Here's the next chapter of "Nicktoons: The Final Countdown". Last time, DarkEvil got the code and used Platform to change the world. What will the Nicktoons do to stop this?

Enjoy…

Chapter 16: Down Time

A pair of blue eyes suddenly opened up, and it was Jimmy who had just awoke. He noticed he was laying down on a canopy bed in a bedroom that seemed almost familiar to him. He sat up and realized that he was still in Bikini Bottom, but the last thing he remembered was fighting DarkEvil LaserPants and he activated Platform. So how did he end up here?

"You know…" Jimmy heard a voice say, and he quickly turned his head to see Tak standing against the wall in the corner of the room. "You've gotten pretty heavy."

"Tak?" Jimmy asked in surprise. "How did we get here?"

"Well, we did need a place to crash after you passed out using your Mech-Suit." Tak explained. "We were worried if we didn't do something soon, that suit would've done you in again."

Jimmy looked at the far corner of the bedroom to see his Neutronic Mech-Suit comically placed there as if it were contaminated. Then they hear the voice of Squidward shout from downstairs, "How long is that little brat going to take a nap in my bed?"

Jimmy narrowed his eyes at Tak. "Did we have to come here?"

Tak shrugged and responded, "It was the only place we can be sure DarkEvil wouldn't think to look for us."

Jimmy soon managed to get up from the bed after getting his strength back, and rushed over to the window and gasped in shock at what he saw. The city of Bikini Bottom was in ruin with smoke rising up from in the city, and the sky was a bright red color to add to the eerie effect of how dark the world has become.

"No…" Jimmy whispered in horror.

Downstairs, Darry, Tammy, Tommy, SpongeTron, and Timmy were sitting on the couch, watching the Bikini Bottom news on TV. Danny was pacing back and forth with Danielle leaning against the wall, watching him until she looked up ahead and smiled. "Jimmy, you're awake!" called out as she rushed over to where Jimmy was coming downstairs with Tak.

She flung herself at Jimmy and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you!"

"Uh…sure." Jimmy said as his face turned a bit red. "I appreciate it."

"We're glad to see you're okay, Jimmy." Danny explained to him after he walked over. "As you already know, we brought you here so you can rest up."

"And you choose here to come." Squidward complained with a frown as he walked around. "What do I look like? A hotel?"

Jimmy glanced at Danny and whispered, "But how did you convince Squidward to let us stay?"

"Well…" Danny explained as he glanced back at his future son. "He doesn't really remember the fact that he let us in."

Darry looked over at them from the couch and gave a huge grin.

"But what happened before I woke up here?" Jimmy asked.

"That's the worst part." Tak mentioned.

Jimmy walked over behind the couch and stared at the TV the kids were watching. On the screen, Perch Perkins was giving a news report. "Perch Perkins here, coming to you live for another day in the enslaved doomed town of Bikini Bottom."

"Another?" Timmy questioned in confusion. "It's only been a few hours."

"When DarkEvil changed the world using Platform," Tammy explained as she watched. "It must've altered the memories of everyone in town."

"Coming to you soon, the latest topics," Perch continued. "Will you survive the reign of DarkEvil LaserPants? Learn the consequences of going against our lord and master. And if you see a group of humans and ghosts, contact this number imme-"

At this, Darry shut off the TV with the remote. "Hey!" Squidward shouted with a shell phone in his tentacle. "I was watching that."

"You better be careful with what you do, Squidward." SpongeTron warned. "If SpongeBob finds out that you wanna turn on us, he won't be happy."

"Who the barnacles is SpongeBob?" Squidward asked.

"What are you talking about, Squidward?" Timmy asked, looking confused. "He's your neighbor, a sponge who works with you at the Krusty Krab, the person you hate the most."

"Well, I think I would remember a person like that." Squidward replied, still not looking convinced. "And if I did, I'm glad he's not in my life."

After he walked away, Danielle commented, "And we thought he was just kidding when he told us earlier that he didn't know who SpongeBob is."

