Hello! I want to apologize for any spelling or grammar errors in previous chapters and probably in this one too. I swear I do proof-read and edit my chapters multiple times, but no matter what there always seems to be little things that sneak by me. And I hate them so much :| nothing throws off the flow of a story like an error. SO when I upload new chapters I also go back and fix the previous ones, as my sister is kind enough to PM me with my horrible mistakes. :P So apologies to those who might have noticed, and if you haven't noticed then keep on thinking that I am good at editing. ;) And as usual thanks for reading and comment to tell me what you think and I'll answer any questions!


Liz opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling. Instantly panic gripped her heart. She forgot how to breathe. How long? How long had she been asleep this time?

"Oh, you're awake," a cheerful voice said next to her and Liz turned her head, which caused an intense amount of pain. Liz hissed and clutched at the head. "Here take these, they'll help the headache," the woman said holding out some pills.

"How long was I out?" Liz asked dreading the answer though her surroundings didn't look like a lab, medical but not lab-like. She took the pills and downed them with the water cup next to her. The water burned going down and Liz chocked. Unfiltered water.

"Not too long," the nurse replied and Liz gave a grateful sigh. "You had a bad fall and hit your head. Third period is almost over. The bell for lunch should ring soon. If you feel better you can go and tonight don't sleep alone, have someone check in periodically."

"Yep, okay," Liz said and slowly stood. Her legs supported her weight and her head didn't explode. Progress. "How'd I get here?"

"The tall green kid carried you here," the nurse said then waved cheerfully as Liz left.

Liz would have to thank Skoodge later. Third period was almost over which meant she had missed history again, fate just didn't want her to go apparently. Her head still slightly buzzing Liz dragged her backpack along the floor, Skoodge had been nice enough to bring that to the nurse's office as well. The stairs leading to the roof were empty and Liz snuck out to the top without a problem. As she shut the door behind her the bell rang and she was very thankful that she hadn't been in the hall where it was louder as her head screamed in pain at the screeching alarm. She sat and squeezed her eyes shut and held her head trying to block out the sound and even after it ended Liz held onto her head until the pain ebbed.

A few moments later a high-pitched squeal and a crash made Liz jerk her head up. With the new wave of pain Liz groaned and rolled onto the ground clutching her head.

After a questioning squeak Liz cracked an eye-lid open. The small moose filled her vision and with a smile Liz reached out to pet the floating creature. "Nyah!" He said in pleasure and rolled over in the air so she could scratch his belly. "Nyah~" he said contently as his tongue lolled out. Behind the moose GIR sat down with a smile and his own tongue hanging out.

"Hey, guys," Liz greeted softly and slowly sat up. The little moose made a disapproving squealing sound when she stopped her attention on his belly so Liz plucked him out of the air and planted him in her lap. She began scratching him behind his little antlers and he closed his eyes in contentment. "No loud noises okay?" Liz told the two. "My head really hurts."

"Awww," GIR said sadly. "Yous no makin' songs?"

"No, I can still sing," Liz assured the little robot. "But they will have to be soft songs today and I won't be dancing."

"I can dance!" GIR screamed and jumped up and began dancing.

Liz winced, "Not so loud, GIR," she said but began to sing anyway.


After saying good-bye to Liz, Dib reluctantly made his way to his first class. He didn't like English that much. He cared more about what a particular green student was writing in his notebook than what some dead or ignorant author had written. But today Dib was even more reluctant to go to class thanks to Liz's probing questions and his own vague dreams. Ugh, probing. Dib groaned at his now hormone-driven thoughts. He did not want to think about probing of any kind, mental or physical. But at that thought he felt his face flush both out of embarrassment and anger at himself for letting his thoughts to continue to wander in that direction.

Groaning Dib entered the classroom and headed straight for his seat along by window at the front of the room, however in order to get there he had to walk right past Zim.

