the suggestion he wears stilts to artificially add to his height.
  • The one surefire way to piss off either Skoodge or GIR is to hurt Zim.
  • Tak is quite insistent that her vendetta against Zim is not about revenge. Saying that it actually is tends to send her into a rage.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Zim is still the Villain Protagonist out to conquer Earth, but then the second arc adds in several other rival threats — Tak wants to defeat Zim and conquer Earth for herself, Lex comes into conflict with Zim over possession of Minimoose, and Aldrich Coathanger is out to Take Over the City as a prelude to his main goal of warping reality to wipe out all children.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • What snaps Dib out of his pure terror of Aldrich preparing to kill him? Seeing that Gaz's life is at risk.
  • This comes up again in Chapter 19, when Dib insists on accompanying Gaz during a mission to confront Aldrich instead of splitting up, because he doesn't want to leave her alone around him. He specifically cites being the big brother and needing to protect her as his reasoning, which she is uncharacteristically touched by.
• Big "NO!": Dib's reaction to Zim's new minions all joining his class, with no one seeing through their terrible disguises.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Bob's reaction in Chapter 13 when Tak distracts the Minion Trio by offering to let them work for her instead of Zim.
  • Zim and Tak's shared reaction in Chapter 15 when GIR tells them they should kiss.
• Bigger on the Inside: Coathanger Electronics facilities are all truly massive on the inside, much more so than what the buildings should be capable of. The Announcer speculates that Coathanger has mastered dimensional manipulation technology. Aldrich later lends this technology to Lex during their Villain Team-Up, allowing him to turn his base into a Pocket Dimension to trap their enemies in when they attack.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The fights in this story are significantly more violent than canon, with blood actually being spilled and only things like Zim's healing mist helping mitigate the damage. Tak in particular is very deadly in combat, at one point gutting Skoodge, and at another ripping out one of Zim's ribs.
• Blunt "No": This exchange during the Enemy Mine in Chapter 19:
  Dib: If my sister- who hates all of you- is a better boss than Zim, can I ask why you guys keep working for him?
  Minion Trio: No.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When contemplating what to do with the intruder in his base (who turns out to be Bob), Zim considers feeding him to mutant dolphins, testing laser weapons on him, or having Zim's experimental Mutant Laser-Dolphins test their lasers on him and then eat him.
• Break Them by Talking: Bob has a natural talent for getting under people's skin and finding the right Berserk Button to make them snap.
• Brick Joke: After his fight with the Irkens that destroys his VR gaming facility in Chapter 7, Aldrich threatens to bill them all for the damages. When they meet again at NASAPlace in Chapter 9, he states that he actually ran the numbers and determined how much they all owe him.
• Chainsaw Good: During the fight in Chapter 13, GIR turns his arms into chainsaws, that happen to be on fire (and shooting peanuts), which he uses to go after MiMi and the DIRs.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Ceramic Clown Puppy. After Chapter 2 establishes that Zim sees it as a trophy and really wants it back after Dib retrieves it from him, Chapter 5 sees his minions work to get it for him so he won't kick them out of his base.
• City with No Name: Since canon never named the city that the show takes place in, here it's only referred to as "the City".
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Aldrich Coathanger, CEO of Coathanger Electronics, is conducting multiple illegal experiments in The City and using blatant bribery to cover it up. He's also a child-hating psychopath who implies he's killed several, and intends to harness enough Childergy to warp reality and destroy the entire concept of childhood.
• Courtroom Episode: Chapter 11 sees Aldrich suing Zim and his minions for stealing his Hard Light tech. Zim counters by brainwashing the City's District Attorney into representing him, who proceeds to flip the trial by using it to expose Aldrich's own criminal activities, causing the whole case to fall apart.
• Cuteness Proximity: As revealed in Chapter 18, Aldrich's ultimate Evil Plan is to unleash a horde of robotic cute animals on The City while all the adults are distracted by voting for him, which all The City's children will feel compelled to pet, allowing the robots to drain their Childergy and give him enough for his end goal of warping reality to get rid of all children.
• Didn't See That Coming: Zim is dumbfounded when Minimoose catches Tak during her attack on Zim's base, only for some reason to then let her go with an Affectionate Gesture to the Head. He's very confused by this, and determined to figure it out later.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • During the Irkens' siege of the Membranes' house in Chapter 2, Zim's final attack plan is to have Skoodge and Bob join him in operating a mech suit. However, he fails to account for the fact that each of its four limbs needs an operator, and there's only three of them, rendering it ineffective.
