New Management

Chapter 1 - Shocked

Bikini Bottom, 11:26 AM, Thursday

Ah...

I know that many other stories and episodes started like this but I will say anyway: It's a good day at the city of Bikini Bottom in these beautiful waters. As we see this glamorous, in its own way, a city in the sea, the people are walking, driving in boats and everything else. And there isn't much noise to be heard than the boats and talking. Nothing els-

TINONI! TINONI!*

Ok. Forget. An ambulance is driving fast as the boats give space to it pass. And some of you might strange the onomatopoeia used to the ambulance. But hey! In my country, it's a common one for it!

Anyways, we see it drive away from downtown. Inside, we see two drivers and doctors (Same persons) driving on it while one of them is using the radio.

- "Sorry, Paul but we are already occupied in another emergency. We have someone on the risk of life at 831 Bottom Feeder Lane!" - The doctor said.

Wait... 831 Bottom Feeder Lane?!? That is familiar...

The ambulance drives soo fast that even makes some fish and other water animals walking on the walkway fall on the floor.

- "Where it will go?" - A female fish asked.

- "It's an ambulance! That is a stupid question!" - Her female fish friend complained to her.

The ambulance still drives very fast. It only stopped when they reached the destination. The doctors got out and take from inside some equipment that looks that is to reanimate. Then, they run to get inside a familiar building. Walking back some steps, we can recognize that the building is... THE KRUSTY KRAB?!?

What happened? And who is in the risk of life?!? At that... We need to rewind in the time.

/REWIND/

Outside of Krusty Krab, 7:49 AM

Right now, the sun is rising in the sky as the shadow of the restaurant started to go away. Turning around, we see two known aquatic animals walking on the street to the restaurant. One is a turquoise and cyan male octopus, wearing a brown polo shirt while the other is a yellow sponge wearing a white shirt with a scarlet-red tie, black leather shoes with white shoelaces, white socks with blue and red stripes, and brown rectangular pants with a black belt. In this, we know that they are, respectively, Squidward Tentacles and Spongebob Squarepants. While the first one is in a bad mood, the other... Well... We can perfectly guess it.

- "Squidward, are you ready for another workday on the best restaurant ever?!?" - Spongebob asked his supposed friend, with a smile.

- "Yeah... Another day of boredom. Yay..." - Squidward replied with sarcasm and fake enthusiasm.

- "Come on Squidward. Don't be like that. Why you never changed your opinion about this?"

- "Because I don't like my job. I just don't quit because I need money, even that is a little and... You know."

- "You mean... What?"

- "I don't think that I would even get another job like this. I try to be a musician but, for some reason, nobody appreciates my good music with my clarinet. I try to, at least, not play and conduct an orchestra but in that only time, despite the good reception of the people" - Then, the octopus whispered to himself. - "Where a part was, for some reason, of him and his stupid best friend." - Talks normally to Spongebob. - "The Bikini Bottom Symphony Orchestra's Main Jury denied due to using non-orchestral instruments. Outside of music, I had other jobs but they failed too."

- "Don't worry, Squidward. At least, you have a job in the best restaurant ever."

- "Saying it two or more times won't turn it from boring to the best restaurant. At least, just the best in the city, due to how much the people like the Krabby Patties."

- "That is the same for me."

- "And I wish to know your enthusiasm in this job."

When he finished that sentence, they reached the restaurant they work in. After getting inside, they took out their work hats from a hat rack. Then, the sponge informed:

- "Before Mr.Krabs talks to us about today's work, I will clean the restaurant, Squidward."

- "Whatever. Just don't annoy my reading." - The squid replied as he takes a magazine to read.

At that, a montage is seen where Spongebob starts doing his job before the restaurant opens. First, he starts cleaning the kitchen with a bucket of water and a mop, wherein the case of the stove, he used a vacuum to clean its top. Then, he started cleaning the tables where the costumers will eat the Krabby Patties and the windows with a cloth. After that, he cleans everything else with the mop. And when I said everything else, I meant the ground and the ceiling. In the end, of course, he washed his hands.

After the montage, he walks to the side of the boat, where Squidward "works" and now reads his magazine.

- "WE'RE READY!" - Spongebob said happily as the yell startled Squidward.

- "Spongebob! Warn me not that loud!" - Squidward complained.

- "Sorry, Squidward but this normally warns Mr. Krabs that he can talk to us before we open the restaurant."

At that, Squidward reluctantly puts down the magazine and waits with Spongebob for their boss appearing. However, after some minutes, he didn't appear yet.

