The lab didn't look too much different form when Cindy and Libby left. The mess was still sitting still in a pile; tangled wires, broken beakers, all collecting dust. It was a sight the young genius would go ballistic over, but the only true genius in the room wore her hair in two tight pigtails and shielded her tiny eyes with thick pointed lavender glasses. The monitor in front of her reflected on her braces.
Cindy and Libby stood beside the monitor chair on each side. The young girl was typing her fingers away at the alphabetical keys. Shocked as she was to see that auburn, swirly-headed doofess is the owner of her newly gained intelligence; she was going to find a way to return it to him, along with everyone else's she would find.
Speaking of the swirly-headed doofess, he was sitting in that same corner as he was before, introducing Mr. Giggle Bunny and Super Llama to Timmy, or whom he called 'zombie' due to his beaten-up appearance. Carl and Sheen were supervising, snickering about every ghost joke they could think of. Timmy was shaken up and scared of the three boys, but Cindy had already explained that they were no (true) threat; much to her and Tootie's displease.
Spongebob had pulled up and chair next to Cindy and sat with his feet on the dashboard of the monitor and arms crossed, blankly observing Tootie's work which he couldn't be any less interested about. He was no longer complaining about the germs as Tootie explained how the moisture spray also worked as a germ repellent for land. However, she could be lying to get him to stop his repetitive whining. Once in a while he glanced at the mess. It was a mess indeed. The whole place was filthy in his eyes, but since it wasn't his property and he wasn't using any of it, he really didn't care.
Overall it was pretty quiet. The only sound was the pitter-pattering of Libby's footsteps pacing across the room to and from the boys and the three at the monitor. And the occasional sigh from Cindy. Cindy rested her chin on her hand as her elbow lay on the dashboard. Spongebob's eyelids fluttered until they shut completely. He let out a heavy breath.
The silence has shattered. The Interdementional Portal spit out four beings as they landed toe first on the ground. Everyone turned their heads to their direction except for Timmy who yelped and hid behind Jimmy. Spongebob's eyes shot open. He growled in annoyance.
"Wow! That was so cool!" Sam barked.
"Isn't it? I love going through the portals!" Zim asserted. "Hi everybody! We're back!"
"Hey Zim. Hey Tucker." Libby greeted as she left the boys' area to meet with the incomers.
"Oh great! HE'S back!" Sheen commented on the green boy.
"Woah look Sheen!" Carl whispered. He pointed to Danielle. "She's a ghost just like me!"
"Shhh," Sheen hushed. "We can't let anyone know of your powers," Carl nodded.
"HA-LOW!" Jimmy stood up and waved. Timmy was still clung to his shoulders peeking from behind.
"Hey did you find anything?" Cindy asked in a muttered tone. She was exhausted and gets cranky very easily.
"Zim and I ran into a friend of ours, Danielle, well actually, she ran into us. Literally. She's a ghost but she's on our good side," Tucker replied.
"Nice to meet you," Dani greeted.
"And….?" Cindy was growing impatient.
"Oh right the pod. Danny and I's friend Sam was hit with the yellow pod and well…." Tucker pointed behind Cindy. Sam and Zim were on either side of Spongebob's chair shoving their faces in his.
"Hi I'm Sam!"
"And I'm Zim!"
"We're best friends!"
"And we saw how grumpy and lonely you looked sitting here all by yourself, so we wanted to become your friends!" Zim got even closer.
"Get out of my face alien brat," Spongebob pushed Zim's forehead back with his finger.
Zim's heart sped up. "A-alien? What are you talking about?"
"Silly sponge, Zim's not an alien! He has a condition that makes his skin green!" Sam explained.
"Tch," Spongebob rolled his eyes. "And FYI, my name is Spongebob,"
Sam moved to another part of the lab and pulled out her bubble soap. The fragile spheres spread throughout the lab. Carl, Sheen, and Jimmy happily popped all the ones she blew.
"C'mon zombie boy!" Jimmy offered a hand to Timmy, but he just shrunk further back like a little kitten.
"Jimmy, his name is Timmy," Libby giggled a bit.
"Tim-my?"
