I'm glad everybody likes last chapter's flashback. In this chapter, things start heating up again as we approach the climax! Hope you like it!
Nukejrsr, Hamsterviel's wealth, desires, and powers will be explained in a future story…IF I plan to write one!
Story Weaver1, I'd like to hear your theory about Hamsterviel. It's probably not very close to the truth, but it can't hurt to try, right?
TT, the Aurum Avenger actually did have a giant robot called the Giga Gigabot Seven Contrapcione. He used it to battle the giant monsters that plagued the university every other day or so. Surprisingly, less than a quarter of them were Jumba's fault. The rest were made by the other evil geniuses on campus. J
Yes Mona, 625 was eaten by Tank once. He had been tricked into wearing aluminum-scented cologne, which made Tank think he was a robot and ate him.
???, Yin's a girl? You sure? Huh, I always thought he was a guy. Oh well. There's nothing wrong with little gender changes here and there for the sake of plot, right? Nobody seems to have a problem with Sprout being a girl, when they called her as guy on the show.
…
The Stitch Machine landed on the sidewalk in front of the Royale. Stitch looked around for any witnesses, but they were all too busy making love to notice. Chocola had obviously not gotten there yet. "Should I come in with you? Eric or Arnold might still be around," he said as they both got out.
Angel shook her head. "Nah, they surprised me last time. If they come on to me now, I'll give them a kick their sexual organs will never forget!"
"I think I'll come anyway," he persisted.
She shrugged. "Okay." They went inside.
Angel gasped at what was inside. "Oh god…" In only a few hours, the theatre had been transformed from a charming playhouse into the lair of a psychopath. Her friends and cast members were hanging from nooses tied to the rafters, blood dripping from gaping holes in their stomachs. Strange sigils were splattered across the walls in blood, and dozens of candles illuminated the room. "What happened?" she whispered. There was no answer from her lover. "Stitch?"
She turned around and gasped in horror. Eric, now covered in blood from his victims, had caught Stitch from behind with a noose and was slowly choking him to death. Stitch was struggling, but for once his super-strength failed him thanks to the respiratory impediment caused by the noose. "Order your fine horses now! Raise up your hand to the level of your eyes! Nothing can save you now-except perhaps Angel…" He raised the Dagger of Ophis, pilfered from Angel's dressing room, over Stitch's forehead. "Start a new life with me-buy his freedom with your love! Refuse me, and you send your lover to his death! This is the choice! This is the point of no return!"
Angel's mind raced. Eric's love-induced dementia had convinced him he really was the deadly Phantom of the Opera. If she tried to attack him, he would stab Stitch to death, and not even Stitch could survive a dagger through the brain. How could she save her boyfriend? Suddenly, she got an idea. Maybe if she played along, following the play's script like Eric was, she could save Stitch! She started singing. "Farewell, my fallen idol and false friend…one by one I've watched illusions shattered…"
Eric leered. "Too late for turning back, too late for prayers and useless pity…"
The next line was Raoul's, but Stitch was slowly choking to death and didn't know the script anyway, so both Eric and Angel mentally skipped to their next lines. The same thing would happen many times throughout this macabre recital. "Past all hope of cries for help: no point in fighting-" the Phantom continued. "For either way you choose, you cannot win! So, do you end your days with me, or do you send him to his grave?"
"Angel of Music…"
"Past the point of no return-"
"…Why this torment?"
"…The final threshold…"
"When will you see reason…?"
"His life is now the prize which you must earn!"
"Angel of Music…" Angel repeated.
"You've passed the point of no return…"
"…You deceived me-I gave my mind blindly…"
"You try my patience- make your choice!" Eric demanded.
Angel paused for dramatic purposes (as called for in the script) then slowly started walking towards Eric. "Pitiful creature of darkness…what kind of life have you known…? God give me courage to show you you are not alone…" She pulled Eric down to her level and kissed him passionately for several seconds before pulling away.
