Hey! Hey, wow! Chapter 2! I ain't got anything else to say, so, enjoy!
Sunday, March 8 20XX (Morning)
Stitch rose from bed, yawning. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around.
Lilo wasn't in bed, he noticed. It seemed that she'd woken up before him today.
He also noticed that he was actually IN bed this morning, and not on the floor. He silently thanked whatever higher power was out there that he didn't have a repeat of that little incident from earlier that night.
At that thought, however, he paused.
'What a weird dream…' He thought, remembering the night before.
In that dream, he'd awoken in a bedroom – his bedroom from his days in the lab. Then, he'd heard voices as he tried to leave. He couldn't remember what was spoken, but he remembered feeling… sad.
All of those voices sounded sad.
And that confused him. Who did he know who would be that sad?
Almost immediately, his mind went to Lilo.
It was that time of the year again…
Shaking his head to clear that thought, he went back to thinking about that dream.
However, at the end, as he was about to depart, he heard another voice. This one was completely different from the others, and it stuck with him.
Where are you going?
Home? But isn't this where you belong?
…I see. You're rejecting it.
…
Well, I won't force you into anything.
Our paths will cross soon. I'll see you then…
Stitch buried his face in his paws. What could that mean? What was he rejecting? And what did this voice mean when they said that he belonged there?
It didn't make sense to him, and that was frustrating.
Come to think of it, he remembered being spoken to, but he couldn't remember what the voice actually sounded like, as if it had been putting the words into his mind directly.
A thought struck him. Could this somehow be related to the 'great change' Wendy had warned him and Lilo about yesterday?
He groaned.
It was too early to think about this blitznak.
Pushing his covers aside, he jumped out of bed and threw off his nightcap. As he did, his vision suddenly distorted; colorful "echoes" surrounded everything, before fading as quickly as they came. Stitch reeled in alarm, falling flat on his ass.
"Gaba!?"
"Stitch?" He heard Lilo call from downstairs. "What's wrong?"
"Uh, nothing!" Stitch called back, breathing heavily from adrenaline. What the heck was that!?
"Well, c'mon down!" Lilo yelled back in response. "It's breakfast time!"
He blinked. Lilo sounded… less upset than he was expecting.
…Maybe she was truly starting to get over it?
Shaking his head, Stitch looked around the room once more. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He shrugged.
Well… Whatever. Might as well see if there's anything else going on.
"Coming!" He called back, scuttling to the elevator and allowing it to carry him down.
As Stitch hopped into his chair, he looked around. Those strange distortions emerged from the corners of his vision once again, briefly lighting up the room with a kaleidoscope of color before vanishing.
'Again…?' He thought, shaking his head frantically. It was then that Lilo entered the room.
"Stitch?" She asked, tilting her head. "Is something wrong?"
"Uh, nothing…" Stitch said, shaking his head.
"Um, okay?" Lilo blinked, before shrugging. She sat at the table next to him.
Just as Stitch put his paw to his chin, thinking about how it seemed like a remarkably normal day, Lilo seemed to notice something off in the other room, and smiled.
"Hey, Mom!"
Stitch's eyes bugged out of his skull.
…What!?
Sure enough, standing in the doorway, was a woman Stitch had only ever seen in photographs.
Lilo's mother. Here he was, expecting to be spending the day comforting Lilo over her parents' death, now her mother was alive and well, standing right at the door.
What the hell was going on!?
"Good morning, Lilo, Stitch," Lilo's mother said, smiling. Stitch didn't know what to say, so he just muttered in response.
"Ahua shalom bye…"
Lilo gave Stitch an odd look.
"You sure you're okay, there? You look like something's bothering you," Lilo asked, concern tinting her voice. Stitch looked over at her. He opened his mouth to say something, but the words died in his throat.
How, exactly, was he supposed to tell her that her parents were supposed to be dead, when her mother was right there in front of them?
"It's fine, it's fine," Stitch said, his tone betraying his confusion. "Honest."
"…Well, okay," Lilo beamed at him, before turning to talk with her mother. Stitch felt a headache come on.
'What's going on here!?' He screamed in his head. It didn't make sense! How!? How was Lilo's mother alive and right in front of him!? And why didn't this surprise Lilo!?
"Ah, 626," A voice snapped him out of his internal tirade. He turned to see Jumba walk into the room.
"Aloha, Jumba," Stitch said, looking as if smoke was about to start escaping his ears.
"Morning, Jumba!" Lilo waved at him.
"Morning, Little Girl, and…" He looked at Lilo's mother for a moment. "Older Earth Woman. "
"Jumba," Lilo's mother acknowledged. "You here to join us for breakfast?"
"Actually, am needing to talk to 626 for a bit, if you are not minding," Jumba responded. Stitch raised an eyebrow.
"I don't mind," Lilo said. "See ya later, Stitch."
"Ih," Stitch nodded, before jumping out of his chair and scurrying after Jumba. As they did so, Pleakley walked into the room.
"Wonder what that was about?" He asked. Lilo and her mother both shrugged.
Cut
Jumba opened the door to his and Pleakley's room.
"Come in, 626. Is very important matter," He said, sounding slightly urgent. Stitch, not needing to be told twice, quickly scurried into the room on all fours. As he did so, Jumba shut the door, locking it as he did so.
"Yeah?" Stitch asked, jumping up and landing on the desk. He sat down on it and looked at Jumba. The strange distortions lit up his vision once more, causing everything in the room to 'echo' with color. Jumba blinked, before frowning.
"…So, you are noticing too, yes?" He asked darkly. "How Earth girl's mother is back from the dead."
"Ih…" Stitch nodded, slowly. His mind wandering back to a memory from five years ago.
"That's us before. It was rainy, and they went for a drive. …What happened to yours?"
"I also noticed that they're acting as if her parents never died in the first place."
