To catch a spider with web that's not its own sounded like an awful limerick that you find in those dollar store books that nobody wanted but the corporation chose them to be stocked on shelves for the few dimes they'll wrangle out of desperate parents needing something to satiate their fidgeting children during a trip to the store when they don't want to spend too much, but enough to keep their children occupied, yet here the two were, concocting a plan to capture the arapulo without it escaping the confines of the net, with some bright lights to daze it, and ways of luring it out of hiding long enough to keep it from escaping back into the sewers.
Going off Theodore's hypothesis, they worked off the idea that the arapulo avoided needless contact with humans it wasn't keen on taking and would've avoided going out in the open, fully aware of its unusual nature attracting unwanted attention.
It's hunted enough people that it's become complacent, it doesn't expect much resistance, but it's not stupid not to know the signs when the humans become aware of it.
With its venom, keeping distance from the arms and its mouth took priority, one bite's enough for it to inject them with the venom.
Al estimated that if any one of them gotten bit, it'll be hours of becoming calcified from the inside out, perhaps the arapulo liked making sure his dolls posed the way he liked before they set.
How they're permanently dealing with the arapulo's not any easier, they have to ensure nobody becomes aware of what's transpiring in their proverbial backyards.
Shooting's an easy answer for some, but the narrow frame leaves room for error, and heat seeking bullets wouldn't do well, either, due to similar concerns.
As apex predators arapulo didn't have anything that'd hunt them that'll help edge out Theodore and Lila's approaching encounter with the arapulo, again.
"Sticky, durable, ecologically friendly, this thing's not getting out of it even if he's tutored under Houdini like your dad!" Al summed their trap, taking the concept of spiderwebs and morphing it further, to the point that Peter Parker would've sold lifetime pizza deliveries for the recipe that Al and Theodore created out of countless rejects.
Limited, however, the ingredients used have a short shelf life and isn't sustainable in the long haul, though it wouldn't cause issues if left behind, only dissolving into nothing.
Taking into consideration for the arapulo's venom, Al didn't believe it's capable of eating through the silk, nor will the arapulo attempt to spit at them with the nature of the venom preventing it from trying to spit like a cobra.
When it came time to decide how to deal with the arapulo without drawing unwanted attention from people in the area, Al with with the tired and true, the old harpoon gun Theodore's father found on a trip that he kept for any occasion that called for it.
It didn't look like it had practical uses, as big as it is, but Medikus swore by it and he used it to his advantage multiple times.
He modified it to fit his needs and so that even Sarah could've used it if she needed it and believe Al, the harpoon had uses.
"The harpoon's heavy enough that it won't go over the buildings, but not too heavy neither you can't use it, the tip's wide enough that it won't miss the arapulo, and not strong enough to impale it into a building," Al summed the harpoon's design as he watched Theodore and Lila struggle loading up their created net into the canon that'll go off the moment Al commands it.
Once it impales the arapulo, the weight will do the rest, and it won't be able to lift itself out of the harpoon because of it.
"Harpoon and bright lights, if it was called Bruce, you'd almost convince me we'd be on a dinghy," Lila sighed as she commented on their outlook while checking the canon that the net's firing out of the moment the arapulo comes into view.
The net will take over in an instant and it won't be able to fight back, in theory meaning it won't be able to escape from the heavy harpoon, either.
Once it's pinned, it can't escape, they'll be able to find the victims with ease and as they're discussing this, Lila asked if the arapulo would've died instantaneously the moment the harpoon went through it.
Thinking while there's a cigarette hanging on the side of his mouth, Al tells her that due to the nature of their bodies, it'll take longer for the arapulo to die once the harpoon catches it.
It'll be akin to watching hawks make dinner plans out of a wounded sloth, essentially.
He noticed her displeasure with that statement before he haphazardly mentioned that with what David said, he can come up with a quicker solution that the two can spray on the tip of the harpoon that'll quicken the death, and that's enough to lessen Lila's displeasure.
"When we deal with it, I know a place where we can dump the body," Al says that when they finally kill the arapulo, there's a place that they can drag it to that it won't be out of place and won't cause issues in the future when it decomposes and fossilizes.
Though, he recommends they bolt back to the TARDIS the moment they dump the body, as it's unwise to stand out in the open where they're going, not very wise, indeed.
By the time they finished, night settled in the area, heavy fog enveloped the city, torches becoming floating balls in the distance, the temperatures dropped to the point that Al nagged Theodore and Lila into wearing warmer and heavier clothes, as he didn't want them sick, else he worried Theodore's late father haunt him into the Great Unknown.
