In this chapter, our heroes will fight the Dirty Bubble! This is the showdown that you've been expecting, right?
Can they win? Perhaps they can clean him like they cleaned the Bubble Buddy.
Unfortunately, they can't just pop him.
Why can't they pop him, you ask? I'll explain later.
Chapter 20: A Filthy Fight
Unfortunately for our heroes, the lighthouse elevator was out of order.
The Invisible Ink was understandably disappointed. Where was the repairman when they needed him? Was he taking the day off?
"Can't we have a short trip to the Dirty Bubble?" asked Squidward.
"C'mon, Squidward! Where's your sense of adventure?" questioned Spongebob.
"Not everyone can have as much energy as you, Spongebob." answered the octopus.
Since the elevator was out of order, they were going to have to take the stairs.
"Out of order? I wanted a pizza!" complained Patrick.
"That's not what that means. Though a pizza would be good right about now." answered Pearl.
She had to be careful to leave some for her father. Though her father did have his own pizza delivery service now that she thought of it.
Some of the callers could be jerks (Bubble Bass for instance), but the business was going well.
Unsurprisingly, some of Plankton's cousins were in the lighthouse.
Since Dirty Bubble knew that they were coming, he had the cousins wait for them.
They were eager to get a chance to fight the heroes.
"It looks like they don't want us to reach the Dirty Bubble." noted Spongebob.
"Think of this as a warmup act!" exclaimed the Dirty Bubble. If they couldn't handle the plankton, then they weren't ready to face him.
"But I'm already warm..." answered Patrick.
"But you never wear a shirt..." pointed out the bubble.
"I don't?" questioned the starfish. That would explain why he never used the washer much.
"This lighthouse is going to be your last stand!" exclaimed one of the plankton.
They didn't want to disappoint their boss.
"We'll see about that." answered Squidward.
One of the cousins threw a knife.
"Ow!" exclaimed Patrick.
In retaliation, he used his ice breath to freeze his foes.
"I probably don't need sunscreen when he's around." remarked Squidward.
Knowing Patrick, he would forget to bring some anyway. He would also forget to bring water to a desert...though technically speaking, he was surrounded with water.
However, one of the plankton pulled out a torch.
He used it to start thawing the frozen plankton out.
"You're not making popsicles out of my buddies!" bellowed one of the cousins. Not if he had anything to say about it.
"Oh no! They're adapting to our tactics again!" exclaimed Spongebob.
It might be in their best interest to stop him. There was no point in letting Patrick's hard work be undone. Especially since the starfish was working hard for a change.
Quickly, he attempted to blow out the torch.
However, the plankton swung it at him.
"Aah!" shouted the sponge.
"Darn it! I almost hit him!" complained the cousin.
Thankfully, Squidward knocked it out of his hands.
"There goes my weapon..." noted the minion.
Hopefully the torch wouldn't end up setting the lighthouse on fire. Nobody wanted that.
Besides, the Dirty Bubble had a tendency of littering. That would add fuel to the flames.
Some of the plankton were wearing armor.
Armor that was made from trash cans.
That armor came with shields...which were made from trash can lids.
Perhaps they were worried that our heroes would harm them.
Alternatively, perhaps they figured that it was appropriate considering they worked for the Dirty Bubble.
Whatever the reason, they had extra defense.
"It seems our opponents are more heavily armored now." noted Sandy.
Punching them and kicking them wouldn't be so effective.
However, they could be electrocuted.
The plankton decided to give up. They could try fighting our heroes some other time.
"You can pass. Dirty Bubble is smelly, anyway." said one of the plankton. If he had a nose, he would be holding it with his fingers.
Of course, if he were clean, he wouldn't be evil.
However, there were another plankton trying to stop them from reaching the next floor.
It was one of the big ones.
"Another one?" asked Spongebob.
"I didn't know they could grow so big..." remarked Sandy.
She would have to add that to her research notes. Studying plankton was a good way to prevent Plankton from taking over Bikini Bottom.
The big plankton was rolling barrels down the steps.
Barrels of chum.
"I'd like to see you get past this." remarked the Big Plankton.
Unsurprisingly, he had a loud and booming voice.
"Whoa! That's a lot of barrels." remarked Spongebob.
