Author Notes - To celebrate the release of Cosmic Shake, I'm releasing a little something of my own: the next chapter of this story! Just a week early. After all, this one's a little shorter than the others. Today, we're focusing on a boss that was planned for the game before getting removed. ROBOT SQUIDWARD! I based his fight quite heavily on the concept art, which gives a surprising amount of detail if you know what to look for.

If you're wondering how I feel about Cosmic Shake, I'm really liking it! I feel like comparing it to BfBB isn't entirely fair, since it takes the '3D collectathon' genre down a different direction. The controls took a little getting used to, and I have noticed a lack of polish in certain areas. But, the gameplay is surprisingly varied and there's SO MANY references that my poor fangirl heart can barely take it. I mean, Spot gets mentioned in the first ten minutes of gameplay! How can I hate a game with that?

Also, Karen is actually in this game! Oh, and Pearl too, I guess.

CHAPTER TWELVE - ROBOT SQUIDWARD IS HERE TOO

Zee battle is not over yet. Karen has just one last zing she has to do, and she will stall SpongeBob out zrough any means necessary.

Right you are, Frenchy! And now, she has summoned a mighty robot that looks much like a certain cephalopod! How will our daring heroes get out of this one? … I doubt it would be that hard. I don't think this robot is even really finished! Hey, hang on a moment. I don't remember him from the game.

Oui. He was… how you say… unused. He was planned early on, but did not appear.

Oh, of course. That's why he was in the remake! … That was a bad use of him. He just stood there menacingly instead of… oh, we should let the story continue!

The rest of our heroes barely had any time to react to Squidward screaming. Next thing they knew, the floor crumbled underneath their feet and they fell right through it. They landed (on their faces) in a deeper part of the Chum Bucket - a big room with pulleys everywhere. And, of course, a gigantic robotic Squidward standing in the middle of a big pool of chum, flailing his tentacles around wildly.

'Well, this ain't really a shock.' Sandy remarked. 'They had a robot fer everyone else. A Squidward robot makes sense.'

'Ya know,' Plankton said. 'I don't think I ever really planned to use these robots. They were rough sketches at best! Karen is using everything she can get her vacuum tubes on for this scheme.'

'HEEEEELLOOOOO?!' Squidward shouted. 'A DISTRESSED OCTOPUS OVER HERE! I COULD USE A LITTLE-!'

He could say no more, for Robot Squidward opened up a latch in his massive head and tossed his flesh-and-blood counterpart inside.

'ANOTHER DAY. ANOTHER MIGRAIN!'

'Alright!' SpongeBob said. 'Another robot boss fight! … For the third time.'

'Well, I doubt we have much ta worry about.' Sandy said. 'He was never tha best fighter. And I don't think he can move from that chum pit.'

'Don't underestimate him, Sandy! We don't know what he's capable of.'

One of Robot Squidward's tentacles disappeared into the chum, and emerged again holding a big black metal pipe. A metal pipe shaped just like a clarinet. The mighty robot took a deep breath, despite not having lungs, and put the clarinet's reed to his mouth.

'SQUIDWARD WILL BE PERFORMING HIS VERSION OF SOLITUDE IN E MINOR.'

'AAHHHH!' Patrick screamed. 'Everyone, RUN!'

'We gotta git outta here!' Sandy yelled.

Plankton was already gunning for an exit. 'I'm way ahead of ya!'

Alas, they couldn't find a single escape door in this entire room. It was all just solid metal walls, as far as they were aware. Walls that would, no doubt, reverb that clarinet music like mad.

'BRACE FER IMPACT!' Sandy shouted.

'Oh, come on, guys.' SpongeBob said. 'I think Squidward is a perfectly fine-'

And that was the last thing he said before Robot Squidward blasted music through his metal clarinet. The horrid sound bounced off the walls and became even louder as our heroes tried desperately to block it out. Be glad that this is a written medium, because those noises were simply unbearable.

'GOOOO-LLY!' Sandy cried. 'This is more unbearable than a… a… aw, nuts. I can't even think of a countrism with that music playin'!'

'WHYYYYYYYY?!' Patrick shouted.

'JUST FOR THE RECORD,' Plankton said. 'I did not design the robot to do this! What do you think of me? Expect me to torture the citizens?!'

