Retrieval Saga

A Can Full of Clones

Chapter 7: Victoria

After the Swapper incident, things quieted down for three days. But then the trouble started when Matt's wrist computer started blaring off. It had sensed not one activated Viral Clone, but two of them. They were the Viral Clones of Sparky and Snooty and they appeared to be somewhere in town. The gang decided to split up in order to find them.

Matt, Techo, Chip and Draco were checking near some electrical stores but just in case V-Sparky wasn't interested in zapping a few second hand DVD players the gang had a plan. It apparently involved Chip wearing a sign saying 'Free energy' and standing in the open. "Are you sure this'll work?" said Matt to Techo who's idea it had been. Techo said, "Who cares? This'll teach him to hack my personal files."

Matt and Draco both stared as Techo began sniggering and Matt got ready to call Chip back. "We're supposed to be catching V-Sparky, not getting revenge," Draco said. "What about the time you tried to feed 6-2-7 to the Chupacabra for stealing your sandwich?" Matt deliberately ignored this despite Techo's sniggering. Luckily, at that moment what looked like Sparky with red eyes came into view.

"Never mind. CHIP, HEADS UP!" he yelled as V-Sparky swooped at Chip. Matt tossed a plasma ball in his path which had two effects. The first and better effect was that it made the clone lose all interest in Chip…sadly it made it fly off towards the square. "Great one, Matt. Like we don't get enough exercise," said Draco as the four set off in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Lilo and Stitch were looking in another part of town. "Isn't it a bit odd that two clones should activate at the same time?" said Lilo. "Not really," said Stitch, "happened." "When was that?" "Spats and Hunkahunka." "Oh yeah, well, I'm not sure they activated at the same time. But then again, those two acted odd, they didn't seem to care as much about infecting people as they are about causing trouble. And there's some sort of leftover affect from being influenced by them. I wonder why?"

Suddenly the two of them heard a voice, "Hi Lilo." They looked to see Victoria walking towards them. "Aloha Victoria," said Lilo, "What are you doing here?" "I was going to see how you were doing. I haven't seen you for a while." "Well, I've been doing things," said Lilo. "What kind of things?" asked Victoria. "Well, nothing in particular really. Just dealing with aliens." Victoria looked suspicious and said, "Are you keeping something secret? We promised not to keep secrets from each other." "I know, but this thing's a bit different."

Suddenly there was the sound of weapon fire. Then suddenly Snooty flew out from an alley. "What's Snooty doing?" asked Victoria. Lilo noticed the red gleam in his eyes and said, "I don't think that was him. We better move, this could be dangerous." "Lilo, if we can domesticate aliens that were designed with superpowers to wreak havoc, I think danger's not that strange." Suddenly a black shape jumped out of the alley and landed in front of them. The three of them looked to see NegaMorph snarling. Lilo and Victoria screamed and ran to the other side of the road. Stitch growled and faced NegaMorph. NegaMorph ignored him and growled to himself, "Now where'd that overgrown Halloween decoration get to?" Then Snooty swooped back over them and NegaMorph followed after him down the street. "Snooty, come back!" yelled Victoria and ran down the street. "Victoria, wait!" yelled Lilo and she and Stitch followed.

As it so happened, the two chase parties were both heading towards the main square. As a matter of fact, they were coming opposite directions. Because of that, and the fact that they were looking behind them at the time, the Viral Clones collided in midair and fell to the ground. The next ones who entered the square were Matt, Techo, Draco, and Chip on side and NegaMorph on the other. Upon seeing him, they immediately sent blasts of plasma, fire, and viral energy. NegaMorph, not expecting a sudden frontal assault, was blasted over the horizon. Then Victoria entered the square and saw what she thought was her pet lying in a crumpled heap next to Sparky. Before anyone could stop her, she ran over to see if they were alright. While Victoria was looking over the Viral Clones, Lilo and Stitch ran into the square. "Victoria, get away from them!" shouted Lilo. "Why?" asked Victoria.

