Chapter 17: Stretching the Limits

"Aloha, ladies and gentlemen!"

As if those four words were the cue for everything to begin, a spotlight was spontaneously lit up as the sentence was completed. It shone brightly, lighting up the center of the stage to reveal that a well-dressed man in purple was the one who had spoken. When the man felt everyone's eyes boring into him, he slowly and deliberately reached his arm into the air. As everyone's eyes followed his hand movement, he then proceeded to snap his fingers.

As though that simple act was like flipping a switch, a chain reaction began to take place behind the scenes, leading to more and more lights rhythmically turning on until the entire center stage was illuminated. Once the lights directed the attention of everyone in the circular tent towards the middle, the caped ringleader took out a portable microphone and put the mouthpiece to his jaw.

"Welcome one and all, to the Electron Circus!" His voice was calm and firm, projected and amplified via the speakers scattered all around the tent. "I am the ringmaster of the Electron Circus. Thank you all so very much for coming! I assure you, you will not be disappointed! I stake my reputation on the line to guarantee that this will be the most fabulous circus performance Hawaii has ever seen!" he proclaimed, with each subsequent word getting louder and more enthusiastic. He took a bow at the round of applause and bouts of cheering from his introductory message. Both of his arms went wide open, drawing as much attention as possible before he continued speaking into the microphone. "Today's show is our debut performance here in Kokaua Town! Are you folks excited to be here for the premiere?" he asked the spectators, extending his hand with the microphone out. The ringmaster was duly rewarded with a resounding "Yes!" from quite a few of the enthusiastic children seated in the audience. He smiled widely at the overwhelmingly favorable response. "Fantastico!" he praised the receptive crowd. "Well then, without further ado, let us get started!"

Seated at the very top row of the circle of seats was Experiment 625, who held his hand to his mouth to suppress a bored yawn. The experiment only noticed how exhausted he was when he was forced to stay awake in a situation like this one. It was considered good sport to support an event that you paid money for. But on the other hand, most of the other spectators didn't get themselves blasted at point blank range by a sonic boom generator, abruptly contacted by Gantu and the Grand Councilwoman before he went to bed, rudely awoken by another call from Pleakley after less than a few hours of sleep, and then immediately scouring through Jumba's experiment archives in the morning. All of this he'd had to deal with in a span of twenty-four hours. Thus, an annoyed 625 felt that it was more than justified on his end if he wasn't 100% focused on the show. He leaned his body forward, shaking in anticipation for what he knew was to come, "Enough with the audience pandering already," he complained. "Just get to the main event, pard!"

Experiment 625 couldn't help but to feel a sense of awkwardness as everyone around him began to clap their hands in applause. Hearing the noise was a reminder that he was someone quite alien from one of them. He couldn't stop himself from darting his eyes left and right out of paranoia, as this time he didn't have the black cloak that doubled as his disguise when he was around human vicinity.

To be frank though, he didn't really need it because of the setting.

Thanks to a combination of his golden fur and the fact that his current location happened to be the circus, most of the spectators and children around him were under the genuine impression that he was a person dressed in a lion mascot costume. It was a whimsical assumption that was amusingly quite far-off from the truth, but as long as the misconception was going to wind up being in his favor, 625 found that he didn't really mind if a random child waved hello at a "Mr. Friendly Lion". Still, even the occasional friendly hello from passing children didn't stop the wait from being unbearable. 625 fought to keep his eyes open as the other performances featuring circus animals and acrobats ended up dragging on and on. He understood the need of saving the best for last, especially since it made sense from a viewpoint of a performer to build up hype for the main event, but it was still inexcusable to tease about it for so long. In stark contrast to everyone else watching the circus performance and being awestruck at their performance's dexterity and skill, 625 ended up laying back on his seat and yawning for about an hour straight.

Acrobats and animals were not what he was here to marvel at. He was here for one act and one act only.

"And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for!" 625 perked up when the ringmaster said the word 'finally'. He already knew that what he was after was arriving after an extremely long wait. He bit his lip in anticipation, leaning forward and focusing on the stage.

With much applause coming from the eager audience, the ringmaster barreled on. "Presenting the act that you've all been waiting to see! Let us all welcome our new señor… the Great Elastico!" The spotlights dimmed to a soft glow right before they brightened and refocused on a three-foot high newcomer who'd just walked onto the stage. "Nyahahahaha!" Elastico proceeded to laugh merrily as the spotlight drew everyone's attention to him. He bashfully gave a hearty wave as he found himself bombarded with resounding cheers from all angles.

