In this chapter, our heroes will venture into a desert.
Hope they packed water.
Wait, maybe they don't need it. They're underwater.
Sometimes Spongebob works in mysterious ways.
Chapter 22: Just Deserts
Fortunately for Sandy, she didn't need to worry about the heat of the desert. She was a fire superhero. High temperatures simply didn't matter much to her.
However, everybody else did. Sometimes they couldn't help but feel a little jealous about Sandy, especially given how smart she was.
Plankton taught them that a person's life could be worse than it seemed, however. Mr, Krabs had to put up with Pearl, for example. And she could be high-strung. Though perhaps she wouldn't really abandon her father like she claimed she would in that alternate reality.
It was especially bad for Spongebob and Patrick. They were a water and a ice superhero respectively.
"I'n actually starting to miss the tundra." noted Squidward.
"Well, we can't exactly have a snowball fight in a desert." remarked Spongebob. What did peolle do for fun in a desert anyway? Make sand castles? At least you never had to worry about the tide coming in and washing away your hard work if you built one in a desert.
Deserts could be windy though.
Anyways, hopefully they could find a place to cool off. All this heat couldn't be good for their health.
If they couldn't find shelter, they could be in strife.
"Man, this heat is killing me..." remarked Gary. He still wasn't going to take off his shell though. He thought he looked good in it.
Spongebob gasped.
"Did you just talk?" asked the sponge. Or was he hearing things? He knew that a desert could produce visual mirages, though he wasn't sure about auditory ones.
Gary was surprised at the occurrence as well. Up until now, he needed an unique collar in order to speak.
Was the serum starting to take effect?
Usually all he ever said was "Meow." Though if one spent enough with him, they could tell he was rather smart.
Spongebob had found out how smart he was when he ventured into his dreams. It seemed he had a whole library inside his head.
However, Gary had recommended not to visit him in his dreams. People felt it was an invasion of their privacy.
"Wait...if Gary can talk now...does that mean Wendy can talk too?" questioned Squidward.
It seemed a possibility.
Wendy decided to try giving that a shot. It would be nice to have a chat with someone who wasn't also a worm.
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? The most obnoxious sponge who ever lived!" exclaimed Wendy.
"That's a good one." remarked Squidward.
"Hey! I happen to like my theme song..." noted Spongebob. What was wrong with it?
"It is upbeat..." noted Pearl. Perhaps she could sing it while she was in the shower. Her father was always singing about money.
Unfortunately, it seemed there were bandits in the desert.
Anchovy bandits.
Sure enough, they wore eye masks.
"You might want to watch your wallets." warned Mindy.
"You don't say?" answered Squidward.
"Not my money! I need that for shopping!" exclaimed Pearl. She wasn't as greedy as her father was though.
"Meep meep meep meep!" exclaimed one of the bandits.
"Oh no! They want to steal our money!" shouted Spongebob.
"Not my money! I need that to buy chocolate! And ice cream!" exclaimed Patrick.
Though considering he was unemployed, it was kind of a mystery as to where he was getting money.
"I sure hope they aren't planning to steal my suit." noted Sandy. She needed that to stay underwater.
Though she wasn't really sure why they would need it. They could already breathe underwater.
It was a good thing that Mr. Krabs wasn't with them. They would be all over him.
"Now that I think of it, we have gathered a lot of Mr. Krabs' money from Plankton's minions..." noted Squidward.
It seemed they were about halfway to getting all his money back.
Perhaps the bandits wanted it to be back in the clutches of Plankton and his pals.
As a side note, Mr. Krabs never turned to banditry. Squidward imagined that he would be tempted to do so.
Unfortunately, these anchovies were fast on their feet.
It was appropriate considering that they stole things. Chances are they had experience running away from the local authorities. They didn't seem to have any escape vehicles though.
Some of them wielded bows. Perhaps fighting up close and personal didn't always suit them.
"Ow!" exclaimed Spongebob. One of the arrows had hit him in the knee.
He sure hoped that he didn't need to retire from being a superhero. He really enjoyed it.
Others wielded daggers.
"If only there was a way to slow them down..." pondered Squidward.
Patrick tried using his ice breath, but it was less powerful in a hot environment.
He'd have better luck using it back at the Bikini Ski Resort.
