WHOO! Momentous events today, folks! This story has now passed 1,000 hits! And today is the six month anniversary of when I started it! Hooray for me!

(...Although actually, I have no idea if six months and thirteen chapters is normal to get 1,000 hits. And if anything, this story should have been done in six months. But, um...ignore those facts. Celebration, man. Yeah.)

And now, to celebrate, I have a special gift for all of my readers. First, there's this chapter--which I hustled to finish in time for this, by the way. And also, as a bonus, you get...this chapter! Narrated by somebody else. This comes in the form of a one-shot, "Wet Skoolbooks," which is basically this chapter from Gretchen's point of view. I had just put so much thought into what she would say and think in this chapter I felt I had to get that information out too. It also contains a bit (tiny bit) of information that can give you a hint for what's coming up in this story, so, feel free to read that if you want to. I think it's a little better if you read that one before this, but it doesn't matter all that much.

Anyway. On to the story. And please leave reviews, of course, for both this and "Wet Skoolbooks." And thanks again to all my loyal readers for making this possible. :-)

Chapter Thirteen
Gretchen's Visitor

I was still thinking about Peggy as I walked home.

"Come on, what's the problem?" I said, kicking a can forcefully so that it skipped down the street, landing beat up but ready for another blow. "What do I care if she gave Jack a kiss? I mean, she kissed me, she kissed Jack...apparently she just likes kissing people. And it's not like I like her...I mean...I don't think I do...do I?"

I paused, considering this, then shook my head forcefully. "No. No. She's...annoying and cheery and likes pink things and thinks unicorns count as paranormal science when they so, so do not. Though she is also kind of smart, actually...and nice...and pretty. Wait, is she pretty? I mean, she's not ugly..."

I grimaced. "Er! Stop it, Dib! You do not like Peggy! You and Peggy have a strictly professional, alien-fighting relationship." I paused. "Although," I grumbled, kicking the can again, "I don't know where else I'll ever find a nice, smart girl who has a crush on me..."

"Hey--Dib?"

"Agh!"

I jumped and spun around, already putting my hands up, unconsciously preparing to jump and attack Zim, before I blinked in the dark, narrowing my eyes. "Gretchen?"

She took a step forward into the light of a streetlamp, her braces glaring in the sudden brightness. She was carrying a collection of skoolbooks in her arms.

"Hey, Dib," she said, her nasally voice rising into a squeak. She blinked. "Hey, where's your trench coat?"

"Long story," I grumbled, crossing my arms, once again feeling woefully underdressed. I mean, my shirt had short sleeves even. I might as well have been walking down the street in my underwear.

"Okay," she said simply, taking a few steps closer to me. She suddenly stumbled and nearly fell; I reached out quickly and grabbed her by the shoulders as her books tumbled out of her hands into a puddle on the sidewalk.

"Oh!"

I righted her quickly; she faltered a bit before managing to stand. I quickly bent down to pick up her books, frowning. "Er...these don't look too good," I warned.

"Oh...that's alright," she said, holding her arms out to take them.

I was about to hand them back, then stopped. "You know what? Why don't I just carry them for you. Your house is on my way home anyway."

"Oh!" she cried, her nasally voice rising to an unusually high pitch. She was turning a bit red--probably embarrassed, I thought, realizing how little little confidence I had in her book-carrying abilities. "Alright, then."

We started walking, side by side through the darkening night. Neither of us spoke for a few moments. Gretchen was looking carefully away. I wondered if maybe she didn't want me to be there, but had just felt rude declining my help. I had felt a bit weird myself offering it, but she was usually nicer to me than the other kids, and I felt like a little companionship at the moment. From someone who didn't drive me crazy in some way.

I cleared my throat awkwardly and decided to take a stab at conversation. "So, um...what's new?" Since the last time you saw me, when I was covered in green goo, I thought suddenly with a tweak of embarrassment.

"Oh, nothing," she said, her voice quiet but squeaky. "I was just over at Keef's house...remember he's been out the last couple of days? I was going to deliver his homework."

"How is he?" I asked. Normally I wouldn't care very much--yeah, it's not a very nice thing to say, but really anything that kept him out of anybody's hair for a few days was pretty good in my book--but since he was a member of the SEJI, I was hoping he would be back on his feet soon. Even as annoying as he was, the more people I had on my side, the better.

"Actually, he wasn't there," Gretchen said, cocking her head to one side.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, nobody was. I knocked and nobody ever answered. Maybe they went out of town, or something...I don't know, it's kind of weird that he didn't mention it, though."

"Yeah, Keef's definitely not the kind of person to keep a secret," I said dryly. I shrugged. "Oh well. I was just kind of wondering because he's part of my paranormal investigators' club, and--"

I broke off in mid-sentence, wincing and cursing my stupidity. Agh! Why'd I always have to do that, say things like that without thinking? I froze, waiting for her reaction.

"Oh," she said simply. "Yeah, I think he had mentioned something about that..."

I chuckled nervously. "Uh, yeah. You probably think it's crazy though, right?" I had meant to sound light-hearted about it, pass off my embarrassment, but to my surprise it came out sounding very bitter.

"What? Oh, no! Well...I mean, it sounded pretty...interesting." She looked down at her feet. "Actually, I was...even thinking about coming to that meeting you had on Monday."

I blinked. "Really? Why didn't you?"

"Oh..." She shrugged, still looking down. "Just busy that day."