"It's worse than I feared." Jimmy said with an anxious look. "Not only has DarkEvil altered the properties of this world to the point where he now controls everything and everyone in it, but ever since he wiped SpongeBob out of existence, no one even knows who he is anymore."

"But we remember who SpongeBob is." Tommy pointed out. "And we still remember that DarkEvil is a monster and changed this world with a powerful machine."

"Don't you remember?" Tammy mentioned in an annoyed tone. "Jimmy used his suit to protect us from the changes happening to this world."

"Of course I remember! I just wanted to make sure."

Then they hear a beeping sound, and see SpongeBorg slowly coming out from behind a shelf. SpongeTron rushed over to him and gently grabbed his hand with friendly smile. "Don't worry." He said to the little robot in a gentle voice. "You're safe with us, remember?"

"I guess he's worried about Max." Timmy pointed out.

"We haven't seen him since DarkEvil changed everything with Platform." Darry mentioned. "We don't know if he's safe from the effects or if he's in trouble somewhere."

Jimmy became even more anxious, but spoke in a calm and confident tone. "We'll have to find him and get to DarkEvil so we can undo Platform's effects. But how?"

He hears beeping and looks over at SpongeBorg, who appears to be explaining something to them in the most confident appearance they have ever seen him in since their meeting.

"SpongeBorg says that he can help us with that." SpongeTron explained. "He says that if we input the kill code, that'll undo all the previous actions that Platform has been used for."

"Kill code?" Tammy questioned.

"It's on a USB drive." SpongeTron explained for SpongeBorg. "Max has it in his pocket. He grabbed it before he came here because he thought he might need it."

"Well, he was right about one thing." Danny muttered.

"But we have to find Max since with his psychic powers, he might be able to get through the defenses that Platform has that'll allow one of us to climb up to Platform and undo its effects. If we do that, we can stop DarkEvil and get…everything…back to…" all of a sudden, SpongeTron's eyes began to shut and he slowly kneeled over.

"SpongeTron?" Darry asked as he rushed over to his side along with Tammy and Tommy. "What's wrong with you?"

"Systems shutting down." SpongeTron quickly explained as a faint whirring sound was heard from his body. "Can't stay…operational."

"But how?" Tammy franticly asked. "You shouldn't be shutting down like this all of a sudden."

"It's because of my creator. If SpongeBob doesn't exist…neither can I."

Darry, Tammy, and Tommy gasp in shock and horror along with the older kids who were equally shocked.

"No," Darry said quietly as he held SpongeTron. "You can't go too! We need you with us!"

"It's okay…" SpongeTron replied with a weak smile to his friends. "Just find Max…beat DarkEvil…use the kill code…save the world…bring back SpongeBob…my creator."

Then he suddenly closed his eyes and fell to the ground flat on his face now motionless and shut down.

"SpongeTron!" Tommy cried out.

SpongeBorg beeped quietly in sadness as well.

"NO!" Tammy yelled as he cried and sobbed on top of the deactivated SpongeTron while Tommy placed his hands on her shoulders to comfort her. SpongeBorg moaned sadly as he stared at the bigger robot.

As the younger kids mourned for the loss of their friend, Jimmy quietly grunted in discouragement and walked away from everyone with Dani noticing. She was about to follow him until Danny grabbed her shoulder.

"Actually…" Danny began saying with a smile. "Why don't you let us handle this?"

Upstairs in the room with all of Squidward's artwork, Jimmy leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh.

"You okay?" he turned to see Timmy standing by the doorway, looking at him in concern.

"Don't you understand, Timmy?" Jimmy asked sullenly. "They won, we lost! We lost our battle with DarkEvil, we lost Platform, we lost Bikini Bottom, we lost SpongeBob, and now we lost another one of our friends."

Suddenly, Danny and Tak come into the room from behind Timmy. "So now what, Leader?" Tak asked Jimmy.

"I'm no leader." Jimmy said with his head lowered. "Everything I've done so far has only led to failure. We have no chance of ever fixing this."

"You shouldn't talk like that, Jimmy." Timmy said, looking disappointment. "It may have been a long time since we've been together, but the Jimmy I know would never talk like that."

