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Sublime Awakenings	By : Kailean Category: Comics > Squee! Views: 1516 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Squee!, JTHM, or Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from these works. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 33
- 34
- 35
Sublime Awakening: Chapter 34

A little more than an hour later, Pepito yawned as he looked, once again, at the tarot cards in his hand. Nope, still no Cups. Big surprise there. “Go fish, Zim. You might want to consider asking someone else for that rank next time, since I haven't had any for four rounds now.”

“You LIE! ZIM knows that you have them ALL, filthy, corn-filled fool! Show your cards to ZIM!”

Pepito gave his accuser a flat look. “Corn filled? I haven't even been eating corn. And what's wrong with corn anyway?” The six of them had been sitting in Todd's room, in a protective, magic circle that Dib had drawn with chalk-stupid, white lighter-, which was getting all over his black and green striped pants, and playing kiddie games with the paranormalist's tarot deck for the better part of an hour now. He was starting to wonder if Zim had known what he was talking about when he had claimed that Shmee would seek Todd out at the first opportunity. The aliens current child-like demanding wasn't lending him much creditability.

“Show Zim now, lowly huy-mun!” Zim pointed his middle claw at the insolent worm-baby dramatically.

“Human?” Letta looked up from her hand, even more disturbed than when she had discovered this occult-center sleep over. Did the little, green boy go around pretending to be an alien? Did he think that he actually was an alien? Were all of these kids crazy? Maybe there was something to the theory of mass hallucinations after all.

“Eh?”

“Why did you call Pepito human?”

“Because he, like me, ZIM, is human, silly worm-child! Heh heh.”

“Yeah, but you said it like an insult.”

“Yes. I am not very fond of humans...or being one. But hey, what are ya gonna do?”

“O-kay.” She shrugged. He sounded like Johnny: an extreme misanthrope. At least he didn't think he was a real alien, though.

The Irken smiled triumphantly at the Dib, gaining a small glare in return, before looking back expectantly to Pepito.

The demonic teen sighed irritably, turning his cards toward Zim. “There. Happy now? No cups.”

“No cups? How can this BE! Very well. You have won this round, but rest assured that I, Zim, will be victorious by the end!”

“Zim, just take a card.” Picking one off the top of the shallow pile in the middle of the circle, Dib thrust it into Invader's lap.

“Silence, Dib-beast! Zim will do as he-. Owww...” Zim stared at his new card with pride before presenting it to the rest of the circle. “Two of Cups! Hah! That makes four cups! Zim is one step closer to defeating you all!” Gathering the feeble human “divining” devices together, Zim plopped them down before himself.

Gaz grunted at Zim's stupidity, wishing desperately that her beloved Game Slave wasn't at home. Oh well. “Pepito, give me all your Pentacles. I know you have some.”

“Gerr. That's not fair.” When the girl simply narrowed her eyes at him, he reluctantly tossed her three cards. “Thanks, Zim.”

“You are quite welcome, stink-beast,” Zim said obliviously.

Showing the group her latest match, Gaz added yet another foursome to her pile. “I win. Again.” She cracked her knuckles as everyone else bemoaningly threw their cards into the middle. She could tell that Zim was aching to accuse her of lies or cheating, but she simply stared him down, and he said nothing.

Carelessly tossing his cards into the pile, Todd looked up from the creepy painting he had done of Shmee. He had been hoping that it might give him some sort of focus to call the bear, but so far, so bad. Shifting his weight around to get more comfortable, he nudged Pepito with his foot. “Your turn to deal, Pepi.” He smiled when the other boy grunted in displeasure before gathering the cards together.

“How about we play something more challenging?” Pepito's voice rose over the sound of the deck being expertly shuffled. Though his father was rarely home for long, he had taught him to play cards when he was about eleven, despite his mother's disapproval of gambling.

“Like what?” As he spoke, Todd absentmindedly traced the lines of the bear on the painting with his finger.

“Assumption.”

“What's that?” Gaz raised a purple brow. She knew almost every game there was to know, even card games, as lame as they were, but she had never heard of this one. By the looks of the surrounding faces, none of the others had either.

