Hmm… I was so excited about this when I started it… but the very reason I was writing this story kinda… told me to get a life… Haha! But I won't stop writing, though. I've got responsibility to my fans P

So… Read on…

Breathe

Chapter 2

© by raVen

Editor: Kenjaje

"You may be moving… go on then. I know you are wanting to."

The white experiment was sitting on the table, having been removed from the tube only moments before, and it was still wet and sticky from the blue life-support liquid. The said liquid still clung to his short white fur in messy heaps, on top of his shoulders, the longer fur on its head and on its back, still oozing and dribbling from its legs as it sat on the table, forming a small blue pool. It had coughed violently as the tubule that had been inserted into its lungs, was removed by Jumba, slightly scratching its throat. It now sat, staring at Jumba, and tilted its head at him, as if he found the fact that this fat, blue creature could talk, most strange. Jumba frowned at this reaction.

"Am understanding me, correct?"

"-hh" the creature coughed as it instinctively spoke in reply; its never-used-before vocal chords stinging. Its eyes tearing, it spoke an audible "Ih!" at Jumba on the second try, who seemed to sigh in relief.

"Am almost thinking that having made some mistake in speech recognition." The creature let out some kind of grunt as it lifted its four arms, the sticky liquid forming a thin film of slime between the two sets of arms, and pulling strings of dripping goo from the lower set to the table.

"Angh…" it grunted again and looked at its left set of arms. It realized that these appendages were his, and it could make them move at will… and it found this fact most fascinating over the next few minutes, making its clawed fingers bend, and straighten, over and over again. Jumba watched his reactions for a few more moments, before deciding it would be safe to leave the area. He walked back into the observation room, and out the door into the short hallway towards the cockpit where Pleakley was still waiting, one of the glasses now empty.

"What empty glass for?"

"I liked the taste of this wonderful drink of yours…! So I poured some for myself…!" Pleakley said… his face wore an expression of extreme euphoria.

"No! Cannot be drinking this!" Jumba said and stared in disbelief at the empty glass.

"I am finding it hard to move, though…" Pleakley said, strangely calm, as if this were an everyday occurrence. "And have I mentioned just how nice this cabin looks?" he said and slowly gazed all over the room with a slow, dramatic 'wooooow'… Jumba wiped his hand over his face. He picked up the glass still containing some purple liquid.

"Hmmm… I love you, Jumba… Have I ever told you that? You're my biggest friend…" At this, Jumba simply stood and stared. He lifted the purple liquid to his eyes and stared at it, then at Pleakley again. He rubbed his chin and pondered this new development, gazing at the purple liquid now and then.

"Interesting…" he mumbled to himself after a few seconds while he walked back to the mini-laboratory in the back of the ship. He clearly hasn't tested what results the substance would have on non-experiment creatures.

Closing the door behind him, Jumba quickly found an old syringe in one of the drawers in the observation room, while watching 628 feel at the spaces between his stubby toes with a most curious face. He washed out the syringe after removing the needle and quickly drew it full of the thick purple liquid. The glass had about half an inch of liquid left when Jumba moved around to the room where the experiment sat on the table.

628 dropped what he was doing and immediately focused his attention on Jumba, and the device… instinctively, he was afraid and leaned back a bit… he could feel his heart beating and found this new sensation curious enough to forget about the syringe. Jumba bent over as he readied himself should the creature try to run.

"All right, 6-2-8. Be calm. This is a sucrose-concentrate filled with chemically altered hormones and other extracts that will awake the latent potential of powers; it will also enable you to use the full capacity of mind, as well as all other abilities." He stood up from his ready stance, and looked at the syringe. "Though, I bathed 6-2-6 in it for several minutes… being wondering if giving you a limited amount would be detrimental to abilities… but…" Jumba shrugged. "Am afraid this is last of substance I have. Will have to make more or have any new experiments manually unlock abilities through study and use… being tedious…" He shrugged again and bent over again, taking 628 by the head. The creature's eyes stretched some. "Be calm. It will not being hurting." And Jumba pressed the small point into the creature's mouth, past its lips, and started squirting. Immediately, it showed discomfort at this new feeling, and started squirming, but when the taste of the sweet substance broke through, it calmed again. As the fluids reached the back of its throat, it started swallowing instinctively and soon, there was none of the fluid left. It sat, smacking its lips and rolling the remainder of the taste around its mouth. As Jumba let go of it, and walk back, the creature stared at its chest and stomach, using a claw to trail the path down the front of its body, where the fluid had moved down its throat.