Zim was in his seat, his long legs bent under the desk and a purple notebook open in front of him which he was actively drawing in. Normally Dib would try to sneak a look in it, but today he just wanted to avoid Zim as much as possible until these stupid hormonal thoughts left his brain.

Taking his seat without so much as a glance at Zim, Dib set his eyes straight ahead and waited for the teacher. However he soon felt Zim watching him. Years of stalking each other had left them sensitive to each other's gaze. Dib flushed again. He was not that kind of sensitive to Zim. He was just aware of Zim, not in that way, but as an enemy should be. Right, enemies. Dib thought. We've been watching, studying each other for years. Learning each others' habits, behaviors, sensitive spots—no, I mean, weak spots. No, weaknesses! Dib groaned and smacked his head down on his desk. He hated his brain.

Zim arrived to class early. He always made sure to come to skool before the other worm-babies so they could all see him and know he was normal by attending their stupid training academy full of its stupid learning stupidness. The only productive part of his day was the time he had to plot. He surpassed all the humans here in all knowledge and what subjects he didn't know were ones an invader didn't need like this stupid English class.

Bored, Zim began to draw out the schematics for his next super weapon that would fire flaming shoes, allowing him to finally crush all humanity with their own feet. It was brilliant and genius and full of irony, smelly, smelly irony. Dib walked in and Zim couldn't help but grin, knowing that the human would try to be sneaky about seeing Zim's amazing plans.

However, Dib didn't even glance towards Zim and went right to his seat his face stuck forward. At first Zim thought that something was wrong with his neck meats, but even his eyes did not look his way. Zim was amazing so of course the Dib should want to look at Zim's amazingness and amazing plans all the time. Staring at the human for some sign of trickery, for this was not how the Dib-human acted, Zim watched as the human's face turned red many times then abruptly Dib slammed his head on his desk as he groaned. Zim squinted one eye as he studied the human. Was he experiencing pain? Was he sick? Had he allowed himself to be beaten by other filthy humans again?

Zim always found that highly annoying. Dib was his enemy, his rival, and he should feel honored for Zim to recognize him as such because not many could match Zim in fighting skills and wits. The human let himself be bested by the other smelly worm-babies, which was just disgraceful. However, Zim would not stoop to helping his enemy when he knew him to be fully capable of winning on his own. Hopefully the Dib would learn how to act from the Liz-human and fight back.

The Liz-human. Now that was an odd human. She was a relative of Dib and his ally, but she did not seem to want the same things as the Dib-stink. Her motives were unclear and that made her a possibly dangerous liability. Zim did not know what to expect from her or if she was working with his enemy in making a plan to make Zim lower his guard so they could catch him.

Narrowing his eyes Zim glared at his human enemy. He would not be fooled and he would be ready for anything that the two humans would try to do. Especially Dib, he couldn't confuse Zim with his weird behavior. Zim would get to the bottom of Dib's odd behavior and he would stop any plans the Dib had. After he stopped the human's plans he would be free to make his Stomp-Out gun.

When the bell rang Zim followed his enemy out of class. He knew Dib was aware of being followed as Zim hadn't tried to hide it. Finally the human stopped at his locker and switching out his books he slammed it shut and glared at Zim.

"What do you want, Zim?" he said.

"Zim wants many things," Zim said slamming his hands on Dib's locker on either side of his head, blocking the human from walking past. The human's face turned red and Zim's antennas picked up a particular scent coming from the human, it was subtle and couldn't be detected through the sensitive skin where his nose might have been if he were human. The scent coming from Dib was chemical and his antennae were there for detecting such subtle changes.

He recognized the scent, as he had picked it up numerous times in this stinking building but he could never detect exactly what it meant. Usually, the scent was completely repulsive but Zim was surprised to find that coming from Dib the scent was not entirely horrible.

"What is this?" Zim demanded and he wished he could take off his itchy wig and wiggle his antennae around in the air to better collect the scent and analyze it further.

"What's what, Zim?" Dib scowled and ducked out from Zim's arms.

