Prologue: Movie Night
It was a very quiet evening at headquarters in New York City, as the Ghostbusters, both the original founders and the new rookies, all had the night off. Inside, only original founder Dr. Ray Stantz and his young niece Rita Stantz stayed at the firehouse as they prepare to spend a little uncle and niece get - together tonight during their day off.
"Hey Uncle Ray, wanna watch a movie tonight?" Rita asked.
"Sure Princess." Ray replied. "What would you like to watch?"
"Well, I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid,"
Rita pulls out a DVD from a small shelf beside the wide screen television at the recreational room of the Ghostbusters firehouse. The case was designed all an oceanic theme; a bright red crab stood at the bottom with a music conductor's baton, a small yellow and blue striped fish is seen swimming to the crab's right side, a half man and half fish with a golden trident was seen at the bottom right side of the case, a very large black and purple half woman half octopus was located on the left side of the case, and finally a blue/green eyed and bright red haired young girl is seen atop the movie case, leaning against the entitlement of the covering, The Little Mermaid.
"Man, I remember watching this almost every single night when I was little." Rita said.
"Oh! That was one of your most favorite movies;" Ray explained as he noticed the movie video. "I remember you would come home every day from school and the first thing you do is you'd always tell me 'Uncle Ray, Uncle Ray I wanna watch the Little Mermaid, please?!' (Chuckle) Aw, you were so cute at the time."
"… Ookay. I didn't think I would be overzealous over a movie."
"Honey, it was one of your all-time favorites when you were growing up. It's no big deal. If you want to watch it, then we'll watch it; I don't mind."
Rita shook her head, but smiled, knowing Ray was just remembering a good memory.
So Rita finally turned on a DVD player which was hooked up to the television set and then placed in the movie disc. Soon the movie started to play, and both Ray and Rita began to snug close together on the couch, enjoying each other's company as well as they watched Rita's childhood movie.
Around twenty minutes into the movie, a scene showed the red haired mermaid inside a large grotto filled with trinkets, pots and pans, books, and other knick-knacks were stacked all over the place; and the mermaid began to sing.
"Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?
Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?
Wouldn't you think I'm the girl, the girl who has everything?
Look at this trove, treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Lookin' around here you'd think
Sure she's got everything…"
About halfway into the song, Ray began to speak. "You know, I met an actual mermaid named Ariel one time."
Rita just stared at Ray, with her eyebrow lifted high.
"… What?" Rita replied. "You're kidding me, right?"
"No, I'm serious;" Ray continued. "I actually met a mermaid named Ariel."
"… Ray, we're already halfway into the movie and now all of a sudden you claim to have seen a mermaidwhose name isAriel? Now I see why I rarely watch this movie anymore."
"No, no sweetie you've got it all wrong; see it started out way before this movie was made. It's all true, I met an actual mermaid."
Rita didn't know how else to reply, she just stared at Ray thinking he was nuts.
But then Rita sighed and began to turn off the movie for the moment. She sat closer to her uncle, making herself comfortable as Ray wrapped his arms tighter around his niece's upper body; then finally, Rita spoke with her eyebrow still raised in doubt, but smirked a little as she actually wanted to hear this new story of her uncle's aquatic encounter.
"Okay, humor me; how did you meet this mermaid named Ariel?"
Ray stared at Rita at first, but then smiled and replied.
"Well, it all started out like this…"