In this chapter, our heroes will enter a forest.
It's gonna be spooky!
Maybe even spookier than the cemetery. Nobody is buried in the forest though.
At least. we think nobody was buried in the forest.
Anyways, it looks like the S-Men have been fully assembled.
Having a full team of superheroes is the best way to combat a supervillain.
Which is good, because Plankton is coming up with something big to finally defeat our superheroes.
Chapter 27: Forest Fright
As it turned out, the forest was just as frightening as the cemetery, if not more so. It was not an ideal place to go on a nature walk.
"First a spooky cemetery, and now this." noted Patrick. It seemed that the Fiying Dutchman had no shortage of horrors to terrify our heroes with.
Spongebob chattered his teeth. It seemed he had gone out from the frying pan and into the fire.
Though it was anyone's guess as to how he could light a fire underwater. It was one of the ocean's mysteries.
On the lighter side of things. Mr. Krabs now had a superhero costume of his own.
Unsurprisingly, it consisted of a golden shirt with dollar signs on it.
He was very happy with it. He felt that it reflected his love of money.
Of course, one only needed to be acquainted with Mr. Krabs to know about his love of cash.
Fortunately, for whatever reason, a tour guide of the forest had that particular outfit for sale. And unsurprisingly, Mr. Krabs had enough money for it.
He decided to take a deep breath.
He might want to be quiet, though it was a bit tempting to scream. It'd be bad if anyone was alerted to his presence. Like the zombies, for example.
"I sure hope that the Flying Dutchman doesn't try to make me afraid of a Krabby Patty..." remarked Spongebob.
He remembered how awful that had been. It really interfered with his work.
Though when everyone in Bikini Bottom became a Krabby Patty zombie, it didn't stop him from resuming his job as fry cook when the pandemic was over.
"Careful everyone, I'm sensing more undead in the Forest..." noted Mindy.
Patrick gulped.
"Of course, there's also the usual cousins...but maybe you don't find them to be as scary." suggested the mermaid.
She shrugged.
"I wonder how I went to being Plankton's best friend to trying to stop him from taking over Bikini Bottom..." questioned Mr. Krabs. Things sure had changed, hadn't they?
He vaguely remembered the time Plankton had turned Bikini Bottom into Planktopolis.
Perhaps they shouldn't have trusted him when he started giving out those strange helmets. Unfortunately, Squidward had made the mistake of confronting Plankton before telling anyone else his theory as to how Plankton had managed to get his hands on the Krabby Patty formula.
He sure wasn't going to make that mistake again.
As Mindy had said, more of Plankton's cousins were waiting for them.
"I guess not even a forest as scary as this one makes them give up..." noted Wendy.
However, they didn't seem happy about their post.
"Man, this forest gives me the creeps..." remarked one of the cousins.
There was no sunlight, for one.
It was still possible to see, but it wasn't a pleasant place.
Why couldn't they end up being assigned to a more pleasant forest? One where sunlight was clearly visible?
Then again, all those flowers might make them sneeze.
And yes, even though they didn't have visible noses, they were capable of sneezing. They might not have visible noses like starfish...but that didn't mean they couldn't smell.
These cousins were armed with paintball guns.
Black Pearl was not happy about that.
"Nooo! Don't ruin my dress!" exclaimed Pearl. She spent a lot of money on that dress...though money wasn't exactly an obstacle for her dad.
"I wish I had a dress like that." complained a female plankton.
"There are female plankton serving in Plankton's army too?" asked Patrick.
"Yeah...we figured why not?" answered the female plankton.
"We should consider taking cover..." noted Squidward. Who knows how accurate their guns were?
Fortunately, Mr. Krabs' speed was coming in handy.
It made it very difficult for him to hit.
This annoyed the plankton that were trying to shoot him.
"Why won't that crab hold still?" asked one of the cousins. He looked like a red blur.
Plankton would definitely award them handsomely if they managed to catch him.
But considering how fast he was, Neptune knew how he would catch them.
The plankton decided to retreat.
They were going to need a decent strategy to catch him.
