Stitch played happily on the beach with his friend Lilo, enjoying a game of fetch. It had seemed a strange game at first, but he found it enjoyable now. After a time, though, Lilo went to go bug Nani at her work, since it looked like David was trying to flirt again. Since that didn't seem all that interesting to Stitch today, he decided to explore the beach.
Everything seemed to be the same as usual, but then someone caught his eye. She lay in the shade of a tree, leaned up against the tree reading a book. She had very pale skin, and dark hair and eyes. Stitch couldn't tell any more details from this distance, but his nose told him something interesting. Her scent was otherworldly. Not a cousin, but not of Earth, entirely. An alien or hybrid, perhaps? But why did she sit all alone? Maybe she didn't know anyone yet. Stitch decided to go practice his people skills.
Running up the back of the tree, Stitch hopped into the girl's lap, between her arms and book. The girl hissed in surprise and seemed to tense, then relax as she looked at him. Stitch stared up into a white face framed by purple hair, and glittering purple eyes. She looked at him for a time before asking, "Who or what are you?"
"Me Stitch!" he said happily.
She blinked for a time. "Stitch," she said finally. "Unusual name. And why did you drop into my lap?"
"Aloha!" Stitch waved with one clawed paw.
She smiled faintly. "Aloha." She looked at him for a time. "And why are you over here?"
"Stitch want be friend!"
The smile showed more warmth. "That's nice. I'm afraid I'm not really in the mood to play just now, though. I'd like to just read here for a time."
"Okay!" Stitch turned around to face the book, still sitting in her lap. He examined the page. "Ooh!" he said happily. He didn't recognize the language, but it didn't take his faster-than-supercomputer brain long to decipher and translate it, and the story was enthralling. He sat there, reading the lines, his stub tail wagging happily.
The girl laughed, a soft, warm, chuckle. She continued to read. When Stitch took one side of the book to look closer at the writting, she took the hand from that side and started scratching him between his ears. Stitch enjoyed the attention. The girl laughed again.
After a time, Stitch heard Lilo calling out to him. "Oops! Gotta go!" Stitch scrambled off the girl's lap. As he started to scrambleaway, he paused and turned. "Who new friend?"
The girl laughed again. "My name's Raven, Stitch."
Stitch nodded. "Eee. Aloha, Raven!" Waving, he ran off back to Lilo and home.
Raven wandered the island happily. Although she'd never admit it, Beast Boy had been right. She had desperately needed a vacation, and arranging with the others to send her to one of the less populated islands of Hawaii was a really sweet gesture. There weren't that many people, so she could avoid them if she wanted solitude. On the other hand, the people who were here were very accepting and nice, and she felt very comfortable here. Although on occasion she had wondered at some of the local fauna, like the ice elemental and lemur like creature running the low-calorie snow cone stand. However, everyone around here seemed to accept such things as normal, and her own heritage meant she really couldn't judge.
Tonight, once the sun had gone down, she had decided to explore the Ali'I trail, the supposed domain of the dreaded Night Marchers. The old legend had sounded interesting. "So," she mumbled to herself, "if I walk the Ali'I trail at night, it will begin to rain, then I will hear drums and moaning and screaming. And then the Night Marchers will come out and turn me into solid stone. Pretty spooky legend." She smiled. "Might be interesting to see."
As she walked along the trail, lightning flashed and it began to rain buckets. Raven extended her senses. "Hmm...nothing supernatural about the rain..." Suddenly, she heard a howling noise of swirling wind. Turning, she saw a blinding flare of white and yellow light. A glowing sphere floated in the air under the falling rain. "That's...new."
Suddenly, the sphere of light flashed, and Raven blinked against the spots in her eyes. She heard a quite snuffling, and the sound of a creature scampering away for a breif moment. Peering into the darkness, she saw something curled up under a batch of leaves pulled over itself to hide. Raven kneeled down to its level. "It's alright," she whispered, holding out her hand. "I won't hurt you. I'm sure you aren't a Night Marcher, just a scared little critter trying to get out of the rain. Come on," she said gently. "Come here."
