A/N: Hello, one and all, and welcome, to my newest project. This is something I've had planned for a long time, but have kept on the backburner until such time as I broke my writer's block on, and completed, Galactic Armageddon… but since that hasn't happened, and doesn't look to be happening any time soon, I decided to finally get to work on this. Especially with the pending release of the new IZ comic from Oni Press, which I now consider the uploading of this story as a celebration of.

Speaking of said comic, as of this writing, all I've seen of it are the preview images. As such, it is highly unlikely that anything from the comics will influence this story in any way. Going in, just assume that this story takes place after the original series, excluding the unproduced final episodes, except for "Nubs of Doom", "Day of Da Spookies", and "The Trial". The former two because Minimoose and Skoodge will be playing parts in this, and the latter just because I like the backstory it gives.

And on a final note, I'd like to thank my good friend Eduard Kassel for all his help in planning out this story.

With all that out of the way, let's get this party started!

Disclaimer: As always, Invader Zim and all related characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon. Oh, and Oni Press now too, I suppose. But the OCs are mine.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Zim'sMostLoyalServant proudly presents

The New Adventures of Invader Zim

Season 1

Episode 1: The Horrible Test Flight of Doom

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

It was yet another grueling, soul-crushing day for the students of Doomsville Middle Skool. The teachers filled their heads with useless, or downright depressing in some cases, information that would be of no true use to them in their later lives; they choked down disgusting, semi-toxic cafeteria food; and anyone who stepped out of line in any way was quickly dumped into the Underground Classrooms, never to be seen again. But for one particular class, they had to endure even more – the regular rambling rants of a genuinely-accepted-to-be-insane fellow classmate, who would simply not stop talking.

"…And this is Zim tricking people into buying boxes full of rabid mutant gerbils," Dib explained, using a pointer stick to gesture to one of the spy photos he'd tacked to the corkboard he'd set up for his latest attempt at convincing his classmates of the truth they were all blind to. He moved the pointer to the next picture and continued, "And here is Zim's robot dog juggling several of said mutant gerbils, for no apparent reason-"

"Enough slander, worm-baby!" Zim shouted from his desk, "Zim was raising money to support, um, orphaned baby piranhas! Yes, I was thinking only of those poor, flesh-eating birds."

"Piranhas are fish!" Dib snapped back.

"You lie!"

"Geez, Dib, when are you gonna knock it off with the crazy stuff already?" Zita asked.

"Yeah, so he wanted to raise money to feed fish," Torque commented, "Who cares? You're really going to stalk him over that?"

"I wasn't stalking him, I was observing him for proof that he's an alien," Dib defended, "Which, incidentally, I shouldn't even need. For crying out loud, he's always shouting about taking over the planet, and that's not even getting into his horrible disguise!"

"Here we go again," The Letter M said with an eye roll, "It's just a skin condition, Dib. Why can't you accept that? Is Skoodge an alien too?"

Everyone's attention turned to the chubby, green-skinned, red-haired boy sitting next to Zim. He'd joined the class several weeks earlier, and to say that Dib was not happy to have another alien around was a vast understatement. And he was not shy about sharing that fact.

"Yes, he is!" Dib shouted, waving his arms frantically, "He's an alien too! He's Zim's minion! What, you think he just happens to have the same so-called skin condition that just happens to somehow result in no nose or ears? What are the odds of that, huh?"

"Insolent fool boy!" Zim once again cut in, "Of course Skoodge shares Zim's skin condition. He's… my cousin!"

"I am?" Skoodge asked; Zim leaned over and kicked him in the leg, "Ow! I mean, yeah, I'm Zim's cousin. That's what it is."

Dib's eye began to twitch as the rest of the class made sounds of agreement, buying into that ridiculous, clearly spur-of-the-moment excuse. However, before he could dispute it – or, more likely, have a brief breakdown – there was a familiar hissing sound, as Miss Bitters appeared above him and leaned down to glare him down at eye level. Dib winced and stepped away nervously, as his creepy teacher started talking.

"Dib, you've now used up the five minutes a day that the Skool Board insists all teachers set aside so that their students can engage in pointless blather," Miss Bitters rasped, "Now stop speaking and sit back down."

Dib opened his mouth to object, but shut it as Miss Bitters gave a warning hiss. He quickly grabbed his corkboard and trudged back to his seat, ignoring the snickers coming from the rest of the class. He proceeded to spend the rest of the day sharing glares across the room with Zim, and after class was dismissed, the two inevitably confronted each other on the Skool steps.

Dib's glare deepened as Zim stood in front of him, arms crossed and smirking, while Skoodge hovered nervously behind his friend/superior.

"Nice try, Dib-Stink," Zim sneered, "But you should have realized by now that your fellow pitiful humans are incapable of seeing through superior Irken disguises."

"Superior? Tak's disguise was way better than yours," Dib shot back, "It actually made her look human. In fact, all of her tech was better than yours."

"Was not!"

Now Dib was the one smirking, as he pressed his point. "Oh yeah? Her robot only went crazy when Gaz and your computer hacked it, as opposed to GIR, who's always insane. And her ship was easily able to hack your base, remember?"

"And then Zim made it almost kill you, remember that?" Zim snapped, gritting his teeth, "And then, your foolish attempts at reprogramming it merely made it think it was you."

"Really?" Skoodge cut in, "How'd that happen?"

"Stay out of this!" Dib and Zim shouted at Skoodge simultaneously, before turning back to each other.

"Point is, Zim, Tak's technology is obviously better than yours, and I've got it," Dib said, planting his hands on his hips triumphantly, "So it's only a matter of time before I use it to beat you."

"Too bad then that you can't use it," Zim snorted.

"Oh, we'll see about that," Dib said smugly. Seeing the confused look on Zim's face, he decided this was a good time to leave while he had the upper hand.

Zim merely stood there with his eyes squinted in confusion as he watched his archenemy practically strut away. He scratched his chin in thought.

"Hmm, now what was that about?"

"Beats me," Skoodge shrugged. Zim smacked him upside the head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Zim was being rhetorical!"

Later, Membrane Household

Dib was pacing in the living room in front of a disinterested looking Gaz, who was attempting to shut him out and focus on her Game Slave. Dib was oblivious to this, however. He was too wrapped up in his latest monologue, still fired up from his earlier argument with Zim.

