Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron.

Author's Note: What can I possibly say after such a long absence? Though I haven't written a story here in so long, this site has always been in the back of my mind and has always played a major role in my life. I'll be posting a more in depth note on my user's page shortly, as well as some information about this book. But for now, I want to mention two things. First, this book is dedicated to all my fans on this site, but especially to:

Superdork398, whose trusty boo-yah meter has reviewed every one of my chapters and stories. You are my most loyal fan and a good friend.

Snowboarder9, who I could always count on to give an honest review. Knowing that you weren't afraid to say what you didn't like made the good reviews mean even more.

Acosta perez jose ramiro, whose been with me since the beginning. Thank you for all your reviews and support.

Greg9570, who may not be the most popular person on this site, but knowing how critical you could be made your positive reviews mean so much to me.

And of course, EL CHUPACABRA. Not only are you the best Jimmy Neutron writer I have ever read, but you are easily one of the best authors I have ever read period. I only hope that you're using your gift right now and that you'll let me know your real name so I can pick up your books in a store.

I don't know how many of you are still on this site, but I hope you will find this message eventually. Thank you all.

Secondly, I just want to say that my favorite part of writing is conversing with my readers. If you have any comments or any questions about this book or anything else, please do not hesitate to review or private message me. I will try to respond to every message and review.

And now, after a nearly six year absence, I present the sequel to The Final Battle.

James Neutron and Cynthia Vortex

The Final Battle

Summer vacation. For most kids in most towns, this beloved phrase brings to mind visits to the beach, days spent in cold movie theaters, and nights playing video games with their friends. Unfortunately, we're not most kids and Retroville isn't most towns. We thought this past summer would be the time of our lives. How we were wrong.

It started similar to many others before it. Trips to Egypt to visit our friend's ancestral tomb, visiting the island where the two of us truly realized we might one day be more than friends, and reluctantly following our friend Sheen to the newest Ultralord movie. Perhaps we were more nostalgic than summers past, perhaps we had some inkling that there was a good chance it would be our last. But all we know for sure is that what began as a fun and innocent respite from school eventually turned into the most dangerous adventure of our lives.

It was the last day of summer vacation when things fell apart. We decided to travel to the moon for one last trip before school started once more. We packed a lunch, brought some clubs for a little low-gravity golf, and intended to just spend our last day of freedom relaxing amongst friends. How quickly it turned to hell.

Our old nemesis, billionaire Eustace Strych, launched an attack. Over a dozen highly armed robotic soldiers were advancing across the barren lunar wasteland to kill us. We grabbed the pulse rifle kept in the rocket for emergencies and slowly whittled them down, one by one. We managed to disarm and defeat Strych, but not before our friend Libby was shot in the leg.

We rushed back to Earth and tried to find her help, but it quickly became apparent that there wasn't a single adult soul in town. Even worse, some sort of electrically charged force field had sealed us inside the town, preventing communications or people from leaving Retroville. There was only one explanation for what was going on. The Yolkians had returned to Earth and kidnapped our parents.

For two weeks we prepared to take our parents back. We fixed Libby's leg and informed all of the town's children what was going on. We gathered food, water, medicine, and controversially, guns. We created ships capable of reaching Yolkus and set about finding a way to disable the force field that surrounded our town. At long last, we were ready to rescue our parents once again.

An advance force which we led was sent ahead of the main battle group to disable the force field. We all activated our electromagnetic pulses, but they didn't fire. As we hurtled towards the sizzling wall that represented certain death, a miracle happened. The force field vanished for just a moment and powered back on as soon as the last ship had passed. The advance force had made it through, and the force field's power had dropped enough to allow communications with the remainder of our forces on Earth. It was our first real stroke of luck, but also our first inkling that something wasn't right about this adventure.

The odds of the force field deactivating and coming back online at that moment were beyond astronomical. This could only mean that the Yolkians hadn't kidnapped our parents for some religious sacrifice, but were using them as bait for a trap. Still, we were sealed out of Retroville and our parents were still kidnapped, so we had no choice but to press on.

We soon landed on an asteroid we had designated as Little Boy and took stock of our situation. We had left behind a great deal of our supplies, but we still had enough to accomplish our objective. We had one hundred and thirty-seven people amongst our ranks. More than half had been left behind on Earth. They would assist Libby, who had stayed behind due to her injury, in helping us navigate through space and locate our parents.

