"No, no, no, that's not what I mean. It's just; you were kind of…my first family member type thingy. And I've missed you a lot." It was hard for me to think about how many disaster scenarios had played through my mind regarding him for the past nine years. Even though he had been gone almost double the amount the time he'd been around, I still felt like I was being deprived of something when he wasn't there. "We should hang out."

"Um…yeah, th-that, that sounds…good." He seemed shocked that I would want to see him. "Where?"

"Well, I've been staying with the Diablo's, they adopted me when I was almost nine."

"Oh. I don't think I can go there. Senior Diablo…we've had issues…"

"You know him?" This was very confusing considering Senior Diablo is the Devil and, thusly, spends his days in Hell.

"Well, I died once. Just before I left. Remember how my hair changed?" At that moment all the pieces of the puzzle slipped into place. Holy shit. That gunshot, the screams, his being bald except for two, long, blue tendrils of hair. He died.

"How'd you die?"

"I accidentally killed myself." Accidentally?

"Accidentally?"

"Yeah, well, accidentally on purpose. I decided that I wanted to die. But then I changed my mind but I had set up this contraption that would kill me if I answered the phone. And that ended up being the only time someone called me." Needless to say, it was quite a bit to take in all at once.

"So, you went to hell?"

"Well, first I went to heaven."

"You? You, of all people went to heaven?" This was a bit confusing. When I was younger I had seen him cut off a mans arm, bash his skull open and then rip his brain out, while the man was still alive and screaming.

"Yeah. Only for a bit, though. In heaven they have head 'splody powers. I blew up a nun's head. But then she returned the favor. I cause quite a mess. So, they sent me to hell."

"How was that?" I knew what the basement was like, but that was more of a purgatory.

"It was just like this world. Only more…extreme I suppose. And the Devil decided to dress as a cheerleader to try and scare me." Now that is something I would have loved to see. The idea of it was completely perplexing and fascinating. I tried so hard to create that mental image but it simply couldn't be done.

"What…the fuck. Bullshit, he would never do that." Well…there was that one time, but that was Halloween.

"No, seriously, because his real form didn't scare me and everyone knows cheerleaders are pure evil." That is true; I once asked a cheerleader for the time and she responded by throwing up pea soup on me. Needless to say I ran away screaming.

"They are disturbing. So, where should we meet up? There's always the old 24-7 outside of town. I think they still have brainfreezies and Senior Nacho chips. We could just hang out there." I remembered him bringing me those once. I'm pretty sure he liked them a lot.

"They still have BRAINFREEZIES!?" He whispered this intensely into the phone.

"I'm thinking you haven't had them in a while?"

"No!" His voice stayed intense but grew a bit louder.

"Well, I'll meet you there in," I looked at my clock, 3:27PM flashed in blocky, red, numbers, "an hour and a half. So, about five. Does that work?"

"Yeah, of course." He hung up without another word. I wondered what he would now look like, would he be just as thin? Would he be wearing those same types of clothes? Would his eyes be sunken? Would he still be sleep deprived? Would he still be mentally deranged? I would know soon enough so I should probably just banish the thoughts from my mind and call Dib.

I picked up my phone again and went to his name in my phone book. I pressed the little, green, phone shaped button and listened to the ringing.

"Yeah?" He picked up on the fourth ring, blunt as usual.

"Hey, I was wondering if I could stay over for the weekend?"

"Well, I have to ask my father, but you know how Professor Membrane is, he doesn't care as long as we don't break any scientific laws." His father was a famous inventor. He was also the creator of Super Toast™.

"Cool! I have a huge surprise for Gaz B-T-W."

"Oh?" I could hear his raised eyebrow.

"And for your father as well. The man who found the portal has returned."

"Ho-ly shit…when?"

"He just called me. Remember, we used to be pretty close. I'm going to see him in an hour and a half. If anything, we'll drop by your place later." I knew that he wanted to meet Nny as badly as the rest of his family, if not more badly. Though they all had different reasons. Professor Membrane believed that Nny was an amazing scientist; Gaz believed that he was an amazing mass murderer and Dib believed that he could tell him more about the paranormal. Dib fancied himself a paranormal investigator of sorts though he mostly targeted this one alien in our school called Zim. Zim was a douche bag. An alien-scum filled douche-bag to be honest. And I didn't really blame Dib for targeting him though I did feel bad that Zim had no friends.

"Wow, really? They would love that. But watch out, you might never be able to get them away from him."

"I'm honestly not too worried about that considering he has a somewhat of a…caustic personality." It was a far from false analysis of Nny. Though I suppose I did make him sound much more mild than I remembered him being.

"But remember, my dad is the most oblivious man in the world." He really was. He didn't even notice that his wife had died until the funeral. Seriously. That's not just a figurative thing. He really did not notice until they were at the funeral home and people were telling him that they were sorry for his loss. But what do I really know? I wasn't even there this is all hearsay. But I there have been times when I have stayed over and his dad didn't even notice that I was there until I was leaving and thanking him for allowing me to stay over.

