Chapter #26: SpongeBob to the Rescue!

After much pushing and shoving, the prisoners were led into a gigantic lab with all sorts of scientific equipment and locked in a large cage. Plankton, Specter, Dr. Nefarious, and Dr. Eggman gathered into one corner of the room and began bickering about what kind of punishment they would give to their long-time enemies. Some of the heroes listened in, but Tails, Amy, Ratchet, and Clank were more concerned about Sonic; he was beginning to wake up, but his anguished moans showed how much pain he was in. When he finally opened his eyes, he focused on his sidekick and tried to speak. At first, it came out garbled, but then he regained control of his tongue.

"Urgh…T-tails? Wh-where are we?"

"In their lab, Sonic," the fox replied. "They're talking about what they're going to do to us."

"In that case, help me up. I'm not gonna go down without a fight."

Ratchet and Tails got him up on his feet, and supported him with their arms behind his back. Several times he began to wobble; his body was still slightly paralyzed from his electrocution. It took several minutes, but they helped him to the edge of the cage, and they listened to the four villains argue.

"What should their punishment be, Doctor?" Specter asked.

Nefarious began, "I say we…"

But the white monkey interrupted, "I was talking to The Boss, bolt brain!"

"Bolt brain?! Why I ought to…"

"Cut the bickering!" Eggman shouted. Both of them fell silent.

Then Plankton suggested, "Why don't we take a vote on this?"

"Big Boss" was quick to reply. "Leader votes first! I say we drown them!"

Specter shook his head. "The firing squad would be better."

As they debated this, Jimmy looked at his cousin and asked, "What's a firing squad?"

Ratchet shook his head and replied, "You don't wanna know."

"Why not use the old-fashioned guillotine?" Plankton put in.

Specter cocked an eyebrow. "The device that cuts off heads?" Copper and Amy fainted, and the others gulped.

But Eggman turned a thumb down. "No, it's too bloody, not to mention quick and painless."

Then Nefarious cracked an evil grin. "I have an idea." He whispered his idea to the other villains, and the group began chuckling and rubbing their hands gleefully.

Tails bit his lip. "What do you think he said?"

Sonic sighed. "Whatever it is, it can't be good."

"Or quick," Knuckles added.

"Or painless," Ratchet finished. Suddenly he felt someone tug on his pant leg, and he looked down at Clank. "What?"

"Ratchet, I just realized something," the little robot said, his metallic brow furrowed with worry. "SpongeBob and Patrick are not with us. They were not captured."

Tails perked up. "You're right! Maybe they can escape!"

"Or rescue us," Clank suggested.

But Ratchet shook his head. "Those two couldn't find their way out of a closet, much less a castle. No rescue for us."

"Guys," Spike broke in, "they're done talking."

They stopped their conversation and roused Copper and Amy. Right after they did, the Evil Alliance stepped up to their cage with secretive, sinister grins.

"So, you're finally up, Sonic," Eggman said. "How do you feel? Terrible, I hope."

The blue hedgehog gritted his teeth and flattened his ears in reply.

"But that hardly matters. I have consented to let Dr. Nefarious use you for one of his secret weapons."

Sonic's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What kind of secret weapon?"

"Just a ray called the Biobliterator."

That one word sent intense shockwaves of horror down Ratchet's spine, and Clank's eyes brightened several watts. For a few seconds they only gaped at the villains, and then the Lombax exploded.

"You still have that abomination of a doomsday weapon, Nefarious?! You fiend!"

Everyone else backed up a step, surprised by Ratchet's outburst. It also worried them; the Biobliterator must be a terrible machine for mention of it to cause Ratchet to lose his nerve. And they couldn't ignore the key words "abomination" and "doomsday weapon".

Suddenly Ratchet jumped between the bars of the cage and Sonic, shielding him from Nefarious's greedy red eyes. He spread his arms and legs out as a sign of resistance. "No one deserves that, Nefarious! But if you're gonna do it to anybody, do it to me!"

"Ratchet!" Clank and Sonic protested at the same time, but one glare from him shut both of them up.

"How selfless of you, Lombax," the wicked robot sneered, "but a deal is a deal. We have agreed that the blue rat is your team's source of confidence. If we destroy him, we destroy your morale. So do not resist, unless you wish to suffer as well."

Suddenly Specter opened the cage and charged forward into the group, swinging his double-bladed Stun Club around. One end hit Ratchet in the face, and the other impacted with Tails' stomach. Once he had everyone stunned, he grabbed Sonic and shoved him out into the clutches of the other three villains. He rushed out and shut the door, and just in time. Less than a second later, Ratchet hit the bars in an attempt to stop them.

"Fight them, Sonic!" he shouted, banging on the bars and trying to force them apart. "Fight them for your life! Don't let them do it! Fight them! Fight!"

