Outskirts of Planet Insectica

Earthworm Jim, Earth's mightiest invertebrate, found himself running for dear life inside of an Insectican spaceship, while carrying a female figure on his shoulder; an Endorian queen, whose skin, unlike the rest of Endorians, was pastel green, her head instead of hair, held several membranic formations similar to Jim´s, forming this way, the silhouette of a short hair. She sported a long sky blue dress adorned with a gold streak at the neck.

After having defeated the Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt´s special unit inside the bridge; Jim, totally accidentally pressed the ship´s auto-destruction button. Why did the ship have an auto-destruction button? Don´t ask me!

Not wasting any moment, Jim took the unconscious queen and started his way towards the hangar.

The fight inside the ship had certainly stopped, as every Insectican soldier opted to escape the soon to be a grave ship and so caught they were in surviving, that no one noticed the giant worm in a suit running through the hallways.

Upon his way, Jim was wondering the whole brilliant idea behind the ship´s infamous button functionality. ´What´s the whole brilliant idea behind the ship´s infamous button functionality?´ He thought.

Focusing once more in the long hallways, Jim could feel the heat intensity all over his skin. Small explosions were starting to cover the great rooms of the Insectican ship, signaling the ship´s imminent fate, thankfully for him, the hangar was close.

Initially, reports came in about an Insectican spaceship invading one of planet Endos´ political cruisers, kidnapping several politics in the process to secure a merging or subsequent conquer of the planet.

Endorians were a formidable species, their kind being naturally athletic and their sky blue skin being rough to penetrate, yet Insecticans, although not as strong, their force in numbers and technological advancements, coupled with the Queen´s strong usage of magic, where enough to overwhelm the inhabitants.

Jim grew concerned about the Queen´s harsh yet weird actions and took the decision of investigating the problem. Once he made his way to the ship´s bridge, he noticed how valid the briefing was. Indeed, there was a female Endorian captured and as it turned out, it was the queen.

Slugg-for-a-butt´s soldiers thought they had Jim where they wanted and wasted no second to close the gates behind him. Too late did Jim know the nature of this action. The worm was locked inside the room, where not long after a sleeping gas was released in hopes of making him sleep.

Professor Monkey-for-a-Head had decided that the best way to duplicate the suit, was to steal the battery of the gods from the suit itself, rather than risk themselves asking the gods to give them another one.

Of course, the plan didn´t work, the sleeping gas did not affect Jim, who, as it turned out, didn´t have nostrils to inhale it... And that´s when the struggle began.

By now, Jim was more than sure he was approaching the hangar, if not then... well... he didn´t exactly have a plan, it´s not like he was some kind of super powered unicorn with magic to no end so he could teleport to the exit, although he did wish he could use at least some degree of magic, regardless of that, he loved the power the suit provided. Snapping out of this thoughts, Jim suddenly noticed the absence of Queen Slugg-for-a-Butt and even though it was weird, he was glad she wasn´t aboard. She normally meant bad business and a lot of time wasted, something he did not need right now.

“Wait a minute!” Suddenly Jim, stopped in his tracks, placing his hand under his chin, in this moment, the Endorian queen began to wake up, Jim didn´t notice. “Is this one of those moments where I say it is good a certain villain isn´t around and suddenly PUFF! He appears just in front of me? Because if it is, well then this sucks.”

Uh?

“Uh?” The sweet tone of the queen assaulted the worm, who placed her on his arms and gave her a huge smile. “Hey there queen Bonikka!”

“Jim?!” She asked surprised, not exactly realizing the situations she was in until the queen looked around, suddenly releasing a loud “Ah!”

Jim released a loud friendly laugh. “Don´t worry queen, we are just inside a huge Insectican ship which is about to explode any second now!” Bonikka stared at him blankly. “Groovy, right?”

In that moment, a small explosion erupted close to the pair, causing Bonikka to release another scream before she hugged Jim in search for refugee, then asked. “What exactly is happening?”

