Chapter 17: Reflected Sunlight
"Psst, Hammerface."
"Ih-Hammerface!"
The gray experiment's vision focused on the ceiling of Jumba and Pleakley's room as he awoke to being gently nudged, morning light seeping in through the open window just above him. He blinked and yawned, sitting up to see a pair of excited faces staring back at him.
"What is it?" He asked, only for Stitch to instantly interrupt; the blue experiment started rapidly gesturing towards the door and trying to explain, but he quickly began to stumble over his words. "Tay's here! We got 'em all to come!"
"Okay, please-slow down, got who to come over?"
"Bonnie and Clyde!" Lilo exclaimed, "We thought it'd be hard but we talked to Cobra and he said he would help reform them, so part of that is that they get to leave to spend time with us."
"Wait, really?" Now Hammerface was awake; he'd heard about Bonnie and Clyde's situation-it'd seemed as though they wouldn't be able to visit (or rather, he'd have to visit instead), so potential ones had been unlikely for him.
Lilo nodded excitedly, "Yeah! They're downstairs with Carmen, Sparky, and Clip. Pleakley already made breakfast too, so you can come down when you can."
"Alright, just give me a minute to get up then." He said, watching the two grin and dash out the open door. They were right-he could hear the loud voices of the two thieves drifting up from the first level.
Hammerface rubbed an eye and swung himself out of bed, casting a quick glance over to an old chest-a chest that had apparently used to hold their pods, but now held the two alien's (ridiculous) disguises and the family's Halloween costumes. At the moment, a stack of cards was piled up on its surface-with a single exception; one had fallen to the floor once again, most likely swept off by one of them as they'd left the room.
He gingerly took the card in his hand before setting it back, antenna drooping slightly at seeing the cover. A mirror image of himself done in ballpoint pen stared back out at him, its expression kind, but aloof.
...Must be his typical one towards them; Clip did tease that he had a "resting bitch face"…
He sighed and crossed his arms at the card; it was from Heat and the other two, and although they'd managed a couple of visits over the last two weeks, it was clear they were more cautious around him than usual. It wasn't surprising, but he could still feel some guilt over how he'd treated them as he'd kept tapping into his programming.
Plasmoid had outright yelled at him on the first one... "Fossil" and "Dinosaur" didn't even sound like words to him anymore after that.
He furrowed his brow at the card before making his way out of the room; he could-no, would do this...
Hammerface was instantly jumped by two of the five visiting experiments when he entered the living room, being knocked to the floor by the orange-jumpsuited newcomers. "You-you little piece of-!" The smaller one shouted out, and he was smacked on the arm hard as she yanked him back to his feet. Despite her harsh words, a tear was running down her face. Hammerface couldn't tell if it was a happy or sad one. Probably both, since Bonnie immediately pulled him into a tight hug before continuing the verbal onslaught.
"You idiot! Do you know how worried we were when we found out about ya? Don't ever do that again or I swear-"
"It's nice to see you 149." Hammerface interrupted, gently returning the hug-there was only one way to make her stop when she got like this…
149-now Bonnie-pulled away from him and scrubbed an eye with the back of her hand, sniffing, "I-I just-I can't believe you were in there and we didn't even know…"
"Yeah-if we did we'd have busted all of you out as soon as we could." Her much larger companion added, "But still-we're gonna get paroled Bonnie; maybe we'll get another chance."
"Uh, yeah, I'd like that chance now Clyde, not anytime in the future-there's kids in that thing!" She corrected him, but he shrugged, "And you know how weird things are in there, so…"
Bonnie sighed, turning back to her old friend, "Yeah...I guess. This sucks though, can't deny that."
"Well, yeah, but anyways-hey Hammerface-how're ya healing up there?" Clyde asked, "That programming was a big part of you, so are you getting around okay?"
"Egh, that's been...a ride. Which reminds me-I have to eat real quick." Hammerface said, jabbing a thumb back towards the kitchen, "It'll be quick, but I have to, you know?"
"Oh-then can we follow? Or…?"
"Sure, why not?"
"I'm gonna be frank, we kind of wanted to eat something that wasn't from the Big House, soooo…" Clyde explained, his tone sheepish as he took a slice of bread from its basket, "Thanks for letting us eat here."
"No problem." Pleakley's voice had the cadence of someone about to backflip into spaceship traffic, but he smiled at the group gathered in the kitchen, "I do mean that, six of you at once is just tricky to work with. And there's the other four from the ship...and Felix and Nosy..."
"What about us though?" Carmen asked, craning her neck to get a better view of him as he tidied up the prior night's dishes.
"More like what about yourself, Clip mused, causing Carmen to smirk at her, "I mean…"
"That's not true, I can cause problems." She joked, flicking at one of the cherries on her head, "I forced some people to dance when I was activated, that should count for something, right?"
"How fast?"
"Still sarcastic huh…" Carmen grinned at Hammerface as he shrugged, "Look, you and me are the same when it comes to chaos, alright? I wanna know."
"I mean, humans are pretty slow, but I did make them dance for a whole hour."
"I guess that's something-but, Carmen, those people were tourists, so they're…" Sparky gave a knowing smirk, "They tend to be slow on average..."
Carmen and Clip snickered, but Hammerface cast Sparky a confused glance. "Ah-right, you're not in the know…" The electric experiment said, "We get a lot of tourists, so things can get pretty annoying."
"Oh, wow."
"Yeah it's kinda...obnoxious to be honest." Carmen added, "The less contact with them, the better...buuuut it's also why me making them dance isn't really counted as evil for these three…"
"If it helps Carmen, you made me dance the Glocknar for a whole day." Pleakley said, "Not as long as when we lost our bet to Lilo and Stitch over Yin and Yang, but that was pretty evil to me."
