Ch 4

What day is it? How long has it been? It's dark in here. It probably reeks but I honestly couldn't tell you, can't smell a thing other than the strong smell of old dried-up blood that had begun to crust in my nose.

Everything hurts, why hasn't anyone come to look for me? Why is this happening to me? Maybe what they had said was true, that no one really ever loved him. That he was just an annoyance, would this world be better off if he were actually dead?

SpongeBob wondered as he sat in a cold dark room. He had lost track of time; he couldn't honestly tell you if it were night or day.

It felt like it had been years when it had only been a few months. Every day they would come in and perform some kind of horrible experiment.

In the distance He could hear them discussing their plans, or how they needed another sample from their subject.

By now SpongeBob has lost an arm, and his right eye, the wounds still fresh and left open. The pain was great, he couldn't describe how horrible he felt. His head hurt and he felt feverish from when they had taken his eye, was the wound infected? He felt weaker than he had ever felt, he had lost the will to eat, but that didn't stop them from forcing a tube down his throat. They still needed him, they'd say.

He wasn't used to this much pain and suffering, sure he had hurt before, but his body was always good at healing and taking damage. That stuff, whatever it was that they had given him prevented him from regenerating new limbs, sure he would heal over time, like a regular person, but like a normal person he would never regain his lost limbs or organs.

Who could have wanted this? Why would anyone want this? Spongebob had always been so kind and caring to everyone he had ever met. Even those who weren't so kind to him. It made no sense, why would anyone want him dead? Why would anyone want to put him through this?

Should have listened to her, should have stayed home, poor Sandy, she must have thought he stood her up. Sandy would never know the truth.

Maybe she was mad at him, so that's why she never came to look for him. Tears streamed down his cheeks, washing away some of the dried blood that was there.

'I hope you can forgive me' he said to himself as he thought of her and everyone else that he loved.

*Clink clank.. clonck!

SpongeBob cowered as the door to the prison he was held opened, and light flooded the room.

"Please! No, stop, don't come any closer!" He begged as he used his remaining arm to shield his face from the light.

Men began to enter the room, surrounding the poor sponge. Spongebob trembles as he avoids looking at them, hoping that if he didn't make eye contact, they'd go easy on him.

"Get up." One of the men orders as they jab him with a long stick. SpongeBob shakes his head, "i, i can't, please, let me go, i won't say anything." SpongeBob begs them but they only laugh before they kick him.

SpongeBob is forced to his feet, his back against the wall, forced to look the lead guard in his face, the man grins as he looks over the bruised sponge.

"Remove his clothes." He orders his accomplices. SpongeBob protests, "no! Stop! You can't do this!" He fights to keep his clothes on.

"Please, I am a person too, just like you! This is wrong and you know it!" SpongeBob shouted at them before the lead guard pinned him against the wall, choking him with the baton he had used to poke him.

"You think you're one of us? You're nothing but a stinking lab rat. You are worthless, you are nothing but a filter feeding sponge, and you're not even that anymore, and soon there will be nothing left of you. You are an annoyance to everyone you're around. Nobody cares about you; it's no wonder why that good for nothing talentless octopus killed himself so he could get away from you." The guard said.

SpongeBob sniffled, shaking his head, "you're wrong." SpongeBob said. The guard scoffs, "If i'm wrong then why isn't anyone looking for you? Your 'girlfriend' isn't even putting in the effort to look for you, your best friend hasn't even noticed your disappearance, and you want to know the best part? You were sold out by your own Blood." The guards laugh.

"You're lying." SpongeBob said, refusing to believe what they had said before the guard punched the sponge in the face, knocking him onto his back. SpongeBob's head begins to spin before he passes out.

"Believe what you want." The guard said before he signals the others who proceed to tear the clothes off SpongeBob's back.

A few minutes later

SpongeBob was brought into a room, screaming and fighting along the way until he was brought to Dr. Kyle.

The doctor took a moment to look at the completely naked sponge who he had ordered to be brought to him after a shower.

"Good morning, Mr. Squarepants. I hope you had a good rest and a nice shower this morning." Kyle said as he greeted the young sponge.

Kyle awed as he looked down at his latest project who looked at him with confusion and fear, he began to shiver from the cold room.

"Don't look at me like that, aren't you happy to see me?" He asked but SpongeBob didn't respond, afraid of what response the doctor would have.

So far he seemed like he was in a good mood, "you look so much better without all that filth. And you smell better too." Kyle said as he caressed Spongebob's cheek.

Kyle looked into the young sponges eyes, "i never noticed how beautiful your eye is." Kyle said before he took his hand away.

"Gee, thanks, must've been why you stole the other one. Look, whatever you're going to do to me, just get it over with!" SpongeBob snapped, Kyle only smiled before nodding his head.

SpongeBob didn't even try to fight the men off of him as they grabbed him and drug him towards another room which he hadn't been in before.

Spongebob gasped as he saw that the room was full of tall standing cylinder tubes. They went in rows, there had to be at least fifty.

On the wall in front of them was a giant board filled with papers and sketches, some of the sketches were diagrams of various pictures of SpongeBob. Some diagrams of the pieces that they had cut off of him for research purposes.

"What is all of this?" SpongeBob asked.

"This? This is your army." A woman said as she began to walk out from behind one of the cylinders.

