"Take cover!" SpongeBob cried as he and Timmy were grabbed by Kieran's Dream Self and taken away from the hazard, with Danny holding Jimmy following close behind.
At the top of the rock sat none other than Axel, seated on a throne made of flames and ice. Kieran's Dream Self and Danny flew up to the top with the other in tow.
"Axel." Kieran's Dream Self snarled, "We meet yet again."
"Aren't we always?" Axel snarled back, "We are brothers, after all." He then focused his attention to the other Nicktoons, "My my. Needed some help, did we?"
"Friends always stick up for one another." SpongeBob argued.
"How true." Axel said in a sickeningly sweet tone, "Just as well I brought some of my own friends along for the ride!"
The others all looked at him in confusion, which led to Axel seeing that he was actually alone. He gritted his teeth in annoyance as he snapped his fingers causing the Syndicate to appear beside him.
"Did you HAVE to drag us into this?" Crocked asked, until Vlad elbowed him and pointed over to the Nicktoons, and the former grinned as he saw Timmy, "So, Turner, you bring your FAIRIES with you?"
"Heh, well if it isn't the Nickbrats?" Plankton said sarcastically.
"How'd you bring them in?" Kieran's Dream Self asked, "I don't want them here!"
"Too bad," Axel scoffed, "And as for the question: that would be because Calamitous had built an advanced Dream machine whatsit."
"Is that so, Professor?" Jimmy asked, crossing his arms.
"That'd be correct." Calamitous nodded, "My, umm…,Dream Invader 2000¸ as it is actually named," he snarled quietly in Axel's direction, disgusted at the boy's disrespect, "Is an advance piece of technology which allows the user to be able to…umm…er..."
Plankton huffed, and continued for the professor, "…invade dreams of another, and that someone could be literally anyone of our choosing."
"We were going to go in Neutron's dreams and use any ideas we found to calculate a new plan to take over the universe and build some helpful inventions to help us…but…"
"I decided to pull them all into a little detour." Axel concluded. "And here we are, one month later."
Kieran's Dream Self began to go red in fury, "You sneaky, cruel, little son of a-"
"Uh uh uh!" Axel shushed, "This fanfic is kid-friendly."
"I'll show YOU kid-friendly!" Kieran's Dream Self muttered bitterly as he used the wind to swipe Axel clean off of the throne and forcefully down into the ground.
A large smash was heard, and everyone looked down to see a hole in the ground in the shape of Axel. SpongeBob fainted in shock but then Axel flew back up into everyone's view, "So that's how you wanna play, huh, big boy? Then I guess I better roll the dice now."
Kieran's Dream Self suddenly clutched to his head in fear, as if he was in severe pain. The Nicktoons looked over him in concern while the Syndicate even wore a few looks of concern. Everybody then heard an unfamiliar sound, as if something was slowly moving. This was a change in the sky within the dream, where half of the sky was completely eclipsed, turning into a dark nightmare. The city below the darkness also began to slowly corrupt and rumble, and the roses began to glow a menacing purple as they wilted into crooked positions.
"What's going on?" Danny asked.
"You…" Kieran's Dream Self grunted to Axel, his hands still latched to his head as he let out screams of pain, "You're trying to…take over…"
"It's the only way I'm going to get to you." Axel smirked, "I figured that by messing with your dreams, then I could mess with your sub-conscience and eventually kill you from the inside."
"Well, that's diabolical!" Vlad complimented.
"But sounds quite illogical!" Jimmy countered, "You can't mess with Kieran like that!"
Axel hastily blew Jimmy away, "I'll show you what IS and ISN'T illogical, you infuriating ingrate!"
"Jimmy!" Danny cried out, as he flew after Jimmy.
Kieran's Dream Self, having witnessed what has just happened, clenched his fists, "How dare you hurt my friends!" he then forced the rock surface down back into the ground, levelling out the surface. He then fired a beam of ice at the Syndicate, freezing them in place. Cosmo and Wanda then poofed into the scene, and poofed the iced Syndicate back into the real world.
"Looks like you're outnumbered." Timmy snickered.
"That's what you think!" Axel formed a large pool of water around him, and forced it towards Kieran's Dream Self and Timmy. In retaliation, Kieran's Dream Self picked up the unconscious SpongeBob and used him as a shield to protect him and Timmy with. As he absorbed the water, SpongeBob woke up; he was going to speak, but he was too full with water to do so. "Stay still!" Axel yelled.
"Need some help?" With Jimmy, Danny flew over and helped Kieran's Dream Self lift a rather heavy SpongeBob into the air and make him hover over Axel. Axel was about to run away, but Kieran's Dream Self had caused a gust of wind to suddenly jerk SpongeBob, releasing all the water over the paler-skinned teen.
"Ugh!" Axel grunted in disgust as he used the wind to dry himself. He saw Kieran's Dream Self run away with the Nicktoons, "Not so fast, my dear chums…" He fired a beam of sunlight over at the Nicktoons. But Timmy turned around and deflected it using a mirror, poofed into his hands by Cosmo and Wanda. The others turned back around to witness the beam head towards Axel's side of the dream, reflecting off of the buildings and hitting a few of the roses, which were destroyed on impact.
"Cool!" Kieran's Dream Self cheered.