Slowly, as though unsure, the leaves were pushed aside. The creature that crawled out was one of the strangest she had ever seen. Its body shape was similar to Stitch, although the ears were sharply pointed and didn't swivel. It had silver fur, six legs/arms that it both walked/crawled on and used to cling to things, each hand/paw having four sharp claws. Sprouting from its back were two batlike wings. Two curling horns arose from its forehead, and his - she wasn't sure how she came to the conclusion the creature was male, but it felt right - eyes were blood red all the way through. He crawled towards her slowly, letting out a purling whine before flopping to her feet, obviously unsure of himself and having trouble with his body.
Her compassion overwhelming her, she scooped the critter into her arms. "You poor thing," she whispered. Although she kept it well hidden from her friends, she was rather fond of animals - at least those animals that weren't terrified of her demon heritage. She wouldn't hide it as much, except she didn't need to give her friends any more ammunition to use to tease her regarding her and Beast Boy. Okay, sure, he was a nice guy and all, but - she pushed these thoughts aside. "Come on," she said, taking the creature back to the hotel. "I'll take care of you."
Gantu was startled as the Experiment Tracker activated, displaying a six limbed, winged experiment outline. "Alert: Experiment 616 activated. Warning: danger level exceeds 9000. Evacuate solar system immediately."
"Hmm...this might be problematic." Gantu looked at the readout available for this experiment...but there wasn't much. "625!" he shouted.
"WHAT?" 625 responded in irritation. "I'm working on my sandwhich here!"
"Are the hyperdrive engines on this ship functional?"
"No! The engines haven't worked since you crashed the ship, and they've never been fixed."
"...oh, blitznack," Gantu mumbled. "Well, what can you tell me about this experiment?"
"Which one?" 625 called from the kitchen.
"Experiment 616," Gantu called out.
There was a clatter of dropped dishes from the kitchen, and 625 came charging back in, running scared. "Hurry up and fix the engines! Or better, just teleport the both of us to Hamsterveel! Anything to get us out of the solar system!"
Gantu grabbed the panicking experiment. "625! Get ahold of youself! What's so bad about one little experiment? None of the others have caused this kind of panic in you."
"None of the others obliterated all life in an entire solar system during its first activation and was only sealed back into its pod by triggering the sun's supernova!" 625 screamed in panic.
"Wait!" Gantu stared at 625 in fear. "Are you saying this experiment was the cause of the Trigutho Disaster? 10,000,000,000 lives were lost in under a solar cycle!"
"That's right! And I don't want to stick around for the Sol disaster, if you don't mind!"
"What IS 616?" Gantu demanded in shock and fear.
625 managed to calm down. "Jumba was experimenting in creating an experiment that could tap into extra-planar energy sources for destructive purposes. It worked perfectly...except the dimension being tapped for power turned out to be a hell dimension, and in addition to demonic energies being chanelled through him, actual demons were able to reach through to control him. 616 can't be controlled, can't be contained, and the only thing that's ever stopped it was a supernova!"
Gantu grinned, dropping 625. "Then if I capture this experiment and deliver it tamed to Hamsterveel, I am sure to be rewarded!" He grabbed his blaster and other capture gear. "Come, 625! We have an experiment to capture!"
625 followed, rather unhappily. "This will not end well," he mumbled to himself.
Back at her hotel, Raven settled the little critter into a nest of blankets and towels. She tended to it with a gentleness that would have surprised most of her friends back in Jump CIty. Her call to room service had been awkward, as her description of the creature she was asking for diet information on had wound up with them thinking she was crazy. In the end, she had just asked them to send up a little of everything so she could figure out what the critter ate.
When the tray arrived, she discovered she hadn't needed to be so thorough. The critter had eaten everything happily...including taking a bite out of some of the dishes. Having taken a closer look at his mouth - multiple rows of ravor sharp teeth and acidic saliva - she could see why he would eat anything. At the end of his meal, he had burped happily and fallen into a deep sleep. Looking down at him, she smiled, but knew she needed to talk to someone who knew more if she was going to tend to this creature properly. He also needed a name if she was going to keep him.
"Hmm...I'm not one for wierd or inventive names...how do you like the name Joey?" The critter purred. Raven chuckled. "Joey it is, then. But what else do you need? I've never seen a creature like you before." She sighed, then brightened. "Then again, you do resemble Stitch...if only I knew how to find him..."
