In this chapter, our heroes will battle Madame Hagfish.
That's what you've been looking forward to, right?
But don't expect her to make it easy for our heroes. For starters, they have to get to her first.
Perhaps our heroes can get past her last line of defenders.
They don't exactly have far to go, but still.
It would be a boring fight if it were easy. If only because they've gone past the halfway point of their adventure.
As a side note, my birthday is coming up. Feel free to send me birthday wishes!
Chapter 25: Sorceress Showdown
Not long after our heroes woke up, they were contacted by a certain mermaid wearing glasses.
"S-Men, are you alright? It's been some time since our last transmission." explained Mindy.
She had been worried about them.
"I would imagine it would be." answered Pearl.
She wasn't sure how long they had been passed out for, but she got the feeling that it had been a while.
Who knew how much time had passed in Dreamland?
Rescuing everyone from their nightmares had been a lot of work.
And to top it all off, at the end was the infamous Cyclops.
Mindy just couldn't help but feel concerned about our heroes when they didn't respond to her transmissions.
The mermaid wondered for a moment if they had been captured.
"Madame Hagfish cast a sleeping spell on us." explained Spongebob.
"I see." answered the mermaid.
Unfortunately, she wasn't able to warn them ahead of time.
"Afterwards she attempted to invade our dreams...she wanted to turn them into nightmares." spoke Gary.
Thankfully, he had managed to defend himself from the snail-eating granny.
"We're awake now. I think." spoke Patrick.
Perhaps he was still dreaming. Or maybe this whole adventure was a dream?
However, considering he could feel the ground beneath his feet, it probably wasn't a dream.
"Well, I'm glad you all are alright." noted Mindy.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"Good work on rescuing your pets." remarked the mermaid.
"It took us long enough for us to rescue them." noted Squidward.
"Wait, did your snail just talk?" asked Mindy.
"Superserum side effect." explained Spongebob.
On the way to the top of the mountain, our heroes encountered witches.
Naturally, these witches were fish.
"I was kind of expecting them to have green skin..." noted Spongebob.
"That's a stereotype." explained one of the witches. Perhaps he had been reading too many fairy tales about them.
Supersponge had a habit of reading them to Wonder Snail as a bedtime story...which he enjoyed.
Though he was wondering why none of the fairy tales seemed to include snails. He knew that there was one that featured pigs.
Unfortunately, these witches happened to show several spells that could really hamper our heroes.
For example, they could turn them into frogs.
Luckily, they were an amphibious animal.
"Ribbit!" exclaimed Patrick.
"Oh no! Patrick!" shouted Pearl.
Maybe if she kissed them, he would turn back to normal.
Patrick hopped around, trying to avoid being zapped by the witches.
But there was a problem with that.
She wasn't a princess.
However, something told her that perhaps one of her ancestors WAS a princess.
It was plausible.
Shrugging, she decided to kiss him.
Sure enough, Patrick turned back to normal.
"My first kiss was totally spectacular!" exclaimed the starfish.
Of course, if you counted the times he kissed a Krabby Patty, it wasn't his first kiss.
In addition to the polymorph spells, the witches could also summon snails.
These snails had black shells.
"Careful, these snails can give you misfortune!" exclaimed Mindy.
"Uh-oh." remarked Spongebob.
As soon as one of the black snails touched Spongebob, an anvil fell on him.
"Ow!" exclaimed the sponge.
Another black snail touched Patrick...and he was hit by a boxing glove that emerged from the ground.
"Ow!" shouted Patrick.
However, when one touched Squidward, it had no effect.
Perhaps it was because he was already unlucky.
Maybe he was suited to dealing with them.
He decided to try summoning again.
This worked surprisingly well.
A leprechaun began attacking the black snails.
"Meow!" screeched the snails.
"Maybe if we beat him up we'll get his pot of gold." suggested one of the witches.
However, he was a bit fast on his feet for them to hit him with their spells effectively.
