"Zim? Are you okay?" I called, as Dib forced open the door, "Where are you?"

"Come on out, lizard, we know you're up to something!" Dib snapped.

A shadow stalked into the room, glaring at us maliciously, "What's this? You dare break into the house of Zim?"

I arched an eyebrow in confusion, "But, you sounded like you were in trouble. The portal…"

Zim scoffed, "You have clearly been infected with the brain-worms human, Zim was never in trouble, he simple fooled your inferior minds…"

"Oh yeah?" Dib challenged, "Then what did you shout about that we supposedly couldn't stop? And what did you mean by giving you peace? And what did thst robot think was cute?"

Zim flushed, desperate for answers, "GIR called… Zim cute. Yeah, Zim is cute! Behold the cuteness of Zim!"

I snorted with laughter as he pointed dramatically between Dib and I. Dib tilted his head at the terrible threat and folded his arms expectantly, waiting for a real answer. Zim huffed and narrowed his eyes.

"Zim shall tell you nothing, worm-beasts, however, for all the answers you need, simply look to the wooded area of the park."

"Why? What's there?" I asked.

"And how do we know it's not a trick?" Dib retorted.

"You won't, but Zim gives his word that what you'll find there shall be of more value to you're para-numbing hobby than me. In fact, it may just make you forget Zim altogether. Oh such peace shall Zim have…" he sighed.

"It's para-normal!" Dib corrected, "And what makes you think we're dumb enough to go do what you say?"

Zim smirked, "I wouldn't expect you to go so willingly, the Amy-worm however… Zim has learnt from her curiosity well, she won't resist, and you won't deny her."

I bit my lip, that crafty little… He knew me too well by now. Yes, my curiosity was burning like mad and I really wanted to turn tail and head to the park then and there, but I forced myself to stay put. I didn't want to force Dib into anything, but Zim was right, he wouldn't let me go alone. Dib darted his eyes between Zim and I, caught in the middle. Zim smirked with triumph and made a shooing motion with his hand.

"You know where the door is." He punched the air, "Victory for Zim!"

"But you did get the portal to work then? So something did come through?" I pressed.

He shuddered, remembering something that we couldn't place, "So much…" he composed himself, "That is for Zim to know and the worm-babies to find out. Now off with you!"

Before either of us could protest further, Zim had turned us around and was now shoving us harshly out of the door. There was a slam as the door was closed behind us, and an eerie groan of metal as the gnomes swivelled around to aim at us. Dib gulped and grabbed my hand hoisting me into a blind spot where we could easily hop over the fence and into my front yard. Dib clenched his fists in anger.

"That space-monster! He just can't give a straight answer, can he? He's always got to go all cryptic and mess us around!"

I sighed, "You want to go to the park more than me, don't you?"

His shoulders hunched, "Yeah… kinda…" he sulked.

"So, why don't we go?" I offered, "It's not too dark and if there's something there then we can investigate it, if not, then we haven't lost anything."

He shrugged, "Well, I suppose…"

I pulled him to his feet, "Come on, let's see what the fuss is about?" I put on my best Zim voice, "Let us behold the wonder that shall give Zim the peace he so deserves!"

Dib blinked in slight disgust, "Please don't do that again…"

"Do what, vile Dib-thing?"

He gave me a playful shove, "Seriously, it's creeping me out!"

I laughed and shoved him back. He side-stepped just in time and stuck out his leg so I tripped. Just as I was about to fall, he hooked an arm around my waist and pan me around. When he put me down I giggled and rested my head on his shoulder. I felt him swallow nervously before tilting his head also so that it rested on mine. He was warm in the chilly evening air, and it was comforting. He shifted a little.

"Uh, I feel a little, you know, uneasy around here… you mom could be watching… you know, making sure you're okay…" he stammered.

A smile tugged at my lips, which I then placed on his cheek, making him blush, "She's not here, remember? She's gone away for a few days for a spa catch up with some old friends and my sister's away at her Girl-Scouts adventure week."

He blinked, "So you're on your own? Is that safe with him around?"

I laughed, "I'm fine, and anyway, the almighty Zim wishes for peace!"

He shuddered, "Please stop that…"

"Come on, we going to the park or not?"

