Hi, I hope. Is anybody reading this? God, I hope so. Otherwise I'd have no life! Jus' kidding, brah. I'm writing the first three chapters at once because I usually find it extremely FRUSTRATING to read a chapter and have to wait 2-4 weeks for the next one. Oh, well I won't keep you waiting. Enjoy.

Chapter Three- Stranger From the Sea

626 sat impatiently.

The white boat pitched and yawed with the endless waves, resembling a little speck of bone in the middle of a field of melted glass. Even though the surrounding view was absolutely breathtaking, 626 could find no interest in it. He yawned and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Settle down," Jumba scolded him in Russian.

626 looked at the man next to him with an annoyed look. He did not think he had waited hours at sea to be reprimanded.

"Where are we going again?" 626 asked like a little child wanting to know from his parents the purpose of a car trip.

"We are off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands, you know that," Jumba told him.

"I know that, but what's our final destination?"

"That?" Jumba looked as though he was about to say something, but stopped. "That, they have not told me."

626 scoffed and shifted in his seat again.

"What is with you?" Jumba asked. "You are usually not so antsy on long waits,"

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right,"

626 looked around. He was sitting in an empty little cabin, with nothing to look at except the portholes revealing the rolling sea outside. It almost looked mundane, except for a feeling that 626 felt wasn't quite familiar with, but still made him uncomfortable.

His head cocked curiously and attentively as the hatchway opened up and a large henchmen- looking man stepped through, never taking his eyes off the two.

"We are ready for you now," he informed.

Jumba and 626 got up, heading for the hatch.

"I don't like water," 626 added nervously.

"It'll be all right," Jumba reassured, "I know these people. Yuri Ilyanov is an old friend of mine from the Russian government labs,"

626 nodded in an attempt to ease his own doubts.

They walked out of the hatchway and into the hall, where they followed the solemn man up a small flight of stairs and onto the deck.

There really was nothing a whole lot to look at, thought 626, since this was nothing but a common freighter ship. The crates might've been hiding something interesting, so he tuned his sensitive ears to hear what was in them.

He heard the dull clunk of something as the sea moved the boat, and it only made him even uneasier.

They walked until they had reached the stern of the ship. Standing around the edge was an old, bald Russian man surrounded by more henchmen. Jumba laughed and hugged the other man.

"Jumba, you old fool!" the other man greeted in Russian, "How are you doing?"

"Yuri, my old friend! Couldn't be better!"

After they broke apart, Yuri looked at 626 and gasped.

"Is this it?" Yuri asked his friend.

"Yes," Jumba replied, "my experiment."

Yuri walked around the boy, checking out his every feature, and then bent down and looked into his eyes. "Incredible! A remarkable specimen, Jumba. You really created him?"

"That's right." Jumba said quite proudly. "He is a one hundred- per- cent artificially created human, cloned from a base pattern of my own DNA. He is like my own human child, except I've added a few advancements."

"Like what?" Yuri asked.

"All of his senses have been increased tenfold, so he can even see in the dark. Plus, all of the basic functions of the human body have been multiplied, such as increased strength, speed, agility, durability and intelligence. He is tougher than shoe leather, due to a dense molecular structure, which unfortunately makes him unable to swim. But, he can outthink six tacticians at once, and is trained better than the US Special Forces. Kind of like the Six Million Dollar Man, no?"

Yuri nodded in agreement. "So you constructed him all by yourself?"

"Yes, with some private funding,"

Yuri straightened up and was silent for a moment. Then he looked at Jumba. "About that private funding, Jumba..."

Jumba 's proud smile faded, as he didn't understand. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see a short, old man with white hair and a goatee dressed in a sharp black suit, red shirt and a wooden cane, followed by some more henchmen. Jumba gasped and looked at Yuri.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

Yuri looked at him with sad eyes. "Sorry Jumba, but next time you should choose who you do business with more carefully."

The short little man smiled and spoke English with a French accent. "Good afternoon, Jumba."

"You," Jumba replied in English, too. "I was thinking you were dead!"

"Your friend was right, Jumba," the man pointed at him with the cane, "You should choose your business partners more carefully."

"Who is this?" 626 demanded in Russian.

"You should teach the little brat more manners, Jumba. After all I did pay for him." The man sneered.