"It's taken me months, Gaz, but I've finally, finally, managed to properly reprogram the central computer on Tak's ship," he stated, gesturing excitedly with his hands, "Now, it can function at full operational capacity without an A.I. that will either try to kill me, or end up thinking it's me, only to then delete itself out of depression. Which is pretty depressing itself, when you stop and think about it…"

"Will you shut up already?" Gaz snapped, "Your voice is annoying me."

"But Gaz, don't you realize how important this is?" Dib asked, "With the ship under my control, I can finally fight Zim on even ground. With that kind of technology, there'll be no threat I can't counter, no attack I can't fight off, no-"

Gaz grabbed him by the collar, and with impressive strength, lifted him up and tossed him across the room, where he landed head first in a trashcan. While he struggled to get the can off his head, Gaz snorted and sat back down to continue her game. As such, neither of the siblings noticed the fairly obviously robotic bug hovering outside the window, observing everything going on.

XXXXX

Zim sat hunched in his command chair, Skoodge beside him, as live footage from his spy bug played out on the monitors in front of him. While he didn't hesitate to laugh at the abuse Dib took from his sister, that didn't distract him from the thoughts provoked by both Dib's earlier comments and his current monologue.

"Curse the Dib! Curse him!" Zim screeched, slamming his fists on the chair's armrests.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Zim," Skoodge said, "I mean, I'm sure you've upgraded your cyber-security since the last time the Dib-Human used that ship to hack your base, right? It shouldn't be that much of a problem."

"Of course I've upgraded my security, you fool!" Zim snapped.

"Actually, you haven't," the computer interjected.

"Do not interrupt Zim!" Zim replied, before turning back to Skoodge, "And that's not the point, Skoodge. Don't you see? That stinking pile of human stink is using our superior Irken technology as if it were his own. That is an insult to our entire species!"

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little?" Skoodge asked.

"Zim does not overreact!" Zim shouted in Skoodge's face, standing up in the chair and leaning over in order to get the full effect.

Before Skoodge could respond, the Irkens' attention was pulled back to the monitors. On the screen, Dib finally managed to pull his head free of the trashcan, stumbling a bit from the momentum. Shaking his head to reorient himself, he turned back to Gaz and opened his mouth to say something, but clearly thought better of it and shut his mouth.

"So," he said after a few moments of quiet, "I'm going to go take the ship for a test flight. You know, if you wanted to watch, or anything…"

Gaz merely growled, and Dib wisely left the room in response.

"Hmm," Zim muttered, a small smirk coming to his face, "A test flight, eh? Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

Sitting back down properly, Zim reached over and pressed a button on the console.

"GIR! Minimoose! Come!" he commanded.

A moment later, a hatch in the ceiling opened up, and GIR slammed down into the floor; oddly, he was covered in what appeared to be chocolate pudding. A few seconds after this, Minimoose lazily wafted down out of the hatch as well, coming to a rest hovering over his dim-witted companion.

"…What's with the pudding?" Skoodge asked.

"Squeak!" Minimoose responded.

"Oh, that makes sense."

Zim ignored them, marching over to pick up GIR by his antenna and look him in the eye.

"GIR, go prepare the Voot for immediate takeoff. We'll meet this arrogant Earth-Monkey in the air and teach him what happens when he tries to use our own technology against us!"

"Oooh, we gonna 'splode him?" GIR asked excitedly.

"Yes, so much exploding shall we do!" Zim exclaimed, and then blinked, thought about what he'd just said, and quickly added, "To him. We will make the Dib explode, not us… just go get the Voot ready!"

"Yes, sir!" GIR said, eyes flashing red for a moment as he saluted, before he hopped out of his master's grip and ran off.

"Should I get my ship ready too?" Skoodge asked.

"That won't be necessary, Skoodge," Zim said, absently waving him off, "Zim can handle this alone. In the meantime, you stay here and help Minimoose clean out the base. I think some of the mutant gerbils got into the ventilation system and have started breeding. Make yourself useful and exterminate them."

"Err, isn't that dangerous?"

"Yes," Zim said bluntly, as he started to walk away, "You'll probably need to replace most of your skin by the time you're done, but in any case, I expect the vermin gone by the time I get back."

"You got it, Zim! You can count on me!" Skoodge said, saluting Zim's retreating back. But Zim paid him no attention. He was already thinking ahead to what he was going to do to Dib.

Oh, yes. This was going to be fun.

An Hour Later, Somewhere Above The Atlantic Ocean

Tak's Spittle Runner – or rather, Dib's Spittle Runner now – zoomed through the air over the ocean, cutting through clouds and skipping along over the water's surface. Sitting at the controls, Dib was grinning ear-to-ear. This was by far the most exhilarating moment of his life; the only possible way it could get better would be if he were actually flying in space, but it seemed just a little too early to try that. He wanted to be sure everything was working right before he risked the dangers of space flight.

Still, this was pretty awesome. And he could not wait to rub Zim's nonexistent nose in the fact that he, a "pathetic human", managed to get an advanced piece of alien technology like this up and running. And it'd be even sweeter when he used said technology to finally defeat Zim once and for all…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Dib's gleeful thoughts were suddenly cut off, as flashing warning lights and blaring sirens filled the cockpit. Before he could even try to understand what was happening, the ship suddenly rocked, hard, and he was flung into the wall as the ship started spinning. Pulling himself back up, he quickly grabbed the controls and pulled the ship out of the spin and stabilized it. Checking the console, Dib saw a holographic image of the Spittle Runner appear, a section of the starboard side flashing red, indicating damage.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked aloud, not expecting an answer. He still got one, however, as a familiar maniacal laugh boomed from the communication panel, Zim's Voot Cruiser dropping into view to hover in front of the Spittle Runner.

"Hello, Dib," Zim sneered, his face appearing on a holo-screen that popped up from the console.

"Hi, Big Head!" GIR added, sticking his face into view, before Zim shoved him aside.

"My head's not big!" Dib snapped, instinctively, before refocusing on the more important matters at hand, "Zim! How'd you find me out here?"

"Oh, it wasn't hard," Zim said, smugly inspecting his gloved fingers, "I was already monitoring your home; when I learned you were taking Tak's ship for a test flight, I simply tracked your movements."

"…So why didn't you just shoot me down when I first took off?" Dib asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Do not question my methods!" Zim replied, "For now, I will blow you up before you can corrupt that ship with your stinking human-ness, and dump what's left of you in this filthy ocean."