  • In Chapter 9, Dib tries to dramatically jump into the fight between the Irkens and Aldrich, only for Fizzmitz to grab him and point out that he was about to jump thirty feet and probably kill himself. Dib sheepishly admits that he got caught up in the moment.
• Eagleland: Slab Rankle parodies this trope during his fight with Aldrich in Chapter 16, as his response to a demand of Why Won't You Die? is "Because America!", and when he says he's fighting for the American values of "fast food and freedom", a bald eagle flies overhead to caw patriotically (despite not being indigenous to The City).
• Election Day Episode: The story climaxes on the day of the election of Mayor of The City, which Aldrich is hoping to win in order to gain the power and influence needed for his master plan.
• Elite Mooks:
  • In Chapter 15, Lex creates a group of upgraded DIRs called SADIRs (Specialized Appliance Disposable Information Retrieval units), which are four times the size, much more durable, and specifically designed to be able to fight even Minimoose evenly.
  • And then there’s the Combat Appliance Disposable Information Retrieval units (CADIRs) which are deployed in the finale. They're even stronger than the SADIRs, being the size of gorillas and with the proportional strength compared to their smaller counterparts, and are armed with Hard Light weapons and shields provided by Aldrich.
• EMP: MiMi is equipped with one that Tak has her use on a regular basis to disable her enemies' weapons and defenses.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In Chapter 15, after MiMi, Minimoose and the Minion Trio are transported to a deserted island in a teleporter accident, Zim and Tak reluctantly team up to find them before Lex does — Tak wants MiMi back, knows how to find her, and doesn't trust Lex to retrieve her (despite their alliance), but needs a ship to travel to the island, while Zim has a ship and wants to retrieve Minimoose (he's ambivalent about his other minions), but doesn't know how to find him. So, the two call a temporary truce until they can get to the island and locate their respective robots.
  • At the end of Chapter 18, after Tak's alliance with Lex breaks down, Zim offers that they work together against him, as he's now an enemy to them both. The Membrane faction ends up getting in on this alliance as well in Chapter 19 when they ask for help against Aldrich, leading to an arrangement wherein the three teams' resources are divided up to take out both enemies simultaneously.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Despite utterly hating Zim, Tak is disturbed by the sight of Lex's Brother slowly killing him by deleting his PAK code. She also refuses to finish him off when he's been rendered unconscious by the strain of fighting the Brother off, though she says that it's because she wants him to know that she was the one to kill him. Several chapters later, she again refuses an opportunity to finish him off after Lex has incapacitated him, explaining that she feels it undermines her victory if she's relying on someone else to do the hard work for her.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
  • The Announcer never gives any other name for himself.
  • Prisoner 777 has been imprisoned in Moo-Ping 10 so long that he's practically forgotten his own name. The closest he's got these days is the nickname "Sevens" given to him by the other prisoners.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Played With. Skoodge doesn't like fighting children, but does so anyway at Zim's orders.
  • Bob and the Announcer don't like Zim, but are still horrified when they learn just how badly Red and Purple bullied him when they were all younger, to the point that Zim's mind has apparently blanked out the worst of it.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: In Chapter 8, Tak agrees to ally with Lex so that she can use his resources to more quickly rebuild her base and have a better chance of defeating Zim. However, by Chapter 15 she's come to realize that those same resources have allowed him to effectively take control of her base away from her, and that he's perfectly willing to get rid of her if he ever decides he doesn't need her anymore.
• Evil Old Folks: Lex is ancient, to the point that his body appears decrepit and practically rotting. He's also a No-Nonsense Nemesis who acts as the story's Knight of Cerebus.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Lex's voice is a dusty, raspy whisper that is very unnerving to hear.
• Evil Versus Evil: There are three factions in the Big Bad Ensemble (Zim's team, the alliance between Tak and Lex, and Aldrich Coathanger), and they are all fighting each other for control of Earth.
• Eye Scream:
  • When installing a Brain Nail into James Conroy in order to both brainwash him and increase his underwhelming legal knowledge, the Irkens do so by stabbing it through his eye.
  • Skoodge gets an eye ripped out by Lex's "Brother" during the fighting in Chapter 15.