Jim gave away a sheepish smile. “I... May have pressed the destruction button, heh!”

Bonikka sighed. “Just get us out of here.”

The worm nodded before resuming his run. Soon enough, the hangar was upon reach. “We are almost there queen Bonikka, don´t worry.”

Bonikka nodded. “Thank you, Jim.”

Jim loved this kind of moments, he did not fight for fortune or power, he simply loved doing well, saving those in need and for Jim, there wasn´t any bigger reward than to hear those three words. This thoughts aside, the worm focused on the hangar ahead.

The explosion´s roared around them with fury, consuming everything in their path, Insectican soldiers ran for their lives towards their ships, it was a total chaos.

Bonikka turned to look at Jim, wondering how he could remain calm in moments like this, he had a natural talent to be optimistic even in the worst moments. It surprised her, to say the least.

Bonikka and Jim had met a few years back, when he helped regain peace amongst a political struggle. In those weeks, Jim proved to be a great ally and friend, even though his companions Princess what´s-her-name, Peter Puppy and Snott were gentle in heart, it was Jim who seemed the purer of the four.

“Queen, we´re here!” The sudden voice of the worm, stopped Bonikka´s train of thought.

Jim, gently placed Bonikka on the ground, where she waited for him to take out his transport, the Pocket Rocket. Setting it on the ground Jim was prepared to leave when...

“Going anywhere, little worm?”

“Oh come on!” Screamed Jim. “I knew it was one of those moments!”

The voice that spoke, resounded across the entirety of the hangar and even if it wasn´t Slugg-for-a-butt´s voice, it certainly wasn´t a relief either. Jim and Bonikka turned around to spot a figure between the flames, a small, cat-like figure that made its way out of the fire.

In an instant, Jim turned to look at the Endorian. “Queen Bonikka, I need you to get on the Pocket Rocket and go.” He knew what was coming, he knew who the figure was and he knew what to do.

Unlike Princess What´s- Her-Name, Bonikka wasn´t sure about this kind of decisions regarding Jim, a fact she made the worm aware of. “I can´t simply leave you here!”

The worm smiled. “Don´t worry about me, your majesty, I have the power of the Author backing me up!”

Bonikka was left speechless. After a few seconds of trying to know the meaning behind Jim´s words and eventually giving up, she simply nodded and proceeded to get on the vehicle. “I will go get help, Jim, I promise!”

“Wait!” Jim suddenly said, stopping the queen in her tracks. “Before you go, I need to tell you something...” Bonikka´s cheeks turned red as soon as she heard the words and eagerly waited for what Jim was about to say.

“... Don´t introduce taxes into your politic system! Those things are evil!”

Upon hearing him, Bonikka grunted in annoyance and rolled her eyes. “You can´t be serio...”

The words died in her tongue, as an orange beam blasted Jim, sending him to the ground and away from the queen, who immediately took notice of the approaching creature.

A small, white cat was getting closer; his smile was hidden behind three long teeth that went out of the mouth, almost covering his jaw. This was Evil the Cat, ruler of planet Heck and one of Jim´s most formidable foes.

“Uh! Taxes! That sounds rather delightful!” Evil purred. “Going early, your majesty?” An almost metallic sound was heard, as the cat let out his claws, giving out a small chuckle.

Bonikka gave a few steps backwards, fearing an attack would come, thankfully for her, a white blur tackled the cat.

Jim now had Evil in his hands, as he rolled in the ground alongside the feline, then used his feet to stop the advancement and threw Evil towards a wall; the worm wasted no time and raised his blaster, then fired against the cat. In a second, Jim turned to stare at the queen. “Hurry, queen Bonikka!”

The worried queen did her best to react and nodded to the worm´s demands, turning around to sit on the Pocket Rocket. She saw the controls for a few seconds, trying to remember how to use it. She´d never been a very good pilot, but Bonikka had to admit that driving Jim´s vehicle was certainly easier.