Stunned as their embrace ended, the Phantom dropped Stitch and the dagger. Stitch pulled off the noose and looked at Eric in confusion. "Take her-forget me-forget all of this…leave me alone-forget all you've seen…go now-don't let them find you! Take the boat-leave me here-go now, don't wait…just take her and go-before it's too late…go…go now-go now and leave me here!" He swished his cape and ran away.
Stitch blinked as he rubbed his sore throat. "What was that?"
"That," said Angel proudly. "Was the final scene of Phantom of the Opera. Thanks to Hunkahunka's spell, Eric thought he really was the Phantom, so most of what he did was following the play's script. By that token, all I had to do to make him let you go was play my part of the scene, convincing him he was doing the wrong thing and that I really belonged with you."
"Oh." Stitch looked up. "And was hanging your friends and co-workers part of the script too?"
Angel grimaced. "Well, the Phantom did hang some of his victims…" She picked up the fallen dagger. "Come on, we have to get this back to Jumba pronto."
"What about them?" asked Stitch, referring once more to the corpses.
Angel saddened. "There is nothing we can do for them now. We'll come back to bury them later." She wiped away a tear and headed for the door.
Stitch knew Angel was hurting, and ran after her to comfort her. As they walked out of the theatre, they could suddenly hear Eric's voice nearby. "Masquerade…paper faces on parade…masquerade…hide your face, so the world will never find you…" The Phantom's mask fell at their feet. They looked up and saw Eric standing on the theater roof. There was a rope around his neck. "Angel, I love you…"
"ERIC!" Angel screamed. She started climbing up the wall. Stitch shook his head sadly; knowing there was nothing she could do.
"You alone can make my song take flight-it's over now, the music of the night…" He stepped off the rooftop. The rope caught him halfway down and snapped his neck. He dangled limply from the roof, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
"Eric…" Angel lost her grip on the wall and fell. Stitch caught her and hugged her as she burst into tears. "They're gone…they're all gone…" she wept. "They were like my family…my own special little o'hana…and now they're gone. Even Eric…he was always a little arrogant and egotistical, but…he was still my friend."
"Shhh," said Stitch. He wiped away her tears. "Don't cry," he said. "They're gone…but I'm still here. I'll always be here for you."
Angel sniffed. "Stitch…"
He kissed her. Still tearing a little, she kissed him back. Without warning, a spotlight flashed over them, ending the moment. "What…?" Stitch said, shielding his eyes.
Hovering above the theatre was a big black spaceship shaped somewhat like a hawk, with large wings, landing gear shaped like talons, and a cockpit shaped like a bird's head. It was from the cockpit's beak that the light was projected. The beam focused on Angel. "Well, what do we have here? A pink rat that doesn't know when to stand still?" said a voice amplified by the ship's speakers. The spotlight shifted over to Stitch. "And a blue monster that doesn't know how to stay under a love spell! Shouldn't you be screwing that whore 411 on that beach?"
"I told you I'd find a cure, Hunkahunka!" Angel yelled at the ship.
"And I told you my name's 323!" Hunkahunka shouted back. "Anyway, so what if you found a cure? The plan's changed, I'm not gonna bother with the whole fake love thing anymore, seeing as how you've escaped my clutches and no doubt told everyone you could what I'm up to."
"Then what are you going to do?" growled Stitch.
"Why don't I show you?" Hatches on the back of the ship opened up and launched several dozen pods into the air. The pods landed in surprisingly neat formations on the streets, walls, and rooftops of the surrounding buildings. Another set landed in a ring around the Stitch Machine. They all opened at once, connecting to each other with bolts of electricity that combined to form a huge high-voltage force field that completely boxed our heroes (And Hunkahunka) in the street in front of the Royale! The pods around the Stitch Machine formed a second force field, trapping the cruiser in an electric dome.
"What is this?" asked Angel, looking at the crackling shields in dread.
Hunkahunka laughed. "You like them? They're electrostatic force field generators, courtesy of Dr. Hamsterviel. And that's not all he's got in store for you, either. Get a load of this!"
