Chapter 3 – Poor One-Armed SpongeBob

It was another imaginative adventure for Mike's toys. In this plot, Abby Cadabby is captured by Evil Dr. Penguin, which is Cody, wearing an eyepatch and a white labcoat. SpongeBob SquarePants approached the scene of the capture right into Dr. Penguin's fortress.

"Help! Help! Somebody help me!" Mike impersonated Abby's voice, while dangling her on a string.

Mike made SpongeBob run over to the rescue. "Let Abby go, Evil Dr. Penguin!"

"NEVER!" Cody, played as the villain by Mike's imagination, was perched on top of a plastic bucket with the LEGO soldier minifigures stand around him were as if they were his bodyguards. "You must choose, SpongeBob SquarePants: how shall she be dead? Alligator? Or death by monkeys?" Mike moved Abby from Louis's open mouth over to a group of red plastic monkeys, which the boy had arranged to make it look like they torn Oscar apart. He picked up one red monkey and made monkey sounds as if to scare SpongeBob. "Choose!"

"I choose...Jimmy Neutron!" Mike mimicked SpongeBob's voice. Using the remote, he drove Jimmy out of a box on Lightning McQueen, the red RC car, for a surprise attack on Dr. Penguin. The boy then mocked Dr. Penguin's voice, as if he were astounded, "What? That's not a choice!"

"To infinity and beyond!" With Lightning McQueen driving into the air from a ramp, Jimmy, his frozen fist raised, knocked Cody off his perch, sending his cork and coins flying, with his LEGO sergeant bodyguards scattered.

"I'll save you, Miss Cadabby!" Mike moved SpongeBob over to Abby, imitating his voice in a debonair manner.

"My hero!" Abby squealed from Mike's voice, before the boy made Abby kiss SpongeBob numerously. They really enjoyed this, even in toy mode. Mike picked Jimmy from the floor and mimicked SpongeBob's voice, "Thanks, Jimmy! I owe you!" He spoke in Jimmy's voice, "No problem, buddy! You should never tangle with the unstoppable duo..." The boy made the sponge and boy genius toys link arms with each other, proclaiming with a very proud voice, "...of SpongeBob SquarePants and Jimmy Neutron!"

Unfortunately, the celebration was cut short when Mike accidentally forced Jimmy's arm to make a small rip in SpongeBob's right arm. He gasped in concern, putting Jimmy down on the floor before looking at the sponge doll. "Oh, no!" Mike loves this toy so much, and now it's broken.

Mike's mom and dad come into the room, sticking their heads in the door. "Mike, come on. Your friends are waiting for you at the door!" Mike's mom said.

"But, Mom, Dad, SpongeBob's arm ripped." Mike presented the broken toy to his parents.

"Oh, no." Mary felt sympathy for the state their son's favorite toy is in. "Maybe you can fix him while you're away, like how about if I get you a sewing kit?"

"No, just leave him." Mike shook his head. Now that Mike thought about it, maybe taking SpongeBob to camp wasn't a good idea He didn't want to lose SpongeBob while he's at camp anyway.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but you know, toys don't last forever." Mary said, putting SpongeBob up onto a high shelf. In spite of himself, Mike couldn't help but look sadly at his favorite toy. Mike's father put a hand on his son's shoulder, and they leave the room.

By the time Mike left, SpongeBob then sprang to life with a gasp. Jimmy looked up from where he lay on the floor and Clifford walks by him, the two toys looking up at their friend sympathetically. Abby untangled herself from the string, and Alex walked up to Oscar, who is putting his body pieces back together.

"What happened?' Alex said as Oscar put his unibrow back on.

"SpongeBob's been shelved." Oscar responded.

SpongeBob just stayed where he was, refusing to look at the others. No. This has to be a horrible mistake. He was one of Mike's two favorite toys, indubitably the best during his years as a kindergartener; he would never abandon him over a broken arm. SpongeBob, his mind riddled with doubt, reached over with his functioning arm and lifted his right, before it fell limply to the ground. Outside, Mike sadly boarded a camping bus with his friends waiting for him onboard. The camp bus's doors close behind him.

"Mike!" All SpongeBob could ever do was crawl over to get a better view of the camping bus pulling out of the driveway. SpongeBob was forced to accept the harsh reality: his kid was driving off to camp...and leaving him behind. The pull-string sponge's dream was to go to camp and spend time with Michael all vanished like a lost thought. The future he forsaw, imagined...squandered. SpongeBob sat back down and sighed, crushed and devastated by the tragedy.

Below, the other toys gather around the shelf, showing concern and sympathy for their friend. "SpongeBob?" Clifford spoke. He didn't answer.

"SpongeBob? Sweetie, are you OK?" Abby asked. SpongeBob climbed further onto the shelf, his feet disappearing from view. Jimmy and Abby looked at each other, showing sympathy for their friend.

As time passed, a new day has formed at the Wilson household, with a paper boy tossing a newspaper onto the front porch. SpongeBob sat on the shelf, fast asleep. Suddenly, a familiar bus pulled up, waking the young sponge from his slumber. Rubbing his eyes and clearing out the last bits of sleep, he allowed his eyes to divert to the camping bus pulled up to the driveway and the bus doors opened, letting out someone that made the sponge toy brighten with surprise

"Whoo-hoo! Yeah!" Mike cheered.

