Chapter 15: High Decibel Dilemma

"Yes, it is indeed I, the great Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel! Surprised to see me alive and kicking?"

A very dangerous four-eyed alien and what appeared to be a puny, diminutive talking gerbil were both staring the other down. To be perfectly frank, Pleakley didn't know what to make of the situation.

He had been apprehensive about the mission from the moment he had been suckered into the job by 625. Hence, he had come to Planet Earth fully prepared for the worst case scenario.

At least that was what he had thought. Too bad no amount of prior preparation could have prepared him for this. Sure, he had expected the cheeky little sandwich-obsessed experiment to torment him throughout the entire mission. Yes, he had packed in seven sets of clothes in anticipation of Earth's wet climate. And he had even been mentally prepared—somewhat, at least—for a fight with the escaped Jumba.

But he had not put "talking gerbil" into his calculations. This nonsense was just way too unexpected on the weirdness scale. The thought had never crossed his mind, not even in the most absurd of his fleeting dreams.

He had to admit, he hadn't 100% believed that troublemaking yellow experiment when 625 had warned him about a wild animal causing chaos. But, lo and behold, there indeed was a troublemaking noisemaker after all. He had no idea who this gerbil was supposed to be, or why he was somehow able to recognise Jumba right away.

All he was definitely certain of was that this was very, very bad.

"Doctor Jacques von… who?" Pleakley commented, hand to his chin. Hamsterviel? He's a hamster? I thought that guy was a gerbil!

Wait… I'm certain I heard the name Hamsterviel from somewhere before. He racked his head, struggling to recall the faint memory from within the synapses of his brain. To try and prompt his memory, he decided to bait the hamster into revealing more. "I've never heard of… woah!"

He couldn't even finish his statement before Jumba rudely shoved him to the ground. "That was uncalled for…" he mumbled in pain, clutching his forehead.

Less than a meter away, Jumba towered above him. "How did you survive aircraft freefall? And just what are you doing being here on dirt planet?" he yelled at Hamsterviel.

"You are very talkative today, aren't you? So many questions… it's really such a pity that I don't have the time to answer any of them." He shook his head while flashing a cocky smirk. "Muhahaha! It appears I have the upper hand now. Recognize this, Jumba?"

Pleakley gasped as Hamsterviel swept his cape to one side, unveiling a small light blue creature placed in a leash. The leash consisted of a collar attached to its neck, along with a thick rope which trailed to the hamster's paw.

How could he? Pleakley winced with a gasp as the creature whimpered slightly. A tug on the leash from Hamsterviel caused the collar to contract slightly, basically holding its captive in a chokehold and leaving it panting and breathless.

Pleakley couldn't take it. That poor creature was suffering! He couldn't believe the nerve of the gerbil-no, hamster. This definitely violated more than a few international galactic laws. He found himself wanting to speak out against this complete and utter travesty, despite his mind screaming that this was a bad idea.

Jumba, however, beat him to it. The scientist looked just as horrified by this sudden turn of events. "Experimmmmmeent…ally trouble! Y-You! Let go of my exper-experienced… uh, never mind." He vigorously shook his head before snapping with a glare, "You know what I mean!"

"Let go of him?" Hamsterviel drawled. For a moment, Pleakley had his hopes up, hoping that perhaps this 'Dr. Hamsterviel' would listen to reason.

Those hopes were then dashed in less time than it took for him to blink.

"Never!" Hamsterviel rubbed his hands together in glee. "You see this device I attached to him?" He pointed at a metallic collar attached to his captive's neck. "I pilfered this electric collar from a hardware store and modified the transistors and step-up transformers so that the voltage is one thousand times the original! In other words, he will do as I say… unless he wants two thousand volts of electricity running through him!"

Y-Yikes! An electric current running at two thousand volts?! This is so not good! Even worse, I don't think he's bluffing either, judging from his expression… Pleakley softly gazed in pity at the frightened creature that was trapped, feeling anger well up from within him.

"That's terrible! You're a monster!"