"My roses!" Axel cried out in dismay, but then had an idea, "My roses…" He hovered over to some other purple roses available and made them grow closer to the Nicktoons. He then stood in the center of them and used the wind to force open their petals. This caused purple beams of darkness to act as a form of spray, aimed directly at the Nicktoons.
Kieran's Dream Self quickly formed a barrier using the wind, which protected them. He grunted slightly, as it was quite painful and draining a move to make. He then turned to the others, "Guys! I need you to destroy the roses!"
"Aye aye, Kieran!" SpongeBob saluted, as the Nicktoons ran off to do so.
"Maybe we should start with these roses." Jimmy suggested, pointing at a few roses that were not being used, "Then Axel will have no backups after we destroy his."
"Good idea!" Timmy agreed.
"Boys, you may want to hurry up with that." Wanda pleaded, "Kieran may not hold out much longer."
"We're on it!" Danny assured. He flew up towards a large batch of roses and let out a Ghostly Wail, which successfully killed all of the roses. The ghost boy smirked at his accomplishment, "Sweet!"
Jimmy, with his Tornado Blaster in hand, approached another bunch of roses, this time they were Kieran's red roses. He aimed the blaster to launch a tornado in the center, drawing in all of the roses. He then took out a Hyper Cube and captured the free-flying roses.
"Now for the main ones." SpongeBob said as he and Timmy charged towards them. One of the roses turned to them and began to aim the darkness at them, but Timmy had used his mirror in order to reflect each of them, making sure to do so away from Kieran's Dream Self.
SpongeBob gave the roses an effective, swift chop, and watched as they fell to the ground. Cosmo and Wanda then poofed Timmy a disintegrator, when the buck-toothed boy aimed at the decaying plants.
"Enough!" Axel bellowed, finally taking notice of the shortage of roses, and charged at Kieran's Dream Self. Upon impact, an explosion was created, startling the Nicktoons. As the smoke began to clear, they saw Axel clutching to his brother's dream self's shirt, his hands fiery with anger.
"Please let go…" Kieran's Dream Self pleaded as the Nicktoons approached him.
"Not a chance!" Axel replied, "I need to buy some time."
"Time for wha-" The question was interrupted as the dream began to shake violently, similar to an earthquake. The two weatherboys were stable in the position they were in, but the Nicktoons, being not as fortunate, had latched themselves to the ground.
"What's going on?" Danny asked, shouting in order to be heard.
Axel grinned menacingly, "It seems the Syndicate's finally doing their job!"
"Oh no!" SpongeBob panicked, "The Syndicate is trying to wake Kieran up!"
"That'll mean we'll dissolve into nothingness if we stay here!" Jimmy realized. He then suddenly got an idea; he shot a tornado over in Axel's direction, causing the pale teen to collapse on the ground, and curl up in pain at the unexpected counter. "Timmy!" Jimmy shouted at the buck-toothed boy.
"Right!" Timmy nodded, having understood what to do, "Cosmo! Wanda! I wish Axel was outta here!"
Cosmo and Wanda waved their wands and poofed the teen back to the real world, and upon doing so, the dream began to calm down, but only enough to get the Nicktoons back on their feet.
"We better move quickly, or-" Jimmy was interrupted as Kieran's Dream Self gave the Nicktoons a hug.
"Thank you guys!" he smiled, "Now, you better stop the Syndicate!"
"Roger that!" Timmy nodded, as Jimmy got out the remote and pushed the central red button.
The Nicktoons appeared back in Jimmy's Lab, and witnessed the Syndicate attempting to pull Kieran, still sleeping but appearing mildly disturbed, off of the lab bench whilst Axel lay unconscious on the ground nearby.
"Confound it!" Calamitous cursed, "It seems that…er…these bars are secure…"
"Do you think we don't know that, you slow-minded fool!" the other Syndicate members yelled in response.
"Stop right there!" Jimmy commanded, "You won't be taking anyone today."
Kieran woke up upon hearing Jimmy's voice, only to see the Syndicate beside him, "Get off me!" he ordered, and with his hands (which were free due to the restraints being on his arms and legs), he froze them in a block of ice.
"Not again…" Plankton whined, as he slowly froze over.
"Huh," Kieran shrugged upon hearing him, "I had an idea that I did it in my dream, so why not try it again?"
"Well, it buys us some time." Danny added.
"And all that matters is that you're safe!" SpongeBob gave the teen a friendly hug.
"Now what to do with you?" Jimmy pondered aloud as he approached the unconscious Axel.
"Hey, uh, Jim?" Kieran chuckled, "I think I have an idea, but could you let me off of this thing now?"
"Oh, of course!" Jimmy grinned sheepishly as he got out the key to the restraints and let the teen free.
Kieran leaped off the table and walked over to Axel, "Well, it would appear he's waking up from his own little nightmare…"
Axel began to moan slightly, as he shook, indicating he was no longer asleep. Before he could speak, however, Kieran snapped his fingers in front of SpongeBob, who gave the paler teen a smack around the head with his karate glove. Kieran then took a Hyper Cube from a nearby shelf and proceeded to capture Axel in it.
"Ah, now he should be contained for quite a while." Kieran sighed thankfully, "Now I can finally sleep well." He then looked over at the other Nicktoons and gave a puzzling look,
"You know, I had quite an odd dream just then."
The Nicktoons smiled back at him, "Perhaps we should tell you all about it!" SpongeBob giggled.