At that moment, the two Viral Clones woke up. Seeing a human so close to them, they reacted on their programmed instincts. Viral Snooty leaped up and bit Victoria's left arm while Viral Sparky bit her right arm. Victoria screamed in pain from the bites. Chip quickly activated his capture gun and trapped the two clones in capture containers. Stitch ran over to Victoria and caught her as she fainted from the pain. "We better get her to Jumba, quick," said Matt and the six of them quickly left the square.

The gang sat outside of Jumba's ship minus Lilo and Stitch. It had been a while already. "That's it. I'm going to see what's going on." said Matt getting up and heading for the ramp. Matt went to the lab part of the ship, where Jumba had Victoria on the table. "Jumba, is she going to be okay or not?" said Matt. "I do not know," said Jumba, "according to hacked files of imperial database, no one has ever been bitten by two different viral clones before. There is chance they could cancel each other out." Matt breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good," not adding 'Cause I doubt my sanity could take another infected crewmember and survive.' He added, "Is Lilo taking it ok?" looking at a readout. "Lilo's just fine," said Chip, who had suddenly appeared beside Matt, "she's over by the window." "Gah! Don't sneak up me like that!" said Matt.

Matt glared at Chip and walked over to Lilo. "What ya lookin at?" he said, trying to find what she was looking at. Lilo was currently reading a book. Matt peeked at the title, "'The Facts on Vampires'? Isn't that a bit scary for a kid your age?" Lilo gave him a look and he said, "Oh, never mind." "Just trying to get my mind of Victoria," said Lilo. "I'm just worried about her. But at least it's a beautiful day." Matt stared up and saw a small storm outside. "Er...not really...ok that's weird," he said as a cat and dog flew by the window. Suddenly Draco flew by as he was caught in the wind. Draco was shouting, "Open the window! Open the window! Open the win-" With a loud smack, Draco landed against the window pane. "D'oh!" Then Draco slowly slid down the window pane with a squeak. Chip walked over and looked outside, "Are you nuts? It's raining cats and dogs, and Dracos." Matt opened the window and pulled a dazed Draco inside. "Jumba says the viruses might cancel each other out so no harm, no foul." he said happily.

"Speaking of foul," said Chris who just came in, drenched from the pouring rain, "What's up with the weather. It was just fine a minute ago." Lilo, who was still reading her book, said, "Spontaneous storms are known to appear when a vampire's being born." Matt stared. "Ok...I may have been a dragon for 6 months, have been attacked by ghosts, ghouls, and talking chainsaws but there are no vampires on earth...are there?" he said directing the 'are there?' at Draco, the only certified dragon in the crew. Draco shrugged, "I've heard of a subspecies of vampires called strigoi that feed on dragon blood, but I've never met that type, or any vampire as a matter of fact. But then again, Red Moon, Grey Fang, and Ghoulwyrm were all part vampire, so there could be the chance that there are some on Earth."

Matt stared. "But surely...oh smeg, smeg smeg." Matt said angrily. "Look...we're jumping to conclusions...she was bitten by clones, not Dracula." "Well, Snooty's a vampire of sorts," said Lilo. "Not really," said Chip, "he's just mining the same way Morph is right now." Everyone turned to see Morph busy picking his nose. Suddenly he grabbed something and pulled out an entire trombone. "That's where I put that thing," said Morph. Matt won a prize by not even twitching at the sight of the trombone, "Chip's right. Snooty's just a disgusting way of processing weapon grade snootonium. Let's go see Victoria and you will see there is no vampiress at all." As they were walking back to Victoria, Matt noticed that her skin has gotten somewhat paler. "You sure she didn't lose a lot of blood?" asked Matt. "7-5-0 confirmed after her treatment that little girl had sustainable amount of blood in body," said Jumba. Then Pleakley came in with a tray of mugs and said, "I thought I'd bring you guys some hot cocoa since it's so cold outside." Matt looked at Lilo. "The paleness could be anything", he said defensively before trying Pleakley's cocoa...a sure sign he wasn't concentrating. "ACK! What did you use in this?" he said looking at it "Mud?" "It's very high in vitamins," said Pleakley. "Pleakley, how many times do we have to go over this," said Matt, "not everything on this planet can be prepared as-" A sudden flash of lightning and a very loud thunderclap drowned him out as the lights went out. "Dark! Very dark!" cried Pleakley.

