Oh man. I'm sorry for not updating my challenge, guys, but I've been having problems involving the uploading of word documents and putting them up, so please forgive me. Okay, here is the long-awaited Chapter 3.

As the group walked the streets of the town to their temporary home-away-from-home, Ariel listened intently to the stories her new friends were talking about. She had learned that the one they called Penguin had come from a place called Gotham City and was part of a once-rich family that had somehow lost their fortune due to some troublesome ties his parents had to certain crime-related groups. Boris's parents were apparently two members of one of the afore-mentioned groups but had somehow still stayed loyal to the Cobblepots even as they lived in a small European country called Pottsylvania. Lilo lived in Kokaua Town on one of the Hawaiian islands and she mentioned a time or two how she and Penguin had been acquainted and were somehow related, but neither one ever specified how they first met nor how they were relatives. Bill told them about how he once lived in Wonderland and how some monster had sent him traveling through time and into London where things in his life went from bad to worse then back to good again. Wilt talked about how he and his creator went their separate ways and how he ended up at Foster's and became friends with the residents as well as Frankie, the woman whom was originally invited but forced to decline. Zoidberg, the strangest of all, told them about how he was from another planet called Decapod 10 and how he left his home planet to become an Earth doctor on the planet that had much more freedom than his own. Each of them had their own unique story, and the more they talked the more comfortable Ariel felt with them. They continued to discuss their lives until they came to a quaint cottage-like house on a hill that overlooked the beach and the sea.

"Well, here we are," Penguin stated. "Pretty nice, huh?"

"You can say tha' again, guv'na," Bill agreed. The others nodded in agreement.

"I thought you guys might like it," he said with a smile. He walked ahead and opened the front door. He looked over at Lilo and Ariel. "Ladies first," he said as he held the door wide open with one hand and motioned them in with the other. The two girls smiled as they and the others walked past him and into the house. It looked bigger on the inside once they entered, but that may have been due to the lack of accumulated items that would usually be inside of a house. There were some basic pieces of furniture such as a wooden table with some chairs to match and a few large, red, velvet-like chairs huddled together near a small coffee table on a rug near the hearth, but other than that, there wasn't anything much to look at on or among the walls. However, the lack of the usual decor didn't take away from its beauty. In fact, it was the simplicity of the place that made the others feel right at home.

"Wow!," Wilt exclaimed as he stared out the large window on the wall next to the fireplace that overlooked the vast ocean below. "Would you look at that view!"

"That's part of the reason as to why I rented the place," Penguin admitted as he shut the door and dashed to join the others whom were now all gathered around the window. All seven of them gazed in awe out into the vast blue seas as the sunlight shone down upon the waves to make them sparkle like a precious jewel. Ariel loved the sight. It reminded her of the good times back home in Atlantica with Flounder, Sebastian and all of her sisters. Back before her father became over-critical of the humans and before he found her secret grotto where she kept all of the things she had found in the remains of sunken ships and destroyed them. Back before she met Ursula and--

'Ursula!,' her mind cried out suddenly. Her chance meeting with the odd group had caused her to almost completely forget about her deal with the infamous sea witch. She suddenly noticed that the sun was setting down upon the waves and she started to panic. Today was the first day, and it was already over! Now she only had two days left as a human to find Prince Eric and have him give her a kiss of true love in order to remain a human or else become one of many of Ursula's poor, unfortunate souls that had failed to pay the price that was given to them in return for her help. It was only her first day and it was already gone before she knew it! When Zoidberg turned to speak with his new friend, he noticed that she wasn't there next to him. He turned around and saw her staring uncomfortably out at the ocean. The look on her face puzzled him and made him concerned for his new mysterious acquaintance.

"Are you okay, miss?," he asked her with concern. His question caused the others to turn and see her as well. Once they saw her face they also became concerned. When she shook her head they became even more worrisome.

"What's the matter?," Wilt questioned. "Are you sick?" She shook her head again. "No?"

"Scared of the dark?," Bill suggested, which caused her to shake her head again.

"Hydrophobia?," Lilo asked. Again, she shook her head.

