The Tejina Chronicles: Final Days
By: Kioko the pirate
Chapter 2: Call to Battle
It was the start of another perfect Hawaiian day as the sun shined into the silent bedroom of Lilo and Stitch. Both of the friends were sound asleep, enjoying the comfort of their respective beds as golden rays peeked in from around the blinds. A feeling of tranquility filled the air and seemed to hold the promise of a relaxing day ahead. However, Stitch was completely oblivious to the waking day as his mind remained in a far off place. Stitch laughed and shouted for joy as he bounded through an endless field of Reese's peanut buttercup flowers chasing after a marshmallow as big as himself. The sweet smell of coconut milk filled his nostrils as the feeling of the coconut cake soil beneath his feet and between his toes, soothed his entire body.
"You can't run for ever, my tasty treat!" laughed Stitch happily as he leapt forward and tackled the puffy white snack. "You're so soft, I could just eat you up! As a matter of fact, I think I will!"
With that Stitch sunk his teeth into the giant marshmallow, unaware that back in the real world he was chewing on his pillow. It was the most pleasant dream Stitch had had in a long while. But unfortunately, his joy was short lived, for as he chewed away happily on his sugary prey a sudden weight slammed down onto his body. The air itself seemed to become lead, tearing Stitch away from his field of dreams and back to his small bed. Stitch's eyes snapped open as he quickly sat up in bed and began looking around. It took him only a second to realize what was happening. An experiment was nearby and it was strong, really strong.
The blue experiment quickly looked over towards Lilo who was still fast asleep in bed, unable to feel the weight that continued to bear down on her partner. But before Stitch could say a word to try and wake her a sudden, loud bang followed by a scream from downstairs yanked the young girl away from her own dream world and into reality.
"What the hell was that?" blurted Lilo only half awake as she sat up and looked toward her bedroom door. Without a word Stitch leapt from his bed and bolted out the door. "Stitch, wait up!" shouted Lilo as she threw off her covers, grabbed the spell book, and rushed off after her partner.
A second later Stitch reached the downstairs hallway, where he found a panting Nani sitting on the floor, with her back against the wall, facing the front door. The blue experiment stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the reason for the older girls scream. Just a few feet above Nani's head was a large, jagged spear of ice, buried deep in the wall.
"Nani, my god, are you alright?" shouted Lilo as she rushed over to her sister's side.
The older girl was silent for a moment as she caught her breathe. "I'm… fine. That thing just came out of… nowhere. I was just walking down the hall and it slammed into the wall right in front of me." explained Nani, her eyes still wide from shock.
"That was a real close call," said Lilo as she looked toward the front door. A basketball-sized hole sat in the middle of the door, with shards of wood lying all around, "Stitch, do you sense an experiment nearby?" asked Lilo as she looked toward her partner.
Stitch walked slowly into the living room and stared at the front door. "I sense an experiment but they're not nearby. The fact that the spell stuck horizontally in the wall means that it was launched from a place that was parallel to the front door. There are no trees that provide such a position; the damage is too minimal for it to have been launched from close range, and it's too straight a shot for the experiment to have jumped." said Stitch as he looked over his shoulder at the girls.
"But, the only spot that is parallel with the house is…" started Lilo, her eyes growing wide, "all the way on the other side of Kakaua town."
"Experiment's can attack from that far away? That's got to be close to ten miles!" exclaimed Nani in disbelief.
"A lot of experiments have spells that can reach great distances, but for an experiment to have such accuracy from so far away… they have to be powerful. And the experiment I sense… is very powerful."
"How powerful is it?" asked Lilo as she helped Nani to her feet.
Stitch closed his eyes as he tried to gauge their attackers strength. A moment later he winced and the slowly opened his eyes. "Well, what's the word?" blurted Lilo in an uneasy tone.
"Whoever it is… they're power dwarfs 6-2-7's." said Stitch with a solemn expression.
Lilo's jaw practically dropped to the floor. Even though they had faced many powerful opponents since returning, no one had ever come close to matching 6-2-7. But one question suddenly popped into the young girls mind. "If they are that powerful why would they attack from so far away and why did they fire just a single shot so indiscriminately?"
"I have no idea." said stitch as he walked back toward Lilo, shaking his head as he went.
Suddenly, a cracking sound reached everyone's ears, causing them all to look toward the ice spear. Long, jagged cracks began to cross its surface, until finally it fell to the floor in hundreds of pieces. But as Lilo looked over the pile of ice shards something caught her eye. She walked over and knelt down beside the ice and began digging around in the shards.
"What are you doing?" asked Stitch as he cocked his head to the side curiously.
Lilo did not answer; instead she pushed aside a large chunk of ice and produced a piece of paper that was bound tightly with string. "It's a note." said Lilo as she began untying the string.
