A/N: well, bad things just seem to keep happening i guess! My grandpa died today, so that really sucks, but I'm glad I was able to get this chapter out, and I'm so so happy that you all seem to like it! Your comments are really encouraging and wonderful! Also I'll try to keep this as funny as it was in the last version! I know that was something you all liked!

Birds chirped, and I opened my eyes, looking up. Sun met my eyes immediately and I hissed, covering my face and groaning, letting out a low sound of complaint. Stupid yellow burning sun, stupid red sky, stupid birds that wouldn't shut uuuuuuup!

God.

I'd taken shelter at a park bench, having reached it in the middle of the night, and now my back was stiff, cold, and wet from lay-

Wait.

Red sky.

Red.

Red as in not blue.

As far as I knew, the sky wasn't red, it was blue. Unless it was on fire in a Doctor Who episode. Which I knew I wasn't in. (Definitely. Maybe.)

My eyes popped open – I swore there was an actual pop – and I stared up at the sky, heedless of the headache starting to dance the mambo on my brain. Stupid, horrible sun. Horrible.

They sky was a reddish-purple in the early morning light, it shimmered from heat high in the air that hadn't yet sunk down to the Earth's surface, but holy cheese why was it red? It would be normal – expected – for it to be this color early in the morning, but, not directly above me, the red always petered off to blue or black, not… Remained a continuous red. That wasn't natural.

Maybe I was in hell. JTHM version of hell. With a-holes galore. That would at least explain the driver from last night. In all honesty, I expected the after-life to be a bit JTHM-like. I didn't often have high expectations for the world.

Or maybe I was just a dummy who ran in front of a moving car.

At night.

Who knew? Could be either at this point. And honestly it wasn't like I didn't wish I was in a JTHM hell, if only for the neato art style. Possibly Nny. Observed from afar, preferably.

Finally taking my eyes away from the sky, fearing for their well-being. I already had to wear glasses, I didn't much fancy anything worse than my current prescription. I sighed and looked around.

I almost decided to lay back down.

Everything was… weirdly colored. Too bright, and unnatural. Colors were offset and somehow muted in spots, it was familiar-

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Wait.

I twisted, looking down at the bench I was sitting on. "Waaaaaaaait. Wait. Wait a frigging second." I hissed, eyes narrowing.

It appeared that the after-life was a cartoon.

What. The heck.

I jumped up from the bench, as if burnt, and looked around, eyes widening and panicking only a little. Totally only a little bit. I wasn't freaking out at all. Nope.

Everything had an outline, though! I know that people normally have that faint outline around them, barely noticeable, seeing as it's just a contrast in colors and their position on your view of the horizon-line, but, these lines were thick, visible and thick and sometimes black. Outlines!

I twirled in a circle, looking around. I'd managed to make it to a small park on the outskirts of the city, and in the dark everything had looked normal enough, yeah, but now…

A broken, twisted metal fountain sat not too far away, filled with trash. It was bronze from abandonment but a duck sat in the mucky water, quacking. A duck with googly eyes and a scar on it's beak.

Back up; ruler straight, I pigeon-hopped my way over, leaning over the fountain's edge to stare at it. The duck stared back, eyes pointing in two different directions, a somehow familiar vapid look. I seemed to have the biggest case of deja-vu along with being dead. At least I could remember who I was. Stupid afterlife.

I reached forward to touch it, and then stopped.

My hand had an outline. (Of course it did, what, did I think I'd just be a hyper-realistic dork in the land of cartoons? Idiot.) A black outline, just like everything else. It was still pale, still covered in freckles, still mine, but – holy crap I was missing a finger. Literally. No finger. Sans finger. Invis-o-finger. God dang it.

I stared at my hand, and then, coming to the conclusion that losing a finger was hardly the main issue of my day, I leaned over the fountain to stare at myself.

"Holy crap."

My hair had become jagged, still brown, but now curled up almost like tusks at my chin, my bangs were similarly shaped. Still had the green beanie on, face was the same, however oddly square... Freckles all over, glasses, green eyes.

