Chapter 3: Aloha, Stitch! -or- The Hunt Begins
KAUAI, HAWAII
Nani knocked gently on Lilo's bedroom door. It had been a few hours since their fight and the silence was eating away at Nani's heart. So she wanted to make it up to Lilo by getting her favorite food, pizza. Nani walked into Lilo's room cautiously, not wanting to upset her anymore for the night. Nani set the pizza down on Lilo's dresser, not really expecting Lilo to eat. Lilo surprised her by taking the slice without looking and biting into it before placing it back. Nani smiled and loosened up as Lilo was okay with her enough to eat.
"Are you ready for my bedtime story?" Lilo spoke softly.
Nani nodded, sitting on the bed and brushing Lilo's hair in between her fingers. Lilo thought for a moment on what she should make the story about, so she used how she felt as her base. The story was going to be strange but sweet, something only Lilo could really do. It was also her way of an appology for being such trouble to Nani. Lilo wanted to tell her sister how she felt in the best way she knew how. So Nani stroked Lilo's hair while she waited for Lilo to come up with the details.
"Once upon a time there was a bear," Lilo brushed the hair Scrump had. "And his name was…Toaster."
"Toaster," Nani mouthed in question before deciding to shrug it off as Lilo being Lilo.
"He was friendly, but he smelled bad," Lilo continued. "Not even skunks would let him visit, because they couldn't stand his bad smell. Toaster cried, because his only friends were rocks and fish. One day a princess heard him crying, and decided to bring him special soap so he could have friends again. But, she lived far away now and Toaster didn't have his soap yet. He still smells bad." Lilo started to cry. "He's so sorry he smells bad. Did you call the rabbit store yet?"
"Yeah," Nani tried to cheer her up. "They said I could get twenty rabbits if I traded you."
"I'm worth twenty rabbits?" Lilo stared at her sister wide eyed.
"But I told them you're worth a lot more than that," Nani hugged her little sister.
"You didn't call the rabbit store," Lilo laughed. "I hit Mertle Edmonds today." Lilo admitted with a sigh.
"You hit her?" Nani's happy tone changed to confused one.
"Before I bit her," Lilo finished her confession.
"You bit her," now Nani's tone was parental. "Lilo, you shouldn't..."
"People treat me different," the sad but true thought was spoken.
"They just don't know what to say," Nani thought of solutions to that problem. "I'll tell you what. If you promise not to fight anymore I promise not to yell at you, except on special occasions."
"Tuesdays and bank holidays would be good," Lilo joked.
"Yeah?" Nani ticked her. "Would that be good?"
"Mhm," Lilo let out through the laughter. "Oh! My camera's full again. Aren't they beautiful?"
Lilo and Nani looked over to Lilo's portfolio, which for her was the wall next to her bed. Her wall was filled with pictures of tourists, all of whom weren't ready for their pictures. Lilo had taken them all fast -on a count of having hula practice to run off to-, but the pictures came out uniquely beautiful in their own way. The lights flickering off made it hard to see her work, but made it easy to see light coming from outside. The power-outage allowed them to go see it clearly without any troubles from lighting.
"A falling star!" Lilo noticed a green ball fall out of the sky.
That's litterally what the "falling star" did, it fell out of the sky. Closer to Earth it got, lighting the trees, mountians and ground green as it was landing. It landed away from the house but Lilo took it as a chance to make a change.
"I call it!" Lilo raised her hand. "Get out! Get out! I have to make a wish! Can't you go any faster?"
"Oh no!" Nani faked as Lilo pushed her out her door. "Gravity is increasing on me."
"No it's not!" Lilo tried to keep her up.
"It is too, Lilo. The same thing happened yesterday," Nani collapsed on top of her little sister.
Nani was joking with Lilo, who thought she was trying to keep her from something important. Lilo was really mad when Nani fell on her, anger giving her enough strength to get out from underneath her.
"You rotten sister!" Lilo pushed Nani up so she could climb out. "Your butt is crushing me! Why do you act so weird?!"
Lilo slammed the door very close to Nani's head, making Nani rub her skull to make sure there wasn't a bump. When she was sure there wasn't, she opened the door a little and peered in. Lilo was sitting at the window, ready to wish for her heart's desire.
"It's me again," Lilo said to the sky -or rather someone in the sky that was important to her. "I need someone to be my friend, someone who won't run away. Maybe send me an angel. The nicest angel you have."
Nani heard the wish and decided it was time Lilo get a pet, perferably something that lives long and is hard to kill. A pet would not only be an excellant friend for Lilo, but it would also teach her a little responsability. Nani got up to leave but Lilo wasn't done yet.
