Peace
C/by: Kenjaje
Chapter 8: Incursion
"Dr. Hamsterveil, 625 has alerted me another experiment is on the loose. Should I go back to catch it?" Gantu spoke, coming into the control room. Hamsterveil was drumming his fingers on the console as he peered into the monitor.
"Another experiment you say? Well, I suppose you could. But, before you go, tell 626 to be ready for intruders." He said, without turning toward Gantu.
"Intruders? What intruders?" Gantu tried to see the screen that Hamsterveil was transfixed upon.
"You're battalion did not eliminate the threat," He spoke, swiveling his chair up to the whale. "So I am going to have our new friend take care of it for us." He replied, rubbing his hands together.
"...Of course sir." Gantu growled. He walked out of the room, the door automatically closing behind him, and turned the corner to where Stitch was being held. "Abomination." Gantu called, after punching in the code to open the door. It was a fairly large sized room, bare walls, and only a small row of lights on the ceiling. Iron weights, dumbbells, and other weight machines were clustered throughout. "Where are you?" Gantu yelled.
"Agata!" Stitch cried, launching onto Gantu's back and digging his claws into his shirt.
"Hey!" Gantu pulled his blaster and shot Stitch off of him, grabbing the experiment into a choke in midair. "Now you listen to me, trog. The only reason I'm having a scrap of patience with you whatsoever is because Hamsterveil takes to your liking. Speaking of which, you are to report to the doctor immediately, do you understand?"
"Eh, guatapa."
"Why you!" Gantu squeezed, but Stitch was too strong for him. Stitch managed to escape Gantu and wander the corner to Hamsterveil. Gantu leered, rubbing his hand, and made his way to the transporter to go back to earth.
"Be ready, they may or may not be knowing we are counterattacking." Jumba cautioned lowly.
"Looks pretty quiet..." Lilo observed.
"Too quiet." Said Angel, peering into the radar.
"Why are we whispering?" Lilo asked. Angel and Jumba both looked at her for ruining the mood, she shrugged.
"Found it." Jumba stated, pointing at the computer and pressing a button.
"Found what?"
"Where 626 is being." A blip showed up on the windshield like before.
"The radar shows that there's some sort of asteroid there, but it's perfectly round." Angel said, glancing at the spherical radar.
"It must be station with an artificial atmosphere." Jumba concluded. "Looks like Hamsterveil was getting tired of old-fashioned prison quarters. Be holding on." Jumba warned, as he pushed the acceleration lever forward. The ship slowly eased faster, making little noise as they crept toward the space station. Within forty yards, Jumba pulled the lever back, taking the ship to a very slow crawl.
"Everything is calm so far." Angel said. But they knew that at any moment, an ambush was waiting for them. No more then thirty seconds passed, then did Jumba spot a ship far off in the distance.
"I knew it. Not this time!" He shouted, taking hold of the dorsal blaster's trigger, and firing at the ship. One shot, and it twirled into the blackness of space. For a second, all was quiet, Jumba glanced his eyes right and left, beads of tension forming on his brow. "Why are they not ambushing..." A moment later, red lights flickered all about, illuminating the black metal station-nearly the size of the moon.
"I think you made them mad." Lilo said innocently. A swarm of sentinels immediately dispersed from the station; Jumba pushed the throttle hard, making the ship dive full-speed toward their destination.
"What are you doing?"
"624, little girl, I'll hold them off. You go down to airlock and jump out as I pass." Jumba ordered quickly, his voice sounding urgent.
"Are you crazy!" Lilo shouted erratically, throwing her arms into the air.
"Don't be worrying; there is artificial atmosphere. You will be ok." Jumba explained as a barrage of lasers passed their ship.
"But what about you?" Lilo retorted over the noise.
"I'm with Lilo on this one." Angel chimed in. "Aren't you worried you'll get shot down again?"
"I am fully prepared for this. I've improved shields and maneuvering capabilities of ship multiple times over, thanks to Grabalicite ore found on planet." Angel still glanced at him with worrying eyes, as their ship continued to dive toward the space station. "You are missing opportunity for drop-off. I will be back to pick you up after you have gotten 626, now go." He ordered, Angel glanced back at Lilo, who shrugged.
"Fine. Don't let us down."
"I won't." Angel took Lilo's wrist and led her down the ship; past the passenger seats and toward the back, where the shaft to the airlock led. "Being good luck with you both." Jumba whispered under his breath.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lilo questioned.
"We have no choice, you and I will go in and get Stitch, and then Jumba will rendezvous." Angel explained, grabbing two blasters and twisting the valve to open the airlock. The ship rattled, and Lilo caught Angel before she fell.
"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about just jumping off the ship!" Lilo shouted, as the burst of wind came from the open door. "We'll get crushed!"
"No we won't, I've done this before a long time ago. If you're scared, just hold on." Angel said calmly, holding out her hand. Her fur wafted violently, as did her ears and tentacles, from the wind gusting through the airlock. Lilo felt awkward, the plan they had discussed not ten minutes ago when they left the planet seemed foolproof, why where they abandoning it now? Regardless, there was not time. Lilo hesitantly gripped Angel's paw, and smiled. Angel smiled back.
"Hang on." The ship lurched downward as it neared a dock, plunging to give them a close landing. Angel counted aloud. "Three...two...one..." Without warning, she jumped off as the ship came close enough to the landing zone. Lilo screamed loudly as she felt her weight lurched forward, thinking this was insane; jumping out of the ship. But something felt different. It felt like they were drifting rather then falling.