Pleakley was surprised by his own sudden second wind of courage. The normal him from just a few days ago would have already scampered away from the escalating hazardous situation. But after the little joyride he had been forced through, which ended in him and Jumba crashing into a ditch, his threshold had definitely gone up. He still agreed that it was hasty to yell at the diminutive Hamsterviel like that, yes, but a callous being like him needed to be called out!

"Oh, quit your yapping." Hamsterviel scoffed, completely unfazed by Pleakley's objection. "And as for you, Jumba, you will know exactly how it feels like to have a mass weapon of destruction turned against you!"

"Mass weapon of destruction?" he queried. Now this was unusual. Why would he say that?

Something is up here! How could it possibly be a weapon? Is he bluffing? He decided to try his luck and pursued his thoughts, "But that thing's so innocent and cute! How can it be a mass weapon of destruction?"

Hamsterviel grinned at Pleakley, which irritated the Federation Agent to no end. He was starting to feel like he was in a joke where everyone but him knew the punchline. "Ah, but looks can be deceiving," he finally said, "This little slave right here is a noisemaker capable of delivering sonic blasts louder than a spaceship going into hyperdrive. Imagine the sheer destruction he could cause in my possession!"

Pleakley looked at the so-called "noisemaker", but he couldn't visualise it. What Hamsterviel had portrayed with his words was that it was a lean, mean killing machine, but at the moment, all Pleakley could see was a terrified prisoner begging for help.

"I don't believe you." Pleakley locked his eye with Hamsterviel's. "You're just trying to twist around the truth!"

Hamsterviel looked briefly surprised, but his shock was soon replaced by a smirk, one that Pleakley decided he'd seen way too many times in a single day. "Hah! If you don't believe the words of the great Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel, then it looks like I will have to personally show you proof myself. Now then, experim—"

"Hamsterviel!" Jumba interjected, literally rushing between the two to cut off any further conversation. "One more word out of you and I will personally shut your mouth!" Jumba tried to keep his voice level, but Pleakley could sense that he was reaching the limit of his patience.

"Hahahaha! You will personally do what, Jumba? I'll like to see you try when you have absolutely nothing on this godforsaken planet!" The overconfident hamster had a very wide grin on his face as he launched himself into a monologue. Pleakley didn't like that Hamsterviel exhibited an aura of cockiness, yet didn't really appear to have anything to back his own claims up.

It looked like the trapped noisemaker agreed with him as well. The lad had been snarling at Hamsterviel as well. However, when he felt Pleakley's eye on him, it proceeded to gaze up at the agent with his own pleading eyes.

Looking at his helpless expression, Pleakley knew that Hamsterviel had to be lying. He could never buy that crazy hamster's explanation. There was no way that someone like that would willingly cause or be capable of the destruction that Hamsterviel had described.

"He was not an easy catch, in case you were wondering. I had to prepare extensively for your little friend's capture." Hamsterviel tapped the earpiece lodged in his ear with a clang. "You see this? I stole these noise-cancelling headphones and set a noise gate on the microphone attached to it," he said, holding up a wireless microphone which Pleakley assumed was connected to has noise-drowning earpiece. "Some weapon, Jumba! As long as the noise gate is active, your noisemaker brat can't harm my ears!"

"Noise gate? What's that?" The term was beyond Pleakley. He majored in Geography and Biology, not this!

Hamsterviel tapped his foot in impatience. "How can you not know what a primitive thing like a noise gate does?" he muttered, "A noise gate monitors an audio signal and automatically cancels out sounds of a certain threshold. In this case, I personally modified the microphone of my headphones to cancel out low-pitched sounds." He didn't notice that 613 had perked up as he explained how his system worked to Pleakley. "You see? This way, I won't get deafened by that noisy little pest, but I can still be able to hear your screams of agony. You will rued the day you turned your back on me, Jumba!"

"Hamsterviel, you hypocrite…!" Jumba let out a curse.