Stepping out of the TARDIS with the canon and the harpoon gun, Theodore and Lila worked to set up the area Al found that isn't close to any residential areas, and didn't have much foot traffic that they needed to worry about anyone coming through unexpectedly.
A large enough area that they have room to maneuver away and avoid the arapulo once it climbed out of the only manhole cover in this section, which Al says is a dead end, going by the maps he found.
Once the arapulo comes out of the sewers, they'll prevent it from escaping via climbing over the buildings with its long arms when it realizes it can't escape back the way it came, as Theodore had the manhole cover rigged.
The moment it comes out, the manhole cover will close and remain, no matter how much the arapulo tries.
"All right, it's set up, now, for the fun part," Lila flinches as she sees that they're ready for the arapulo and now all they had to do's lure it out of the sewers, assuming it hadn't already come out by then, as she's joined by Theodore, looking at their handiwork.
Not the best work, but it'll do with the little time they had, as they finalized preparations.
During this, Theodore overheard someone muttering to themselves coming from the entrance of the alleyway that they planned on blocking off momentary.
Instinctively, he gently grabs Lila's hand, whisking her away as they waited for whoever coming down the alleyway to do what they must and hopefully leave.
Hunched in a corner behind crates, Theodore's icy blue eyes darted as they hear clattering footsteps and more muttering.
Dark out, the torches don't go this far deep in the alleyway, he can't see, only the shadow, it's moving past where they're hiding, and the more he followed the shadow, he sees it's smaller than an adult.
Narrowing his icy blue eyes, Theodore sees, it's Tim!
What on Earth is he doing out at this hour in this biting cold?
It looks like he's carrying something, rope around his shoulder, dragging a sack behind him.
"I'll get him!" Tim sniffled as he gone over to the manhole cover, fully prepared to enter it, but stopped when he noticed it's been altered and nearly jumped into the air once Theodore spoke up, cowering momentary until Theodore exited the shadows with Lila.
Shocked, Tim exhaled sharply, "What're you doing here?"
Crossing his long arms, Theodore retorts, "I should be asking the same. This is no place for a child, what are you thinking?"
Pitifully, Tim tells Theodore the Bogeyman took someone else from him and his group of friends, it drove them into concocting a plan into ending it once and for all.
Tommy.
He was one of the older kids who took care of Tim and the younger kids at the orphanage. He watched over them while the nuns tended to everyone else, taught them things, now the Bogeyman took him, too, and the police weren't doing anything, that Tim felt he hadn't a choice.
"Tim, this is too dangerous for you, you have to leave," Theodore gestures as he tried to reason with the boy, but he's fed up with the inaction by the police and his dwindling friends, that he wasn't moved by his warnings.
He wanted the Bogeyman to pay for everything he done to them.
"I want them back!" Tim sniffled as he pitifully tells the two that he wanted his friends back and thinks if he goes and confronts the Bogeyman, he'll get them back.
Sharing looks between each other, Theodore uncomfortably tells Tim, "I'm sorry little one, but there's nothing we can do for them."
He tried in the ways his father and mother taught him, telling Tim that it wouldn't have mattered.
Tim's missing friends are gone.
Fighting the Bogeyman to get them back's a losing battle and only Tim would've gotten hurt or worse for his trouble.
There's nothing for them, now, and only him and Lila's capable of dealing with the Bogeyman, not Tim.
"You're lying! You're an adult, you all lie!" Tim refused to believe Theodore, having been brushed off too many times, he no longer trusted adults' judgements.
Shaking her head, her chestnut hair wavering in the bitterly cold breeze, Lila asserts that Theodore wasn't lying to Tim, he's telling the truth.
Tim won't get his friends back from doing this, they're gone, and as much as it'll hurt, standing around wearing hardly anything against the bitter cold isn't doing Tim any better.
"You're just lying!" Tim refused to believe her, too, despite her trying to reason with him, and no amount of reasoning changed his mind, his emotions running rampant.
Refusing to believe them, Tim shouted at the two that he'll find the Bogeyman himself, and when he does, he'll make him give back his friends, before running off.
"Damn it!" Theodore sucked air through his teeth as he cursed before he turned his head towards Lila, telling her that he's going after Tim, before leaving her with the TARDIS as he chased after Tim in a bid to prevent him from making a fatal mistake.
He tracked the boy throughout the city towards an area near the butcher's market where Tim's using a crowbar he'd taken from his sack, prying it to the side enough for him to see the darkness below.
Running after him, Theodore sees the boy going down into the sewers, and by the time he reached the spot the boy knelt near, but the boy's already disappeared down the sewers.
"Damn it!" Theodore cursed again as he sucked air through his teeth before he braved a trip down into the sewers himself, desperate tracking Tim down, and dragging him back up before they're caught in a spider's trap.