SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water Junior Novel (5 page)

What he saw surprised him.

Patrick was sitting on top of his house, banging his face against the rock. But instead of his usual shorts, he was wearing a futuristic-looking leather outfit.

Between face-bangs he said, “I. Need. Krabby Patties. I! Need! Krabby Patties!”

“Patrick!” SpongeBob yelled. “What are you doing?!”

Patrick stopped banging his face against his house and looked over at SpongeBob and Plankton. “Vandalizing stuff,” he answered.

“But isn't that YOUR house?” Plankton asked.

“Hey!” Patrick snapped. “What's with all the questions? Who ARE you guys?”

SpongeBob couldn't believe Patrick had asked. They
hadn't been up in the bubble that long. What was wrong with Patrick?

“It's me!” SpongeBob cried. “Your best friend! SpongeBob!”

Patrick looked skeptical. “Oh, yeah? Well, if you're SpongeBob, then what's the secret password?”

At the same time, SpongeBob and Plankton said, “Uh …”

“Correct!” Patrick declared with a nod. “It IS you! SPONGEBOB!”

Patrick jumped off his rock and landed on SpongeBob.
BLOMP!

“SpongeBob!”

“Patrick!”

“SpongeBob, why aren't you at the Krusty Krab making Krabby Patties?”

Patrick sat down, right on top of Plankton.

“Well, I'd love to, but the formula is gone. We're putting together a team to get it back,” SpongeBob explained.

“A team?” Patrick asked. “Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!”

Patrick jumped up to give SpongeBob a big bear hug. Grinning, SpongeBob said, “Okay, Patrick! You're in!”

Plankton popped out of the sand. “I don't know, SpongeBob. What exactly does this clown bring to the
tee-am?
”

“He brings loyalty, Plankton.” SpongeBob turned to his best friend. “Isn't that right, Patrick?”

Patrick said, “Yeah, yeah … loyalty.” Then he suddenly yelled, “HE'S OVER HERE!” and started making alarm sounds. “WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!”

SpongeBob pleaded with his buddy, “Patrick, I'm fleeing an angry mob right now, and this isn't helping!”

But it was too late. Mr. Krabs had already heard Patrick's alarm. “Let's go GET HIM!” he shouted to the furious, hungry customers.

Plankton started to run. “Come on, SpongeBob! Let's get out of here!”

“Patrick, please!” SpongeBob begged.

Patrick threw SpongeBob right on top of Plankton and then sat on them both, still making alarm sounds. “WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!”

“Patrick!” SpongeBob cried. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I. Need. KRABBY PATTIES!” Patrick said. He turned toward Mr. Krabs and the angry mob, who were running straight toward them. “Hurry up!” he shouted. “I'M HUNGRY! OVER HERE!”

Frantic to escape from his hunger-crazed friend, SpongeBob began furiously burrowing underground. Carrying Plankton in his hand, he tunneled away from
Patrick. Then he popped up out of the ground, gasping and panting.

As the mob grew closer, SpongeBob and Plankton ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. Patrick called, “Guys? Am I still on the team?”

Plankton grumbled, “Well, your stupid friend gave us away. So who's the NEXT member of our
tee-am
?”

SpongeBob thought for a minute. “I know! Sandy! She's smart!”

The two fugitives ran straight to Sandy's treedome. SpongeBob opened the air-lock door, rushed inside, and slammed the door shut. He put on a water helmet and pressed a big red button. The water in the air lock drained. SpongeBob scooped Plankton into a glass of water before he dried out.

“Sandy?” SpongeBob called.

They opened the second air lock and stepped inside the dome. It was dark and eerie. Pieces of paper were stuck all over the inside of the dome, blocking the light. “Sandy?” SpongeBob repeated.

They walked farther inside but didn't find Sandy anywhere. “Sandy? Are you home?” SpongeBob called. He turned to Plankton. “Gee, I wonder where she is!”

The two of them looked more closely at the papers stuck to the inside of the dome. They were covered with
scribbles and strange writing, all connected by string. “What IS this stuff?” SpongeBob asked.

As they stared at the papers, a dark shape whipped by, passing right behind them. SpongeBob turned around.

“Sandy?” he asked. “Is that you?”

S
pongeBob reached toward one of the papers and a hand grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey!” Sandy said sharply. “Don't touch those papers!”

Sandy darted away and picked up a thick notebook. She opened it and started reading, mumbling to herself. “‘Krabby Patties … chaos … secret ingredient …'”

SpongeBob and Plankton slowly walked over to her.

She didn't seem like the old Sandy SpongeBob knew and loved.

“Sandy,” he asked, “are you okay?”

She wheeled around and stared at him. “‘Okay?' Have you looked outside?” Sandy pointed out the glass wall of her treedome to Bikini Bottom, where they could see flames and plumes of black smoke. “Does that seem okay to you?” she demanded.

Sandy started pacing. “I'm trying to figure out what happened to society. If we don't fix it soon, there won't be
anything left to fix!” She twitched, and her eyes bulged out of her head.

“Lack of Krabby Patties has driven her mad!” SpongeBob whispered to Plankton.