His ship flew in a circle above them. As he did, a vent spewed white dust from the end of the ship. When he completed his circle, there was a halo of dust floating several feet off the ground. With a burst from the ship's engines, the dust ignited, exploding and forming a swirling vortex. The air around the vortex rippled, indicating it was a hole in space. "What is that?" wondered Stitch.
"This is a warp gate, patented by the good doctor. Once a generator in his lab has been activated, it can project a tunnel through space, a kind of artificial wormhole linking his lab to wherever I open a gate by igniting the special space-warping dust you just saw. But this is only half the fun! It's what the doc's sending through the gate that's the real surprise!" crowed the evil hummingbird.
The warp gate started to fluctuate. Ten creatures dropped out of the vortex, landing on their feet before the couple. All of them were wearing lightweight body armor, helmets with combat visors, and plasma guns. And all of them looked exactly like Felix.
"No way…are they…clones?" asked Angel.
"Bingo! The doctor's improved his cloning process. He no longer needs to cut a specimen in half to duplicate it, he just needs a DNA sample. He's made clones of many of us captive experiments, forming the backbone of the army with which he will destroy the universe!" said Hunkahunka.
Stitch smirked. "Well if they're clones, they can't be that powerful. And Felix was never that strong to begin with. You think these things can take me down?"
"On their own, no, but that's the beauty of cloning! You can mass-produce an enormous army in a very short amount of time. What they lack in strength, they make up for in sheer numbers, enough to wear even you down 626! Now, enough of this pre-fight banter. The doctor wants me to capture both of you alive, but he told me I could damage you as much as I wanted before I handed you over. Attack!" The clones took out their guns and started charging their laser snouts.
Stitch and Angel immediately jumped out of the way as the area they were on got fried by laser and plasma bursts. They then split up, charging towards the group of Felix clones, wordlessly agreeing to take them on five-to-one. One of the clones fired a plasma shot as Stitch approached. He grabbed it and stuffed it down the clone's snout just as it was charging up its laser. This caused its head to explode. Stitch grabbed its corpse and used it to shield himself from the ensuing barrage of plasma shots and lasers. He grabbed the clone's gun and blasted away at the others, killing them all only after completely emptying the gun's cartridge. He picked up a new gun from one of the corpses then went to see how Angel was doing.
She was doing pretty well, actually. By holding her dagger out in front of her, she was able to use its demonic powers to absorb the plasma and laser shots. After several blasts had been sucked into the blade, it started glowing. She slashed with it, unleashing an energy wave that bisected the clones at the waist, killing them. "I didn't know you could do that," commented Stitch.
She looked at the dagger. "Neither did I." She smirked and looked up at Hunkahunka. "That the best you got?"
"No." Several more clones dropped from the warp gate. These were duplicates of Nosey, and carried large round shields with bladed edges along with plasma bazookas. They also had the same combat gear as the Felix clones.
Stitch experimentally fired a few bullets at the clones. They raised their shields quickly, deflecting the plasma shots with their polished surfaces. Stitch grunted and tossed the weapon away. "They're plasma-shielded. That probably means your wave trick won't work on them."
"Then we'll just have to get rid of those shields." Stitch nodded in agreement.
The clones had had enough of waiting around and hurled their shields at the experiments. They worked like giant buzzsaws, spinning through the air to cut anything before them in half. Stitch and Angel ducked down quickly. The blades soared over their heads, ricocheted off the building behind them, and headed back for their owners, who were charging their plasma bazookas. "Uh oh." Angel got in front of Stitch and tried to use the dagger to absorb the combined plasma blasts. Unfortunately, it proved to be too much energy for her weapon to contain, and the shots exploded on contact with the blade, knocking her away. "Angel!" Stitch cried.
Angel gave him a dizzy thumb's up. "Ugh…I'm okay…I'm fluffy!"
Stitch frowned. "Hey, that's my line!"
Angel grunted and started getting back up. "Just give me a minute."