Curious, Spongebob tried spewing bubbles to see if they would cause the witches to melt.
But it didn't happen.
"I guess literature and cartoons are different." noted the sponge.
"I know from experience." remarked Gary.
Personally Spongebob seemed to like picture books.
The witches decided to fly away.
The snails followed them.
Perhaps the heroes were too much for them.
But before they left, they promised that they would get them, and their pets too.
"Why our pets?" asked Spongebob.
"I don't know." answered Gary.
Following the witches were pufferfish.
"I'm going to punch one in the face!" exclaimed Patrick.
"Um, Patrick, I don't think that's a good idea..." warned Spongebob.
The starfish did so anyway...
...and was injured when the pufferfish inflated himself.
"Oww!" bellowed the starfish.
To make matters worse, the pufferfish were able to turn themselves into living wrecking balls.
It would be best if our heroes didn't get flattened by them.
"Oof!" bellowed Pearl.
She had unfortunately been hit by one of the fish.
"I wonder how people put these in fish tanks without the water leaking..." questioned Squidward.
"Perhaps the quills aren't sharp enough to pierce the glass?" questioned Sandy.
Not that she would want any of her friends to be trapped in a fish tank.
Sure, chances are it would be a clean environment, but it would get kind of lonely in that tank, especially if there weren't any other fishes.
Sandy shot flames at the pufferfish.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the inflatable fish.
That was one spicy squirrel.
Perhaps since they resembled balloons, Spongebob could blow them away.
So he decided to try just that.
It actually turned out to be effective.
"Whoa!" bellowed the pufferfish.
Presumably he could keep the quills from poking him that way.
"These fish remind me of porcupines." noted Sandy.
"I can see why." nodded Squidward.
"Personally they remind me of Mrs. Puff." remarked Spongebob.
"That's because she's also a pufferfish." answered the squirrel.
"Oh. That makes sense." noted the sponge.
He thought that those pufferfish looked familiar.
And of course, there was the usual Plankton cousins.
"Man, it took us forever for us to climb up here..." remarked one of the cousins.
There were also anchovies...but they were riding zeppelins.
"Why didn't we think of that?" asked one of the cousins.
"I wish we had a zeppelin." remarked Squidward.
That would make getting up the mountain a lot easier.
"But the wind might blow it off course." pointed out Sandy.
"True..." nodded the Invisible Ink. Maybe it had been better that they had climbed up the mountain on foot.
The zeppelins had a habit of tossing explosives at them from above.
"Oww!" shouted Spongebob.
Perhaps they could try blowing the fuses out.
He took a deep breath and blew out one of the bombs.
"Whew!" exclaimed the sponge.
It seemed that he had averted a crisis.
However, considering there were other explosives, perhaps he shouldn't celebrate.
Alternatively, they could try tossing the bombs back at the zeppelin.
Whatever worked best.
Spongebob tried using his wind powers to make the zeppelins crash.
It seemed to be effective.
"Meep!" exclaimed the anchovy pilots as one of the zeppelins crashed into the ground.
The cousins and the anchovies retreated.
"Bye!" exclaimed Spongebob.
Eventually, the summit was within sight.
But for some strange reason, there was a gate barring entrance to the top of the mountain.
"Don't tell me our road is blocked..." spoke Pearl.
It would be a shame if they climbed all this way for nothing.
She could try blasting the gate down, but it looked sturdy.
"I'm sure we'll find a way around it." noted Sandy.
Maybe they could get a grappling hook.
But that might mean going back down the mountain.
Perhaps she could fly over it and unlock it from the other side.
However, it was windy this high up.
"I wonder what this gate is doing here..." questioned Spongebob.
"I'm not sure..." answered Squidward.
It seemed kind out of place.
Perhaps Madame Hagfish built it to keep intruders out?
However, there didn't seem to be any guards...which discredited that theory.
And it seemed more likely that she would use a magical barrier of some kind. Preferably one that would burn whoever it touched.
