The window had been left closed when Dib went to sleep, so it was odd that the room was suddenly chilly. A soft vapour tickled the sleeping teen's nose, and it managed to hover there for a second before he sneezed violently, waking himself in the process. The action also caused Dib's covers to slip right off him, leaving him exposed. Rather cross at being awakened so early, the boy leaned down blindly to pick up his blankets (finding them more heavy than usual), draped them over himself, and became even more vexed when he discovered a few moments later that they had soaked liquid through his pyjamas. Dib pouted. Now he'd have to get up and change!

The floor was unusually cold and damp this morning. Displaying all the suavity of someone who was half asleep and in wet pyjamas, Dib didn't stop to ponder this as he weaved his way dextrously down the almost perfectly empty, straight-as-a-stick hallway that lead quite clearly to the bathroom. It wasn't until he lost his footing and delivered a spectacular double-footed slide tackle to a small hallway-dwelling box, and wetness soaked all the way up through his pants, that he finally lost the ability to ignore what he had been trying to dismiss as a case of I'm-not-quite-awake-yet-give-me-a-minute syndrome, and screamed

"WHY IS THERE WATER ON THE FLOOR?"

In his mind, at least. What really came out, more softly, was

"Huh… I don't recall being that desperate for a toilet during the night."

After he had done the necessaries, Dib found his vague kind of sleepy annoyance growing more pronounced when he couldn't get any water out of the tap. He felt slightly dizzy when he tried to wrap his head around the connection this may or may not have had with all the water in the hallway (and apparently in all the other rooms along the landing). The dizziness may have been simple tiredness, or it may have been the odd musty, earthy, plastic-y smell that was slowly filling the room. What was that? Dib took a deep whiff – unfortunately through his mouth. Horrible taste. He could detect a whole lot of dirt and clay, as well as quite a few unnamed chemicals which were probably quite poisonous to humans…

Hack! He coughed violently and passed out.

Gaz walked out, raised and eyebrow at the sleeping figure on the floor, prodded him sharply, failed to wake him, kicked at him, failed to wake him and went downstairs.

Dib remained asleep, and the sound of rushing water became more audible as it echoed through the watertight rooms of the house.

"Hello the house!" A green head rose gradually above the windowline, peering in at the rooms behind the reinforced glass.

"M-Membrane house? Dib Membrane?"

Dib grunted disapprovingly. "I' no- D- Membbbrne…" he mumbled in his sleep, rolling over in the landing-sized puddle.

The visitor smacked his head. "FINE! Dib… not-Membrane…human…" he paused, eyes flickering uncertainly. "Hey… WAKE UP, DIB!"

Dib snored at him, a fog of musty, chemical-infested air wrapping snugly around his conscious and constricting it. Gotta love Professor Membrane's triple-laminated, reinforced bedroom windows. The green visitor raised an invisible eyebrow and hit the barrier angrily with his head, sending violent, nerve-killing shockwaves down his spine and causing the already precariously maintained extendable legs to shut off completely and go lax. He managed to scratch Dib's window on the way down, before hitting the lawn with a muffled thump.

Dib woke up.

"Ugh, what was-?" He shook his head against the accumulating vapour, before rubbing the headache he'd managed to create. The rushing sound in his head was becoming more pronounced by the second; while still far off. It was in his head, wasn't it…?

The lower window was only double-laminated.

A splintering crash reverberated through the residence, and through a jagged hole dropped a lithe, red-eyed alien. He scanned the Membrane's living room with a laser-point gaze, then cried out when he felt the acidic touch of liquid on his skin. Glancing down, Zim realised the water he'd been dreading was now high enough to lap the furniture. This stupid chemical-filled human water was going to destroy him if he didn't find a way to stay out of it! But he had to reach the Dib; since it seemed to have become his sole purpose to protect the silly creature. Though he couldn't fathom why.

