Chapter 14: Disasters and Dreams

"The rogue experiment is heading your way!", Stitch's little walkie-talkie blurted out. "Be prepared, that thing looks dangerous!"

That was Sunday, Oscar's best(if not his only) friend from their dimension. She teamed up with Gantu and Reuben in hopes to capture it and use it to help Oscar.

"Gantu has a natural talent in failing to capture experiments," I snickered with Stitch, "Looks like it rubbed off on you, Sunday."

Thankfully, they managed to tag it with a tracking device and Stitch's little walkie-talkie also doubles as a GPS. One look at the machine and we saw it's little blip heading towards the residential area.

"It's going towards Mertle's house," I heard an unconscious hint of disgust in my voice, and felt a little bad at myself. Me and Mertle are practically 'frenemies', but It's not like I hate her that much. "Let's hope Evolver doesn't get his hands on Gigi."

"Blech!" Stitch stuck his large tongue out, "We need a better name."

"Agreed," I replied sternly as we made our way to The Edmonds' household.

The dot in our tracker positioned our potential new cousin right inside the house.

I held my breath as we knocked on Mertle's door.

Where am I?

Am I lost… no, wasn't I with Lilo just a while ago?

I finally managed to close the gateway, and before I knew it I'm…lost.

Lost? Well,more like disoriented beyond belief.

Right before my eyes were plenty, and I mean so goddamn many images flashing painfully fast.

I tried to close my eyes but I can't, the flashing images were dizzying although I gotta admit I wasn't feeling dizzy.

I tried to focus on the picture show in front of me…

All the images burst and scattered around me. Suddenly I know how flies feel with their multi-lens eyes.

Except I was looking at plenty of things at once,no…not just looking.

Was I here? There's a black looming house before me. The front yard was ironically filled with girly toys and bikes scattered about. The place felt so near…and yet it's like I'm looking from the wrong end of binoculars.

Was I actually here? I hear the noisy chatter of people as I look on to a castle that seems to be surrounded by a large body of water. I don't think that's a lake, but doesn't look like the sea either.

No, I think I'm actually here. A place that may or may not be New York , God knows I've never been there and my only knowledge comes from movies that Sunday and I used to watch together. I looked around and was honestly dumbfounded when I thought I saw two mice riding on a seagull.

Hmm, maybe destroying gateways can cause some kind of hallucination?

I wonder where Lilo is, almost felt like I just heard her voice a while ago.

Feeling a little sleepy,though. Wait, what am I doing in a creepy forest? I looked around and saw what looked like a redhead on a horse. She pointed an arrow at me.

I have never been this high before in my life. Then again, I have never been high before in my life.

Maybe this is where I am.

Who knows, maybe I'm everywhere.

"Hello cousin!" Gigi exclaimed with her high-pitched puppy voice as Mertle opened the door.

Mertle had the usual 'not-you-again' look but I smiled at her anyway.

"Is it another alien?" She asked like it was no big deal. Hey, that's what happens when you live in the same town with me. I didn't need to answer as she let us in, "Try not to wreck the house."

"No promises," Stitch grinned.

We walked around stealthily and carefully, afraid that the strange experiment we're looking for might blindside us and lengthen this search-and-capture for longer than necessary.

Just wait Oscar, I'll wake you up.

I gotta admit I'm enjoying this…whatever this is. How do people say it? I'm tripping balls or something?

I'm tripping major balls.

I learned how to catch salmon from an adorable talkative bear cub.

I found myself in a classroom where some teacher (his name plate says Mr. Matthews) was acting all buddy-buddy with four of his students while the others acted like they were just background characters. Was that a laughtrack I heard?

This time I'm in a rural looking area by the woods and I can't help but wonder when this will end. Gotta admit, place looks interesting though, and I think I saw a souvenir store by the clearing. I walked closer to a chubby dude wearing a blue shirt with a question mark print, hoping he can help me. I just honestly want to go back to that little girl I met in Hawaii.

I miss you, Lilo.

Me and Mertle ran screaming from the miniature drooling wolf-creature that used to be Gigi. She went into contact with Evolver(I'll think of a better name later) and transformed almost instantly. What used to be a Maltese-looking alien dog is now a slightly larger(and probably rabid) wolf-looking thing.

It was pretty clear that she wanted to eat us.

"This is all your fault!" Mertle shouted at me while we try to outmaneuver Gigi.

I gave her my best stinkeye while figuring out how to turn Gigi back to normal, or at best, survive her feral attacks.

Looking at Stitch, he's busy trying to capture Evolver. Evolver looks like kind of like Stitch, but with black fur and a grayish X-pattern on his torso. Instead of an antenna like Stitch and most of his cousins have, Evolver's forehead grew two tiny horns. Kind of like an imp, or something. He has a long and thin tail, like a monkey, that he uses to hold and grapple things with(also like a monkey).

"Be careful Stitch!" I hoped he heard me amidst the chaos. "We don't know what could happen if he evolves you!"

"Wouldn't that be good?" Mertle asked.