"Did you say Stitch?" the bellhop asked. "Blue, fluffy dog like creature? Talks on occassion?"
Raven nodded. "That's right. You know about him?"
The bellhop nodded. "He belongs to Lilo Pelekai. She tends to take care of all the wierd creatures that show up, finding places they can fit in around the island." He took off his hat to reveal a rather crazy hairdo. "One little lady - a clawed fuzzball named Clip - gave me this haircut down at the local spa."
Raven smiled. "Do you know the Pelekai number? I'd like to call and ask about Joey. Sounds like he's the same kind of creature."
"Sure," the bellhop said, jotting the number down. "Go ahead and use the hotel phone."
"Thanks," Raven said, tipping him generously. Once he left, she dialed the number. No one answered. "Huh. It is kinda late, I guess they're all asleep-" The phone was picked up.
"Pelekai residence," a sleepy voice answered. "Jumba speaking. What you want?"
"Hi, can you put Stitch on? I need to ask him some questions."
"Anything you need to ask Stitch I can probably answer," Jumba replied in a surly voice. "Come by tomorrow morning." He gave her directions to the house before hanging up.
Raven hung up the phone. "Well, might as well get some sleep." As she got into bed, she was surprised when Joey climbed in with her. Looking at how he was shivering, though, she shrugged. "Alright...just for tonight."
The next morning, Raven followed the directions she got from Jumba, carrying Joey in a basket over her arm. Joey kept shivering, looking kind of sick. She was worried. She had tried healing him with her magic before leaving, but she couldn't find anything wrong with him. Reaching the house, she knocked. She was rather surprised when a one eyed being in women's clothing answered the door.
"Can I help you?" the person asked.
"I'm here to see Jumba and Stitch," Raven responded quickly. This person made her nervous for some reason.
"Oh." The person turned inside. "Jumba! You have a visitor! She also wants to see Stitch!"
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" A large, purple creature with four eyes in an undersized hawaiian shirt came to the door. "I have this, Plekley. Yes? Can I help you?"
Raven blinked. "You're the Jumba I spoke to on the phone last night?"
"Yes, that's me. Come in please. 626 is out with Lilo just now, looking for his cousins."
Raven stepped in, confused. "626?"
"You know him as Stitch," Pleakley said. "626 is just what Jumba calls him."
"Oh. I take it these 'cousins' are the other unusual creatures I've noticed around the island?"
"That's right," Jumba said happily. "That's the 'cousins.'"
"Ah. Well, I think I've found one, and that's why I'm here. He seems ill, and I'm trying to find out what I should do to treat him."
"Oh, then you come to right man!" Jumba said happily. "I make 626 and all his cousins. If one is ill, I know what to do to fix!"
"Made? That explains it." Raven opened the basket and reached inside. "Then you can tell me what's wrong with Joey?"
"Joey? Sure, I can tell you what's wrong with - MOTHER OF GOD!" Jumba shot back like a cannonball when she lifted Joey out of the basket. "Experiment 616! Keep that demon away from me!"
Raven's eyebrows twitched. "I take offense to that. Just because he has horns and wings doesn't mean he's a demon. And right now he's ill, and since you made him, you WILL find out how to make him better."
"But-" Jumba began, and there was a rumbling.
The roof was pulled up, and Gantu grinned down at them. "Starting my search here seems to be proving an effective tactic!" he proclaimed, pointing his blaster at Raven. "Now hand over the abomination before I-"
Gantu didn't get another word out before a blast of black energy erupted from Raven's hand and blasted Gantu backward. She set Joey in Jumba's hands. "Hold him," she said simply, before storming out after Gantu.
Gantu sat up groggily, shaking his head. "What hit me?" he asked, then saw Raven approaching. "What manner of-"
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven proclaimed, thrusting her hands forward. Black energy leapt from her hands, seizing Gantu. She swung her arms about, slamming Gantu into trees, the ground, and various other hard objects before spinning him around and flinging him over the back of the house.
"Ooh! Ee! Ee!" Turning, she saw Stitch bouncing around excitedly at her show of power.