- "Weird..." - Spongebob commented, with a confused tone. Then, he turned to Squidward, that has a confused face too to inquire: - "Squidward, don't you think that Mr. Krabs is acting weird ultimately?"

- "This time... I have to agree with you." - The squid replied. - "Recently, we saw fewer times where he counts the money and when he does, he feels kinda sad. Also, he doesn't complain more about when I don't work and when he fights with Plankton, after winning, he comes back to the office with a face where he feels that he will miss that. Also, he always takes time to talk tonus before opening the restaurant."

- "Yeah... I have to agree. Where Mr. Krabs is anyways?"

While they are talking, we move to the boss's office to see a red crab wearing a light blue shirt and slackers with a black belt. At that, we recognize him as Eugene H. Krabs. He is actually on the phone and looks to be an important thing.

- "Soo... Everything is already written?" - The crab asked who he's talking.

- "Yes, it is Eugene. But I need to ask this again since this is an important matter: You are sure you want to do this?" - The fish on the other side of the phone's line replied with a question.

- "Yes, I am. I thought that I wouldn't need to do this but my situation forces me to make this change."

- "Okay. Then... It's done. Be aware that you can't change it until next month."

- "Don't worry. I don't even plan on changing what I needed to add in any day. Goodbye."

Mr. Krabs hangs up and reflects while he puts his elbows on his desk and his tweezers near to his long eyes by height.

- "Sigh... I hope this can save the future of my restaurant. I have no other way." - He whispered to himself.

- "Uh... Mr. Krabs?"

At this new voice, he looked to the door to see it opened and his employees looking at him.

- "You are okay? You didn't come out for your talk before the restaurant opens." - Spongebob interrogated.

- "Yes yes yes. I'm okay. I just was... Distracted. You know?" - Mr. Krabs answered with a question.

- "Alright... We are just waiting." - Squidward acknowledged.

The employees go away as Eugene gets up to exit from his office. Then, he reached to his employees to talk:

- "Alright, lads! Today might be another say of work like the others but it doesn't mean that I won't say anything to you. Today I saw that there will be a big movement of people around here soo I request you be fast on your job but with the best quality, you can do! Understood?"

- "Yes, Mr. Krabs." - Squidward replied without reluctantly since he was thinking about what happened to his boss.

- "Aye Aye, Captain!" - Spongebob replied.

- "Good. Now you may open the restaurant!" - The crab announced. Then, he turns to go to his office but he stops after taking some steps to turn to them again and says: - "Wait! One more thing!"

When he said that, the squid was going back to his reading to have a break before the first customer arrives and the sponge was going to the door to change its sign from "closed" to "open".

- "What it is, Captain?" - Spongebob asked.

- "What do you want, Mr. Krabs?" - Squidward inquired too.

- "I just want to ask something." - The boss answered before breathing in and out. Then, he continued: - "You know that even it doesn't look very well for you Squidward, I care very much about you?"

- "Yes, I do." - Spongebob replied.

- "Well... I have kinda to agree." - Squidward ratified.

- "Good. I just wanted to know. I feel that I'm not a good person with you the majority of the time. Now you may work. Please." - Mr. Krabs finished.

He goes to his office slowly as the fry cook goes to change the sign and the cashier resumes his reading. But these two employees were thinking about the same thing:

- "Something really is happening with our boss."

Krusty Krab, 11:09 AM

To resume, the morning started well slowly. For the first 35 minutes, there weren't any costumers. However, after those same minutes, fish and other aquatic animals entered the restaurant.

In that, you can guess what happened in most of the morning: Spongebob making Krabby Patties, Squidward being annoyed by him, clients making an order, the octopus be distracted when he thinks that there won't be any costumers, for now, Spongebob fry the potatoes and soo on.

Right now, Spongebob was writing on his "Work Diary" to resume what happened until now. This is the 20th diary he has since he worked soo much time. In fact, he worked soo much time and well that he got 374 consecutive Employee of the Month awards. It's an accomplishment that nobody else could ever do in any other job in the entire life. By the time I finish writing this paragraph, he closes the book to resume his work.

- "Done! I will continue it when we close the restaurant." - He said to himself.

- "Spongebob!" - Squidward called loudly. - "3 new orders for you! Be quick!"

At this, the fry cook gets four hamburgers to fry since one of the orders requested two Krabby Patties. As he uses his spatula to turn the hamburgers around, he whistles something since he loves working on this job. Of course, his grumpy neighbor was annoyed and got his head to the window without glass that he uses to give the orders to the fryer.

