Everyone seemed surprised that I killed off Lilo. Glad I could do something you weren't expecting.
Nukerjsr, for what Hamsterviel's offering her, Mertle willingly gave up poor Gigi along with any semblance of morals she used to have. She's a cold evil little bitch now. We will see what Nani, Pleakley, Jumba, David, and 625 are doing in the epilogue.
Bluefox, don't be so sure Gantu's at peace…he did do a lot of bad things, he might be in Hell now for all we know. I hope not, though…
Mermaid Ninja, how could Mertle's ex-friends or 628 get up there? No, help will come from a different avenue.
Anonymous, see my answer for Nukerjsr.
PIcaRDMPC, actually that's the real Lilo. It never occurred to me to put a clone on the cross, so Lilo's dead for real. Sorry.
…
To everyone's surprise, the clones spontaneously combusted, showering the room with gore. Houdini threw up and fainted.
Mertle blinked. "…Was that supposed to happen?"
Hamsterviel was equally confused. "No! Computer, what just happened?"
Red lights flashed and alarms started blaring. "Warning! Virus detected in Clone Control Systems!"
Hamsterviel was furious. "A virus! It must have activated the failsafe bombs I planted in the clones in case they turned on me! Computer, eliminate the virus!"
"Hacker…" whispered Kixx.
"She has revealed herself so that we may be free. Her sacrifice shall not be in vain." Dracula pulled out his katana. "Swiftly! Attack the evil one! He must pay for what he has done!" The heroes charged.
"Warning! Virus detected in Soul Vacuum systems!" The machine Hamsterviel was sitting in started sparking. He quickly ejected before it exploded. The other two machines started sparking too.
"Mertle! Get my soul, I'll grab the Star of Destiny!" Mertle nodded and ran for the shimmering orb.
Just as Hamsterviel pulled the crystalline star from its harness, the heroes reached him. Stitch leaped onto Hamsterviel, causing his hoverchair to slam into the containment field. He reared back his fist, preparing to pound Hamsterviel into a bloody smear on the upholstered hoverchair. "DIE!" he roared. Stitch punched Hamsterviel with all his might. The instant Stitch's fist made contact with Hamsterviel's face, his indestructible glove shattered. Stitch stared at his now ungloved and seriously hurting hand in disbelief. "What-"
Hamsterviel gripped the Star of Destiny and transformed into the freaky black demon thing seen at the end of Wrath of the Damned. As Stitch's eyes widened in surprise, Hamsterviel put his hand on Stitch's chest and blasted him away with a burst of black lightning. He crashed onto the ground several feet away, crackling with electricity.
"STITCH!" yelled Angel. She threw her dagger at Hamsterviel. The magic blade shattered on contact with the villain's body. He laughed and fired a huge blast of lightning at Team Angel, knocking them all out.
Sparky turned into a bolt of electricity and streaked towards Hamsterviel. The doctor grabbed him before he could impact, charged him with dark energy, and threw him at Slugger. Sparky turned into a bolt of black lightning and blasted Slugger, knocking both of them out. The doctor grinned, then noticed a bunch of shuriken flying towards him.
The throwing stars broke on contact with his body. Dracula swooped down from above, katana drawn. "Die, evil one!" He drove the blade into Hamsterviel's forehead. The sword shattered, and Hamsterviel blasted the wannabe ninja away.
Kixx leaped at Hamsterviel and got blasted away in midair. Houdini woke up, took a look at the bloody Lilo clones and the demonic Hamsterviel, and fainted again. Hamsterviel looked mildly impressed, seeing his enemies were still alive, albeit in great pain. "I underestimated you all. Those lightning blasts would have killed a weaker experiment. Oh well." He pressed a few buttons, and flew in a circle, spewing dust from the rear of his hoverchair. It ignited, turning into a warp gate. "Come, Mertle!" His apprentice hopped onto his armrest, carrying the weird orb. "I'd stay and kill you, but I have other things to do. Your virus may have foiled my master plan, but that's what backups are for!" Laughing, he flew into the vortex and disappeared. The gate closed behind him.
Kixx moaned as he tried to recover from the doctor's attack. "…The hell was that?"
"I don't know…but he was so strong, my dagger broke on contact with him…what is he?" wondered Angel.
Stitch was occupied with other thoughts. He stared up at the hanging cross, sobbing. "Lilo…Lilo, I've failed you…"
"No…you didn't fail her…" said Finder.
"Yeah, Stitch…you did everything you could…you had no way to know she was already dead…" said Clip.
They slowly started to get up. "That rodent…is going to pay," promised Sparky.
"Yeah, but how?" asked Finder.
