Chapter 16: The Noisemaker's Truce
Jumba felt like he was trapped between a rock and a hard place.
The dark green vegetation surrounding him from all sides didn't help matters. He wasn't even claustrophobic and yet even a cold, hardened scientist like him couldn't help but feel a shiver running down his spine. It was truly a terrifying thing to be stranded on a planet light years from home with nary an ally by your side, racing against the clock to stay ahead of enemies who would like nothing more than to banish him to prison for an inhumanely long time.
"Ugh! How did some random tourist manage to turn Jumba's very own evil experiment against him?" he groaned once he was sure he was out of earshot. "That Pleakley is so very evil." He shook his head with a mixture of anger and amazement that someone like Pleakley, of all aliens, had managed to foil the dastardly plans of geniuses like both him and Hamsterviel, even though it had been done unintentionally.
"Oh, my evil experiment six-one-three, why do you choose not to listen to Jumba? Why?" Jumba groaned, hitting his palm against a nearby tree. The end result was a rather unnaturally large palm-shaped imprint on the tree bark.
Jumba couldn't keep that burst of anger under control despite the constant reminder that he ought to keep his presence low. How could he help it? He was still very much distraught over the chain of setback after setback that had befallen him recently. Just mere days ago he had been ready to take over the entire galaxy, and now here he was, stranded helplessly on a primitive planet, desperately trying to regain even one percent of the power he once wielded back as the head scientist of Galaxy Defence Industries, with an army of loyal experiments by his side.
Hamsterviel surviving the spacecraft crash and almost outing his identity to Pleakley was bad enough, but never did Jumba anticipate or even came close to entertaining the idea of his own experiment trying to befriend another. The angry scientist needed to vent out his frustration of having victory snatched away so close from his grasp once again. "How could you disregard your very own creator just because mere tourist had taken pity on you?" he moaned, trying to rationalize what 613's thought process was. "You are mass weapon of destruction, six-one-three! You are not meant to be pitied!"
His eyes turned red at the thought. Jumba couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. He'd poured his blood and soul into creating his little monstrosities. A random tourist like Pleakley from who knows which planet couldn't just name his experiments and take them away from him like that!
"Well at least on bright side, Hamsterviel is now being no problem for Jumba," he stroked his chin, smiling slightly as he recalled the memory of the hamster being blasted straight into a tree, courtesy of Experiment 613's sonic booms. His smile didn't last long when he remembered that said experiment was currently in cahoots with the surprisingly persuasive Pleakley.
"But dark cloud's silver lining is being no use to Jumba unless experiment six-one-three is willing to be listening to me!" he grumbled. "Jumba need at least one evil experiment on my side to be able to be starting evil plan to rule entire Galactic Federation!"
What a prickly situation to be in. He had jumped the gun by committing to his new plan, immediately attempting to capture his most devious experiment after Hamsterviel's ship had crash landed on Earth. As a result, Jumba was unable to take back his actions the moment 626 managed to squirm free from his grip, which made everything so much more complicated since he was now armed with the knowledge that his creator was after him.
Unable to retreat, he found himself unable to advance as well so long as he was unable to retrieve the experiment container currently held by the runaway 626. As the matter currently stood right now, he was basically stuck in a stalemate. Capturing 626 was going to be deviously difficult as long as he was by himself. All he needed was one loyal experiment to follow him and he would be able to break the deadlock. Was that really too much to ask for?
"Hey, Jumba! Why'd you run away like that?"
Jumba grunted as he whirled back onto Pleakley and Yaarp. They'd both evidently decided to follow him deeper into the jungle. He couldn't help but flinch at hearing Pleakley call out his name in such a carefree manner. That tourist had no idea just what connotations that name carried as an intergalactically wanted criminal. "What do you want, Pleakley?" he muttered in a tone so unwelcome that the greeting might as well have been a noncommittal grunt.
Pleakley didn't let Jumba's harsh tone get to him. "I was with Yaarp and then the little fella suddenly noticed that you were missing. So we went looking for you."