SpongeBob, however, was a quick thinker. Growing an extra pair of hands to cover his ears, he whipped out his bubble wand and blew a pair of earplugs. You'd think earplugs made of bubbles wouldn't be very effective, but they did the job well enough. The 'music' was still loud, but not so unbearable anymore.

'We're gonna need to destroy the clarinet!' He said. 'Then, we'll be able to do something!'

'I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE CLARINET!' Patrick yelled. 'I THINK WE NEED TO DESTROY IT!'

As the only one who could deal with the noise, SpongeBob looked around for a way to defeat this thing. His attention immediately fell upon a big net of junk hanging from the ceiling, directly above the clarinet. The rope it was attached to ran along the ceiling and ended near a big red button.

'WELL, I'M SORRY YOU RUBES CAN'T ENJOY JAZZ.'

Robot Squidward ran out of 'air' and had to stop playing his clarinet. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but braced themselves for it to go off at any time.

'We've got some time!' SpongeBob said. 'Gimme some ideas.'

Plankton rubbed his head and groaned. 'Those nets look like they're filled with old scrap metal. If we could just drop them onto that junk heap, we might be able to take him down.'

'Good idea, Plankton! I'll be right on it!'

Good thing there were platforms that led right up to that big red button. SpongeBob ran across the room and hopped onto the first platform, just as Robot Squidward was taking another breath.

'I WILL PLAY SUCH THAT NEPTUNE HIMSELF WILL HEAR ME UPON HIS VERY THRONE... OR WHATEVER CHAIR HE'S SITTING ON.'

By the time our porous hero reached the second platform, the clarinet was already blasting once again. It happened so suddenly that SpongeBob almost jumped hard enough to fall off.

'WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING, SPONGEBOB,' Plankton shouted, surprisingly loud for his tiny size. 'DO IT NOW!'

Though the terrible music shook the floor he stood on, SpongeBob did not give up. He leapt from point to point as quickly as he could. His bubble earmuffs were getting weaker, and he knew he had little time left.

Just. One. More. Jump.

'Gotcha!'

He smacked the button with his bubble wand, and the hook holding up the net let go. All of the scrap metal within it spilled out, and most of it smacked into the metal clarinet. Robot Squidward wrapped two tentacles around it so it wouldn't fall out of his grip, but it was for naught. The scrap metal was so heavy that it dented the clarinet out of shape. When Robot Squidward realised what happened, he didn't look too happy about it.

'THERE'S A DEPOSIT ON THAT EQUIPMENT, PEOPLE!'

He tried to play it again anyway, but all that came out were disjointed notes that were just a fraction of how loud they were before. Not nearly enough to make our heroes shudder and writhe in agony. In frustration, he tossed it back into the pool of chum, splattering the unsightly crimson goop everywhere.

'THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! I NO LONGER TOLERATE MY PERSONAL ITEMS BEING SOILED BY THE RAVELS THAT CRAWL IN THIS RESTAURANT!'

'HEY!' Plankton shouted.

'Good job, SpongeBob!' Sandy said. 'Hopefully, he ain't so hard to take on now.'

Robot Squidward flailed his tentacles around in the air wildly, with no target in mind, before he suddenly smacked one against the floor. Sandy pounced out of the way with a yelp, landing on all-fours.

'Alright.' She said. 'Never mind. Looks like he ain't stoppin' fer nothin'.'

'Now what do we do?!' Patrick asked, tumbling out of the way of another tentacle.

SpongeBob saw Plankton standing right in the middle of the danger zone, and swooped in to pick him up and keep him safe. Just in time too, because that tentacle smack hit the floor hard enough to leave a dent.

'Look up, you morons!' Plankton yelled. 'There's more of those nets up there, and they've all got a button. I think we could use them to destroy those tentacles! Or at least dent a few of them.'

'Good idea, Plankton!' SpongeBob said. 'Everyone, jump up those platforms and hit those buttons! It might make fighting this guy a little easier! Fan out and go!'

'LET ME GIVE HIM A TASTE! A MERE MORSEL OF WHAT'S IN STORE!'

Everyone scattered, except for Plankton who hopped into SpongeBob's head once again. Our heroes split up and ran in three different directions, clambering for their button while dodging the tentacles of the cantankerous robot. Said robot wasn't happy with their attempt to escape him, and so he swept one of his tentacles across the floor. It knocked over an absurd amount of equipment and tore up the floor as it travelled along.