"Oh, shut up! Think of this as payback for sucking me out of my spaceship! You tried to kill me, you stupid ignorant—"

"Jumba did no such thing!" Jumba rebuked. "You've been doing all that yourself, Hamsterviel! You smashed your own windscreen with your own plasma blaster. It was your fault that the spaceship cabin was depressurized and crashed onto populated dirt planet."

"How dare you imply that it was my fault!" Hamsterviel stood up straight, his misplaced pride literally oozing out of his stiff posture. "I don't think you truly believe what you're saying either. Just look at your stupefied face! You look like you're about to pass out! That helplessly helpless expression suits you perfectly, Jumba!"

"Wait one moment!" Pleakley flailed both of his arms like a windshield wiper to grab their attention. To be honest, Pleakley had thought that they had both forgotten about the green alien stuck at the side while they were ranting. "You had a partner?"

"We are not partners!" they both yelled simultaneously. The two stared at him like he was crazy.

"But you guys act like you know one another!"

"We are business acquaintances. Nothing more," Jumba scowled.

"He is correct. We can never be partners," Hamsterviel spat. "Not to mention, this guy stowed away on my ship. MY ship!" he added.

To avoid the awkwardness that had started to fester, and to try to contain this new crisis, Pleakley decided to change the topic. "So your name's Jumba?" he quipped. Obviously he had known of Jumba's real identity for a long time, but since the scientist had never formally introduced himself to him—for obvious reasons—Pleakley had been forced to pretend that he hadn't known.

Jumba scowled, eyes narrowing. "Yes, that is indeed Jumba's name," he started carefully, "But name is not being important now. What is of bigger importance is that we be stopping Hamsterviel!"

"You want to stop that guy too?" Pleakley was surprised. He would have assumed that Jumba, being an evil scientist, would be supportive of the evil rodent, but it seemed to appear that the opposite was more applicable in this scenario.

"Really? You're going to take Jumba's side on this?" Hamsterviel looked at Pleakley contemplatively. "I suggest you think very carefully about this choice. It would certainly be a shame—" he folded his arms, at least as best as he could when one hand was holding a remote and the other gripping onto a rope, "—if you chose poorly."

Pleakley frowned, closing his eye in frustration. Hamsterviel had a point. No matter who he assisted, the Grand Councilwoman wouldn't like it. When had a simple capture mission gone so wrong? Wishing 625 a terrible fate beneath his breath, he looked up at the stars, wishing he was anywhere else in the galaxy but where he currently was.

Nope. He was still in the forest with two very mad people.

It looked like he had no choice but to pick his poison. Jumba might be an escaped criminal, but this hamster was currently the bigger threat to Earth's habitat. Between the two…

"Yeah, bite me!" he shouted. "I'm with Jumba on this!"

Jumba folded his arms. "Hmph! Looks like you lost his support, Hamsterviel."

"Shut up, Jumba! It's still two-on-two as long as I have him," Hamsterviel said, hitting 613 on the head. The experiment snarled from the physical contact and inched away.

"Can't he just run away from the hamster guy?" Pleakley asked Jumba, referring to the captured 613. "If you compare their sizes, the hamster guy shouldn't be able to hold onto him. He's so much bigger than—"

"Are you trying to make fun of my weight?" Hamsterviel rubbed his stomach with an annoyed look. "I'll have you know that I'm not as puny as I appear. I weigh a glorious three kilos!"

Dead silence.

"What are you two staring at me like that for?!" Hamsterviel glared at Pleakley and Jumba, who were both trying to stifle their giggles. "It's not funny!" He jerked his head around when 613 also chuckled out loud as well. "Shut up, all of you!"

"It's just that four kilograms is pretty heavy for your species." Pleakley commented, still trying to restrain his laughter. "Normally, gerbils weigh—"

"I am NOT a gerbil!" Hamsterviel pawed the ground, driving his footprint into the dirt, "It is hamster, hamster! Get it right, you ignoramus!" There was a pause as Hamsterviel paused and lowered his voice. "Oh, and in case you were wondering why this brat isn't running away…" he pointed to an offended noisemaking captive, "If he even tries to make the slightest attempt of escape, I would personally zap him with enough electricity to power this whole entire stinking island!"