"Do not walk away from Zim!" Zim declared when he began to back away. Zim stepped forward to close the distance but Dib retreated once again. "What dirty tricks are you planning Dib-filth? What dirty thoughts do you have about Zim?" Zim asked not knowing the double meaning his words had.

"N-nothing!" Dib squeaked, his face and ears turning red. Zim narrowed his eyes and Dib coughed. "I'm not planning anything, Zim, but I know you are!"

"Of course Zim is planning an amazing plan. I AM ZIM!" Zim raised both fists in the air, a few straggling students glanced their way before entering their respective classrooms. The bell rang but neither of the teens made a move. "Zim knows you are plotting with the Liz-human."

"Liz?" the teen repeated surprised. "She has nothing to do with this, Zim. This is our fight. I'm going to defeat you. I'm going to capture you."

"Yes, yes," Zim waved his hand dismissively. "You want to dissect Zim."

"Well, yeah, but..." the Dib said frowning and cast his eyes downward in thought.

"Dib-stink?" Zim shifted weary of his hesitation, did the Dib-enemy have a more horrible plan he wanted to use on Zim?

"Not today, Zim," the Dib said and shook his head. "I have some...stuff to think about," he said then turned and entered the classroom.

Zim stared at the human still on the defensive, this could all be a horrible plan to catch Zim off-guard. Peeking in the window he saw Dib go to his seat and sit down, staring out the window. Sensing no more danger Zim went to open the door when he felt a hand grab his arm.

"Hall pass?" a teacher asked with a smile.

"Er..." Zim began.

"Well, then young man, you are coming with me," the teacher said cheerfully dragging Zim along the hall. "In you go," he shoved Zim into the opening in the wall that dropped him down into the underground classrooms. Landing hard on the concrete floor Zim looked up at the underground students and stood, slowly extending his PAK legs as the other students crawled closer. Their all white eyes blinking and their mouths drooling as they sniffed the air and smelled the newcomer. It was going to be a long time until the end of the skool day.

Dib didn't remember much of the next two classes. His mind kept thinking about Zim. What did he want with Zim? He wanted fame, sure who wouldn't? But Liz raised a good question: then what? Sure he had other paranormal things to investigate, but most of his time was spent foiling Zim's plans. What would he do with all his free time if he captured Zim and stopped him forever? What about the armada? Skoodge?

Blinking Dib straightened. Skoodge. He never really focused on him, but he was an alien too, though he didn't have any interest in destroying the world. Skoodge was like Zim's live-in butler/maid, and if he helped Zim in any of his plans it was probably at Zim's threat. Would Dib be able to dissect Skoodge? He thought about it and it left a sour taste in his mouth. Skoodge wasn't a threat and dissecting him seemed cruel. Could he turn Skoodge in knowing that the government might do horrible experiments on him? Or would Dib turn Zim in to let someone else have all the glory? No. No. No. He would never want to just had over the aliens after five long years.

Did he really want to dissect Zim at all? As a boy dissecting Zim seemed like the most obvious thing to do, but by now Dib had dissected many different animals in his advance advanced biology class, and while it was interesting it did get boring. The novelty of Zim's organs might be cool, but then what? It would be short lived and it wasn't like Dib was into biology, he didn't want to use science to analyze his organs. Dib wanted to discover things that had no answers, not be stuck elbow deep in guts and blood every day.

Exploring space, discovering other life forms and planets and their mysteries, now that would be the life. A new thought occurred to Dib. Was he jealous of Zim? Zim had vast knowledge of space, he had met numerous other races, been to distant planets. Sure Dib had met a few other species too, but he hadn't left the solar system. His thoughts drifted to the one human whom he knew was out in space; Dr. Dwicky. Intense rage filled Dib. He hated that man. Not only had he taken all his proof and lied and abandoned Dib, but he was living the life Dib wanted!

Why had it been Zim that came to Earth? Why couldn't the first alien Dib met been one that was friendly? Dib sighed. He couldn't change the past, so what did he want in the future? What if Zim stopped trying to take over the world?

