A/N: ... Aheh... Boy... I've been gone for a while, haven't I? I'm not going to hand you guys lame excuses. All I'm going to say is that these new episodes, which I thought would give me a buttload of inspiration, instead turned me completely off from Spongebob ever since. I'm so terribly sorry for my absence, and I hope my old readers are still here... I know this chapter isn't any good, but please enjoy it. Think of it as my forgive me present.

To all the reviewers: Sorry that I can't point all of you out this time, but thank you so much for your kind words. You got me back on my feet:)

Disclaimer: I do not own Spongebob, and looking at these new episodes, right now I don't want to.

And without further ado, Chapter Nine.

Chapter Nine: Undersea Rodeo

Written by Lady Esca


Sandy walked for hours, not knowing where she was going, or hardly even caring. All that plagued her mind was Spongebob. If he wasn't dead, then where was he? Where could the Strangler be hiding him?

The Texan continued to saunter down the sand road, her eyes closed to prevent her tears from falling. She almost jumped out of her skin as she bumped into a sign and looked up to see that it read, "Now Leaving Bikini Bottom.

Shrugging, she kept on walking.

"I don't care where I go now…" she muttered, trekking on into the foreign wilderness on the outskirts of town.

Up ahead, another sign had messily scrawled across it, "Beware. Sulfur Fields Ahead.

Sandy paused for a moment, thinking twice about coming out here alone. She looked back from where she came, the road shrouded in darkness as the night began to set in and she looked back up at the dark water-sky, sighing dismally. Her booted feet stirred up sand as she went forward, passing up the sign and its warning.

There was suddenly a roar in the distance and Sandy jumped backwards, holding up her paws in a fighting stance.

"Hiyah! … Oh… Ahhh!" she screeched as a sulfur geyser exploded behind her and she dashed through the darkness as more erupted all around her, threatening to blow her to smithereens.

The geysers were extremely hot, and Sandy felt the powerful heat as she sped through the fields, barely avoiding another blast as it surged up into the waters before her. She dug her heels into the sand and bolted the other way, screaming in terror as more and more blasted around her. She had never been this frightened in her life, trapped in heat and darkness, with no escape.

Sandy then felt her paws land on rocky ground and she quickly scrambled onto a large boulder, looking back over her shoulder at the sulfur fields still furiously erupting. An immense sigh of relief escaped from her and she jumped down from the boulder, wanting to get away from the geysers as quick as possible.

Hearing the roar now much farther away, Sandy looked down at the ground, reaching into her suit to wipe sweat from her brow, when she spied the wheel of a ship half buried in sand at her boots and she bent down to examine it.

"Hm?" she murmured, and lifted her gaze, gasping in shock.

Before her was a sunken pirate ship!

She gazed at it in awe, even though it was crumbling and rotting. It was magnificent though! A pirate ship! Slowly, Sandy approached the dead vessel and ran her paw over the decaying wood, crying out as it fell away and plankton swarmed all over her paw. Shaking her paw furiously to get rid of them, she suddenly felt her paw hit against something hard and she froze.

Was there… Something behind her?

Cautiously turning around, Sandy found herself face-to-face with the malevolent glowing eyes of a hulking, great white shark. The beast studied her for a moment, his horrid, serrated teeth covered in grime and blood as he smiled viciously at her.

"Going somewhere, bait?" he asked.

Sandy became cold all over and she pressed her back against the ship.

"Uh… Uh..."

"This ship is off limits…" the shark growled, still baring his frightening rows of teeth. "I hope you weren't intended on going inside"

"W-why's t-that?" Sandy inquired fearfully.

The shark chuckled.

"No reason… I'll just eat you anyways"

Without warning, the shark lunged at Sandy and she kicked off the ground, flipping out of the shark's way. He yelled in pain as his rubbery nose smashed into the ship, causing the wood to disintegrate and he fell into the ship, roaring in fury. Not wanting to wait for the shark to recover, Sandy began to rapidly put distance between them, gasping as she tore into the darkness, only the weak moonlight showing her the way to safety. She shrieked in terror as the shark knocked her into the ground from behind and she whipped around onto her back, looking up into his wicked face.

"Don't deny me a good meal. You know that sharks can swim faster than rodents"

As he opened his mouth to chomp down on Sandy, she drew back her boots and kicked him hard in the muzzle, stunning him. Suddenly feeling the courage to take him on, the squirrel began to karate chop and kick him, gathering all martial arts skills that she knew to battle this undersea monster.

Coming to, the shark bellowed in pain as a rain of blows bashed his body to and fro, and he lunged once more at Sandy, only to miss her again as she leaped back up into the water.

Sandy knew she couldn't let the shark get one bite at her, or he'd ripped her suit and she would surely drown before he could ever get to her. Landing on his back, Sandy began to ride the shark like a bull in a rodeo and he roared in protest, trying to buck her from his back.

"Man, there should be undersea rodeos!" she mocked him, holding onto his fin for support. "Yeehaw"

"Get off me, you stupid rodent!" he snarled, throwing himself against a rock to shake her off.

Yet Sandy held on tight and curled her paw into a fist, pulling back and driving a punch down hard into his right eye. The shark howled in agony and suddenly went limp, crashing into the ground. Sand flew up from the impact and the squirrel jumped from his back, quickly rushing away before he woke up. Sandy didn't stop running until she reached the bow of the ship, hiding behind piles of broken wood. She hunkered down low and looked up at the great vessel, her head buzzing with questions.

"Why would this ship be off limits? Is he hiding something"

The squirrel rubbed her air helmet thoughtfully and stood up as she spied a rotted hole in the ship.

"It's time that I investigated this…"


I know I deserve flames for taking so long to update... Ah well. Hope you enjoyed chapter nine.