“It starts out a lot like poker, but there is a sort of... twist near the end.” He smiled mischievously, but the only person who might have caught on was still looking at that painting. “Come on, I shall teach you. Amigo, pay attention if you intend to play. This game is best with thirteen people, but we'll just have to make due.”

Sitting up straighter, Todd set the painting aside and stretched before committing himself to the game.

As he began passing out the freshly shuffled cards, Pepito continued to explain. “Like most games played with tarot cards, Assumption uses only the minor arcana. In the first round, each player gets three cards with the last card dealt face up. Normally, we would all have anted up before the dealing, but since we've not come prepared, we'll skip that bit. We are still going to need to bet, though, or the game will lose purpose.”

“All I've got is plastic.” Gaz shoot Dib some mental daggers for having weird obsessions that had lead their dad to regulating their spending.

Pepito shrugged. “This isn't really a proper game anyway, so I'm relaxing most of the rules. Anything you have with you will do, and we won't worry about exact value.”

“Uh,” Todd spoke up, “I have a jar of change that we could split up if that would help.” He gestured to his desk where said jar sat beside the older laptop that Letta had passed down to him when Brian had gotten her a new one for kollege.

“Gracias, Todd. That would be very helpful indeed.”

Carefully, as to not smudge the circle anymore, Todd got to his feet to retrieve the jar, but just as he was about to step across the line something grabbed his pants leg, holding him in place.

“No! Don't leave the circle! You'll disrupt the energies of this world and the next! Plus, it took me thirty minutes to cast it.” Dib had dived across the circle and caught the other boy just in time. Didn't Squee know anything about magic? That was just sad. And to think that they had been friends for a good four years now.

“Dib-thing, that trail of accumulated shedding of the filthy microorganisms that live in the Earth's acid riddled oceans is not going to protect us from the Shmee-monster. Contrary to what your stupid 'internets' say, it couldn't even provide a decent barrier for ants!” Zim's voice grew slightly angry toward the end as he remembered the ants that had stormed his base two Earth weeks ago when GIR had had some ridiculous accident with one of his pig friends, after which the defective SIR couldn't wake it up, but still carried on playing with it until some of the planet's natural scavengers had finally come to take it away. DIS-CUST-ING! The Invader was actually surprised that his minion hadn't decided to eat it before then. At this thought, he gagged a little, but luckily he hadn't eaten any snacks in a while.

“Zim, why don't you leave the paranormal investigating to the professionals? The chalk is only symbolic of the real, spiritual circle.” At the sound of laughter from everyone else in the room, Dib sighed heavily before coming to a compromise. “Alright Squee, but at least let me cut you a door first.”

“Umm...okay.”

Dib swiftly pulled a pocket knife with a laser beam on the end from his trench, using it to cut a door in the circle he had so meticulously constructed, all the while ignoring their continued laughter. “Alight, it's done.”

“Can I go now?” Todd stared at the spot where Dib had traced the air, hoping that he could remember where the door was supposed to be on his way back in.

“What color is it?”

“What?”

“The door. What color is the door?”

“Red?”

“No. That's the color of the laser beam.”

“Oh. Ummm...blue?” Was he seriously supposed to know that?

“Close enough.” The paranormalist finally stepped aside, letting the other take a couple steps out of the circle to grab the coin jar before heading straight back.

Returning to his seat between Pepito and Gaz, Todd began counting and passing out hand-fulls of coins while Dib sealed the doorway that he had cut just behind him.

Once everyone had an equal amount of coins and Dib had returned to his spot, Pepito resumed the game. “Now, based on our own respective cards in comparison with the visible card of everyone else, we decide whether we want to stay or fold and how much we want to bid. Minimum bidding for this round is two quarters.”

There was a collective clink of twelve coins hitting the floor. It was to be expected as so far no one had anything to lose if they lost. He placed one more card on everyone's hands, again face up. “This time, the minimum bid is a dollar.”