"Maybe I had too much hot chocolate..." noted Patrick. Could he help it if the hot chocolate was so delicious?
Suddenly, Wendy launched webbing from her mouth at one of the bandit's legs.
"Meep! I'm stuck!" exclaimed the bandit.
Again, it seemed the serum was taking effect.
"This should make our lives easier..." noted Squidward. Perhaps he should named his worm Webby. But personally he thought Wendy was better.
He attacked the bandit that had been immobilized...and took him down surprisingly easily.
"Maybe they should call me Silkworm..." remarked Wendy.
"Yeah...that had a nice ring to it." noted the Invisible Ink.
Likewise, Gary discovered his powers when one of the bandits attempted to swipe his shell.
"No! You're not taking that!" exclaimed the snail. He had that shell ever since he was small.
Well, smaller than he was now, anyway. He was barely larger than a jellyfish nowadays.
But anyways, the shell was precious to him. He wasn't giving it up without a fight.
The anchovy was suddenly lifted into the air, and then slammed into the ground.
Luckily, he had a soft landing.
"I didn't know I could fly..." remarked one of the anchovies. Wait until he told his friends.
Gary was expecting the anchovy to say "Meep", but considering he had recently stopped speaking in meows, he decided not to dwell on that.
The bandits surrendered. Perhaps stealing was more trouble than it was worth.
"Can you lift things with your mind, Gary?" asked Spongebob.
Gary decided to see if he could lift a pebble.
As it turned out, he could.
"I guess I do." nodded the snail.
"Maybe I should call you Wondersnail!" exclaimed Supersponge.
"Well, I do tend to wonder things." noted Gary. Like how Patrick can breathe at home even though he's living underneath a rock.
"Now that you have powers, are you going to start dressing up as a superhero?" asked Patrick. It would be a bit weird since she was an animal.
"I dunno, when I took Gary to a beauty pageant for pets he thought it was demeaning." noted Spongebob.
"You never asked me what I wanted to wear." pointed out Gary.
"Oh, right." answered Spongebob. Perhaps he should have considered that, rather than make him dress up like a punk.
Gary decided that he would paint his shell a dark blue.
It suited him.
He could also put on some glasses...but perhaps he didn't need them.
"All done!" exclaimed the talking snail.
Wendy didn't have a shell so she put on some lipstick.
Some of Plankton's cousins popped out from the sand.
"I wonder how they can hold their breath down there..." questioned Spongebob.
"Well, I can hold my breath pretty well." answered Pearl.
She didn't need to resurface often.
"Do we really have to fight them in such a hot place?" asked one of the cousins. He would rather fight them somewhere cooler.
"You want those Krabby Patties, don't you?" answered another cousin. Besides, the nearest location happened to be freezing.
These cousins had cutlasses.
They looked a bit like the palace guards from a certain Disney movie that also took place in the desert.
However, it was unlikely that they were trying to keep order.
Pearl threw a black pearl at them.
The cousins were sent flying.
"Has anyone ever called you the bomb?" asked one of the cousins.
"My friends have." answered Pearl. They probably didn't mean she was explosive though.
One of them wondered something else.
"You think Mr. Krabs will pass the Krusty Krab down to her when he inevitably retires?" asked one of the cousins.
"Considering that our cousin Plankton is frightened of whales, that would be a good idea for him." noted another cousin. He wouldn't even step foot near the place.
Maybe it would become known as the Krusty Pearl. Though in an alternate reality, it was still known as the Krusty Krab, even when Plankton was in charge.
After defeating the cousins, Spongebob decided to discuss something that was on his mind.
"By the way, do you think it would be colder if we came during the night?" asked Spongebob. That way they wouldn't have the desert sun bothering them.
"Oh yes. MUCH colder." answered Sandy.
One would be surprised how cold a desert could get at night.
After taking out the cousins, our heroes discovered there were also worms in the desert.
Sandworms.
Spongebob gasped.
One of the sandworms roared at him.
"Man, these sandworms are ferocious!" exclaimed Pearl. She sure hoped that she didn't end up as a chew toy. Spongebob would probably make for a better one though. He was pretty soft.
These worms were colored peach.
And they were fast.
"Are any of these related to you?" asked Spongebob.
"I grew up in dirt, not sand." answered Silkworm.
These sandworms were capable of spewing wind.
Sharp wind.
