Chapter 1 - Crush

Crush
ByGalaxyDancer
 
            Anothernormal day was beginning in the worst planet in the universe: Earth. The sunslowly rose above a small, odd-looking green and purple house, the orange andbright red colors of the sky now becoming visible after fading in from blackand dark blue.
            It wasSaturday, one of the best days of the week. And that meant that the usuallyschool-bound children had no homework to way them down. This lovely earlymorning was perfect for keeping themselves entertained with a playful game oftag.
            A paleblue still lingering on the far side of the street, the dew still on the grass,and the birds just now beginning to chirp all caught the attention of a youngboy who wasted his time in his room day after day like a lab rat. Taking amoment to look away from his computer which had occupied his time all night, heglanced out the window and noticed a few kids walking in a familiar direction.
            "Whereare they going?" he asked himself, quite curious why four kids of his agewould be interested in heading that way. He was usually the only person whoventured to the area which they were clearly wandering to.
            Decidinghe had been cooped up for a few hours too many, he hopped up and, grabbing hisbinoculars on the way, ran down the stairs to the living room to begin this newday with frightful suspicion. He noticed his sister sitting on the sofa withthe remote, clicking past channel after channel for no reason at all. It wasobvious she had been at it all night by her peeved and exhausted expression.
            Givingher actions an uncaring shrug, he ran to the door and quietly opened it,peering out to see if the children were out of his sight of not. They weren't,but might as well have been. They were rather far away now, still strollingdown the sidewalk and chatting on about . . . stuff.
            He raisedhis binoculars to his eyes and watched the four kids continue to walk out ofsight. They seemed happy enough, not acting as if they dreaded arriving attheir destination. Perhaps it was an innocent attempt for them to ask a fellowclassmate to come out and play. After all, it was a virtually perfect morning.
            Making uphis mind to follow them and make sure they didn't get themselves killed orbadly injured by the person who lived in the house they were nearing, he racedacross the street and dived into a nearby bush. Using his binoculars, herealized he hadn't attracted their attention yet. He wiped away a bead of sweatforming on his forehead and snuck out of the bush only to run and put his backagainst the south side of a light pole.
            "Soyou remember last Spring when we played the Really Fun Tag Game?" askedMelvin, one of the kids to his three companions. "We played it in thiscul-de-sac over here, so that's where we're going!"
            Thinkingit over, Zita responded, "Yeah, that was the best game ever! I rememberthat place! It's so wide and open and has tons of hiding places!"
            "That'sthe one!" agreed Keef.
            There wasa pause as Zita took the time to remember all the details of last Spring'samazing game. "Hey . . . last time, didn't we invite all the kids? LikeJessica, Torque, The Letter M, and . . . Dib?"
            Sarashuttered even thinking about Dib, the weird paranoid kid who was believed evento be insane. "Yeah, and I guess 'cause it's tradition, we can get them tocome. I already called Brian, Rob, Spoo, and Smeedge to join us. We won't startuntil they get here."
            The fourkids continued talking and making their way to a certain cul-de-sac while theconcerned and also curious Dib kept them in view. He raced from tree to tree,bush to bush, and light pole to light pole to continue with his stealthy act,hoping they wouldn't spot him spying. He still wasn't completely sure why theywere going towards the most horrible place on Earth.
            One byone more and more kids noticed the meeting like Dib had, and ran outside tojoin. Everybody knew what time it was, and everybody was ready for it. Alwayson the first perfect weekend of Spring, the children of the neighborhoodgathered in this one special cul-de-sac and played their Really Fun Tag Game ofthe year. As tradition, once they had all arrived, they would begin shoutingout "not it!" until only one person remained, and that person wouldbe "it". The "it" had to tag another person, as any game ofTag goes, then that person would tag another, so on and so on until it wasnoon, then they would all stop for a glass of Poop Cola. It happened everyyear, and every year it was the exact same. Except this year, the kids wouldinitiate a new member of their Tag game, one who hadn't come too long ago.
            Nowinitiation is a whole other thing entirely. To become an official member of theReally Fun Tag Game, the new kid would have to prove his skills by running"The Course". The course is a trail set up for the game that runsfrom the very cul-de-sac they were all at now, through the woods, loop aroundthe school, and back to the cul-de-sac again. It wasn't hard, especiallybecause the winner of last year's game always went with the new kid. The winneris the only one who is never tagged throughout the entire day. If more than oneperson remains, the kids continue the game the next day. The longest game onlylasted until Monday, a total of three game days.
            After nottoo long, mostly all the kids were together, talking, whispering, spreadingrumors and making bets. Dib came out from hiding as he watched even more kidsarrive. They were too distracted to notice him, anyway. He still wasn't surewhat they were doing, but the whole thing rang a loud bell in his head.Something about this was very familiar.
            "Okayeverybody!" screamed Zita, the leader of it all. Dib listened. ". . .Not it!"
            "Notit!"
            "Not it!"
            "Notit!"
            Suddenlyrecognizing the cries, Dib whispered to himself, "The Really Fun Tag Game. . ." The experience brought back horrible memories of when he had beenbanned from ever joining in the Really Fun Tag Game ever again. He sighed, anddecided to go back home, forgetting all about his mission. He was too depressedto worry about what kind of terror the new kid would unleash upon the helplessschool children.
 
