Passion

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

Chapter 5: Uncalled Meeting

"Uh, right now? He might be asleep…" Lilo said, opening the door for Cobra to step in.

"I'm afraid," he said in a seemingly grim and impatient tone, "that this is too urgent. I'm sure he'll understand."

"R…right." Lilo stammered, looking uneasy. Whenever Bubbles came over it was always—and seemed only for—these 'urgent matters', and most of the time she and Stitch had to figure out what the matter was. However, it was painfully obvious to her this visit was involved with Zeus. "Stitch," she ordered, "show Mr. Bubbles in, I'll go get Jumba." And with that she was a red-and-white blur as she ran toward Jumba's room upstairs.

"Uh, oketaka." Stitch said, as he stared in the direction where Lilo zoomed by, his fur swaying a bit in the wind that followed her. He then stared back at Cobra and tugged on his pant leg. "Follow miga." He said hospitably. When he turned, he noticed Angel was fidgeting, turning her face away from Cobra as though she didn't want him to see her. As Cobra passed her however, he stopped—much to her disliking.

"You are…Angel?" He asked, pulling down his glasses to get a closer look.

"E…" She began to respond, but suddenly lost her breath. Swallowing the knot in her throat she straightened herself and passed it as a hiccup. "Eh." She responded, normally.

"I see, nice to finally meet you. Lilo said good things about you, such as your actions during the Achie-baba Kino incident." He said this while extending his hand, which Angel hesitantly shook. "And maybe now that you're here, you can shed some light on that incident, perhaps?" He whispered, a look of expectation for the word "yes" from her written on his face.

Stitch came back (for he had gone on into the kitchen not knowing that Cobra had stopped at Angel) and now saw the feared look in Angel's eyes, and the sweat dripping from the back of her neck as she stared up into Cobra's seemingly cold and empty face. At first he thought she was just uneasy about the way he was, for the man's manner had made him feel uncomfortable at times as well, but the look on Angel's face seemed deeper than just the first-impression fear.

"You…wanted to see me?" Came a voice from the stairs. All three of them turned around, Angel nearly jumping, and stared at Jumba. "Yeesh, what did I do? Blow up the house?" He asked, trying to lighten up some humor in the blank eyes that eerily watched him.

"Mr. Jookiba, Cobra Bubbles." Said Cobra, extending his hand.

"Yes, I am familiar." He said as he came down the steps, Lilo appearing out of thin air from behind him. He met Cobra's hand at the bottom of the stairs, and Lilo went over to Stitch and Angel, to listen in on the conversation. "What is it this time? I already keep telling you peoples, am not responsible for every explosion you hear on this island."

"I'm not here about that," Cobra said, not appearing to notice the sarcasm Jumba had thrown. "I'm here to discuss with you about the recent activated experiment-"

"599, yes?"

"Of course. It seems this one, as you know, causes floods. But recent reports have shown that some fires have come up as well. I've been sent to recover information so that we can insure the safety of the citizens."

"What 'information' are we talking about exactly?"

"I need to know everything about this experiment down to the letter, or at least what you can offer. Does it have any other powers? What are its capabilities, limits, weaknesses, attack patterns, where will it most often strike, anything."

"What's all the commotion?" Came Nani's yawning voice as she stepped up to the stairs and leaned on the railing. "Cobra?" She said with a slightly irritated tone of surprise, as she lifted her head from her crossed arms.

"Good morning, Nani." He responded.

"Let's just hope it stays that way." She commented, knowing that something had to be up. "What's with the little get-together?"

"And why wasn't I invited?" Pleakley asked, coming to the stairs as well. Cobra appeared to turn his head with discomfort at the full company.

"Relax everyone," came Lilo's voice as she raised her hands to bar the tangible confusion in the room, "Mr. Bubbles is just here to talk to Jumba about Zeus." She replied. "And Stitch and I are more than willing to give our first-hand encounter with him as well," she said excitedly, "right Stitch?"

"Eh."

"Ok," came Bubble's voice, "we'll get to your little story in a minute. Do you have any information for me, Jumba?"

"Is hard to say…" Jumba replied, scratching his chin. "599 is very flexible with powers, and am not remembering much about it…was going through tough times with ex-wife."

"Just tell me all you can."

"Well, 599's main purpose is to create storms. Everything from drizzles to roaring skies, which sometimes are black for three to four consecutive days."

"What about the hail?" Angel asked, her voice seeming to just come in to the conversation from out of nowhere. "I was awake last night and I noticed that it was hailing, does Zeus have that power as well?"

"Yes, most likely by cooling temperature of sky, is possible for 599 to create hail." Angel put a hand to her chin, as she thought of another question that bothered her.

"What about lightning? Would Zeus be able to create lightning?"

"Maybe 'power over storms' is too general," Jumba stated, "to being more specific, 599 has power over wind, water, and lightning. By using the sun—its weakness—to its advantage, 599 is able to create clouds from the evaporated water. Those clouds will offer protection from the sun, and also be 599's key tool in creating the storms. Although, it takes quite a long time to create these clouds—depending on the existing weather—and once all the clouds are gone, 599 will have to restart from scratch."