"So, the Great Elastico, eh?" 625 snorted as he repeated the fancy-sounding title, a rather amused grin on his face, "Well, I have to say, that title certainly has a nice ring to it… certainly a better name than three-four-five, one random number in a plethora of generic experiments." He laughed at his own joke, before straightening up to get a closer look at the laughing experiment. "You're like Yaarp, huh?" 625 rubbed his chin in contemplation as he made a note of Elastico's feisty personality. "Another jolly little one, aren't ya? You're certainly the outgoing type…"

"Now then, señor Elastico here—" the ringmaster gestured down to the stubby experiment. Elastico, who had been enthusiastically waving to the crowd, paused to listen intently. The ringmaster flashed a confident gait once he noticed Elastico perk up, before twirling his staff around and proceeding to throw it high into the air with a grand flourish. "—is about to give all of you the demonstration of a lifetime!" he yelled as the wooden staff was launched upwards. As it went flying, he added, "You'll have to see it to believe it!"

Elastico raised his head to focus on the airborne staff, his face turning serious as he squinted his eyes. After a few agonizingly long seconds, just when it was at the peak of the throw, he slowly held his right arm up. Just when the people around were wondering how the circus clown was going to catch hold of the staff from that distance, Elastico grinned wildly and proceeded to stretch his arm, extending it out by about five meters to nonchalantly grab it from the air without moving an inch from where he currently stood. As the audience gasped in surprise—especially the hecklers who had believed that the act was some kind of trick or TV marketing stunt—Elastico took a small bow with the ringmaster's staff tucked snugly under his arm.

"Just look at that dexterity! That reach! That stylish finish! Truly, a work of art!" The ringmaster himself had a contagious smile on his face as his star performer stole the show. "As we've advertised and boasted, our Great Elastico truly is the world's stretchiest clown!" he declared to thunderous applause. Even 625 had to admit that he was impressed by the stunt. For Elastico to be able to grab a spinning staff from that high in the air was only a testament to the mastery of three-four-five's ability.

With the ringmaster's blessing following massive audience pressure for an encore, the next fifteen minutes were handed over to the audience for them to interact with the beaming Elastico. The merry clown grabbed hold of anything the audience dangled from their seats to see if he could reach it from the center stage. He performed every trick flawlessly, even managing to grab a tiny hairpin all the way from the very top row of seats.

625 chortled at the antics of the humans. While most were in awe, there were a select few in the audience who were stubbornly trying to see just how well Elastico could manage to do, convinced there had to be some kind of trick to the clown's magic performance. It was just too bad for those hecklers that they weren't going to find any hidden wires anyway. Unlike most of the marveled spectators, 625 was well aware that Elastico's performance was not an act in any way, shape, or form. It was the real deal.

And soon, that magic trick would be his to command as well. He rubbed his paws in glee once he noticed the ringmaster beckon Elastico back with his hand. "Alas, but we have come to the end of our wonderful performance," he announced to the microphone in a sad tone. Even the audience could feel the negative aura the man was emitting in waves and were promptly disappointed when he announced that he had to wrap up the show.

"On behalf of the fantastic performers of our delightful circus, we wish you adieu! Do come again next time, amigos!" With that, the spotlights proceeded to dim, signifying to all that the show had concluded. As the regular ceiling lights began to blink on and many satisfied spectators began to make their way to the exit, 625 proceeded to head in the opposite direction from them. Instead of leaving, he pushed past other spectators to head down towards the center stage.

As the ringmaster strutted backstage, Elastico gave a tired yawn and prepared to head off as well. Seeing that the green experiment all alone, 625 broke into a run when he saw his chance to interrogate the clown. The experiment jumped up on stage, landing on his feet with a flourish that managed to catch Elastico's attention. "Aloha!" 625 greeted Elastico with the standard Hawaiian greeting that he'd picked up from the locals. He waved nonchalantly with a triumphant smirk plastered on his person as Elastico turned towards him. "Very nice to meet ya, pard. You put on a good show back there, I gotta say."

Assuming that it was a random audience member giving him praise, Elastico shot a glance in 625's direction with a friendly wave, before sharply turning his head and double-taking when he realized exactly who had just greeted him. With slowly widening eyes, he put his hands to his mouth and let out a huge gasp in return.

