A/N. This is chapter 2 of SSC and well… I'm having some trouble putting the story on paper… So expect some long gaps between each chapter… I'd really appreciate some helpful tips, ect. Ect.

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Dib stared in disbelief at the alien standing in front of him. His jaw was clenched and he was pretty sure he looked determined. He couldn't tell. He could only feel the butterflies flitting about in his stomach that made him want to go and hide.

"Hello Dib-Human." Zim said tugging back Gir as he happily tried to hug Dib. "I suspect you didn't expect the Almighty Zim to return did you?" a smirk now tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Dib's eyes narrowed as he felt the butterflies disappear. "No. I thought your Tallest, or whatever they're called, would keep you to 'train' for a lot longer than two months." He said putting his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.

"Hmph. I don't have time for this." Zim snorted, turning back towards his door. "Come along, Gir. We've got to work on our latest plan for Earth's destruction!" He said dragging his green pal back through the door to his house, leaving Dib standing alone outside.

'What was that?!' Dib thought turning and heading back to his own house. 'Why--? What--?' he couldn't begin to wrap his mind around what had just happened with Zim. The butterflies in his stomach came as a complete shock to him.

A cold breeze whipped through the air and Dib shivered, wrapping his long coat around him. Fall was approaching quickly now that he thought about it. Soon it'd be Halloween again… 'Oh god… Halloween.' He shudder again partially because of the cold, but mostly because memories of last year's Halloween came flooding back to him.

'Those… Horrible visions…' he thought. 'At least Zim came with me… If it hadn't been for him I would probably still be trapped in that horrible nightmare…' A slight blush invaded Dib's cheeks as he went through the thoughts of last year's Halloween.

He remembered how Zim had come to save him when he was strapped down on the pedestal.

Zim.

The blush on his cheeks grew stronger at that thought.

'He saved me… N-now that I think about it…' Dib felt the butterflies return and he brought his thoughts to other topics, like his next scheme to spy on Zim. Maybe he could get Gir to place another camera in his house… Hopefully this time in his lab.

While he was lost in his scheming he covered more ground than he realized and ended up walking straight into the door to his house.

"OW." He cried, placing his hands on his throbbing nose. Pulling one hand back he saw a tiny drop of blood and saw that he had a slight nosebleed. Suddenly his dad opened the door.

"Hi dad." Dib said focusing more on getting a tissue than on his dad.

"Hello son!" Dr. Membrane said enthusiastically as his son squeezed by him and ran to the bathroom. Dr. Membrane sighed. "My poor, insane son." He said placing the tips of his fingers on his temples.

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Zim slammed the door to his base and stood there for a moment. "Hmph. Come on Gir. We must hurry and contact The Tallest to inform them that we are here." He said marching to the toilet in the middle of his kitchen.

"YAAAY." Gir cheered as they descended to the oh so familiar underground lab of Zim's base.

When they reached the bottom Gir discarded his doggie disguise and proceeded to run around the lab shouting "I'm naked!"

"Yes, yes Gir. We know." Zim said distractedly as he approached his giant computer and started to type something in Irken. The massive computer screen went fuzzy and Zim stood at attention wait for his Tallest to appear on screen.

As the screen cleared and the two purple and red figures began to come into perspective, Zim felt a wide grin spread across his face. "MY TALLEST! I HAVE ARRIVED AT THE…filthy…planet Earth." He shouted to them. The red Tallest spoke up as the purple Tallest yelled at people on the computers behind them. "Yes Zim. That's great. Uh… What's going on?" he asked staring at the scene behind Zim.

"Enh?" Zim asked turning around, only to see that Gir had gotten into some deadly chemicals and made some of his devices go haywire. "AH. GIR. NO! DON'T COMBINE THO-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. AH-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" The Tallest watched as Zim's transmission was once again cut off by some sort of explosion. "At least he's gone." Said the purple Tallest taking a break from yelling at the Irken at the computers.

Back at Zim's base all was chaos. Several experiments of Zim's had gotten loose in the explosion and were now running amok. Zim ran around frantically trying to get everything under control again so he could proceed with his plans. "COMPUTER. Run repairs on the base. We need this place up and running again so I can start on my GREATEST PLAN EVER." Zim shouted to the unwilling machine.

After a few hours of chasing all the loose experiments around the base and barely succeeding in putting them back in their tanks, Zim went back upstairs exhausted where Gir had snuck away and was now watching the scary monkey show. Zim sighed heavily as he sat down. "What a day." He exclaimed in a breathy voice.

"Ya know, Master… Dib isn't THAT bad… I like him." Said Gir not taking his eyes away from the t.v.

Zim just gave him a puzzled expression and stood up. "Enh? Whatever." He said heading towards the elevator under the table. "COMPUTER. Take me to my quarters." He said stretching. When the computer decided to comply and the elevator arrived Zim stepped on and stood there waiting for it to reach his room.

But what Gir had said upstairs still rang in his head.

Dib isn't THAT bad…