            Inside adark place, a ridiculously dark place, deep within the Earth, deep, deeper andthen some, rested the most advanced technology in perhaps the universe. Most ofit was capable of massive destruction, such as lasers, bombs, numerous flightcrafts, and pretty much anything horrible you can think of. There were podscontaining hideous experiments, screens showing countless places all over thecity, spy cameras, a repair room with robotic arms cleaning up after an atomicexplosion, holographic three dimensional models of stuff floating here andthere . . . it was simply amazing.
            The ownerof this sciencey, destructive laboratory was a person that you would neverexpect. The truth could shock you to the point of death. He came from the mightiestrace of conquerors, who went from planet to planet seizing all that they saw .. . one filthy spinning dirt ball at a time. To any normal person who mighthappen to stumble upon all this weaponry and computer gizmos and such, theywould imagine the owner to be an evil genius scientist bent on world conquestwith an I.Q. of at least three hundred. They would be correct about half ofthat information, but as for Zim being smart . . . let's just say he falls intothe "idiotic dribbling moron" category. Or somewhere not too far fromit.
            More orless a stupid genius. In other words, he had unfathomably amazing scientificmarvels, but his ideas of how to use them were those of four-year-olds. It'd belike sitting your pet poodle in a giant robot and telling it to push buttonsaimlessly. Ahem . . . smart poodle, if you will. Anyway, back to our story,because any Zim fan reading this gets the point already.
            Anangered voice cried out from deep in the laboratory, in a room situated forcreating evil plans, ". . . GIR! Get in here NOW!"
            And the response came from alittle annoying android with a squeaky voice who happened to be sitting on thesofa on the upper level of the house watching the game out the window. "IWANNA MAKE BACON!!" Then Gir ran to the trashcan in the kitchen and hoppedinside, falling to the lab below and sliding out. He skidded to a stop right infront of his master's feet. Looking up at him, he added quietly and eerily,"Me and bacon are friends."
            Zimraised an eyebrow, a little confused by this statement, like all the othersthat came from the mouth of the insane little robot. Then, getting back to thereason why he had called for Gir in the first place, he asked, "Gir, whatdid you do to the lawn gnomes? Their video function isn't working properly.Without us monitoring what's going on outside, any of the hideous humans couldjust walk up to our door and try to . . . I dunno, sell cookies?"
            "COOKIES!"screamed Gir excitedly, jumping up and grabbing Zim's face with his hands andfeet. "Let's bake cookies and send them to Dib!"
            "Gah!Get off my head!" cried Zim, prying Gir off of him and tossing him acrossthe room, causing him to crash into the wall and then slide down to end up headfirst on top of the computer console.
            Brushinghimself off, Zim continued, "No cookies, Gir! We have to find out what'sinterfering with the gnomes and destroy it! Do you understand? We're NOT bakingcookies! Never! Ever!"
            Girlooked a little disappointed while still upside down. "Aw, man! What aboutwaffles?"
            Suddenlya wave of nausea overtook Zim at the mere mention of the word, and he slappedhis hand over his mouth as he tried not to vomit. After not too long, he drewin a deep breath and answered quietly, "No, Gir. No . . . waffles.Never again."
            A smileslowly spread across Gir's face as he remembered what had happened with thelast waffle incident. "Oh yeah! . . . Last time you ate waffles,you-"
            "Emergency!"cried the computer, alarms suddenly sounding. "Security breach! Anintruder is present."
            Slightlypanicked, Zim said in a combat voice, "Computer! What is the threat? Whodares interrupt our waffle argument?!"
            Thecomputer showed him a view screen of the front lawn, which revealed one childcrouching down behind one of Zim's gnomes and giggling. Another child ranpassed the camera in a blur. Zim didn't quite understand this, it mostly justannoyed him. He continued to watch as the screen changed the view, zooming outto show mostly all of the cul-de-sac. And it was then that Zim's eyes widenedat the awkward sight of kids everywhere, all running from one particularindividual who was chasing them.
            "Wha. . . what's happening?" asked Zim, confused, shocked, and overallfrightened. He watched as the one child touched another as they ran by, calling"You're it!" then running away as the new "it" startedchasing everybody like the last. It was as if the "it" was infectedwith some sort of horrible disease that spread from person to person byphysical contact. Zim had heard of such things, but never witnessed thembefore.
            Gir washaving fun watching the live video feed. "Woo! Lookit 'em go!"
            Zimgulped. "Something must be done about this . . . Before the humans findout about our secret base!"
 
            Nervouslylooking out the window on the upper level, now with his disguise on, sure hewas not being watched himself, Zim curiously wondered about the reasons forwhich the human children were running about like this and touching each otherthen running off again. It definitely freaked him out. They seemed to beeverywhere, like a replay of last October's Halloween without the candy andcostumes and trick-or-treating.
            Zimsquinted his eyes and scowled while he cautiously watched the events from thewindow. He was half ducked down and peeping over the ledge to ensure hisprivacy. Sure he was alone, he muttered to himself, "Oh, those terriblehuman smeets! They think they can scare me with their battle cries and actingas if they are infected with the Germanian Spots Virus! Well, I'm not fallingfor it. There is no way any Earthenoid will be allowed to mess with the mind ofZIM!"
            Poppingup out of nowhere right next to his master, Gir screamed, "Go outside andplay with them! It looks like fun!"
            Startled,Zim jumped backwards and caught his balance quickly by landing on his kneeswith a hand on the floor. Quickly recovering, he cried, "'Fun'?! 'Play'?!!Gir, I don't think you understand just how serious this is! From what I'veseen, I have come to conclude that whoever this 'it' child touches quicklybecomes infected with some sort of parasite, or disease, or somethingof horrible outcome! Words like 'fun' and 'play' do not apply in theslightest!" He walked in front of Gir, who was still looking outside.
            Girstared past Zim out the window through his lime green doggy costume. "Aw,look! One of them's making a samich!"
            A bitconfused and somewhat curious, Zim turned around to see nothing more than whathe had seen earlier: the kids running amok and putting the Irken's entiremission for world conquest on hold. In no way did any of this pertain to"samiches" or sandwiches or whatever Gir had called them.
            Zim shookoff Gir's weirdness. He took one last look out the window, preparing for whathe knew awaited him in the future. Then, his eyes burning holes into his littleinnocent robot's, he said darkly, "I . . . am going to put an end to thischase. Now. No one will be able to say Zim is a coward!" Andwith that, he slowly stepped up to his door, and opened it.
            He took afew steps out and for about five seconds nobody seemed to notice. Then, withoutwarning, a child ran up to him from the side and touched his shoulder,giggling, "You're it! Can't catch me!" then turning to run away in awhirl of laughter.
            Immediatelyafter the child got the first half of the statement said, Zim screamed and ranforward, accidentally tripping over his own feet and landing his face flat onthe pavement. He painfully propped himself upright with his arms and looked athis surroundings. Kids had gathered in a tight circle around him and werewhispering, sending a chill up his spine.
            Heshuttered. He felt his life would be ending all too soon now that he had beentouched by an infected "it" kid. Watery eyes looking up at Zita, whowas standing in front of him, he asked, "How long does it take for theinfection to prove fatal? I want to get to destroying the Earth beforethen."
            Zita wasconfused. "What are you talking about, Zim? You just fell on you face. Sowhat? It's not the end of the world."
            A fewmoments went by as the Irken took the time to compute this new information. Inthat time, he climbed to his feet and looked at all the faces around him. Ittook almost a minute for him to realize an important detail. "You meanyou're not running from the 'it' child because he is infected?"
            "Uh,no. Haven't you ever played Tag before? I mean, everybody's playedTag!"
            Therewere a few comments from the audience of children, agreeing. Zim cleared histhroat, his mistake clear and visible now. It was all just a game! A harmlessEarth game! How stupid of him, worrying over nothing. He had let his fears getthe best of him once again. "Of course I've played Tag!" hesaid in a half mocking tone, hoping to be convincing. "It was oh such afabulous game of Tag, yes! And so challenging! The Astros lost, though."
            Many eyesstared at the green kid before everybody burst out laughing. Zim couldn'tfigure out why.
            "What?What'd I say?"
            It didn'ttake long for Zim to explain he didn't want to play, just sit on his owndoorstep and watch. And the children agreed, deciding they had no need to havehim initiated if he didn't even want to join. After about fifteen minutes ofjust sitting by himself, Zim began to understand how the game was played. Itrequired a lot of energy, which he definitely had, and also skill, evasiveactions, and most of all quick thinking. He decided he didn't have the time tocontribute to playing with the humans. He had other more important work to do.
            A littlegirl noticed Zim was all alone, and walked up to him and sat down next to him.He gave her an odd look, but she just stared back at him. For some reason thisparticular smeet made him uncomfortable.
            "Hi,"said the little girl with a squeaky voice, stretching out her words as a smilewas smeared across her face. "My name's Lin. Who are you?"
            Zimscooted a little away from the girl. "Eh, Zim. What do you want, stinkbeast? Away with you!"
            For somestrange unknown reason, Lin began giggling and giggling while staring intoZim's big eyes. Zim was not amused, and felt the annoying child was getting onhis nerves, and creeping him out. Her noise became louder with the second, thenshe took a deep breath and said, "You're funny! Wanna see my collection ofmood rings?"
            There wasa pause, then Zim asked, "What are these 'mood rings' of which you speak?Are they some form of weapon that can destroy all mankind?"
            Sighingdreamily, Lin answered, "They can be anything you want because I like you!I'll even give you one, and every time you look at it, you can think ofme!"
            Zimshuttered. He was not yet completely sure what this weird girl wanted from him,but sure as Hell he did not want to find out. "Could you . . . uh, kindago away? Now?"
            The girljust stared with a dreamy grin on her face, which creeped out the alien to apoint of no return.
            Still notunderstanding, and by now almost frightened, Zim gulped and added, "BeforeI destroy you? I will, ya know. I'll kill you. Without hesitation. And I won'tcare. And I definitely won't regret it."
            Lin saidabsolutely nothing, did nothing, thought nothing. She hadn't moved.
            Undeniablyfearful now, Zim stood up and screamed while pointing at Lin, "Don't youfeel any fear about me threatening to murder you? At all? Huh? Answer me! Icommand you! Reply to Zim!"
            Still,Lin simply stared with that smile.
            Fearturned into panic, Zim cried as he pressed his back against his front door,"It isn't normal! It isn't anything anywhere near normal! IT'SPOSESSED BY A DEMON FROM THE EIGTH DIMENTION!!" And with that, he openedthe door and raced inside, slamming it behind him and keeping his back againstthe inside of it now. He was breathing hard, as if he had just escaped ahorrible beast that had been chasing him. Slowly, he calmed down, and allowedhimself to slip down to the floor, where he sat and stayed for a while with hishead down.
            Girwalked in, doggy disguise now on, carrying in one hand a taquito and in theother an Irken fast-food drink. He made his way over to Zim, who had ridhimself of his fears and was now simply sitting with his head still downthinking about what to do of this child monster.
            He lookedup and sighed, saying to Gir for no reason other than to simply talk, "Ibelieve I have met something scarier than the Dib. She is a horrible thingcalled 'Lin', who seems to talk of things even insane than him. There must besome way to annihilate her without anyone knowing, but what?" As Gir cameup to him and stopped to stand in front of his face, Zim snatched the drinkfrom the little robot's hand and took a sip of it. Gir did nothing in reactionto this.
            Thinkingaloud, Zim continued more to himself than his android servant, "Perhaps ifI were to receive assistance from the Dib monkey, we could together destroy Linonce and for all. She would no longer be a bother to me." He took anothersip of the drink, then yelled at the idiotic SIR unit standing right in frontof him, "Gir! Come here! I have devised yet another ingenious plan to killoff one more annoying Earthenoid pest!"
            Girsquealed, then cried, "You want to eat my taquito?!"
            "What?No!" Zim stood up and vigorously sucked at the straw coming from the lidof the soda drink. "We are going to call upon an old enemy for a little .. . eh, what's the word?"
            Shrugging,Gir answered with a short, simple hum. "Help?"
            "Bequiet!" ordered Zim angrily. "I'm trying to think! Let's see . . .no, that's not it . . . maybe . . . Gir, could you help me here?"
            Suddenlyremembering something very important, Gir squealed, "My tacos! I didn'tfeed them yet! TACOS! DON'T GO AWAY!!" And Gir ran into the kitchenscreaming for some reason that nobody would ever know.
            "Hmm. . . ah, yes, 'help'. We are going to call upon an old enemy for a littlehelp. And since you've . . . left . . . already . . ." Zim noticed Gir wasgone. "I'll just . . . go down to the lab, and . . . think some more.That's it. I'll think about how to approach the subject, so the Dib willsuspect nothing! He will fall helpless to my grasp, and I will force him toassist me!" Zim laughed evilly for a short moment, then ran off to thinkup an amazing, ingenious, unfathomably flawless way to begin talking to Dib.
 
