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Retroville was peacefully silent.
This would be common if it weren't for the fact that everyone in the city was already used to the sound of metal and other objects being welded together from early morning until late at night, or even for days on end.
But no, for the first time that week, James Isaac Neutron's laboratory was closed because the owner's parents decided that their son had already worked too much and that he deserved a well-deserved rest, that and so that they too could sleep peacefully that night.
At first, the teenager resisted leaving his lab, but after they dragged him to his room and forced him to lie down, it was as if all the exhaustion he didn't know he possessed had consumed him in that very second, practically knocking him.
And he would have stayed that way if the dimensional alarm he had set up in Goddard hadn't started going off out of nowhere.
Jimmy woke up with a start trying to get up, causing him to get tangled in his sheets and his face to hit the hard floor of the room, but that was not an impediment for him to try to fix himself the best he could while attend to the emergency.
"Show me where the signal is coming from, Goddard!!" Jimmy demanded the robot dog while he was trying to put on some pants that he had found lying around.
After falling for the fourth time trying to put the garment on, Jimmy decided to throw it away, opting only to put on his shoes. The end of the world wouldn't wait for him to be ready, so he had to make sacrifices and go into battle in his damn pajamas.
Goddard displayed the screen on his chest, revealing the name of the dimension the call came from.
It was Bikini Bottom.
"Shit, shit, shit!!" With renewed urgency, the scientist rummaged through his things for his multidimensional communicator so he could alert his other companions.
A few months ago he had managed to build a device capable of being used as a normal cell phone, but that could also be used to communicate between different universes in real time. One of his best inventions after his dimensional portal, it should be clarified.
Apart from him, the only ones who also had those cell phones were his colleagues, although he didn't know whether to consider Timmy since he never responded to the prototype's calls.
When he found the artifact, the boy insistently dialed as he left his room in the direction of his lab, even though he already knew that he had to go to his friend's dimension if he wanted everyone to go there. help Spongebob.
Hi, I'm Timmy Turner, I'm busy or I just forgot I had this thing. Anyway, if you're Jimmy, just chill bud, and if you're not, just leave your message...
"Chill, chill, I'd be CHILLING if one of my friends wasn't in the middle of a possible multiversal collapse!" Jimmy ran down the stairs as he hung up the phone.
As his hand touched the doorknob of the exit door, a dim light came on behind him.
"Where do you think you're going, young man?"
Jimmy didn't know if he was angry that he got caught and that the monologue was too clichéd, but none of it mattered when he caught a glimpse of his mother watching him. She was sitting in one of the armchairs in the room while a large lamp illuminated the room.
"…How long have you been there?" Of all the things he wanted to ask, that was the first that came out of his lips without warning.
"Long enough to know that under no circumstances you will NOT go out" His mother got up from the chair, putting both hands on her hip.
“Look mom, I know that you and dad want me to sleep…”
"And we have good reason to want that!!"
"Yeaaahh..." Jimmy tried to find the right words "But right now I'm in a reeeal rush and if I don't attend to this emergency everything will fall apart-"
"The only thing that will fall apart is your lab if you don't go back to your room and get the 12 hours of sleep you promised me."
"The 12 hours that YOU made me promise you" What little serenity he had was fading and he was angry because his mother didn't seem to realize that.
"Don't play smart with me Jimmy, you know it won't end well"
"Oh please! Can't we have this conversation another day?"
"I tell you and I will repeat it as many times are necessary!" His mother stood in front of the door, blocking access “I won't let you walk out of this door James Isaac Neutron!! And nothing you say to me will change my mind!!”
Jimmy yelled in frustration. This wasn't going the way he had planned. SpongeBob was in danger and he couldn't get out of his danm house.
Wait…
"Wait..." The scientist rubbed his chin, smiling.
His mother looked at him with genuine confusion at the abrupt change in his demeanor, but then his eyes widened in alarm as he understood why.
"No..." His son's smile widened "Jimmy, don't you dare-"
Before the woman could do anything, the teenager jumped with an agility that she didn't know she could harbor in her scrawny body towards the living room window, shooting out of it.
A cry of pain was heard throughout the neighborhood, coming from Jimmy, thanks to the fact that the scientist had landed in the rose bushes that his mother had planted a couple of days before.
Rose bushes that have thorns.
When the first lights on the block began to come on, the woman knew that this would be another sleepless night.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Several snores were heard, coming from both the lying human and the small fish tank resting on his nightstand.
The boy moved in his bed as if he had a nightmare, which was far from the truth since he was already used to moving a lot at night. In an involuntary movement, Timmy hit the fishbowl, causing it to start floating before crashing to the ground when one of his Fairly Oddparents stepped out of it. In this case it was Wanda.
The fairy looked tired at her sleeping godson, without feeling surprised by the small incident, this because it was not the first time the teenager had done that, and although she had already told Timmy so he would be more careful, she more than anyone else knew that old habits die hard.
