Oooh, stormy.
Thanks for the input, everyone! I think I'll move it up, just to err on the side of caution.
Review replies;
TweenisodeOrange: I heart puns. Thanks for reading!
LightandDarkness Warrior: In-deedy. Thanks for reviewing.
SOLmaster: Yeah, it's not gonna be easy at all. Thanks for the review!
Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Entrance making is one of the most important villain skills, you know. :P A jab at my government? Naaaah. :D Thanks very much!
Chapter Five: The Storm
The Valiant was an aircraft carrier – but not in the same sense as a normal carrier.
The pride of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT for short), the massive flying carrier had been built by the British Government by order of aspiring Prime Minister Harold Saxon. For reasons that are not important to this story, Saxon's term as PM was cut short a few days in, but the Valiant remained in service as a mobile platform for UNIT scientific and military operations worldwide.
She was also without a commander – her commanding officer was out meeting officials in Washington DC, and her science officer, who would usually take command when the CO was away, had been attending a conference in New York.
It was for this reason that Colonel Atkinson found himself in charge the moment he stepped on the deck of the flying ship.
"I'm surprised you appointed me," he mused as he walked to the bridge, escorted by a young and nervous officer called Major Gidley, "I'm not a member of UNIT, after all."
"It's not exactly uncommon, sir," shrugged Gidley, "We take orders from not-UNIT fellows quite a lot around here."
The two men walked onto the bridge, encountering a man in a lab coat, whose back was turned.
"Here's the deputy head of the science team," introduced Gidley, "Colonel – Doctor James Thourrel. Doctor, this is the commander of RERE."
Dr. Thourrel turned around and grinned.
"Marvellous!" he exclaimed, "A pleasure, Colonel!"
The Colonel blinked.
"When they said they were leading me to the Doctor, I thought they were talking about someone else," he muttered.
He shook his head.
"Never mind," he shrugged, "Doctor, I need your men to do three things for me."
"Name them, good sir," Thourrel nodded.
"Number one – I need to set up lab facilities somewhere on this ship. Number two – I need immediate contact established with Director Fury and SHIELD, as well as any other secret organisations you can patch in. Number three..."
He paused to allow tension to build up.
"...set a course for Amity Park."
"Well," said Timmy, looking up at the vast army descending from the sky, "We're doomed."
"We're not totally doomed," gulped Dani, nervously, "I mean, there...there's a lot of 'em, but..."
There was a loud slam, and both of them jumped.
The ghost of an eighteenth century gentleman, short in stature and dressed in an immaculate blue-and-white uniform, had been slammed with great force into the concrete roof. He was complaining loudly at his assailant – a robotic figure who was walking slowly towards him, fists clenched.
"Do you know who I am?" thundered the ghost, "I am Frederick the Great, King of the Prussians! Unhand me, you metallic we-ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch!"
The robot had picked him up by the arm.
"Where is my mother?" she growled.
"I have no idea, you strange creature!" thundered Frederick, "I don't even know who you are! Now unhand me or I will have you..."
"'Sup Jenny," said Timmy, waving casually.
Jenny looked over to them, finally noticing that they were there.
"Timmy, Dani!" she exclaimed brightly, waving and inadvertently throwing Frederick away with great force, "What're you doing here?"
"Looking for you," replied Dani, grinning, "Good to see you again!"
"Yep," nodded Timmy, "Now let's go home, we need..."
He pulled his recaller out of his pocket and frowned.
"...my recaller is dead," he muttered, "Great. Just great."
He sighed heavily and put it back in his pocket.
"So, now that we're stuck here," he grumbled, "What're you doing here?"
"I work here," replied Jenny, crossing her arms.
Timmy blinked.
"You got a job?"
"Sorta," shrugged Jenny, "It's more like an arrangement, actually. Come on, I'll show you."
She walked back towards the building's roof access. Timmy and Dani glanced at each other, shrugged, and followed.
"...so we built a cordon around Fenton Works, they rolled over it," explained the chief of the Amity Park Police, "We made a second cordon, they rolled over that. Long story short, we've lost half the neighbourhood to them, and we have no idea how to stop them."
Vlad sat at his desk, head in his hands. The distant wail of an air-raid siren rang in his ears, as did the dull pounding of explosions. Around him, Damon Grey was leaning against the wall and tapping on a phone, while Agent Coulson stared out the window, arms crossed.