There was also Painty the Pirate.
He was hanging by the wall.
"Painty? How did you get up here?" asked Spongebob.
He seemed out of place this time.
This time he wasn't even indoors.
"I figured I would do some mountain climbing." explained Painty.
Nothing like fresh mountain air to lift his spirits.
"But how would you do that? You don't have legs." pointed out Sandy.
"Oh..." answered the portrait.
That was a mystery people would probably never solve.
Not even the most meddling kids.
"Well, I'm here if you're ready to take on the witch." noted Painty.
"Can't we just dump water on her?" asked Pearl.
That way she could go to the hair salon and get a nice new do.
"I don't think it's going to be that easy..." noted Spongebob. If it was, Plankton probably wouldn't have recruited her to fight the seven of them.
Besides, he had already tried that with the witches that had attacked them on the way here.
Chances are it wouldn't work on Madame Hagfish.
"Are you ready, kids?" asked the portrait.
"How many times are you going to say that?" questioned Squidward.
"I'm not a kid. I'm a worm." continued Wendy.
"C'mon! Let me say my catchphrase!" exclaimed the painting of a pirate.
Was it really too much to ask?
Kids seemed to love his catchphrases.
That's why he had been saying them for years.
How long had Spongebob been on the air lately?
He wasn't quite sure.
"Fine..." answered the Invisible Ink.
Though he got the feeling that it was going to get stuck in his big head sooner or later.
"We're ready, captain!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"I can't hear you!" shouted the pirate.
"Really? I'd like to think I'm loud and clear." noted Gary.
"He always says that...no matter how loud the children are." answered Wendy.
She sure hoped that none of the children lost their voices because of that.
Otherwise there would be some angry parents paying Painty a visit.
"We're ready!" answered Pearl.
"Ohhhhhhh!" exclaimed Painty.
The portrait opened the gate.
"Are you ready to fight Madame Hagfish?" asked Spongebob.
He had a suspicion as to who was behind that gate.
"Yeah...we already told Painty that we were ready." noted Gary.
"Maybe you should introduce me to some of your portraits." said Painty to Squidward.
"But they're all me..." answered the octopus.
Well, some of them were Wendy.
And some of them were Squidward AND Wendy.
"Maybe I could introduce you to my worms playing poker painting?" asked Wendy.
"What are they playing for? Worm food?" questioned Painty.
"Probably. I haven't decided yet." answered the worm.
Though worm food would be a good prize.
Sure enough, the sorceress was behind the gate.
Madame Hagfish was waiting for them at the mountain summit.
"It's good that you managed to make it here..." noted the sorceress.
Now she could test out her spells on them.
"Um, Madame Hagfish, I think you might be at a disadvantage..." noted the sponge.
"Whatever makes you say that?" asked the magician.
"There's seven of us and only one of you..." pointed out Spongebob.
Gary noted that his owner had a point.
However, Madame Hagfish didn't seem worried.
"I have a way to even the odds." explained the sorceress.
She began to chant a spell.
"This can't be good..." remarked Gary.
Madame Hagfish transformed into a sea dragon.
A purple sea dragon.
The sea dragon in question was serpentine, though she had arms and feet.
And she had sharp fangs in her mouth.
And yes, she could breathe fire.
"Aah!" screamed Spongebob in terror.
It was nothing short of frightening. It was times like this when he wished he was a knight. That way he would have a shield to protect himself from the dragonfire. Though he wondered if he would be able to pull a sword out of a stone. That seemed difficult.
Then again, being a superhero had its own perks. Since when could a knight fly?
Anyways, Spongebob wondered for a moment if his pants were going to be set on fire.
It wouldn't be the first time.
"Look at the size of her!" exclaimed Squidward in astonishment.
Perhaps she was as big as his moai house was.
But considering how far away he was from home, he didn't exactly know for sure.
"This doesn't look good..." noted Patrick.