For a few days things went according to plan. Nick Dean, coolest kid in school, became one of our closest friends and best assets as he taught us how to fight and use guns. We prepared Little Boy to be used as a weapon by using our rockets to alter its path towards Yolkus. We planned to destroy the part of the planet that our parents didn't reside on with an asteroid strike and thus cause chaos on the ground, giving us an opportunity to sneak in and save our parents. But as usual, things eventually fell apart.

Little Boy passed through an asteroid belt and was pelted by smaller rocks. We all scrambled onboard the three largest ships, knowing that only Nick and ourselves would be able to safely pilot us through the field of swirling rocks. Sheen bravely decided to gather whatever supplies he could and fly his own smaller ship through the asteroid belt. We didn't realize until we had made it through that Sheen was stranded somewhere amidst the ocean of asteroids. In what was the toughest decision of our lives, we realized we had to leave him behind. There was no way our ships could handle another pass through the asteroid belt, and we couldn't jeopardize dozens of lives for one, no matter how important that one was.

We pressed on and briefly landed on the planet Minerva to figure out how we could still rescue our parents. We were depressed, heartbroken. We had almost no supplies, only three ships, less than half the people we'd planned on bringing, we'd just lost a friend, and to top it all off, we learned that our parents were being held on a Yolkian cruiser instead of a planet. This would make sneaking up on their location decidedly more difficult. In the end, we did what we always did. We pressed on, knowing that we had no choice but to try to save our parents.

It didn't take long to reach the cruiser. Cindy and I went onboard first. We knew that we would either be captured or killed, but we hoped to make a small dent in their forces and, more importantly, make the Yolkians believe that the two of us had come alone. We'd hoped that this would give Nick and his much larger team the element of surprise. Once onboard the cruiser, we were shocked to find not the hundreds or thousands of soldiers that we expected, but only a few dozen armed Yolkians. It was the toughest fight of our lives, but we managed to disable or kill most of the soldiers onboard the ship. We reached King Goobot's chambers, but a contingent of highly trained guards engaged us before we could get any answers out of him.

It took all the skill and luck we had to defeat those guards. In the end, though, we were victorious. We called for Nick and his team to join us on the ship. By the time they arrived, the elevator that Goobot had escaped through was hacked and we moved in after him. We cornered him, interrogated him, and ultimately killed him. He used his last words to plead innocence to the kidnappings, but they weren't heeded until some sort of knockout gas was released through the ship's ventilation system. Once we awoke, we finally realized that Goobot had told the truth. He had been framed for the attacks by Eustace Strych. We thought it was the end of the line. We were tied up, badly wounded, and unarmed. We would have all died aboard that ship if it weren't for Sheen. Somehow, someway, the friend who we had always underestimated had managed to survive a crash landing, hijack a passing Yolkian mining vessel, and locate us. He shot Eustace, but not before the sadistic billionaire squeezed off a round and gravely wounded one of us. In the end, it wasn't cold logic that did Eustace in. He wasn't killed to prevent him from destroying more lives. He was killed out of anger, out of a need for revenge, out of the pain he caused when he tried to destroy the relationship we had just formed. And so he died and we lived. We found our parents, used the controls on Eustace's body to disable the force field, and returned home.

Home. For so long up in space it seemed like we would never see it again. Yet here we all are. Every single one of us is back home and safe. Our parents are back. Our injuries are nearly healed. And as the days go by, we steadfastly return to the life we once had. Because, in the end, that is what we have always done. And if necessary, it's what we will always do. We'll press on.

Teacher's Comments

You two did an absolutely amazing job. A+'s for both of you. Nearly everyone in this class wrote about the kidnappings, but no one did nearly as good a job of explaining things as you two, and they certainly didn't do so in such a captivating and succinct way. I am proud of both of you and look forward to being your teacher.

And of course, as I have said to all of my students, my pride in you goes far beyond your writing abilities. You all risked your lives to save not only your parents, but adults like me who you've never met. You are all brave, mature, and wise beyond your years, and you have my heartfelt gratitude.

I still find it curious that I had to wait until you turned in your paper to find out exactly what happened to me. From the time I was knocked out in my bedroom to when you rescued me in that space prison, I can recall nothing. I still don't understand how the government seems not to care about this alien business, not to mention that this city has children who routinely fly off into space and are more than capable of forming a lethal army. Ah well. Perhaps it is best not to question these things.

I'm sorry for getting off track there. Again, you both will get top marks for this paper and I look forward to spending the year with you. And remember, if you ever need to talk about anything you went through, don't hesitate to come to me or our school psychologist. I can't imagine what you two have been through, even after reading about it.

Your teacher and friend,

Ms. Creek