It seemed to have been only two minutes later when the bright sunlight came streaming through the window.
It nearly blinded me when I opened my eyes. I raised my head from the pillow to squint at the alarm clock and gasped in disbelief. Had I really slept in past noon?
Flinging the blankets off, I sprang to my feet and started to make the bed and that was when I spied the familiar lump wedged in between the sheets.
"Oh. No."
Dib's trench coat lay there in a rumpled pile of wrinkles. Maybe sleeping with it hadn't been the greatest idea after all. I made a mental note to introduce Mr. Coat to Mr. Iron before meeting up with him tonight. In the meantime, I returned it to its original place on my computer chair before heading to the bathroom for a shower.

Around six-thirty, I started getting ready to head over to Dib's. I decided on an all black outfit for obscurity. If I was going to be a spy, it couldn't hurt to dress for the occasion, right? It was almost tempting to underline my eyes with black paint to complete the look but in the end, I decided that would be overkill.
After pulling my hair into a quick chignon, I headed downstairs, grabbing Dib's freshly smoothed trench coat from the ironing board on the way out. The brisk night air greeted me with an icy vengeance as soon as I had opened the front door. Despite my heavy black puffer jacket, I shivered violently against the bitter cold. The temperature had to have dropped down to about forty-five degrees since sundown, and that really sucked. Swiftly, I dashed to retrieve my bike I had taken from the garage earlier, hopped on and peddled towards the Membrane residence as quickly as I could.

At first, I wasn't sure as to whether or not I had been going down the right street but luckily, the house I recognized from the previous night eventually came into view. I parked my bike along the side before racing up to the front door.
When I tried the doorbell, there was no immediate answer. I stood back, bouncing up and down on the balls of my feet as I waited anxiously. Still no response. I stabbed the doorbell one more time, this time with a very persistent finger. By that time, I could hear some signs of life coming from within. An aggravated grunt followed by shuffling footsteps. Seconds later, a petite girl with purple hair answered the door, holding a half eaten slice of pizza. She was dressed in goth like attire with a large skull necklace that dangled from her neck. Based on her sour expression, it became apparent that I had annoyed her and despite the way she glowered at me, I greeted her with a friendly smile. "Hi. I'm sorry to bother you but is Dib home?"
She raised a quizzical eyebrow. "You're here to see my brother?"
"Well, yeah." I said. She rolled her eyes then with an irritated sigh, she said "He's up in his room...being weird as usual."
"Thanks!" I said, leaping out of the cold as she stepped aside to let me in. "Jeez! It's so freezing outside."
"Maybe because it's in the middle of winter?" she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Right," I said, sheepishly. "Oh, I'm Wendy by the way." I held out my hand and she reluctantly shook it. "Gaz." Her venomous glare shifted suspiciously from me to the sight of her brother's coat draped over my arm. Good job, Wendy now she thinks you're even weirder. "So," I started. "You said his room is upstairs?" "First door on your left." She finished apathetically.
"Great, thanks!" I said before ascending the stairs.

I was having a mad case of butterflies in my stomach, knowing I was about to see Dib's room for the first time. As soon as I reached his door, I drew in a deep calming breath and quickly smoothed my hair before timidly knocking. He answered the door seconds later, looking overwhelmingly handsome in a very spy chic black bodysuit with a silver zipper in the front. I immediately had to bat away the thought of unzipping it. Really, Wendy could you be any more of a pervert?
"Hi Wendy," he said with a smile. "I'm glad you showed up. Just packing some supplies we're going to need before sneaking into Zim's base. Are you okay?" His head tipped to the side as he eyed me curiously.
It took me a moment to realize that I had been gawking at him like a zombie. "Um, yeah," I replied, shaking myself from my dreamy state. "Fine, I'm fine." "Oh, well alright then," he said with satisfied shrug as he slipped back into his room.
"Come on inside. I shouldn't be much longer."

It was like stepping into a mini planetarium. All four walls were mostly covered in posters and drawings of the solar system and extraterrestrials illuminated by the violet glow of black lights. Another section was posted with various clippings of newspaper articles on Big Foot, vampire and UFO sightings. Amidst all that was a bed that lay alongside a window and a very futuristic looking, state of the art computer. "Did my sister let you in?" Dib asked, setting a backpack on the bed and stuffing it with what looked like some night vision goggles.
"Yeah," I replied, still gazing in awe at my surroundings. "Her name is Gaz, right?" "Right, and I'm sorry if she made you feel unwelcome. She's usually not very friendly."
"Why is that?" I asked. Dib shrugged. " Just antisocial, I guess. Video games and pizza are her only ideal company, really."
"Well, I guess that's understandable, considering how lame most people can be."
"Tell me about it." he agreed. "Dib," I said "I have to admit your room looks very...galactic."
"Go ahead and say it," he said tediously as he rolled his eyes. "I'm an obsessive parascience nerd."

