Author's Note: Well, readers, this'll be my last update until around early-mid July. Summer vacation time, loves, and I'm going to sunny California. So if I happen to find Tim Burton or Jhonen Vasquez there, perhaps I can buy the rights to either The Nightmare Before Christmas or Invader ZIM off of them. Or at least kidnap them and bring them back home.Until then, I own nothing but the plot.
As soon as his father left the room, Dib went about releasing Jack and Sally. It turned out to be much harder than ensnaring them in the first place. After about twenty minutes, they were free. Though, one thing bothered Dib after that. Where was Minimoose? The answer came from underneath Dib's desk.
"Hey! Over here, Big Head," said Minimoose's 'voice'.
"So you found my laptop," Dib said, looking under the desk, finding Minimoose with a cable in his mouth and a laptop next to him.
"Someone had to call for help before your father barged in here."
"He didn't call for help. He just cowered there in his moosey way," Jack said.
"Moosey way?" Sally asked, confused at Jack's terminology.
"He's just been here for too long," Dib said to Sally.
"What about me? I'm an enemy hench-moose! I'm not supposed to be here at all. Where's my pity, huh?"
"Since you want to go home so badly, you can come with us to catch the kids in the Base."
"No thanks," Minimoose said, spitting out the cable translating his thoughts and giving one final squeak.
"Suit yourself," Dib said, watching the moose hover back onto his bed and close its eyes.
"Now what?" Jack asked Dib.
"Well, Gaz can't blackmail us anymore, so we have all that hiding out of the way. Don't let your guard down, though. She could always come up with something else."
"Dib, I don't intend to sound rude, but how can your sister be so, well, horrible?" Sally asked.
"Beats me. She's helpful sometimes; at least she tries. Somehow, things turn out worse when she helps. She can't mean it, can she?"
"No, not at all," Jack said, grabbing Sally's left wrist. "As interesting as this conversation is, maybe we'd better get some sleep."
"You're right. We can get a good three hours if we start now. Goodnight, you guys," Dib said just as Jack and Sally closed his door.
"What was that all about?" Sally asked Jack, who let go of her wrist.
"Shhh. You never know if that she-devil is listening. You don't want to incur her wrath, believe me."
"Jack, she's bossy and mean, but she can't harm us that badly. We're already dead."
"Chances are, that girl can do things to us that are much worse than death," Jack said.
"You're terrified of her," Sally said, surprised.
"We're in a whole different world, Sally. Our rules don't apply here. Who knows what could happen?" Jack asked before looking down the hallway. "Let's sneak out."
"What?" Sally asked.
"Are you tired?"
"Not really, no."
"Neither am I. Let's sneak out for a while."
"Jack, we can't do that. Dib's going to wake up looking for us."
"We'll be back before he wakes up. Come on, Sally. We're in a whole new place where nobody really knows us. Frankly, I've been feeling a little cooped up here and now that Gaz can't turn us in to her father, we can go out in the clear."
"I don't know…"
"Please, Sally? It'll be fun, just you and me," Jack asked, grabbing both of Sally's hands and making the bottom of his jaw tremble sadly.
"No, Jack. Don't make that face. You know I can't say no to that face," Sally said, trying to look away.
"That's why I'm doing it."
"Oh, fine. But we better be back here before Dib wakes up."
"You won't regret it. Shall we go?" Jack asked, bowing to Sally in an overdramatic way.
"We shall," Sally said, bringing Jack back to her level and walking out of the house with him.
Meanwhile…"Where did he go?" Lock asked Shock and Barrel, who both looked under the couch in the living room for any sign of Minimoose.
"We've been looking for that stupid thing for hours," Shock said. "Just forget it."
"Yeah. Wanna finish the rest of the pizza?" Barrel asked Lock and Shock.
"Nah, I'm full. Let's shoot the slices into space," Lock suggested.
"That's your answer for everything," Shock said.
"No it isn't!" Lock exclaimed.
"Look, a roach," Shock said, pointing to the floor.
"Let's shoot it into- SHOCK! There's no roach there," Lock said.
"No, but I see an idiot standing in front of me."
"Take that back!"
"Make me!"
Barrel sighed and let the battle commence. After so many times trying to break Lock and Shock up, he would usually end up fighting them anyway. He walked back into the kitchen and jumped into the garbage can, alone this time. There had to be something he could do that didn't involve getting pummeled. That something turned out to be a room previously ignored by the trio, a room that lacked any implements of doom of any kind. It had plenty of screens though, each one with a different image of the Base and of world around them.
"What's this place?" Barrel asked, not expecting an answer.
"Surveillance Room," the computer said, causing Barrel to jump a few inches in the air.
"You really are everywhere!"
"I'm the house. Yeesh, you guys are dumber than dumb."
"Hey, Lock and Shock are gone," Barrel said, looking over the screen displaying the living room, now empty.
"Look around the screens, you'll see them," the computer said.
"There they are!" Barrel said, looking into a screen showing footage of a corridor. "Where's that place?"
"What are you talking about?" Lock asked as he and Shock walked into the room.
"Check this out, I saw you guys come in," Barrel said as he pointed to the screens.
"Yeah right," Shock said as she looked at the screens. "Hey, think we can talk to those tall guys again?"
"The Almighty Tallest," the computer corrected.
"Yeah, them."
"Hold on. I'll see if they're busy," the computer said to Shock as all the screens showed the same image of the red Irken insignia.