"We'll see about that, spaceboy!" Dib said, reaching for the weapons controls… only to freeze as he realized a serious flaw with his plan. Zim noticed Dib's actions, and a smirk blossomed on his face.

"You don't know how to use the weapons, do you?" he asked.

"Uh…" Dib grasped for a response, before grabbing the controls, "Okaynicetoseeyougottagobye!"

With that, he made the Spittle Runner zoom off, as far and fast away from Zim's Voot as he could.

"Ha! That's right, human! Run away and cry, cry tears of dread from your big head of doomed stink!" Zim cried out triumphantly, until he remembered his purpose for being there, "I mean, get back here so I can destroy you!"

With that, Zim charged his ship after Dib's, firing off blasts from the Voot's plasma cannons. Dib did his best to weave and bob the Spittle Runner through the air in order to avoid the attacks, but it seemed that every third or fourth shot connected. The shields were holding for now, but it didn't take a genius to realize that they'd fail soon enough, and then he'd be pretty much screwed.

"C'mon, c'mon," Dib muttered, alternating between tugging on the flight controls and frantically hitting every other button and switch on the console, trying to find the firing control for the ship's weapons. He was so wrapped up in this, that he barely noticed where he was going, passing through the day/night divider and soon after once again zooming over land instead of water. Ordinarily this would have fascinated him, but given that he was currently trying not to die, he was understandably distracted.

"For crying out loud, it's an Irken ship! Irkens love blowing stuff up! There should be a million buttons for weapons!" Dib groused, continuing to hit everything on the console, "I mean, why can't there just be a big red button – oh."

Dib cut off as he noticed the rather large button in the middle of the console, right above the flight controls, marked "Emergency Use" in the Irken letters he'd gained a basic understanding of.

"…I need to start paying more attention to these things," he muttered, before raising a hand over the button, "Okay Zim, try this!"

He slammed his hand down on the button… and the Spittle Runner came to an immediate dead stop, hanging in midair.

"What the-?"

Once again, Dib was cut off by a jarring shock, this time as the Voot suddenly slammed into the stationary Spittle Runner at full speed. There was a small explosion, and both ships went flying, spinning uncontrollably through the air. Dib desperately grabbed at the flight controls, trying to regain control, but it wasn't working. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Voot crash into the forested region they were flying over. That would have pleased him, if it weren't for the fact that he was about ten seconds away from having the same thing happen to him.

The Spittle Runner skimmed across the top of the trees, managing to fly just high enough to avoid hitting them. For a moment, it looked like Dib might regain control of the ship, but then it passed over a clearing, over which towered a ridiculously tall billboard that read "Welcome To Bransloatia, Home Of The World's Biggest Signs". The Spittle Runner slammed directly into, and through, the sign, at which point the engines finally gave out altogether. The ship flipped over several times as it dropped from the air, finally slamming into the ground, bouncing a few times, and then coming to a halt.

For a few more moments, there was silence. Then the Spittle Runner's cockpit canopy opened with a groan, and a bruised and dazed Dib crawled out of the ship. He stumbled away a bit, before stopping to adjust his disheveled coat and cracked glasses.

"Well, any crash you can walk away from," he muttered woozily, before promptly passing out and collapsing. His unconscious form lay there for several more minutes, before a shadow passed over him. The figure casting it observed Dib a moment, and then a pale, clawed hand grabbed his leg, and started dragging him away.

XXXXX

A few miles away, the Voot Cruiser sat in a small crater, smoke curling up from several points along its body. Suddenly, the cracked canopy was kicked out, and Zim jumped out, rapidly pounding on his uniform in order to put out the patches that had caught fire. GIR hopped out after him, nearly his entire metal body somehow on fire.

"Yay, it burns!" the robot said cheerfully, before dropping to the ground and rolling around to put out the flames.

"Stupid, idiotic, fragging human smeet!" Zim cursed, as he finished putting out the flames, "Who hits the emergency stop brake in the middle of a dogfight? Is he insane? And look at this mess! It'll take hours for the auto-repair systems to get the Voot flying again!"

"Oooh, what's that?" GIR asked, popping up to point off in the distance. Zim frowned at his minion's interruption of his angry rant, but followed his pointing finger. His antennae arched in surprise at the sight that greeted him: a sprawling Gothic castle sat in the middle distance, towers jutting into the sky like jagged teeth, gargoyles on every ledge glaring down from their perches. The already creepy image was made even worse for a moment as it was illuminated by a sudden flash of lightning… which was odd, given that the sky was completely free of clouds.

"Hmm, some sort of human dwelling," Zim commented, not really noticing the overall disturbing nature of the place, "Dib will no doubt go there to heal from whatever injuries his inferior body must have taken from the crash."

Zim reached into the still smoldering Voot and pulled out GIR's disguise. Tossing the dog suit to his robot, Zim pulled out his own disguise and slapped it on.

"Come, GIR. We'll infiltrate this place, find the Dib, and finally doom him once and for all!"

"I'm gonna sing the Doom Song now!" GIR said in response, "Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom…"

Zim's eye twitched as memories of his initial six-month trip to Earth flashed before his eyes in a sudden burst of horror. But he steeled himself, reminding himself that this would be a much shorter trip, and much more rewarding. With that, he started marching towards the castle, GIR skipping along beside him.

A While Later, Inside The Castle

Dib groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. His head was pounding, and he had an odd sense of vertigo. As his memory of what had happened slowly came back to him, he tried to reach up to rub his throbbing head, only to find that he couldn't move his arms.

"Wha…?" he muttered, his eyes fluttering open. As his vision focused and he took in his surroundings, he realized two very important things. First of all, despite remembering passing out in a field, he was currently in a stone-brick room, with crude, bare light fixtures in the ceiling, and a single plain wooden door directly across from him. Secondly, and more importantly, the reason for his various discomforts was that he was hanging suspended upside-down from the ceiling via a length of chain that was wrapped tightly around his body below (above?) the neck, and looped through a base bolted into the ceiling.

"Oh, now what?" he groaned, "This just isn't my day."

Before he could even begin to try and struggle against the chains, the door suddenly swung open. From his upside-down vantage point, Dib watched as a tall figure entered the room, rolling in an antique metal tub, which had been fitted onto a gurney.

