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Nicktoons: After Years
Episode 2: A Wish Fulfillment
While SpongeTron and Lexi are still stuck in the mysterious new world, they were attacked by a demon who was defeated by a strange boy who introduced himself as Danny Fenton, the grandson of the city's hero, Danny Phantom. Danny Jr. offered to take the two to his home by giving them a ride on his hovercycle. As he drove, he enthusiastically tells them all about himself.
"So when my grandpa was my age, he became half-ghost and decided to use his powers for good and became a superhero who saved the world. Eventually, my dad was born and he inherited Grandpa's ghost powers and became a superhero just like him. Now I've taken up the mantle and become Amity Park's newest hero."
"So…" Lexi began asking, "You have ghost powers too?"
With an awkward pause, Danny Jr. answered, "…No. Unlike my dad, I didn't inherit a ghost-half. I don't even have any kind of ghost powers. But someone has to keep the city safe from all these ghosts that have become corrupted by their negative feelings which have been turning them into demons recently."
When Danny Jr. parks the cycle next to the sidewalk, SpongeTron snaps, "Look, kid, I didn't ask for your life story. If you have a way to send me home, you better spit it out."
With a frown, Danny Jr. takes off his helmet and states, "We're here."
Lexi and SpongeTron stare to see what appeared to be an old building that had the words "Fenton Works" blinking. SpongeTron dully asked Danny Jr., "What, do you run a sweat shop or something?"
Danny Jr. explained, "My parents are out of town for the week, so I'm staying with my grandpa. Thankfully, he's asleep right now, so…"
Before he can finish, Lexi interrupted him and asked, "Hold on sec, Danny. Do you know the guys in this photo?"
Danny Jr. looks at the photo again and answers, "Well, other than recognizing my own grandpa, not really. But my dad has one just like it and he told me they were both part of a group called the Nicktoons."
"The Nicktoons?" Lexi questioned, recalling the exact same thing SpongeTron told her. "So they really traveled from world to world?"
"That's right. I've always wanted to be one." Suddenly, Danny Jr. smiles as he tells them, "Wait, so you guys are from another world, right?"
"I…guess." Lexi answered, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, how about we all become Nicktoons? We can help people and do a lot of good, and-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Fenton." Lexi interrupted, "Do you even hear what you're saying?"
Danny Jr. was confused by her lack of enthusiasm for being a Nicktoon. "What? But I thought-"
But Lexi continued, "You're asking me to be part of a team that I've never even heard of and probably doesn't even exist anymore."
"It can exist." Danny Jr. pleaded, "It existed before and it can exist now if you give it a-"
However, SpongeTron interjected, "I hate to say it, but Lexi has a point. Why would I ever join the Nicktoons? I don't have a purpose, and I can't just start randomly having one. It needs to be ingrained into my CPU."
Lexi added, "Bottom line, we're not joining the Nicktoons. Can you just get us back to Retroville?"
A look of disappointment swept over Danny Jr.'s face, and with a heavy sigh, he responds, "Alright. Just head inside and I'll be with you in a minute after I lock up my ride."
Lexi nodded and went inside the front door while SpongeTron followed, grumbling, "Who still calls it "my ride"?"
Lexi and SpongeTron stepped into the living room that was neatly tidied and futuristic much like everything in the far future. They both stood there silently, waiting for Danny Jr. to return until SpongeTron broke the silence by saying, "I don't trust that kid."
"SpongeTron," Lexi said in an unamused voice, "You just met him."
"That's the thing. We did just meet him. And yet, he was perfectly willing to form a club with us despite not knowing us for more than ten minutes. He thinks we're gonna be all buddy-buddy with each other, go on adventures, fight bad guys, and save the world, so that afterwards we can hang out at a local eating establishment and swap secrets."
Lexi rolled her eyes and SpongeTron's assumption, "SpongeTron, I don't even wanna be a Nicktoon. You're crazy."
"Am I? Do you consider me your friend?"
Without immediately answering, Lexi's eyes widen and she stammers, "Well, I…"
"That's right." SpongeTron spoke without a hint of remorse, "Because I don't consider you a friend, and since this is real life, we're not gonna be tag-teaming anytime soon. Geez, how long does it take to push a car alarm button?"
Afterwards, Danny Jr. comes in and signals them to follow him. He led the girl and robot through the house, making sure they all stayed quiet so they wouldn't wake up his grandfather. Danny Jr. uses the elevator to take them down to his basement and pulls out one of the drawers from the desk, dumping its contents on top. When he spreads the junk apart, he finds an old Neutronic Recaller.