With her wand, the pink-haired woman conjured a kind of glue called "Paste-everything", which she smeared on the surface of the dresser while she deposited the fish tank on top of the viscous liquid. When she verified that the object did not move from the place, she sighed in relief. You won't have to worry anymore for a few days at least.
As she was about to return to the comfort of her castle in the fishbowl, a portal opened in the middle of the room, from which at came a Jimmy rather angrily, dirty and covered in a considerable amount of thorns, stems, and roses.
"TURNER!!" Jimmy's scream was enough to alert Wanda, who saw how Cosmo appeared next to her, who seemed as alarmed or even more alarmed than her.
“AAAHHH!! I KNEW IT!! THE PLANTS ARE COMING TO RULE OUR WORLD!!" The green-haired man yelled as he made his gardener outfit appear along with a pair of large scissors "WAIT JIMMY!! I WILL SAVE YOU!!"
"NO, COSMO WAITTTT!!" Jimmy fell backwards trying to avoid Cosmo's giant scissors, who seemed to want to make him bald “GET AWAY FROM MY HAIR!! YOU DEFECTIVE PROGRAM!!”
Wanda watched them run across the room, and while the idea of letting Cosmo shave Jimmy while she went back to sleep sounded appealing, the woman knew that if Jimmy had left his dimension so late at night only to came to their dimension, it was because something really bad had happened.
With a wave of her wand, Cosmo appeared beside her wearing a straitjacket, this as she watched Jimmy relax and catch his breath.
"Uff... thanks Wanda" The scientist thanked, getting up.
"What are you doing here honey? It's almost 12" Wanda asked with an expression of total confusion as she made a clock appear that marked the time she had said.
Although the interactions between the human genius and her had not been frequent, the woman admitted that she had come to develop a certain appreciation for the boy since he had proven to be Timmy's first true friend. Even if Timmy himself have not admitting that yet.
"Dammit!! Now I can never save our universe from the plants!!" Cosmo release one of his hands, making the straitjacket will disappear and and in it place making appear his pajamas.
"SpongeBob is in trouble, I tried to call Timmy but as always... he never answers my calls" If looks could kill, Wanda was sure that Timmy would be more than 1000 meters underground at that very moment "Now if you excuse me..." The scientist walked over to where Timmy was lying, grabbing him by the shirt to shake him "WAKE UP TURNER!! SPONGEBOB IS IN TROUBLE!!"
You'd think that movement would have been enough to wake the toothy, but it only made him snore louder as he snuggled into Jimmy's hands in an attempt to get warm.
Jimmy blushed violently at this, letting go of the boy as if he were burning him as he watched as his face crashed to the floor, only to see him curl up in a fetal position as he continued to snore loudly and a goofy grin spread across his face.
What the-?
"What the fuck-?"
“Watch that mouth!! We are not savages” Wanda scolded him.
"Yes!! We are not savages who shout insults all the time while making a fool of themselves!! For nothing!!"
Jimmy rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling the stress eating him alive.
“I would say that what just happened is scientifically impossible, but being friends with a talking sponge and a depressed ghost taught me that the logic of their universes sucks”
“Oh!! And our existence!! Don't forget about our existence!!” Cosmo was unable to speak further as Wanda raised her wand to lock Cosmo's mouth into a padlock.
"Don't even try Jimmy, when Timmy reaches this level of sleep it's impossible to wake him up" Wanda warned him.
As their godparents, the two fairies knew their godson like the palms of their tiny hands, and one thing they learned from the first moment they met him was that Timmy was such a heavy sleeper that he could even settle asleep in the middle of an apocalypse.
Wanda didn't think it was healthy to have that kind of meltdown, but knowing Timmy for so long made her understand that those meltdowns were the few moments when her godson could really sleep, especially now that it seemed that Jorgen and his responsibilities as guardian they seemed to want to eat him alive.
"Pss nonsense, I just need to follow the logic of the different existing universes to find the effective method, and if I'm calculating correctly and this world works with the physics of an animated series for children, I just need..." The scientist brain lighet up when saw the fish tank "This!!"
When he tried to lift the fish tank, it resisted coming off the nightstand, causing Jimmy to exert more force on it while he even leaned his foot against the object to get it off.
Cosmo and Wanda glanced at each other, not knowing how to tell Jimmy that the fish tank was stuck.
But that was not necessary since the scientist, completely frustrated by the situation, ended up throwing the counter with all his might, making all the water in the fish tank shoot out into Timmy's face, waking him up abruptly.
"What t-?!!" The toothy teen got up and got into a fighting stance, only to slip and fall back to the floor in a pitiful display of reflexes.
The brunette looked up, and although he still felt a little dizzy, something he knew he could recognize anywhere were those blue eyes as dark as night itself, so deep and analytical that they seemed to be able to penetrate his soul, and although Timmy He thought the beautiful roses in Jimmy's hair were a figment of his imagination, Timmy was wishing the image was real, because the sight couldn't be more than majestic in front of his eyes.
