Chapter Sixty-seven: Reveille
Plankton rushed home to his wife.
He burst through the lab's double doors, ran past the barking Labrador on the nine-screen monitor, and skidded to a stop before Karen.
She was there. The green line etched across her screen showed that she was herself. No one had hacked her, twisting his dream into a nightmare, in contrast to the constant nightmare of his waking life.
Even Sailor Neptune had made his dream better.
The almighty Plankton was the only one who could take matters into his own hands, or so he'd thought. Instead, a human had shown him that, to make a better life, he didn't need to steal the secret formula.
Would he still go after it? Perhaps.
Either way, Karen was in front of him. He couldn't focus on a mere human… Perhaps the human was greater than he believed. She'd helped him, offered to help him seize the formula but had decided that she was too good to steal. At least she had helped him defeat Krabs. Enough to put her in his good graces.
If she had done such greatness as defeat Krabs and make Plankton feel how Makoto's hug had made him feel, then maybe she could restore his Chum Bucket.
Plankton warmed at Michiru's kindness, at his wife. For once, all was well. He hadn't even needed to vaporize anyone.
"Karen." His deeper voice carried the spreading warmth.
"Plankton." The line on her screen pulsed with her even-keeled voice. Steady when Plankton's world had collapsed. "You've gotten small."
"I did it on purpose." A bite tinged his voice. Size had always been a sensitive topic. "This is my dream, you know. I can do whatever I want. Control whoever I want. Including you." He didn't want to control her, though. That feeling from Makoto and Michiru, he felt it toward Karen too much to control her.
Even though he'd built her, programmed her personality, Plankton liked to think that her feelings for him had grown over the decades.
Depending on how things turned out in the waking world, he wanted to ask her the question now. He was confident that Karen would return intact, but it might take another twenty years for their relationship to develop into what it currently was.
So he said, "Karen, do you, do you, um…?" What was that feeling called? One of those words like "help" that brought bile to Plankton's throat. Began with an "L." SpongeBob used the word sometimes. Krabs used it, too, when talking about the pufferfish.
Karen regarded Plankton. After decades of marriage, surely, she knew what he was getting at.
She sighed. "You never were good with words. Most self-proclaimed geniuses aren't. You, chiefly."
He smiled at the insult. "I…" He couldn't say the word, whatever it was.
Karen remained silent.
"Karen, do you see me?"
"I do." Her voice was soft.
"I-I'm glad." He felt like a teenager trying to ask a girl out. Plankton had never dated, much less gotten a girl to agree for him to take her out. He'd asked girls to go on dates more out of fear of loneliness in his later life, not because he liked them. Rejection after rejection made him declare that he was too smart for them, that they couldn't understand him, anyhow, so why bother to get to know them? Heck, by looking at them, he could tell that they were airheaded.
The lies he told himself.
"At first," Karen said, "when you built me, I didn't. I was grateful because you made me, but that was all. To be honest, I resented you a little. You built a great computer and didn't give me the ability to explore the world. You kept me confined in your restaurant."
Plankton hadn't let her leave because he feared a more appealing person taking her away from him, too. Her making friends who she preferred to spend time with over him.
He had done so much out of fear, getting nowhere but to a place of unending, hollowing anxiety.
"I understand why."
Plankton's mouth parted. A weight lifted. Like Michiru, she saw him.
"As I got to know you over many, many years, because it did take me a long time, I warmed up to you. Your persistence. Your determination. Your smarts." Didn't mix in insults, telling him that he did many foolish things, but he was still a genius. Plankton knew that, at his core, he was a fool, but he puffed himself up by proclaiming that he was not. "You always came home. You never left me alone for one night, no matter how late you stayed up planning. You always slept at my side. You built me so I never need to sleep, but you were always there at the end of the day. As we kept talking, I began to know you more. And then, years after you made me, there was a point where I realized that I did."
"When was that?" More importantly, what great thing had Plankton done?
"You'd acted like a fool that day, as usual."
Plankton deflated. Of course he'd been foolish.
"But it wasn't all bad. It was how you responded. How you always respond. Once again, you were trying to steal the krabby patty secret formula. Once again, you failed. This time, you had hired SpongeBob and tried to get him to make the krabby patty so you could see the secret formula in action. One of your better ideas, I must admit. You acted stupid, trying to get SpongeBob to care about the Chum Bucket as much as he did the Krusty Krab. When you failed again, you came up to me that night."