"Oh, good, you're awake," the figure greeted, with a voice like dried leaves rustling.

Dib didn't immediately respond. In fact, the only reason he wasn't staring slack-jawed was that gravity was working against that particular action at the moment. The figure who had entered the room – whom Dib distractedly noticed was wearing a rather fine-looking black suit with a red button-down shirt underneath, and a black cape thrown over the shoulders – was deathly pale, the skin almost looking to be cracking off in some places. His ears were drawn back in points that tapered off in the wispy remnants of white hair that clung to the sides of his otherwise bald head. His nose was shriveled back against his skull, and his eyes provided the only real color in his face, the iris and sclera both being blood red.

Most frightening of all, however, was the disturbingly wide grin, which was displaying blackened gums, yellowed teeth… and a pair of very, very sharp looking fangs.

"So," Dib finally said, swallowing nervously, "I'm going to take a wild guess here. Vampire?"

"Well, aren't you clever?" the vampire chuckled, which sounded like bones cracking, as he rolled the tub over so that it was sitting directly under Dib. He had a very bad idea where this was going.

"Ah, but where are my manners?" the vampire continued, giving a melodramatic bow, "A host should always introduce himself properly. I am Norlock, lord of this castle. And you are?"

"Uh, I'm Dib," he replied hesitantly, trying desperately to think a way out this.

Norlock, meanwhile, scratched his chin in thought; Dib was fairly sure he saw skin flake off and fall away with each movement of the clawed nails. Then the vampire suddenly snapped his fingers, causing Dib to jolt in surprise as the sound echoed loudly off the stone walls.

"That's where I know you from!" Norlock said excitedly, "You're Professor Membrane's son – I recognize you from that last televised publicity stunt he did. He dragged you and your creepy sister out for the cameras to make himself look better."

Dib blinked. "Wait… you have a TV?"

"I have a satellite dish on the roof," Norlock replied, "Internet too. Both pirated, of course – I don't need people knowing where I live. And why pay for what you can take, am I right?"

"Er," Dib struggled for something to say in response. If he could keep Norlock talking, he'd hopefully forget about eating him long enough to find a way to escape. "I, uh, didn't think vampires bothered keeping up to date with stuff like that."

"Most don't. But I learned a long time ago that it's always best to maintain at least a basic knowledge of the times. I may spend most of my time here in this castle now, but I do travel a bit every few decades. It comes in handy to keep up with pop culture and news. Speaking of the latter, I don't recall hearing anything about your old man developing any aircraft like the one you crashed on my lawn. Mind explaining that?"

"Would you believe I took if from an alien?" Dib asked, "Or that another alien shot me down in a dog fight?"

Norlock arched an eyebrow. "Really? That's your story? Little green men?"

"Oh, come on!" Dib complained, "You're a freaking vampire! But not even you can believe in aliens? Seriously?"

"Well, someone has anger issues," Norlock chuckled, "But that's good. Get your blood boiling – it'll taste better."

Crap. So much for distracting him.

"Speaking of which, let's get a taste test."

Before Dib could respond, Norlock's arm lashed out at whiplash speeds, and Dib yelped at a sudden jarring pain in his left cheek. Norlock, meanwhile, raised the clawed finger that had opened a small cut on Dib's face to his own and examined the small bit of blood collected on it. He sniffed it, then lashed his tongue out like a lizard and lapped it up. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips in thought as he processed the taste, and then let out a surprised gasp.

"Oh, my, my, you are full of surprises, aren't you? This is quite a rare blood type. I think the last time I tasted this was… 1665? No, wait; it was '66. That's right – I was living in London at the time, and it was the night before the Great Fire. Very tasty. Oh, I am really going to enjoy this."

"I'm so happy to hear that," Dib spat, blinking away tears of pain as he felt blood trickling down his cheek, "It's great to know that the third-rate Dracula knockoff who's about to eat me thinks I taste good."

"Please," Norlock snorted, "Dracula was a hack with a good publicist. Tell me he's not the only vampire you've ever heard of."

"I dunno. Do you count the ones from Twilig-GAK!"

Dib was cut off as Norlock grabbed him by the throat and twisted him around so that he was upright again and looking directly into the vampire's eyes, which were glowing with rage.

"I. Hate. Those books," he hissed, "They are a mockery of everything my kind stand for. We do not sparkle."

With that, he let go, and Dib swung like a pendulum for a moment, before settling back into his original position. Norlock, meanwhile, reached into an interior pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out an object wrapped in dark cloth, which he slowly unwrapped. And despite all the blood rushing to his head, Dib still felt his face go pale as Norlock revealed the object in question to be old-fashioned, but still quite sharp looking, hunting knife.

"You know, I was considering keeping you alive, draw out the feeding process, really make a feast of you. But, that last crack really pissed me off, so I think I'll just stick to my original plan – cut your throat and empty you into the tub now, to drink from later. Now then, try to lean your head back. If I cut you just right and sever the main arteries, you'll bleed out fast enough to not feel too much pain. Silver lining, and all that."

As he reared back and prepared to strike with the knife, Dib struggled insistently but futilely with the chains holding him, his life flashing before his eyes… and wow, but it had sucked. Still, he didn't want it to end, not here and now. So he struggled all the harder as Norlock lashed out…

…And stopped short as Chopin's Funeral March rang out. Dib blinked in sudden shock and confusion, adrenaline still pumping, as Norlock, with a confused and annoyed look crossing his face, lowered the knife and reached into a pocket with his free hand. He pulled out a smartphone, of all things, which was flashing something on its screen.

"Hmm, good thing I installed that new security system. Looks like I've got another visitor," the vampire muttered. With a shrug, he put the phone away, and a moment later wrapped the knife back up, putting it away as well. "Well, looks like you're in luck. I like to feed fresh, so draining you will have to wait until I deal with whoever this is. Don't go anywhere."

"Yeah, not a problem," Dib muttered, heart still pounding from the near-death experience. Norlock, snickering at his own bad joke, flung back his cape melodramatically as he turned on his heel and swept out the door into the corridor beyond.

As Dib calmed down, he suddenly realized two things. First, he'd just been given a golden chance to escape with his life. Secondly, considering how he'd ended up here in the first place, there was really only one person who would be entering the castle right now. And he did not want Zim finding him helpless like this.

Being pretty much screwed no matter who found him, Dib redoubled his efforts to escape the chains.