His comrade's wild antics spurred the blue hedgehog into struggling and digging in his heels. But Specter only beat him with his Stun Club until he was too weak to resist. Then Nefarious dragged him to a thick metal pole connected to the ceiling and floor of the lab. It was there that they handcuffed him, and the robot brought his remote out once more.

"Lawrence, is the Biobliterator warmed up?"

"Almost, sir. It is at 80 percent capacity," the image of the butler robot replied.

"Open the doors!"

"Right away, sir."

The wall in front of the pole where Sonic was cuffed suddenly split apart; they were really doors painted to look like the wall. In the room beyond, a gigantic ray took up most of the space. Most of it was gray, but the tip glowed red-orange, and electrical components switched from purple to green to blue. Next to it was a control panel, where Lawrence was pressing a few buttons and pulling some levers.

Jimmy gulped. "That doesn't look quick or painless."

As the ray was warming up, Ratchet was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. He constantly yelled "You fiends!" and attacked the cage bars like a crazy animal.

Tails turned to Clank, whose face was sad and defeated, and said, "Clank…"

"…Yes, Tails?"

"…What does it do?"

He turned his sad eyes to the fox. "You really wish to know?"

He thought hard on that for a moment, and then nodded.

The robot sighed and lowered his head. "…It converts organic life-forms into robots."

"It does what?!" Jimmy cried.

Copper, Knuckles, and Spike stood very still and were quiet, too stunned to speak. Amy burst into tears, and Tails leaned against the cage bars, overwhelmed. Ratchet continued his antics, and Clank sighed again.

Dr. Nefarious grinned at the prisoners, and then turned to Sonic, whose eyes were as wide as saucer plates. "Ready to become a robot slave to our empire, rodent?"

Too scared out of his wits to say anything, the hedgehog simply began fighting with his cuffs with much more effort than before.

"The Biobliterator is ready for firing, sir," Lawrence reported.

"Very good. Begin firing protocols," said Nefarious.

As the ray hummed to life and its tip glowed brighter, Sonic turned to his comrades in their cage. But the fear in his green eyes was gone, and in its place was strength. He cleared his throat, and spoke to them as best as he could.

"This was the best adventure I've ever had. I wouldn't trade it for anything. …And you're the best team I've ever been in. …Thanks, guys."

Spike, Jimmy, Copper, Knuckles, and Clank nodded grimly without a word. Amy cried harder, and Tails began to cry. Ratchet stared back at the doomed hedgehog, with his face contorted into a furious glare.

"I'll avenge you."

But Sonic only smirked.

"Fire the ray!" Nefarious cried.

Dr. Eggman moved to press the button…

Crash!

Suddenly something burst through one wall of the lab: a yellow bulldozer.

"What the…?!" cried the villains.

The driver's door opened, but no one came out. Instead there were voices.

"Patrick, look what you did! I told you not to mess with the controls!"

"I wanted to turn on the stove."

"There is no stove in the bulldozer!"

"Oh."

"It's SpongeBob and Patrick! They're here to save us!" Jimmy whooped with joy.

Eggman turned to Plankton and bellowed, "Plankton, you idiot! I thought you said we had them all! And you said those two were too stupid to be heroes!"

The tiny green villain began to sweat. "Err, well…"

Inside the cab, SpongeBob declared, "We can beat you!"

"Cheesecake rules!" Patrick "agreed".

Dr. Nefarious folded his arms, unimpressed. "And why do you think that, squishies?"

"Because…because I'm…I'm…"

SpongeBob leaped out of the cab; he wore a disco suit and a microphone headset, and held a red rock guitar in his hands.

"I'm a Goofy Goober!! Rock!!" he sang at the top of his lungs.

Plankton moaned and held his head in his hands. "Oh no, not again.."

"What do you mean, 'not again'?!" Nefarious demanded. Plankton tried to explain, but SpongeBob continued his song, playing loudly on his "Sonic Wave Guitar".

"You're a Goofy Goober!! Rock!! We're all Goofy Goobers!! Rock!! Goofy Goofy Goober Goober yeah!!"

"Never mind!" the blue robot finally shouted. "Just fire the Biobliterator!"

While playing a few chords of the song, SpongeBob looked up. "Huh?" He spotted the Biobliterator, Eggman moving to press a button, and Sonic struggling at the metal pole. He put the puzzle pieces together and jumped between the ray and the hedgehog. Then he shot a powerful energy beam from his guitar at the ray, destroying it.

"What?!" Eggman cried, falling to floor to avoid the explosion. "How could this happen?!"

SpongeBob ignored him and fired another, smaller energy beam at Sonic's cuffs. They shattered, and the blue hedgehog raced out of the ray's line of fire, just in case. They both went for the cage to free the others, but then something else happened.

Patrick finally jumped out of the cab of the bulldozer…wearing a ballerina's tutu?!

"Goofer Goobies! Goofer Goobies!" he yelled stupidly while waving his arms. He was stopped when he ran into a wall. He stayed there for a moment, and then fell to the ground, laughing.

