Chapter 4. *drumroll* Now it`s time for one of my FAVORITE movies (actually, I like all of them), The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

*Crickets chirping*

Heh heh. *ahem* sorry. Anyhow...

I own Sapphire, Joey, the bad guys, and no one else! (that all belongs to Disney)

Sapphire and Joey appeared on the steps of a huge cathedral. It was made of tan stone and had enormous stained-glass windows decorating the outside.

"Where are we now?" Asked Joey.

"Early France. Paris, France, to be exact."

"Which movie? There are, like, eight set in France."

Sapphire out her hands on her hips and looked down at him. She knew he wouldn't like this one. "Hunchback of Notre Dame."

Joey gulped nervously. "Does that mean…"

"Yup! We're going to see Clopin!" And she raced off.

The first time Sapphire and Joey had watched Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Clopin came on, ready to hang Quasimodo and Phoebus, Joey had run, yelping, under her bed. He'd done that every time she'd watched it since. He was so afraid of the gypsy king that even if she mentioned his name, he'd draw back, whimpering.

He rolled his eyes at Sapphire's like for the man, then tore after her.

After a couple minutes of searching, they found Clopin's stall. He was putting on a puppet show for the crowd of children gathered around him. Sapphire stood near the back of the crowd, Joey by her thigh. Sapphire had to suppress a squeal of happiness by biting down on her lower lip. She almost let it out when Clopin made eye-contact with her and grinned.

Once the crowd had disintegrated, Sapphire approached the wagon. Joey followed reluctantly.

"Hello."

"Well, hello. We normally don't attract teenagers to our shows."

Sapphire cocked her head. "We?"

Clopin nodded and smiled, showing off notched molars. He raised his left hand, revealing a mini-me puppet dressed in the same bright clothing as he was.

"We! Me and Big nose here!" It cried.

Clopin glared at it. "Stupid boy. It's 'Big nose and I'. And my name is Clopin." Sapphire grinned at their antics.

The two continued to bicker until Clopin stopped suddenly. His tongue moved in his mouth, then his jaws parted.

Guess what came out.

The white ball slid down Sapphire's throat.

"What~" Clopin started.

Sapphire cut him off. "I have no clue, so don't ask." She took off her backpack and pulled out the scrapbook. "I need something from you. Liiiiiiike…" She reached up and plucked the tattered yellow feather from his hat. "This. This is good."

She ran off, waving back to the dumbfounded gypsy king. Joey ran hard on her heels, glad to get away from the man.

Once out of sight, Sapphire put the feather in the "Clopin" page of her scrapbook. Joey suddenly tensed.

"Alert."

Sapphire hoisted the backpack onto her shoulders again. "What?"

"I don't know. I think it's them." He pointed with his nose to two men, a short and a tall, wearing nothing but black. They were coming rapidly towards her and Joey.

"Should we find out what they want?"

"Um, I don't think so. They have guns."

Sapphire noticed that the shorter one was carrying a bag. It had holes in it. Golden fur was poking through the holes.

Sapphire knew that fur. She had some with her right now.

"Joey…"

"What?"

"They've got Reuben."

"WHAT? How?"

"They've got goggles too." Sapphire observed, noticing the spots of blue against the tall man's sandy blonde hair.

The two men were quite close now. Joey tugged on her shirt. "I think now would be a good time to run!"

So they ran.

Blindly, they tore through the streets of Paris, trying to lose the two men. They ducked into an alley.

A dead-end alley.

"Who put that wall there?" Sapphire cried.

Joey didn't reply, just started pawing furiously at a gap under the wall. He squirmed through the hole and disappeared from view.

"I'll never get through there!"

The two men skid into the mouth of the alley and Sapphire spun around.

"Hello, little girl," The tall one sneered. His voice made Sapphire's skin crawl, but it also made her mad.

She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. "Hello, freakishly tall stalker dude," She shot back. The man tensed noticeably.

"There's no need for that," he almost purred. "Just give us the goggles and we won't bother you. We'll even take you back home."

