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Dib could've kicked himself. The trees seemed to close in on him as he jogged through the forest, eyes scanning the undergrowth for signs of life: Zim, Gir, the cryptid he was out here trying to track down, anything would suffice at this point. So long as he wasn't alone in this place, barely illuminated by the moonlight creeping through the canopy and running out of options. His eyes feverishly swept back and forth and his legs carried him onwards.
It was his own dumb fault and he knew it. He'd dragged Zim out here to help him hunt cryptids in the dead of night ("There might be other aliens, Zim! You can't take any chances!") and then what did he do? Run after the first rustling bush that caught his eye! He'd expertly tracked the creature as it darted through the foliage before the trail abruptly went dead, whereupon he finally looked up, took stock of his surroundings and then heard the penny drop. He was hopelessly, idiotically lost. He'd left his partner behind in his fervor and now he was all alone in the forest with nothing to show for his efforts.
It'd been a while since he'd been able to go hunting, to be fair: Skoolwork was ramping up and his father was breathing down his neck more and more to get good marks, which left precious little time for the important things in his life. The truce with Zim certainly made things easier (he did not miss having to save the world every other week...okay, maybe he missed it a little bit), but even with that burden off his shoulders his time was still a valuable commodity and a part of him had forgotten about the absolute thrill of the hunt. Sooooo maybe he could be forgiven a little for rushing off like he d-
An errant tree root rudely interrupted Dib's internal berating by tripping him up. "Whoa--OOMPH!" Dib landed heavily in the dirt and then swiftly picked himself up, brushing leaves off his trenchcoat and silently hoping that what he was hunting didn't see what just happened. He had to prove that he was the hunter: fearsome unflappable! Hunters didn't trip on tree roots and he was a hunter, those were the facts. He took a breath and then resumed his swift pace, once again searching the forest around him.
Within the trees, eyes narrowed.
"Okay, Zim has to be around here somewhere..." For now the reassurances held as Dib kept moving: his phone had no coverage out here and he had a nasty feeling that yelling out for his green companion would attract less friendly attention, so reassurances were all he had. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and squinted into the darkness, looking for a flash of green or pink.
Zim wouldn't have left him behind, right? For all the time he'd known him Dib had never fully grasped the internal mechanisms of the Irken, what drove his erratic actions and schemes beyond the whole "invading the planet" thing. Whatever made him tick did so in an utterly unique rhythm, a rhythm that made him think that creating contagious baloney viruses was a good idea. Dib chuckled a little at the thought before refocusing.
He didn't think that Zim would just leave though: for all of his hesitation and grumbling when Dib approached with with the idea of coming out here, he'd still tagged along and that implied that a piece of him wanted to be here for some reason. Why? That was a question that Dib had yet to ruminate on, but for the moment he was just happy to have something other than his intrusive thoughts to keep him company out here. It was nice to have someone else along for the ride.
Maybe Zim was searching for him? Proper search and rescue conduct suggested that Dib should stay in one place to increase his chances of being found, otherwise the two could be chasing each other all night. That was just it though: how did he know that there would only be two members of this little chase? There was still the matter of what they were out here for and as confident as Dib was, he knew that the beast they were supposed to be tracking down wasn't to be trifled with: the litany of missing local pets was adequate confirmation of the danger in these woods. No, what he was doing made sense. He carried on.
Amongst the undergrowth, a wicked grin unfurled.
Why did Zim come out here with him, though? That question had its hooks in him now and for the life of him Dib couldn't shake it off. Old instincts and thought patterns insisted that Zim was gathering intel for his shadowy Irken overlords, that he was preparing for his inevitable takeover of Earth, but Dib shoved those thoughts down and stamped on them with army boots. Those days were hopefully behind them, at least for now.
Dib's mind drifted back through the months, to the day of the truce. Zim never did say why he'd proposed it, but Dib could see that the fire behind those insectile eyes had receded that day: for whatever reason, the drive to conquer was just...not all there anymore. At the time he didn't question it and he knew not to pry lest he disrupt the fragile peace, but he still couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the bug to dampen that fire. Had he given up? Had his empire lost contact with him?
"Hmmm..."
Regardless of the reason, Dib knew to take his victories when they came along and while he had to relinquish his own desire for fame and fortune (and promise Zim that he wasn't going to casually vivisect him anytime soon), he knew that humanity's safety was of more importance. Since then the two of them had kept cordial contact, with the arm's length that each of them kept from each other gradually decaying as the months went on. And now here they were, out in the woods hunting cryptids together! Well, kind of. Minus the whole "together" part.
Another cursory inspection of his surroundings as he stopped once again, this time to rest his legs: he wasn't quite as active as he used to be these days and his legs were starting to cramp up from the undue exertion. The urge to slump down against a tree was strong and he eventually gave in to it, his back gently impacting with the bark of a nearby pine and then sliding down.
"Heh...some cryptid hunter..." A bit of self-deprecation not entirely without merit: Dib was more than a bit of a mess, with leaves decorating his head and sweat running in rivulets down his brow. His chest rose and fell as the activities of the night gradually caught up with him: youthful vigor could only get you so far and this tree was about as far as it had gotten Dib Membrane. He closed his eyes for a moment.
Behind the foliage, muscles tensed.
A sudden whoosh of air displacement was Dib's only warning before something solid impacted his right shoulder, sending him sprawling on the forest floor. Dib hissed in pain and clutched his arm as he frantically tried to take stock of what had attacked him, only to see nothing where an assailant had been. How could he have let his guard down? He was out here hunting something dangerous and he thought he could just rest his eyes for a bit? If he died out here, then it was probably a death that he deserved.
He then heard a soft impact behind him.
Oh no.
Adrenaline kicked in just a little too late as gnarled claws pinned his arms to the forest floor and a ghastly silhouette loomed above him, a product of an imagination unshackled by reason and sense. He struggled in vain within its grasp before finally looking up at the monstrous face of the creature that had bested him...
What he saw there made his face swiftly morph from terrified to thoroughly unimpressed.
"Ziiiiiiiim..."
"You should've seen the look on your Dib-stink-face!" To call the grin on Zim's face shit-eating would be to severely undersell the richness and high fibre of the aforementioned defecation. "It was glorious and it shall be remembered fondly every time you annoy Zim!"
"Are you serious!?" Dib shoved Zim off him and clambered to his feet. "How long have you been out there watching me?"
"Enough to be thoroughly unimpressed by your hunting prowess. A dizzy smeet could outsmart you and your puny skills!"
"Grrrr...." Dib brushed down his trenchcoat and resisted the urge to threaten vivisection. "Let's just...go home." He turned towards a gap in the trees and started walking.
Zim strode on ahead of him "That seems like the ideal course of action. I should probably get back to base make sure Gir hasn't eaten any more cats." Dib stopped and considered opening his mouth, then thought against it.
Yeah, you go do that Zim.