Chapter 8: Centre of My Universe
Lilo threw her pillow across her room with a huff.
Last night had not been a good night for her. Moses chewed her out, Mertle rejected her offer of friendship, and then to top it all off, her own sister just had to drag her away from the falling star! A falling star for crying out loud!
Reaching her arm out to snooze the ringing alarm clock, she fell back onto the bed sheets. As she was about to fall back asleep, she felt something hard against her head. Lilo got back up and glanced down at the object, a photo which had been under the pillow.
A photo of her family.
When their family was four and not two…
Mum said that when you wish upon a falling star, the wish you make will come true. If I had one wish that I could make on the star...
Lilo made up her mind. Nani was going to be absolutely furious later, but it would be worth it in the end. Tossing herself out of bed, she grabbed the thrown pillow off the ground, before propping it next to her window to use as leverage. Standing on the pillow, she grabbed the window ledge and pulled herself up.
"Falling star, here I come!"
Jumping out of the window and onto the ground, Lilo made her way out.
"Ugh! This is soooo unbelievably stupid!" Mertle whined, stomping her foot as she walked on the grass. "We're wasting our Friday morning going into the forest when we could be sleeping, or playing with dolls, or anything but this! Can you even hear yourself, Teresa? An alien invasion?!"
"I'm telling you, it's true!" Teresa had known this wasn't going to be easy in the slightest. Sure enough, when she had arrived at Mertle's house at half past eight in the morning, it had taken her thirty minutes of her friend calling her a fruitcake before she finally relented. However, just because she summoned Elena and Yuki for this impromptu trip didn't mean that Mertle was 100% okay with it.
"Did Weird-lo touch and infect you with weirdness?" Mertle's face scrunched up at the thought. "Is weirdness her version of cooties?"
Teresa sighed at the comment, glancing sideways to see Elena and Yuki shrug. There she went with the weirdness comparison again. The three of them had always found Mertle's obsession with showing up Lilo a bit ridiculous. Sure, she's weird, but I wouldn't actively make enemies with her. Elena, Yuki and her had never actively instigated an argument with Lilo, the best they did was support Mertle verbally.
Mertle could get very obsessive over bullying Lilo. Anything that reminded her of weird, she would associate with Lilo, as shown by the fact that Mertle was currently spending every second of the walk complaining. Seeing her friend's look of disgust just thinking about Lilo, Teresa changed the topic. "Enough about Lilo's weirdness... you gotta believe me, Mertle! I'm your friend!"
"Ugh!" she groaned, her face filled with annoyance knowing Teresa was right, "I'm doing this just to prove your weird theory wrong! If this was Weird-lo I wouldn't even bother!"
"Yeeaaahhhh!" Elena and Yuki repeated their usual affirmation, although softer than normal since it was directed at their friend instead of Lilo.
Teresa ignored Mertle's grumbling and trekked on, following her memory of the path she took yesterday. What had happened yesterday night was still fresh on the girl's mind.
The four-eyed alien in a blackened lab coat, pointing a gun down at her, and proclaiming the start of his invasion of Earth.
Teresa still couldn't believe what had happened. She had always been interested in science, even at her young age, but not once had she ever believed that humans weren't the only ones in the universe. She hadn't thought much of it. She'd seen science fiction films before, but she had always found them a tad unrealistic. She was certain that she'd be a senile old lady before flying cars even became a thing, much less live to see flying spacesuits and planets colonisation, so the concept of aliens to her was foreign. After all, despite all their advancements in technology in the past century, it appeared that unfortunately humans still lagged behind in space travel.
But all of that was thrown out of whack yesterday. To think, that there were indeed real aliens, possibly other worlds, out there in the vastness of space!
It's only too bad that they aren't friendly to humans.
So not only did aliens exist, spitting in the face of astrologists everywhere, but they were outright hostile! Why did I have to be the one to make first contact, she cried in her head, I've read enough science fiction to know the situation right now looks like it is going to use every sci-fi trope imaginable. Oh, except just taken to eleven because it's real life and not fiction! First contact with humans, and then massive planetary war over resources or power or something, with me in the centre of the conflict just because I happened to make first contact with the alien dude.