"He's back...?" SpongeBob beamed. He excitedly called down to the toys, "Hey, everybody! Mike's back! He's back early from his camping trip!" Alex, Oscar, Wreck-it Ralph, and Clifford, who are playing cards, look up at him.

"Places, everybody! Michael's coming!" Cody hastily called out. The toys quickly scrambled to their places. As for SpongeBob, he went into toy mode. Mike goes up to his bookshelf and happily said, "Hey, SpongeBob! Did you miss me?!"

He twirled him around playfully. Everything is joyous until he finally notices SpongeBob's right arm still torn. His smile faded. "Oh, I forgot: you're broken." His tone was monotonic, with no sadness, anger, or shame whatsoever fueling his voice. "I don't wanna play with you anymore."

Mike stretched his arm out, letting go of SpongeBob, and he went falling toward the floor. As if time slowed down around him, the pull-string sponge fell right through the cards scattered on the floor, which came apart, leading to an endless void. Every card was an ace of spades, and they were floating around. SpongeBob tumbles into a giant card which transforms into infinite blackness, until he landed in a round pit illuminated by a white light. SpongeBob came alive, finding himself among a pile of discarded arms from different toys. He gasped in horror, realizing that Mike had thrown him into a trash can, where every piece of trash goes. Mike's love, care, and affection for SpongeBob is gone, replaced with shame and scorn. This was a horrific one-way ticket to the landfill- a fate worse than toy hell.

He is completely creeped out at the sight of it, then he tries to climb out of it. He attempted to beg his owner not to discard him, "NO! MIKE! NO! NO, MICHAEL! NOOOOO!"

Behind SpongeBob, the discarded arms melded together into a single creature and grab SpongeBob around the throat pulling him back down into the abyss. SpongeBob tried to fend off the arms, but they won't let go. A shadowy figure of Mike appeared, and looked down at his former favorite toy, his face devoid of any emotion.

Bye, SpongeBob...

SpongeBob is about to disappear underneath the arms. He desperately begged, "NO! NO! MICHAEL!"

The last thing SpongeBob saw was Mike putting the lid on the garbage can.

The last thing he heard was the echoing clang of metal resonating throughout.

Then...darkness.

Back in reality, SpongeBob shot up screaming. He begins hyperventilating and looks around the room. The sponge was relieved that it was all a dream. He sees his torn arm wrapped around his neck, then he flung it off onto a dusty book, with the impact making dust cloud up, and SpongeBob coughed at the dust in his face. Suddenly he hears a coughing voice coming from behind the book. Curious, he moves the book aside to find a small squeaker toy of a 17-year old tan rabbit. The rabbit wore a light blue and dark blue plaid button-down shirt, and a gray T-shirt underneath. His name is E.B.

"E.B.? Is that you?" SpongeBob said.

"Hey, SpongeBob." E.B. greeted miserably.

"What are you doing up here? I thought Mike's mother took you to get your squeaker fixed months ago." SpongeBob explained to him. "Mike is so upset."

"No. She just told him that to calm him down, and then put me up on the shelf." E.B. said, hanging his head sadly.

"But why didn't you yell for help?" SpongeBob said, concerned.

"Well, I tried squeaking, but I'm still broken. Nobody can hear me." E.B. said. He demonstrated to SpongeBob by opening his mouth and gave out a weak squeak, followed by coughs of dust. Even SpongeBob was perturbed to see E.B. such pity and despondency. "Besides, the dust aggravates our conditions." E.B. said sadly. The rabbit wheezed and coughed out a lot of dust. He fell in SpongeBob's good arm, and the sponge caught him. "What's the point of prolonging the inevitable?" E.B. groaned. "We're all just one stitch away from here…to there."

E.B. pointed down to the window. Outside, Mike's mother is hammering down a sign into the lawn. It can mean only one thing: yard sales.

"Yard sale. Yard sale!" SpongeBob said in alarm. He put E.B. aside, and he called down, "YARD SALE! Guys, wake up! Wake up, there's a yard sale outside!"

"Yard sale?!" Jimmy exclaimed, sitting on the bed. The impending yard sale meant one thing: being separated from each other.

"Sarge, emergency roll call!" SpongeBob called down to the LEGO sergeant.

"Sir! Yes, sir!" The LEGO sergeant replied, popping up from his tub. "Red alert! All civilians fall into position now!" On the floor, the toys go in a straight line. "Single file! Let's move, move, move!" Jimmy walked down the line, as Stuart the minion carried a roll call list of names.

"Cody?"

"Here."

"Grouches, Mister and Missus?"

"Here." They said together.

As Jimmy continued saying names, Alex said, "I hate yard sales!" He hears footsteps approaching the bedroom. "WAH! Somebody's coming!" Aware of the impending horror, the toys scrambled to find some hiding places, and SpongeBob gasped. He quickly puts E.B. behind the same dusty space from before when he found them. He puts the book in place, and goes into toy mode just in time. Soon every toy was lifeless again, anticipating on what was about to happen. Mrs. Wilson would enter Mike's bedroom and pick out a few suitable items to sell in the yard sale.