"You wouldn't!" Pleakley cried, "What did that poor thing ever do to you, Hamsterwheel!"

Hamsterviel's eyebrows twitched as the newcomer botched his name up just like everyone else. "How dare you butcher my name! It is pronounced Hamsterviel!" he shrieked.

Noticing that Hamsterviel was distracted, to everyone's surprise, 613 took the opportunity to aim his foghorn upwards, in the caped hamster's direction.

"What are you—"

Experiment 613 let loose a blast, cutting off Hamsterviel's surprised words.

To Hamsterviel's surprise, his ears were able to hear the deafening noise. He clasped the top of his ears, folding his earlobes down around his earbuds. "How did you get past my…" Hamsterviel cut his rant short as instantly he realised the answer.

When he explained how his audio protection worked to Pleakley, he had inadvertently revealed that it relied on cutting out low-pitched noise. Therefore, the experiment had filed away the knowledge until his captor had his guard down, and then proceeded to blast a high-pitched one instead.

"You sneaky little…!" Noticing that he let go of the end of the rope attached to the leash, he hurriedly made a grab for it. At the last moment, Hamsterviel managed to hold on to the last few inches of the rope, which yanked the fleeing 613 back. He ignored the frayed rope causing friction burns to his paw, choosing instead to prioritize yelling at 613 for the experiment's blatant escape attempt. "How dare you?! You pesky little undignified runt… don't you know how to keep still? Don't you mess with me, I am your new master now! Cease your scuffling at once!"

613 scowled at the order, instead opting to resume struggling to get the tight collar off him in defiance. In response, Hamsterviel gritted his buck teeth, holding on even tighter to the leash rope. "You dare defy me? I'm the one in charge here, you stubborn brat." He held up the remote with a sinister grin, "As long as I have this little gizmo, you have to do as I demand."

"Or, if you prefer," he lowered his voice, "I can ensure that a very unhealthy amount of electricity will blast through your body…" He jammed down the red button in the centre of the remote, which started a reaction that caused bright sparks to fly out of the collar. 613 yelped, clutching the collar and trying to rip it off, but to no avail.

"Ha! Look at you now, you worthless little noisemaker! You dared to try me? You're worth nothing to me!"

613 fought past his pain to roll his eyes at the obvious lie appended to the end of Hamsterviel's statement. If the experiment truly was insignificant to that mad scientist, then he would have already gotten rid of him.

"You're crazy! That's virtually torture! Don't you harm a hair on the poor little thing!" Pleakley waved his hands in panic, "Stop that immediately, you… you evil monster!"

Hamsterviel released his hold on the button setting off the electric shock. It appeared that he was briefly surprised by Pleakley's remark. "You're insinuating that I'm an evil monster?" He broke out into a smile before going into an uproar. "Hahahaha! Well, that is perfectly accurate! Because I am an evil monster! Thank you oh-so-very much for the compliment! It's very appreciated!"

"Gah!" Pleakley had just about had it with this guy. "Don't act like that sarcastic jerk six—" He froze, cutting himself off.

He was such an idiot! He'd almost said six-two-five in front of Jumba.

"Six what?" The scientist eyed him suspiciously. "What were you about to say?"

Pleakley gulped in terror and tried to play it off. "Like the newscaster at six!" he shouted rapidly. "Oh, I hate her! She's so bossy and sarcastic! How did she ever get the job?" He let out a deep breath. He really hoped that the six o'clock intergalactic news really had a newscaster like that. If not, he would have just dug his own grave.

Jumba relaxed and focused his attention back on the screaming Hamsterviel, who was throwing insults at the two for ignoring his magnificent spiel during their brief spat.

"Are you two nitwits listening to me?"

Pleakley folded his arms. After seeing Hamsterviel get blasted by his own captive, he'd lost a little respect for the card-carrying villain. Overall Jumba was much scarier than him in terms of actually being a threat.