Poised on top of the couch with water swirling around near his feet, the Irken screwed his eyes shut, willing with all his might for the spiderlegs to deploy. His PAK beeped madly in protest, sending a minor shock up his spine, nearly stunning him, but Zim's willpower somehow won over and the legs exploded out rather abruptly. Zim cautiously placed two in the water, testing his weight on them. They wobbled, but held firm. The alien shifted his weight and placed the other working leg on the floor, beginning the delicate trip to the staircase at the other end of the vast lounge room. He was regretful of the one useless broken leg; it compromised quite a lot of his speed and grace; but at least there was one less leg he had to concentrate on; it took a lot of mental power to stop the faulty PAK from cutting his connection to them. It was painfully slow progress. One of the legs caught in that stupid Official Prof. Membrane Lamp, and he came very close to plunging into the swirling broth, managing to pull up with a courageous effort.

What he had seen on the way down had nearly stopped his heart – some of the plastic on the lamp's cable had been torn away, probably during a fight between the human siblings, and there were live wires showing. If the water reached the delicate twisted fibres, it would mean the end for both him and Dib!

"Dib!" he shouted, voice cracking desperately. "DIB YOU HORRIBLE STINK-CREATURE, YOU'RE IN DANGER!"

He began to hobble desperately in the direction of the stairs. He had to reach them in time, if he didn't…

Some kind of primitive intuition made him turn, and he froze in horror at the sight that said he was clearly too late. The water seemed, in slow motion, to nudge the treacherous cables. For an impossibly long heartbeat, nothing seemed to happen, then a tingling erupted right up the metal shafts of the legs that were all but dangling Zim above potential doom, followed by a tremendous jolt of energy that ripped up his spine and all but deadened his PAK, cutting off the alien's cry. His last sight was of the hideous, churning torrent of water.

Dib dashed the rest of the way down the stairs on hearing the loud splash and his name being shouted, somehow failing to slip on all the water. The first thing he did, with a surprising burst of lucidity, was switch off the lamp at the powerpoint and pull out the plug, just as a precaution. Somewhere in his addled brain he'd remembered that the wire casing was frayed thanks to one of Gaz's bad days (it had been the smallest bit of damage done). Having accomplished this, he turned his gaze, finally, to the rest of the room. The vapour hadn't accumulated down here, so he was quite able to wrap his head around the fact that the living room was in full flood. Dib stared. The water was nearly up to the couch cushions, and he had no idea where it was coming from!

His father had, on one of his few spare days, decided that he should make the entire house watertight in case of a flood (this was a time several years ago when a small plesiosaur had somehow invaded the city's dam) and he'd also thoughtfully invented an automatic deadlocking system which, being only a prototype, didn't yet have an unlocking mechanism. Very handy for an outdoor flood, but not so much this…

Clearly it would be unthinkable to stay here, so juggling time in his head, Dib splashed through the sodden lounge, grabbed his schoolbag and emptied as much of the pantry as he could into it. It seemed that the water was seeping up through the drain, possibly all the drains in the house. Holding his breath he dashed upstairs to grab his clothes, skidding wildly back down with everything slung precariously over his back. Returning once again to the loungeroom, Dib suddenly noticed, out the corner of his eye, a shape suspended motionless in the water. Wading over to the partially-floating shape, he recognised three skeletal, spearlike things spread out around it, eerily familiar.

Could it be…?

Dib reached in and pulled the sodden form into open air. His breath caught in his throat. It was Zim, and the alien had been critically injured, by the look of it. His eyes were shut tight and his skin steamed upon contact with the air. Wait… Zim was allergic to water, wasn't he?

Never mind what the alien had been doing in here, he had to get them both out. But all the doors and windows were locked fast. After staring desperately around with the immobile Irken in his arms, Dib spied the front window which had a rather large, jagged hole in it. Well, that would explain how his visitor got in.

Dib carefully manoeuvred the alien out the opening, before climbing out himself with a rather regretful last look into the loungeroom. Was Gaz okay? Her door had been open and the GSIV was gone, so she must have left for the game store. So the house was empty. Reassured, Dib turned his back on the flooding house, jumping out to freedom.