            Thatevening, things were almost normal. And using the word "almost"usually means not at all. In fact, could things get even less normal?
            Dib hearda knock on his door. Automatically, he got up and ran to it, excited. Thiscould be his big chance!! It would be perfect!
            "Maybeit's Mysterious Mysteries! Maybe it's Crop Circles Magazine! Finally, someonehas come to their senses and believed me about something! I can't wait to seethe look on Zim's face when he realizes I got a visit from-" Dib openedthe door and immediately his happy mood was destroyed. ". . . him."
            Zimdidn't look happy either. "First of all, Dib, I want you to knowthat coming to you was not my first idea."
            "Yesit was," interrupted Gir, standing way behind him in the lawn andlistening in on the conversation.
            There wasa pause. Zim turned around, outraged, and yelled, "BE QUIET, GIR!"
            Dib shookhis head. "If this is one of your stupid computer problems, or VootCruiser glitches, or if you need me to fix your satellite again, then countme-"
            "Notthis time, horrible Dib thing," Zim answered before Dib could finish hissentence. "This time it's different."
            Dibstared with a bored expression. "Let me guess. You're here to destroy meagain, right?"
            Zimcrossed his arms. "Fortunately for you, no, but it's the next thing on mylist."
            Now Dibseemed slightly interested. He wasn't as bored. So he listened to what Zim hadto say.
            "There'sthis strange Earth girl, Lin, who earlier stared at me until she forced me tothreaten to kill her! She asked me about 'mood rings', and . . . what else? I .. . think that's it. But my point is, Dib, that-"
            Dibsuddenly burst out laughing. But Zim looked as if he'd been slapped. How couldanybody find any of this the slightest bit humorous at all? This was horrible!!It was an outrage! He had a big problem here. He had a REALLY big-
            "Crushon a girl!" laughed Dib, pointing at Zim though he was four feet in frontof him. "Who would have guessed?"
            Zimthought Dib was insane. Well, more than usual. But then he realized there wasplenty of truth to Dib's words. "Crush? Yes, of course! That's it! Dib,your insane weird babbling has given me the perfect idea! So, I no longer needyour assistance. See ya." He turned and began his walk home from hisenemy's house. Then, as he neared the edge of Dib's property, he stopped andsaid, turning to face Dib, "Oh, and I'll be back to destroy you."
            Dib wason the floor pounding on it, tears in his eyes from laughing. "Why? So Ican't tell everybody your stupid secret crush? Geez, Zim, they say love isblind, but isn't this . . . a little . . . too much intermixing?!?"
            Zim gavehim an odd look, not understanding half of what he was talking about for morethan one reason, one of them being that his words were all blended because hewas trying not to laugh while he said them.
            Girstopped poking the electric fence and electrocuting himself to look at Dib,then fell to the ground laughing just as hysterically for no reason. After afew minutes of Zim staring at him, he got up and ran to his master's side.
            "Youdone?" asked Zim dully.
            "LET'SGO SHOPPING!" cried Gir. ". . . for squirrel babies!"
            "That'swhat I thought. Let's go."
            Girmarched next to Zim like a soldier on a mission with a goofy expression. Dibcontinued to laugh.
 