It looked as if the S-Men were going to have to jump over them to climb the steps.
In Sandy's case, she could just fly over them.
"This would be easier if we had a hammer of some kind." remarked Spongebob. Where would they get one of those?
Patrick made a hammer from ice.
"Good thinking, Patrick." replied the sponge. That would they could smash the barrels before they were flattened by them.
"For once he did something smart." thought Squidward to himself.
He used it to smash the barrels.
The Big Plankton stamped his foot in frustration.
"How am I supposed to stop them from climbing up these steps now?" asked the plankton to himself.
Perhaps he should have used TNT barrels. Those really packed a punch.
Patrick then whacked him on the head with the hammer, and he was down for the count.
"For some reason that felt like a trip to the arcades." noted Spongebob.
"I go to the arcades, but I keep forgetting my quarters!" exclaimed Patrick.
"My dad has plenty of quarters. You'd be hard-pressed to get him to part with him though." suggested Pearl.
Except for the time that he made a deal with the Flying Dutchman so that he could talk to money. That deal had backfired on him.
On the next floor were Monsoons.
"How can they summon clouds indoors?" questioned Spongebob. It made a lot more sense when they were outdoors.
"I don't know but we need to watch ourselves." noted Sandy. If they summoned acid rain, they would be in for a rough time.
Supersponge remembered that he could blow the clouds away.
He decided to do that to make his friends' lives easier.
The Monsoons were understandably annoyed.
Though maybe they could counter with some wind of their own.
It might even the odds.
One of the Monsoons tried that...
...only for Squidward to snatch his remote.
"Hey!" exclaimed the Monsoon.
Unfortunately, another Monsoon called for help.
"We need help holding them off!" exclaimed the robot.
Some Mantabots arrived.
"Mantabots!" exclaimed the sponge.
"Didn't we already defeat Manray?" asked Squidward. It felt kind of weird fighting them again after that. And he didn't see the connection between them and the Dirty Bubble.
Hopefully, Manray hadn't escaped from the dungeon. Otherwise they would have to fight him again. Though considering that theynhad already defeated him once, perhaps they could defeat him again.
"I figured now that Manray was gone I could find a good use for them." explained the Dirty Bubble. There was no point in letting them fall into disrepair...even if he did like trash.
Like fighting the heroes that dared to get in his way.
The Mantabots fired lasers from their stingers.
Fortunately, our heroes already had some experience fighting them.
Pearl reflected one of the lasers with a mirror, causing the Mantabot to blow up.
Perhaps it was good she kept one on hand to monitor her appearance. She never knew when her makeup was about to run.
Surprisingly, it never washed away even though she was usually under the sea.
It had been a while since they had last fought the Mantabots though. Last time they had fought them, it had been at Glove World.
Sandy tossed fireballs at the Mantabots to make them overheat.
If they got hot enough, they exploded.
A Mantabot charged into Spongebob.
"Oof!" exclaimed the sponge.
He blew bubbles on it to make it short-circuit.
The robot exploded.
Some Ham-Mers appeared.
However, their hams seemed to be rotten.
Patrick attempted to eat one anyway.
"Um, Patrick, I don't think you should eat that." warned Spongebob.
"Huh?" asked the starfish.
He ended up making himself feel sick.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed the Rotten Ham-Mer. Using spoiled ham really made a difference. Now they had a way to poison our heroes.
There were also Fodders, but they now seemed to come with small cannons that fired electricity. Seemed they were a bit more than just fodder now...ironically.
Pearl still had nothing to worry about though.
"This tickles!" exclaimed the whale as she was zapped by a upgraded Fodder.
The Fodder sighed.
Eventually, the robots decided to leave. They were taking too much damage.
They flew away with propellers.
"I didn't know they had those..." noted Spongebob.
"It's a new installation." explained a Monsoon.
The next room appeared to be a living room.
Several sponges were waiting for them.
They were green...and toxic.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed the foul sponges.
"Man, I'm glad Spongebob isn't as toxic as these sponges." remarked the Invisible Ink.
Unsurprisingly, they spat out toxic bubbles.
"Like I haven't seen that one before." remarked Squidward.
"Careful! Don't get poisoned!" warned Spongebob.
