Ganazu
C/By: Kenjaje
Edited/Revised by: raVen
Chapter 10: Apology
"Well, it didn't go exactly according to plan…" Gantu explained.
"…That was to be expected I suppose." Hamsterveil said with an unsurprised sigh. "What happened then; go on and tell me what went wrong."
"Well sir, you see, we ran into all of the experiments."
"All of them! How did you manage to run into all of them? You only needed to find out where she was, not the entire batch of do-gooders."
"Well she was apparently with the trog and little girl. I wasn't counting on chasing them down too."
"Please tell me that's all…"
"Well, no…" Hamsterveil sighed, leaning on his elbow and signaling Gantu to continue. "You see, I decided to capture her there, save us a little time, but unfortunately, I got 626." Hamsterveil's eyes bulged, and then relaxed.
"It didn't go according to plan at all." He groaned. "Why can't things just go right for once?" He drummed his fingers on the table, off screen. "We may have to improvise. We can't capture her yet; they're not ready. Where do you have 626?"
"He's being held in the transport station. He's unconscious and she's in there with him. The side-effects of the AC's seem to be bothering little trog, even though the robots have been extracted."
"And this is a bad thing?" Hamsterveil asked rhetorically with a smile. "If this is true, that means that 624 might still be under similar influences as 626. We'll have to ask her if she's feeling…a bit abnormal." He grinned at himself. His invention was truly genius; even the failures were starting to work out, at least a little bit. But his pleasure didn't last long. "Well, you probably know what's going to happen next. Be ready, they'll come at any moment. Let it go their way, but give them a struggle, and let her go with them."
"Right."
"We will make contact later. Stealth is of the essence now." Both of them heard a noise, something banging against metal. "They're here." Hamsterveil chimed, cutting off the feed.
"Don't do that Slushy! You're hands are like ice!"
"Soka…"
"They are ice, Lilo." Angel muttered with a chuckle, ushering them to continue on through the ventilation system. Lilo rubbed the sore spot where she banged her head, and followed Angel's lead. Slushy stayed a bit farther back, careful not to bump into Lilo's feet again. They continued on for a bit longer, Angel listened for any noises that might let them know Gantu was aware of invaders, and she was especially careful to make as little noise as possible, in case Gantu heard Lilo's bang.
"Gantu said he's being held in the transport chamber…that's this way if I still remember correctly." She thought, changing directions in the shaft. Within moments, she came upon a grate that loosely suctioned cool air into system. "So far, so good."
Angel approached the grate, and with nervous claws, began to unscrew the corners. Though it was hard, her trembling fingers slipped over the bottom of the screws constantly, and it was very hard to be careful not to unscrew too far, or else they would fall out. Finally, after what seemed like hours, all four screws were loose and the grate was ready to be taken in.
Angel took a deep breath, and lifted the grate so slowly that her arms started to get tired from holding its weight over the long period of time. But she had to be too careful; if Gantu was there, and he spotted them, they would end up in the transportation chamber as well. Angel placed the grate beyond the opening, then leveled her ear to listen to what was going on down below.
"Best not to talk about anymore, Gantu might hear." Came Stitch's voice, muffled slightly from the glass.
"Right." Came another voice, slightly unfamiliar. "So, how do you know Gantu?" Angel tilted her head down, enough so that her right eye could see if the coast was clear. Gantu wasn't coming, and hopefully he wasn't making any rounds.
"Stupid-head try and capture cousins. Stitch, Lilo, and Angel stop him. ...Except this time…" Angel caught a glimpse of the two in the chamber. They were sitting against the glass on opposite sides, idly conversing as though getting imprisoned were an everyday event. Angel looked down; the computer was right below her. If she was nimble enough, she could get them out without even them noticing her.
"I see. So that's why he was chasing after me. Why is he capturing cousins?" Angel shifted in the shaft, turning over onto her back.
"Hold my feet, please." She whispered to Lilo. The little girl looked back at Slushy, and he backed away to give her room, as Lilo took Angel by the ankles. He moved close enough after they were situated so that he could catch Lilo as backup in case Angel fell.
