A/N: Heh. This chapter brought to you by my Dad's laptop, while riding in the cab of a moving truck. 3 Gotta love modern technology huh? :)

Summery: When a large problem is proposed to Dib, he has no other choice but to rely on Zim for help. Even though reluctantly the two team up, everything goes wrong and the twosome must take flight and go back to Irk. Zim doesn't mind, but Dib is being thrust into a whole different world. How the heck was going to survive that adventure?

Pairing: ZADR

Pairings(Minor or One-sided): ZAGiR, GAGiR, DAGiR

Disclaimer: God owns it all. Meaning Jhonen and his ill-prone belly. His poor, poor, ill-prone belly! XD

Warning: Uh…-pokes first chapter- Warnings for this chapter are…talking about homosexuality. That's about it.

Rating: T (R in later chapters)

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The ride down was silent, as both looked away from the other trying to stay as close to their respected sides as best as they could without getting friction burn from the moving and unprotected wall.

However as they passed other levels of Zim's base, Dib couldn't help but stare in complete awe of, well, everything! He'd only ever gotten into lower levels by breaking in, and usually he had no time to stop and enjoy the scenery. Far too busy trying to keep his hide from getting fried.

"Yes, I know. Zim's technology amazes your puny ham-filled mind cavity. No need to tell Zim." He heard from almost directly behind himself, and Dib gave a shiver as he glared over his shoulder.

Zim's smirking face came into view, eyes shining in the odd lighting of the lift. That sent another shiver down Dib's spine as he tried to hide it by shrugging his shoulders and turning to face the haughty Irken.

"Yeah it's pretty good…for you anyways Zim." Dib replied, looking smug. Zim didn't seem fazed though, suddenly looking curious as he stepped forward. Dib took a small step back, almost hitting the moving wall as he mustered up an irritated look. "What the hell are you looking at?"

Zim didn't reply, taking advantage of the situation to move closer. If said Irken had a nose, it would've been touching Dib's by now; deep red and violet eyes peered into bright, honey-brown irises, as if trying to look into him to answer his question.

"Dib-worm, why again are you wearing these bits of glass on your face?" Zim asked, tilting his head slightly.

"U-uh…" he stammered, blinking rapidly, "They're called glasses Zim. I need them to see. Without them everything is pretty much blotches of colour." Dib tried leaning his head back a bit, but his scythe brushed against the wall as it yanked a few hairs out. He gave a sharp gasp, instinctively pulling forward only to bump foreheads with Zim.

Dib stared a moment, horrified at the heat in his face, trying to quell the sudden urges to touch the other's face. Zim stared back, looking curious still, before both heard a ding the doors sliding open.

Zim smirked, pulling away and walking out of the small space, calling over his shoulder to Dib to keep up with him. Realizing that Zim probably wasn't kidding when he told him that his computer would knock him flat on his ass, he jogged after his guide.

"This, Dib-worm, is one of the least important floors of my magnificent base." Zim announced, motioning around. It seemed to be a storage room, the ceiling reaching heights of a church cathedral. Bits of everything were piled high, almost reaching said ceiling. Dib stared.

"Well…if this is the least important why'd you show it to me?" he asked, tilting his head back so far he almost fell. Catching himself, he straightened out before running a hand to smooth out his scythe looking as cool as possible.

"Because stink monkey if I'm showing you around it's only fair to assume that I should save the best for last." He paused, buffing his claws on the cotton material of his shirt, "Come now, there is much more to do and little time to do it in. So move it!" Turning back abruptly, he marched over to the lift, hands held behind his back. Dib followed after, glancing around once more before standing next to Zim.

The rest of the afternoon and well into the evening went by with Zim showing Dib every floor of his base, only occasionally stopping to let Dib poke around and explore.

They had just gotten off the floor with rather live and dangerous experiments—that bright orange hamster almost ate Dib's leg and after a lot of beeping and whirring Zim stepped in to save him—and were now heading towards what Zim called the brain of the house.

As the door slid open, Zim stepped out signaling that Dib was to follow.

"Whoa…this is…pretty awesome…" the human mumbled in awe, looking around to take in the sights of the brightly lit room. It was round in shape, with the walls covered in many different panels and controls. Zim moved over to a large square, touching the corner; a screen popped up with a holographic-looking panel and keyboard, the letters in Irken with different symbols scattered across it all. Zim typed away at the keys, his fingers belting out lines and lines of Irken all at once. Dib couldn't catch any of the writing, it was moving far too fast. Not that he was anywhere near fluent enough in Irken to read anything more than simple words. He sure as hell couldn't speak it.

"This," Zim spoke up breaking Dib's badly-straying thoughts, "Is the main computer. Only Zim can work it."