"Obviously this experiment doesn't know how to use the mail." scoffed Nani as she folded her arms over her chest.
"So what does the note say?" asked Stitch.
Lilo cleared her throat of morning phlegm and began reading. "It says: This day has been along time coming and I can hardly contain my excitement. I can feel your incredible power in the air and it only makes me yearn for battle even more. You and I are the last two remaining experiments in this tournament; my partner and I have confirmed this by traveling around this planet and trying to sense fellow experiments. The only experiment I could sense was you! Finally, the battle to decide champion is upon us and I couldn't have wished for a better opponent. At noon today we will be waiting on Pa'Lua Street for you. If you do not show today, we will wait there for you each day until you do. Don't make me wait forever, Blue Butt."
"It says 'Blue Butt'?" asked Stitch with a raised brow.
"Yeah." said Lilo as she held up the paper and pointed.
Stitch's expression instantly seemed to lighten, sending a wave of confusion over the two sisters. "Well I guess that explains everything," blurted Stitch with a small laugh, "at least we know it isn't a villain after us."
"What are you talking about, Stitch?" asked Lilo.
"I know the guy that wrote that note," said Stitch after another small laugh, "His name is Slushy, he was a buddy of mine back at the lab. Blue Butt was his nickname for me after he froze my patookie with a spell once during training. There is only one thing in this universe that he truly loves, and that's fighting. Nothing else comes even close."
"Well maybe, since you know him, we could talk him and his partner into postponing the fight for awhile." suggested Lilo as the weight of the situation began to settle on her.
But to her dismay Stitch just shook his head. "Like I said, he loves to fight and the fact that me and him were buddies isn't going to be enough to change his mind. Especially when the outcome of this tournament is at stake."
"I see," said Lilo as she lowered her head, a heavy sadness settling upon her, "so then it's finally here… the end of the tournament."
"It looks like it." agreed Stitch with an equal sadness.
"Kinda ruins are day plans doesn't it?" asked Lilo with a forced smile, trying to lighten the moment.
Stitch just gave a short puff of a laugh. "Well they did say that we have a choice of waiting a day or two. We could hold off for a little while."
"Would you want to hold off?" said Lilo with a raised eyebrow.
Stitch's ears perked up in surprise. "Well I… um… since we have the option of waiting why not take advantage of it?"
For a moment Lilo just stare at the experiment as if expecting to hear more. But then, after a deep sigh, she said: "Then it's settled, we fight them today."
"What?" exclaimed Stitch with wide eyes.
Even Nani was taken off guard by her sister's decision. Certainly she would have wanted to spend as much time with Stitch as she could before their last battle. Neither her or Stitch could figure out the girls reasoning. But they didn't have to think too long for Lilo soon began explaining.
"I would love nothing more than to hold off on the fight as long as possible, but I know deep down that is not what you want, Stitch. When I asked you if you wanted to hold off on the fight you paused, which tells me that you had to decide between fighting and holding off. Your first thought was that you wanted to fight, wasn't it?"
At first it seemed impossible, but as Stitch thought about it he discovered that Lilo was right. He did want to fight but at the same time he wanted to be with Lilo. The blue experiment quickly found him self in a terrible contradiction. "Yes it was," blurted Stitch, hoping that talking may straighten his thoughts, "but that doesn't matter! Like I told Nani last night, when I first arrived all I could think about was the final battle. But not now, I still want to win but I want to stay here with you as well. So we don't need to fight right away."
"What's the point," shouted Lilo after a moment of silence, once again catching her sister and Stitch off guard, "all we'd be doing is prolonging the inevitable! I don't want this to be any harder than it already is! It's nine o' clock right now, which means we have three hours to warm up and get ready. So let's get a move on!"
With that the girl whipped around and ran back upstairs, leaving Stitch and Nani worried and confused. The young girl quickly reached her bedroom, threw the blue book against the wall and then tossed herself onto the bed. She buried her face deep into her pillow as a wave of tears escaped her, soon followed by heavy sobs.
'This can't be happening,' Lilo thought to herself as she continued to cry into her pillow, 'why did this day have to come so soon? With so few experiments left I thought for sure the time between battles would be much longer. Damn it, I don't want Stitch to leave! I don't, I don't, I don't!'
Lilo grabbed the sheets of her bed and squeezed them till her knuckles turned white. 'But I made him a promise, I promised him that I would help him become the champion. I can't let my personal feelings keep me from my promise. As much as I may not want to, I have to do everything I can! I will make him champion.'
After regaining control of her self, Lilo and Stitch got right into their preparations. The three hours that they had flew by as they went through their pre-fight routine. Now, with only a few minutes before noon, the two friends slowly made their way into town. However, Stitch was feeling far different from what he had imagined he would be come the final battle. Instead of feeling his heart pounding in his chest and having an excited grin stretched from ear to ear, his head hung low off his shoulders and it felt as though he had swallowed a boulder.