"Dr. Jacques Von Hamesterviel. What do you want?" Jumba ignored 626.

"Only what is mine, dear doctor," Hamsterviel set his eyes on 626.

"What do you mean? He is mine! I created him!" Jumba was outraged.

"And who do you think funded your little illegal experimentation, you fat fool? Who spent the millions you desperately needed?"

"What are you wanting with Experiment 626?" Jumba asked. "Surely you yourself are not needing his skills."

"No, Jumba. I want him for one purpose only: revenge," Hamsterviel answered.

"Is this about what happened in Paris? You know what happened wasn't his fault! He was still being in his training stage!" Jumba argued.

"And yet you tried to kill me, Jumba. And you failed miserably," Hamsterviel's expression grew hard. "You should've known how I'd react. And now I'm going to kill you both for taking away something that important to me."

"Wait!" Yuri protested. "We had a deal! You said you would kill the experiment and leave Jookiba alone!"

"Thing's change, Ilyanov. Oh, and about your payment..."

Hamsterviel gestured his hand. A henchman pulled out a revolver and fired it point plank into Yuri Ilyanov's chest. He toppled backwards and over the railing, splashing into the sea.

"I hope liquid funds will be sufficient," Hamsterviel grinned.

"You bastard..." Jumba muttered.

A henchman stuffed his fist into Jumba's flabby gut and he toppled over.

"Do shut up, you has-been washup. It might make your torture go smoother,"

"Shoving it up yours, Hamster- wheel," Jumba mocked before a henchman kicked him in the back.

"You think that's funny?" Hamsterviel demanded. "We'll close that chubby mouth soon enough, doctor,"

At that moment when Hamsterviel turned around distracted by Jumba, 626 took his cue and whipped off his jacket, Matrix- style to reveal his four hostlers holding his trusty Colt .45 pistols. As Hamsterviel turned to look at him 626 pulled out a pair of guns and leveled them at the little man's gut, preparing to send him to hell-

Suddenly, the crates nearby burst open to reveal groups of armor-clad henchmen with Steyr AUG assault rifles, who immediately began firing at 626 before he could pull the triggers. A swarm of bullets cut him in various places, and he turned just in time to catch one in his thigh. Dropping his guns and stumbling, 626 managed to throw himself overboard and out of the way of fire. Hamsterviel saw the splash, and rushed to find 626's air bubbles trailing away from the boat.

"626!" Jumba yelled out from the deck.

"Shoot him! Shoot him!" Hamsterviel demanded as machine gun fire chattered in the air above him.

Beneath the surface, 626 had found that his two remaining guns were dragging him down, so he discard the hostlers and tried to swim away. An undertow current carried him away from the boat, and after a while the bullets stopped whizzing around him, As he struggled to swim he found he could not reach the surface, nor hold his breath any longer. Before he blacked out, one thought ran through 626's mind:

Jumba, you bastard, you said it was gonna be all right...

"I'm home!" Nani called from downstairs.

Lilo jolted awake for the second time. She got up and walked downstairs.

"Hi, honey. What're you doing?" Nani asked as she undid her hair and let it all down.

"Just some homework," Lilo lied. She then plopped herself down on the couch and turned on the TV.

"I'm guessing you're done, then," Nani gave her a doubtful eye.

"Uh, yeah." Lilo grumbled.

I got the groceries," Nani went to the kitchen to put them away. "So, how was school?"

"Oh, you know. The same," Lilo looked a little nervous.

"Oh, really? Any tests?"

"Well..." Lilo stalled.

Nani walked back into the living room. "Lilo,"

Lilo sighed. She walked upstairs, then came back down with her failed History exam.

"I need you to sign this," Lilo gave Nani the paper without looking at her eyes.

"What's this?" Nani's eyes scanned the paper. "Another failed test? Lilo, I thought you said you'd study more! You promised me!"

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Lilo offered lamely as she walked back over to the couch.

"No," Nani grabbed her arm, "I'm not letting you get away with this again, young lady. I told you the last time if this happened again what the consequences would be. This means no more beach, missy."

"You're a sucky parental figure!" Lilo screamed. "Negative reinforcement won't help me develop healthily into a well- balanced human being who's both emotionally and mentally adjusted!"

"That's it! I'm calling your Psychology teacher!" Nani yelled.

