(Note: I apologize; I had planned to finish this story by Sunday night (31st) but did not finish, as there was a large storm last night. Please don't let the passing of all hallows eve hinder the mood of the story.
--Kenjaje)
The Blue Werewolf
C/By Kenjaje
Chapter 6: Late Awakening
--October 31; around 2:30 PM; Leaning against the Tower's outside wall
"Running. Randomly? No...chasing...chasing after...something-someone? Who-what? Whatever...whatever bit me. Dark...trees...owl's...full moon. A dream? No...real, but distant. A scent...familiar; someone I know. Following it. Getting closer...a flash. Daylight? lightning? No...too quick. Pain. Wh-what's going on?"
Stitch groaned, his mind woke up slowly, and his body even slower. He heard the birds chirping, the wind blowing, and felt the sun on his fur, but his body didn't do anything less than shudder. Another moment passed by, and Stitch suddenly realized something was out of place.
He opened his eyes and immediately squinted as the sun seared his pupils, burning a streak of green on his retina. It faded to a low purple and disappeared, Stitch's eyes adjusted fully, and he saw that he was outside. His back hurt all over, his neck felt stiff and ached. He realized he was leaning against the Tower, the pumpkin nearby to his left.
He knew exactly why he was outside. A memory came back to his mind as he thought about last night; he was staring up at the moon, and then felt himself change somehow. Fear rose in his veins.
"Where is he?" Stitch picked up Lilo's voice, somewhere far off in the distance. He looked around; the sun was high over to the west. His inner clock screamed in confusion, not knowing what time of day it was.
"Lilo we've been looking all day...maybe he's just out chasing an experiment." He heard Nani comfort Lilo. "Besides, Stitch wouldn't run away again would he? Did you two get into a fight last night?"
"No, of course not. At least...I don't think so." Stitch slinked up the wall, using it to help him get up. His fur was twisted again, but the sweat was dried off a long time ago. Had he been a werewolf again, and fallen asleep in the morning?
"Put the coffee outside, maybe that'll lure him." Nani suggested.
"Don't joke around like that!" Lilo snapped.
"I wasn't joking, I was being serious." Nani replied with a soft voice. The yelling only grew louder as Stitch hazily walked toward the back door and opened it. He stepped inside to the cool air, and slammed the door shut behind him, though he didn't mean to. "Maybe that's him." He heard Nani's voice speak after a pause of silence. A second later Lilo slid around the corner into view.
"There you are!" She said relieved, running toward him and clasping him in a hug. "I've been looking all over for you! Where have you been?" She asked her questions quickly, as if she wasn't expecting answers.
"Ou...outside...sleeping." Stitch said, trying to form the words. His mind was still sluggish.
"Sleeping? You were sleeping?" Her voice rose with surprise.
"Eh." Stitch responded, still sounding winded.
"Were you out all night? Are you feeling ok?"
"Naga..." Stitch said, bringing his voice down to a whisper. "Stitch turned into werewolf." He said, his voice quivering.
"Stitch, you didn't turn into a werewolf. Remember, I proved you weren't one last night, I made you stare at the moon." Stitch stared down at the floor; Lilo began to think he wasn't even paying attention. "You're impossible." She said, rolling her eyes. "Look, if you really think something's wrong with you, we can try to see if one of Jumba's scans will find it."
"Oketaka." He replied, accepting her idea. Lilo stared at him for a moment; his eyes were tired and his body was shacking from weariness. She smiled calmly and walked him up the stairs and to Jumba's room.
"Come in." Jumba said, as he heard a knock on his door. "Ah, little girl, 626, what have you come to ask Jumba today? Still wondering about those strange markings I presume?"
"Strange markings? What strange markings?" Pleakley said; popping his head over the sewing machine he was behind.
"No, we're not wondering about that," Lilo said, "Stitch, thinks he's a werewolf...do you think you're computer would be able to tell if something is wrong with him or not?"
"A werewolf?" Pleakley shouted, leering at Stitch. "Werewolfes are dangerous creatures, you two shouldn't be playing with them! You're just lucky I know a thing or two about them, and know how to-"
"Pleakley, werewolves aren't in Hawaii." Lilo interrupted. Pleakley blinked a few times.
"They're not?" He asked.
"No." She replied.
"Oh, well...uh...still, it's good to know just in case. Be careful."
"Enough, enough," Jumba said loudly, interrupting everything, "Now what was it you were wanting to know little girl?"
"I wanted to know if you could scan Stitch and see if something is wrong with him." She said slowly. Jumba put a hand to his chin.
"Of course I can. I'm sure Pleakley won't mind waiting a little while, while we perform the operation?" Pleakley shifted his gaze.
"Oh sure, go ahead. I'll just guess your sizes. But no complaining if it's a bit off."