Dib froze in his thoughts. There was no way that would happen. Zim was loyal to his mission, even after five years, which was a long time to wait. Were his leaders really that patient? And what would happen to Earth if they did eventually come? Were they on their way now and Zim was merely buying time? Dib's paranoid brain began taking over and he was so absorbed in his thoughts of an army of aliens suddenly taking over that when the bell rang for lunch he leapt up out of his seat thinking it was an alarm bell. When no one reacted, Dib coughed, embarrassed, and went to the cafeteria. He sat at his usual table with Gaz and looked up to notice that the Irkens weren't here yet. Dib was about to mention this to Gaz when he felt someone approach from behind. Spinning around Dib was surprised to see Skoodge.

Frowning, and looking almost worried he approached their table. "Dib-human, have you seen Liz-human? Why is she not here?"

"Liz? She has counseling during lunch," Dib answered. "Why are you looking for her?" he asked suspicious.

"She started to shake in class and hit her head on a chair, knocking her out. I brought her to the nurse but when I went to check on her she was no longer there. I know human brains are delicate and hitting the head can cause damage," Skoodge said.

Dib frowned in concern hearing that she hit her head. "She probably went to her counseling meeting, if they let her leave the nurse's office she should be okay. You brought her there? Why?" Dib asked.

Skoodge looked at his booted feet. Not quite sure himself. When Liz dropped he jumped out of his seat to rush to her side. The teacher and the other students just watched as her body shook even though she was knocked unconscious. The teacher said that it was normal, that she was prone to shaking fits, but that she should be brought to the nurse to sleep instead of the floor. Skoodge didn't wait for anyone else to come forward he simply scooped the human up in his arms and left the classroom. The idea of one of the other humans carrying her and maybe dropping her was horrible to him. He told the nurse what happened but she refused to let him stay and sent him back. He checked in on her after math and she was still unconscious but when he went back a second time after the bell rang for lunch the nurse said she left.

He wanted to know that she hadn't fallen someplace else, that she was well. He didn't know why but when he was near her his antennae would tingle and his squeedlyspooch would get tense, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. However, it was unpleasant not knowing where the human was. She talked to him in class and not just because she had to and she smiled at him.

"She is nice to me," Skoodge admitted. "No one has been nice to me."

"Oh," Dib said feeling guilty about thinking of dissecting Skoodge, and decided he would never do that to the taller alien. "She has biology with Zim after lunch, I'll check on her then, after her counseling is over," Dib said and looked around. "Hm, I haven't seen Zim since second period."

"He was sent to the underground classroom," Skoodge said having been informed by Zim through their communicators in their PAKs. He was supposed to help Zim if things got out of hand with the underground students, but he didn't need help yet.

"HA!" Dib laughed. "Serves him right," he went back to his lunch chuckling at Zim's misfortune.

Skoodge left Dib's table, but didn't go to sit at his. He wanted to find Liz and see for himself that she was well. He made his way over to the counseling office and knocked on the door. The young and petite counselor Ms. Joye opened the door.

"Hello! You have problems to talk about?" she asked hopefully.

"No, I am here to see if Liz-human is doing well," Skoodge said.

"Oh," she said disappointed and with a sigh sat at her desk. Skoodge looked around the room and found it empty. "Well, I would never disclose which students I am seeing, if I were seeing any students that is," she said bitterly. "Unless you have horrible issues you need to talk about?" she brightened up.

"Er, no, I am a normal human," Skoodge said. "Bye," he quickly closed the door. He had a hunch that if he stayed longer she would make him talk to her. The counselor seemed desperate for students and said she was seeing no one, so that meant that either Dib-human lied to him or Liz-human lied to Dib-human. Either way Skoodge decided not to bring it up with the Dib-human until he spoke to her first.

He spent the rest of lunch looking but couldn't find her. He had begun to worry that she had dropped down into the lower levels of the skool when the bell rang and he went to find Dib-human to tell him of her disappearance. However, when he turned the corner he saw the two talking outside of the biology room.