"Go ahead! It's the only class I'm doing well in!" Lilo stormed off into the kitchen.

"Well, if you're such a little psychologist, then tell me why you always seem to have nothing to do, and why you're doing so badly at school!"

"Leave me alone," Lilo sifted through the groceries.

"Listen, honey, you know that if you'd talk to me once in a while we could sort whatever's going on," Nani said softly.

"Like you ever listen to me anyways," Lilo replied moodily as she stacked cans of corn.

"What do you mean? I always listen!" Nani defended.

"Yeah right! All you ever do is wait for me to stop talking so you can criticize me some more!"

"You do this all the time, Lilo! You take things and turn them around so you're the victim! God, you're driving me lolo!"

"Then go off somewhere! I know you'd be happier without me!" Lilo checked through more grocery bags.

"Argh!!!" Nani put her hand to her forehead. "You're always in such a bad mood! I just wish you could be like other teenaged girls, you know, the ones that are happy just to talk to each other about nail polish!"

"I bet you also wish that it was me in the accident instead of Mom and Dad." Lilo said with her back to Nani.

Nani looked at her. "Oh, honey, how could you-"

"You forgot the ravioli again," Lilo turned around and walked past Nani, eyes glistening. "I'm gonna go get some."

"Lilo," Nani called out, but she was already out the front door.

Instead of heading down the road to the grocery store, Lilo turned and headed down a hidden path in the trees. After ten minutes she arrived at her favorite beach, a spot usually crowded with people, but right now everyone else was at home, occupied with their own lives. Lilo hated them.

As she sat on the golden sand and watched the red orb of the sun sink beneath the billowy clouds and green horizon, though, she calmed down and realized that she didn't hate them. The person she really hated was herself. Why couldn't she be like the other girls, the ones who stuck together and seemed so happy, so oblivious? Or why couldn't she be stronger, and have resisted Devon better that night...

Maybe it's true, Lilo said in her head. Maybe it should've been me in the accident.

She shook her head. No, she said, she couldn't cry. Not now. Even if she didn't have a real life, she wouldn't throw this one away like that. Not yet.

Lilo got up, feeling numb and hollow like she always did when she forced her feelings down. Watching the waves crashing against the sand one last time, she sighed and turned around back towards the path.

As she made her way through the grove of kukui nut trees, though, she tensed up. It was getting dark, and the branches suddenly grew unfriendly to her. She kept on imagining malicious shapes in the leaves, demons and spirits waiting to pounce and devour her. Lilo suddenly remembered all those local "chicken skin" tales of supernatural horror she had heard growing up, and now she couldn't get them out of her head. They repeated in her head like a broken record as she looked around fearfully. What if they were all true? What if something was waiting here for her, some ancient vengeful spirit?

Stupid ghost stories, she thought as she hurried a little bit up the path.

A twig snapped behind her and she gasped, twirling around. Nothing but trees behind her, and the sound of the sea. Another sound broke behind her, something like feet shuffling. Lilo turned around again and caught a shadow shifting around in the grove. Scared straight now, she looked around again, but found nothing but the growing darkness. She started on the path again, but bumped into something in her way. Her heart stopped as a dark and shadowy figure stared at her, maybe Devon, muttering in some unknown language, his eyes dead and cold and oh so lonely...

Lilo could not move, could not even scream. She just watched, frozen in fear, as the figure grabbed her and muttered angrily some more, then fell to the ground, unconscious. Heart beating wildly, she bent down to examine the face of her assaulter in the new moonlight. She was shocked to find a wet young boy with wild black hair, dressed all in black, and covered in blood. Other than his wounds, she noticed that he wasn't all that bad looking, in fact kind of cute. He looked so strange, though, almost as if she had seen him somewhere, somewhere-

Lilo gasped. She suddenly knew where she saw him before. This was the exact boy she had seen in her dreams!

Suddenly, more sounds broke out downhill on the path. She looked warily, and listened as what sounded like a group of people moved towards her.

"Keep searching, you fools!" A malicious, French- accented voice screeched closer and closer. "He can't have gone far after being shot! If he washed up on shore, we'll find him soon enough!"

Well, it looks as though we have a cliffhanger, now don't we? That's the end of this block of chapters; I'll try to write more if I can. What'll happen next? (Feigns surprise). Oh well. Keep it real!