"How do you capture a half octopus villain?"

The question came from none other than Ben. In the very brief amount of time I had known the man, I had solved how he worked and what questions would most likely be asked by him. He was a pretty easy riddle to solve when he wasn't yelling at you for releasing Olaf and shoving you backward. More than once. Acting or not, it was uncalled for.

"How should we know?" I sighed. "We're as clueless as you."

"Well, then that's saying something," he retorted. I threw him a glare. He just smirked.

I refrained my fingers from ripping the band-aids off of the side of my face. It itched and was so uncomfortable but Zeke wanted me to wear them, and since he was my supervisor I tried to follow what he said. Keyword: tried.

Mary-Ann glared across the table and at Zeke who seemed quite tense under her gaze. Mom leaned over to whisper something into my sister's ear. She looked down at her food. As Mom turned away, she threw Zeke one last death glare before taking a bite of her asparagus.

She obviously thought he was still the cause of the panic attack I had. Way to introduce my sister to my boss. Now, he was probably on her hit list; hit meaning with a baseball bat. Trust me. She had one. Mostly to help so that when she looked at the list, she was satisfied with what she wanted to do when she had a bad day. Hopefully, she never actually tried to fulfill the deed on the poor names.

"I was just throwing it out there to see if anyone had an idea," Ben said after a silent moment.

Sukie shook her head with a smile, happily eating the plate of food in front of her. I invited them over for dinner so we could discuss matters outside of work. I had already told Mary-Ann and Mom about Ursula and the kidnap. I was not the kind to keep secrets from them. Not that I wanted them involved and possibly getting hurt, but I wanted them aware of what I was doing - dangerous or not - and they could pitch in ideas or input when they wanted. You know, because I actually needed it. Not unlike when Stermin and Ykell pulled me into their office for no reason.

I very much disliked those two.

"Is there anything that could bait her?" Zeke asked, earning Mary-Ann's sigh of annoyance. I glared at my sister. She smiled ruefully.

"Not that I know of..." Sukie set her fork down to think.

"Even if we baited her, what would we trap her with?" Ben questioned.

That's actually a smart question.

"Actually," Mom pitched in, "you could use Ariel as bait. Even in our world, I'm sure she is still despising the girl, so I have a feeling she could go after her if she gets the chance."

"That's great!" Mary-Ann agreed. "You could open the top of Ariel's exhibit and wait to see if Ursula goes after her. If she does, you can trap her in that exhibit so she can't escape before getting the help needed to get her back to her own."

"We can't risk Ariel without her permission," I said. "Ursula will not want to get her so they can play jump rope with her tentacles. She might want to kill her."

"We can ask Ariel for her permission," Sukie said. She clearly liked my mom and sister's idea.

"And the fact that Ursula will be trapped with Ariel in the exhibit?" I asked. "If we get to that stage, I mean."

Zeke massaged his temples. I wracked my brain for an answer too. How could we get Ariel out? She had no legs, so unless we used some contraption to move her, she would be useless exiting the water.

"Isn't there a filter for the water?" Ben asked. "I worked on building the marine water exhibits and they have a vent that fills the exhibit with the water needed. It's actually about as big as she would need to slip through."

"You're serious?" I ask incredulously. "They have a water vent big enough for her to slip through? That's super dumb if you don't want her to escape."

Ben rolled his eyes. "Well, it's obviously closed up with a set of bars. You have to unscrew those to open it."

"How would we do that?" Sukie asked. Then she sarcastically added, "Give Ariel the tools?"

Ben shrugged. "She has hands, doesn't she?"

"But she wouldn't know how to open it," Zeke sighed. "Someone would have to go in with scuba gear."

We all nodded in agreement. With the ideas and questions coming, dinner seemed to have finished. A pity for the delicious casserole still in the pan.

"What about the fact that she would be escaping through a vent that's pushing a current of strong water in the opposite direction?" Mary-Ann asked.

"Hope her tail is strong enough?" Ben said.

"Woah, woah, slow down!" Mom said, holding her hands up for silence. "You're getting ahead of yourselves and it's making my head swirl. Take it one step at a time. Ask a question, analyze, think completely about how you will do it, and then move on to the next."

"Right, Mom," I laughed. "You're right."

"Well, I am going to go get dessert." She smiled widely. "Mary-Ann, come help please."

My sister nodded and got up with our mom, leaving to fetch the pie waiting to be devoured. Pie was my favorite.

Anyone who thinks otherwise...

"What's for dessert?" Ben asked quietly.

"Pie," I answered.

He nodded with a smile but I caught the grimace. For a second, I stared at him. After the moment of shock, I gasped out loud and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You don't like pie?"

"What?" he countered my attack defensively. "I do! I mean..."

I narrowed my eyes at him. He didn't like pie.

How dare he.

•~•~•~•

Haha! Do you think Ariel will agree to their insane not-entirely-decided-upon plan?