They were starting to feel like that coyote from that cartoon. He never succeeded in catching thwt bird no matter how he tried. Maybe he should find easier prey.
Perhaps money would help? It wouldn't be hard to get a dollar and a fishing rod.
Some skeletal fish appeared.
"These fish have a bone to pick with you!" exclaimed the Flying Dutchman.
"Very funny." answered the octopus.
"I remember these from when I tried grave robbing..." remarked Mr. Krabs.
His daughter was not happy to hear her father admitting to that. It made her wonder where the jewelry he had git her for achristmas had come from.
"Daddy, how could you?" asked Pearl. Didn't he have a conscience?
"I just wanted a soda helmet!" exclaimed the crab. Was that really too much to ask?
"Why do you need a soda helmet? Your restaurant is full of soda!" pointed out Wendy to the owner of the Krusty Krab. Perhaps Mr. Krabs was starting to become gluttonous.
Now that the greedy crustacean thought of it, there was all sorts of soda at the Krusty Krab.
However, Mr. Krabs then noticed something unusual.
"Am I dreaming? I don't recall you and Gary being able to talk..." remarked Mr. Krabs.
If Gary could talk, chances are he would say something when he was being used as a magnet.
He scratched his red head. It was pretty unusual.
And yes, even though Spongebob lived in a world full of talking animals, there were animals that still couldn't talk.
Then again, he didn't visit his employee often. Did he know for sure whether his snail could talk or not?
"Oh...that's because we drank the superserum." explained Gary.
"I guess I'm not dreaming then." answered the crab.
If he was dreaming, chances are there would be lots of money.
Although, considering he was in a dark forest, he might very well be having a nightmare.
Fortunately for our heroes, the skeletons could feel pain, unlike the zombies. So they weren't as resilient.
However, to counteract it, they were significantly faster. This made them harder to hit.
Occasionally, one of them would toss a bone.
"I think these guys should eat more..." remarked Patrick. They were skin and bones. Well, maybe not skin.
"Maybe they could eat more if you ate less." snarked Squidward. Sometimes he wondered when Patrick would stop eating. He didn't want him to choke...though he was less than an ideal neighbor.
It wasn't hard for the starfish to hurt them using rocks. Perhaps blunt weapons were the way to go.
On the other hand, piercing wind didn't work well. Trying to cut them didn't seem to work well.
As for Wendy, she was having a field day.
"Owoooo!" exclaimed the orange worm.
Perhaps the Flying Dutchman forgot they had a worm on their side.
Fortunately, the skeletons went down.
Like the zombies before them, they went back to the earth.
"I guess that's enough bones for me tonight..." remarked Wendy.
"Yeah...I think you've had enough." nodded Squidward. He wouldn't want her to choke on one. He had gotten his pet fairly recently.
Afterwards, our heroes came across a pumpkin patch.
They noticed a witch casting a spell.
Suddenly, the pumpkins came to life.
"This can't be good." remarked Squidward.
Spongebob felt nervous.
The pumpkins began to attack our heroes.
They had to be careful not to get bitten.
Fortunately, it wasn't hard to smash them. Especially for Patrick.
"You're not ruining Halloween for us!" exclaimed Shooting Star.
"It's not Halloween, Patrick." answered Squidward.
But they did seem to come in large numbers.
However, for that reason, Pearl's explosive pearls worked pretty well.
But they began to retaliate by shooting seeds.
"Take cover!" warned Mindy.
A giant pumpkin appeared.
"The Great Pumpkin? I've spent a bunch of Halloweens waiting for you to show up, but you never do!" exclaimed Patrick.
Unfortunately, this pumpkin was much stronger than the others.
It threw pumpkin projectiles at our heroes.
But Pearl shot a bomb into the Great Pumpkin's mouth, causing him to explode.
Afterwards, the pumpkins reverted back to their inanimate state.
However, our heroes noticed something odd afterward.
Did one of the trees just move?
"I thought I saw something." remarked Spongebob, scratching his head.
Was it just his imagination?
Or was there something sinister at work?
Suddenly, the trees came to life.
It seemed he hadn't been seeing things.