Sapphire was immediately suspicious. Her head started to ache. "Give it back? Why? What're YOU gonna use 'em for?"

The tall man gave a tiny hand-flick to the shorter man. "That's for us to know, dearest." The short dude put down the sack and opened it. There was the golden-yellow experiment 625.

Shorty took out his gun and held it to Reuben's head. "You give them back, missy, or your friend gets it."

Sapphire's mind was wiped white with fear.

I can't let him die.

Before Sapphire even knew what she was doing, she'd bounded forward and somersaulted over Shorty. Landing behind him, she kicked out, foot connecting firmly with his backside. He pitched forward, unbalanced.

Tall dude whipped out a knife. Sapphire aimed her foot at his hand and the sharp blade skittered to the ground. Tall dude grabbed her backpack straps and Sapphire felt something well up inside her. She stared deep into Tall dude's eyes. He stared back for a moment, then fell to the ground, apparently asleep.

She scooped up the knife and slashed Reuben's binds. Glancing quickly at the attackers, Sapphire realized they were getting up. She crouched down and Reuben, understanding, climbed onto her back, gripping her backpack.

"Don't let go." Taking a running start, she vaulted over the two guys again and sprang for the wall.

Her fingers connected with the brick.

And she didn't fall back down.

Being in a hurry, Sapphire climbed to the top and flipped herself over the wall and onto the other side. Landing beside Joey, Reuben scrambled off her back and all three yelled at once, "WHAT WAS THAT?"

"What just happened to me?" Sapphire whimpered, looking at her hands. They SEEMED normal.

"That wall-climbing technique looked a lot like Stitch's." Reuben said thoughtfully.

"I couldn't see anything! What happened?" Joey was working himself into a frenzy. Reuben glanced in surprise at the golden retriever, then shrugged.

Sapphire shook her head, her brain trying to process what had just happened. Shoving the initial shock away, Sapphire said, "I'll tell you what happened later, Joey. Right now, we gotta get this cutie home." She ruffled Reuben's head fur. He looked slightly embarrassed at being called cute.

"Oh, I can get home," he insisted. "No problem." He started to walk away, stopping at the end of the alley to call, "thanks for saving me!" Then, he scampered off.

Sapphire sat in numb blankness. "Hypnotism, wall climbing, and weird enhancement on my gymnast skills." She murmured, mostly to herself.

"Did you seriously climb a wall?" Joey asked.

"I think. Maybe I can do it again." She walked up to the side of the alley and leaped onto it. She clung with ease.

"Whoa!" She breathed, looking down at Joey. "This is sweet!"

"Yeah. Great. Now would you get down from there?"

Sapphire jumped down. "Fine. Where now?"

"Hey, Saph," Joey's face had turned thoughtful. "Reuben has all the powers of Stitch, right?"

"Yeah."

"What're Stitch's powers?"

Sapphire started to count them off on her fingers. "X-ray and infrared vision, super-computer brain, can move objects 3000 times his weight, wall climbing, fireproof, and…" She broke off as the realization dawned on her.

"And?" Joey prompted the speechless 14 year old.

"And bulletproof and indestructibility! I risked my life saving someone who CAN'T DIE!"

And she and Joey broke down laughing.

Meanwhile, the two men on the other side of the wall were picking themselves off the ground.

"Did you get it, Sam?" Kevin asked his comrade.

"You bet. Fastened on her backpack strap. We'll know exactly where she's going now."

"So we'll get the goggles back and get them to General Rick, but what of the girl?"

"We'll let her live, maybe drop her off in an animal movie in hopes she'll get eaten."

"And we'll take over the Castle?" Kevin asked, a boyish excitement in his voice.

A snake-like smile flicked across Sam's mouth.

"Exactly."

Um, yeah. Like I said, I love givin`you guys cliffies. ;)

Next chapter may not be up for a bit. My teacher stole my story! XD

Just Kidding. She wanted to read it.