"I had a headache earlier, but it's much better now," she was telling Dib-human. "The nurse basically said to follow standard concussion procedure. I'll set my alarm tonight to wake me up a few times just to be sure, but I feel fine, really."

"Are you sure?" Dib-human pressed. "I can always scan you in my dad's lab and see what I can find."

"No!" she said a little forcefully, but then smiled to cover it. "No, thank you. I'll be fine. I'll see you after class," she said and entered her room.

Skoodge felt much better knowing that she was awake and up, but he was still curious as to where she had been all lunch, but was unsure if he should ask her or not. The last thing he wanted was to make her mad like Zim made the Dib-human mad. He didn't want to fight like they did; he could fight, he just didn't like to anymore. Ever since the Tallest sent him here he had no desire to fight anything or anyone. Why bother when his efforts would not be looked at? And he didn't have Zim's self-confidence to keep on going even in the face of failure. So Skoodge made up his mind to not say anything about the counseling and instead ask how she was feeling and where she had gone. He would just have to be careful about how he asked.

After class Skoodge quickly made his way to the art classroom to wait for her. He would not be able to question her if she choose to sit at a place that was not next to him. When she saw him outside the class her lips curled into a small smile.

"Waiting for me?" she asked.

"Yes," Skoodge answered and she looked surprised at his answer.

"Oh," her smile came back in full. Skoodge's squeedlyspooch did that thing again where it felt like it was full of Earth's fluttering insects. He put his hand over it and hoped that he hadn't contracted some Earth parasite. He would have the computer scan him when he got home just in case.

"We should enter," he said hoping that movement would help his fluttering organ.

"Sure thing," she said and patted his upper arm. At the contact his squeedlyspooch lurched up like it wanted to escape from his mouth and he made a small strangled sound. "Skoodge? You okay?"

"Yes, Liz-human, we should enter class," Skoodge said suddenly feeling the need to move inside among all the other humans and not be alone in the hall, but she stepped in front of him blockading him from the door and placed her palm on his chest stopping him. His poor confused insides twisted around at the contact and he could feel his blood-candies flooding up to his face.

"Liz," she said sternly. "I thought I told you to call me Liz?" her serious face faltered for a moment when she peered up at him. Her lips tweaked and she removed her hand from his chest allowing his organs to remember how they were supposed to function. "No 'human' after. I don't call you Skoodge-alien."

"I am a normal human worm," Skoodge muttered automatically having been trained to do so by Zim. She just raised an eyebrow at him and waited. "Liz," he finally said and wondered how the rest of his body could function when he felt all his blood-candies rise up to his face.

"Good," she said smiling widely causing Skoodge to put a hand back to his twisting insides. He would definitely have the computer scan him.

When they entered the class the only two easels left were thankfully right next to each other. Once seated the teacher began to address the class as a whole. "Today we will be doing portraits. Pick a partner and then face each other, you will be creating an image of the person you face. You are free to use whatever materials you want," Ms. Smith told them. Skoodge choose a piece of black lead as he was used to drawing out schematics and plans and did not have much talent for color. Liz picked up a box labeled 'oil pastels' and upon inspecting the contents smiled, bringing the box back with her. They clipped down their thick paper and arranged themselves so they could clearly see each other.

Skoodge soon became frustrated because while he was very good at drawing he was used to drawing things that didn't move, like schematics. Liz kept making different faces and moving around as she tried to draw him. Skoodge watched her as she picked up the blue then yellow then purple. She would add a bit from one color then pick up another. He frowned at her, she was using all the colors.

Towards the end of class the teacher began making her rounds commenting on each student's work. She gave encouraging words to most of the students though from what Skoodge could see all their pictures looked the same and the quality was horrible. Ms. Smith came to look at his picture which consisted of multiple half-finished sketches of Liz's face making different expressions.

"Oh," she said trying to sound positive. "Well, you made a good effort."