The battle itself was far from his mind. The only thing he could think about was Lilo and how she would handle herself once he was gone. It had never been something he thought much about, he had always assumed that she would be strong enough to get by. But after seeing how she reacted to Slushy's note, he wasn't so sure. It didn't help him feel any better that Lilo was now hiding her feelings behind a confident smirk. The young girl was carrying herself as if this was just another battle, and that nothing would be different afterward.
'God this is so frustrating,' thought Stitch as he grabbed hold of his ears and yanked on them while grinding his teeth, 'this is an impossible situation! There's nothing I can do to keep Lilo from being hurt. Damn you, Jumba! Damn you and this tournament, why did you have to go and require us to make an emotional bond to a being that we'd eventually have to leave behind? You may act nice and goofy… but you're a sick man.'
"You nervous or something?" asked Lilo after noticing her friend practically ripping his ears off.
The girls question snapped Stitch out of his thoughts, leaving him a little confused. "What? Oh… no, I'm not nervous. Why do you ask?"
"Well it's just that you're this far from tearing your ears off your head." said Lilo as she held her index finger and thumb only slightly apart.
"I'm just a little peeved is all," said Stitch as he released his ears, "Peeved that Jumba makes us leave once the tournament is over."
"Well maybe once you become champion you can convince Jumba to change that."
"Perhaps," responded Stitch with a solemn tone, "Lilo will you be completely honest with me about something?"
"Sure, what is it, Stitch?"
"Are you going to be alright when I leave?"
Lilo was silent at first as she looked down at her friend. Finally, she looked up ahead of her and let out a sigh. "Well I'm not going to lie, I won't be happy when you leave that's for sure. I'll definitely miss you a lot, but you don't need to worry about me," Lilo looked down at Stitch with a light hearted smile, "I'll be alright. I didn't think I would be at first, but after talking with Victoria last night, and seeing how well off she was without Snooty, I think I'll be fine."
Even as the girl smiled down on him Stitch felt as though he could believe very little of what she said. It was still very obvious to him that she was suppressing her real feelings, but he couldn't figure out why. Was she trying to spare his feelings? Unfortunately, Stitch had very little time to think her motives over as the two stepped onto Pa'Lua Street. The street was far from the main road and so there were no people to get in the way. But as the two friends looked around they noticed that absolutely no one was around.
"Where are they," asked Lilo as she looked at her watch, "it's noon. I thought the note said they'd be waiting here?"
"It did," said Stitch as he looked around, "they're nearby though, I still feel his power."
Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched laugh echoed down the street, sending a shiver down Lilo's spine. The two friends quickly turned around and looked to the top of a lamp post only a few yards away. There, standing on top of the light, was a crystal blue, semi transparent experiment, with beady blue eyes, a large blue nose like Stitch's, pointed arms and legs, and spikes sticking out from the back of his head.
"I'm so glad that you two could make it," grinned the experiment, "to be honest I would have bet money that you would have taken advantage of my offer to wait a little while. But it would appear that you haven't lost any of your eagerness to fight me eh, Blue Butt?"
"Why would you have bet that we'd wait?" asked Stitch, sounding somewhat irritated.
Slushy shrugged. "Oh I don't know, perhaps it was that fact that you were always a little clingy and I doubted that you'd be able to let go of your first partner so easily. But that doesn't matter, you are here and so we can finally bring this tournament to a conclusion!"
"Are you really that excited to see if you can become champion?" said Stitch as he folded his arms over his chest.
Slushy stopped and stared at Stitch for a moment before bursting out in a fit of laughter. "Are you really that stupid," laughed Slushy as he held his gut, "you know me better than that! I couldn't care less about becoming champion! The only reason I'm excited about his final battle is that I get to fight you! You can have the title of champion if you wish, all I want is a satisfying fight and I couldn't have hoped for a better opponent."
Just than, Stitch saw a possible opening, if Slushy just wanted to fight and didn't care about becoming champion, maybe they could fight without trying to burn one another's books. That way he could spend more time with Lilo!
"If a good fight is all you want then how about we fight without trying to target each others books? That way this tournament doesn't have to end, you and me could fight for as long as we desired. And since we'd still be fighting Jumba would have no reason to withdraw us. If you don't care about becoming champion then there is no reason for you to try and become one. What do you say?"
Slushy straightened up and scratched his chin with his pointed arm. "You've got a good point there, Blue Butt."
Lilo was speechless as she looked down at Stitch. How could he even think of abandoning his dream, the dream that he had worked so hard and bleed so much for? The young girls mind was a flurry of thought even though the world around her seemed to stand still. Part of her would love to have Stitch stay; she had never had a friend quite like him. But the other part of her felt guilty for making him want to give up his dream. She didn't want him hanging around if every time she looked at him she'd think of what could have been.