Again, no one folded. Excellent. “Alright, this is where the game deviates from regular poker. It is time for 'the mating'.” He chuckled at their freaked out dispositions before carrying on. “In this round, we will be bidding on the hands of other players. The object of this game is to make as much profit as possible, so if you think that you have a chance at winning, you'll want to buy, but if you are unsure, you might want to sell while you can. Also, the winner of the final round must give those whose hand they purchased ten percent of the pot.” He indicated the nine dollars in the middle.

“Since we all have the same amount of change, the buyers should probably make their own personal offers to sellers or the game will go nowhere.” Bah. This game was a lot easier when everyone came prepared with their own cash.

A large, zippered smile broke out on Zim's face as he reached back into his pak to retrieve a large stack of hyuman monies. Oh yes, Zim would be the champion! He would beat the Dib and his fellow pig-smellies yet again! Eventually, the Earth-boy would come to see how truly deserving Zim was. Yep. Printing his own monies was definitely one of his best decisions on this mission. Heh heh. This stuff was practically dyed leaf and those Earthinoids were looking at it as if it was some rare and useful element. They would be so easy to rule as slaves.

The Irken looked carefully at the cards belonging to the humans, knowing that he would have his pick of which ones to buy. “Say, Pepito, your cards are very high, aren't they?”

“Why yes. Yes, they are.”

“The Almighty ZIM wishes to buy them! In exchange I will give you...one hundred monies...and ...eh...I'll replace your weak, meaty human legs with legs of pure gold! How about that? Impressive, no?”

“No! His money is fake! He prints it in his basement!” Dib couldn't let Zim use the counterfeit money! It was way more that he had. There was no way he could defeat Zim against that much money!

“Quiet, Dib-beast! I spend it all the time and your authorities know nothing. NOTH-ING!”

Pepito cringed at the shrill rise in the alien's voice, but recovered quickly. “Well, spendable currency is spendable currency...unless anyone has anything better to offer. No takers? Alright, deal. Except for the golden legs part...” With a large grin, he exchanged his hand for the money.

Her hazel eyes widened as Gaz stared at the cash in space-freak's gloved hand. One hundred bucks could easily buy one of the games that she had been eying at the mall. “Hey, Zim. I've got some good cards.”

“ZIM will be the judge of that!” Leaning over the Dib, almost in his lap, Zim studied the two cards on top of the small pile of cards in front of his rival's scary sister. “Hummm. These aren't bad.” They weren't as good as the Pepito-worm's, but still pretty good. Maybe if he bought them she wouldn't hit him again that night? “Alright, Dib-sister, same deal.”

“Great.” Without another word, the girl handed her cards over.

“Gaz, how could you sell out to the aliieen! As your brother, I am personally mortified!”

“Can you beat his offer, Dib?”

“No...” The teen's zig-zagged scythe-lock fell into his face as he hung his head in exaggerated, momentary defeat before he flipped it back into place, where it lurched up cow-lick like, then plummeted down to the bottom of his neck.

“I didn't think so.” She took on a faraway expression as her imagination gave her an early preview of the game she would buy tomorrow.

“It is of no use, feeble Dib-thing! ZIM has enough monies to buy the cards of all these meat bags! And when I do, you will taste the bitter sting of defeat once again!”

“Not likely, Zim!” Actually, it was looking pretty likely, but with Zim it was important to never admit defeat. “Quick, Letta, sell me your hand! Squee, you too! Someone has to go up against the evil, invading swarm!”

Gaz rolled her eyes. “How does Zim constitute a swarm?” Dib was always making Zim's little endeavors out to be grander than they were.

“Because if he succeeds, then his kind will descend upon us in mass! He's like the first ant at a picnic!”

“Could you not mention ants around Zim for a while?” Zim tried to glare at the worm-baby for calling him an alien again, even though he had said that he wouldn't, but his spooch was making him queasy again. Plus, he was kind of breaking the truce himself...but that was completely different!

Letta gave the paranormal obsessed boy a doubtful glance. “How much are you offering?”

The teen dug his wallet out of his coat, counting the bills inside: two hundred dollars. All of his actual money was from working at Rob's and it was all he had as far as buying more equipment for investigating and fighting Zim. If he spent it now on something as harmless as a card game, he might pay for it later when defeating the Irken was more important. “Uh, fifty dollars.”

