Author's Note: I wonder what Jhonen Vasquez and Tim Burton would think of this. I don't own any of the stuff in the story, it all goes into either one world or the other. I think Jhonen and Tim are fab for coming up with these worlds and I, like many other people, appreciate it. Now, let's get along with our invading nightmare madness, shall well?
"Hello?" Lock asked as he opened the door to the strange house. "Hell-oooo?" he asked before closing the door again.
"See? Nobody home," Barrel said as he and Shock walked inside.
"Maybe we were better off outside," Shock said as she glanced at the large painting of a green monkey staring at her from the wall.
"With all the mortals?" Lock asked Shock, who glared at him in response.
"Admit it, this was a good idea," Barrel said to Shock before he turned to face a very round, small, hovering purple moose. "What the-" he started to ask before the moose's eyes squared and a rather large ray gun popped out from its back. "GUYS!"
"Only you could get us beaten up in another world, Barrel!" Shock said as she dragged both boys into the kitchen and away from a red laser blast the moose had just shot.
"Where can we go?" Lock asked before another laser blast blew off part of the kitchen wall.
"Quick! In the trash can!" Barrel exclaimed as the three ran to a metallic trash can next to the kitchen counter.
"It won't fit all of us," Lock said as Shock opened the lid.
"Don't be so sure about that," Shock said as she pointed to what appeared to be a long chute going down to places unknown from the trash can.
"It's either that or the moose," Barrel said as the moose began to charge another laser.
"Fine, the trash can," Lock said as he allowed Barrel and Shock ahead of him before he too went into the trash can chute and escaped the very odd moose.
"Minimoose!" exclaimed a robotic voice as a floating screen appeared behind the rampaging creature. "What are you doing? Zim just fixed that wall," the screen said through its side speakers, causing the small moose to squeak sadly and drop its weapon. "Hurry up and re-fix it before he comes back, or if the Tallest call."
The moose nodded, using its whole body for the effort before floating over to the broken kitchen wall. As it pondered on how to fix the wall, Lock, Shock, and Barrel had just landed in the most marvelous place they had ever seen in their afterlives. It was a gigantic metallic cavern of all sorts of buttons begging to be pushed and levers begging to be pulled. The trio were going to have quite a lot of fun here, and being underground meant Jack couldn't find them, at least, not right away.
Meanwhile...
"Any sign yet?" the Cyclops asked the Behemoth, who grunted in response. "Same here."
"It's useless, Mr. Mayor," the werewolf said to the tired politician, who wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. "The green boy's gone. We've looked everywhere."
"Everywhere? Are you sure?" the Mayor asked his town.
"Well, there is one place," the sax player of the musicians said, immediately receiving all the attention.
"What place?" the Mayor asked.
"Oogie's place," he said, causing the whole town to gasp.
"I'm not going, certainly not," said the harlequin demon. "I already went through the sarcophagi and that was enough for me."
"It took us ages to search the whole pumpkin patch," the vampire brothers said, beginning a whole chain of who was not going to visit Oogie Boogie. It was a surprise anyone said yes at all.
"I'll go," Doctor Finkelstein sighed as he rolled up to the Mayor. "It's my machine that brought those visitors here in the first place. I'll take the responsibility. Sally, you come along with me."
"Yes, sir," she said as the pair headed towards the tree house in the distance that housed Oogie Boogie and his henchchildren.
Speaking of Oogie Boogie, he was having quite a time trying to handle Zim's robot. GIR seemed to enjoy hugging him, which bothered the boogie man very much. No matter how many times Oogie shook him off, GIR would come right back, hugging him tighter than ever.
"Will you get this stupid thing off of me!" Oogie yelled at Zim, who inspected the tree house's weapons.
"It's not stupid, it's advanced," Zim said as he picked up a bear trap. "Ooooh, looks painful."
"I LOVE YOOOOU!" GIR proclaimed to Oogie Boogie.
"Knock it off, you'll split a seam," Oogie Boogie said as he flung GIR against a wall and into a bathtub.
"That was fun!" GIR exclaimed from inside the tub, which shook itself like a recently bathed dog.
"Remind me again why I'm housing you and your excuse for a garbage can?" Oogie Boogie asked Zim.
"First of all, you were supposed to come to my world. As my minion, you are supposed to listen to me."
"Who said I was your minion?"
"I did," Zim said.
"What's your point?" Oogie Boogie asked.
"I'm Zim."
"I knew that already."