Matt took this opportunity to vaporize the 'cocoa'. "Ok...Jumba? I told you the electricity board would find out you were siphoning for free eventually," he said before walking into the table and falling over. "For your information, that was actually an overload of electricity caused by the electrical discharges in the atmosphere," said Jumba huffily, "but fortunately, Jumba has been designing new generator for such occasions. Allow me to find and we will have power again." While Jumba was gone, the gang was somewhat unnerved by the darkness. "Let's not panic," said Draco, "a couple of us can see in the dark, so no need to worry. That's right, Contrinus, just stay close." "Draco, that's me," said Morph. "Go to your room."

Matt flailed around in the dark and noticed the table Victoria should have been on was minus one Victoria. He lit a plasma orb in his hand and confirmed it. "Er...where did your bud go, Lilo?" he asked shakily. "I thought she was unconscious," said Lilo. "That's only a temporary state," said Matt, "take it from me." The lights came back on but seemed to be very dim. "Look...the door wasn't opened. We'd have heard it...maybe you're right?" said Matt, who was clearly approaching a state that would require the straight jacket again. Matt seemed to be talking to himself now. "But if she's not here...WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" he said, losing his mental grip. Stitch opened the window and collected some rainwater in a bucket. He then threw the water at Matt's head. "Thanks, I needed that," said Matt. "Thought you did," said Stitch. "What we need to do is split up and find her," said Chip. "Don't you watch monster movies?" said Lilo, "When the group splits up, the monster attacks them one by one." "Lilo, there's no monster here but us," said Draco, "I'm sure we'll be fine." A sudden thunderclap caused the glass to quiver ominously. "Nice effect." Matt however agreed with Lilo. "It's not just movies," he said. "I have no desire to be eaten, zapped or hit on the head," he said, adding, "So we go in twos." "Okay then, we'll all draw straws," said Chip, "whoever has matching straws goes together." The match-up ended up being Draco and Matt, Lilo and Kala, Morph and Techo, and Stitch and Contrinus. Jumba, Pleakley, and Chip decided to stay in the ship and look for clues while the others searched elsewhere.

Matt looked at Draco as they walked through the corridors. "I got some good news," he said conversationally, looking down a corridor with his experiment night vision. "Doctors say the Fang Stone's wore off." Draco was rubbing himself to keep warm. "Is that so?" he said, "I thought it was permanent." Matt shrugged, "They say just to keep clear of dragon magic...otherwise it will be." The motion sensor on his wrist-comp beeped loudly, just as a light flickered into life down a dead end corridor. Draco didn't notice yet and said, mostly to himself, "I am freezing! Why is so cold?" "You're cold-blooded," said Matt, "you're probably more sensitive. But it is a bit chilly. Did someone leave a window open?" Matt looked up the corridor as a little used section of his wrist-comp activated. "Caution. Unidentified lifeform detected...range 10 meters." Matt slapped it just as the light went out again for a second. "You sure that thing is working right?" asked Draco. There was a sudden lightning flash and a black shape was in front of them. When Matt shined a light at it, it revealed a penguin-like experiment holding a tray with two steaming mugs on it. "Oh, Manners, it's just you. What smells like cold sweat and urine?" Matt picked up one of the cups. "This apparently...I think Pleakley made some extra drinks," he said before drinking it. "Meh...you should try the coffee back at CPS headquarters," he said when the two experiments stared. The computer beeped again. "Alert...Infection threat rising. Virus clone in vicinity," it said in an urgent tone. "What? A Viral Clone? But no one's here except me, Draco, and..." The two of them turned around, but Manners has disappeared. "This is weird," said Draco, "and not Morph's 'amusing weird', but 'creepy weird'." Matt nodded, looking around. The computer beeped for the third time, "Caution. Electrical anomaly closing...Contact in 5 seconds." Matt turned to see the lights on a corridor explode in a line. "What the hell's going on?" he said angrily. "I don't know," said Draco, "but I don't like it. I think we should head back and tell the others." "You aren't going to let a little darkness scare you, are you?" said Matt. Suddenly there was a loud high-pitched screech and Draco said, "No, but I am going to let that scare me." Draco quickly turned tail and ran back. Matt tried to grab said tail, but got dragged after him.