"Why do you want to talk to them?" Lock asked Shock. "We're not even close to taking over the world yet."
"They could help us. It's not like they're meaner than Oogie Boogie and just say no."
"We don't know that for sure," Barrel said to Shock.
"Well, we're about to find out," Shock said as the screens changed image once again.
"Red! It's Earth again!" Purple yelled, spewing doughnut crumbs from his mouth.
"Stop spitting those on me!" Red ordered before clearing his throat. "You took over the planet already? That was quick."
"No. We sort of have a problem with that," Shock said.
"Problem? Oh come on! We thought you were smarter than Zim, not dumber! You three are even a bit taller than he is," Red said in a disappointed tone.
"Yeah. Taller is smarter," Purple said, dropping his doughnut bag on the floor in the process. "My doughnuts!"
"We can't concentrate. Jack's looking for us," Shock said.
"It's true," Lock and Barrel added simultaneously.
"Wait, wait, wait. Who's Jack?" Red asked.
"Jack is in charge of everything back where we come from. If he finds us, he'll take us home and probably bring Zim back here," Lock said.
"He's really tall. Probably taller than you," Barrel added, watching both Red and Purple stare back at the three in horror.
"Taller than the Tallest? He's going to usurp us!" Purple cried out.
"He can't usurp us, Purple. He's not Irken," Red said before pausing. "Is he?"
"No. He's a skeleton," Shock said.
"See?" Red asked Purple.
"Anyway, with him on our trail, we can't go out and do any taking over," Shock said.
"Can't you just kill him? Throw him out an airlock or something?" Purple asked, clearly tiring of the subject.
"He's already dead," Barrel said. "We are too."
"Airlock?" Lock asked, confused by the term.
"Well, can you blow him to tiny bits?" Red asked.
"We tried that, it didn't work," Shock said.
"Hmmmm… you probably used some malfunctioning equipment. You are in Zim's Base after all," Red said in a condescending tone.
"Yeah, I'm surprised they can still walk or aren't fused to meat," Purple said.
"Meat," Red repeated, causing both Tallest to roar with laughter.
"So what can we do?' Shock asked.
"We'll send some stuff that actually works, don't worry," Red said as he regained his composure.
"Meat! Ha! I remember when it started growing on his eyeballs!" Purple exclaimed between laughs.
"Yeah, expect it to drop in from Callnowia in a half-hour. Oh, and don't call back until you take over the planet or else, well, you're going to be the ones blown into bits instead," Red said in a tone half-stern and half-joking as the screens faded to the red insignias once more.
"See, I told you they'd help," Shock said.
"They're still pretty mean though," Barrel said as a noise at the doorway caught their attention.
"I knew it!" Lock exclaimed as he ran to the doorway and grabbed what made the noise, a plump, green-glowing weasel. "I knew there had to be more. Let's find the rest and shoot them into space!"
"Well, we do have half an hour to kill," Barrel said to Shock, who only sighed and followed the boys out of the Surveillance Room
Meanwhile…Well, Sally was certainly taking her time. Igor had eaten at least three boxes of dog biscuits himself before he realized he had company. Zero, Jack's canine companion, had hovered his way back into the laboratory after disappearing for a while, most likely to look for Jack. Igor shared the last few boxes he had with him. From the fading light of Zero's nose, Igor could tell the spectral dog was sad. After all, his master had been gone for days and from the looks of things, wasn't returning any time soon. They were up until sunrise, at which point both dog and hunchback fell into slumber, tired from their vigil. Unfortunately, sleep came at the worst time for them, a while before a green-skinned boy and his equally shaded dog entered the laboratory with some extra 'baggage'.
"Whoo! We're goin' home!" GIR exclaimed.
"Shhh! GIR, quiet," Zim said, dragging the body of Doctor Finkelstein behind him, GIR giggling away in its open head.
"I'm gonna play with Baldy Duck Man every day."
"That's beside the point, GIR. Now, where was that room."
"There!"
"Really?"
"… Nope!"
"GIR," Zim growled. "Stop frustrating me. It's bad enough I have to drag this shell of a creature back with us. Oogie could have at least helped. I had the decency of giving him the thing's brain, but did he thank ZIM? No."
"There it is," GIR said, pointing ahead.
"Oh, I'm not falling for-" Zim started before looking right at a large portal. "Well, there it is. I knew it. I am ZIM!"
"Hurry! I wanna see the Scary Monkey Show," GIR said.
"GIR, quiet. You don't want to wake the hideous guard," Zim said, nodding towards a snoring Igor and Zero resting on his hunch.
"Awwww, they look so cute!" GIR said, ignoring the fact he was being dragged towards the operational panel.
"Let's see. "Zero, Three, Three, One, Two, Zero, Zero, One," Zim said, reading the coordinates from the control panel. Hang on, GIR, we're heading back to Earth."
"YAY!" the robot exclaimed as Zim dragged the body of the scientist into the portal and sent all three of them careening into their dimension.
What Zim and GIR didn't know was that they were followed. As soon as the coast was clear, Oogie Boogie crept right up to the portal. He checked to see if Igor or Jack's mutt was awake before grabbing a large wrench from a metallic table next to him and feeling its weight. Once he was sure it was perfect, Oogie Boogie went about smashing the Continuum Portal. He didn't leave until it was shattered into pieces. When his work was done, Oogie turned around and whistled his was back home. No Jack. No Zim. No more problems. This was going to be a wonderful day.
To Be Continued…