A giant shadow fell over them.

Patrick and SpongeBob gazed with awe at the bigger boot. Then Patrick got really scared, so scared that he wanted to run away, but SpongeBob held him back.

"Wait, Pat. This bigger boot saved our lives."

They looked up and saw the owner of the boot - a giant standing over them.

"Thank you, stranger," Patrick said politely.

The scary giant did not reply. But he did move closer and was now towering over SpongeBob and Patrick. The giant had a big metal head with bubbles coming out of it. He was looking down at them with one eye. One eye? ONE EYE!

"It's the Cyclops! RUUUUUUN!"

SpongeBob and Patrick ran. But it was too late. With his big boots clomping on the ground, the Cyclops ran the boys down and swooped them up in his colossal hands.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" the boys screamed as the Cyclops stuffed them into a dark and scary bag.

The Cyclops swam to a boat and climbed aboard. Then he opened his underwear bag and peeked inside.

SpongeBob and Patrick had fainted, so the Cyclops tossed the sponge and the starfish into a bowl filled with water.

Then he started his boat and headed toward the shore.

XXX

SpongeBob and Patrick awoke on a lumpy bed of pink, red, blue, and yellow rocks.

"Huh?" SpongeBob grunted, rubbing his head.

"Are we dead?" asked Patrick.

SpongeBob looked around. "I don't think so."

He checked out the scenery, which was pretty strange. "Hey, artificially colored rocks!"

Patrick ate one. "Mmm, strawberry..."

SpongeBob got up and stretched. "Well, let's go, Patrick. I don't know where we are but-"

BUMP!

"Oops! What's this?" SpongeBob had walked into an invisible glass wall.

"Ooooh. It's some kind of wall of psychic energy," said Patrick.

But SpongeBob shook his head. It was worse than that! "No, Patrick. It's a giant glass bowl. We're in a fishbowl!"

SpongeBob looked around. He was relieved to see they were not alone. "Hey, there's some fish folk over there."

In fact the place had more fish folk than a Goofy Goober's Party Boat on its busiest night! There were fish all over the place.

"Hey! Over here," called SpongeBob, waving.

"Hey!" cried Patrick, jumping up and down.

But the fish just stared straight ahead, ignoring them.

"Hey, you guys? Help!"

"Yeah," said SpongeBob. "A little help here. We're stuck in this-"

Then SpongeBob's eyes bugged out.

"Over here!" called Patrick, still trying to get the fish folk's attention.

"Wait a second!" said SpongeBob. "Those fish! They're all...all...all dried up!"

"AAAAHHHHH," yelled Patrick.

"AAAARGHHH," yelled SpongeBob.

Then they heard a deep, booming laugh that shook the walls of their prison. The Cyclops! A giant human dressed in a diving suit was staring right into their bowl.

"What's he gonna do with us?" cried SpongeBob.

They watched as the giant took a bottle of glue out of his toolbox.

"OH, NO!" yelled SpongeBob, trembling. "He's going for his evil instruments of torture."

The Cyclops set the glue on a table next to a bottle of plastic googly eyes.

"Glue?" shriekd SpongeBob. "Googly eyes? Ahhhhhhh!"

As they watched with dread, the giant glued a pair of googly eyes onto a dried-up clam. Then he put a hat on the clam's head and a tiny plastic phone in the little dried-up guy's hand.

SpongeBob gasped. "He's making a humorous diorama out of that poor clam!"

Finally the giant hung a little paper sign around the clam's neck that read-

"Alexander Clam Bell?!"

Poor SpongeBob couldn't believe his eyes.

"Patrick, he's drying up sea animals and making them into smelly knickknacks!"

"And we're next!" screamed Patrick.

At that moment the giant reached into the fish bowl and grabbed Patrick.

"Paaaaaaaatrick!"

Then another hand reached in and clutched SpongeBob.

"Nooooooo!"

The giant dropped them onto a table, right under a bright, hot light. Instantly Patrick and SpongeBob started to sizzle in the heat.

"The heat from this lamp is so intense, I can't move," SpongeBob said weakly.

"Tell me about it," said Patrick, practically parched.

They heard the Cyclops laugh and stomp away, but still they could not escape. The heat from the light was drying them out. They were growing weaker by the minute.

"This doesn't look too good, Patrick," said SpongeBob.

"You mean we're not gonna...get the crown, save the town, Mr. Krabs..." Patrick sang softly, his voice fading.

"I don't even think we're going to be able to save ourselves, buddy," SpongeBob said, gasping.

He tried to wipe his forehead, but his arm was so brittle it broke off!

Patrick rolled to his side and put it back on for his pal.

"Thanks," SpongeBob wheezed.

"Don't mention it." Patrick coughed.

"Well," said SpongeBob. "it looks like what everyone said was true."

Patrick managed to smile. "You mean that we're attractive?"

"No," said SpongeBob as tiny cracks appeared on his skin. "That we're just kids - a couple of kids way over our heads. We were doomed from the start. I mean, look at us - we didn't even come close to the crown. We let everybody down. We failed."

Patrick's eyes bugged out. "Shell City?"

"Yeah." SpongeBob sighed sadly. "We never made it to Shell City."

"Shell City," said Patrick.

"Exactly, buddy," said SpongeBob. "That's the place we never got to."

"Shell City!" Patrick cried.

"Okay, now you're starting to bum me out, Patrick."

"No," said Patrick, pointing. "Look at the sign! Shell City - Marine Gifts and Sundry."

SpongeBob gasped. "Shell City's a gift shop? But, if this is Shell City, then where's the...?"

SpongeBob and Patrick saw it at the same time.

"THE CROWN!" cried SpongeBob and Patrick. It was dazzling in the sunlight.

"Neptune's crown!" yelled SpongeBob. "This is Shell City!"

By this time they had almost no strength left. In seconds they would be completely dry. But still Patrick and SpongeBob felt proud.

"Pat, we did make it," said SpongeBob, a smile crossing his cracking and drying face.

"Yeah," Patrick said, sniffling. "I guess we did."

"We did all right for a couple of goofballs," SpongeBob said with a sigh, shedding a single tear. Then he started to sing softly.

"I'm a Goofy Goober, yeah..."

"You're a Goofy Goober, yeah," sang Patrick, shedding a tear too.

"We're all Goofy Goobers, yeah," they sang together. "Goofy, Goofy, Goober, Goober..."

Then they closed their eyes and dried up.

But all was not lost, for the tears they shed joined together to form a single drop of water. And that drop of water flowed off the table, down the lamp's wire, and into the electric socket.

The lamp shorted out. A mighty shower of sparks left the smoke rising to the ceiling of the Shell City gift shop. The sprinklers sprang open.

Water rained down on everything in the store - including SpongeBob and Patrick. Their bodies soaked up the water, and in no time the two Goofy Goobers woke up!

"Hey, we're alive!" exclaimed SpongeBob, looking down at his hands, just as soft and spongy as ever. "Let's get that crown!"

"Right!"

The boys jumped down and ran across the wet floor. Water was till pouring down from the sprinklers. The boys made it to the crown and tried to lift it.

"On three, Pat. Are you ready?" cried SpongeBob. "One...two...three!"

The crown flew into the air, with SpongeBob and Patrick still hanging on.

SpongeBob was surprised. "It's lighter than I thought!"

Then he realized that his feet weren't touching the ground. SpongeBob blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, he was staring into the face of the Cyclops.

"AHHHHHHH!"

The giant was holding the crown in his enormous hand. When he saw SpongeBob and Patrick hanging there, he roared with anger.