"Yaarp, huh?" Jumba trained all of his eyes on the teal experiment bouncing next to Pleakley. Sensing the glare, Yaarp stopped bouncing on his tail, planting his feet on the ground. His face turned from a friendly smile to a neutral frown when Jumba slowly walked closer to him and leaned down on his knee.
"Psst," Jumba whispered to him with a muffled hiss, "Experiment six-one-three, you cannot seriously be trying to be friends with this guy, can you?" He scowled down at Yaarp in the same way that a parent would if they were to reprimand their misbehaving child. "You are dangerous experiment designed by Jumba to cause unbelievable chaos to galaxy, not end up being mere chew toy to some random meekly little tourist!"
Jumba stared incredulously as Yaarp defiantly shook his head. Incredibly, it looked like Pleakley had the noisemaker wrapped around his green appendages.
"Um, hello?" Pleakley's voice broke the silence, interrupting the feud between creator and experiment.
Jumba got back on his feet. "Yes? You be asking Jumba what?" he snapped at Pleakley, a gesture which made the scrawny alien immediately avoid eye contact in a panic due to his harsh tone.
"W-Well, um…" Pleakley stuttered, gazing downwards to the undergrowth to buy time while he struggled to form a coherent sentence. It was evident just from a single glance that Pleakley was scared out of his wits. His body language revealed all. For instance, he was unable to stop fidgeting with his hands. It was so blatant that he wasn't even trying to hide it, since his nervousness surrounded him like a visible aura clinging onto his attire. "Jumba, I-I'd just like to ask," he started, sucking in a deep breath of air. "H-Have you ever had a friend before?" he finished, spitting out the words in a rapid pace.
Jumba, who had been preparing a rude retort to cut off the conversation, found himself stunned as his ears registered the question.
Have you ever had a friend before…
Those words rang in his ears, echoing and bouncing around his large brain just like a moth being drawn to a flame.
Have you ever had a friend before…
The closest person he'd had that he could have called his friend at one point was… Hamsterviel. Flipping Dr. Hamsterviel, for crying out loud! The closest thing he had to a friend at a point was the scheming double-crosser who'd ended up selling him out to the Galactic Federation in present day.
He gazed down towards the ground, unwilling to meet Pleakley's eye, afraid that just one look would reveal the answer to the curious alien. But it was too late, as his body language and reluctance to respond gave it away regardless.
"I didn't know…" was all Pleakley could bring himself to add. His voice, although a soft mumble, felt like a jet engine taking off after it broke the awkward silence.
"It is being fine," Jumba tried to brush off Pleakley's concern with a casual wave of his arm. "You didn't know about situation. That is okay." He turned away and added softly, "After all, no one knew… not even Jumba…"
In the dead of night however, Jumba's muttered whispers weren't as soft as he had expected. Those words travelled along the night breeze, reverbing around the surrounding trees. The echos were carried over like rustling leaves in the wind and subsequently picked up by Pleakley's sensitive hearing. He slowly crept forward towards Jumba, all warnings of any possible danger vanishing from his mind out of concern for the scientist. "I'm really sorry," was all he had to say.
It was all that really needed to be said, honestly. Even Yaarp hung his head down, having never seen this side of Jumba before.
"Thank you, Pleakley." Jumba finally said. Pleakley couldn't help but look surprised. Jumba had complete sincerity in his voice. This was the first time throughout the whole ordeal that the escaped outlaw had not been curt or outright hostile to him.
Pleakley couldn't help but copy Jumba's soft smile, "Same to you."
"So let me get this whole thing straight, Pleak…"
625 was half-cranky and half-confused when his transceiver beeped at blooming half past five in the morning. The incoming call had rudely woken him up from the short nap that basically doubled as his excuse for sleep. But what was truly unexpected was the identity of the caller. He was expecting the Grand Councilwoman or someone else from Turo calling to check on his progress, so to see Pleakley on the other end when he accepted the call was a genuine surprise.
He yawned with his mouth wide open before lazily pointing a finger at Pleakley incredulously, "You somehow decided to trust Jumba when just a few hours ago, you were ranting to me about how crazy and dangerous he was, in very explicit detail to boot."