Still, it would be a shame if they gave up after all the work that they went through to get to the top of the mountain.
So they decided they were going to fight her.
The sea dragon let out a roar.
Sandy and Patrick were knocked off their feet.
In the case of Gary and Wendy, they didn't have feet.
"Oof!" exclaimed the Shooting Star.
The dragon then stomped on Patrick.
"Oww!" shouted the starfish.
That dragon was as strong as she looked.
"Hey!" exclaimed Spongebob.
Perhaps Patrick was at a disadvantage. Ice didn't work well against reptiles that could breathe flames.
Rocks would probably work though.
He decided to throw a rock at the dragon.
For a few moments, it worked.
But then she started biting into them, breaking them into pieces.
"Aww..." remarked the starfish. Perhaps he shouldn't keep repeating the same attack patterns.
Squidward attacked the dragon with jellyfish.
They immediately swarmed the ferocious reptile.
The dragon screeched as the tentacles stung her.
"Oww!" bellowed Madame Hagfish. If only her scales would protect her from the stings.
To think that jelly was the ingredient for some of her potions.
However, while this did damage to the dragon, this also made her angry.
She breathed fire on the jellyfish, causing them to fall to the floor.
"Those poor jellyfish." remarked Wendy.
Hagfish then decided to divert her attention to Squidward.
"I'll beat you, and your little worm too!" exclaimed Madame Hagfish.
It seemed she could still talk while in her dragon state.
"Like I haven't heard that before." remarked Squidward.
She proceeded to breathe purple flames on the octopus.
"Yeow!" bellowed the hero as he was scorched by the magical fire.
At this rate, he was going to be fried calamari.
"Where did I put my fire extinguisher?" asked Squidward.
He decided to buy one due to how chaotic his two neighbors happened to be.
It would be best if he prepared himself for emergencies.
Wendy wondered that herself.
Of course, she wasn't sure how she would be able to operate one without hands.
Spongebob launched a tornado at the dragon.
"Hiya!" shouted the sponge.
Madame Hagfish recoiled from the sharp winds.
However, the dragon stomped on him in retaliation.
"Oww..." murmured Supersponge.
For a moment, he was dizzy.
But he came back to his senses.
"Perhaps it's good that I didn't grow up in medieval times..." noted Spongebob.
There seemed to be lots of scary monsters back then.
And evil wizards.
He wouldn't mind being royalty, however.
Supersponge already knew that King Neptune and his daughter were royalty.
Though the king used to get carried away with his royal power. Especially when he thought Mr. Krabs had taken his crown.
Sandy karate chopped the dragon.
"Hiya!" exclaimed the squirrel.
Personally she never thought she would end up fighting a dragon.
But you learned something new every day.
Besides, she heard that her ancestor used to be a knight.
Though she found it unusual that she used to work for one of Plankton's ancestors.
At least she had eventually changed her ways.
But Madame Hagfish retaliated by swinging her tail at her.
"Oof!" bellowed the squirrel.
Perhaps she should try attacking her from above.
Sandy decided to do just that.
But Madame Hagfish had homing fireballs.
Sandy gasped.
She then took a bite out of Wendy.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the worm.
Did she look like a gummy worm to the dragon?
Unfortunately, chances are webbing wouldn't work too well.
She would most likely burn through it.
So she instead bit Madame Hagfish on the leg.
"Ugh, she tastes like evil." noted Wendy.
She certainly didn't taste like the worm food that Squidward gave her.
That was delicious.
Though she had to learn how to operate a can opener in order to open the canned worm meat.
Totally worth it though.
Quickly, the witch attempted to shake her off.
Realizing that he had an opening, Squidward summoned swordfish to attack the dragon.
It seemed appropriate, though technically these swordfish weren't knights of the round table.
Well, maybe one was. Who knew?
For a while, this was effective.
However, she decided to take to the skies.
Wendy let go.
Chances are holding on while that dragon was flying around would make her nauseous.
