DISCLAIMER (because I forgot on the last chapter. Whoops): I don't own Zim. Last I checked, anyhow. Things could have changed in between then and now…

Somewhere Out There.

By: Thejennamonster.

PART ONE: So you call this a party?

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Dib. Now, Dib was an all around average, normal little boy, except for one minor detail: he could see things that others wouldn't. There is a big difference, you see, between things that people Can't see, and things that people Won't. If one were to see things that other people can't: atoms and molecules, dust mites, and viruses, if one were to see those, that person would be classified as a Scientific Miracle. They would be on magazine covers and in newspapers, the media screaming "Amazing Child Can See Cancer Cells! Blood Tests No Longer Needed!" Talk shows, movie deals, radio spots, clothing lines, the American public wouldn't be able to get enough of this wondrous child, this miracle child, this god.

Hover, when it comes to seeing things that people Won't; things that cause their hearts to race and their skin to crawl, things that defy all scientific explanation: ghosts and aliens and Big Feet using belt sanders—when it comes to those, the world has one word: Crazy. Our small, average little boy had been declared this horrible, hideous word more times than he could count. By the age of ten, he had been institutionalized twenty seven separate times. The world at large Wouldn't see these things that our boy could for a reason: the world at large feared what it did not understand. And since the world didn't understand our boy, Dib, he was ridiculed, ostracized, beat up and otherwise humiliated all because the world didn't understand the boy who could see that the emperor wore no clothes.

And so, once upon a time, this average little boy was lonely. And once upon a time, he made a wish: a wish that he could have Proof of what he saw. That he could have Proof, and with that, the vindication and recognition he deserved.

And then, one day, one fateful, life changing day, our small, average, lonely little boy…met Zim.

oooIIIooo

"There! There, I see her! She's right there, under us, Zim! You found the right vent! I knew you could do it! You're so smart, Zim! You—"

"QUIET!" Hissed a very irritated Zim as he lunged forward in the cramped vent space to slap a gloved hand over his cohort's mouth. He was becoming more and more aware of how accidental it must have been that Scoodge was the first of the Invaders in Operation Impending Doom Two to complete his assignment, being that the squat Irken was nothing more than a very eager, very determined, little fool. This, he knew, was the exact reason why the Tallests had sent him along with Zim on the obviously suicidal mission to rescue Invader Tenn from Meekrob's highly guarded maximum security POW prison. They were hoping, as it were, to kill two nuisances with one assignment. So far, as they crawled though the rat infested sewers of the prison's underbelly and cramped themselves into too-small ventilation space, Zim was certain that the Tallests' plan was going to work, because it was becoming more and more obvious the he would be forced to strangle his partner out of sheer annoyance and then be stuck behind his fat, rotting carcass for the rest of eternity. If he had to hear about how Scoodge conquered Blortch one. more. time…

This was all, of course, before they saw The Sign. The finding of The Sign was all together accidental (as all great discoveries in the face of great danger are). The two had been on their tenth hour crawling through the ventilation system of floor 134 section alpha when they heard a horrible sound. The sound…of bending metal. That sound could only mean one thing: that the section of shaft they were in was about to collapse. They froze, not wanting to put any more stress on the weakened metal than they had to, and discussed their options:

Scoodge thought that it would be wise to slowly shimmy backwards until they reached the last "T" in the vent they had come to and attempt a different route.

Zim thought that maybe Scoodge shouldn't have eaten that extra jumbo sized Meekrobian burrito that they had found in the dining hall area ten floors down but it was a little late to think about that, now, wasn't it?

While they debated (or insulted, however you would like to look at it), the shaft they were in decided for them, and crashed to the ground, leaving the two bumbling Irkens on a tangled, moaning heap on the floor of the corridor below.

Quickly regaining their composure, the two frantically scanned the corridor for another way into the shaft (or some other viable escape route) before the Meekrob guards arrived to investigate the strange sound. And that was when they saw it.

Now, most people, when confronted with a giant, neon sign stating "There's no captured Irken spy this way!" complete with a rather large, glowing arrow pointing in said direction, would be at least the slightest bit suspicious that maybe, just maybe, it was a trap. But not these brave Irkens. These Irkens saw it was The Sign They Were Looking For, and, without a second thought, rushed down the corridor the arrow was pointing, scrambled back into the ventilation system, and shimmied their way to rescue their captured comrade.

And that brings right back to where we started (don't you just love it when that happens?).

"QUIET!" Hissed a very irritated Zim as he lunged forward in the cramped vent space to slap a gloved hand over his cohort's mouth, "Do not make another sound! I have to think. There has to be a way down into that room without the guards noticing us."