"That's my point! I am the greatest Irken Invader in the Universe and I'm stuck in a dimension where the planet I'm supposed to be conquering doesn't even exist! You were supposed to help me."
"No. You were supposed to help me," Oogie Boogie said. "I sent those three to get the machine and hook it up here so I could get my minions to take over this world."
"You make no sense, Squish Bag. Who are the three you speak of?"
"Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Don't tell me you pulled them through the machine."
"Were they short?"
"A little taller than you, shrimp."
"Well, they're in a better place now. Good soldiers," Zim said before clearing his throat.
"WHAT?" Oogie Boogie exclaimed. "Better place? They were my servants! You do realize you're going to have to do their work now."
"Why should I?"
"If you don't, I'll eat you and your trash can."
"Robot."
"I'm swimming like the fishies." GIR said from the tub.
"Besides, they weren't the only ones I pulled through the machine," Zim said before a shriek came from the front of the tree house.
"Stay put, kid," Oogie Boogie said to Zim.
"I'm not a kid!" Zim screamed before Oogie opened the door.
"Well, if it isn't everyone's favorite quack," Oogie Boogie said to Doctor Finkelstein. "And hello to you too, there," he said to Sally.
"I'm no quack and you know it," Doctor Finkelstein said.
"Calm down, Doctor," Sally said as she put her hand on his left shoulder.
"I am calm," he said before looking back to Oogie. "You haven't seen any out-of-towners around, have you, Oogie?"
"Can't say I have," Oogie Boogie said. "Why?"
"Haven't you heard? Your three troublemakers and Jack got sucked into another world. Two from the world they got stuck in are roaming around Halloween Town," Doctor Finkelstein explained.
"Oh really?" Oogie Boogie asked, barely hiding a look of pleasure from his face. "Well, I'll let you know if I see anybody suspicious."
"Good. Come along, Sally," Doctor Finkelstein said as he began to roll away.
"You know, you can come by any old time without the doctor," Oogie Boogie said to Sally.
"No offense, Mr. Boogie, but not on your afterlife," Sally said in a rather cold tone before following the mad scientist.
"She'll change her mind," Oogie said to himself as he closed the door and faced Zim once more. "Kid, I think you've just gotten on my good side."
Meanwhile...
Amazing, simply amazing. Never had Dib heard such wondrous things about another world, one so alive and dead at the same time. Jack explained all about Halloween in his land, along with many of the residents of Halloween Town. There was one he stayed on for quite a while, a certain Oogie Boogie.
"Every place has its own good and bad people, Dib. I'm sure you know that," Jack said.
"Yeah. I'm the good and Zim's the very inept bad. Still, I didn't think a place full of monsters would have one worse than all the other ones," Dib said.
"Just because we're all monsters in Halloween Town doesn't mean we're evil. We're just different, and Oogie Boogie isn't exactly bad, just misguided. Very misguided."
"What does he do?"
"Most of the time he hides out under the ground of town."
"Psh, that sounds familiar."
"How so?"
"Zim hides out underground too. His 'house' is just a pathetic cover for all of his labs and sick experiment rooms."
"Oogie doesn't really do experiments, just a torture casino for those unfortunate enough to cross him."
"Have you ever fought with him?"
"Not too seriously. Oogie's not a real threat, just a loafer who talks big," Jack said, causing Dib to grow quiet for a moment.
Here Dib was, talking to a ruler from a distant land who seemed to have the same problem he did. Of course, only Dib could find that an eloquent dead man would have things in common with him. Such was his paranormal life. Dib would have vocalized his thoughts, had his bedroom door not opened.
"Are you talking to yourself?" Gaz asked, never taking her eyes off of the Gameslave device she was playing. "It's really throwing off my game."
"Sorry, Gaz," Dib said, watching Jack out of the corner of his eye.
"Psh, weirdo," Gaz mumbled as she walked away, leaving the door open.
"Sorry about her," Dib said to Jack as the boy went to close his door. "She has no respect for the supernatural."
"Oooh, what's this?" Jack asked as he held a camera to his face, only to have it flash. "Ah, bright light!"
"How is it that you can hold and bump into things and still go through walls and stuff?" Dib asked Jack as he took the camera.
"Sometimes I forget to turn intangible. I don't think I'll ever get used to it to be honest."
"Fascinating," Dib said as put the camera away, making a mental note to develop that picture himself, lest Jack's image appear in the wrong hands.
To Be Continued...