"I vish you could tell us vhat the problem is," Boris sighed in exasperation.

Wilt put his hand up to his face and stroked his chin with his thumb. "Yeah, me too. I'm sorry, but the kind of questions we're asking her don't seem to be getting us any-- Hey, wait. Miss, can you write?" The other five looked up at Wilt in puzzlement at his somewhat-random question, but she smiled and eagerly nodded. He smiled his usual bright, toothy smile. "That's great!" He looked down at the others. "Hey, do any of you guys have any writing paper, by any chance?"

"I do," Lilo admitted.

"Oh, good! Can you bring it out, please? That is, if it's okay."

"Alright." While she ran off to retrieve the paper, Wilt insisted that Ariel to move to the table, which she did.

"Go ahead and sit down, if you want," he said. He pulled out one of the chairs and pushed her in once she sat down. Once she was seated, Lilo suddenly came back with the paper that Wilt had asked for in one hand and a black pen in the other, both of which she set in front of Ariel.

"Here you go," she said as she set them down. All at once Penguin seemed to understand whereas the rest of the group seemed to be a bit slower on figuring out the matter.

"Oh, I get it now," he said as he approached the table with the others following shortly behind. "Since she can't use her voice to tell us what's wrong, she can write out what she wants to say instead."

"Exactly," Wilt answered.

The others sighed in understandment. "Oi, why didn't we think of tha' earlier?," Bill wondered aloud.

Boris shrugged. "Who cares? Let's ask her something."

"Well, where are we gonna start?," Wilt questioned.

"What about her name?," Lilo suggested. "I think she's kinda tired of us calling her 'miss' all the time."

"An excellent idea," Zoidberg agreed. He stood next to Ariel and looked her in the eye. "So what is your name?"

She smiled; she hoped that this would be their first question. She put the pen down onto the paper and wrote it out to tell them. Once she finished, she slid it off a little to her left so that they could read it.

My name is Ariel.

"Ariel?," Zoidberg read aloud.

"That's a pretty name," Lilo commented.

Ariel smiled as she took it back and wrote on it again.

Thank you.

"Oh. You're welcome," said the little girl. "So, where are you from? Do you have any family here?"

Ariel looked a bit concerned at the question. She wrote down her answer and showed it to them.

I'm not sure if you will believe me if I told you much more about myself.

The six of them exchanged puzzling glances between each other. "I'm sorry, but, why not?," Wilt asked. She took the paper back, wrote, and showed it again.

You might think I'm crazy.

Penguin chuckled and shook his head at her answer. "Listen, Ariel; in case you've forgotten, you're talking to a group with people whose own pasts would be called crazy in and of themselves. Heck, half of us here aren't even human!" He glanced for a moment at Zoidberg, Wilt and Bill. "No offense meant, of course, gentlemen."

The three of them shrugged casually. "None taken, guv," Bill replied.

He flashed them a small smile and continued. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about being called crazy by anyone here."

"He's got a point," Zoidberg admitted. "We'll believe you."

Ariel thought about it for a moment. They were indeed an unusual bunch; half of them claimed to have had their lives changed by strange creatures and the other half weren't even humans themselves! The odds of being accused of insanity were rather limited, and that was a good thing.

Alright, I'll take your word, but I hope you keep to it.

She stared over at Penguin when they read it, to which he gave a grin with a surprising set of pointed teeth that she had somehow failed to notice before. "Ariel, my dear, you have my word as a Cobblepot." He grabbed the brim of his large top hat with his right hand and placed it over his heart as he bowed dramatically. Ariel smiled at the unusual gesture the short man had given her and once he had straightened himself out and placed his hat back on his head she continued to write.

I come from Atlantica. It is a city far beneath the waves of the ocean and it is not too far away from here. I live there with all of my sisters and my father, King Triton.

"King?," Lilo asked aloud.

"But if your dad is the king," Wilt continued, "that means that you are a-"

"Princess?," Bill finished for him. Ariel looked over the six of them, whose eyes were all wide with surprise, and nodded. The group let out a loud gasp of surprise.