Green eyes that were square.

And… jaw hair. Teeth. Scary. Pointy. Recognizable.

Gaz.

"Oh my god."

The duck quacked and I looked at it, suddenly and rapidly beginning to recognize it, the style everything was 'drawn' in. My heart clutched and sank to my stomach and I stood up straight, in shock.

"Sasha what did you do?"

Of course that was my first thought. It almost always was.

Sasha wasn't here, she didn't answer, and I looked to the duck again. It quacked and fluffed itself up a bit, and I sat down at the fountain, reaching up to rub my head. This wasn't real. This totally wasn't real. I closed my eyes tightly and rubbed at my temples. Not real not real not real. Make-believe fairy tails, fairy dust and stupid freaking mushrooms!

I opened my eyes. The duck had moved out of the fountain and stood at my feet. It quacked at me, pecked my foot, and then sat down.

It was real.

"Oh for crapping-frigging-crap's sake."

After a few moments of sitting, staring at the duck, I stood.

So. I was, apparently, in Invader Zim. Or dead, or somewhere that looked like a Jhonen-styled afterlife. Or I was dreaming. Or I'd gotten into a mushroom patch.

I watched as a jogger ran on a path a ways away from me, almost ready to panic. But, this could be a dream, right? How often did I get to have a dream like this?! Not often enough, that was for sure, and I was aware in this one! None of that 'doing strange things you'd never actually do' kinda stuff either!

I hesitated, and then smiled slightly, starting back to my bench. By now the sun was up more, and as I pulled my backpack on, I looked around.

It did indeed look like Invader Zim land. Some magic portal or dying had brought me here, that was all I needed to focus on. Right now at least. If I thought about it too much, well, I'd freak out, probably. Almost certainly. I'd probably faint. God I was a wimp.

I might as well find somewhere to live in the mean-time at least. I couldn't very well live – or spend my after-life – on a bench, could I?

Well, I could. But that was beside the point.

The point being that benches were generally uncomfortable and occupied by old ladies feeding birds during the day, and hobos – such as myself in this situation I suppose – at night. I didn't exactly want to be laying, taking a nap, and have some old lady plant her butt on me just to feed some pigeons.

No way, no old lady butt for me; ew.

I hiked my back-pack up and held onto both straps, starting down the path and looking around. It was warming up at least, the trees were pretty as well. I just hoped I'd find someplace to stay soon. I highly doubted that Sasha had hastily shoved any food into my backpack when she was rushing us out, or money. Or a tent. Or a house.

I almost blamed her for all this, well, mostly. I wasn't so sure yet. If she hadn't packed our bags before running away, we could have made it out instead of dying in the swamp. Or, transporting in the swamp? Nah, probably dying. I could remember vaguely the inavailability of air, so I was probably dead. Or in a coma.

Then again this wasn't all that bad, living – or being dead – in a cartoon? Are you kidding, that was my dream as a kid! Still my dream, honestly! Dreaming it currently if I wasn't dead!

I couldn't decide if I wanted to thank Sasha or kill her – double dead if we indeed were dead – next time I saw her. This was normal. I usually felt this way about her. Crazy lass.

I stopped thinking so much on Sasha as I started to meet more people on the path. They either grunted or eyeballed me as I passed. Assuming that was normal behavior for them probably would have caused me less stress, but a hole had been burnt into my tee-shirt so they were obviously grunting at that. Which, of course, was ridiculous, seeing as half of the people I passed had grease or sweat stains on them. Disgusting. I'd forgotten how horribly depressing and disgusting anything Jhonen could be.

By the time I reached a more suburban area – which my internal clock didn't seem to think took all together too long, but the one on my watch said at least half an hour. Stupid cartoon/dream physics I assumed – the sun was up a bit more, and there were more people about.