Elsewhere In The Castle

Zim walked carefully down the corridor, GIR skipping along beside him. When no one had answered at the doors of this human dwelling, he had simply cut open a door in them and entered on his own. Now, several minutes later, he was beginning to think he was wasting his time. He hadn't encountered anyone so far, least of all Dib, and in fact, there were rooms and entire corridors that looked as if they hadn't been used in years. It looked like this place was abandoned; maybe Dib hadn't come here, and was long gone by now.

"Stupid Dib-Monkey, sending me on a wild goose chase," Zim muttered, "When I do find him, I'm going to turn him into a cockroach, put him in a box, and mail him to myself so I can crush him!"

Any further ramblings were cut off by a sudden strong burst of wind rushing down the corridor, followed swiftly by large columns of black smoke. The smoke collected in the middle of the corridor in front of Zim, shooting upwards in a spinning pillar, which dispersed with a bang, revealing Norlock, who was standing with his cape thrown back and his arms outstretched to the sides. He opened his mouth to say something no doubt as dramatic as his entrance, but froze as he got a good look at Zim. The alien and the vampire just stared at each other for a moment, until the latter broke the silence, arching an eyebrow as he spoke.

"Huh. Little green man. The big-headed boy was telling the truth after all."

"Uh, no, no," Zim said quickly, "Whatever Dib told you is filthy lies! Zim is a perfectly normal human, just like you!"

"…Do I look human to you?" Norlock asked, "For that matter, do people actually think that you look human? I mean, I know world IQ levels were going down, but that's just sad."

"Uh, um – GIR, attack!"

GIR, who had been licking some moss on the wall, snapped to attention. He jumped up and out of his disguise, eyes and panels flashing red, as he flipped through the air, pulling a few faux-karate moves as he did so. He landed on Norlock's shoulder, and the vampire prepared to defend himself, when GIR's lights went back to blue, and he leaned into Norlock's face with a wide grin.

"Hi!" he greeted, "You smell really bad!"

Norlock frowned in annoyance at the comment, and backhanded the robot off of his shoulder. GIR landed on his side on the floor, and from that position started running around in circles, giggling all the while.

"Well, that was annoying," Norlock muttered, turning his attention back to Zim, "Now then, where were we?"

"AAAHHH!" Zim gave off a wordless battle cry (which from him sounded more like a high-pitched shriek) as he charged at Norlock, PAK spider legs deployed. However, the vampire easily dodged the deadly appendages, ducked down, and uppercut Zim in the chin, sending the Irken flying across the corridor, and nicking his chin with one of his claws in the process.

Zim hit the wall hard enough that his wig flew off and one of his contacts popped out. Norlock made a thoughtful humming noise as he noticed that, then looked down to inspect the green blood collected on his claw.

"Well, that's different," he commented, "Hmm, wonder what alien blood tastes like?"

As he had with his sampling of Dib's blood, he raised the claw to his face and licked Zim's blood off his claw… and then immediately spat it out.

"Gah!" he gagged, retching slightly, "That's awful! I mean, I accidentally fed on a plague victim once, and he didn't taste that bad!"

"You dare insult Zim's mighty blood?!" Zim demanded, getting back to his feet and ignoring his remaining contact popping out, "I will teach you to respect every molecule of me, old disgusting human!"

"Again, I'm not human," Norlock said, spitting again to clear his mouth of the foul taste, "I'm a vampire, you idiot."

Zim squinted in confusion. "Eh? You mean like those shiny stink-beasts in those awful movies?"

Norlock's eye twitched at the comment. "I'm nothing like those Hollywood abominations, thank you very much. But, that aside, let's start over. I am Norlock, lord of this castle. And you are?"

"I am Zim!" the Irken declared, unable to resist a chance to talk about himself without worry of exposure, "I am an Invader of the almighty Irken Empire, and I have come to conquer this miserable ball of dirt! And if you get in my way, undead worm baby, I shall crush you into nothingness just as I will all others foolish enough to stand against me!"

"Is that right?" Norlock asked, crossing his arms in contemplation, "Please, go on."

XXXXX

Dib sighed as, after what felt like 10-15 minutes of struggling against the chains, all he had to show for it was sore muscles, as he continued to hang from the ceiling. He was starting to think that there really wasn't a way out of this.

"Come on, think of something," he muttered angrily, "I got sucked into a nightmare dimension inside my own head once and walked away from that. There's no way I'm letting myself die here."

He tried to think of some way to free himself, when he froze. He thought he'd heard… yes, there were footsteps in the hallway, just outside the door that had partially closed from the wind generated by Norlock's sudden departure.

"Hey!" he called out, "Hello? Is there someone out there? Someone who isn't Zim or Norlock? I could use some help in here!"

There was a moment of quiet as the steps paused outside the door, then Dib's hopes soared as they turned, and the door was nudged open… and then his eyes practically popped out of his head as a wolf the size of a small horse, and built like a silverback gorilla, entered the room. Its muscles bulged under its dark grey fur, and a spiked collar was wrapped around its neck, adding to its intimidating appearance.

It was also cross-eyed and drooling buckets from the tongue hanging from its panting mouth, however. That distracted from the intimidation slightly. Not a lot, but just enough to be off-putting.

"Uh, hi," Dib greeted, as the direwolf cocked its head to stare at him inquisitively, "I'm going to guess you're Norlock's pet, right?"

In response, the direwolf leaned forward and sniffed at Dib experimentally, and then gave him a long lick with its massive tongue. Dib shuddered in disgust and mentally added "take a shower" to the list of things he'd do if he made it out of here alive. Speaking of which, he decided to draw on his experiences with GIR – and frankly, the wolf seemed to have the same intelligence level – and see if he couldn't trick it into helping him. Scanning the collar, he spotted a nametag dangling from the side.

"So, listen Phil, you think… Phil? Seriously? That's the best he could come up with?" Dib asked, before shaking his head and continuing, "You think maybe you could be a good boy and get me out of here?"

Phil cocked his head again, but Dib thought he saw understanding in those mismatched eyes.

"Hey, if you let me out, I'll, uh, give you some ham!" Dib said, suddenly remembering that time he'd randomly found ham in his pockets. And it seemed to pay off, as Phil's eyes lit up, and his tail started wagging. "Yeah, you like ham, don't you? Well, let me out, and you can have all you want. What do you say, huh?"