He removed his hand from Scoodge's mouth (and resisted the urge to replace it around his fat, annoying, overachieving throat), and surveyed the room below from their vantage point in the vent shaft. Tenn was tied to a post in the very center of the room, seemingly unconscious. Two guards were strategically placed in front of their prisoner, their attention focused on the door to the room.

"It's quiet." Scoodge whispered, ignoring Zim's order to stay silent.

"Yeah," Zim answered, absently, as he was still focuses on coming up with a plan, "too quiet…all right, here's what we do…" He leaned a little closer to his partner and whispered the plan so that only he could hear it because that's just how it works out in these things.

After a few moments of rudely whispering so that no one else could hear them, knowing that it's impolite to keep secrets from people, Scoodge finally nodded in understanding, and set to work. Quietly removing a panel from the bottom of the vent, and using his spider legs for support, he silently lowered himself to the floor behind the two guards. Retracting the legs from the vent shaft, he moved the front two until they were poised to strike above the guards' heads and, easy as pie, shot two twin lasers directly into the guard's heads.

Watching from above, and seeing that the coast was now clear, Zim jumped down from his hiding place in the vent and joined his partner in the small prison room.

"Well," Scoodge commented, slapping his hands together, "that was easy."

"Yeah," answered Zim warily, "a little too easy."

They both turned to face their imprisoned peer.

"We've almost completed our mission, Scoodge. There's Tenn—"

"Yeah," Scoodge interrupted, "a little too Tenn."

Zim stared at him for a moment. "I hate you."

"Sorry."

By this time, Tenn, who had been awakened by the sound of her falling guards, had noticed her two rescuers and was shouting wildly from behind the tape that covered her mouth. It was almost as if she were trying to tell them something, perhaps trying to warn them…however, our heroes were not to be distracted by such hysteria from a female. She was obviously just overjoyed at finally being rescued! And by such handsome knights, too.

"Fear not!" Zim exclaimed, tearing the tape from Tenn's lips, "You are freed! The Almighty Tallests have—"

"You idiots!" Tenn interrupted, "It's a trap!"

Zim and Scoodge took a final moment to look at each other in horror before all hell broke loose.

oooIIIooo

Gaz hated space. Gaz hated a lot of things, being as she was an incredibly angsty fifteen year old girl, but more than anything else, she decided, she hated space. When she had suggested all those months ago that she and Dib go with Zim on his new mission to save Irk from their enemy, the planet Meekrob, she thought that it would be a relatively short journey. She had been on space adventures before—most of them to rescue her stupid brother from some equally stupid predicament he had gotten himself into in Zim's space station—and they had lasted one, maybe two hours, tops. Now, she wasn't naive enough to think that winning a war (or rather, sabotaging one) would only take them a matter of days, but she definitely hadn't counted on it taking almost a year with there still not being any end in sight. Had she thought of this before, she would have brought more batteries for her GS2.

It actually probably wouldn't have been that bad if they had seen any action so far on their adventure, but so far, things were pretty, well, action-less. It had taken them six whole months cramped in Tak's modified ship (thy had followed Zim, who rode in his own Voot Runner) to get from Earth to this rinky-dink little space port right outside the Irken/ Meekrob neutral (or, well, not so neutral) zone, and another two weeks to find how to contact the resistance faction known only as The Resisty (a name which Gaz thought could have used a few more brainstorming sessions), who were the ones who had started the stupid war in the first place. In the mean time, Zim had disappeared on his mission from his Tallests (the idiots) to rescue some chick, leaving her and her brother alone on the station. He assured them that he would be in touch, but it has been two days with no word from the green menace and, against her better judgment, Gaz was beginning to become worried. Not that she would admit it, of course.

"This is so STUPID, Gaz!" her brother stated from across the room, echoing her own internal sentiments as he threw down the "Space Invasion for Dummies" book he had been reading, "Zim is out there having all the adventure and we're stuck in here doing nothing! This sucks!"

"Will you relax," Gaz began in an attempt to calm her older brother down, if only because his voice sometimes caused her to become irrationally angry and she was trying to be nice to him ever since…well she was just trying to be nice, "the contact should be here any moment to take us down to meet with the Resisty's leader. So calm down before you give yourself an aneurism."

Dib took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah, sorry, I just--"

"You're not used to having to be the one who sits and waits, I know," his sister interrupted, "I know. But you're just going to have to get used to it. We're out of our element, here, Dib. We're god knows how many light years from Earth, where we don't speak the language or eat the food and who knows what the water's been doing to our systems. We're stuck here, but we don't really have a choice, now, so we might as well both just get used to it and deal with the details before focusing on the big picture."