These trees had red eyes and had evil grins on their faces.
"Aaahhh!" screamed Spongebob, raising his yellow hands into the air.
It seemed that some trees just didn't take kindly to visitors.
A projection of the Flying Dutchman was there to have a chat with them.
"I guess we've chopped down one too many." noted Squidward.
"I can assure you, their bark isn't worse than their bite!" exclaimed the Flying Dutchman.
"If only it was." answered Squidward.
"They really shiver me timbers!" shouted the ghost.
The Invisible Ink rolled his eyes. At least Spongebob didn't seem to mind the puns.
Chances are if their bark was worse than their bite, then chances are they would be weak opponents.
But they weren't.
The trees began to attack our heroes.
One of them threw a pineapple bomb at Patrick.
"Look out!" warned Sandy.
"Oof!" exclaimed Patrick. He was nearly knocked off his feet.
Another threw apples at Spongebob.
He recoiled from the red fruit.
The yellow sponge should consider taking cover.
But taking cover behind a tree might be a bad idea. What if it grabbed him?
Fortunately, there was a boulder nearby.
Maybe he could use it to take cover.
Hopefully it wouldn't come to life as well. He didn't want to get crushed...even though there weren't bones in his body to break.
"I thought apples were supposed to keep the doctor away!" exclaimed the sponge, rubbing his head from where one of the apples had struck him.
"Apparently, not if someone throws them at you." answered Squidward.
Wendy decided to see how many apples she could catch in her mouth.
Gary decided he would simply shield himself with his shell.
It was pretty useful nowadays.
Fortunately, fire worked well against this new foe. Lightning also seemed to work.
Perhaps the Flying Dutchman should have considered the fact that one of the superheroes could use fire.
Water didn't work well against these creatures though. They could simply absorb it.
So there was no real point in shooting bubbles, as much as Spongebob happened to like blowing them.
One of the trees grabbed Squidward with roots.
"Let me go." demanded the octopus.
Fortunately, Wendy bit through them.
Perhaps the serum had given her better jaw strength.
Or maybe she was just that determined to assist her owner.
Patrick threw a rock at another tree.
It left the evil oak dizzy.
At that point, the plants decided to surrender.
They were starting to feel like they were playing with fire...which was the last thing that a plant wanted to do.
After defeating the trees, Supersponge decided to say something.
"I wonder where the first ingredient is." pondered Spongebob.
"Well, we're not going to find it just by standing here..." noted Squidward.
Besides, he wanted to leave the forest.
He preferred the sunshine.
Up next were skeletal piranhas.
They were even faster than the regular piranhas.
And they were also more resilient.
"Ow!" exclaimed Supersponge as he was bitten.
However, Wendy was able to scare them off.
"I've detected that the first ingredient for summoning the Flying Dutchman is being guarded." explained Mindy.
"There's always some sort of guardian." noted Squidward.
It seemed Plankton had a road block for every step of their journey. Even at the beginning of their journey, when Spongebob was all by himself.
Speaking of which, it appeared that Flats the flounder was waiting for them.
It seemed appropriate since bullies were scary. Spongebob reconsidered going to boating school after finding out that Flats was planning to beat him up.
Of course, Mrs. Puff wouldn't exactly mind if he left, but he didn't know that.
"Flats? What are you doing in this forest?" asked Supersponge.
Flats pointed to him.
He already understood why now.
"Uh-oh..." remarked the yellow sponge.
"This time, I'm really going to kick your butt!" exclaimed the flounder.
He had been training very hard for a rematch with Supersponge.
However, he noticed that he seemed to have more companions with him than last time.
Was Spongebob magnetic?
"I wish you weren't so quick to resort to violence." remarked the manager of the Krusty Krab 2.
Not even Sandy was as prone to violence as he was.
Flats the Flounder began to spin around the field.
Our heroes scattered in order to avoid him.
"He's gotten faster." noted Spongebob.
He then charged towards the yellow sponge.
However, he moved out of the way.
"Whew!" exclaimed Supersponge.
It was good that he was fast on his feet.
He wasn't as fast as Mr. Krabs was though.