"Oww!" exclaimed Patrick. Thank goodness his pants weren't blown off. Otherwise it would scar Squidward. And Wendy felt that Sauidward already suffered enough as it was.
"Hmm...how should we take care of them?" asked Spongebob.
He didn't have much to worry about from wind attacks, but the sandworms were a problem for everyone else.
Perhaps they could counter with fire attacks.
Fire used air as a source.
This seemed to be effective.
"Maybe we could try loud noises?" questioned Squidward. He knew that Wendy had good hearing. Otherwise, there would be no way for her to hear her worm whistle.
However, for that reason, he needed to find a way so that Wendy wasn't rattled by the sound. There was no point in letting her fall victim to friendly fire.
He wouldn't mind so much if Spongebob and Patrick fell victim to it, but he figured that since they had helped them rescue his worm he owed them a favor, whether he liked it or not.
Fortunately, if she dug into the sand, she wouldn't hear any noises.
Squidward played really loudly on his clarinet.
This left the sandworms stunned.
Patrick then started slamming the sandworms with his fists.
The worms retreated. Seemed our heroes were too loud for them.
Shortly after the encounter with the sandworms, our heroes encountered more G-Loves.
"They're here too?" asked Spongebob.
"Well, UFOs have allegedly been spotted in the desert..." noted Sandy.
These G-Loves carried heat rays.
"Oww! That's hot!" exclaimed Pearl as she was zapped by one.
It looked as if they needed a way to shoot them down.
But Patrick was on top of that.
Using shooting stars, he began to shoot the G-Loves.
The G-Loves crashed into the ground.
Thankfully, they didn't explode. Not in front of our heroes, anyway.
"Yeah!" cheered the starfish.
However, one of the G-Loves then shrank him.
"Uh-oh!" exclaimed Patrick.
An Arf then showed up and attempted to step on him.
"There are cowboys in this desert, huh?" asked Spongebob.
"Yeah. Robot cowboys!" exclaimed Pearl.
Fortunately, she dismantled the robot before it could step on Patrick.
He turned back to normal shortly afterwards.
Unfortunately, more of them showed up.
For some strange reason, they seemed to be carrying doghouses.
As it turned out, there was a reason for that.
There were robot dogs inside those houses.
"Careful! These robots summon reinforcements!" exclaimed Mindy.
She didn't want them to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"Oww!" exclaimed Squidward as he was bitten by one of the Arf Dawgs.
It was a good thing that his worm wasn't this aggressive.
Sandy lassoed one of the G-Loves, and slammed them into another.
Fortunately, Gary knew a thing or two about defending himself from dogs.
Well, technically they were worms, but one would get the idea if they weren't Patrick.
He rolled into his shell, then spun towards the dawgs.
They exploded, but his shell protected them from the damage.
It was worthwhile to have an attack that also worked as a defense.
Unfortunately for the Arfs, they eventually ran out of dogs.
They decided to retreat.
The G-Loves followed suit.
Our heroes discovered that there were a mine in the desert.
Perhaps Plankton's forces were mining for gold. Or maybe gems. Whatever kept the Voracious Volcano afloat.
It would explain why the mine had been lit with torches.
Spongebob knew that Mr. Krabs would like to try mining for gold sooner or later. If he made his employees work in the mines, he better get him and Squidward hard hats.
They would need to watch out for cave-ins though. They should pay attention if dirt began to leak from the roof.
Wendy could probably dig them out (so long as rocks didn't fall on top of them), but it was better safe than sorry.
More of Plankton's forces were in the mine.
But for some reason, they all seemed to be asleep. It was anyone's guess what they were dreaming about, assuming that these robots were capable of dreaming to begin with.
"Plankton must be losing interest in taking us down..." noted Spongebob.
However, it would be best if they didn't disturb the robots.
They looked kind of big.
And chances are they were packing dangerous firepower.
They weren't sure whether they were light or heavy sleepers, but they didn't want to take any chances.
As usual, Mindy gave them helpful advice.
"Remember that silence is golden...much like the rocks in this cave." noted Mindy.
"But won't they hear you?" asked Spongebob.
"I'm speaking with you all telepathically, remember?" pointed out the mermaid.
"Oh, right." remembered the sponge. Sometimes he had forgotten that.
Unfortunately, as they continued through the mine, our heroes realized they had a problem.
