The Tejina Chronicles: Final Days

By: Kioko the pirate

Epilogue

It didn't take long for the experiments to fall into their respective niches in their partner's ordinary lives. In fact, they made it seem like they had been there the whole time. In just a few short months, the tournament that had brought them all together, fell into the dusty archives of history. For the first time in their lives the experiments got a taste of true peace. There were no battles, no required training, and no vying for dominance over other experiments. Combined with their sealed spells, they initially found it all to be rather unnerving. But with just a few suggestions from their partners on how to fill their time, they quickly adjusted to what was undeniably a wonderful life.

"Where in the world is Stitch? It shouldn't be taking him this long to get a few cans of paint." asked Lilo impatiently as her, Victoria, and Snooty sat in the middle of her living room floor.

All the furniture in the room was gone, replaced by white tarps that covered every inch of floor. Blue painters tape outlined every wall, several empty paint buckets and paint trays sat idly around the room. Nani had asked Lilo to paint the living room while she was away on a business trip to the big island; Victoria had been roped in almost against her will. Unfortunately, the two girls had botched their estimates and hadn't bought enough paint. So with only one and a half walls completed Stitch had been sent on a quick paint run. However, the two girls had since been waiting close to an hour.

"Maybe he got lost," suggested Victoria as she leaned back on her arms, "you know he's bad with directions."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he got side tracked by that new bakery that just opened up. Ever since he saw them making coconut cake there he's been trying to get them to hire him on as a 'taste tester'."

Victoria laughed. "They hire him as a taste tester they won't have anything to sell."

"That's for sure. Which reminds me, how's it going at the hospital, Snooty?"

One of the suggestions that Victoria had given Snooty was to find a hobby or something that better fit his interests. Since he had never been much a fighter he looked for something that better suited his peaceful nature. So after a short search he found a position at the local hospital as a volunteer in pediatrics. His playful, child-like demeanor helped ease the fears that many of the children felt while going through their treatments. His antics were so uplifting that he was given credit for helping several children recover, when they may not have otherwise made it.

"Oh it's awesome," Snooty cheered with a few enthusiastic flaps of his wings, "just the other day they brought in this little girl named Anna. She was in for some chemotherapy to help treat this tumor she had on her spine. She hadn't smiled in months, no matter how hard her parents or the doctors tried, but the moment she saw me…"

"She started smiling?" guessed Lilo.

"No, actually she screamed. But when she did it startled me and I threw my wings out, which knocked this tray of oatmeal out of this orderly's hands, which then spilled all over me. That's when she smiled."

"Aww, well good for you, good for her too."

"Yeah, now I'm thinking I'll add some slapstick to my act."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." agreed Lilo as she ran her hand over a dry paint roller.

Snooty gave a short nod before the three friends fell into a dull silence. They could practically hear the paint drying on the walls. The only real sound came form Lilo's fingernails, anxiously tapping against the floor. Fortunately for them the silence was ended by a loud knock on the door.

"Finally, took him long enough." blurted Lilo as she got to her feet.

The girl walked over to the door and opened it; she kept her head pointed down as she expected to see Stitch standing there. Instead, she saw a pair of finely polished black shoes staring up at her. She looked up to see Kioko standing before her in a navy blue uniform, with a holster strapped to his belt, a radio hanging from his shoulder, and a shiny brass star pinned on his chest.

"Kioko," she said with pleasant surprise, "or should I say officer Kioko. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Kioko just smiled. He was still getting used to hearing people call him "Officer". After Angel returned, and brought him back from the brink of self-destruction, he continued to feel like he had let her down. So after failing to rid him of this feeling herself, she posed the suggestion that he join the police force. The idea being that when he served the citizens and stopped crime, he would feel like he accomplished something. As it turned out, Kioko had a natural talent for law enforcement. He received high marks in the academy and upon entering the force began receiving commendations left and right. His efforts even managed to lower the crime rate by a whole two percent.

"Oh, we were just in the neighborhood and thought we'd drop by to see how the painting was coming along. Also, Nani told me to check up on you from time to time."

"Why am I not surprised?" sighed Lilo.

"Just shows that cares about you," laughed Kioko, "but no, there was one other reason why we stopped by. I believe this belongs to you."

Lilo looked on curiously as Kioko waved someone over from the other end of the porch. A moment later Stitch appeared beside Kioko with his arms folded behind him and held tightly together by a smirking Angel. Not liking the idea of being left alone at home while Kioko was working, Angel applied for the force shortly after Kioko got out of the academy. With her physical strength and speed unaffected by her lack of a spell book it wasn't hard for her to prove her worth to the department. While the department listed her as a canine officer, she was spared the demeaning tasks given to actual dogs such as sniffing out drugs, and was assigned to be Kioko's partner once again. It was with her help that the crime rate dropped.

"Stitch, what in the world did you do?" exclaimed Lilo as she looked over her partner.

