In this chapter, our heroes are going to keep fighting evil...in their dreams!
You're probably aware as to what happened in the last chapter.
Well, hopefully Madame Hagfish's plan will fail.
Otherwise Mr. Krabs isn't going to be rescued.
Chapter 24: Dream Disaster
As Spongebob continued to perform for his fans, somebody suddenly threw a tomato at him.
The audience seemed surprised by the occurrence.
The tomato splattered all over his face.
He wiped it off with a napkin.
It was a good thing that the Krusty Krab had so many of them.
"Hey! Who threw that?" asked the sponge.
He looked around to see who was the culprit.
Everyone seemed to be enjoying his show up until a few seconds ago.
Did he accidentally play the wrong note?
For a moment, he wondered if it was Squidward who had thrown that rotten tomato at him.
However, he then remembered that he hadn't shown up for the concert.
Spongebob wondered why.
"Boooo!" exclaimed one of Plankton's cousins.
"Plankton's cousins? What are you doing in my dreams?" asked Spongebob.
"What else? We're ruining them!" answered one of the cousins.
"Oh no..." murmured the sponge.
Perhaps since he had been fighting them for so long, they had started to show up in his dreams.
But Spongebob couldn't help but shake the feeling that something more sinister was at work.
There were only a few of them, but Spongebob was currently by himself...much like he was at the beginning of his journey.
Spongebob blew bubbles and trapped the cousins.
But suddenly a big plankton showed up.
It was much like the plankton that had shown up at the beginning of his journey.
Fortunately, Spongebob was much stronger than he was before.
Using his wind abilities, he knocked down the big plankton.
A portal suddenly appeared.
"Huh?" asked Spongebob.
It seemed to lead to Patrick's dream.
He was at a dream version of the Krusty Krab.
Supersponge decided to peek to see what was inside.
The starfish was still eating Krabby Patties.
"I've always wondered what the secret formula was." noted Patrick.
"It's a trade secret!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs.
Suddenly, the health inspector showed up.
Mr. Krabs screamed in terror.
"Whose this guy?" asked Patrick.
"Mr. Krabs had dreaded this guy coming for some time now." answered Squidward. Perhaps Mr. Krabs should have been more concerned about his customers.
For a moment, he wondered if he was a fake health inspector.
There was that fish that passed off as one in order to get free food.
But upon closer inspection, it turned out he had a badge.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to close down your restaurant..." explained the health inspector.
"Noooooo!" exclaimed Patrick and Mr. Krabs.
No doubt Plankton would be happy to hear the news.
"Something is wrong. Patrick's dream is turning into a nightmare too!" exclaimed Spongebob.
This didn't seem to be a coincidence.
Normally he wouldn't enter people's dreams out of respect for them, but he felt that he needed to do so this time.
So, he entered Patrick's dream.
"Spongebob? I thought you were back there working on flipping Krabby Patties..." noted Patrick.
"That's just a dream version of me." answered Spongebob.
"I was dreaming?" asked the starfish.
"Yeah...if you had a pillow, you'd probably be munching on it." noted Supersponge.
"Not my precious pillow!" exclaimed Patrick.
Spongebob decided to ask the inspector a question.
"Why are you closing down the Krusty Krab?" asked Spongebob.
He didn't see anything wrong with it.
It looked like the floors had been polished recently, though Squidward didn't seem enthusiastic about mopping the floors.
And Mr. Krabs wasn't trying to serve a rotten Krabby Patty.
"Um..." answered the inspector.
"Hey, Spongebob! Are you entering my dreams again?" questioned Patrick. If so, he would like a quarter.
"I figured you needed my help." answered Spongebob.
"Well, I would appreciate it." noted the starfish. The Krusty Krab was about to be shut down.
Sure enough, the health inspector began to attack.
"I'm going to clean this place out!" exclaimed the inspector.
"Noooooo!" screamed Mr. Krabs, sweat coming down his red face.