Yeah, she wanted absolutely no part of this. She wasn't adventurous in the slightest. When Jumba had pointed the alien gun at her, she was at his complete mercy, basically reduced to trembling in fear in self-preservation. Those seconds where she revealed everything had ticked on forever. For a few tense moments, she had thought that she would never make it back from the forest alive. Even till now, she swore that she could still clearly remember the four-eyed alien's voice.
"You finally am getting it, aren't you? You humans cannot resist me! I am the greatest evil scientist in the whole wide universe, Dr. Jumba Jookiba!"
Those final words uttered by Jumba as she had sprinted away to safety continued to ring in her head. The confident way he spoke, his blatant admission that he was evil, and his triumphant cackle of laughter when she had told him about Earth all told her one thing. Jumba was bad news. Very bad news if she didn't warn anyone. She needed to get someone to believe her that there really was a serious alien that could actually take over the world.
And when they believed her, someone else could take care of this! Anyone else, just so long as she wasn't involved in this anymore. She had already made up her mind that she wasn't the chosen one fated by the universe to wield a lightsaber and kick alien butt. The military as a replacement for that role would probably be a good bet…
"Hey, Teresa!"
"What?" she almost jumped at Yuki's exclamation.
"You blanked out," Yuki said worriedly. "Are you okay? Your face is all pale."
"Yeah... I'm fine," Teresa replied. Actually, she wasn't, but at least this way they didn't have to see her worried. "You brought your phones?"
"Yep!" came two replies from the girls.
Wait, two replies?
"Uhhhhh... I left it charging at home," Mertle sheepishly said. Seeing three sceptical stares at her, she lost her temper again. "Don't look at me like that! Why do we even need phones to begin with?!"
"Photos. No one will believe a thing we say without photographic evidence," Teresa said, taking out her own phone. "Then we're handing the photos over to Officer Kahiko."
"That's a dumb idea! You're going to get us arrested for wasting police time," Mertle muttered.
"Hush!" Teresa shushed everyone, motioning them with her hand. "Stay quiet and lay low. It's right around here... what?" she exclaimed in surprise. She had signalled the group to be quiet as they approached the clearing in fear that they would be spotted, but what she saw caused her to drop her soft voice.
She was not prepared for this.
Where the smouldering crater and the fiery spaceship had been last night, there was nothing now but an empty patch of land. No aliens, no spaceship, not a trace of it was left!
"B-b-but how! It's all gone!" she spluttered.
Mertle stepped forward, looking around for anything amiss. "You wanted to show Officer Kahiko an empty field?"
"It wasn't empty last night!" Teresa protested.
"Yeah, right." Mertle rolled her eyes. "I told you so!"
"But I'm telling you, it's true!" Teresa started looking around frantically. Was this one of that alien Jumba's tricks? How could the entire wreck be gone without a single trace? It's almost like there was nothing here but flora to begin. Oh great, now Mertle will never believe me!
Taking a deep breath, she continued, trying to salvage the conversation. "This guy crashed his spaceship here, and wanted to take over the world!"
"Hmph!" Mertle folded her arms. "He could have been some dorky guy in a costume! Or maybe some lunatic clown dressed up to scare kids a couple months ahead of Halloween."
"Would a guy in a costume have a gun and point it at a kid? That's like super illegal!" Teresa retorted, getting tired of Mertle's resistance. Normally she was okay with Mertle when it came to her insistence to dispel all myths about weird beliefs, but that was when it was Lilo under suspicion, not her. "Not only that, but there was a spaceship, a real life crashed spaceship on fire! He even knew what the name of our planet is! This guy isn't a phony! I'm telling you, this is an E.T. situation, except the alien that crash landed on Earth is a very bad, bad person and will totally destroy us all!"
"It could all be faked! It's probably that comedy TV show where they prank and scare unsuspecting people before airing their reactions. Hah, I love that show," Mertle said with a goofy grin on her face, not realising she had sidetracked, "The look of those people's faces are priceless when they are told they were fooled! Hah, suckers! Serves them right for believing in unrealistic situations!"