However, these sponges were also capable of expelling a toxic gas from their bodies.
They needed to keep an eye on them whenever they took a deep breath.
"Ugh..." murmured Patrick.
"You stood too close to one, didn't you?" asked Squidward.
"Maybe?" answered the starfish, who was now green.
Sandy kicked the sponges.
"Ow!" exclaimed the toxic sponges.
She then followed by tossing fireballs at them.
"Man, I wish I had her kung fu skills." remarked one of the poisonous sponges.
In addition to the sponges, there were more snails. These ones were colored red...and looked meaner than a regular snail.
Unfortunately, these snails had spikes on their shells.
It was harmful to try to punch or kick them.
"I guess they came up with a way to prevent us from breaking their shells." noted Spongebob. He sure would have a hard time petting Gary if he had a shell like that.
Thankfully, he didn't get a shell for him that was dangerous to touch.
To make matters worse, they possessed a spinning attack.
"Ow!" bellowed Squidward. Those snails were faster than one might assume.
"How should we combat them?" asked the sponge.
However, it then occurred to him that maybe Sandy's armor would protect her from the spikes.
Perhaps she could fight them efficiently.
Sure enough, she was able to shatter the snail shells.
This caused the snails to retreat. Not having their shells embarrassed them.
"Where's the nearest shell store?" asked one of the animals.
The sponges retreated as well.
They floated away in green bubbles.
On the next floor was a greenhouse.
"What's this doing up here?" asked Spongebob.
Personally, it reminded Sandy of her tree dome.
Unfortunately, there were octopi waiting for them.
They were dressed in gardener's outfits.
Apparently, they were in charge of the greenhouse.
Using their watering cans, they summoned dangerous plants to attack the heroes.
These plants had sharp teeth in their mouths. Their faces in question resembled a hardshell taco. It wasn't recommended for Patrick to try eating one though - it would likely bite first.
On a related note, one had bitten the starfish.
"Ow!" exclaimed Patrick.
"I wonder if I could learn how to bring my garden to life like that." questioned Squidward.
It would be one way to keep Spongebob and Patrick out of his garden, assuming they don't call the police. But he doubted that the two of them knew the police's phone number.
The other would be to build a scarecrow. But the sponge thought the scarecrow was Squidward's lost twin brother the last time he had tried that, so he was a bit wary of trying that.
Fortunately, fire worked well against the plant monsters.
Perhaps they should have found a way to counteract a plant's normal weakness.
"I'm starting to wonder if this evil fertilizer was a waste of our time." remarked one of the bad octopi.
In addition, taking down the summoner caused the plants to disappear.
"I'm pushing up daisies...how ironic." remarked one of the defeated gardeners.
Ice worked on the plants as well. Seemed they didn't like the cold.
The octopi left. They had run out of fertilizer.
Eventually, the five of them reached the top of the lighthouse.
"That sure was a long climb." remarked Spongebob.
But in his opinion, it was worth it.
"Can I rest a minute? I'm pooped." asked Squidward.
There was a big door up ahead.
Painty the Pirate happened to be hanging on the wall.
It seemed the Dirty Bubble was behind it.
"I thought you were at Manray's Castle..." questioned Spongebob.
"I figured that since I be living on a ship, this lighthouse would be a nice change of scenery!" exclaimed Painty.
"So, are you going to ask us a question?" asked Supersponge.
"Are you ready, kids?" asked Painty.
"I'm not a kid. I already told you that." explained Squidward.
"I can't hear you!" shouted the portrait.
"Either that, or you're just ignoring me." answered the Invisible Ink.
"Ohhhhh!" exclaimed Painty.
"Ow! My ears!" screamed the octopus, covering his ears. Did that pirate portrait not have an indoors voice?
He was starting to wonder if the portrait was more annoying than Spongebob himself was...back when he had first met him, anyway.
Painty opened the door to where Dirty Bubble was waiting for them.
Unsurprisingly, their target was waiting for them at the top of the lighthouse.
The arena he was in wasn't very clean, expectedly.
"Ah, I've been expecting you." spoke the Dirty Bubble.
He was so glad that they could make it.
"I'm sure ya have." nodded Sandy.
"I'm going to make you stink so hard it'll put a skunk to shame!" exclaimed the bubble.