Pleakley gave a small chuckle from the other end of the line. "I know, it's hard to believe and it's going to take a while to explain the full story. But hey, I totally managed to gain Jumba's trust! He doesn't think that I'm out to get him anymore!" Pleakley pumped his fist in the air while wearing a goofy grin. "Phew! Looks like everything worked out in the end! I wasn't caught, and he doesn't suspect a thing!" He visibly slouched back in relief, "Right now he's asleep in the woods. So, it's all set then, right? Just tell me when you're going to call Captain Gantu and we can finally—"
625's eyebrow twitched. "No!" he yelled over Pleakley, albeit a little more forcefully than he had expected. The unexpectedness of his retort stunned the Galactic Agent into staying silent. "Ah well, there's been a tiny change of plans," 625 added, emphasising the 'tiny' by holding his thumb and index finger so close to one another that they were almost touching. "After much consideration, I've decided that I'm not gonna be calling that blubber-face just yet."
Pleakley's reply was blunt and straight to the point. "What." He narrowed his eye as the atmosphere grew tense. "You're kidding me," he added when he realized that the usually-cheeky 625 was being completely serious. Somehow, despite being many miles away from the experiment, Pleakley looked like he could already tell that he was not going to like where this was going.
625 simply shook his head. "Uh-uh. Whyever would I bluff ya?" he innocently smiled.
Pleakley didn't take well to his humor. "I swear… you better be joking! I barely survived one day on this mission! I can't take much more of this!"
After a tense silence where only the buzzing of the communicator could be heard, 625 let out a huff, breaking eye contact with Pleakley. "Okay then. You do have a point." Seeing Pleakley relax slightly at his words, he flashed a calculating expression. "Let's compromise, then. How about if we let this play out for a little while more?" he recommended. "After all, he trusts ya, doesn't he? So why let this chance go to waste?"
"Aha! I get what you're up to, you sneaky little troublemaker!" Pleakley gave 625 a teasing smile. "That's surprisingly clever coming from you! You're trying to get Jumba to let his guard down so you can convince him to come with us without a fight."
"That's not what I meant! Not a chance!" 625 snapped, flinging his hands out. "Absolutely out of the question!"
"Huh? But that is—"
"…the easy way out for that scum." Pleakley raised his eyebrow at 625's sinister tone. 625 simply gave an annoyed shrug in response. After all, Pleakley couldn't exactly blame him for being cranky when it was barely dawn. "You think I'm gonna let that callous scientist take the easy way out and turn himself in? In his dreams! I fully intend to drag him squirming back to the Council."
"But…!" Pleakley seemed upset for some reason, which infuriated the yellow experiment. Why was he acting this way?! So what if they had to fight for Jumba in order to get him back? All that would happen was a bit of extra collateral damage, that's all. And best of all, he could simply lay back and watch the arrest while munching on a sandwich, zero effort required on his part.
"It doesn't matter, Pleak," he continued with a scowl, "Just do as I say. He's gonna get arrested either way."
"Oh, I get it now," Pleakley frowned, furrowing his single eyebrow. "I see why this is happening. You're thinking that I'm a spanner in the works, eh? The one that you really don't trust is me, isn't it?"
625 sighed, putting his paw to his forehead upon hearing Pleakley's melodramatic response. This was not how he wanted his day to start. He was beginning to get a headache. At this rate, he would need some aspirin.
"Hah! Bet you didn't think I was able to do it by myself, eh? Well, it looks like the joke's on you this time! Despite all the odds, I manage to locate the noise-making animal that you were speaking about!"
"You… what?" he exclaimed. Pure shock laced 625's tone. "You captured it?" he asked cautiously, lowering his voice.
Pleakley snickered at 625 as he proceeded to hold up an unconscious Hamsterviel by the cape. "Yup!" he beamed triumphantly, tilting his head in confusion when 625's face suddenly fell in the blink of an eye.
"But… that's a gerbil," 625 finally mumbled in disbelief after gaping at the screen for what seemed like an eternity.
"Yeah? I know that's a gerbil. What's wrong with that?" Pleakley hadn't expected 625's mood to turn so despondent.
"Why on earth are you showing me a gerbil?"
"Oh come on, what's the matter here? Why do you seem so upset?" he pressed the increasingly frustrated 625.