"That's the point!" Teresa hit a brainwave, realising the flaw with Mertle's theory. "The producers of the show will tell the people that they had been pranked! I wasn't told any such thing, so it's not a prank show. It's legit!"
"Maybe they wanted to keep it secret. Or maybe put it up as a viral video."
"They'll get sued!" Teresa threw her arms up, exasperated. "Anyway, the budget you'll need for such a prank is humongous! No station would loan a show this much money to stage something like this! Only a film soundstage can fake this! Are you telling me I walked into a film studio?"
"Yeah, maybe you did," Mertle sneered. "Then the film producers would have cleared up their set and packed up, leaving no trace."
"A soundstage in the middle of the woods? That's ridiculous!"
Elena and Yuki prudently stepped back from the escalating argument between the two girls.
A man in a black suit lay hidden on the opposite end of the clearing. His eyes remained locked onto the four girls as he listened in onto their argument.
"Interesting…" he mumbled. "So they've made contact." He pondered about the complications that would arise from this situation. Evidently they had not been fast enough. There had been a witness to the crash landing. Luckily, it appeared that once again luck was on their side. He'd paid attention to their argument and realised that the girl had no physical proof of the actual ship. This would have been so much harder if the girl had video evidence, for instance.
Buzz!
A sudden vibrating noise cut through the silent forest. Straightening his tie, the man took out a round red communication device, pressing against the touchscreen to accept the call.
"Agent Cobra speaking," the black suited agent in the sunglasses acknowledged. "I was expecting your call, Grand Councilwoman."
The image of the Grand Councilwoman on the screen smiled upon hearing the curt greeting. "You haven't changed since Roswell, Cobra. There's no need for formalities."
"I'm used to speaking in a formal and gruff manner," he commented. "But yes, I have done as you said. There is no trace of the spaceship left. The moment we got your message, the CIA immediately sent in a Special Operations team to clear the wreckage and any trace of alien technology from the crash site."
"Good," she nodded. "It is imperative for the both of us that this be kept well under wraps."
Cobra lowered his voice down to a whisper. "The CIA agrees. It is in our best interests that the general population of Earth continue to remain unaware of the greater scope of the United Galactic Federation. Humans still believe that we are the centre of the universe."
"A foolish mindset... no offence, sorry." The Grand Councilwoman apologised, clucking her tongue. She scolded herself for that slip up, reminding herself that she had to be careful of what she said.
"None taken. I understand why you would think that way."
"I'm afraid that I have not caught up much on your planet's politics. Luckily for you, I have been recently reminded that humans can't know about aliens by an Agent Pleakley, who made that point very clear to us." She chuckled, remembering the flailing alien, "Planet-wide panic were the words he had used to describe what would happen if we brought the Armada to Earth."
Cobra shuddered. "He's not wrong." He shifted slightly, holding the communicator closer to his face. "Anyway, I would like to emphasise to the Galactic Council that Earth is unaware of extraterrestrials. My superiors have deemed it necessary to ensure that this escaped criminal must not reveal his existence to the general populace." Cobra paused, considering whether to reveal what he knew to the Council. After a few seconds, he relaxed and continued. "Especially since the escaped convict is still alive."
"Jumba is alive?" The Grand Councilwoman put her hand on her lip, pondering the new information. "Hm, perhaps it's for the better, wouldn't want him to become a martyr. The last thing I want is another Julius situation." She cringed at the memory, stroking her golden collar unconsciously. "Long story short, Jumba has become hailed like a hero in some parts of the universe."
"Why would he be a hero?" Cobra was shocked by this new situation. "What exactly is Jumba charged for?"
"That's highly classified, Agent Cobra. Not even the intergalactic press know the full details," her eyes briefly turned dark at the thought of those scoundrels, "and I prefer to keep it that way. The worst kinds of villains are the ones with publicity on their side."
"Grand Councilwoman," Cobra spoke, "I'll prefer if the Council tells us what Jumba is charged for. He's the one currently on our planet, and if we know nothing, we can't do a thing to stop this rogue criminal."