"Also," Lilo continued. "This ones' for Madame Pele. Could you cover my friends in lava for me?"
SPACE -PLANET TURO-
"Explain yourself!" a Cyclops-resembling alien demanded.
"It was a calculated measure to protect Ee-arth from the irreversible effects of aggressive, military force!" the Grand Councilwomen told them all.
"So you send little criminals to do the job?" a Snail-like alien asked sarcastically.
"Jumba Jookiba is the only one who possesses the necessary incite to track Experiment 626!" the Grand Councilwomen defended her case. "As for their michivous gang members, they have the skills needed to perform the actual capture!"
"Jumba and his gang can't be trusted!" a mole-akin alien said in an Arnold Schwartzenegger voice. "Jumba will never even reveal what 626 is!"
The crowd erupted in agreement from his words. 624 could hear all of the meeting as she clung on to the ceiling, hidden in the darkness by the aid of her suit. 624 was on Turo to get a manual the human had requested, again confused as to how much the human knew. What 624 didn't prepare for was the Grand Council holding a meeting to discuss the Councilwomen's unauthorized bounty on 626 with criminals. 624 took amuzement in seeing her in trouble, a little fight breaking out would've really put a smile on her face.
"He is a weapon!" Gantu walked in behind the Councilwomen. "Experiment 626 was an attempt to create a perfect fighting machine! These documents contain proof!" he slammed the papers on the Councilwomen's desk. "Give me authorization and I will capture 626!"
"Capture him?" the Councilwomen was shocked. " You couldn't even transport him! Experiment 626 is more than you can handle Captain Gantu. Leave these chambers at once."
Gantu left the room and slammed his fists on the door. 624 waited for a while to move, hearing the sounds of the arguement was just too inticing. As the meeting came to a close, the main officials started to pack up. 624 took it as her chance to climb down from the roof, so she scaled the wall and hid under the Council's desk. Making sure none of the officials could see her, she swiped the papers Captain Gantu brought in. She folded the paper up and placed it in a pocket her spacesuit had.
When the door the enraged Captain left through opened, 624 crawled inside to scaled along the wall and get back to the shadows. The Galactic Conduct Manual was sitting on a stand, closed and held inside a containment pod. 624 waited for everyone in the room to leave before she dropped onto the glass. She used her claws to open the glass like a spy, then her antenna to pull out the book and to carry it. Sneaking her way to her ship, she hid behind Captain Gantu's as he packed for his trip. A gopher-like alien walked up to him, curious to what he was doing.
"Hold on big fella, where are you off to in sssuch a hurry?" he whistled.
"I'm...going hunting," Gantu lied. "Wanted to get an early start, beat the traffic."
"Of courssse," the alien pulled out a clipboard and pen. "Jussst sssign thisss and I'll be out of your hair. Ha! You don't have any! Haha!"
Gantu took the paper and pen to sign the forms. 624 made a mental note to stay away from the alien, if he caught sight of her the whole UGF would be on her tail. Captain Gantu handed the forms back to the Gopher-like alien but stopped him before he left.
"I'd like to keep this trip classified," Gantu told him.
"Don't want the old lady finding out, huh?" the Gopher-reminiscent joked.
"You could say that," Gantu didn't want to tell him he was banned from going 'hunting'. "Oops, almost forgot my egg salad."
Gantu left the room, allowing 624 to retreat from her spot. She knew Gantu was up to more than "hunting". So 624 opened up the hood of the ship and ripped out the wires, throwing them to the side in case he went to check on it. She then closed the hood and stepped inside his ship. 624 opened a hatch and carefully removed the hyperdrive knob, making his trip -if any at all- longer. Satisfied with her sabotage, 624 left Turo inside her battle cruiser. Destination, Ee-arth -but first she had to make a call, this one audio.
"Hello?" the human she talked to earlier answered. "Oh, it's you! Did you get the book?"
"Ih," 624 smiled triumphantly. "Meega smish."
"Nice job cousin," the human smiled widely.
"Matyr?" 624 tilted her head. "Meega?"
"If you lived here you'd know," the human shook her head. "Gotta go cousin." She started to whisper. "There's something here I need to take care of."
The transmision was cut, once again leaving 624 confused over her new allie's intentions. Whatever the human had in store, 624 enganged the hyperdrive to get it over with. While she made the journey to Ee-arth, she had a suspician that something would be waiting for her. Not so much as a trap, more like a pleasent surprise. Getting there wouldn't be much longer, she'd beat the SBS there by days -Captain Gantu especially with the way she left his ship. Not much longer now, so she took a nap while auto-pilot guided her journey.
