Chapter #8: Rise and Shine!

The morning came with the rising of the bright sun, and the clock on the town hall chimed the hour, 7:00 AM. The ringing woke up Sonic, who had been snoozing on top of the roof. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes and got up to stretch, but he almost fell off of the roof. He quickly regained his balance and sat back down.

"Morning' already?" he mumbled as he yawned again. "Better wake up the others and get some breakfast."

With one last stretch, the blue hedgehog climbed into the house through the window. He was about to shout when he noticed that SpongeBob and Patrick were still in their bathtubs…and, oddly enough, they were talking in their sleep.

"I'm ready, promotion…I'm ready, promotion…I'm ready, promotion…" said SpongeBob as he dreamed of his home and his job.

While sucking his thumb with a dopey grin, Patrick mumbled, "Ice cream with nuts, bolts, and extra springs please."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Spike was right. Patrick's an idiot."

With a shrug, he tiptoed downstairs through the living room to check on his buddy Tails; he found him sleeping peacefully in the game room. The hedgehog decided not to wake him and checked the study and the guestroom; Spike, Jimmy, Ratchet, and Clank were still asleep, too. Then he returned to the living room and searched the house's two refrigerators and green pantry for food. He found boxes of cereal and granola bars and set them on a ranch table. Then he looked at the classic clock in the room; it said 7:05. Nook was sending somebody to meet them in ten minutes, and his friends were still asleep!

"If the town bell didn't wake them up, what will?" the blue hedgehog said to himself.

Then he noticed the hi-fi stereo in the room and got an idea; wasn't there a CD player in Ratchet and Clank's room? With a snicker, he crept into the guestroom. There lay Ratchet, sleeping in the modern bed, with Clank snoozing in a red armchair beside the bed. The Lombax was lying with his back very close to the edge of the bed: the perfect position for a prank. Sonic tiptoed behind Ratchet to the exotic end table where the CD player sat. He opened the player and, after searching the music collection, he selected a song called "Go K.K. Rider!" With a mischievous smile, he cranked up the volume and pressed the play button.

The music blared out louder than Sonic had thought it would, but he got the results he wanted. Ratchet's eyes popped open, and his head jerked up. "What the…?!" he tried to say, but then he lost his balance and fell to the floor.

Sonic shut off the player and laughed. "What happened, Ratchet? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?" he teased.

"Oh shut up," Ratchet grumbled as he sat up.

The music also brought Clank out of sleep mode. His eyes came on, and his limbs and head unfolded from their compact position. Once he was finished, he inquired, "What has happened?"

Ratchet pointed at Sonic with his thumb and replied, "Mr. Wise Guy here woke me up with a CD player."

The robot leaped out of the armchair and asked Sonic, "Are the others awake yet?"

"I don't think so. They were asleep when I last checked."

The trio walked into the living room, where they found Tails munching on one of the granola bars Sonic had found. "Hey, guys," he said around a mouthful of his snack. "Spike and Jimmy are still asleep; I checked."

Sonic whistled. "I had that song up pretty loud. I thought it would wake everybody."

A smile slowly spread on Ratchet's face. "Then let's give 'em a wake-up call."

They crept into the study, where the two red-haired cousins were sleeping on two blue beds. The Lombax opened a blue cabinet and pulled out two alarm clocks (he had found them last night when he had been looking for beds). After setting them to go off in fifteen seconds, he set one under Jimmy's pillow and the other next to Spike's ear. Then Ratchet stepped away from the beds and began counting on his fingers.

"Explosion in 10 seconds…9 seconds…8…7…6…5…4…"

The group ducked behind an exotic chest.

"…3…2…1…"

Rrriiiiiiinnnggg!!

"Aaaaaahhh!!"

"Yyeeeooowww!!"

The pair of humans fell out of their beds, clutching their ears. "Make it stop! Make it stop!" Jimmy cried.

Sonic and Ratchet busted out laughing, and fell to the floor. The hedgehog pounded the floor with his fists. Tails and Clank tried hard not to laugh, but they had to turn away to hide their smiles and cover their mouths to muffle their laughs.

It was quite obvious to the boys that they had been the victims of a prank, and Spike was furious. "Sonic!! Ratchet!!"

But the two weren't fazed a bit and kept up their fit. "You guys should've seen the looks on your faces!" Ratchet told them.

"It's not very funny!" said Jimmy, his face red with embarrassment.

"All right, all right, you've had your fun," Spike said. "Are SpongeNerd DorkyPants and his sidekick 'The Brain' awake yet?"

Finished with his laughing, Sonic got up and replied, "They were sleepin' like babies when I last checked."

"After all of the noise," Clank put in, "I would not be surprised if they are awake."

