A/N: Well, it's here. This chapter's pretty long. The Heroine fights with a character towards the end, but don't worry, it'll be worked out after a few chapters. It won't seem like it for a while, but it will be. Also, it's quite a cliffie.

We were back in camp now, and I think most people were waking up. There was definitely some activity coming from inside the tents, but I didn't see anyone else come out.

I was going to see Jimmy Neutron, and if you've ever even heard of the show you know that the kid's a genius. If anyone could answer my questions, it would be him. While we were walking, I tried to organize these questions into a list in my head.

1. Where is here? (Here meaning the Nicktoon Universal Plane)

2. What are the shadows, and is there anything else we're up against?

3. How did the shadows get into reality?

4. How did I get here for that matter?

5. What are the shadows trying to do?

6. What the crap is going on here!? (I figured if all my other questions didn't cover everything, that question would)

We reached the same area where Timmy's tent was, sort of near the middle. One of the tents looked more like a steel shed, and it didn't take me long to realize that's probably what it was.

"So is this Jimmy's… not a tent, obviously… temporary HQ?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Danny said.

I was about to knock when Carl and Sheen walked up to our little group.

"Hey guys, what'cha doin'?" Sheen asked.

"We're looking for Jimmy." I said.

"Hey, you're that girl that showed up in the middle of the night last night!" Carl said.

"Um… Yeah, that's me, I guess."

"He's in there," Sheen said, gesturing to the shed, "I think he's running analysis on something. Here, we'll let you in."

After Sheen punched in a few random numbers onto a keypad and slammed his head into the door, I walked in. No one else followed, and I wasn't sure if that was because they thought my questions would be 'personal' or if they thought we wouldn't all fit in the shed.

It actually seemed bigger from the inside, and it didn't take me long to figure it probably was, by the same technology as his infinite-storage cube. It didn't look like Jimmy had noticed me come in. My guess was that he was to busy working on something to notice. That something just happened to be Jenny, a six-foot tall robot with the appearance, mind, and personality of a teenage girl.

"Thanks for fixing my knee joint, Jimmy." The robot girl thanked him, "Usually back home my mom or Sheldon takes care of these things. It's nice to know someone around here knows how to handle this kind of problem"

"It was my pleasure, Jenny. I wouldn't want you to have a malfunction while we're trying to break back into the Four Nations tomorrow…" Jimmy turned around and saw me standing in the doorway, with a grin on my face the size of a half moon.

"Hi!" I said, letting off some of my excitement.

"Hi." Jenny replied, giving me an appraising look.

"Um, hi…" Jimmy offered as a formality and then immediately got down to business, "What are you doing here?"

"I have some questions to ask you, actually. I just got here last night, you see…"

"Yes, we know." The two of them said simultaneously.

"Sheesh, does everyone in camp know?"

"Probably" Jimmy answered.

"Well, as you know, I just got here, and I have no idea what's going on or what we're up against! I just want to, you know, get some answers and figure out what's going on. Like, how'd that shadow get into my dimension, and where are we? How'd I get here and why is Sokka so grouchy, and- "

"Hold on!" Jimmy cut me off just in time; I was starting to get hysterical. "It sounds like you have a lot of questions. Can we talk about this over breakfast?"

"Breakfast?" I asked longingly. I'd just realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast back at my own home, at the time I'd though I would be eating whatever we made in that stupid baking class for lunch. "That sounds delightful right about now. I'm ravenous…" Just the thought of food was making me drool and feel like I was going to keel over at the same time.

"Right. So we'll go get something to eat at the Mess Hall and talk about it." Jimmy agreed.

"Ok, you guys have a good breakfast, I'll just go back to my tent." Jenny said as we left Jimmy's HQ.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you don't eat Jenny." I said, "Do you want to come anyway? We can talk about stuff."

"Actually, I have some things to take care off…"

"Did Tuck sleepwalk again last night?" Jimmy asked.

"… Yes."

"Oh, Ok then, I guess I'll see you later then." I waved goodbye.

"Tuck's here?" I asked Jimmy.

"Yes, Brad and Tuck came with Jenny when the shadows invaded Tremorton."

"The shadows invaded Tremorton?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, actually the shadows have invaded most of our hometowns. That has to do with one of your questions, but there are some other things I'll need to explain first," Both our stomachs grumbled audibly, "And I'd really like to get something to eat before I have to explain the whole thing."

"Ok." I sighed. "So what's the story behind Tuck's 'sleepwalking'?"

Jimmy snickered. "The first night he was here he sleepwalked, and the next morning Katara found him in her tent."

I laughed at the thought. "So what'd he do last night?"

"I don't know; you'll have to ask Jenny next time you see her."

I followed Jimmy to a large, long pavilion that was obviously made with earth bending. One side didn't have a wall and I could see several picnic benches and a cafeteria-style lunch-line. I ran to where they were serving food.

"Hi there! What can I get for you?" The yellow sea-sponge behind the counter asked. Once again, I almost fainted.

"You're Spongebob Squarepants!" I squeaked excitedly.

He laughed his iconic laugh, "Yep, that's me! Do you want anything for breakfast?"

"Oh you have no idea!" I replied hungrily, "What've you got?"

"Well, we have Kraby Breakfast Patties."

"How are they different from regular Kraby Patties?"

"They have eggs and bacon, along with the patty and cheese."

My mouth started watering. I love eggs and bacon, and I was starving.

"Two please!" I said. Spongebob handed them to me on a tray, and I immediately started wolfing down the first one. The TV show was not kidding; these things were good! I had finished the first one before I even sat down next to Jimmy, where I started to eat the second one, this time a little more slowly.

