A/N: I had a dream the other night where Zim was shrunk down to the size of a small grasshopper. It gave me an idea for a new fanfic called "A Small Problem". Keep an eye out for it!

Oh, and I'm dressing up as Zim for Halloween this year. If you go to my DeviantArt page, you can see it.

Hooray for self-promotion.

Also, screw update schedules.


The mood was horribly solemn on moving day, the fact that Tesla was leaving hanging in the air like an unwanted visitor.

"Bye-bye, grandma! Write home!" GIR chirped.

"NYEH!" squeaked Minimoose.

"We'll never forget you, Tesla!" Skoodge cried, trying not to tear up (but failing miserably). "You or your memory eraser gun! Ah, so many memories..."

He hugged said gun close, sighing dreamily.

"I can't believe Tesla's leaving," Zim sighed to himself. A zapping sound went off in Skoodge's direction.

"Who am I? "Skoodge asked.

Zim slapped him across the face to bring him back to his senses.

"Hey- ow!"

Tesla held back a laugh, hugging GIR and Minimoose good-bye.

"IIIIIIIIII threw up on a pony!" GIR screeched.

"Bye, Uncle Skoodge," Tesla smiled, giving him a hug as well. The short and chubby Irken broke out in tears, crying, "I miss you already!"

Finally, Tesla found her way to her father, which was just barely managing to keep himself from following Skoodge's actions.

"Bye, Dad."

"Goodbye, Tesla."

The two embraced in a tear-filled hug.

Skoodge wiped his eyes and stepped over to Zim's computer.

"Computer, when's the next space taxi arriving?"

"6PM IN TWO DAYS."

"Two days?" Zim echoed. "So Tesla's not even leaving?"

"AFFIRMATIVE."

"Yes!" Tesla cheered, pumping her fist excitedly.

Zim wiped his face on his sleeve without a second thought and shot a finger into the air.

"Right! Now to begin work on my next DIABOLICAL plan!"

Then he stalked off as if nothing had ever happened.


The next morning, Tesla woke to find Zim standing next to her unenthusiastically, watching her sleep.

"D-dad?" she yawned, stretching her antennae tiredly. "What is it?"

At the realization that his daughter was awake, Zim hurriedly ran over to a mirror on the wall and began admiring himself.

"Er- just... marveling at the greatness of Invader Zim!"

Tesla rolled her eyes with a smile and hopped out of her bed. Even though she had a PAK now, she still had to sleep since her body was still growing accustomed to the new organ.

"Don't we have school today?"

Zim pulled his disguise out of nowhere and put it on with an irritated grumble.

"Unfortunately."


"And today we will be addressing the topic of you doomed futures," Ms. Bitters hissed. "Let's start with you, Melvin."

As she began to ramble on about the failure of humankind and where it began (the invention of air conditioning), Dib lost interest and let his gaze drift around the room. Not surprisingly, it settled on Zim's desk.

Tesla was being significantly better behaved than last time, listening intently to the lecture. Her father seemed a lot calmer as well, but was having a hard time keeping Tesla on her lap, as she had grown almost twice her original size.

Are Irkens supposed to grow that fast?

Then he got an idea. And by the look on his face, it wouldn't be good for Zim.

What, you think I know what it is? Do I look psychic?


During lunch, Zim was sitting in his usual spot with a scowl plastered on his face, Tesla chattering happily with him about how excited she was that she got to hear a bit more about human history.

"Yes, yes, that's great, sweetie," Zim mumbled absentmindedly.

"And- uh, Dad? Are you okay?"

Tesla had noticed that he was staring off into space, focused on some nonexistent something.

"Dad?"

"Huh? What?"

"I asked if you were doing alright."

"Er- yes, um, I'm fine. Better than ever."

Then he went back to staring.

After sitting there for a few seconds, Tesla got bored and followed his gaze. Big surprise. He was glaring at Dib.

Dib was pretending not to notice, but every once in a while he would look up to see if Zim was still looking at him, only to find that he was. Then he would go back to twiddling his fingers in order to avoid the metaphorical laser that was drilling through his gigantic head.

"Dad, seriously, you need to let it go," Tesla scoffed suddenly.

"What? Let what go?" Zim asked, finally turning around to look at her.

"Your rivalry thingie with Dib! I mean, don't you think you disguise or whatever would be more effective if you would at least pretend you two were friends?"

Zim blinked at her in confusion.

"I don't understand," he frowned.

"DAD, YOU AND DIB NEED TO GET ALONG!"

Tesla's voice had risen without her realizing it, making Dib catch that last part of their conversation. He and Zim, alien scum, friends? No. Not if he could help it.

"Zim's an alien! Who would want to get along with an alien?!" he protested, chucking an orange at Zim's head for good measure. "Not in a million, bajillion years!"

Just as Tesla took a breath to try and talk some sense into him, the bell rang to release the children to recess.

Stupid bell, always interrupting important conversations.

Zim took the chance to book it out of the building. Tesla sighed and followed him, sending a mournful gaze over her shoulder that Dib didn't quite catch.