            Twenty-fourhours had passed since we began this story. Yes, everybody, I am generallysaying that it is now yet another beautiful morning, today's belonging toSunday, also one of two cherished weekend days, sadly the second.
            There wasno noise anywhere. It seemed time had come to a complete halt as suspense hungin the air, each second bringing new tension and fear.
            And alittle girl skipped happily down the street with a flower in hand. She was ashappy as anybody could be, her young heart filled to bursting with the love shefelt for a special someone. Childhood memories she was creating, but for theone she had her eyes on, "childhood" was merely the part of his lifewhich he spent underground in the horrible learning facilities to train for hisfuture life as an invader, and that piece of his history was long over for him.
            She hadno idea of how little they had in common, nor how much he despised her despiteonly meeting her yesterday. All she knew was that she loved him from the verystart; she hardly knew why. She was blind to the fact that, even after livingat least five times longer than the life-span of a human, Zim had never"loved" anything. In fact, he hated everything to an extent that wasvirtually unreachable for humans. It is only fair to say that anybody watchingour blossoming little couple would feel sorry for the child.
            Zim wasin the "kitchen", if you can even call it that, sitting down at thetable. He was in his human disguise because he had one of the windows open dueto it being a lovely sunny morning. His attention was focused on looking over afew papers he had received in a transmission from the Almighty Tallest. Theywere assignments he was to complete, but some of them were baffling to him.
            "Hmm. . . what do you suppose they mean by 'explosion of your choice'?" Zimblinked and gave the papers a confused look. "'Explosion'. . ."
            Suddenlythe doorbell rang, an awkward tone to an Irken, but Zim had adjusted to it andnow recognized it as the humans' way of letting him know one of them was at thedoorstep of his fortress and wished to tell him something.
            Zim gotup, papers still in hand, only half concentrating on what he was doing, andautomatically went to answer the door. He opened it without even once lookingto see who it was, and asked while still staring at his assignments,"Yeah, what do you want?"
            Linsmiled and her eyes seemed to glow. She snatched the papers right out of Zim'sgrasp with the same hand she had the flower in, and pulled from behind her apair of scissors with her free hand.
            Zimgasped. "You! What do you think you're doing? Give those back, they're topsecret!"
            Lin onlygiggled. In the blink of an eye she cut out a chain of heart shapes out of thepapers, each linked together to the next by the side of the top. She opened thefolded paper to reveal it was a pattern, which consisted of the hearts runningin three rows: one right-side-up, one upside-down, and the last right-side-upagain.
            Zim'smouth was hanging open. It was clear this "Lin" had to be destroyed.
            "DOYOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE?!?" screamed Zim. "DO YOU?!? HUH?HUH? HUH? HUH?!?"
            Lin giggled."I made them for you," she said dreamily, handing him the cut-uppapers.
            Zimlooked horrified as his eyes scrolled over the hearts that used to be a messagefrom his leaders. Never in his life had he met such a horrible creature as Lin!But before he could say one word about how much he hated her, she grabbed hisarm with her left hand and started skipping along, her right arm swinging backand forth with the flower. He dropped the paper hearts, forgetting about themand concentrating more on pulling away from the horrible Lin girl.
            As shedragged him with her away from the safety of his fortress, someone picked upwhat he had left behind, and smiled.
 
            And soshe took him with her everywhere she went. The first stop was the amusementpark, which proved to be one of the most horrible experiences of his life.
            Lin kepther fingers locked tightly around Zim's wrist. She happily skipped onto thefirst ride she saw, which was an innocent marry-go-round. She pulled him uponto a strange creature that looked most like a squirrel, keeping him in frontof her while she hugged his back. He tried to escape, but her grasp was tootight. She was too strong for him.
            The ridestarted and Zim looked panicked. He had no idea of how things like this worked.Well, sure enough, he found out. It started spinning, slowly at first, thenfaster, and faster, until it was spinning out of control! Then all at once itstopped, jerking everybody forward.
            Zimlooked rather nauseated as he climbed off with Lin still holding onto his arm,which was becoming sore.
            Lin ranover to an ice-cream parlor and got two ice-cream cones, both strawberryflavored. She started licking one, and handed the other to Zim, who stared atit like it was infested with parasites. He glanced at her, and she pointedbehind him excitedly. He looked over his shoulder, but didn't see anythinginteresting. When he looked back, she pushed his hand up, causing him to shovethe ice-cream into his mouth. Lin giggled, but Zim had tears in his eyes as hescreamed. He tried to run away from her, but only pulled her arm a little wayswith him. She felt him trying to get away, and only walked close to him andnuzzled her head close to his chest.
            Spyinganother fun ride, Lin screeched and dropped her ice-cream in excitement. Sheran over to it, with Zim right behind her. He had seen what she was looking at,and was screaming so much that he began to cry, a very degrading action for anIrken Elite Soldier. Still, it got him nowhere, as Lin dragged him into thefront seat with her anyway.
            Anautomatic buckle strapped over both of them, keeping them in place. And thenthe ride began. Zim was petrified with fear as the roller coaster climbedincredible heights to get to the top. He had ceased his wailing for the moment.It paused at the very top just long enough for Zim to put his arms around Lininstinctively and gulp, then lunged forward, sending Zim screaming bloodymurder like he had never screamed before. Lin only had on a gigantic smile.
            Loopafter loop, twirl after twirl, faster and faster it went. Zim continued toscream until around the end, when he couldn't stand it any longer.
            The rideslowed to a stop and everybody got up to leave. Zim wearily climbed out of thefirst car and Lin let go of him for a moment to look at something. He slowlywalked forward, feeling incredibly dizzy. He made his way to the closesttrashcan, to which he leaned over it and vomited from dizziness. He felt likehis head was spinning.
            Lindashed back over to him and grabbed his Pak, purposely disconnecting it fromhim. She quickly gained his attention, and only giggled as he looked back ather with wide eyes. She raced around him and the trashcan, heading for theFerris Wheel.
            Zim feltenergy slowly being drained from him and internally, his life clock began. Heran after her, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Lin! Wait! This isn'tfunny! I need my Pak to live! Without it, I'll die in ten minutes! I'm serious!Come on, stop!"
            Lin wasrunning all around with his gray and pink Pak, laughing innocently whileholding it close to her heart. Back and forth, here and there they ran, Zimshouting out pleads and threats all the while.
            "I'mnot kidding," panted Zim after some five minutes, so tired from runningwithout extra energy that he felt he would collapse soon. He had used up halfof his time chasing the girl, who was now only a few feet in front of him."Give it back, or I'll . . . I'll . . . make waffles!"
            Lingiggled cutely. "Okay!" she said happily, not caring about orunderstanding what he had meant. She walked up to him and handed it to him.
            Zimsnatched it out of her hands, looked it over for scratches, then sighed ofrelief. He placed it on his back, and it restored the connection between hisalmost completely worthless body and his amazing, personality-containing energysupply. He felt life flowing back into him. This sudden rush of energy, alongwith giving him the strength he needed to survive, also reminded him of howmuch he despised Lin.
            "You!"he cried while pointing at Lin, who was right in front of him. "You couldhave killed me! How dare you mess with anything belonging to Zim?!?"
            Lingiggled again. "You're so cute!" she said. She blew him a kiss.
            Zimstared for a very long time, wondering what to say. Finally, he blurted,"Stay away from me, horrid Lin-monster! Or I shall have to take moredrastic measures than I already have!"
            Withoutwarning, Lin skipped a half step closer to him and hugged him tightly. Hescreamed.
            "Cutelittle Zimmy . . ." said Lin, snuggling him.
            Zim waspanicking. He looked around, trying to think of something fast. Finally givingup caring about the risk of exposing what he was, two long tentacle-like wiresshot out of his Pak and jammed into opposite sides of Lin's head, pulling heraway from the Irken and suspending her in the air.
            Lindidn't like this. She tried to pry the wires away while kicking her legs asfast as she could and grunting, but her feeble attempts at detachingVortian-designed equipment were in vein, for she was only human and humans wereweak and powerless at this age.
            Zim wassweating, but was much more calm than he had been. He gritted his teeth."Now leave me alone! I have no desire to be ANYWHERE near you!" Andwith that, the two wires emitted a high-voltage electrical charge into herhead, causing her to scream and thrash about. When the electrocutions ceased,she was silent, half charred black and her hair a mess. She fell to the groundsmoking when the wires detached from her and retracted back into Zim's Pak.
            Zimpaused for a moment, wondering for no less than a split second if what he haddone would result in consequences, then let go of the thought and ran off,retreating to his base to plan on how to destroy the Dib.
 
