The next chapter of Nicktoons: The Final Countdown is here! Last time, a certain grown-up ghost boy returned, but what's the next move? Also, if you remember the last story, "The Ultimate Showdown", you can recall something here from that story.

Enjoy…

Chapter 8: Infiltration

Back at Fenton Works after Danny had returned from being held captive by DarkEvil LaserPants, and they explained everything that they knew to him, Danny was eager to find Platform and its code. But the others decided to hold off on the mission for a while to get reacquainted with Danny and let their brains simmer from all the knowledge they had learned in one afternoon.

"Please, Dad, come on!" Darry begged and pleaded to Danny, who was sitting on the couch with an uninterested stare. "Show me some of your new ghost moves! Teach them to me!"

"I said no!" Danny shouted in annoyance. "Why can't you get that through your-" but he quickly stopped and smiled, "What I mean is, Dar, maybe you should show me what new moves YOU can do. You had to have gotten stronger since I saw you last."

Darry thought this over. "Yeah…I guess that's true. But wait till we fight a SpongeCog bot. I can see you in action and you can see me."

"Yeah, can't wait," Danny nonchalantly said as he stood up from the couch. "Hold that thought."

He walked over to Jimmy, who was reading the manual. "Hey, Jimmy, how about we go out for a bit to catch up?" Danny suggested. "Then in about an hour, we can come back and discuss our next move."

Jimmy put the book in his backpack and shrugged. "Sounds like a plan. Why don't we invite Timmy and Dani to come along with us?"

"Uh, no, because…" Danny nervously said, scratching the back of his head. "…because I think it would be better if it were just us. I mean, the two of us used to hang out a lot when we were kids, remember?"

Jimmy smiled as he thought it over. "Yeah, I remember. I guess it wouldn't hurt if it were just you and me."

"Great," Danny said as he smiled as well and began to walk to the front door. "Well, let's get going, Jim."

As the two began to walk out, Sam called after him. "Hey Danny, you didn't forget, did you?" she told the half-ghost. "You promised to take me on a date tomorrow. Remember?"

"Of course I do, Sam." Danny easily replied. "I wouldn't forget even if every world in the universe were in peril. We'll be back soon."

After he and Jimmy exited through the front door, Sam crossed her arms and smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that, Danny." Then she glared while muttering, "…because we don't."

Outside, Jimmy and Danny walked down the sidewalk together as Jimmy began to strike up a conversation, "It is great that we can spend a little time together after being apart for so long. With that mission we currently have going on, it'll be nice to just hang out."

As they passed by the alley next to Fenton Works, Danny responded, "Yeah..." then he suddenly grabbed Jimmy by his arm and tossed him into the alleyway. "It's just great." He said with an evil smirk.

Jimmy winced as he lied on the concrete ground, and slowly turned around on his back, propping himself on his elbows. "Danny?" he asked in a shocked tone at his friend's odd behavior. "What…What are you doing?"

"What does it look like, Nerdtron?" Danny answered in a cynical tone. "I'm just doing what I came here to do."

He grabbed Jimmy by the front of his shirt and threw him against the wall. The side of his body hit the wall, and Danny wasted no time in getting in front of him, and pinning the front of Jimmy's body against the hard stone wall.

"But Danny, this isn't like you at all." Jimmy managed to say with the side of his face against the wall. "-Not like when I knew you four years ago."

"Times change, Nerdtron." Danny simply replied as he opened Jimmy's backpack and reached inside, pulling out the instruction manual for Platform. "And this time…it ends with me winning."

Then he roughly threw Jimmy onto the ground. As Jimmy slowly attempted to push himself up off the ground, Danny stood behind him with an evil smirk. "And if you're lucky, my master will spare you once he gets what he needs. But since you're a genius, you must already know that will never happen."

When he turned around, about to walk out of the alley, a blue ecto-beam suddenly hit him, and knocked him backwards into the alley. The attack came from Darry Phantom, who stood at the entrance of the alley with Timmy, Dani Phantom, Tammy, Tommy, and SpongeTron.

"Well, what'd ya know?" Darry said in anger with his fist glowing blue. "Ma was right."

"Jimmy!" Tammy cried out as she, Timmy, and Dani quickly rush to the fallen genius.