Patrick then punched Flats in the face.
"Ow!" exclaimed the flounder.
He was starting to wonder if he was outnumbered.
Perhaps he needed some help...though he was loathe to admit it.
Fortunately for him, help arrived.
Some plankton showed up.
Flats sighed in relief. Now perhaps he would stand a better chance against the superheroes.
These plankton were carrying boxing gloves.
Unfortunately for them, they were up against Patrick, a heavyweight.
They stood a better chance against Spongebob though. He was a lightweight.
Flats picked up Mr. Krabs and tossed him at Squidward.
Both of them were dizzy at the moment.
He then attempted to grapple Spongebob.
Unfortunately for Flats, Patrick had no intention of allowing him to beat up his friend.
He pounced on top of the bully, and a great big cartoon ball of violence appeared.
Ultimately, Patrick emerged the winner.
Stars swirled around Flats' head.
"Why can't I win?" asked the flounder.
It looked as if he were down for the count.
As such, the plankton took their leave.
"Was he the guardian?" asked Squidward. He didn't seem to be carrying any spell ingredients with him.
To be honest, he wasn't that strong. Though he had improved since their last encounter.
"No, the guardian is further in." explained Mindy. They had still someways to go before they arrived at the heart of the forest.
After encountering the bully, our heroes encountered wereworms.
Compared to regular worms, they were more...furry.
"Aaahh! Wereworms!" exclaimed Spongebob, his eyes widening with fear.
They looked a bit like Wendy, but they were definitely more feral than she was.
Unsurprisingly, they were rather fast.
And they had sharp claws.
Not to mention sharp fangs.
"Owww!" exclaimed Patrick as he was bitten on the butt.
Making matters more complicated was their ability to call for help.
Specifically, they howled.
If this kept up, they could end up becoming outnumbered.
"I'm scared..." remarked Wonder Snail.
"Does anyone have silver?" asked Sandy.
It would be really useful right about now.
"I have silver!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" questioned Squidward.
Mr. Krabs threw silver coins at the wereworms.
This seemed to be effective.
It was apparent that the worms were frightened by the silver.
"I wish I didn't have to spend me hard-earned money..." noted the crab.
"I'm sure you don't have any more money to spend." snarked Squidward.
Eventually, our heroes reached the heart of the forest.
"Well, we're at the heart of the forest. Do you think the guardian will show up?" asked Spongebob.
"C'mon!" exclaimed Patrick, tapping his foot impatiently.
As it turned out, the first ingredient was being guarded by...
...the Headless Seahorseman.
"Aaaahhh!" screamed Spongebob.
This forest just kept on getting scarier.
Who would have thought this monster was lurking in the woods?
A projection of the Flying Dutchman was there to talk to them.
"Don't worry, it's nothing to lose your head over. Oh wait, it is!" exclaimed the Flying Dutchman.
"I've read stories about him." remarked Sandy. He wasn't as well-known as the Flying Dutchman was, but he still struck fear into the hearts of the residents of Bikini Bottom.
Were...they true?
She hoped not.
The Headless Seahorseman let out a laugh.
"You're going to rue the day you decided to cross the Flying Dutchman!" exclaimed the seahorseman.
The Seahorseman wore a black suit of armor and had a pumpkin for a head.
He also had a large axe.
The size was fairly remarkable.
"That is one big axe." noted Patrick.
He could only imagine how much lumber he could make with that. Did he really need such a big axe?
Not that he would go lumberjacking in this particular forest. Even he knew he risked being attacked.
His seahorse looked rather menacing. It was as black as the Seahorseman's armor. And it had glowing red eyes. Why did it choose a headless horseman to be its rider, anyway?
"I guess he's working for the Flying Dutchman..." noted Wendy.
That axe of his looked threatening.
And to make matters worse, he had bombs.
Pumpkin bombs.
The bombs began to go off.
"I never thought a jack-o-lantern could be so...explosive." remarked Wendy.
"Well, it'd be a bad idea to have one near a gas station." noted Gary. It didn't matter whether it was Halloween or not. He wasn't going to put one there. At the very least, he wasn't going to light the candle.
