Okay, so based on the poll votes, the next fan girl story will be either Kung Fu Panda or Star Wars. And for those of you wondering what the Ultimate Villain Showdown is…it's basically Freddy vs. Jason vs. Michael vs. Leatherface vs. Jigsaw vs. Hannibal vs. Chucky vs. Ghostface vs. Pinhead…did I leave anyone out? No, I don't think so. Also, I don't think that my Internet and phone privileges will be taken away…my dad seems to have calmed down, so I think we're safe. Sorry for the false alarm, everyone. Enjoy the story!

Hearts Aglow—I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reviewing!

Alicia—When I was younger, I actually couldn't tell that Gerri from the short and Gerri from the second Toy Story movie were the same! I thought that their designs were different. But when I was writing this chapter, I thought, hey, why not bring him back? I wonder if they'll use him again. Thanks for reviewing!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Night came quicker than they thought it would, and the fish were uncharacteristically nervous. It helped that Alicia and Nigel were there to help as much as they could. "I guess that those books on our bird brains were a waste, huh?" Nigel muttered after he was told that the dentist was planning to sell them all. "Not much point in figuring out how to keep us away from the fish if he doesn't have fish, right?"

"Maybe that's another reason for why he wants to get rid of us," Peach shrugged. "We'll never really know."

"Do we want to know?" Gill asked. "All I want to know is how to get this darn thing removed from the wall." He and a few of the others were struggling to take the Aqua Scum off of the tank wall, but they were having little to no success. Alicia got an idea, but she knew that it was a very bad one. But hey, sometimes bad ideas are the only ones you have.

"Cover your ears," she told the fish before tapping on the wall with her bill. It only took one loud bang to get the fish to listen to what she said. It took a few smart raps, but the Aqua Scum slid off and settled onto the rocks on the bottom.

"Nice work," Nigel complimented. Alicia didn't hear him; she was too busy apologizing for the bleeding eardrums she might have caused from touching the glass.

"Okay…now what?" Bloat asked, running a fin over the surface of the thing. All eyes turned to Gill, who actually backed away slowly.

"I'm open to suggestions," he said weakly. "To be honest, I'm surprised that we kind of made it this far."

"Well, I have one," Lulu said, saving him from even more awkward tension. "I noticed that when he was replacing the batteries, he was really quick about it."

"So?"

"I think that replacing the batteries in the Aqua Scum is like replacing the batteries in the remote that controls the box with moving pictures. You have to be quick about it, or you have to reprogram everything. And the dentist will think that because the batteries were just replaced that they can't be the problem."

"But won't the dentist notice that they're missing?" Bubbles asked, staring sadly at the treasure chest. He was reluctant to leave his favorite part of the tank, but Lulu did assure him that there would be plenty of other bubbles in the ocean, if not more. She was initially disappointed that she didn't get a chance to help the others cope with the idea of switching to a new environment, but she decided that taking the new knowledge in at once was better than doing it gradually.

"No, we'll put them back in so that he won't notice anything different. He'll probably think that Gerri did something wrong when he was fiddling around with it," Lulu explained, mentally thanking her father for teaching her the basics about the fish tank lifestyle.

"How are we going to open this thing?" Gurgle whined, trying to open the battery case. Lulu knew that the best way to do it would be to loosen the screws with a screwdriver, but they didn't have one in the tank and, as far as she knew, nobody put tools in glass boxes containing marine life. She looked around quickly for something that could be used as an alternative to a screwdriver, but she found none. She knew that they couldn't force it open with their fins. The only one who could probably do it was—

"Jacques! Can you help me?" Lulu asked. "I need for you to turn the things here…and there…over here…and there." He followed her directions, and the case floated off, revealing two water-proof batteries resting side-by-side.

Softly humming the music for Mission Impossible to herself, she removed the batteries, waited a good, long five minutes, and then reinserted them into their proper place. With help from Deb and Jacques, she tightened the screws back onto the battery case. Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief…except for the usual stick in the mud.

"Well, that was anti-climatic. Now how are we going to get it back up on the tank wall?" Gurgle demanded.

"If you shut up, then I promise not to strangle you as soon as we get to the open water," Deb told him in a falsely cheery voice. He didn't say a word for the rest of the night, keeping his mouth tightly shut. "Now, before I was so RUDELY interrupted, I was going to ask if anyone had anything sticky." She continued in her normal voice. Gurgle rolled his eyes, as if to point out that she hadn't been saying anything for him to interrupt.

"Do we even have to put it up on the wall?" Peach asked.

"Yeah, that's a good point," Lulu nodded. "The dentist might think that there's something wrong with the material or the metal or whatever it is that's holding this thing together." Shooting the Aqua Scum a final look of disgust, she brushed it aside, knocking it behind the volcano and out of their sight.

"So…we did it? That's it?" Bloat asked. Gill nodded, a small smile breaking out across his face. And then everyone exploded, cheering. "We did it!"

"Congrats, everyone!" Nigel applauded. "We'll keep an eye on the waters tomorrow, and we'll be around!" With that, he and Alicia took off.

"And now we wait," Gill smiled. "I can just taste the ocean!"

"Now we wait," Lulu echoed. She smiled at him. "Really, was there ever any doubt about our escape?" She swam away, not giving him a chance to answer, but he did stare blankly after her. And as she and the others spent the rest of the night deep in thought, her mind wandered to Dory and her family. She hoped that everything would work out for them in the end. It had to. It was what she deserved after all of the help she had given Marlin and Nemo…

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