Tak sat deep inside her base thinking. She looked carefully at the machine she was working on. She slowly took an electric screwdriver and tapped part of it. The machine made a strange beeping sound. The machine she was working on was a rather odd one. It was circular in shape, which was to say it was perfectly rectangular. It was completely black to the point of absorbing all light, which was to say that it was so white, it could blind someone. It was very sinister; in other words, it looked very benign. It had a purpose, which was to do anything it wanted.
Tak smiled. It was doing just what she wanted it to do. She entered a few more programming modules into her computer, which would then be in turn dumped into the memory of the machine, which happened to be very organic, by the way. Tak had programmed it to be an oxymoron, which was strange since it would be very smart. She continued to type on her computer, getting the brackets just right. If only one bracket command turned out wrong, the whole thing would be ruined.
Unbeknownst to her, the device wanted a system error.
…………………………………………………Meanwhile…………………………
Karo groaned. He had been doing a lot of groaning lately, and waking up strange people's houses. As his thoughts finally collected together, he looked up to find Dib standing over him, smiling. He was holding a bracelet, and this seemed to be partially what he was smiling about. His brain was telling him that this was not good.
"Umm…Dib?" He started, "Why am I tied up, and why is your sister tugging on my neck?"
All this time, Gaz had been diligently trying to get the collar off.
"This," Dib began with the same uncomfortable smile, "Is made of pure silver."
Karo nodded patiently. "I see," he said, "And you're going to do something painful with it, aren't you?"
Dib's smile grew. It was a rather annoying smile. If he wasn't tied up, Karo was sure it was a smile that he wanted to claw off Dib's face.
Dib started to lean closer to Karo. His hand passed around his back. Something cold touched Karo's skin, then it became searing hot.
"Augh!" Karo screamed.
"There better not be any walking dead in there, son!" Professor Membrane called from the other room while perfecting Super Toast 2.0.
"No, dad," Dib called back, "And we went over this already once. No screaming you may hear from now on is undead-related!"
"I hate to interrupt," Karo began, "But that bracelet is really starting to hurt." His eyes were watering from the pain.
Dib removed the bracelet. His smile almost broke the boundaries of his face.
"Yes," Dib said, "I'll stop; but I'll start again soon!…Here I go!" and with that, Dib pressed the silver against Karo's flesh again.
"AAHH!"
"It hurts, doesn't it, wolfie?"
Karo gritted his teeth. "Yes, yes it does. And don't call me that; it's rather degrading in its own special way."
"You're sure taking this in stride."
"Yes. I had to deal with things of this sort before."
Dib paused. "Where did you come from?"
"Somewhere…"
"Where did you come from?"
"…"
"WHERE DID YOU COME FROM!"
"Why, it doesn't matter really to you."
Dib fumed, then he pressed the silver against Karo's skin again.
"GAH!"
"You know what? I'm going to let you go, for now, but I'll get you sooner or later. I'll just wait until the next full moon, then you'll be all over Mysterious Mysteries!"
Dib untied Karo, who ran as quickly as he could out the door.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Later that night, Karo was in his room. He looked around at the neo-Gothic décor. He looked at his demotivational calendar. Tomorrow would be a Skool holiday.
It would also be Tuesday.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The next day, Karo walked up to Zim's house holding a present. He rang the doorbell. There was a pause before the door is opened by GIR, wearing a party hat.
"YOU CAME!" GIR yelled and jumped up and down with joy.
"Umm…yeah…" Karo walked inside. The inside of Zim's house was decorated with party favors and pictures of cheese. In the middle of a room there was a table. Seated around it was a pig that Karo guessed was Pig, Zim's roboparents, and a small flying moose. They were all wearing party hats. GIR had even taped a drawing of a party hat to the painting of the green monkey. On the table was a chocolate cake.
GIR grabbed Karo's present, ran into the kitchen, placed it on the table, then ran back out with another chair, set it down, sat in another chair, and then motioned to Karo to sit in the chair he just got.
"Happy Birthday To Yoooouuuu!" GIR began to sing, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOUUU!" GIR took in another breath.
"HAPPPPPPYYYY BIIIRRTHDAAAYYY DEEEAAARRRR PIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!" GIR was panting at this point, but he just continued on, "HAAAAPPPPPPYYYYY BIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRTHHDAAAYY TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU-cough gasp!"
GIR was on the ground hacking his robotic lungs out. Karo just stared at him. This entire thing reminded him of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Alice in Wonderland, only less sane. Anyway, he reached for a piece of chocolate cake and tried to make the best of it. Pig didn't seem to care at all, or at least show any sign of sentience.
Karo heard a bump, then Zim's computer yelled "INTRUDER ALERT and stuff…"
Karo looked to the door to see the window open, but nobody was there. If he looked very hard, he could see some sort of shimmer. An electric probe came down from the ceiling and hit the shimmer.
"OWW!" it yelled, which was odd, since shimmers in the air usually don't yell, or talk at all, or feel pain. As Karo pondered on this, Dib materialized out of the shimmer, which explained a lot. Dib looked around angrily, then suprisedly.
"Karo?" Dib asked in wonderment, "What are…what are you doing here!"
"I," Karo replied as calmly as he could, "Am attending a party. I don't believe you were invited. Was he invited, GIR?"
Karo turned to the little robot, but GIR was gone. Karo heard a crash in the kitchen, then GIR bounded out holding some presents.
"Here are your presents Pig!" GIR shouted as he gave one to the pig, "Open this one, it's from…umm…ME!"
Pig stared at it, but didn't open it, which was perfectly normal since pigs don't really have the proper appendages for opening presents. GIR looked like he was about to cry.
"Here," Karo began, "Let me help." Karo then opened the present for Pig.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIG!" GIR yelled, "I GOT YOU SOME CHEESE!"
Pig looked at the block of cheese that was GIR's present, then he promptly ate it.
"I'M SOOOO GLAD YOU LIKED IT!" GIR then handed Pig another present. "THIS ONE'S FROM ROBOMOM!"
As Karo helped Pig open the second present, he noticed the robotic matron smile. All this time, Dib had been standing there, mouth agape. He tried to gather his thoughts, but failed. He tried again, but once again failed. He tried one more time and succeeded.
"You're all…" he began, "You're all…all…all…CRAZY!"
Karo stared at him. "Are we crazy?" he began, "Or are you just perceiving us as crazy? In your reality, many people consider you crazy, so in turn, you find a shortage of sanity in others. You also," he added after a pause, "Enjoy making people who are different miserable. You're intentions might be good, but in the end, it won't matter. You want to expose Zim because he's trying to destroy Earth, but you constantly forget how bad he is at it. You persecute me, but why? Is it for fame? Glory? Prestige, perhaps? Or maybe you have an ulterior motive, just like everybody else. IF you consider me evil, then I'll know that you are just like everybody else. HOWEVER, if you manage to find someplace within you that says I am not evil and that I am just a part of nature, then, well, we'll see what happens."
Dib stared at him, the silence only being broken by GIR exclaiming how the bottle of Überweisse Robomom had gotten Pig was so wonderful. GIR grabbed the next present, which was from Robodad, and unwrapped it for Pig. It was a roll of toilet paper. GIR seemed more excited about it than Pig. Dib and Karo were still staring at each other.
That's when it all hit the fan.