Dib, the Belt-Sander and Bigfoot

An Invader ZIM fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader ZIM or the characters. They all belong to the brilliant and hilarious Jhonen Vasquez, and Nickelodeon sucks for canceling it. May the almighty Irken Empire obliterate them.

A/N: This story was inspired by the comment from the kid in the first episode about Dib seeing Bigfoot in his garage. This is how I think that could have happened.

Dib sat on the top of his house, soda in hand. He had taken his rooftop vigil nightly ever since he was five years old, and had been given his first laptop with a miniature satellite to record anything that came from the great black beyond known as Outer Space. This was his second laptop, which he had gotten for Christmas since his sister had spilt her soda all over his last one while she had been using it to surf the Internet one of her Gothic I-hate-the-world-and-everyone-in-it chatrooms and thus, ruined it.

Needless to say, he hadn't been too happy about that.

Fortunately however, his old laptop was replaced with a new and better one that had all the latest upgrades and it was the best, -and most expensive- model he could find.

It had definitely been worth the ten thousand bucks he had begged his dad to shell out for the thing, plus the extra two thousand for the headphones and satellite-transmitter dish.

The young supernatural enthusiast was determined to prove that this was indeed a worthy investment by proving that there was indeed intelligent life out there somewhere, and he would be the one to find it. He paused in that train of thought. Well, maybe not intelligent life, but he was out to prove that there was life out there nonetheless.

The kids at Skool, of course, thought he was a complete weirdo and that he had a screwloose. The faculty thought he was a "poor, hopelessly delusional young man." Then there was NASA, who thought he was a complete lunatic and thought he had seen one too many episodes of the X-Files.

He had become a regular down there, and they were rather used to him by now and took his insane claims all in stride. He wasn't the only "nutcase" that came in there ranting and raving about alien life. They got at least three, maybe four a week. They had the mental hospital on speed dial.

He would show them, he would show them all. They would regret that they had ever laughed at Dib, the world's greatest paranormal researcher. (That had a nice ring to it.)

To quote the X-Files, the truth was out there, and he would find it. Oh yes indeed, he would.

Dib reached to take another sip of his soda (which was a safe distance from the laptop) and discovered that it was empty. He peered back at the monitor, adjusting his oversized glasses on an equally oversized head that seemed rather disproportionate for his body. No activity as of yet. He supposed he could take a break. He took off his headphones and stretched his stiff muscles. Dib then slid off the roof to go inside for another soda. He went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was only one soda left. He paused. Gaz wouldn't be too happy if he drank the last pop, but he was thirsty and thought it was worthwhile enough to incur her wrath. He knew she would make him pay-she always did- but he could take it as long as she didn't mess with any of his very delicate -and costly- equipment.

Dib walked out of the house to return to his place on the roof when he heard the unmistakable whirring of a power tool in use. Puzzled, he stopped to listen. It was coming from his garage. His father wouldn't be up at this hour using a power tool, and he couldn't think of any of the neighbors that would be working on anything at two in the morning. That left only one option. Find out who could be in his garage, at two in the morning, using one of his father's power tools. If he wasn't mistaken it was the belt sander.

Dib decided to go in and grab his digital camera to catch the culprit in the act in case the police needed any evidence. He had gained infamy with them as well, and weren't particularly fond of him since he had once called them away from a burglary and sent them on a wild goose chase when he had claimed that he had seen lights in the sky and was convinced that Earth was under attack. The airport hadn't been too pleased with him either. He had been six at the time.

Dib stealthily crept up to the garage and peered inside, breathing silently, camera at the ready. What he saw shocked him. He noticed a rather rancid smell coming from whoever was in the garage. There was a large, hairy figure using the belt sander to scrape the fungus out of his long, hairy coat. Bigfoot was in Dib's garage. Eagerly, Dib lifted his camera up and began to quickly snap pictures of the large, hairy beast. Bigfoot turned off the belt-sander and turned, startled by the flash of the camera. The creature's eyes widened in horror, and he dropped the tool and fled for the opening of the garage door. Dib kept snapping, oblivious to the large ape's terror. "Leave me alone, please!" Whimpered the furry bipedal as he covered his face and ran. Dib followed the Bigfoot and kept snapping pictures until the creature was out of sight as it disappeared behind a house and leaped over fences to escape Dib and his camera.

Afterwards, Dib held his camera up in triumph, a gleeful smile on his face. "Yes! I have evidence of Bigfoot's existence! I will be world famous! I will finally get the recognition I so rightly deserve!"

Excitedly, he ran home to develop the photos and submit them to "Mysterious Mysteries." When he got inside he noticed something strange.

His glee swiftly turned to horror.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Dib had forgotten to remove the lens cap.

Please R&R! I hope you thought it was remotely funny. This is my first attempt at an Invader ZIM fic, so please be kind! I will spare the lives of those who review! (Or at the very least make your deaths quick and painless.)