"Is very strange, is it not?" Jumba asked. "Humans are not supposed to come back from being beyond the grave. Humans are also not supposed to act as if it is no big deal."
"Agreed…" Stitch nodded slowly before placing a paw to his chin. "Yesterday, when Lilo and I were coming home, we ran into Wendy. She told us to 'prepare for great change'…"
Jumba paused, putting a finger to his own chin.
"590 is annoyingly vague, but extremely accurate with predictions. If she is telling you this, then is likely that this is connected to current situation," He surmised. Stitch nodded in agreement.
"Ih," Stitch said. Jumba's eyes went wide, as if something had just occurred to him.
"Now, I am wondering if this is being limited to us, or if it is affecting entire island," Jumba said. Stitch's fur bristled.
"Meega…" Stitch started, before clearing his throat. "I should go check, and see how everyone's doing."
"Yes, that is a good idea," Jumba agreed. "Come back here when you have gathered more information, and we will try to come up with hypothesis. I will conduct my own investigation."
"Okay!" With that, Stitch jumped off of the desk. He went to exit the room, and just as he opened the door, he looked back at Jumba.
"Something isn't right, here," He said. "And whatever it is, we need to fix it."
Music:
~So Happy World~
(Persona 5: Royal)
Stitch leaped out of the house from the dog door, his vision distorting once more as he did so.
'Is this just gonna keep happening any time I go somewhere?' He thought, groaning and shaking his head. He stood up to his full height and looked around. 'I need to see how everyone's doing. First stop: Dark Mountain.'
He curled into a ball, stuffing his feet into his mouth, and swiftly rolled down the driveway and into the town below.
It only took a few minutes to reach the Dark Mountain this way. Being in a relationship with Angel, he was exempt from the barrier that usually prevented others from being able to perceive it.
Strangely, he wasn't actually that frequent a visitor. He usually preferred to meet with the others either at his and Lilo's house, or somewhere around town.
He scowled. Well, all of them except Slang, anyway. In fact, he could go his entire life without seeing her again. It was the one downside of being in a relationship with Angel.
Coming to the entrance, he looked up at the door, heaved a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
After a few tense moments, the door slowly swung open, and he was greeted with a pair of red eyes looking at him.
For a moment, Stitch looked confused. Who was this remarkably cute, blue-furred Angel-lookalike at the door? Quickly running through a list of experiments in his mind, only one could come to mind, and his eyes went wide.
Slang.
Just as he began to mentally prepare for the inevitable blowout, she spoke.
"Oh, hey, Stitch. If you're looking for Angel, she left a little bit ago."
"…Huh?" Stitch blinked. Oh, he heard what she'd said just fine. It was just that she, of all people, had just told him that. Slang, the icy bitch who enjoyed playing mean pranks, especially on him, just told him something in a polite and conversational tone.
Even weirder, he now realized, she wasn't wearing her hood, showing her face for all to see. She'd been wearing that thing religiously since she'd been activated, so seeing her without it, not even draped around her shoulders, was capital "W" weird.
If something wasn't wrong earlier, it sure as hell was now.
"I said that-" Slang started again, only for Stitch to interrupt.
"I heard," He said before quickly adding, "I was actually here to see how you guys were doing."
"…I see. Alright, come in," Slang moved away from the door. A now thoroughly weirded out Stitch entered. On cue, the strange distortions filled his vision, causing everything in the room to light up with color.
'I'm gonna have to get used to that, aren't I?' He mentally groaned, pulling down on his eyelids.
"Hm?" He turned when he heard a voice come from the kitchen. A familiar black and white experiment holding a frying pan walked into the living room, and smiled upon seeing him. "Oh, Stitchie dear. It's been a little while, hasn't it?"
"Aloha, Stella," Stitch greeted. "And yeah, it has. How've you been?"
"Oh, it's been wonderful!" Stella beamed. "Why, Virgie and I are planning on going out on a date tonight!"
Stitch went grayscale.
Stella. On a date. With Virgil.
Okay, something was wrong here.
This wasn't necessarily a bad thing; this was something Stitch had wanted to hear… basically the moment he'd seen Stella and Virgil in the same room. He wasn't the only one, either.
Everyone knew they were made for each other.
Everyone except Stella, that was. Stella was dense. Really, really dense.
He recalled hearing that Virgil had run into her at a book store, intending to buy a book on how to speak to women. The book's author was there, and called them a couple, after which Virgil invited her to read it with him and see if the advice was accurate.
And Stella somehow missed the hint.
And everyone knew it wasn't one-sided on Virgil's part, either; if asked to speak about him, Stella would start talking about him in a tone that was somehow sweeter and more affectionate than usual. And everyone had seen her simply staring at him longingly from a distance, multiple times. When asked, she'd just get confused, even as she started blushing.
…So, yeah, it was obvious.
And, somehow, Stella had suddenly gotten the hint?
No, that wasn't possible. Unless someone had effectively smacked her in the face and told her outright Virgil was in love with her, and vice versa, it wasn't possible.
"Stitchie? Is something wrong?" Stella asked, noticing the blank stare he was giving her. "You're looking at me funny…"
"Er, um," Stitch blinking, his body returning to its usual blue color. "N-Nothing. Um… Have fun with that…?"
As he trailed off, Stella tilted her head in confusion as a question mark appeared right next to her head. Then she shrugged.
"Well, while you're here, could I treat you to breakfast, perhaps? Unfortunately, Angie's out and-Eep!"
Just as she started to turn to head back into the kitchen, she stumbled and fell over, throwing the pan she was carrying into the air reflexively as she braced herself.
"I got it!" Stitch shouted, leaping over her prone form and catching the pan in mid-air before it could fall far.
