Part 2: Entrance to Madness

"Zim!" Dib shouted, leaping up after him. He pumped his legs as hard as they would go and soon he was right on Zim's tail (yes, Zim literally had a cute, fluffy white cotton-tail to go along with the rest of his bunny motif). "Zim!" he panted. "Where are we? What's going on?"

The Zim-rabbit flashed his eyes at Dib in annoyance. "I know not of this 'Zim' of which you speak," he snarled. "So stop calling me that! I am the White Rabbit and you will refer to me as such."

Dib rolled his eyes. "Oh give me a break, Zim. All you did was put some bunny ears on and tie a stupid pink nose around your head. Do you think I'm dumb?"

"As a matter of fact…" Zim smirked, and Dib scowled, knowing he'd walked right into that one. He tried to cook up a good retaliation, but was running out of breath, and Zim was now too far ahead to hear him anyway.

Zim dashed through a door at the end of the hallway, and a moment later Dib did the same. Now he found himself standing in a large, dimly lit room with a high, arched ceiling. He spotted a small table made of glass sitting off to one side, but as for Zim there was absolutely no sign of him.

"Man, he got away AGAIN!" Dib's eyes darted around the room, looking for Zim's means of escape, but instead they landed on something sitting on the table. He walked over, his boot heels echoing loudly on the checkered tile floor, and picked up the tiny object.

"A key? Then there must be a door around here somewhere." Dib looked around again; he didn't see any doors, but behind him he spied a low curtain covering a section of the wall. Being his paranoid self, he eyed it with suspicion, then he pulled a corner aside, revealing a very small door. And I mean very small. So small, in fact, that it barely even came up to his knees.

Dib narrowed an eye. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

He knelt down to examine the door more closely. "How am I supposed to get through that!?" He frowned. Then he noticed the doorknob. Dib just stared at it for a moment, furrowing his brow in confusion as he noted the odd, yet strangely familiar shape of it. It sort-of reminded him of… "D-Dad?" he stammered. Of course, Dib was more than used to seeing truck-loads of merchandise modeled after his world-famous father, the one and only Professor Membrane- their house was full of objects shaped like the Professor's head, after all- but seeing something like that down here of all places was a bit surprising. He reached down and pulled the funny looking knob only to be rewarded with a yelp of surprise. Dib, caught completely off guard, returned the scream and jumped backwards.

"Blast it all, this is the third time this week that's happened!" The doorknob spoke in a strong, authoritative voice that was eerily familiar. "You don't have to pull so hard you know."

"Sorry," Dib apologized, somehow not really all that shocked to be talking to a doorknob. After all, he did go to skool with an alien. He could certainly handle this.

"Ah, well. Think nothing of it," came the reply. "Now, is there something I can help you with, young man?"

"Actually I was wondering if an alien dressed up like a rabbit came through here by any chance?"

"As a matter of fact he did. You just missed him."

"So Zim was here!" Dib clenched his fists determinedly. "I have to follow him!"

The door chuckled. "Don't be silly, my boy! You'd never be able to fit that big head of yours through here."

"My head's not big!" Dib huffed.

"Uh, yes…of course not," the Membrane-esqe doorknob muttered, sounding not the least bit convinced. "Well, nonetheless I suggest you try that bottle on the table over there."

"Huh? But there's no-" Dib began, but when he turned around he did, in fact, see a small vial sitting on the glass tabletop. Well it wasn't there a minute ago, he thought. He picked up the bottle and noticed a tag tied around its neck. "Hmm… Drink Me," he read the words printed on it aloud, eyeing the liquid suspiciously. "And exactly how is drinking this stuff supposed to help me?"

"Just give it a try!" the doorknob said cheerfully. "I invented the formula myself. I guarantee you'll be thoroughly satisfied. And, it's also quite tasty, I might add."

"Well… if you say so." Dib shrugged and uncorked the bottle before taking a hesitant sip. "Mm… that's actually not bad," he remarked and took a longer drink. Wiping his mouth he set the empty bottle back on the table, but as he did he noticed that something seemed a little… off.

Was that table… always that high up?

All the sudden he felt an odd sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, sort of like being on an elevator. Not only that, but when he looked around he was amazed to find the entire room appeared to be expanding around him. "What the-…!?" Dib gasped as he realized he was shrinking! In a matter of seconds the spiky-haired boy stood no higher than a Popsicle stick.

"Wow… what was in that stuff?" Dib's jaw hung open as he looked down at himself, examining his new, tiny size. "Hmm…" He pulled on a corner of his jacket, curiously. "And how come my clothes shrunk too?" Oh well, it was probably best not to question a good thing.

Dib ran over to the door, which he happily noted he was now the perfect size to fit through, eager to catch back up to Zim. He grabbed the handle and yanked on it several times, frowned, then started pulling and tugging on it as hard as he could.

"Ow! Hey, take it easy there," the doorknob pleaded.

"But I can't get the door open," Dib complained.

"Well of course you can't."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because I'm locked."

"Oh, okay. I guess that explains…" It slowly dawned on Dib what had been said. "Wait a minute, You're WHAT!?"

"I said I'm locked. Didn't I mention that?"

"NO!" Dib wailed mournfully, burying his face in his hands.

"You have the key, don't you?" the door inquired.

"Hmm? What key?"

"The little gold one."

Dib's face brightened. "Oh that key! Yeah, I left it over on the table." He chuckled in relief and started over towards it. "I'll just go… and… um, get…it…" His words trailed off as he approached the table, discovering that the tabletop now towered far above his head. Dib groaned and smacked his forehead.

"Don't tell me you left it up there," the door remarked.