"Jimmy? What are you-?"
“No time to explain, Turner!! We must go for Danny!!” The scientist helped his friend to lifted.
At that moment reality hit the big-toothed boy, blushing violently when he realized that the image of Jimmy covered in roses was true.
Although he didn't remember the mess in Jimmy's hair looking so messy and painful. Large stems were embedded around his scalp, and as pretty as those roses looked on the scientist, having a whole bush of thorns on one's head didn't seem like a pleasant experience.
It was enough to look at his godparents and point to Jimmy, who soon obeyed the silent order of his godson.
Suddenly the scientist was freed of all traces of dirt and thorns, leaving him looking better.
"Finally!! I was thinking that I could never take those things off!" Jimmy stroked his hair in relief.
Timmy stared at him, smiling as an incredibly cheesy thought crossed his mind, and he didn't know if it was for the blow that had just been given himself or lack of sleep, but the words escaped to him.
“You looked good with those roses in your hair…” Timmy was startled as he caught his words “I-I mean!! It's obvious you would look good!! No no no!! I mean!! Anyone would look good with roses in there hair!! I'm not saying you looked bad or anything!! I'm just saying!!" Out of the corner of his eye, Timmy could see how Wanda seemed to be looking at him with something close to disappointment while Cosmo just looked at him confused.
Jimmy froze at Timmy's praise as a small blush formed on his face. The scientist looked away, feigning disinterest in the spiel.
"W-well, roses have a positive meaning unlike other plants, so I guess that's what you're referring to" Jimmy looked at Timmy, not knowing what he was waiting for the other to say "Or... did you mean... something different?
The big-toothed boy looked at him too, feeling mesmerized, almost yearning for something he know would never be able happen.
Timmy snapped out of the trance, deciding to huff as he adopted his trademark cheeky smile.
"...Nah it's nothing, I just wanted to annoyed you, nerdtron"
The atmosphere that had formed was broken, and Jimmy just rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"I told you not to call me like that, it's sounds stupid"
Timmy just laughed, not noticing that Jimmy started to smile as he listened his laught.
Timmy knew that he had feelings for Jimmy. The kind of feelings that could fill your stomach with butterflies and make you fly with happiness just thinking about that special someone, and although he knew that it was highly unlikely that Jimmy would reciprocate his feelings, he was at least happy to reveal a part of his thoughts, in the most conscious way as possible, without the scientist realizing it.
After all, Jimmy wasn't the best at picking up social cues despite his intellect.
"So... what brings you to my room on a Friday night, Neutron?"
Jimmy had been looking at Timmy with ill-concealed fondness, but when he heard him he looked away as he tried to hide his blush with one hand.
“Of course, what happens is- Wait a minute!! We have to go get Danny!!” Jimmy recorded the reason why he was in Timmy's dimension, recovering his startled alarmed attitude.
The scientist grabbed Timmy's wrist as he dragged him into the portal which still opened.
"What are you-?!!"
"I'll explain later, we must to go now!"
And it was then that, in the middle of half questions and meaningless answers, Jimmy's portal closed.
Cosmo and Wanda saw each other.
"Should we follow them?" Wanda asked with concern.
Cosmo used her wand to break the lock on his mouth as he unzipped it to speak.
"Nop. Timmy's not a kid anymore, he'll be fine, I mean, what's the worst thing could happen?" Cosmo smiled innocently as he yawned.
Wanda sighed in resignation as she raised her wand, causing both her and Cosmo to disappear from that dimension to go to the dimension where Timmy was now.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
A white haired silhouette materialized in the room.
This silhouette was wearing a black latex bodysuit and toxic neon green eyes that looked tired while those stared the bed in the middle of the room.
When the figure touched the bed, rings of brilliant light surrounded the spectral figure, revealing the body of a teenager who felt ready to sleep and forget about all his problems until the next day.
He'd already secured the natural portals, kicked Skulker back into the ghost zone, and also made sure to scare away the lesser ghosts so they couldn't disturb the people of Amity Park in their sleep.
Danny already was with his pajamas on from the start of his patrol, so he didn't have to change again, what made things even better for him.
A long yawn escaped the halfa's throat, snuggling into his pillows as he relaxed.
"Ahhh... Finally... some peace..." He whispered in satisfaction, beginning to snore heavily.
But his joy did not last long when the sound of a portal opening in the middle of his room forced him to open his eyes quickly, showing his red pupils from exhaustion and despair caused by not sleeping.
"Danny!!" A couple of voices along with the sound of two pairs of feet landing is heard next to him.
Danny took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down enough before looking at his unwelcome guests with resignation, who flinched at his terrible appearance.
If both humans didn't know that their friend was already half dead, they would probably have screamed at the thought that Danny had turned into some kind of zombie, although the description didn't seem far from the truth.