Skoodge frowned. The other humans' work was horrible in quality yet the teacher gave them such supportive words. Ms. Smith then walked over to Liz's work.

She frowned. "Liz, we were supposed to be drawing portraits today."

"I took some artistic liberties," Liz said with a smile.

"Well, I will have no liberties taken in my class," Ms. Smith sniffed. "You will stay after until you complete the assignment. I expect a proper art piece on my desk before you leave for the weekend.

Liz rolled her eyes and continued working while the other kids began picking up. "Sorry, Skoodge, do you mind staying a bit while I finish?"

"I can stay," Skoodge said curious to see what she was working on. The other students left and the teacher told Liz again that she needed to complete the assignment before she could leave, then went to sit behind her desk behind Skoodge.

"Skoodge," Liz whispered. "Can you take off your contacts for me?"

"Um," Skoodge said not wanting to be exposed.

"Please? I promise nothing bad will happen, this isn't a trick. Trust me?" she asked him pleadingly.

Skoodge stared into her honey eyes and felt compelled to do it to make her happy. Quickly glancing around and making sure the teacher couldn't see him he removed his contacts and blinked a few times, his eyes relieved to be in the open air.

"Wow," Lizzy breathed and leaned closer peering into his ruby eyes. Skoodge shifted uncomfortable under her blatant stare. He felt his blood-candies rise to his face again. "You have really cool eyes," she said causing Skoodge to finally look away, he had never been told that before. She immediately began drawing again. A little bit later she leaned back and smiled as she inspected her work. "Not bad if I do say so myself," she said carefully removing her picture and replacing the paper to do a quick doddle with a green pastel.

Rolling up the real picture she brought over the quick drawing that looked the same as the other students' work to the teacher while Skoodge put his contacts back in.

Ms. Smith smiled, "see, you can do it if you try."

"Yep," Liz said and she and Skoodge left the room. "Here," she said handing the rolled up drawing to him.

Curious, Skoodge opened up the roll to look at the drawing and stared wide-eyed at it. She drew him from the shoulders up without his disguise on, using every color to show depth and shadow. He had purples and blues, yellows and oranges accenting the green of his skin which looked soft and real. His red eyes reflected every color and Skoodge felt like he was staring at another being. This picture of himself felt vibrant, proud and alive.

"From the look on your face, can I assume that you like it?" she asked him sounding amused. Skoodge could only nod in reply and held her drawing back out to her, but she shook her head and held up her hands refusing to take it. "Keep it, it's yours. Dib has enough pictures of you guys to fill a museum ten times over, and something tells me you don't take pictures of yourself much. Besides, it's evidence, you should probably confiscate it from me," she said winking at him.

"Yes, I should," Skoodge smiled at the drawing. No one had ever given him anything like this before. He opened his PAK and a tentacle came out to grab the drawing, roll it up and store it safely away.

"Woah," Liz said stepping around so she could see his back. "That's pretty handy, ha! Handy, 'cause it's like a hand," she grinned at her own wording. "What else does it do?"

"It-"

"Skoodge!" he was cut off by Zim as he came sprinting down the hall flailing his arms as he ran. His pink stripped uniform was torn and his wig askew. "Stop telling the filthy human all our secrets. She's using her manipulating talky-talk to lure you into telling her all our weaknesses, which we don't have," he quickly added. "We are superior beings!"

Skoodge stared wide-eyed at Liz. He so easily removed his contacts in front of her and was about to tell her all about his PAK's functions. Was she using some Earth manipulation on him? Was that why he felt so strange?

"Oh, come off it, Zim," Liz planted her hand on her hip. "I'm just curious, you two are the first aliens I've met. Can't I be a little interested in you guys? Besides, its not like the others here are good for conversation," she said jerking her thumb at one of the humans down the hall who grinned stupidly as he ate a poop candy bar with the wrapper still on. "It's Dib's thing to expose you, not me."