With the Sleepy-Times were Bomb Bots.
If the explosive robots went off, they would most likely wake up the slacking robots.
They needed to find a way to defuse them. Quickly. Before it was too late.
Fortunately, Patrick found he could freeze them with his ice breath. If he froze them, they wouldn't go off.
"Alright, that takes care of them." remarked Patrick.
He then drank a cup of soda with a bendy straw.
"This is some good stuff." remarked the starfish as he drank the beverage.
However, he then let out a burp.
This woke up one of the Sleepy-Times, which fired a laser at the starfish.
"Ow!" exclaimed the starfish.
"Patrick, don't wake up the robots." reminded Spongebob.
"Sorry." apologized the Shooting Star. In his defense, he had been in a desert for a while. And the mines weren't too much cooler.
Fortunately, it seemed if they were quiet enough, they could destroy the robots without being attacked back.
It would probably be best for Pearl not to use her black pearls though.
They were very loud.
Electricity would probably work though.
One of the Sleepy-Times woke up again, this time because Squidward had sneezed.
"Oww!" exclaimed Squidward as he was hit by a laser.
Fortunately, they were able to destroy all the robots.
There were also squids in the mines.
"Squids? Wait a minute..." noted Spongebob.
They were busy mining.
However, they stopped mining when they spotted our heroes.
"Let's see if we can stop them from reaching our mistress, shall we?" asked one of the squids.
They had a tendency to fire ink into their faces.
"Not this again!" exclaimed Squidward. It was bad enough when Inkabeth did it. Now her friends were doing it to him as well.
Not only that, but their multiple tentacles gave them decent lifting strength.
"Ow! Ow!" exclaimed Spongebob, who had been grabbed by his leg and slammed into the ground a few times.
Alternatively, they simply swung pickaxes at them.
Luckily, Patrick made rocks fall on top of them.
"Aahhh!" exclaimed the squids.
Fortunately, they decided to stop fighting after that.
Unfortunately, at the end of the mines was a foe.
A familiar one.
"It's Inkabeth again!" exclaimed Spongebob. Like Hunter before her, she had shown up for Round 3.
Perhaps three times would be the charm for her?
Then again, it wasn't for Hunter.
She was waiting for them in an arena.
Though oddly enough there seemed to be robots spectating this time.
"Good that you remember me." remarked Inkabeth. She certainly remembered them.
"I remember you. You were causing a lot of trouble at Jellyfish Fields." noted Squidward. Spongebob was unhappy at the chaos that had unfolded there.
While he didn't enjoy jellyfishing, even he had to admit things had gotten kind of bad.
The field had been overrun with robots.
"Was it wrong that I wanted a little jelly on my toast?" asked the squid. She wouldn't be surprised if Spongebob had tried purting jellies on his Krabby Patties.
"No...but it was wrong that you turned jellyfish into your servants!" exclaimed Spongebob. Jellyfish deserved to have freedom.
"Why not? I know how much I enjoy working for Plankton..." noted Inkabeth. Why not make others work for him as well?
As before, she opened fire with her dual blasters.
"If only there was some cover..." noted Pearl.
However, it seemed that she had improved her accuracy since last time.
Fortunately for Spongebob, he could just absorb the bubbles.
"Ugh, I forgot that he was a sponge." noted Inkabeth.
It was time for her to try a new trick that she had learned.
This time, she blended with her environment.
"Hey! I invented that trick!" exclaimed Squidward. Inkabeth was such a copysnail. Couldn't she come up with her own fighting style?
"Did you invent the serum that gave you that power?" asked Inkabeth.
"Well, no." answered the octopus. He could try making a serum of his own, but that could result in a big boom. At least, he shouldn't do it in his moai home.
Perhaps there was a way for them to detect her presence.
Fortunately, it turned out Wendy could sniff her out.
She smelled like ink lemonade. Though she hadn't actually drank ink lemonade. It felt a but like she was drinking Squidward's blood, and she found the idea to be rather disturbing.
The worm sank her teeth into her.
"Oww!" exclaimed the squid. Wendy might be cute, but you didn't want to make her angry. Spongebob had learned that the hard way.
The camouflage wore off.
"There you are!" exclaimed Squidward.