"You've been screaming that a lot today." noted Squidward.
"It's true, I have." remarked the crab.
Perhaps he needed to yell a bit less. He didn't want to disturb his customers.
Though if the restaurant closed down, he wouldn't have any customers in the first place.
He used soap to attack Patrick.
"Aahhhh!" exclaimed the starfish. It was one nasty scrubbing.
However, Spongebob didn't have anything to worry about.
The worst that could happen was if he got suds...and that would only happen if prolonged exposure occurred.
He attacked the health inspector.
The inspector swung a mop at him.
But Patrick bent it in two.
"You're not closing down the Krusty Krab! Not if I have anything to say about it!" exclaimed the starfish.
Suddenly, the inspector transformed into a barnacle.
Spongebob and Patrick shrugged.
Another portal showed up.
This one led to Squidward's dream.
"Are you sure we should be entering Squidward's dream?" asked Patrick.
He knew from experience that he disliked it when they pestered him. He would especially dislike it if they decided to enter his dreams.
And considering how gloomy he is, his dreams probably weren't pleasant.
Meanwhile, a certain evil slug noticed what was going on.
"This plan doesn't seem to be working..." noted Madame Hagfish.
Perhaps she needed to send in more minions.
She decided to do just that.
It might give her an advantage.
At the beach, Squidward was still relaxing.
"Maybe I should invite Wendy to come with me." noted the octopus.
Chances are she would enjoy the sun.
Then again, perhaps the beach wouldn't allow pets.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of loud footsteps.
"What was that?" asked the octopus.
He decided it was probably nothing.
Bubble Bass suddenly sat on Squidward.
"Aah! Get off!" bellowed the octopus.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed the fat fish. He would like to see the look on his face.
"Bubble Bass? What's he doing in Squidward's dream?" asked Spongebob.
"I don't know, but he seems to be crushing Squidward." noted Patrick.
It would be best if they put a stop to that.
"Hey! Get off him, you big bully!" exclaimed Spongebob.
He was reminded of the time that Bubble Bass decided to sit on Plankton while he was watching a movie.
However, Squidward had done nothing evil.
He didn't deserve this.
"I said get off him!" demanded Spongebob.
Bubble Bass got off of Squidward.
"But I was having so much fun..." noted the glutton.
"I don't think Squidward was." remarked Patrick. He knew that Plankton would dread it if he decided to sit on him. Maybe Mr. Krabs would use that as a threat?
He gasped for water.
"That was really painful." noted the octopus. Bubble Bass should really go on a diet. Then again, someone recommended him to do so would probably make him laugh.
It was worse than the time that Spongebob had entered his dream while he was attempting to perform for a monarch.
After he got off of Squidward, Bubble Bass then pulled out a rocket launcher.
Only instead of rockets, it launched rotten fish.
"Ugh! That's disgusting!" exclaimed Spongebob.
He quickly covered his nose.
Not even Gary's litterbox ever smelled that bad.
The unfortunate sponge wondered how long he could endure such a nasty assault.
It seemed appropriate that somebody nasty like Bubble Bass would have a nasty weapon.
However, Patrick didn't seem to be affected.
Oh, wait. He didn't have a nose.
"Huh? Why isn't this working?" asked Bubble Bass.
Patrick then punched him in his big round belly.
"Oof!" exclaimed the huge fish.
He decided to call for backup.
The backup in question was evil clowns.
"Not these jokers again!" exclaimed Squidward.
He remembered them all too long from Glove World.
The evil clowns threw pies at them.
Patrick attempted to eat one, but he then remembered that they were explosive.
One of the clowns threw a balloon.
It was filled with sleeping gas.
"Sleeping gas? Aren't we already asleep?" questioned Spongebob.
The evil clown shrugged.
Patrick figured that since he couldn't eat an explosive pie, he could throw it at Bubble Bass instead.
So he decided to do just that.
"Aaargghhhh!" exclaimed the glutton.