Not that he could drive a boat though. He had no arms.
Luckily, Pearl was explosion-proof.
But everyone else didn't have that luxury.
"Yeow!" bellowed Spongebob as one of the bombs sent him flying several feet.
"I'm reconsidering having pumpkin pie tonight..." remarked Squidward.
Who knows? It might make his oven explode.
"Hahahahaha!" laughed the seahorseman.
His laugh was rather unsettling.
Spongebob began to sweat nervouslh.
He began to charge towards our heroes.
"Look out! He's trying to trample you!" warned Mindy.
Fortunately, Mr. Krabs was fast enough to avoid the charges.
He was glad that serum had given him super speed.
"Why can't I hit him?" asked the seahorseman.
To his knowledge, the crustacean was an old man. Theoretically, he shouldn't be able to move so fast. Then again, he was also the greediest resident of Bikini Bottom.
The Krusty Krab had been around for some time.
In fact, he wondered if he was as old as his master, the Flying Dutchman. Even though Mr. Krabs was alive and breathing.
Unfortunately, he was able to trample Patrick.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" exclaimed the unfortunate starfish.
To make matters worse, he was too fast for Pearl to hit him with bombs.
"I need to try something different." remarked the whale.
However, she then remembered she could attack with lightning.
So she decided to try that.
"Aaarrrghhh!" exclaimed the seahorseman as he was zapped.
In retaliation, he launched a flaming skull at Pearl.
"Aaaahhh!" exclaimed the whale.
"Be careful!" warned Sandy. She was pretty sure that skull would hurt if it hit her.
It probably wouldn't hurt her though. She was a fire superhero.
The Headless Seahorseman summoned ghosts.
"Boooo!" exclaimed one of the ghosts.
"Aaahhh!" shouted Spongebob.
However, Gary used his telekinesis to launch a rock at the ghosts.
They floated away.
Patrick punched the seahorse, causing it to stagger.
However, the seahorseman swung his axe at him in retaliation.
"Ow!" exclaimed the starfish.
He punched the seahorseman in the chest...
...but his armor protected him somewhat.
The seahorseman swung his axe in a circle.
"Ow!" exclaimed Spongebob and Pearl.
Stars swirled around Pearl's head.
"Oh no! Pearl!" exclaimed the crab.
The seahorseman laughed.
However, Mr. Krabs became angry.
He attacked the seahorseman with a flamethrower.
"Aaarrrghhh!" exclaimed the phantom.
He then followed by slamming into him with his claws.
The Headless Seahorseman collapsed on the ground. That crab was tougher than he looked.
"It seemed that instead of heads I got tails..." remarked the seahorseman. Perhaps hanging out with the Flying Dutchman caused him to develop a similar sense of humor.
The Flying Dutchman seemed disappointed that he had lost to our heroes.
Plankton sure was losing a lot of minions to the squad.
"Do yourselves a favor and quit while you're ahead!" exclaimed the Flying Dutchman.
He decided to take his leave.
"I didn't know the Flying Dutchman liked to crack jokes..." noted Spongebob.
"What's the point of being dead if you can't live a little?" asked the projection of the ghost as he vanished.
Sandy shrugged. She was still alive, so she wouldn't know.
The seahorseman left behind a pumpkin...
...which was one of the ingredients that they needed to summon the Flying Dutchman.
Unsurprisingly, the Invisible Ink was happy that they obtained it.
"Finally! This forest was giving me the creeps!" exclaimed Squidward.
However, considering they still had two ingredients left to go, it was probably a bit early to celebrate.
"Wait, couldn't we have used one of the pumpkins we encountered at the pumpkin patch?" asked Pearl. It might have saved them a lot of work.
"Well, this one appears to be magical." noted Sandy. Besides, they had already smashed them in their efforts to defend themselves.
It was glowing.
Squidward shrugged.
"Now that we have one of the ingredients, we should probably head to the pyramid next!" exclaimed the Flying Squirrel.
There was also the mansion, but it seemed to be a bit further away.
Unsurprisingly, Cheapskate was excited at the prospect of entering a pyramid.