"I don't think so," Pleakley started, making up his mind to tell the stuck-up hamster what he really thought of him, "You don't look remotely threatening at all."

"You…! You haven't seen anything yet! I will soon show you why the whole galaxy will fear me!" he snarled. "Now!" he barked at 613. "Or I'll shock you again! And make sure it's low-pitched as well or you'll be fried!" he added in an afterthought, cupping his ears in precaution.

613's face twisted into an expression of pity, before letting out a tired sigh. As it faced Jumba and Pleakley, the Galactic Agent could see an apologetic gaze adorn his figure before he uncurled his foghorn.

HOONNKKKKKK!

"Nyahhahahhaha!" Hamsterviel laughed as Jumba clutched his ears, falling to his knees to mitigate the blast. "See this? This is true power, all in my paw! And when I have got all six hundred—hey! Wait one blooming minute here!" Hamsterviel stopped short when he realized that only Jumba was on the ground in agony.

"You!" He pointed at Pleakley, repeatedly jumping up and down in fury. "How are you unaffected by my lowly servant's sonic blasting?! You should be clasping your ears in agony, screaming for your mummy!"

"Huh?" Pleakley tilted his head in confusion. "What're you talking about?"

"Are you deaf, you nincompoop? I just asked you a question! Do not look at me with that befuddled gaze in your eye!" He stomped his foot into the ground. "Grrrr… how are you still standing?!"

"I-It doesn't affect you?" Jumba summarized Hamsterviel's remark, surprise evident in his eyes. "How?"

Hamsterviel growled at Jumba. "Don't you steal my question, I asked him first!" he tapped his foot at Pleakley, "Answer me!"

"Well, my species doesn't have any ears. My Plorgonarian quartz flange—" he flicked the antenna-like thing on his head, "—can read several sets of subspace ether transmissions."

"So you're immune to his sonic blasts?" Jumba gaped at Pleakley's explanation, "Jumba cannot be believing that he never thought of that." He then laughed haughtily, making Pleakley grow apprehensive. How could that scientist possibly find any humor in this grim and chaotic situation?

"But I'm afraid this means you've lost your little leverage, Dr. Hamsterviel. You were planning on holding him as hostage, right?"

"Shut up!"

"No, Jumba be thinking that you be quiet. You have been running this show for too long!" Hamsterviel gasped as Jumba made a subtle movement with his right arm.

"Get him!" he yelled at 613, pointing his finger in Pleakley's direction.

"Yikes, I take that back!" Pleakley covered his eye with both his hands, "Don't hurt me, please!"

"Not you, green guy!" Hamsterviel sneered, his finger wavering slightly over the remote. "Behind him! Aim at Jumba!"

"I don't think so, Hamsterviel." Jumba's cold tone of voice made a chill run down Pleakley's spine. He looked around, only to see a flash of orange held in Jumba's hand.

The plasma blaster!

How could he have forgotten about it? Jumba had shown the blaster to him when they were both in the vehicle together. The weapon must still be serviceable, and to make matters worse, it was definitely live, shown by the mad scientist pointing the barrel in Hamsterviel's direction.

"Do not be making me fire this weapon, Hamsterviel!" he ordered the fuming hamster. "Drop the remote now."

Hamsterviel obliged by throwing the remote to one side, but not without protest. "You… you! It was all a stupid distraction!" he screamed.

"Not exactly," Jumba shrugged. "But Pleakley played his role rather well," he complimented, flashing a genuine smile to the alien in question.

"Wait a minute!" Pleakley turned on Jumba, "You were using me as bait? How could you?!"

"No…" Jumba denied, waving the accusation off. Pleakley didn't buy his tone in the slightest.

That slight movement of the hand was all the hesitation Hamsterviel needed. He ran for it, cape flowing in the wind. Pleakley cried out as Jumba immediately fired a blast of molten plasma at where Hamsterviel once was, only to miss him by about a foot. By the time he managed to get a good visual on Hamsterviel, he had already snatched back the remote. His thumb was hovering around the red button, ready to press it at a moment's notice.

