Author's Note: My parents finally collapsed and bought a new keyboard, after several days of my brothers and my sisters fighting over the laptop. Here's a new chapter before I leave for girls camp next week. I'll try to get a new chapter of Two Much of a Good Thing up as well, but I'm not making any promises. Also, forgive me if my Spanish is off, I've only been taking the class for two years, and I haven't been in school for two months.

10: Some Folks have Weird Tastes

"What!" Manny shouted when I broke the news to him. With a flash of green fire and a tiger's roar, he turned into El Tigre.

"Get that portal open, Neutron! We leave immediately!" Tigre exclaimed.

"Hold on, Manny, we've got to think this through first—" Jimmy tried to calm him down.

"Hello! Shadows are invading our hometown! What more thinking does that take?" Frida asked.

"He's got a point, Manny, every other time we've charged in guns ablazin', the Shadows have pushed us right out." Danny said.

Tigre moaned in frustration and threw his hands up in the air. "So what do you want me to do? Just sit here while my hometown is being raided?"

"Just for a few minuets while we figure out a strategy!" I insisted.

"Yeah, like coming up with a strategy only takes a few minuets." Timmy muttered.

Jimmy elbowed him. "Turner, that's not helping."

"Hey! I have an idea!" Spongebob raised his hand.

"What?" everyone asked the sponge.

"You can send some people to keep the Shadows busy while the rest of us stay here and think of a plan!"

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, until Jimmy spoke. "A reconnaissance mission! That's brilliant!"

"Why thank you!" Spongebob said proudly. "What's a recognizance?"

"Alright then." Jimmy decided. "I need volunteers for the recon team."

"Count us in!" Manny and Frida stepped forward.

"I got left behind last time, so I'm going first on this one!" I insisted. Jimmy looked like he might protest, but I fixed him with an angry glare and he shut his mouth.

"Hey, since it was Spongebob's idea, shouldn't he go?" Danny asked.

"I'm ready… for action!" Spongebob exclaimed, striking a dramatic pose on top of a table. Everyone stopped talking while a cricket chirped somewhere nearby. Spongebob giggled nervously and stepped down.

"Ok." I said, "And that means Danny has to go since he volun-told Spongebob."

"What?" Danny asked incredulously.

"Oh, you've never heard of the rule of volun-told?" I asked. "If you say someone else should do it, you automatically volunteer yourself."

Danny sighed, "Fine. I was going to go anyway…"

"I'll go with y'all!" Sandy Cheeks stepped out of the crowd. I'd seen her from a distance, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to her before now. I'd just been too busy.

"Sweet!" I pumped my fist into the air. "This is going to be awesome!"

I noticed Jimmy face-palm out of the corner of my eye.

"I mean, this is going to be dangerous, but I'm totally ready!" I restated.

"Six people sounds like a good number for the recon mission." Jimmy said, "Unless there's anyone else who wants to go." No one stepped forward. The boy genius waited a little longer like he wanted more people to volunteer, but the crowd remained quiet.

"Uh, Neutron, Miracle City isn't getting any safer here!" Frida finally reminded him, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Oh, of course." He led us to the portal behind his shed. After he got it running, he handed us each a metal walkie-talkie. "These are to keep in touch with HQ while you're in the field. Don't let the enemy get a hold of them or else they'll be able to trace the signal straight back to us." He smiled, "And be careful not to get caught!"

"What, and miss out on another conversation with Loopy Louie?" I asked sarcastically, "Why shouldn't we?"

I followed my group into the portal and left the Nicktoons Universal Plain behind.

At first glance, Miracle City looked the same as it always did; a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy. Lots of looting and mugging going on. But a closer look revealed that it wasn't the usual villains doing the looting and mugging. It was the Shadows.

"Ok, we're here. So now what do we do?" Danny asked.

"I suggest we look for wherever Loopy Louie is hiding out." I said. "We don't want him to get another key."

"We also need to look for my family!" Manny reminded us.

"And mine!" Frida added.

"Maybe your folks can help us find this Louie fellah." Sandy suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me." I agreed, "Ok Manny, where should we start looking?"

"Uh…" Manny thought for a moment. While he was thinking a shadow was blasted out of the top of a far off building and landed not to far from us. "Probably over there." He pointed to the building.

Our recon team ran through the streets of Miracle City, battling the shadows that got in our way. While we were running down an alley I noticed something. Lots of people were running around screaming, and they were all screaming in Spanish! I silently wished I had worked harder at memorizing my vocabulary in my Spanish class.