It had gotten pretty dark by this point, and we'd been searching around trees and grass mounds for hours. My coat was pulled tightly around me, but the breeze was still getting to me. Zim had clearly tricked us, there was nothing here, and if there had been, it was long gone now. Dib sighed and threw himself down to lean against the trunk of a tree. I sat next to him and let him drape an arm over my shoulders so that I could lean into his chest for warmth. The only sounds were some rustling in the branches around us, but that was hopefully just the wind. More rustling, and what sounded like a yelp. However, I couldn't be sure as Dib chose that moment to clear his throat, so it was probably just him. Something blue skimmed past my vision, making me flinch. Dib looked at me questioningly. I blinked a few times, thinking that maybe it was just the lack sun getting me.

"What's up?" Dib asked, following my random gazes at the sky.

"Nothing, just the light playing tricks on me." I shrugged passively.

He suddenly went a little fidgety, wringing his hands and blushing, "Y-you know, I've had a pretty… f-fun day today. You know, apart from getting attacked by some cat and being tricked into searching around here for nothing… But the parts with you have been, you know, fun…"

"Yeah, me too." I smiled, nudging his arm playfully, "You never know, maybe tomorrow you can go without Zim for a whole day, unless you just can't bare to be apart form him and will climb the walls desperately tonight just to see him!"

The back of my hand raised to my forehead and I swooned dramatically while batting my eyes suggestively. He narrowed his eyes and shoved me away, looking disgusted but still knowing that I was just joking with him. From the force of his push I had to put my hand on the ground to stop myself falling completely. As I did, my fingers brushed against something smooth. Still giggling from Dibs reaction, I peered down to get a better look. I gently picked up the object and smirked with mild amusement. They were a pair of miniscule round rimmed glasses, oddly similar to the pair that Dib wore.

"What'd you find?" Dib asked, leaning over my shoulder for a better look.

"Zim hasn't been using the shrink ray again, has he?"

To back up my question, I balanced the tiny specs on my nose, to which he chuckled and picked them up for a closer examination. He shook his head.

"Don't think so, and these look thicker than the kind I wear."

"Maybe their a dolls pair or something." I shrugged.

He gripped his chin in his fingers in thought, "Or… maybe they belong to whatever Zim sent out here!"

And ladies and gentlemen the Dib-rant is off to a flying start! Place you bets, will he finish after fifteen minutes, twenty minutes or go the whole hog and wait until he walks me home? This looked like it was going to be a good one… I let him carry on, it was actually quite amusing listening to how many different creatures actually take a pride in eyewear. Plus, it was good hearing the excitement in his voice that wasn't about aliens. Don't get me wrong, I loved hearing his talks on U.F.O's and stuff, but it was good to have a bit of variety once in a while. I half listened to him while I looked up at the sky which was starting to turn a lilac colour from the approaching night. Dib however, froze, pausing in mid-vent. I eyed him curiously. This must be big to stop a rant like that. (Those who went with fifteen minutes, you win).

"I think I see something over there, wait here, I'll check it out!" he whispered, getting to his feet and cautiously tip-toed into the shadows.

He was making me nervous now; I'd seen enough scary movies to know how this ended. This was either going to be one where I hear a scream and go running to find a body and then end up getting killed myself, or hear a rustling behind me and think it's him trying to scare me so I go and end up killed with Dib getting killed trying to find me. Either way, it wasn't going to end well. So should I wait and see what happens? Or try and change it? Change it change it change it! I jumped to my feet and hurried after Dib, hopefully following the right way. I listened out for any signs of life, but my heart was beating too loud and I couldn't seem to make a sound.

"Amy!"

I screamed and turned on my heel. Dib was standing behind me, eyes wide and let out a cry of fear himself. My hand clamped over my heart as I tried to control my breathing. I narrowed my eyes and started smacking him on the shoulder.

"You scared the hell out of me!" I snapped, "Where did you go?"

"Sorry!" he said, trying not to laugh, "But you'll never guess what I've found!"

"It had better be a flipping doctor." I muttered, gasping for air.

Out of the folds of his coat, he pulled out a glass jar with a series of air-holes in the lid. I peered closer and my eyes widened at the sight of what was inside. It was small, about five inches if it was standing upright. Right now, it was on all fours, smoothing its four-fingered hands over the glass walls. Its eyes were squinted, like it was having trouble seeing, its mouth was moving where it made little mutters, sounding almost humanoid. Well, it looked pretty humanoid. Arms, legs, hands, even a little trail of freckles over its nose. But it was blue. And wearing white pants and hat… It looked oddly similar to a…

"I can't believe it!" Dib whispered, "I told you they were real!"

I swallowed, "I never disagreed with you, but how is one here?"

"No idea, but this could get an entire segment of Mysterious Mysteries!" he paused, "Zim! This was all Zim's work!"