Her screen blanked and then reappeared with the scene she was speaking of. In her screen, Plankton stood in front of Karen, clad in his red, explosion-patterned pajamas and crimson nightcap.
"Another day, another failure," the Karen in the screen said.
Plankton hadn't glared. Too mentally exhausted to shout. "I'm not in the mood, Karen." He didn't have the energy to act embarrassed to admit what he was about to admit. "Today, I realized something. Other than how to fail in a million ways while getting annoyed seven ways from Sunday." He shuddered, and the real Plankton shuddered in unison. How did Krabs put up with the grating SpongeBob every day? The Plankton on the screen continued, "That idiot taught me something."
He looked at his wife with bags under his eyes, compliments of SpongeBob draining years of life from him. "I think I know why SpongeBob couldn't make the krabby patty for me. He made it seem like he'd be betraying Krabs if he did. But I think it's something more than that, even more than the compassion and kindness you told me to show him." He clenched a hand over his heart. "He, he sees Krabs as someone more than a boss. Maybe…like family? Like a father? I don't know. The more I watched SpongeBob try, and fail, to work well for me, the more I saw that we aren't close. Not close like him and Krabs." He rubbed his arm. "Maybe people work better for you when they have a good relationship with you. Maybe they treat you better. It might not be only getting things done, but it's the idiotic, ooey-gooey things like relationships that matter, too." He retched. "Makes my stomach roil just thinking about it.
"Karen, I've never wanted to hire anyone because I'm afraid that they can't work as excellently as I. Okay, maybe they could. Maybe a little better." He waved a hand dismissively. "No, who am I kidding? Not myself."
"Mostly yourself."
Plankton had let the insult roll over him, too empty to argue. "I've, I have a hard time relating with other people. So if I hired any workers, I'd have a hard time talking to them. I don't think I'm there yet.
"You know what else I realized? I spend time with you. Maybe not enough, but I do. At night, talking to you. We've been married for over twenty years, but our relationship isn't close like theirs. I want us to grow closer. To get to know each other more."
Karen hadn't said anything. Perhaps regarding him once more.
"Say something." Had Plankton said something wrong in his emotional tirade?
"Can we start tonight?" Karen said.
The real Plankton's heart softened. How valued he had felt by her at that moment, in a world where others didn't value him. Or he didn't give them a chance to value him.
The Plankton on the screen replied, "I was hoping you'd say that." The screen faded as Plankton walked beside his wife, lay next to her, closed his eyes and talked, listened.
"That was the first time you admitted that you didn't know something without lying or being sarcastic," the real—dream? Might as well be real—Karen said. "For the first time, you weren't prideful. That's when our relationship began to change, Sheldon." She said his first name without a trace of mockery. "You started listening to me like I was a real person. Someone with a soul. Not listening to me just to gain knowledge, but because you cared about my perspective on things. Getting to know my likes and dislikes."
Plankton found himself smiling. "You like dogs, hence the Labrador Retriever on our screen, and you dislike messes, hence why we've never gotten a dog, because they're messy."
"You remember."
"I wouldn't forget."
"At one time, you would. Now you're making an effort to remember me instead of focusing only on that darn formula."
"I miss you, Karen. They've taken you away from me, but I will get you back home."
"I believe in you. It doesn't look like I do most of the time, but I do. Even if you never steal the secret formula, you'll make things work. You have been for decades. That's why I know you'll save me and Bikini Bottom."
Plankton's brow creased. "But I don't care about—"
"Yes, you do. Much more than you think. "
Karen may know many things about him, but not that. He wouldn't start an argument when they'd been reunited after what felt like eons.
"I won't start anything with you," Karen said. "Not now, when you're being so sweet to me. I've delayed you long enough. Go get me."
"I will." Plankton balled his hands. "When I'm through with them, they won't dare come against me or you again." He took in her screen, the green line upon it indicating life, that she was and always would be on his side. "I, um… I…" For once, the word didn't bring bile to his throat. Why couldn't he admit it?
"I know. Save your breath for the real me."
"Yes," Plankton said, too quickly. Curse his weakness. "Goodbye. For now." He closed his eyes, and his dream, what he thought would be paradise, fell away.
Only for him to open his eyes to chaos.
Once again, one of the Guardians had been knocked unconscious. Makoto, of course.
Makoto shook her head, trying to return to the dream world. She would not fall unconscious. Not in the middle of a fight. Tried to reach for the Lemures upon her, to rip them off.
"Get off her."
A strike, and Makoto jolted to the left, felt like she was flying.
