In this chapter, our heroes will hunt for Spot.
This is going to be the last time.
I think he's been in enough chapters. And there was already a chapter where Spongebob once chased after a blue jellyfish. You've probably noticed the similarities to that chapter and the ones starring Spot.
Although, while I think Spot has appeared enough, if you think otherwise, let me know.
I was originally going to call the plankton in black the elite plankton...but I liked the name plankton in black better. They definitely are elite plankton though.
Let me know if you agree.
Chapter 32: X Marks the Spot
"Man, those plankton in black were tough." remarked Sandy.
It was surprising how strong the small critters could be.
It seemed like Plankton really wasn't playing around anymore. Likewise, his plankton were clearly taking them seirously, unlike the hillbillies who only seemed to think of them as a joke.
The shark that he had sent was ultimately only the tip of the iceberg, as Mindy had said.
Though speaking of which, they had encountered the shark once again.
Hunter was becoming desperate to take them down, it seemed. Hence the nasty sharks he had brought with him.
One thing was for sure, the plankton in black weren't the dumb plankton that they had encountered early on in their journey.
They were far worse.
"I don't think we've seen the last of them." noted Wendy.
Which was very unfortunate.
"I would imagine we haven't." answered Gary. There seemed to be a lot of them.
Sure enough, more of the plankton in black ambushed them.
"You're not getting any closer to Plankton if we have anything to say about it." remarked one of the plankton.
They tossed a bomb that was painted to look like Plankton.
"Aah!" exclaimed Patrick.
That bomb had almost hit him.
The bomb left behind a small imprint on the ground.
He might be as dumb as a rock, but even he knew that explosives were dangerous.
Not least because they were one of the few things that could damage his house.
"How many of them are there?" asked Spongebob. It took time to train plankton like these.
"I don't know, but they're not going to make approaching Plankton's stronghold easy." noted Mr. Krabs.
The Plankton in Black had clearly been trained to handle situations like this.
And that training was paid off...though they had yet to defeat our heroes.
One of them built a teleporter.
More plankton in black started emerging from it.
It would be best if they destroyed the teleporter.
Otherwise, they could end up being overwhelmed.
Fortunately, it turns out the teleporter actually wasn't difficult to destroy.
Pearl tossed a black pearl and the small machine exploded.
Some Plankton in Black came riding a sea spider.
It looked like the one Spongebob, Squidward, and Patrick had encountered at Jellyfish Fields.
Luckily, fire worked well at scaring it off.
Though the Plankton in Black were hard to scare, they all decided it would be best to fall back for a moment.
Our heroes were happy to see that.
But unbeknownst to the heroes, the PIB had a commander. Well, they had Plankton obviously, but besides that.
He looked identical to the Plankton in Black, but he was red in color.
He had decided to support Plankton's scheme. The man wanted people to take him seriously, but that was kind of hard when you were only a few inches tall.
The commander decided to have a chat with his men.
He was currently slurping down his coffee.
And yes, it was a very small coffee mug.
He was sitting at his desk. And yes, it was a very small desk.
You were probably starting to notice a pattern.
"I want a status report." spoke the commander of the PIB.
He was known as Commander Calanus.
"We haven't caught them yet." explained a member of the group. Those do-gooders deserved their reputation as superheroes.
"We must stop them from reaching the Voracious Volcano at all costs. Set up more defenses." instructed Calanus.
"Sir, yes, sir!" exclaimed the member, saluting the commander with respect.
Our heroes encountered Spot again.
"When will this amoeba stop getting in our way?" asked Squidward.
He always seemed to pop up to inconvenience our heroes.
And it would be even harder to find him now given how dark it was in Rock Bottom. Did any one of them have a flashlight? Gary and Wendy probably didn't because they didn't have hands to hold one.
The citizens must spend a lot of money on their electricity bills.
Anyways, he was getting tired of catching the amoeba.
As before, he was carrying a key.
It seemed that they would need it to open another gate that the plankton had set up.
"Well, time to catch Spot once again." noted Wendy.