• False Reassurance: When about to shoot a nervous Bob out of a cannon at the Membranes' house, Zim addresses his concerns about the safety of this plan by saying that Zim isn't in any danger from it. Bob, understandably, protests that that's not what he meant.
• Fear Is Normal: When the events of Chapter 14 force Gaz to confront her trauma from nearly dying back in Chapter 7, she's at first angrily in denial about it, as she equates showing fear with weakness. Dib tells her that feeling fear is perfectly normal, especially since despite how strong she is she's still just an 11 year old, and that the important thing is that she learn to not let the fear hold her back.
• Fingore: With nothing to dig through her cell floor with except her hands, Tak wears her fingers down to bloody nubs and regrows them to do so again, a dozen times.
• Flat "What":
  • Fizzmitz's reaction in Chapter 14 when told that Professor Membrane's home security system has an Attack Drone specifically for the sake of fighting Santa.
  • Gaz can only whisper one of these in Chapter 17 when Iggins declares their latest fight as a grand match to declare the greatest gamer in the world, since she doesn't remotely view the situation that seriously.
• Foreshadowing: Near the end of Chapter 2, Dib and Gaz discuss how the CEO of Coathanger Electronics is moving to the City to set up his new corporate HQ. The end of the next chapter reveals that this is more than a random bit of background information, as we learn that the company is conducting shady genetic experiments, suggesting they're going to be very important to the plot going forward. This is confirmed during the second arc, when said CEO turns out to be part of the Big Bad Ensemble.
• Gaslighting: The Announcer uses holograms and narration to stroke Zim's ego, putting the idea in his head that having the Announcer as his Number Two will help Zim become as great and successful as he's ever wanted. An incredulous Bob outright refers to it as gaslighting when it works.
• General Failure: The minions all agree that Zim is terrible at giving orders, instead usually just throwing the three of them at a problem and expecting results, without incorporating their respective skills.
• Godzilla Threshold: Dib considers having to ask Zim for help against Aldrich to be this trope, though Fizzmitz states that he has a currently undisclosed other option that's actually worse, so he's keeping it in reserve for now.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Lex is working on behalf of a new Tallest who has taken over since Red and Purple were lost in the Florpus, and is now working to stop the Empire's decline and revitalize it, which somehow requires Minimoose's power source.
• Hard Light:
  • Aldrich makes use of hardlight holograms for a variety of uses.
  • Zim steals some of Aldrich's tech during the NASAPlace fight and retools it for the Announcer to use.
• Healing Factor:
  • Irkens have a limited one provided by their PAKs. At some point prior to the story, Zim developed a "healing mist" that speeds up the process, being capable of near instantly repairing any wounds.
  • Lex heals at a rapid pace that is disturbingly quick even by Irken standards.
• Heroic Second Wind: In Chapter 14, Gaz has a Heroic BSoD due to her Trauma Button getting hit, which only worsens when Iggins destroys her drone in the dogfight due to her skills being impeded by said BSOD. Fortunately, Dib is able to give her a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech that snaps her out of it; she proceeds to fly Tak's ship back into the fight, which she quickly wins.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Lex states that he's on a secret mission from the Tallest, one that requires him to retrieve something that he later determines to be Minimoose. However, why he's doing this is yet to be revealed.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Each of the Minion Trio turns out to have surprising interests, as revealed in Chapter 13 — Skoodge has taken up horticulture, Bob has picked up engineering skills from observing Zim, and the Announcer loves fashion.
  • The Announcer reveals in Chapter 15 that he actually hates being so tall, in contrast to Irken culture's obsession with height. This is because every time he had a growth spurt, he had to leave behind hard-won friends because it was no longer acceptable to socialize with them, until he reached a point where he could only interact with the likes of the Tallest and their inner circle, who are all jackasses.
• High-Altitude Battle: Chapter 14 features one between Iggins (remotely operating Aldrich's drone), Gaz (operating another drone that's part of her father's home security system), Zim (in his Voot Runner) and Tak and Lex (jointly piloting the latter's ship). Gaz's drone gets taken out first, but she compensates by hooking up Tak's old ship to the same system and remote piloting it instead, ultimately winning the fight with it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: James Conroy does this to Aldrich on the witness stand during the Courtroom Episode, bringing up Coathanger Electronics' state of the art surveillance cameras that should have video evidence supporting his charge of property theft against Zim, but which he isn't sharing because they also have incriminating footage of Aldrich's own criminal activities. Conroy then uses this to segue into past allegations against Aldrich, eventually riling him up so much that he blurts out a confession to one of his previous child murders. Aldrich then has to resort to throwing money at the judge and jury, causing a riot that ends the trial in what is technically a win for Zim.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • During their siege on the Membrane house in Chapter 2, Zim and his minions resort at one point to attacking with a mech built from the remains of the Megadoomer, the three of them jointly piloting it. The Membranes counter by sending out a mech of their own remotely piloted by Gaz, which easily trounces the Irkens as they try to operate all four of their mech’s limbs despite there only being three of them.