Perhaps it was lucky that Wendy had decided to come with them. Otherwise it would be a lot more difficult for them to detect her when she camouflaged herself.
"Hmm, let's try a different setting..." thought the squid to herself.
Inkabeth changed the settings on her blasters.
Now they could put her foes to sleep.
"Why don't you all take a relaxing break?" asked the squid. It certainly would make her job easier.
"A break? But we've just hit the halfway point of our adventure!" exclaimed Spongebob.
At least, that was what he thought.
Inkabeth fired the beam at the heroes.
Fortunately for Sandy, she was very energetic, so she was resistant to it.
Spongebob was too.
"I think I had a daydream about flipping Krabby Patties for a second..." noted the sponge.
Inkabeth sighed. Perhaps she needed to try a different strategy.
Or maybe not. It turned out Patrick was very vulnerable. He had lived a life of laziness.
Sure enough, when the beam hit him, he ended up falling asleep.
"Oh no! Wake up!" exclaimed Spongebob.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Patrick couldn't hear him.
He started to drool.
Unfortunately, now that he was sleeping, Shooting Star was wide open.
Inkabeth slammed into him with her tentacles.
"Oof!" exclaimed Patrick.
He woke up from his slumber.
She fired another beam at the starfish, but he avoided it this time.
"Why'd you have to interrupt my nap?" complained the Shooting Star.
Inkabeth changed the settings on her blaster once again.
Now her guns would shoot fire.
"Careful! She's switching elements!" exclaimed Mindy.
Seems she wanted a more versatile arsenal this time.
She launched fireballs at the seven of them.
Sandy could just absorb the flames, but everyone else was in trouble.
In retaliation, Patrick attacked her with ice breath.
"Brrr..." spoke Inkabeth.
This time, she pulled out a flute.
"What's she doing with that?" asked Spongebob.
Squidward had a bad feeling what she was up to.
She ended up summoning a couple of electric eels.
The electric eels began to attack them.
"Oww!" exclaimed Spongebob. This reminded him of the times that he had been stung by jellyfish.
Pearl was zapped as well, but it didn't phase her.
The electric eels were confused.
Gary lifted the eels with his telekinesis, then dropped them on top of the squid.
"Owww!" screeched the squid.
Squidward couldn't help but feel amused that his foe was getting a taste of her own medicine.
Inkabeth played her flute again and summoned some snails.
Snails with spiky shells.
"These snails again?" questioned Sandy.
"I didn't think I would be fighting my fellow snails..." noted Gary.
Well, he had an idea what to do.
He used his telekinesis to slam the snails into each other.
There was enough force to make the shells break.
Alternatively, he could drop the snails on top of Inkabeth.
But she seemed a bit more alert after that last attack.
Inkabeth played her flute again and summoned squidbots.
But three members of the group already had experience fighting them.
Sandy launched a big fireball at Inkabeth.
Unfortunately, she didn't dodge it in time.
This made her go down for the count.
"How do I keep losing to you?" questioned the evil squid. She wasn't sure what had gone wrong this time.
The last time, she had used a robot designed by an egotist. Robots designed like people like that always had flaws that could potentially be exploited, though some were less noticeable than others.
Of course, it also had to do with the fact that it was seven against one this time.
"How am I supposed to take you down?" asked the squid. Plankton was going to be so disappointed if the heroes continued to defeat his forces.
He had already lost two members of his inner circle as it was.
"I don't know. It took Plankton forever to get his hands on the Krabby Patty formula." noted Spongebob.
The robots left feeling rather disappointed. To think that they had paid money to watch Inkabeth beat up these heroes.
Inkabeth left as well.
Afterwards, our heroes found what they were looking for.
"OK, I think we have all the dynamite that we need." spoke Spongebob.
Now that they had what they were looking for, it was time to head back to Mt. Bikini.
The seven of them headed back to the mountain and blew up the boulder.
"It's time for us to get going!" exclaimed the sponge.
Meanwhile, Madame Hagfish realized that Inkabeth had failed.
It seemed that she would have to deal with our heroes herself.
But no matter. She was looking forward to that anyway.
She would like to see our heroes make their way up the mountain.
She let out an evil laugh.
Well, that's the third time that our heroes have fought Inkabeth. Just like it's been the seocnd time our heroes have encountered Spot.
In the next chapter, our heroes will be climbing up the mountain.