Finally, she pulled the plug, while listening to the struggle behind her. Slowly, the Pocket Rocket began to lift from the floor and just as she was about to leave, gave one last look behind her, then the motor sped up, a fast orange light following the rocket-like vehicle as it went out of the place.

The queen was now safe.

“And what are you doing here, Evil?” Asked Jim, as he got on one knee to avoid a blast, then lifted his hand to fire at the cat, who gave a chuckle in response while deflecting the attack with a shield.

“I simply overheard part of the queen´s pathetic plan for you and took the opportunity to finally get you in a situation where you can´t escape and...”

As he was about to finish the sentence, Jim launched himself to punch the cat, who dissipated in a black smoke and reappeared behind him. “... Steal my suit?” Asked Jim, getting an amused look from Evil.

“Steal your suit?” A barrage of laughter came out of the feline, as his body transformed into a dark smoke that rammed against Jim, sending him to the air, where the smoke changed its appearance into that of a cat and grabbed the worm with one of his paws. “Oh gracious tiny worm!” The cat´s face got closer to the upside down Jim, who looked at him with a frown on his face. “I do not care about your suit...” In a second, the shadow cat´s body turned into smoke again and brought itself on top of the worm, crushing him against the floor as the smoke dissipated under Jim.

The worm used his hands to get up, as Evil suddenly materialized once more in front of him. The cat took out his claws. “...I only care about seeing you dead!”

Outside the still exploding ship, Bonikka used the Pocket Rocket´s radio to get in contact with her forces. She was worried about the worm´s well being and she knew contacting Princess What´s-her-name or any of his allies would turn out to be useless. Jim did not have too much time.

After a few tweaking, she finally managed to get contact. “This is queen Bonikka!”

“Your majesty? This is admiral Dalus, we sent every ship available to get you out, but I guess the worm beat us to it.” The Endorian ended the sentence with a chuckle, one that the queen did not share.

“Admiral, do not cancel the rescue, Jim is still inside the ship.” Answered the worried Bonikka.

“What? That ship is about to blow!” Definitely not the words she wanted to hear.

“I know, Admiral! How long before you arrive?”

Behind the radio, the Endorian sighed. “We are about to arrive just...”

BOOM!

Like the thunder in the middle of the night, the ship before the queen´s eyes reached its fate.

“No...” Time slowed down as she witnessed the fall of his savior, a pain endured on her chest trying to accept the sight she just witnessed, no words could describe her predicament.

“Your majesty? What happened?” The admiral asked, getting no response from the queen. “Bonikka!”

“This can´t be it...” Finally, she replied. Jim had seen too much across his hero years for a simple ship explosion to be his end. Sure, they were taken by surprise, but in Bonikka´s mind, she simply refused to believe what just happened.

The radio remained silent for a few seconds before Dalus spoke again, breaking the queen out of her hopeful thoughts. “Your majesty, I´m sorry. Stay put, we are almost there.”

However, Bonikka wasn´t planing on leaving it like that. “No, he has to be there, I need to check!”

“What?” Answered the admiral. “Wait, there is no way anybody could have survived anything like that!”

“He isn´t ´anybody´!” With that said and ignoring the words of Dalus, Bonikka made her way towards the wreckage.

She couldn´t believe it, one of the few beings she knew that she could actually trust, that had risked his life to save her and the universe countless times was now gone by the hand of the most feared being in the galaxy.

It was stupid for her to feel a certain degree of hope that Jim was still alive, he had shown his ability to escape certain doom countless times before and perhaps...

Giving a sigh of defeat, Bonikka clenched her fist, there was no indication between the ship´s remaining of any survival. The queen turned the Rocket Pocket around and got ready to approach the incoming Endorian fleet, until she took notice of something.

A lone ship was sailing across the empty space, weird thing was that it looked like it had no passenger. Every other insectican had already left the exploding ship by the time Evil the Cat made his entrance, there was no way any of queen Slugg-for-a-Butt´s soldiers could have remained inside just to escape at the last minute.

