Chapter 4
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The funeral for Gary the snail was one SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends would never forget.
He couldn't believe his snail was killed by a virus, and worse, that somebody injected it into him.
After the funeral, the sponge told his boss about Gary's murder and the maniacal laugh he thought he heard.
Mr. Krabs replied, "Funny you mentioned that, boyo. I seem to recall hearing Plankton's laugh somewhere too. At about 8:05 P.M."
"Right... right after I rode in the ambulance.", SpongeBob stated.
An anger bubbled up inside the sponge's system. One he had never felt before.
The two of them headed over to the Chum Bucket to make Plankton pay.
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At the Chum Bucket, Plankton was busy checking his new megaphone, when Krabs and SpongeBob burst in, angrier than ever.
"Krabs!", Plankton screamed.
"What are you doing here?"
SpongeBob was the one to answer him this time.
"I-I'm appalled at you, Plankton! I-I can't believe I was this naive! I always thought you had some shred of humanity in you, but this-"
He showed Plankton the death certificate of his snail, Gary.
"I always thought you'd pull some diversion to steal the formula. But THIS is the most INHUMANE thing you've ever done!"
Krabs interrupted, "Before you even think of playing coy with me, I heard you laughing manically at 8:05 P.M. about a week ago."
Plankton shrugged.
"Oh that. I was just checking my new megaphone. I had no idea the sound would spread so much."
Krabs spoke up again, "Well maybe you duplicated yourself to poison him while you had an air-tight alibi."
Plankton was flabbergasted.
"Really, Krabs, really. I knew you'd accuse me of that type of thing the second you'd find out I had an alibi and a duplicator ray-(covering his mouth)"
Krabs and SpongeBob both gasped.
"Of course, you stole me formuler, duplicated it and someone else and hypnotized him to poison Gary so we'll focus on that while-"
Plankton was about to snap.
"NEPTUNE! Why does EVERY THING have to LEAD BACK TO ME?! FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE I AM INNOCENT!", he finally broke down sobbing.
Krabs remained as stoic and unbelieving as ever, while SpongeBob was actually convinced Plankton was telling the truth this time.
After consoling himself, Plankton took out his copy of the recipe and handed it to Krabs.
"There, you see! I don't even care about this stupid recipe anymore! I can just make my own! I know something inside me will tell me to steal it again, so right now let's just focus on the case at hand."
SpongeBob then realized something. The black chemical that was shown to him during Gary's internal autopsy was soot: chimney soot.
He then asked Plankton about the time The Player visited his restaurant and put him to sleep.
Plankton told them both that he woke up, and all his security cameras were deactivated.
SpongeBob figured that as soon as Plankton was suspected of killing Gary, him being the most wanted sandwich thief in all of Bikini Bottom, they would ask for the tapes to "prove" Plankton's alibi.
So The Player must've set up a mission to pretend to thwart Plankton's plans to steal the recipe, but in reality, he was there to steal something of his. They couldn't figure out what though.
Krabs hurried across the street, dialed his shell-phone, and set up a plan along with Plankton.