Opening Up
Epic Nine
Written by Cartman's Girl and Poe

Some time later, Allison was standing with Ragde, looking up at the door of his

house with a bit of apprehension. She'd seen it before, but she'd never crossed its thresh hold. She glanced over at Ragde,

"You sure you wanna do this, Raggy? I mean, I don't want you to get in trouble or anything.."

"Please, if anyone gets in trouble it's me." he said, but he didn't blame her. He'd be nervous too, since she'd really ever seen his parents from a distance. "Okay, as far as you know, we're a nice normal family. Got that?" last thing Ragde wanted was his Father to know he let her know what they were. Then his head would be mounted on the wall. She nodded, making a zipping motion over her mouth. They went through the door; Ivy was in the living room, lounging on the couch and playing a video game. A scythe lifted at the sound of the door opening,

"Hi Ra-" She started to greet boredly, then lifted her head to look over the couch arm at him, jumping back when she saw Allison was with them. She wasn't wearing her contacts either.

"Ah crap." Ragde thought to himself, then said to Allison. "Told you that Ivy tested out freakish contacts now and then, didn't I?" he asked her. Possibly giving his sister enough time to put her contacts in while Allison looked at him. Allison seemed a bit freaked out,

"Oh, y-yeah.." Ivy stuffed her contacts in haphazardly, sitting up and growling at her brother,

"Who gave you permission to bring anyone home?!"

"I... didn't know we needed permission..." he replied, truely now afraid of his sister's wrath. "I mean... you brought that guy back here..." She bristled a bit,

"He brought me home, he didn't come inside!" Allison just kind of stayed back, not wanting to get involved. Ivy muttered and shook her head, "I'm going to get Mom," she threatened, then stalked off. Ragde sighed as she left, looking at Allison.

"Mom's usually better then Dad is... him being all protective 'n stuff." he said quietly. Soon enough Enid entered, well, technically dragged by her daughter. This seemed familiar since when the two were smeets and Ragde was doing something 'wrong', Ivy would run off to tell her Mom on him.

"Ivy I can walk you know..."

"..but he brought his human into our base!" She could be heard saying while she thought she was out of hearing range. Allison scowled, raising an eyebrow at Ragde and mouthing, 'his human?' He blushed a brilliant shade of red, muttering something under his breath. Finally Ivy released her Mom, and just pointed at Allison.

"Oh." Enid said, looking at the blue haired human girl. "Well... hello, Allison is it...?" Allison looked up at the female Irken, nodding politely,

"Um, Hi. Mrs.. um.." She blinked, trying to remember what to call her, since as far as she knew Ragde's mom didn't have a last name, but it was rude to call her by her first. As she debated, Ivy folded her arms, glaring at Ragde,

"Don't you realize what you've done?!"

"But... she's my friend." Ragde managed to say after the red had slowly faded from his cheeks.

"I know that, Ragde." Enid replied, "But you really should have asked first, you know that."

"I know, I know..." he felt kind of stupid now, "But I thought you'd say no, even if I had asked."

"I don't know, I can't really read out I'd do in another situation." Enid said, folding her arms. "But, either way... nice to meet you, Allison. Ragde has told us a lot about you." She smiled, first over at Ragde and then up at Enid,

"Really? Well, don't worry, I'm sure he exaggerates. I'm not that bad," She grinned, teasing. Ivy raised an eyebrow. She'd never actually talked to Allison much, since she was a human and all. "Um.." Allison continued, "My place is being fumigated for pests, so I'm kind of out of a place to do homework.. I thought maybe I could.." She tapped her fingers together.

"Study here?" Enid had a slight flash back to what her Father told her about Athra and her brother, but she swept that from her mind. Ragde wasn't like Vist, that's for sure... I'm sure you couldn't find more opposites. "Well... I don't see why not. I'd say the dining room's the place for that, the table so big and all."

"Thanks! We won't be long," she adjusted the hefty backpack slung over her shoulder, and looked around, looking for a place that looked like the dining room. Ivy looked surprised,

"You're letting her stay?" She wondered at her Mom. Enid smiled at the two, then lead Ivy along with her out the room.