She looked to the green teenager with abnormally big, purplish eyes and no nose. That was one hell of a skin condition. Poor kid. “Zim?”

“Same deal.”

“Sorry, Dib. Kollege is expensive, ya know?”

“Nooo! What about you, Squee?”

“I don't know, Dib. I think I should just fold.” Todd looked suspiciously to his right, at Pepito. The Antichrist was really enjoying this game far too much for someone who wasn't even winning, and it was making him paranoid. It even seemed like he might be losing on purpose. But then, losing nine dollars was definitely worth gaining one hundred, so maybe that was all it was.

Pepito shook his head happily. “Sorry, Amigo. You missed your chance to fold last round. Now you have to either sell your hand or buy someone else's to play the final round. So, go ahead and mate with Dib if you want. If you two don't mate your hands, neither of you will have enough cards, and Zim will automatically be the winner.”

“Do you have to call it 'mating'?” Todd sighed. He might as well make Dib happy. Zim's counterfeit money would probably just get him in trouble anyway, even if everyone else could get away with spending it. “Fine. Here, Dib.” At least the fifty dollars would make up for some of the work he was missing.

“Okay,” Pepito continued. “Time for the final round. Dib and Zim, pick your five best cards, then lay down your hands.”

After Zim had finally chosen his cards, Dib watched as he laid them out side by side, seeming to glow with pride as his assured win. Damn it! Stupid alien! Stupid fake money! He practically threw down his losing cards, though it was his own deck that he was roughing up in the process. Maybe be should turn Zim in to the Secret Service for counterfeiting!

“Zim wins! VICTORY FOR ZIM!” Pulling his nine dollar prize, which he had paid three hundred monies for, to himself, Zim reveled in the annoyed look on Dib's flustered face. The boy was such a sore loser. Almost as bad as Zim. Hey, wait! Zim never lost! What was he thinking?

“Assumption.” Pepito's grin was even wider than before as he threw a ten dollar bill into the middle.

Zim looked up from the coins. “Eh? Yes, yes, we all remember the name of the game, dirt-child.” By Irk, humans were stupid creatures!

“No. I challenge you to assumption. After a winner emerges from the game, a parent of the winning hand, someone who sold their cards to you, can challenge you to a final draw. I have to place a bid that at least matches the amount in the pot, then we both draw from the remaining, unused cards. Whoever gets the highest ranked card wins the pot, and as a consolation prize the loser gets the hand itself,” His smile grew even more. “...along with the souls of all the players who contributed to the hand.”

For almost a full minute, there was silence as the other five stared at Pepito in shock as he took the top card off of the remaining pile and held the rest out for Zim to take one. “What? It's your go, Zim...if you're up to it.”

Letta laughed a little at what she assumed was a joke, but still scooted a few places away from Pepito. It wasn't as if she was truly afraid for her soul, or even believed in souls really, but she was reminded of something else in Todd's file: his claim that this boy was the Antichrist. Though she believed in the Antichrist even less that she believed in souls, there was still the possibility that Pepito was responsible for Todd having believed that. And if he was some fucked up, delusional Satanist, then maybe he wouldn't have been freaked out if Todd happened to go berserk on his parents.

“ZIM is not afraid of your silly, primitive superstitions, human-worm!” Zim only had a vague notion of what a human “soul” was supposed to be. It seemed to be some mysterious, invisible thing that was a human's consciousness...like an invisible, untouchable pak. But, Zim had never found any solid evidence of its existence. Not that he had looked. That was Dib's job, and he insisted that it was real. But, the Earth-boy also insisted that Big Foot periodically dropped by to use his belt sander. So, ignoring the shaking head of the Squeaky-kid and the uncertain look on Dib's face, Zim reached for a card.