"Jimmy? What are you doing here?" Danny looked to the left of the scientist, noting the presence of the youngest of the group "You too Timmy?"
"It's not my fault!! This wacko came to my dimension out of nowhere and threw water directly into my face!!”
"Well, I wouldn't have done it if you had already been awake since the begining, or I don't know…. If you had answered the damn multidimensional phone?!!”
“That thing wasn't ringing anywhere!! And Danny didn't respond either!! Why are you only yelling at me?!!”
"Well Turner, maybe because unlike Danny, you never answer our calls"
"And what about SpongeBob!!?"
"Everyone knows SpongeBob never misses a call!!"
Danny watched them with an annoyed expression as his teammates continued to act like a married couple in front of him, in the middle of his fucking room when they had specified that they only could meet in moments of extreme urgency.
He was supposed to sleep for 8 hours to go to university tomorrow and deal with various issues that were left pending in the ghost zone, but now the two fools of his group had come to do who knows what to his dimension and instead of telling him what happened, they decided to start arguing.
Either something really bad had happened, or the urge was found to talk about the communication problems between Timmy and Jimmy. Whatever it was, Danny hoped those two had a good reason for coming to bother him at 12 freaking midnight.
"SILENCE!!" The phantom side of him took over when he grew tired of hearing his companions argue, distorting his voice into a sound from beyond the grave.
The boys fell silent, transfixed by the memory that an angry Danny was dangerous if they weren't careful.
"I suggest that you guys have a good reason to come here to ruin my only chance of sleep in these past few days if you don't want me to throw you into the ghost zone..." An unpleasant shudder ran down Timmy and Jimmy's spines, who knew that the Danny's threat was real. "So?"
A bead of sweat ran down Jimmy's forehead, simplifying everything that had happened into one sentence. This so as not to waste any more time, and two, so as not to be stranded in Danny's ghost dimension for the next 24 hours.
"Danny, SpongeBob is in trouble."
Danny's eyes returned to normal when he heard his friend's name, this time showing nothing but concern and fear.
“And why didn't you say so before?!! Come on!!" Before he could say anything, Danny jumped off his bed as he transformed into Phamtom, flying towards the portal under the scientist's surprised gaze.
Timmy frowned at Jimmy, making him uncomfortable.
"What are you looking at, Turner?"
“…Couldn't you really have said the same thing to me that you said to Danny instead of arguing with me? Damn, and then I'm the kid”
Jimmy was about to replicate what Timmy had said, but the big-toothed one had already entered the portal back, leaving him with the words in his mouth.
Jimmy slapped his face in frustration, hoping that whatever had happened with Bob was important enough to summon them.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
“Ok guys, stay alert”
The group landed again, this time inside what appeared to be SpongeBob's house. Before going to their friend's dimension, the group had decided to stop by Jimmy's laboratory so that the scientist could give them a pill that would help them breathe underwater, because SpongeBob lived deep in the Pacific Ocean in his dimension.
The boys were armed with their respective weapons. Timmy had called Cosmo and Wanda, who seemed to have followed him from the start, to become his weapon, in this case Cosmo became his star hammer and Wanda his star flinder. Jimmy had brought his tornado blaster along with other artifacts from his lab, and Danny was armed only with his towering ghostly presence, flying and making a green flame of ectoplasm to light up the house.
Jimmy silently motioned for Danny to go check the second floor, which he did while using his intangibility to break through the ceiling. Timmy moved around the room on his own, trying to call the sponge to no avail, and Jimmy went outside to assess the scene.
The scientist was surprised that everything looked normal outside the house.
Normally they came together as a team to resolve conflicts involving dimensional tears or complex problems between the worlds, which however were only the universes of the 4 of them, so if Bob's call hadn't been to fix an interdimensional tear, the only option left was that something or someone had done something bad to him.
"Did you find SpongeBob?" Timmy walked over to where he was, looking worried.
"No, and it doesn't seem like the problem is a dimensional tear, most likely someone did something to him"
“To SpongeBob? The purest being in the entire universe?" Timmy sounded incredulous, and he had a number of reasons to be.
Of all of them, the one who had made the fewest enemies over the years was SpongeBob, and most of the bikini-bottom denizens, even the ones who not considering him a friend , respected him because he was their main reason why his little corner in the middle of nowhere have crangreburgers, so it'd be stupid if someone tried to make an attempt on his life.
But how true could that be? Maybe someone had really hurt him and they had been a long time coming?
SpongeBob was still in his home at least?
Timmy noted Jimmy's concern, feeling just as sad at the thought of the possibility.
Although the big-toothed boy wasn't the best at comforting, he tried as he placed one of his hands on the scientist's shoulder, trying to convey whatever positive vibes he had left.
"We'll find him" The big-toothed boy told him determinedly, tightening his grip on him.
Jimmy smiled weakly, feeling better, but not calm.