  • In Chapter 17, the above two mechs are brought out again (with the Announcer now providing the Irkens with a much-needed fourth pilot) for a makeshift tournament against each other and also other mechs created by Tak and Aldrich (the latter being remote piloted by Iggins before Aldrich takes over himself).
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: In Chapter 6, Gaz beats up Zim and the minion trio for the Tar and Feathers stunt they pulled on Dib in the previous chapter, noting that only she gets to do that kind of stuff to him.
• Intrepid Reporter: Played for Laughs with Jeff Sheffy, who is constantly involved in major news... because he's apparently the only actual reporter in the City.
• Just Between You and Me: Dib notes that both Zim and Aldrich have a psychological habit of needing to explain their plans in detail to their enemies, to the point that in Chapter 18, his idea for figuring out Aldrich's master plan is to just ask him. Gaz and Fizzmitz are both dumbfounded that this actually ends up working.
• Kick the Dog: In Chapter 5, not only do the minion trio tar and feather Dib, Bob then follows him home and insults his head size the entire way.
• Killer Space Monkey:
  • Lex's DIR units are not real monkeys, actually being robots in shoddy monkey costumes, but they're still monkey-looking Killer Robots from outer space.
  • The upgraded SADIR units are even more dangerous, being much larger and more heavily armed, while still wearing monkey disguises. Tak notes that while the regular DIRs look like spider monkeys, the SADIRs are more like mandrils.
  • The Combat Appliance Disposable Information Retrieval units (CADIRs) created in the finale are the DIR design upgraded to look like gorillas, and are the most dangerous of Lex's minions.
• Knight of Cerebus: In a story where even psychopaths like Zim or Aldrich are played more for Black Comedy than anything else, Lex is the one antagonist played deadly serious, being a No-Nonsense Nemesis fully capable of overpowering and mind raping his opponents thanks to his Brother.
• Lame Comeback: When Gaz points out that Zim's plan to flood the Membranes' neighborhood with sewage from the City Cesspool will affect his house too, all he can give in response is "Nuh-uh", causing her to roll her eyes.
• Large Ham: The Announcer is this, with his melodramatic speaking patterns, his constant use of holographic special effects to highlight whatever point he's trying to make, and his habit of narrating things.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: According to Skoodge, for some reason Zim doesn't remember all the bullying that Red and Purple put him through when they were younger, thinking instead that they were always great friends. It's speculated in-unverse that something so traumatic happened that his mind simply blanked it all out and worked around it.
• Literal-Minded: During the Enemy Mine in Chapter 19, Fizzmitz asks GIR to give him a hand. GIR responds by tearing one of his own hands off and giving it to him.
• Living MacGuffin: Minimoose becomes one when Lex determines that he's the one that the Tallest have dispatched him to retrieve.
• Loved by All: Minimoose is adored by Zim and his minions, and even Tak and Dib like him despite being enemies.
• Lured into a Trap: In Chapter 19, Lex and Aldrich anticipate Zim and Tak's assault on the former's base to hijack control of his Mecha-Mooks, so they use Aldrich's dimension-distorting technology to change its layout and seal it off in a Pocket Dimension once they enter, cutting them off from their target and any escape, while unleashing said Mecha-Mooks on them.
• The Man in Front of the Man: The Announcer intends to be this for Zim, talking his way into the position of Number Two and manipulating Zim to his own benefit while letting him stay the face of the operation to take all the heat. Unfortunately for him, Zim's ego and temper mean that controlling him from a position of comfort is virtually impossible.
• Mask of Sanity: Aldrich Coathanger presents himself as an eccentric but friendly corporate scientist, but in actuality is a child-killing psychopath.
• Master of Illusion: The Announcer is capable of generating perfectly realistic illusions.
• Mechanical Abomination:
  • Aldrich's Mecha-Mooks are masses of metal worms enclosed in transparent human-shaped bodies that are then covered with hardlight holograms to pass for humans.
