Chapter 10: Give Me A Break -or- Intermission
The crowd of cannon viewers erupted in angry calls, demanding an answer for why the screen went blank. The girl who introduced this gathering -identified as Lani- got out of her seat and walked up to the stage.
"I'm sorry everyone," Lani announced. "I don't know what's going on actually. I guess we're going to take a short break while we check things out. So everyone go into the lobby, get some snacks, talk. Just don't blow anything up. 628, I need you to go up to the projector and see if you can fix it. Nicholas, you help me pass out snacks."
Where arguments would usually start from being ordered around, no one wanted to challenge her -out of fear of what she might be capable of. They rushed out of the room faster than 628 could get up to the projector, Lani following the crowd after she did a head count. With the screening room unoccupied, the lobby busted with life. Lani made sure to pay attention to what they were saying than getting them snacks, which wasn't much of a problem with Nicholas and Kernel helping. The first voices she heard were Lilo's classmates.
"I guess Lilo was right about all the alien stuff," Yuki looked around.
"It kinda makes sense now," Teresa thought back to everything that happened. "They don't really look like regular animals."
"Most of them do," Elena ducked when Hunkahunka flew overhead. "And it's kinda creepy."
"Yeah, creepy," Mertle looked to Gigi fast before they could notice her "pet" was one of them.
Lani shook her head as she walked past them, eventually they had to find out. Looking to Nicholas, he was already passing out food. What he didn't know was that Frenchfry made them, though it was okay since it was healthier food. Lani was happy to know that everything was going well for once, it seemed like trouble seemed to follow her everywhere. As quickly as things were nice and calm, chaos and disorder reared its head -with the battle cry of two people arguing. Lani looked over her shoulder and saw the voices belonged to Nani and David, courtesy of Spats.
The argument went unnoticed by most, the ones who saw moved away before they were caught in the crossfire. Speaking of, Keoni got the bright idea to play ball with Splodyhead and Slugger. In another corner of the lobby, Kixx and Deforester were arm wrestling. All while Spike was running through the room with a hole in his safety suit. Things were beginning to unravel fast, and it seemed like Hamsterveil was enjoying every second of it. Lani looked around for some help, seeing as Lilo and Stitch were already doing what they could. A splat gave her an idea for a recruit.
"No!" Reuben shouted to the sky. "Not my sandwich!"
"What happened?" Lani walked over to him.
"They...They just...This is chaos!" Reuben panicked.
"I know, I know," Lani dropped her head. "But I can fix it. I just need your help. Can you get me a case silver behind the curtains? And a containment pod?"
"Is Grilled Cheese the best dairy sandwich of all time?" Reuben walked of muttering more about his loss of sandwich.
"Experiment 625 seems distressed," the Grand Councilwoman came in behind Lani. "Is there something wrong?"
"Just a little snacking problem," Lani told her the partial truth. "Nothing that we can't handle."
"If he spent half as much time eating as he did aiding me…"
"You would've still been under employment of Hamsterwheel," the Councilwoman finished Gantu's sentence in the opposite way he was about to phrase it.
"I'm sure he'll get over it," Lani at her comment. "What are your opinions on this? The movie, I mean."
"Well, I certainly was unaware of 626's change before I sent Captain Gantu in," the Councilwoman stated honestly. "Had I have known, I might not have acted so rashly. Although, I don't recall sending in the SBS members."
"You will," Lani whispered that part to herself. "Like I said, a few things were changed. But the initial feeling of it is the same. What are your thoughts captain?"
"I knew somebody messed with my ship!" Captain Gantu turned to Angel –who was walking to get a drink when Gantu spotted her. "You little trog! Do you know how long it took to rebuild?!"
The captain gave chase to the experiment in an attempt to get even, bringing a questioning gaze from Grand Councilwoman to the hostess. She didn't even remember this happening, so how would her captain know the non visualized information of his ship's repair? Lani knew full well what was going on, however she shrugged in response to the councilwoman's look. The alien adult didn't seem too convinced that Lani didn't know what got into the captain. Fortunately, Lani didn't have to answer as Reuben came with her case.
"Here you go, kid," Reuben started to list off what his four arms could carry. "One silver case, one containment pod, one net –just in case- and one BLT. But that's for me."
"I'm just happy we'll only need one pod," Lani observed the growing chaos. "I'm a little surprised the villains stayed so calm. But that's probably because I had Spike goof them up."
"Hold on, only one pod is needed?" the Grand Councilwoman replayed her words.