"Why only you?" Dib asked, forking an eyebrow as he moved to stand next to Zim, expecting an answer along the lines of how it would accept only his DNA. Or something stupid like that…

"Because my computer is really stubborn and only listens to me. The damn thing is easily upset." He replied, letting his eyes move across the screen reading the information. Dib watched Zim, then lifted his eyes to try and read some of the Irken.

Giving up on that, he finally had a reply to Zim's claim, "Wow. That's pretty…gay."

Zim's antennas perked up, taking his eyes away from the screen to look at Dib curiously. "Gay? I recall that referring to a male being attracted to another male." He furrowed his brow. "My computer is but machinery. It can have no sexual preference, Dib-stink." Zim gave Dib a funny look. "You pig-smelliest are rather stupid…"

"No Zim, I meant when I said 'gay' that I was calling that stupid. It's slang." He replied, obviously not surprised at Zim's ignorance.

The Irken continued to look curious and thoughtful before asking with a true innocent air about the question, "So when the other pig-smellies at skool say, 'That Dib-kid is so gay!' they're actually calling you stupid?"

"What? The others at skool are calling me gay?" Without waiting for an answer, he gave a heavy sigh rubbing at the bridge of his nose, letting his glasses move with the movement. "Oh geeze, I mean I know it probably didn't look too good chasing you around with the sleep cuffs, but damnit I'm not gay…" Dib wandered a few steps away, gazing around trying to shake the feeling that he had already known this.

"So are you this 'gay'?" He provided the physical emphasis. "Are you gay for me as they say?" Zim snorted then looking rather full of himself. "I know Zim is hard to resist, but Dib-worm we are in a partnership and you are a filthy human. Please control yourself!"

Dib, as if on cue, flushed a healthy crimson colour, looking startled and disgruntled. "E-excuse me…? Why the hell would I like you? And doesn't that bother you that people think you're attracted to a male?"

Zim scoffed, eyeing Dib as if he was the most stupid thing in the world. "Because firstly I'm all mighty and awesome. Secondly, on Irk only the very tall are allowed to find someone to reproduce only ONE smeet with. It is programmed into their Paks at birth and activates when they are the required height. On another note everyone is born with 'male' and 'female' parts; weather we look 'male' or 'female' is completely and utterly random and up to the control brains. So to me if I had such a sex drive I wouldn't be looking at a stupid thing like gender, but a thing like height and their brains and such. Although I'd like to be the taller in the relationship of course." Zim puffed out his chest importantly, looking proud that he had retained this information he was given at birth.

Dib took a moment, standing there as he looked around trying to absorb this information. Deeming himself ready after a moment, he asked, "So...so why are the tall only allowed to…reproduce?"

"Tch. The taller the smarter. Why wouldn't one want their smeet to have a better amount of knowledge? However newborn smeets are still fitted with a Pak, because otherwise they just…don't live. Even if they were quite alive and well in the womb, if they're born and no Pak is atattached, they just don't live."

"So if they don't live, that means they die right? And how tall do you guys have to be to be able to…y'know." Dib questioned, moving back over to the Irken standing by.

"No. They just aren't alive. But they're not dead." Zim replied as if this was the most obvious thing ever. "And the required height is 8 nills. I measured myself last time I was on Irk, a few years ago and I counted for only 1 and a half nills." Antenna flickered as if this irritated him greatly, but said nothing as he looked smug. "I don't know how nills converts into your feet and inches. But I do know that I am 6'3" in your measurements." Dib nodded, still not quite getting it.

"Whatever you say Zim." He shrugged, moving to go back towards the elevator. Zim made to follow, before he heard a loud whirring emitting from his Pak. Ruby eyes glanced up, before he bolted forward pulling Dib backwards. A startled sound came from Dib's throat, the sudden movement causing him to fall onto Zim. Where the Membrane child had been standing before was now a large piece of metal that looked like it would have crushed Dib in a millisecond.

"GIR!" Zim roared, struggling to get out from underneath the dazed human. With inhuman strength, he vaulted Dib off towards the fifty-foot drop where the brain of the house hovered. A spider limb shot out, catching Dib and dragging him into the elevator behind a furious Zim, as his Pak stopped whirring. Thank The Tallest.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Zim stalked forward tackling a squealing Gir to the ground as he ignored the other occupant in the room. Dib however shrank back slightly as his younger sister stared at him with closed eyes.

"This thing," she motioned to the malfunctioning SIR unit gnawing on Zim's lekku, "wouldn't tell me how to get into the lab. So I had to sit and wait. Anyways, you have to come home, Dib. Now." Her eyes opened very slightly, a flash of dark gold before they closed and she hopped off the couch.

"Hmm?" Zim said, looking up as he tightened the knot on his hogtie on Gir. "Your parental units summon you?"

"Yeah Zim, I've gotta go." Dib stood there a moment, looking around before giving an awkward wave hightailing it out the door towards his sister.