SpongeBob had spoken. Who knew that a nearly weightless sponge would be her savior? If a sponge had to play Helios to her Chibi-Usa, then maybe Makoto wasn't as big and bad as others said she was.
Makoto slammed against…water? Instead of passing through, she hovered against the wave. Like the water was carrying her.
Michiru had returned.
Makoto opened her eyes. SpongeBob was actually powerful, with his voice bringing her back to the dream world.
Before her, Lemures swelled. Usagi and Mamoru kept fighting, beams slicing through the globe of Lemures like lights from a disco ball.
The wave bounded below her, letting her rest upon it. Revealing a hovering, glowing Michiru, her hair flowing upward, eyes a brighter turquoise than the sea.
Michiru's eyes drifted to Makoto.
"Hi, Michiru-san," Makoto said to say something.
"Don't talk just to make noise," Michiru said. Hot damn. Makoto had been trying to ease the tension.
"How did you get back?"
Michiru raised her hand. In it was Plankton. "Him."
Makoto gawked. "Him?"
Plankton's eye was open but glazed, like he was trying to wake fully.
"I'm making more questions for you. We have a fight in front of us." Michiru looked ahead, observing the fray instead of jumping in, like Makoto would. Like Haruka would.
How many more questions Makoto had for Michiru. How she wanted to sit and talk with her mentor.
The next best thing was fighting alongside Michiru.
Makoto took to the air, floating inches behind the older Guardian. "What should we do first?"
Michiru raised an eyebrow. "You can figure out where to attack first. You've shown me, time and again, that you have great fighting instincts. Go."
The point was to watch Michiru, gain wisdom and fight more effectively.
Regardless, Makoto followed Michiru's command. Her mentor knew best, right?
She flew toward the battle, not knowing what she'd do, afraid to hit her friends.
Michiru stayed back, felling Makoto's heart, quashing dreams of fighting with her mentor. Michiru was watching instead.
A test.
Makoto was terrible at the tests in school, but she should excel at physical tests. Michiru's test seemed more important than any school test Makoto had taken. Lives hung in the balance of Michiru's test. An "F" marked on a paper was inconsequential.
Suddenly, Makoto felt like she was trying to pass a test she hadn't studied for. No way could she defeat these Lemures by herself.
Out of the corner of her eye, Makoto saw CereCere and Fisheye lurking in the treedome. Should she go after them first, since they controlled the Lemures, or should she go after the Lemures themselves? Usagi, Mamoru, and SpongeBob had hemmed the Lemures in.
SpongeBob bounded out of the Lemures, a beam of light following, like the beam had projected him out. He spun in the air and then dove toward the treedome like a rocket. Blew a rocket-shaped bubble behind him, the bubble jetting out flames from its bottom, propelling him through the treedome, shattering its polyurethane. Grabbing Fisheye's hand, CereCere ran toward the back of the treedome, where no exit was. What did they expect to be able to do?
Members of the Dead Moon Circus against a sea creature. Not a match even enough for Makoto's liking.
She swiveled, flying toward the treedome. SpongeBob, who had fallen flat on his face, peeled himself up and took a kung-fu stance that was way off. One hand was raised upward, toward the sun, while another was stretched to his side. He would protect no one, least of all himself.
The Lemures gushed before Makoto, blocking her.
SpongeBob would be Billy and Fred all over again.
Makoto's eyes sharpened. Electricity surged in her palms. She threw the discs of electricity as quickly as they gathered, making the Lemures explode in showers of electricity.
Michiru was still watching.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" Makoto hadn't meant to sound harsh. "You can stop all of this with a snap of a finger, but you're floating there. You're no better than King Neptune." The last sentence was out before she realized what she was saying.
Michiru remained stoic. She wasn't an idiot. Perhaps she had sent Makoto ahead so she wouldn't have to fight and accidentally destroy.
Makoto cringed. Michiru wasn't being selfish.
Makoto kept tossing the discs of electricity, not stemming the Lemures' assault. She surrounded herself in electricity and flew toward the Lemures. She would not lose her friends to Dead Moon.
Crashing into the Lemures, she bent them backward, like they were a slingshot, ignoring the nightmares filling her head. The Lemures slung back, propelling her backward. More swallowed her.
"Sailor Neptune, I need your help." Went without saying.
The roaring sea, the whistle of a beam, nothing came. Michiru was not coming to save her.
The electricity around Makoto intensified. She channeled energy and then hurled herself upward. She wasn't a ball to be tossed around.
