Chapter 13:
Harmony
I
Lilo couldn't resist. She pulled herself into the top bunk and plopped down between the two resting Experiments. Sparky hovered quietly up to sit down across from her. He watched on as she carefully pulled the rolled-up covers down from 10's head, revealing a smile that stretched from the very bottom of each of his shut eyes. He seemed more than content with being asleep.
"How did he get here?" Lilo asked the only conscious Experiment as she gently stroked the fins on the snoozing medic's head. A soft purr rang in the background of Sparky and Lilo's conversation.
"Follow us," The electrician answered in a happy whisper. "10 say jump out after meega, but slower because 345 grab 10's foot. Scratch to make 345 let go,"
"Ouch," Lilo responded as she looked at 10's clawed fingers. "Did you guys catch him too?"
"He land in water. Stitch go and save him,"
"Did he sink?"
"Both sink, yes. But Stitch walk out with 10. They both okay." It was here that Lilo and Sparky heard a long yawn. 10 was still asleep, so they knew immediately that it was Stitch who was slowly reviving.
"Good morning, Stitch," The girl greeted him softly.
"Good morning, Lilo," Stitch replied quietly, his eyes only half-opened. When he saw Sparky, though, his eyes opened completely and he sat up straight, maintaining a smile throughout.
"Sparky tell you that he staying?"
"He did," Lilo answered. "We'll have to show him how to dance to Elvis,"
"Yes!" The blue Experiment gasped with delight.
"Elvis?" Sparky raised a confused eyebrow where Stitch and Lilo beamed with anticipation.
"And 10, also," The girl added.
"Oh. 10..." Stitch looked between his two friends to find the snoozing and smiling medic. "Aw, he so cute when asleep...Let's wake him up!"
"Alright," Lilo laughed, pulling the covers completely off of 10. "But if he gets mad about it, I'm telling him it was your idea,"
"10 is never mad," Stitch scoffed.
"Almost never," Sparky added. "...You know, Lilo, 10 is very ticklish," He suggested cunningly.
"Is he?" An enticed Lilo pulled the sleeping Experiment into her lap in response, ensuring that his belly was exposed. "Where is he especially ticklish?"
"Sparky not know," The electrician answered, a playful grin spreading across his face. "Just tickle him everywhere,"
"Ooh, even better," Lilo clapped her hands together in gleeful suspense. "Right, we each tickle one part of 10. Dibs on his belly!"
"Stitch take armpit!"
"Sparky have foot!" Everyone's fingers hovered ominously above their assigned body part like playful birds.
"Right, on the count of three," Lilo instructed. "1...2...3!"
The very second the three commenced their tickling strike, the room was flooded by the delightful, squeaky sound of the medic's rapturous laughter. The cackling was not especially noisy, but it was loud enough to draw anyone towards it, as though 10 were laughing for an audience in an expansive theater. Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky persisted in their tickling, being brought to guffaw themselves, even after 10 had been brought to joyous tears and his laughter was interceded by desperate demands.
"Naga, naga!" The medic giggled. "Stop!"
"Stop what?" Lilo inquired jokingly over his continued laughter.
"Ti-heh-heh-hickling meega!"
"Yeah, that's what we're doing,"
"Naga!" 10's face flushed with red as his cheeks and eyes were dampened by tears. Not long afterwards, he was finally allowed to breathe, although he still chuckled as he felt the ghosts of the tickling fingers.
"You alright, 10?" Lilo questioned happily as she watched the medic catch his breath.
"Meega okitaka," He answered as he sat up in Lilo's lap. "Youga can ask meega to wake up,"
"Yeah, but we wanted to tickle you instead," The girl answered curtly.
"Oh..." 10 responded with vague surprise. "...Okitaka," He added with a shrug. "Isa Lilo okitaka after falling?"
"I feel good. What about you? Sparky told me that you landed in the water,"
"Ih. Meega kept going down. Not know why. But 626-I mean, Stitch, show me to walk on ground underwater,"
"Good,"
"Isa other human okitaka?"
"My sister? Why don't we go find out?"
