Characters: Liz Sherman, Dib
Fandom: Hellboy, Invader ZIM
Setting: Invader ZIM episode 06A Career Day
Part 1 of ??? I am in love w/ this idea so more will be coming.
Manning is insane! Liz thought as she moved slowly down the hall of the dirty public school, feeling her nose crinkle in disgust as her eyes landed on filthy classroom after filthy classroom. For a moment she found herself almost thankful she attended Catholic school instead of one of these sad government institutions. The fact that she now worked for a government institution was not lost on her though, and she let out a little laugh as she pulled a tissue from her plain purse to open the door to the wing she needed to get to.
She smiled slightly as not one of the the eyes in the hallway out side the classroom turned to her as she made her way to an open chair, the perfectly normal dress she was wearing flitting about as she sat down with a sigh. She blended in perfectly, but that was the point. It wouldn't do to walk into a place like this with her BPRD jacket and belt full of guns and equipment, would it?
Liz waited for sometime, and was nearly ready to stand and head outside for a cigarette when the door to the classroom burst open and pack of children emptied into the hallway, each looking very disappointed save one, a dark haired lad with big glasses, wild hair and a head that was bigger than a watermelon.
The boy with an abnormally large head paused a moment at the door, turning his attention to another boy with oddly green skin. Liz made a mental note to look into that glaring abnormality, but now what not the time for that. She could look into that further when she returned to the school to drop off the child that would be "shadowing" her and Hellboy today.
"Looks like I'll be getting teamed up with a respected paranormal investigator, Zim. He's sure to see through your pitiful disguise, and then we'll take you back to his secret lab, and then we'll perform all kinds of tests on you. HORRIBLE TESTS!" The bigheaded boy gloated to the green kid, an almost comical air of superiority about him.
What a little bastard! Being mean to someone just because they're different. Liz thought as a small frown spread across her lips. She watched the boys closely until they parted ways, the green one heading off with a teenager in a Mc Meaties uniform. Guess there are worse jobs in the world than running around a sewer at 3AM.
The dark haired boy's eyes squinted behind his glasses as he made his way down the hall, craning his head to try and find the respected paranormal investigator he had just mentioned. He looked at each normal looking man in a suit in the place, each time rejected by them and told to move along. Boy, would he be in for a surprise.
The intel said this kid was very adamant about the existence of paranormals and aliens yet no one, not even his own family, believed him. Manning rationalized that showing a kid that was already viewed as insane a secret organization like BPRD would do no real harm. Anything he would say would be dismissed as the words of a child with a very over active imagination and too much sugar in his blood stream. The icing on the cake was the fact that this boy, despite his age, seemed to have knowledge of the paranormal that the BPRD themselves had not been able to find. He was even compared to a young Trevor Broom, only…crazier.
Liz stood and walked over to him, as he seemed to be giving up hope at finding his career day mentor.
"Your name Dib?" She reached over and tapped his shoulder, putting on her friendliest tone. She was not looking forward to this, but she had a hunch Red would be even less enthused with it. Still, orders were orders, and she could pretend with the best of them.
"Yes?" He glanced back at her with skepticism that was beyond his years.
"I'm Liz." She held out her hand to him with a smile that almost made her face ache. "Hear you like looking for monsters." She said nonchalantly. "My partner and I can teach you about that."
"You're the paranormal investigator?" His eyes widened in shock so obvious that Liz would have found insulting if it didn't remind her so much of John Myers. Shame that guy got sent to Antarctica, but the moment Hellboy had found out Myers had a 'thing' for his girlfriend, the threats came down and Myers was packing the Gortex and fur lined boots.
"What were you expecting, some big guy with a huge leather coat, a fantastically large gun and a cigar hanging out of his mouth?" Liz smirked and folded her arms over her chest.
"I kinda was." Dib looked at her unable to hide the fact he was let down by the petite woman that stood before him.
"Sorry to disappoint." Her eyes rolled as she sighed and started to make her way to the exit, expecting Dib to follow.
"No wait! I have something to show you! There's an actual alien in my class and I…" Dib's short legs carried him after her as he shouted about aliens full volume for the entire world to hear. His classmates and even some of the adults took a moment to laugh cruelly at him as he rushed by, but the boy paid them no mind.
"Plenty of time for that later, kid." Liz pushed the door to the outside open and squinted at the bright sunshine, sliding on a pair of sunglasses a second later. It felt good to be outside in the daylight, but it would also make keeping Red under wraps all the more difficult.
Dib raced after her then suddenly came to a dead halt as his eyes fell onto the Squeaky Clean Garbage Truck that was parked in the school bus loading zone.
"Is that a garbage truck?" He stood with his mouth agape as Liz walked over to the back, it's hatch door already rising so she could enter. She gasped and nearly slipped as she stepped up, due to the heels she was wearing. Dib could have sworn the hand that reached out to catch her and help her inside the truck was…red.
No, it couldn't be.
"You comin' or what, short stuff?" Dib heard a booming male voice from inside truck call to him. He glanced around the schoolyard, his classmates filing into the respective vehicles of the firefighters, doctors and lawyers they had been paired with. He let a satisfied chuckle escape him as he watched Zim climb into the teenagers rusted out passenger car to take them both to McMeaties. The cars bumper was held on with duct tape and the back window was covered in sticker of long forgotten hair metal bands.
"Dib!" Liz stuck her head out from the back of the truck and called to him. "Come on, we've got a code five that can't be kept waiting. Let's move."
Dib took off running for the truck, a gleeful smile spread over his lips. Code five? That's even better than a code four! Whatever a code four was.
He couldn't wait to tell everyone about this.