"If you so much as twitch that finger around the trigger, I will end him! Don't think I won't get rid of my hostage! I've got many, many more of your friends to pick from, Jumba!" His face was pitch black with anger. Whatever humorous behaviour he had displayed earlier was now long gone. "Oh, how the tables have turned," he sneered as he walked back to a cowering 613. The terrified experiment was then pulled even closer to him. Pleakley had no doubt that the desperate hamster intended to use him as a body shield if necessary. "It appears that it is now you who would be dropping your weapon."

Jumba just stared at the hamster.

"DO IT!" He then feigned pushing the button on the remote, eliciting cries of horror from everyone. "Throw that blasted thing aside! Now!"

Jumba weighed his options and came to a mortifying conclusion. Besides 613, he had no other experiment with him for now. If Hamsterviel followed through, he'd be left with nothing all over again. At least he could account on Hamsterviel getting overconfident later on if he dropped the plasma blaster now.

Therefore, he opted to throw his weapon sideways, ensuring that if Hamsterviel double-crossed him he could reach the weapon before him.

Unfortunately, in his haste to disarm himself, he and Hamsterviel had forgotten one rather essential thing — an unpredictable variable in their calculations.

The plasma blaster spun about in the air, flying in an arc before landing in Pleakley's outstretched arms. Both Jumba and Hamsterviel froze as Pleakley fumbled with the gun before managing to get a firm grip on it.

It had slipped both their minds that there was an outsider involved this time. Jumba hadn't even realised that the direction he had sent the blaster in was Pleakley's.

And now there was a new problem — Pleakley could turn the tables by handing the blaster to whomever he chose.

"Alright," Jumba gestured to the still-stunned Pleakley, who was staring at the blaster in his arms, "Give me the weapon, Pleakley."

Pleakley stayed there, frozen. If there was any indication he heard Jumba, he didn't show it.

"Don't you trust me, Pleakley?!" Jumba said in a desperate tone. He was beginning to get really panicky. Hamsterviel couldn't corner him now. "Come on now," he reassured, "be handing Jumba plasma blaster."

Hamsterviel grinned as he realized he could play this to his advantage. "Him trusting you, Jumba? Don't make me laugh!"

Pleakley noticed Hamsterviel's smug face and decided immediately that he did not like the look Hamsterviel had or the impending tone the words carried. "Hahahaha!" he continued, "That poor fool, he doesn't even know who you really are…"

"Don't you dare, Hamsterviel!" Jumba shouted, reflexively reaching into his shirt to draw a now-nonexistent weapon, forgetting for a moment that the blaster was with Pleakley. He then shifted his eyes nervously between Pleakley and Hamsterviel. "You wouldn't!"

"You think you know about Jumba? Oh, you poor, naïve fool." Hamsterviel started pacing slowly. "His full name is Dr. Jumba Jookiba. And his occupation? Full-time evil scientist!"

Pleakley saw Jumba audibly gulp, rage imbued into his eyes. He could see that this was so not how Jumba had wanted the situation to go.

"Didn't know that now, did you? Can you really trust someone like that with a dangerous weapon? How about you let go of—"

"And hand it to you? You're nuts!" Pleakley exclaimed.

"What?!" Hamsterviel sounded genuinely shocked this time. "Why won't you hand it to me?! I'm obviously the better choice!"

"You think I can't tell what's going on? I think you're lying about Jumba here!" Not that he would admit otherwise, but Pleakley knew that he had to dissuade Jumba from guessing he had known the truth from the start.

That, and that Hamsterviel had done way more damage than Jumba as of now. He felt justified in telling him off.

"So you actually trust Jumba? You stupid, stupid fool!"

"I didn't say I trusted him! Don't infer that. I'm saying that neither of you deserve a weapon like this! After all, you can't force me to hand it over." He finished his sentence by pointing the plasma blaster at Hamsterviel's face.

"Ahahahaha!" Hamsterviel went into hysterics, not giving the slightest reaction of fright at the weapon pointed at him. "A mere annoyance like you is seriously trying to threaten me? Me, the soon-to-be ruler of the galaxy? What a humorless joke, truly pathetic!"

