Author's Note: Welcome back to what hopefully becomes a successful mesh of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Invader ZIM. Remember, boys and girls, I own no characters. They belong to the warped minds of Tim Burton and Jhonen Vasquez, respectively. The situation is mine though, and I happen to think that's pretty spiffy, don't you?
"Hi, Jack," Lock, Shock, and Barrel chirped in their most innocent voices before the Pumpkin King dragged them out from under the table.
"I think I found out who turned the machine on, Doctor," Jack said as he plopped the three in front of the Continuum Portal's control panel.
"You three rascals," Doctor Finkelstein said to Boogie's Boys condescendingly.
"We were just playing, we didn't know it'd turn on," Barrel said as Lock and Shock nodded in agreement.
"A likely story," Doctor Finkelstein said before inspecting the control panel. "Well, it appears you didn't do too much damage to it. You'll have to stay afterwards to fix anything you might have broken just in case."
"What!" the three exclaimed before seeing the look on Jack's face.
"We mean, ok," Lock said.
"I thought so," Jack said as he kept a close watch over the three.
"Now that the machine's already turned on, let's see what is out there," Doctor Finkelstein said as he began to press buttons on the panel.
Meanwhile...
"Dad?" Dib asked as he opened a door to find a room filled with chickens in wire cages. "No, this isn't it either," he said before he heard a slight groan in the room across from him. "Dad!"
Dib pretty much broke down the door with the combined force of his head and right shoulder. There seemed to be traces of a purple gas leaking out of the room that made the boy a little dizzy. Zim had been here alright. His father resting his head on his dressing room counter was proof of that. As far as Dib could remember his dad never took a break of his own will. It just wasn't in his schedule.
"Dad!" Dib yelled as he jumped up to the counter, grabbed his father's collar, and began to shake him. "Wake up, Dad! You're being sabotaged."
"What? Son? What are you doing here? You haven't raised the living dead again have you?" Professor Membrane asked as he regained the strength to hold up his own head.
"I already apologized for that," Dib said before shaking his head. "Dad, this is serious. Zim's out there pretending to be you so he can use your dimension thingy to destroy the world."
"Oh, that again. Son, it's good to see your interest in real science by your showing up here tonight, but you and your little green friend have to take your games somewhere else."
"This isn't a game," Dib said before looking past his father's left shoulder. "Look, he's on TV!"
Professor Membrane turned around to see that indeed there was a double of him on TV. To be honest, he wasn't a very good double. Right in front of his and Dib's eyes, the imposter began to cackle into the microphone. In an instant, the white labcoat came off, revealing that the real Professor Membrane was not on the stage. Instead, there was a short green boy standing on the shoulders of a small green and black dog operating stilts. By the time he actually started talking, both father and son had left to confront the imposter.
"Miserable stink creatures!" exclaimed the imposter as he jumped to the stage, allowing his minion to trip over the stilts onto the floor. "You have practically given me your planet to destroy with this device. I almost feel like this is too easy. Almost," he said, blue eyes widening before he cackled once more.
"Not so fast, Zim!" yelled a voice from the side of the stage as its owner stepped out to the imposter.
"Too late, Dib. I'm already going to open another dimension full of minions who'll follow my every command."
"I don't think so," Dib replied as he waved his right hand, calling guards his father had brought to seize Zim.
"GIR! Distract them," Zim ordered his 'pet' before running to the machine and pressing the buttons on its control panel.
Meanwhile...
"I see something," Sally said.
"Indeed, you do. It appears we are getting our first glimpse of another world," Doctor Finkelstein said as an image appeared in the portal.
"Wow, the people in that place sure like to run around. And dance with pigs," Jack said as he watched a small green dog tango about with a rubber pig as another pig exploded on a black-clad man who screamed in horror.
"Wow! That was cool," Lock said as he walked towards the portal.
"Don't get too close," Doctor Finkelstein warned.
"Or what?" Lock asked.
He didn't get the chance to hear an answer. At that very moment, a black-gloved, three fingered hand grabbed Lock and pulled most of him into the portal. Shock grabbed his ankle to pull him back only to be sucked in as well. Barrel tried to pull Shock back by clutching onto the fabric of her dress, but he too was being dragged into the dimension.
"Help!" Barrel exclaimed.
"Someone do something!" the Mayor yelled, about to pass out from terror.
"Hold on, Barrel," Jack said as he grabbed the boy's left hand. "Quick, someone grab my waist and anchor me here."
"I've got you, Jack," Sally said as she wrapped her arms around his waist, half in duty and the rest in pleasure.
"Everyone, form a line behind Sally. Pull as hard as you can," Jack ordered before turning to the scientist. "Doctor Finkelstein, you have to cut the power."
"If I do, it might get those brats stuck in between worlds. Good riddance I say, but Oogie Boogie will storm in here looking for them and that will cause more trouble than anything," Doctor Finkelstein said.
"Can you reverse the flow so that it pushes them back here?"
"That could work, Jack. Be ready to pull everyone," he said as he pulled a lever on the control panel.
Meanwhile...
"Come on, come on!" Zim said, felling strained to pull those minions into his dimension. GIR was on his last rubber piggy and those guards were just about ready to shock the life right out of Zim with their electric prods.
"Oooooh," GIR said, in awe of the dimension.
"GIR, go back to distracting," Zim said before something felt different. "What the-GIR! GIR, the dimension is sucking me in! GIR, anchor me!" Zim yelled as he was being sucked into the portal, with GIR grabbing onto his ankles to keep him in the present dimension.
"I got ya, master!" GIR chirped.
"Quick, grab the robot and pull on him," Dib said to the guards that were still conscious.
"Robot?" one of them asked.
"The green dog," Dib clarified.
"Oh," said the one guard as he and others picked up the dog and began to pull on it.
"I like this game!" GIR said as he held onto Zim, whose screams of terror could slightly be heard beyond the portal.
On both sides, the tug-of-war grew more fierce. The Halloween Towners weren't giving up, neither were the Membrane Guards. Then, as if by some sick twist of fate, something happened on both sides that transpired in a complete dimensional shift. In Halloween Town, Sally's wrist seams had become loose. As a result, her hands fell off, sending her and most of Halloween Town careening backwards and shooting Jack into the portal. In the press conference gone wrong, one of the guards tripped over a rubber piggy still left on the floor, breaking the chain and allowing the green dog and its master to be sucked into the portal. In mere seconds, six were uprooted from their own homes and taken to strange worlds none ever imagined to see in their wildest dreams.
To Be Continued...