Her eyes darted around, "You promise not to tell a soul, Cobra?"
Cobra was very glad that his sunglasses allowed him to hide the curiosity in his eyes as the Grand Councilwoman made her offer. "Not to worry. I'm the only agent here undercover. I assure you I won't tell, even if ordered by my superiors."
"Very well. Dr. Jumba Jookiba has managed to successfully create an illegal genetic experiment."
"Excuse me?" Cobra raised an eyebrow.
"He made an experiment using technology. Artificial life, per-se," she elaborated. "The point of the matter is, now we've got pro-life and scientific groups putting pressure on Jumba's trial. They have no actual proof of the experiment, we've kept it top secret, but some imbecile leaked the fact that Jumba made a successful experiment and now they are still lobbying for an acquittal verdict. The last thing I want is for them to hear that Jumba's dead. The stupid resistance will think that it's another coverup, and then the Council will have a mob breathing down our necks." The Grand Councilwoman took a mug of coffee from offscreen and sipped it to calm her nerves. "As the Grand Councilwoman, I must take full responsibility of the situation. I was the one who made the mistake of approving his bail, and now I'm going to settle this mess before it turns nasty. This is why I need to recapture Jumba as soon as possible, Cobra. I refuse to let that scientist start another Galactic Federation war."
"That bad, huh?" Cobra frowned. "I was under the impression that it would be a regular criminal."
"If Jumba was a regular criminal," she shook her head, "then he would be in prison and none of this would have happened. Unfortunately, due to the nature of his crime, he has lots of support. But now, I am going to turn this around on those pesky lobbyists," she smirked at the thought of her plan. "They're protesting against Jumba's verdict right now solely because of the experiment he made. But now, I've let his experiment out on a deal. He'll be the one to turn in Jumba in exchange for immunity from prosecution. This way, those groups can't influence a thing on the retrial since it's now us against Jumba, not his experiment."
Cobra nodded, finally understanding the full extent of the situation. "Ingenious idea. So you were referring to the experiment when you said you would send in your own people to recapture Jumba."
"Exactly," she smiled. "He is part of the covert team I have sent to Earth to rearrest Jumba."
"Are you sure the experiment is safe? He's made by this Jumba criminal—"
"The experiment is perfectly safe. He's absolutely harmless. All he can do is make sandwiches. That's the reason Jumba got bailed out in the first place," she muttered with a tinge of anger, breaking eye contact momentarily. "Just make sure that the inhabitants of your planet don't find out about us. Cook up whatever cover story you want, Cobra! Let your organisation fabricate it all they want till we retrieve that idiot scientist—" she covered her mouth, grimacing. "Great, now Gantu is rubbing off on me. That was what he always called Dr. Jumba."
"Gantu, huh? Has he changed at all since you last spoke of him at Roswell?"
"No."
"Figures."
"Before I hang up, Cobra, one last question. How are you so sure that Jumba is alive?" she spoke with a wry grin on her face.
"You're observant," he said. "It turns out that a young girl has observed the crashed ship. I overheard her saying Jumba threatened her."
"You seem extraordinarily calm with this," the Grand Councilwoman observed, "I thought Agent Pleakley said that it was imperative your people can't know about us extraterrestrials?"
"There have been people who have observed alien sightings in the past, but no one ever believes them. What the CIA is concerned about is an alien sighting involving multiple people and video proof, which we would have no way to cover up. And…" he suddenly kept his mouth shut, becoming aware of a new presence to the forest. "...I'm afraid I need to cut short this conversation. Until we meet again, Grand Councilwoman," he saluted.
"Goodbye, Cobra," she replied before the communicator went blank.
Pocketing the communicator, Cobra turned back to where he thought he saw the new figure. Yep, it turned out his eyes didn't deceive him.
What was Lilo Pelekai doing here?
"Why are you so resilient on this, Mertle?" Teresa huffed, arms folded.
"I'm not, Teresa!" Mertle shouted. "I'm just saying...ugh, let me just get straight to the point! Aliens don't exist! Only the conspiracy weirdos believe they exist, everybody else knows they don't exist!"
