"Now you're sure you're going to be okay? You know I hate leaving you on your own."

"Mum, I'll be fine! It's only for a few days and you deserve a break." I laughed, placing her suitcase in the back of the car.

"Now your sister is at her Girl-Scout adventure-week and the number's on the fridge if you need it, I've just done shopping so you should have enough food, there's money in the pot behind the toaster if there's an emergency -"

"Mum, you've told me a million times. Everything will be fine, and Dib's helping me take care of the house for a few days too."

She smirked knowingly, "That's partly what I'm worried about…"

"Mum!" I reddened.

"I'm only joking, I know you're sensible!"

"You're making it worse." I muttered, face-palming.

She laughed and kissed my cheek, "I'll give you a ring tonight when I'm at the hotel."

The ground shook as there was a muffled explosion coming from the house next door. Instantly all of the windows on the left side of the house blackened with smoke and there was strange cursing that didn't sound like English echoing from behind the door. Mum arched an eyebrow at me.

"I'm not sure I'm happy leaving you on your own…"

"Mum," I smiled, "I will be fine, I promise."

She sighed, "If you say so… Love you and see you soon."

"Love you too!" I called as she got into her car and vanished down the road.

I waved until I saw the car turn around the corner and then changed from the smiling daughter waving off her mother into the panicking loon rushing across to start breaking a door down. From the inside, I couldn't hear much apart from the sparking of electricity and clanging of metal. I started shouting, hoping that maybe Zim could hear me, or at least answer and tell me to leave or something. What was going on in there? Finally, the door opened and smoke flooded out. A very excitable looking robot beamed up at me, totally covered in soot.

"Hi there Amy-Cakes!"

"Hi, is everything okay? What's going on?"

He shrugged, "Masta been busy."

I waved the smog from my face, "Yeah, I could tell. Is he okay?"

"Yep! And it head looks like a birthday cake!"

"How so?" I asked nervously.

He tilted his head with an absentminded smile, "He gots little lights like candles."

Okay, the way I translated this was simple. Zim was on fire. Okay, panic. I ran past GIR and opened up the trash can and clambered in. The chute carried me downwards until I crumpled at the bottom in a large room where a black cloud was rising into the air from a large machine. At the side of the machine, Zim was welding a few wires together which seemed to be shrinking the smoke slightly. His antenna quirked at the sound of my footsteps and he stopped, turning to face me.

"You're not on fire!" I gasped.

He tilted his head, "Your observation skills are truly admirable, human."

I rolled my eyes, "GIR said that you were on fire, I head the explosion and saw the smoke and… So you're okay?"

"Pfft, Zim is always okay!"

I relaxed and took a step backwards to fully take in the machine. It looked like the time-portal that Dib had told me about. Apparently Zim had used it to send toy pigs into Dibs past to make him weaker, but ended up turning him into a cyborg creature in the present. By this point, I'd given up trying to figure out which stories the pair told me were real and which ones weren't. But I was pretty sure the 'turned into bologna' story was fake.

"So what you working on?"

He turned back to his welding before answering, "My ingenious invention, the time-portal, but I'm making some modifications so that instead of just travelling through time, but also to other dimensions and places."

"Like a TARDIS?"

"A what?"

"This thing from a TV show… never mind. So why are you rebuilding it?"

He smirked knowingly, "None of your concern."

"Oh really?"

He paused, "Well, it shall be of your concern in the future… but… NONE OF YOUR CONCERN!"

I held out my palms defensively, "If you say so, just asking."

He stopped his work and also the trail of smoke along with it. He stood back to admire his invention. It looked like a large platform with an upright metallic circle on the top. It was connected to his computer where he was able to type in times, dates and places if needs be. My curiosity was making my fingers twitch. Zim must have noted this and smacked my hand harshly, even though it wasn't even reaching out to anything.

"Don't even think about it, human!"

"What?" I asked, innocently.

"You know what." He warned.

I chuckled and shoved his shoulder playfully, "Awe, I'm touched you know me so well, Zimmers!"

He shuddered, "Apart from my supposed safety, is there a reason you're still here?"

"Not really, no." I grinned and then walked past him to admire the machine again, "So what're you trying to bring here?"

He arched his brow, "Bring here?"