In response, Phil opened his mouth wide – showing off rows of truly enormous teeth – and before Dib could properly process that rather terrifying sight, he reached forward and clamped down on the length of chain between the ceiling base and Dib's legs. After applying pressure for a few moments, there was the very rewarding sound of breaking metal as Phil's jaws ripped the chain links apart.

"Yes! Now, just slowly put me dow-AAHHHH!"

Dib was cut off as Phil threw his head back and started rotating it, spinning the chain – and Dib – around repeatedly. With each complete circle, another length of the chain binding Dib was unwound, until finally he was freed completely. At which point his momentum sent him flying, to smack into the nearest wall, after which he slid to the floor.

"It figures," he muttered. The sound of metal hitting the floor caught his attention, and he looked up to see Phil dropping the chain from his mouth, and turning to look at Dib expectantly. Remembering his promise, Dib quickly patted himself down but found that, no, he didn't magically have any ham on him. Just his luck, of course, that when he needed weird random stuff to happen to him, it didn't. And now he had a hungry wolf big enough to ride on looking at him anxiously.

"Uh, so, Phil… hey, look at that thing over there!" he suddenly shouted, pointing behind the direwolf. When Phil turned around to look, Dib bolted out of the room, shutting the door behind him. He then took off down the corridor. All he had to do now was find a way out of here, and he was home free.

Meanwhile, back in the room, Phil was still staring at the blank wall Dib had pointed at. Five minutes later, it finally occurred to him that he was looking at nothing, and he turned around to look back at Dib, only to find himself alone. It was at this point he realized that the big-headed boy had lied about having ham, and that made him angry. A tremor ran through the direwolf's body, and his eyes realigned themselves so that they were focused properly, before narrowing in anger, while his tongue pulled back into his mouth as his teeth clenched.

Growling deeply, Phil charged forward, barely noticing as he smashed through the door. Once in the corridor, he briefly paused, long enough to pick up Dib's scent. Once he had it, he threw his head back and let out a bellowing howl, before rushing down the corridor after Dib.

A Few Minutes Earlier, Back With Zim And Norlock

"…And then, once Zim has reduced every city on this planet to burning rubble, I will force my new human slaves into work gangs to collect all the scrap metal they can find in the ruins," Zim said, continuing the motive rant he'd had going for the past several minutes. For his part, Norlock was still standing in the same position and giving Zim his full attention, the only divergence in this being to politely decline an offer to share the popcorn GIR pulled out of his head at some point while listening to his master's monologue.

"Let me guess. So you can put them to work building statues of yourself?" he asked, soundly only slightly bored.

"Well, a few, of course," Zim said, waving a hand dismissively, "But as for the rest of the scrap, I'll force half the humans into factories to use it to create machines I don't need, and then ship them to other factories to have the other humans tear them back down into scrap."

"So you'll be forcing them into slave labor for no reason other than to make them suffer?" Norlock asked.

"Of course!"

Norlock was silent for a moment, but then nodded in approval. "Cruelty for the sake of cruelty is a bit petty, but what the hell, it's fun, isn't it?"

The alien and the vampire shared a cackle then, just two unrepentedly evil figures bonding over their shared love of other people's suffering. But this twistedly joyful moment was cut short as a howl echoed throughout the castle. Norlock tensed, while Zim screeched and grabbed his antennae in pain.

"Gah! What the frag was that?" he demanded.

"Excuse me, won't you?" Norlock replied, "I do believe my dinner is escaping."

With that, Norlock dramatically twirled his cape around himself. Shadows danced up and around him, and when they parted, a massive, demonic bat hovered in the air. It flapped its wings twice, and then darted down the corridor, in the direction that the howl had come from. Zim stood there, blinking in confusion, before it occurred to him what Norlock meant.

"The Dib!" Zim shouted, "No! No one kills Dib but me! GIR, let's go!"

Zim grabbed his robot by the antenna and ran off after the retreating vampire.

XXXXX

Dib ducked into a room, breathing heavily, exhaustion from everything he'd been through already today catching up to him. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop now; he'd heard the howl, and even now could hear the sound of an angry direwolf chasing him echoing through the corridors. Looking around, he saw that he was in a storage room of some kind, and spotted a large pile of old chairs stacked off to one side. Seeing no other decent hiding places, and hearing Phil approach, Dib dove under the chairs and shuffled to the back of the stack, hoping the shadows would hide him.

A minute later, Phil entered the room, ears tapered back dangerously, head held low as he sniffed the ground. Dib hoped there was enough dust and mold in the room to hide his scent, but he was also starting to think this was a really stupid hiding place.

However, before Phil could find him, there was the sound of flapping leather as a giant bat swooped into the room, and with a flash of black light, it transformed into Norlock. As if a switch had been flicked, the wolf's demeanor returned to its previous state, eyes crossing and mouth flopping open in a grin. With a happy bark, the wolf trotted over to greet his master, who looked quite annoyed.

"Phil! Did you let a prisoner escape again?" Norlock demanded, "You know you're not supposed to do that!"

The wolf's ears drooped, his tail curling up between his legs as he let out a whine, like a puppy being scolded for going on the carpet.

"…Oh, I can't stay mad at you. Come here," Norlock said, pulling Phil in for a hug. The wolf happily nuzzled him in return, tail wagging, as his master continued, "Who's Daddy's favorite direwolf? Yes you are, yes you are."

From his hiding place, Dib watched with a raised eyebrow. He couldn't tell if what he was seeing was touching, disturbing, or both.

"By the way, I can hear your heart beating from here, Dib," Norlock said, still hugging his pet, "And oops, there we go, it just started pounding even faster, like a maraca. But really, what were you thinking? That's the best hiding place you could find? Here, let me show how poor a choice that was."

Norlock raised a hand, extending the middle and fore fingers to point at the chair pile. He then said something in a language Dib didn't understand, and a bolt of black energy shot out from the fingers, hitting the chairs and exploding. When the smoke cleared, Dib found himself in the middle of a pile of charred and shattered wood.

"So, you know magic, too," Dib said, deadpan, "Of course you do. What next, hypnotism?"

"Yes, but I doubt it'd work on you," Norlock said, detaching from Phil to stalk over to Dib, "It really only works on simple minds, and you seem too clever for that. In fact, you're just too plain clever in general. It's been quite some time since someone escaped from the holding room. That's impressive, but also dangerous. Forget draining you into the tub, I'm just going to eat you the old fashioned way, here and now."