"Guys!!" Danny went through the roof to get to where they were, landing on the sandy surface of the house "I found SpongeBob"
Jimmy smiled in relief, but any trace of it dissipated when he saw the halfa's sour look as he untransformed. The black-haired man yawned, leaning into SpongeBob's chair in a clear show of disinterest.
"Is SpongeBob okay?" Timmy was encouraged to ask.
Danny opened one eye, closing it instantly as he settled further into the little red chair.
"I'll let him tell you..." A yawn left his lips "...I just suggest you don't try to kill him."
Timmy and Jimmy looked at each other confused by Danny's words, but they thought that his partner was too tired to tell them something coherent, so together they went up to the second floor of the house, right where SpongeBob's room was.
It didn't take long for them to find their yellow friend, who was only wearing his underwear while stealing from hiding between the space of his nightstand and his closet.
Timmy and Jimmy looked at each other before kneeling in front of the sponge, this while Cosmo and Wanda returned to his original form and Jimmy left his Tornado Blaster on the floor.
"SpongeBob? What are you doing there?" Jimmy called out to him in a low voice, seeing how his yellow friend seemed scared by something he couldn't understand.
The sponge looked at both humans in confusion, but the confusion quickly dissipated, causing its eyes to suddenly begin to sparkle.
Before the scientist could say anything, the sponge pounced on him to give him a desperate hug.
"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS!! I THOUGHT YOU GUYS WOULDN'T COME!!” He didn't know if it was because of the little logic that SpongeBob's world seemed to have, but the sponge had managed to start crying in the middle of the water while his tears were jumping everywhere.
Jimmy had millions of reasons to specify why SpongeBob's world broke with the laws of physics and seemed to create new ones, but the safety of his friend was much more important than all that.
Investigating the physics of Bikini Bottom could wait, SpongeBob couldn't.
"Hey hey, calm down bud, we're here now" Timmy approached the sponge, separating him from the scientist and leaving him back on the floor "Now, where's the problem?" The teenager knelt down to be level with SpongeBob.
The question was like a wrench that made Bob start crying again, but this time the crying resembled the typical cartoon whine where viewers started laughing at the character instead of feeling bad for him.
"It's was horrible guys!! I was sleeping and suddenly that thing came in!!"
"Who came in?!!" Jimmy took the blaster from him, going alert.
His brain explored millions of possibilities. Had the one who entered been a contract killer? Some villain from another universe? Some enemy who hated all 4 of them and wanted to take revenge by getting rid of them one by one? Or maybe Plakton tried to abduct SpongeBob again?!!
“A BUTTERFLY CAME IN!!” And the sponge kept crying while trembled when saying the name.
Jimmy, Timmy, and their groomsmen fell into a stunned silence, one that became so thick it looked like it could be cut with a butter knife.
Jimmy tried not to collapse at his response, thinking that maybe his friend had decided to use a code or something to describe the beast, even if he was aware that SpongeBob wasn't smart enough to do that.
“…A mutant butterfly?” Jimmy felt how one of his eyes began to twitch.
"Mmmm no" SpongeBob began to wipe away the tears that were still coming out of his eyes.
“Butterfly is a code? Something like Plakton is trying to kill me again?” Timmy also jumped in to speculate, looking just as shocked as he was.
"No"
"You mean a person, or a fish or something much awful?"
"No"
"Are you sure it's not some hideous monster that wants to kill us all?"
"Ohhh I don't think so Timmy"
“Or is it a way of telling us that your dimension is in danger, but you can't tell us and that's why you're speaking in code?!!”
The sponge thought a little "... Mmm Nope, it's just a butterfly"
Jimmy put both hands to his face, feeling that he was going to cry at any moment.
He had blown his first break in days, fallen into a fucking thornbush and traveled to three different dimensions to assemble the team at 1 am with the thought that SpongeBob was in mortal danger.
And it turned out that SpongeBob had only called them because of a stupid butterfly?
Was the world really trying to screw him over? Because if that was the case, congratulations, whoever wanted to have orchestrated all that senseless misfortune had managed to screw him up to unimaginable levels.
Now that he was thinking about it, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Usually one of them would call the others just to hang out and disobey the rule of using the alarm only for emergencies.
But this time they had been woken up at dawn to attend to something stupid, for God's sake.
Jimmy saw Timmy, who didn't seem to be digesting the news either, because it seemed that at any moment he would have a psychotic attack that would force him to destroy everything in his path.
The scientist felt how the dark circles that normally lined his eyes deepened with each second that they spent looking at the sponge, so he took a deep breath to try to calm down and not do anything stupid against his friend.
He was SpongeBob, just like Danny did, Jimmy had to understand him and not exploted on him.
When he opened his eyes, already feeling calmer, Jimmy noticed that Timmy had left, so the boy genius thought that most likely his partner had decided to go to calm down or try to sleep somewhere in the house.