625 let out a disapproving snort as the experiment immediately attempted to make a break for it. "Tsk, tsk!" he reprimanded, rushing forward to grab onto Elastico's torso before he could stretch his way to safety. 625 stubbornly held on and gave a small victorious chuckle when Elastico finally gave up trying to escape from his grip. "Oh come on, don't be so scared!" he reassured Elastico, which prompted the experiment to let his body go slack and recoil back to his non-stretchy self. "All I just want ta' do is have a friendly little chat with ya!" In response, Elastico squirmed uncomfortably in 625's grip, shaking his head rapidly and clenching his eyes tightly shut to signal his discomfort.

625 frowned at the sight. Elastico behaving in an apprehensive manner that was completely unlike the show that he had put on earlier affected the chubby experiment more than 625 would care to admit. It just further hit home to him that being in his vicinity was the reason that led to Elastico behaving differently from his normal carefree self from earlier. "Hey, come on! Please, I want a straight answer. Just what's so terrifying about me?" he decided to ask Elastico, starting to feel rather annoyed by the feeling of unwelcomeness that he got. "There's no need to be so jumpy. I assure you, I'm perfectly harmless!"

At his retort, Elastico surprisingly ceased his struggling, which surprised 625 so much that he loosened his grip, allowing Elastico to drop to the floor. But funnily enough, he didn't escape. After a short pause, the experiment began to hoot uncontrollably. 625 tilted his head at that unexpected reaction. "Just what's so funny about that?" he asked, genuinely puzzled as to what Elastico was laughing about. The prankster didn't particularly enjoy the feeling of missing the punchline to a joke that he didn't even know about.

Finally, Elastico calmed down enough to answer the query. "Meega can't take it!" he spoke in Tantalog, still wheezing. "Six-two-five not dangerous? Yuuga can't fool anyone! Ahhahahah!"

"Aw, you're making me blush," 625 hit his thigh with his paw in a friendly and jovial manner, which almost made it seem as though the experiment was trying to pass the whole thing off as a joke. The charade didn't last two seconds before he narrowed his eyes, amending the tone of the sentence by adding two words in a low voice, "…in anger!"

Elastico flinched as 625 raised his voice, realizing that it wasn't a good idea to play punk with his aggressor. "Please spare meega!" he all but begged. Even the perpetual smile that the clownish experiment always had was now thoroughly wiped off his face. "S-Sure, meega know that I'm not doing my given function…" he began, nervously hovering his eyes around. 625 didn't need to be a genius to see just what Elastico was implying — that the circus was his new job. "Meega know the consequences…" he admitted, shifting his feet around. "Jumba told us all to immediately wreak havoc when we're activated!"

625 raised his eyebrow, making a note of that new information. With an irritated grunt, he realized that that was the reason Yaarp had deafened him when 625 had unintentionally activated he noisemaking experiment. "So you knew about this 'immediate chaos' ruling that Jumba had and yet you still decided to slack off in a circus?" he questioned in a confrontational tone.

"Wait, wait! Meega have my reasons!" Elastico continued with a pleading voice, "Please! I'll do anything, anything! Just don't tell Jumba!"

"Oh really?" 625 began, his voice having an aura of distrust to it. "You'll do anything, you say?" he asked with a vocal pitch that made Elastico flinch back slightly. He folded his arms as he flashed Elastico a smug grin, basically signaling to the experiment that he now had him exactly where he wanted him. It was basically a Morton's Fork, a Catch-22. Either he did as 625 wanted or Jumba would find out about the infraction. It was basically choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Elastico diverted his eyes down, avoiding 625's all too eager smirk. "Yeah…" he meekly conceded. "Meega do what yuuga want."

"Very good!" 625 praised. "Alright then, I won't tell Jumba about this infraction."

"Meega swear that I will-huh?" Elastico trailed off when he realized that 625 had actually agreed to his groveling. Even 625 was able to read Elastico's thoughts. They were clearly written on his disbelieving face — "That actually worked?"

After the initial shock had worn off, he found himself looking at 625 quizzically. "Naga! Are yuuga messing with meega? That was really all it took to get the great six-two-five to change his mind? Yuuga aren't planning to double-cross meega, right? Aren't you Jumba's ultimate experiment?"

Experiment 625 was so taken aback by the claim that he'd dropped his confident leer. "Ex-excuse me?" he stuttered.