"Hamsterveil want cousins to do evil things," Angel lowered herself down slightly, but flinched at Hamsterveil's name, causing her to lurch. Her heart thudded in her chest, but Stitch didn't pause, "so Stitch and Lilo help cousins out—like 600." Angel relaxed, and slid farther down, her hands still hooked around the lip of the opening. She looked up at Lilo, who gave her a thumb's up.
"I'll bet you get that long-eared fur ball good every time!" Angel glanced over again, catching an upside-down glimpse of them sitting in the cell. They still apparently hadn't noticed her. Angel took the time to see the new experiment.
"Great." She thought, noting the cousin's gender. "He better have already told her he's got a boochie-boo…" Stitch gave an upside-down look of curiosity.
"600 seen Hamsterveil?" He asked. The new cousin seemed to immediately look nervous to Angel, but she was more concerned with freeing the new cousin and Stitch than to worry about conversational reactions, and besides, her arms were starting to get tired.
"Uh…no," Came 600's reply, "just a wild guess. Lucky me." Angel wondered why she sounded so secretive all of a sudden, like she slipped information or something.
"Concentrate." She thought, stretching her neck to look down at the keyboard of the computer directly below her. It was too far down for her to use her arms. Besides, she needed those in case she had to drop quickly. Luckily, she was built for this type of thing—or her perhaps cranial antennae were just a coincidence.
Either way, they were useful to her now. She let her fingers go; only giving a slight clack, as her body swung like a pendulum. She felt Lilo tighten the grip around her ankles; Angel felt there was no problem; Lilo wouldn't drop her.
Slowly Angel gave her antennae life; they curled up, and then they moved over to the console like blind fingers searching for a light switch in the dark. Very carefully she placed them on the keys, but it took her a great deal of effort—it was like working with her recessive hand while it was tied behind her back. She managed to tick the first two keys, but that was as far as she got.
"Well, speaking of Gantu, here he comes." 600 said, almost warningly. Angel's eyes bulged, and she felt the grip around her ankles tighten.
"Hey!" Gantu yelled. Angel looked at him, but she knew why he was so alert—he'd spotted a pink piñata hanging from the ventilation duct, a roman candle to him. Angel saw him whip out his blaster.
"Lilo, drop!" She yelled, and felt the grip around her ankles instantly disappear. She held her hands out in front of her, and landed on the keyboard while flipping over to keep from falling on her head. Her reoriented, dexterous fingers were a blur as she quickly ticked away a command on the keys before she briskly leapt out Gantu's crosshairs just as plasma burst from the barrel of the weapon.
"Give up Gantu! We're gonna beat you bad!" Lilo yelled, as Slushy helped her down from the duct. Angel rolled to recovery and crouched low to the ground, ready to dash for the "release" button as soon as she got the chance.
"Oh yeah?" He said with a laugh, "You couldn't win before, what makes you think you can win now?" He pointed the blaster at Lilo, and fired. Angel's poised stance catapulted her to Lilo in an instant, and she knocked the girl out of harm's way. Unfortunately, the blast hit Slushy who was just now getting out of the ventilation duct. He scattered to a dozen shards of ice in a daze.
Gantu grinned, eyeing his targets that were on the ground. Angel crouched on one knee and one foot; she tried to get Lilo out of the way again, but he had already fired. Reflexively, Angel's hand moved over Lilo's foot, and in the blink of an eye the plasma round exploded in mid-air. Lilo blinked, and saw the charred remains of her left-foot sandal on the floor. Gantu fired again without pause, and Angel repeated the tactic with Lilo's left-foot sandal.
"I lose more sandals that way…" Lilo casually sighed.
"Got anymore?" Angel asked, while Gantu grunted and took out the empty cartridge in his blaster. Angel looked over to the transport chamber when she heard a chinking noise and saw Stitch banging his head against the glass, trying to break it. She wished he could help her, but he was trapped until she set him free.
"Any last words?" Gantu asked, aiming a freshly fed blaster at Angel.
