Once inside the conference room, Ayja, Anita, and Alphonse all proceeded to take their seats at the conference table, which was a long oval white table, the same one Prit Stik sat when she had that video conference with Ultraviolet. Just a few seconds later, Professor Professor walked up to the front end of the conference table and cleared his throat.
"Everyone, before we get started," Professor Professor began to speak. "I'd like for everyone to listen closely. What I am about to suggest is totally untested and highly dangerous. Ready?"
Everyone else clamored and replied that they were ready to hear what he was about to say.
"Alright," Professor Professor said again. "I'd like to have Victor run up to the Impostors while Zaydorii is in his arms and assuming her role as a living, breathing flamethrower."
Victor quickly got up from his seat. "You want me to what?!"
"Run up to the Impostors and use Zaydorii the same way you would a flamethrower."
"By myself?!"
Professor Professor lifted his hands up as if in self-defense. "Of course not, Zaydorii will be with you the whole time."
"Uh, excuse me, sir," Jinjur interjected. "You realize how risky it is to send just one person out there to take on hundreds and hundreds of Impostors, right? Wouldn't it better if there were more people to accompany Victor in this?"
Professor Professor crossed his arms. "Sure, but that's not as fun."
While Doctor Doctor was staying with Urtica and Tarax, she decided to mentally go over her double-crossing plan again. She only felt a little bad about dragging the father-son duo into this mess, but she felt she needed to do it anyway. Besides, the Elphabae probably wouldn't even remember her in a few years anyway, right?
"Doctor Doctor?" Urtica called out to her.
Doctor Doctor promptly snapped out of her daze. "What is it?"
"Tarax and I made some food for you. Would you like some?"
"That depends. Is it something I can swallow whole or eat without chewing? I had an incident with an electric toothbrush that ruined my teeth."
Urtica thought about it for a few seconds before replying, "Sure! Just let me check the fridge and see what I have for you."
Urtica wandered off for a few moments to rummage through his refrigerator and see what kind of food his guest could eat.
In the meantime, Doctor Doctor got to work tinkering on a new gadget that could prove itself useful to her later. It was a web-shooter akin to something Spider-Man would have in his arsenal. It was a metallic wrist device that could shoot thin strands of a special "web fluid" (what exactly this was made of, only Doctor Doctor herself knew) at high pressure, with the spinneret mechanisms being machined from stainless steel, save for the turbine component made from polytetrafluoroethylene and the turbine bearings made from artificial gemstones. It was only a prototype at this point, but she planned to develop it further if things went well enough for her.
A couple minutes later, Urtica came back with the food his guest had requested: local crops (taro corms and leaves, cotton fruits, jackfruit, and dragonfruit) chopped and sliced fairly small enough that you could eat them with no effort whatsoever.
"Well, here you go, Doctor Doctor," Urtica said. "Enjoy!"
All of a sudden, Doctor Doctor and Urtica heard an explosion in the distance.
Urtica gasped. "That came from the east side of the village! Stay here and eat your food. I'm gonna go see what's happening."
"Wait..." Doctor Doctor paused for a second. "Take me with you."
"But you haven't eaten yet."
"I don't care. Just take me with you!"
When Doctor Doctor and Urtica got to the east side of the village, they caught side of two Impostors destroying the villagers' homes with their lasers.
"Attention, villagers!" one of the Impostors yelled in Impostorese. "We are here on behalf of Ultraviolet and Vacuum to ask you to surrender and let us terraform your planet."
"I can't understand a word that Impostor is saying, can you?" Urtica asked Doctor Doctor.
Doctor Doctor shook her head. "Like chicken feet."
"What do we do?"
Doctor Doctor shoved Urtica aside. "I'll take care of it." She then walked up to the two Impostors currently leveling the Elphabae villagers' homes. "Really? This is how you intimidate people? Blow up a house or two? I don't even think you can kill anyone with those peashooters."
"Excuse me, we didn't come here to be judged by you," the other Impostor said in Impostorese. "Out of our way!"
Doctor Doctor refused to comply, and she just incapacitated the Impostors with the web fluid from her prototype web-shooter instead. She then kicked them down a conveniently nearby waterfall so they would be swept away by the currents.
"Amateurs," Doctor Doctor muttered.
"Hooray!" Urtica exclaimed. "Everyone, give praise to our new violent savior!"
The Elphabae villagers gradually came out of hiding and started singing, "Bahoo dores, bahoo dores-"
"No!" Doctor Doctor yelled. "None of that! Shame on you!"
"Well, I'm just glad that's over," Urtica said. "Let's go home and start eating, shall we?"
"Seriously, Professor Professor?" Victor couldn't help but irritably ask out loud while he was outside the I.C.E. headquarters, holding Zaydorii in his arms. "You really had to pick me to do this?"
"Oh, no worries," Professor Professor replied. "You'll be fine."
"Seriously, sir," Jinjur couldn't help but pipe up. "I really think it would be better if there were other people with him for this."
Professor Professor couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Like I said, it's not as fun."
Jinjur crossed her arms. "Okay, suit yourself. Just don't be surprised if the Impostors overpower him while he's out here."
With that, Jinjur and Professor Professor went back inside, once again leaving Victor and Zaydorii alone.
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Victor asked Zaydorii. "Wait for an Impostor to charge at us?"
Zaydorii shrugged. "I guess. Professor Professor seems like a real jerk to me."
"Couldn't agree more." All of a sudden, Victor could hear something rustling inside a nearby bush. "What was that?"
"I don't know. Why don't you check it out?"
"Okay." Victor cautiously went into the bush and gently put Zaydorii down so he could rummage for the source of the noise. "Man, I could be doing something way more useful right now."
"Did you find anything, Victor?" Zaydorii asked.
"No... not that I could see-" Victor abruptly lost his train of thought when a black blob-like creature pounced onto his face and started eating away at his skin. "Oh my God! Oh my God! It's eating me!"
Zaydorii gasped. "It's another Puddlehead! But how did it get out here?"
"I don't care!" Victor yelled. "Just get it off me somehow!"
Zaydorii only had a few seconds to think about what to do. Only one thing came to mind: Professor Professor had specifically asked Victor to bring her with him because she was, as Professor Professor had put it, "a living, breathing flamethrower."
"Okay, I think I got it," Zaydorii said. "Just stay there. I need to puke up a flame or something. Alright, here goes nothing."
She stuck her pointer finger all the way back into her throat to trigger a gag reflex. Sure enough, she started retching, but instead of producing vomit, fire came roaring out of her mouth and onto the Puddlehead firmly trying to eat away at the skin on Victor's face. The Puddlehead emitted a shrill shriek while breaking away and falling down to the ground, where it proceeded to lay dormant for the time being.
"Oh my gosh, that was so close!" Zaydorii exclaimed.
"I'll say," Victor rejoined. "I thought I was a goner for a second."
"Yeah." Zaydorii then reached out to touch the area where the Puddlehead had eaten Victor's skin. "Oh wow, that Puddlehead must've done some serious damage. I gotta go inside and tell Professor Professor and Monkey Feet what happened!" With that, she ran back into I.C.E. headquarters to notify Professor Professor and Monkey Feet.
Victor had no idea what Zaydorii was talking about at first, but then he touched the same area Zaydorii had touched earlier and noticed blood on his fingertips. If a Puddlehead could injure him like this, he couldn't imagine how deadly a whole bunch of them could be.