As it turned out, Bubble Bass was actually one of Plankton's starfish.
The evil clowns left on balloons.
"It seems when we defeat our foes in the dream world, they become who they originally were." noted Spongebob.
Another portal showed up.
This one seemed to lead to Texas.
"I guess we should go to Sandy's dream next." noted Spongebob.
"She's probably dreaming about theories of science..." suggested Squidward.
Fortunately, it seemed that they weren't drying up in Sandy's dream, even though it happened to take place on dry land.
Sandy was at a science fair.
She had won first prize.
"Yeah! I did it!" cheered the squirrel, raising her hands in the air.
She knew that her hard work would pay off.
Her friends all applauded her.
Well, now she had another trophy to hang on her shelf.
But unfortunately, her dream was about to become a nightmare as well.
Suddenly, a monster appeared. A monster representing the darker aspects of science.
"Uh-oh." answered the girl.
This monster was a starfish, but it happened to resemble Frankenstein's monster.
It just so happened to launch lightning bolts.
"Aah!" exclaimed Sandy.
Quickly, she scrambled to dodge the lightning.
This science fair was turning to disaster.
Perhaps somebody should have been more careful when they worked on their science fair project.
To think it had been going so well, too. Especially for her.
Suddenly, Spongebob, Patrick, and Squidward showed up.
"Hey! Can you help me out?" asked the squirrel.
It was good that her friends had shown up when they did. She wasn't sure what she would do otherwise.
"We sure can!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"Wait...don't you need fishbowls so you don't dry out?" asked Sandy.
Patrick wondered what was going on.
Sandy remembered what had happened when she invited Spongebob for tea at her treedome.
She wasn't going to make that mistake again.
"This is a dream." explained Squidward.
"Oh." comprehended the squirrel.
Perhaps in the case of the monster, he simply didn't need oxygen.
Regarding the revelation that it was all a dream, she had been wondering why one of the judges was a unicorn. It was an unusual sight. Though considering he seemed to be fair she decided that she wouldn't judge too much.
And yes, it was ironic that she was judging a judge.
Normally she would advise Spongebob not to enter people's dreams, but she understood why he was here.
"Can you help me save the fair? I know this is all just a dream but I still think we should do something." noted Sandy.
Having a ferocious starfish in her dreams could really haunt her.
Spongebob nodded.
That was the reason why they were here.
Frankenfish let out a roar.
Squidward considered summoning jellyfish, but he figured that maybe electricity would only heal the monster.
So, he decided to try summoning firejellies instead.
"Ow! It burns!" exclaimed Frankenfish.
He summoned lightning in retaliation.
"Oww!" shouted Squidward.
Stars swirled around his head.
Angered, Shooting Star launched shooting stars at Frankenfish.
The monster collapsed to the ground.
Fortunately, Squidward woke up from his stupor.
"Man, being attacked in your dreams really saps your spirit." noted the octopus.
Not that he had a spectacular amount of spirit to begin with, unlike Spongebob.
In fact, perhaps that was how he managed to defeat his dream tormentors first.
A portal to Pearl's dream appeared.
Our heroes entered the dream.
They realized that they were a beauty pageant.
"She sure dreams big." noted Spongebob.
"She certainly does!" exclaimed Sandy.
"Isn't beauty kind of subjective though?" asked Squidward.
"Well, judging from all the paintings you have in your house, you probably think you're the most beautiful thing in the world." noted the Flying Squirrel.
Invisible Ink chuckled nervously.
Unfortunately, some of the audience started making fun of Pearl.
"Hey! That's not nice!" shouted the whale.
"I'm starting to think that this is Madame Hagfish's doing." noted Spongebob.
What better way to demoralize them by attacking their dreams?
"Darn it! I was having such a nice dream too!" complained Patrick.
Well, Spongebob wasn't going to let Madame Hagfish ruin their dreams so if he could help it.
Some Sleepy-Times showed up.
"This seems appropriate considering that we're dreaming." noted Spongebob.