I wasn't sure what to say. I wondered vaguely if she was lying to make me feel better, and even considered asking her, but decided against it. I looked ahead, thinking. Gretchen was kind of nice to talk to--I rarely got to spend time with someone who didn't find me incredibly irritating, or vice versa.

"So, are you interested in the paranormal?"

"What? Oh, I don't know..."

"But you said you were interested in joining my club."

Gretchen gave a small, noncommittal sound. I frowned, looking away. "So, you think I'm crazy too? You don't believe that Zim's an alien, or any of that stuff?"

There was a long pause before she answered. "If I ever did meet an alien in my life," she said slowly, "it would be Zim."

I blinked, wondering how I was supposed to take that. It was oddly satisfying to at least find someone who didn't outright reject what I said. (I also wondered vaguely if I should mention that Gretchen had actually met anotheralien, Tak, but decided against it.)

A thought occurred to me. "Well, you know, maybe you could come for our next meeting," I suggested. "There's no rule saying you can't join a little late."

"Oh! Maybe," Gretchen said, sounding a bit hesitant. Again I wondered if she really wanted to at all or was just being nice. But then, maybe it didn't matter--"just being nice" was better than what most people gave me.

Gretchen cleared her throat, stopping suddenly. "Well, this is my house."

"What?" I looked up. "Oh. Okay. Here." I handed her back her wet books. "It was, uh, nice talking to you."

"You too," she said, looking away again.

She turned and walked into her house. I turned away and started walking back down the sidewalk towards home.

"Hmm. That waspretty nice," I mused to myself, looking back at Gretchen's house. "Nice to have a talk with somebody who doesn't think I'm crazy for a change. Or who's crazy themselves. Well, aside from Gaz. Nice to get a little break from all the insanity and just have a nice, normal conversation without any--"

"Aaaaaggggghhhhh!"

I slapped myself. "Ugh. How didn't I see that coming?!"

I spun around as Gretchen's door burst open, but just as she was leaping out of her house, a metal hand grabbed her.

Gretchen screamed again as the thing behind her squeezed out of her open front door, rising up to its full and considerable height. My mouth fell open. I recognized it instantly. The triangular body. The purple bubble in the middle of its chest. Its tentacled arms, its metal legs, its one long, oval eye--

The robot that had attacked me at skool!

"Stop!"

I ran forward without thinking, back down the sidewalk towards Gretchen's house, and the creature turned, its red eye growing wide as it saw me. It quickly spun around and threw Gretchen into its chest; she seemed to slide through the bubble effortlessly, and her screams were suddenly silenced, thought I could still see her moving and shrieking from inside her prison.

"Gretchen!"

The robot turned to face me again. I froze suddenly; I watched it, my heart pounding, and it stared back at me. My mind worked frantically, trying to formulate a plan of what to do.

And that's when I felt the shapes moving in from behind me.

I spun around. What I saw sucked the breath right out of my lungs.

Every door in the neighborhood had suddenly opened, and out of every house came a robot, identical to the one in front of me. They all had the same arms, the same eye, the same purple bubbles in their chests--and most of them, I saw with horror, had people trapped inside them just like Gretchen was, some struggling, some seeming calm, quiet, as if stolen in their sleep.

I was frozen to the spot. I couldn't move. Twelve robots were surrounding me now, forming a circle around me, with more on the periphery, crowding me in. What was I going to do?!

In that brief moment of confusion, the bot with Gretchen trapped inside of it attacked.

A hole opened above its bubble--a small, dark hole like some bizarre mouth, and from it shot a slimy purple ball that expanded in midair to form a net. I let out a cry and threw up my arm, just as it splattered onto me, pinning me to the ground with surprising strength. I tore at it, but I couldn't get it off--it was covered in purple slime, it stuck to my hands and clothes, I was just tangling myself up in it--

"Capturebot Units 114-135 receiving orders to retreat."

The words came out of each robot, spoken in perfect unison in a flat, emotionless tone. It made me suddenly think of what Zim's Computer would sound like without the sarcasm.

Instantly all the robots dropped down. Their bodies began to fold up as they converted into the rocket forms.

"Hey! Stop!"

I could still see the bubble that had trapped Gretchen; she pounded her fist against it, still screaming, but she seemed to be weakening...was there enough air in there?

Suddenly Gretchen's robot shot up into the air, shimmered and vanishing. Each of the robots all around me blasted off too, and soon the air was filled with shimmering spots and the sounds of engines that seemed to have no source--

"Agh!"

I finally managed to squeeze myself out of the net, at least halfway, so that I could move, dragging it behind me as it continued to stick to my hair, skin and clothes. But it was too late--the last robo-rocket was taking off, blasting into the sky with two little kids screaming inside its pod. It shimmered and vanished after the others.

I stared after it, mouth open, frozen on the spot. Slowly I looked around, at all the houses around me--every door open where the robots had emerged, every house silent and empty. The street was completely deserted. Nobody else had noticed anything. Nobody was there to notice anything.

"Oh man," I whispered. "This is not good."

Chapter title was hard to come up with...it came down to this or "The Bots Are Back," which I decided against because it gave too much away. Just so you know.

So, yeah. For the people who read it, this is basically a rewrite of the original Chapter 8, but with Gretchen (who was in the new Chapter 8) added into it. So, now we're back on track with the robot storyline. Cool. Now to get started on the missing scientists subplot...