And it was a long way down if she fell.
"How are we going to get up there?" asked one of the swordfish.
She then began to spew fireballs on them from above.
"Aah!" screamed the fish.
"This isn't good..." noted Squidward.
How were they going to shoot her down?
Surely there had to be a way.
Pearl decided to use lightning.
"Oww!" exclaimed Madame Hagfish.
Spongebob then launched bubbles.
However, she popped them with her claws.
"Aw, man!" exclaimed the sponge.
The sorceress shot purple lightning out of her hands.
"Aah!" exclaimed the sponge.
Frantically, he avoided to being struck by the electricity.
"Isn't thunder supposed to come after it?" asked Patrick.
The dragon let out a roar.
"There we go." noted the starfish.
Of course, Pearl had nothing to worry about from that attack.
The sorceress then began to breathe in for another flame attack.
But Pearl tossed a pearl into her mouth.
"Uh-oh..." spoke the transformed slug.
The black pearl exploded.
The dragon collapsed to the ground.
Madame Hagfish turned back into her normal form.
It seemed she had expended all of her energy.
"How did you heroes get so strong?" asked the mage.
"Through discipline, I guess." explained Spongebob.
Some of Neptune's royal guard showed up to arrest Madame Hagfish.
"Well, at least I didn't melt." noted the sorceress. That seemed to happen to unfortunate witches that messed with the wrong people.
Nobody knew why they melted.
"We're at the top of a cold mountain. Why would you melt?" asked Sandy.
"That's a good question.' remarked the witch. If anything she would freeze.
"She sure was strong, wasn't she?" questioned Patrick.
Probably the strongest opponent that they had faced yet. Even more than the Dirty Bubble.
"You should always respect your elders." noted Sandy.
After all, you could learn a lot from them.
Besides, being whacked with a cane was no fun.
"Yeah..." nodded Spongebob.
He knew how much he respected his grandpa and grandma.
"Personally I thought she could use a good facial." remarked Pearl.
"It's what on the inside that counts." explained Gary.
"True..." nodded the whale.
Perhaps she shouldn't be so fussy about her appearance.
Though it wasn't like her father didn't have a lot of money to spend.
In fact, perhaps he should spend some more money on the Krusty Krab.
It might make it more sanitary.
"Now how are we going to get back down?" asked Wendy.
Fortunately, Mindy provided them with a shortcut down the mountain.
It was a giant slide.
"That was pretty convenient..." noted the sponge.
"Yeah...climbing down the mountain would be a real hassle." remarked Squidward.
One by one, the seven heroes went down the slide.
"Wheee!" exclaimed the sponge.
"This is fun!" cheered Patrick.
"Sure is!" nodded Pearl.
"Yeehaw!" shouted Sandy.
Squidward shrugged.
"It's nice to be able to go fast for a change." noted Gary as he slid down the slide.
Wendy woofed.
Luckily, it was a rather soft landing, as they all landed in snow.
However, there was still the matter of getting new fuel for their car.
Fortunately, Mrs. Puff was able to help them with that.
She was currently paying the ski resort a visit.
Unsurprisingly, she was dressed in winter gear.
Specifically, she was wearing a blue scarf.
And a teal coat to go with it.
It was a lot nicer now that the plankton were gone.
"Can you help us out, Mrs. Puff?" asked Spongebob.
"What do you need help with, Spongebob?" questioned Mrs. Puff.
She sure hoped that Spongebob wasn't planning to try to drive his car over a flaming pile of tires.
"I need some more gas for my car..." noted the sponge.
Otherwise, they couldn't go to Bikini Bottom Cemetery.
"Oh. Well, I happen to have some gas right here." noted the pufferfish.
Fortunately, she was able to help get the car get going.
"Thank you, Mrs. Puff!" exclaimed Spongebob.
"Hmm, I've always wondered what her first name was." noted Squidward.
"It's Mary." explained Mrs. Puff.