Suddenly, Spot split himself into eight.
Gary's big eyes widened in surprise.
This caused the key to split into eight as well.
"Did you know he could do that?" asked Patrick, scratching his pink head.
"He didn't before." answered Spongebob.
Things could get complicated.
It looked like they would have to split up to catch all the amoeba.
And to make matters worse, there were more surprises waiting for our heroes.
Sandy encountered several statues of Plankton.
They were rather menacing, to say the very least.
"Plankton sure likes statues of himself." noted the squirrel.
Perhaps he figured if he sculpted these statues he could forget how small he was. It helped to keep his mind off of that.
Though if his plan succeeded, everyone would be as small as he was.
For such a small creature, he had a big ego.
Suddenly, they began to come to life.
"Wait, they come to life? We're in trouble." remarked the squirrel.
She honestly hadn't been expecting that. Though it did seem that Plankton took his sculpting rather seriously.
It didn't seem like a good idea to take them on alone.
They were really big.
Besides, she doubted that she could take down by punching them.
After all, they were made of solid rock.
It seemed like a better idea to find her friends.
Spongebob encountered viper fish.
They looked like a cross between a fish...and a snake.
Also, they has glowing white eyes.
They were unnerving.
One of them hissed at him.
Spongebob chuckled nervously, and began to back away slowly.
It would probably be best if he didn't provoke these fish.
A certain squid had something to say about the subject.
She was watching nearby.
"You're going to want to watch out for these fish. They're pretty poisonous." remarked Inkabeth.
And to make matters worse, they had heat vision. Squidward's invisibility wouldn't work against them.
She would like to use them against Squidward, but Spongebob's reaction would be worth an addition in the photo album.
If he was bitten, he had better locate an antidote quickly. Otherwise, he just might pass out. And then he would have to be ferried to the Bikini Bottom hospital.
And yes, this wasn't actually realistic. Viperfish weren't poisonous in reality, despite what their name would imply.
They were still debatably scary in real life though. The author can say that much.
"Aaaah!" exclaimed Spongebob, pressing his hands against the side of his square head.
He wasn't looking forward to being bitten by one, that was for sure.
Though given that he was part of a team of superheroes, perhaps he could be cured...if he could find his teammates before he passed out. Sandy probably knew a thing or two about making an antidote.
Still, he didn't feel like taking the risk of allowing one to bite him in the first place.
So he ran, sweating as he did so.
Patrick encountered more Jelliens.
He wondered why they didn't carry electricity like the jellyfish they originated from.
It seemed that they were searching for the heroes.
"Didn't we take out your leader? Then again, I don't remember things too good." noted the starfish.
He scratched his pointy pink head.
The Jelliens nodded.
They had defeated their overlord.
But they had decided not to give up because of that.
Plankton had decided that he would be in charge of them until they could make another overlord.
Oddly enough, the destruction of the overlord hadn't destroyed them as well.
Perhaps the overlord that had been destroyed hadn't been so linked to them as was the case with the overlord that had attacked Bikini Bottom.
Squidward encountered ninja starfish.
"Is it just me or is this clever?" asked the octopus.
He didn't imagine Patrick as the stealthy type though. More the strong and dumb type.
One of them threw himself at him, spinning around as he did so.
Pearl encountered anglerfish.
She was repulsed by their appearances.
"These guys are so ugly!" exclaimed the whale. She was glad she hadn't visited Rock Bottom up until now.
Small wonder her father had chosen to place his business in Bikini Bottom and not this city.
"We're girls. And we don't take too kindly to that." pointed out one of the anglerfish.
And yes, this was truth in television. Male anglerfish were way smaller than female anglerfish, so if you saw one, chances are it was a girl.
Pearl chuckled nervously.
"My apologies..." spoke the whale.
One of the anglerfish launched an orb of electrical energy at her.
"Aaahhh!" exclaimed Pearl.
Quickly, she dodged the blast.
She then decided to run.
Getting fried was not something she wished to experience.
Unfortunately, the anglerfish began to search for her.