"Yeah, he really is. Kind of odd that he is a scientist, isn't it?"

"I don't know, I think he'd be even more lost without science. At least that gives his life purpose instead of him just being an oblivious, shambling, shell of a man. At least this way he is a real person with real things in his mind." Dib was an odd fellow. But he did make sense. A lot of it, in fact. I turned my head to look at my flashing clock.

"Fuck! Look, Dib, I don't mean to cut the conversation short or anything, but I just realized the time and I really have to get moving. Fuck, sorry man. I'll see you around Six or Six-thirty, though!" I quickly said good-bye and hopped into the shower connected to my room washing as quickly as possible. I dried myself off and realized a little bit too late that I had almost no clothes left that were clean. Except for a horrendous, brightly colored polo and cargo pants. Fuck. I was going to look like a douche bag. Goddammit. Why couldn't Nny have shown up either yesterday or tomorrow? Any day but fucking laundry day. Maybe I could just wear some pajamas. That wouldn't be too bad. Besides, Batman is kind of the shit. I would just do that. So, I threw on my Batman pajamas and told mom I was going down to the 24-7 and that I was going to stay with Dib for the weekend.

I arrived around four fifty-five or something like that. I entered the 24-7 and purchased a chocolate bar, the only normal thing they sold in my opinion, and stood outside nibbling on it for a couple of minutes before Nny showed up.

"You! Are you the person I am looking for! Yes, you are!" A slim finger was pointed in my chocolate eating direction and then an even slimmer figure was running at me.

"SQUEE!" I flinched automatically but that didn't protect me from the bony person wrapping their arms around me and somehow lifting me off of the ground. "What the fuck!? Put me down! Put me down! Ahhh!" Nothing was properly registering and before I knew it the figure had plopped me back to the solid, lovely, ground.

"I knew it was you!" He was just as slim, though he did look different. His hair was still blue and he was shorter than me, though only by an inch or so. The biggest difference was his eyes. They still had bags, but they were less severe and they looked more alive. Though I suppose that that was just my effect on him. He hugged me close pulling my head down to his shoulder. "I've missed you."

"Nny, I've missed you too. You seem different." I stayed where I was, finally reunited with the man I considered my brother. My sick, disturbed brother who gave me dead squirrels as presents.

"I suppose I am, I spent the last few years just…traveling. I mostly stayed in the big cities. Mostly I was on the East Coast in New York and Philly. They have some interesting places." He wrapped an arm around me and we walked into the store, my chocolate bar on the ground where I dropped it when I was lifted. We walked straight to the Brainfreezy machine in the middle of the dingy, smelly, store. "Fucking YES! They still have Cherrydoom!" Nny began doing a small, ridiculous dance around the machine. He grabbed the largest cup and filled it up to the brim. Then took another and began to do the same.

"I don't want one that big!" I cried indignantly.

"Who says it's for you?" He honestly questioned. I proceeded to blink wonderingly. I don't know why I assumed he was going to get me one when he loves them and hadn't he hadn't had one in years.

"Oh. Okay." Shrugging it off, I grabbed my own, much smaller cup, and filled it.

"So, how have you been, Squeegee?" He turned to me while sipping on one of his gigantic cups of slush.

"Okay, I suppose. After the insane asylum, Mrs. Diablo insisted that they adopt me. I have my own room there and even the extended family accepts me as flesh and blood. It's nice. To, you know, be loved or at least accepted. I even have a couple of friends. Nothing excessive but I have Pepito and Dib. And I suppose Dib's little sister. Though she is painful."

"Wow, I suppose that's good. At least you haven't been alone all of these years. What do you mean…painful?"

"She likes to hit. But mostly she hits Dib, but not it's only really when he interrupts her video games and shit like that; Dib can be a bit overenthusiastic about things."

"Oh?" Johnny raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Yeah, he's a paranormal investigator and the son of Professor Membrane."

"Fucking A, I loved that guy's show. And don't even get me started on SuperToast!" Nny was gesturing animatedly splashing some of his slush drink onto the floor.

"Wanna meet them? I'm supposed to go over there for the weekend anyways." Nice save.

"Of course! Like I wouldn't want to meet the creator of the thing that bested sliced bread!" He had a slightly crazed look in his eyes.

"Do you have your car still?"

"Yeah, though I'll have to make some space in it for you. And you'll have to hold one of the Brainfreezies while I drive."

"I could drive us. I do know where to go after all."

"Or, I could drive and you could tell me where to go. Do you even have a license? Besides, it would be bad to get pulled over today." Meaning he probably had a corpse or something in his trunk. But he could probably get away with anything. It was probably best to end the argument.

"Okay. You drive. It's not too far from my old school. Just take a left off of Felix Avenue and it's the third house on the right. It'll be pretty hard to miss." I instructed him. We walked up to his car where he disappeared for a second inside before he let me in.

"You can sit in the back if you don't mind getting a little…something…on your pants. Or the passenger seat in the front is okay but it's a little cramped."