I'd stopped worrying so much about Sasha and now looked around with wide eyed wonder because cartoon people. Background characters that I could actually recognize! The one dib-look-a-like from Invasion of the Saucer Morons for example, was looking through a window at a tv set. I assumed he wished to buy it and modify it into some sort of alien-communications-device. Good for him. Live your dreams, crazy space dib-man. You go. You do that. Weirdo.

They varied just as much as they usually did in the cartoon, tall, fat, thin, short, weird. An old man caught me staring and made a gurgling noise and I quickly hurried on, though I smiled.

This was so cool. This was so so cool. I couldn't wait to find Sasha, I couldn't wait to see if Zim and Dib and Gaz were here, that this was for real. Like, for real for real. I was going to make new friends too, maybe Dib? Zim? Oh, who was I kidding, neither of them would be my friends, but I could at least enjoy their antic-

"Casey!?"

Walking towards a bus stop, I froze, my eyes widening and my head snapping up. Across the street – to my utter relief and surprise – stood Sasha. She was waving, backpack on, and grinning insanely. There were leaves in her hair and she had, obviously, been enjoying herself here, seeing as she had a Suck-Munky in her hand.

I didn't know if I even wanted to know how that tasted.

"Sasha!" relieved, grinning, and thinking that I was going to punch her arm for leaving me all alone, I started forward, stopping for a car before running across the street, only to stop in the middle of the road.

Sasha was gone.

No trace of her. Suck-Munky wasn't even dropped on the ground; what would of happened if someone had grabbed her. She'd just disappeared.

Poof.

"Sasha-?" I blinked, staring at the spot she'd been in, and then flinched as someone honked their horn right in my ear, yelling at me to get out of the road. I looked to them, dazed but glaring angrily, and quickly ran to where Sasha had been. "Sasha! SASHA?!" I looked around, going to a corner-store and peering around it for her. There was air there, not filled with Sasha though. "This isn't funny!"

Someone walking past looked at me oddly, as if I was wrong, and everything today WAS funny, but quickly moved on. I looked at them flatly as they left and then looked around for Sasha again, spinning in a circle.

"Sash?"

Did I just, imagine her? Was I going crazy, pretending to see her?

Frowning, looking around a bit angrily, I started stomping down the street again, sighing.

I guess I was crazy and dead. Apparently only being one wasn't enough for the universe, which in my opinion was not fair at all.

I looked up as I crossed a road, sighing and looking around as stores gradually faded into houses with the occasional seven eleven. I was confused by Sasha, of course I was – I always was – but it would probably be better for me if I stopped thinking about it. Something that I did not, in any way, manage to do. At all. Nope.

Dang it.

I stopped at a bus stop as the sun reached the center of the sky, and sat on a bench to go through my belongings. Of course I did this as orderly as possible, by dumping it all out on the bench. Pencils and pieces of paper, of course, fell through the cracks. Cursing, I picked them up and started to go through everything.

Most of it had been beat up, bent, or had gotten wet from the swamp. So much for being 'water proof', Mr. backpack. Uch.

I had about twenty pencils – excellent – three notebooks – even better – some loose-leaf paper (which was crumpled and wet seeing as it had been stuffed to the bottom of my backpack), my computer which had, miraculously, been saved from certain death by the loose-leaf paper. I almost cried at that. I had a sketch book and some colored pencils and markers, a wallet with a wet fifty and a ten in it, extra pair of undies and a shirt, both wet, and an energy bar I didn't really feel brave enough to check the expiration date of.

I ate it of course, as soon as I got my hands on it I was snarfing it down like some sort of animal. It just seemed to make me more hungry.

Of course.

I had other little things in my bag, hairbands and paperclips and my house keys, my iphone, however, I found in my toiletries bag. I think that was from when I was hiding it from my mom. It had been a 'no electronics' kind of deal in the first place. That hadn't lasted, of course.

It was a little moist but no worse-for-wear and I stuffed it into my jeans pocket, sighing. I took my beanie off and brushed my hair back, looking around as I put it back on.