- "SPONGEBOB! Stop whistling! Can I have peace when no more costumers are here to order?!?" - The octopus complained.

- "Sorry, Squidward. Just happy." - The sponge replied at this.

The same octopus's head goes away as he mumbles angrily. At the same time, Spongebob runs to where the buns are and put two in each of the four plates to put the hamburgers between them. After doing all of that, he adds fresh lettuce, crisp onions and tomatoes with sea cheese, pickles, mustard, and ketchup. Of course, he goes to-

- "Woah Woah Woah! Turn around! You can't know the Secret Formula." - Spongebob turned to me and ordered.

Alright! In that, I turn around to not see the formula. Yeah... Revealing it to you readers wouldn't be appropriate. If you are Plankton?

- "Okay! You can turn back!" - I hear Spongebob's voice after a minute.

I turn back to see Spongebob exiting from the kitchen to give the orders to the costumers. But he stops in the middle to read the tables' numbers:

- "Numbers 4, 5 and 6. Good! They are near to each other!"

In this, he runs to the tables very fast. After passing through the tables, we see that the Krabby Patties are already in the costumer's mouths.

- "More 3 orders done at the same time! Fantastic!" - Spongebob said to himself.

- "Good to know." - His work colleague told him sarcastically to add: - "Now go back to the kitchen!"

Spongebob was doing what Squidward ordered but he was stopped by his boss getting out of the office to check everything around.

- "Let's see if everything is well." - Mr. Krabs thought.

- "Mr. Krabs looks attentive, huh?" - Spongebob said to Squidward.

- "True. But I think that part of the attention is to find coins on the ground, like usual." - The grumpy octopus agreed most of what his annoying neighbor said.

And... That is true. Eugene stopped in the middle and gets to the ground to take a 5 cents coin.

- "I knew it!" - Squidward said to himself.

Meanwhile, Mr. Krabs was getting up but, in the middle, he felt a little pain in his chest, making him stop and put his left tweezer on where the pain is. Then, it got away.

- "Not again and at work..." - He thought to himself. - "I hope that isn't that signal..."

- "Mr. Krabs!" - A voice yelled out.

He turned back to see his employees, with a concerned face. One more than the other.

- "You are okay? We saw you in pain!" - Spongebob asked in worry.

- "Yes... I am. Nothing special" - The crab replied.

- "Are you sure? The pain can be something bad." - Squidward interrogated.

- "Yes, I am Squidward. Thanks for being concerned you two."

- "You're welcome, Captain!" - Spongebob thanked.

- "We may have some problems between us but I still can worry when someone doesn't look well." - Squidward said.

When the employees started walking to their positions, Eugene resumed his walk. Meanwhile, the same employees started to talk to each other.

- "I have the feeling that Mr. Krabs is lying." - The squid asserted.

- "I agree with you, Squidward. Mr. Krabs always looked and was well and now... This pain... Came out of nowhere. I think that is hiding something worse. If it was just bad, he could tell us!" - Spongebob agreed.

- "For now, let's just keep an eye on him."

At the same time, Mr. Krabs found more coins on the ground and checked that all the costumes were okay with the food and the service, even though there were some complaints about the cashier. However... He started to feel bad again. Firstly, he started to feel tired and sweating. It was noted by a friendly customer.

- "You need my drink, sir? I can get another for me." - The fish asked as he gave the drink.

- "Thanks..." - The crab thanked as he took the drink.

He drank all the soda and felt fine for a second. But then, he felt something on his chest again but too in his stomach.

- "I think... It's... The... Signal..." - Eugene thought.

BLEARGH!*

The costumers, Squidward and Spongebob looked to where the vomit was heard.

THUMP!*

At that sound, if we turn to where we heard, we see... Mr. Krabs laying on the ground with vomit near to him. And no. He isn't conscious.

- "MR. KRABS!" - The employees yelled as they ran to their boss.

The costumers gathered around as Spongebob as Squidward sit with their knees near to the crab. In the middle, a costumer remembered to call 9-1-1 or what the number of emergencies is in the sea.

- "Don't worry, Captain! I will try to save you!" - Spongebob yelled in worry.

Spongebob started to do compressions on him but he was doing them in the wrong place.

- "Spongebob!" - Squidward yelled as he pushed him. - "Wrong place!"

- "Sorry. I forgot with this scare." - Spongebob said while his grumpy neighbor made compressions on their boss in the right place.