"Look, I know what you're thinking," she sighed. Is this how Lilo feels every time she argues with Mertle? If so, yeesh, that girl has a lot more resilience than I do! "Honestly," she relented, "just yesterday I would have sided with you and the others on this. But that alien WAS real. He had a gun and everything! You need to believe me!"
Yuki placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, consoling her in support. "Maybe you dreamt the whole thing up, Teresa?"
"Yeah, I hate to say it, but Mertle has a point," Elena agreed. "It's honestly ridiculous, the alien invasion thing."
Before Teresa could reply to her friends, Mertle suddenly shrieked. With a repulsed face, Mertle pointed her finger at something behind her. "Weird-lo! What are you doing here?!"
Lilo?
Sure enough, as Teresa turned around, she saw the girl in question. "You're in your nightgown," she commented, staring at Lilo. Well, at least Lilo's eccentricity was still a constant in her new weird alien-believing life.
"The falling star is gone!" Lilo said, disappointment clear in her voice. "Did you guys use up the wish already? Awwwww…"
Mertle, who at this point had already been fuming due to Teresa, utterly lost her temper when Lilo gave her own input about the meteorite situation. "Oh come on! There was no falling star and no aliens! Nothing weird happened!"
"Aliens?" Lilo looked at Mertle, confused, "I never said anything about aliens—"
"What are you doing here, young lady?"
The five girls turned around from the sudden intrusion, with Teresa in particular screaming until she realised that it was not who she thought it was. Instead of a hostile four-eyed alien, it was a man dressed entirely in black who had spoken.
"Lilo Pelekai, am I correct?" the man continued, unfazed by the scream. "I am the social worker that has been assigned to you, Cobra Bubbles."
Upon hearing the man's full name, Mertle collapsed into laughter. Even Teresa, Elena and Yuki couldn't resist chuckling until Cobra stared at them all dead in the eye, shutting their collective laughter up.
"What's a social worker?" Lilo asked.
"It's someone who helps individuals and family that aren't well-to-do. But now's not the time to elaborate." Cobra made a 'follow me' gesture with his hand. "Perhaps we should best explain this outside of the forest. You kids shouldn't be wandering here alone."
As the five girls were led back outside of the forest by Cobra, Teresa began to realise that getting anyone to believe her tale was going to be a lot tougher than she could have ever imagined.
"You have just exited hyperspace! Welcome to Quadrant 005!" The computer buzzed with happiness. "You have selected — Planet Earth as your destination. Autopilot will land there in two minutes."
Gantu kept his hand on the control wheel, looking straight at the blue planet in relief. Finally, these freeloaders can get off my ship.
Next to him, 625 clutched his head, groaning in pain. "Ow, that hyperjump almost gave me a migraine."
Gantu turned left to quieten down the moaning experiment. "Be quiet, trog! We're almost there!"
625 unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped off the co-pilot seat. "Ugh, I think I have vertigo-woah!"
625 fell to the ground as Pleakley shoved him aside to press his face against the windscreen. His single eye was looking around in all directions. "Wow! I can't believe it! It's my dream come true! The precious mosquito wildlife reserve, Planet Earth, is within my sights. Maybe I'll get to meet a mosquito in person! Ahh, it's getting closer! I can even see the blue!"
"Hey! I wanna see!" 625 jumped up and down repeatedly in excitement. "Don't block the way!"
"Shut up!" Gantu yelled. "If you two don't immediately sit down and keep your traps shut, I'm turning this ship around!"
Both 625 and Pleakley glanced at each other as they returned to their seats, their expressions agreeing on one thing. Gantu was a spoilsport.
Ignoring the two pouting passengers, Gantu directed his ship to an area where he could see that there was no civilisation. As the ship touched down gently on the ground, the hatch opened to let its passengers off the ship.
Quite literally.
Gantu picked up 625 by the scruff of his neck and Pleakley by the collar, before he unceremoniously threw them both out. "Get off my ship! Bon voyage!" he shouted as the two landed with splashes in a small lake of water that the ship was parked next to.