Dollar signs appear in his eyes.
"Is that actually possible?" asked Wendy.
"It's a cartoon. Don't overthink it." answered Squidward. Though he wouldn't mind if he weren't living in a cartoon.
Chances are things would be a bit less violent that way.
"Oh boy! I bet there's a lot of money there!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs.
He began to daydream about having a treasure chest full of gold.
If there was one thing that Mr. Krabs liked more than dollar bills, it was gold.
Knowing the crustacean, he probably wouldn't even invest it.
However, Squidward realized that his boss was daydreaming...and was getting a bit too unattached to reality.
He decided maybe he should warn Mr. Krabs.
"Don't get carried away, Krabs. You might get flattened by a boulder." noted the octopus.
His shell might be able to protect him from the traps, but he shouldn't rely on that.
It was kind of a miracle that never happened to a treasure hunter who for whatever reason was named after a state.
It seemed that the pyramid designers had met people like Mr. Krabs, people that wanted a quick buck by taking treasure that didn't belong to them.
Though perhaps their ideas of punishments were a bit extreme.
Mr. Krabs chuckled nervously.
Why did he have such a hard time remembering all the booby-traps that were sure to be in the pyramid?
"I sure hope I don't encounter the poison gas." remarked the crab.
Perhaps he shouldn't let his greed blind him.
He might end up falling into one of Plankton's traps.
After all, he did use his love of money against him once.
It was a pretty clever plan. He would never expect money to betray him.
He wished that his former friend wouldn't toy with his emotions like that.
Next he was going to try impersonating his daughter to trick him into handing over his assets to the evil genius.
Oh wait. Maybe he wouldn't. Whales seemed to frighten Plankton.
Mr. Krabs had once used that to his advantage.
The customers at the Krusty Krab didn't like to talk about the story. It discouraged them from wanting to eat Krabby Patties, which was a shame because Krabby Patties were delicious.
Besides, it seemed unbelievable that Mr. Krabs would do that. Especially because Eugene and Sheldon used to be friends. It was a shame how greed could tear a friendship apart.
There was also the matter of another threat they were likely to face.
"Besides, even if there aren't booby traps, chances are there will be mummies." noted Sandy.
This made the owner of the Krusty Krab feel frightened.
"Mummies?!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs.
Again, there seemed to be more to the pyramid than he thought.
He began to sweat nervously. He wasn't looking forward to being locked away in a sarcophagus. The mummies probabky wouldn't tske too kindly to tomb robbers.
Perhaps he should reconsider trying to rob a pyramid. He didn't want to anger the pharaoh.
At least, not without the help of others. Perhaps if they came along, they would be able to spot the booby traps before they went off.
"Yeah. We're going to a pyramid, remember?" asked Squidward. It would be weird if they didn't encounter mummies. Just as if it would be weird if Mr. Krabs weren't running the Krusty Krab.
Maybe they would encounter tomb robbers. Then again, a haunted pyramid didn't sound really inviting. It was something that people would avoid like the plague.
Speaking of plague, perhaps these mummies would attack them with insects.
"Those mummies better not TP my house..." noted the crab. He would be so angry if they did that. Not that he thought of it, it seemed like something Plankton would do.
"Why would they do t-oh, I get it." remarked Spongebob.
"Maybe we should get sunscreen." suggested Pearl. Based on what she knew about pyramids, it was located in a desert.
However, a certain squirrel assured her that they wouldn't need sunscreen.
"I think we'll probably be going to the pyramid at night." answered Sandy. It was way cooler in the desert at night than it was during the day.
"Oh." acknowledged the whale.
I hope you liked this chapter. You probably weren't expecting the Headless Seahorseman, were you?
And yes, you probably saw what I did there.
I figured I would include Flats again...I figured it would make the chapter more interesting.
Just for the record, the Flying Dutchman will be our heroes' last opponent before they go to Rock Bottom.
In the next chapter, our heroes will enter the pyramid.
Expect booby-traps...and mummies.
And maybe treasure. Assuming it hasn't been looted by Plankton's minions already.