Their lights helped to illuminate the darkness...which made finding prey so much easier.
Mr. Krabs encountered a big plankton.
It seemed he was blocking him from going further.
However, he wasn't phased by that.
"I may be past my prime, but I can still take ye!" exclaimed the crustacean.
He held his claws in front of his face. He knew that was what he was supposed to protect.
"Can you take on my friends too?" asked the big plankton.
Seemed this big plankton wasn't alone.
He had brought company.
"Aahhh!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs, sweat coming down his face.
This was about as scary when he discovered that there was a dollar missing from his cash register.
Squidward claimed that he hadn't stolen it...though it wouldn't be surprising considering how little Mr. Krabs paid him.
Gary encountered some catfish.
These felines were decidedly vicious.
And they had sharp claws too.
One of them hissed at him.
He hid in his shell.
Afterwards, he decided to use his telekinetic powers to fly away.
Wendy encountered Hunter.
"Would you care to play a game of whack-a-worm? My friends are interested in playing that game." pointed out the shark.
He had brought several hammerheads with him.
The sight of them made Wendy feel nervous.
"I'll pass." answered the worm.
She decided to dig away. She didn't think that she could take on those sharks by herself.
Besides, she knew that being hammered by them really hurt.
And she knew Squidward didn't want anything to happen to her.
There was a reason why Hunter had picked them to protect the Voracious Volcano.
Spongebob met up with Sandy.
It was times like this when he was back at the Krusty Krab flipping patties.
Back then, his life was so simple. It wasn't an exciting life for anyone else, but Spongebob enjoyed it.
Though even then, there was always Plankton trying to steal the Krabby Patty formula.
There was too much at stake to back down though. Everyone on Bikini Bottom was counting on both his team and himself. And chances are the S-Men couldn't stop Plankton without him.
"I didn't know Rock Bottom's populace could be so deadly..." remarked Spongebob. Though to be fair, he didn't visit Rock Bottom much. He preferred it to where the sun was clearly visible.
Granted, he found them to be scary, but they didn't actually seem to be harmful. And they never seemed to come to Bikini Bottom besides.
"They're not all bark and no bite, Spongebob." noted Sandy.
Although, not all of them worked for Plankton.
Mr. Krabs suddenly ran towards them.
He was sweating.
"What's wrong, Mr. Krabs?" asked Spongebob.
Had his cash register been emptied?
He could tell that something was troubling him.
But as it turned out, it wasn't related to his money.
"These big plankton are trying to break me legs!" exclaimed the crab, pointing in the direction of the thugs.
It seemed they did not respect their elders.
Or perhaps they simply did not like the Krusty Krab.
Mr, Krabs knew that Plankton didn't. He was probably the one resident of Bikini Bottom that had never eaten a Krabby Patty.
Despite his dislike for his boss, even Squidward had eaten one.
A certain fish had something to say regarding his situation.
"Welcome to my world." remarked Fred.
"Fred? What are ye doing here?" asked Mr. Krabs.
He was under the impression that he would still be at Bikini Bottom.
"Took the wrong city bus." explained the unfortunate fish.
Currently, he was using crutches. He thankfully did not need a wheelchair.
"I've been there." remarked Spongebob.
It had been a hassle getting back to his pineapple, that was for sure.
Luckily Gary didn't have to go hungry.
He would be unhappy if he wasn't able to feed his snail.
Patrick decided to warn his friends about the jelliens.
They were still out there.
And unfortunately, Hunter and Inkabeth were still out there as well.
"There's more of those jelliens! Should we grab some mayo?" asked Patrick. He wasn't sure where they would find mayo in Rock Bottom, but there was a possibility that there was more nearby.
"That would be a good idea." remarked Mr. Krabs. They didn't know how many of them were left, though chances are there weren't so many now that their leader was gone.
"Man, Plankton has set up a lot of defenses." noted Wendy. What adversaries would they encounter next? There was no telling.
"We are approaching his stronghold, after all." pointed out Gary.
It seemed they needed to work together to take them down.
