"Ok, we gotta figure out another plan," Jake said, pacing the ground outside Gantu's ship. "Maybe we could surprise him, and then hit him over the head with a frying pan. Then while he's on the ground in pain, we could grab Ari and Angel and run!" It was obvious he was getting desperate.
"Or, we could do it our way," Lilo said.
"What's that?"
Lilo didn't say anything, just looked at Stitch. Stitch smiled evilly and laughed that maniacal laugh of his. He let out his extra arms, spikes, and antennae.
"Brute force," Jake nodded, understanding," would work too."
"Let's get 'em!" Lilo shouted.
Ari backed herself up against the wall of the cage she was in, trying to escape the giant alien's reaching hand. Angel was next to her, trying to do the same thing. But the cage was so small; eventually they had backed themselves into a corner.
"We're trapped!" Angel cried.
Ari didn't say anything. She was thinking of how to escape from the cage. This cage, which was open at the other end for the big dummy's hand to get through. She and Angel were so close to freedom!
If we could just get past Gantu… Ari thought desperately. Wait a minute! She thought back to her training session with Jumba, how the plasma balls had just bounced off her…
"Force field!" Ari said out loud. "I'll create a force field around us!" She concentrated on making a field around the two of them. A protective sphere… Big enough to protect the both of them… It worked! There it was, around them! No, wait, it was flickering! She could see it flickering on and off around them, but eventually it stopped altogether, and she couldn't create another one.
I've never made one that big before. Just big enough to cover myself, and that was only one time, Ari thought. She gasped as she was grabbed by the leg and lifted into the air by Gantu, along with Angel.
Ari watched upside down as she and Angel were brought to the room with the teleporters in them. Gantu dropped the both of them onto a pad, and quickly covered it with a glass tube. He walked over to the control panel and pressed a few buttons. A computer's voice said, "One minute till teleport."
Gantu got up and left the room, satisfied with the job he'd done.
"W-what're we gonna do?" Angel cried.
"We try to get out of here, that's what we're gonna do!" Ari shouted. She got down on all four paws and began searching the part where the tube met the floor for cracks or seams.
Maybe I could get my claws underneath and lift it up… Ari thought.
But the glass had been too evenly cut; there were none. Ari sighed and sat back down. She heard the computer's voice say, "Thirty seconds till teleport."
"We're doomed," Angel whimpered.
"No we're not," Ari said. "They'll come back. They'll rescue us," she continued. By "they" she had meant the whole group that had attempted the rescue earlier, but mostly Jake. She knew he'd come back for her now. But would he be able to make it in time?
"Twenty seconds," said the computer.
"Hurry, Jake," Ari mumbled. She strained her ears for a sound, any sound. The patter of footsteps, a growl from Stitch, anything.
"Wait," she said suddenly. "What's that?" She had heard something. She perked her ears up and listened harder, but the sound was hard to make out. But as the sound got closer she was able to make out a voice.
"Ari!" the voice shouted. "Where are you?" It was Jake!
"Jake!" Ari yelled back. "Over here!"
She heard three pairs of feet pounding on the floor towards the room she and Angel were in. When the trio turned the corner, Jake gasped and ran at the glass. He began tearing at it with his claws.
"No, Jake, the buttons!" Ari said.
"Ten… nine… eight…"
"Which buttons?" Jake said in desperation.
"I don't know, just press some!"
"Hurry!" Lilo shouted.
"Five… four… three … two…"
Jake was pressing buttons wildly. "Where's the stupid button! Wait, here it...!"
"Teleporting now."
There was a blinding flash of light from the teleporting pod, and then… Ari and Angel were gone.
"Is?" Jake said meekly. "Ari?"
"Aaaaangel?" Stitch moaned.
"We were too late!" Lilo said sadly.
There was a long silence when the whole group was just standing there, staring dumbly at the empty teleporting pod. Jake's lip trembled; he was near tears. Maybe if I stare at the pod long enough she'll come back. But he knew she wasn't. She was gone. But… there has to be something we can do!
"No," Jake said out loud suddenly.
"What?" Lilo looked at him.
"No, we weren't too late. We can still rescue them," Jake continued.
"How?"
Jake said nothing, just looked at the teleporting pod.
"Wait," Lilo said slowly. "You want to go to Hamsterveil?"
"Yep."
"But you might not come back! You might be trapped there!" Lilo protested.
"It's better to be stuck over there with Ari than be here without her!" Jake shouted.
There was another long pause, and then Stitch said, "Stitch going with you."
"What?" Jake asked, imitating Lilo.
"Stitch going with you to rescue bushi-bu."
"Stitch, not you, too! Fine, if you're both going, I'm going too," Lilo crossed her arms.
"You can't. You need to handle the controls here," Jake reasoned. Without waiting for a response, he walked over to a spare control pad with Stitch in tow.
"But I don't know how to use this thing," Lilo said.
"Just use the coordinates from the last teleport and press Go!" Jake was beginning to get impatient with this girl.
Lilo jumped up on the stool, analyzed the buttons for a bit, and finally seemed to find the "Go" button. She raised her hand up to press it, and right before she pressed it she said, "You have two days." Then she slammed her hand down on the button.
Jake felt a strange feeling, like he was being pulled through the air with a rope tied around his waist. There was nothing but blackness all around him for a moment, and then he made an abrupt landing. It wasn't a hard landing, just unexpected. He looked around him. Stitch was next to him on the teleporting pod, but it wasn't the same as in Gantu's ship. All the machinery was silver, silver, and dark silver and had a space-age feel to it. Jake knew they were inside Hamsterveil's ship.
He took a deep breath, and then turned to Stitch. "Ready to whip some gerbil butt?"
"Ih," Stitch said simply. They were about to step off the pod when Jake had a terrifying thought.
If Lilo's back on Earth, who's going to run the controls so we can get home?