"Dude, are you okay?" Timmy asked as he and the girls help Jimmy stand on his feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jimmy assured truthfully since he was in fact able to stand up on his own. "But the manual…"

They turned to see Danny lying against a bunch of fallen garbage cans due to Darry's previous attack. "Alright, spill!" Tommy shouted to the fallen Danny. "Who are you really?"

Danny looked up at them with a furious expression. "And here I thought I had finally duped you squishies this time around." He then held up the book. "And that I'd be able to leave with my prize."

"'Squishies'?" Tammy repeated until her eyes widen in shock. "Wait a minute! You're SpongeCog!"

Danny's eyes suddenly glow red. "So you finally figure it out, huh?" then a glow appeared around his body and he turned into his true self: SpongeCog 1.

Jimmy's eyes secretly widen, recognizing the robot he had encountered four years ago. He had never liked to talk about his encounter with it in full detail; and especially refrained from mentioning his little affair when he last saw him.

SpongeCog then spoke in his normal voice, "Now if you don't mind, I'll be on my way."

But SpongeTron stood in front of him. "Not so fast, SpongeCog! You're not leaving until we get that book back."

"Oh really?" SpongeCog asked with a smirk as he held the book up in order to taunt them. "Well, squishy-lover, you're not getting it back. If what my master needs is in here, then we won't have to waste our time chasing-"

But the evil robot was interrupted when a blue figure suddenly dropped down and kicked SpongeCog down, causing him to drop the book. Jimmy gasped, realizing it was the same mysterious figure he has seen the last two times he fought a SpongeCog robot.

"Nicktoons Go!" Darry quickly shouted as the Nicktoons charged into the alley with their weapons.

SpongeCog quickly got up as he growled, and crawled over to the top of a trashcan in the back on the alley.

Tommy fired a magical beam from a wand, and SpongeCog ducked away from the blast and jumped on the ground. SpongeTron fired a blaster ray connected to his right arm and hit SpongeCog in the head as the evil robot glared at him.

"You're a mean robot!" SpongeTron shouted at him.

"If I wasn't, I'd be like you!" SpongeCog replied until he was hit a blast of stars from Timmy's star flinger.

Jimmy turned his head to see the instruction book lying forgotten on the floor as the battle against SpongeCog took place. He rushed over to the book, hoping to grab it before anyone noticed him. But unfortunately, the mysterious figure grabbed the book before he could and attempted to run off with it.

"Hey, get back here with that!" Jimmy shouted as he ran after him.

Dani and Tommy prepare to fire an ecto-beam and magical blast at SpongeCog, but the robot turned his arms into electrical plugs and shot an electrical zap at the two, knocking them away. Darry then flew down and delivered a kick in his face, knocking him down to the ground as he crouched on top of him. But then, SpongeCog used his claws to grab Darry and throw him aside.

The mysterious figure stopped in front of the wall of the alley and looked up at it, looking like he was at a dead end for Jimmy to catch him. But his two robotic arms come out of his robe and grabbed a hold of the wall, letting him scale up the brick wall. Jimmy ran over to the wall and stared in agape as he watched the robe figure escape with the book.

But Jimmy glared and reached into his backpack, pulling out his old Tornado Blaster. He carefully aimed it at the mysterious figure and let out large gust of wind at him. The mysterious figure stopped climbing and struggled to keep his claws grasped onto the wall. But it was obviously too difficult with the wind blowing at him. He eventually lost his grip and fell all the way down to the ground. Jimmy winced at this, but noticed the figure made a 'clank' sound when he fell.

SpongeCog deflected the attack from Tammy's jump rope, and then glanced ahead to see the book lying on the ground from when the mysterious figure fell.

Jimmy noticed SpongeCog's intention and tried to rush over. But the mysterious figure's hand popped out of his long sleeve to reveal a metallic four-fingered glove that pushed Jimmy aside with intense force before he rushed over to the book. SpongeCog and the figure reached the book at the same time and both attempted to grab it.

The mysterious figure attempted to look intimidating by having his long extra mechanical arms emerge from under his robe with his claws snapping. But SpongeCog didn't even look frightened by it, so he just laughed and punched the figure in the face, knocking him away and allowing him to take the book.

"Better luck next time, squishies!" SpongeCog taunted as he pushed a button on his wrist which activated a portal and he ran through it.

Darry tried to run after him, but as soon as he tried to jump through the portal, it disappeared and he fell flat on the ground instead. "No!" Darry shouted in anger and dismay as he pounded his fist on the ground.