625 ignored Pleakley's question, too annoyed to think straight. "That's the noisemaker you thought I was talking about? Gah!" He sighed, shaking his head. This was what he got for getting his hopes up. "Ah, no… I mean, never mind. This is my bad. I should have given you a description of who exactly you were supposed to find." He crossed his arms, muttering under his breath, "Still, I was certain Jumba would know who I was talking about!"
"Wait, wait, wait!" Pleakley pouted, deflating with this new knowledge. "So I went through all this trouble for nothing? You're telling me that this crazy gerbil I have in my hand right now was someone completely different?" He unceremoniously let go of Hamsterviel, letting him fall to the ground with a thud. "That's terrible!"
"That's right, the gerbil is indeed someone entirely different. The one I happened to be referring to from before happens to be much larger. It's teal in colour, with a horn attached onto the forehead—"
"Hey, that description sounds really familiar…" Pleakley tapped his cheek using his finger, trying to ponder a thought before his eye lit up as a sudden brainwave hit him. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, that sounds a lot like my new friend Yaarp to me!"
"Yaarp?" 625 cocked his head. "Now that's a rather unusual name, Pleak. Y'know, it almost sounds as weird as the nickname I gave you."
"Hmph! So you admit that you call me that on purpose."
"What's the matter? Don't ya like that name?" 625 countered.
"D-Don't tease me!" Pleakley looked mortified at 625's accustation. "That was uncalled for! Plus, I already told you to stop calling me that, you stubborn troublemaker…" He folded his arms with a pout.
"Alright, Pleak." 625 made sure to call Pleakley by his personal nickname again just to rile him up. "But seriously speaking, just who's this Yaarp that you happening to be speaking of?"
"Who's Yaarp? Now that's a good question." Pleakley tilted the transceiver at an downwards angle so the camera could capture Yaarp as well. "Hey, Yaarp! Wakey wakey! Say hello!"
Roused from his sleep, Yaarp grogrily blinked opened his eyes. Hearing Pleakley loud and clear, Yaarp gave a passing glance in the transceivers direction, only to snap his head back with a double-take and recoil back in shock. He wasn't the only one to react that way though, as 625 was also gaping at the teal experiment on the screen.
E-Experiment six-one-three? It couldn't be that much of a coincidence, could it? Could Pleakley really have ended up befriending one of Jumba's experiments, let alone the exact one that he had accidentally released?
625 held his gaze steady as Yaarp slowly backed away from the camera, nervously giving a wave using one of his arms. "So that there is your new friend Yaarp?" He unconsciously used his hands to rub the sore ear antennas by his side. He certainly hadn't forgotten the beating that this guy had forced his ears through with his foghorn.
"Yup! He's actually really nice, so I don't know what you were talking about when you said he was dangerous."
"Yeah… sure. He's real nice, alright." 625 leered at Pleakley, sarcasm rooted deep in his words. "Ya know what? If you think Yaarp's nice, I think that Jumba happens to be a saint as well! In fact, that scientist's the greatest person in the galaxy!" he ranted as he paced back and forth.
"W-What are you talking about?" Pleakley replied. However, 625 was no longer focused on him. Rather, he was looking directly at Yaarp. His sharp eyes didn't miss a thing, and thus he was able to spot Yaarp's eyes widening in panic. The noisemaker experiment had clammed up entirely, looking as though his blood had run cold. Quivering ever so slightly, Yaarp glanced up at Pleakley for just a moment before he looked straight at the camera, hastily placing one of his fingers to his lips in a bid to signal the yellow experiment to be quiet.
It was then that his suspicions were confirmed. 625 had to stifle a chuckle at it all. By some miracle, it seemed that Pleakley didn't realize that Yaarp was one of Jumba's experiments. The most likely reason was because the number of people in the known universe that knew that he wasn't the only genetic experiment created could be counted on one of his paws. Naturally, Pleakley didn't put two and two together to realize the truth and assumed that Yaarp was a Earth-native species. He smirked at the irony. It seemed like Jumba hiding the existence of his platoon of genetic experiments back at the trial did have a silver lining to it, even though it was the exact same reason he was almost locked in confinement at Planet Turo.
