I'm back with another chapter.
Karen looks around the Chum Bucket, scanning the room and happily discovering that no remnants of Sheldon's earlier meltdown remain. There were still issues with the leaking pipes, the rusted furniture and the aggressive swarm of sea spiders hiding in the ventilation shaft, but she'll fix them later. An alarm rings, and she notices the time in her internal clock.
"Six o'clock already?" Cleaning the Chum Bucket must have taken her a lot longer than she thought. It didn't help when Spot tried to eat all the poker chips and cards; despite Sheldon's teachings, the amoeba was still an animal at heart, and he considered any object able to fit into his gelatinous body food.
Karen goes to enter the kitchen when the front doors open. She looks and sees that Plankton has returned, though with a glum look on his face. Concerned, she goes over to him.
"Sheldon? What's wrong? Did Mr. Krabs give you flak about your intent to give up the formula?" She bends down to pick up Plankton, placing him in her hand.
"Eugene didn't believe me! I told him that I'm giving up on getting the formula, and he goes on a paranoid rage and kicks me out!"
A slot opens up in Karen's monitor, and she takes a copy of "Plankton's Plans" out with her free hand and opens it to a page. "Well, Plan 73a DID have you faking your surrender so that Eugene would eventually give the formula to you in a moment of trust. If something like that happened to me, I would be cautious as well."
Plankton shoots a glare at his wife. "You're not helping, Karen. And besides, I've told him anyhow. Krabs and his workers can either continue being paranoid about me or accept the facts." His stomach rumbles, causing Plankton to look at it in surprise. "Now let's forget all these things and get some grub. All this drama made me work up such an appetite."
Karen takes Plankton to the kitchen, where he hops out of her hand and onto a deep fryer, turning it on in preparation for tonight's dinner. He then hops onto the pantry door, fiddles with the handle and opens it up with excitement, though he frowns in realization when he sees what's inside.
"Oh, right. We have no food. We're broke!" He jumps from the pantry to the bench and slumps over in thought. "What are we going to eat?"
Karen motions over to the far edge of the bench, where a bucket of chum lays. "Well, we could try eating chum. It's the only thing here that's remotely food-like."
Plankton looks at Karen in a combination of concern and disbelief. "Have you blown a fuse? Chum is the most disgusting thing this side of the Atlantic Ocean. No one wants to eat it, and I'm not going to anytime soon."
Karen knew he was right; no one in their right mind would ever eat the Chum Bucket's chum. The only people she's seen buy chum were criminals, maniacs and people that she's had to pay to buy it, and even then most of them never ate it. But it was the only food they could get at such short notice, so it had to do.
"Come on, honey. What else are we going to eat? Spot's amoeba food is off-limits, though; we both know what happened last time."
Plankton shudders at the thought. It was a sad day when he had to eat amoeba food, and an even sadder day when he found out he was allergic. "Fine, I'll try the chum." He states as he makes his way over to the bucket and picks it up. "But rest assured I will not-"
Before Plankton can finish his sentence, Spot emerges from the bucket and barks at him, scaring the genius and making him instinctively throw the bucket away. However, he manages to throw it in the direction of the active deep fryer, causing him and Karen to scream and clamber towards their flying pet.
"SPOT! NO!" Plankton shrieks as he leaps towards the deep fryer. He bounds over it and catches Spot in midair before tumbling to the benchtop. The bucket of chum, however, is not so lucky, and lands in the deep fryer with a splash. Not that anyone minds, as Plankton and Karen are checking Spot over for injuries.
After a while, Spot is deemed injury-free, but Plankton gives the pet a concerned look. "Spot, I've told you time and time again to stop sleeping in the chum! Just because it's warm doesn't mean it's a good place to nap." Spot, in response, licks his owner's face, causing Plankton to loosen up. "I can't stay mad at you, Spot. You're one of my only true companions in this town, along with Karen, of course. Isn't that right, Karen?"
He looks up and finds that Karen isn't there. Rather, she's using a pair of tongs to gently remove the bucket of chum from the deep fryer. By this point, both the bucket and chum are covered in a crispy, golden brown shell. Karen looks at the mess and shakes her monitor.
"Look at this mess. Our only source of food, deep fried." She sighs before turning to Plankton and Spot. "At least Spot is alright."
She goes to Spot and starts petting him as Plankton looks at the deep-fried chum curiously. He goes to the deep-fried bucket and takes out a piece of chum. He sniffs it, looks at the chum from several angles, and licks it before finally taking a big bite out of the chum. By this point, Karen and Spot are looking at Plankton in worry.
"Sheldon, what are you doing?"
After Plankton chews the chum for a while, he swallows it. His eye suddenly widens, and he turns to the rest of his family, who react with shock. "Karen, this is delicious! You have to try this."
Karen and Spot, however, back away in fear. "Oh no! The deep-fried chum has destroyed his brain and turned him into a zombie, and now he's trying to infect us! Spot, you go find help. I'll try to prevent him from spreading!"
Spot goes to leave while Karen opens a drawer and grabs a rolling pin for defence. Plankton looks at the two and rolls his eye. "Calm down! I'm not infected. It's just that this deep-fried chum is the best thing I've ever tasted! Karen, go ahead and scan it for yourself."
Karen, still unsure about Plankton, grabs the chum and holds it to her scanner. The scanner detects the chum and scans it, calculating and displaying some information on Karen's monitor. "Fascinating. The deep-fried shell covering the chum acts as a shield, preventing the chum's flavour from overwhelming that of the shell's. We've basically made chum edible!"
Plankton's eye widens at that statement. "Edible chum? From deep-frying it?" He stops for a moment to think, before a smile crawls onto his face. "Why stop at chum? If we can improve the taste of chum by deep-frying it, theoretically the same will happen to other foods. Anything we fry will taste better. We'll make millions." He turns and looks at Karen. "We've done it. We've found a way to make money, and I didn't need the formula!"
Karen smiles and grabs Plankton, pulling him towards her as they start cheering their discovery. Spot joins the fun by running around Karen's wheels, barking his heart out. After a while, Karen picks up Spot, and Plankton looks at them with determination.
"Karen, Spot. Get ready. For tomorrow, we rebrand!"