"That doesn't sound good..." remarked Supersponge.
Dirty Bubble started off by bouncing towards them.
"Look out! He's trying to crush us!" bellowed Spongebob.
The filthy bubble laughed wickedly as he bounced around the arena.
He had to admit, this was awfully fun.
But for the S-Men, it was simply awful...much like their foe's foul stench.
Unfortunately, Patrick ended up being crushed by the Dirty Bubble.
"Oww!" exclaimed the starfish.
It seemed the Dirty Bubble was heavier than he looked.
"I sure hope Patrick is alright." noted Pearl. It was nice to know that there was someone in Bikini Bottom was as big of an eater as her. It made her feel less gluttonous.
However, when he attempted to land on Spongebob, he punched him away.
"Oof!" exclaimed the bubble.
"Whew!" answered Spongebob.
However, the bubble then threw a trash can at him.
"Ow!" exclaimed the sponge.
Spongebob blew bubbles at him.
"Ugh! You're making me clean!" exclaimed the Dirty Bubble. Already, he was starting to lose his trademark stench...which typically signaled his presence to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy,
"That's kind of the idea." answered Squidward.
"Well, I won't allow it!" shouted the big bubble.
He began to roll around the arena, hoping to squish the five of them.
He ended up squishing Spongebob.
"Ow!" shouted the sponge.
Pearl put a bomb in the Dirty Bubble's path.
"Uh-oh..." said the bubble.
This left him stunned for a few moments.
"Maybe I should have rolled a bit slower..." remarked the bubble. That way he could watch where he was going.
Spongebob took the opportunity to scrub him for a few seconds.
It was a good thing he had a lot of experience washing dishes at the Krusty Krab. Though Squidward recommended he just use the dishwasher.
It also reminded him of the times that he tried to give Gary a bath.
The snail tried to assure him that he didn't need a bath because they were underwater, but Spongebob felt he could at least allow him to do so after he did him a favor by cleaning out his litterbox.
Aside from scrubbing him, Spongebob also whacked Dirty Bubble with a mop.
However, he got back up.
Squidward then popped him with a needle.
"Why didn't we do that before?" asked the octopus. It probably would have made the fight end a lot more quickly.
"Did you think I didn't think of that?" questioned the Dirty Bubble.
"What?!" exclaimed the Invisible Ink.
Instead of beating him, the needle had split Dirty Bubble into a dozen smaller bubbles.
"Darn, I thought we had him there." remarked Spongebob. Needles had been the bubble's weakness up until now. But it seemed he had overcame that weakness.
The bubbles began to swarm Squidward.
"Get them off me!" exclaimed the octopus. He didn't want to smell like Patrick's sweaty socks.
Why did Patrick even have socks? He never wore them...which raised the question as to why they were sweaty.
Spongebob blew the bubbles away.
Patrick then froze the attacking bubbles with his ice breath.
Spongebob took the opportunity to scrub some of the bubbles.
However, Dirty Bubble put himself back together again.
"You five are strong. Let's see how strong you really are." remarked the dangerous bubble.
He sprouted bubble arms.
Big, muscular ones.
"Uh-oh..." said Spongebob. Things were about to get more difficult.
He clapped his hands together, creating a shockwave.
"Haha!" laughed the Dirty Bubble.
"Ow!" shouted Pearl.
The Dirty Bubble surrounded the arena with a thick fog from his mouth.
"Now that I've coated the arena with fog, you'll be blind as a bat!" exclaimed the Dirty Bubble.
"Actually, bats aren't blind. I happen to know a bat that lives in Texas." explained Sandy.
"Oh. Well, you know what I mean!" shouted the bubble.
"I can't see!" exclaimed Patrick.
This gave the bubble a golden opportunity to attack the S-Men.
"This is almost too easy!" shouted the Dirty Bubble.
He pulled out a paddleball.
"Huh?" asked Spongebob.
Oh, wait. Dirty Bubble was a paddleball champion. His challenge was downright evil. Why did Spongebob accept it anyway? He should have focused more on feeding Gary. It was a small wonder that the snail had decided to run away from home.
Well, at least he came back.
After pulling out the paddleball, the Dirty Bubble started whacking Sandy with it. Repeatedly.