"Well from what I've heard from you and Dib, you can't send anything larger than a toy through this thing, so that either means you're trying to sight-see through a computer screen, or you're trying to bring something here."

He folded his arms, "You take too much notice of what is said around here."

"Maybe, but I'm still right, aren't I?"

"And it's still no concern of yours as of yet, isn't it?" he retorted.

"Well I'm not going to force you into telling me, but you do know what I get like when my curiosity is activated…"

He flushed, "What if Zim gives you a hint to satisfy the disease?"

"Please and thank you."

In honesty, I didn't know where he got the idea that curiosity was a disease, but if it managed to get him to tell me what I needed to know, then he could think what he wanted. Zim moved over to the work table in the middle of the room and picked up a sheet of paper. He handed it too me for me to inspect. My brow furrowed in confusion, this was the list that Dib had printed off for me yesterday, oh that's right I dropped it! However, where it had been littered with ticks from Dib and I; now there were red circles around a few untouched names. Actually, there were four creatures circled. Imps, Hob-Goblins, Smurfs and Gremlins. That's weird, he had ignored the larger, more dangerous creatures and gone for small and mischievous.

"You're looking for these? Why?"

"Zim gave you a hint, as Zim said he would; do not push your luck."

I shrugged, "Deal's a deal I guess."

He nodded curtly, "Now Zim has lots of work to do, so be gone with you!"

"Okay, I'll take a hint, a simple Bye would have been fine."

He waved and grinned, every inch of him coated in sarcasm, "Bye!"

I poked my tongue out at him and waved back, "Bye, Zim!"

I pushed my plate away from me and sat back as Dib finished his slice of pizza. Bloaty's was pretty quiet that day; well, it was half way through the summer after all. This was the stage when the start of summer novelty had worn off and now people were starting to get bored of the free time. So naturally, there wasn't many people about. Dib examined the sheet that I'd slipped into my pocket while leaving Zim's house with suspicion.

"So he's bringing these creatures to us? That's just making our job easier!"

I shrugged, "Maybe he want in on it? Why not, right? Three heads are better than one."

"But when one of those heads is our enemy…"

"Your enemy." I corrected.

"Oh yeah I forgot, you've gotten this 'big sister' ideology in your head."

I smirked, "Jealous?"

"I don't want you as a sister!" he paled.

"I know that! I mean… Never mind, look, if he wants to bring the paranormal to us, then why not let him? What's the harm?"

He didn't have an answer for that one, so instead his mouth just hung open waiting for one to fill it. It was proving harder than he thought, so I reached across the table and smacked under his chin, snapping his teeth together, He jolted from the soft impact and blinked. He smiled a little and finished his food.

"So, you think that it's best just to leave him to it?"

I nodded, "For now anyway, it's not like the paranormal he's trying to bring are dangerous, they're actually pretty cute."

He deflated, "Cute?"

"I'm a girl, I am allowed to think that little creatures are cute."

He smirked, "Okay, fair enough. But we can capture them if they get here, right?"

I flinched at the word 'capture'. After all, I hated the idea of living things in captivity or under harm but it wasn't like Zim's machines had worked for the right reasons before, so this had a very small chance of succeeding. So I shrugged and gave a smile.

"But we're not going to hurt them."

"Agreed."

He ordered us an ice-cream and another set of drinks of soda. I could never bring myself to drink that poop-cola stuff. Why would anyone drink something named after their own filth? And I did actually have a sip once by accident. Turns out it tastes like… you don't want to know what it tastes like. But anyway, back to the present! Dib was sipping his soda and had his eyes narrowed in thought. Wow, you could almost hear the gears ticking inside his head!

"Boo!" I said, clapping my hands together next to his ear.

He jolted and spluttered on his drink. He looked at me in surprise for a second before sniggering, flicking a few soda droplets at me. I ducked and dipped my finger in my ice cream before aiming it at his nose. He leant back just in time and ended up having it smeared on the corner of his mouth and on his cheek. He laughed in triumph while I simply laughed by how ridiculous he looked. He licked the side of his mouth but couldn't reach the bit on his cheek. I blushed a little and held his head still, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. The desert ended up on my lips, which I licked away. He turned scarlet but smiled all the same, lacing his fumbling fingers through mine.