'Look out, Patrick!' Sandy yelled.

'For what?' Patrick asked. 'All I can see is that giant metallic tentacle coming my way!'

Both heroes were able to leap over it as it swept underneath them. Sandy cleared the jump no problem, while Patrick tripped over the arm and fell flat on his face. Luckily, he was otherwise unharmed and got back to his feet quickly.

SpongeBob, with Plankton safe in his cranium, climbed up to the second button with ease. It helped that Robot Squidward couldn't quite reach him. He smacked the button as quickly and as hard as he could, and the second net deployed. It rained junk onto one of Robot Squidward's tentacles, reducing it to rubble.

'WHATEVER! I'M STILL A KARATE MASTER!'

'If ya insist…' Sandy muttered, halfway up her climb.

Unlike with SpongeBob, Robot Squidward could easily reach her. He flailed one of his arms at her, swiping back and forth. He didn't account for her natural speed and agility, and she was able to hop out of the way with ease.

'Too slow!' She said. 'If ya wanna catch me, you gotta try harder than that!'

For an unfeeling robot, Robot Squidward sure looked angry and emitted a sound strangely similar to a growl. He smacked his arm against the wall, hard enough to destroy a platform a mere second after Sandy jumped away from it. It wasn't enough to stop her from hitting the button, and more junk rained down from the ceiling. Before Robot Squidward could attack her again, that very same arm was crushed by a heap of metallic scrap.

'LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL-'

'Hey look!' Patrick blurted out. 'A button!'

Somehow, in all of this commotion, Patrick had managed to reach the fourth and final button without being noticed. How he got up there quickly, not even your Non-French Narrator can tell. But he was there all right, giving the button a dopey little smile.

'HIT IT, PATRICK!' SpongeBob yelled.

'Oh yeah.' Patrick said. 'I should hit it.'

Robot Squidward lifted up a tentacle to smash him into paste, but he was too late. Patrick hit the button, and a hook unhooked. Our heroes were quite surprised when a grand piano fell from the ceiling and bonked against Robot Squidward's head. It bounced off his shiny cranium and smashed not one but two of his tentacles right at the base. Now, he only had three left.

'OH, MY ACHING TENTACLES.'

'Now what?' SpongeBob asked. 'He's still got three arms left, and all the net things are gone!'

Plankton groaned. 'I guess we'll have to take out those remaining tentacles the hard way. Shouldn't be too hard, seeing as he's only got half of 'em. But I have no idea now.'

SpongeBob grinned. 'I think I have an idea!'

He jumped down from the high platform and landed on the ground floor, ignoring how much his feet and knees hurt after a stunt like that. Taking his bubble wand out once again, he waved it around to get Robot Squidward's attention.

'Hey Squiiiiidwaaaaard!' He said. 'Wanna play with me?'

'THANKS, BUT NO, THANKS, MAJOR STUPIDITY. YOU AND GENERAL NONSENSE OVER THERE WILL HAVE TO FIGHT WITHOUT ME.'

'Who's General Nonsense?' Patrick asked.

SpongeBob belted out his laugh as loudly as he could. 'Are you sure? Come on, Squidward. Comeon-comeon-comeon-comeon-comeon!'

The robot's jaw opened up just so everyone could see him gritting and grinding his teeth. He bashed a tentacle into the floor, only for that annoying sponge kid to dodge the attack like a pro. Before Robot Squidward could react, SpongeBob was already making himself a big spatula made entirely of bubble. The poor robot was just lifting up his arm when SpongeBob sliced the bubble spatula straight through it.

'Wow.' He remarked. 'The metal wasn't as tough as I thought.'

'It's a robot version of Squidward.' Plankton said. 'I don't think Karen would've cared about enforcing it with the strongest steel. Heck, I doubt she even intended to make it battle. She's just getting desperate now.'

Robot Squidward gawked at his broken tentacle long enough to give Sandy the chance to lasso one of his other tentacles. She yanked on the rope and managed to pull his arm along. His head spun around slowly on its joints, and that angry eyebrow somehow managed to look even angrier. There was nothing he could do, however, to stop Sandy karate-chopping his arm clean off.

'Wow.' She said, much like SpongeBob did. 'Ya weren't kiddin'. I guess we can't complain.'