"Ih!" With that, the four of them slid down the ladder. Their feet were like hammers on the wooden floor until they reached Nani's bedside, as her door had been left ajar. While Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky stopped once they were in the room, 10 stepped curiously forward. He placed a clawed hand over Nani's forehead. He then moved his clawed fingers down to her wrist, smiling once he had found a pulse.
"She's not dead, 10," Sparky pointed out sarcastically.
"I know, I know," The medic defended. "I'm just making sure her pulse is regular. She must've been terrified from that fall,"
"What's 10 doing, Stitch?" Lilo whispered to her oldest friend as the other two Experiments discussed in their foreign tongue.
"Remember Stitch say that 10 helps hurt Experiments to feel better?"
"Yeah, I remember you mentioned that,"
"10 making sure Nani not sick,"
"And what if she is?" Lilo wasn't worried, but she was not joking, either.
"Then 10 help her feel better." They both watched on as the grass-colored Experiment looked closely at Nani's static face.
"...Human?" He prodded softly. "Human?" A little louder, this time earning a slight stir. Nani stirred even more when she heard her sister trying to suppress laughter. Finally, her eyes drifted slowly open, though her body had scarcely moved yet. The eldest Pelekai looked at the trunked face only a foot away from her own. For the slightest second, she believed herself to still be on Hamsterviel's battle-ridden base, until she felt the comfortingly familiar warmth of her own bed.
"...Alien," Nani muttered to 10 as she sat up. The medic chuckled in response.
"To meega, human is alien," He merrily denoted.
"Touche." Nani pulled the covers away, turning to sit over the side of the bed. She then discovered that she had been sleeping in her clothes.
"Something wrong, Nani?" Stitch inquired, genuinely concerned at the elder sister's befuddled expression at her clothes.
"...No, nothing, Stitch," She responded casually before turning back to 10. "And I'm Nani, by the way." She extended a hand to him, which he gladly, albeit gently, shook with two.
"Meega 10," He answered with a smile.
"What? You're still just a number?" Nani jokingly questioned before turning to her younger sibling. "Lilo, have you not given 10 here a proper name yet?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot," Lilo slapped her forehead with a jolt of remembrance.
"Slacker!"
"Hey!" Lilo snapped playfully at her sister before turning to a confused 10. "Let's see...He's super nice, so we should give him a name that means that he's nice,"
"Oscar!" Sparky suggested eagerly.
"Hmm...What do you think, 10?" A skeptical Lilo asked. The medic repeated the name in his head, imagining hearing it every time somebody wanted his attention. Its sound grew stale in his brain.
"Naga,"
"Meega think it good," Sparky grumbled.
"Tress?" Stitch suggested. 10 looped the name in his head once more. He considered it an improvement, but not by much.
"Meh," He shrugged weakly.
"How about Felix?" Nani inquired. The medic's ears perked up at this suggestion.
"Felix?" Lilo, Stitch, and Sparky repeated in unison.
"Yeah. I once had a friend who moved here from Canada whose name was Felix," Nani explained merrily. "He was really nice, just like 10,"
"Did he want to be a doctor like 10?" The younger sister asked curiously.
"Actually, he wanted to be a guitarist,"
"Felix," The medic repeated out loud. He had already repeated the name in his head plenty of times, and the taste of its sound had not faltered.
"Meega like name," He added joyfully.
"Well, alrighty, then," Lilo began just as ecstatically. "Stitch, Sparky, and now Felix!"
"Felix," The medic repeated the name once more, purely to enjoy its taste again.
"So, it looks like Sparky is good, now, as well," Nani observed.
"Ih," The electrician replied with a lengthy smile. "I am good now,"
"Well, you know what?" The eldest Pelekai crouched down to be level with her sister and her three extraterrestrial friends. The four of them instinctively and curiously leaned in, anxious to hear what Nani might say next. "You guys take Lilo to school and then to hula class, and I'll get something special for dinner tonight to celebrate Sparky and Felix coming to stay with us,"
"What're you gonna get?" Lilo pried with excitement.