Stitch looked up and saw the clones had retrieved their shields and were preparing to fire again. "You don't have a minute!" He led the clone's fire away from Angel, causing the bazooka shots to blow up parts of the street. He was forced to stop when he ran up against the force field wall. He skidded to a halt just a hair away from electrocution. He turned around and saw the Nosey clones throw their shields at him. He suddenly got a brilliant idea. He jumped as the blades spun towards him, bounced off the top of one, and landed to the side as the shields hit the force field. They ricocheted off, conducting some of the field's electricity and flew back into the hands of the clones, electrocuting them immediately. "Heh. Fried clone, anyone?"
The warp gate fluxed and spat out more clones. These were doubles of Amnesio, wearing the same combat gear as the others and carrying several dozen plasma explosives. They flew high above the ground, carpet bombing the streets below. Stitch and the recovered Angel avoided the blasts by climbing onto the walls of a nearby building. They climbed up above the clones and waited for them to fly by. As a couple of clones passed by, the experiments jumped off of the building, landing on the surprised clones. As the insectoids tried to shake them off, Angel cut the remaining bombs from her clone's body, causing them to fall to the ground and explode, creating a huge pothole in the road, which was already starting to look like Swiss cheese from all the previous blasts. She kicked the bug's sides, forcing it to fly close enough to its siblings for Angel to slice off their wings with her dagger, causing them to fall to the ground and explode. Stitch, on the other hand, armed all of the bombs on his bug at once, pushed it towards one of the other clones, and jumped off as the two collided, setting off a huge explosion that sent shrapnel everywhere. The remaining clones were knocked away by the blast, causing them to hit the force field wall and explode as well.
Frustrated (and a little shaken by the explosion) Hunkahunka turned on his speakers. "Think you're so tough, huh? Then take this!"
The warp gate fluctuated one more time and ejected more clones. These hit the shattered pavement hard, making craters. Each of them were clones of Tank, only the size of RVs, with thick armor protecting their heads, joints, and covering their backs. Spikes grew from the large metal shells on their backs, along with numerous cannons. One of them stepped forward and bellowed. It was bigger than the others, with a horned helmet, spiked joints, and Gatling guns attached to its sides.
Stitch grinned. "I'll take the big one."
"Okay. I'll deal with the leftovers," Angel said as she looked over the half dozen or so remaining clones.
The head clone pawed the ground and charged. Stitch lowered his head and charged as well. They collided with each other headfirst and recoiled from the impact. To the clone's surprise, its helmet shattered. Stitch grinned and punched the clone in the face, slamming it into a building. He leaped onto the copy and started pummeling it.
Angel got ready as one of the clones curled into a ball and started rolling towards her. She lowered her head and charged like a battering ram, slamming into the balled clone and knocking it back. It uncurled on its back and lay there, pitifully wiggling its legs in the air. She winced and rubbed her skull. "That'll leave a mark." The other clones started powering up their cannons. She jumped onto the belly of the clone she had knocked over and stabbed her dagger into it, then jumped off as the cannons fired, blasting the clone into the force-field wall. The clones started charging their cannons again. She threw her dagger straight down the barrel of one of the cannons, causing it to explode and take off a chunk of armor. The explosion tossed the dagger to the street, where Angel caught it. She jumped onto the damaged shell of the dazed clone and stabbed it in the back. The blade's magic venom killed it almost instantaneously. The four remaining clones fired their cannons at her. She hopped into the air and held the dagger downward. The four big shots bounced off the blade and struck their creators in the faces, stunning them. She dropped down and dashed up to each clone in turn, slashing each one across the face to kill it. She posed stylishly as the clones lay dead around her.
Stitch finished beating his clone to death and ripped a Gatling gun from its side. He pointed it into the air and fired, spraying bullets at Hunkahunka's ship. The lovebird tried to maneuver away from the blasts, but there wasn't enough room inside the force field. Stitch chipped off parts of the ship's hull until he was out of ammo, then grabbed the second Gatling gun and continued firing. Furious, Hunkahunka fired a missile at Stitch. Stitch discarded the now-empty gun, caught the missile in his bare hands just inches from his face, turned it over, and let go. It rocketed back up towards the ship and exploded, doing even more damage.
