Lahui Beach, 19:15 Hawai'i – Aleutian Standard Time
626 sprinted through the forest, not caring who saw him or what they might have thought of a six-legged alien charging after a spaceship. Lilo was in danger – the time for subtlety was past. As he ran, the experiment directed all his brainpower towards a single goal: stopping Hämsterviel before he could claim another victim.
The first stage: keeping Hämsterviel out and about. If he made it back to his base, there was no way that 626 would be able to catch up in time to save Lilo. To do that, he had to be noticed. Somehow.
626 burst out of the trees and into the middle of town, where he immediately found his solution: a vehicle that looked like a cross between those tricycles he'd seen yesterday and the Milvucycle he'd ridden back at Gapra. He ran up to the owner.
"Your…vehicle…I…need…it." He panted.
"Uhhhhh…" Apparently this girl wasn't all that used to interacting with aliens.
"Please…I…need it…to save someone."
She just gaped at him. "What ARE you?" She finally screamed.
626 tried to resist the urge to facepalm and failed. "Look…you know that…spaceship that just flew by? I'm trying…to catch it and I…need your vehicle." All she did was gape some more, until 626 finally lost patience. After taking another half-second to regain his breath, he took on a far less patient tone. "Listen, lady. There's currently a psychopathic gerbil flying across the island with a kidnapped six-year-old, and if I don't stop him ASAP she'll die. So give me. The damn. Vehicle."
Wordlessly, she held out the keys and stood aside. 626 grabbed them, said a half-sarcastic thank you, and shot off in the direction Hämsterviel had flown. Fortunately, the thing could go: apparently the Earthling vehicles known as motorcycles could hit 225 miles per hour, faster than Hämsterviel's craft was evidently able to go within low-earth-orbit, so he was able to catch up to him and overtake the ship within a minute of heading out. Then, within view of Hämsterviel's cockpit, he did something somewhat stupid: 626 flipped into a handstand on his seat, gripping it with all four paws, and waved his butt in the air, silently hoping that there wasn't anyone around to see the absurd sight of a soldier flashing his naked ass at a known terrorist. "YOO-HOO!" 626 yelled, just to compound the absurdity even further.
Be it the motorcycle suddenly appearing out of nowhere and slowing down, the shout, or the naked ass waving in the air, something managed to catch Hämsterviel's attention. From his blurry and upside-down vantage point 626 realized that the ship's cannon had deployed and was about to fire. 626 flipped back into normal position, just barely avoiding launching the motorcycle off-road and down a gulch, and resumed driving, now with the added element of blaster fire to avoid. Right: got his attention. Now what?
The next stage was getting up to the ship, something that would be a bit trickier to figure out how to do with a vehicle that couldn't leave the ground. His best hope, he realized as they zoomed across the island, was to find a cliff and launch himself off it.
Although 626 wasn't all that familiar with Kauai'i's geography, Lilo had owned an atlas of the islands that he'd flipped through the night before, and there was one location that seemed to work: if he took the road labeled '580' as far as it went and took the trail leading straight on from it, eventually he'd come across an open area with a steep enough drop. Provided that he could get Hämsterviel to fly alongside him there, somehow.
With that in mind, 626 charged forwards. He passed multiple towns as they went across the island, neither stopping nor caring about pedestrians save the bare minimum needed to avoid crashing. Mercifully, law enforcement left him alone, reluctant to involve themselves in an affair involving a spaceship, and similarly the prospect of getting gunned down by an alien was probably what was keeping the roads mostly clear of traffic.A short time into the chase 626 managed to make the sharp turn onto 580, turning so fast that his entire left side nearly smacked into the pavement, and charged up as far as he could. He passed residential area after residential area, and finally the buildings began to give way to fields and trees. Hämsterviel broke off, presumably trying to go around and look for a place to ambush. 626 smiled; everything so far was going to plan.
Keep on flying that way, buddy. 626 slowed down as much as he dared as he crashed through the forest, wanting to risk neither going so slow as to lose track of his enemy nor going so fast as to deny himself the reaction time needed to prevent him wrapping around a tree. Regardless, soon afterwards 626 reached his destination, and almost the moment he emerged onto the cliff time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Hämsterviel's ship appeared almost out of nowhere, cannon at the ready.
626 angled his motorcycle towards it as though he'd been expecting it in that very spot.
The plasma cannon fired.
Just ahead of its payload 626 managed to launch himself off the sheer cliff, ducking enough to keep himself safe.
The cockpit appeared below him, and 626 could see the white rodent glaring up at him.
626 dived off his motorcycle, sending it careening over the ship's top and out of sight. 626 grabbed onto the glass, barely managing to avoid slipping.
Hämsterviel shouted something indecipherable through the glass, and began flying so erratically and spasmodically that 626 had to fight every second to keep himself from slipping off. Somehow, even with all the shaking and turning 626 managed to climb his way up and over towards the side of the ship, then worked his way downwards to the hatch Lilo had been taken through.
It was locked tight, far tighter than he could pry apart with the two paws he dared try with. "Blitznak!" 626 couldn't believe it. All this way, thousands of feet up and above nothing but open ocean, and his way forwards was blocked beyond all ability to get there. Unless he could somehow break through into the cockpit, unlikely considering that windshield wipers were a thing, he was stuck. Eventually, land appeared below them again. 626 managed to register it for a microsecond before Hämsterviel sent the ship into a wild corkscrew broken up every so often with sudden drops and ascends, completely determined to shake his unwanted passenger off.