All six of them went up the creaky stairs into the attic. To their amazement, SpongeBob and Patrick were still asleep! Ratchet nudged the starfish with his Omniwrench, and then he clubbed him on the head with it. Nothing happened.

"That's for stompin' on my tail, you dunce," he muttered to the snoozing starfish.

Patrick replied in his sleep, "No habla Ingles." (Spanish for "I don't speak English.")

Spike sighed and asked him, "Si habla Espanol?" (Spanish for "Do you speak Spanish?")

He shook his head and answered, "Uh uh."

"What a numbskull," Ratchet said.

Jimmy returned the group to the main subject by asking, "How are we gonna wake them up?"

They came up with several ideas, such as shouting and shaking the sea creatures. But none of them worked, and the pair continued to mumble in their sleep.

"I'm ready, promotion…I'm ready, promotion…"

"Ice cream with nuts, bolts, and extra springs please."

Suddenly Tails brightened. "I have an idea!" He stepped over to SpongeBob's bed and whispered, "Hey SpongeBob, you've been promoted!"

The sponge's eyes snapped open, and he leaped out of the bathtub, splashing Tails and yelling, "YAAAAYYY!! I've been promoted to…uhhh, wait a minute…oh, hi guys! I guess I was dreaming."

"I said you were promoted to wake you up," Tails explained to him.

"Do ya know how we can wake your buddy?" asked Ratchet with a gesture towards the snoozing starfish.

SpongeBob thought for a moment, scratching his head. Then he shrugged and replied, "Nope, no clue! Sorry!"

Sonic suggested to them, "Lemme try what Tails did," and he tiptoed to Patrick's bed.

"But Patrick doesn't have a job!" SpongeBob objected.

Spike slapped his forehead and whispered to him, "He's not gonna say the same thing, ya brick."

"Ohhhh…"

"Oh Patrick," the hedgehog said in an almost sing-song voice, "the ice cream parlor's giving away free ice cream!"

Patrick's reaction was similar to SpongeBob's. He jumped out of the tub and fell flat on his face. Then he got up and started running in circles. "Yaay!! Free ice cream!! Get me a chocolate!!" he shouted.

SpongeBob stopped his antics and told him, "Sorry, Pat. Sonic was just trying to wake you up."

He scratched his head and asked, "Who's Sonic?"

Ratchet pointed at the blue hedgehog and said to the starfish, "He's Sonic, pinhead!"

"Who ya callin' pinhead?"

"Grrrr…"

"Ignore him, Ratchet," Spike said with a roll of his eyes. "He doesn't know the difference between an apple and an orange."

"Yeah I do!" Patrick protested. "Apples grow on vines, and oranges grow on peanut trees!" He grinned stupidly at his "intelligence".

Spike looked at Ratchet and said, "See what I mean?" The Lombax nodded silently.

Then Patrick started hopping up and down on his rear while holding his feet. He sang, "Oh, I'm a Goofy Goober, yeah! You're a Goofy Goober, yeah! We're all Goofy Goobers, yeah! Goofy goofy, goober goober, yeah!"

As he began to sing the song again, all of the gang (minus SpongeBob, who was used to the song) covered their ears. Ratchet shouted to the others, "Someone please shut him up!"

Patrick finished the song and started running in mad circles again, crying out random things. "Ice cream! Alpacas! Ketchup!" Then he slammed into the wall and fell flat on his back, laughing hysterically.

The seven freaked-out heroes remained silent, and crickets that the humans had collected chirped. The quiet was broken when Tails said, "Okaaaay…"

Ding-dong!

"Hey! That's the doorbell!" Jimmy cried. "I'll get it!" Everyone slowly walked up the stairs in a single file.

You wish.

Eager to be the one to answer the door, they all shoved each other and tried to get down the stairs first. But their careless pushing sent all of them tumbling down the stairs, and they landed in a heap of twisted arms and legs.

"Ohhh, man, what happened?" mumbled Tails, who was, unfortunately, stuck at the bottom of the pile.

"Whose foot is in my mouth?!" SpongeBob screamed in a muffled voice as a red shoe (which was Sonic's) choked him.

"Ow! Who twisted my arm?!" Sonic cried out in pain.

Ratchet rubbed his nose and yelled, "Whose Stun Club hit me in the nose?!"

"Mine!" said Jimmy. "You hit me in the stomach with your dumb wrench!"

"Sorry! Patrick, did you step on my tail again?!"

Clank appeared next to his partner. "That was me, Ratchet. I apologize."

"Ratchet! Get your stupid tail outta my face!" Spike complained as he tried to get out from under SpongeBob.

"That's not me!"

"Sorry about that!" Tails said. "Hey, who's got my other tail?!"

"Patrick, you doodle-head!" the Lombax yelled at the starfish. "The fox's tail isn't a chew toy!"