His left eye twitched involuntarily every couple seconds as Todd watched the last move of the game. A part of him wanted very badly to bitch slap Pepito for being both a jerk and an idiot. What the hell, literally in his case, did he think he was doing? Apparently, he wasn't lying about being manipulative. If what he had been told earlier on the porch was true, then the only soul that was really up for grabs was Zim's, as no one else had known about the real object of the game until now. If it wasn't true, then Pepito wouldn't have revealed that the hand was symbolic of the souls of those who once held them. Still, even if Zim was an invading, alien annoyance to the Earth, he couldn't just sit there and let this happen!

Just as two gloved fingers settled on a card and began to pull, Todd dove into the center of the circle, quickly grasping the deck of cards, including the one being chosen, from Pepito's hand in the confusion. Next, he got to his feet and scurried across the room, breaking the circle, to throw all the cards out of his open window. He watched with relief as they all fluttered about in the wind, some sticking to the roof as others fell to the ground or were caught in tree branches. When he turned back around, the expressions he met were much more extreme than those the Antichrist had meet moments before.

“Squealy, cheating, human FOOL! Zim was about to win doubles, proving once and for all that he is superior and resplendent beyond all the comprehension of your poor, little monkey-brain!” The Irken shook his mighty Zim-fist at the pathetic worm. How DARE he deny the fruition of the amazingness that was ZIM!

“Squee, you broke the circle! And I really liked those cards too. Oh well, I guess this is a victory for Earth. In your face, Space-boy!” Some of the uncertainty left the paranormalist's face as he fell back on habit in an attempt to cover up some of the discomfort that Squee's actions had both removed and then replaced with a new kind awkwardness. He was still very much confused about what had just transpired. He had never heard of this game or using tarot cards to steal souls, and, despite his previous encounter with Mortos Der Soul Stealer, he still didn't know if you could take an alien's soul. Maybe if he owned Zim's soul, he could command that the Invader cease all attempts to conquer his planet.

Instead of returning to the circle, Squee sat on the edge of his bed, staring out the window and still breathing a little too deeply form his quick actions and stress. Stupid, ungrateful alien! Stupid Pepito, dropping even more hints in front of one of the only intelligent people on the planet likely to consider his real identity! And stupid Letta too, looking at him as if he was even crazier that the person who had just tried to make a deal for someone's soul or the person who had accepted...and constantly spoke about himself in third person! ...When had it gotten so foggy outside?

Seeing Todd so upset, Pepito instantly felt bad. Not necessarily regretful, but bad all the same. When it was obvious that the other wasn't coming back, he too left he broken circle to take a seat on the bed. Todd didn't so much as turn to face him. “Todd...I'm sorry. May we speak in private?”

There wasn't really anything else that he could say in front of the others, but he really wanted a chance to at least explain his motivation behind the “game”. If he could have gained ownership of Zim's soul, then he could have forced the alien to return Todd's parents with no more harm than they might have already suffered. That way, his friend wouldn't have to worry about what would happen to him if they mysteriously disappeared. But it didn't look like the boy was going to listen.

Gaz's eyes narrowed at the two on the bed. Just what they needed right now, more useless drama over a stupid card game. She might have understood had it at least been a video game. “Squee, it was just a game! Stop being an idiot like Dib and get back over here!”

He could hear the others talking to him, but Todd was too absorbed in watching the fog to really care about what it was they were saying. It was really weird how it was getting so thick so fast. And that color...he hadn't been out much in the last eight years, but the murky green didn't strike him as very natural looking.

“Todd, please. At least look at me.” Pepito could tell that his voice sounded slightly worn already. He wasn't accustomed to apologizing as much as his friendship with Todd had been requiring lately, and it was bruising his ego a bit.

Pepito's voice broke through the near hypnotic daze that Todd felt himself slipping into. He shook his head, though he wasn't sure if it was in response to Pepito or the fog, and forced soft, but urgent words from his lips. “Get back.”

“Amigo...”

“Get back, get back, now!” This time the words were more pressing, cutting through the icy freeze of his growing fear and spurring him to action. Finally turning around, he pushed Pepito nearly off the bed before grabbing his arm and jerking him desperately back into the circle. “Zim, activate the shield! Shmee is back!”