Perhaps these robots could dream too. Though they were probably dreaming about world domination.
"Sure is." nodded Sandy.
As before, our heroes had to be careful not to wake up, or face a nasty counter-attack.
Pearl zapped the robots with her lightning bolts.
They began to explode.
Dennis suddenly showed up.
"Dennis? I thought he wasn't an assassin anymore..." noted Patrick.
"I think this is a dream version of him." explained Spongebob.
"Oh." comprehended the starfish.
Dennis attempted to step on our heroes.
"Aah!" exclaimed Spongebob.
He then began to throw bombs.
Quickly, he attempted to blow out the fuses.
Pearl retaliated with a bomb of her own.
"Ow!" exclaimed Dennis.
He stomped his foot, and hooks began to fall to the ground.
"I don't think we want those to hook us..." noted Spongebob.
"But it's fun!" exclaimed Patrick.
"You remember what happened last time, don't you?" questioned Squidward.
"Yeah!" exclaimed the sponge.
Pearl giggled.
Spongebob's cheeks turned red.
"This is fun!" exclaimed Patrick, riding on one of the hooks.
However, he then remembered that he shouldn't.
"Oh, wait. That's right." remembered the Shooting Star.
Dennis lunged at him.
However, he leapt off and the hook hit the assassin in the face.
The hitfish became a sea cucumber.
Our heroes entered Gary's dream.
"He sure reads a lot, doesn't he?" questioned Patrick.
"I didn't know he could read..." noted Spongebob.
If he did, perhaps he could give him some picture books.
Supersponge knew that he loved those.
Gary was currently reading Of Snails and Men.
Oh wait. He had just finished it.
"Darn it! Things seemed to be going for a happy ending too!" complained the snail.
Why did the author have to trick the audience like that?
Suddenly, the books came to life.
They grew sharp fangs.
"Aah!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"Spongebob, did you buy a book from a witch?" asked Gary.
Who would have thought that reading books could be dangerous?
Gary hid into his shell to avoid being bitten.
Well, there had to be a way to defend themselves.
Fortunately, since they were made of paper, fire worked rather well.
"Spongebob? Didn't I tell you not to enter people's dreams?" asked Gary.
He didn't want an angry crowd to gather around his bed again.
The last time Spongebob had tried entering people's dreams, Sandy had ended up in clam manure.
At least she didn't need to take a shower afterwards. It was a dream.
"We figured you needed help..." answered Spongebob.
"Well, if it's to help people with their nightmares, I suppose it's acceptable. But it would be bad if you ruined someone's dream if it was just fine as it was." noted Gary.
"Yeah...I'm not going to do that." noted the sponge.
Some starfish chefs appeared.
Unsurprisingly, they were wearing aprons and had hats.
Some of them had salt shakers for some reason.
Gary gasped.
"Not salt! That's my weakness!" exclaimed the snail.
"That's your kryptonite?" asked Spongebob.
"Technically, it was harmful to me before I became a superhero. But basically yes." answered Wonder Snail.
It would be best if they did something about the salt shakers.
Fortunately, Spongebob could blow the salt away.
Suddenly, a granny showed up.
"Aahhhh!" exclaimed Gary.
"What's so scary about a grandmother?" asked Pearl.
"She eats snails!" bellowed the snail.
"What? That's plain wrong!" exclaimed Spongebob.
He wasn't going to eat his pet if he had anything to say about it.
The grandmother began to spank Patrick.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" bellowed the starfish.
"You've been a naughty boy! You deserve a good spanking!" exclaimed the evil granny.
However, Pearl saved him.
"Thanks." spoke Patrick. Now he would be able to sit down.
The evil granny then attempted to force Pearl to eat her vegetables.
"Nooooo!" screamed the whale.
Fortunately, Sandy burned the vegetables.
The granny became angry, and whacked her on the head with a rolling pin.
"Ow!" shouted the squirrel.
