Chapter 10 – "What Museum?"
With five brave toys beginning their mission to rescue SpongeBob, the pull-string sponge in question was enjoying his time in Happy Chapman's apartment, having a lot of fun with his new friends and learning about his century of origins. It was odd that SpongeBob was based off a TV show, though it did explain his design. Later that night, SpongeBob, Sandy, Cindy, Spirit, and Farquaad were watching another classic episode of a certain TV show, SpongeBob's Roundup.
(TV Screen POV)
'They don't call this the old abandoned mine for nothing, Farquaad." Cindy explained. "I reckon we oughta get outta here."
"Where's my gold?" Farquaad asked. "Hold on, I'll light me a candle!" To his offer, he strikes a match and lit a fuse. "This sure is a fast burning wick!"
"Blast us to smithereens!" Sandy exclaimed. "Look what you've done!"
"Yeah, that there's dynamite!" Cindy said.
'HOLY TARNATION!" Farquaad panicked.
"I'll call for help!" Cindy sent out a certain message that echoed throughout the land. "YODEL-LAY-HEE-HOO!" Outside, two-dimensional critters congregate at the mine's entrance, sealed off by a rock. Cindy urged from the inside. "OK, critters, go get Sheriff SpongeBob! Now, scurry!" Compliant to the message, the critters vanished to the right direction.
Sheriff SpongeBob and Spirit are recently finishing up a new building, which was a schoolhouse, built for the purpose of educating the children in town. "Good job, Spirit! I reckon the new schoolhouse is finally done!" SpongeBob replied to his trusty steed, along with a joyful bounce. The critters arrive before SpongeBob and Spirit, reporting the troublesome news to the two. SpongeBob speedily exclaimed, "What's that? Cindy, Sandy, and Farquaad are trapped in the old abandoned mine, and Farquaad just lit a stick of dynamite, think that it was a candle and now they're about to me blown to smithereens?!"
"Mmm-hmm!" One of the critters said.
"Ride like the wind, Spirit!" SpongeBob declared. He and Spirit ran out of town and they're now on their way to rescue their friends. Back in the mine, Sandy tries to fan the fuse with her tail. No go.
"You're fanning the flames, Sandy!" Farquaad denied. "It takes a lot of brains to put out that fire." He landed his butt on the flame, but his behind catches on fire. He jumps up and down in pain. "YEOW! My biscuits are burning!"
Meanwhile, TV SpongeBob and TV Spirit jump over a huge gap called The Grand Canyon. "Will SpongeBob and Spirit land to safety?" the announcer asked. "Can they reach Sandy, Cindy, and Farquaad in time?
(Real Life POV)
SpongeBob intently leaned in closer, getting eager.
(TV Screen POV)
Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion: SpongeBob's Finest Hour!" the announcer concluded.
(Real Screen POV)
"WHOO-HOO! YEAH! ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! NEXT TAPE!" SpongeBob cheered. Sandy, Spirit, and Cindy's smiles change to sadness. Cindy stands up and turns off the TV. "Hey, wait, wait, wait! What happen—what happens next?!" SpongeBob asked in confusion. He turned to his new friends, "C'mon, let's see the next episode!"
"What next episode?" Sandy asked. "That was but the final episode."
"What?!" SpongeBob exclaimed, incredulous.
"Sandy's right." Farquaad said despondently. "Ever since that episode Trapped in the Gold Mine was released, the show lost all of its great popularity, leading to a decreasing of credibility ratings. And besides, the show was severely cancelled after that." The short man moved to turn his box around.
Sandy added sadly, "Farquaad's right. The series was reaching the near end, the series was cancelled forever." She added with a deep sigh, "The show just doesn't seem to go on any further. It doens't exist anymore."
"No, no, no! That can't be true!" SpongeBob denied. He ran over to the counter's side. "What about the gold mine?" SpongeBob asked, trying to get up to the counter. Spirit hoisted him up, and the pull-string sponge doll went over to Farquaad. "A-and the cute little critters and the dynamite? That was such a great show with interesting marionette animation! I mean, why would they cancel it?"