"Liz!" Dib yelled coming down the opposite end of the hall Zim had come from. Once he reached them he stepped in front of her protectively. "What are you trying to do Zim? Are you okay? I've been looking for you," Dib said to her.

"Zim is innocent! It was the Liz-worm that was trying to manipulate information out of poor-naive Skoodge."

"I'm fine, Dib," Liz said. "Skoodge was helping me finish my art class project. And for the last time, Zim, I wasn't trying to squeeze information from Skoodge. Right?" Liz turned to him for confirmation.

Skoodge took a step back, "Er," he said not knowing what to say. Maybe the female human was just curious, or maybe she was using some trick to get information from him. She was related to the Dib-human and he had been feeling funny, but only when he was around her or when she looked at him. Maybe human females had strange mind powers the males did not, he hadn't had much human interaction. "I don't know," Skoodge finally answered not looking at her.

"Seriously?" she said. "Skoodge, come on."

"No!" Zim stepped in front of the confused Skoodge. "Back off human-spy!"

"Fine," Liz said her voice sounding angry, but Skoodge's antenna were picking up on a subtle emotion and he glanced her way. "If that's the way you feel then fine, you'd better take this too," she said opening her backpack and taking out her notebook. "After all I was recording our conversations and I might use the knowledge to my advantage so you'd better take it before I can show it to the government or whatever," she snapped.

"Victory!" Zim said snatching the notebook and holding it above his head. "Victory for Zim!" he said jumping away from them and running down the hall. "Come, Skoodge!" Zim called behind him.

At the hurt look behind the anger Skoodge paused before running after Zim. He didn't understand why she was upset if she had been trying to gain information from him and making his body act strangely. "Liz?" he asked tentatively.

"What do you want, alien?" she said with a bite of anger to her words.

Skoodge felt his squeedlyspooch sink lower into his body with an unfamiliar squeezing sensation. If he hadn't been wearing his wig his antennae would be low and flat on his head. He didn't know why but he felt very bad, he felt worse than when the Tallest jettisoned him from a cannon. Not knowing what do to and because looking at her face made his insides hurt more Skoodge quickly left and followed after Zim.

Skoodge quickly caught up to the other Irken whom was marching down the sidewalk holding the notebook behind his back. About half way back to the base Zim had forgotten about the notebook as he began to rant about Dib. He waved the notebook around in his hand as he complained. Skoodge would usually give Zim his full attention, but instead he watched Zim wave the notebook around. Skoodge decided he would have himself scanned the moment he got back to the base.

Zim stomped up the path to the base and the door opened for him. "Ugh! And his legs are stooopid. Stooopidly-long longy legs, if I chopped them off then Dib would not be so, so," Zim waved his hand above his head to indicate Dib's height. "Then ZIM would be above and the Dib-short would have to look up at Zim's AMAZINGNESS! Oh the amazement he would have," Zim said chucking the notebook across the living room. "Computer! TO THE LAB!" he said stepping into the toilet in the kitchen.

Skoodge rushed over and picked up the notebook off the floor, holding it to his chest he activated the elevator in the floor to bring him down to the med lab. He had the computer make the room when he realized how often Zim became injured. Sometimes it was because of the Dib-human and their fights, other times it was from Zim's failed experiments or plans gone wrong, but mostly it was due to GIR being destructive and accident prone.

Placing the notebook on the medical bed Skoodge stepped into the scanning panel. "Computer, run a full diagnostic scan," Skoodge said then paused and added. "And PAK scan."

"Fine," the computer droned on in a bored voice and did as Skoodge asked lowering a metal tentacle from the ceiling and scanning Skoodge with a red beam, another tentacle came down and plugged into the port in his PAK. He jumped at the connection, it felt oddly intrusive and uncomfortable as a spark of electricity shot through his system.

After the tentacle detached Skoodge went over to the display monitors to review the data. The body scan revealed nothing, well nothing abnormal. There was a slight rise in his body's toxin levels from the pollution found in everything on Earth, but besides that no problems with his squeedlyspooch.