By this point, Norlock was now standing directly in front of Dib, who scrambled backwards in a desperate attempt to get away from the vampire looming over him. As he did so, his hand brushed against something. Eyes zipping to the side, Dib saw a particularly large, long fragment of wood, which ended in a jagged point…

Eyes widening in sudden inspiration, Dib steeled his resolve and gripped the wood. He then turned back to Norlock, baring his teeth in challenge.

"Yeah? Well, eat this!"

With that, he shot his arm out, sending the makeshift stake flying. It hit target dead on, striking Norlock in the chest, right in the heart. Norlock gaped down at the wood sticking out of his chest… and then, to Dib's shock, rather than dropping dead or poofing into dust, merely scowled and glared down at him.

"You little bastard! This was my favorite shirt!"

"…Come on!" Dib complained, anger and frustration overwhelming fear, "I just staked you in the heart!"

"Correction," Norlock said, ripping the stake out of his chest in a spray of black ichor that may have once been blood and tossing it aside, "You just staked me in the chest. But I have this wonderful thing called a rib cage, genius. Why do you think all the old movies show vampire hunters using hammers to drive the stakes in? You can't just stab someone in the chest with a piece of wood and expect it break through bone to the heart on the first try. The lungs, maybe, but not the heart. So, nice try there, Buffy, but now just sit still and let me eat you already."

"STOP!"

Dib and Norlock turned to look towards the doorway, where Zim now stood.

"No one kills the Dib-Monkey but me!" he declared, "He has stood in the way of Zim's conquest of Earth long enough! Only I shall have the pleasure of ending his pitiful existence!"

Norlock arched an eyebrow. "Wait. You mean to tell me that you, a – according to you – highly-trained elite soldier of a galaxy conquering empire, haven't been able to take over this relatively undeveloped planet, because of a single kid who hasn't even hit puberty yet?"

"Silence! You do not understand the complexities of our rivalry, foolish bloodsucker! And that is why you will not be the one who kills him instead of Zim!"

As Zim and Norlock descended into an argument over who would get to kill him, Dib saw that, meanwhile, GIR and Phil were distracted by each other, the robot poking the wolf in the side repeatedly and the wolf in turn sniffing the robot all over. So, everyone else was distracted by each other, meaning he had a chance of getting away, if he could just find one. Looking around desperately, he saw that there was just the one door, which the others were in the way of. Looking further, all he saw was more old furniture, suits of armor, rugs, a window…

Dib did a double take. Two feet away, and five feet up the wall, was a window, which from the look of things led directly outside the castle. Had that been there the whole time? Wow, he really did need to start more attention to his surroundings.

"I can respect your history," Norlock said, "But this is my home, and he is my prey. And as dangerous as you may think you are, don't think that I am someone you can trifle with."

"Zim isn't afraid of you, bat creature! And if you try to deny me my rightful vengeance, I'll remove your limbs and replace them with dookie!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!"

"Lies!"

SMASH

The sound of breaking glass caught both Zim and Norlock by surprise, and they turned in time to see Dib jumping out of a window that he had apparently broken with another piece of a broken chair.

"…Did he not realize we're on the fourth floor?" Norlock asked.

Outside, and about twenty feet down, Dib painfully pulled himself out of the bushes that had broken his fall. That being said, it still wasn't his most graceful landing.

"Ow. I'm going to be feeling that tomorrow," he muttered, but then perked up as he saw the Spittle Runner not too far away. "Wow, I really did land on his lawn. I'd feel worse about that if he weren't trying to eat me. And in any case, I am out of here!"

Dib took off running, and as such just barely avoided a laser blast that hit the ground where he had been standing. Yelping in surprise, he looked up to see Zim leaning out of the broken window he'd jumped out of, a PAK leg pointing in his direction and still smoking from the energy discharge.

"You're not going anywhere, Dib!" he shouted, as he deployed his other PAK legs and started to climb down the castle wall, "I finally have a chance to get rid of you without anyone noticing, and I'm not letting you get away! GIR! Stop playing with the dog beast and let's go!"

"Hi ho Silver!" GIR responded, jumping out the window to land on and straddle his master's back. Unfortunately for Zim, he wasn't prepared for this, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the bushes below with a crash. Norlock peered out the window and took in the scene below.

"I knew I should have planted those thorn bushes," he muttered, "Oh well, might as well see how this plays out. Then I'll deal with whoever wins."

Dib, meanwhile, had taken off at a sprint towards the Spittle Runner, even though he felt like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. Still, he made it to the Runner and jumped in, the canopy closing after him. He grabbed the flight controls, only to receive nothing but flickering console lights and a groan from the engines in return.

"Oh, come on already!" he moaned, "Can't I get just one break today?"

Looking up from the controls, Dib saw that Zim had freed himself from the bushes and was now skittering towards the Spittle Runner on his PAK legs. Panicking, Dib started pounding on the console, hoping to jumpstart a reaction from the engines. Instead, there was a sudden thrumming sound, as a hatch on the roof of the Spittle Runner opened up, and a large bazooka shaped device popped out. It glowed for a moment, and then fired a large orb of dark purple energy.

"Ah!" Zim screamed, jumping aside and barely avoiding the attack, which continued on towards the castle. Up in the window, Norlock's eyes bugged out in alarm.

"Satan's hemorrhoids!" he cursed, likewise dodging to the side, just before the plasma sphere hit the castle. There was a massive explosion as the sphere detonated, taking out roughly a third of the structure in the initial explosion, before the resulting shockwave spread out, causing the rest of the castle to very quickly collapse. The cloud of smoke, dust, and debris spread out over several miles, covering everything in the area, before dying down after several minutes. Safely ensconced inside the Spittle Runner, Dib watched all this occur, view occasionally blocked as debris impacted and bounced on the canopy.

"Wow," he muttered, stunned and awed. He then perked up as something suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, I finally figured out how to use the weapons! Sweet! But, wait, which button did I hit?"

Dib looked at the console, but couldn't tell which button had triggered the destruction of Norlock's castle, and hopefully the vampire himself. Dib planted his face in his hands at this.

"Oh, it figures… Well, nuts to this. This has been a long enough day as is. I'm going home; I'll figure this out later."