"Yes, but I'm going to call your Father to make sure he knows before he comes home, and besides. They can't get up to anything in full view, can they?" Ragde picked up his backpack and lead her through a door way into the dining room. Just normal really, paintings on walls (mostly his) and the table set out.

"Here we go.." Ivy made a face,

"I'm not talking about that, I mean, what if she finds one of the exits to the lab? Or one of Dad's gadgets lying around?" Allison watched them go, then sat down and pulled out her books,

"Does your mom, um, usually wear a wig?" Enid had probably had to pull on her disguise rather quickly before being dragged off by Ivy, so it was a bit crooked.

"Only when she's out, or someone's over." he replied quietly, getting his big note book out. Enid smirked,

"I'm a good house keeper Ivy, I clean up after you, your brother and Father like clockwork most days. So don't worry, and the exits can only be entered when one of us use the doorknobs." she explained, "So even if she did open a door way, it'd lead to a closet or something."

"Oh. Still.." Ivy scowled back at the dining room, "She's gonna find out eventually."

"She doesn't have hair?" She looked a bit confused, not knowing what exactly

natural Irkens looked like. Ragde shook his head, while getting his large study books out.

"Normally, we just have antennae.. but since my Grandfather Dib was human, my side now has the hair gene."

"Oh, cool." She flipped through her books, but was too distracted to read, looking

around, "You know, for an alien base this place looks pretty normal.."

"We try our best. Our labs on the other hand..." he looked down at the book and began high lighting key points. "They're a different matter." She pondered for a moment,

"Those sketches in your books of weird scientific equipment and stuff," she tilted her head, holding her chin and grinning, "They were still-life pictures, weren't they?"

"Heh.." Ragde nodded. "Yeeeeep. And that Voot Cruiser, is what my grandparents have."

"You mean you could actually go take a spin around Mars if you felt like it?" She laughed and shook her head, "The most I have to look forward to is a car.."

"My Grandfather Zim drove Mars." he said, he loved that story when his Grandfather told him about it.

"Drove Mars??" She looked rather confused, apparently there were lots of stories

about his alien family he'd yet to tell her. Ragde nodded,

"Mars is actually a large ship, the Martians worked themselves to instinction working on it." he looked up at her, while turning his astrology book to the page of mars, and pointed to it. "The 'Face' on Mars, is actually the controls, and he planned to squish out all life with it." He shook his head, grinning. "Course, Grandfather Dib found out it was the same with another planet, I forget which one and saved Earth."

"Wow." She shook her head, "You have one cool family, Ragde." He grinned, waving a hand.

"The life of an every day half extra terrestrial and part humanoid." She grinned and went back to her studies, eventually relaxing in the new house. Poe, meanwhile, was bored; Vist and Cten were at a parent teacher conference, since even though Vist might have improved, he was still a little delinquint. So he did what he usually did, headed out and over to his daughter's house; besides, Enid hadn't yet been able to tell him about all the details of Ivy's new friend and the surrounding complications, and he was curious. Soon enough he let himself in through the door to the kitchen, years of living in a dangerous environment making his entrance rather silent, looking around. He pulled off his scratchy wig and contacts, setting them on the counter, wondering where everyone was. He shrugged and peeked into the fridge, grabbing a suitible snack, a hunk of deli meat, munching on it as he went from room to room. He eventually opened the door to the dining room. Upon hearing the door open, Allison looked up and suddenly saw the tall, black-eyed, pointy-tooth alien with a hunk of meat in his mouth staring at her in shock from the doorway, and screamed. Ragde's antennae scythes stood on end when she screamed, his glasses becoming lop sided. He turned around quickly, seeing his Grandfather stood there then turned around to face Allison and he quickly reached other and took her hands in one hand, petting them with the other.

"It's okay! It's okay!" he fumbled, knowing he'll soon be a head ornament somewhere. "It's my Grandfather, Allison! Shh!" by now Enid rushed into the room, some small

laser-thing in her hand and as she kicked the door open she held the laser much how some city Cop would.

"All right what's going-..." she stopped, then blinked. "...on here..." Allison was rather shocked; it was one thing seeing Ragde's eyes, it was quite another to see a totally unfamiliar alien, a rather imposing one at that, suddenly walk in with a chunk of meat dangling from his fangs. She clung onto Ragde in her panic, while Poe had winced, his antennae curling up at the sound. He cracked his eye open when she stopped

screaming,

"…uh… hi." He swallowed the meat, blinking, "Maybe I'll knock next time.." he was

a bit too dazed by the scream and surprise, the fact a human had just seen him out of his disguise not sinking in yet.