They would start with the muscular plankton, one of which Spongebob had encountered at the beginning of his quest.
They were the closest.
Gary seemed like the snail for the job.
"Oh look, a big scary snail is trying to stop us from beating the old timer!" taunted one of the big plankton.
The other big plankton let out a laugh.
He was going to regret saying that, and the snail was going to get the last laugh.
Suddenly, Gary used his powers to throw a rock at the offending big plankton.
"Ow! What gives?" asked the plankton, rubbing his head where the rock had hit him.
He then used his powers to slam the big plankton together.
"Owww!" exclaimed the big plankton.
Afterwards, Gary found an amoeba.
He was resting behind a rock.
Perhaps splitting into eight caused Spot to lose a lot of energy...and perhaps why he didn't do so before.
There were still seven left to go though.
After that ambush. they began to hear the sound of stomping.
It appeared that the statues had managed to find them.
"It looks like Plankton wants to create a stone wall around his restaurant..." noted Squidward.
This looked like a job for Pearl.
Unfortunately for them, rock was not a problem for the whale.
Her explosives toppled them like dominoes.
"It makes me feel good destroying such ugly statues." remarked Pearl.
Afterwards, Pearl found another amoeba.
Next up were the catfish.
Wendy decided to handle the situation.
She dug a hole and the catfish fell in.
They screeched as they fell.
She then found another amoeba.
Pearl had to admit, Spot was rather cute.
Afterwards came the jelliens.
Squidward summoned some jellyfish.
This confused the jelliens.
They didn't know which of them were on their side and which were on Squidward's side.
So they decided to take their leave.
Squidward smirked, which was a rarity for him.
As they did so, one of them dropped an amoeba.
Seemed he had decided to take one of the jelliens for a ride.
Next were the viperfish.
Sandy tied them up in knots.
She then found an amoeba...who was admiring her handiwork.
Then the hammerheads showed up.
But Patrick dropped rocks on them.
One of the amoeba went to investigate the commotion...
...which allowed Patrick to grab him.
Pearl then informed of the anglerfish that were approaching them.
They were searching for her specifically.
But they might attack the others. It seemed they were working for Plankton too.
"These anglerfish attacked me!" explained the whale.
"They what?!" exclaimed Mr. Krabs.
This made him feel very angry.
In retaliation, he pulled out a flamethrower.
"This can't be good." remarked one of the anglerfish.
He used it to attack the female denizens of the deep.
Unlike Sandy's fire powers, it had a recharge time.
But it was still useful.
Afterwards, an amoeba crawled up to Mr. Krabs.
Perhaps it liked money too.
"What's left?" asked Patrick.
As it turned out, it was the ninja starfish.
Spongebob imprisoned them in bubbles.
In the process, he caught the last amoeba.
"By the way Patrick, why do you live under a rock?" asked Pearl.
"I didn't want people to break in." explained Patrick.
"That's probably the smartest idea you've had." noted Squidward. He wasn't sure even Larry the Lobster could lift his house.
The eight amoeba automatically combined together to form Spot again.
"What should we do with him? He keeps getting in our way." noted Wendy.
Would they have to chase after him again?
"Maybe we could send him to Mindy." suggested Spongebob.
Chances are she would look after him while they dealt with Plankton and his army.
"That's not a bad idea." agreed Sandy.
He decided to talk to Mindy in order to do just that.
"Yes, Spongebob? Do you need something?" asked Mindy.
She was always happy to help Spongebob, especially now that they were getting closer to Plankton's lair.
"I was wondering if you could look after a pet for me." explained Spongebob.
"Gary? I thought he was helping you stop Plankton from turning us all into plankton like himself." pointed out the mermaid. Was he worried for Gary's safety? She supposed it was understandable. Gary had once been snailnapped by Mr. Krabs as part of a money scheme...she didn't know for sure how much money he had stolen, but she was pretty sure it was a pretty penny.
"He still is. I actually had a different pet in mind." noted the sponge.
"What pet would that be then?" asked Mindy.
She knew that Spongebob also had that scallop, but he never seemed to leave his cage.