She hovered above the fray. Below, Michiru looked up at her.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" Makoto said. Michiru had been hesitant before, too.
Michiru had whispered that she didn't want to hurt her friends.
"Are you afraid?" Even though Makoto had spoken softly, Michiru blinked. Despite her wishes and attempts at self-control, she would never be the perfect soldier.
Michiru kept looking Makoto in the eyes. Had she thought that her junior would challenge her? Her subtle reactions made her a hard read.
"I am."
Suddenly, Michiru was human. No longer was she an unattainable goal.
"I am too, Michiru-san," Makoto said, the Lemures flying toward her. They didn't matter, as long as she got the rest out of her mouth. "I'm not stopping, though."
"I'll hurt you."
"Maybe. Most likely not. You love us too much, and we love you, too."
Michiru's mouth parted. She looked at Makoto differently, not like she was younger and immature, but as an equal.
Makoto pushed down the swelling pride and smiled for Michiru's sake. "You may be a goddess, but you never lost yourself. You always looked out for us. And for the sea creatures." She placed a hand on her heart. "I guess…that's why I want to be like you and Haruka-san. Because you both stay true to yourselves, no matter what happens." Before Makoto floated Michiru Kaiou. A young, elegant woman who remained steadfast in her convictions, focused on the task at hand. Sure, she had become so focused that she'd almost killed Hotaru, but she'd learned.
"I don't want to be like you because you're perfect." Makoto used to think Michiru was perfect, but these past few hours showed that Michiru would never be. The greatest lesson Makoto had learned. Despite Michiru breaking in front of her, Makoto thought more highly of Michiru.
Since Michiru had become a goddess, Makoto started seeing Michiru differently, too. At first, Makoto had placed Michiru on a pedestal. Once Michiru had flooded the Chum Bucket, she'd shown that she was fallible. That she had the capacity to grow. Makoto needed to humbly accept criticism instead of trying to defend herself. She would grow more. She'd help more people.
"Haruka-san taught me something. That the greatest enemy we can fight is our own weakness."
Michiru's eyes cleared. "She was right." She smiled, too. "Of course Haruka would cross dimensions to help me." She wiped her eyes. Not ashamed of her crying.
Her eyes softened at Makoto. "Maybe she wanted me to go with you so I'd have a piece of her with me. She knew she'd rubbed off on you." She looked at her hands, let the glow surround them. "I've been fighting myself this whole time, not Dead Moon. Not King Neptune." Her smile broadened. "Thank you, Makoto."
Makoto grinned. "We all need encouragement, no matter how strong we think we are."
A glow sparked in Michiru's hand and then brightened, reflected the orange paintings on the walls. Reflected Michiru and Makoto. Only the junior and the senior.
Not junior and senior. Equals.
Makoto found herself flying to Michiru, as if compelled like a magnet. The gain would be greater than the fight below.
"Princess Jupiter." Michiru's voice had taken on an ephemeral quality. Michiru looked Makoto in the eye, and Makoto did the same. One of the seldom times she looked her mentor in the eye. "Thank you for protecting each of us. Because of you, I've grown. That's why, from my heart to yours, I'm giving you this gift." She held out a heart-shaped crystal. "It was always with you. You only needed to pull it out. Today, you have."
Makoto's vision blurred with tears.
"No, Princess Jupiter, there was never anything wrong with you. You weren't the last one to get your Crystal through any fault of yours but because the time wasn't right. Now is the right time. You've shown that you can handle the power while remaining humble. You've shown that you aren't afraid of others, that you'll protect them while encouraging them, never leaving them to fend for themselves. An experience I'm glad you've given me.
"I'm thankful to have you as my friend, Princess Jupiter, and I'm honored to fight alongside you."
Makoto was too, but her mouth dried, withering the words with it. Somehow, her eyes kept leaking.
Makoto, an equal with Michiru and Haruka.
"There's no reason to delay any longer." Michiru unfurled her hands, the soft golden glow betraying the power it held. "Your Jupiter Crystal."
Despite her anxiousness to take her Crystal, she reached gingerly.
She took the Jupiter Crystal, and the power flooded her.
It burst through her body, threatening to explode. A green light engulfed her. The world remained clear, and she saw everything without being clouded by emotions. Level-headed like Haruka and Michiru. No, in the way only Makoto Kino could be.
She held the Jupiter Crystal to her heart, and the words came. "Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-up!" The light grew brighter still, and lightning struck inside the dream world. Wind gusted, and the Lemures screamed as they were pushed away from her friends. Usagi clung to Mamoru.