"This is weird!" Lilo shouted excitedly, as the wind ruffled her hair. She moved onto Angel's back, and gripped onto her shoulders as the ship above them started to go upward, the sound of the engines getting more severe.
"There's low gravity here, so it's pretty much going to be a soft landing. After we go inside, it'll feel like normal." Angel explained back. Her limbs were fanned out, to catch the wind that generated from Jumba's ship, and lead them to a nice, somewhat soft, landing.
"Just like in the movies!" Lilo exclaimed with enthusiasm. Angel put her finger to her lips.
"Shush, we have to be silent." Lilo nodded. Angel offered Lilo a blaster.
"I'm not supposed to play with those..." Angel lifted an eyebrow, and took the blaster back.
"Sorry, didn't know." She motioned with her other hand for Lilo to follow silently, as they made their way into the hangar. Lilo's mind buzzed with the noise of the alarm as she followed Angel past the large open doors. The hangar was vast, almost three football stadiums big. It smelled of oil, gasoline, burnt metal, and musty water. An echoing clank sounded off from far to their right. Angel grasped Lilo's wrist and took her to a concealed part of the hangar.
"What?" Lilo whispered.
"Sentinels." Angel responded, readying a blaster. The hum of the sentinel's engine steadily grew louder as it neared the two invaders, looking for signs of their presence. Hamsterveil peered into the computer monitor, switching the sentinel to his manual control. He steadily moved it forward, but was surprised when he heard Angel scream with rage as she lunged out from behind a small wall, firing three times, hitting the sentinel. With the final shot, the feed was lost.
"Wow..." Lilo said lowly with amazement. "You're really tense aren't you?"
"Maybe just a little..." Angel confessed, slightly panting. "Let's go." Angel's nails ticked quietly on the floor, followed by the bare-footed thumps of Lilo's pace. The metal was cold to Lilo, but she didn't care; this was actually the first time she'd noticed her sandals were missing. Angel skidded swiftly around the next bend as they entered the hallway past the hanger, firing four more shots at three sentinels that barred their path. "Hamsterveil should know who he's dealing with." She said, kicking a monitor that was still alive.
"Oh but I do, my Angel." Hamsterveil sneered. "But it is really you who needs to be worried about who you're going to be dealing with."
"Hamsterveil." Stitch said sternly, arriving into the room, the door shutting behind him. Hamsterveil turned immediately. "Ju taba leguita miga?"
"Ah, 626. It has come to my attention that there are some intruders that need to be dealt with. Will you see to it that they are...taken care of?" He spoke, scratching his chin for words.
"Eh." Stitch replied, blinking.
"Good, take a blaster if you wish." Hamsterveil pressed a button on his console, making a rack with four blasters pop out near Stitch. Stitch looked at the blasters, and immediately took to showering the weapons with mucus, rejecting the offer.
"These things are starting to get on my nerves!" Angel hollered, firing round after round, shooting down sentinel after sentinel, while Lilo stood behind her, ready to run if one started shooting at them. Lilo sensed that Angel was growing impatient, and angry. Hamsterveil was certainly finding the exact way to get at her. She was a bit scared that Angel would completely lose it, she sounded hysterically enraged already.
"Where is he?" Lilo thought. "Will he come? What will he do?" Angel ceased her firing spree and waited a moment to decide where to go. "Angel?" Lilo asked, stepping up from her cover.
"What?" Angel asked, trying not to sound angry toward Lilo.
"Do you think...we'll have to fight Stitch...when we see him?" She asked almost as if she was embarrassed to say it. Angel's angry eyes relaxed as she tossed her blaster to the floor and grasped the other one.
"As much as I hope not...I think we'll have to. But...I know I can fight him, because I'm not fighting him. Or at least, that's what I'm trying to make myself think...if I hold back, he might hurt you." She responded, looking worriedly into Lilo's eyes.
"What makes you think he'll hurt me-"
"He won't. I won't let him." She said determinately. "C'mon, let's go, I can smell him, he's close." Angel led the way; down a hall, a couple turns, Lilo wasn't really paying attention. Her mind drifted away from where she was; she felt detached from the present, as her feet followed Angel.
"But what if we don't have to fight him?" She thought, as she slowed her pace, but kept Angel in sight.. "What if we can change him back, without anyone getting hurt?" Angel stopped abruptly; Lilo stumbled, but caught herself, not wanting Angel to have to help her up off the ground if she fell.
"He's coming..." Angel said. "I can hear him." Lilo listened. She could hear him too, somewhere off in the distance; the very calm, very relaxed, but very menacing pace of his nails, clicking against the metal floor. They're surroundings were dim, and she couldn't see beyond Angel's silhouette. "Remember Lilo, he's not Stitch, so do don't do anything foolish."
A light above the door a few yards in front of them turned on as the door slowly opened. From the floor, as the door opened, Stitch was revealed from foot to head, in the shadow of the dull green light. He stepped through, a green tint barely illuminated his far as he casually strode to the right, walking toward a panel. He opened it, and punched a code. Both doors slammed shut almost immediately, and a large, bright light flickered on overhead. Lilo gasped as Stitch was now revealed from his shadowy guise.
"No..." Angel winced, not wanting to look at what she saw. The right side of Stitch's neck was bare of fur, as if he ripped at it violently; his arms balled into stern fists, his claws shimmered slightly; his muscles pulsated with the beat of his heart, as the robots could barely be seen moving inside of him; his breathing was slow and calm, yet vile and empty. But most of all, his eyes no longer shined with kindness and love; they were dull, hateful, and cold.
