Agent Mothman,

Your partner's application request has been verified and accepted. We look forward to working with Agent CrimsonSpider. There is an induction ceremony in a few weeks, if you wish to attend.

Now, I hope you are ready to get to work immediately. I've attached directions and further details about a case. It doesn't seem to be anything too exciting (sorry). Lots of energy read outs but, little else. Agent Darkbooty wants some kind of confirmation and report filed. Check it out and see what you can come up with.

-Agent Tunafish


They had been hiking for hours. Dib stared down at the map he'd printed off before they'd left, brows furrowed in concentration. It's gotta be close.

"What?" Zim grumbled, irritably taking off his wig for the hundredth time to wipe away sweat.

"What?" He must've spoken out loud. Dib shoved the map into his pocket and stopped despite the urge to keep walking. Zim's breathing was labored. The tiny irken had to take four steps for everyone of Dib's. He took a swig from his water bottle and watched his partner slow to a stop, looking pretty ungrateful for the rest. "Nothing. Just looking at the stupid map."

ZIM made a motion, a hand extended, fingers grabbing at the air. Dib dug the crumpled paper from his pocket and gave it to the irken who worked to smooth it out. He doubted the alien would be able to direct them any better than Dib had been doing but, didn't say that, instead just took the opportunity to check their surroundings a bit. The path they were on had obviously not been traversed in quite a while. Vegetation was creeping along the walkway. Tall trees surrounded them on every side. Forests were a common place for all kinds of paranormal activity. Less energy interference from the living mean more ghosts and other spirits. And the isolation was quite desirable to many creatures. They were currently a day away from town and several hours from any kind of civilization.

A line had formed on ZIM's forehead as he tried to find where they were based on the tiny squiggles, colors and english words. Circled in red was their destination. A red arrow and several question marks peppered its edges. Unable to decipher anything of use, he shoved the map back at the human, with more force than was probably necessary. Dib took it in a stride, replacing it in his pocket before he kept walking. Zim begrudgingly followed.

"You know you can take your disguise off? We're far away from anyone that might see you." In response, the irken just grumbled.

Up ahead was a wooden sign. Dib jogged to reach it. 'Lurpeko' was spelled out in metal letters. He opened the map again, despite having almost memorized it. There. They were close. Almost on top of the place Agent Tunafish had wanted them to check out. Time to leave the path behind. He started into the forest, aware of the irken's second of hesitation before he followed.

The further the crept away from the nice little gravel walkway, the more Dib became aware of bird songs. Or rather the lack of it. That was a good sign. It meant they were getting closer. The hair stood up on his arms, a tell tale sign of some kind of supernatural energy. Dib could feel it in his stomach. It pulled him forward like a magnet. Whatever it was, was strong. He looked behind him to make sure ZIM was still keeping pace only to find the irken had fallen way behind and was standing with his hands over his antenna, eyes tightly closed.

"Hey." Dib closed the distance between them. That was another sign that they were close. ZIM felt it too. "You okay?"

Dib clutched at the straps of his backpack. Anticipation thrummed in his blood. He wanted to keep moving. A tiny voice whispered 'If you were alone you would already be there, in the thick of it.' He shoved it away.

Zim shook his head. Not in a 'yes' or 'no', but like he was shaking something off. "I'm fine. Let's keep moving." Then he took off, walking faster than he had the whole trip. Dib blinked and sped up his own pace.

They walked around boulders, jumped over logs, skirted massive trees...Dib skidded to a stop reaching out to grab the irken's arm before he tumbled headfirst into what sprawled out before them. And below them. There was a massive hole in the ground. It was long enough across that Dib didn't think he could jump across it. It's length was that of a small house, he guessed. Nothing was growing within a few feet of the hole.

Dib peered down, wondering just how deep it sun did little to illuminate it. He looked around before he spotted a rock. He held it in his hand for a second, feeling the rough stone before he dropped it into the darkness.