Dib looked at her, a bit startled, "Wow. Since when were you the calm and collected voice of reason?"

Gaz shrugged, not meeting his gaze, "Since I'm the one who got us into this mess. And also since…forget it, never mind."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Dib probed, walking over and leaning against the chair she was sitting in.

She shook her head, "Nothing. Just drop it, alright?"

"No, you started to say something. I'm not going to—"

He was interrupted by a high pitched chime programmed to inform them that someone was at the door. The siblings looked at each other a moment, before both standing and making their ways to the doorway of their room.

They exchanged another glance, before Dib commanded, "Enter."

The door slid open revealing one of the strangest creatures they had ever seen. It was small and green, like most of the aliens they had come in contact with, with stubby little limbs and large, bulging eyes. All this, however, wasn't the strange part. They strange part was that he appeared to be constantly vomiting a bright pink liquid all over itself and the floor surrounding it. Gaz could see a trail of the stuff leading back behind the way that it had come. She began to wonder the intelligence level of an organization that sent this creature to lead them to its "secret base".

"Excuse me, but have you seen the squelints this year?" the creature asked, spilling more of the pink liquid into the doorway. Gaz recognized the code phrase that they had been told to listen for (Zim had implanted a small translating device in each of their ears before leaving Earth), but couldn't bring herself to state the reply. The sight (and smell) of the creature was making her a bit queasy and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, her lunch (which she was fairly certain hadn't been all that edible anyway) would come back out to say hello.

Dib, however, was able to recover himself quickly enough to not arouse suspicion, and answered, "But I thought the squelints weren't native to this area."

The small creature nodded slightly, and recited another phrase of the agreed code, "They aren't but I know where we can find some."

Dib smiled, attempting to seem more comfortable with the situation than he actually was, and said the final phrase, "Well then, by all means, take us there! I'm sure the trip will be lovely."

The creature nodded again, and then turned back the way it came, obviously expecting them to follow. Dib took a deep breath, and motioned for Gaz to go first before following her out of the room, allowing the doors to slide shut behind them.

They walked in silence a few moments, trying hard to maneuver around the numerous puddles of pink liquid that lay in the corridor in front of them. The stuff had soaked into the yellow carpet, staining neon orange in places and causing a horrifying squishing noise that didn't help Gaz's growing nausea.

After a little while, as she knew he would, Dib broke in the awkward silence in an attempt to make small talk.

"So…do you have a name?" he asked, smiling as welcomingly as he could in spite of the fact that he could literally feel the acid from his stomach climbing back up his throat.

The creature only responded by spilling more pink liquid out into the hallway—and onto their shoes.

The rest of the walk continued in silence.

Finally, and not a moment too soon, they reached their destination. Their guide placed one stubby appendage against a panel on the door, which then slid open, revealing a darkened room. The creature motioned for the siblings to enter. Exchanging a worried glance, they obeyed.

The room was pitch black. Sensing a problem, here, Dib spun on his heels in an attempt to make a break for it out of the room. Before he could make it, however, the door slid shut, leaving them both in darkness.

"Great. Now what do we do?" Gaz asked, rhetorically.

She could feel her brother shrug beside her. Suddenly, without warning, there was a light. And then two, and then four, and six, and then it seemed a million filled the room. Eyes. In the darkness, Staring. Watching. Instinctively Gaz drew closer to her brother as he put an arm out to shield her from whom or whatever it was that surrounded them.

"Who-who are you?" He asked the darkness, "What do you want?"

And from the darkness he had his answer:

"We are the Resisty," a voice from beyond replied, "and you must prove yourselves worthy."

--

A/n: There you go, guys, the next part up right on schedule. Thank you for the wonderful reviews so far. It's nice to see some familiar faces who cheered me on during YOLT as well as some new ones. Thank you so much.

As you can see, this story is going to be written a little differently. As much as I loved being in Dib's head during YOLT, I found that first person perspective is incredibly limiting. This story has a much larger cast on a much larger scope and therefore we'll be jumping around quite a bit. Don't worry, though, we'll be back in Dib's head soon enough—probably the next chapter, actually. I just think it's nice to see what others are doing once in a while, ya know?

And of course there is a movie reference in this chapter (would it be one of my stories without one?) Whoever can guess it gets a cookie.

As always, please R and R and hopefully I can keep pumping these out once a week or so, no?

PS—if anyone can point me to a site that names all of the Resisty, I will be very thankful. I googled it while writing this chapter, but only found maybe three names, and none of them were for the vomiting guy. It made me sad.