Authors Notes: Well, here's chapter four. Thanks to Crekt2 for betaing... me wuvvs you.

Wow... HeCallsMeHisChild is watching this story... I feel so honoured. sniff

Thanks to everyone who reviewed... R&R if you please blah blah ON WITH THE STORY!

The television lit the gloomy scene with an electric glow that cast everything in shadow. The screen changed and a grisly green lit the face of a girl on a tattered couch. She stared with permanently squinted eyes at the LCD screen as it dashed through various pictures in an effort to keep its human watchers attention. A commercial for Game Slave 3 came on and the girl's eyes popped open, amber irises almost lost in her whites. A previously empty and disinterested gaze became unnervingly piercing and concentrated as the announcer blared through the crackling television speakers. Pictures, words, annoying voices all eaten by the girl's eyes, devoured by her concentration. And it ended. Immediately the amber eyes closed back into a squint and the gaping mouth twisted into a permanent grimace.

The scene was interrupted by the sound of shoes dramatically pounding up stairs. A door was flung open, banging against the wall and cracking the plaster. By the looks of it, this had happened more than once and the hole was large enough to fit a little boy's head.

"DAUGHTER!" A goggled man cried out, finger pointed to the sky. "Where is your BROTHER?!"

Had it been anyone else who had asked Gaz would have beaten them to a pulp then resurrected the remains and proceeded to shove them down a garbage disposal. As it was, she squinted even harder, if that was possible, and thought. Vaguely she recalled a voice, filling her with unbearable rage, a slam of a door. She remembered screaming something... and losing to the HamHog. The rest of events were much clearer. The large, red letters on the tiny screen, flashing defeat over and over again. A cry of rage, the cringe of a (large) head smashed into a wall. Kitchen knives, flashing in practiced precision, lodged in a frantically closed door. A voice, begging desperately, barely heard over the roar of hatred, the beep of 'Game Over,' the Professor Membrane lamp shattering against a suitcase. Then the absence of a high-pitched voice, the comforting zone of the game, electronic beeping.

"He went to Zim's house."

"For a SLEEPOVER?!"

"Yeah, sure."

Professor Membrane chuckled. "That's my son. Now back to REAL SCIENCE!"

He raced back down the stairs, door slamming into the doorjamb behind him. Gaz settled into the couch, eyes fixated on the screen now advertising a sale on dead bodies at the Funeral Home. She, of course, hadn't mentioned the fact that Dib's 'sleepover' at the moment was a month long, or that he had taken all of the paranormal items from his room. He didn't ask so I didn't tell. Gaz smiled ever so slightly (several squirrels spontaneously combusted) and turned her thoughts on how to obtain money for the Game Slave 3.

Rumours have a habit of spreading like wildfire in high wind when started in dry grassland. In the hands of Zita they flew through time and space, breaking several laws of physics, and inserted themselves into the ears of skoolchildren. As a result, the children knew the rumour before they had even heard it, as they would at skool the next day. Therefore Zita had been given veto over all rumours; she decided which rumour was spread, which rumour was fake and which was true. At the moment she held a rumour in her hands and was debating whether or not to toss it on to the skoolyard population.

Many children had noticed something funny. Torque still beat the smaller kids, and Miss Bitters still taught (how, nobody knew), Dib and Zim still screamed at each other and threw various food stuffs. However, Dib and Zim had begun to walk to skool together. Had it only happened once it would not have been much of a rumour. Yet every single day they walked, side by side, arguing at the top of their lungs.

All the children knew something was up with Dib. He never so much as glanced at male or female and spouted crazy things all the time. He was a loser, a crazy loser. All the children knew something was up with Zim. He never so much as glanced at male or female (in fact, he seemed to be filled with disgust whenever he saw either) and spouted off random and insane things all the time. He was a loser, a creepy loser.