"Oh… Thank you, Stitchie," Stella pulled herself back up. "Sorry, I must've lost my balance…"
"It's fine," Stitch shrugged. 'Perfect' as she came off as, Stella had a little secret, known only to a few close to her: she was clumsy. Very clumsy. Honestly, he'd come to expect this, and it seemed like this strange new reality they were in hadn't changed it at all.
"Did you have anything you were going to do, or not?" Slang spoke up. Stitch turned to her, raising an eyebrow.
Before he could respond, however, he heard a door open.
"…Mommy?"
Stitch slowly craned his head. There was a small experiment standing at the open door, rubbing their eyes. He noticed that the smaller experiment had black fur, with a light blue belly and patches around their eyes, which were red in color.
Stitch looked at Slang, then at the child. He looked back at Slang, then back at the child.
You could almost hear the gears in Stitch's head turning.
"Uuuuuuhhh…" Stitch said, at a complete loss for words.
"Stitchie? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost," Stella asked, concern tinting her voice. Stitch shook his head.
'Oh, God, what's going on!?' He mentally screamed, before quickly replying, "Uh, nothing! Nothing at all!"
"You're acting rather strange," Slang noted, looking at him oddly as the child walked over to stand next to her.
Trying to rein his racing thoughts in, Stitch quickly changed the subject.
"Well, I was just here checking up on you guys, y'know?" Stitch said, before looking around. "Wait, where's Clover and Fang?"
"Oh, Clover went out with Zackie," Stella responded. Stitch paused. Clover had been a 'little' (read: very) angry at Zack for leaving Earth with Gantu without telling her beforehand. Nice as she was, she kept grudges. If they were out with each other, then that seemed to imply he was back on Earth, and Clover wasn't angry at him. He quickly added them to the list of people affected by this reality.
"And Fang?"
"She's out," Slang responded, a tinge of worry marring her face. "Haven't seen her since last night."
"Same… Oh, dear… Where could she be?" Stella now looked worried herself.
Stitch's eyes widened.
Fang had pulled a disappearing act? If experience was correct, that likely meant that she'd went and gotten wasted somewhere again, meaning she might not have been affected by this reality.
So, that left himself, Jumba, and possibly Fang as being unaffected.
He'd have to think about this.
"Well, wait, hang on," Stitch said, snapping his head up. "You said Angel was out, right?"
"Yes," Stella nodded. "She looked like she was in a hurry, too…"
Stitch blinked. Did that mean that Angel was also…?
"Well, thanks for letting me drop by. Uh, gotta go!" Stitch said hurriedly. Without waiting for a response, he dashed out the front door. The two sisters looked at where he had been for a few seconds.
"…What's his deal?" Slang asked. Stella looked thoughtful for a moment.
"…I don't know."
Sunday, March 8 20XX (Afternoon)
After several hours of running around town, Stitch had taken note of a few things.
Number one: seeing everyone he knew, experiments and humans alike, walking around with big, empty, happy smiles was creepy.
Number two: nobody seemed to remember the 'original' world; Stitch had started making oblique references to things that had happened in the past, and only received looks of confusion.
However, there were a few events that had carried over.
Naturally, the whole conflict with Gerbilwheel had taken place. From what he could gather, it had more or less gone the same way; Jumba was kidnapped by Gantu, and he and Lilo activated Sparky to recharge the ship after its energy supply was depleted by one of Gantu's shots. After that, they captured Sparky to pay off the gerbil's ransom, and in the ensuing conflict, they had spread the pods across Kauai.
Naturally, he and Lilo, along with eventual assistance from the Angel Sisters, managed to discover, subdue, and rehabilitate all of the other experiments, though apparently much easier than originally. The Demonic experiments, which he recalled as having caused them a lot of trouble, reformed in this reality without as much fuss.
On that note, apparently Hydra (500) had told him all about his family this time, which he found was curious. In the original reality, she had left him in the dark, along with everyone else in the know, because of his apparent amnesia.
Also, in this reality, in exchange for that information, he agreed to tear down an oil drill for her, which he apparently did while under hypnosis. Not exactly the worst deal out there, but then again, Hydra WAS a close family friend.
Then came the invasion of the Leroy clones. That went more or less the same way; they were outnumbered roughly eighty to one, and they had to resort to singing Aloha Oe to cause him to shut down. Then he and Hamsterviel went to prison.
And that more or less lead up to now.
Now, there were several "edits" that seemed to have been made to reality. For one, Lilo's parents were alive and well. And judging by how Lilo's mother and her had been interacting, they'd never died in the first place.
That was bizarre occurrence number one. Number two was that Slang was without her hood and wasn't quite as icy and mean as she usually was.
And number three was that Stella had gotten a clue and was going out with Virgil. Oh, the look of sheer happiness on Virgil's face…
He'd also found that some experiments that hadn't originally landed on Earth had, in fact, landed on Earth here. If he remembered correctly, some passing space debris had picked up some of the pods and had carried them deeper into space in the original reality. That included 098 through 101 (Magnolia, Galatica, Thor, and Odin, respectively), 198 and 200 (Street and Gadget), and 611 (Liz).
On experiments that weren't supposed to be there, there was the matter of the child he'd seen at the Dark Mountain.
Slang's child.
The child she'd lost in the "incident" with Fang.
That explained why she wasn't as cold in this reality. As she herself had admitted, her personality took a turn for the worst after suffering a miscarriage, thanks to that "Phoenix" demon sealed inside Fang.
He had called Jumba on the matter, and Jumba confirmed that said child was registered as Experiment 629 in the database. He also alerted Stitch to the fact that "Leroy" was registered as Experiment 627, and that his original name was "Street Jr".
As in, his younger triplet brother, the guy Fang had liked, apparently. And guess what? He was presumed dead after the "incident" as well.
So, it seemed the "incident" hadn't happened in this strange reality.
That put Fang's current status into question.