"Two words: Sput-nik."Farquaad explained. Once the astronauts went up into the nether regions of outer space, it turns out that children wanted to play with space toys. They gave up the interest in the Roundup adventure moments, and moved on to some sci-fi induced stuff."
Sandy added, "Say for example: When children's curiosity began to fall on the characteristics of outer space, the lineup for any space toy surpassed the popularity of SpongeBob's Roundup."
"So that must be the reason why that TV show got cancelled in the first place." SpongeBob notified.
"Yep." Sandy confirmed.
"Huh. I know how that feels." SpongeBob uttered, remembering the time Mike got Jimmy as a birthday present, and his expression of jealousy toward Jimmy years ago. He grins widely and he said, "But still, my own show! I mean, look at all this stuff." SpongeBob gestured to observe the fascinations of the SpongeBob's Roundup collection.
"Don't you know? Why, you're valuable property." Cindy replied as he got on the counter, along with Sprit.
"She's right! You are a true collectible!" Sandy said.
"Really? That's great." SpongeBob said. "Man, I wish the guys could see this." He finds a yo-yo imprinted with his picture on it, and one of hid catchphrases from the late show,"Hey-Howdy-Hey, that's me; I'm on a yo-yo!" SpongeBob sees a target practice game with SpongeBob's teeth for bullseyes. He chuckles as he picks up a small red ball with his working arm. "Hey, nice teeth!" He throws the ball into the game's mouth, knocking out one tooth, as the ball rolled out from the bottom. "And yet, still a good looking guy!" He laughed, along with Cindy, Sandy, and Farquaad.
"He's funnier than an acorn with ears." Sandy said to Cindy.
"Yeah, he really is a comedian." Cindy chuckled.
SpongeBob kneels and sees another piece of SpongeBob's Roundup merchandise. He presses down on a mechanical Farquaad's arm, catapulting a penny into a mechanical SpongeBob's hand. It then drops the penny into a barrel marked 'ORPHANS'. SpongeBob recognizes what this is. "Oh! It's a bank. Cool!" SpongeBob said. He walked over to a cylindrical SpongeBob bubble machine. He studies it curiously. "Hmm, what do you…? Let's see, you push the head." He presses down the head and soap bubbles spewed out of the mouth. "And, oh, out come bubbles. Clever!"
Farquaad, Sandy, and Cindy chuckled in amusement as Spirit the horse playfully popped one with his teeth. SpongeBob eyes a toy white sock with red and blue rings with a lever. "Oh, wow! What does this thing do?"
SpongeBob pushes down the lever, and a toy Plankton shot out of it. SpongeBob laughed. "I get it: "There's a copepod in my sock!". SpongeBob said. He put the Plankton toy back inside the sock. Spirit came over and SpongeBob lifts up the sock like a gun, and said, "Oh, hey, Spirit! Go on, go on!" He fires the sock and the Plankton toy came out. Spirit missed it, and lands on a record player. It activates while it began playing the Roundup theme song through a speaker.
SpongeBob runs over to it and admires the record player. "A record player. I haven't seen one of these in ages." He joins him on the record player. They star jogging, increasing the song's tempo, until SpongeBob said, "OK, now slow." They now feel like they're trying to catch their breath as they walk sluggishly, thus slowing the song down.
Cindy and Sandy laugh and Cindy said, "Oh that's funny, Spirit!"
"Hop on, Cindy!" SpongeBob said, scooping up Cindy. Sandy joins them on the record player too.
"Hey, think fast!" SpongeBob replied. He jumps over the record needle and Sandy and Cindy do the same thing too.
"Not bad." Cindy and Sandy flip over the record needle. SpongeBob spotted the player's speed function and flipped it to '78', thus accelerating the tempo to a greater speed
"Hey, look at us! We're a complete set!" Cindy said.
"Now it's on to the museum!" Farquaad declared grandly.