"Thank you, chief," sighed Vlad, dismissing the police chief, "And the evacuation?"
"The shadows are making it near impossible to get helicopters into the area," replied Damon, "We're telling people to take shelter to bigger, stronger buildings – Axion Labs, Casper High, places like that. We're also trying to bus people out."
Vlad nodded.
"Well, gentlemen, if you'll excuse me, I need to make a call," he said, standing up and walking to the door, "I'll be right back."
He shut the door behind him.
Damon sighed, and flipped the phone shut.
"Still can't get her," he sighed.
"Get who?" asked Coulson.
"My daughter," replied Damon, "I've got a gut feeling she's in that mess, somewhere."
"We'll all be, soon enough," said Coulson, grimly.
Danny and Jazz had managed to find Jimmy and Spongebob huddled behind the counter of a now gutted grocery store, a few blocks from Fenton Works. They were not alone – Sam, Tucker and Valerie had arrived not long after them.
"Alright, so I was wrong about him being a pushover," admitted Danny.
"You think?" snapped Jimmy.
"Uh-huh," grunted Danny, "We need a plan. Got any ideas?"
"We tried calling Agent Fletcher," replied Spongebob, "But he wouldn't pick up."
"Timmy's recaller's gone offline," added Jimmy, "And Spongebob's is starting to act up..."
There was a flash from Spongebob's pocket. A portal opened, and Patrick fell out, landing with a loud thud on the tiled floor. He looked rather bewildered, and was holding a half-eaten Krabby Patty in his hands.
"...hey Spongebob," he said at last, "Are we having a party?"
"Like that," nodded Jimmy, rolling his eyes.
"You think the portal might be messing with them?" asked Sam.
"Probably," said Jimmy, "Which means if we need back-up, we have to call it now."
"Do it," Danny said, "We'll work out something when everybody's here."
"No need," replied Tucker, smirking, "I got an idea."
"Alright then," nodded Jimmy, grinning as he pulled out his recaller, "Nicktoons, unite!"
There was a long silence.
"Seriously?" asked Valerie, incredulously.
Jimmy sighed and pressed a button.
"So," asked Chester, sitting with AJ at a picnic table in Dimmsdale Park, "We helped Timmy and his multi-world team save time, and then we got these cool recaller things. Does that mean we have to be ready to save the world at short notice?"
There was a flash of light and a green portal opened next to them.
"Yep," nodded AJ.
They jumped up and leapt into the portal.
Sandy was putting on her karate glove, preparing to practice her karate skills on the lawn of the Treedome. Suddenly, a portal opened next to her.
"Well," she shrugged, grinning, "Sure beats practice."
She jumped into the portal.
Carl and Sheen were sitting in Jimmy's lab, eating corn chips and watching Ultralord. A portal opened next to them, and Sheen jumped out.
"Jimmy's hour of need is here!" he proclaimed, "Come on, Carl!"
"But I don't wanna...ow!"
Sheen dragged him by the arm into the portal.
Squidward was sitting at his table, eating a bowl of cereal. A portal opened behind him.
"No," Squidward grunted.
The portal closed again, and he went back to eating.
A series of portals opened up around the group. Chester, AJ, Sandy, Carl and Sheen emerged, each taking up a suitably epic pose on appearance (except Carl, who tripped and fell on his face.)
"What do y'all need us for, Jim?" asked Sandy.
"We have a plan!" replied Tucker, dramatically.
There was a long pause.
"Just letting you know it's not a good plan, though," interrupted Sam.
"It's still a plan," said Tucker, firmly.
"So, we just need to come through here and-what're you doing here?!"
Jenny stopped and aimed a rocket at two familiar agents climbing up the elevator shaft. Both were exhausted.
"It's okay," sighed Timmy, "We know these guys."
"Fletcher and Thompson, CIA," wheezed Fletcher, weakly pulling himself onto firm ground, "I am giving you a federal order to put a ladder in that thing."
He collapsed on the hallway carpet, wheezing heavily.
There was a quiet ding as an automatic door opened, and a figure emerged. Jenny waved – Timmy and Dani's jaws both dropped.
"This isn't the strangest thing I've ever seen around here," Tony Stark shrugged.
AN: Jenny works for Tony Stark.
Why can't I work for Tony Stark?