At the same time, at the downtown, we know what will happen: An ambulance appears, make some people fall, reach to where the restaurant is, the doctors get out and enter on the restaurant. In that, we are in the present. In that, we will skip in the time.

Bikini Bottom's Hospital, 12:17 PM

When the doctors arrived, they tried to help him but the best they did is to make him breathe again but not regaining consciousness. After that, they get him on the ambulance to treat him in the hospital.

As for the sponge and the squid, they left to get to the hospital too to know if their boss will be okay. At that, they had to announce that the restaurant would close early due to what happened. They had to run fast to the hospital and Squidward even forgot that he has a boat that he can use if he runs back home.

Right now, they are waiting in the waiting room of the hospital for news. They were concerned. For Squidward, you might be surprised but they are really concerned about their boss.

- "I hope Mr. Krabs be okay." - Spongebob let out.

- "SQUIDWARD! SPONGEBOB!" - A voice came out.

At that, they turn to where they heard it and see two persons: One is a female whale with blonde hair and wearing a pink cheerleader dress with a purple skirt, the letter "P" stitched on the front and sports barnacle-crafted white go-go boots. And the other is a female old crab wearing a purple dress, large blue glasses, and has a small patch of fluffy white hair. At that, we recognize them as Pearl and Betsy Krabs.

- "The school let me get out in the middle of class and when I heard about what happened to dad, I was shocked. He is okay?" - Pearl said and asked.

- "We don't know. The doctor didn't say anything yet to us." - Squidward answered.

- "God... I hope my son is okay." - Betsy said in worry.

As she said this, a doctor came to them with a blank face.

- "You are waiting for news of Eugene H. Krabs?" - He asked.

- "Yes." - Spongebob, Squidward, Pearl, and Betsy replied.

- "I'm Dr. Gill Gilliam. And I'm who is in the case of Mr. Krabs."

- "Soo... What happened to him?" - Squidward asked.

- "From what looks like, he got... A heart attack." - They gasp as this. Then, the doctor continues: - "It appears that it's from heart disease. From the files I discovered, it was running some tests and the results made it impossible to seek any treatment possible for the disease."

- "Eugene never told me about it!" - Betsy said.

- "Neither to us!" - The other 3 said too.

- "However... Right now, we tried to save him but... I'm sorry."

Nobody understood what he meant. When they finally got it, they got shocked. They didn't want to believe in this tragedy happening.

- "No! Tell me that isn't true! I beg you!" - Pearl yelled in worry as Betsy was without words.

- "I'm sorry again... But Eugene H. Krabs died due to a heart condition."

Everyone really didn't know what to do. Then, Pearl broke down in tears as Spongebob did the same while hugging her. As for Betsy, she cried silently as Squidward was shocked and felt sad at this. Not that he had the best relationship with his boss but he still felt sad at his death.

- "And... What now...?" - Betsy asked.

- "He will stay in the morgue until the date of the funeral that you will obviously define. Right now, we will call someone that Mr. Krabs has that will tell more things."

Hospital's Private Waiting Room, 1:10 PM

Some time passed after the news about Eugene. Everyone was waiting at a table for the person that the doctor said that he called to talk to them.

- "You know who will talk to us about dad?" - Pearl inquired.

- "No... No clue." - Betsy answered.

- "I just hope that Mr. Krabs has a good place watching us." - Spongebob said.

- "For one of the only times, I agree with you." - Squidward said.

The door is knocked, making the four aquatic animals look at it. Then, it is opened and is revealed a brown fish on a suit and a suitcase.

- "Hi... You know someone called Eugene Krabs?" -, He asked.

- "Yes, we know." - The four marine animals that waited for him replied.

- "Good. This was to avoid talking to the wrong people." - He enters the room and sits at the table with them as he puts the suitcase above it. Then, he offered 4 cards and said: - "My name is Markus Cannon, or just Mr. Can. Please don't relate me to cannons. I was indicated to be the Executor of Eugene's Will. Coincidentally, I'm a lawyer too but that doesn't matter."

The four adults look to each other in confusion. Will? They never imagined that Mr. Krabs would make that to give away what he has. It's something unexpected from him. Then, they looked back at the executor and lawyer to let him continue:

- "He made a request for making a will some years ago to protect his legacy and his daughter, that I believe that you know her."

- "Actually... I am her daughter." - Pearl said and raised her right whale fin.

- "Wow... A whale being the daughter of a crab? I have no intention of being rude but that is unusual."

- "I know... Some people question that too."