  • Lex's "Brother" is a self-aware mechanical tentacle that emerges from a pod attached to his shoulder, which can hack into an Irken's PAK and Mind Rape them. Dib's use of True Sight in Chapter 12 reveals that "Brother" has organic components to it, and a sentience that is capable of knowing it's being observed even when completely within its pod.
• Mecha-Mooks:
  • In addition to GIR and Minimoose for Zim, and MiMi for Tak, Lex uses a large number of DIR (Disposable Information Retrieval) units to do his dirty work. Later, he starts making various upgraded variants that are even more deadly.
  • Aldrich's entire employee base appears to be composed of Ridiculously Human Robots.
• MegaCorp: Coathanger Electronics is evidently a rapidly rising technology company that has managed to earn Professor Membrane's interest, and we learn during the second arc that they have their fingers in numerous fields.
• Mêlée à Trois: By the end of the second arc, the story has settled into a four-way conflict between Dib and Gaz, Zim's team, the alliance between Tak and Lex, and Aldrich — the latter three factions are all in competition for control of The City (and by extension, the rest of Earth), with the Membranes fighting to stop all of them.
• Morality Pet:
  • Minimoose is the only being that Zim shows any affection and care for.
  • Similarly, MiMi is this to Tak, who surprises herself with how much she cares about her. To hammer the point home, Tak actually refers to MiMi as her friend in Chapter 15.
  • The Minion Trio eventually all admit that they care for Minimoose too.
• Multi-Part Episode: The story's climax, titled "Election Day", is split between Chapters 19 and 20.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Skoodge reveals that he's been living in Zim's base for months without him realizing it, which would have happened canonically in the unproduced episode "Day of Da Spookies" if it had been made.
  • Tak mentally grumbles about how her ship came all the way to Moo-Ping 10 to help the Membrane siblings rescue their father and didn't rescue her itself. A deleted scene from the movie allegedly would have shown it doing exactly that.
• Narrating the Present: The Announcer has a habit of doing this, typically to boost his own ego and insult everyone around him.
• Noodle Incident: The Computer makes mention of two separate "Piñata Incidents" as being among the times that Gaz has helped Dib beat Zim, which the Computer seems to think that Zim has forgotten.
• No-Sell: Unlike the other DIR models, the CADIRs are able to shrug off MiMi's EMP attacks, due to being powered by Aldrich's self-generating Electro-blobs.
• No True Scotsman: Bob tells Skoodge that he's "really nice for an Irken", then clarifies that it's not a compliment.
• Oh, Crap!: Skoodge's word-for-word reaction in Chapter 15 when he realizes that he and the other minions have been accidentally teleported to a deserted island.
• Original Character: Aldrich Coathanger and Lex are the first prominent characters to be introduced to the story who aren't canonical.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • The minions are shocked when Zim calls off the attack on Tak's base, having been distracted from his vendetta against her by the bigger threat posed by Lex.
  • Gaz noticeably avoids playing her Game Slave after nearly being killed by Aldrich's VR gaming system.
  • At the end of Chapter 15, Zim is so grateful to the Minion Trio for protecting Minimoose that he actually thanks them, something he's literally never done for anything.
• O.C. Stand-in: The Announcer, whom the author admits to using mostly because him appearing so briefly on the show means that he can be given whatever character gimmicks the author wants without directly defying canon.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies canonically used as security by the City Mall show up in Chapter 16, now cybernetically upgraded to make them an actual threat.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As in canon, Zim is fond of these in the form of simple things like contacts, fake beards, wigs and hats, which somehow always fools everyone except Dib and Gaz. He forces his new Irken minions to wear similarly bad ones as well, with a particularly bad case for the Announcer, who gets nothing more than a pair of Groucho glasses, which somehow still works.
• Patchwork Fic: While primarily a continuation of Enter the Florpus, the story also takes many plot elements from the IZ comic series, which is generally accepted to be in a different continuity from the movie.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Zim's repeated acts of fondness towards Minimoose.
  • When needing to make room for the minion trio to join the classroom, Ms. Bitters has Zita switch seats with another student so that she can then send a straight line of students to the Underground Classrooms without having to do so to her implied favorite.