"Maybe, except getting evolved usually resets an experiment's morality back to evil." It was just a theory, but it's very possible. "Except for Ace, he's always a goody-two-shoes."

Gigi leapt at us and almost tackled me to the floor, but Mertle was able to block her with a broomstick.

"Bad doggie!" She screamed at her pet while trying to fend it off. Mertle then threw Gigi(and the broomstick) to an open room and locked the door before the wolf-thingy could recover. I saw legitimate fear on her face as she said, "Mom is so gonna kill me."

"Not if Gigi gets you first." I replied with a jump as the door made a huge THUD! , probably because the monster on the other side is trying to slam it open.

Mertle slumped on the floor as I made my way to help Stitch, only to see that he had already captured X-Gen(that's what I'm calling him now) with a laundry basket. The new cousin probably has claustrophobia or something because it seems to just lie down helplessly inside it.

"Guys?" I radioed everyone. "We got him. Meet us at Mertle's house."

"Roger that." Gantu replied.

"We're on our way!" Pleakley shouted, causing painful static feedback.

I also told them to bring that antidote thing that could help Gigi revert back to her original self. While Stitch was busy looking after X-Gen, I slumped next to Mertle and hoped for a friendly conversation.

"Sorry for ruining you house." I said as sincerely as I can.

"What else should I expect from you?" She replied without looking at me. Her eyes were fixed to the floor and I was worried she was sick or something. "After years of you ruining my life, I'm used to it."

"Will we ever be friends?" I accidentally thought aloud.

Mertle just looked at me with a sullen, but shocked look, then looked back down. I thought a small smile broke through her lips.

"L-like that would ever happen…," she mumbled, "Weirdlo."

That'll have to do, I thought with a smile.

Suddenly, the door behind us splintered into tiny pieces as Were-Gigi leapt back into action. Me and Mertle could only stare in fear as the drooling monster crept slowly at us.

Just as she was about to attack, a quick net enclosed itself on Gigi. Gantu just arrived in time and was able to finally put his experiment-capturing gear to good use.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I realized that I was still alive and somehow didn't wet myself.

Mertle, on the other hand, did. There was a small puddle were she stood and a wet spot on her shorts.

I honestly wanted to make fun of her for that, but after what we've just been through?

"You should probably get changed," was all I could say.

"Hmph!" was all she replied as she stomped her way to her trashed bedroom.

Jumba walked to X-Gen with the kind of look you see on a kid about to enter an amusement park for the first time. He took him in a capsule and said that he would do what he can to figure out what's going on and prepare to evolve Remmy. Pleakley,Gantu, and Reuben went back with him to the house while Sunday, Stitch, and me stayed with Mertle to help her clean the place up.

"You really think that black alien thing will help wake your boyfriend up from his coma?" Mertle asked while looking for a change of clothes.

"B-boyfriend?!" I tried not to blush but I can feel my face burning up. "I…I hope so."

"OC will pull through," Sunday butted in while carrying the sofa back in place, "That guy doesn't know when to quit."

She paused for a while, then went to pick up some debris.

"There was this one time, when classes just began for the year and all of us classmates were practically strangers to each other. During the introduce yourself segment OC blurted out his love for children without faltering." She smiled at me and threw a pile of junk at the garbage bag.

"Of course, almost everyone treated him differently because of that. Some people outright hated him, avoided him, and made fun of him." Sunday suddenly looked like she was experiencing a wave of nostalgia and just closed her eyes. "Some asshole bully decided to sucker punch him and told him he was going straight to hell for being himself."

Then Sunday grinned like there was an inside joke I wasn't part of.

"You know what OC did?" She looked at me and I just shrugged. "He smiled at the asshole and just replied, 'Thanks for the invitation.'"

Sunday giggled like it was super funny. Typical Oscar, always making crappy jokes on the fly. Just by looking at the lady still giggling in front of me, I can see how she and Oscar would be such great friends. They were both…unconventional.

Although Sunday said before that it was originally her mission to look after Oscar, I can tell she learned to love him anyways. Looking at her right now, they seemed more like siblings than best friends.

And the way she just knows Oscar won't give up… I guess she really does know him well.

You know those security guards you see in movies where their monitoring a lot of camera screens at the same time? That's kind of how I feel right now.

But if I focus on just one image, it doesn't look like I'm just watching.

It's like I'm already there. It's like I was in different places all at the same time.

This is so fucked up.

I looked at all the screens and focused on the one that looks like a city. The buildings look…American but at the same time kind of Japanese? It almost looks like San Francisco and Tokyo made sweet love and created a baby. I walked around enjoying the sights when a red blur flew above me. The people around me started taking pictures and asking about whatever that 'red flying robot' was.

I zoomed out of focus and found myself somewhere else.

I was in some kind of hospital room, and there was someone lying on the bed…

Before I could find out who it was, I heard a voice behind me and turned around as soon as I can.

"Oscar," It was Lilo, wearing her favorite red muumuu and looking like she's on the verge of tears. Stitch and Sunday was standing next to her. "It's time to wake up."

About fucking time.