They arrived in the room where Lilo and Kala were without opening the door, much to Matt's gloom as the broken top half of the door hit him on the head on the way through. Kala was the first to speak...if only to stop Matt trying to choke Draco. "What got into you guys? You look like you've seen an Ectonurite." "Well," said Draco after he managed to get his throat out of Matt's hands, "I think there's something very spooky going on here. The lights in the corridor exploded and we heard a screech. Oh, and I think we met Manners' Viral Clone." It was then that Techo came in, followed by Morph who appeared to have V-Manners trying with some success to swallow his head. "Aaand there he is. Nice catch, Techo." Techo shrugged. "Not really...we heard some screech and the cone came in, bumped into Morph and...well…" he said as Matt pulled the clone off and dehydrated it. "That's odd," said Kala, "why would a Viral Clone come in here like that?" "That's sorta like what Viral Spats did," said Lilo, "I think he came in here for a reason and that reason must be Victoria." Matt looked thoughtful. "Plus there's something in the power grid that keeps setting off the alert on my computer." Lilo looked at it, "What's it say?" The computer beeped and said, "Electronic anomaly in area...contact imminent." Matt paled and said, "That."

Suddenly the lights around started crackling madly. Then something removed the vent and dropped into the room. It somewhat resembled Sparky, but it had green fur and bat wings, fangs, and ears like Snooty. It glared at the group and hissed at them. Matt acted on instinct. Whatever this was had set off the type of function that only went off in the presence of the sort of thing that could and would eat the user's brain. He fired a few shots that were simply absorbed by the creature who then floored him with a swipe that felt like it had come from a jackhammer. The computer despite this managed to say, "Confirmed. EXP Virus infected detected." "Infected?" asked Lilo. Then she looked at the creature and asked, "Victoria?" The creature grinned maliciously and said, "You noticed my new look?" "Listen Victoria, you're not quite in your right mind. We're going to take care of that and get the virus out." "No way!" said Victoria, "I like my new powers. They make me special and special people ought to be left the way they are." Techo rattled his head and said, "Who taught you that?" "My new friend, the one you just dehydrated," said Victoria, pointing at V-Manners' pod.

Matt looked at the pod in Techo's hand in a dazed way and then threw a plasma ball with surprising accuracy. It was absorbed but that didn't matter. Its kinetic energy was enough to knock the infected head over heels. Victoria growled and started firing lightning bolts. As everyone was ducking for cover, Morph said, "I'm tired of thunder and lightning, I want sunshine." He morphed into a tall yellow experiment with a round head and four ears. His head gave off a bright sunny glow that made Victoria shriek in pain and run off. Matt peered out as Victoria shot back into the vent. "Ok...now we know what a dual bite does," he said, getting out of cover. Techo picked up his comm to call Chip and warn him but it was shorted out by a bolt. "Ok...this is NOT good," he said. Just then Stitch and Contrinus ran into the room. They narrowly avoided a lightning bolt that was thrown at them. Contrinus shot a ball of firelight at the vent. Victoria hissed and crawled away.

Matt looked up at the vents. "This is worse then that alien film. She could be anywhere at all," he said. Kala spoke up. "Plus she wants V-Manners back...though I don't know how he could have manipulated her so totally. It's not one of his powers." "I don't think he's really manipulating her," said Draco, "I think he's using her hidden jealousy to make her do things she wouldn't normally do." Matt looked at the pod. "I think its time we asked this clone some questions...where the hell it's getting these mind boosts for start...this is three souped-up clones so far," said Matt.