  • Ms. Bitters has apparently been encouraging Bob's natural ability to Break Them by Talking, to the point of pushing him towards a career in the CIA. Given her general apathy towards teaching, that says a lot.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The concept of Childergy, an immense amount of energy naturally generated by children, is carried on from Enter the Florpus. Aldrich's main goal is to harvest enough of it to warp reality and make it so that people immediately bypass the childhood stage.
• Prison Riot: Offscreen, Tak apparently caused several of these on Moo-Ping 10 in order to get tossed into solitary as part of her breakout plan.
• Put on a Bus: Professor Membrane leaves town in the first chapter for a four month science summit in Europe.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Zim's minions are this. In addition to the canonical GIR and Minimoose, there's now Skoodge (a fellow Invader, but also the Token Good Teammate), Bob (an ex-service drone who was basically press-ganged), and the Announcer (a Large Ham Master of Illusion).
• Red Right Hand: In addition to Aldrich's albinism, his left eye tends to twitch and become paralyzed if he gets agitated, and needs to be smacked back into functionality.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: Between their state of the art AI and their Hard Light disguises to make them look human, Aldrich's Mecha-Mooks are virtually indistinguishable from normal people.
• Rules Lawyer: A literal example when James Conroy (who is an actual lawyer) undermines Aldrich's attempt to get himself elected Mayor of The City by pointing out that it wouldn't be valid if he runs unopposed, so encourages random people in the crowd to become candidates, until the entire crowd has signed up. When Aldrich protests them running, Conroy replies that if Aldrich (who isn't even from the City) is eligible, then everyone is. And since every candidate is allowed ten minutes to speak at debate before the votes are cast, that delays the election by sixty days.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Aldrich gloats about how being a trillionaire means that he can buy his way out of anything, something he demonstrates after the destruction of his VR gaming facility by literally throwing money at the cops so they won't investigate him, and at Jeff Sheffy to stop reporting about it, which works in both cases. He later throws even more money at the judge and jury during the Courtroom Episode when Zim's lawyer manages to trick him into exposing himself as a child murderer, making everyone forget about the entire case as they fight over the cash.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Bob abandoned ship when he realized that the Tallest weren't going to steer around the Florpus Hole, before making his way to Earth to hide out due to realizing most Irkens wouldn't take kindly to him abandoning the Tallest.
  • The Announcer flees the weakened Empire to escape the Resisty's attacks, similarly taking refuge on Earth due to how out of the way and unimportant it is.
• Serious Business:
  • When Membrane tells Gaz that she wouldn't enjoy herself if she came along on his trip to Europe because her Game Slave's charger wouldn't be compatible with European electrical sockets, she twitches disturbingly and goes worryingly stiff at the thought of not being able to play her games.
  • Zim has come to obsessively see the Ceramic Clown Puppy he stole from Dib as a trophy of his perceived victory at the end of Enter the Florpus, with Dib becoming just as obsessed with retrieving it in order to spite Zim.
  • Slab Rankle takes so much offense to Aldrich's plans to renovate his mall that he engages him in an epic life-or-death brawl.
• Servile Snarker: The Computer and Bob are both willing to snark to Zim's face even while reluctantly following his orders.
• Shipper on Deck: Played for Laughs in Chapter 15, when GIR interrupts an argument between Zim and Tak to tell them they should kiss.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Gaz effortlessly defeats Zim's Mega-Doomer Mech in Chapter 2, a disembodied voice declares it a "Flawless Victory".
  • In Chapter 16, Slab Rankle at one point insults Aldrich by calling him a "nerf-herder".
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In Chapter 15, when Lex tries to give a speech to the Minion Trio to convince them to give him Minimoose, Bob repeatedly cuts in to tell him to shut up, not letting him get a word in until he finally decides to just attack them.
• Sibling Team: Dib and Gaz, building off their bonding in Enter the Florpus, now spend a lot of time working together to fight Zim and stop his plans.
• Sixth Ranger: At the end of the second arc, after Fizzmitz learns about the Irkens' existence and how they're in an Evil Versus Evil fight with each other and Aldrich, the Membranes convince him to join them in fighting all the villainous factions. He agrees to do so, and to teach the siblings Poopmancy as well.
• The Siege: Zim, Skoodge, and Bob spend most of the second chapter trying to break into the Membranes' house to steal back the Ceramic Clown Puppy, but keep getting stymied by the Professor's security system (which he left his kids in charge of while leaving for his conference in Europe) and by Clembrane's raw strength backing them up.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • During Tak and Lex's attack in Chapter 13, Zim takes the time in the middle of the initial standoff to complain when Bob refers to it as "our base" instead of just Zim's.