Without question, a remote extended from Zim's pak and he pressed a button, queuing the devices that he had placed throughout the room to turn on the emergency electromagnetic field surrounding the magical circle as a thick, green, smoky fog flooded into the room through the window, under the bedroom door, and through the small space between the wall and the ceiling at an unnaturally fast pace, thickening even more once it was in the smaller space of the bedroom. This, though they hadn't known what form it would take, was what they had been waiting for.

As the smoggy substance filled the room, it pressed itself against, and around, the barrier. Even as the electromagnetic charge of the shield contacted and deflected its form, the being only increased its pressure around wall of energy that kept it form its host. When that method didn't seem to be working, the vapor began to rotate, swirling around the barrier like a cyclone. Stray papers, light notebooks, and pencils were easily lifted from their resting positions, caught up in the air currents that the thing was producing.

“Zim, you never said it could do that!” Huddling in the middle of the circle with the others, Dib removed his trench coat, draping it over his sister's head to offer at least some protection if one of the flying objects that made its way through the shield hit her. He could still hear her complaining about not being able to see, but it she didn't remove it.

“It? What the hell is that!” While the others seemed to be seeing something else, all Letta could see was the debris flying around the room. It was like there was an invisible, industrial fan on top of the ceiling above them. “This can't be happening!”

“But it is happening! And things like this happen every day! You just have to open your eyes and mind to the possibility of the unknown to see that there are whole worlds of mystery and wonder just under our noses! And that Zim is an alien!” Dib shouted over the roar of the wind before receiving an elbow to the funny bone of his own arm from the Invader.

“Silence, Dib-slave! That thing, it's doing...something! Just look!” The Irken pointed directly in front of them. “THERE!” A few seconds passed before his hand moved in another direction. “And there!” Then another. “And there! And THERE too!”

That was too much. She had to see what was going on. Lifting Dib's coat slightly above her head, Gaz gasped as she took in the sight before them. The green mist continued to rotate around their small sanctuary, but it had slowed a bit since her eyes had been covered. Now, parts of the mist were thicker than others, and those parts seemed to be condensing into near discernible shapes. As the swirling motion slowed even more, she could see other, smaller, movements within the fog. In the air, around some of the solidifying figures, there were small gusts of wind that first pushed outward and then drew inward, signifying beating wings. “You guys, there are things in there!”

Dib was shocked to hear Gaz actually sound like a frightened fourteen-year-old for once, and he tightened his grip on the coat-covered girl's shoulders, pulling her further into the tightly packed group. He had been too absorbed to notice until then, but at some point they had all huddled together to get as far away from the shield as possible and, though most of them would never admit it, for reassurance. Even Zim was clinging to his left arm, muttering something about the “halloweenies” escaping from his large head.

When a shrill squeal rang through the room, he looked back into the fog to see several flying pig-like things with large tusks and moldy green skin that looked to have been cut and stretched over the large, wing structures that supported them. Underneath the wings, thin, shriveled, and possibly decayed feet hang lifelessly as the pigs darted around the room, separating the mist in their paths and coming dangerously near the barrier of the circle. The flapping of the wings made a metallic grinding sound with each beat, like Gaz had forgotten to oil her stuffed, flesh-eating minions.

Watching the pigs with a disturbed expression, Pepito tightened his hold on Todd, leaning closer to whimper into the trembling boy's ear. “It's okay, Amigo. They can't get to us. It just wants to scare us into letting down our defenses.” This was actually better than before, when all of those objects had been hurling through the shield. Unless this entity got really creative, all they had to do was wait it out. It was wasting away its energy reserves with this little freak show, and when it was weak enough, hopefully they could capture it.

Nodding his head against Pepito's, Todd tried to calm his racing pulse. The piggies weren't really all that scary. What were more frightening were the dark silhouettes of partly formed monsters with unnatural angles and proportions on what might have once been human bodies. He could barely make them out through the dark room full of green vapor, moving around in strange, animalistic patterns and growling feraly at each other. There was also a crackly, yet wet, sound as multiple somethings slithered across the carpet, periodically poking at the barrier and causing little sparks when they contacted.