"...hello Daddy." Enid said, lowering the laser, then put it into her jacket. Ragde patted her back, looking up at his Mom and Grandfather with a feared look.

"I just dropped by to.. um.." He looked down at Ragde and Allison. Ivy came into the room about this time, blinking at the situation before glancing away from Ragde and the human,

"Wouldn't want to be in your shoes now.. either of you." Helpful, wasn't she? Allison slowly looked up, though she still held onto Ragde for dear life,

"H.. h.. hi.." She said unsteadily, still staring at the tall Reject in shock.

"Allison... that, that's my Mom's Father, Poe... I've told you about him, re.. remember?" Ragde asked quietly and nervouslly. Enid sighed,

"Knew I should have called everyone.." she muttered to herself.

"Oh.. um.. h-hi, Mr.. uh.. Poe.. then.." Allison seemed equally nervous, while Poe

raised an eyeridge and tilted his head at his grandson,

"'Told you about him'?" He echoed curiously, while Ivy stared at Ragde in shock,

"You mean you already told her about us?!" Ragde winced, then slowly nodded. Enid stared at him wide-eyed.

"...you.. told someone?" she asked slowly.

"I'm sorry, okay? I couldn't hide it after she found something out, all right? I know you guys are fine with keeping up the act but she's my friend and I've hidden it for long enough." he splurted out, letting her go. Then, lowered his head in great shame.

Poor little guy. Allison frowned, keeping her hold on Ragde for his own comfort now, before looking up at them with a bit more confidence,

"I'm not.. I'm not going to tell anyone, I-I swear.. I know.. I know most people might but I care about Ragde no matter what species he or his family is," She looked over at him, "I wouldn't do anything to hurt him or his family.." Ivy rolled her eyes at the sappiness, and Poe folded his arms.

"You're asking us to trust that you can resist a lot of temptation, Allison." He stared at her evenly, a look he'd perfected with two generations of smeets. Ragde stared back at his Grandfather, possibly evenly in return. Heck, he'd probably gotten that from him

along the line somewhere.

"I have a lot of faith in her.. more so then you can imagine." he said gently. Enid glanced at Allison,

"Look, Allison.. it's not that we don't tust you, people in general... we've seen those specials on TV with rewards for finding things like us, or even movies with subjects like that." she tapped her fingers together, "You're really good friends with my son,

aren't you?" Allison glanced at the floor, then over to her arms, which were still

encircling him,

"Yeah.. I guess you could say that.." She said quietly, a blush creeping into

her features, then shook her head, "I don't care about the rewards or fame or anything. I'd rather have my.. friend.. more than any amount of money or recognition." Poe arched his eye-ridges, then nodded slowly.

"Well, Allison.." He glanced over at Enid, "I think you could be trustworthy."

"What?" Ivy scowled, "You mean we're not going to deprogram her brain or erase

her memories?"

"No Ivy." Enid said, "It wouldn't be right to do that to her." Ragde smiled, then put his hands onto Allison's arms then looking at her. Boy he was one happy chappy right now, grinning from antennae to antennae. He looked back at his Grandfather,

"Thank you Grandfather Poe.." he smiled, then looked to his Mom. "Thanks Mom." Poe waved his hands.

"We understand, Ragde. Don't think you're the first smeet in this family to have a forbidden romance." He grinned teasingly at Enid, and the blush on Allison's face deepened. Ivy just shook her head.

"Daddy.." Enid muttered, folding her arms. She shook her head grinning, then looked to the two. "All right you two, but Ragde, you'll have to explain to your Father when he gets home. All right?" Ragde nodded quickly.

"U-huh." Allison finally seemed to relax, sitting up slightly.

"I guess these are useless now," Ivy took out her contacts, "I hate them anyway." Poe stretched his arms and yawned toothily, causing Allison to wince and scoot closer to Ragde,

"Never a dull moment around here, I swear." he finished.