"Here we go." Danny Jr. announces, "This is what my dad and grandpa used to travel to other worlds." He tries pushing some buttons on it, but nothing happened. "It must be dead."
"Do you even know how to work that thing?" SpongeTron asks.
Danny Jr. thinks it over and opens up the back to see a bunch of wires in the device. He then looks at SpongeTron and states, "This is gonna sound weird, but maybe I can charge this thing with your power, SpongeTron."
Lexi stares in surprise, but SpongeTron argues, "My power? I got barely enough power to keep myself running. I definitely don't think I have enough to spare."
"Think about it, SpongeTron." Lexi urges, "Just provide enough power for that thing to get us back to Retroville. Once we get back, you can just charge yourself at home."
SpongeTron shrugs and ultimately agrees, "Alright. Just make it quick, Fenton."
Danny Jr. smiles and quickly says, "I'll get my tools. Lexi, come help me."
They go back into the elevator and head upstairs, quietly going into the room Danny Jr. was staying in. He reaches under the bed and pulled out a suitcase. Lexi watches him open it to reveal a whole arsenal of tools.
"What does a teenage boy need a bunch of power tools for?" Lexi asked with a bemused expression.
"Superpowers." Danny Jr. answered.
"What?"
Danny Jr. added, "Remember what I said about taking up the mantle of being Amity Park's newest hero despite not having ghost powers like the rest of the Phantoms? Well, this is how I do it." He reaches into his utility belt and takes out a ray gun. "I figured that even though I can't fly, turn invisible, walk through walls, or shoot ghost rays out of my hands, I could work around it by building weapons for myself and learning hand to hand combat. That way, I can be a new kind of Danny Phantom."
However, Danny Jr. took a seat on the bed as he suddenly became forlorn, "Doesn't matter anyway. As much ghosts as I capture and lives that I save, people don't look at me as the next descendant of Danny Phantom, they just see a kid who can't protect Amity Park the same way Dad and Grandpa could." He pauses as he stares at the Nicktoon photo, running his thumb across the image of Danny Phantom. "I'd do anything just to know what he was like at my age."
Lexi stared in amazement to see how troubled Danny Jr. was, but wasn't sure what she could do to cheer him up. "Uhh, Danny? Don't we have a job to do?"
Danny Jr.'s eyes widen when he suddenly remembers the reason they came up there. "Oh, right." He said with an embarrassed grin before grabbing his tools and going back downstairs with Lexi.
After getting off the elevator, they see SpongeTron leaning back against the table, waiting for them to return. When they approach, SpongeTron sits up and grumbles, "Geez, it's about time."
Danny Jr. immediately gets to work by cutting out the wires in the Recaller and uses his tools to open up SpongeTron's back to see his wiring. As he leaned on his wrench, SpongeTron asks, "So tell me how is this gonna work?"
"All I have to do is connect the wiring from this Recaller to your wiring." Danny Jr. explained, "You can give this thing enough juice and I should be able to create a portal that'll take you where you need to go."
"Well, let me know when you're gonna do it, so I- Eugh!" SpongeTron groaned as he felt his energy draining out of him and going into the Recaller, which suddenly lit up with power.
Danny Jr. pushes a few buttons on the Recaller and it beeps as a green portal suddenly appears in front of them. Lexi smiles in amazement, "It works!"
"Ha!" Danny Jr. cheered, "I knew I could do it!"
SpongeTron composes himself and lets out a small smile, "Nice job, kid. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just be on my-" he was about to walk into the portal until something came out of it and knocked him down.
Lexi and Danny Jr. stare in shock to see a small yellow sponge with blue eyes, freckles, and buckteeth, wearing a white shirt, brown pants, a red bolo tie, and a red baseball cap. Despite walking out of the portal and bumping into a robot, he was staring at his blue smartphone, not paying attention to where he was.
He typed on his phone, reading out loud, "'Finished watching "Mermaid Man vs Goofy Goober: Cods of Justice", 90 minutes wasted.'" And…send." He finally looked up from his phone to notice his surroundings. "This doesn't look like the bus stop."
Suddenly, the portal disappears and the sponge stares at the boy, the girl, and the robot before taking a picture with his phone and typing something, "'Status update: Wandered into strange place with strange people. #FriendOrFoe?'"
SpongeTron stands up and looks unamused, "Something tells me you didn't make the right portal home, Fenton." However, a flash suddenly blinded him and caused him to short circuit, yelping in pain.
It was the sponge taking another picture with his phone and enthusiastically creating another post with it, "'F2F with freaky robot. #Mondays #RiseOfThe…'" suddenly, he dropped his phone and began gasping for breath.