SpongeBob's joy comes to a halt. "Museum?!" he exclaimed. He stopped short, but accidentally collides into Sandy, Cindy, and Spirit, taking the needle off the black record. They all tumble off the record and onto the countertop.
"What museum?"
"THE museum." Farquaad replied. "We're being sold to one of the Watanabe Toy Museum in Tokyo!"
"That's in Japan!" Sandy and Cindy replied in unison.
"Japan?! Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's no way I'm going to Japan." SpongeBob denied.
Cindy chuckled nervously and she asked, "Well, what do you mean?"
"Yeah, how come you can't come?" Sandy asked.
SpongeBob stood up and said, "I got to get back to my owner, Mike. Hey, look, look. See?" He shows his shoe to his new friends. A familiar signature in the same ink is on the bottom.
Everyone gaped in horror, stunned at the revelation. The toys never expected the pull-string sponge, the main star of a certain TV show, the one way ticket to a promising future, to have a young owner. The first time they met him, they thought that SPongeBob was valuable property, but an owner? That's something the Roundup Gang wouldn't anticipate.
"He still has an owner." Cindy gasped.
"Oh, my goodness." Farquaad alarmed.
"Totally not good." Sandy gasped.
Cindy took the shocking words the most. The minute she realized that SpongeBob had an owner, she began to go into deep hyperventilation. Haunting memories of being in storage echoed throughout her mind. She would be lonely and forgotten in the darkness. What's even worse is that SpongeBob having an owner, that's something tragic Cindy Vortex would have to endure. Even being in storage meant claustrophobia.
"No...Can't go..."
The hyperventilating gave away to an emotional breakdown.
"I CAN'T DO STORAGE AGAIN! I JUST CAN'T!"
"Cindy, Cindy." Mandible proceeded to calm.
"I WON'T GO BACK IN THE DARK!" Cindy shook Farquaad's box and Sandy tried her best to relax Cindy.
"What's the matter? What's wrong with her?" SpongeBob asked, concerned.
"Well, we've been in storage for a long time, waiting for you." Farquaad said as Cindy kept hyperventilating while Sandy is trying to calm her down.
"Why me?" SpongeBob asked in confusion.
"This particular toy museum is interested in the entire collection if you're in it, SpongeBob." Farquaad replied." Me and the rest of the gang have been trapped in storage cases stuffed with Styrofoam peanuts for several years. And we were happy to see you at first, but we hate to see Cindy like this. Still, if you're not in the collection of the museum, we go back into storage. It's that simple."
"See, SpongeBob?" Sandy questioned. "Did you know how much we've been living in storage. It was unhygenic, lonely, and boring. Even Cindy took it the hardest. Cindy hates storage because of her fear of enclosed spaces."
SpongeBob began to feel deep sympathy for Cindy. Cindy snapped out of her horror and turned to the sponge with an angry expression. She looked at him like he was stabbed in the back. She demanded, "It's not fair! How can you do this to us?!"
SpongeBob tried to explain, "Hey, look, I'm sorry, but this has to be a big mistake! You see, I was in this yard sale this morning and-"
"Yard sale?" Farquaad raised an eyebrow. "Why were you in a yard sale if you have an owner?"
"Well, I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place." SpongeBob defended. "I was just trying to save another toy, when all of a sudden…"
"Was it because you're damaged? Hmm?" Farquaad didn't seem to understand what SpongeBob is saying. "Did this 'Mike' break you?"
"Yeah, but…" SpongeBob paused, before realizing that Farquaad is making him doubt Mike's relationship. "No, no, no, no, no! It was an accident! I mean-"
"Sounds like he really loves you." Cindy ridiculed sarcastically, while wrapping an arm around Spirit.
"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT, OKAY?! AND I'M NOT GOING TO ANY MUSEUM!" SpongeBob protested angrily.
"WELL, I'M NOT GOING BACK INTO STORAGE!" Cindy shot back. Suddenly, they hear something, and Cindy and Sandy gasped.