Chapter 1
It was an average day in Bikini Bottom, the water still and the atmosphere calm. The flower clouds floated above them as they usually did, and the downtown streets were populated with everyday people. All was calm. Everywhere except the pineapple home on that one street, that is.
"Hey, Patrick…" the yellow sponge whispered giddily, as he tried not to laugh.
"Yeah, Spongebob?" the pink starfish replied, as he too tried not to giggle like a little schoolgirl.
"We should go jelly fishing!" Spongebob burst suddenly, his happiness radiating from him. He and Patrick both pulled out their usual jellyfishing nets, and looked at each other over excitedly.
"WITH SQUIDWARD!" Patrick added loudly, flailing his net in the air and joining in the fun.
The two skipped merrily the few steps it was to the grumpy squid's house, and knocked on the door. When there was no answer they rang the doorbell. Still there was no answer, so they started yelling at the top of their lungs, hopeful that their neighbour would hear them.
"Squidward!" they hollered as loud as they could, trying desperately to get his attention.
Unfortunately for the sarcastic squid, they caught him whilst he was in the middle of playing his clarinet horribly, something he wasn't happy about in the least. Knowing that it would only continue if he didn't respond, he poked his head out the window.
His head out the window he looked down at the two, their goofiness sickening him. With a sigh he said grudgingly, "What d'you want, Spongebob?"
"Would you like to come…jellyfishhiiiiinnnnnngggggg?" they called up to him in a singsong type of voice, though in reality they sounded very crappy.
He was about to deny their offer when something very unusual happened.
For some unknown reason they'd randomly flown away, as if suspended by some kind of invisible net. In fact, that was exactly the case; a giant transparent fishnet had been lowered, and had scooped up the two companions.
"HA!" Squidward chortled in spite, as he watched the two float away, "That takes care of those two annoyances. Now, back to tending to Clary."
He headed back inside, to where his clarinet lay up against his music stand. He thought all was good until he felt a harsh lurch. Confused about what had happened he ran back to the window, only to find that he too had been scooped up.
None of them knew what was happening, or what the future held for them.
::change of time::
Spongebob woke up, an odd sensation filling his body. He opened his eyes slowly, and beheld a most horrible sight.
He was looking straight up at the sky, and realized that there wasn't any water anywhere around him. He was out in the air with no water, but despite that, it seemed that he wasn't dried out in the least.
Oddly enough, he felt fine, as if he was still underwater. Everything seemed completely normal, aside from the fact that he felt something moving around inside him. It felt like there were ants walking around in him or something. It gave him an oddly tingly sensation, and he had to see what was going on.
He rolled his eyes all the way back, so that he could look at the space inside him. He remembered what Plankton had tried that one time, and thought that it might be him crawling inside his head.
Where his brain was supposed to be he found no Plankton, and instead saw an empty space, occupied by some furniture. A family of five were sitting on one of the couches, looking intently at a flat screen television.
"Hey…hey, you!" Spongebob said to them. They didn't look away from the tube, obviously in a zombie like trance. He shouted it louder and louder each time, and each time they didn't respond. They were slaves to the TV.
This frustrated Spongebob. He had something to say, but the television wouldn't allow him to be heard. He angrily thought of turning off the TV, and to his surprise it did just that. With a soft click, the television shut down.
As soon as the LCD screen went black, the family of five snapped out of their all-too-common trance. They looked around to see what had caused the problem, but didn't find it until the sponge spoke again.
"Umm…hi," he said shyly, growing an arm inside his head to wave at them, "What are you doing in my head? And where'd all my internal organs go?"
The family simply stared up in awe at the random waving hand, their eyes nearly popping out of their hand. The father was the first to get over the initial shock of the event and was also the first to speak.
"We…we're undersea enthusiasts. When we asked for an undersea style house, they suggested a sponge to test out a new experiment. When we brought you to the scientists they super sized you and gutted you so we could live here," he said.
He still wasn't quite over the excitement, and for a few moments stared up at Spongebob's face, trying to get himself to snap out of it.
"But then…why am I still alive?" Spongebob asked in a confused tone of voice.
"The…the scientists said that something like this might happen, but I thought it unbelievable!" he said slowly, taking it in. He was already getting ideas of how to use this to his advantage.
"What deed the scientist say might happen, daddy?" the little girl asked curiously, apparently not phased in the least by any of this.
"They…they said that even though we extracted the organs, the electricity running through here might act for a substitute for all of those. Kind of like a Frankenstein type thing," he explained simply, his ideas growing by the minute.
"B-but I need water! I NEED it!" Spongebob said desperately, remembering what had happened the first time he'd gone to Sandy's house. He never wanted that to happen ever again.
"No need to worry," the dad said, intending to use this as his bargaining chip, "If you obey us, we'll give you all the water you need. And it'll be a special kind of water, that doesn't conduct electricity, so we don't all get fried."