"Uh…we're sorry?" Lilo said. Gantu gave a laugh, aimed, and fired. But the bullet missed Angel and Lilo completely, and instead shot the ground in front of Gantu's feet. The cause of the miss was due to an erratic tremor that knocked him, and everyone else, off their feet.
"What was tha-" Someone began to ask, but a loud bang and another tremor interrupted him or her. This time it was fiercer than the last, and it was also complimented by the sound of tearing metal. A fraction of a second later, as everyone got to their feet, pandemonium rushed into the room in the form of a horde of experiments.
'Splodey-head and Kixx were the first to arrive. The purple pig headed straight for Gantu while 'Splodey seemed to fire an "attack" flare toward the small entrance of the room. Yin and Yang then entered, spraying water and lava on Gantu while Kixx held him still. The water had cooled the lava just enough so that it hit Gantu without hurting him. Rather, it put him in a cocoon of pumice.
Lastly, Richter bounded in, giving a loud roar, his feet pounding loudly against the metal floor of the ship. He came to a heavy slam right in front of Gantu's encased body, beveling the metal with the force of impact, and then with a powerful wind-up, he slammed his tail against the pumiced whale, breaking the shell and startling the captive held inside. The rest of them were in the room as well, poised to attack.
Angel, Slushy, who had finally reformed, Stitch, Lilo, and 600 were all frozen with surprise at the sudden ambush. "What's going on?" They all generally thought. Angel's mind didn't hover over the question for long though; she had a rescue to finish. Finally she took the chance that had opened up to her a long time ago, when the first wave of experiments arrived, and ran to the console, slamming the final button down to lift the glass over the transport chamber.
"C'mon, we're getting out of here!" She yelled, taking Stitch by the hand.
"Knew you'd come." He said softly as she passed. Kixx took Gantu, his body still unresponsive from the shock Richter gave him, and followed the others out of the ship into the river. They passed through the water and climbed the hill by the side of the fall. Once on top, Gantu finally came to his senses and realized where he was.
"Hey, what-" Kixx grunted toward Richter, who readied his tail. The earth trembled, but quickly quieted to let everyone hear the whale's scream as he flew into the horizon. All the cousins cheered, and formed a semi-circle around Angel and the others.
"Wow…what a rescue!" Lilo exclaimed with excitement, jumping in the air.
"Eh! Ichie-kobeesta go 'yah!'" Stitch commented, giving her a high-five. Angel was mixed with the emotion—she was still trembling from the adrenaline and dizziness of hanging upside down; she was relieved now that Stitch and the new cousin were out of Gantu's hands; and she was also slightly worried. The question rang through her mind again.
"Why did they come?"
"Angel." Came Richter's voice curtly, as he stepped up to her with a stolid expression.
"Rich." She replied in the same manner. She expected him to say something about how evil she was. She would let him say his say, then shrug him off; she didn't want to deal with any more stresses today. But, to her misjudgment, he lowered his body down to the ground and looked back at the others.
"We…" He began, clearing his throat. "The other cousins and I…we want to apologize." He said.
"Eh." Came a staccato of murmurs from the semi-circle behind him. Angel's ears twitched, and she looked back at him, not sure how to respond.
"You don't need to say anything." Richter continued, answering her expression. "We only accused you of being evil…because we were afraid you would make us evil again. And then after we heard about that Achie-baba Kino, we thought we were going to be hunted like animals, especially when we heard you were involved with it…" He trailed, his mind forgetting the rest of what he wanted to say. He knew it was important, but he could only draw a blank. He decided to skip it. "Anyway…we're really sorry. And we understand if you don't forgive us."
"Eh." Angel's eyes started to blur. She blinked the tears away and tried to smile humbly.
"Isa…oketaka." She told him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I forgive you." Lilo and Stitch looked at each other, and smiled, their eyes also a little blurry. Both of them didn't fully understand what had happened that night of the floods. Really they knew only two definite things: there had been a mistake, and it was resolved. To them, the latter was all that mattered.
