raVen speaks:

Yay! Another update... I got TON's of reviews for the last chapter... no, wait... I got... one. You people aren't really making this worth my time.Please, it would take only a few seconds of your precious time to review this chapter, and thats all I ask. If no-one shows interrest, then I don't see a reason for going on with it. I spend two weeks writing it, so you can spend a minute reviewing it. Please.

Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 9

© by raVen

A few minutes later, they reached the clearing to the Pelekai house.

"Okay. Let us be focusing on training reflexes." Jumba took the tennis-ball out of his pocket and lobbed it.

"Be catching ball!" 628 stared at Jumba.

"Well? Catch it!" he said and pointed at the ball that was now reaching it's apex somewhere rather high above the roof of the house. 628 turned around, and he scanned the sky for the ball. In an almost computerish-way, his eyes locked onto the ball, and his vision tunneled till it was as if the ball was just infront of him. He blinked and everything returned to normal… immediately his mind pumped out information… distance to the ball directly, distance to the ball via the ground, possible ways to catch the ball, air density, temperature and pressure, then the size of the ball and some other aspects. But he immediately remembered his powers, and figured it would be much easier to catch the ball that way. He threw up his arms, mimicking a catching movement, and narrowed his eyes. The next moment, the leaves around his feet kicked up, the leaves of the trees above them, on a direct path to the ball, blew and rustled violently, the side of the dome of Lilo and Stitch's room caved in and the ball imploded into a fine powder. He quickly pulled back his arms and stared wide-eyed as the fine mist, that was a ball moments ago, dissipated, as well as the small dent in the dome. Jumba slapped his forehead and groaned.

"Soka!" 628 said again, worriedly and glanced at Jumba and at the former location of the former ball. Jumba leaned down and glanced at 628's face for a moment.

"Well… theory was being correct… hemorrhaging was being only first-time effect." He stood up and looked at the dented dome.

"Hmm… let us rather be working on tuning down of powers a bit…" he said and produced another ball seemingly out of thin air, as he was holding another one when 628 looked back.

"Also, when saying to be catching ball, actually meaning to be physically running and using fingered limbs to be completing task."

628 glanced at his paw, and twiddled his fingers a bit, his claws clicking together, with an expression saying that he didn't understand why he had to do all that manual labor if he could just use his powers. But he just shrugged and obeyed his creator. A little voice inside him questioned why he was listening to this overgrown blubber-bag anyway… but another, greater and stronger voice shouted 'HERESY!' and quickly quieted the smaller voice down. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and noticed Jumba holding up the ball.

"Now… be using powers to be taking ball very softly… gentlest touch is all is needed."

Okay… that couldn't be so hard… he remembered what happened to the canister last time he did that… and what he just did with the previous ball. He narrowed his eyes and reached out ever so softly and closed his claws in a gripping motion, while at the same time letting only a little bit of his power out. The ball moved slightly, then became slightly oval as its side's were pushed in, and then changed back to a round shape as this force surrounded the ball and it rose steadily from Jumba's hand.

"Ah… there you are going…" Jumba said, and removed his hand. The ball stayed in the air.

"Now… instead of using many power like with previous ball, try to be for steadily and gently stopping movement of object with mind… apply little force and gradually slow it to stopping position," Jumba explained and plucked the ball out of the air.

"Be trying this now," Jumba said and 628 readied himself. Jumba held the ball at arms length and let it drop. Motioning his hands, 628 formed a cushion of force under the ball and gently applied it to the ball. The ball dropped slower and slower until it stopped several inches from the ground. Jumba laughed and applauded.

"Good! Hehehe! Now…" he picked up the ball.

"Be catching ball, without using powers." 628's ears tilted up, and then backwards as he readied himself once more. Jumba dropped the ball, and 628 dove forward with his paws outstretched. It fell gently into his palms as he struck the ground. He grinned at the ball, and then frowned a little, feeling his bottom set of arms, and pushed outwards, having them emerge, and used them to push himself up to his feet. He smiled and held the ball up to Jumba, who took it from him.