Rocked by the blast, Hunkahunka hit his forehead on a console, reopening an old wound. Boiling with rage, he wiped blood away from his eyes with one of his metal wings. "That's it!"
The warp gate trembled and disgorged approximately fifty Tank clones at once, all of them heavily armed and pointing their guns at the experiments. Not even Stitch would be able to stay up if all those bullets hit him at once. He growled angrily at the clones, challenging them to attack as they started charging their weapons.
Just then, a flash of light resonated from the force field. All the generators exploded, dropping the shield. "What! Impossible! How could those generators fail?" cried Hunkahunka.
A bolt of lightning shot across the street, striking a clone and leaping to another one, forming a chain reaction that simultaneously electrocuted all the soldiers. When they were all dead, the lightning solidified into a familiar yellow experiment. "Sparky!"
Sparky grinned. "That's my name, don't wear it out."
As Hunkahunka stuttered in disbelief, a muscular purple experiment leaped off of a rooftop and smashed into the ship's cockpit, cracking its glass cover with a powerful kick. "And don't forget me!" he said as he dropped to the ground.
"Kixx! What're you guys doing here?" asked Angel.
"A brown birdy pecked us a while ago and told us we were under a love spell and she had just broken it. And a good thing too, I was about to marry a sand crab!" Kixx joked.
"A few minutes ago, she came back and said you guys needed help. We couldn't let our two favorite cousins get creamed, now could we?" said Sparky.
Hunkahunka coughed loudly, reminding everyone he was still in control of the situation. "You think you can beat me now just cause you have a little backup?" Over a hundred clones of all types dropped from the gate. "Let's see you get past these!"
Kixx smirked. "Heh. That might be enough to stop us…if we came alone! Everyone, come on out!" Approximately two hundred experiments appeared on the rooftops and streets; and all of them were ready to get a piece of the action.
Hunkahunka gaped. "A-all of you are here? Why?"
Sparky smirked. "Cause we're a family, and family helps each other out! Ain't that right, Stitch?"
"You said it, cousin!"
Angel grinned. "Looks like you're going to get your patookie kicked by that which you said was hypocritical and meaningless, Hunkahunka: the power of our family!"
Kixx pointed to the now somewhat nervous enemy. "O'hana…ATTACK!"
The experiments cried and charged into battle, proceeding to beat the shit out of the poor defenseless clones. Sparky was about to join them when Stitch grabbed his shoulder. "Hey Sparky, can you give us a hand with something?" He pointed to the Stitch Machine, which was still stuck behind a force field. "Can you knock that down? Angel and I have to get home."
Sparky frowned. "What, you're not gonna fight with us?"
"We'd love to, but right now we have to go stop a homicidal god stuck in a monkey's body from killing people," explained Angel.
Sparky stared at her in confusion. "Um, okay." He zapped the force field, shorting it out. "Well, there you go. Good luck with that whole monkey…god…thing." He joined the battle.
As Stitch and Angel hopped into the cruiser and flew away, Hunkahunka frantically called for more reinforcements. A chance shot from Splodyhead struck the warp gate, causing it to collapse before the troops could exit. Hunkahunka tried to open a new gate but found himself under heavy fire from all the experiments with projectile weapons. Frightened, he started flying away. Not yet done with the evil hummingbird, the army of experiments chased after him, blasting his ship all the way.
…
"Jumba?"
Jumba looked up from his bubbling chemistry set. "Yes Pleakley?"
"Um, there's something I want to tell you."
The genius frowned. "Make it quick, I am trying to save us all from evil god."
"I love you."
Jumba froze. The test tube in his hand fell to the floor and shattered, releasing a chemical that started to dissolve the wood. "Eh heh…what?"
"I love you," Pleakley repeated.
Jumba nodded slowly while rummaging through his desk drawers. "Ah. That is what I thought you were saying."
"I think I fell in love with you when you first called me 'little one'. I've always admired your strength, your genius, even your dedication to evil…I'm the one who keeps sending you all those anonymous love letters in your dresser," Pleakley rambled.
"Uh huh." Jumba peered into a drawer.