"Now… will be taking several moments to be coming into effect… then will be seeing if genetic coding was correct!" Jumba said and moved out of the room to put away the syringe. 628 sat for a few seconds, and then everything seemed to become clearer and clearer around him, and he found that he could see fine detail from a distance… raising a paw, and tilting his head at how light his arm suddenly seemed, he gazed at his paw, and noticed it had dried since his exodus from the pod… and he could clearly distinguish every single hair on his thumb… a few seconds of staring at it and he knew that he was looking at 3411 hairs covering a square-centimeter of his thumb. He was amazed at how he knew this, but then the pain came. Deep inside his body, his arms, legs, chest, neck, torso, there came a sharp pulling-pain… as if his muscles were trying to tear loose from his bones. His face distorted with the uncomfortable pain and he began groaning unpleasantly as the sensations seemed to intensify. He looked down at his arms, and was shocked to see them suddenly bulging, small ridges all over them pointed out the strain on his arteries and veins under his skin. His shoulders moved back and there was a popping sound (similar to when you crack your fingers-joints, or twist you back after sitting still for long). The sound originated from his chest, and lower back, as pressure was relieved between the joints as the muscles pulled them apart. A second later this all stopped and 628 was left catching his breath. He fell flat on his back and laid that way, staring up at the ceiling for several more moments, feeling an odd sensation spread all over him. Once again, he felt at ease, and looking down, he noticed that the unnatural bulging of his muscles and veins were gone and he was left looking merely considerably more buff than a minute ago. He also noticed he knew more or less the oxygen content of the air around him, and noticed there were percentages of other gasses in it as well, but couldn't name any of these. Wondering how he knew this, he caught something at the top of his sight… and reaching up, he found strange growths on his head… feeling around, he noticed two long tube-like appendages with slightly larger tips extending from the middle of his head… and these were rather sensitive to his touch.

Jumba soon came back, a cloth in his hands to dry off any spilled liquids from earlier, and laughed triumphantly at what he saw.

"Is being working! Now. 6-2-8. Can you understand me better."

"Ih, nikishta."

"Good good! Now be saying english…"

"…Ehh… Y-yes, creator."

"Excellent. How do you feel?"

"Morchabba!" he replied and Jumba chuckled with delight once more.

"Now. First thing's first. You are experiment 6-2-8… so your identification number is 6-2-8. I for to created you to be removing of evil malfunctioning experiment."

"Gabba?"

"Am hearing me. This experiment has unique ability that amplifies own strength and speed when used… But has being grossly amplified during some incident… not sure what is being, but having theory."

628 lowered his head some… so… he was here… alive… simply to one day fight another creature he has never met?

"Now, intensive training must occur to teach how to use own body, and very special and unique ability of own. But until-"

"Jumba…?" came a call from behind.

"BAAAH! SPIES!" Jumba yelled and quickly covered 628 with the cloth he was using to clean his hands, and then turned to stand in front of the experiment, so anyone at the door cannot see. There stood a whiter-than-usual-looking Pleakley.

"I-I think… I'm allergic to that drink of yours…" and he aptly lost it all over the floor.

"Lilo, Lilo, Lilo, Lilo!" Nani said as they got into her truck. Stitch got in last, ears laid back flat, and a guilty frown on his face… he had gotten Lilo in trouble, again, for probably the hundredth time. Lilo was sitting with her arms crossed and a pout on her face in the front seat. Nani fumed as she placed the key in the ignition, but she didn't start the car. After a moment of silence, trying to calm down, she spoke.

"Either you teach Stitch some manners, or he stays home from now on!"

"I already tried teaching him, but he's a free spirit! He can't be bound by stupid rules!"

"Then we'll leash him to the foundation!" Nani said, gripping the steering wheel. Lilo looked away, miffed.

"This is the third time in a row that he's made problems, Lilo!" Nani added, banging her palm on the steering wheel once to emphasize her point.

"Meega soka…" came the little voice from behind. Nani suddenly looked at Stitch, and he jumped. Nani shook her head at him and then talked in a pleading voice.

"Why, Stitch? Why torment me like this? Why do you have to embarrass me in front of all these people every single time?" Stitch opened his mouth and shook his head while pointing at himself.

"Naga Stitch!"

"Oh? Then who was it?"