"Hahahahah!" 625 laughed. "Ah, I'm just kiddin'! Oh come on, don't tell me you really believed that? You're so easy to tease, Pleak!" He coolly played it off as a joke, although his careful eyes didn't miss Yaarp's relieved face when he dissuaded Pleakley from suspecting that anything was amiss.
"Hmph!" Pleakley folded his arms, an annoyed look slowly crossing his face. "I should have known that you wouldn't change, you no-good troublemaking experiment!"
"I might be a little troublemaker, but at least I'm known for being the troublemaker! Don't ya ever forget that, Pleak!" 625 winked. "Oh, and congrats on finding a friend out here on this planet's wilderness, I guess." He licked his lips, suddenly changing the subject, "Would ya look at that? It's time for breakfast! I'll contact you later to give you more updates."
"Hey, wait a minute! What about Jumba!"
"Bye-bye!" 625 gave a mock-salute and switched off the call before Pleakley could squeak an indignant reply. He pocketed the transceiver before stretching his arms. Rubbing his head, he couldn't help but ponder about the turn of events. It appeared that his plan had somewhat worked. Based on what he could see, it appeared that Jumba had not managed to not reconcile with his lost experiment like he had hoped.
However, the unexpected variable in all of this was…
"You again, boy? Why do you always wear that cloak?"
"Oh, hush! Here's the credit card! Two hours, just like last time!"
625 had practically run back to the computer café. Okay, perhaps 'run' was a strong word since he had to catch his breath every twenty seconds, but he still made it out of the forest in about half an hour, which had to be some kind of a record for him.
Taking a seat next to a person who was watching videos on a video sharing site, he proceeded to log back into the system using Jumba's account again. When the database loaded, he then looked up the logs for experiment 613. "Six-one-three, six-one-three…" he muttered rhythmically as the page was loading. "There we go!"
"Hmmm…" He moused down the page until he found something juicy. "Six-one-three is being very obedient experiment," he read aloud in Jumba's tone of voice while supporting his head with his paw, "but unfortunately, has one teeny-tiny annoying quirk. He is surprisingly easy to startle. Six-one-three will react with loud sonic blast if he is feeling intimidated."
"Really?" he muttered with a amused smile, "I never would've guessed that Yaarp was a bashful fella'."
The next statement also caught 625's eye. "But surprisingly, despite wielding very destructive power, he has turned out to be less willing to unleash his compared to some earlier experiments."
625 shook his head. "Oh, come on…" he muttered darkly. "Of course he's less destructive! Didn't you realize that he has a more mellow personality? Oh, of course you didn't! Well then, it's really too bad. Because you're about to be hoisted by your own petard very soon…"
"Come one, come all, to the most fantabulous circus coming to town!"
"Eh?" 625 found himself drawn in by a rather colourful advertisement that was running on the computer next to him. From what he could glimpse, a rather eccentric man dressed in a fancy purple tuxedo shouted into the microphone with in an exaggerated manner.
Running an ad on a video site? 625 rolled his eyes. 99% of people won't care and just try to skip the ad at the earliest possible opportunity. He then pondered the scenario where the advertisement was running on a TV instead. Ha! If that really happened, the sponsors probably had no budget to spare. Something like this, running at six on a Saturday morning? No self-respecting person would ever get up that early on a weekend.
625 was jolted out of his thoughts as he heard the funnily-dressed man's voice from the speakers again. "Don't let your children miss this spectacular event! You can't afford to miss seeing the debut performance of the world's stretchiest clown! Presenting to you our new rising star, the Great Elastico!"
His eyes were drawn to the screen as the commercial then panned to the circus performer.
Said performer was… rather unique, to say the least. He certainly didn't look like any of the other circus performers. As a matter of fact, he looked more like a circus animal, and was roughly the same size as well. He was a bright lime green in colour almost uniformly throughout his body, with the exception of his bright red nose, a purple dot around his belly, and a white face that almost looked like a clown's face paint. The only article of clothing he wore was a pink frilly ruff around his neck.