The Insectican ship´s auto destruction system was generous enough to give its inhabitants plenty of time to make it out... Maybe there was still hope.

In a moment, Bonikka approached the ship and took a look at the cabin...

...Jim was not inside, but there was something that caught her eye. Sitting over the co-o pilot chair was Jim´s well known blaster, a black mist surrounding the seat.

It was a fact, the worm had escaped, although what happened to him, she did not know. Maybe... maybe Evil had something to do with it. He couldn´t have disintegrated Jim, the battery of the god´s power acted like a magic shield that protected the worm against any kind of spell that could harm him. Certainly a fate like that couldn´t be the answer to the image in front of her, but if he wasn´t evaporated by the cat, then what happened to him?

Her thoughts where soon cut short by an incoming transmission. “Mistress? What happened? Are you alr...”

“Admiral, get me in contact with Peter as soon as possible!” Bonikka replied.

There was second of silence before Dalus answered. “Yes ma´am.”

It almost went completely unnoticed by her, but a small smile had begun to form on her face, as the look of hope appeared on her eyes. “He may still be alive.”

Her hopeful thoughts were soon cut short by the incoming voice of Dalus. “Mistress? Got contact with Peter, linking him to your transmission now.”

Bonikka nodded. “Understood, thank you admiral.” As soon as she finished her words, the transmission began to shift, making the queen react almost instantly. “Peter? Peter!”

“Queen Bonikka?” Answered Peter. “What happened? Is Jim with you?”

“No. Peter, I need you to listen to me!” Silence endured on the other side of the radio. “Jim has disappeared!”

More seconds of silence, until... “Is this one of Jim´s peekaboo games again? Seriously, I can´t see him, I´m at the other end of this radio.”

“What?” It was all Bonikka could answer, before shaking her head. “No, I mean, I was captured by Queen Slug-for-a-Butt and then taken hostage aboard one of her ships.” The queen explained. “Jim came to rescue me and he... Well.. Totally in accident started the ship´s auto destruction system.” Silence prevailed for another few seconds before Peter finally spoke.

“... Really?” The queen couldn´t see Peter, but she was more than sure the kind of face he had upon hearing about his friend´s little fail.

“Yep...” Bonikka answered. “But that is not all, Evil appeared and attacked Jim, he told me to leave, but when I was about to get help, the ship exploded!”

Unknown to Bonikka, tears began forming around Peter´s eyes and it wasn´t too long before the queen was assaulted with an over exaggerated cry from him. Bonikka reacted almost instantly.

“Peter, calm down! Jim is okay!” Sadly, he interrupted.

“No! I don´t want him in my heart, I want him alive!”

Bonikka rolled her eyes at this. “No, he IS alive!” Finally, an almost quiet ´uh?´ was heard from the communicator. “Yes, he is alive, I think Evil transported him somewhere else, but the thing is I don´t know where, that´s why I´m calling you.” Bonikka remained silent for a few seconds. “If we are going to rescue Jim, we need to do it together! And who knows more about him and what he has gone through, than you?”

From the other end of the radio, Peter, who was now calmed, nodded. “I´m calling the princess!”

“Wait!” Interrupted Bonikka. “Could we just... Forget her for now?”

Now, Peter was confused. “Why? She can help us avoid getting our behinds kicked.”

Bonikka grunted. Indeed, she wasn´t very fond of the princess and not just because of her rude personality or rash actions, but because of the way she treated Jim.

She noticed it since the first time they arrived at planet Endos; Jim has always been deeply in love with her, yet her affection wasn´t returned. She was distant with the worm, thing that Bonikka noticed, hurt Jim.

She couldn´t simply understand, if the worm showed her the same kind of affection he feels for the princess, Bonikka would take it right away. He didn´t have malice, he wasn´t a brute, he was attentive, romantic and even though, his mannerism was rather childish, it was this characteristic that made him special.