Not only did the small, blue experiment have an irritated look painted on his face he literally had different colors of paint splattered across his body. "I didn't do anything, I'm innocent I tell you!" he snapped.

Lilo looked to Kioko for an explanation, knowing full well that Stitch was guilty of whatever it was that he did. "Stitch hear managed to wreck half a hardware store in under two minutes. His explanation of how this happened was that he was there to pick up some paint and an employee driving a forklift tried to run him over but missed, hit the shelves of merchandise and caused a chain reaction that caused all the damage," Kioko took a deep breath and then continued, "what actually happened was this: The paint that he was after was on an upper shelf, but instead of asking for some assistance he decided to climb up the shelves and get it himself. In the process of doing so he knocked down a can of paint, which struck the employee in the forklift right on the head. This employee was knocked unconscious and then crashed into the shelf causing it to fall. That would have been the end of it, but in an attempt to escape the falling shelf, Stitch launched himself onto another shelf which knocked it off balance and caused it to topple into the remaining shelves."

"Oh my god, Stitch!" yelled Lilo as she glared down at her partner.

"Hey they can't prove any of that! It's their word against mine." defended Stitch.

"Can't prove it? Shall we watch the security tape again?" asked Kioko as he pulled a small tape out from his back pocket.

"So what do we do now?" asked Lilo concernedly.

"Fortunately, I managed to talk to the owner out of pressing charges. Which is a big no-no for police officers, so don't say anything about it. Just make sure that someone goes with him next time."

Kioko snapped his fingers and Angel released Stitch by more or less shoving him into the house. "Hey, easy does it. That badge doesn't give you the right to be a bully." said Stitch as he pointed to the badge that hung around Angel's neck.

"I'm not being a bully, I'm just doing my job as a noble enforcer of the law. Consider it roughing up a criminal to how him who is in charge." said Angel with a sly grin.

Stitch raised an eyebrow and gave a small chuckle. "A noble enforcer of the law? I think being a policewoman is giving someone a swollen ego. If you're not careful it might get as big as that life raft you call a butt."

Angel's grin changed to a sneer in the blink of an eye while her fists tightened. "What did you say?"

"You heard me, I said you had a gigantic patookie." smiled Stitch as he turned around and pointed at his rear end.

"Why you little…" growled Angel as she began to walk toward Stitch.

"Ah ah, police officers aren't allowed to beat people up and their not allowed into someone's house without a warrant," taunted Stitch, " so you can't set even one of your smelly feet in this house."

Angel's fists trembled with anger as she stood locked in place. Sadly, Stitch was right, she couldn't lay a paw on him. At least that was the case until a very simple solution popped in her head. A nervous look washed over Stitch's face as the female experiment's sneer turned into a devilish smile.

"You're right, Stitch. As a police officer I can't come in without a warrant, but," Angel reached up and unhooked the chain around her neck and tossed her badge to the side, "right now I'm not a police officer, I'm just the smelly footed, big assed experiment that's going to kick your ass."

With a loud gulp Stitch started to back away as Angel walked towards him, her claws extended. "Oh come on, you know I was just joking," Stitch laughed nervously, "that's our thing remember? We poke fun at one another. I mean I think your feet smell fine and your butt… well your butt is perfection."

"You're not getting out of it, Stitch. If you think I have a big butt, then we'll just have to see whose is bigger after I beat yours like a drum for awhile!"

In a flash, Angel leapt at Stitch, but the painted splattered experiment took off running with Angel following taking off after him. The two began running laps between the kitchen, the hallway, and back into the living room.

"Kioko, control your partner!" screamed Stitch as he ran.

"Sorry, Stitch, I can't do that."

"But I'm an endangered citizen!"

"Technically you're not a citizen and you brought this upon yourself. So I don't have to do anything." Kioko said with a smile.

"You suck!" cried Stitch as Angel shaved a few hairs from his tail with her claws.

Kioko just shrugged. "So, since you guys didn't get your paint you want to go for some ice cream? My treat." he asked as he looked at Lilo, Victoria, and Snooty.

"Aren't you on duty?" questioned Victoria.

"Yeah, but I'll just say that I was investigating something."

"Then heck yeah!"

"Alright, let's go."

"Can we run the siren?" blurted Lilo enthusiastically.

"Why not." laughed Kioko.

With a loud cheer they turned and walked out the door, leaving Stitch and Angel to settle their conflict alone.

That's the end folks; "The Tejina Chronicles" is officially over. It's hard to believe that this has been about five years in the making. I want to thank all those who read and reviewed these story's, I really appreciated all your kind words. Because of all of you this series, which I thought would be a flop, became one of my most popular. I can't thank you enough. I will now be returning my focus to my main series and I hope you all continue to read and make it as popular as you have made "The Tejina Chronicles". Beyond that, if you could do me a favor and tell me what your favorite part of this series was, I'd love to hear what you have to say. Be specific too, if there was a scene, a character or even just a line that you liked, let me know. Thank you again.