The group went back to the lab, but when they opened the doors, they saw that there was a rather large mess. Jumba and Pleakley were both hiding under the table. "What happened in here?" asked Matt. Jumba got out and said, "Strange creature broke into lab and wreaked havoc. Pleakley and I have just managed to get out of range before 6-2-9 was attacked." Matt looked around and spotted Chip and he and Techo righted him. "Chip, can you hear me? How many grenades am I holding up?" he said. Chip was completely unconscious, as indicated by his eye being completely black. Matt also noticed two puncture holes in the area where his neck would be. "Oh great," said Matt, "Victoria must have sucked the energy out of him." Techo looked at Chip. "This sucks. We've got a damn energy vamp aboard...oh and Matt? Plasma counts as energy," he added, causing Matt to pale as his imagination supplied him with the images. "Don't worry," said Draco, "we just need to give Chip a little jumpstart." He zapped Chip's body with a small lightning bolt which caused it to jerk around a bit. "That oughta do it."

Chip's eye turned back on, only now it was red with a black slit for a pupil. He opened his mouth to reveal two fangs and said with a ridiculously strong Romanian accent, "My mistress will feast on your energy." Then Morph ran in with a stake in one hand and his mallet in the other and yelled, "Quick! We have to stop Chip!" "How did you know he became an energy vampire?" asked Kala. "He's an energy vampire? Ah!" Morph dropped the stake and mallet and ran out of the room. Matt, who'd been reliving an old nightmare about vampires finally came to his senses, saw Chip, screamed and hit him on the head so hard he slightly concertina'd up. Needless to say, he was out cold again. "Nice work, Matty the vampire slayer. Now what do we do?" said Draco annoyed. "We have to find Victoria and cure her, it's the only way to change Chip back to normal. Only with him out, it won't be easy. Techo, think you can build something to track her down?" Matt looked and saw that Techo was holding Morph's mallet and stake and looking thoughtfully at Chip. "TECHO!" yelled the others. "What? Oh yeah. Victoria. Sure thing."

In about three minutes, Techo had managed to jimmy a few spare parts together, including Pleakley's coffee maker. "Ok," he said, plonking it on a table. "The fork is the pointer. It'll home on her magnetic field. All that energy she consumed will mean she's practically an electromagnet," he said. Matt looked at it. "It looks like Satan's broken foodmixer...this gonna work?" he said, turning it on. The fork on top of the contraption, spun round and shot off...embedding itself in Chip. Techo looked sheepish. "Ok...it also homes in on the minions," he said as the fork immediately shot into a vent cover. A muffled "Ouch" was heard. "Gotcha," said Draco and he dived into the vent. A couple seconds later, the sound of punching fists could be heard and Draco was tossed out. "She really packs a punch," muttered Draco. Victoria leapt out of the vent and latched onto Matt. "Get her off of me!" he yelled. Just then Chip was looking like he'd come to when Techo hit him on the head with a frying pan. "Nice timing," said Contrinus, "he nearly woke up." "He was waking up?" asked Techo. Matt settled for an old trick he'd learnt on his and Chloe's first adventure. He flopped on his back and squashed Victoria under him. He rolled off and rubbed his arm where he'd been bitten. "Does this look infected to you?" he said to Draco. "Not sure, keep it away from radiation." Victoria got up and snarled.

Then Morph changed back into the yellow experiment again and started shining. Victoria screeched and tried to get away. But then Stitch plopped a capture container on top of her. Matt then jumped on top of the canister, weighing it down. "CALM DOWN!" he yelled as the canister began shaking as Victoria tried to get out. "Lilo? Please talk to your mutant friend," he said. "Victoria, listen to me," said Lilo, "you don't want this." "No, you don't want me to have this! You're just jealous! You're all jealous!" Morph shone a bit more light on her to make her stop talking. While he was doing that, Contrinus snuck a claw and pinched Victoria on the neck. She immediately went limp. "Nice trick," said Matt. "It comes with my healing programming, can be very useful." Matt got off the canister and stepped back. "Ok...I know how to do this...she currently trusts Mr. Manners...right? How bout we throw a spanner in the works? Expose our little clone for his real self? Didn't we nick some test footage of clone training last month?" said Matt, thoughtfully. "I think it's best that we cure her first," said Kala, "but I can't cure two different viruses at the same time." "Unless they're from the same source," said Matt as he started dialing in a number. "Who are you calling?" asked Techo as he gave Vampire Chip another whack to keep him from getting up. "Someone I wish I didn't know."