"Aren't you?" Elastico pressed on, making full eye contact with him for the first time in the conversation.

625 continued to gape at the inquiry posed. It took him awhile to realize why Elastico was behaving in such a manner, but when the answer hit the experiment, he couldn't help but to let a vicious smirk creep up onto his face and letting a cruel laugh out, which would have been menacing if his voice wasn't nasally and lighthearted. "I'm listening…" he leaned forward, the floppy antennas by his side that doubled as his ears perking up. "Please do go on. This sounds extremely interesting to me!" This meeting was turning out to be much better than he'd ever anticipated.

Despite the path the conversation was taking, Elastico made no attempt to flee. The worried experiment knew full well of the consequences if he even tried to do so. However, that didn't mean that he was going to shoot himself in the foot. Thus, he invoked his right to keep silent and kept his mouth sealed shut.

625 couldn't help but laugh at the irony as Elastico continued to remain quiet. Even without Elastico explaining it, 625 was already well aware of the implications of the statement that the stretchy experiment had unintentionally revealed. To avoid the conversation from approaching a dead end, 625 instead quickly changed the topic, "You know what? Let's cut a little deal, shall we?" With those words, 625 knew that he now had Experiment 345's full attention. Despite his reassuring smile, Elastico remained wary, which prompted 625 to lighten up the mood. "I love deals, by the way," he proceeded to banter to a confused Elastico. "Why settle for an ala carte sandwich when you can get yourself a combo platter at a value price?"

Elastico continued to blink at 625 quizzically even after he finished. He certainly hadn't expected for the conversation to take such a turn. It had gone from being completely serious to just being plain silly, the mood swerving like a race car zooming around a sharp bend. But being a jovial experiment, Elastico couldn't help but to lighten up slightly, which visually showed as he instantly appeared to be less tense.

625 immediately noted the change in 345's eyes and proceeded to make his move when the green experiment had his guard down. "So then, do we have a deal, experiment three-four-five?" He reached his left arm out towards Elastico, although he couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu at the irony. Just a few days ago, 625 found himself being on the receiving end on such a deal. And now, he was ironically echoing the Grand Councilwoman by taking her place as the negotiator of such an offer. In a crazy turnabout, the positions were now reversed. It was certainly ironic that another one of Jumba's experiment had taken his place as the apprehensive and skeptical recipient of such a deal.

Elastico skeptically eyed 625's arm, averting his eyes slightly for one second before he hesitantly reached his arm out. "Congrats on making da' right choice, pal!" 625 gave Elastico a hearty grin as he grabbed ahold of Elastico's rubbery hand and shook on the agreement. "Yes, you would certainly be a promising prospect!"

After the two completed their handshake, 625 rubbed his paws together in glee, as though he had finished a deal just like a prospective salesman. "So, what I want from you is very simple. You can stretch, right?" Despite the fact that he was currently being all but held hostage in name, Elastico gave 625 a very deadpan look. He folded his arms and looked away with an annoyed huff, now 100% aware that the yellow experiment was purely trying to mess with his psyche.

Sensing that Elastico was beginning to get a bit irritated with him, 625 decided to lay off on his confrontation. "Okay, okay, fine!" He raised up his paws in surrender. "I'll stop with the jokes. Happy now, three-four-five?"

Much to his surprise, the green experiment took this opportunity as an opportunity for negotiation. "Takka!" he sighed in relief. "But can yuuga call me by name, not experiment number?"

"Excuse me? You want me to call you by your stage name?" He looked up towards the empty seats all around the circus tent. "You're serious about this? You wish for me ta' refer to you as the Great Elastico?"

Elastico nodded its head with a smile, which led 625 to purse his lips in consideration. "But to be honest, that's too elongated of a title. Can you imagine me calling you that whenever I want to acknowledge you? Can I at least shorten it to Elastico?"

A second nod from Elastico.

Although 625 smiled back, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive in his gut about the name agreement that he'd made. It was frankly an unfounded feeling. Simply put, he felt that calling his fellow experiment by name instead of experiment number was rather unnatural. Yaarp was the exception, as 625 had to call 613 by Pleakley's nickname lest he blew the noisemaker's cover and lost his leverage on Jumba, but this was completely different. With 345, there was nothing to lose on either end if 625 didn't call him by his alias.