I was hungry, I didn't know where I was, and I was probably dead. I'd thought of running away a lot lately, but, I was surprised by how accurate my thoughts on how miserable it would be to be alone were. That's probably why I never ran away in the first place. Uch.

I swung my feet a bit, looking at mud covered shoes and feeling water between my toes, and then started to shake my backpack out, getting it as dry as possible. I then stuffed any dry loose-leaf paper I had to the bottom of it, and stacked everything back on top of it, zipped it up, and then stood up, jumping off the bench.

Of course, my leg had fallen asleep, and I let out a curse as it gave out and I fell sideways onto the ground. Apparently if a tree falls and no one's around to hear it, it says a four letter word starting with s and ending with t. Remarkable. Brilliant. I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. Everyone who cared.

I got back up, dusting myself off, and shook my leg angrily until it woke up. I started down the sidewalk again, shoulders slumped tiredly as I limped away.

…

I'd passed at least a hundred houses by now, and the sun was beating down on me. I checked my watch. 2:36. I'd been at it for hours. Stupid energy bar hadn't even done anything.

Eventually the houses faded into fences and I could hear heavier traffic a few streets over. I sighed and sat down against a brick wall, backpack leaning against the metal fence that was set into it. I yawned, leaning my head back a bit.

Being a hobo was horrible. I do not recommend it. Unless you like being hungry and smelling like a swamp. If you have a knack for growing beards, however, this might just be the job for you. Sans-job of course. Also sans-house. And shower. And warm blankets. Ugh.

Sudden and screeching air breaks suddenly caught my attention and I sat up, eyes wide as a large, loud bus suddenly rounded the corner, throwing something small and green off of it and onto the fence next to me, causing it to rattle. The figure, green and red like a Christmas elf, 'ughfhed' and then glared up after the bus.

"Ha! SEE YA DIB! pit-E-FUL HU-MAN!" It spat after the bus, bulbous eyes glaring, only to scream and squeal as a large, disproportional dog ( I mean seriously its head was big enough alone that it's lower body wouldn't be able to carry it anywhere ) lept up and grabbed him, growling and barking.

A boot went flying and landed on the fence as the green creature screamed. The bus turned the corner I was sitting at, and a pale and clad-in-black figure jumped off of it, running across the brick above my head and to the fence, kicking the boot away and glaring down in to the rustling bushes, handcuffs gripped in white knuckled hands.

Unnoticed by him, the green creature crawled out from the bushes and between the bars, pulling it's boot back on. It glared up at the human a moment before suddenly jumping up onto the fence, pushing him into the bushes where the dog instantly grabbed him and started using him as his own personal chew-toy.

Green-bean smiled a moment before turning towards the road, a metal arm with a yam-looking device on the end of it popping out. He grabbed a hold of it, eyes wide. "GIR! Help me! There isn't much time!"

"Yes sir!" a voice buzzed from the metal yam. There was a sudden roaring-buzzing sound, and a little green dog came flying from around the corner, stopping in front of green-bean to hover.

"Get me out of here now, GIR, now!" Fists clenched as bean-y yelled.

"Oooooooooooookie dokie!" The dog squealed, ignoring as it's master objected ('waitaminute,whatthe-?), swooping under him and then shooting off down the block, it's master screaming and holding onto it's ears, leaving a smoke trail behind them.

The human stumbled out of the bushes a few moments later, beaten and bitten. He frowned, in pain, and then suddenly grinned, spotting the smoke trail, and lept off after it, teeth flashing. He disappeared around the corner, giggling, and I was left alone, sitting in the same spot, eyes wide enough to burst, and nearly mouthless as my lip pushed itself out in vapid disbelief.

"Oh." I blinked after them, watching the smoke settle and clear. "Well then."

That was my first encounter with Zim and Dib.

That was a scene from the first episode of Invader Zim.

Those were cartoon characters.

An alien and a kid.

"Holy ship."

I was in Invader Zim. Not JTHM, thankfully. But there were still psychopaths about.

I giggled quietly, starting to grin excitedly.

Oh man, oh man.

This was amazing.