"No... you should hear about what happened with Ivy." Enid smirked, glancing at her daughter.

"Oo? What else happened?" Ragde loved hearing about things his sister got up to.

"Later Ragde." his Mom said.

"Aw."

"Mom!" Ivy curled her fists and turned her scowl at Enid, then stormed out of the

room. Allison had to smile a bit, looking over at Ragde,

"I guess in some ways your family isn't all that odd…" Poe glanced over at his daughter,

"That reminds me.." He started to wander back to the kitchen, motioning for Enid to follow, and asked out of the hearing range of Ragde and Allison, "Just what did happen?"

"With Ivy?" Enid followed after him, closing the door behind her. "She got lost on the way home from a young disco, and she met a boy. Or, we thought it was a boy."

"Thought?" He looked puzzled, "What, um, was he?"

"An alien." she said, "Turns out he's a 'Beast'. Do you know about them?" He blinked, then shook his head.

"Afraid I never got much of an education back on Irk… the only two species I know about are Irkens and humans. Just what kind of alien?" he wondered, "Not have a very.. uh, sophisticated species title."

"They don't, since they never technically had a name." she pulled out a small hand-held monitor and shown him. "Known for their vicious ways of life, see?" He arched his ridges at the sight of the Beast,

"Good grief, I'd say the name fit. What's one doing here on Earth?"

"He was exhiled for refusing to kill a dragon, so here he is." Enid said, then sighed. "Figures Ivy would befriend someone like that."

"Well.. that seems like a good sign. And besides, at least we won't have to go

through a drama like that again," he nodded back towards the dining room door. "Maybe we should ask Zim or Vishti about them. They're probably the most.. er, travelled, among us."

"I'll say." Enid put the monitor back into her pocket. "Do you want to go ask, or me? One of us has to keep an eye on you know who."

"Maybe I'd better do it." He rubbed his temple, not looking forward to the encounter, but nonetheless, he didn't want to put his daughter through it either. "Zib will have his hands full lecturing Ragde when he gets back anyway." He was in the kitchen again, and replaced his wig and contacts.

"All right, so I'll see you later then when you come back with more explenations." Enid said. "Hopefully they won't get too panicy."

"Here's hoping." He straightened his wig, then nodded with a grin, "Good luck

keeping them apart, En." And with that, he was out. He wandered down the street, up to the odd little blue base stuffed between two larger buildings. The yard - a garden now, really – was quite well kept, if not filled with poisonous and spiney plants. Poe navigated around them to the door, knocking. The door was swung open by Zim, since he was using that kewl little device that let him see through the door and see who it was.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, eye twitching. From the looks of him, he was in the midst of doing some pruning, seeing in one hand was nasty looking clippers and a poor plant in the other.

"It's about your grand-daughter." Poe glanced at the clippers, figuring he could

endear himself to Zim for the moment if he mentioned Zim's favoured grand-child, "She's befriended a rather.. well, imposing alien."

"...Ivy's befriended what?" Zim stared at him, wide-eyed, but then dragged Poe into the base before anyone saw him out of disguise and closed the door. "What kind of alien dare set foot on Earth?!" Poe blinked in surprise as the little Irken managed to drag him in,

"Enid says they put the features into their computer, and it came up as a 'Beast'." He brushed off his coat, "She met him at a dance-club-type-place and he brought her home."

"A Beast?!" Zim shrieked, dropping his clippers and plant. "Holy Slark! Is she all right?! He didn't rip her Squeedly Spooch out did he?! If he did I'll.. I'll... turn him inside out!" Poe winced at the crash,

"No.. I don't know the specifics, but from what I gather he didn't harm a hair on her."  Zim was already in a cloud of mutterings and curses, clenching his fists.

"That skum sucking low life..." he muttered. Then regained his composure, as little as it was. "So what do you want, coming here and giving me the fright of my life?"

"Enid's computer didn't have too much information. We were wondering if you knew

something else."

"Well ask away. Being the fine Invader I... was I took a lot of lessons in interstella aliens and beasts and no-gooders." Zim folded his arms, as one of the wires on the ceiling reached down and vaccumed up the mess.

"Enid said he'd been outcast for refusing to kill a dragon, whatever that means,

which is why he's on Earth." He shook his head, "She didn't say much else, but that Beast must've had a very good disguise system if it can mask wings and a snout and a tail.."