That meant there was only one arm left, and it was about to slam down onto Patrick. Alas, the seastar got distracted because he saw a 'delicious' puddle of chum leaking out of the wall. The tentacle was hovering right above him, about to smash him into paste, but he didn't notice.

'PATRICK LOOK OUT!' SpongeBob shouted.

Patrick turned his head around and licked up the chum on his lips, only to see the arm about to crush him.

'PATRICK!'

As Patrick soon found out, the metal wasn't really all that heavy. He held his arms up and successfully blocked the attack, holding the tentacle in his arms. Much to Robot Squidward's displeasure.

'I wanna play!' Patrick said. 'I wanna play!'

He pulled on the arm and… accidentally?… intentionally?… yanked it right out of its socket. Sparks flew into the air, but only for a few seconds. Electricity stopped coursing through the arm in moments.

'I WIN!' Patrick declared.

It left Robot Squidward as a rather 'armless robot. His metallic eyebrows spun around to make him look rather sad about his state of affairs.

'OH, WHY MUST EVERY 11 MINUTES OF MY LIFE BE FILLED WITH MISERY?'

'Alright!' Sandy said. 'I think we've taken care o' him.'

Plankton popped his head out from SpongeBob's body. 'I wouldn't celebrate just yet. Even if Karen wanted this guy to be nothing but cannon fodder, I doubt she would let him be defeated that easily. Keep your guard up!'

Our heroes stood still and watched the robot on his command. At first, Robot Squidward hardly even moved. Then, suddenly, his eyebrow flipped around so he looked angry again.

'THAT SPONGEBOB-FREE SHIFT WILL BE MINE!'

His head spun around in a rather unsettling display, and then - like unscrewing a screw - his head suddenly popped off its joint! It hovered in the air, supported by a small rocket where his neck would've been.

'Oh boy!' SpongeBob yelled.

'Okay, I did not design it to do this.' Plankton said, as though he was trying to dodge legal repercussions. 'I didn't design him at all, actually, but certainly not to have a detachable head!'

No one was quite sure what this robot head was capable of doing, until he opened his mouth.

'YOU WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT REAL MUSIC IS IF IT CAME UP AND HIT YOU IN THE FACE.'

Out from his mouth, Squidward fired out a big purple pellet shaped vaguely like a musical note. It was shot out with the speed of an arrow.

'WOAH!' SpongeBob cried.

The sea sponge stretched his leg across the room and let the rest of his body snap to it. The pellet smacked into the ground so hard that it completely shattered on impact.

'Wow.' Patrick said. 'Squidward's music really is painful.'

'THAT TRILOBITE DIDN'T KNOW AN OBOE FROM AN ELBOW.'

'... I don't know what half of those words mean.'

Squidward cared none for how many words Patrick understood, and fired another pellet at him anyway. Patrick performed an impressive rolling handstand to get out of its way, and it crashed into the wall right behind him.

'Now what do we do!?' SpongeBob yelled.

'You stop yelling so you can give me time to think!' Plankton shouted, while Sandy had to leap out of the way of yet another attack. 'Maybe we could knock the head out of the sky or something. Then, it should be easy to destroy.'

'Okay, gotcha. But how-? WOAH!' SpongeBob ducked right into his pants to avoid a flying pellet. 'How are we going to do that?'

'How should I know?! You're the one with the imagination power that'll apparently put Karen's reign of terror to an end, not me!'

'WELL, THIS ONE'S ON THE HOUSE!'

Robot Squidward shot another attack at Sandy, who managed to shatter it with a single karate chop. Albeit, not with ease.

'Ow…' She murmured.

It gave SpongeBob all the time he needed.

'Projectiles!' He declared. 'If we had a projectile attack, then we could hit him!'

'Except we don't have a projectile attack!' Plankton said. 'Unless you wanna toss that piano at him.'

'No, but we can make a projectile.'

'With what? Bubbles?'

'Exactly!'

SpongeBob recreated what he had done on the Flying Dutchman's ship, and created a big missile made entirely of bubbles.

'Say hello to my little bubble friend!'

It travelled through the air like a homing missile, but its fatal flaw was quickly revealed: it couldn't turn very well. Robot Squidward's head flew around the arena too quickly for the missile to hit it, until it eventually ran into a wall and popped.