Outside, Tesla had made it her mission to convince her father to get along with Dib. After all, she just had this weird sort of... connection with him. Unfortunately, Dib and Zim's hatred for each other was keeping her from getting through to him. If she could just get them to sit down and talk it out, she could have a source of information for Earth. All she wanted to do was help her dad with his job.

"Hey, Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Can I go home?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah. I... don't feel well."

She clutched her squeedilyspooch as if she was sick, launching Zim into overprotective parent mode.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Does it hurt when I-"

"DAD! Relax! I just need some rest!"

He hesitated, but reluctantly let her go.

"Sure. Go home- er... back to the base."

After pecking him on the cheek and saying a quick good-bye, Tesla pranced off to a secluded part of the fence behind the skool. While she used the laser from her PAK to cut a large circle into it, she began to formulate a plan.

Okay, so I have 4 hours until Dad gets home from skool. All I need to do is disarm the Dib-keeper-outer thingie. Easy peasy, Florpus squeezie.

Dab watched suspiciously as Tesla re-welded the fence and ran off.

Perfect.


Tesla threw open the door in a hurry, only to run smack! into something that had stepped into her way.

"Uncle Skoodge!" she scolded, holding her pounding head. "Shouldn't you be at skool?"

Skoodge crossed his arms and shrugged dismissively.

"Your dad said I should make sure nothing happens to you, or something."

Tesla sighed melodramatically.

"A babysitter? Is he serious?!" she fumed. "I'm not a smeet anymore, Dad! Why can't he just..."

She waved her arms around for a moment as she searched for the words, then gave up and slouched with a huff. Great. Now how was she supposed to deactivate the Dib sensors?

"I'm going to my room," she announced, stomping off in the direction of the trash can. Of course, she wasn't going to her room. She was gonna get to Dad's computer.

As she grabbed the rim and thrust herself into the elevator gracefully, she pumped her fist discreetly in celebration.

Success!

But as she stepped out of the elevator, something in her room caught the corner of her eye. She poked her head into the doorway, identifying the mystery object as a security camera.

"Augh, Dad, why?!" she complained, walking in reluctantly and flopping down onto her bed. Awesome. Now she was stuck here.

With a tired sigh, she racked her brain for a plan. She found herself doing this a lot, actually. Her mother must have been smart, because she sure didn't get it from Zim.

Could she maybe distract Skoodge somehow? No, the security camera would catch it. Could she cover the camera up? No, too obvious. So how was she supposed to do this?

She rolled over thoughtfully. Suddenly, a perfect beam of light caught the edge of a weird symbol on the camera.

What's that?

She squinted her eyes to see it better. It looked sort of like a human eye, with some curved lines on the top and bottom. What was that supposed to mean?

Before she could decipher it, a cloth was held up to her mouth that smelled distinctly of chloroform. Thankfully, her attempted captor knew next to nothing about Irken biology, judging by his failure to put the cloth in the right place.

Irkens don't breathe through their mouths, but their antennae.

After a quick descision, she went limp as if she was passing out. If she waited for the right moment, she could catch him off-guard and buy herself some time to fight back.

Her captor began stuffing her into a bag made of scratchy and uncomfortable fabric, which made her skin tingle all over. It itched like crazy, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Don't panic, she assured herself. Wait for the right moment.

She let one eye crack open a bit so she could get a good look at him. Unfortunately, there was a mask covering his face. He could have been human, or Blarken, or Xlactian, or Shloogorghian...

Finally, the right moment came. The masked intruder let out a sigh of relief as Tesla's antennae slipped into the bag, signaling her to strike.

She deployed her PAK legs suddenly, tearing the bag open violently and throwing her captor off guard. He fell over onto his butt, dazed.

She took the chance. When he tried to get up, she pinned him down with one PAK leg and removed his mask with another. A long, black cowlick sprung out like a hyperactive rubber band.

"Dib?!" she exclaimed. "What on Irk are you doing here?!"

Dib looked sheepish for a moment, then shook his head as if to clear out the guilt.

"Exposing the world to the alien scum, obviously!"

He reached for a camera at his belt, which was knocked away in a heartbeat by Tesla.

"Well, you're not gonna do it by holding chloroform up to the wrong place," she sniped.

"Anyways," she continued, ignoring the oncoming response from Dib. "You're supposed to be at skool."

Dib was a little startled by her sudden casualty, but responded, "Er- I followed you."

"Won't you get in trouble for that?"

At her last comment, Tesla's grip loosened slightly.

"Well, yeah, but it's totally worth it."

"Heh, worth what? Almost capturing-"

All of a sudden, Dib kicked his leg out forcefully and scored a direct hit in between her eyes. The weakest spot for an Irken besides their PAK.

She heard herself cry out in pain, and everything went black.


A/N: If you hate me for giving you another cliffhanger, I'm doing my job right.

Anyone who comments the hidden reference gets... uh... a free commission on DeviantArt or something. I dunno.

Thanks to Radji for the favorite!