At this, Carmen stuck her tongue out and blew a mock raspberry at Clip, "Ha-now you can't say anything!"
Clip snorted, "Okay, fine, you win for that one, happy?"
"Yes." Carmen took a strawberry from the fruit bowl and started dipping it in sugar, leaving Clip to exchange grins with Hammerface. Carmen and Clyde were the more odd members of their group-they weren't prickly like everyone else, but they did have an air of passive-aggressiveness that helped them fit in.
"Hey," Clip craned her face over to his, her voice a low whisper, "They're gonna have to leave by 4, but I took the day off. Wanna go walking then?"
Hammerface blushed, lifting his glass of orange juice to his face to try to hide it, "Sure."
By now, both their cheeks were magenta, which didn't go unnoticed. Hammerface could see the rest of his friends giving him sly grins as he set his glass down. He returned it, "What?"
Bonnie chuckled, "Date plans?"
"Shut up."
The day seemed to pass too quickly for Hammerface; it'd been years since he'd seen Bonnie and Clyde, and he couldn't help but feel a bit dejected as the time came for them to leave. Carmen as well-even though her and Sparky were some of his more frequent visitors.
The remaining couple now sat on the porch, watching the last few traces of Sparky's electricity disappearing over the horizon as he headed for his lighthouse. Carmen and the other two had long since made their way down the path, caught up in an argument over Bonnie trying to sneak a bag of potato chips from the house.
He felt a clawed hand take his own as Clip rested her head on his side, smiling up at him, "So, wanna head out? It's just up to the hammock."
"Sure, sun's setting so it'll be a good view."
The trip up the stairs was short and quiet, the two leading each other by the hand as they made their way up them. Aside from pointing out a few flowering bushes, neither of them had much to say on the way over.
The air was still when they reached the hammock, the sun dropping down towards the treeline. Faint bird calls echoed around the area as Hammerface climbed into it, reaching down to lift up his partner.
She smiled up at him as the two settled down beside each other, the orange glow of the sunset giving her eyes a purple hue. He flushed and placed his tail around her, drawing her close.
They were silent a few seconds, watching the glow start to light up the skyline. He felt Clip lean into him before she spoke, her normally high voice having lost most of its usual edge.
"It's...been a while, hasn't it?"
"Yeah. Too long to be honest…" He sighed as he looked out over the horizon, watching a flock of birds fly in the direction of the mountains. "I wish everyone was out and-you know, away from them, but…"
"I know. I wish things had gone differently too, it's been kind of lonely at the spa. The people there just think I'm a cat, so they leave me alone most of the time." She said, "It is funny, just...wish you could be there..."
"Then when I get out, they're gonna have to deal with a hammer-headed T-Rex too. How's that?"
Clip giggled, "Well, we should get started on the plans then, right?"
"Do those plans involve telling Gantu he's a dick?"
"I mean, that's more your territory, but you can use your program being gone as the excuse." She entwined her arm with his as she went on, "I know you didn't get to come out often, but I wanna take you somewhere once this is all over. Almost puts all this to shame." She gestured around at the forest with her free arm, "Not that this view isn't pretty, but the beach is amazing at this time."
"I can imagine...our waterfall at the ship? It's pretty impressive when the light hits it just right. And sometimes, after it's just rained, the pools around there are like mirrors."
"Yeah, that's always something I've liked about Earth. There's all these little quirks about it that just pile up into all this…"
She cast a glance up at the sky, where the light was deepening into a dark blue dotted with stars. It was nice to sit here with him. It was also sad, but that wasn't a thought she cared to deal with right now…
"Hey." She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned back to him. His eyes were screwed up in a slight smirk as he asked his question, "Wanna hear my first Earth compliment?"
"Aw no-you ain't comparing my eyes to-"
"The night sky? Yes."
She snorted and flicked his arm with her claws, "Oh god, that's something 044 would say-ironically."
"Come on, you know you like the comparison, I can see it…"
"You've been reading a lot of Earth poetry, haven't you."
"And?"
"And, I…" She flushed and felt a lump grow in her throat, "I think that's amazing you've been doing that…"
His expression turned solemn, "It is, isn't it…"
She took her hand out from his arm and placed it over his, "I'm just...glad you can be yourself-for real, not having that program in the background influencing you."
"So you do like my compliment then."
"Yeah, yeah I do 33. And I like that you're free now-at least from that..."
He didn't respond, but Clip felt a small tap on the side of her head. She turned and smiled, placing her forehead against his nose. He couldn't properly kiss anyone, so they'd come up with this instead, years ago in the lab...
"Can you promise me something?" She asked when they pulled back.
"Yeah?"
"I dunno what's going to happen in the future, but can you just...promise you're gonna take care of yourself?"
He nodded, "I'm gonna try-and I do have someone who loves calling me a dinosaur if I don't, so…"
"Then tell Plasmoid I'm proud, and that I support him in calling you that."
Hammerface laughed, "I will Clip, don't worry."
Stars blinked overhead as the two made their way back to the house, a slight breeze starting up as they stood on the porch.
She felt wistful now, contemplative, saying goodbye to the one person who'd bothered to approach her after her creation, understood her drive to eat hair instead of uburnium, who'd snuck around with her in the background of their missions together-all probably for the last time…
It wouldn't be their last meeting, he was still at the house after all, but time felt like it was somehow running out, and she couldn't place her finger on why.
Clip started back on the path towards her home; usually, she'd have run or rolled into a ball, but not this time around. This time, she felt like walking the whole way.
Maybe they had time. But maybe...her thoughts then went to the 5 and 6 series on the ship.
No-they didn't. They had to move. And fast.
She narrowed her eyes and cast a glance up at the stars, feeling the usual determination start to rise up within her.
"You'd better let them know about that support, Hammerface…"