They both listened. The answering sound happened much sooner than expected and ZIM jumped a bit because it was decidedly metallic. It echoed like whatever it had hit was hollow. Dib dug his flashlight out and knelt at the edge of the crevice, shining the light below. He felt the irken move closer. It was less than 20 feet, Dib gauged. The ground below was starkly grey metal. He squinted and dragged the flashlight along until he found what looked like a hatch.

Dib looked up at the irken. Their eyes met and ZIM began shaking his head. "No! We're just supposed to check it out! That's what the stupid paper said. Not...not go down there!" Zim crossed his arms, feeling very on edge.

"Come on, Zim! What can we learn just from being up here?" Dib was already looking around for something to tie a rope around. "It might not even open. If it doesn't, we'll go." He bargained, digging out climbing rope from his trusty backpack.

Zim watched the human tie a knot around a tree. "I'll stay up here. You check if it opens. If not I will have to help pull your stupid face up. And if it does open...I'll follow you."

Dib didn't really need any help getting out. Years of climbing,running,pushing,pulling,swimming etc all in the name of chasing the paranormal had given him a bit of muscle. But, he declined to mention that.

Zim held the light while Dib ventured down into the crack. His boots hit the metal with heavy clunks. The wheel of the hatch was rusted and tightly sealed. Dib pulled with all his might, feeling it give a bit before it refused to move any more. He cursed and stood, to look up at the light holder whose lenses did little to mask his wide, nervous eyes.

"Hey, it started to move. Come give me a hand." Dib got to see the alien's eyes narrow, annoyed.

"It didn't open! Let's go!"

Dib brushed the rust onto his jeans. "It almost is! Come on, ZIM!" He barely caught the flashlight as it was thrown at him. Dib scowled, and used it to watch the irken as he scrambled down the rope with a surprising agility.

Dib shoved the flashlight into his mouth, kneeling across from his partner who was already gripping the wheel. They strained and grunted, the wheel slowly screeching,slowly loosening...until with a loud clunk, they flung the hatch open.

Another dark hole greeted them. Dib pulled the slightly saliva-y light from his mouth to shine it below. A metal ladder led to what looked like black and white tile. A rush of fear, excitement and confusion rose up in him. He glanced over to ZIM and was surprised to find the same emotions written across his face.

Dib handed the irken the flashlight and went to start climbing down the hole. Zim grabbed a bunch of trench coat fabric to stop him. This was a bad idea. Some voice inside Zim screamed. Normally, he would say screw bad or good ideas. All that mattered was action. That was how he worked. But, something about the paranormal, about this place...it tightened his muscles, made him jumpy, anxious,cautious.

"What?" Dib barked, irritated.

"This...we shouldn't..." He had no evidence that anything was wrong. Just a gut feeling.

Dib's own gut told him the same thing. But, it was overshadowed with anticipation, the euphoria of discovery. "I'm going in there, ZIM. You don't have to follow me." He shrugged the irken off and kept descending.

Zim watched him go. He growled and chucked the flashlight down past the human before tossing a leg over the edge of the hatch to follow.

The irken didn't need any kind of light to see in the dark but, he pulled up his pak leg's light anyway.

They had entered through an emergency exit, if the flickering green 'EXIT' sign was any indication. Whatever this place was, it had power. Together they turned and made their way down the hallway. The tile squeaked faintly under their boots. The walls were subtly curved on each side. The air smelled stale and reeked of antiseptic.

"Agent Tunafish didn't say anything about this..." Dib murmured, directing the beam of light along the walls to search for any clues.

ZIM huffed. A noise between laughter and a scoff. The human's face was bright and open with curiosity and anticipation. A rare sight indeed. He tore his gaze away from the stupid human's face in order to actually observe their terrible surroundings, antenna perked for anything outside of their footsteps and breathing.

They came to a door and were unable to open it as it needed a keycard and had no visible handle. But, a sign on the wall announced it as 'Sample Processing'. They reluctantly moved on, reading any other door signs that they came to. Other doors apparently led to the 'Stability Chamber', 'Injections Room', and the all important 'Break Room'.

Zim growled. "Why does the break room need a key card?!"

Dib directed the flashlight's beam ahead of them, already moving on. "It's a break room only for the VIP."