I wanted to roll my eyes but I couldn't seem to take them away from the creature. It looked troubled and seemed to be searching for something as well as being terrified. It was a long shot, but I took the miniature glasses I'd found and gently placed them inside the jar, pushing them through one of the air-holes. They landed to the side of the creature. Soon enough, its hands brushed against them. A small grin of triumph tweaked at its mouth as it picked them up and replaced them, sighing with relief. But soon enough, it froze. Its eyes rounded behind its glasses in horror as it tilted its head upwards to look at me, it turned on its heel and stared up at Dib, trembling at how his hands held the glass prison. My heart just melted, it looked terrified! Its mouth flapped open and closed in an attempt to scream or make some sort of noise, but failed him. It started to back away, but hit the side of the jar, sending is flat on its back. Instantly, it curled up into a ball to shield its head with its arms.

"Man, this is great!" Dib cried, leaning forward to get a closer look, "You think there's more of them?"

"Dib, its terrified!"

"Amy, it's a discovery!"

"It's going to have a heart attack if you don't stop shouting."

I scowled at him and reached out to take the jar from him. The creature flinched at the movement, it just looked so lost and helpless, and I remembered being in a similar position myself a few times. I must have been about this size back when Beetlejuice was in town and used his ghost-puns on me. And Dib had been no smaller than this when Zim used the shrink ray on him during my birthday. It was horrifying being so small in a big place, and this creature seemed like to exception.

"It's okay, little guy, we're not gonna hurt you." I soothed, "Are we, Dib."

Dib held out his hands in defence, "I never said I was gonna hurt it! I was just saying -"

"There, see, you're okay." I hushed to the creature, deliberately cutting Dib off so that he didn't go on another rant about becoming famous and selling the creature off, that's the last thing we needed, was for it to panic again; so I knelt down and unscrewed the lid, tilting it so that the creature could lay on the grass.

"Amy, what if it's dangerous?" Dib muttered, kneeling down with me.

"Look at him, if he was dangerous he'd have attacked by now, the poor thing's scared stiff."

I figured that my attempt at comforting it wasn't going very well, so I chose to sit back and let it come around on its own. It's the same with children, you comfort them and let them know you're a friend, but they've got to come around to you on their own, you can't make them like you. Goes for most people come to think of it. It peeked at us through its arms as I leant back against a tree trunk, showing that I was making no attempt to attack. Dib followed my lead, his fingers twitching to reach for a camera. For a moment, everything was still. It seemed that no one was going to make the first move. Well, something had to happen some time!

"Whoops! AGH!"

Something rustled in the tree branches above us and another blue blur skimmed past my vision. This was quickly followed by a light object handing on my lap and rolling in disorientation down my legs and onto the ground. Out of reflex, Dib had swung an arm out to pin me further against the tree in an act of defence. As much as I appreciated the gesture, the wind had been knocked out of me. But I quickly inhaled as it turned out that the fallen mass was another one of the creatures. It looked almost identical, but this one had no glasses and a much younger face despite being of around the same height. It beamed at the first one, not noticing we were there as it had its back to us. It ran over and stood the first up, despite stumbling every few steps.

"Brainy! We've been smurfing for you everywhere! Papa wasn't happy that those two smurfed you again, especially around these parts, but I said that I'd find you as smurf as a flash! And… Hey, what you smurfing at? You look like you've smurfed a…"

The bespectacled one turned the other around so that it faced us. Its jaw dropped and eyes widened, instantly backing away, tripping and sending the pair tumbling to the ground. Dib and I exchanged awed glances. They talk… Oh my god they actually talk, English too! Well, for the most part, but it was still pretty clear what they were saying. A baffled smile was pulling at the corner of Dib's mouth while I was just in total bemusement.

"Uh… hello?" I offered, feeling a bit embarrassed for talking to the other like a lost puppy.

"Did you just talk?" Dib asked, making us all jump.

The newest member trembled, "Uh… no?"

The one with glasses smacked its hand to its face, "Thanks for the help, Clumsy…"

"Shhh!" the second tried, looking sheepish.

I smiled at their interaction, "Hey, calm down, it's alright, no ones gonna hurt you, okay?"

Dib leant forward, eyeing them in amazement, "You're really Smurfs, aren't you? Like in the paranormal encyclopaedia? But I thought you lived in more rural remote areas? Are there more of you? Do you have a leader? Any mystical powers?"

My hand clamped over the boys mouth, "Sorry about him he's… excitable."