We both jumped as the door of the restaurant burst open, quickly followed by an angry animalistic yowling. I leant over into the isle to see a very miffed looking ginger tabby cat sprint across the room. It leapt onto out table and backed away so that it pressed against the window, hair on edge and back arched as it hissed. Dib leant back in his chair, eyes wide in shock. I too was holding my breath, not wanting to scare the creature more.

"Hey kitty, who's a good kitty?" I whispered.

"Psycho cat more like." Dib muttered, choosing the wrong moment to move.

The cat hissed at him before lunging, aiming its claws right at his face. Dib jumped to his feet so that the cat instead sunk its claws into his chest, tearing at his shirt. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, rolling along the tiles trying to wrestle the cat from him. I gripped my head in panic.

"Don't pull him, it'll only hurt more!" I cried.

"It's hurts now!"

"Just let him go!"

"He isn't listening!"

"I'm talking to you! Stop grabbing him it's making him panic!"

"Him? I'm panicking!"

"Just lay flat and don't move!"

Finally Dib followed my instructions. He lay flat on his back and remained perfectly still. The cat presumed hissing and glaring at him before claiming the fight as a victory and retracting its claws. Dib panted in recovering terror as the cat stepped off of him and walked a few paces away. Learning from his mistakes, Dib refused to move a muscle. The cat eyed the room, as if it was searching for something. It seemed to deflate as it couldn't find whatever it was looking for.

All three of us jumped, the cat with a yowl, as the doors burst open once again. This time, instead of an animal, it was a hunched, balding man with a large nose and a long black… dress? Robe? Gown? I had no idea, but it was badly worn and patched up in areas. He scowled around the room before setting eyes on the cat. He marched over and started yelling, his accent was strange. I couldn't quite place it, but there was definitely an accent there.

"For the love of the gods Azrael, there you are, did you catch one?"

The cat yowled as if it understood. The man rolled his eyes.

"Useless! Now come, we must find shelter in this strange land." He rested his eyes on Dib, "You there… door-mat, where can one find a suitable living quarter!"

Dib went to push himself from the ground, but the car hissed, making him stay put, "Uh, there's a motel a few blocks away."

He grimaced, "I cannot be expected to live in such poverty!" he turned to point at me, "Wench! Is there no castle or something of the sort here?"

Did he just call me a wench? "Not that I know of sorry, Sir, uh, is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine, why wouldn't it be?" he snapped, "And… theoretically speaking, there has been no sign of blue people around here has there?"

Dib and I exchanged confused glances before I answered, "No, but we know a green person if that helps?"

"Such idiocy!" he spat, making me flinch, "Come Azrael! We've work to do!"

The cat went to follow its master out of the door, giving Dib one last hiss of warning before leaving. As soon as they were out of sight, I rushed to help Dib to his feet. He brushed himself off, still in shock and poking at the slits from the cats claws.

"Well, that was weird." I muttered.

"And people say I'm crazy!"

He had a point. Sure Dib went off on major rants and talked to himself a lot, not to mention screaming about the paranormal to anyone who may or may not be listening. But at least he didn't talk to cats, dress like a Halloween witch and call people 'wenches' or asked if they'd seen blue people around… in the middle of a pizza place!

"Can we go back to my house?" he asked, "I think one of these scratches may be infected."

"Sure." I smiled, but that was cut short as my communicator on my wrist started flashing, "Zim?"

His face filled the screen, looking at me smugly, when he saw that Dib was with me, his grin only widened.

"Victory for Zim!" he cried, "Now you filth-worms shall give Zim the peace he so deserves! There's no way the two of you can stop the - " he looked to the side, "Holy suck-monkeys there's more of them! No! GIR close the portal!"

GIR giggled in the background "But they's so cute!"

"No GIR! Close it!" he pointed at me through the screen, "This is still a victory! And you won't catch them all! Just... don't come around for a while, okay? Success! No GIR! No more!"

The transmission was cut. Dib and I looked at each other in confusion. What the hack was that all about? It didn't take a genius to figure out that he'd managed to bring something, well a lot of something's by the sound of it, out of the portal. But what had he brought? And how many were there? Were they dangerous and was Zim in trouble? Oh no my curiosity!

Dib sensed this, "Can I just get cleaned up before we go? I'd rather not be mauled twice in the same hour without healing a little first."

I smirked, "Fair enough. But let's hurry!"