"Hamsterviel…" Jumba snarled from the sidelines.

Hamsterviel gave a sinister smirk. "It is really such a shame, but you cannot fool a super genius like me! Look at yourself! You're shaking like a leaf in a galestorm."

Pleakley's grip on the weapon tightened. He had to struggle to hold the blaster steady. Seeing him lose confidence, Hamsterviel strode forward, flipping his cape. "You've never fired a weapon before in your life, have you? Oh, this is rich! You don't have the guts to shoot me! Nyahahah! You spineless wimp!"

Pleakley licked his lips. The more Hamsterviel continued his twisted words, the more he felt sick.

No, he told himself as he looked at Hamsterviel's cowering captive. He tried his best to keep his quivering arm still and hold the plasma blaster level. Don't let him get to you. Regain your composure! I can do this. I have to do this!

He carefully took aim, squinting his eyelid. Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger.

POW!

"What the—!" Hamsterviel instinctively jumped to the left to take cover. The plasma fired harmlessly past him, missing him by about a yard. "You little… I didn't think you'd actually shoot!" he mumbled in a shaky voice. "Oh, that is it! You are now too great of a risk. Which means…"

"Get rid of that upstart immediately!" he ordered, jabbing his finger straight at Pleakley. Surprisingly to Hamsterviel, Pleakley wasn't covering like before. He had a knowing smile on his face.

And sure enough, there was a significant lack of a sonic blast.

Hamsterviel stamped his foot down on the earth. He had had enough. "How dare you defy me!" He jabbed down on the red button, expecting to hear 613's tortured yelps.

Once again, there was a significant lack of terrified pained shouts and fizzling of electricity.

"What is going on around here? Why is nobody doing as I command?!" The irritated tyrant whirled around to see what was wrong, only to come to a horrifying realization when he saw a melted hunk of plastic on the ground next to 613.

"Nooooo!" he yelped in terror as the full brunt of the situation hit him like a ton of bricks. "Not the electric collar!"

The stray plasma blast had hit it directly, freeing Experiment 613 from his control.

Pleakley chuckled nervously, curtsying at the now-panicking hamster. "I guess I've been caught out?"

"Y-You!" Hamsterviel screamed at Pleakley in an unrestrained voice. "You were aiming for the collar all along! How dare you! You dare to defy the great Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel? When I take over, I'll make sure you get special treatment—"

A cough interrupted Hamsterviel's enraged spiel. He turned around, only to see an enraged 613 barely two feet behind him. The icing on the cake was that the fuming experiment was pointing his head downwards to aim his large foghorn directly at his face.

"Uh-oh," he meeped, his terror rapidly rising in proportion to 613's own growing grin.

Seeing Hamsterviel in a state of panic, the experiment took his chance. He huffed, taking a deep breath before letting loose a point-blank sonic blast right at Hamsterviel.

"Yarghhh!" Hamsterviel yelled, blown off his feet due to his light weight. Soaring through the sky like an unguided missile, his impromptu flight through the air was cut short when he smacked head-first into an oncoming tree with a loud thwack.

Jumba and Pleakley both winced from the crash. The sound from the impact was so loud that even Pleakley felt for him. As for 613, he couldn't care less. The experiment simply chuckled with glee, sticking his tongue out at the limo hamster. Karma had taken its revenge on his captor.

Hamsterviel was instantly knocked unconscious from the sheer brunt force of the impact and the speed he had been travelling at before crashing right into the tree. He lay still for a few seconds, almost like he was stuck onto the tree, before limply slipping down the trunk thanks to gravity. When he finally landed on the ground, he fell back on his cape, with scratches visible all over his face.

"Yeowch," Pleakley finally said as the branches and leaves finally stopped rustling, "That has got to hurt."