If the "incident" hadn't happened, it was possible that the Phoenix wasn't sealed within Fang, which would likely mean that she was trapped in this strange reality as well. But she had also gone and made herself scarce this morning, which tended to mean that she had suffered a depressive fit and gone to get herself wasted.
He then figured that the best way to answer the question of whether or not Fang remembered the original reality or not was to ask her.
To that end, Stitch pulled his phone from his lower arm, entertaining the notion of texting Fang and seeing where she was, when he noticed something.
That. App.
The same app with the eyeball logo was back on his phone. It seemed to pulsate, taunting him with its presence, daring him to open it.
"Bah!" Stitch threw his arms up in exasperation before shouting expletives in Tantalog. He stared at the app in frustration.
"Fine, I'll open you! Happy!?" Without thinking, he pressed on the icon. The icon filled the screen for a moment, before giving way to a few spaces for input, along with a microphone symbol.
…?
Stitch eyed the interface for a few seconds. Nothing seemed to be happening.
He then noticed that the input spaces were labelled with Japanese kanji, which, fortunately, he could read.
Name:
Location:
Distortion:
"…Huh." The heck did THAT mean?
'Name' and 'Location' were pretty self-explanatory. But 'Distortion'?
As he mulled over this, Stitch found another button in the corner and pressed it. A map of the area filled the screen.
"A navigation app?" He tilted his head in confusion. Disregarding the strange interface, not to mention the creepy icon, that's what it seemed to be. So, why did it keep downloading itself onto his phone?
What a weird app.
Before he had time to muse on this any further, the phone began to ring. Startled, he accepted the call and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Stitchie!" Angel half-yelled a note of relief in her voice. The outburst caused Stitch to briefly pull the phone away from his ear, cringing.
"Angel? What's wrong!?" He asked, putting his phone back to his ear.
"Everyone's acting really weird! I-I don't know, it's like-" She started in a panic, only for Stitch to interrupt.
"Like everyone's super-happy and no one's been through any kind of trouble in their lives?" Stitch asked. He heard Angel gasp.
"Y-You noticed too? I'm not going crazy, right?"
"I don't think you are. Lilo's parents were alive and well this morning. Jumba noticed it too, actually," Stitch confirmed.
"So Jumba's aware of this too…" Angel trailed off, before continuing. "W-Well, okay, that's good. Look, I've got some news!"
"What kind of news?" Stitch asked.
"I've found something! It's really weird, and I don't know what I'm looking at, so I'm just gonna describe it, okay?" Angel responded quickly.
Stitch's fur bristled. She found something?
"What is it?"
"It's this weird building…"
…Huh?
"A building?" Stitch asked.
"It's really faint, but I can see this weird building on top of the Birds of Paradise hotel!" Angel sounded slightly panicked.
On top of the hotel? The heck did THAT mean?
"Angel, Boojieboo, calm down," Stitch assured her. "I'm coming over, so just hang tight, okay?"
"O-Okay, I'll wait…" Angel sounded uncertain.
"I'll be there in just a minute. See you there!" Stitch hung up, and sprinted as quickly as he could towards the hotel.
Coming into view of the hotel, Stitch came skidding to a stop and looked up. His eyes went wide.
Just as Angel had said, the ghostly image of a large building. Obscured by some kind of fog, Stitch could only make out a few features. It was tall, most likely a tower of some kind. It appeared to be top heavy, though it also had a large base as well.
Standing at its base was Angel, who was looking up at it, transfixed.
"Angel!" Stitch shouted, running over to her. The pink experiment turned around.
"Stitch, you made it!" She shouted, sounding relieved. She caught him in a hug, which he reciprocated, before pulling away.
"So, this is it?" Stitch asked, pulling away and looking up at the strange structure before them. Angel nodded.
"Ih. I've tried going inside, but I can't find any sort of entrance in the hotel," She explained. "By the way, where were you?"
"I was running around the island, trying to see if anyone else has noticed this," Stitch responded. "I actually ran by your place first, after you left. I would've left there sooner, but Stella went and dropped a frying pan while I was there-"
"Please tell me that didn't cause a huge mess…"
"No, I caught it before it hit the ground," Stitch said.
"Oh, good," Angel wiped her forehead.
"I guess whatever's affecting everyone's more-or-less kept their quirks intact," Stitch noted. "Stella's still her friendly clumsy self, at least, and, um…" He froze, remembering what he saw earlier. "So, Slang's a mom and Stella and Virgil are dating. I can't believe I just said that."
"Yeah…" Angel said, shaking her head and looking up. "I ran out the moment I saw Slang's child. I knew right away something wasn't right. Er, I mean, you know…"
"Ih," Stitch nodded. "It's like no one's ever gone through any trouble at al. And that's weird, since, well, how would we have ended up on Earth? I mean, if Lilo still had her parents when I crashed here, I'd probably be in hiding somewhere, or on an asteroid somewhere, waiting for it to crash land on some planet."
"And we'd still be dehydrated," Angel added, before blinking. "Wait, no, we might not have been dehydrated at all. We'd probably still be at the lab, really…"
"Right," Stitch nodded, before looking back at the hotel. "So, we're stuck in some weird 'world without suffering', and then this building just appears out of nowhere. You said you tried to look for an entrance, right?"
"Yeah. I went all around the place, trying to find a way in," Angel confirmed. "I didn't see any sort of entrance in the hotel or anything."
"Did, um, anyone else notice it, or…?" Stitch started, not really sure what to expect.
"I did ask around, actually. Everyone else sees it fine, but no one's bothered by it at all. It's almost like, well…" Angel trailed off.
"…Like it doesn't get any kind of reaction out of them? Like it's been there for a long time?" Stitch guessed. Angel nodded.
"Yeah, that's it! But, why doesn't it bother anyone? It's the Birds of Paradise hotel, not some weird-"
Suddenly, a strange purple glow enveloped them as the world around them flickered and sputtered strangely. Both Stitch and Angel didn't have time to react before they found themselves clutching their heads as a strange feeling of light-headedness washed over them.