"No problem." Jumba said. "Little girl, 626, be following me please." Jumba picked up his tiny portable computer and marched out of his room down the hall. Deftly they kept foot behind Jumba as he walked them outside and to the front side of the house, where he kept his ship concealed. "It is good you are wanting me to scan 626. Am needing excuse to test new hyper-performance experiment-scanning system; scans many aspects of neural, muscular, skeletal, sensory and computer systems within any and all of my experiments, and in record time too."
"How long does this one take?" Lilo asked, hoping it would be much shorter than the previous models of Jumba's scanning mechanisms.
"Should last about...five to ten minutes." He said, calculating the estimated times in his head. "Is magnificent improvement, no?"
"Actually...it is." She replied, astonished. Jumba's last model took three times as long to scan Stitch, and other models took up to a few hours, but ten minutes was nothing compared to those other systems. But still, the bubble-scanner was Lilo's favorite; often she and Stitch would rig it so that they could roll it around from the inside, like a rodent's exercise ball. Juba stopped at the base of his ship, and moved aside a curtain of trees, jumping inside the ship's hatch. A moment later, he emerged with a cable, and an odd looking glass circle, which was slightly raised by a smaller platform underneath.
"And here it is." He announced. "Little girl, would you be so kind as to hook this cable into Jumba's computer?" He asked, handing her the tiny egg-shaped processor. She did as he asked, while he took the other end of the cable and inserted it into a jack on the base of the odd standing pad. He then set the pad on the grass and motioned for Stitch to hop on. "Now, little girl, please come into ship. This scan, though highly efficient, is dangerous to you and me, whereas the radiation does not affect 626. So, unless you'd like for to be genetically altered...please, step inside."
"I'm there." She said, hopping into the ship, handing the computer off to Jumba. He quickly pushed in a few keys and set the computer down.
"This will not take long, 626, just stand completely still. Ready?"
"Eh." Stitch replied. Jumba quickly bent down, tapped a key on the computer, and nearly slammed his hand with the speed he used to shut the door. The scan immediately began; a rainbow surrounded Stitch's body, emanating from the glass pad below him. He flinched at first, but a warning from Jumba telling him to stand still calmed his nerves. The rainbow changed from red to violet in the order of the colors, then white, and back to the colored cycle. His fur turned the same colors as the rainbow, but as the white light surrounded him, nothing seemed to change. Except, however, he felt a buzzing inside of him, or under him he couldn't tell. It felt omnipresent, a vibrating in his bones and inner ear, buzzing his spinal cord and making him feel dizzy as spots peppered his eyes. The whole process felt like a recurring blood rush. Finally, it ended, and to Stitch, it felt as though it had just started. The massaging tremor and heat beneath his feet subsided, and Jumba and Lilo popped out of the ship.
"Aha! Six minutes, forty-seven seconds. New record!" He bowed, as if he'd won three Nobel prizes, while Lilo clapped her hands. "Now, 626, you may step off the scanning pad." Stitch did as he was told as Jumba walked to the computer and examined it. "Now, let us see if we can find anything out of place with your normal status, 626." He ticked away at some data, murmuring to himself as he scanned through the data. "Nothing wrong here...no change in brainwaves...no psychological malfunctions...computer systems show normal and..." He paused. Lilo sensed a feeling of curiosity come over Jumba.
"What is it?" She asked, after the silence passed for a moment.
"Is very curious...it seems that 626 has gained an incredible amount of strength in his physical—and some mental—aspects, but this change has taken place over a short period of time...almost instantly..."
"Meaning?" Stitch urged Jumba to explain more simply.
"Meaning, for example, your agility has increased three-fold literally overnight. This is very interesting and unusual."
"Werewolf!" Stitch exclaimed, pointing to the computer as if it proved his words.
"Don't be so sure 626. That is one possibility. There are other factors too...you may have gone through something of a 'growth spurt' so to speak. Though it has not happened to any of my other ingenious experiments, I had always wondered if they grew a small amount as they aged...sort of like earth-child. According to Pleakley that is..."
"So...in other words, there's no way to actually tell?" Lilo asked.
"Scientifically; no. I have done all I can, but I will say this; if what Stitch claims is true, and he was bitten by strange semi-parasitic mythological earth-creature, then it is quite possible he may have gained some enhanced abilities."
"Well, thanks for your help."
"Do not be mentioning." Jumba said humbly. "Am glad to assist. Besides," he lowered his voice and put an arm to his face to whisper to Lilo, "was needing excuse to get away from boring measurement-taking practices for to be made a costume. Is very aggravating at times, no?" With that he chuckled to himself and unhooked his computer, walking up the stairs to the house and slamming the door behind him.
"Well that got us nowhere..." Lilo sighed.
"Yeah." Stitch nodded.
"You still think you're a werewolf?" She asked without any direct emotion behind her voice.
"Yeah." He replied, nodding his head again.
"Well, we'll definitely find out tonight; there's another full moon. Until then, will you help me carve the pumpkin?"
"Suga." He replied. And they both walked to the back of the house, as if nothing peculiar had happened at all.