Hollering echoed from below. CereCere and Fisheye, perhaps? Alongside the Lemures, they were the only ones with a reason to fear.
Makoto spread her arms, letting the power fill her more. She was not afraid of the power, more and more spreading with the striking lightning, the quickening wind. To the outsider, her powers looked chaotic.
When she thought she could hold no more, power came. With Haruka, Michiru's, and her own power, she could do anything.
The green glow filled her Crystal and surrounded her. The wind calmed, and the lightning ceased. No clouds had gathered with the sudden storm.
She crossed her arms, floating above the Lemures below. "I am Super Sailor Jupiter." She sparked lightning in her hand. "I am the final Guardian you will ever see." She glared at the treedome. CereCere and Fisheye were gone, perhaps cowering in Sandy's tree.
No matter. Defeat the Lemures, first, so she and her friends could go after CereCere and Fisheye.
She no longer needed lightning but an elegant yet powerful attack. An attack filled with Michiru's ladylikeness and Haruka's toughness, but also with Makoto's mercy.
An oak tree towered above the rest of the trees in the rainforest. Strong. Sturdy. Reliable. Its heavy, all-encompassing leaves draped the growing cedars and squirrels, down to the ladybugs, shielding all wildlife from storms, providing refuge from predators, hawks, birds.
Makoto was the oak. Her friends and the sea creatures were the wildlife.
The wind gusted faster, tossing Lemures about. Below, Plankton was knocked upside down, tumbling through the sand. Lightning struck within the wind. She'd never be able to escape her roots. Her lightning was uniquely her.
She'd be powerful and elegant on her own terms.
The lightning quickened, blinding. It struck around Super Sailor Jupiter, protecting her from oncoming attacks while she prepared her own. A perfect storm could overthrow ships, drown whales, inflame metal with a bolt of lightning. She was powerful enough to not need the rain.
Makoto Kino was the perfect storm.
"Jupiter…" Oak leaves gathered around her, the lightning flashing alongside the spinning leaves. The storm was hers to command. She raised fists. "Oak Evolution!" She threw her hands toward the Lemures, and the leaves hurtled toward them. Lightning struck individual Lemures, groups of Lemures cowering together. Wind hurled the Lemures into the striking lightning, popping them in a shower of sparks. Explosions boomed below, and smoke buried the dream world. The Lemures' cries died out.
She slowed the storm. No Lemures remained.
Super Sailor Jupiter turned toward the treedome. CereCere and Fisheye were next.
SpongeBob pried himself off the ground. Stood before CereCere and Fisheye, the two huddling in the back of the treedome.
"We should've run out the front door," Fisheye told CereCere. "The most obvious and the best way out was right in front of us. Everything doesn't have to be complicated all the time."
CereCere kicked Fisheye's shin, and Fisheye dissolved to the floor. "Shut up." Didn't take her glare off SpongeBob.
SpongeBob spread his arms, looked over himself. "Am I scary? Have I dreamed myself to be bigger than I feel?" He'd dreamed up a million copies of himself before. If CereCere and Fisheye tried to escape, he could block them through the power of numbers.
Fisheye scowled at SpongeBob.
The sponge's eyebrows arched upward. "Why don't you like me? I thought we could be friends. We're from the same place."
"You'd think that meant something, wouldn't you? You're a traitor. Turning to the humans instead of the fish. Where's your pride? The humans don't care about us except as food."
SpongeBob gestured toward the outside. "They do. They're protecting all of us. They're saving Bikini Bottom."
"For their own selfish reasons."
He cocked his head.
"So they can keep eating us, you idiot." Spittle flew out of Fisheye's mouth. "They live on an island up there. They'll die if the sea dies. The whole world will die if the sea dies. They're only looking out for themselves."
SpongeBob's frown deepened. "I can't see them doing something like that."
Fisheye scoffed. "Gullible fool."
He'd never thought of himself as gullible. He searched his mind for traitorous ways in the Guardians and Mamoru. They fought with one another, but they never dragged SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy or any of the sea creatures into their squabbles. They focused on saving the underwater world, no matter what happened between them. Usagi and Ami had done their best to help Mrs. Puff, who hated humans. They'd tried to bond with the jellyfish. They kept their own enemies at bay while fighting the robots. Protected Plankton, even though he'd caused the robot mess. They ignored their own world to save another, foreign one.
SpongeBob looked at Fisheye. Fisheye's glare. His eyes full of… SpongeBob couldn't pinpoint what kind of pain dwelled in his eyes.