            The nextday, the children had to return to school. It was extremely boring. But not somuch that today was another "normal" day. No, today, things wereslightly off. Just slightly. And using the word "slightly", I meanhorribly different than usual.
            Dib waswalking to school by himself, his eyes scrolling over the papers he had foundon Zim's doorstep. Last night he had pasted them back together to make themwhat they once were: full-sheet pages of Irken words that he didn't understand.His computer could have translated them if they had been in computer-compatibleformat, but paper didn't exactly fit into any of the disc drives.
            "Hmm. . ." he said to himself, thinking out loud, "I wonder what it allmeans." Then a funny thought crossed his mind and he snickered."Maybe it's a letter to that girl he likes. But then, why would it be inIrken? Then again, maybe it's something more valuable, like a message from hisleaders or something." He turned a corner. "If I can just translatethis, I can use it against him, whatever it is. Maybe it's even some sort ofinstructions for how to get in his base without activating the securitysystem!"
            Hestopped walking and looked down at the little girl sitting on the curb staringat the ground. She was picking petals off of a flower with a dreamy expression.
            Dib wasabout to leave, seeing there was nothing interesting about her, but he suddenlyheard her say, "Zim loves me, Zim loves me not. Zim loves me, Zim loves menot . . ."
            "Hey,"said Dib to the little girl, "I'm not trying to be rude or anything, butare you talking about Zim, the alien?"
            Linlooked up at him with big, adorable blue eyes. "The alien?" sheasked. "Oh, I know no Zim the alien. But I do know a Zim, thesweetest boy in the entire world! Yesterday, he took me to the amusement park,and we rode rides and ate ice-cream . . ."
            Diblooked slightly confused. "I only know one Zim, and he's an evil alien outto destroy the Earth! Just tell me this: is he green?"
            Linsighed and plucked off another petal, staring mindlessly at the bald flower."Yeah," she sighed. "He's so pretty . . ."
            "IKNEW IT!" cried Dib to himself. "Zim has a crush on an Earthgirl!" He looked back at Lin, who snatched up another flower from thegrass and started picking off its petals as well. "Unless . . . he justwants to use her for his next evil plan!" Dib's eyes widened. "Butwhat would he want with a puny little girl . . .?" Dib continued walkingto school, wondering what diabolical schemes Zim had up his sleeve.
            Lingiggled as she plucked off the last flower petal. "Zim loves me!" shecooed.
 
            Gir wasstaring at a toy pig. He was just laying on the sofa upside-down, staring at itin front of him. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to why.
            Zim wasdown in his lab, working on adjustments to his Pak to make sure only he couldremove it. He had been at it since yesterday, but wasn't the least bit tiredbecause he was wearing a micro-pak, rather a miniature temporary energy supply"Personal Aid Kandrona". It was the size of any computer chip, andwas simply plugged into one of the slots revealed only when his actual Pak isremoved. It could keep him running without the true Pak for almost forty-eighthours, so he was fine to continue working.
            The doorbellsuddenly rang, interrupting Gir's empty thoughts. "Aw, man!" said Girto the toy pig. "I gots ta answer the door now, Pig." Gir got up andzipped on his costume, then hopped to the door and opened it, revealing who itwas.
            Lin stoodat the door with a huge smile on her face. She was holding the same flower fromyesterday. She blinked.
            Girsquealed with joy. He wasn't sure why the girl was here, but he was excitedbecause it had to be something important.
            "Hello!"said Lin sweetly. "Are you Zim's cute little puppy?"
            "Suuuuream!" answered Gir. "I like waffles!"
            Lingiggled. "Can I come in, talking dog? I wanna give something to Zim. Heforgot it yesterday."
            Girstared for a little while, thinking. It was hard for him to think. It alwayshurt what little bit of a mechanical brain he had. "Uhh . . . yes!"
            "Thanks!"said Lin, and walked into the living room with Gir. They both sat on the sofawaiting for Zim to come in. Lin was very excited. She just knew Zim would behappy to see her. After all, flower petals do not lie.
            Downbelow in his lab, Zim had just completed the final adjustments on his Pak. Hesighed. "Finally! It's done! Now I'd like to see that Lin creaturetry to pry it off my back!" He reached behind him and pulled out thetemporary energy disc, then set it on the table. He smiled. Picking up his Pak,he said, "I sure am amazing." He laughed slightly at himself. He putit where the disc had been and it reattached itself to him mechanically withlittle cords that connected with the plugs on him.
            Feelingno need to get on his disguise because it was likely nobody was going to bespying on him for a while, Zim hopped in the "elevator". It took himup.
            Lin wasstill smiling. Gir was watching television. They were both sitting on thecouch.
            "Gir,"said Zim, getting both Lin's and his robot's attention. The circle on the floorstopped moving upwards and he stepped off. "The upgrades on my Pak arecomplete. I feel we will no longer have to worry about-" Suddenly he sawher. The girl he hated more than anybody can hate a person.
            "Hi,Zim!" said Lin cheerfully, her eyes closed. She got up off the sofa andran over to him. "You forgot your flower!" After hugging him, shetook a step back and showed him the giant flower she had kept for him.
            Zimpushed her back, causing her almost to lose her balance. It was a directinsult.
            "What'swrong?" asked Lin, staring into his big, red eyes. "You're allergicto flowers?"
            Zimgrowled. "How DARE you come into MY house, sit on MY sofa, and even getNEAR ME?!?" He took a step towards her and pushed her again, makingher peep. "Go away! I don't care if you know my secret, just goaway!"
            Lin'seyes lit up. "You have a secret?" she asked, curious.
            There wasa pause. Zim realized that she was blind to the fact that he was Irken, thoughhe was standing right in front of her with bright pinkish-red eyes and a pairof antennae. But now he had done it. He said something about it, automaticallythinking she noticed.
            "Uh,no," he lied. "Never mind. Just go away!" He pointed to thedoor.
            Lintilted her head and smiled. "But I'll be good," she insisted."I'll sit on the sofa with your talking, green dog and I'll be quiet. Youwon't even know I'm there!"
            Zimthought about this. Perhaps he was being a little harsh on the deluded Earthgirl. "Well . . . I suppose it couldn't hurt. As long as you STAY OUT OFMY WAY!"
            Lingiggled. "I sure will!"
            Girsquealed. "Dancin' monkeys!"
 