"Hey Manny," I called to my friend, "what are all these people screaming about? All I can make out are the words 'Soccoro!' which is screaming for help, and 'queso' which I thought meant cheese…"

Manny stopped running for a second and listened to all the people running through the alley. I noticed that they were running in the opposite direction. I had a very bad feeling about this.

"Oh no! They're saying the cheese factory is going to explode!" El Tigre cried.

We all froze in our tracks. "Heheh…" Spongebob giggled, "And how far away is this cheese factory?"

"Uh, at the end of this alley." Frida answered.

We all exchanged glances. "Run!" we all shouted at once. Unfortunately we didn't get far before there was a huge explosion. The ground shook, and a second later a wall of melted cheese rammed into us. I'd guess I was carried on that wave of cheese about two blocks before someone grabbed me. Sandy had used her lasso to grab a nearby apartment building and climb onto the roof. Then she'd roped me.

"Thanks!" I gasped out as I tried to catch my breath.

"No problem!" Sandy replied, "Now stand back while I rope in Spongebob. He-yah!"

I couldn't imagine how she was going to find a yellow sponge in a flood of yellow cheese, but sure enough, a few seconds later Spongebob was sitting next to me on the top of the apartment building.

"What about the others?" I asked Sandy as I tried to wipe the sticky yellow goo off of me. "Did you see them in the flood?"

"I haven't seen a sign of them, and I'm the best tracker in Bikini Bottom." She replied.

Since when? I thought, but then again, she had been able to find Spongebob, who looked like cheese, in a flood of cheese, so I didn't question her ability.

It didn't take us long to decide that we should continue on our way to the building where the shadow had been blown away. As I watched the structure, every few minuets another shadow would rocket out of the building like it had been shot out of a cannon.

We were running past the remains of the cheese factory when a whole flotilla of Pouncers jumped out of the ruined structure. I pulled out my arrows while Sandy and Spongebob got into fighting stances. However, instead of attacking us, the shadows surrounded us and then stood still.

"Well, well, well, look who it is!" I heard a familiar voice say. Louie stepped out the remains of the cheese factory holding what at first glance appeared to be a moldy piece of cheese. A closer look showed that it was actually a golden statue shaped like a wedge of cheese and encrusted with orange and green gems so it looked like it was covered in mold.

"Ewww!" Spongebob exclaimed.

"Some folks sure do have strange taste in art." Sandy commented.

Loopy Louie shook his head, "Oh this is more than just abstract treasure. This is a key. It is a key to my future! Once I have all the keys I will break into the home of every viewer, and I will be in the perfect position to get my revenge! All I need-"

"Let me guess." I interrupted his rant. "All you need is one more key, from Bikini Bottom, and then you'll get yourself on TV."

Louie frowned, "How do you know all this stuff? My name, my plan, how are you doing it?"

I shrugged, "Luck and reason."

Louie once again showed his insanity by suddenly laughing. "You're wrong on one point. I need two more keys, since you stole one of mine back at the Boiling Rock."

I knocked an arrow and held it level with Louie's hand, where he held the key. Sandy and Spongebob also got ready to strike.

"Louie, I suggest that if you want to keep the use of your hand, that you drop the cheese."

The master of Shadows only laughed manically while the Pouncers that had surrounded us charged in to attack. Luckily, before they had moved more than a few inches, I shot my arrow. It pushed the key right out of Louie's hand.

"OW!" Louie shouted, followed by several words that I don't feel the need to repeat. I had to fight of several shadows after that, but Spongebob crawled through the melee to where Louie had dropped the key.

"I got it!" the sponge shouted for joy.

"Great, now send a message to Neutron so he can send someone to pick it up!" I yelled back.

Spongebob pulled out his communicator, but before he could make a call, one of the Pouncers leaped onto him. The poor guy fought it off, but not before it grabbed his communicator and the key!

"Give that back, you yellow-bellied, liver-sucking sidewinder!" Sandy yelled as she attacked the shadow, but it jumped right over her and landed in front of its master.

"Why thank you! This new toy could be useful!" Louie said as he examined the communicator. All of a sudden a Flyer dropped down and picked him up. Soon the Master of Shadows and all his shadows had gone.

"Uh, guys, didn't Jimmy say that with one of those communicators the enemy could trace the signal straight back to HQ?" I asked.

"Uh-hu." Sandy confirmed.

"This could be a problem." I said.

Author's note: Yes, I had an explosion in a cheese factory. I figure if El Oso can rob a pink underwear factory in the show, I can have shadows blow up a cheese factory in my story. I haven't seen El Tigre in a long time, so please tell me if anything feels out of character.