"Naga! Ika patookie Myrtle, kidakka miga shikou gibba mika Lilo, esso Stitch pitchiti sikikiddi anna ng-ng!" he blabbered out, finishing with a wild poke in Myrtle's direction, who was getting in her mom's car a few yards away. Nani wore the strangest expression she could muster, while Lilo matter-of-factly said, "Yeah, Stitch! Tell her! It's stinky-head Myrtle's fault!"

Nani frowned at Stitch, who wore a determined look.
"How do you understand him? Uhg, but that's beside the point. Lilo, I told you by now, to ignore Myrtle and whatever she says…"

"It wasn't me! Stitch just taught her a lesson!"

"Ih!"

Nani frustratingly groaned and rubbed her forehead. A headache threatened behind her temples… it had been an annoying day so far, already. "Look… either Stitch stays at home from now on, or you have to stop your hula practice."

"What!" came Lilo's call, loud enough to make Nani flinch.

"How do you want me to choose between my best friend and the only thing I like to do?"

"Lilo-"

"Why don't you just throw me to vampires while you're busy trying to kill me!" Nani rolled her eyes. "Look, let's make a deal. If Stitch can behave for the next four days, and not have me scream or yell at him once, then he can keep on going to hula practice with you."

"You got a deal. Up for it, Stitch?"

"Ih!" and Nani started the car, chuckling to herself. The success rating of Stitch behaving for four days is as good as her boss giving her a raise. She pulled away, turning to drop Lilo and Stitch off at the house before going back to work.

628 had used the cloth thrown over him to wipe the sticky blue liquid from his fur, and Jumba had lifted him from the table onto a lower foot-table and had placed the, now unconscious Pleakley on the larger table. 628 looked scruffy and the longer fur on his chest and back was tangled and meshed together from the blue liquid. He raked his claws through his chest-fur a few times to try and straighten it out; why, he didn't know… but he felt better when he looked reasonably presentable once more. Jumba had cleaned up Pleakley's mess and soon returned to the room.

"This is being Pleakley… he is being agent of Galactic Federation… left here on little planet to observe and document human race. Heh-heh. Is seeming to be consuming him," he finished with a chuckle at Pleakley's female human clothing. Jumba stood up some and took a formal pose.

"I am Jumba Jookiba, your creator, and former lead scientist of Galactic Defense Industries on Turo… also being former evil genius, but having found softer spot for earthlings."

"Tsh… tshunabagga?" 628 spoke.

"Yes… see, am being exiled to planet for creating others just like you…" 628 took a few seconds before this sunk in.

Others like me? he thought to himself, his mouth slightly ajar.

"Hah, yes! You have siblings… or 'cousins' as little earth girl be saying… which is a more true term as none of you actually share common parents to be calling siblings… but even better term would be 'same species'… which is called 'experiments'… have not yet had time, or creative flare, to be thinking of name for species of creations. Now. You are on planet earth in Omega twelve quadrant of outer-rim galaxies of Federation universe. Planet is inhabited by native humans. Primitive in technology, in comparing to other species… Will be seeing humans soon enough. You might not be aware of this yet, but you are being a male of experiment species. See, be finding two genders, or 'sexes' of a species. Traditionally, and naturally, male being one to defend territory and mate with females, while females look after young and find food. In sentient species, though, roles have changing somewhat dramatically."

628 nodded, and lowered his head as he digested this information. So. He was 'Experiment 628' on planet Earth. There were others like him, but he didn't know where. He was a male of his species, and he didn't really know what that meant yet. And all he was created for, it seems, was to destroy an experiment that he hasn't seen yet, or whose number he doesn't even know!

"Gabbata ingatta miga baka-dooka?" he questioned and coughed again. That was his longest sentence ever! Jumba waited till he stopped hacking and spoke.

"That is being for later. Not worrying about that. For now, must be getting used to being alive. Come… Ready to see the world?"

628's expression brightened considerably at this thought.

Wow. So there is more to existence than this little room? he thought to himself as Jumba picked him up and then moved through the door to the observation room and through to the cockpit's area. 628 almost twisted his neck off as he tried to take in everything around him. The smells were dramatic, almost overwhelming him, and everything there was to see… the colors, the fabrics, chairs, lights, blinking buttons and consoles. He found his excitement for being alive was slowly drowning out the fear he had of this unwanted mortal enemy, somewhere in the depths of space.

raVen speaks:

And that's the end of chapter 2. Look for chapter 3 soon. This might be slightly full of grammar mistakes, as I didn't have the heart to read it over and fix stuff.

-raVen