'Ah, barnacles…' SpongeBob muttered.

'Not a bad idea,' Plankton said. 'But the head moves around too much! We need to slow him down somehow.'

SpongeBob snapped his fingers. 'I got it! SANDY! Can you rope him in with your lasso? It might get him to - WOAH!' He had to jump out of the way of another musical note attack. 'Stop moving long enough so we can hit him!'

Sandy gave him a thumbs-up. 'I gotcha, SpongeBob!'

SpongeBob waved his arms around so Robot Squidward focused squarely on him, and so the robot didn't notice the lasso around his head until he was yanked backwards. His angry eyebrows lowered, as if to emphasise his anger.

'STAY BACK OR YOU'RE GONNA GET IT! I AM WARNING YOU!'

He fired another shot, and Sandy had to duck under it. The force of his pull almost matched hers, and she had to fight to keep herself anchored. Even then, her feet dragged across the floor.

'Y'all might wanna hurry up!' She said. 'He's got a lotta kick ta 'im!'

'Just keep him right there, Sandy!'

Robot Squidward clearly did not approve of this, and fired another pellet. This time, he aimed for neither SpongeBob nor Sandy, but Patrick. The poor seastar had no time to react, and the shot hit him right in the stomach.

'PATRICK!' SpongeBob cried.

Patrick's extra padding absorbed most of the damage, but he was still sent flying backwards until he collided with the half-broken piano on the floor. SpongeBob clenched his fists and summoned another Cruise Bubble. Since Robot Squidward struggled against the grip of Sandy's lasso, the missile easily struck him right in the middle of his face.

'NO! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO EXPLODE INTO A MILLION PIECES!'

His eyebrow was wonky, only one eye worked now, and the rocket struggled to keep firing. But the head was still floating there, ready to attack once again. He shot out another musical note, but it only travelled half the distance before it plummeted to the ground unceremoniously.

'Just one more hit ought ta do it!' SpongeBob said. 'Comin' at ya!'

He didn't have time to summon another Cruise Bubble, however. Patrick lifted up the broken piano over his head like it was nothing, and chucked it through the air with every bit of muscle that he had. It smacked right into Robot Squidward's head, hard enough to shatter what remained of the piano and dent the robot's face so much that it was almost unrecognisable. Bits of it fell into the chum below, and Sandy was able to get her lasso back.

'That's what you get for trying to hurt my best friend!' Patrick shouted.

'WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN? AM I GONNA BLOW UP?'

'You better!'

The rocket ceased to function, and Robot Squidward fell half-buried into the chum pool. The lights in his eyes flickered and faded, and he only had time to say one more thing before he was totally deactivated.

'WHEN I DIE... YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY FUNERAL.'

The latch on the top of his head popped open, and a certain someone crawled out with every joint in his body aching like heck.

'Thanks… I guess…' He muttered, sounding like he was on the verge of collapse. 'Oh, my aching everything…'

'Hold still, Squidward!' Sandy said. 'I'll getcha!'

'Huh? … WOAH!'

Sandy tossed her lasso across the chum lake and snatched him by the stomach, yanking him back so fast that his own head almost went flying off. He smacked into the floor butt-first, but was otherwise unharmed. Relatively speaking, of course.

'Y'all okay?' Sandy asked.

'I could be a lot worse…' Squidward said, snapping his joints back into place. 'At least you got me out of that monstrosity.'

Everyone stayed quiet for a minute or two, just in case Robot Squidward moved or attacked them again. But the robot head simply remained half-sunk in the chum, emitting sparks but otherwise showing no signs that it ever worked before.

'Come on, guys!' SpongeBob said. 'Let's go find Karen and put an end to her scheme!'

'Now, wait a minute…' Squidward said, rubbing his chin (if he had one) in thought. 'Something isn't quite adding up here.'

'What do ya mean?' Patrick asked.

'Think about it. First, we find a robotic Sandy. Then, a robotic Patrick. And now, a robotic me. All robots based on us, the ones who banded together to put an end to all of this. And yet, there's one thing missing: SpongeBob! If he was so detrimental to her plan, you'd think Karen would've built a robotic SpongeBob to get rid of him the first chance she got!'