"This afternoon, when you raped me, I was appalled. But secretly, some dark part of me loved it." He wrapped his limp arms around Jumba's neck. "Take me now! Push yourself inside of me again!"
"Er, one second." Jumba pulled a handful of dust out of his desk and flung it in Pleakley's face. "You are being in love with me!"
Pleakley blinked. "Jumba, you said I was immune to magic. Amnesia dust doesn't work on me."
"Oh…well in that case…" Jumba reached into his desk, pulled out a neuralyzer (stolen from Cobra Bubbles on his last visit) and flashed it in Pleakley's face.
Pleakley blinked. "…What was I saying?"
Jumba turned his attention back to the chemical set. "You were saying how much you are loving human actor Ben Stiller."
Pleakley blushed a deep green. "Well, I suppose he is kind of handsome…in a human sort of way…"
Lilo entered the room with a faintly glowing bow and arrow. "Hey Jumba. Here's the bow and arrow."
Jumba took them from her. "Ah, good! And you even soaked it in moonlight for extra few minutes, I am seeing."
"Yeah. So are we ready?"
"Almost. There is just one thing bothering me."
"What?"
Jumba scowled. "Where is 411 with my popcorn? I am still being hungry!"
"I'll go down and see what's taking her so long." Pleakley left the room and headed down to the kitchen, humming to himself. The humming stopped when he reached the kitchen.
Holly was lying on the floor in two pieces, with blood splattered all over the kitchen. She had been ripped in half by a demon's bare hands. 001 loomed over her defiled corpse, chanting as Holly's blood dripped from his fangs. "Come forth, my servants…Zarthos and Zinthos, arise!" The halves of Holly's body started pulsing and glowing blood red. Bones ripped from the flesh and muscles binding them and whirled in the air, fusing together. Fur peeled off the skin and tied into tassels, attaching themselves to the bones. Within seconds, they had formed a pair of swords just like the ones in Jumba's flashback. They flew into the monkey's hands. "At last…" He swung the blades in a dazzling display of swordplay, slicing the dinner table to pieces. "At last!" He laughed malevolently. He stopped suddenly, sniffing something. "What's that?"
"That" was the smell of Pleakley defecating himself in terror. 001 suddenly turned to the doorway, detecting the source of the horrible odor. Their eyes locked. Pleakley defecated himself again and started screaming as he ran back up the stairs. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-gasp-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
He ran into the bedroom and slammed the door shut. "Pleakley? What's wrong?" Lilo asked in concern.
Pleakley gasped for air. "Holly…ripped…blood…swords…monkey! MONKEY!" He shrieked, flailing his arms about.
"Calm down, you are making no sense!" said Jumba. He sniffed the air and made a face. "You are not smelling too good either."
That's when 001 slashed the door in half with his swords and stepped into the room. Lilo and Jumba gasped, while Pleakley defecated himself again, screaming "MONKEY! MONKEY!!! MOOOOONKEEEYYYYY!!!!"
001 stepped forward. "We are having unfinished business, Jumba Jookiba…"
Jumba grabbed his gun and started firing. 001 laughed and used his swords to deflect the shots, knocking them around the room. He didn't notice the broom coming towards him until it struck the back of his head, knocking him over. "Stay away from them!" Nani yelled, raising the broom for a second strike.
001 growled and reduced it to kindling with a single slash. Then he grabbed Nani by the shirt collar and glared into her fearful eyes. "You…are having something I need…" With a grin, he spun around and threw Nani at the window. She hit the glass and smashed through, falling outside.
"NANI!" screamed Lilo.
001 laughed at their horror and leaped onto the windowsill. "Now, this planet is doomed!" He jumped outside, grabbed Nani, and ran into the jungle.
"We've gotta stop him!" said Lilo as Pleakley ran in circles screaming.
Jumba nodded in agreement as Pleakley slammed into a wall and fell unconscious. "Yes, I am just remembering hidden power Karnax is having, and he is needing Big Girl to activate it. If he does, then the entire world will be destroyed!"
…
Suspenseful, huh? Find out why Karnax needs Nani next time!