Zim ignored his own jitteriness, and not for the the first time felt a stab of rage (and envy) that Dib seemed so utterly calm. Not only calm, but eager! Something invisible drew him forward, a gut deep passion. ZIM took quick steps to keep up, hating how it echoed along the long hallway.

"What even is this place?" There was something else here. Besides their breathing and footsteps. His antennae twitched. It was an ever present humming. Electricity? The long dormant machines? Working to what?

"How should I know?" Dib stepped up to the newest door on their left and shone the light over the sign, "Analyzing." he read aloud, aware that his normal volume had fallen dramatically till it was barely above a whisper.

"Analyzing what?" Zim asked. Too loud, too close. Dib glanced over and down. Zim's hands were clenched, antenna stiff and twitching, eyes wide. The light from his pak legs basked them both in a ethereal pink glow.

They kept moving. The end of the hallway led to a forked pathway, more doors, more mystery.

"Dib." Zim hissed through clenched teeth. "We've seen enough of this place. We can tell your stupid organization that we came, saw a weird underground...THING and THEY can come see it."

Dib was already walking down the left hallway. "OUR stupid organization, Agent. Now, shut up and let's move."

"I HATE you."

"Uh huh."

Zim stomped after the human, watching his back as they ventured further into the darkness, deep underground. Edging away from the exit, from their only exit. Stepping deeper into some irk forsaken place that hummed with useless energy, smelt like someone had been cleaning it for hundreds of years without a purpose other than to clean.

Something tickled in the back of his mind. Something he'd felt before, many times. All of them during the screamed danger and unknowable terror. It screamed at him to leave, to save himself and never look back. Simultaneously there was a pull in his spooch and it drew him forward. A primitive curiosity, discovering things he'd never learned of before. And he had all of irken knowledge inside his brains. More knowledge than the humans could ever catalog and never had he encountered anything like this...like ghosts and magic and monsters. The scientist inside of him found everything about the paranormal utterly infatuating...

"Zim!" Dib shouted. The alien jumped, going into a fighting position automatically, before realizing that he'd been spacing out, thinking.

"What?!" He shouted back, twice as loud, angry that he'd been caught unawares. Dib scowled, unconsciously wincing from the noise.

"Shut up. Look, this door has no keycard scan. Just a normal lock."

Zim grumbled, stepping forward to examine it. "Where does it go to?"

"According to the sign, 'Reception'. A reception area? What on earth is this place?"

Zim easily lasered away the lock, and the human eagerly pulled the door open.

They both took a step back. This was the only place that looked as if anyone (or thing) had been here. What was once a reception area was a disaster. Chairs and tables overturned and torn to shreds.

The smell was immediate. Dib plugged his nose and ZIM firmly shut his mouth. Obvious decay lingered in the air. Something was rotten under the torn fluff and splinters.

Zim began kicking the stuff up, searching. He wasn't unfamiliar with the scent. Being a soldier meant seeing (and smelling) death.

Dib almost stopped him but, had to take a break outside lest he lose the granola bar he'd eaten on the hike. Dib himself had seen dead things. Zombies, recent corpses killed by whatever manner of monster...but, he was prepared in those instances. That had been quite unexpected and bile rose in his throat at the scent. And it was hard to get used to the smell of rotting flesh. He swallowed and with some quick breaths of clean air, went back inside to help.

There were multiple bodies. There had to be. They had been there for...who knows how long. But, they recognized the mostly decayed limbs. At least six arms. Four legs. A torso.. None of which were connected. Whatever had killed these people was violent and had taken trophies.

Zim got a keycard off a body (face a mask of disgust) and glanced over at the human who was bent over the reception desk, brows furrowed as he shuffled through papers. Dib did these stupid missions all the time. He'd done them for years before ZIM had come. Dove unthinkingly into haunted houses, werewolf chases, mysterious labs...and he would continue to do so no matter what. Dib was unable to resist his unnatural curiosity for the things that couldn't be explained. It kept him coming back again and again, a brilliant mind that could so easily attain anything else and was challenged only by this.