The communicator beeped. Kixx pulled it out. "Hacker?"
"Hey guys." The spider appeared onscreen. She had a weak smile on her face and she was slowly disintegrating. "Glad I could get to you in time."
"Hack," said Kixx quietly. "You saved us."
"Yeah."
"But you said if you did anything active in Hamsterviel's computers, his virus busters would hunt you down and delete you."
Hacker nodded. "Yes. I'm dying." Kixx looked down and said nothing.
Houdini was confused. "But…but why would you sacrifice yourself? You could have just let us die and hid safely in the computer forever."
"Because you guys are my friends and family. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you all, including giving up my life. But I think that's a concept you'll never understand, Houdini," said Hacker softly.
"Finder, quick! Sniff out a way to save Hacker!" said Angel.
Finder shook his head. "Already tried. We're too late."
"No…"
Stitch turned away, still crying. He clenched his fists, ignoring the pain from the hurt one. "Another innocent life…to hold him accountable for…"
Hacker shook her head. "Guys, listen…there's more important things to do now. If you don't stop Hamsterviel, a lot more people are going to die."
"How?" asked Slugger. "We hit him hard. He shook off everything we threw at him, even Stitch's punches and Angel's dagger. The guy's invincible!"
"Incorrect," said Dracula. "Nobody is invincible."
"He's right," said Hacker. "The doc does have a weakness. I found out some very important information about the doctor's plans while you were all busy fighting Gantu. Hearing it may take up valuable time you'll need to stop him, but you've got to know what you're up against. Listen to this conversation I recorded…"
…
"It all started a long time ago with my ancestor, Adolf Von Hamsterviel. He was the greatest evil of his generation, and feared by the entire galaxy," started Hamsterviel.
Mertle looked confused. "What does an old relative have to do with this?"
The doctor scowled. "I'm getting there! Don't interrupt!"
"Sorry."
"Anyway, Adolf was a very powerful evil wizard who recognized the values of science, and as such had a large fleet in addition to his magical abilities. This very fleet we're in now. Now, like every evil wizard, he sought more power. Through the use of various gruesome spells and experiments, he managed to make himself invincible and was anathema to any spirit or possessed being that touched him. He later discovered he could also transform into a demonic being with the ability to hurl lightning, but it came with a price, as do all things. He lost his soul. He also ensured that every one of his descendants who lived past thirty would gain the same ability and would all lose their souls. Also, he found that if he stayed in his demonic form too long its powers would consume and destroy him. The soul loss didn't matter to him, because this meant he could do whatever he wanted and if he died he would never be punished in the next world, but the inability to use his more powerful form irritated him.
"So, he took raw evil energy from outside of time and contained it within a crystal star. The very star I'm wearing around my neck. By wearing it at all times, its evil power would infuse him and keep him from being destroyed by his other form. But, understandably, this wasn't enough. Sure, he was still the greatest and most indestructible evil wizard in the universe, but that didn't keep people from laughing at his height. So, he got the idea to build himself a bigger, more powerful body that everyone could not help but be terrified by. He combined his limited knowledge of science with his skill in alchemy to begin work on what he called the Ultimate Monster, a being infused with the powers of the five strongest elemental forces of nature. He intended to transfer his consciousness to the monster's brain and, in conjunction with his fleet, terrorize the universe."
"The only hitch was that consciousness transference required combining the soul and the mind, just as death does, and since Adolf had no soul, that was a problem. But, he figured he could just steal somebody else's soul and use it instead. He never got around to it though, because halfway through construction he choked on a fishbone and died. He was invincible on the outside, but not from within. Such a pity. His minions abandoned the fleet and the monster in its hiding place here in the Nebula and were never heard from again. The Star of Destiny was lost and somehow wound up on Paradise Vega thousands of years later.
"My family continued the tradition of evil, though few of them discovered they had latent invulnerability or no souls, and none of them ever had quite the notoriety Adolf had. I only learned of the old story of family invincibility through a story my mother told me, and I disregarded it after I tested myself and found I could feel pain, not knowing the invulnerability wouldn't kick in until I was older. I had no idea of my true potential until one day in Jumba's laboratory where I was assaulted by an early experiment, and I somehow repelled it with lightning bolts. In retrospect, I think some spirit or ethereal being must have possessed this experiment, which is why it triggered my latent abilities. Later that same day I survived being blown up by a failed invention, but I attributed that to sheer luck and forgot about the incident for a few years.