"Alright then." answered the Invisible Ink.
The seven of them drove away..
It was lucky that the Patty Wagon could support them all.
Meanwhile...
At the Voracious Volcano, the five remaining members were still discussing how to deal with the S-Men.
Now that Madame Hagfish was gone, morale had decreased. There were five members left of the group.
"If only we knew their kryptonite..." noted Hunter.
That would make things a lot easier.
Although, it seemed that every member of the group had their own kryptonite, rather than a collective one.
It seemed they were a well-balanced team of superheroes.
Plankton was very angry at this point.
Not that he would take it out on his followers, of course...they would probably step on him.
And that happened to him enough as it was.
"This is the third member of the group I've lost to those heroes!" exclaimed Plankton.
At this rate, he was going to end up all by himself.
Like he did when he went to the institution.
No doubt that would make him feel lonely.
He was going to have to take drastic measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again.
If they managed to rescue Mr. Krabs, nothing will stop them from searching for his hideout.
But what would work against our heroes?
Currently, his ray gun was at 60%. But it wouldn't matter if our heroes dismantled it.
He decided maybe he should send the Flying Dutchman to deal with our heroes next.
How they could defeat him when physical attacks went right through him?
However, Plankton didn't consider the fact that ghosts could still be harmed by things such as fire and lightning.
"Are you up for fighting those heroes?" asked Plankton.
"Oh yes! I'm sure they'll be scared out of our wits!" exclaimed the Flying Dutchman.
He was looking forward to it.
Though considering that other villains had fallen to the S-Men in the past, he figured maybe he should be careful.
"Didn't Madame Hagfish already try scaring our heroes?" questioned Karen.
She seemed to recall her invading our heroes' dreams.
It seemed like an ideal place to attack them.
It didn't work out.
"Yes, but I'm a ghost." answered the ghost.
If anybody knew how to scare people, it was a spirit.
Inkabeth shrugged.
Perhaps he had a point.
"Alright, but if we keep losing villains to these heroes, they're going to breach my fortress!" exclaimed Plankton.
It was a good thing he had installed security systems to keep them out.
But who knew how much damage they could do if they succeeded?
"Maybe I could find a way to prevent them from contacting that mermaid with the glasses..." noted Flying Dutchman.
That way they wouldn't be able to receive advice.
"Maybe..." answered the plankton.
But on the other hand, he didn't have experience with telepathic contact.
How did it work exactly?
Perhaps he should try researching it.
It might give him an edge.
And that way he wouldn't need his cellphone anymore.
Well, unless he wanted to play games on it.
"I'm starting to think we should come up with a backup plan..." noted Karen.
She also figured that she would accompany the Flying Dutchman.
As a robot, she seemed to be the only one that wasn't afraid of him.
Perhaps the Flying Dutchman would fail like the other villains before him.
Granted, he didn't think they would be able to imprison him on account of being a ghost, but he didn't think that the Flying Dutchman was invincible.
That way if Plankton found himself cornered, he would have the means to defend himself.
"That'd be a good idea. I think the S-Men are almost complete, so I might as well get to work." remarked Plankton.
Fortunately, he had an idea.
"This is so brilliant! I should have thought of it before!" exclaimed the plankton.
Hopefully this plan would bring our heroes to their knees.
Maybe it was better than the ray gun that would turn Bikini Bottom into plankton.
But he wasn't sure.
Either way, he decided to go to work.
"This is going to be one heck of a contingency plan!" exclaimed Plankton.
Our heroes defeated Madame Hagfish! Hooray!
I bet you were rooting for them, huh?
Can they defeat the Flying Dutchman next?
They have an impressive track record so far.
They've managed to defeat both Manray and the Dirty Bubble, and now Madame Hagfish!
But I assure you that he's a formidable foe. He's even stronger than Madame Hagfish was.
There's a reason that Mr. Krabs is so frightened of him.
Well, other than the fact that he wants his soul.