KAUAI, HAWAII
The girl was sitting in a chair at the pet shop, tapping her fingers on the desk while the rain poured down. Any second and the phone would ring, she knew that much. Finally the phone started to make noise and she answered it gleefully.
"Animal Shelter," she spoke. "How may I help you?"
"W-We think we ran over a dog or something!" the person on the phone was freaking out.
"Wait, what?!" this time she sounded serious. "I know the rain is pretty bad but come on. Were you even watching the road?"
"We were!" he breathed heavily into the phone. "But it came out of nowhere! What should we do?"
"Is it alive?" the girl already knew the answer.
"Just barely," he started to calm down. "We're gonna bring it in."
"You do that," the girl told him. "We'll be ready to bring him back to health."
"Which shouldn't be that hard since he's indestructable," she thought.
The girl hung up the phone and told Malama Hanai that someone was bringing in a dog, leaving out the part that it wasn't really a dog -which became evident when he was brought in the shop. There wasn't much that needed to be done, except for the girl telling them to give her the "dog's" clothes and blasters and for them to forget what they saw. They were more than happy to comply to put the whole ordeal behind them. Now all that was left to do was find him a home, and opportunity came in the form of Lilo Pelekai.
While Nani and Ms. Hanai sorted through a few things and Lilo went to the kennel, the girl was making a collar. She was just starting when she noticed a light shine in her eyes. She looked out the window and saw a blaster held by a large alien. The girl once again smirked and made her way back out into the front room. Lilo had picked out the newest addition and earned panicking screams from Ms. Hanai and Nani. Nani pulled Lilo away, leaving the "dog" to look confused when he was grabbed.
"What is that thing?!" Nani moved to the window.
"A dog, I think," Ms. Hanai held him back. "But it was dead this morning."
"It was dead this morning?!" Nani asked with concern for Lilo.
"We thought it was dead, it was hit by a truck!" Ms. Hanai told them.
"Funny thing too," the girl spoke up. "He defended itself before it was hit, and even when we gave him his shots. Something about him just won't die, almost like he's insanely sturdy on the outside and inside. Hey, isn't that what you were looking for?"
"Yes," Nani admitted. "But this thing?"
"I like him!" Lilo stated her opinon. "Come here, boy."
The "dog" started crawling his way over to her, even through Ms. Hanai trying to pull him back. Nani tried to squirm away with Lilo, so Ms. Hanai had to hold him in the air -and even then he was still hard to handle.
"Wouldn't you like a different dog?" Ms. Hanai tried to reason with Lilo. "We have better dogs, dear."
"Not better than him," Lilo stayed persistant. "He can talk! Say hello."
"Dogs can't talk, dear," Ms. Hanai cut the 'dog' off before he could prove it.
"He did," Lilo pointed to him.
"And if you take care of him well enough, he'll one day say 'I love you' like those dogs you see on the computers," the girl checked on the collar.
"Does it have to be this dog?" Nani still wasn't sure -not that licking his nose was reassuring.
"Yes, he's good," Lilo nodded. "I can tell."
"There's a light inside everyone," the girl tried to reassure Nani more. "It just takes some special eyes to see it. And Lilo -needless to say- has the sight."
"You'll have to think of a name for him," Ms. Hanai got the paperwork ready.
"His name is...Stitch," Lilo sounded certain.
"626," the girl whispered to get the experiemnt's attention. "Window."
The "dog" walked out the door to a red dot aimed on him, but he didn't run. He sat on the floor and barked for Lilo, who came out running in front of the red dot to hug him. The shot went into the air and didn't hit the experiment's now-human-shield. He went on his head and taunted Jumba into charging at him, a smaller alien pulled Jumba into the bushes to make the threat go away for now. The girl got the now-ready blue collar, but 626 took it and threw it in the bushes -earning him a spray bottle hit from Ms. Hanai.
A/N: The Animal Shelter Lady didn't have a name so I looked up words for "taking care of" -Malama- and "adopting" -Hanai- in Hawaiian. So I hope that bit of non-cannon is welcome. And because of the extra vacation we got because of the blizzard, I have another chapter this week. This is the start of my new updating schedule that I'm testing out, holiday/vacation weeks will get an added chapter. And this should make my stories go smoother timewise if this works.
Disclaimer: Right now I own my unnamed-until-next-chapter human OC, the yet-to-be-revealed 628 inside the pod, the name for the Animal Shelter Lady and the Galactic Conduct Manual. Disney and Chris Sanders own the rest of this world.
Next Time: 628 is activated, but how will she fair with the team? Meanwhile, 626 gets acquainted with Lilo and Nani's dynamics.