            It was alittle later in the day. Zim was still down in his lab working on a newmicrochip experiment. He pushed a few buttons on his computer console, thenpicked up some strange electricity tool thing and shocked the little microchip.He sat it back down. He typed some more at his computer, then was ready toreach for the electricity tool thing again, but instead found Lin in it'splace, staring at him with her hands behind her back.
            Zimlooked confused. Lin only smiled and handed him the electricity tool thing. Hescowled at her, and she giggled and ran off somewhere.
            A littlelater, Zim was taking a break and sitting at the kitchen table looking oversome other papers, these about his experiment. He was concentrating on themvery hard trying to figure out something. Just as he thought he had thesolution, Lin snatched the papers out of his hands and folded them into a giantheart. She smiled and gave them back to him. Then she giggled and ran offsomewhere.
            Zimgrowled. He unfolded the papers and continued studying them, trying to rememberthe answer he had come up with.
            Evenlater still, close to when school was about to let out, Zim was in his labagain testing his new microchips out on a chicken, when Lin came up to him andtugged at his shirt.
            Zim turnedaround, curious.
            Linpointed to the far side of the lab, and Zim gasped. Half of this lab room waswrecked! Test tubes, wires, computer screens . . . all jumbled together in acrazy way that made a picture of a heart with an arrow going through it. Girwas on top of it laughing insanely.
            Zimgrowled even louder. He reached for a weapon to fire at the pest, but shejumped to a computer console and typed a few codes she stole from him, then onscreen appeared all of Zim's history. Pictures, documents, genetic codes, alldisplayed for her to see. She pushed the arrow onscreen and scrolled down,revealing an embarrassing picture of Zim as a smeet, sitting on the floor of analien place, naked, playing with the circuitry of a little robot bee.
            Girscreamed excitingly at the top of his lungs at the sight! "Baby Zim!Lookit' how cute you were!"
            Zim'smouth dropped open. The weapon he had grabbed fell from his hand. Beads ofsweat formed on his forehead and he looked almost frightened. He suddenlyscreamed in terror.
            Thingswere quiet for a while, about until nighttime. Zim was sitting on the sofawatching television with Gir, trying to cool off some of his anger towards theLin girl. He knew not what she was up to now, but she was leaving him alone forthe moment, and that was what mattered.
            Gir wassucking on a Suck Monkey while watching TV with his master. It was normal,boring. But at least there was no Lin to spoil Zim's slowly returning happymood, which he was always in when he was planning on how to destroy Mankind.Yes, perhaps she had learned to leave him alone and stay away from his things.
            Suddenlythere was a snicker from the kitchen. Zim heard it, but ignored it, figuringLin was only daydreaming about him again. She giggled when she dreamed abouthim, so he had learned from his experiences today.
            Anothergiggle, this one louder, shattered Zim's thoughts. He clenched his left fistaround the arm of the couch. His right, he grabbed the cushion with. He grittedhis teeth. Then he paused everything and took a deep breath, telling himself tolet it go. It was no big deal, whatever it was.
            Lingiggled louder still, more of a laugh now. Zim growled and got up, ready tofind out what was so funny. He walked into the kitchen, spied Lin, and almostfell over backwards at the sight of what she had in her hands. It was a certainfamiliar spiral notebook with a black cover that had the Irken watermark on thefront, and right underneath that in blue letters read "Zim".
            Anotherlaugh escaped Lin's voice as she turned a page. She looked up, feeling Zim'spresence, and smiled. She looked like she had a dirty secret.
            "MYLOG BOOK!" screamed Zim. He ran over to Lin and grabbed it right out ofher hands. He was even more panicked now than ever before. "How could you?This is my personal property!" He looked at what page she was on. Pagethirty-seven. The sight of the page number struck fear into him. "No . . .NO! NOOOOOO!!!"
            Lingiggled.
            Zim washyperventilating. "All of my thoughts, my secrets, my life . . .EXPOSED!! The mission, my plans . . . my habits, my weaknesses . . . all readby a disgusting female Earthenoid smeet!" He suddenly turned on Lin."You! You horrible, sick creature! GET OUT OF MY BASE THIS INSTANT!"
            Lin'ssmile faded. "But-"
            "GETOUT!! NOW!!"
            "But-"
            "NOW!"
            Linsmiled again and giggled. She got up from the chair and skipped over to thedoor. "Okay, see ya tomorrow, Zimmy!" She blew him a kiss, and left.Zim looked out the window and could see her singing all the way down the streetuntil she was out of sight.
            "GIR!"he cried. Gir hopped in front of him, saluting, his head covered in chocolatebubblegum. "Yes, sir!"
            Zimgulped. "Gir, we have to leave for a few minutes. Now. The Dib should knowwhat to do."
 
            Dib'sdoorbell rang. He jumped up from watching Mysterious Mysteries and ran to it."The FBI! The president!" Dib pleaded aloud. "Somebodywho's actually here to listen to me!"
            He openedthe door, revealing Zim. Before Dib could say anything, Zim darted inside andslammed the door shut. He looked scared.
            Dibgasped. "Zim! What are you-"
            "There'sscarcely any time, Dib thing. You have to help me before she comes back! SHE'LLDESTROY MY LIFE!!"
            Dibcocked an eyebrow. It took him a few moments to grasp what Zim was yellingabout. Then, he realized it. "You're talking about that girl, aren't you?Well, I'm onto you. What do you plan to do with her?"
            Zim wasbreathing hard still. He had his back to the side of Dib's sofa. "Lin! Shewon't leave me alone! She follows me everywhere I go! Ican't get away from her! She's like a Cathgorian Worm Parasite, that evilcreature! You have to make her go away!" Zim fell to his knees, tears inhis eyes. "I'm begging you! You don't know how serious this is!"
            Dib hadhis arms crossed. "Why should I help you? You're evil! You're trying toannihilate the Earth, and you expect me to drop everything to help you lose alittle girl that likes you?"
            Zim tooka deep breath. He squinted his eyes. "She knows more secrets about my lifethan you do, filthy Dib monster." Dib's eyes flashed. "I can'tstop her! She has gotten past security, infiltrated my base, hacked into mycomputers, and worst of all read MY Log Book!"
            Dib thoughtabout this while Zim sniffled and stared at him with big, watery eyes.
            Zimrubbed the tears out of his eyes and stood up, trying to act somewhat more likea soldier. "So will you help me destroy her? Please?"
            "Hmm,lemme think about it," said Dib. There was a pause. "No."
            Zim'smouth hung open slightly. "But . . ."
            Dibcrossed his arms. "I don't have time to help you with girl problems. Sofigure it out yourself."
            Zimgulped. There were a few seconds when nobody said anything, then he answeredDib, "Fine!" He opened the door cautiously and peeked outside, makingsure Lin wasn't there waiting for him. When all he saw was Gir running aroundin circles, he marched out the door. He turned back to Dib for a moment beforehe left.
            "Dib,you will regret this. I'll make sure of it."
            Dibclosed the door, bored to death.
 