"Stitch, are you crazy?" blurted Lilo, "Why would even think to ask such a thing? I thought you wanted to become champion?"
"I did, but not if it means having to leave you forever." said Stitch as he looked up at her with a small smirk.
"No," shouted Lilo, startling the blue experiment, "I won't have you giving up your dreams just because of me! I don't want that guilt on my conscience."
"But, Lilo I…" started Stitch.
"It's no use, Blue Butt," interrupted Slushy, "the girl's made up her mind. Besides, I decline your offer. As much fun as it would be to fight you to my hearts content, I'm afraid that I'd grow bored with you. Not to mention that there are a few experiments back at the lab who I owe a beating to for not believing that I could make it this far in the tournament. You understand that I don't want to keep them waiting."
"Yeah, I understand." said Stitch solemnly as he looked up at Lilo, who just looked away.
"Good, than let's get started!" cheered Slushy as he leapt high into the air. The icy experiment soared over Lilo and Stitch's head and landed several yards away on the street. "I'd like to introduce you to my partner, Jacob."
Slushy raised his arm to the side, pointing down an alleyway. A second later a well built, young man with spiked blue hair, a light blue shirt, and dark blue shorts stepped out onto the street. He walked over next to Slushy and pulled a white spell book out from behind his back.
"How cute, I've never seen partners try to look alike before." smiled Lilo as she looked between the two.
"Hey, this was completely unintentional," shouted Jacob defensively, "I wear all this blue because I'm a member of the Polar Bear Club, not because of him."
"You're a member of the Polar Bear Club…in Hawaii?" asked Lilo as she scratched her head.
"You know I don't think being a member requires you to wear all that blue." added Stitch, whose brow was furrowed in confusion.
"Shut up!" yelled Jacob angrily.
"Enough talking," Slushy suddenly yelled, "I'm going to burst if we don't start fighting. So, are you two ready?"
Stitch took a few steps toward Slushy as Lilo tightened her grip on the book. In that instant, Stitch decided that since Lilo wanted him to become champion he wasn't going to let her down. He was going to win.
"Ready." said Lilo and Stitch in unison.
The whole street went silent as the pairs stared one another down. A gentle breeze was all that seemed to move, but suddenly, Slushy grinned and leapt high into the air above Lilo and Stitch. Jacob quickly threw open the book and flipped a few pages. A moment later the white book began to glow with an equally white light.
"Aisarendo!" yelled Jacob.
Slushy's cheeks began to swell as he took in one deep breath. He then blew a cloud of icy mist directly at Lilo and Stitch that coalesced into honeycomb shaped blocks of ice as it traveled threw the air. Yet as the pieces of ice came closer and closer, the two friends barely blinked an eye.
"Gigano-Fisten." said Lilo with a very casual tone.
Stitch lowered himself into a horse stance and grabbed hold of his right forearm. As Stitch drew back his arm, his tiny fist became enshrouded in a swirling torrent of blue energy. Then, with only a few feet to spare, Stitch threw his fist toward the incoming attack. Slushy's eyes widened slightly as a massive blast of blue energy engulfed his own spell, shattering the ice like it was nothing. Stitch's spell continued to fly right toward Slushy, ready to strike him head on. But at the last second Slushy twisted to the side and allowed the attack to sail harmlessly past him.
"You're going to have to do a lot better than that, Blue Butt!" laughed Slushy as he looked down at Stitch.
The icy experiment's laughter was cut short, however, when Stitch vanished before his eyes. Following his instincts as well as his senses Slushy turned and looked over his shoulder to find Stitch falling through the sky right behind him.
"The same goes for you." said Stitch as he cocked his fist back.
"Punchito." ordered Lilo without even looking up at the two experiments.
Slushy had no time to react before Stitch's fist slammed into his cheek, turning the experiment into an icy missile. Slushy streaked toward the ground with blinding speed before crashing into the street behind Jacob, sending chunks of asphalt flying in all directions. A second later Stitch landed gracefully in front of Lilo. Everyone now stared into the cloud of dust kicked up by Slushy's landing with expressionless faces, including Jacob. To no ones surprise Slushy crawled from the crater with a large grin on his face.
"Excellent, this is excellent, you used your spells without even opening the book," laughed Slushy as he stared down the street toward his opponents, focusing on the blue book that was clutched in Lilo's hand and hung at her side, "I can tell this is going to be really fun!"
Well that's the end of this chapter! I'm sorry it took so long, finals drained me and for the longest time I couldn't switch my mind from essay writing back to story writing. And I'm not sure I completely made the transition. I promise I'll have the next chapter up a lot sooner. Please review.