raVen speaks:
I show y'all 628's power in this chapter, and as well as Nani's new job.
Thanks for all of you that read so far, and many thanks for those who reviewed as well.
Stay tuned.
Breathe
Chapter 5
© by raVen
Editor: Kenjaje
"Manager?" Lilo said, with confusion.
"Yip. And he gave me a little money to help with the job-transition… I believe mister Ko'ikini won't pay me my full salary at the end of this month once he learned of my new job."
"But you told me he was a vampire!" Lilo suddenly said and looked at Stitch, who was still lying under the bags, his ears tilted on full attention.
"Well, he's probably moving to a place where there's less sun..." Nani said with a wave of her hand.
"… Yeah! Like Alaska!" Nani laughed and rolled her eyes. Lilo paused and let the thought of actually having some money run through her head.
"So it's back to the luau, huh?" she said, as if hearing herself say it would convince her.
"Yeah… I'll be working much shorter hours on weekdays, but longer on weekends-can you give me that bag?" Lilo picked up a bag with soap and other cleaning stuff in it and handed it to Nani, who placed it on the table and started unpacking.
"Oh, come on, Stitch. I thought you were supposed to be indestructible, or something," Nani huffed when she noticed him under the bags. Lilo giggled as he groaned in reply. Nani lifted on of the bags on Stitch and looked inside. She handed it to Lilo.
"Please go and put these things in the bathroom."
"Okay… come Stitch!"
"Okay…" he replied and crawled out from under the bags to follow her.
"Wow… this is really good for us, you know…" Lilo said as they walked into the toilet.
"Gabba?"
"Nani's so happy, she'll probably completely forget about our deal on you behaving… if she stays in such a good mood, maybe we can even introduce 6-2-8 to her!" she said enthusiastically, but then both of them stopped, looked at each other, and dismissed that thought with a 'Naaah…' and walked into the bathroom. Lilo got up on the toilet with the toilet-spray and toilet-rolls and placed them in the small cupboard above it, while Stitch put away the toothpaste and mouthwash, hand-soap and headache tablets into the cabinet above the wash-basin.
"Go check on him while I finish up here," Lilo said as she got the last items from the bag.
"Oketakka…" Stitch replied and quickly hurried out the door and up the stairs and elevator to their room.
"Cousin?" Stitch asked and peered under the bed… but his heart missed a beat… 628 was gone!
"Kocha-bon-kami?" he called softly, and sniffed the air… and it led him to look up at one of the windows. He gasped; the window was open… He quickly scuttled up the wall to peer outside, and sighed in relief as he found 628 just outside the window, staring at the ocean over the trees to the back of the house.
"Boootifaa…" 628 said in awe at what he saw.
"Ju nikka ogata?"
"Miga vachoo… Wangata moopatakka… Morcheeba ika wanga…" he said, and took a lungful of air in through his nose and breathed out slowly with a look of bliss. Stitch also drew in a few sniffs, smelling the nature around them, the salty smell of the ocean nearby, flowers, birds, smell of autumn on its way, pine cones and herbs, the grass and the essences of nature… he was used to this by now… but to 628 it must be something special.
"Miga know is nice… but ju naga neesta to miga… must stay in room or qatta nokka bishta shi tokku. Ju nikka ikki baka-dooka… Lilo kill me if that happens…" Stitch said, and shook his head, thinking of the horrors that would befall him… 628 gasped and quickly looked around.
"Soka!" he said quickly and hurried past Stitch into the room. He hurried under the bed again and laid quite still. Stitch calmly got down from where he was still clinging to the wall, and also got under the bed. 628 eyed him with a concerned look.
"Hungry?" Stitch asked after a few moments of quietness.
"Huh?" came the reply.
"Oh yah…" Stitch said and shook his head… 628 didn't know what hungry felt like… but in the silence of the room, there was a low growl and a surprised yip from 628. Stitch smiled at his cousin's surprised look as 628 reached for his stomach. Stitch pointed at 628's stomach. "628 hungry," he said. 628 blinked quickly and looked down at his stomach.
"Hm… need food make hungry go away…" Stitch explained further.
"6-2-6!" came a call from the elevator… it was Jumba.
"Ih?" he called back.
"Be coming to room… with 6-2-8."
"Oketakka! Iki…" he said and motioned for 628 to follow him, quickly disappearing from under the bed. 628 looked up and then to his left, where the window should be, and got up reluctantly, crawling out from under the bed. Stitch was waiting for him next to the elevator with a slight grin.
"Iki!" he said again and motioned.
"Aga-" 628 replied but stopped and rubbed his upper left arm with his upper right, and with his bottom set behind his back.
"Gabba?" Stitch asked.
"Soka… miga naga neesta ta ju…" 628 said and Stitch smiled.