"Then, just over a year ago, one of my captive experiments snapped during training and tried to kill me. The experiment's attacks had no effect on me, startling both of us. I had the experiment restrained and brainwashed, then I attempted to figure out what had just happened. I recalled how I had survived the explosion and the attack back at Jumba's lab, and also remembered the old stories about Adolf. I realized there had to be a connection. I performed several tests that confirmed that I was indeed invincible, proving the old stories correct. Since that was true, I realized the tale about him having a fleet and a monster capable of destroying the galaxy had to be true as well. After days of looking through the old family archives, I learned of my ancestor's experiments and of his demonic state. I also found the fleet's location and decided to investigate it. I believed that if I could find the fleet and the weapon, I could add them to the newer armada I had been building in secret and conquer the galaxy.
"However, I remembered that I already had a plan in the works to gather the remaining experiments and destroy 626, so I decided to see how that would work out. The plan was a failure, but it proved an excellent test of my clone army and I managed to eliminate several potential threats to my reign. I also transformed to my demonic state for the first time when my captive experiments rebelled, and I killed them easily. But only moments later, I discovered my own power was beginning to consume me, so I changed back. I rechecked the records and found out I had nearly killed myself by transforming, so I swore never to do it again until I could find a way to keep my life intact. I then went to investigate the fleet.
"What I found wasn't promising. The fleet had decayed over age, and so had the incomplete monster. Even if the monster had been complete, by this point it was obsolete by Galactic standards and wouldn't have been too formidable a threat. So, I formulated a new master plan. I refurbished the interior of this flagship and removed the monster from its containment chamber for study. I cloned it and made numerous changes to its genetic structure, along with various cybernetic enhancements, to make the beast infinitely stronger. Even then, there were still large holes in its DNA due to the physical decay in the original, and I wasn't a good enough geneticist to plug those holes on my own. I planned to remedy that by going to Earth once the monster's superstructure was almost complete so I could obtain experiments and sample their DNA as well as that recorded in Jumba's computer so I could encode it into the monster's genes to give it the powers of every experiment.
"I needed lots of Uburnium as well, for the new heart I had given the monster was really a sort of recycling engine. I found a way to use fuel as a blood substitute, allowing the creature to go without food or air indefinitely, so it could breathe in space. And I had another reason for capturing the experiments other than DNA samples, for I, like my ancestor, intended to transfer my consciousness into the monster, but I couldn't do that because I had no soul. I could easily obtain one using my Soul Vacuum technology, but unlike my ancestor, I did not think just any soul would do. If, for some reason, my monster body were to die, the soul I had taken for myself would no doubt be too weak to resist the flames of the infernal regions, and I would burn for all eternity. Therefore I needed more than one soul, for the more soul one has in the next world, the more power they wield. And what better candidates did I have for powerful souls than experiments? So I brought all these experiments here to fuse their souls into one which I could use to control the monster and survive in the next world if I happened to die."
"Wow!" said Mertle. "But what about the Star of Destiny?"
"That too, figured into my plans. Even after the monster has a mind, soul, blood, and DNA, it still lacks the spark it needs to bring it to life. My ancestor faced the same problem. He realized he could use the evil energy inside the Star of Destiny to jump-start his monster. The beast would absorb the evil power, and become truly invincible. I will do the same thing with my monster. Once I am in command of the creature's body, I will be the most feared being in the universe!"
Mertle looked sullen. "And I'll be stuck as plain old Mertle forever."
Hamsterviel frowned, thinking that over. He had grown to like Mertle, and he would be unable to continue teaching her as effectively if he became a giant monster. He snapped his fingers, getting an idea. "I know! You can use the prototype!"
"Prototype?"
"Yes, I kept the original monster and fixed it up a bit just in case something happened to the new one. I planned to transfer myself into the original monster if my own were somehow disabled as part of my backup plan, but if all goes well you can utilize the old monster instead. Then we can continue to be master and apprentice, terrorizing the universe together!"
Mertle clapped her hands. "Great! Let's get started!" She paused. "Hey, how come you didn't just transform when you had the Star back in the jungle and blast Stitch's buddies instead of using the H-Viper?"
Hamsterviel crossed his arms. "I liked the H-Viper. And transforming makes my stomach queasy anyway."
"Oh. And another thing, what did Lilo have to do with anything?"
"She was bait for 626. I've cloned her to create an army that he will be unable to defeat without causing serious psychological damage to himself. After I finished obtaining her DNA, I had no more use for the real Lilo, so I killed her."
Mertle was shocked. "You killed Weird-lo?"
"Yes."
"Cool, you've fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams!" She bowed to him, impressed. "I'll never be as evil as you are."
Hamsterviel chuckled. "Someday my dear, someday."