Concerned by his sudden condition when the sponge dropped on his knees, Danny Jr. approached cautiously, "Hey, are you okay?"
The sponge's body started shriveling up. However, this did not stop him from grabbing his phone and typing another text, speaking in a raspy voice, "'SOS…About to die…Rmbr me…#Waaaateeer!'"
However, Danny Jr. got the hint and quickly glanced around the room until he saw an emergency shower in the corner of the room. He picked up the sponge and rushed over to shower, dropping him inside and turning on the water and closing the shower door, leaving the sponge inside for a few seconds. Afterwards, the door opened up and the sponge stands there, smiling peacefully and sighing in relief before typing on his phone.
"'NVM…Still AAK…'" He says before hitting the "post" button. However, he continues to type on his phone, completely ignoring the others.
"Ahem!" Lexi says loudly to get the sponge's attention. "Excuse me, but who or what are you? And how about a little thanks to the guy who just saved your life?"
He glances up for a quick second before looking back at his phone while saying, "Oh yeah, THX. BTW my name is SpongeBob SquarePants the Third."
Danny Jr.'s eyes widen as he stares at the sponge. "That name…it sounds familiar."
"He looks familiar too." Lexi added while lost in thought.
SpongeTron frowns and states, "You're not gonna say that he looks like me, are you? Cuz I do not see a resemblance of any kind."
"No," Lexi replies before taking out the Nicktoons photograph and staring at it to see SpongeBob III looking similar to the sponge in the photo. She holds it up to the distracted sponge and asks, "Do you recognize the sponge in this photo?"
Without looking up, SpongeBob III takes a picture of the photo with his phone and stares at the screen. "Oh yeah, that's my grandpa, SpongeBob SquarePants Sr."
"Ha ha!" Danny Jr. cheered, "I knew it! SpongeBob SquarePants was on my grandpa's Nicktoon team. So that means your grandpa was a Nicktoon too."
"YSW?" SpongeBob III carelessly asks as he taps on his phone.
But Lexi glares at Danny Jr. and asks, "So what if he was? What does that have to do with anything right now?"
SpongeTron also glares as he adds, "This better not get in the way of me getting back home."
"Come on, you guys." Danny Jr. pleaded to them. "Don't you think fate has brought the four of us together for a reason?" he turns to SpongeBob III with an eager smile, "Just like the way our grandfathers were brought together, right SpongeBob?"
Not even bothering to look up from his phone, SpongeBob III shrugs his shoulders and hums, "IDK."
"There you have it, Danny." Lexi states with a frown. "Now can you send us back to Retroville?"
Feeling his enthusiasm deflating once again, Danny Jr.'s smile disappears and he silently goes over to the table, picking up the Recaller that was still connected to SpongeTron.
While SpongeBob III was playing on his phone, he smiles when he sees the loading screen for his favorite app "Jellyfish Catch". He says to himself, "Perfect chance to see if there are any jellyfish in this area."
"Make sure you get it right this time- Ye-ahh!" SpongeTron yelped again when his power was transferred to the Recaller.
Once the device was activated, Danny Jr. typed on the keypad and created another portal. Lexi smiled with relief, "Finally."
Before she could take a step forward, SpongeBob III walked past her, only paying attention to the app on his phone, "Ooh, there's a jellyfish in this direction."
"SpongeBob, wait!" Danny Jr. called out, but the sponge disappeared into the portal.
"Hey! Come back!" Lexi called as she chased SpongeBob III into the portal.
With a dull frown, SpongeTron got up and stated, "Well, I'm not sticking around here."
Darting his eyes back and forth, he quickly grabs his tool box and jumps into the portal before it disappears.
Once Danny Jr. is in Retroville, he sees SpongeTron leaning against his wrench and Lexi holding a kicking SpongeBob III under one arm and his phone in the other hand. "Give me back my phone!" he screamed as he swung his arms and legs. "I can't live without it!"
Lexi turns to Danny Jr. and shouts over SpongeBob III's screaming, "Danny, make another portal so we can put him back where he came from!"
Danny Jr. silently picked up the Recaller and was about to turn it on, but it failed to work since SpongeTron started leaning too much on his wrench that he ended up falling forward on the ground. This concerned Danny Jr. as he tried to shake him awake, "SpongeTron? SpongeTron, are you okay?"
Lexi recognizes SpongeTron's condition from the other day and states, "He's low on power. We have to take him home to charge."
With the distraction, SpongeBob III snatches his phone back and types, "Feeling: frowny face."