"That would be Spot, Plankton's pet amoeba. He's been causing us a lot of problems. I was wondering if you could look after him while we search for Plankton in Rock Bottom." explained Spongebob.
The mermaid nodded.
A guard came to pick up Spot, putting him in a snail carrier.
"Well, that takes care of Spot." noted Patrick.
No longer would they have to play hide and seek with him.
"Yeah, but I think we might have another problem to deal with, fellas. I believe the Plankton in Black mentioned something about a commander." pointed out Sandy.
"They have a commander?" asked Squidward. That was a new one.
"Somebody had to train these troops to ensure they were ready to defend Plankton's stronghold." pointed out Wendy. Otherwise, they would probably still be hillbillies.
"That's a fair point." nodded the octopus. Plankton wouldn't hand out powerful weapons to his farmer cousins. He would want plankton that knew what they were doing. Hence the commander.
"Things will be a lot more difficult for us if the enemy has a competent leader. So it might be best if we took some time off from finding Plankton to find the commander." answered Sandy.
"Isn't time of the essence though?" pointed out Gary. He imagined that it wouldn't be long until Plankton's ray gun was ready to blast Bikini Bottom.
"True...but on the other hand, we might be able to get into the volcano a lot faster if the enemy is less organized." pointed out the squirrel.
"Fair enough." remarked Wendy.
The commander might be hard to find though.
Given that he was a plankton, chances are he would be small.
Though if they were lucky, perhaps he would find them instead.
The commander wasn't happy with his soldiers.
"Have you still not caught them?" asked the commander.
One of the PIB nodded.
Having walkie talkies was a good idea.
It helped them coordinate attacks.
For all their strength, the Tough Plankton hadn't thought of that.
Perhaps they were more brawn than brain.
"Well, believe me, I don't want to lose my job." remarked the leader of the PIB.
Plankton wouldn't be happy if they didn't capture the heroes soon.
Another PIB nodded.
"Send in more vehicles." instructed the commander.
Hopefully Hunter and Inkabeth would be able to help him. It seemed that his men had their hands full with them.
To his knowledge, they went back to the Voracious Volcano.
Plankton was displeased at the turn of events.
"Nooo! They captured my pet!" exclaimed Plankton, pressing his hands against his head and screaming.
Karen began to cry. It looked as if she wouldn't be seeing him again for a while, unless she displayed him on her monitor.
Luckily, she didn't short-circuit this time.
It may not seem obvious, but Plankton learned from his mistakes.
Though it didn't stop him from being unable to collect the Krabby Patty formula for years.
"If only his depth perception were better." noted Hunter. Perhaps he was lucky that he has two eyes, not one.
"I have to admit, it's getting pretty quiet in here." remarked Inkabeth. A lot of the villains were gone. Manray, the Dirty Bubble...the Flying Dutchman...Madame Hagfish...
He had been so handy too. Even if he did eat that Krabby Patty that was supposed to be delivered to him for research.
It looked as if they wouldn't be able to use him against the heroes anymore.
So he would need to come up with other ways to keep the heroes from closing in on him. Though to be honest, he had already tried a lot of ideas. He had even had the Flying Dutchman himself fight them.
It was a shame that none of his ideas had worked, because our heroes were getting closer to his hideout.
At least the Plankton in Black had torn down the signs leading to the restaurant, so that our heroes wouldn't know where to go.
He should thank them for that. Especially their commander.
"Those heroes have crossed the line! I'm sending in some of my best machines!" shouted the plankton.
He pressed a remote and did just that.
The robots stepped off the conveyer belt.
Life was about to become more difficult for our heroes.
Though given the presence of the PIB, it wasn't easy to begin with.
Well, Spot won't bother our heroes anymore.
That's the last our heroes have seen of him.
But there's another wave coming.
No, not a tidal wave. It wouldn't be surprising considering what Spongebob Squarepants is about but no.
Also, I figured I would give the Plankton in Black a commander. I figured it would make things more interesting since I'm reusing Hunter and Inkabeth.