"Not now, Stitch," she said calmly. "I have to help Joey." She turned to run around to the back of the house, noticing that Stitch and the little girl with him - she assumed it was Lilo - followed her.
Once there, she saw Joey sitting on the ground on four legs, raised up holding two arms out, wings spread for balance. Black energy identical to what Raven had used launched from his hands, striking towards Gantu but missing. At first Raven was impressed, but then she noticed something that worried her. A second set of blood red eyes began to open over Joey's normal eyes, and a familiar runic symbol began to appear in red fire on his forehead between the eyes.
"Oh," Raven mumbled to herself. "That demon." She walked forward quickly. "No!" she said firmly to Joey.
Joey stopped wielding the enrgy, and the second set of eyes and the symbol vanished. "Naga?" he said, confused.
"No. Too dangerous. Keep that up and you'll do something you'll regret." Raven scooped Joey into her arms.
Joey nodded sadly, shaking. She recognized the shakes now. It wasn't sickness, it was bad memories and nightmares. "Jumba really can't do anything for you there, huh? But maybe I can." She blinked as a camera flashed.
"Well, looks like that's another experiment that's found its one true place!" Lilo said happily. She held out her hand. "I'm Lilo, and this is my dog Stitch! He's an alien genetic experiment, like his cousins."
Raven shook the little girl's hand, amused by her glibness. Most probably took such forthrightedness as making things up, but she could tell differently. "I'm Raven," she said, deciding to be equally glib. "I'm a half-demon superhero...on vacation."
Lilo's eyes went wide. "Wow! The Teen Titan? That's amazing! It's an honor to meet you! Wow, Stitch, I got to meet my favorite Teen Titan, and one of your cousins is going to be living with her! Isn't that awesome?"
"Ee!" Stitch nodded affirmatively.
Raven found herself blushing. "I'm your favorite?"
"Uh huh! Sure, Starfire's cool with her powers and all, but I live with aliens. Aliens aren't that big a deal to me. And a lot of the experiments could out shape change Beast Boy, and after some of the tech related experiments, Cyborg losses some of his impressiveness. But you! You're dark and mysterious and have badass powers! I bet you could raise an army of the undead if you wanted to couldn't you?"
"That would be terribly irresponsible," Raven said blandly, amused despite herself. "And what about our leader, Robin? You didn't mention him."
"Isn't Robin a girl's name?" Lilo was rather confused by Raven's outburst of laughter. "What did I say?"
Raven shook her head. "It's nothing." She noticed Jumba staring at her. "What?"
"How are you able to control 616? Last time that symbol appeared on his forehead, he destroyed an entire solar system!"
Raven rolled her eyes. "It's because his power and mine draw from the same source. That same symbol was appearing on MY forehead not too many years ago." She shrugged. "I recognized what was happening, and was able to use my own power aura to suppress his breifly. I can see what you mean about calling him a demon, though, even if I don't like it."
Jumba smiled. "If you can control 616, then he belongs with you. Good luck keeping him from destroying all life as we know it!"
Raven laughed. "I'll do my best."
The Titans were rather excited about Raven's return. "Oh how I have missed my dear friend Raven these past two weeks!" Starfire proclaimed. "She cannot get back too soon!"
Although no one else was as vocal about it, they all nodded ascent. Beast Boy was pacing, though. Although Raven's vacation had been his idea, he still missed her.
The door slid open, and Beast Boy charged forward. "Raven! You're back!" He started to hug her, but pulled back when he felt something sharp jab into his chest. "Ow!" He looked down. "You brought a friend?"
Raven glanced down at the critter in her arms. "This is Joey," she said with a smile. Then she looked back up at Robin, glaring. "He will be joining us here."
Robin gulped. They all knew better than to argue with Raven when she used THAT tone.
Starfire, of course, was over the moon about Raven having a pet as well, talking about arranging play dates between Joey and Silkie.
Robin sighed, though not unhappily. "At this rate, everyone in the Tower will have a pet."
"Would that be so bad?" Cyborg asked.
Robin thought about it, watching Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy happily clustered around little Joey, who was trying quite seriously to eat the toaster, startling laughter all around. "Maybe not," Robin mused quietly.