Libby nodded.
"Oh, C'mon Timmy! Pop da bubbles!"
Shivering, Timmy arose to his feet and the three friends helped him pop all the bubbles.
Zim watched from a short distance leaning on Spongebob's chair. "Sam is so pretty," he said in hushed tone. "And her blowing bubbles just makes her even more beautiful,"
"Get the heck away from me you green alien freak," Spongebob insisted with his signature blank expression.
"Alien?" Tootie overheard and whispered to herself. She looked at Zim and was immediately questioned by his green skin, and lack of ears and a nose.
"Zim?" She hopped off the swiveled chair.
"Yes ma'am?" he responded.
"Can you come with me for a minute?"
"Of course! I'll be right back Spongebob!"
Spongebob rolled his eyes again and gritted his teeth.
Dani was observing all the inventions Jimmy stored in his lab; the Robo-walker, the Jimmy-bot, the Time booth; everything Jimmy has used in his previous inventions. She murmured different words to herself, but anyone else could only see her lips moving. Tucker was one of them.
"Dani what are you doing?" he asked.
Dani whipped around startled by him. "Huh? Oh, nothing. Just looking around at all these weapons. They're pretty cool!"
"I don't think Jimmy intended for his inventions to be weapons," Tootie argued from across the room. She was using Jimmy's x-ray magnifying glass to look inside Zim's body to learn about his origin.
"Yeah, he'll only use them for weapons in dire circumstances. Other than that, they're just there for showing off," Cindy added in a nasty tone.
"Ooh!" Zim cheered. "If you want weapons, I have some back at my house! I don't use them of course, I don't like fighting,"
"Hmm interesting," Dani emphasized. She hid a snickering smile.
"This is….weird," Tootie said.
"What?" Cindy responded.
"His organs look different than any other human being,"
"Oh for crying out loud," Spongebob groaned. He hopped off his swiveling chair and sped walked to the girl and her test subject. He cuffed his hand around Zim's head and pulled him closer. His blue eyes stared deep into his. Zim turned red.
"These so called 'eyes' aren't real." Spongebob confirmed. Sam turned to the two. "And as for his hair…" He slid his hand onto Zim's head and gasped on the black fibers. Then he yanked. "Fake."
Pulling away, Spongebob dropped the black wig and revealed two thick black antennas sticking out from Zim's green head. At this point, Zim didn't try to keep his lenses in his eyes. He let them drift to the ground. All that showed was a bright red surface in each eye with two lighter red irises.
Zim's antennas faced downward. His heart was a jackrabbit and his breaths were heavy. He was acting like a dam to hold back his tears as he looked at each pair of human eyes that were looking directly back at him. He looked at Sam's the longest.
"He IS an alien." Spongebob declared.
"An-an-an-ALIEN!" Timmy screamed and started to cry. "GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"
"Timmy darling don't worry," Tootie ran to the one she admired and locked him in her fangirlish arms. He shook and whimpered and dug his head into Tootie's neck for protection.
The dams in Zim's eyes cracked and the salty tears overflowed out of his system. "I'M SORRYYYYY!"
He dashed to the portal and selected the place he called home. The arch spun and enlightened with the riching cool colors of magenta, purple, and blue. Zim vanished in a second leaving everyone dazed.
"That. Was. So. COOL! Awe man, he should have showed us sooner that he was an alien. I could have liked him better." Sheen announced.
"So that loser from his universe was right about him all along," Cindy said to herself.
"We can't just let him go on his own. We need him!" Libby reminded.
"Please, allow me," Dani insisted.
"I think it's best if Libby and I go. We've been there already; we'd have a better chance of getting around," Cindy contended.
"I insist. I think Zim will listen to me better. I mean, I'm a ghost so I know where he's coming from," Dani declared.
Cindy took a breath. "Fine whatever."
Dani's procedure was the same as Zim's only without the sobbing and tears.
It was silent again. Timmy's fit has quieted down and nobody knew how to respond to the sight just held before them. Sam picked up the short black wig and held it to her chest.
Spongebob picked up one of his lenses and balanced it on his index finger. He sighed. "Idiot."