Bonikka had seen several so-called heroes come and go, show their deepest desires and fall from grace in search of fame and fortune, yet this worm that named himself savior of the universe, has done nothing more than good deeds without asking anything in return. Still, Peter was right, Evil was powerful and they would need all the help they could get to find and rescue Jim.

“Very well, I will direct my troops towards Earth, contact What´s-her-name until I arrive.” Bonikka replied.

“Will do, princess!” Happily answered Peter. “But could I ask you a favor?”

Bonikka smiled. “What is it Peter?”

“I heard your planet has a lot of delicious dishes, could you... Am... Bring me some?”

Bonikka couldn´t help but to release a chuckle at the puppy´s request. “Of course Peter, see you soon.” With that, she cut the transmission and got ready to call for her fleet, this day was going to be longer than she thought, but it was worth it. Jims had rescued them many times, it was time to return the favor.

Five minutes earlier

With a loud thump, Jim made his way to the ground, this day it seemed Evil was definitely done playing, a fact made evident by his non usual usage of magic against him. Sure, The battery of the gods served as a protective barrier against Evil´s most powerful attacks, but he was now using physical contact, something rather weird coming from the feline, not mentioning the fury he used against the worm. Indeed, Jim had dealt with the cat numerous times, but he had never been as ruthless as in that moment, he was unprepared for the assault, but he was still a tough match, sadly there wasn´t much time before the ship was obliterated, Evil certainly had him in a dead end.

Jim snapped out of his thoughts just in time to avoid one of Evil´s blast attacks. In the small momentum, Jim took notice of one last ship resting almost untouched in the hangar, if he could only...

“Aha!” Jim screamed in victory as soon as an idea came to his mind. Above him, the ceiling was falling apart, a few tubes going out of the metal; one simple pull and the whole roof would collapse and if there was a certain cat under, Jim would have plenty of time to escape.

Now with a plan, a smile appeared on Jim´s features. His attention shifted back to Evil, who was about to ram against him in his shadow form, the worm dodged out of the way and blasted against the black mist before rolling farther away and closer to the spot. Another blast came to his way and same as last time, he dodged. Taking the momentum once more, Jim took notice of several out of place parts on the wall and a half hanged ship that he could use to climb towards the ceiling.

Once more, he returned his eyes to Evil, who tried to claw Jim, this time, the worm took hold of the shadow cat´s paw and kneed him in the gut, causing Evil to loose his breath.

Before the cat could find his way to the floor, Jim threw a punch to his face, finally bringing the body to the ground, which soon dissipated under the metal floor.

The worm instantly knew he was about to get some help to get higher and prepared for Evil to attack, which soon he did.

Black smoke appeared from under Jim and sent him flying to the air... This was the moment.

Seconds before evil could claw the worm, Jim used his head body to get hold of one of the beams and circled around it, gaining speed while hitting Evil in the face with his feet. Wasting no time, the worm let go of the tube, making him go higher.

Evil the cat reacted almost instantly and tried once more to claw Jim, but same as last time, the worm managed to dodge the attack mid-air and with the help of the half hanged ship, gained more altitude to reach the ceiling.

Finally there, he placed himself on the loose tubes under the cracked ceiling and smiled at Evil who was once more going for the kill. “Hey Evil!” He called out. “So, how many lives you have left? Because you´re about to lose another!”

The cat saw too late what was about to happen, as Jim used his strength to pull the loosened beams, bringing the ceiling down unto Evil.

The worm had little time to react and used the same force to pull himself away of the falling debris, landing on his feet alongside the downed cat.

With a victorious smile, he hurried to get inside the purple ship. The ship was shaking badly, forcing the worm to get hold of the door´s frame to avoid falling, then precipitated towards the ship´s cabin. In a hurry to avoid being rusted, Jim sat down over the pilot´s seat and turned the space ship on.

Giving one look behind him, Jim wondered about the fact he was leaving Evil. This act may have been cruel by hero standards, but he knew the cat would be alright.