Repeatedly.
"Oof!" exclaimed Sandy.
Stars began to swirl around the unfortunate squirrel's head.
"Sandy's down!" bellowed Spongebob.
"She should have gone back to Texas." remarked the Dirty Bubble.
"Noooo! Don't send her back to Texas!" exclaimed the Shooting Star. He would miss her.
The filthy bubble laughed.
However, Pearl launched a pearl in his mouth while he was still laughing.
The Dirty Bubble suddenly stopped laughing.
"Why do I feel like I swallowed something that I shouldn't have?" asked the bubble.
He was about to find out.
Suddenly, the pearl exploded.
"That's the spiciest thing I ever ate." remarked the bubble.
He collapsed to the ground, starfish swirling around his head. In addition, his tongue was sticking out.
Spongebob successfully scrubbed off the Dirty Bubble a few seconds afterwards.
"Wow. I feel like a new man...or bubble." remarked the Clean Bubble.
Sandy snapped out of her daze.
"Are you done with being evil?" asked the squirrel. They needed to get to Mt. Bikini in order to save their friends.
"I think I am. No more fighting Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy for me." nodded the bubble.
He flew out of the lighthouse.
Perhaps he intended to leave Bikini Bottom.
Well, our heroes could ponder that some other time.
"We won!" cheered Spongebob.
This was the second CHUM member they had defeated.
"Congratulations on beating the Dirty Bubble, S-Men." congratulated Mindy.
"Thank goodness he's clean! I couldn't stand his stench any longer!" remarked Pearl.
Hopefully Clean Bubble wouldn't get dirty again.
Someone should probably keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't roll into a mud puddle.
Well, now it was time for them to find Gary and Wendy.
Those two were waiting for them.
Clean Bubble dropped the brakes.
However, when they went back to the Patty Wagon, they found that they had a problem.
"Wait, how do we reattach them?" asked Spongebob.
"I can help with that." answered Bubble Buddy.
He got to work on fixing the brakes.
Now the car was good to go.
"Thanks, Bubble Buddy!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"It's the least I can do after you saved me after the dark side." answered the bubble man.
The five of them went back to Bikini Bottom.
It was time to search for Spongebob and Squidward's pets.
However, they were being monitored by Plankton.
He wasn't happy with what he saw.
Meanwhile...
As before, CHUM were deciding their next course of action.
"Darn it! We lost the Dirty Bubble too!" exclaimed Plankton.
Or should he call him the Clean Bubble?
Now he had lost two employees to the S-Men.
His ray was at 45 percent, but it was still frustrating.
And to make matters worse, they had managed to rescue Pearl. The daughter of his hared enemy Mr. Krabs. Why did they use to be friends anyway?
He didn't remember why.
"I personally thought he smelled bad..." remarked the Flying Dutchman. Perhaps it was better that he was clean.
But on the other hand, he wasn't evil anymore.
"Personally I don't have a sense of smell..." explained Karen.
"These heroes are becoming a serious threat to us..." noted Hunter. If they didn't do something, they were going to find their supervillain lair.
"I'll say!" exclaimed Inkabeth.
"There has to be a way to bring those heroes to their knees...but how?" asked the plankton.
Maybe he could build a machine that would stop Spongebob from being a Goofy Goober.
However, that sounded like it wouldn't be an easy task.
His wicked mind was deep in thought.
Fortunately, Madame Hagfish had an idea.
"I have a spell that might be able to take care of those heroes..." explained the witch.
It was a scary one. One that would haunt the heroes while they slept.
"Well, hopefully it will work. Those heroes are getting on my nerves!" exclaimed Plankton.
He was losing control over Bikini Bottom because of them.
Madame Hagfish would await them at Mt. Bikini Summit.
"Can I go with?" asked Inkabeth.
"Anything that will allow me to capture those heroes is welcome..." answered Plankton.
Spot decided to leave the volcano as well.
Well, that's another member of CHUM down. Now our heroes will be facing Madame Hagfish.
Can they beat her? They'll have to reach her first. And of course, they also have Inkabeth to deal with.
Madame Hagfish may look like a frail old slug, but in this fanfic, she's not going to be an easy opponent. I can tell you that.