But all of this paled in comparison with the tall, dark figure that was now emerging from the fog. Todd could feel his trembling grow worse as glowing, purple eyes stared into his own. The face was so dark that it was almost indiscernible, but he recognized the body structure, the outline of the messy, half-spiked hair, the long, thin, wiry arms that held a massive scythe that gleamed at them maliciously. As the figure took surprisingly heavy steps toward the group, Todd pulled his hand from Letta's arm to point at the extra creepy, nightmare Nny...as if the Scary Neighbor Man needed to be more scary! “D-do you guys see that?”

“What? What is it, Squee!” Letta quickly grabbed his pointing hand, taking it back into her own. She still couldn't see what they were talking about, but watching everyone else freak out about something invisible to her was really getting to her. She couldn't remember ever having been this afraid before. If it turned out to be some big joke that these kids had cooked up when she demanded to stay, she was going to kick Todd's ass! And then maybe she would hug him because she really hoped that it did.

“It's n-nothing.” If she couldn't see the horrors before them, then he certainly wasn't going to paint her a mental picture. “Just stay close to the center.”

When the Nightmare finally stood before the shield, he could see that its legs were made up of the same bloody sinews from Wednesday night, winded together to form the two appendages. As the figure became more dense, those behind it seemed to thin out proportionately. The shadow creatures were mere wisps of fog.

“Hello again, Todd.”

“Shmee...why are you doing this?”

The figure shook its head at the question in a chastising manner. “We'll have none of that. You've been a very naughty boy. You do realize that I have been looking for you, yes? You wouldn't have been hiding from your old pal, now would you? Hiding with these transient flesh-bags that you call friends! I remember when I was the only one you called friend!”

After a momentary pause, Shmee regained his composure. “But you are so very lost now, my boy. Do you really think that any of them truly care about you? Ha! You know all too well that the others only want you so long as you are useful to them in some way, and as soon as you cease to be profitable, they will cast you aside like last week's left over mystery meat. They will abandon you, but I never will. Our union is inevitable. It is inescapable. It is what we both need!”

On the inside, Todd felt like curling into a little ball and hiding somewhere. He felt like crying because a part of him still believed what Shmee was telling him about other people, but apparently Shmee had only ever wanted to use him as well, so nothing he said could really be trusted. “I don't need you, Shmee. I-I don't know what you need. Why are you here?”

“You are wrong, little Todd. Without me, you have already become far too dependent on other humans. You have forgotten what I taught you about trusting: how it leaves you vulnerable, how it draws others of your kind like vultures to a fresh carcass. They pick away at your precious innocence until you are empty and cold, just like them. You know why I am here. I am here to collect what is mine. Make no mistake, child, you are mine, and I will have you.

Todd felt Pepito's grip tighten on him once again, and hoped that it was more protective than possessive, but either way it was a welcome comfort compared to how Shmee was currently acting.

“Uh...actually,” Dib spoke up. “...I think he meant 'why are you here' as in 'why are you on Earth?'”

Shmee glared at the pointy-haired boy. How did Todd know so many humans who could see him! And an Irken! That must be how they knew that he wasn't form Earth.

When there was no answer, Dib persisted in questioning the energy-based life-form. “How many like you are there on this planet? Is Bitters planning a conquest?”

”Even if I knew the answers to your questions, human, why would I share that information with the likes of you?”

“THIS is why, transparent, floating, squiggledy power cell!” Zim held up his remote, quickly pushing a sequence of buttons. While the Shmee-creature had been giving its dramatic speech, its strength had been visibly diminishing. Now was the time to act, while it was weaker and caught off guard! A light on the remote flashed, confirming that the shield was down so that his signals could pass to the other devices in the room. “Computer, seal the room and capture the anaphasic life-form!”

The nightmare Nny looked quickly to the window then around the room. The entire thing was sealed in the same energy that had been keeping him from Todd! And the Irken was taking something else out of his pak: a fluffy, pink teddy bear. He knew what that was, and there was no way that he would allow himself to be imprisoned and tossed away again! However...