"Your highness," Zoidberg breathed. Without warning, he knelt down by her side, bowed his head and kissed her hand. A little stunned, Ariel slipped her hand away from him and shyly stared at the others.

"We don't have to do that too, do we?," Penguin asked blankly. She smiled brightly and shook her head.

"Hey now vait a minute, if you came from underwater, then vouldn't that make you some sort of mermaid person?," Boris questioned.

Yes, I was.

"'Vas'? Vhat do you mean by 'vas'? Vhat happened?"

It's a long story.

Zoidberg shrugged. "We've got time," he told her. "We've got nothing better to do."

Ariel's cheery disposition suddenly turned into one of depression. She turned away slightly and silently sighed.

Alright, if you insist; I'll start from the beginning.

She wrote out her whole story from the very beginning; before she met Eric. She explained how she loved to learn about the humans; what they knew, what they did, what they made. She told them how she met her friend Scuttle, a seagull that knew about the humans, and how she always talked her friend Flounder into coming with her on her adventures. Her father never understood her fascination with them, so she hid away her human-related things in a secret grotto that only she and Flounder (and, later, her father's assistant, Sebastian) knew about. She told them about how she saved the one called Prince Eric from death and how she had made a deal with Ursula to trade her voice in order to become human and to be able to be with him. Unfortunately, she had only three days to complete her task and since that day was her first she had only two days left or else her soul would belong to the sea witch.

"I guess it's our fault that your first day was ruined then," Zoidberg sighed sadly. Not wanting any of them to feel bad, Ariel quickly wrote again.

It's alright; you didn't know. After all, how could you? You weren't there, and I couldn't tell you about it until now.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't help you at all," Lilo admitted. "Now you've only got two days to get with this Prince Eric."

"She's still got two days, though," Bill pointed out.

"Yeah, but is that enough?," Boris asked.

Wilt shrugged. "It could be. Well, whatever the case, I hope that we can get you two together."

The princess stared up at the tall friend.

You mean you believe me?

"Why wouldn't we?," Lilo asked. "You seem honest enough. Plus, your story doesn't sound like something you could easily make up."

So you don't think I'm crazy?

"No!," the six answered in unison.

"I told you we wouldn't," Penguin reminded her. Ariel smiled.

You were right.

"Hey, that's a first for you, Cobblepot!," Boris joked.

Penguin glared at his Pottsylvanian friend. "Yeah? Still beats your record, though, doesn't it?," he teased back with a sly grin.

"Oh, come on, you two; cut it out!," Wilt laughed. "We really should be discussing how we're going to help out Ariel."

"No; vhat we really should be discussing is vhat ve're gonna have to eat," Boris told them as he walked off down the hallway and disappeared into the small kitchen. His voice rang out through the hallway and asked them, "Vhat does everyone vant?!"

"How about pizza?," Wilt suggested. Zoidberg, Penguin and Lilo all cried out in positive response. Bill just looked over at Ariel and shrugged.

"I've never 'ad a pizza b'fore," he admitted to her. Ariel grinned and wrote again.

Neither have I.

"Alright," Boris shouted again. "Anything you vant on it?"

Without hesitation, Zoidberg, Penguin and Lilo all cried out in unison their favorite topping; "Anchovies!" Once they did, however, their faces faded into surprise and they looked at each other, then at Ariel whom gave them all a puzzling look.

After a few seconds of embarrassing silence, Lilo finally said, "On second thought, maybe we should have pineapple."

Oh, come on; don't tell me that you guys didn't see the anchovy joke coming! Lilo demanded once that her half of her pizza have anchovies, and in "Call of the Cobblepot" (Penguin's first episode), Penguin revealed that anchovies were his favorite topping. And Zoidberg? He went absolutely crazy for them in "A Fishful of Dollars." I just couldn't resist not doing that joke! XDD

Silliness aside, I hope you all liked this chapter; I spent quite a while working on it. Again, I apologise for not updating sooner, but like I said, I'm having trouble with updates due to the terrible combination of chapter-uploading problems, a busy school schedule, writer's block, and just plain laziness. Don't worry, though; I haven't abandonned this! I will be back with an update!

Thanxz,

Cartoonatic55