"Gee, you think?" Dib shot back. The boy stormed over and stared up at the key through the glass. He tried everything he could think of to try and get it; he tried climbing one of the table legs, but kept sliding down. Then he tried ramming the table to nudge the key over the edge, but only succeeded in nearly dislocating his shoulder. He tried willing it over the side, but lacked the necessary spooky mind powers to pull this off. Finally, he tried yelling and cursing at it, but the key still didn't budge. Having run out of ideas, Dib sighed helplessly and slumped to the ground. He was really not enjoying his altered height.

"Stupid key," he grumbled, looking up at it sitting there through the glass, as if taunting his dilemma further. He glanced over at the door. "I don't suppose you've got another magic potion lying around that would make big again, do you?"

"It's not magic… it's SCIENCE!" the door replied, the 'tah-dah!' heavily implied.

"Whatever. Do you have one?"

"Nope, sorry."

Dib sighed.

"You'll just have to try the cake."

"Huh?" Dib looked down, and right on cue he spotted a small box sitting next to his hand. Opening it, he discovered a little snack cake with the words 'BITE ME' scrawled across it in frosting. "Okay, that's an… odd thing to write on a cake," he remarked. "But if it'll make me grow a little bit taller…"

He was a little unsure whether he should try it or not, but then he really didn't have that many options. And after all, he figured, anything had to be better than being stuck at such a diminutive size for the rest of his life, so before he could change his mind, he chomped into the cake.

Dib got to his feet and waited for some sort of reaction. He measured himself against the table leg, but as far as he could tell he hadn't changed a bit. Frowning, he walked a little ways away from the table and tried again, holding his hand over his head to see if he was getting any larger, but still nothing happened. "Great," he pouted, crossing his arms. "It's not work- yyyyaaaaAAAAHHHH!" Before Dib could finish speaking too soon, the room rapidly began closing in on him; he was growing at an alarming rate, and a second later he cried out in pain as the back of his head slammed up against the ceiling.

"Oww…" Dib moaned, rubbing his sore cranium. Looking down, he realized to his horror that he was now well over twenty feet tall.

The door called up to him, "Looks like you took too big of a bite."

"Not THIS big!" Dib gestured down at himself, his voice rising with panic. "I mean, I knew that thing would make me grow, but come on! This is just ridiculous!"

"You ok, son?" the door asked. "Looked like you hit your big head pretty hard there."

"My head is NOT-!" Dib paused uncertainly. "Well um, yeah, okay… I guess maybe now it's kinda big."

"Well, look on the bright side," said the door, and Dib stared at it like it'd just suggested he put a live lobster down his pants. "At least now you can reach the key."

Dib reached down by his ankle and plucked the key off the table. Looking at it sitting in the palm of his hand he thought it resembled a grain of sand more than it did a key. "Hmph. Lotta good it does me now," he huffed in frustration. "I'm too big to fit through a regular sized door, let alone the little one."

All this was just too much for poor Dib. He was prepared to deal with aliens and vampires and Bigfoot and stuff, but THIS!? This place defied all logic! And now how was he supposed to get out of here?

He slumped to the floor, his head drooping sadly. "Now I'm gonna be stuck in this stupid room for the rest of my life, and there'll be no one to protect the world from Zim's evil clutches!" he lamented in that overly-dramatic way he had. "Earth is doomed without me. I... I just..." His lower lip began to quiver as he felt the hot sting of tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. He tried desperately not to give in to the urge to cry, but a few stray teardrops managed to spill over his eyelids and fall to the floor.

Seeing Dib's distress, the doorknob sighed sympathetically. "Oh, come on, settle down now. You don't want to start a flood, do you? And anyway you can always try the bottle again."

"Huh?" Dib sniffled and wiped his eyes. He picked up the miniature bottle, being extremely careful not to crush it between his giant fingertips, and to his surprise there was still a little bit of shrinky-stuff left in it. But I thought I drank it all, he thought. Then: Oh, who cares?

It was a royal hassle trying to get the cork out, and Dib eventually just gave up and swallowed the bottle like a pill. Almost instantly he began growing smaller, until he was once again only a few inches tall. He gripped the key happily and rushed over to the little door, splashing through a large puddle of his own tears as he went. Geez, I'm glad I didn't cry any more than this, he thought, a little embarrassed with himself for crying in the first place, or who knows what kind of disaster it might have turned into. Why did I cry anyway? That's pretty unusual for me. Of course the whole situation was pretty unusual, so Dib just chalked it up to temporary insanity.

"Finally! I can get out of this stupid room," he exclaimed as he fumbled with the lock.

"Um, there is a little something I should probably warn you about first," the door informed him.

Dib turned the knob. "Why, what's there to warn me abo-?" He was suddenly interrupted as an enormous rush of water thundered through the doorway. He screamed as he was thrown backward and swallowed by the violent wave. The room was flooding quickly, and Dib was forcefully sucked through the door and swept away by the current. He struggled to the surface and spit out a mouthful of water, finding himself in the middle of an endless expanse of ocean.

Waves kept washing over him and filling his mouth with water. "Ugh, this is just perfect," he complained. "That dumb door could've warned me before I opened it. Now instead of withering away in that room I get to drown." He swam around aimlessly for a few minutes until he spotted a strip of land and made his way over, gratefully stumbling onto the shore. As Dib wrung out his trench coat and dumped the water out of his boots he noticed he was standing at the mouth of a forest. He also heard a splishing noise behind him and turned just in time to see Zim crawling out of the water.

The rabbit-suited alien coughed and sputtered as he stood up and shook the water off his tail. "Good thing I bathed in extra paste this morning," he muttered and took off into the woods.

"Zim! Wait!" Dib, wasting no time, quickly pulled on his coat and boots and was after him in a flash.


A/N: Sorry, I did a wee bit of re-writing for this chapter ^^; It's better now, trust me.