Believe
Chapter 5: Memories
Answering reviews:
Anonymous but Impressed: Glad to see you're enjoying this story. Like I said, I won't guarantee it'll get in, but I will try to do it.
Michelle: No, this is not the same Dante. Dante is just a name that I chose at random for 627. I'm not going back now to change it, it's too late.
Baal 626: Glad to see you like Miracle. If you've read any of Bohrok127's stories (the few that remain here or the several that are at deviantART), then you'll know who Charlie is.
Experiments 626-2 (Charlie) and 614 (Muta) belong to Bohrok127. Also, someone suggested elsewhere that I do Jumba's accent 'perfectly', and you'll see how.
With Stitch and Miracle…
Lilo had just gotten up, and found Stitch and Miracle talking.
"Oh, hi Stitch. Which cousin is that?" she asked.
She had heard about what had happened to Angel, but hadn't seen Miracle yet.
"This is Angel's new body, or rather, Miracle, Experiment 630," Stitch told her.
"630? Why not 628, or even 629?"
"He said that his plans for those two were already too far along," Miracle explained.
"Oh… I see. So, Miracle how is the new body? It looks very nice."
Miracle smiled at the little girl. Considering what she had done when she was Angel, and tried to get rid of Stitch or turn him evil, Lilo had also forgiven her much easier than she had expected.
"Yes, it does look nice, thank you. But with all the powers that Jumba threw in, I'm still trying to get used to it."
"I see."
"Lilo! Find cousins?" Stitch asked.
"Well, even though Hämsterviel is gone, we'll still need to find them and turn them good. We don't know if Gantu is still going to try and catch them or not. So… yeah, let's go find some more of your cousins Stitch."
"Is it alright if I come? It'll give me a chance to work out some more of my abilities," Miracle offered.
"Of course! Let's get going then!"
At Charlie's house…
Charlie opened the door, and saw Dante.
"How'd you know where to find me?" he asked.
"I just followed your tracks to here. Mind if I come in?"
"Sure… I don't have company that often, which is why I really don't need a house much bigger than this one."
"Eh, it's not a problem," Dante told him, walking in.
"So, why'd you follow me all the way here?"
"Well Charlie… when I saw you talking, I noticed a few odd things," Dante told him.
"Such as?" the orange experiment asked.
"Let's just say, that whenever Stitch glared at you, your mood seemed to fall. You really wanted to be with Miracle, but Stitch won't let you. Am I right?"
"Hmmm? What do you mean?"
Charlie tried to avoid his gaze, but Dante could tell that he had hit on something.
"I don't blame you," Dante continued. "Miracle is one of the prettiest experiments, but she's also very kind and caring… She's someone that you could just sit and talk to for hours on end, and not know or care where the time went, because you were having so much fun talking with her."
Charlie shrugged, still not looking at him.
"Dante, what are you trying to get at? Miracle's nice and all, but I don't think she's my type. She seems pretty happy with Stitch anyways."
"Quit trying to dodge the facts Charlie. I can tell you're head over heels for Miracle. So you're going to hide from her, that's how you're going to let her know?"
Charlie blinked, and answered, "I'm not hiding. I'm just staying out of Stitch's way. He is the older brother after all. All I ever do is annoy him."
"Charlie… this isn't cute. Why don't you stand up to your brother?"
Charlie looked at him, and then sighed.
"I see what you're up to Dante… you're trying to convince me to go back to her, try and get close to her. But didn't you hear me? I'm a failed experiment. Now, if I had not been a failure, if all of my powers worked just fine, then yes, I might try to get close to Miracle."
"Just what were your powers designed to be?"
"Let's just say that I was designed with less than 300 different powers…"
Dante nearly fell to the floor in shock upon hearing that.
"T… Three hundred!"
"That's right. But few, if any, work even at half strength… In fact, what I was originally designed for isn't pretty…"
"It can't be any worse than what Angel and I were designed for…"
"That's anything but true… My main power has completely backfired on me. I was supposed to be able to get girls to like me even before they had talked to me. They were supposed to fall for me just like that, and then I was supposed to get them pregnant so that Jumba would know which girls would make excellent mates for Stitch."
Dante's jaw was wide open in shock.
"But like I said, that, and pretty much all my powers, backfired. Now everyone that meets me has a little bit of hatred for me before I ever say a word. About the only thing that does work right is my physical strength, and that's barely equal to Stitch's."
"And you're just bigger than Stitch, so if you two faced off, you'd have the slight edge…"
"That's not the point… I can't cut my brother down like that… He's obviously in love with her, and she seems to feel the same about him. Seriously, what chance would I stand?"
"The thing you don't know, Charlie, is that Stitch and Miracle have only known each other for a few days… She may think she loves him, but there's still the chance that she could fall for someone else…"
Charlie sighed again, and continued, "Dante… I appreciate you trying to help and all… but Stitch has so much dirt he can dish out on me, it's not funny at all. If I even tried to make a move on Miracle, he would pull out embarrassing memories… and then she'd laugh at me, think I was a fool, and never want to be close to me in a thousand years… And I wouldn't blame her."
Dante was getting sick of Charlie being so mopey, and replied in a sharp tone, "Get over yourself! Nobody's past is perfect, nobody's ever can be. Look at me, for example. Heck, look at Miracle when she was Angel! Both she and I did some pretty evil things! But look at us now. She died, and came back to life. In turn, she helped me get my mind and body under my own control."
Suddenly, Charlie smiled.