"G-Gaba!?" Angel yelped, her voice straining. As the strange feeling began to recede, Stitch felt a buzzing from his side. Curious, he pulled his phone from his third arm.
"Input accepted. Searching for route to destination."
"Wha-?" Stitch's eyes went wide. It was that weird app! He'd forgotten to close out of it when he rushed over!
"Stitch, what is that?" Angel asked, looking down at his phone.
"It's this weird navigation app… I think, that just downloaded itself onto my phone. I tried deleting it a few times, and it just kept coming back," Stitch explained.
"That's creepy… You sure it isn't a virus?" Angel asked, tilting her head.
"That's what I thought, but…" Stitch noticed what looked like an update to the app's search history, and out of curiosity, tapped on it. His eyes widened.
"No way…" He breathed in. "It's got the hotel registered!?"
"Huh?" Angel scanned the screen herself. It was displaying a map of the area, with the weird eyeball symbol right where the hotel would be. Stitch noticed some more information on the side, and scanned through it.
Name: ***
Location: Birds of Paradise
Distortion: ***
"Huh… The 'Name' and 'Distortion' portions of the entry are being censored. Weird…" He looked thoughtful for a moment. A lightbulb suddenly went off in his head. "Wait, this could be it!"
"'Name'? 'Distortion'?" Angel seemed confused. "And, wait, what do you mean?"
"Our way in! You said that you couldn't get into that building, right? And then this app shows up literally just before this weird stuff starts happening. It can't be a coincidence!" Stitch grinned. He looked at the app, and found a small button labelled Begin Navigation.
"So, I'm just gonna go ahead and click this, and then it might show us how to get in there!"
"Hold on, maybe we should-" Angel didn't get a chance to finish when Stitch pressed the button on the app.
& *#... Birds of Paradise hotel… *#($... Beginning navigation.
"Now, let's-!" Stitch started, only for everything to suddenly go purple again as a massive headache struck the both of them, sending them both reeling and causing them to clutch their heads.
"Gaba!?" It was Stitch's turn to yelp as he started looking around in a panic.
"Stitch, you need to stop rushing into things!" Angel shouted as the strange icon filled the phone's screen and began to flicker and sputter erratically.
Then, before their very eyes, reality began to ripple, like water in a pond. Crimson distortions filled their vision as reality warped, stretched, and changed around them, disorienting them even further.
After a few sickening moments, the ripples left their vision, and reality became discernible once more.
Only now, everything was completely different
The two experiments looked around in surprise.
Stitch looked up at the hotel, and his jaw nearly dropped.
"A-Angel…?" He started. In her own surprise, Angel didn't hear him.
"It's… night?" Angel sounded confused, looking up. She was greeted by an endless expanse of stars as colorful aurora danced in the atmosphere above them, filling the sky with a glimmering sheet of purples, blues, and greens.
"Angel…?" Stitch asked again, panic welling in his voice. Angel still didn't turn around, instead being captivated by their surroundings.
Behind them, the lush paradise of Kauai had been replaced with a sprawling cityscape. The windows of every building shone with a brilliant, almost ethereal blue glow. As Angel looked around, unable to believe what she was seeing, she heard Stitch shouting behind her.
"Angel, look!" Stitch yelled, pointing at the hotel. Angel turned around… and gasped.
The hotel was gone. In its place, a massive tower loomed over them, easily dwarfing the skyscrapers surrounding them.
Massive lenses boomed with a thundering noise as they extended to their full length from a large, glowing spherical structure. Studio lights danced back and forth as they rotated on a ring of metal floating near the top of the tower, showering the surrounding area with dazzlingly bright light.
The entire structure seemed to be glowing brilliantly. From the bright, golden sphere at the very top, to the white spiral structure that supported it.
The two gaped.
"W-W-W-Wh-Wha…?" Angel choked out, unable to say anything. Her hands were clasped over her mouth. "W-What IS this…!?"
She took a step back, struggling to comprehend what was going on around her. When she looked down in an effort to catch her thoughts, she noticed something else.
"Wait, we're in human form!? When did we-?" Angel started, before closing her eyes and trying to change back.
…But nothing happened.
"Angel?" Stitch asked.
"Ngh… I… can't?" Angel's eyes opened. "I can't change back into my experiment form!"
"Huh?" Stitch blinked in surprise, before attempting to change back himself.
Once more, nothing.
"What's going on here…?" He asked, looking completely confused.
Angel looked at her hand, then back up at the building.
"I… don't know…" She admitted, hesitantly. "I've never seen or heard of anything like this…"
Stitch stepped forward.
"Right…" He said, inhaling deeply before exhaling. "Well, no time like the present, I guess. This place is our only real clue as to what's going on, so…"
Angel nodded, trying to appear more confident than she was feeling.
"Y-Yeah. We should probably take a look around, see if we can find any clues," She agreed.
Music
~Gentle Madman~
(Persona 5: Royal)
The two experiments stepped forward. The massive tower was situated within a large basin, with a thicket of Sakura blossoms in full bloom surrounding it. Pastel pink petals danced in the air like fireflies.
Combined with the starry sky and dancing auroras, it was strangely beautiful in a way.
The two experiments also noticed a gate, preventing them from accessing the building directly. Beyond the gate was a ramp, with some sort of roof over it.
"Any ideas?" Angel asked.
"Hmm…" Stitch looked up, gauging the height of the gate. After a moment, he walked up to it and, with one fluid motion, jumped, grabbing the edge of the roof with his hand, and pulled himself up.
Landing, Stitch nodded with satisfaction at his improvised technique before looking back at Angel expectantly. Angel complied with the silent suggestion, waking over to the gate and performing the same manoeuvre.