Ultimately he pushed those thoughts to the back of his head. If calling experiment three-four-five by the nickname Elastico was a compromise that 625 would have to make to secure their now-rocky partnership, he'd take it. However, even though he'd conceded on this, it didn't mean that he can't poke fun at the stretchy experiment.

His grin grew vicious as he decided that from now on Elastico would be Pleakley 2.0. "But if you are to be my partner in crime, then we'd need a cool team name for ourselves!" he teasingly declared as he pointed a finger in the air. Before Elastico could react, he used his outstretched arm to pinch the shocked experiment's nose with his fingers, letting out a chuckle when the green experiment vigorously shook his crown-shaped head in a bid to get 625 to let go.

He eventually did so after a few seconds, giving Elastico the chance to recover before pointing to his own nose. "From now on, we'll be the Red Nose squad!" he quipped, patting the hunched-over Elastico on the back. "See?" 625 pointed at himself with a chuckle, "My nose is as red as yours! Wouldn't you agree, Elastico?"

Still rubbing his own nose, Elastico turned back to stare at 625 as the yellow experiment began to roll on the stage floor to laugh at his own joke. It was at that exact point that Experiment 345 realized just exactly what the depths of the agreement that he'd agreed to really were.

His regret upon reflection was instantaneous. Even the cheery experiment felt gloomy as 625 carried on howling in laughter atop the wooden floorboards.

"Just what exactly is Jumba doing here?"

That was the question that the Kweltikwan scientist asked himself as he shielded his eyes from the morning sun. If someone were to tell him just a week ago that he would spend the next week on the run at a primitive planet, he must likely would have laughed and prematurely activated an experiment to chase the person away.

And now here he was a mere week later, on a dirt planet with nary a single one of his experiments by his side, desperately chasing after his most powerful creation to regain his lost power and influence. It was truly ironic how reality liked to play with people's expectations.

"Hey, Jumba!"

His four eyes glanced over ever so slightly to their left at the shrill voice. Speaking of irony, he was literally stuck with the unlikeliest of allies. But Jumba had to admit that he also had an ulterior motive for staying close to Pleakley. Before he had dozed off a few hours earlier, he had actually entertained the idea of running off with experiment 613 after Pleakley had fallen asleep, but the meticulous scientist was soon forced to dismiss such a hastily constructed plan. Experiment 613 was a stubborn but cautious one. The instance he even had the slight feeling that something was amiss, 613 would sound the alarm — quite literally too, since the teal experiment had a megaphone equipped atop his head.

And thus he was forced to conclude that such a kidnapping was of no use after all. He didn't want Pleakley to suspect the slightest betrayal since he absolutely could not afford Pleakley turning on him. Even his only weapon, Hamsterviel's plasma blaster, was now in Pleakley's hands. Hence, Jumba decided that there was no reason to keep up his initial hostility to the tourist. Better to be friend rather than foe for now.

Since any attempt to try and convince the experiment to ditch Pleakley was doomed to be futile, he had resorted to a compromise. Experiment 613—Jumba refused to acknowledge him as Yaarp, always referring to the noisemaker as six-one-three—had been glued by his savior Pleakley's side ever since the scrawny alien had saved him from Hamsterviel, it was thus in his best interests to remain close to Pleakley. At least this way he would be able to keep a watch over six-one-three, and the best part was that his experiment wouldn't kick a fuss about this arrangement. Jumba also knew that it was also in six-one-three's best interests to lay low, as he and his experiment both held leverage over each other — he knew that "Yaarp" was really his experiment, and similarly Yaarp also knew that Jumba was the escaped Galactic Federation outlaw that intergalactic news had been broadcasting about for days. To avoid the worst-case scenario of them both squealing out the other, they both remained silent for mutual benefit in the most implicit excuse of cooperation that Jumba had ever seen. It was a "I ignore you, you ignore me" kind of deal. Even though 613 was being stubborn about returning to his side, at least the very least Jumba was glad that they had worked out an unspoken agreement to not rat each other out…

"You little persistent pests! Release me immediately!"

…unlike a certain other hamster. Jumba's mood turned sour upon hearing the squeaky voice. Speaking of things that he and Experiment 613 agreed on, the two both unanimously agreed that Dr. Hamsterviel was a nuisance that they had to dispose of as quickly as possible…

"IMMEDIATELY!"

…before they went deaf.

"Unhand me right this instant, you insignificant, idiotic fools!" Hamsterviel yelled in fury, trying to squirm free as much as he possibly could. "You don't have any idea who you're messing with! I can ruin both of your lives forever!"