"Good. Now, try catching it again, without powers." Jumba lobbed the ball over 628's head and a few meters back. He jumped away and ran on all-sixes till he was under the ball, just as it came down, and flipped over onto his back mid-run, catching the ball as he landed on his back. He used his bottom arms to push himself up into a sitting position again.

"Aga!" he yelled back at Jumba, who applauded and walked closer.

"Are coming along finely. Be following…" he said and walked on to the side of the house to a clean section of wall.

"Now… will be bouncing ball of structure-wall, and you are to be catching."

"Iga kishiata migatta kroshi?"

"No, without powers…"

"Aw, jijibbe…" 628 said and pouted. Jumba laughed.

"Don't be of worrying. Will be testing powers extensively after exercises." 628 nodded, and without warning, Jumba flung the ball at the wall.

"Go!" 628 barely had time to turn his head when the ball was speeding back towards them again. The ball hit him squarely in the head and bounced into the air. He fell over in a near-comical manner and Jumba caught the ball. Getting to his feet, 628 rubbed his head, and felt his heart pounding in his chest.

"Hm… will have to be working on reflexes." He lobbed the ball again, without warning, but 628 caught it this time, with one paw extended to the right of his head. Jumba showed no sign of being impressed, and merely motioned for 628 to give him the ball. The moment he had it, he threw it at the wall again, this time a little higher. 628 jumped and caught the ball in his lap, landing on his feet. He lobbed Jumba the ball, who shot it at the wall, this time to the opposite side of where 628 was standing. In a blur of white fur and a whir of leaves, 628 moved to the left of Jumba and cart-wheeled, catching the ball with his lower-right arm in mid-air, landing on his feet once more.

"Haha!" he laughed triumphantly and held the ball high. Jumba nodded, slightly impressed. 628 threw the ball back, and Jumba lobbed it at the wall, this time higher than before. Seeing this, 628 quickly ran at Jumba, who flinched and instinctively held up his arm as 628 ran up him and with little effort, he pressed his upper arms on Jumba's right shoulder and rebounded off it into the air, flipping over a few times and then catching the ball in the middle of his third flip. He made one more flip as he came back down and landed on his feet. He turned around and presented the ball to Jumba with a smug look. Jumba applauded.

"Not bad! Not bad at all! You are having same thinking-rationality as 626! Perfect!"

He did this a few more times, and 628 kept catching the ball, performing various acrobatic moves and shows of agility to get at the ball, all the while making it seem as if he wasn't even making an effort. But the actual fact was that he was amazing and surprising himself with every catch. He hadn't really realized just what he could really do, and understood now why Jumba was doing this little exercise. His breath was really racing by the time Jumba announced that they were done, and he let his tongue hang out.

"Let us be taking break before next exercises."

"Mahalo plenty! And have fun!" Nani said and waved as the surfer ran off with his board.

"Nani!"

"Oh, hey honey, how was your day so far?" Nani said, glancing back as Lilo and her blue dog came walking in.

"Pretty boring… there's no new experiments to catch… it's cloudy so there's not much tourists, and Pudge was too busy to talk…" Nani wanted to say something but Lilo interrupted.

"But don't worry! He said that the island won't be washed away by any heavy rains soon…" she said, anticipating what she thought Nani was going to say. Nani just rubbed her forehead. A few moments later Nani glanced at her watch.

"Okay, I have about thirty minutes off so we can go get your new- Stitch! Let go of those!" Nani said and grabbed the flippers Stitch was chewing on and pried them out of his mouth… and in doing so, one of his teeth popped out and clicked on the floor.

"Aga!" he yelled and grabbed his mouth.

"Nani! What did you do?" Lilo yelled and ran to her blue friend, picking up the tooth.

"Lilo, it's not my fault he was biting down that hard… this isn't my stuff you know…" But Lilo was ignoring Nani.

"Are you okay?" Lilo said. A few tears had welled up in the corners of Stitch's eyes and he was tonguing the gap in his mouth. It was right to the left of his giant left canine. It was bleeding a little, but strangely enough, another white tip was protruding from his gums right at the spot the previous one had been.

"Ih… Stitch okay…"

"What happened?"