Frowning, Skoodge read the data twice not believing it, there had to be a physical aliment. If not, maybe something in his PAK? Skoodge brought up the PAK data and his frown stayed stuck to his face. There was nothing wrong with his PAK, but there was something different. His emotional filter was filtering at 50%, where as before it was 70%. Also the Taller Chemical his PAK secreted into his system due to his increase in height had increased by 12%.

Zim had discovered the existence of the Taller Chemical after tinkering around in his own PAK, something Skoodge was never brave enough to do. It was a chemical the PAK was programed to release into an Irken if they reached past a certain height. It was unknown what effect the chemical had on their bodies as it had not made them react or feel any differently, but the fact that only taller Irkens had the chemical in their bodies was enough to interest Zim.

When Zim wasn't making a doomsday device or busy chasing the Dib-human—which was to say very rarely—he would do research on this unknown chemical. Skoodge wasn't as smart as Zim when it came to inventions or lab work, he was much better at physical and hands-on tasks, which was what helped him take over Blorch, so he left the research to Zim. He made a note in Zim's file of the chemical about the increase in his system, but besides that there was nothing more he could do.

So it seemed that Liz had not used any Earth manipulation to make his squeedlyspooch act the way it did. Maybe the sensations were due to the combined results of his decrease in filtered emotions and the increase in the Taller Chemical. Picking up the notebook Skoodge left the med lab. He would return the notebook Monday at skool. He liked being with the female human. Knowing she was not the one affecting him made him feel much better about interacting with her. He would try to negotiate peace between them once more to continue the notebook conversation and the walking to class.

It was then that Skoodge remembered the drawing stored away in his PAK. Entering his personal chamber Skoodge took out the paper and unrolled it to study the drawing of himself. The colors were most pleasing to him. His antennae stood up straight mimicking the antennae in the drawing, even in the black stocks she had infused color to mimick how light might fall on them. The antennae were not completely accurate as the shape was slightly different, but only an Irken would notice.

"Did you create that?" the computer asked startling Skoodge. Usually it didn't talk unless spoken to.

"No, a human related the the Dib-human did," Skoodge answered and looked around on his wall for a place to put the drawing.

"The scary one?" the computer asked sounding doubtful.

"No, the Liz did. She is a clutch-mate to one of the Dib-human's descendants and was put into suspended sleep by the humans three hundred years ago," Skoodge explained smoothing the image onto the wall next to his small oval bed. He didn't sleep much, only napped every once in a while when bored. "Attach this here," he told the computer and small little latches came out from the wall to hold the corners of the image in place.

"It is well done," the computer said approvingly, surprising Skoodge as he did not think the computer had opinions about liking things. However, this gave Skoodge an idea and he picked up the notebook from his bed and flipped to the page he was looking for.

"Computer, scan this for any information on this forgotten Earth language," he said and a red beam scanned the page.

"Hmm," the computer said sounding surprised and Skoodge's antennae twitched in curiosity at the sound.

"Can you read it?" Skoodge asked hopefully.

"Yes."

When there wasn't an answer given Skoodge asked, "What does it mean?"

"Unknown."

Skoodge's antennae wilted. "But you said you could read it."

"I can," the computer said annoyed.

"Then what does it say?" Skoodge said getting frustrated himself.

"There is no translation into verbal language."

"What kind of language is it then?"

"A language meant to express emotions through sound."

"What emotion is is expressing?" Skoodge asked.

"Unable to analyze."

"What does the language sound like?"

"I don't know," the computer said and it almost sounded grumpy.

Skoodge stared down at the language of lines and dots. Now he really wanted to reestablish their alliance at skool. He wanted to know what this language sounded like, what it meant, why she wrote it and where she learned such an evasive language.

Monday. He would make peace Monday.

"Computer," Skoodge said still staring down. "Pull up all information on peace-making rituals among humans."

"Sure," it said disinterested once more and absentmindedly did as Skoodge asked displaying the information on his personal screen.