"No, not at all! I mean sure you seem to have a really deep fascination with this stuff but it's very awesome, and I'm so touched that you trust me enough to share all this with me. Really."
He gave me that knee weakening smile again. "Well, you seem like a trustworthy person, Wendy. There are not many people who understand my ambition to become a paranormal investigator the way you do. Even my own family finds the whole concept batty."
I raised my eyebrows, surprised by the sudden tinge of sadness in his voice. "What?"
He stepped away from the bed and sighed. "My dad is a scientist, but his theories differ greatly from mine. He refuses to believe any explanation of phenomena that is not logical to him, therefore he considers paranormal study a joke, and Gaz, well she just doesn't care about the fate of our world," He paused.
"But that's all to be expected since everyone else thinks I'm crazy." "But they're your family," I protested. "They're supposed to love you unconditionally and support your dreams not shatter them." His smile was wistful. "We're kind of dysfunctional."
"Well what about your mom? What does she think of all this?" "I should really finish packing this stuff so we can get out of here." "Dib?" I asked, confounded. He didn't answer as he turned away and proceeded to occupy himself with the backpack again. Weird. Either he was really in a hurry to get to Zim's or for some reason, he wanted to avoid the subject of his mother. Despite my growing curiosity, I figured it was best to just let it go for now. As I averted my gaze towards the floor, it was then that I realized I was still holding his trench coat. "Oh Dib, here's your coat back by the way. Thanks again for lending it to me." "Oh! Right," he said, turning around as I tossed it to him. "Sure, it was no trouble at all." He started for the closet and I held my breath when he suddenly paused to scrutinize the coat.
"Huh," he said, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Is something...wrong?" I asked cautiously. He shook his head. "It's just for some reason, this looks a lot less wrinkled than usual," he lifted his gaze towards me "Did you...iron this for me?"
"No." I said quickly. His brown eyes narrowed dubiously at me over his large glasses. Clearly, he was unconvinced. Crap. I guess his hair wasn't the only thing sharp about him.

"Okay," I conceded. "So I did. You're not mad are you?" "Mad?" he echoed with a laugh. "Why would that make me mad?" Because I'm an ultra psychotic stalker who sleeps with your clothes and then irons them to cover up the evidence? Right, that doesn't sound creepy at all. When I didn't answer, he just smiled and shook his head in astonishment. "I don't know why you're so nice to me Wendy, but I have to admit it's surreal, considering the way everyone else treats me."
"Well," I said "I figured it was the least I could do since you were nice enough to lend it to me in the first place and well, befriend me."
His smile turned meaningful as he zipped up his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. "When I said we were a team, I was serious. Come on, Wendy. Let's go catch ourselves that alien."

We headed downstairs, fully equipped. Gaz still sat in the living room on the big red couch, an empty Bloaty's pizza box in front of her. She didn't bother to acknowledge us as she was preoccupied with a Game Slave 2. On our way out the front door, I turned and waved goodbye to her anyway. "Nice meeting you, Gaz." "Yep." she called after me.

Dib wasn't kidding about the factitious nature of Zim's base. The thing sat like a little blue mediocre doll house in between two other normal sized houses. A wooden fence was propped up in the front yard, which was strewn with several creepy looking lawn gnomes. Despite the goofy I Earth flag, it obviously wasn't enough to conceal the most unearthly thing about the "house", and that had to be the strange tubes protruding from either side like clusters of robotic tentacles, and hooking into the buildings it sat between. If that wasn't proof that alien life was lurking inside then I don't know what was.
We tiptoed like mice up towards the front door. It looked like it had once belonged to a public bathroom given from the depicted male icon and the word MEN engraved underneath. Really, Zim? The fact that he considered that normal was laughable. Dib was already ahead of me about to wrench it open.
"Wait!" I whispered. "We're just going to waltz right in? Doesn't Zim have some kind of built in security system?"
"Sometimes," Dib explained. "But usually his robot minion guards the house and he's as dumb as a doorknob. He won't be difficult to get past. If Zim happens to be armed with any surprises then we can easily disarm him. Don't worry, Wendy we got this."