Matt hung up and jumped a foot in the air as NegaMorph materialized from the shadows behind him. "DON'T...DO THAT!" he yelled. "How'd you do that?" asked Contrinus. "Would you believe I came in through the cell phone's connection?" "Not quite." "Good, cause I didn't. Now why have you summoned me here?" "That," said Matt, pointing at Victoria. Matt looked at Nega. "Though it annoys me to ask you for help...cure her please...if anyone can cure a double virus infected...it's you." He then whispered, "Remember when I lost my temper in New York when you asked about my sister? If this goes pear shaped that'll seem like I was merely peeved...get me?" NegaMorph ignored the threats and examined Victoria. "So, she got bitten by both clones, eh? Very interesting, but too unstable for even the Empire to use. Protocol would call for extermination." Suddenly he winched and clutched the center of his chest for a second. "But since she's so young, I think it's best if we completely remove her powers. But I'll need Kala's help as well as the clone." Matt looked at Nega. "Ok...try anything and I will disintegrate you," he said coldly. The two clones were fetched for NegaMorph who assimilated them in privacy. He then turned to Kala and said, "We have to work together on this one. You weaken the viruses and I'll pull it out. Use some of my plasma so you can work on it." He carefully put a piece of plasma into her paw without touching her. "This is so gross," said Kala as she swallowed it and gagged.

Matt went over to the canister and tapped. "Good news. We've got a cure...bad news is that that dude over there is in partial charge of it," he said pointing to NegaMorph. Victoria did nothing but hiss. Draco quickly opened the container and grabbed her. Kala started sending small waves of cleansing energy through Victoria's body. Then NegaMorph opened his hand-mouth and started sucking up the negative energy that was coming out. After a minute, the two of them said, "Done!" and stopped. Matt looked at Victoria, who had returned to her human form (thankfully with her clothes on). "Er...welcome back to the land of the sane...tip: If you hear a voice, ignore it," he said, wincing as he heard V-627's colorful response in his head. Chip opened his eye, which was back to normal gold, and asked, "What's going on?" Techo whacked him again and Draco yelled, "Techo! He's not a vampire anymore!" "Really?" said Techo, sounding surprised.

Chip completely lost it, throwing Techo across the room and then repeatedly hitting him against said wall. Matt and Draco watched. "Hmm...Guess Chip really hated Techo's bait idea after all," he said, the both of them smartly stepping aside as Techo was thrown to the opposite side of the room. NegaMorph looked in interest for a minute but said, "Well it's been fun, but I gotta go." He tipped his hat at the door, studiously ignoring Techo's screams as Chip gave him the worst pink belly on the island. Matt looked and saw Lilo talking to Victoria. "Let's go..." he said, dragging Draco from the room as Techo was thrown through the wall next to the door and followed by Chip. Matt could tell when someone needed to talk in private. Not to mention Chip's revenge was getting too gruesome even for him.

"I'm sorry about all this," said Victoria, "I really made a big mess." "No you didn't," said Lilo, "and it wasn't your fault. That virus made you act crazy and Viral Manners wasn't improving the situation any." "But he never would have manipulated me in the first place if I hadn't have been jealous of you guys," said Victoria. "Well, to tell you the truth, you don't have much to be jealous of about our adventures. And there was something odd about Manners that made your jealousy bigger. But I think we could have our own adventure, something you could be a part of." "Okay," said Victoria and the two of them hugged. This sweet little moment of friendship considerably contrasted with Techo's feeble pleas of "Uncle! Uncle!"


There's another chapter. That one took me a while to do. I always wanted to do a story where Chip becomes a horror-based sci-fi monster. My other idea involved a werecar, but I remembered that Chip was a cyborg and that wouldn't make much sense. By the way, the yellow experiment Morph turned into was Experiment 511 AKA Sunny, an experiment designed to give people bad sunburns. He belongs to Xelku9 on deviantART. The next chapter might take a while, but it will have a really cool plot. Until then, please review.