"Nuh-uh!" Pleakley wagged his finger disapprovingly. Even the paranoid alien was well aware that what Hamsterviel was spewing out were nothing but empty threats. "You've been a very bad gerbil," he lectured.

"It is NOT GERBIL!" Hamsterviel shrieked, struggling against his rope prison with an even fiercer fury than ever before. "It is hamster, HAMSTER!"

"Now then, how to be getting rid of annoying gerbil," Jumba mused, making sure to use the wrong species again to Hamsterviel's chagrin.

"Get rid of me?" Hamsterviel gave a fake, exaggerated gasp. "You wouldn't even dare!" If his limbs were free, Jumba was sure that his old colleague would give a curt bow as he boasted smugly.

"I have an idea!" Pleakley piped up. "What if we used Yaarp to send that gerbil flying?"

"You wouldn't dare, you cretins! I swear that if you even think about it, I'll kick your hinds into next week when I return for my revenge!" Upon seeing that both Jumba and Pleakley were 100% serious, Hamsterviel changed his tone. "I mean, come on!" he chuckled nervously. "Th-this is animal cruelty! If you guys had any heart at all, you'll refrain from treating the great Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel in this lowly manner!" His whiskers twitched as Jumba continued to approach him with an evil gleam in his four eyes.

"No!" Hamsterviel yelled in horror right before Jumba picked him up and strolled towards a grinning Experiment 613. "D-don't you dare do it! N-N-No! No! Nooooooooo!" he screamed before he was shoved head first into Yaarp's horn. As Hamsterviel continued to screech out muffled profanities, Pleakley put his fingers to his mouth, giving a short whistle to signal the noisemaker to deliberately set off what would certainly be bombastic firework.

"Alright, Yaarp! Let's show that mean gerbil not to mess with this planet!" Pleakley pumped his fist high into the air, letting out a shout. "Let it rip!" Hearing the signal, Yaarp obediently nodded his head with the screaming Hamsterviel still plunged deep in his foghorn. As he closed his eyes to let loose one of his sonic blasts, the experiment began to feel building resistance in his horn due to Hamsterviel blocking the point where his sonic wave would usually disseminate from. The experiment puffed his cheeks, struggling to let loose the blast of sound by building up more and more pressure. After letting out a tired breath from pushing so hard, he took in as much air as he could by inhaling one deep breath, before letting out a grunt as he puffed his cheeks and pushed even harder until the obstruction finally gave way.

HHHHOOOONNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

The end result was like opening a can of soda that had been shaken. With a miniature explosion, Yaarp let loose a mega-sneeze, resulting in the tied-up Hamsterviel being launched out from his megahorn like a rocket due to the built up pressure of Yaarp's sonic wave being released in one singular, deafening blast. "JUUUUMMBBBAAAA!" Hamsterviel screamed as he soared out of sight with a massive sonic boom trailing him. "I will have my revenge! I'll make sure that you pay for this someddaaayyyy!" the flying hamster howled until he was but a mere speck in the sky.

"There he goes." Pleakley used his arm to shield his eye from the sun as he looked at the flying hamster go higher and higher.

"Hmph! With any luck, pressure from released sonic boom will be enough to be sending annoying gerbil into space, where he rightfully belongs! Hahahaha!" Jumba said with a mocking jeer, his eyes focused on his former colleague until Hamsterviel was so tiny that he practically vanished into the horizon, disappearing from the sight of the trio of aliens.

As Hamsterviel ended up out of sight and thus out of mind, Jumba let out an exuberant laugh as he slowly removed his hands from his ears. He wasn't going to worry about Hamsterviel right now. Today was a new day, and to a scientist like him, every new day meant new possibilities and opportunities. There was no point in crying over spilt milk when he could be making plans of recovery. As Pleakley waved towards him, he gave a good-natured chuckle, a devious smirk hidden beneath his lips.

Now with his old double-crossing colleague Hamsterviel out of the picture once more, it was time to get back to business. With him managing to secure the assistance of his Experiment 613 as long as the unsuspecting space-faring tourist Pleakley remained by his side, Dr. Jumba Jookiba was certainly going to seize the moment alright.