"Was itching… and couldn't scratch… so Stitch chew to get rid of itchiness…" he said and rubbed his cheek. The pain was beginning to fade somewhat into a simple uncomfortable feeling.

"Maybe he's teething, like you did a while ago," Nani said.

"But Jumba said he's all grown up…" Lilo replied. "And grown-up people don't lose their teeth…" She gasped. "I read that when vampires crack or break their fangs, that their bodies replace them with new ones…" she said quickly and looked at the slightly bloody tooth in her hand. Surely enough, the tip had chipped off and there was a long groove down the back side. Nani saw this too.

"He must've bitten on to something sharp that did that…" Then it dawned on them.

"Yeah! The big stinky-head was using that big spear thing last week! Said it was a 'change of strategy' while he was giving his usual evil-rant right before we kicked his butt…"

"Ih! Stinky-head poke Stitch and Stitch bite-" and here followed a show of verbal sound effects and make-shift action as Stitch played out the moment for the other two.

"Yeah, and then he shook it around and threw Stitch off… it must've been then when he hurt his tooth…"

"Okay okay, that's all well and fine, but I only have twenty minutes left… let's go." They filed out of the door, Stitch first, still holding his mouth, and then Lilo, and then Nani, locking the door as she exited.

"Just go see Jumba when you get back to make sure it's nothing serious."

"Okay." And with that, they set off to town.

"Uuuueeenngh…"

Lightning struck the ground all around and the air above crackled with electricity. The sky was black but everything seemed to glow in an unseen blue radiance. The experiment lift his head and was immediately hit with a blinding headache. He grit his teeth and laid back down, waiting till the throbbing died down some. His ears were filled with a constant whistling and all his nose picked up was the smell of flames… things burning or burnt… wood, grass, plastic… flesh… He opened his eyes and was welcomed with the sight of… nothing. At this, he panicked and sat up quickly, blinking quickly… his head threatened to explode, but he ignored it and rubbed his eyes instinctively. When he opened them again, something was slightly visible… and the image cleared and brightened into something horribly distorted. All the colors seemed inverted... Everything was blue or black and the edges of his vision were distorted as if he was looking through a fishbowl full of water. He looked down at his own body, to see if it was blue as well, and was shocked to see glowing lines running all over his arms, chest and legs. Strange cracks, as if a light was shining from inside of him, an odd reddish light. His fur was a purplish color due to the blue surroundings mixing with his red fur, but the red light shining from the strange marks all over his body stood in severe contrast to his surroundings. He got up and looked around… there were ruins everywhere, odd winds were tugging at his fur and blowing at the dusty ground, kicking up blue dust and carrying it into the air… air that was riddled with chunks of rocks that seemed to be blown around as if it was paper. Lightning struck all over… again and again, and only then the experiment noticed that the remains of the city he was in was crumbling… chunks of bricks and metal were randomly and effortlessly torn out of anything that was still standing, and was carried into the air.

"Great gods of all that exists…" he thought in horrified awe as he stared at his surroundings.

"Did… I…do this…?"

Several moments went by and the whistling in his ears died down; the sounds of his surroundings slowly returned to him. He was shocked to hear his own breathing first, and then the rather loud noise of the wind. It sounded like he was right in the centre of a severe hurricane… and that would make sense as the buildings were literally being blown away around him… but… to him, it felt like a breeze.

"What is happen-" he stopped speaking at once.

"My voice…!" he said again… but the voice wasn't his. It was that of some demonic beast. He reached to his mouth in shock. His brain felt like it was about to creep into some remote corner of his mind, where it would remain to laugh at the rest of the world on the other side of his eye-sockets. The next moment, the face of a menacing beast that he knew all to well, flashed in front of his face, and he convulsed. Every muscle in his body pulled as hard as it could, and fire raced through his veins. His vision was blindingly-white and he felt as if bones inside him was splitting apart… someone was screaming and it mixed in with the winds around him. When the pain stopped, he realized it was he that was screaming… and a menacing laughter, cold and cruel, filled his ears… but this soon passed, and he was left in the wasteland that the Grand Council Woman had created. His breath raced and he looked down at himself. The few marks that had covered his body now seemed to be everywhere, and they formed odd patterns, still shining in a strange red light. He looked at his paws… his claws had been replaced with brutal black, serrated talons, and he noticed the marks led down both his arms, and a single glowing and winding line to each claw. The distortion in his vision also seemed to have intensified; everything seemed to come in and out of focus with each one of his heart-beats, which he could hear clearly along with his breathing. He found that he remembered the fight he had with the Grand Council Woman… somehow he knew that he looked like he did because of her, of what she did. He found his thoughts trailing to everything his alter-self had done… and he was horrified… not only in the sheer amount of death, but also in the fact that he actually knew what his alter-self was doing. It is as if, in some strange way, they had fused into the same being. Then something disturbing flashed into his mind. A red crystal…