"Wow!" a drenched Pleakley got up, looking upon the scenery in awe, not caring in the slightest that his blue Federation uniform would really need dry-cleaning. "Look at this! A real Earth waterfall!"
"No, stop! Not water!" 625 flailed about in panic. "Save me! Anything but water! Help me, I'll drown in this! Goodbye, cruel world..." 625 suddenly trailed off, stopping his panic as he discovered something off about the situation.
He was sitting down in the water.
And not sinking.
625 suddenly blushed in embarrassment, realising he had made a fool of himself by screaming about drowning in shallow water. The water was so shallow that his bum could feel the bottom of the miniature lake. Standing up shakily, he realised that he only waded in it knee-deep.
"Ahhaahahahah!" Gantu howled in laughter as he saw 625 losing his cool and humiliating himself. "Oh, that was rich! I should have taped that! Did you see your face? You look like those drama queens I see on TV! Hahaha!" he pounded the ground.
"Oh, you be quiet!" 625 complained, trying to save face. He was smart enough not to ask what Gantu meant by drama queen, knowing that Gantu would mock and jeer him even more than he already had. "M-My fur is soaked! I demand you apologise, Blubby!"
"I'll be orbiting this planet, so no funny business," Gantu smirked as he deliberately chose not to say he was sorry. "Hurry up and get that idiot scientist!" He closed the hatch before 625 could recover, determined that at least this time, he had managed to get the last laugh.
625 could only glare as the ship took up and flew out of sight, headed for the stratosphere. "Lousy blubber-butt jerk. Now I can't slack off!" he mumbled under his breath. "Hey, Pleakley!"
"Please wait," Pleakley replied, looking at a butterfly with his mouth wide open. "I'm observing this new natural species. Look at the precise wingspan it needs to stay airborne…"
625 sighed at Pleakley's response as he jumped to dry land. That Earth crazed-maniac was going to be acting this way for a while. As he brushed his matted fur down in a futile attempt to dry it, his mind was already on other thoughts.
"Gee, Jumba wasn't kidding when he said my mind was faster than a supercomputer. Think, 625, think! Where would Jumba be hiding? And more importantly, what would be the most efficient way to get him with the least amount of energy required?"
"Wow!" Pleakley shouted out loud, ruining 625's train of thought. "I think that there are more species of flora and fauna here than the entire rest of this space quadrant combined!"
As 625 stared at Pleakley, he broke out into a grin, rubbing his hands together in glee. Or maybe I don't even need to put in an ounce of energy to catch Jumba in the first place...
"Pleakley…" he repeated, turning his expression back to neutral so that the one-eyed alien didn't suspect anything, "Aren't you forgetting about Jumba?!"
"J-J-Jumba!" Pleakley stammered, all the colour draining from his face. "Oh, that's right! Who knows what that dangerous criminal could do to this beautiful planet?"
"That's right!" he said with mock sympathy. "If you don't stop him, he could wreak more havoc on this place than you can possibly imagine!"
"Oh no!" Pleakley's eye began looking around in panic. "We've got to stop him!"
"Oh, no, no, no! Not 'we'," 625 replied, "You."
"What?" Pleakley looked straight at 625. Did that experiment just try to pull a fast one on him? "Did I hear that right? Did you just say that I am the one that has to stop him?" He pointed his arm at the cocky experiment, sputtering. "What about you? You're supposed to be the one that catches Jumba!"
"Ah, but that was the case before you came along," he said, putting special emphasis on the word 'you'. Seeing that he had the reaction he wanted from Pleakley, he continued, "Now that we're a team and I ain't going into this alone, I wager that we change things up a bit! I think that from now on I will be the brains of the operation, which of courses leaves you to be the brawn," he winked before adding, "doing the dirty work."
"You're not the boss of me, you troublemaker!" Pleakley folded his arms. "I'm not gonna listen to a word you say!" There was no way he was going to let 625 take control of him! He was supposed to be looking after 625, not the other way round!
"Suit yourself, Pleakley," 625 shrugged, before a sly grin crept up onto his face. "But you the longer you resist my suggestion, the more time Jumba has to destroy this place."