However, Gary used telekinesis to cause a bookshelf to fall on top of Granny.
Perhaps it was good that he was in an area with heavy objects.
The granny became a worm.
"I guess it wasn't the actual granny I met when I ran away from home." noted Gary.
Either way, he wasn't going to run home again. Who knows who else would try to cook him?
Besides, there were people who abused animals. Mr. Krabs unfortunately turned out to be one of them.
Well, he didn't abuse his own pet, but he had abused Gary.
Our heroes entered Wendy's dream next.
"She won a worm show? I'm so proud of her." noted Squidward.
Suddenly, some of the worms began to growl at her.
Wendy began to feel worried.
They then began to attack.
Wendy gasped.
"Hey! Leave my worm alone!" bellowed the octopus.
Quickly, he slapped the worms in the face.
They started to whimper.
"I wonder if they're jealous of my success." noted Wendy. Not everyone could be as successful on this show as she was.
"Madame Hagfish is trying to ruin your dreams!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"She is? That evil witch!" remarked the worm.
More worms began to attack the seven of them.
"I'm starting to feel like a chew toy..." noted Squidward.
But Silkworm launched a net of webbing on them.
"That should keep them busy." noted the worm.
Some snails appeared.
These ones were robotic.
"Robo snails? That's a new one." noted Gary.
These robot snails were capable of launching lasers.
"Look out!" bellowed Spongebob.
However, Pearl could deflect them with a hand mirror.
Reflecting the lasers back to the robots caused them to blow up.
"Why would somebody want a robot snail when they could have a real snail?" questioned Gary.
"Well, robots don't age, and you don't need to feed them..." noted Sandy.
Still, she would prefer the warmth and love of an actual animal.
Eventually, it seemed they had defeated the last of the minions.
"Well, we managed to save everyone. But how do we get out of here?" asked Supersponge.
Suddenly, our heroes found themselves in a dreamy version of Shell City.
"Shell City?" questioned Spongebob. He never thought he would be at that gift shop again.
"I've searched your mind and I've found the most suitable opponent for the seven of you." noted Madame Hagfish.
"I don't like the sound of that..." noted Squidward.
Suddenly, they heard loud stomping noises.
"Don't tell me..." spoke the sponge.
Sure enough, it was the Cyclops.
"Aah! It's the cyclops!" bellowed Patrick, raising his hands in the air.
This brought back bad memories. It didn't seem too long ago that they had gone to Shell City to recover King Neptune's crown.
It was the one thing that his friends were all afraid of.
Well, except for maybe Sandy.
The cyclops probably wouldn't want her in her gift shop, since she wasn't a sea animal.
The diver began to attack.
"How do we stop him? He's big!" exclaimed Patrick.
Though to be fair, they had faced giant robots before. Perhaps this cyclops wasn't such an unconventional enemy to them.
Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone else in the gift shop this time. So they couldn't rely on other sea animals to save them.
So perhaps activating the sprinklers wouldn't work.
"There has to be a way, Patrick." answered Spongebob.
The cyclops attempted to step on the sponge.
"Yikes!" exclaimed the sponge.
Patrick threw a rock at him.
However, he pulled out a flamethrower.
He used it to fire flames at Patrick.
"Aaahhhh!" exclaimed the starfish.
Those flames were scorching hot.
He was reminded of the time that the cyclops had dried him out, along with Spongebob.
It was a good thing that the sprinklers had activated when they did.
Otherwise Mr. Krabs would be fried. And he and Spongebob would never come home.
Not to mention all the other unfortunate sea creatures that had fallen victim to the cyclops.
Sandy kicked the cyclops in the shin.
The diver clenched his fist in anger.
"Uh-oh, I think we made him angry!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"I don't think we'll like him when he's angry." noted Squidward.
The cyclops pulled out a kitchen knife.
He used it to attempt to stab the seven of them.
"Aah!" exclaimed Spongebob.
Frantically, they attempted to avoid the knife.
"Ow!" shouted Patrick.