And if he was being honest, by this time of night Jimmy had no problem doing the same either.
"So... there is not a monster"
"I don't think so"
"and it's just a butterfly?"
"… Yeah?"
Jimmy began rubbing both sides of his head, feeling the pain turn into a migraine.
"...I told you, you shouldn't be using the recaller to summon us this late at night unless it's an emergency" Jimmy scolded SpongeBob, this while he tried to be reasonable.
"B-but Jimmy, it is an emergency..." SpongeBob cupped his fingers shyly, looking pleadingly at the scientist "...at least for me..."
Once again in that interminable night, Jimmy sighed.
He was tired. He could easily leave and not help the sponge, and in the process he could also get angry with him and have reasons for not answering the next alarms that would most likely start ringing very early in the morning.
He was in his right, he owed nothing to the sponge.
He owed him nothing... yes, that was correct.
Jimmy looked at SpongeBob, feeling his determination waver at the sight of his pleading eyes.
No!! He had to be strong.
He was on the right of him.
He just had to get up and leave the room.
He should just do that.
He SHOULD do that…
Jimmy looked at SpongeBob a second time.
…
…
…
Shit.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
“Alright, where's the butterfly?”
The Nicktoon gang found themselves in SpongeBob living room, practically falling apart from exhaustion.
Timmy looked like he was about to murder someone with his dark circles under his eyes, Danny just fell asleep on the pole of the butterfly net SpongeBob had lent him, and Jimmy was just in the middle of it all with a big resigned face.
"Th-the was in my room, but then it came down here."
"Are we really going to do this, Jimmy?" Timmy looked at him with annoyance along with his godparents.
"Listen, I know doing this thing si not like me at all, but if we don't do this, we're all going to have to deal with the guilt of not helping SpongeBob for the rest of this week."
"And since when did something as basic as guilt affect you, nerdtron?" Timmy told him, practically using his own words against him.
Jimmy took a thousandth breath, trying not to commit murder in front of his friends or kill himself on the spot.
“…Take it this way, the faster we finish, the faster we'll get back to our dimensions, so unless you want me to throw you into Danny's ghost portal and leave you floating in nothingness for the next 24 hours, you'll do exactly what I I tell you, understood?" Jimmy looked sternly at Timmy, who also stared back with twice the intensity.
A heavy silence settled in the environment, only being broken by Danny's snoring. No one knew if they stayed in the same position for seconds or minutes, but Timmy got tired of trying to oppose the scientist, overall, Jimmy, like him, was tired, and he thought that the night had been hard for everyone, so there was no reasons to drag it out longer.
"Cosmo, Wanda, I want a piece of gum and an empty jar"
The magical godparents raised their wands, appearing a piece of gum that Timmy did not hesitate to start chewing as they turned into the equivalent of a jar. In this case, Wanda turned the lid and Cosmo the jar.
Timmy blew up a bubble of gum, which he popped on purpose to make a lot of noise. This woke up Danny, who ended up falling to the floor in surprise.
"THERE IS!!" SpongeBob's scream alarmed his classmates, who looked everywhere.
"Where?!!"
"There!! Don't you see it?!!”
“Where is there?!!”
"AAHHHH!!"
Before anyone could react, the sponge had rushed into the arms of the closest friend, this being Danny, who, feeling the weight, went on high alert.
“WHERE IS THAT STUPID BUTTERFLY?!!” Timmy yelled angrily, froze when he didn't hear any of his friends' voices. "Ehhh, guys?"
Jimmy looked carefully at the insect on Timmy's head.
The butterfly was much bigger than the ones in his universe, probably the size of the palm of his hand, and it was also a pretty pink color with purple accents, making him almost want to laugh at the irony that the bug just got reposed would where Timmy Turner's pink cap normally resided, which he didn't have time to put on since he was in his pajamas just like everyone else in the room.
"Jimmy?"
“Shh” The scientist grabbed the butterfly net that Danny had left abandoned on the floor, carefully approaching Timmy "DON'T. MOVE”
The distance between them began to decrease and heat invaded Timmy's cheeks, who felt embarrassed to see how Jimmy's face stopped a few inches from his face.
Timmy hid the details. From the scientist's sharp chin to the straight, elegant nose along with the wrinkles that seemed to want to form around his tired eyes. He also noticed the subtle freckles that dotted Jimmy's cheeks, which they were sure he wouldn't be able to see if it wasn't for the next to no closeness they were sharing.
And it was then that he looked at his lips. Those thin, glossy lips that had attacked his thoughts more times than he dared to admit, wanting to know if the scientist's signature scent of strawberries was also embedded in those pretty pink lines.
"GOT YA!!"
The illusion that Timmy created disappeared in the first second that a gigantic net passed through his head, trapping him between the uncomfortable plastic threads as if he were prey.
"HEY!!" Timmy tried to remove the net, only getting more entangled in it "DON'T LET ME WITH THIS THING ON, NEUTRON!!"