"Is oketakka… is just… we not normal here…" Stitch blinked, trying to get the right words.
"Scare people, if people see…" he continued. 628 was confused.
"Jumba tell. Iki!"
"Ih." And he scuttled closer slowly onto the elevator with Stitch and stood up. As they rode the elevator down, 628 glanced at Stitch's body and at his own… but before he could think further of the subject, they hit the bottom and Stitch glanced around the corner.
"Makka sa-sa!" he said and grabbed 628's paw, who grabbed Stitch's paw back by reflex, and Stitch dragged him up to Jumba's room. Jumba closed the door behind them as they came in and rubbed his hands together eagerly.
"Listen carefully." He said… it was like a greeting to him by now.
"Having being prepared group of exercises to test 6-2-8."
"Miga?" he questioned as he heard his name.
"Yes… now, will be doing tests with 6-2-6 to determine how you rate." Stitch grinned and 628 gasped. He looked at Stitch, and a nervous spot tugged at his stomach. What if he wasn't good enough? What if he didn't live up to his creator's expectations? Jumba saw the expression and chuckled.
"What is feeling now is nervousness. But no need to be feeling scared in any sort. Real tests only coming tomorrow. Today just see how stack up against 6-2-6."
"Hah!" Stitch barked and mumbled some incoherent things, bouncing with eagerness.
"Forgive him, is being excitement to break boredom…" Jumba told 628 as he stared at Stitch's weird behavior.
"Okay, be leaving through window, and will be finding you behind house."
"Ih!"
"Ih…"
Stitch quickly crawled up the wall and out the window as Jumba walked out the door. 628 gaped at this and then at the height of the window.
"Hamcha!" he yelled and jumped to try and catch the edge of the window, but it was slightly higher than he could jump.
"Haaamcha!" he yelled again, and jumped once more, but something occurred that he didn't quite get, and he hurled himself against the ceiling. He screamed as he felt gravity pull at him, and he closed his eyes, expecting to feel the thud of the floor in a few moments… then he opened an eye, and saw the world inverted… opening the other one, he found himself clinging to the ceiling. Stitch's head popped through the window just then, scanning the floor.
"Cousin?"
"Meetso…" 628 answered in a quivering voice and Stitch looked up.
"Ah! Iki! Jumba waiting!"
"Ashta!" Stitch did a double take and scratched his head… Stuck? How stuck?
"Uh, just iki… walk, like on floor…"
628 looked down at his appendages… his claws pierced the ceiling ever so slightly, and his feet were planted flat against it.
"Oke-takka…" he said slowly and lifted his upper right hand and moved it forward, once more grabbing hold of the ceiling, he continued to do so with his other appendages, and pondered as he felt the same sticking force with his feet, but there were no claws penetrating the roof… a few moments later, he came to the corner and paused again… this was slightly more difficult that a flat inverted surface… Once more he placed his upper-right paw against the wall, and then the rest followed. Gravity shifted once again and he stared at the floor. With a little more confidence, he crawled through the open window and to the outside world again, grinning all the way.
"Meega doota!" he yelled happily and looked at Stitch that gave him a little applaud.
"Koota!" Stitch complimented and 628 laughed, amazed at this incredible feeling he was experiencing now.
"6-2-8 happy now," Stitch explained as he watched look over his body with a curious smile.
"Now iki! Maka-maka sa-sa!"
"Ih!"
"Phew… never seen us having so much stuff… ever…" Lilo mumbled and placed the last box of cereal in the cupboard, closing it and jumping off the chair.
"Thanks… Here, this is for the week…" and Nani handed her a $5 note. She looked at it with a long drawn out 'Wooooow'… and Nani ruffled her hair.
"Okay, I gotta get back to work…" she said and glanced at her watch with a gasp. She grabbed her jacket off the arm of the sofa and ran out the door.
"Later Lilo!" Lilo waved at the wall, not even really noticing Nani had left.
"Nani must think this is an investment in my future…" she told herself and spread the note out against the light from the window, making sure it's not a fake.
"Hmm… what does she want from me…?" she asked herself and walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the elevator.
"Look like I was right… She has forgotten all about our deal… oh well! Five bucks! What am I gonna buy?" she asked rhetorically, quickly changing her tone.
"Are you okay, 6-2-8?" she asked after hiding the five bucks in one of her books, and lifted up the covers of the bed to look underneath. She gasped.
"6-2-8! Oh no… he ran off!" she said and quickly searched to room for the white experiment.
"6-2-8!" she yelled again, and then ran and took the elevator down.
"Stitch? Where's 6-2-8!" she yelled and ran into the TV room… then paused.