He then turned around to the proud looking creature that had just been freed from Hamsterviel's control. "You know," Pleakley admitted while stroking the horn on his forehead, "I thought you were a dangerous animal. At least that's what I had been told, that a noisemaker was the troublemaker." The blue creature looked up from Pleakley's petting to give a betrayed pout in defiance. Pleakley smiled at his cute reaction and decided to ease his fears. "But that gerbil over there was the real nuisance to Earth, wasn't he? You're just misunderstood, aren't you?"

It looked up at Pleakley curiously, eyes glistening before nodding its head up and down vigorously.

"You agree with me?" Pleakley beamed. "I knew it!"

"Are you being okay?!" a new voice interjected. Pleakley was surprised to see Jumba run over to the freed creature that Hamsterviel had formerly controlled.

"Oh no, you don't!" Pleakley pulled him away from Jumba, ignoring the look of displeasure that the scientist was showing. "This little guy will be with me! Speaking of… do you have a name, little guy?"

It shook its head.

"Oh no, that will not do. Hmmm, let me think… oh, I know!" Pleakley's face lit up. "I have the perfect name for you!" The thin alien held him up in his arms.

"From now on, you shall be known as Yaarp!"

613 nodded along to the name, his expression beaming with joy.

"Yaarp," Jumba repeated incredulously, his face contorting in denial.

"Yep, Yaarp!" The two words sounded so similar that Pleakley's innocent face almost made it seem like he had named 613 that intentionally.

"Why Yaarp? What sort of ridiculous name is that?!" Jumba laughed dismissively. "You're being ridiculous, Pleakley. He'll never accept that name!" However, the moment he finished his sentence, 613 shook his head at him. The experiment snuggled against Pleakley, cooing.

"What?! He is listening to you?!" Jumba shouted in a surprise, a hint of betrayal lacing his voice. "This cannot be happening…" he moaned, walking away from Pleakley to get some fresh air.

Pleakley simply laughed in response. It was a genuine laugh, one filled with relief — he'd honestly expected his cover to be blown sky high at least seven times now. But not only was his cover story now more believable to Jumba, he'd come through the chaotic situation unscathed and managed to get a new friend to boot.

He would never have guessed that 625 conning him into being drafted into this mission would lead to this. Despite all the danger that Hamsterviel had posed, he was so glad that he hadn't fled the scene. Had he done so, he never would have rescued Yaarp.

Perhaps he had stood his ground because of Yaarp? He'd seen the fear in Yaarp's eyes when Hamsterviel had him at his mercy, and it was an intensively familiar expression to Pleakley, one that he himself often displayed while panicking.

Maybe that was why he had bravely stood up to Hamsterviel… because he didn't want anyone else to feel the same way he did.

That wasn't the last of the similarities. He'd genuinely felt for Yaarp too when that rotten hamster had captured him. In those moments he could almost imagine himself in Yaarp's position — forced against his will to do something he didn't want. For Yaarp, it was using his noisemaker abilities under Hamsterviel's influence. For Pleakley, it was joining the Galactic Alliance instead of his dream job in G.A.C.C.

To put it bluntly, Pleakley saw a lot of himself in the native Earth creature. Maybe that was why he had gone so far as to name it Yaarp, breaking his own self-imposed rule of not interacting with the native species of the planet.

He looked down at the newly-named Yaarp, who was still being held in his arms. Upon noticing that Pleakley was gazing at him, Yaarp gave a gleeful smile in return, letting out a soft toot from his foghorn that radiated of happiness.

It was then that Pleakley was absolutely positive that the past hour had been completely worth it. That little troublemaker 625 could complain all he wanted, but Pleakley had already decided that he was going to keep Yaarp with him.

And that was final.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the wait, but this chapter absolutely did not want to be written. There were so many revisions that ended up being left on the drawing board.

After careful consideration I've decided on bumping the rating up to T. I'm still not too sure if it's warranted, but I legitimately felt bad for Yaarp while writing the hostage scene, so yeah. I personally did not expect the scene to escalate to the extent it did, but sometimes the characters just write themselves.

Also, we have our first reformed experiment! And it only took fifteen chapters. Yeah… teehee!

Stay tuned for the aftermath of this little encounter!