"Yes.. only the High Esteemed family group has the kind of genetic coding to allow them to tweak it so they appear like normal aliens, on whatever planet they're on. They live amongst the communities, living, waiting... then..." he did a dramatic pose with arm waving. "KASHBA!! They return to their normal looks and eat everyone in a thousand mile raious! Just like that!" Zim snapped his fingers for effect, it didn't work. He tried again. Nothing. After third try, he gave up and went. "BOOM!" He coughed, "They're very sneaky." Poe blinked, dodging Zim's waving arms,

"I'd guess he'd have been around here for a while if he knew his way around." He glanced towards the door, "I wonder if there's any reason why he hasn't done that yet."

"Well, now that he knows Irkens are about, he'll be doing it soon." Zim glared around, as if suspecting to find hidden cameras watching them. "Irkens destroyed his species home planet to make Food Courtia, now he's plotting revenge..."

"Great." He sighed, muttering to himself, "One threat to the family taken care of,

only to have a new one emerge.. All of us put together would be bound to be able to take care of one of these Beast things, right?"

"I don't know... I've heard of Irkens who went up against a Beast... none surived." Zim narrowed his eyes, "But we can out smart him.." Poe pondered, an odd look setting on his features.

"What's their level of technology?"

"Not very high." he replied, "But what they lack in technology they make up in muscle."

"Hm." He held his chin, the look on his face making him resemble his father rather strongly. "So if this Beast did reveal himself to the public, there's a chance we could defeat him with Irken weapondry. Of course, revealing our own alien presence in the process, but.." He glanced upward, "We'd endear ourselves to the humans." He sighed, his look softening, "Then we wouldn't have to live in hiding anymore.."

"You mean protect the humans??" Zim sounded shocked, "I'd never lower to such a thing! Yes I've done it in the past, but that was when I believed I was still here to conquer it! BUT... if he endangers my family... hmmmmm..."

"We'd be protecting ourselves, they would just be a fringe benefit." He pondered,

then decided to appeal to Zim's wanton lust for recognition, "Think of it. They'd hail us as heros."

"Heros..." Zim echoed the word, then grinned. "Hero.. YES! Mwa-ha!!" Poe smirked slightly, then shrugged,

"But then, isn't there always the possibility that this particular Beast is, er, not dangerous?"

"...a non-dangerous Beast?" Zim sounded dumbfounded.

"Well, he didn't harm Ivy. And even if he'd been watching to see where she lived,

why hasn't he attacked yet?"

"He's still plotting! Obviously." Zim folded his arms, "We have to find this Beast before he harms Ivy or any other Irken in our family!"

"I guess we'll have to ask Ivy what his human disguise looked like.. I just don't

know if she'd be willing to cooperate."

"Be straight and tell her what a danger he is. If you don't, I will. And if Zib doesn't, I will." yup, he sounded dead serious about this.

"You know how stubborn she is though.. Enid and Zib sent her to that disco to

socialize, afterall.. maybe she found a friend. Or at least, thinks she has." He shrugged, "They're awfully impressionable at this age.." He pondered. "Ivy has Zib wrapped around her finger, so he'd be hard-pressed to be very stern about it.."

"Hmm, good point... Zib isn't good on the discipline..." Zim bit his lower lip. "So, who should tell her if we do?"

"I don't know. Any attempts to scare her will probably just make her more determined to prove that she's brave enough and capable of handling him."

"....so we say NOTHING?"

"I don't know about that.. I think Enid and Zib would be reluctant to tell her she can't see the one friend she really has anymore. You know how Ivy is." He said, not knowing that Zim probably thought Ivy's behaviour was model.

"She seems fine to me." Zim shrugged, then frowned. "Don't ban her from seeing him...I want to see this meat ball for myself..."

"Fine? She's about to be expelled from skool for her behaviour, Zim." Poe gave him

a look, "Maybe we could ask her to bring him home again."

"Yeeesss... the very modle of a modern teenager from Irk..." Zim rubbed his hands together, "And when he least suspects it.. KABLAM!" Poe sighed.

"I don't think she'd react very well to him being kablamed either. We'll see."

[To be continued]