As you might've guessed, Patrick had the tail in his mouth. Ratchet grabbed the starfish and pulled him away from Tails, but he just made Patrick more determined. "Must…have…ice cream!" he said, and he tackled Tails.

"Help! Murder! Police!" Tails cried as he wrestled with Patrick.

Ratchet came to the rescue and clubbed Patrick with his Omniwrench numerous times, and the starfish finally let go of Tails. But then Patrick tried to eat the wrench, and he and the Lombax wrestled some more on the floor.

Clank, because of his small size, managed to escape the fight and made it to the front door. But since he was so short, he had to jump onto the doorknob to turn it. The door swung open, and two figures stood on the porch: Timmy and Tommy Nook.

"Good morning!" the robot said after he had hopped off the doorknob.

"Hello there!" Tommy greeted back.

Remembering that someone was at the door, the rest of the group untangled themselves and stood up.

"You're Tom Nook's kids, right? You came to take us to your shop?" Sonic asked. The twins nodded their heads.

Spike stepped up and asked, "One question, Nooklings: which one's which?"

Timmy pointed at himself. "I'm Timmy!"

"Timmy!" Tommy echoed.

His brother glared at him. "No, I'm Timmy!"

"Timmy!"

"Stop that!"

"That!"

Spike held up his hands and told them, "I've got it! I've got it!"

The twins shot one last glare at each other before Tommy turned to the gang and said, "Anyway, are you guys ready to go to Nookington's?"

Ratchet had been holding Patrick away from the door, but now the starfish escaped his grip. He went up to the Nooklings and asked with a dumb grin, "What's a Nookington's?"

Ratchet and Spike glared at Patrick, and the twins looked at Sonic in puzzlement. Don't mind him," said the hedgehog. "He doesn't have any marbles."

"I love marbles!" Patrick exclaimed, and then Ratchet clunked him over the head with his wrench.

Sonic then returned to the coons' question. "We're not quite ready to go; we haven't had any breakfast yet. Would ya mind waiting?"

Timmy shrugged and grinned. "Not at all!"

Sonic let them inside the house, and the heroes ate breakfast while the twins played NES games in the game room. When they were done, the group of ten left the house, with Sonic locking the front door.

As they were walking through the forest, Patrick turned to SpongeBob with a goofy grin. "Hey SpongeBob, who owns Nookington's?" he asked.

"Tom Nook does, Patrick," SpongeBob replied.

3 seconds later…

"Hey SpongeBob, who owns Nookington's?"

"Tom Nook does, Patrick."

3 seconds later…

"Hey SpongeBob, who owns Nookington's?"

"Tom Nook does, Patrick."

3 seconds later…

"Hey SpongeBob…"

Ratchet had had enough of Patrick's stupidity. "It's Tom Nook, you idiot!" he shouted in his face.

Unfazed, the starfish greeted him, "Oh! Hi, Hatchet!"

"It's Ratchet, you moron!"

"Ratchet owns Nookington's!"

"Aaaarrrggghhh!!"

Luckily for poor Ratchet, Tom's shop was only a short walk away, and, because it was two stories, it was easy to spot. When all ten of them stepped inside, Tom greeted them. "Welcome, my friends! This is my store, Nookington's!"

"Hi, Daddy!" Timmy said.

Patrick pointed his thumb at Ratchet and told the raccoon, "Ratchet says he owns the place." Tom gave Ratchet a puzzled look, and the Lombax simply pointed at Patrick and made a "crazy" face. The shopkeeper just shrugged.

"Anyway, why'd ya bring us here?" Sonic asked him.

"Oh yes, that's right," Tom stammered. "Well, Tortimer and I need to find out who is loyal to the Animal Alliance and who isn't. But ever since those robots moved in, nobody will talk about the Alliance because they're afraid of being arrested. That's where you come in. I need you to go undercover as my new employees and earn the trust of the animals. You must somehow get them to tell you their feelings about the Allies and Big Boss. Is that OK with all of you?"

Sonic gave him a thumbs-up. "Works for me!"

"No problem here!" Ratchet replied.

"I'm all for it!" Spike put in.

SpongeBob, who was happy to have a job, cried, "I'm ready to please!"

Tom clapped his hands. "Excellent! Then let's get started by preparing for the opening of the store. Ratchet, Clank and Tails, you can check the cash register and tell me how much money is inside it. Spike, Jimmy, SpongeBob, and Sonic, can you help my sons set out the items for sale?"

Patrick was excited by the work, and he jumped up while clapping his hands. "What do I do?! What do I do?!" he asked over and over.

"Patrick," Nook said, and then he hesitated, trying to think of a job he could do. "Err…just…stand there until I need you, I guess."

