Team Arch TV Specials

Team Arch: Black Gold

Time: After Movie 12

~=~=~=~=~=

A week after the New Year's Day, SpongeBob, Tai, Yugi, Sakura, and Nate are dropped into Panau to find Téa, Joey, Tristan, and Cassius, who are suspected of going rogue and aligning himself with the country's dictator Dario Noriega, the psychotic younger cousin of the deceased Manuel Noriega. With the aid of intelligence asset Luke Alexander and a weapons dealer only known as Wrath Man, the quintet allies with the island's three dominant criminal gangs and factions: The Crawlers (an organized crime syndicate), the Wreckers (an insurgent socialist militia) and the Usurpers, an ultranationalist rebel group which espouses traditionalism and opposes foreign influence.

The quintet gathers enough information to track down the four, who reveal that Cassius has been Wrath Man while the other three were investigating a greater conspiracy behind Dario's rise to power. Yugi determines that the four have not gone rogue, and Téa tells them to continue causing chaos on Panau, while the four explain the situation to the rest of Team Arch.

Joey then tells the quintet to hurry to the four's hideout, where they learn that intelligence asset Daniella Brooke has been captured in Dario's military base and will be tortured and possibly summarily executed. Although Sakura rescues her and destroys the base, Daniella is bundled into a truck and a fleet of gunmen try to escape along a frozen lake. A nuclear submarine emerges from the ice, but the quintet hijacks the truck and they are airlifted to safety by their respective subunits. Daniella later explains that the Crawlers, Wreckers, and Usurpers are secretly backed by Russia, China, and Japan, respectively, to bring down Dario, but the gang wonders what the small island has, which is so attractive to superpowers. They track down and assassinate the foreign intelligence officers liaising with the factions.

Soon afterwards, the island is engulfed in so much chaos that Dario leaves the capital for his fortified military base. The gang assaults the base with the aid of the three factions. Dario is apparently killed during the assault by Luke in a murder-suicide, but not before Dario explains that the three nations, along with the United States (and Mr. Krabs apparently), have been interested in Panau for its oil reserves, supposedly the largest in the world. As the gang leaves, Luke emerges from the wreckage, having barely survived.

With Dario dead, the situation in Panau becomes a free-for-all as foreign nations scramble to claim the oil. Russia, China, and Japan send a fleet of supertankers to Panau, and the US begins scrambling its military forces to defend the island, with the help of Mr. Krabs. The quintet is tasked with holding off the supertankers until reinforcements arrive, but a nuclear submarine suddenly surfaces. Tai and Nate investigate the submarine and find Dario, alive but injured. Although Dario fires nuclear missiles at the US and Panama (possibly out of payback for Operation: Just Cause), his clothing snags on one of the missiles and he goes up with it. In pursuit, the quintet grapples onto another missile; SpongeBob and Dario battle in midair, as the other four disarm each missile.

In the end, SpongeBob pins Dario to the exposed core of a US-bound missile, and reprograms the targeting computer before jumping to safety. The missile changes course and explodes over Panau's oilfields, killing Dario for real and destroying the island's oil reserves. The quintet reunites with the others, but Joey is dismayed at the loss of the oil reserves, though he also imagine how Mr. Krabs and the US Government would react. SpongeBob explains that there are some things that are not worth dying for; with its oil gone, interest in Panau will be lost, the superpowers will not go to war and the island's residents will be spared. Squidward agrees, assuring the others that a president friendly to the US will be installed on Panau and the island will be closely monitored; the group raise their drinks, toasting friendship, a brighter tomorrow, and a job well done, with SpongeBob adding "Salud!".