Outside the vehicle, several grunts were heard under the debris, grunts that came from a rather angry cat, who, using very little of his power, blasted the fallen ruff, sending the metal everywhere in the hangar. He was mad and went to approach the escaping ship, sadly for him, it was already in the air, before the propellers released a roaring fire that illuminated the hangar´s path as it went out of the insectican brigade. Evil the cat gritted his teeth and silently watched as the ship escaped the imminent explosion.

Soon enough, the fires inside the hangar were starting to consume everything inside, it was a fiery inferno, yet Evil did not care, his home was worse. His thoughts were completely focused on Jim, who once more had managed to survive, but Evil he wasn´t about to let this opportunity slip his claws, less when he was already weakened. It was a shame the blasted battery prevented him from erasing him out of existence, because if it did let him, Evil would certainly have a lot of fun with his foe before killing him.

Several joyful ideas crossed the cat´s mind, from being skinned alive to being fed to major Mucus´ pet. Indeed it was a shame the god´s power only let him perform painless spells on Jim. ´Painless´ Evil thought, wide opening his eyes as a smile suddenly crossed his lips... If the battery wouldn´t let him harm the worm, maybe it could let him do something ´harmless´ to the worm, maybe transport him to the planet Heck, where Evil would take the opportunity to finally end him, after all, this day the worm had barely escaped.

With this thought, the cat prepared his spell. His eyes went dark, a black mist going out of them. He had come to be one of the greatest magic users in all the galaxy and it showed.

Infinite rage consumed him as his stare was fixed on the fleeing ship, then he spoke...

ERGOS AMANTOS ING!

As the word left his mouth, a dark demon-like creature went out of his paws and made his way towards the escaping vehicle.

Evil the cat remained inside the ship as it finally exploded, the smile never leaving his face.

Outside the now destroyed place, Jim sighed in relief and let his blaster on the co-o pilot seat, then proceeded to touch the radio to inform the queen about his escape. Just as he was about to touch the button, a black figure found its way inside the cockpit and leeched into the back of the worm, who had little time to react as it began to emit a high pitched laugh.

“What the Heck?!” He tried with all his might to get rid of the demon, but before any progress could be made, the creature´s eyes turned bright orange, seconds later, beams of light started to come out from it, breaking the shadow as if it was a simple mirror, then exploded into various shards. The light that had started to come out from the demon absorbed Jim out of the interior of the ship and into an unknown destination.

A thick black smoke was left behind and from the outside of the ship, queen Bonikka could be seen staring into the interior.

The enormous orange worm hole surrounded Jim, who did his best to gain balance and get a good look at what exactly was happening, yet the push force was too strong. He had a hunch on what had happened as well as where he was going. This was the first time Jim used this kind of transport and although he imagined it was a little less chaotic, he was certainly enjoying the colors, even though the agitated movement was annoying.

Suddenly, fear entered the worm, who had just realized he had given Bonikka his Pocket Rocket, leaving him unable to escape Heck. The worm grew worried about Peter, he would most certainly be worried about this inconvenience, but at least, he would have a good chance to defeat Evil. Unto another thought, Jim hoped Bonikka was safe and sound aboard her ship.

Jim, in his inability, did not notice his awaited destination up ahead the madness tunnel, neither the hands of Heck which had just entered the wicked tunnel realm to take hold of their victim, which was within their grasp. They were certainly savoring the awaited enemy, which was about to be torn apart for their master...

...then a caw collided against him, changing his destination and thus starting this stupid story... Sheesh!

For Jim, well... He certainly felt the impact full force, which caused him to sail uncontrollably across the void and preventing him from taking notice of the caw savior and his happiness for interfering.

Soon enough, our hero just stopped trying to resist the force and simply let go. Whatever awaited him at the end of this, he would be prepared.

And so it was, that with one last word he prepared for what was about to come.

“ROSEBUD!!!”

Author's Note

Well, first chapter in this crossover, hope you all like it.
You can expect more coming soon if it does well.