The two creatures glanced at one another worriedly. I didn't blame them. Dib may have been on the verge of a wild questioning frenzy, but I wasn't too far behind either. Sure I made my voice calm and soothing for their sake, on the inside I was bouncing off the walls. This was amazing! After aliens, robotic dogs, ghosts, shrink-rays, demon over-happy stalker children… This was still pretty big! How was this possible? Wow, no wonder Dib had trouble controlling his mouth, these questions were like fire! And my devil curiosity was only fuelling them.

"I'm Amy, and this is Dib." I said softly, breaking the awkward silence, "Do you have, you know, names?"

The younger looking one wrung his hands, "Cl-Clumsy, a-and th-that's B-Brainy."

I was about to point out that they weren't real names, when I remembered the description of them on the list said they were named after their personality. Odd tradition, but who was I to question them?

"You weren't sent here by an alien, were you?" Dib pressed, "Green guy? Loud mouth? Moron?"

They nodded, the one with glasses spoke, "Y-you're not going to hunt us like he said, are you?"

Oh my god they were adorable! "No, no of course not! How did he get you here anyway?"

"I don't smurfly know," the other, Clumsy, said, "We were in our village when there was this big explosion. Next thing we know, we're being smurfed up and sent out here. Th-that guy isn't gonna smurf us, is he?"

"Smurf you?" Dib questioned.

"Hurt." Clarified Brainy, "We just want to go home."

I reached out to stroke his arm softly, he flinched at my touch but soon registered it as comfort and relaxed. Dib held his chin in his hands in thought.

"We? There's more of you?"

Clumsy nodded, "Uh-huh! Everyone in out village was smurfed right-"

Brainy clamped his hand over his friends mouth, "He means there's a few of us… nothing to be smurfing about." He whispered harshly to Clumsy, "They're humans, we can't trust them it'll put the whole village in danger, smurf my words!"

Clumsy pushed him away, "Johan and Peewit are human and they help us!"

"Do they smurf like Johan and Peewit?"

Dib and I exchanged glances. So Zim had actually managed to summon an entire village worth's of these creatures? That was amazing! This was big, even for Zim! How had he managed this? And where was he going with this? Were we supposed to be scared of them? Change out focus to them instead of him? Or was it all an accident?

"How did Zim, the one who brought you here, get you here?" I asked, confusing myself with my words.

Clumsy pushed the hand away, "We don't know, we just smurfed up in his mushroom and then this stuff smurfed over us and made us all sleepy, then we smurfed up here."

"Mushroom?" Dib muttered quizzically more to himself than them.

I was getting a little miffed at Zim by this point, he had no right to treat them so poorly! I'll tell you what, as soon as this was done, he'd be receiving a good slap from me, that's for sure! But right now, I was looking at Dib with a pleading expression. He rolled his eyes and adjusted his glasses. He knew exactly what I was thinking. We had to help them, they were so lost and small, it wasn't fair on them. And if there was more, then they could be in big trouble. Dib sighed and folded his arms.

"Where's the rest of your village? We'll…" he arched his brow at me, "We'll see if we can help."

"Really?" they chorused, Clumsily with excitement and Brainy with scepticism.

I nodded and leant against Dib softly in appreciation, "Really."

Brainy adjusted his glasses, "And how do we know you're not smurfing us?"

I guessed he meant tricking, so I smiled softly, "Well, you don't really, but I promise this is no trick."

Clumsy tilted his head at me curiously. Dib sighed and looked down at them with a comforting smirk.

"Honestly, she never breaks a promise."

Brainy swallowed, "Okay… but if there's any smurfy stuff…"

"You'll use some magic powers? Or morph into some crazed creature? Or -"

"No smurfy stuff, I promise." I said, cutting Dib off.

They eyed us cautiously before nodding in agreement. They led the way back into the wooded area, with Dib and me trailing behind at a reasonable distance. I couldn't believe this! Zim had done it, but how? Did he really think that by setting these poor creatures up for us that we were going to ignore him? As if! This had only opened up a whole new set of questions! Plus, he had some serious explaining to do on my part! Next to me, Dib was jittering with excitement. This was a dream come true for him. Another paranormal entity discovered, and he'd gained their trust, more or less. I had to admit, I was bouncing a little too. But I couldn't help but wonder… How many of them were there and how were they going to get home? And also, if Zim had managed to bring an entire village of Smurfs to us, then what else was he capable of bringing through? Or worse, what had he already brought through?