"Is that why it's not raining right now?" Lilo asked, noticing the sky was merely gloomy outside.

"Precisely." Jumba replied.

"And, the fires?" Cobra questioned.

"Fires?"

"There have been numerous reports of fires due to lightning strikes, and also there was threat of a hurricane as well. Could this experiment have the power to affect all nature around it?"

"Well, have never really taken it to mind, but I am supposing that lightning could strike trees or plants and cause fires, and the winds can cause tornados and hurricanes…and we already know that the power over water causes floods…"

"Tsunamis?" Lilo asked, with a bit of dread in her tone.

"Not possible." Jumba said immediately. "599 has no capabilities of creating seismic waves whatsoever."

"Very well then. Now…how can we stop 599?" Cobra asked.

"Stitch and me can do it!" Lilo said, stepping forward.

"I'm sorry Lilo," Cobra replied to her, "I cannot allow you to come into any danger. This experiment is far too risky to catch, I'll have the capture arranged-"

"But, you need us. We've caught all the experiments so far, what's so different about this one? Besides, Stitch is there to protect me." She pointed at Stitch, who stood a bit straighter.

"Little girl has point. Why not? 626 will make sure she is-"

"No." Replied Nani. "I don't know if you remember last night, Jumba. We drove past three rivers of flooding on our way home, and Lilo could have gotten caught in one of them." Angel heard this and leaned over to Stitch.

"Didn't you two get caught in one though?" She whispered.

"Eh," he replied, "but left that out for Nani."

"You didn't tell her?" Stitch shook his head.

"But Nan-" Lilo began to retort.

"No buts; end of story." Nani hissed, folding her arms.

"Then it's settled." Cobra spoke, "But I still need to know if there's an alternative to capturing 599 without the use of the sun, because it seems to me that we can't rely on the forces of nature to help us out at this moment."

"Am not sure. 599 is composed of water, and so the best method would be to evaporate 599, but without a source of heat that would be impossible."

"Heat?" Pleakley asked rhetorically. "Why not try a hairdryer?"

"Wait a minute!" Lilo shouted, stepping forward, "You want to evaporate Zeus? I don't know what that really means, but I don't like the sound of it. Whatever you do, don't hurt the little cousin."

"Lilo-" Nani began in order to stop the outburst, but Cobra let up a hand.

"She's right. I don't want the experiment hurt."

"Hurt shmurt." Said Jumba. "I must've evaporated 599 hundreds of billions of times. 599 is composed of water, and as long as there is enough to give it its form, it will come back." The group merely looked at him blankly. "Besides, only little evaporation will be sufficient enough to weaken the experiment in order to capture it. Is like, making it drowsy." He explained, searching for the right words.

"Well, ok. I suppose just making it drowsy to capture won't hurt it." Lilo said, satisfied.

"Exactly. And thanks to Pleakley coming up with random, ingeniously intelligent suggestion of using earth hair-fixing devices—"

"—Hairdryers." Pleakley corrected.

"Right, hairs-dryer, capture will be simple. But…"

"But what?" Cobra asked.

"But, am thinking that little tiny devices will not be sufficient enough."

"Well, it's worth a shot, but in case it fails…do you have something in mind?" He question further.

"Do I?" Jumba laughed. "Of course I have alternative. But, will be needing bit of time to work it out. Should be done by this evening if we haven't caught 599 by then."

"We won't need it, Stitch and I will-" Lilo began, but Nani came in mid-sentence.

"You aren't doing anything, remember? In fact, you're coming with me to the store so that I know you don't go with Stitch." Nani said, coming down the stairs and taking Lilo's wrist. She tried to pull away but Nani was too strong.

"If I don't go who'll go in my place? Stitch and I are a team!"

"Well the 'team' is going to have to split apart. If this experiment causes any more floods I want to be prepared, and seeing as how we have a new guest in the house which I only found out about five minutes ago," she nodded her head toward Angel, "the fridge will need to be restocked." Lilo stopped her struggle and let her arm fall to her side.

"Ok…" She said, giving up the argument.

"Good, now go get ready and meet me in the car." Nani said sweetly as she pushed Lilo in the direction of the stairs. "And as for you," she said, looking at Angel, "I can't exactly remember every single one of you little monsters by name…or number…or whatever you go by, but if you're going to stay here you'll have to obey the rules, got it?"

"Eh." Angel said, immediately. Nani let out a sigh as she smiled, and promptly exited out the front door. Jumba convinced Cobra to follow him outside and help with the project he had planned, and Pleakley ran to get all the hairdryers in the house, which left only Angel and Stitch in the room. "I guess since Lilo can't come, I'll go experiment-hunting with you." She said, looking at Stitch, who had remained contemptuously quiet and smiling the whole time. "Is it hard?" She asked.

"Naga," he replied putting a hand on her shoulder, "Angel do fine." She smiled with confidence and quickly hugged him. "After all," he said lightly, as he let go and walked toward the stairs, "if Angel can protect Lilo from Stitch, cousins should be coconut cake piece."