“SHIT, IT IS GETTING AWAY!!”
While Timmy kept trying to get free, the butterfly kept fluttering around the room while Danny tried to shoot it.
"DON´T MOVE!!" Danny yelled as he fired his ecto-ray, which the only thing he was doing was destroying SpongeBob's house.
What's wrong with you, guys?!! It's just a butterfly!!” Jimmy scolded with a force that looked like he was about to break out with an ulcer “We've saved so many dimensions!! Destroyed the darkest empires!! WE EVEN ONCE RETURNED A DESTROYED DIMENSION TO THE MULTIVERSAL PLANE!! AND YOU ARE TELLING ME WE CAN'T CATCH A FUCKING BUG?!!”
Just when he said the last thing, the butterfly landed on the red chair in the room before SpongeBob's devastated look.
And it was then that the four of them watched with astonishment and horror as the chair turned to dust at the precise moment the butterfly took flight again.
They all looked at the sponge, waiting for answers.
"…What? Didn't know that butterflies can destroy everything in their path?"
"You mean, like the butterfly effect?"
"Uhh I don't know what that is"
"It's the effect that suggests that the small disturbances of a single butterfly flapping its wings have the power to trigger a chain of escalating events that can lead to the formation of a hurricane," Jimmy explained, trying to feign calm.
"Actually, butterflies don't take that long, normally the hurricane happens instantly"
“AND YOU COULDN'T TELL US THAT FROM THE BEGINNING?!!” Timmy lifted the sponge from the end of his shorts, looking at him in pure horror as he was still caught in the net "THAT THING COULD HAVE KILLED ME!!"
The butterfly approached where they were, causing everyone to scream in panic as they moved away to one of the corners of the room.
“GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!!” Timmy hid behind Danny “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!! DO SOMETHING!!"
“WHAT I AM SUPOSSED TO DO?!!”
"I DONT KNOW!! YOU ARE THE ONE WITH POWERS HERE!!" Timmy held Danny's arm like a gun, aiming at the butterfly. “You know what?!! I do it myselft!!”
“TIMMY NO-!!”
Before Jimmy could say anything else, several shots were fired from Danny's hands as Timmy maniacally aimed all over the house.
Danny was puzzled that the big teeth idea worked while Jimmy ducked along with SpongeBob so as not to get pulverized.
The butterfly continued to fly through different parts of the house, leaving a wave of destruction in its wake that was complemented by the uncontrolled shots that tried to hit it without. Timmy yelled angrily, continuing to fire as his fury increased with each second.
“THIS IS FOR GETTING US UP AT FUCKING 12 AT NIGHT!! THIS FOR MAKE ME COME HERE!! THIS FOR MAKING ME WORK AS A FUMIGATOR!! THIS…!!"
Jimmy grabbed Danny's arm, jerking from side to side in an attempt to stop Timmy, who clung to the halfa's arm tightly.
“YOU'RE DESTROYING THE ENTIRE HOUSE, TURNER!! STOP NOW!!"
"I'D DESTROY THE FUCKING WORLD JUST TO WATCH THAT THING BURN, NERDTRON!!"
"YOU'RE NOT THINKING CLEARLY, TURNER!!"
“I ALWAYS THINK CLEARLY, NERDTRON!!”
"NO, YOU DON'T!!"
"YES, I DO!!"
"NO!!"
"YES!!"
"NO!!"
"YES!!"
“COULD YOU TWO LEAVE MY FUCKING ARM?!!” Danny yanked their arm off, not calculating that the move would cause a bolt of ectoplasm to go halfway through the house in a precise cut.
Everyone was left in a stunned silence for several seconds, which was broken when part of the ceiling began to collapse.
"RUN!!" SpongeBob yelled as he ran towards the exit.
The team turned on the door, which was conveniently locked. Running out of time, Danny transformed and grabbing his teammates.
“HOLD YOUR BREATH!!” The halfa yell as he tossed them to the ground.
They all held their breath, holding on to each other for what seemed like hours, or at least until everything went quiet.
Jimmy was the first to open his eyes, recognizing the transparency of Danny's intangibility ability, so he felt reassured knowing that no one had gotten hurt thanks to his friend.
The halfa stopped using his powers as he untransformed, causing the four of them to feel the rubble and sand beneath them as they managed to calm down.
"Danny, are you okay?" SpongeBob was the first to speak, worrying about the safety of his friend.
"Y-yes I'm alright..." The black-haired man looked more tired than him before, but at least he seemed to be able to support himself.
And that's when the realization of what had just happened hit the three humans, guilt flooding Jimmy, Timmy and Danny, who looked at SpongeBob with ill-concealed shame.
They had destroyed his friend's house, and if that wasn't reason enough to make SpongeBob start to hate them, Jimmy could say with certainty that his friend was someone pure who didn't deserve to have friends as careless and selfish as they were.