With that, he tried the flight controls again, and was relieved when this time they responded. While somewhat sluggish, the Spittle Runner did lift into the air, and soon took off, heading back home. Shortly after, a particularly large pile of debris in the field shifted, and Zim and GIR emerged from it. Spitting out a mouthful of dust, Zim looked around and growled.

"Damn that human! This was a complete and utter waste of my time. I'll make him pay for this. Come, GIR, let's go-"

"Hi puppy!" GIR said happily, waving at something behind Zim.

"Eh?" Zim asked, beginning to turn around, only to be tackled to the ground by something that felt like a steamroller. When his vision cleared from the resulting stars, he found himself pinned down by Phil, whose lips were peeled back dangerously, as he glared down at Zim.

"Heel," a familiar voice said calmly. As Phil backed off, switching back into his friendlier attitude, Norlock stepped into view. The vampire was disheveled, but otherwise looked no worse for wear for having just been inside an exploding building. He ignored Zim for a moment, choosing instead to look around at the devastation.

"I've had this castle since the Third Crusade," he commented morosely, "No matter where I would travel, this was my refuge. I held it against armies, plagues, and the ravages of time. And now it's all gone, because of that child."

"Yes, the Dib-Worm has a habit of ruining things," Zim replied, as he got up and brushed himself off, not really caring about the vampire's complaints, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going. I need to make plans for my next encounter with him."

"You mean our next encounter with him," Norlock corrected, glancing down at Zim. It took the Irken a moment, but then he realized what was being suggested.

"You want to serve Zim?" he asked. Norlock snorted.

"Please. Nothing quite so simple," he said, turning to give Zim his full attention, "Let me explain something to you, Zim. I've been around a long, long time. Eternal life, even as a member of the undead, does have plenty of perks. But in the long run, it is just so boring. Things just lose their appeal after a while. You become desperate to find new ways of keeping yourself entertained."

"Is there a point to this?" Zim demanded.

"Yes," Norlock replied, crossing his arms, "You see, my method of coping with the slow, endless count of years is to find mortal agents of evil, and encourage their growth. For centuries, I have mentored conquerors, warlords, and dictators of all stripes. I have watched them rise to greatness that has made the world shake in fear. And I think that, in you, I've found my next project."

"Zim needs no advice!" The Irken stated, offended, "I am highly trained Invader-"

"Who's been stopped in his tracks time and again by a child," Norlock interrupted. He paused, looked around, and then added under his breath, "Albeit an annoyingly lucky one."

"Regardless, Zim doesn't need the help of some musty humanoid leech."

"Not even one who's virtually unkillable and has access to vast magical powers that your precious human enemy couldn't possibly stand against?" Norlock asked, eyebrow arched in challenge. Zim opened his mouth to respond, but found he didn't have a good counter-argument to that. Sensing an opportunity, the vampire moved in for the kill.

"Look, I'm bored, I despise Dib too, now, and frankly, you sound like you could use the help. Your little speech earlier, while impressively energetic and having a few creative points, was mostly boring and cliché. You could use some pointers.

"I'm not going to say that you'll have to take orders from me, but nor will I let myself be reduced to the role of minion. No, what I'm suggesting is a partnership. I provide my services and advice, and in exchange you allow me to bask in the glory of standing by your side as you rise to power. And while I hate that infuriating little big-headed child who just destroyed my home, I won't contest you being the one to end him. So, what do you say? Partners?" Norlock asked, extending a hand.

Zim stared at the clawed appendage for a moment, chewing on what Norlock had said. True, he really didn't think he needed help from anyone, let alone some skaatel. But, he was obviously quite dangerous, and that made him a potential useful weapon to aim at Dib. And wouldn't it be so fitting to destroy Dib with one of the paranormal things he liked to investigate so much? And if worst came to worst, Zim was certain he could eliminate Norlock if he became a threat.

Ultimately seeing no reason not to, Zim nodded, and shook Norlock's hand.

"Very well. Zim shall make use of your services. Partner."

"Excellent," Norlock said, grinning, "Now, invite me into your home."

"Eh?"

"It's a vampire thing. I can't enter someone's home unless they invite me."

"But we're nowhere near my base," Zim pointed out.

"Yes, I know. But as long as you make the invite, it still works. Anyway, it'll take me a few days to salvage things from the ruins here, and make preparations to travel to your base. Since I'm assuming you don't want to wait here with me while I do that, we'll just get the invite out of the way now, and I'll meet up with you later."

"Oh, okay then," Zim said, clearly not really getting it, but going along anyway, "Fine then. Zim invites you into his home base."

"Good," Norlock was really grinning now, "Well, with all the formalities out of the way, give me your address. I'll see you in about a week or so."

Zim quickly jotted down the address of his base and handed it to Norlock, then grabbed GIR and started marching towards the Voot, which should have been almost fully repaired by now. Norlock watched him go, stroking his chin in thought. Yes, this promised to be the most interesting thing that had happened to him in decades. And he was going to enjoy it.

With a maniacal laugh, he turned with a sweep of his cape and marched towards the main ruins of his castle to being salvaging what he could.

Let the games begin.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

End Episode 1

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A/N: And there we go. The first New Adventure episode is done and… wow, this turned out a lot longer than I was expecting. Seriously, even excluding the opening and closing notes, this chapter is still close to 10,000 words. I have never written a single chapter this long; hell, this is longer than most of my oneshots.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this opening chapter. Zim has gained a new ally and Dib a new enemy, and next chapter we'll see how this new dynamic plays out in their normal setting.

On the subject of Norlock: for fans of The Dresden Files, think of him as a Black Court vampire. For non-fans who have no idea what that means, he's a walking corpse with the traditional strengths (including magic) and weaknesses.

To fans of the Twilight series, I apologize if I've offended you, but I don't apologize for the jokes themselves, especially since they're going to be a running gag. I have nothing against the concept of vampires as angst-driven sex symbols, but Joss Whedon and Anne Rice did it first, and without perverting the core mythology.

As for Phil, yeah, I know he's basically GIR as a wolf, but I needed to give Norlock a minion of his own, and this is the best I could come up with. But I will be trying to flesh him out a bit more, alongside Skoodge, who'll be given more to do than he was here.

Also, here's a fun game – see if you can spot all the shout outs I wrote in this chapter.

Next time: Norlock moves into the base, meets the rest of Team Zim, and receives his first mission.

Until then, read and review!