"You're right Dante… I'll go back in a while…"
Back with Lilo, Stitch, and Miracle…
"Miracle, Lilo! He went this way!" Stitch called, running along after an aqua-green, muscled experiment.
This experiment was one of Jumba's attempts at raw power. Unfortunately for Stitch, this was also one of the more successful ones, as Stitch had found out when he had tried to go hand-to-hand with the experiment. He had put Stitch right into the ground when they first met.
"Miracle! Try surrounding him with a wall of fire or water!"
Miracle replied, "Coming right up!"
She concentrated, and extended her hands. Lines of flame came flying from each hand, and encircled the experiment in a high wall of flame. Miracle and Stitch both grinned, figuring he had nowhere to go. Suddenly, he took in a deep breath.
"What's he doing?" Lilo asked.
"I dunno… but… Stitch! Get out of there!" Miracle called.
He backed away from the wall, just as the experiment released a huge gust of air.
"No, he can release huge gusts of wind too!" Stitch cried, dismayed.
However, Miracle noticed that he seemed a little disoriented after releasing the blast of air…
'I wonder…' she thought, concentrating and surrounding him with another wall of flame, stretching even higher than the first wall.
Once again, the experiment blew it out, but this time, he seemed really dizzy. Miracle repeated with her firewall once more, and he blew it out, but this time he collapsed, the blowing obviously taking a toll on him.
"Good thinking Miracle!" Stitch congratulated her.
"Thanks Stitch," she replied, going over to the experiment, and helping him get up. "Are you okay? Which experiment are you?" she asked.
"Ih… I'll live," he responded, holding his head. "And I'm Experiment 615. Jumba designed me to have brute strength, combined with an elemental twist. I can lift 3,250 times my weight, and as you saw, can release huge gusts of wind after taking in a deep breath."
"Well Miracle, you captured him, so you can name him!" Lilo cried.
"Hmmm… How does the name 'Donovan' sound?"
"Donovan… That's an interesting name… I like it!" he answered, smiling at her.
"So, now we've captured him. Now what?"
"Now we try and find him his one true place. The one place where his power or powers can be most helpful."
"Oh, you harness the destructive power, and turn it into a constructive ability?"
"Exactly."
Lilo, Miracle, Donovan, and Stitch all started back for home, when they came across another experiment. She looked similar to Yaarp, except her coloration was a little different, with the same colors, and she had long flowing hair.
"Hey Muta!" Lilo called.
"Hey Lilo, Stitch! What're you two up to…" Muta asked, a smile starting to cross her face.
"Stitch, Miracle, and I are on our way home. We're trying to find Donovan his one true place."
"Hello Donovan. My name is Muta, as you know. I'm Experiment 614. Which are you?"
"Hi Muta," Donovan responded, smiling. "I'm Experiment 615."
"Ooooh… Just after me!" Muta replied, still grinning. "You're quite a handsome experiment," she continued, starting to blush a bit.
"I must say, you're the most beautiful experiment I've seen…" he replied, also blushing.
Stitch and Miracle both smiled, holding each other close. They both realized that Muta and Donovan liked how the other looked. Unlike themselves though, these two looked like they wanted to try to get to know each other first before going into anything big.
"Lilo, let Donovan go with Muta?" Stitch asked.
"Well… I dunno. But then again, we don't need that many experiments with brute force. And Phoon is already helping the parasailers down at the beach, so there isn't much need for wind experiments right now," Lilo rationalized. "So yeah, Donovan can go with Muta. They look happy together, but I see you already noticed that."
"Ih!" all four experiments said, before laughing.
"Well Donovan, I hope you and Muta become good friends!" Lilo told him.
"If not more," Stitch piped in.
Miracle elbowed him in the ribs.
"Gaba?" he asked innocently. "If they fall in love, all more the better, right?"
"You got a point there, hon," she replied. "Soka."
"Don't worry, I forgive you."
Muta and Donovan walked off, talking to each other and smiling, while Lilo, Miracle, and Stitch walked home.
"Not all captures and reformations go that fast. And that's gotta be the fastest we've ever found a one true place for one of the experiments," Lilo told Miracle, as they all walked into the house. Then she called out, "Jumba! We're back!"
"Ah, little girl. How much luck were you havingk today?" the evil genius asked.
"That was probably the fastest we've ever caught, reformed, and found a true place for an experiment yet! Stitch and Miracle made an awesome team in capturing Experiment 615."
"Ah yes… 615. At one point, I had thought of stoppingk after he was beingk completed. Then I was discoveringk his weakness."
"The same weakness I hit upon, right?" Miracle added.
"If you are meaningk where he cannot be blowingk multiple gusts of air, then yes, 630, you are beingk correct."
"Miracle named him Donovan. Then when we were on the way home, we ran into Muta."
"Ah yes, 614. What was she wantingk?"
"She just wanted to check up on us, but when she saw Donovan, she got really happy."
"She fell for him the instant she laid eyes on him."
"So 614 and 615 are beingk in love, eh? Hmmm…"
Jumba started thinking to himself, trying to figure out what could result if things went far enough between those two…
"Anyways… Miracle's got the basic experiment capture, reformation, and one true place thing down like a charm."
"That time, she was havingk charm. Exceptional luck for first capture, 630. Subsequent captures are likely to be much harder."
"I expected that, Jumba. Still… it was fun, and I wanna help out as long as I am welcome to."
"And of course, you are beingk welcome to. Findingk and reformingk experiments is no small matter. The more help we are to be havingk, the better."