The mere thought saddened him.
"Aww not again" SpongeBob grumbled as he looked at the remains of his house, resigned.
The three turned to look at him in confusion.
"Again? This happened before?" Jimmy asked.
"Well yes, here in Bikini Bottom it is normal for several houses to be destroyed when butterfly season comes, so we have insurance that helps us rebuild our houses without having to pay much" The sponge explained with a smile.
Although Jimmy was relieved to know that there was insurance and that his friend would get his house back without a problem, he still felt responsible for making his friend have to watch his house being destroyed.
"I'm sorry, Bob," Jimmy said after much thought, feeling helpless.
He was supposed to help SpongeBob, and in the end he ended up messing everything.
It was always like that with him. He was always the reason everything went wrong, the reason his inventions were flawed or caused most of the problems his team had to fix, why the friends he had in his dimension were always in danger ever since they were kids.
Even now, without his artifacts on top of him, his mere presence had ruined everything. Again.
"No SpongeBob, I'm the one who's sorry" Jimmy looked up, meeting Timmy's, who had already freed himself from the net in which he had been trapped "I was the one who used Danny as a fucking ray gun and went crazy”
"In that case, then it would be my fault" Danny spoke up this time "I let you control me and I ended up destroying Bob's house, which I respect, it's my responsibility"
"But I was the one who forced us to come here in the first place" Jimmy hugged his legs, feeling defeated "If I hadn't been a conspiracy fool and bothered everyone this never would have happened."
"Then it's my fault, guys" Bob interjected "I was the one who pressed the emergency button, and that means that everything started because of me and that no one is to blame more than me"
"But I'm supposed to be the leader and I should have acted better, but...but I didn't" Jimmy looked at them, feeling a lump in his throat "...Sorry guys, I failed you"
The others looked at Jimmy, feeling conflicted at not knowing what to do.
Everyone knew that the scientist tended to blame himself a lot for things that were out of his control. Jimmy closed himself off and used to cope with all the problems on his own, making the teenager not take care of himself on several occasions and they had to force him to remember basic things like eating and sleeping, in fact, they were surprised that this "mission ” would have caught the scientist while he was sleeping.
Knowing that Jimmy himself or maybe someone in his dimension was taking care of their friend while they couldn't filled them with a huge relief, but they all knew that Jimmy Neutron needed much more than eating and sleeping to resolve the conflicts and insecurities regarding his role as there leader, friend, and even as a individual person.
Timmy stopped thinking about what to do, so he walked over to Jimmy and sat next to him, smiling understandingly at him.
“What if we better stop deciding who is more guilty and press that we are all guilty?”
"Meh I vote for that," Danny joined in, also smiling.
“Me too!! We can all be guilty!!”
Jimmy looked at his friends, feeling grateful to have a team as great as the one he had.
Opening up with people was something he didn't do on a regular basis. Social interactions weren't his forte and he wasn't usually one to trust people a lot, but Jimmy knew that if he had to and decided who to trust, those people would be them, his crazy team made up of 4 members from different dimensions.
Jimmy smiled back, grateful.
"...I like the idea of not being the only one to blame"
"That's right, Neutron!! Welcome to the guilty team!!” Timmy pulled him into a side hug, and he didn't know if the action was meant to comfort him as much as it did.
“Where we all have the right to wallow in our own misery…” Danny added, chuckling softly.
"As a team, obviously," SpongeBob continued, bursting out laughing.
The others started laughing too, feeling like the biggest idiots in the universe for laughing in the rubble of a house at 3 in the morning while wearing their pajamas and one of them in his underpants.
After a few moments of laughter, they stopped ringing when some antennas came out of the rubble of the house.
It was Gary, SpongeBob's pet snail.
“GARY!!” The sponge grabbed the snail, hugging it against his chest "I'M SO GLAD YOU ARE WELL BUDDY!!"
The snail made a strange noise while being hugged by its owner.
But all that moment ended when suddenly the butterfly that had caused them so much trouble appeared flying near them like the son of a bitch that it was.
The four of them screamed as they huddled in a small corner, staring in horror and astonishment at the butterfly.
“DID THE LANDSLIDE NOT KILL HER?!!”
“IS THAT THING INDESTRUCTIBLE OR WHAT THE HELL-?!!”
"WE ARE GONNA DIE!!"
"NO PLEASE!!"
As everyone seemed to be on the brink of collapse, Gary the snail stared at the butterfly before stretching out his tongue like a toad, catching it and bringing it into his mouth to swallow.
The team watched him silently chew on the butterfly, causing the snail to burp and settle into SpongeBob's arms as if nothing had happened.
They all stared at each other, not knowing how to react to the implication that a snail had accomplished what the four of them together couldn't.
“…I hate butterflies” Timmy said into the silence.
"Me too"
"Me too"
"I already hated them"
At least Jimmy had to look on the bright side. Now everyone could finally go to sleep.