"I like to see the best in people," SpongeBob said. "I'm not sure what kinds of humans you've run into, but these are the first ones I've gotten to know." He shrugged. "All I know is, these humans are genuine. I thought that a lot of people are genuine. I've been wrong lots of times. Plankton burned me a few times, and it won't be the last time he burns me. I think he can change. And he has, since I met him. I know who Plankton is, but I won't give up on him.
"The only thing I see in these humans is love. They could've decided to ignore the robot takeover and run back up to their world. Instead, they decided to help Bikini Bottom. They wouldn't go through all this trouble just to keep eating us. I like to think that there would've been a point where they would've stopped helping us, because selfishness can't drive us forever. But here they are, still helping us. Protecting Bikini Bottom from the robots. And from you."
CereCere gaped.
Fisheye looked at SpongeBob in a way he had never looked at the sponge before. "This is the first time I've heard you sound like a grown man instead of a child."
"Do you still not like me?"
"There's the child. Knew he was in there somewhere." Fisheye bit his lip. "I…"
Thunder crashed, and wind rammed the treedome, oak leaves swirling about, nearly tearing the treedome off its foundation. Fisheye startled, and CereCere hugged Fisheye tightly to her. Having nothing to grab onto, SpongeBob slammed himself to the grass, covering himself under his arms.
Silhouetted by the flashing lightning, Sailor Jupiter floated outside, stretching her arms. She was the cause of the storm.
Her goals were CereCere and Fisheye.
SpongeBob wouldn't let her.
He ran outside. The wind threw him onto his back. He forced open his watering eyes, oak leaves slicing him. Blunt attacks, like punches, didn't affect him, but cuts did.
The wind rippled his lips and cheeks. Tried to form his lips to make intelligible words. Couldn't. Tried gesturing for Sailor Jupiter to stop. Couldn't.
She couldn't be so blinded by her own storm that she'd attack SpongeBob. Could she?
She showed no signs of stopping.
Maybe, if SpongeBob saved CereCere and Fisheye, she'd get the message.
He turned toward the two, both scrambling toward the oak tree, seeking refuge behind it. The oak tree had survived harsh winters. Perhaps it could survive a storm.
SpongeBob was the nigh ruler of the dream world. He could do anything.
He closed his eyes and called out to the oak tree. Save them.
The oak tree bent down, reaching toward CereCere and Fisheye with its branches. The two shuffled to stops, CereCere shrieking. She and Fisheye scurried, both trying to change directions but falling over each other. The tree scooped them up and plopped them in the hole in its trunk. Safe from the storm.
SpongeBob turned toward Sailor Jupiter. Her eyes were white, like the lightning. Had she seen what he'd done?
He turned in the direction of the wind. Grabbed the grass, hooking his fingernails into it to stand his ground. Since the wind wasn't gusting in the opposite direction he was facing, he could speak.
He visualized. A mini-megaphone sprouted in his mouth. "Makoto."
The wind slowed.
"Makoto, it's me, SpongeBob."
The howling wind died down. "SpongeBob? What happened to CereCere and Fisheye? The tree picked them up."
"I made the tree save them. I talked with them. They aren't bad. Just poor, misguided souls in need of some lovin'."
"You, you…"
Was Makoto's hesitation good or bad? With how terrifying she looked, she'd frighten CereCere and Fisheye into staying in the tree.
The Lemures were gone. Plankton was no longer a threat. No robots roamed about, perhaps defeated.
The dream world was silent, letting the fish of Bikini Bottom dream peacefully once more.
Had to check on CereCere and Fisheye, reassure them about his protection. SpongeBob blew a rocket helmet onto his head and then launched himself inside the tree. CereCere and Fisheye huddled in the corner.
Fisheye clenched his hands. "What do you want now?"
"Here to drag us out to our doom," CereCere said.
"No, just gonna drag you out to Makoto and the others. I did save you, after all." He reached toward them. "C'mon. We all need friends."
Fisheye slapped SpongeBob's hand away. "We don't need friends."
Maybe these two were like Squidward, acting like they hated SpongeBob but actually liking him.
A snapping noise echoed, and the lights blew out outside of the treedome.
"What the hell?" Makoto said.
SpongeBob ran to the tree's entrance. Poked his head out and then decided that he needed to be in the middle, to see what was happening. Blasting his helmet, he flew out of the tree, into complete darkness, darker than Rock Bottom.
He could see nothing.
"With me."
SpongeBob flew faster. King Neptune was calling them.