Seeing as there were no more obstacles between themselves and the tower, the two sprinted down the roof, their footsteps creating ripples and purple splashes in the ground beneath them, almost as if they were running on water.
They looked at each other in confusion, just as they reached the end of the roof. They proceeded to jump off, landing on the walkway below.
It was here that Stitch looked up. The massive tower was now right above them, and it had several openings on the sides. However, those openings all lead to a large shaft in the center, extending up into the building above. On the sides of the shaft, four elevator doors stood. Stitch noticed that the elevator shafts twisted and turned around the main pillar.
"I don't see any other way through," He commented, looking around. Angel nodded, before walking over to the closest elevator's controls. There was only one button with an up arrow imprinted on it, indicating that they were at the lowest floor. Angel pressed said button, and the elevator lit up.
Several circular sheets of metal pulled away to reveal the elevator car inside. Stitch whistled lowly as he stepped inside.
"I wish the elevator to my room opened like that."
Managing a giggle at that comment, Angel stepped into the elevator along with him. The metal sheets pulled closed, and the elevator shot up the shaft and into the tower.
After a few minutes, the elevator reached its destination, and the doors pulled away, enabling Stitch and Angel to walk out and take a look at their surroundings.
"This place is even weirder inside than it is outside," Angel commented. Stitch silently agreed with that observation. The room they had stepped into was white. Too white. It looked completely sterile, with the exception of a bed of flowers along the walls.
There was a winding staircase before them, which they proceeded to walk up. A cursory look around the room saw them find a door to the left. There was also a bunch of white display panels scattered across the room. Out of curiosity, Stitch went up to one.
"The Treatment of Patients Through Changes in Their Cognitions," He read aloud. Huh.
"What does that mean?" Angel asked, walking over.
"Um…" Stitch thought for a few moments. "Basically… 'treating people by changing how they think'."
He shrugged. He wasn't really well-read on psychology, least of all cognitive psychology. He might go and fix that when they got back home.
"So, like, mental health stuff?"
"More-or-less," Stitch nodded. "This place might be a convention center, or something like that."
"Hmm… What would a convention center have to do with what's going on outside?" Angel wondered aloud.
"Well, that's what we're here to find out," Stitch responded, looking around. There were double-doors off to the side of the room. He nudged Angel.
"Over there," He said, before walking over to it. She followed. When Stitch reached the door, he grabbed the handles and attempted to pull them open.
They didn't budge.
He then attempted push them open.
Once more, they didn't budge.
Frustrated, Stitch rammed them with his shoulder.
He was sent flat on his ass with a now sore shoulder.
"I don't think we're getting through this way," He said after a moment. Angel facepalmed.
"Ya think?" She sighed, before scanning the room herself. After a moment, she noticed that the wall the door was situated in didn't reach the ceiling. She also noticed a series of what seemed to be massive cables, pipes, and ledges, all of which could in theory be used to reach the top of said wall.
In theory.
"Stitchie, look," She said, pointing at the objects littered around the room and hanging from the ceiling. Stitch followed her finger, and quickly understood what she was getting at.
"Ah-haaa…" Stitch said, leaping to his feet. He walked around the displays before coming to a large metal ramp, situated at the side of the exhibit.
Without breaking stride, he walked up the ramp before looking up. There was a short but steep incline directly before him, which he proceeded to vault over without much hassle. Angel followed suit, climbing the ramp before pulling herself up the incline.
The next foothold they could see was what seemed to be an utterly massive computer cable, hanging from the ceiling. The way it was situated placed a flat expanse of wiring a few feet away. Angel looked down, then looked back at Stitch.
"Shall we?" She asked. Stitch grinned in response, before suddenly rushing forward, picking her up bridal style as he did so, before leaping onto the cable.
"W-Woah! Stitch!?" Angel yelped as Stitch, without breaking stride, proceeded to leap off of the cable and onto a large shelf that was sticking to the wall, then another cable, before finally reaching a hanging light. Stitch placed Angel back on her feet, holding onto her to help her balance.
"Warn me before you do that!" Angel half-yelled and half-laughed, punching him in the arm. Stitch gave a cheeky grin in response, before seeing another cable directly in front of them. This cable sloped down at an angle and was situated directly above the wall they had been trying to get around.
Perfect.
"C'mon," Stitch said, leaping over to the cable and sliding down it, leaving behind a purple-pink wake. Angel followed suit.
The large cables came to a stop over what appeared to be a deck of sorts. The two experiments-turned-human leaped down and surveyed the room.
Once more the room was a sterile white, with more large cables and light fixtures strewn about. In this room, however, they were accompanied by massive cameras swinging about, as well as strange-looking clocks with hands that spastically kept switching between different positions.
That wasn't what caught the two experiment's attention, however; there was also a massive door, standing proud at the opposite end of the room. Leading up to it, and just below them, was another flight of stairs, albeit a much wider one than earlier.
"I dunno about you, but that door looks pretty suspicious," Stitch remarked. Not waiting for an answer, he vaulted over the railing and onto the stairs below.
"Stitchie, wait! There's cameras!" Angel yelled, just as one of the massive cameras swung by, catching Stitch within its view.
Stitch scowled.
"Bring it."
The camera kept swinging as if it hadn't spotted him. Stitch tilted his head in confusion as it did so.
Honestly, you'd think SOMETHING would've happened. Maybe the cameras were just for show?
Cautiously, Angel vaulted over the railing herself and ran up to her boyfriend. She proceeded to flick him in the ear.
"You dummy!" She admonished. "Why'd you do that!?"
"We've only got one way to go," Stitch responded, eyeing the door. "We were gonna have to pass in front of the cameras whether we wanted to or not."
"I, er, gah!" Angel threw her hands up in defeat. "I give up! Let's just get moving."
Angel stormed up the stairs. Stitch stared after her for a moment, before shrugging and running up after her.