…
"So that's what he's been up to all along!" said Slugger. "He's trying to turn himself into the Ultimate Monster!"
"Yes," agreed Hacker. "And now that I've disabled the Soul Vacuum transfer devices, he's using his backup plan. He'll take control of the prototype, absorb the Star's evil energy, and combine his power with that of his fleet's to be almost unbeatable. You have to stop him!"
"How?" They all asked.
A complex diagram appeared on the communicator. "I found this schematic for the prototype after the doctor finished explaining his plans. I was so busy looking for it, I couldn't warn you guys about the Lilo clones. Anyway, he's probably loaded his mind into the monster by now and initiated the power-up sequence, but there's still a chance to stop him. If you can destroy the Star of Destiny while it's still being drained, it'll release an excess of evil energy resulting in a power overload that'll destroy Hamsterviel forever."
"What about that soul thing made up from our cousins? I don't want them to be part of Hamsterviel forever if we kill him!" said Finder.
"Don't worry, I found an error he made when he fused them all together. If he dies, the souls will separate and become individual spirits again," explained Hacker.
"Is there any way we can return those souls to their bodies?" asked Stitch.
Hacker looked forlorn. "…No. There's no way. I'm sorry."
"And there's nothing we can do for Lilo either, I suppose."
"Nothing. I'm sorry."
Stitch shook his head. "No. Hamsterviel's the one who'll be sorry."
"One last thing…" A set of coordinates appeared over the schematic. "Punch these in to that teleporter over there, and it'll send you right to the prototype's launching area."
"Thank you, Hack…for everything," said Kixx.
"Thank you all for being the best cousins a virtual girl could ever have." She grinned, then shuddered. "It's happening, my data's decompiling…this is it. Goodbye, everyone." She vaporized.
"Hacker?" Kixx shook the communicator. "Hacker?" His shoulders slumped. "She's gone."
"But not forgotten." Everyone looked at Stitch. "Hacker is just one of many whose lives have been destroyed by Hamsterviel. Hunkahunka, Gantu, all our cousins…Lilo…and we're on the list too. But we have something everyone before us didn't have."
"What?" asked Sparky.
"A chance. The nine of us are all that's left. We're all that stands in the way of that bastard and the rest of the universe. I'm taking him down…to avenge everyone he's hurt, and to keep anyone else from feeling the same pain we have. Who's with me?" He extended a hand.
Slugger and Sparky immediately put their hands over his. Angel, Clip, and Finder joined in only seconds later. Kixx and Dracula placed their hands on top and looked at Houdini expectantly. "Well Houdini? Aren't you coming with us?" asked Clip.
The rabbit looked at them in horror and shook her head. "You're all crazy! Hamsterviel's too powerful and scary, you can't beat him! I'm staying here where it's safe!"
They looked at the bunny in disappointment. Just as Angel was about to give her some words of encouragement, Stitch said, "Fine." They looked at him in surprise. "We don't need a coward hindering us in this fight."
"That's a horrible thing to say!" protested Angel.
"But true."
"Stitch-sama is right," said Dracula. "The stakes are too high. We need every experiment capable of fighting to counter the threat that is Hamsterviel. Houdini has never once shown a single iota of fighting skills, and stealth will no doubt be useless in the coming battle. If it is her choice to remain here while we fight for our lives to save the universe as we know it, that's her decision."
"Is this really what you want, Houdini?" asked Kixx.
She took a deep breath. "Yes. I'm staying here."
Kixx sighed. "Then Team Kickass is no more."
Dracula put a hand on the pugilist's shoulder. "Do not be certain, Kixx-sama…I still stay at your side." Kixx couldn't help smiling at that.
"Then I guess this is the parting of the ways," said Finder sadly.
"Goodbye Houdini. If we live, we'll come back and pick you up. If we don't, you can feel guilty for the rest of your hopefully short life knowing your cowardice may have caused our deaths," said Slugger. Sparky hit him. "Ow!"
"Ignore him, even if he is right," said Sparky. "So long, Houdini."
The eight experiments said the rest of their good-byes, then turned and walked into the teleporter, leaving the coward rabbit alone. They inputted the coordinates Hacker left them and vanished in a flash of light. In the last second before they de-molecularized, Houdini thought they looked exactly as true heroes should, departing to fight their greatest enemy for the sake of all existence. Deep down they were terrified of what they would face but they were willing to face it anyway, because that's what real heroes do. And then she was all alone, in a huge room with nothing but empty experiment shells all around her.
…
And so the master plan is revealed. Next chapter is the biggest fight yet, pitting all three teams against Hamsterviel's Ultimate Monster. To see who will win, tune in next time.