Sandy stared at the papers stuck inside her treedome. She grabbed her head with her hands. “I think I figured it out! LOOK!”

She grabbed some papers and tore them off the curved glass dome. Through the dome, SpongeBob and Plankton could see a big sheet of paper with
THE END
on it.

Sandy stabbed her finger at the big sheet of paper. “When this came down from above, I knew it could only mean one thing. ONLY ONE THING!”

SpongeBob looked puzzled. “And that would be …?”

Sandy whipped around and held her hands wide apart. “It MEANS it's THE END!”

“I see,” Plankton said from his glass of water, humoring her. “That certainly clears that up.”

“And I know why it's the end,” Sandy continued. “The SANDWICH GODS are ANGRY with us!”

Now SpongeBob and Plankton were really confused. “Sandwich gods?” they asked.

Sandy started pacing again, moving even faster this time, waving her hands through the air. “I just don't
know how we're going to APPEASE them!”

“Well, maybe you should sacrifice an innocent,” Plankton said sarcastically. “Then Krabby Patties will rain down from the sky. That always works!”

Plankton realized that while he'd been making this sarcastic suggestion, he had risen up above the water level in his glass. “Excuse me,” he said, and dove back under the water.

Sandy thought about Plankton's idea. “A sacrifice?” she mused. “That makes PERFECT sense!”

She ran around her treedome, feverishly scribbling on the pieces of paper stuck to the inside of the glass. “‘Sacrifice … innocent … sandwich gods …,'” she muttered as she wrote.

SpongeBob and Plankton slowly backed away from Sandy and then hurried through the air lock to get away from the deranged squirrel.

Outside, Plankton said, “Well, THAT was a complete waste of time….”

Inside the cabin of his ship, Burger Beard lay in bed, reading from the old book. Seagulls were tucked in next to him.

“That's all for now,” he said, closing the book
dramatically. “You sleepy little birds get some rest. We can finish in the morning.”

Kyle looked up at him with his big brown eyes. “Pwease,” he pleaded. “Just one more stowy, Mistew Piwate! Pwease?”

Burger Beard tried to resist the adorable little seagull but failed. “Oh, all right, Kyle,” he relented. “How can I say no to you? One more story …”

“Yay!” Kyle cheered. “We WUV a good stowy! But nothing too scawy, Mistew Piwate!”

Burger Beard climbed out of bed and picked up a candle. The yellow light flickered below his face. “How about THIS story? There once was a pirate who dreamed of being the world's greatest galley chef….”

He held the candle close to an old picture in a frame. It showed Burger Beard when he was young, cooking behind a grill crowded with food.

“They all laughed at him in pirate school,” he continued. “But with the help of this magical book”—he held up the old book he'd stolen—“he would SHOW them! He would show them ALL!”

Burger Beard grinned a horrible grin in the candle-light.

“But, Mistew Piwate,” Kyle asked innocently, “what makes that book so magical?”

“I'll show you,” the pirate answered. He quickly
scribbled in the book, and suddenly the seagulls were wearing pirate hats and eye patches! Cackling, Burger Beard told them, “Now say ‘Ahhhhrrrr!'”

“Ahhhhrrrr!” said the seagulls.

Burger Beard laughed and blew out the candle.

W
hen SpongeBob saw his pineapple home, he gasped. It had been severely damaged by a wandering mob! And for some reason, it was covered in gooey snail slime.

Where was SpongeBob's beloved pet snail?

“Gare-bear?” SpongeBob called.

A blob of snail slime dripped onto SpongeBob's head. “Revolting!” Plankton said.

“But it means Gary is close by!” SpongeBob observed, ever hopeful. “Gary! I'm back!”

When they walked into the broken house, they suddenly stopped, shocked by what they saw.

“Whoa,” SpongeBob said.

The house was filled with snails. Big snails. Small snails. Snails of every color and description. And they were all looking respectfully at …

Gary. SpongeBob's pet snail was sitting on a giant throne, surrounded by pillars and huge fire pits.

“Oh, hey, Gary!” SpongeBob exclaimed happily.
“Plankton and I need you to help us find the Krabby Patty formula and fix Bikini Bottom!”

“Meow!” Gary said.

“What do you mean, you don't have to do as I say anymore?”

“Meow!”

“What do you mean, King of the Snails?” Looking stern, SpongeBob folded his arms. “Gary the snail, you get down here RIGHT NOW and join this team!”

“Meow!”

“What do you mean, ‘Seize them!'?”

All the snails who had been paying their respects to Gary, the King of the Snails, turned to SpongeBob and Plankton. Then they advanced on them with their fangs bared, growling!

SpongeBob turned and ran out of the pineapple house as fast as he could!

“Why are you running?” Plankton asked.

“Because they're right on our …” He looked back to see the snails moving very, very slowly.

“Oh, right,” SpongeBob said, slowing his pace. “Snails.”

The two unlikely partners strolled away from SpongeBob's house. “Well, so much for your
tee-am
,” Plankton said.

“Putting together a team is a LOT harder than I
thought it would be!” SpongeBob admitted.

Nearby, Mr. Krabs shouted, “This way!” The angry mob was still on their tail.