An island or two later, he succeeded. 626 barely had time to think Oh, for fuck's sake before he was hurled to the ground. He screamed all the way down, colliding with the pavement fast enough to leave a dent.
Somehow, miraculously, he managed to stay alive without losing consciousness or even breaking any bones. He felt like every bone in his body had shattered on impact, to be sure, but he was still intact. With a groan, he forced himself up and took in his new surroundings: apparently he was half a mile out from somewhere called 'Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park' if he was reading the letters Lilo'd taught him last night correctly, wherever that was. Great, now I know where I am, but how to get back up?
As he was pondering, Hämsterviel flew overhead. He'd slowed down quite a bit, as if rubbing his untouchability in 626's face, and the experiment could almost hear him gloating.
"No. I won't give up." 626 muttered to encourage himself. But the odds were not in his favor: this was his last chance to save Lilo, and he was stranded on the ground.
Honking. I hear honking! 626 did realized that something was coming down the road. Whether it was something he could use or not, he had to know what it was, so he turned and readied himself to intercept it.
His heart sank for a moment when he saw what it was: a massive tanker truck, far too large to maneuver. But then he read a notice on the front of the tank, a notice made with a single glorious word: Flammable.
It was a long-shot, but if it was flammable enough…
626 immediately formulated a new plan, one even crazier than 'hurl yourself off a cliff and hope for the best', but if he played his cards right he might have a chance to save Lilo yet.
That, or either fall into an active volcano or careen clear off the island. Still, it was his only option.
626's legs were still in agony after his landing, but by some font of determination he managed to force them down sturdily enough to stop the truck clear in its tracks. When the driver came out to check what was going on the experiment leveled him with a punch to the face before pushing him off the road and hopping into the truck's driver seat. Then, to get Hämsterviel's attention, he slammed on the horn as hard as he could. It blared to life, louder than 626 would have imagined, and once again his attention-getter worked. This time, though, Hämsterviel appeared to be more curious than anything, or maybe he, too, figured out what the tanker was and didn't want to risk an explosion.
If that was the case, however, he was soon to be sorely disappointed. 626 gunned the engine forwards, driving it up the mountain in search of what he needed. Thankfully, he soon found a massive pit of lava barred only by a flimsy little fence that he promptly disregarded. The truck plunged headfirst into the lava, sinking almost immediately, and 626 clambered out onto the tanker. He looked up in the air: Hämsterviel hovered above him, wide open. Perfect.
626 only had one shot at this, and his angle and trajectory had to be perfect. Any mistakes, and it was all over.
He took a deep breath and plunged his claws into the metal tanker. Whatever material they used was thin enough that he was able to tear off a good chunk of it, sending the fluid trapped inside pouring out.
The explosion that happened next soon became the stuff of local legend, both for the sheer unexpectedness and the sound of someone yelling "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOO!" at the top of their lungs as they shot upwards like a rocket.
626 had aimed perfectly, and he crashed through the glass with a great crunch. Then, adrenaline pumping, he leapt to his feet and whirled towards the pilot's chair.
Hämsterviel slammed on the autopilot and turned to face him. "I see I have underestimated you, 626. Perhaps Leroy's failure was not so terribly embarrassing as I'd thought."
"Where is your pet?" 626 asked. "I'd thought he'd be here with you."
Hämsterviel snorted. "Leroy? Oh, no no no no. This is my operation, and mine alone. Although it might be a cleverly brilliant idea to bring him in and test his instincts against –"
626 knew where he was going with that. No way in hell, Dr. Hämsterviel. There was only one thing left to do: 626 vaulted at the rodent, slamming into him like a ton of bricks and delivering a swift uppercut to the face. Hämsterviel grunted and tried to get to his feet, but before he could get the chance 626 got him with a left hook. Before Hämsterviel knew it, the experiment had wrapped his hands around his throat and was holding him up in the air.
"Mercy!" He choked out. "You-you wouldn't hurt an unarmed person, would you? You're too much of a goody-six-paws for that, aren't you?"
626 didn't even dignify the plea with a response. Instead, he opted to simply spit in Hämsterviel's face before dropping one hand to his stomach, grabbing a pawful of fur, and hurling him straight out of the spaceship.
Only after Hämsterviel's screams had faded from hearing did 626 speak. "That's right. I am a goody-six-paws. But then, you're a child murderer."
Without another word 626 hopped into the pilot seat, lowered the window cover, and re-programmed the autopilot to land him back on Kauai'i. He sighed and took deep breaths, calming himself and letting the adrenaline flow out of his system. Now it was time to see to Lilo.
She was still in the capsule, battered from all the twists and turns but still in one piece. When 626 opened the capsule up she climbed out of it, took a few shaky steps forwards, and collapsed into his arms, sobbing.
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you! The other alien he – he said he was going to eat me!"
"Shhhh. It's okay now. He's gone and won't ever be coming back. You're safe, Lilo."
Lilo sniffled. "I always thought alien abductions were cooler than this."
Hämsterviel's ship landed safely on the island, and soon after both Nani and Bubbles arrived. Nani immediately scooped her sister up into a tearful hug, while Bubbles explained to 626 that he had called the Federation and that some forces under Obrea and the Grand Councilwoman were soon en route.
Shortly after that, 626 excused himself to the bathroom. All the erratic movements had finally caught up with his stomach, and he wanted to throw up in privacy.