Before Zim had transferred to skool, Dib had been beaten to a pulp almost daily; many jocks had made it into a game of how many hits they could get in before Dib's scary sister dragged him off after skool. However, the little green psycho had kicked the shit out of half the football team (Marm was still in a coma) the first time he had stumbled (literally) upon one of their 'Catch the Crazy' games. The whole while he broke bones and freed blood he shrieked that 'The Dib' was his 'smelly, filthy worm baby' and that no other 'smelly, filthy worm baby' was going to touch a hair on his head. At first the jocks had attempted to take vengeance if not for their fallen comrades then for the thrill of the hunt. However, after a few of them vanished mysteriously (and the creepy grin of the insane green boy grew wider and, if it was possible, even more creepy) the hunt fell through a few months later. This did not mean Dib was bruise free, in fact it seemed that his bruise count rose and he even sported a few stitches occasionally. So, in light of the new developments, the children began to take bets on how beat up Dib would be at the beginning of every skool day.

Dib and Zim did seem to fight a lot. And scream a lot. And throws things a lot. Yet they always hung out together (even if that 'hanging out' consisted of throwing plastic cutlery and shoving each other into mud puddles). They had even, on occasion, been seen giving each other presents (it was predictable the skoolyard population did not realize the trinkets were various alien/human destruction items of DOOM). Perhaps in the loser group there may have been rumours about the two crazy kids' relationship but in the rest of the skool population no one dared whisper without the permission of Zita.

And so Zita held a rumour. And, with a grin, she decided to spread it.

Dib and Zim walked to skool predictably arguing.

"I refuse to let you insert alien technology into Dim!"

"YOU suggested to ZIM that the smeet receive a COLLAR for the purpose of determining its LOCATION! ZIM Improved on YOUR pathetic suggestion!"

"An alien tracking chip is not an improvement!!!"

"A collar is PATHETIC! HOW DO YOU KNOW THE LOCATION WITH A COLLAR??!!"

"Well... if it gets lost people will see the address and-"

"It never worked with GIR!!"

"That's because GIR is stupid."

Zim raised his chin and snarled, "GIR's not stupid he's-"

Dib rolled his eyes, "-Advanced! Yeah, yeah, I know, Zim. You've said it how many times?"

"One thousand five hundred and eighty two since you've infested my base and ten thousand-"

"That didn't require an answer."

"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK IT??!! Are you trying to trick Zim into giving away top secret irken... secret...ness? YES! You are after my SECRETNESS!" Zim leaped at Dib and the boy yelped, falling back and trying to keep the irken's sharp claws from his eyes.

The battle went on for a few seconds, fierce and relentless before the combatants realized something was very, very wrong. Slowly, the battle stopped and two pairs of eyes, one amber the other false purple, scanned the skoolyard with uneasiness.

Every single child on the skoolyard was staring at the two, several groups of girls giggled and whispered to each other and groups of boys cracked their knuckles and glowered. Other than that, however, there was neither a sound nor a movement.

Dib pushed the invader off his chest and stood, not bothering to brush the dust off his trench coat. Zim flopped to the ground and almost began gnawing on Dib's leg for the indignity yet the silent stares of the children shoved the impulse deep into his throat and he, too, got up.

"It's like some creepy zombie movie," Dib whispered to no one.

Zim didn't know what a 'zombie movie' was but he had his own encounters with zombies and understood that perfectly. Unfortunately, the zombies he had encountered had not been all that smart and so he did not feel as much fear as the Dib. At that moment a horrible thought struck the irken.

"YOU'RE ALL AFTER MY SECRETNESS, TOO!!!!" Screaming, he ran through the groups of humans and through the skool doors until his frantic scream died out.

As soon as the green kid had vanished skool life returned to relatively normal. Dib nervously walked towards the skool doors, noticing the unwarranted attention directed his way. As soon as the doors closed behind his black-clad back he took off running to the sort-of safety of the classroom.

What the hell is going on!!!???