  • This is what ultimately costs Tak and Lex a victory in Chapter 14's High-Altitude Battle: when Gaz reenters the fight in Tak's old ship, Tak refuses to let Lex fire on it as she still wants it back, which distracts them both long enough for Gaz to shoot down Lex's ship.
• Story Arc: The story is released in five-chapter arcs:
  • "Invasion of the Freeloaders" (Chapters 1-5): Zim's new Quirky Miniboss Squad comes to Earth one by one, and he reluctantly lets them stay with him in exchange for service.
  • "Ramping Villainy" (Chapters 6-10): The Big Bad Ensemble is established, as Tak returns to Earth, Lex arrives, and Aldrich Coathanger is revealed to be evil.
  • "Normalizing Doom" (Chapters 11-15): A series of unconnected adventures showcasing the four factions all adjusting to dealing with each other.
  • "Mayoral Wars" (16-20): Aldrich launches his campaign for Mayor of The City, while the conflict between the Irken factions hits a boiling point.
• Take Over the City: Aldrich admits to Dib that he intends to get elected Mayor of The City as a step towards his larger goals.
• Take That!: The author does not like ZADR or ZADF, so in Chapter 15 has Dib quite clearly overjoyed at the thought of causing Zim harm by seemingly causing the deaths of his minions, in order to make it clear that there's no positive emotion between the two of them.
• Tar and Feathers: The minions do this to Dib in Chapter 5 to humiliate and demoralize him.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While both work for Zim in exchange for being allowed to stay on Earth, Bob and the Announcer cannot stand each other. And for that matter, they don't like Skoodge or even Zim all that much either.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Professor Membrane first tells his children that he's leaving for Europe for a work trip, the wording makes it sound like he's abandoning them. To his credit, he realizes his mistake almost immediately and quickly clarifies things.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • Zim repeatedly tells his minions that only he can kill Dib. Though he will allow them to torture him if the opportunity allows.
  • Tak refuses to let anyone else kill Zim, to the point that she won't even take the opportunity to finish him off when her ally Lex incapacitates him, because she feels as if it wouldn't really be her victory.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • On the show, the Resisty were a joke who were only a threat to the Massive when Zim accidentally sabotaged it. Here, it's mentioned that with the Massive and half the Armada out of contact, they've been managing to do a lot of damage by running around unchecked.
  • The physical labor of digging through the floor of her solitary confinement cell by hand has caused Tak's arms to thicken in musculature, her claws to sharpen, and grant her several inches of height.
  • At the end of the second arc, Dib and Gaz start taking steps to increase their fighting prowess to deal with the various villains' superior skills, by means of learning Poopmancy from Fizzmitz. By Chapter 12, after only a basic tutorial, they're already capable of overpowering Tak in a straight-up fight.
  • The Minion Trio start out as only moderate fighters thoroughly outmatched by the likes of Tak. By Chapter 13, with a bit of training, equipment upgrades, and practice, they're capable of overwhelming her through sheer force, leaving her to resort to outthinking them to get an advantage.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: When the Brother is attempting to kill Zim by deleting his PAK code in Chapter 13, he fights it off through sheer determination, which overwhelms the Brother and shuts it down.
• Trauma Button:
  • Seeing the human Rat People in the City's sewers gives Skoodge some uncomfortable flashbacks to the Slaughtering Rat People of Blorch.
  • Gaz's beloved video games become one for her after Aldrich's VR system nearly kills her in Chapter 7, quite noticeably avoiding playing them from then on. Said button then gets hit in Chapter 14 when facing off with Iggins and the Irkens in a High-Altitude Battle with a drone that's operated like a game, severely limiting her skills until Dib manages to talk her through it and into a Heroic Second Wind. By the end of the chapter, she's back on her Game Slave.
• True Sight: Poopmancy has a spell like this called "Unveiling", which allows the user to gain intimate knowledge of everything around them. Using it in Chapter 12 allows Dib to learn Lex's identity, and the nature of Lex's "Brother".
• Unknown Rival: Played With. While Gaz knows who Iggins is and doesn't like him, she does not view the two of them as archenemies the way he does.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Skoodge, while Zim's more or less always had the same personality, when he was younger he was more affectionate towards his friends and only expressed his more aggressive attitude towards those who messed with them. It was only after enduring years of torment from his supposed friends Red and Purple that something finally happened that caused that better part of him to die and leave only the Zim we know now.