"I suggest you duck when I say one," Lani held up the containment pod. "You'll see why in three…Two…One!"
At the start of her countdown, Victoria ran past her to stand behind for cover. At "two", the Grand Councilwoman and Reuben caught sight of something flying towards them at high speed. So as they were told to do on their cue, the aliens ducked down to stay out of harms way. Lani was quick to cover the lid of the containment pod, making it easier to see the creature inside by placing him on the floor. It was Snooty, uncharacteristically snarling at everyone around.
"What did you do to my cuz'?" Reuben was genuinely concerned for Snooty.
"I didn't do anything," Victory was just as –if not more so- worried for her best friend. "He was fine one minute, then the next…He just…"
"Glitched," Jumba walked up behind them. "It seems 277 is acting out, but is not his fault. I am not being sure how he is, I charged up his molecules."
He may not have been sure but Lani was, she knew exactly why he was acting out. It was her, she was why he was glitching. She didn't do anything on purpose, her presence just seemed to have an effect on everyone around her in one way or another. So that's why she and she alone -for now- could fix the changes she caused. She opened the silver case she had Reuben get her, revealing a syringe of pink liquid. All attention turned to her, of fear and confusion. Lani seemed to make more questions than she could answer, only she never had time to give a satisfying answer.
Now was no different.
Lani's hands started to glow, blue like 628's but in a clean circle on her palms. Lani pushed everyone back with an invisible force no one saw coming. No matter how much they all tried, Lani didn't let them move. What surprised them was that Lani could hold them all back with one hand, also that the invisible force released Snooty. Having him fly around, Lani needed to up the ante on everyone's protection. She let go of her force that held them all back, pressing her belt buckle quick to trap herself and Snooty inside of a blue force field.
No one could break into it, only stand outside of it and wait for the outcome. Victoria watched Lani use the invisible force to hold Snooty down, hoping that he would be fine. Lani walked up to him and stuck him with the syringe, emptying it's contents into the bat-like experiment. Snooty wiggled around for ten seconds before he calmed down, letting his eerie eyes flutter close. Victoria screamed in protest as she banged on the force field, tears beginning to run down her face. Lani pressed her belt buckle to drop the shield, allowing Victoria to to rush in and take Snooty into her arms.
"How could you?" Victoria glared at Lani then sobbed into Snooty's fur.
Lani knew what she was doing, contrary to the speculation everyone had on her for her action. A passage was made for her as she left to the snack station, no one wanted to even get close to her. Lani looked around, finally finding what she was looking for. She walked back over to Victoria, sad to see her still crying into Snooty's chest. The experiment was her best friend -like Stitch to Lilo or Jam to Keoni-, so it was actually nice to know she cared so much about him. Lani pulled out the pepper shaker she retrived and shook it over Victoria's head when she looked up.
"What...What are you...ACHOO!" Victoria sneezed.
Snooty sat up instantly, shocking everyone but Lani that he was okay. He cleaned up Victoria's sinuses, bringing her tears of joy this time. Lani stepped back as Victoria stood up, spinning Snooty around in a hug.
"There, 277 is no longer an Unstable," Lani smiled. "No need to thank me."
"How is it possible?" Jumba wondered.
"Oh, this?" Lani showed them the syringe. "It's a chemical I whipped up in my lab, it stabilizes experiments when...Well, that happens."
"How would you know that would happen?" Victoria asked her.
"I didn't think it'd happen so soon," Lani thought that part. "It's always good to be prepared. So, any other questions you wanna ask me? Other than what else I know."
"To start, how did you get us all in here?" Lilo asked her.
"Oh, you don't need to ask those kinds of questions," Lani laughed nervously.
"I think we do," Mertle -for once- agreed with Lilo.
"Yeah," Yuki, Teressa and Elena backed their leader up.
"Um..." Lani looked around for an excuse. "I think I hear 628 calling. I should help her."
Lani gave the girls a tray of snacks before she scurried back into the screening room. She tried to calm her nerves while she walked up the stairs to the projector, finding it harder to do the more she thought about how she got them all there. It wasn't an easy task -except for most of the more gullible ones there-, though it didn't make it any easier to knock them all out, bring them to the undisclosed theater, change their history and lie about it. The only thing that took her mind off her situation was hearing 628 ripping panels out of the projector room.
"628, what are you doing?" Lani pulled her away from the machine.
"I sense someone else in here," 628 explained. "Most likely it might be someone who knows how to rewire complex systems like this device."