"Tee hee hee heh! Ahahahaha!" the carefree creature laughed out loud as he gave a demonstration of him stretching his left arm over a distance of what seemed like approximately three metres. Despite the impressive feat, 625 could see that the display was nothing too spectacular, since it was merely a teaser for the actual circus performance.
The camera proceeded to cut back to the fancily-dressed ringmaster. "Believe it or not, Elastico has the ability to stretch to unbelievable levels!" The ringmaster twirled around the staff he was holding, before pointing the tip of it to the camera with a flourish. "Ah, but you'll just have to see it for yourself and be mesmerized by our live performance! Come on down to the Electron Circus! You'll have to hurry, since tickets are selling fast!"
As the advertisement finished and it switched to a regular video, 625 put his paw to his chin, rubbing it in contemplation.
No, that was no stunt.
Something unbelievably stretchy on this planet, where over six hundred of Jumba's experiments lay dormant? Sure sounded more like it was one of Jumba's experiments rather than a regular circus stuntman to him. Following his hunch, he activated the search function and prepared to look up the parameters for any experiment that could stretch themself like putty.
Click!
He ran the query and much to his glee, it proceeded to return an affirmative. His eyes gleamed as he scanned the results.
There was a single match, experiment three-four-five. Selecting the experiment's log page, he was greeted by a picture that showed the exact same lime green creature he had seen earlier.
Bingo.
625 chuckled with unrestrained mirth when he noted down that the stretchy experiment's primary function had been designated as "distraction of hostile forces", which 345 was most definitely not doing right now. He licked his lips as though he'd just chanced upon a lavish three-course sandwich meal. For just a single second, 625 could almost admit in his joy that this find was enough to make up for all of the travesty that he'd suffered yesterday.
Almost.
Oh well. He chose to accept that it was the closest thing to an apology that the universe would give him. He proceeded to dial the given number for the circus on his Galactic Federation transceiver, simultaneously thanking the fact that the device allowed intergalactic calls on any planet — including this one. When the line finally connected, he couldn't resist the smirk playing on his lips.
"Hello, is this the Electron Circus?" he clucked his tongue in anticipation as the person on the other line responded. "When is your next show? Oh? Later this morning is the very first show for the entire event? That's great!" his eyes twinkled with mirth as he continued to think about the experiment he had tracked down. "I'll like to reserve one ticket, please. Yeah, yeah, I got the money, so make it snappy." He hung up, whistling a happy tune. Twenty dollars was honestly a pathetic entry fee to pay for the chance to get ahold of an experiment that'd disobeyed Jumba's orders. He would have gladly thrown over a thousand dollars for this opportunity.
Okay, maybe not that much. He was still on a tight budget thanks to the Grand Councilwoman.
625 chuckled with glee. If the way Experiment 613—no, Yaarp—had reacted to him was anything to go by, he had a feeling that he was going to get exactly what he wanted out of the clownish experiment after his trip to the circus.
There was no need for the black cloak later. He was going to have a little chat with three-four-five, no disguise required for this little outing. It would be just two of Jumba's experiments talking about a few matters over some sandwiches.
And by talking, he meant cold, hard blackmail. It would be like Pleakley all over again. For crying out loud, the two of them—Elastico and Pleakley—were even the same colour! Perhaps it was a trend for lime green creatures to be subservient to him. Maybe the two of them were like the lettuce in his sandwiches, forced to go wherever in the sandwich 625 so desired when he prepared them.
Nah, he was thinking too hard into it. Still, the thought was amusing to him. With a satisfied grin, 625 logged off from the network and shut off the computer.
"H-Hey! You're leaving now? But didn't you pay for two hours of internet access?" The clerk looked at him funny as he strolled out of the door. "Come back! You overpaid by one and a half hours!"
He gave a nonchalant wave in return. "Consider it a tip. I'm feeling generous today, pal!" Ignoring the startled clerk, he whistled merrily as he walked along the footpath.
"It looks like your debut performance will be one that you won't be forgetting in a hurry, Great Elastico!"
Yes, 625 cheerily decided, today is definitely a better day than yesterday.
Author's Note:
Lesson learnt: balancing four stories at the same time is tough!
Some Jumba and Pleakley interaction for this one. Finally they get closer to their movie-roles of reluctant partners.