After a minute of silence, the two experiments came to the doors. They slowly looked up. It wasn't obvious from where they had been a minute earlier, but these doors were massive; reaching almost all the way up to the ceiling of the room.
"Yeah, that really doesn't scream, 'important things behind here!'" Stitch sniped, walking up to the doors and giving them a hard shove. They didn't budge. He sighed.
"Locked. Figures."
"Maybe we should head back to that first room?" Angel suggested. "There might be something else there that we missed."
Stitch turned to her and nodded. Better than lounging around here doing nothing.
"Sounds good," He said.
A few minutes later, Stitch and Angel were back at the first room, looking around. Stitch had found that the locked door could be unlocked from the other side, enabling them to come and go from that room as they pleased without parkour.
"I wish we had a map of this place," Angel sighed, running a hand through her hair.
"You're telling me. We've only seen two rooms so far, and based on the size of the place? We're nowhere close to seeing everything," Stitch agreed. He noticed another door off to the side, and walked over to it.
To both his mild surprise and relief, this one swung right open as he pushed on it. The door lead to a large corridor, with large rooms off to each side.
Each room contained a projector, with large screens facing them as well as a podium. In front of every screen were rows of seating booths. However, every room was completely bereft of life; not a single person to be seen.
"This isn't creepy at all…" Stitch remarked, continuing down the hall.
"Not at all like that movie from yesterday," Angel remarked. Stitch rolled his eyes. After a minute of walking, they came to the end of the hallway, where it split into two paths.
"Which way do we go?" Angel asked. Stitch thought for a moment, before he slapped his hand over his eyes, and began swinging his other hand around. After a moment, he uncovered his eyes. He was pointing to the left.
"Left it is," Stitch decided, walking down the left path. Now it was Angel's turn to roll her eyes, before she followed suit.
There were several doors on each side of the new corridor, along with a larger door at the very end of the hall.
Deeming that suspicious. Stitch and Angel made their way to that door. As Stitch placed his hand on the knob, he was struck with an ominous feeling.
'I get the feeling that once we open this door, there might be no going back…' He thought to himself. He turned to Angel. "You ready?"
Angel raised an eyebrow, but nodded.
"Yeah. Let's get going," She said, sounding resolute. Stitch nodded, before pushing the door open.
The two experiments ran into the room, which was as sterile as the rest of the building in appearance. The room was circular, with several studio lights aimed towards the center of the room. There were several odd fixtures hanging around the room, as well as countless stands, all empty. A casual glance up also revealed several walkways on each side of the room as well. Stitch made a mental note of these walkways for later.
"What's this room…?" Angel asked, looking around.
Stitch went to answer, only for the studio lights to suddenly switch on, blasting the two with intense light, forcing them to cover their eyes.
"What the-!?" Stitch yelled as his eyes adjusted and he pulled his arm away from his face. The stands were still empty, but there was the distinct and eerie sense that someone or something was watching them.
Her eyes being slower to adjust, Angel slowly pulled her arm away from her face, and looked around. She got the sense that something was watching them as well, when a brief flash lit up the corner of her vision…
"Stitch, move!" She shouted, already moving.
Reflexively, Stitch leaped out of the way as a strange black thing struck the ground where they had been moments prior, shattering the tiling. Seeing the strength this thing had, Stitch scowled and looked up at whatever had attacked them.
A dark figure leapt from one of the walkways above, landing a short distance away.
Stitch raised his eyebrow.
The thing was a wire-thin black humanoid, with long limbs and fingers. It almost appeared to be made out of some black liquid, and the only thing this figure was wearing appeared to be a golden and blue circular mask. Stitch presumed that the figure's face was a monstrosity that was best left unseen, if it saw fit to wear a mask and nothing else.
"Who are you!?" Angel demanded, lowering into a combat stance. Stitch did as well.
"…Heresy." The figure spat, its voice a low and distorted, perhaps even demonic growl. The two experiments raised their eyebrows.
"What?" Stitch growled, ready to charge this thing.
"You dare reject the happiness that was gifted to you?" The figure ignored them, continuing to speak in that distorted growl. "Our mistress laments your foolish rebellion!"
Stitch narrowed his eyes, before realizing what the creature had said.
"So, you admit that this place is the reason why everyone's acting the way they are," He surmised, still growling.
Angel, on the other hand, noticed the other thing the figure had said. 'Mistress'. Did that mean…?
"You said 'mistress'," Angel pointed out, not dropping her stance. "Does that mean-"
The figure suddenly began to shake violently, before its mask broke and its body liquified into a puddle of black goo. Then, without warning, a horde of strange, mechanical creatures with yellow bodies burst forth from the puddle.
"Gyah!" Angel was sent reeling at the start. What had begun as the two of them against a single individual creature had suddenly turned into them being outnumbered by about five to one.
"Looks like negotiations are out!" Stitch shouted, before running towards the first creature and shoulder-tackling it. The creature was sent lurching back in surprise, before one of them suddenly struck Stitch in the back of the head, knocking him over. Stitch recovered quickly, only for three more to suddenly tackle him, restraining him.
"Could use a little help, here!" He yelled, struggling against the creatures.
"Right!" Angel shouted, throwing out her hands.
…
…Nothing happened.
Angel looked down at her hands, before throwing them out again.
"Angel?" Stitch sounded both strained and nervous as he managed to push himself up slightly against the weight of the creatures.
"I… can't use magic…?" Angel whispered softly to herself, before, with a shout, charging one of the creatures pinning Stitch down and delivered a flying kick to its face, sending it skidding across the room.
Now down a creature, Stitch broke free of the others' grasps, before elbowing one in the stomach and punching the other in the face, laying them both out on the floor.
"What happened there?" Stitch asked, turning to face her. Angel looked at her hands.