"So," Jimmy started, "I think the best way to answer all your questions is to tell you what's happened from the beginning."

I nodded while taking a big swallow. "Ok."

Jimmy launched into a long explanation of what the shadows were and what they were doing. I'll tell you right now that I did get what he was saying, but I can't begin to remember all the terminology he used. Here's a slightly condensed version, as well as I can remember it.

"Whenever a cartoon world is created, it always varies from reality. No matter how 'realistic' a cartoon is it's always different from the 'real' world. These differences are bundled together as shadows, because most cartoons are less evil than the 'real' world. The shadows created from Nicktoon worlds live here on the Nicktoon Universal Plane, which is the area that connects all the Nicktoon's mini-verses."

"Mini-verses?" I asked between mouthfuls, "What are those?"

"A mini-verse is like an incomplete universe. Is there any place you have never been or heard of?"

"Yes, I've never been outside of the United States."

"Well, the difference between a mini-verse and a universe is that places you have never been to or heard of in your universe still exist. I'm the 'main character' in my mini-verse, so if the creator of the show hasn't added a place that means I've never been to or heard of it, so it doesn't exist."

"Ah, I see."

"As I was saying, the shadows have always been there, and they come in three basic form. The shadows you saw at your hometown were Pouncers. They're most easily defeated by being stabbed or sliced with metal, like your knife. The two other kinds of shadows are Fliers and Crawlers. Fliers, as the name would suggest, can fly. They look like giant mosquitoes, and usually drop bombs on us. They're most easily defeated by extremes in temperature, like fire and ice. They're also pretty easy to blow off course with a strong blast of wind. The Crawlers are actually like living tanks; explosions and missiles are the easiest way to defeat them. All the shadows are extremely vulnerable to ghost-rays and other ecto-based weapons."

I nodded. That explained why Danny had been able to take on the Pouncer back home all by himself.

"The shadows have the unique ability to travel between mini-verses. Sometimes they'd show up in our hometowns, but they have never really been any problem until about six months ago. For some reason around that time they all broke out of the Universal Plane and attacked our own mini-verses in large numbers. They started with Retroville and Dimsdale, but they spread out quickly. At first they were easy to push back, but their numbers got to be too great for us. At first just a few of us were fighting them. Danny and Spongebob volunteered, but we lost Amity Park's mini-verse not long after Retroville and Dimsdale." He saw the confused look on my face. "When there are too many shadows in a mini-verse they can block us from opening a portal back." Jimmy smiled, "At least they used to."

"Used to? What do you mean?" I asked, now insanely curious.

"Well, the shadows have been preventing us from opening any conventional portals between here and any mini-verse they've taken over, but I've developed a new portal that is strong enough to break through. We tested it yesterday when Danny and Manny teleported into the viewer's world."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked. "And Danny said that he came into the viewer's world to find those shadows. Was he just making that up?"

"Well, that's one thing that has me worried." Jimmy told me. "You asked if there was anything other than the shadows that we were up against, right? Well, I think there might be. The shadows aren't supposed to be able to travel to the viewer's world. It takes even more power than it does to break through their barrier. For the past month I've been tracking the shadows' movements, and just a week ago, a few of them appeared in your universe."

I looked at my empty food tray, deep in thought. "So you have no idea how their doing it?" I finally asked.

"No, but now that I know the new portal works, we can go back into mini-verses the shadows have invaded and push them back out. I'm sure we'll find some clue of how they're doing it while we're fighting them."

I wanted to say something like, 'It's driving you crazy that you don't know something, isn't it?' but I figured that'd be rude. Instead I talked about the battle tomorrow.

"So tomorrow you're going to use this new portal to go back to the Four Nations and push the shadows out? That's going to be really cool, I've always wanted to go there. And I'll get to fight along side some of my favorite cartoon characters, how great is that?"

Jimmy, who had been taking a drink of milk, did a spit-take. "Who ever said you were even coming?!"

"Oh come on, I'm already here, I might as well help." I reasoned.

Jimmy shook his head. "No way, you can't. You don't have any experience fighting like this. You've seen our shows; you know it's different. Surely you realize that you wouldn't last more than a few minuets out there!"

I was definitely ticked-off then. "I took care of myself with the shadows at my school, didn't I?" I was raising my voice, a small crowd was gathering around us.

"You were lucky."

"I don't think so. I've been taking Tae-Kwon-Do for two years, I'm the best archer in my school, and even though I'd never used one before, I used that knife to take care of two shadows." I looked over at Danny and Manny, who were standing in the small crowd. "You guys will vouch for me, right?"

"Sure!" Manny replied confidently before whispering to Frida, "What's 'vouch' mean?"

"I don't know dude, I always figured it was some kind of bird!"

Danny was a little more convincing. "You should let her come Jimmy, even if you don't, she'll find a way there."

I was glad to see Danny had learned something from our little incident. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Come on Neutron, you said we'd need all the help we could get tomorrow." Timmy reasoned.

"Unfortunately, she may be more of a hindrance than a help. We can't afford to waste time saving her back." Jimmy replied.

Oh. No. He. Did. Not! "Excuse me?!" I fumed, "I can make a difference! Even if I have to fall back after a while, I can still help! I could pick them off from a difference with a good bow and arrow, I could—"

"Hold It!" Someone shouted from behind the crowd. Everyone turned to see Spongebob holding a megaphone. Sheesh, had we really been that loud?

"I know a way you can prove that you can help." He said into the megaphone.

"Uh, you can turn off the megaphone Spongebob." Jimmy told him.

"Oh, sorry." He turned off the megaphone. "But I know a way you can prove that you can help." He said to me. "You can try the Combat Simulator."

"The Combat Simulator?" I asked curiously.