"I think I can figure out who did this," Lani smiled. "J.A.V.A., activate."
"YES MADAME?" the computer system responded -to the surprise of 628.
"J.A.V.A.?" the gravity experiment asked.
"Oh, that's short for Juncture Altering Virtual Assistant," Lani explained. "I created her to help me out with this."
"Juncture?" 628 repeated. "As in time stream? Why would you need..."
"J.A.V.A., who was the last person in the room besides me and 628?" Lani interrupted another hard to answer question.
"MY READINGS ARE PICKING UP EXPERIMENT 621 OR CHOPSUEY IS STILL PRESENT," J.A.V.A. scanned the room with a bright flash of blue.
628 ignored her previous question and started a new one, where was 621? 628 walked around the room, thinking of all the places the computer loving experiment could be hiding. It was Lani who found him, suger high and almost destroying the projector but missing. Lani stood out of the way and let 628 handle him, which was a fault in judgment to say the least. Using her power, 628 lifted the hyper 621 into the air and threw him out of the window. At his luck, he landed in an empty seat right side up -only to have 628 slam the seat on him from above.
"And stay out you Gremlin reject!" 628 yelled down to him.
"You didn't have to be so mean about it," Lani told her. "Good news though, he didn't break the projector. Mom would've killed me if he did. It looks like it should be working alright now. So we can get this show back on track."
"You realize you have presented questions -to not only myself but others- of what your intentions are?" 628 crossed her arms to the mysterious girl.
"You'll know in due time," Lani laughed to herself. "J.A.V.A, open up the doors if you please."
"YES MADAME," J.A.V.A. proceeded to let everyone back into the room. "ANYTHING ELSE?"
"Just lock up when we leave and we're good," Lani ushered 628 out of the room. "Thank you J.A.V.A., you can take a breather."
628 wasn't sure what to make out of it, it didn't seem like Lani was going to explain anything. More murmurs about the hostess filling the gathering, making the girl in question feel smaller than Poxy. She pushed past her unease and got on the stage, everyone was occupying some seat or another. The chatter continued, even when Lani called for their attention. So if they weren't going to cooperate this time, she'd have to take matters into her own hands again. They really should have got quiet.
Lani pressed her wrist which released a dog whistle-akin sound, the first thing she'd use to get someone's ears to listen to her. The extremely high pitched whistle caused any dog-similar creature in the room to hit the floor and covered their ears. She pressed her wrist and the whistle died down. The dog-like experiments sat in their seats and stayed quiet, afraid of what else the hostess was capable of doing to them. Lani, stood on the stage smiling, finally gaining everyone's attention.
"Sorry for that," Lani told mostly the dog-like animals in the room. "Everything will proceed as it was, so I hope you enjoy the ending."
Lani went to the back of the curtain just as they opened back up. Lani pressed her ear like a Bluetooth, changing her clothes instantly to the white floral muumuu she wore from the warped movie. She cast the viewers one more look before she sighed, ready to get back to work.
"Show time," Lani flashed into the screen.
A/N: So many things to say, so let's start with my apology. If the weather hadn't been so bad that our power when out again, I would've been on time with this. But the snow had to be a jerk about it so yeah, two days late with a completely original chapter that has nothing to do with the movie I'm morphing. So for the fact that things went haywire here, I'm going to give you another chapter -one I finished before my power was cut. Two chapters for this week, one on time for next if the snow stops taunting me.
Now about my break chapter, I skipped it at first and finished the rest of the next three chapters while I waited for inspiration to start this off. This one seemed a bit harder to do compared to what I've done for the rest of my stuff, reactions were never my strong suit -that's my older brother's department really. But I feel good about where this chapter went, especially with the foreshadowing I put everywhere. I'm if-y about the Snooty part, I didn't want a Disney death like from Stitch Has A Glitch.
Death in general, that's just not my style.
And let me be clear about one thing, Lani didn't harm anyone to get them to watch this. She simply laced their meals and beverages with an undetectable narcotic, tied them up so they wouldn't cause any harm to themselves or others, bring them to the theater one by one -knocking out any of them who woke up too soon-, wait for them all to be in the theater and wake up together, then slip into what she's showing them by means no one needs to know about yet. See? Simple and harmless, like I said.
Disclaimer: As shown by this break, Lani, 628 and Nicholas are the three that don't belong. And J.A.V.A., I own this J.A.R.V.I.S.-like A.I. too.
Next Time: Before things head south for 626, a check in with his enemies and allies are filling up this chapter.