"I… can't use magic here! I don't know what's going on!" She responded, getting back into a combat stance.
"You can't use magic!?" Stitch responded, looking stunned.
"I can feel my mana, but I can't… use it!' She struggled to explain. As she did so, another creature suddenly struck her. Seeing as she wasn't as tough as Stitch was, she was sent to the floor, unconscious.
"Angel!" Stitch yelled, running over to support her, only to be slammed into the ground himself.
"Rgh!" Stitch growled with pain as he struggled to get the creatures off of him. Taking advantage of its longer arms, the figure lifted Stitch into the air by its neck.
"If you refuse the world created for you, perhaps death will suit your tastes better!" Stitch's eyes widened as he saw another one lift Angel into the air as well. He struggled harder, grabbing the creature's arm in an effort to get it to let him go.
As he flailed about, trying desperately to escape the creature's grasp, time seemed to slow to a crawl, and a deep blue ambiance, invisible to all but Stitch filled the room. A blue butterfly fluttered in, flying past Stitch's face. He slowly turned to watch it flutter by.
"This is truly an unjust game… Facing an opponent superior to you in every way… Your chances of winning are almost none…" A familiar voice lamented. Stitch's eyes widened slightly.
'Lavenza…?' He wondered.
"But if my voice is reaching you, there may yet be a possibility open to you…"
The ambiance and butterfly disappeared, and time began to flow once more. The creature holding Angel held up its hand as claws unfurled from its fingers.
"What's the matter…? Are you simply going to watch?" Another voice spoke within Stitch's mind. It was different from Lavenza's. It was male, for one thing. It was also deeper, colder… angrier.
"Death awaits you both if you do nothing. Was your decision to discover the truth of this distorted world a mistake, then?"
"It wasn't…!" Stitch growled, still struggling to get free from his captors.
"Very well. I shall heed your resolve."
As Angel's eyes fluttered open and went wide with terror, Stitch was suddenly wracked with immensely painful headaches.
"Ah-!"
He could feel his brain pounding his skull, sending waves of pain crashing through his very being. He began flailing around more frantically, forcing another creature to step in to restrain him.
"Vow to me."
Stitch screamed, thrashing about as pain overtook his very being. It wasn't just his head anymore. He could feel his very being surge with unrelenting, all-consuming agony.
"I am thou, thou art I…"
"Ngh… Aah! AAAH!"
"Thou art willing to commit thyself to all sacrilegious acts for thine own beliefs! Call upon my name, and release thy rage!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Stitch roared with pain, his eyes wide and frenzied, his face drenched with sweat. He went limp, his breathing labored and heavy.
"Show me the strength of thy will to act all on thine own, though thou be consumed by the fires of Hell itself!"
"LET! HER! GO!" Stitch bellowed. The room went dead silent. Everyone, Angel included, slowly turned to look at Stitch.
"You wish to perish that much? Very well," The creatures dropped Angel, who staggered to get back up.
"No… Stitch…!" She gasped as one of the ones holding him bashed him across the face.
Stitch went limp, seemingly unconscious. Another creature lifted its arm, claws extending…
Stitch's eyes suddenly shot open. A powerful surge of energy erupted from him, sending everyone back and forcing the creatures to drop him.
Angel covered her face with her arm to shield herself. After a second, the surge ceased, and Angel slowly pulled her arm away from her face.
Stitch was standing once more, staring down at the ground. Slowly, he lifted his head. She noticed that he was now wearing a black mask, covering the top half of his face.
"…Huh?" Stitch sounded confused, reaching up and feeling the mask that had just appeared on his face out of nowhere. He touched it a few times, as if confirming that there was indeed something on his face. Grabbing it with both hands, he attempted to pull it off, only to find that it was stuck fast.
"H-Hey!" He yelled, tugging frantically on the mask, seemingly panicking and desperate to get it off. Grabbing one side of it with both hands, he started to pull at it with all his might. A spray of blood erupted from under the mask.
Then, with a cry wracked with agony, he tore it off.
Blood flew everywhere, splattering the ground beneath him as he threw the mask off to the side and looked down, allowing his hair to cover his eyes, and panting heavily from both pain and the exertion.
Slowly, he looked up.
Angel could see the blood covering his face, and his eyes were a piercing, demonic golden color. And yet, despite the blood, despite the pain, he was smiling.
No… He was grinning.
A manic, cruel grin had split his face as he stared unflinchingly at their adversaries.
Suddenly, an inferno of blue flames erupted around him. The blood spatter surrounding him and covering his face ignited as blue flames engulfed his very being, shrouding everything around them in an ethereal blue light.
In alarm, the creatures took several steps back.
A demonic face suddenly formed within the inferno before leaning forward. Black chains suddenly emerged from the flames as well as the haze lifted and pulled away from Stitch, leaving him in a new, black-and-gray colored outfit as his eyes returned to their original blue-green color.
The flames began to take on a new shape. Below the demonic face, a sharply-dressed… thing emerged from the inferno behind Stitch, who didn't drop his sadistic grin.
As the figure stood to its full height, towering over Stitch himself, the experiment-turned-human noticed the black chains tied around his arms, as well as the figure's torso. With a single, fluid motion, Stitch swept his arms out, dispelling the chains around his person, as well as the figure's.
Immediately, and matching Stitch's movements the chains broke around the creature, which threw its arms out, sending out another, much stronger surge of energy that outright threw the creatures away, sending them flying into the stands around them.
Regaining her bearings, Angel stared up at Stitch.
"W-What the…!?" She started, jaw slack with disbelief and fear.
Stitch responded by giving a somehow wider, much more maniacal grin than before.
…That was awesome to write.
R&R!
Also, I've posted a picture of the outfit Stitch is wearing to my DeviantArt.
Just look up, "ChaosDesstruction". And no, that's not a typo. That extra "s" is supposed to be there.