Spongebob thought for a moment and then said, "What if I want to go back to Bikini Bottom to play with my friends?"
"Impossible."
"And why is that?" Spongebob said accusingly, not liking where this was going. The man had a kind of smug tone to his voice, one that made him feel uneasy.
"Because we stuck you in cement before moving in, so that you'd stay in one place. You can't move from this spot, and there's nothing you can do about it," he explained, the smugness not dying off in the least.
Spongebob fell silent, thinking. He really had no choice in the matter, though he didn't want to accept it. To stay alive he'd have to obey their every command. He sighed and said, "Ok, but I have one question first: where's Gary?"
The little boy put on a puzzled face and asked curiously, "Gawy? Who dat?"
"My beloved pet snail, the best pet a sponge could ever have!" Spongebob replied in a singsong voice, though only to mask his disappointment. Since they didn't know about Gary that must mean that they'd never meet again.
The mom by that time had caught on to her husband's idea, and at that point spoke, "We didn't find any snails. But…if you want and if it makes you feel a little better, you could think of us as your pets."
It sounded awkward, but he had to admit, it would dim his pain the slightest bit. He thought about it as she continued.
"You could keep our home clean, do out cooking, do pretty much everything. Except wash us, we can do that ourselves. It's a win/win situation; you get your precious water and new pets, and we get to do nothing but relax and focus on what matters," she finished, trying to make it seem a little more appealing.
Spongebob, who knew that he'd have to bend to these people's will despite how he felt about it, decided to make a plan. In order to keep himself alive he'd have to bend to their will and fulfil their wishes, and he intended to do that to the best of his ability. After all, it would all be taking place inside of him.
And since their house was the inside of his body, he felt he'd be able to tend to their needs fairly easily, and already had thought of a way to do so.
With a slightly disturbing sounding grunt, he began the very odd process. His face on the ceiling absorbed into itself, and the roof became completely smooth. The family looked around, not sure of what was going on. They'd never seen the sponge work his magic before.
Then, without warning, mini Spongebob faces popped out of the walls everywhere, at least one in each room. The living room, the dining room, the kitchen, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms; they all had a Spongebob there to tend the each person's needs.
"OK!" Spongebob said loudly and enthusiastically, "My name's SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! And, in return for water, I'll be doing your stuff! Let's get started…WOO!"
The face in the living room smiled a fake smile, wanting to not reveal his true feelings about this. He did, however, want to think of it as a relaxing job; how hard could it possibly be?
::change of time::
It had been months since Spongebob had randomly woken up like that. He hadn't realized just how much work it would take to stay alive, but as it turns out, keeping these people happy was much harder than he'd anticipated.
Two of the kids, a boy and a girl, were both toddlers and needed to be taken care of 24/7. Instead of hiring someone to take care of them or even do it themselves sometimes, they'd gotten the sponge to do it for free.
Dinner had to be on the table by 5:30 PM, and it was Spongebob's job to take care of that. When he missed the deadline they would punish him, cutting off his water supply temporarily.
The house needed to be cleaned frequently, and of course that was another one of his duties as well. He amazingly found it in himself to keep it tidy, though probably only because a punishment would be waiting for him if he didn't.
The other kid, a teenager, was of the depressed and angsty variety. His constant rants about how life sucked and who should die by divine judgment thoroughly bored the sponge. And to top it off, he had to make sure the boy didn't go and slit his wrists, which he had a habit of doing.
On this particular day his will had been completely drained by the endless work, and he didn't even know how he was still able to move. He was even more tired than the time he and Patrick had adopted the baby clam together, and it was still only noon.
"House!" Steph, the daughter said, poking him as hard as she possibly could. It didn't feel pleasant in the least, but there was nothing he could do about it; if he did anything they didn't like, the parents would punish him.
"Ow. Ow. Ouch!" Spongebob said blandly, as the two poked him and the boy bit him, "Could you by any chance stop that? Please?"
Just as he thought it didn't work, and they continued to torture him. They seemed to react to his pain, and only tried harder to hurt him.
After a few more moments of enduring them he burst, unable to keep it in any longer, "STOP IT!"
::end of chapter 1::
WOO! The first chapter of my insanely random Spongebob Squarepants fanfiction!
Don't really know what to say...this was supposed to be done before Halloween (the entire fanfiction, that is), but as you can see, that kind of failed. I finally got my butt in gear and started to type it out, hence why you're reading it right now. IF all goes smoothly, this should end up being two or three chapters long.
For those of you who may be keeping up with my other ongoing fics, Ninja in a Demon's World is currently on hold due to a writer's block. Other than that, the Slert series and the original that's getting published are going along pretty well (what's new, eh?)...
Anyway, that's all I've got. So, next chapter should be out sometime soon, but I'm not making any promises I can't keep. But it shouldn't be too long, though.