"That smarts!" remarked Sandy. Though in her case she had a protective suit.
Wendy bit him in the hand.
"Oww!" exclaimed the cyclops.
He didn't think that a worm could have sharp teeth.
In fact, since when did worms have teeth at all?
Well, he could question that later.
The giant clutched his wrist, and dropped the knife in the process.
Gary then picked up the cash register with his telekinesis and threw it at the giant.
The angered cyclops stamped his foot.
Suddenly, Plankton's cousins entered the gift shop.
"I'm sure Plankton would want you as a gift." noted one of the cousins.
"Oh no! He's calling for help!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"Wait, won't the plankton have to worry about getting dried out?" asked Gary.
Something told him this wasn't the real cyclops, but still.
"Considering how small they are, they probably wouldn't sell too well." suggested Sandy.
"That makes sense." nodded the snail.
The cyclops pulled out a hair dryer.
He used it to blow our heroes away.
"Aah!" screamed Patrick.
Quickly, he looked for something to grab onto so he wasn't blown out the gift shop.
He grabbed onto a coffee cup.
If it weren't empty, he would try going for a swim in it...and probably end up getting burned in the process.
"I hope my pants stay on!" exclaimed the starfish.
"We all hope that." noted Squidward.
Fortunately, Spongebob was resistant to it.
He blew bubbles at the cyclops, causing him to stagger.
However, Plankton's cousins began to shoot at him with their crossbows.
He needed to take cover.
He decided to do behind a fishbowl.
"I'd like to go swimming in that." remarked Patrick.
"You can do that when we're not fighting a giant." answered Spongebob.
Patrick threw a rock at the cyclops.
He crushed him with his hand in retaliation.
"Oww!" exclaimed the starfish.
"Careful, Patrick!" warned Spongebob.
The cyclops burst into black smoke, leaving only his helmet behind.
It seemed that the giant had been made out of dust.
The plankton left shortly afterwards.
Considering they defeated the giant, they probably didn't stand a chance.
"We did it! We defeated the cyclops!" shouted the sponge.
"Yeah!" cheered Patrick.
Shortly afterwards, our seven heroes woke up.
The seven examined their surroundings.
It seemed that they were back on the mountain.
In fact, it looked as if they had never left at all.
"Have we been sleeping on rocks this whole time?" asked Spongebob. He didn't imagine that they would make for good pillows.
"It looks that way." noted Squidward.
They were surprisingly comfortable, it seemed.
"Thank goodness we managed to escape that nightmare." noted Spongebob.
"Yeah! Now we can get back to our journey!" exclaimed Sandy.
Supersponge nodded.
"Man, I thought it was bad when Spongebob entered my dream." remarked Squidward. But this was even worse.
At least Spongebob hadn't deliberately made his dream a nightmare.
He wanted a word with Madame Hagfish.
Unfortunately, he would probably have to climb up the mountain to have a meeting with her.
But at this point, he was willing to do that.
"I bet if we entered my father's dreams, he'd be dreaming of money." noted Pearl.
Perhaps it would involve him discovering a buried treasure chest.
"Maybe. But we shouldn't enter his dreams unless he's having a nightmare." remarked Spongebob. Otherwise he might end up losing money instead.
She nodded in agreement.. Incidentally, chances were a nightmare for him would be going bankrupt.
On the other hand, that would be a sweet dream for Plankton.
Meanwhile, Madame Hagfish realized that her plan to invade our heroes' dreams had failed.
It seemed that despite her best efforts, our heroes were just as motivated to stop her as ever.
They simply wouldn't give up.
Well, if all else failed, she would take them on herself.
Perhaps it would be exciting.
She let out an evil laugh.
Thank goodness our heroes managed to escape. Now they can fight Madame Hagfish once and for all!
I figured the cyclops would make for a good boss fight.
Besides, why not make a movie reference?
In the next chapter, we'll get to see whether our heroes get to fight Madame Hagfish herself.