Even if that thing hurt him. ZIM remembered seeing scars. Gashes and bruises, red human blood from thin scratches and... Zim looked down near his boot where the dead torso from some poor human lie. Bile rose up in the back of his throat and he took a big step back.

Humans were so fragile. So messy. Earth needed a protector. He straightened, giving Dib one last look before he continued to search the room.

Another EXIT sign led to two large doors. He tried his keycard and it beeped at him, an accepting green light illuminated the darkness. The doors opened for him and revealed another vast tunnel. It was paved and led...somewhere. He returned to the reception area to find Dib, stuffing papers into his bag.

Zim walked over to the last section of the room he had yet to search, finding another door on the opposite edge of the room. Or rather the hole where the door used to be. The door itself was off its hinges, scratched and dented. Another hideous dark hallway, trails of blood leaving the area that his light reached. Movement behind him, a familiar presence next to him.

"Did you find anything?" Zim asked, turning halfway to observe the human.

"Kind of." Dib replied, eyes never leaving the dark in front of them. "I probably would've gotten more from the computer. But, the monitor is busted. So,I'll have to come grab it later. I just scanned the stuff I found...from what I can gather this place...Lurpeko Labs...was doing some kind of highly illegal experimenting. All kinds of genetic mutations and splices with already supernatural creatures..." He shook his head, finally flicking on his light and shining it down the hall. "Textbook foolishness. They probably created something they couldn't handle and it..."

Zim didn't need Dib to finish his sentence. They both stood on the cusp of the darkness, knowing they could go down the rabbit hole. Knowing they would probably find more dead bodies, more locked doors. And maybe, most probably a monster made by man, strong enough to rip bodies apart. Strong enough to tear metal doors off its hinges.

Dib stepped forward. Zim put a hand across the door jamb to stop him, jaw set. "No, Dib."

"What?" Dib said, a scowl already forming on his face.

"I said no...we've seen enough. Have enough. Let's leave."

The human glowered down at Zim.

"But, we need to know what did this! And stop it. Kill it."

Zim whirled around and made himself stand as tall as he could. "Why?! There's no humans to protect. They're already dead. Due to their own folly. I understand your curiosity, Dib, but not if it gets us killed. We have no weapons, no idea of this things strengths or weaknesses..." He shook his head and crossed his arms. "I refuse to go any further. And I refuse to let you go and die."

Dib felt the voices in his head rising up again. If he was alone,if Zim wasn't here...he would be already heading into the darkness, already unlocking doors and discovering what could have done such a thing to these people...and...his eyes darted about the endless black,unseeing.

And Zim was right.

Wow. Zim was right and it was the worst day ever.

Dib sighed and stepped back. ZIM's instincts were always right in cases like this. They would tell the Swollen Eyeballs about their findings and a team could handle this. A team who had experience dealing with this kind of stuff. A team made up of more than a barely out of his teens paranormal investigator and a tiny ex-evil alien. Despite their combined strength and skill, they really would probably stand no chance. Especially if this thing had been living here for such a long time. It probably knew every nook and cranny.

He looked down at the irken who was still flushed with anger. "Alright. Come on. We can still probably unlock some of those other doors on our way out with the keycard you found. Maybe we'll find some info that the Eyeballs can use."

Zim deflated a bit with relief. "Good thinking."


Agent Tunafish,

The full report has been attached to this message. It's...a bit more than high energy readings. Please, keep us in the loop about any further action that will be taken in accordance with this case.

-Agent Mothman & Agent CrimsonSpider


The sun was kind of blinding after being underground for hours. They sealed the hatch as tightly as they could and scaled their way out of the hole.

In Dib's bag he had several files, a flashdrive, some disks and many,many pictures in his camera of the rooms they'd gotten into (including the break room). Each one had helped satiate his curiosity a bit, but also led to even more questions. Hopefully, the Eyeballs could answer them for him eventually.

They retraced their steps, hoping to make it back to camp before night fell. They talked about Lurpeko Labs, tossing ideas,information, observations,theories back and forth as they walked the dusty trail, over the campfire Dib made and late into the darkness when the stars spread brightly across the sky.