"OK!" The starfish stood as still as stone and stared out into space with a blank look.

Freaked out by his behavior, Tom Nook said, "Uhh…Patrick?"

Silence.

"Patrick?"

No answer.

"Patrick!"

For the third time, Patrick didn't respond. Ratchet told the coon, "Ignore 'The Brain', Nook. He's a few fish short of a school." He moved one finger in a circle on one side of his head—the "crazy" gesture.

Suddenly a very angry Tortimer rushed into the shop and bowled Patrick over; even though he was as flat as a pancake, Patrick still didn't move! The old tortoise was quite a contrast; he was storming about with his cane in one hand and a piece of paper in the other.

"It happened agin! I can't believe it happened agin!" he roared furiously.

"What happened?!" Tom asked in bewilderment.

"Somebody got arrested is what happened! To make thangs worse, it was Pelly an' Pete from the Post Office! That sneaky, hare-brained, low-lyin', good-fer-nuthin' skunk of a robot captain hauled 'em away ten minutes ago! It just had to be them, didn't it?! Now who's gonna run the Post Office?!"

"Phyllis can take over for a while; it's no big deal."

"She quit when the others were arrested, Tom."

The shopkeeper's eyes bugged out of his head. "What?! Then how can I mail my letters to the villagers?!"

The gang had overheard Tortimer and Tom, and Sonic suddenly got an idea. "How did they mail the letters?" he asked the mayor.

"It's really easy," Tortimer replied. "Ya just give Pelly or Phyllis yer mail, and they send it off as soon as they can. They can send a maximum of ten letters. …Err, why do ya ask?"

"I was just wondering…do you think we could run the Post Office?"

"You fellers?!"

"But those errands…" objected Nook.

Luckily, Sonic had a way to get around that problem. "Not all of us would do it," he explained to them. "If three animals could do it, so can three of us. I could deliver the letters."

Clank set down the Bells he had been counting and said, "Sonic's plan is quite clever. Perhaps Ratchet and I could work at the counter." His Lombax partner shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"And then the rest of us are left with the store errands," Tails said, quickly catching on.

Tortimer smiled. "Sounds like a plan to me. I won't make you fellers run that place all day, though. Y'all can quit as soon as I hire replacements."

Tom was also pleased with the arrangement. "All right then! Since I'll be short three people, I guess my boys will have to set up the shop by themselves. I have many packages I'll need the remaining five of you to deliver; Alliance work has really backed up my shipments, you see. Timmy and Tommy, can you please go get the delivery bag?"

The Nooklings saluted and said in unison, "Yes, sir!" They rushed over to the cash register and took out a huge sack.

"It's a bit much, but I think you can handle it," said Nook as the twins pulled the bag to the gang's feet. "The items have tags on them that tell who is supposed to get it and what the item is. I'll send each of you out to meet the townsfolk and deliver their items to them."

At the mention of meeting other villagers, Tails began to shift uncomfortably, and Ratchet and Clank saw it.

"Wait a second, Nookmeister," the Lombax put in. "I think Tails should work inside your shop."

"Why is that?"

Clank replied, "If my assumptions are correct, Tails has been a subject of ridicule because of his second tail." He glanced at the fox, who nodded sheepishly. "If he meets the citizens of this burg, there is always the possibility that at least one will criticize him as well. There is a lesser chance of such an event if he remains here and assists your sons."

The coon rubbed his chin. "You have a point. All right then; he can help Timmy and Tommy with readying the store."

Tails turned to Ratchet and Spike and said gratefully, "Thanks, guys. You really read my mind." Then Timmy and Tommy took his hands and led him away to the shop's basement, which is where they stored their items.

Tom divided the big sack of delivery items in half and handed Spike and Jimmy each a small sack and a map. "The names and locations of the inhabitants are on the maps. Don't dilly-dally, and remember to find out what people think of the Allies. Oh, and one more thing: it may be best if all eight of you kept your names a secret; make up some false names."

Jimmy eagerly said, "OK! Let's go, Spike!"

"What about us?!" piped up SpongeBob, who didn't want to be left out.

Spike grabbed Jimmy's sleeve. "Jimmy, we're going to split up. Take one of the sea creatures with you."

The boy sighed in disappointment. "Okay. I'll take NerdyPants."

SpongeBob skipped in place and shouted, "I'm ready!" He followed Jimmy out the door on their mission.

"I guess I have to take 'The Brain'," Spike said, groaning inwardly. He walked up to Patrick, who was still lying on the floor motionless, and brought the starfish to his feet. "Come on, moron."

"What's a moron?" Patrick asked.

Spike's face reddened in anger, and he kicked Patrick out the door. Sonic, Ratchet, and Clank followed him out, and then they parted to go to the Post Office.