- "Coming back to the point, like I can make a will and execute it, I am ordered to read it." - Markus opened the suitcase and took some papers. Then, he cleared his fish throat to read the pages to them: - "I, Eugene Harold Krabs, residing on 2219 Anchor Street,Bikini Bottom,Pacific Ocean, declare that this will be my Last Will and Testament. At my death, I will resign my wills and codicils made by me. And it will be separated in some articles."

The first two articles were just of who did Mr. Krabs appointed as the executor of the will, that is Mr. Can himself and that he will be responsible to use Eugene's part of the residuary estate to pay expenses of possible treatments and the funeral. Then, there were two other important articles that last.

- "Article III, Family." - Markus continued to read. - "I declare that I will appoint my biological mother Betsy Krabs as the legal guardian of my adopted daughter Pearl Krabs."

This article made Pearl shocked.

- "Wait! I'm adopted?" - She asked.

- "Yes, you are sweetie. Your father told me that your mother married him while she was pregnant with her ex-husband that is a whale too some weeks after her divorce. And when she was sick and dying, he promised her that he would take care of you. You were a little baby whale when this happened." - Betsy confessed.

Pearl was speechless at this revelation. Sure. She thought before that was weird that she had a father that has a crab but she ignored it, thinking that didn't matter much. Her dad never talked about her mother and when she asked about her, Mr. Krabs would answer by leaving and fell sad. He even cried sometimes.

- "I can't believe this. But I understand why he hid from me. I'm still not very emotionally stable and I might react badly as I did recently." - The adopted whale asserted. Then, she looked at the executor: - "Sorry for interrupting. You may continue."

- "No problem. I understand why you did that." - Markus answered before proceeding reading: - "Article IV, Possessions. I declare that my possessions will be given to the following persons: Betsy Krabs and Pearl Krabs will inherit from me 60% of my money that I accumulated on my bank account and my house."

- "Bank account?" - The four listeners asked.

- "Yes. He has a bank account where he put his money. And according to what I know, it actually reaches 12 million dollars, meaning that you two ladies will get 7,2 million dollars."

This shocked everyone. They never thought that Mr. Krabs would keep all of this money on the bank. They knew that he loved money but he would never put his money in a place that has the risk of being stolen.

- "That is... Unbelievable!" - Betsy exclaimed.

- "I agree. Mr. Krabs gave you a big amount of money!" - Spongebob agreed.

- "It's true." - Pearl said before looking up like she was seeing her father there. - "Thank you, dad. I promise that we will do good use of it."

- "Wait!" - Markus raised his fish fin and announced. - "I didn't finish!" - Then, he resumed his reading: - "Also, to the case of the 40% of the rest of the money..." - He looks to them. - "I will tell you that it totalizes 4,8 million dollars." - Resumes his reading again: - "..., the ownership of my restaurant Krusty Krab as the building and the chosen ones by me to secure the Secret Formula of the products of my restaurant will be given to..."

Betsy, Squidward, Pearl, and Spongebob waited to Mr. Can to finish to know who will be given the rest that Eugene owns. They just wanted that, who Mr. Krabs will give all of that, that would be trustful.

However, they never expected what the Executor read next:

- "... To my only two employees of my said restaurant, Spongebob Squarepants and Squidward J. Q. Tentacles."

...

...

...

- "WAIT WHAT?"

Hey guys! My name is JMbuilder and welcome to my first Spongebob fanfic.

I will start this by saying: Spongebob was my best childhood cartoon ever and I still love it, even though the cartoon lost quality with time. And I feel proud of publishing at least one story on this archive.

I got this idea after remembering all the times that Spongebob or Squidward managed the restaurant where, as you know, it didn't go well. But I thought it better and I knew why it didn't go that well principally: Because it was temporary. Sure, they did their mistakes but they never took the responsibilities very seriously. (I doubt that in a cartoon would even happen).

Also, in the middle of the story, I mentioned what happened to Mr. Krabs' wife and Pearl's mother. I thought that would make sense since we will probably never know what really happened on the show.

Before going, I'm going to point out three things: A: I might not publish as much due to the archive not being very updated and published. B: There will be some episodes with Alternate Stories, Alternate Endings, and Extended Endings since this is an AU. Soo... There is a high probability of what happened on an episode of the show happened in a different way or never happened at all in this AU. And C: I warn that Spongebob and Squidward might change psychologically during the story.

And... That's it. Favorite and follow the story for more chapter and me to know stories outside of this archive, comment ideas, doubts, critics and what you liked (Rating between 1 to 10 would be good if you want.)

Now I really need to go. Bye!