"Well...okay." I had to admit I was nervous about getting caught, but considering how many times Dib has successfully infiltrated Zim's base, he clearly knew his way around better than I did. He proceeded to open the door, which had surprisingly been left unlocked for some reason. Perched on the couch, staring vacantly at the TV was what I assumed to be the robot in which Zim referred to as GIR. You could tell from the visibly large zipper in front that the green dog suit he wore was as crummy a disguise as his master's. What really puzzled me was how the hell that thing could be packing away a plate of tequitos when he was clearly not a living creature with a functioning digestive system. Where was he putting them all? In some secret storing compartment or what?
Finally becoming aware of our presence, the little robot "dog" sprang from his seat, spilling the remaining snacks as he waved excitedly while screaming, "HIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" "Shhh!" Dib hissed angrily. GIR ignored his warning to stay quiet as he bounced over to me. Close up, he was no higher than my waist. He had to have been no more than three feet tall. Standing on his tippy toes, he placed his nubby little black paws on my belly as he looked me in the face. "Oooooooooooooohhhh!" he said, his eyes bugged in wild fascination as if I were a new toy to play with.

So far, he definitely seemed to be a lot less of a threat than Zim. "Hey there, little guy," I said, smiling down at him. Suddenly GIR stepped back and let out a scream, making both me and Dib jump. He then threw himself on the floor where he spun and rolled around in the strewn tequitos all the while screaming and laughing maniacally like some sort of happy retarded child. Dib placed his hands on his hips as he glared down at him, looking unamused. "He sure seems to like you," he said, shaking his head. "So here's the plan. There are six of these spy cams. We need to set up the first four in all the various rooms of the house such as the living room, kitchen, bathroom and hallway. The last two will go down in Zim's actual base, which is underground. If he's down there right now, we can listen in on whatever diabolical scheme he may be plotting next." "Sounds like a plan." I agreed.

After we had covered all the areas in the house, Dib lead me to a trap door hidden beneath an end table. Inside was a long cylinder shaped glass elevator. GIR jumped in after us, where he continued to ogle me as we descended into the bowels of the earth. When we finally reached our destination, the three of us stepped out into a twisted monstrosity of Irken technology. It was liked walking into one giant sci fi movie where everything was strange and unknown to me.
Honestly, it was impossible tell what all the surrounding equipment and machinery was or what they were used for
but knowing Zim, it couldn't be anything human friendly.

"PIGGY!" GIR suddenly shrieked. He darted ahead of us, grabbing up a rubber pig that had been lying on the floor before disappearing somewhere in the room. Not far off, we spotted Zim. This time, he wasn't disguised. He was standing with his back to us as he ranted furiously and made wild hand gestures at the massive computer screen in front of him. It displayed what looked to be a pair of fellow Irkens only much taller. One was dressed all in red and the other in purple. Their eye color matched their space aged outfits and both looked extremely bored as they munched on donuts.
Wait...donuts? Since when did treats other than astronaut ice cream exist in space? Not only that but how are aliens the ones getting access to them? Looks like the Irken empire was one step ahead of NASA when it came to snacks. No freeze dried crap for them.

"We need to go up that wall," Dib whispered, pointing overhead. " Zim should be less likely to notice these cams if they're planted somewhere up high. They will be out of reach and out of sight. Plus, this way we can have a panoramic view of all activity in the base." Reaching into his backpack, he took out what looked like a grappling hook gun and fired it at the ceiling. It wrapped around a twisty metal suspending catwalk with a dull, distant thunk! Dib tugged on the attached rope a few times to test its stability. When it seemed fastened enough, he turned to me and said, "Let's go."

Sticking to the shadows and much as possible, we took hold of the rope and scaled our way to the top. Fortunately, the walls were made up of enough coiled power cords to provide excellent footholds for my black converse sneakers, which would have barely gripped the surface of a smooth plaster wall. When we finally reached the top, we climbed onto the catwalk where Dib withdrew one of the cams and proceeded to attach it, angling it downward where it could focus on Zim. "Almost...got it," he said, teeth clenched in concentration. That was when the most random thing happened. Out of nowhere, some weird stuffed animal like creature flew towards us at a leisurely pace. As it came closer, I saw that it was a small purple moose with big eyes, short stumpy legs and nubby little antlers. I sat there shaking my head in disbelief. Aliens posing as hi skool students? robots who wear dog suits and engorge themselves with Mexican food? Purple floating moose? Now I've seen everything.

I wasn't sure if this was another minion of Zim's or simply a pet but this was actually kind of cute, especially as it chirped upon seeing us. Although, even if it did sound like a happy noise, it could have also been a possibility that the thing was cussing us out for bursting in on his master's dwellings or it could have been like GIR and didn't care and just felt like playing. The little moose squeaked again as it whizzed by me and headed straight for Dib, bonking him in the head. "Get away from me!" He batted the thing away as if it were an annoying gnat. I sympathized as the little moose sadly floated off elsewhere.
"Hey Wendy, do you think you can take that last cam and install it at the other end of that catwalk while I finish with this one?"
"Sure," I unzipped the backpack and started rummaging. Each compartment was filled with a wide range of devices, but nothing looked like a spy cam.

