Retrieval Saga
Dragon's Temptation
Chapter 1: Party Time
About a week after the Seven Sins Clones were defeated, the occasion everyone was waiting for arrived: Lilo's birthday. Matt and the crew had vanished for a few days and on their return were VERY secretive except for Matt to say he'd got Lilo something special. Only Chip had a nervous feeling when he'd poked in the ships nav-log and seen one of Romanov's weapon dealer stations in the destination list. When Draco, Chip, Contrinus, and Morph went to look for their gift, they decided to check out the local magical trinket shop. Stitch however hadn't had a chance to get a present yet, so was heading for the North Star. Surely Matt had found something over the years that Stitch could give Lilo.
Stitch sniffed around the North Star's cargo bay for something he could give Lilo. What he mostly found was guns and blasters of various kinds. He also found what looked like a beeper with a slot to swipe cards through, but it didn't seem to be worth much. Matt walked in and spotted Stitch about to do what he sometimes did, and which was the reason someone usually came into cargo with him, eat the beeper. "STITCH!" he yelled and grabbed it. "No eatey. What you doing here?" he said putting the beeper in a small wall safe. "Looking for present," said Stitch. "Present? What present? There's no present here," said Matt defensively. "Er, I meant for me to give to Lilo." Matt seemed to relax, stepping in front of a lethal-looking laser cannon at the same time. "How about that amulet we got in the Ghost Zone? It's fake so we shouldn't have a problem," he said. "Good idea," said Stitch and he grabbed the amulet hanging on the wall and walked out. "Whew, that was close," said Matt as he stepped away from the rifle. He looked at the safe and said to himself, "I wonder if I'll ever go back there?" He shrugged and went off to terrify the gunner crews into loading the home made 'fireworks' they'd worked on all day. Evil, yes, but everyone has to have some fun sometimes.
There was another matter of importance; preparing an edible birthday cake. Techo and Wilson had volunteered, but after the last time, in which the first ever example of mass experiment food-poisoning took place, they'd been banned. Nani was handling it while some guards tried to stop Pleakley from helping.
Wilson had also taken care of any chance that Gantu would pay a visit. Wilson and the heavy weapon squad called out happily at the colander-ized ship. "Ok...say it again. 'I promise to take the day off from experiment hunting' and then we'll go away." The crew hadn't had so much fun in ages. Techo also set up a defense grid around the house. "That should keep out Silvia, NegaMorph, or any Viral Clones who want to attack," he said to Draco, Chip, and Morph. Immediately, an arm extended out, grabbed Morph, and started beating him against the ground. "You do realize that as Morph's clone, NegaMorph has the same DNA as him," said Chip. "Fancy that," said Draco as Morph went flying. Techo shrugged, "He ate my sandwich earlier...bet you the defense arm can throw him to the beach."
Matt was going over the list of the experiment coming and was looking at the scanner set up to find any clones that would try to sneak in. Houdini was actually helping, having arrived from Vegas a few hours ago. Matt was having trouble though...he'd caught a cold and every time he sneezed, a plasma orb would blow something up. Houdini had been invisible for an hour. "I think I can take care of that cold," said Contrinus. "Actually, I think I will take care of him," said Kala, a little forcefully. "How can you?" said Contrinus, "I thought you could only cure EXP Viruses, not cold viruses." "I said I'll take care of him," growled Kala. Matt watched them both, even Houdini became visible as the two started fighting over who would cure Matt. "You know, Houdini? This cold isn't so bad," he said as they watched before adding, "Ten bucks on Kala." Draco walked by as he saw the girls bickering. "Must be a full moon," he said. Suddenly Morph came flying by and landed in a tree. His tail caught on a branch, hanging him upside-down and showing his rump for all the world to see. "I wish I didn't say or see that." Matt chose to look ahead. "If I can't see it, I won't go mental," he said sagely before walking off.
The party itself went surprisingly well. For once something Matt designed worked, as the firework mortars went off without a hitch, except for a slight tense moment when Matt sneezed near them. It turned out that a few of the experiments had no idea of Lilo's EXP infection, a few of them gaping and Melty fainting from shock when she arrived. When it came to the presents, there was a sizeable pile. Lilo picked Draco, Chip, Morph, and Contrinus' present first. It turned out to be a shrunken head. "I recall it had some special ability, but I can't remember what that was," said Draco. Lilo waved it around and suddenly zombies came out of the floor. "Oh, that's what it was." Morph quickly took out his mallet and dispatched with the zombies in a surprisingly fast time. "The Pest-o-Mallet," said Morph, "effective against all pests whether they be vermin, annoying relatives, or flesh-craving undead."
Matt grinned. "Me next," he said as a remaining zombie headed towards him. He pulled out a small rifle and aimed at it before firing a yellow orb that picked up the zombie then vanished, taking the undead with it. "The Quad-4 Itenium rifle. Hope you like it," he said before Nani snatched it off him. "What are thinking?! Giving Lilo a dangerous weapons like that?" shouted Nani. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe," said Matt. But then it went off and seemingly vaporized Chip's head. But then Chip's head popped out of his body and said, "That was a close shave." Matt said, without a change of mental gears. "Mostly safe," but took it back glumly, "I'll take you to a commerce station next time we pass one."
Then Stitch handed his present over to Lilo. She opened it and gasped when she found the Amulet in the box. "Didn't we get this when we were in the Ghost Zone?" she said. "Yes, but it's powerless so it should be safe for you to wear." Matt nodded. "Perfectly safe. We left the real one back in the GZ," he said before wandering off towards the cake. Morph was also eyeing it hungrily and was opening his mouth really wide. "Eat all of that cake and I'll rip out your uvula," said Matt. Morph quickly closed his mouth and said to himself, "What's a uvula?"
Unnoticed, two figures were watching from the edge of the party. Matt and the crew would have known the first straight off, Chang, thought she'd only had a brief run-in with New York's CPS unit a few months ago. "There it is," said Chang, "the Anarchic Amulet of Aragon. Its ghostly dragon power will be quite useful to our plans." "I don't know," said the monkey beside her, "I'd prefer something with more bling. That thing's just plain tacky." The monkey, whose name was Bananas B, stepped back, tripping a laser. A 'tree' next to them began beeping loudly. Chang got a horrible feeling. "I hate that human," she muttered.
Techo and Wilson were nearby. "Hey...did you just hear two screams?" said Techo as one of the hidden perimeter traps tossed the two villains at the nearby mountain.
There's the start of a new story. This one will move a lot swifter and will be much shorter than the last one. You will definitely want to read the update for this story, especially since Chang and Bananas B, two known threats to the magical community, are after Lilo. Until then, please review.