"What are we gonna do?" SpongeTron asked in worry. "He's got all the secrets to Platform!"

Before anyone else could panic as much as SpongeTron, they all turned their attention to the mysterious figure, who stood up and began to run away. "Somebody, stop him!" Jimmy warned.

When the mysterious figure tried to run out of the alley, Darry quickly flew over and grabbed the figure by the back of his robe. "Alright, tell us who you are?" he demanded until the robe ripped to shreds and the person inside fell to the ground.

They all stared in shock as the mysterious figure turned out to be a square, silver and green robot with green light bulb eyes, a screen for a mouth, the long arms with a left robotic hand and right metal pincer belonged to him, and had treadmills for feet.

Suddenly, its square head popped off its body like a hatch and a little boy with coifed blonde hair tumbled out of the robot, wearing the large metallic gloves.

"Ohhh…my head." He groaned in pain as he rubbed his head, having been shaken up a lot. Then he opened his blue eyes and turned his attention toward the robot on the ground.

"SpongeBorg!" he cried out in worry as he removed his gloves and rushed over. He popped the robot's head back on his body and held him in concern. "Are you alright?"

The robot's eyes light up green and replied in a series of beeps as his mouth lights up whenever he does. The boy was apparently able to understand everything he was saying and reply, "I'm glad. After what happened, I was afraid you'd get broken again."

Jimmy stared in awe at this, but mostly kept focused on the boy, somehow recognizing him from somewhere.

Timmy then walked over to the boy and robot, and crossed his arms as he asked, "Hey, what's the big idea, kid? You were the one in that thing all along?"

"BACK OFF, YOU FREAK!" the boy suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs in anger, "And he's not 'a thing', he's 'SpongeBorg'! And it's because of you idiots that SpongeCog got away with my book!"

Everybody was surprised by the boy's sudden switch of behavior. But it was because of the bad attitude that Jimmy now realized that it was the same blonde boy he encountered in Retroville when this whole thing started.

Darry walked over to the boy and decided to call him out for his rude behavior. "Hey, you can't talk to him like that!" he shouted in annoyance. "You can't talk to anyone like that!"

"You're not the boss of me, Scottie!" the boy shouted at the ghost boy. "SO QUIT ACTING LIKE IT!"

"What?" Darry shouted in question at the boy's response.

Dani walked up to the boy and gave him a warm smile as she tried to reason with him. "Listen, little guy, why don't you calm down and let us help you find your mom and dad?"

But the boy turned away from her and remained ill-tempered, "I'm not listening to you! I don't need Scottie's help and I don't need you or anyone else!"

"Who's Scottie?" Tommy asked in confusion.

"That's supposed to be my middle name." Darry answered in shock. "But the only one who's ever called me that was…Max!"

"Max?" Tammy, Tommy, and SpongeTron both repeated in shock.

"Darry, do you know this kid?" Jimmy asked.

Darry scratched the back of his head and answered, "Well...I think we do."

SpongeTron walked over to the boy's robotic companion, SpongeBorg, and stared at him with a smile. "Hi," he greeted with a small wave. "Your name is SpongeBorg, right?"

SpongeBorg yelped in fright and quickly went over behind the boy, Max, and shivered as he held the boy, much to SpongeTron's confusion.

Max huffed, grabbed SpongeBorg's arm and began dragging him along. "Come on, SpongeBorg, we're leaving."

"What do you mean 'leaving'?" Jimmy asked in anger as he got in front of Max. "I know you're the same kid I ran into the other day. And I have a ton of questions for you, so you're coming with us."

"Back off, big head!" Max shouted irritably as he tried to go around him. "I have my own business to take care of!"

"Not anymore!" Jimmy shouted as he grabbed a hold of Max's arm and kept him from going anywhere.

Max struggled to get out of Jimmy's grip as he yelled, "Let go! Let go of me!"

"Don't let him go, Jimmy!" Darry told him. "I definitely know who he is. He's your future son!"

Jimmy eyes widen in shock at this while Max continued to try and struggled out of his grip as he yelled, "Shut up, Scottie! Tell him to let me go! NOW!"

Ooh, looks like they caught someone (and something) out of another stream- the time stream that is. Can they get anything out of this kid who appears to be Jimmy's future son, Max? Please review and read the next chapter.