"Stitch?" she called again… then placed one and one together. 628 must probably be with Stitch… and Stitch is probably showing him stuff. She walked through the house, checking all the rooms for the two of them. They were probably outside… She walked out the front door and scanned the area in front of their house, and then walked once around it, to find the odd group in the clearing to the side off the house, just a bit away from Jumba's ship. Jumba was talking actively with his computer in his one hand, swinging his arm and what, while the other two sat obediently at his feet.
"There you are!" she called and the trio looked at her.
"Nani's left for work, so I guess it's okay to show 628 around now…" she said as she got closer.
"What're you guys doing out here anyways?"
"Is going to be running some tests on 6-2-8. Not too much… Just standard reaction tests and so on."
"Oh… can I watch?"
"Of course!"
"Okay!" she said and took up a seat on a nearby rock.
"Right. First test would be scent. Have hidden two objects in area. Want you to find them." Jumba typed something on his computer.
"… go!" and he pressed a button. Immediately, Stitch began to sniff the air and 628 followed suit. Stitch, nose high in the air, let his legs follow him around as he eagerly searched. 628 simply sat and sniffed… First, there is a whole big smell… then there's two smells, artificial and natural… he sniffed some more and tilted and turned his head as he did so… grass… the moist ground… trees… the little native and Jumba… his own nervous sweat… then… then there was something odd, in the distance, like a small red thread in a rope… he untangled it and pulled at it, and he moved; his legs following. He stopped every now and then to sniff once more and finally, he was sure of its destination…
"Booto!" Stitch yelled from the distant underbrush and held up a sock. 628 looked over and lowered his ears in defeat.
"Excellent, 6-2-6! 22 seconds is new record!" Jumba said and typed some more.
"Isa really stinky sock…" Stitch replied and held his nose.
"6-2-8?" Jumba said and looked at him. "Why waiting? Get object!" His ears shot up and he quickly hurried over to a spot in the clearing, glanced at his claws, and started digging a hole.
"What-?" Jumba asked but decided to keep quiet. A moment later, 628 pulled out a dirty black plastic bag with something in it and caught his breath. Jumba scratched his head and looked at his computer.
"That's where I buried those!" Lilo yelled and ran over. She opened the black bag and gasped in delight as she pulled out several girls magazines. Both Stitch and Jumba walked over to look.
"Lilo read?" Stitch asked, confused… Lilo wasn't one for girly things…
"Huh? No! These are Myrtle's, remember?" Stitch's eyes stretched with recognition.
"Ooooh yah! Show and tell!"
"After Easter, yeah! You took them when she made fun of Scrump!" She looked at them with a devilish laugh. "Now I can ransom them back to her!"
"Hehahaheheaa!" Stitch laughed evilly as well.
"Well… not being expected… other object was actually other sock in jungle over there…" 628's ears lowered again. "But… have to give credit for finding harder-to-find object in ground." He made some more notes on his computer.
"Right… next test!" Jumba said and both of them gave him their full attention as Lilo dragged the bag back over to the rock, and sat down once more. Jumba typed something once more.
"Now, be counting dots," he said and turned the computer around. Stitch's eyes darted over the screen, and 628 tilted his head.
"329!" Stitch yelled while 628 slowly drew in breath and then his ears lowered again.
"Ih… isa 329…" he said afterwards. Jumba turned his computer around and did some more typing.
"Okay, okay. Not feeling bad, remember, only emerging recently…" 628 looked up at Jumba. "6-2-6 has been using abilities for very long now."
"Ih… jinja-chee…" Stitch agreed and gave 628 a playful push against the shoulder. His ears rose some and so did his mood.
"Now, next test. Come over here." And Jumba walked to the other side of the clearing from where Lilo was sitting.
"Speed. Be running and touching rock little girl is on, and back to line here." Jumba used his foot to draw a line in front of him.
"Now, line up behind it, and wait for go." He typed once more. Stitch lowered to the ground and had his lower set of arms emerge. 628 gasped at this.
"Ju bashita okka?" Stitch sat up and looked down at his bottom pair of hands.
"Ih…"
"Ika tooki nee hi? Gadja uga taba?"
"Uh…" he lifted his upper hands and pulled in his bottom arms again… and then had them emerge once more. He shrugged with a confused mumble.
"Get ready!" Jumba reminded them, and Stitch got down into his stance again… 628 observed him, and did similar.
"…go!" And both of them rocketed away from the line… it wasn't difficult to see who was winning… Stitch did a summersault and kicked off the rock Lilo was sitting on to vault back in the opposite direction past 628, who, while staring in awe at Stitch, crashed into the rock with a whimper, cracking it and causing Lilo to yell… He proceeded to limp slightly back to the finishing line, where Stitch was gasping for breath. Slowing to a near walk, 628 crossed the line, and held his injured soldier, breathing quickly through his clenched teeth.
"6-2-8!" came Lilo's concerned call.