"Timmy's right." Danny added. "Our first time back together as a team in years and you're having a meltdown?"

"Yeah," Tak said with a shrug and smile. "Besides, it's not the first time we've failed. Remember that time we couldn't stop Plankton from stealing a truck-load of krabby patties because SB had just mopped the floor in the Krusty Krab and we kept slipping?"

Timmy added, "Or the time we fought Professor Calamitous's robot, but it trapped us in the bank vault and left with the money?"

Danny scratched his chin and reminisced like the others, "I also recall the time we were captured by Skulker and we were trapped on his island so he could hunt us down."

"Umm…" Jimmy stared at them oddly. "Not that these nostalgic memories aren't pleasant, but they're not exactly helping."

"You're missing the point." Danny said, looking a bit annoyed but spoke calmly, "We're saying that even though we've failed a couple times, we've still managed to come out in the end."

"Yeah," Timmy said with a nod. "Calamitous and his robot were still stopped."

"And we still managed to catch Plankton." Tak added with a smile.

"And we managed to escape from Skulker." Danny finished brightly

Jimmy sighed again and began to speak, "I appreciate everything you're trying to do. But if you can recall, the reason we separated was to prevent things like this from happening to our worlds and everyone around us; and now that we're back together, look what happens."

Danny, Timmy, and Tak stare at each other and sadly reminisce about the decision they made years ago that Jimmy just reminded them of. Just then, Danny grabbed Jimmy's shoulders and held him against the wall.

"Even if the Nicktoons no longer exist, we're here now, aren't we?" Danny said in a serious tone. "Right now, everyone we know needs our help; and if we're ever gonna get SpongeBob back and stop DarkEvil, we need you with us. Not just because you're our leader, but also our friend; and we can't be on a team together without you."

Jimmy stared at him, a bit dazed by what he said, but the young ghost adult continued, "Well, Jimmy? You wanna be a Nicktoon again? For one last time?"

Back in the living room, Darry, Tammy, and Tommy were still sitting by their deactivated robot friend, grieving over their loss. Soon, Danny, Timmy, and Tak come down the stairs, and afterwhich, Darry rushed over.

"Dad!" Darry called as he ran over to Danny. "What are we gonna do? We have to bring SpongeBob back so we can save SpongeTron."

"We will, Darry." Danny said in an assuring tone. "We're gonna go kick DarkEvil's square butt and reset everything back to the way it was."

"But what about Jimmy?" Dani asked. "Is he coming with us?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Tak said with a smile as he stepped to the side, showing Jimmy step down the stairs, wearing his Neutronic-Mech Suit again, making everyone turn their attention to him.

"Alright Nicktoons," Jimmy spoke in a confident tone. "We have to fight our way to the Chum Bucket and once again make our way down to where DarkEvil is holding Platform. Also, along the way, we're gonna have to find Max. If what SpongeBorg said is true, he's gonna hold an important role in our strategy, and if we can get him to cooperate with us, then we might just have a chance."

"We can do it, Jimmy!" Tammy blurted out ecstatically. "With you leading us, we'll definitely win!"

Jimmy smiled at this while Timmy shouted, "Well, Nicktoons…let's unite to find Max, beat DarkEvil and his robots, and use Platform to turn Bikini Bottom back to normal!"

"Uh…thanks Timmy." Jimmy said with a weak chuckle. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

The others all cheer and rush out the door, ready to begin their mission. As Jimmy follows, Dani walks next to him and whispers, "Glad to see you back to your old self."

"Well, it's no more 'doubting myself again' for me." Jimmy replied with a positive smile as Dani smiled at him.

As the Nicktoons walk out the front door, Darry was the last one to leave. He turns his head back to take one last glance at the deactivated SpongeTron lying on the floor, and frowned sadly before walking out and shutting the door behind him.

Curse you, Time Paradox! You've taken another life into your realm of nothingness. But at least they know how to undo Platform thanks to SpongeBorg. How hard will this be? Please review and the next chapter will be up soon.