Pleakley visibly gulped.
"Just think about it... an evil scientist let loose on poor, defenceless Earth. Maybe he might squish a mosquito," 625 clapped his hands together to simulate the motion, making Pleakley jerk back and divert his eyes. "Oh no, the endangered species might soon be extinct at this rate!"
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Pleakley shook his head rapidly, trying to get the images 625 were projecting out of his head.
Pleakley's insistence to stop only made 625 continue. A smirk started to form on 625's face as Pleakley grew more and more afraid.
"Worse still, he's an evil scientist. And let me tell you, evil scientists love to gloat! So what if he reveals himself to the leaders in charge, blowing his cover? The humans of Earth would be—"
"Okay, okay!" Pleakley shouted, unable to handle Earth facing the consequences of the worse-case scenario 625 had just casually spoke about. "I'll do as you say! Anything to stop Jumba! We can't let that happen at all costs!"
625 gave a thumbs up to calm the frantic Pleakley down. "Glad to see you come around to my viewpoint, Pleak! Can I call you Pleak?"
"No! You little rascal! Don't you dare call me—"
"Great! That's your new nickname, Pleak!" The experiment combed his head antennas back, winking at Pleakley. "Since I know Jumba well, I'm going to come up with a game plan to catch him! All you need to do is follow through with them. We'll catch Jumba in no time!"
And by 'we', I mean you, Pleak! 625 tried his best not to laugh. I mean, that was way too easy! Just had to play on his fears. And now I get to slack off while he goes off and does all the hard work for me!
But before that, priorities! 625 took out his Galactic Federation bank card, starting to salivate at the thought of finally making some more sandwiches to eat. Where's the nearest supermarket?
"You are so dead when I find you, Lilo! Today's the day the new social worker is supposed to come in to check on us!"
Two minutes earlier, Nani had noticed an incessant ringing noise coming from Lilo's room. "Lilo, don't you know how to turn off your alarm clock?" she said with annoyance as she walked into her sister's room to turn off the loud alarm clock.
As it turned out, the alarm clock was only ringing since Lilo had snoozed it and hadn't actually turned it off. Normally this meant that Lilo was sleeping in.
Not this time.
To Nani's horror, her sister was gone.
And if the pillow by the windowside was any indication, Lilo had climbed out of the window and snuck out on her own.
Nani groaned. This definitely had to be because of the meteorite she had refused to let Lilo see yesterday night.
Realising that Lilo was probably in the forest, she ran to the door. On her way down the steps, she muttered under her breath. "When I find you, you're going to regret—"
"Nani!"
Her eyes widened as she heard her sister's voice accompanied by knocks on the front door. She rushed down the remaining steps and unlocked the door, flinging it open.
"Lilo! You are in so much troubleeeee..." Nani shouted, before trailing off when she realised that her sister was not alone at the doorstep. "Please don't be him, please don't be him, please don't be him…" she prayed to multiple different Hawaiian deities before facing the person next to her sister.
"Good morning," the black-suited man began, "Are you the guardian of this child?" His voice turned low as he asked the question. The glint of the sunlight reflecting off his sunglasses somehow made him even more intimidating than he already was to Nani as the man stared straight at her, waiting for her reply.
"Uh... yes?" Nani answered hesitantly. Her face turned white as she started to have her suspicions as to where this conversation was headed.
Cobra took off his sunglasses, frowning. "My name is Cobra Bubbles. I happen to be the assigned social worker for this family."
Right then and there, Nani made up her mind that this was definitely not a good day.
Author's Note:
This chapter is a bit of a cooldown after the previous one. Things will pick up again next chapter.
Yes, Gantu landed his ship in the same place it had crashed landed in canon at the end of Stitch! The Movie. I always liked that they went out of their way to animate that waterfall in virtually every episode when they could have saved work by having the ship crash-land in a boring, static valley.
jurassicdinodrew: Not going to confirm or deny anything for the sake of possible spoilers. Will Stitch be okie-taka? Who knows?
Chachera: Thanks! And to be fair, I'm probably biased too, Reuben's up there in my list of favourite experiments.