            Tuesdaybrought new fate for all three of our characters. Zim, Dib, and Lin were goingto put an end to this thing tonight. Of course, the answer to how was slightlymore complicated than most of you would expect. But before you find out, thenew list of events began in school, which is what will lead up to the end.
            Zim wassitting at his desk, still shook up about yesterday's horrible experience withLin and his Log Book. He was slightly jumpy, but not so much that he forgotabout getting his revenge on Dib. Still, before Dib's entrance to class, mostof Zim's thoughts were focused on one thing: how to rid himself of the annoyingbrat Lin, so she would no longer follow him around.
            Mrs.Bitters sat at her desk, ready to begin class. She despised teaching, but stilldid it every single weekday with little complaint. "Okay, students.Today's lesson is about love, and how it could eventually lead to the horribleend of the doomed universe!"
            Zim wasnot listening today. Not that he ever did, anyway. But today he was even morezoned out of class than usual, what with thinking about the events over thepast three days. His thoughts were very distracted from her words. Perhaps hecould simply kill her, but then that would be such a waste. He should find away to use her to his advantage.
            Theclassroom door opened, interrupting Zim's pondering. Dib walked in with a largestack of notebook papers, which were falling all over the place. They came upright past his eyes, so he was having trouble seeing where he was walking.
            Zimsnickered at the funny sight. Feeling this was the perfect time to get hisrevenge, he stuck his foot out just as Dib walked by, tripping him. Dibstumbled over Zim's food with a yelp, and fell to the ground, his papers flyingeverywhere. But he didn't care that Zim had tripped him. He was concentratingon other, more important things.
            Mrs. Bittersgrowled. "Dib! You're late again! What's your excuse?"
            Dib satup and started gathering his papers once more without giving Zim's"revenge" a single thought. "I was trying to decode some alienwriting I found on Zim's doorstep. I was up all night, so I accidentallyoverslept."
            His wordssparked Zim's curiosity. He remembered something about papers that he had hadthe day that Lin took him to the amusement park, but the vision was a littlebit blurry. So he asked, half in a lie, "Papers? What papers? I had nopapers on my doorstep!"
            Dibsmiled evilly at Zim, seeing that he didn't realize what had happened that day."Oh, no? Then what are these, Zim?" He waved around themessage from the Almighty Tallest in front of Zim's face.
            Zimgasped, suddenly remembering, and grabbed it out of his hand. He looked itover, seeing the familiar words printed on the paper in Irken. He was outraged."You dare take something off of my property?!? This is top secret, stupidhuman! I've been looking all over for this!"
            Dibshrugged. He could care less about Zim's statement. And he said to his enemysmugly, "You can keep it. I have hundreds of copies."
            Zimgrowled and clenched his fists with rage.
            "SILENCE!"screeched Mrs. Bitters. "As I was saying, love will most likely lead tothe end of the universe."
            As shecontinued on about the subject, Zim set the message aside and pulled out a newpiece of paper. He began writing down his plans, which he had been thinkingthrough all morning before coming to school. He originally had intended onkilling her . . .
            Dibwatched from his desk with papers on top of it as Zim wrote his thoughts. Itappeared as if he were actually paying attention and taking notes, but hefigured that wasn't possible, because Zim never took any notes about anythingthat had to do with school.
 
            At lunch,Zim was still writing. He smiled as he finalized his amazing thoughts of how toget rid of the Lin girl. He was still working out a few kinks, but overall, hehad finished the main part of the plan. He was very proud of his work. Holdingit up and looking it over once more, he exclaimed, "YES! Done at last! Theperfect plan! I shall never have to worry about the horrible Lin again!"
            Dib wassitting at the table opposite of Zim. He cocked an eyebrow at hearing this. Hegot up and walked over to Zim, sitting next to him and looking at the papers.They were all written in Irken, which made no sense to him. Zim noticed he wasthere and snatched the papers out of his view.
            "Whatwas that?" asked Dib curiously. He knew asking Zim would result inanother stupid argument, but still, asked he did.
            Zimsmiled evilly to himself as he thought over what he had just spent half of theday working on. "Just the perfect way I plan to get rid of the annoyingLin creature!" he answered. "She will never bother me again aftertonight!"
            "Why?What happens tonight?" asked Dib, getting that feeling that told himsomething wasn't right here.
            "Well,I'm going to- WAIT! Why should I tell you what my ingenious plans are?"Zim slammed his hands down on the table and stood up. "You would juststeal them! This is between Lin and me, so mind your own business, paranoidhuman!"
            Dib stoodup to face Zim. "What do you have against her?" he demanded."She never did anything to you!"
            Zim shookhis fist in Dib's face. "Yes, she did! She tormented me by forcing me toride 'rides' at an 'amusement park'! She twisted my beautiful laboratoryequipment into a horrible worthless blob! She read my inner thoughts in my LogBook! She deserves much worse than I intend to do to her!"
            "Andwhat do you intend to do to her?" asked Dib.
            "Somethingshe will thank me for later!" Zim answered. "This will satisfy bothof our wishes! She will stay with me until the Earth is devastated, and I willno longer have her around to bug me when I am working on . . . important . . .stuff!"
            Dib gavehim an odd look. "Wait. Did you just say you were going to keep her withyou, but she wouldn't be around to interfere with your work? How is thatpossible?"
            "Itis too complicated for your puny human brain to comprehend. You should stick toanalyzing your pathetic human cafeteria food, which even then is something youmost likely couldn't handle. Of course, I don't have time to do thattoday. I am still adding the finishing touches onto my brilliant plan."
            Diblooked at him with a smug expression. He reached down and picked up a glop ofmashed potatoes from Zim's lunch tray, then without warning tossed themstraight at Zim's head, hitting him square in the eye.
            Zimscreamed. He ran in the first direction he saw that was away from Dib, holdinghis pain-stricken eye. "THE PAIN!! THE PAIN!! IT BURNS!!" He fellover and rolled onto his side, quivering with pain.
            Dibchuckled. "Now who can't handle analyzing the cafeteria food,Zim?" He laughed.
            Zim tooka few staggered breaths, sat up, and quickly wiped off the disgusting food fromhis eye. It was red and irritated. Feeling as if he were pushed to a breakingpoint, he felt like crying, like sobbing because of the fact that Dib would dosuch a horrible thing. But no. He simply got up and walked back over to histable, sat down, and continued writing his plans, keeping his feelings tohimself. He had had all he could take over the past few days, and was tired ofyelling at people to get back at them. He only wanted to be left alone. What'smore, he wanted nothing more to do with Dib for the moment.
            Dib,however, was still curious about Zim's plans. He wondered what Zim had meantabout "keeping her but getting rid of her". He suspected the worst.And he was not going to allow an innocent little girl to be harmed because ofZim's evil schemes.
            Zimsniffled and wiped the tears out of his scratchy eye, interrupting Dib'sthoughts.
 