"S, Silva?" SpongeBob asked, he hadn't seen or heard from her since he first arrived.

"You! You did this! Look what they did to me!" SpongeBob shouted at her as she approached him. Silva takes a good look at him, and he could see her cringe the longer she looked before she chuckled.

" You look. terrible." She said as she glanced at his naked form before she looked back at his face; despite having taken a forced shower, bruises still covered his body.

SpongeBobs nose was a little crooked from where it had been broken on his first day here. His right eye had also been taken recently, and it caused his cheek under his old eye to swell and there were cuts and tears all over his skin.

"I trusted you! I voted for you! If I had known this was your plan, I would've never voted for you!" SpongeBob shouted at her.

" Like I really needed your vote." Silva rolled her eyes. SpongeBob continues to stare at her, "why? What did I do to you to make you do this to me? No one deserves to be treated this way." SpongeBob said.

"What didn't you do? You think you can just walk around, free of any consequences? No, it's not about what you did, it's about what you were going to do, you hurt everyone around you, even those who loved and cared about you the most, including yourself. As long as I am in charge, you won't ever hurt anyone ever again." Silva said as she nodded her head.

At her signal Spongebob was picked up off his feet and brought towards a tall cylinder machine. Too weak to fight, Spongebob is thrown into the chamber and locked inside. As Spongebob turns around Silva approaches the glass door.

"It really was nice meeting you, Mr. Squarepants. My mother was a huge fan, but I doubt you knew her. It truly was a once in a lifetime chance, and I do honestly wish there was another way, but, there isn't. You see, my biggest supporter needs you gone, but at the same time." Silva places her hand on the glass in front of his face.

There was a hint of sadness in her expression, "You were the perfect specimen for our future plans, in which you have the biggest role to play. Once again I say, it really was nice meeting you." Silva says before she looks back at Kyle who was waiting for her signal to begin.

SpongeBob pounds at the door begging to be let out when he hears them activate the machine. SpongeBob gasps as an oil-like substance starts to fill the container from the bottom, and it fills up fast. At the same time Spongebob begins to notice a stinging sensation as the fluid reaches some of his open wounds.

"Ah! You can't do this! YOU CAN'T-" Spongebob gasps for breath as the oil substance rises, he tries to swim up but there isn't much space, and the substance is too thick to paddle. The substance pours into his body from his pores weighing him down.

After a few seconds there is a red light that scans his body, the room starts to shake as the dozens of other machines in the room shake and flash, another second and the front of the machines open and out steps a dozen Spongebobs.

Spongebob watches as the identical Spongebob's step forward in unison all wearing the exact same smile and outfit that Spongebob had worn every day for the last few years. After another few seconds a second set of identical sponges step out of the machines again.

"Blah." Spongebob loses his final breath, and he floats to his knees, 'Neptune, please save me.' he says to himself as his eye begin to feel tired, sleep sounded so good at that moment.

Later

The chamber containing SpongeBob Opened after being drained, Spongebob's pale and lifeless naked body fell onto the cold warehouse floor.

One of the sponges from one of the batches approaches him and they produce a scanner.

"Checking for vitals." He repeats before he makes an error sound, "There are no vital signs detected, in other words, it is dead." The sponge animatronic says to the men.

"Very well, it is time for our next specimen, dispose of this waste and bring me the starfish." Dr. Kyle said as he displayed a picture of Patrick, "Location, 120 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom." Dr. Kyle says as he turns to one of the Spongetrons, "Time to see if you were worth the trouble." Kyle says clicks a remote at one of them, "Spongetron A2, head to the rock in the morning, Find Mr. Star and lure him here, tell him that you have a surprise waiting for him." Dr. Kyle commands.

Spongetron A2 salutes to Dr. Kyle and he steps back as Spongebob's lifeless body is thrown into a wheel barrel and carried outside in the rain and dumped into a dumpster.

"You've been real quiet." Sandy says from her living room couch, turning her head towards Spongebob who was sitting beside her on the couch watching some old pioneer movie. Spongebob turns to look at her.

"What do you mean?" he asks her, "I thought we were watching a movie." Spongebob says, Sandy rolls her eyes, "You've seen this movie a hundred times by now, think we can do something else?" Sandy asks him.

"Like what?" Spongebob asks her, Sandy looks towards his lips but she hesitates, it's been months since he had last kissed her, she had tried kissing him once or twice after their first date but he never seemed into it.

"Spongebob, it's been months since our first date, and I just, I dunno, do ya just not like kissin me or-" "You want me to kiss you?" Spongebob asked her. Sandy blushed, feeling embarrassed.

"Well, yeah, I mean, but when ya say it like that I- huh?" Sandy gasps as she feels a hand on her chin and Spongebob gently turns her head towards him, he smiles, "I'd love to." he said before he pulls back a little.

"But the helmet, it might-" "That hasn't stopped y'all before." Sandy said before she lifted his helmet over his head. Spongebob is hesitant at first but he watches her as Sandy closes in and their lips touch.

He sinks in as he caresses her cheek and she pulls him in closer, he yelps as he topples over her but he catches himself. Sandy giggles a little as she runs her hands down his chest, "Yer a lot colder than I remember, and heavier." Sandy says.

Spongebob blushes, "What can I say? I've changed, I'm not the same sponge you used to know." Spongebob smiles at her before he leans down to kiss her again.

To Be Continued... eventually