Everyone else stared at him in silence for a moment, and then Jimmy asked, "Why is he wearing a tutu?"

Ratchet shrugged; for him, the answer was a no-brainer. "'Cause he's an idiot; why else?"

"But where did he get it?"

"Part of me doesn't want to know. Now let's get outta here."

SpongeBob used his guitar to break the lock on the cage, and the heroes ran out as quickly as they could. Luckily for them, their weapons had been brought into the lab in a crate. Spike and Jimmy recovered their Stun Clubs, and began to duel again with Specter. Ratchet got all of his weapons back, and reloaded whatever ones he had ammo for. And it was a good thing he did; Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence had called for robot reinforcements. The doors to the lab burst open, and Egg Pawns poured in. But this time, they were no match for the ten heroes, and for several reasons. The first was they were determined to win this time. The second was SpongeBob's new guitar. The third involved the bulldozer; trigger-happy Ratchet hopped into the cab and used it to mow robots down. The rest of the gang got behind it and took out any guards that made it past him.

The Evil Alliance could only stare in amazement as their arch-foes destroyed legions of their robots. Specter, however, noticed that Plankton was writing on a tiny piece of paper. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Plankton looked up from his work. "Writing my will, what else?"

Dr. Eggman made his way out of the wreckage of the Biobliterator and snapped, "Don't give up so soon! We're not finished yet, not by a long shot!" He turned to the heroes, shook his fist, and yelled, "Don't get too excited, boys! Those were the easy ones!" Then he hopped into his walker and followed the other three retreating villains.

Knuckles finished off one Egg Pawn and complained, "How many times has he said that?!" (A/N: I'm referring to Sonic Heroes.)

Sonic shrugged. "Who's counting? Let's just get outta here before more 'bots show up!" Then he grinned and waved at the bulldozer. "Bring that, would ya, Ratchet?" The Lombax saluted and drove the bulldozer after him as he and the others raced through the hole that SpongeBob and Patrick had made before.

The going was rough, and the bulldozer had a tough time of it, but the gang fought their way through the castle, destroying robots and busting through obstacles they couldn't get around. Finally they left the castle via the drawbridge, and crossed onto the front lawn. Strangely, in the middle of it, there was what appeared to be a helipad. But when they came close to it, it suddenly split apart, and a gigantic mech rose out of the hole. It was a generic design, with four limbs and a torso. The arms had lasers, plasma cannons, and machine guns, and the chest panels opened up to reveal dozens upon dozens of missiles. The head of the mech was a half-sphere with clear glass. When it bent down to see the heroes, the gang realized that all four of the villains were in the head, controlling it.

"Foolish squishies!" Dr. Nefarious shouted over a microphone in the cockpit. "Now you will feel the wrath of the Evil Alliance!"

Some of the heroes gulped, but Patrick, who had changed back into his normal pants, gawked and said, "Oooh…big and shiny."

Ratchet leaned out of the bulldozer and said, "No biggie. I've fought mechs bigger than this one."

"But Ratchet," Clank interrupted, "we had turrets with enough firepower to destroy those mechs. There are none in the vicinity."

Suddenly Tails brightened. "I'll get the Tornado!" he exclaimed. "Maybe it'll have enough firepower to knock it down!"

"I'll go with you, Tails!" Sonic said.

"Me too!" Amy cut in.

The blue hedgehog frowned and shook his head. "No, Amy. You're staying here with Knuckles."

She quickly opened her mouth to object, but when he folded his arms, she knew he wasn't going to change his mind. She pouted, "You guys have all the fun!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "We'll be having fun dodging that mech." Her eyes widened, and she gulped.

"We'll stick it out here and find some other things to use!" Ratchet said. Then he tossed a walkie-talkie to Sonic (don't ask where he got it). "Take this! Let us know when you're ready!"

With nods, Sonic and Tails ran back into the castle to fetch the blue biplane. To keep the Evil Alliance from seeing, Ratchet drove his bulldozer first into the left foot of the mech. It wobbled, and that encouraged him to go for the right foot. Unfortunately, the bulldozer didn't cause much harm. The pilots just laughed their heads off at the silly attempt to destroy their machine. Nefarious, who was in control of the mech's movement (it was his robot, actually), made a motion to stomp the bulldozer and its driver into oblivion. Ratchet saw the move and jumped to safety before he was crushed.

Spike threw his hands up into the air in exasperation. "Now what do we do?!"

"We're sitting ducks!" Jimmy cried. Next to him, SpongeBob whimpered and made scared quacking noises.

Then they heard the roar of a plane engine, and the Tornado whizzed over their heads. Ratchet's walkie-talkie crackled to life, with Tails speaking on the other end.

"Ratchet, this is the Tornado. We're goin' in!"

Sonic's voice shouted close by, "This'll be a piece o' cake!"

The Lombax looked up into the sky and watched as the Tornado soared into battle. He replied, "Good luck, you two! We're all counting on you!"