            Linskipped along to her sweetheart's house, holding her newest gift for him: a boxof chocolates shaped like a heart. She was singing, her heart filled tobursting with happiness. She would let no one get in her way today.
            "Lala la la . . ." Suddenly she stopped, seeing she was there. She giggled,walked up the walkway to the front door and rang the doorbell, holding thechocolates behind her back. At first, nothing happened, as if nobody was evenhome. But Lin stayed there, her eyes fixed on the doorknob to make sure shewould know the second that it moved.
            Inside,Zim slowly turned the doorknob, causing Lin's eyes to sparkle with joy. Thedoor opened, revealing a very evil Zim, who was standing before the girl withoutfear. He moved aside for a moment to let her in.
            "Oh,Zimmy!" said Lin. "I was beginning to think you weren't home!"She skipped inside and turned around to face him. It was dark inside, muchdarker than it was outside. Tuesday afternoon bore a bright, hot sun to fillthe red sky with light that streamed into Zim's dark base like a candle in acave.
            Zimsmiled evilly, silently. He closed the door, creating a darkness that wasalmost pitch black, but was just light enough that he could still make out hercolors.
            "Wow!"exclaimed Lin cutely. "It sure is dark!" Then, her attentiondiverted, she said, "Here, I brought you these!" Lin held out to himthe heart-shaped box of chocolates with a large smile. She stood there as Zimwalked up to her and took them gently. He put them down on a table sitting nextto the couch.
            "Thankyou, Lin," he said to her coolly. He walked up to her. "Now, Ihave something for you."
            Lingasped excitedly. "You got me something?" she asked, her eyessparkling. "Oh, Zim, you're so sweet! How can I ever thank you?"
            "Youwon't have to," Zim answered. He pulled from behind his back a small, grayand purple Irken Utility Pak. It had a tiny card attached to a string that wastaped to the front.
            Linappeared to be mesmerized. "You got that . . . for me? Thank you somuch, Zim! I love you!" She took the Pak and looked it over. Finding thecard, she opened it and read it aloud.
            "'ToLin, from Zim. Place it on your back.' How cute! Just like yours, Zim!"Lin giggled as she turned the Pak over and looked at it some more. The bottomhad two holes centered in it.
            "Wouldyou like me to help you?" Zim asked.
            Linsighed dreamily as she looked at him. "Of course!" she answered."I would want nothing more!"
            Zimsquinted his eyes and his smile grew. He carefully took the Pak from her handsand moved behind her. He then pressed it against her back, about the uppermiddle where Irken Utility Paks always went. It attached itself to her bypuncturing her skin and running wires through her body painlessly.
            "Perfect. . ." Zim backed away a few feet. Before Lin could turn around and thankhim, a tube-like tentacle shot out of Zim's own Pak and connected with Lin's.Electric pulses began streaming into it.
            Linscreamed for a moment, then her eyes went blank as information flowed into her.She said nothing, she did nothing. She was but a mindless zombie while theinformation transfer was taking place.
            As thetransfer began, her Pak let out its own tentacles and equipment, which wrappedaround her in symmetrical ways that, after complete, gave her the appearance ofa true Irken warrior.
            Zim beganto laugh. He laughed evilly, watching as the horrible Lin girl that had causedhim so much torment was becoming one of his own.
            "Yes!Yes, filthy Lin monster! You shall never bother me or read my secrets again!IT'S OVER!"
            Suddenly,the door and some of the wall surrounding it were blown away by an explosion,which knocked Zim off his feet and disconnected the cord that attached his andLin's Paks together. But she still stood, blank, mindless because theinformation was incomplete.
            Dib'ssilhouette became visible through the smoke. He was holding a laser weapon hehad gotten from his dad's lab. "No it isn't, Zim! Not while I'maround!"
            Zimgrowled and lifted his head up, now covered in scratches. His Pak was damaged,sparks shooting from the broken part. "Dib!! What are you doing here? Ineed no help with the Lin girl!"
            Dibwalked into the now well-lit room. "I'm not letting you destroy her, Zim!She's an innocent, confused child! It's just not right!"
            Zim stoodup painfully and limped over to him. He pushed him, causing him to fall anddrop his weapon. "I do not intend to destroy her, idiotic Earthenoid! Iintend to turn her into one of my people! She will become something greaterthan any human with my help!"
            Dibjumped to his feet. "That's crazy, Zim! You can't possibly give her whatshe needs! Do you really think this will solve your problems?"
            "Ofcourse it will!"
            "Noit won't!" Dib argued. "She may be under your control, but inside,somewhere, is still the little girl she used to be. And you don't have theright to take that away from her! Look at her. Does she really look like shecould become an elite soldier?"
            Zimthought about this for a moment as he stared at Lin, then suddenly his metalspider legs shot out of his Pak and hoisted him up into the air above Dib. Theyran Zim past him and over to his forgotten weapon.
            Zim bentdown and tried to pick it up as he ran by, but Dib grabbed one of the metalspider legs and pulled at it, causing Zim to lose his balance. The spider legstripped over themselves, the one Dib was holding onto snapped, and Zim screamedas he skidded across the floor on his back, stopping close to where the doorhad once been. Where he had slid there was a scattered trail of circuitry andthin, delicate little wires. Half of his metal spider legs had broken off ofhim.
            Dib sawthis as the perfect opportunity to save the girl. He ran over to her, droppingthe half of Zim's spider leg he had been holding. He grabbed hold of her Pakand pulled at it, snapping it from her body. The tentacles and equipment cameoff with it and sucked back into its main part automatically.
            Lin'seyes flashed brightly, and her pupils became visible again. She stood there fora moment, wondering what happened. Then she turned around and saw Dib.
            Zimmoaned and sat upright, holding his throbbing head with one of his hands. Hesaw Lin back to normal, and Dib holding her Pak.
            "NOOOOOOOOO!!!"cried Zim. He jumped to his feet and ran over to Dib. "What have you done?She was so close to becoming one of my own! So close to being Irken! You ruinedeverything!"
            Dibsmiled. "No, I saved her from you. She deserves to be free,like the rest of us."
            Zim tooka step forward to grab the Pak away from his enemy, but tripped and fell on hisface. He slowly lifted his head with tears in his eyes to see that Lin and Dibwere leaving without the slightest concern for him.
            "Wait!"cried Zim to Lin. "Come back! You still have a chance!"
            Linturned around for a second, looking Zim in the eyes, and said, "Sorry,Zim. I don't like you anymore. Maybe I'll see you again later, but I stilldon't like you."
            Zim wasspeechless. Lin turned and left without even looking back. She silently grabbedDib's hand and held it tight.
            "But. . ." said Zim to himself as he watched them leave, "you . . ."Then suddenly it dawned on him. He stood up and looked himself over, seeingwhat a mess he was. He was covered in scratches and scrapes from head to foot,his shirt ripped to shreds, his Pak damaged almost beyond repair, his disguiseonly half in place.
            He pickedup his fallen eye lens that rested at his feet and held it, looking down at itand seeing his reflection in the imitation iris. He noticed that, from hisreflection, one of his antennae had the top of it completely broken off. As forhis wig, he had no idea.
            Tearswere in his eyes at the pain that covered him. But as he saw Dib and Lin's tinyoutlines disappear into the dimming horizon, he smiled. And his smile stretchedall the way across his face.
            "SHE'SGONE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. He danced around with the eyelens. "Finally! I'm free! No more Lin! No more torment!" He paused."GIR!"
            Gir'srobotic head popped out from inside the broken television set, which had thescreen shattered from the explosion. "Yes?"
            Zim ranover to him and grabbed his head. "Gir, she's gone! SHE'S FINALLY GONE!!Let's make waffles!"
            Girsquealed loudly with approval. He darted into the kitchen, followed by theslightly delirious Zim. Cooking noises could be heard from the damaged livingroom.
 
            Lin satwith Dib on his doorstep, looking at the stars. She was holding his hand. Hereyes were sparkling with delight.
            "Isn'tit amazing?" asked Dib. "Outer space . . . there's just so much wedon't know about everything that goes on up there."
            Linsighed. "Yeah. All those stars, and the planets, and moons . . . it's soooromantic."
            Dib lookedat her, not quite understanding what she was getting at.
            "So,"she said to him, both of them looking at each other, "I never introducedmyself. My name's Lin."
            "Andmy name's Dib," said Dib.
            Lin beganto giggle. She laughed and laughed, somewhat evilly, as Dib stared. He wasbecoming frightened. Suddenly, the laughter stopped. Lin looked happy.
            "You'refunny," she said. "Wanna see my collection of mood rings?"
            Dibstared at her, thinking about this. "Well . . . I guess I don't haveanything else to do. What could it hurt?"
            Lin'ssmile grew bigger and bigger. She reached behind her without looking andplucked a flower from the ground. "I have something for you. . . . Wannago to the amusement park tomorrow?"

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