As the devices on the walls worked together to locate the energy being, they began constructing a box of the same deflective wave length around the creepy, Johnny-like figure, who smiled a smile so big that Todd almost thought his lower jaw would break off from the rest of his head. He didn't have much time to let this scary visage chill him to the bone because just as the last pane of energy was about to be placed, the figure dispersed.

Todd screamed as the red tendons shot out at him from the darkness of his bedroom floor. He tried to fight them, but this time there were so many! They were all over his body, wrapping around him, holding him down, shooting what felt like super-cooled liquid into him again. “No! NO! Please, not this again!”

“Todd! What's wrong?” Though the boy had fallen to his back and was now screaming and twisting this way and that, Letta still held his hand in her own. He didn't seem to be hearing her. “What's wrong with him!” She looked up at Pepito, who was also bent over Todd.

“It's attacking him! Keep holding him. Dib, Gaz, help me get this thing off! If it can touch him, we can touch it!” He slipped the hand he was holding under his leg so he could hold Todd down better and still have the use of his own hands to work with before peeling the tingly, sticky veins from his friend's body. Soon, Gaz and Dib were busy doing the same thing, but they were growing back at an alarming rate.

“No, Shmee! No! Please, don't do this to me! Don't make me do this!”

“It's really not up to me, I'm afraid. The ball is in your court, Todd. Let me in or the dream will have the same ending. You do remember the ending, right?”

Tears flooded down Todd's cheeks as he relived the dreaded night terror, and the voices of all those people cried out in pain and fear in unison as they were consumed, but never fully allowed to die.

“Yesss, I can see that you do remember. That will happen if you keep fighting, and these humans that you have the naivety to call friends will be the first to go. The decision is yours.”

“No.”

“No? No what, dear boy?”

“Don't hurt them.”

“As you wish.”

Suddenly, against all of their efforts, Todd stopped struggling all together, against them as well as the sinews covering his body, which sunk in completely as if the boy's skin had turned to gelatin. One of Zim's eyes grew large while the other squinted at the Squeaky-kids's body. “That...wasn't supposed to happen.”

Letta stared down at him dumbly before looking to the others, whose expressions made her stomach flip in fear and dread. “W-what just happened?”

Dib met her gaze with serious eyes. “It's inside of him.” He really didn't understand the ramifications of that himself because this wasn't an earthly spirit that he could guess how to exercise. He didn't know how to get it out or what it might do to Todd if they didn't.

“SQUEE! Wake up, you whiny idiot!” There was a loud, resounding smack as Gaz hit the unconscious boy as hard as she could. She got a nasty glare from Pepito at that, but screw him! She wasn't the type to just sit around saying “Oh no, the evil, energy monster is inside him!” unless there was some real entertainment value in doing so. This kind of hesitation was what got patients killed on the operating table. Still, he wasn't waking up.

“Oh, God. He needs a hospital! I'm calling an ambulance!” As Letta started digging in her purse to find her cell phone and do so, a gloved hand grabbed the purse, flinging it across the room.

“No! He comes with me to Zim's base! Only I have the technology to help him!” When the girl gave him a wide-eyed, tearful look, Zim realized his mistake. “Because my country has better technology than yours, and my parents are secret military scientists that now work for the FBI! So come, feeble Americans!”

Dib sighed at Zim's stupidity, but he didn't have time to dwell on that. “Zim is right. He does have the best technology around here. And the hospital would never believe our story. You can't treat someone if you have no idea what's wrong with them.”

As much as he wanted to deny it, to insist that Todd be taken to his house for treatment, Pepito knew that Zim and Dib were right. Even if he did know a lot about possession, this might not be the same at all. At least Zim was familiar with Shmee's race. “Alright. Dib has the biggest car. Someone help me carry him.”

Notes:
-Assumption comes from the novel Last Cell by Tim Powers:
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-Why Zim can see Shmee: Ocular implants are standard Invader issue, and, at least in this fic, the Invaders can mentally adjust the implants to different settings, making them capable of perceiving a huge range of wave-lengths, including Shmee's.
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Sublime Awakenings