"Ah… is experiencing pain now… lift arm… now flex paw…" Jumba said. 628 did as he was told, and his knees gave way as he flexed his paw… the pain slightly overwhelming him.
"Hold still…" Jumba said with earnest, and held 628's injured arm, also holding him up.
"Move paw…" Once more 628 did so, biting on his teeth, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Okay… at least not out of socket."
"Is he okay?" Lilo said as she ran closer.
"Will be fine… just squeezed nerve when hit rock… 6-2-8… observed that you did not use lower set of arms as much as could… but it will be easier in time. Remember feeling of pain, and being avoiding it. It is body telling you that be doing something stupid… Hmm…" Jumba paused for a few moments while Lilo gave a reluctant 628's shoulder a little massage.
"Concentrate on pain, 6-2-8… force it with mind to be calming down…" 628 tilted his head, but moved away from Lilo, and did as he was told. He focused on the throb in his shoulder and imagined his mind covering it like a thick liquid… he gasped as he was not breathing, and noticed that the pain had not disappeared, but lessened to a far more bearable level. Jumba laughed when he saw the rock was almost split in half.
"Impact would certainly have broken bone of normal creature… at least I did job good there…"
After a few moments of rest, Jumba gathered the two experiments around him.
"Okay. Last test: Powers." Jumba walked off to the side and drew a circle.
"Now. Will be fighting each other." 628's jaw dropped in disbelief, and even Stitch looked at Jumba with concern.
"No to be worrying, only friendly sparring match… whoever knocks other out of ring, will be winning." 628 glanced nervously at Stitch, who had his eyebrows raised, pondering the outcome of this situation.
"May be using any means possible. Go." Stitch walked to the circle and 628 followed with a sinking feeling… he had rather sucked so far…
"Kita makuta?" Stitch asked as soon as they entered the ring.
"I-ih…" 628 replied in a little voice. His heart was barely beating.
"Miga also… a little…" Stitch confessed with a smile. 628 gave a meek smile back, his spirits lifting a little… at least he wasn't the only one scared…
"Okay… get ready…" Stitch dropped into his battle-stance… his body facing his opponent, back-spines and antennae out, and arms to his sides, claws at the ready… he wore a determined look on his face. 628 leaned back slightly, his left side facing Stitch, and both his left arms up to shield himself.
"Go!" Jumba said and Stitch jumped, 628 gasped, and forgot to continue shielding himself… Stitch's upper-right paw came down… hard, and he slashed 628 across his right cheek.
"Agaa!" sounded the whimpering yelp. 628 hit the ground, still within the circle, and tears streamed down his cheeks as he sat up. Stitch slammed his paw over his mouth and stared at the paw that had struck 628. Three red lines ran down his cheek, a small trickle of blood matting the fur around the bottom-most cut, staining his white fur red. Lilo also stood in shocked silence, and Jumba only watched.
"Soka!" Stitch yelled and approached 628 to help him up…
628's eyes narrowed and he bit on his teeth… something happened. The pain was fueling something in his heart… An odd sensation filled his hands.
"Grrraaaa!" 628 yelled and thrust his upper-right hand at Stitch… an invisible force struck him head on and he was knocked off-balance, causing him to stumble to the edge of the circle, and in one last struggle of balance, he lost and landed on his furry behind just on the line. There were gasps and yells from Lilo and Jumba. Both experiments were on their feet at the same time, but the shear aggression in 628's stance made Stitch hesitate.
"Uga taba!" 628 yelled, and thrust both his upper hands at Stitch… this time, a swirling mass of air seemed to erupt from around 628 and hurled itself at Stitch, who was swept off his feet and sent tumbling through the air, right across the clearing, and crashing to the trees on the other side of it. Immediately snapping out of his trance, 628 noticed what he just did … but something was terribly wrong… he couldn't breathe…! Gasping and gaping, he turned to Jumba, who was yelling at him, and Lilo had already run to check on Stitch. He felt something on his lip, and he pressed a finger against it. Feeling something wet, he drew back his paw to see pink blood on his finger… he convulsed just then and everything went blurry… He went deaf in his left ear, and soon after, all was black.
raVen speaks:
Love them cliffhangers! I re-uploaded the whole story, with minor spelling fixes everywhere, as well as adding my editor's name. Kenjaje! You ROCK!
To my reviewers:
Ri2: Oh, you better believe the Grand Council Woman has secrets. Stay tuned, you've seen nothing yet.
Ecleptic: Then stay tuned for chapter seven. There's going to be a big battle scene.
X636: Thanks for reading :D
Heleme…: Stay tuned :P
Thanks for reading, once again, everyone, and stay tuned! This is still gonna get reeeaaly much more interesting! Reviews greatly appreciated, as always. Till next week! Ciao!
-raVen