The hover-vehicle came to a stop into the landing-bay and the rear opened up. A funny looking alien got out of the front. It was large, and green, and had no legs… it moved with the help of a few tentacles. Only two arms, no neck either, and its face had no mouth. A tall, purple creature came from a nearby control room. The green one spoke, in some strange, undecipherable language that sounded like the cross between two mating mongooses, a wookie and a drowning cow. The purple one replied, thankfully, in turian. (translated for your convenience, and because I'm to lazy to type up turian).

"Yes, sir. The package is here, under high security… it would be best if you collected it yourself, just to be sure."

The green one replied once more, in its weird gibberish. They left through a door in the distance. Moments later, a small, red and fluffy experiment crept onto the platform of the landing bay. 'Phew… I thought they were never going to finish… I've been waiting down there for ages…' he thought to himself. He quickly hurried to the back of the hover-vehicle and jumped in. He quickly started searching through the various boxes for anything to eat, throwing various objects about, and finally finding some raw horlak meat, meant for the owner's pets. He didn't care, he wolfed it down quickly and let out a loud belch when he was done… but footsteps stopped him from jumping from the vehicle, and, instead, he hid in the box he had emptied…

"No, not rare, sir… unique… Jumba Jookiba sent this himself… talked something about it having severe adverse effects on his creations…said he wanted to isolate the rock's positive effects on them, but cut out the side-effects..."

The purple creature spoke again.

"Uhm, well… they go insane… Jumba also mentioned that his experiments are made for mischief and destruction… not death, but after exposing his experiment number 6-2-7 to it, the creature became completely insane and malevolent… he had to lock it up."

Some more noises from our purple friend.

"You're supposed to experiment with it, find a way to isolate its positive effects… Jumba said that he will forward experiment 6-0-6 to you to experiment on…"

The purple creature remained quiet for several seconds, a container was placed in the back of the vehicle, and the doors closed. The talking continued on outside, but soon enough, the vehicle started up, and started moving. The red experiment got out of the box and hurried to the door… he opened up on door a little, and noticed they were a few hundred feet from the ground. He groaned. He closed the door, and… indeed… curiosity took over, and he started fiddling with the container. He had not seen his creator for nearly two years… since he escaped from the lab… He got it open and suddenly, everything went blank… an image of a red crystal burnt into his mind as a voice spoke.

"You are chosen by fate, as an agent of fate, to set things back to the way its supposed to be… the universe and all its life is trapped in an infinite circle of death, birth, death and rebirth… to many are born for souls to rest… they are immediately called back into the mortal plane… I need you… as an angel of death, to bring about the balance of the universe… your power shall be great, and you will serve your purpose well… And then you, too… shall rest… go now, and return the wheel of fate to the way it should be…" The darkness faded and he once again saw the back of the vehicle… but the red crystal was gone. Inside him, he felt a dark heat… an evil warmth, glowing… pulsing… growing…

Two weeks later the planet was destroyed…

426 woke from his flashback and sat up once more. He glanced at his hands, his claws, his body.

"So that's what happened…" he said and looked to the blue, lightning-filled sky above.

"I must get off this planet… I must find Jumba…"

raVen speaks:

So, see you all in the next chapter. Let's just say that the more reviews I get, the quicker it'll be here. Reviews are like the feul to my fire. Get what I'm saying? My supply of gas and the igniter. No?

It's simple. Review.

Nyo.