'I wouldn't write off the idea so easily.' Plankton said. 'Karen wouldn't miss a problem as big as that by accident. She must have another plan for the yellow idiot. I bet she-'

'HEY, LOOK!' Patrick yelled, pointing at a door that no one had noticed until now. 'I found an exit!'

How no one noticed this door was a mystery to them, and only to them. The one behind the screen had a few strings to pull, after all. Our heroes didn't really care how or why the door was there, and only cared about getting out. So, they rushed out the door and ran down the stairs that lead downwards into the darkness.

'How deep is this place?' Squidward asked, after just a few steps.

'I know as much as you do.' Plankton replied. 'I don't remember any of this! Karen must've built it. … But I can't imagine she was able to build all of this so quickly.'

'I doubt she did all'a this in just a few days.' Sandy said. 'I'm willin' ta bet that she's been plannin' this fer a while now.'

'No wonder it's so much harder to stop than Plankton's usual schemes.' SpongeBob remarked. 'Oh, sorry. No offence, Plankton.'

'Ugh… none taken.'

'Hey, look!' Patrick said. 'I found another exit!'

The staircase wasn't too long, and ended with another door. SpongeBob opened it up and led the rest of his team inside. What lay before them was something none of them were expecting. It was a massive room that was seemingly the size of the Chum Bucket itself, with LED lights and computer screens absolutely everywhere. Every single screen depicted security footage from all sorts of Bikini Bottom locales. Aside from the smallish platform that they stood on, almost the entire room was one big open area.

An open area that contained something absorbent. And yellow. And porous. And very, very big.

'Look at that guy!' Patrick said, in utter horror. 'That big square head, and the short shorts. It's the most hideous thing I've ever seen!'

'Wait…' SpongeBob said, struggling to speak up. 'That hideous thing looks like… me.'

Before them was a gigantic robotic version of SpongeBob, with a size so grand that it made the other robots look like Plankton in comparison.

'Jumpin' jellybeans!' Sandy said. 'A robot SpongeBob.'

Robot SpongeBob - or, perhaps more accurately, SpongeBot - stood slightly hunched over, like he hadn't been activated yet. He wore a copy of SpongeBob's red karate gear, and the white of his eyes was translucent; the inside of him was almost totally hollow.

Squidward sighed. 'I always knew SpongeBob would be the death of me…'

A voice echoed throughout the room. 'So glad you could finally join us, SpongeBob!' It was the voice belonging to the one who caused this whole mess in the first place.

Our heroes expected to see Karen rolling into view on her wheels, or perhaps appearing on one of - if not all of - the screens dotted throughout the room. Karen, however, did not want to do something so simple and predictable. Instead, she hovered high above the floor with a jetpack strapped onto her back. That way, she could glare down at our heroes with a conniving digitised face.

'Karen!?' SpongeBob exclaimed, backing up a bit.

'You can fly?!' Patrick yelled.

'Well, well, well!' Karen said, crossing her arms. 'Glad you guys finally decided to show up!'

A robotic version of Plankton - Planktron - hovered by her side, standing on a flying platform of his own. He may have been much bigger than his organic counterpart, but he was still pretty small compared to 'his' wife.

'You tell them, Boss.' He said.

'Thank you, Planktron, but it isn't necessary.' Karen said with an eyeroll. 'Now, as I was saying, I'm glad that you finally understood what my plan was. To be honest, I'm actually impressed! I had planned everything so meticulously, so that no one would know about it until it was too late and blame my excuse for a husband for it!'

'WHICH I'M NOT OKAY WITH!' Plankton shouted, as if she would listen.

'But now that you know about it, I suppose I better take advantage of it. Beyond!' She pointed to the robotic sea sponge. 'Meet my not-so-secret weapon. I call him… SpongeBot SteelPants! Maybe I could've thought of something more clever, but - unlike my husband - I was putting a lot more effort into the plan itself instead of the name of it.'

Throughout the entire speech, she focused her attention solely on SpongeBob. Or maybe it was Plankton; he was still hiding in SpongeBob's head, after all. Then again, perhaps Karen could focus on two people at once.

'Unfortunately…' Karen muttered. 'The plan hasn't gone exactly as I wanted. I had been hoping to eliminate your friends one by one, ensnaring them into those robots for the rest of their lives. Then you showed up and destroyed all of them.' She grinned. 'But, I did have a back-up. See, I just knew that our porous hero would save the day, whether I wanted him to or not. So, that's where my secret weapon comes in.'