Honnnnkkkkkkkkkkkk…

Experiment 626 groggily opened his eyes from the loud noise. He blinked blurry tears away, cursing the sunlight that was shining brightly into the window for disorientating him. "Grrrrrrrr!" he hissed venomously, spitting out mucus onto the wooden floor. Not this nonsense again! He was starting to get really fed up by the repeated high-amplitude noise that kept piercing his eardrums. As a matter of fact, his sensitive hearing led to him being affected by this more than even the native humans. He really wanted to personally take care of and put a rather gruesome end to whichever crazy punk was causing a racket yet again. As a matter of fact, at two in the morning a series of those honks had ruined his sleep, waking him up and hence ruining his sleep.

But truth be told, 626 had other more pressing concerns on his mind.

Up till now, his creator Jumba still hadn't shown his face. This cat-and-mouse chess game between them was beginning to urk 626 greatly. He had patiently waited for Jumba to show all day, all day! But after all that, the scientist had the nerve to not fall into his reverse psychology trap! This meant that he would have to continue playing the role of doting pet towards his "new owner". It would have certainly helped if the little girl wasn't so optimistic a good 90 percent of the time.

To an anarchist made to cause misery like him, being forced to act nice was physically painful to him. He had shrugged off all her attempts to get him to play nice, but she was relentlessly stubborn, which led to him having a miserable time throughout the entire day. She had treated him like he was a literal dog, which to be fair, was kind of the point. But that didn't stop 626 from wanting to drop the façade and scream in agony at times.

But nooooooo. He couldn't blow his cover as long as Jumba was still prowling for him.

…kkkkkkkkkkkkkk…

626's large floppy ears visibly twitched as the elongated honk continued on. His face contorted with anger as he sneered in irritation. "Naga bootifa!" he yelled out of the open window in Tantalog with a vicious glare, trying to keep his boiling anger in check. Would whoever is honking bloomin' shut up, his mind mentally yelled.

…kkkkkkkkkkk.

To his surprise, right after he had shouted out loud, whoever had been making the obnoxious noise did indeed stop. The sudden peace was so abrupt that it was synonymous to a continuous signal suddenly being cut off. Ha! 626 really hoped that was what happened. Maybe the inconsiderate brat had gotten himself clocked over the head, or at the very least some equally gruesome fate had befallen the annoyance. As Experiment 626 continued to grumble, he remained blissfully unaware of a yellow-furred experiment around his stature who was eyeing his current state of residence.

It was however, not even close to who he had been anticipating.

Making sure to maintain a safe distance away because of 626's super-hearing sense, Experiment 625 folded his arms as he shot a glare at the Pelekai residence. "This time you'll be mine. I'll make sure that I won't make the same mistake twice in a row. Heheheh!"

"Meega don't have good feeling about this."

625 gently shook his head, trying to reassure the nervous circus clown. "Oh hush now, three-four-five—"

"Elastico!" The green experiment hissed, extending up his left hand to wag a disapproving finger directly in front of 625's eyes. "Call meega Elastico!"

"Yeah, yeah. Not to worry, Elastico." He made sure to emphasize the name so as to keep 345 quiet. "I might have been hasty last time…"

"Meega don't even know what yuuga did last time! Meega got dragged into this by yuuga!"

625 held up a paw to cut in. "But rest assured, this time everything will go according to plan. This I solemnly pledge!"

He might have to wait until nightfall, but when the moon rose high, it would be time for him and Elastico to rectify the erroneous mistake from yesterday when he'd activated the wrong pod by accident. Sure, having Experiment 613 somehow manage to befriend Agent Pleakley under the moniker Yaarp was an unexpected bonus, a truly unexpected turnaround from the accidental activation.

But in the end, 625 would have very much preferred if he'd managed to get ahold of the correct experiment that he'd wanted as an asset by his side from the very start. "Experiment three-one-six, the shapeshifting experiment…" he mumbled under his breath. "No mistakes this time! I can't afford another fallback! This time I will acquire three-one-six's experiment pod… no matter what!"

Author's Note:

Here's a celebratory chapter release for 6/26! Happy Stitch Day!

After recent events, things are slowly but surely hitting their tipping point. Will Experiment 316 be the game changer?

In case it's not clear, Yaarp is pretty much stuck with Jumba and Pleakley for now. Think of him as a persistent pet following them around. After all, his relationship with Pleakley is rather close in the show.

As you can see, Stitch is also finally back after a bit of an absence. Very soon the story will swing back to the experiment hunting prowess and local Hawaiian interactions that you all love the show and movie for respectively. I hope you look forward to what's to come!