"Uh, Dib?" "Hmm?" "I don't think it's in here." "You're kidding!" He grabbed the backpack out of my grasp and started looking himself. "Oh no!" he said, smacking his palm to his forehead. "I must have left it up in the house! I have to go back and find it. In the meantime, will you stay here and finish up with this one?" "Of course." I said, reassuringly. "Great," he said. "Make sure Zim doesn't see you, okay? I'll be back in a minute." I nodded as he descended the rope back down towards the elevator.
As I fiddled with the spy cam, I decided to take the time to really listen in on Zim's conversation with his superiors.
"So you see, my Tallest," he was saying as he paced back and forth. "This child I've been telling you of, this Wendy appears to be allied with the Dib human. I suspect that the two of them are working against me and that could become a serious threat to my mission. The macroscopic headed boy is enough of an annoyance on his own but this little brat is insufferable!
Last night, she was automatically able to identify my true self. She even summoned water to come up from the grass and attack me! Don't you see it? She has already figured out one of our weaknesses and unless she is stopped, she will find other ways to thwart me, especially if she's working with the strength of a duo! The loathsome little earth wretch is probably attempting to infiltrate my base as we speak!"
I bit my lip. "These are all reasons why, my Tallest I need to devise with a plan to destroy her before she can wreak further havoc on me. For now, this will be my newest and foremost priority. I cannot yet overcome this planet until this vile beast girl is out of the way for good!"

"Uh huh," Tallest Red said tediously as he rested his chin on his clawed hand. "And you said she's...short?" "Yes, yes! So very short!" "Disgustingly short?" Red pressed. "Very!" instigated Zim. "Almost as short as Skooge!" "Ewww!" cringed Tallest Purple. "Well sheesh! It's bad enough that she's short to begin with but that short? That's just wrong. Zim, you have my full support in disposing of this human girl until you fail and we laugh at you." "Agreed." said Red.

Well, these guys were definitely off my Christmas list. In my offense to what was being said about me, the spy cam suddenly slipped out of my hands, plummeting to the floor. "Oh shit!" I gasped. Then to my horror, it ricocheted off of Zim's head and landed at his feet where it shattered into a million pieces. "What the...?" he asked, glancing around. His gaze turned up towards me and his bewilderment instantly turned to rage. "YOU!" Grabbing up Dib's backpack, I ran down the catwalk and descended the rope. "COMPUTER!" Zim commanded. "GRAB HER!" I retreated in the opposite direction as more robotic tentacles emerged from the walls, lunging for me. Then a wave of relief washed over me when I spotted a power switch.

The twisted machine was only seconds away from grabbing me by the ankles as I dove for it. I seized the lever, yanking down as hard as I could. The image of the confused Tallest clicked off the screen and the robot tentacles fell to the floor like dead snakes as the entire base turned pitch black. Thankfully, I was able to dig out the night vision goggles so I could locate the exit and finally get the hell out of here.
"So you have shut off my power," Zim taunted. "That doesn't mean you can hide, little Wendy. It won't be hard to sniff out that sickeningly sweet human girl scent of yours. It's enough to make me wretch!"
Well hey, it's not like I was the one who couldn't bathe. I could hear his voice growing louder as I hid under a table. "I know you're still in here, filthy stink beast! COME OUT AND FACE ZIM!" When he was finally close enough, I dropped down on all fours where I extended my right leg to the side, tripping him. "Ooof!" he grunted as he face planted into the floor.
I quickly scrambled away before he could get up again. Unfortunately, I had to turn the power back on before I could get the elevator to work.

When I finally reached the house, I immediately jumped out into the living room. "Dib!" I called. "Dib where are you?" I ran all over, frantically searching each room but Dib was nowhere to be found. "DIB!" I bellowed again. Still no answer. Where the hell was that kid? Panic getting the best of me, I raced down the hallway next. "UNNNNFF!" Dib suddenly came sprinting from the opposite direction and as a result, we ended up in a violent collision that sent us crashing to the floor.
I lay there on my back, seeing red stars as I rubbed my throbbing forehead. When the stars finally subsided, my heart froze when I saw that Dib had collapsed directly on top of me, his face inches from mine. I gasped as I came to realize that this could be the perfect opportunity to steal a kiss.

"S-sorry," he said, snapping out of his daze from getting hit in the head. Carefully, he climbed off of me and helped me to my feet. "Are you okay? What happened?" "I accidentally dropped the cam and it broke and Zim saw it and came after me," I mourned. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to screw everything up." Dib sighed and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Don't worry about it. I can come back and finish this later. In the meantime, we should get out of here before Zim comes." He took my hand and we dashed out of the house and into the night. We were safe...for now.