'How long is this monologue going to last for?' Squidward asked, his attention already beginning to wane.

''I'M GETTING TO IT!' Karen yelled. 'I've been preparing this speech for hours, and I intend to read out the whole thing. Don't worry, it's almost over. Because the final piece of my glorious plan lays there, right in front of me!'

Now, she pointed at SpongeBob, very clearly and surely.

'M-Me?' He asked. 'B-But I-'

'I know this must be confusing.' Karen said. 'Seeing as you're supposedly the one thing that'll stop me. But that's the beauty of my plan. Either I deal with you and my plan continues uninterrupted, or you manage to get in here, and I can take advantage of it. See, there's a very good reason why I haven't booted SpongeBot up yet. He's a little different from Sandy Grease, or Botrick Tar, or even Squidwork Technicals.'

She swooped down and grabbed SpongeBob by his square pants, lifting him up into the air like an eagle swiping up its prey. It happened so fast that our heroes had no time to react to it. Plankton only had enough time to hop out of his head and fall to the floor onto his face before Karen held the sponge high into the air.

'And that little difference is you, SpongeBob!' Karen declared. 'You're the secret ingredient to my own secret formula!'

Squidward was quick to the draw, and played his clarinet as loudly as possible. Everyone cringed from the horrible sound… except for Karen. The sound didn't seem to affect her at all. Even Planktron could handle the cacophony.

'Nice try, Squiddy.' Karen said. 'I'll admit, I didn't predict your awful music being such an effective weapon. How fortunate that I had the time to reinforce Planktron, huh? Unlike my husband, I actually learn as I go.'

'Okay, I GET IT!' Plankton shouted, getting to his tiny feet. 'Are you done gloating now?'

Karen gave him a shrug. 'Maybe. The speech is almost over anyway. Now, where was I before Squidward interrupted me? Oh yeah. Now that I have our little 'chosen one', I can finally enact the final part of my plan!'

With SpongeBob still in her grasp, Karen soared as high as the roof of her lair would allow her to go and flew around her mechanical masterpiece. SpongeBob had to cover his eyes and hope to Neptune that she wouldn't drop him from the highest possible point. Eventually, she stopped flying about.

'You can open your eyes now.' She said, in her usual deadpanned tone.

SpongeBob did as she said, and found himself just above the head of his giant robotic counterpart. He gulped, well aware of where this was going.

'You're… you're gonna put in that big robot, aren't you?' He asked.

'Well, duh.' Karen said. 'You know the pattern by now. Except, this isn't just a Snag-and-Trap robot. You're its battery.'

'B-B-Battery?! B-But-!'

'I hope you're as ready as you always claim to be!'

She landed on the robot head, and rolled around until she reached a metallic pore that was a hatch instead of mere decoration. It swung open with a press of a single button, and she chucked SpongeBob inside as though he was nothing more than a piece of trash. He screamed as he plummeted into the mostly-hollow robot, until he finally landed face-first on a small circular platform in the middle of the void. It hovered thanks to a small rocket.

'I have to thank you, SpongeBob!' Karen yelled, her voice echoing in the gigantic space. 'Without you, this glorious final step of my plan could never happen!'

The rest of our heroes, unable to do much else, watched the enormous robot slowly come to life. He stood up straight as his unsettling blue eyes began to glow, and lifted up his arms like he was getting ready for a karate match. And then, with a mighty voice, he shouted…

'IIIII'M REAAAAADY!'

Author Notes - This chapter may have been shorter than the others, but I assure you that the next one won't be. The next chapter is the final one after all, and... well, to put it into perspective, I've just gotten up to the point where SpongeBot is actually defeated. The chapter is currently about 8,500 words long. So, uh, brace for that. I might do some pruning, but otherwise expect the chapter to exceed the five-digits.

I've already brought up The Cosmic Shake and how much I'm loving it, but... I'm gonna be honest, I think I might write an adaptation for that game too. Not for a while, because burn out is a jerk, but it's a strong possibility for the future. The game is fun as heck, AND it's a lot more story-driven than BfBB so it would be a lot easier to work into a story. No guarantees, though! Considering that Karen is actually in that game and a minor character, I'll need to decide if it will be a sequel or its own story. And whether or not Karen's scheme will actually factor into anything.