• Vancian Magic: Poopmancy allows its users to practice a wide variety of spells, but only if they drink the appropriate flavor and/or combo of flavors of Poop Cola. Fizzmitz trying to teach the incredibly detailed list of combos to Dib and Gaz nearly puts them to sleep out of boredom the first time they hear it all.
• Vestigial Empire: The Irkens have been in rapid decline ever since the Tallest stupidly flew into the Florpus and took the Armada with them, leaving the Empire's military undermanned and galactic communications cut off. Planets are rebelling, the Planet Jackers have broken their peace treaty and are stealing worlds from them, and even the Resisty have proven themselves to be an actual threat.
• Villainous BSoD:
  • The Announcer freezes up momentarily when Zim makes it clear that despite enjoying his flattery, he won't just let the Announcer sit around and not contribute to the mission like the other minions.
  • Zim has a borderline Freak Out when he learns about the Empire's current dire straights, snapping angrily at his minions for being visibly upset about it, before retreating to another room to cuddle up with Minimoose for comfort.
• Villain Override: When Iggins fails to defeat Gaz in their Humongous Mecha fight in Chapter 17, Aldrich takes over remote control of his mech to handle things personally.
• Villain Respect: The Announcer legitimately admires Aldrich's Hard Light technology, presumably due to his own extensive use of holograms.
• Villain Team-Up: After being introduced in Chapter 8, Lex seeks out Tak for an alliance against Zim. This alliance ends up breaking apart in Chapter 18 when Lex's condescension towards Tak's obsessive rivalry with Zim causes her to finally snap and turn on him. Afterwards, Zim offers Tak an Enemy Mine alliance against Lex, while Lex approaches Aldrich for an alliance against Zim.
• We Are as Mayflies: Irkens appear to have lifespans roughly ten times longer than humans, with Skoodge's age of 167 being comparative to a human being 16. And then there's Lex, whose age isn't given, but is so old he looks incredibly elderly even by Irken standards.
• We Have Reserves: Lex has no problem using his DIR units as body shields or cannon fodder, smugly noting that the "D" stands for "Disposable", and that he has plenty of them to throw around.
• Wham Line:
  • Near the end of Chapter 3, Skoodge finds a collar that fell off the mutant creature that reads " Property of Coathanger Electronics", suddenly implying that a seemingly throwaway conversation between Dib and Gaz in the previous chapter about that company's CEO moving to the City is going to be quite important to the story going forward.
  • At the end of Chapter 7, Dib tries to call his father for help after Aldrich's scheme nearly killed Gaz, only for an unfamiliar voice to talk to him over the phone, telling Dib that it's cut off all communications into and out of The City to prevent interference with the speaker's own plans.
• Whatevermancy: As in the IZ comics, there's Poopmancy, a magic of various skills powered by Poop Soda. At the end of the second arc, Fizzmitz agrees to start teaching it to Dib and Gaz.
• Why Won't You Die?: Aldrich asks this during his fight with Slab Rankle in Chapter 16, as the latter refuses to go down no matter how many times he's stabbed.
• The Worf Effect:
  • In the first chapter, Skoodge shows enough fighting skill to easily beat Dib and keep ahead of Gaz (until he presses her Berserk Button). Afterwards, he proves to be less effective, though this is blamed on him following Zim's terrible orders.
  • Whereas the regular DIRs are mostly Cannon Fodder, the SADIRs introduced in Chapter 15 are powerful enough to even match Minimoose in combat.
• Would Hurt a Child: Aldrich Coathanger has an Irrational Hatred of children, not only trying to personally kill Dib by skinning him with a knife (which he implies he's done several times before to other kids), but intending to harvest enough Childergy (in ways that are physically harmful to the children he's taking it from) to warp reality so that children don't exist.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Dib gives Gaz one in Chapter 14, when her Trauma Button gets pushed and it limits her abilities in the High-Altitude Battle, telling her that Fear Is Normal and that she shouldn't let it hold her back from being as strong as she truly is.
• You Have Failed Me: When Iggins fails in his task to destroy the Membranes or Irkens in Chapter 14, Aldrich decides to imprison and torture him as punishment.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Gaz's word-for-word reaction when Iggins is revealed to be the one piloting Aldrich's Humongous Mecha in Chapter 17.

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