"It's a surprise," Nani persisted. "Now, go on. Get some toast or something before you head out." With that, Lilo turned and made to bound excitedly down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom as Stitch and Sparky leaped past her, but when Felix had descended, the girl scooped him up in her warmest hug. The newly named medic was shocked, but after a few seconds of the embrace, he found it to be a pleasant shock.
II
"When does she usually come out?" Felix curiously and anxiously asked Stitch, who sat to his right. They and Sparky sat on top of the roof of Lilo's school as if it were a dock, and the streets that were spread out beneath them were like the soothing sea.
"Any minute now, Felix," Stitch answered with a smile as he threw an arm around each of his friends' shoulders. "So, how are you guys liking Earth?"
"It's nice," Sparky was the first to answer. He hooked an arm around his blue companion's shoulders as he spoke. "It kind of grows on you, you know?"
"I do know,"
"I really like all that soft gold stuff all over the ground outside of Lilo's house,"
"It's your house, too, you know," Stitch corrected with a chirp.
"Oh, yeah..." The electrician's smile grew.
"It's warm," Felix added. "I mean, it wasn't freezing up in our old base, but here, it's...Just so warm. It's...Fuzzy,"
"I had a feeling you'd like it, Felix," Stitch replied merrily, ruffling the fins on top of the medic's head.
"I like my new name, too," He chuckled. "And your names, too. It's so wonderful to have actual words instead of just numbers. It feels...I don't know...Free,"
"It does, doesn't it." The blue Experiment paused as his beam widened. "Felix,"
"It really does." The medic's smile grew as well. "Stitch." The two of them guffawed in response. Suddenly, a boisterous ringing filled the air. It took Sparky and Felix by surprise, but it delighted Stitch.
"There it is!" He cheered. "Come on, guys!" The blue Experiment stood up and dived off the roof as if into water, landing firmly on his hands before leaping back onto his feet.
"Showoff," Sparky scoffed. He stood up, turned around, and then fell backwards from the roof, curling into a spherical shape as he spun like a ball on his way down. He unraveled like yarn just before hitting the ground, where he landed on bent legs.
"Nice one," Stitch complimented to a bowing Sparky. "Let's see yours now, Felix!" He called up to the medic.
"...I'll try," Felix called back down as he stood up. He put some distance between himself and the edge of the smooth rooftop first. As he exhaled anxiously, he tried to calm himself by thinking that there's no way a mere stunt jump could be more terrifying than plummeting from a ship in the planet's cloud. Though he wasn't completely ready, he started his dash anyway and bounded boldly over the roof's edge. Once he felt the complete lack of anything beneath his feet, he immediately wished that he had climbed down instead. However, he found himself landing safely in the arms of somebody all too familiar, and since his feet had not yet touched the ground, Felix grew to relish the terrifying sensation of flying.
"Wow, that was a good jump, Felix!" Lilo cheered as she held the medic up like a triumphantly-earned trophy.
"Good catch, too," Felix replied with a joyous laugh as his legs dangled like they were wading in a warm pool.
"There are more now?!" A grating voice like a blade dragging across concrete interjected. The voice was a familiar and stale annoyance to Lilo and Stitch, but Sparky and Felix had only just begun to loathe the sound.
"What's that one? An anteater?!" Mertle added rudely at Felix as her three identical companions snickered behind her.
"I don't get it," Sparky whispered to Stitch.
"I never get their jokes," The blue Experiment whispered back. "I usually just zone out right here until she talks for too long. Lilo usually leaves before then, though,"
"Yep!" Lilo chirped as she set Felix back down. "This is Felix the anteater. And that's Sparky," She introduced the two newcomers, who only looked with confusion at Mertle's condescending scowl.
"What's wrong with their fur?" Mertle moaned aggressively. "Why are they all bright colors? It looks like they rolled around in a bunch of paint!"
"Yeah!" The Mertle duplicates whined.
"...Was that supposed to be clever?" Sparky whispered again to Stitch.
"I don't really know or care," Stitch answered quietly. "Don't worry; Lilo will get us out of here any second now,"
"It's great, isn't it?" Lilo responded to her snooty peer. "They're super soft, too." She then relaxed a tense Felix with a scratch behind his floppy ear, causing him, once again, to purr and pat the ground with his foot.
"Anyway, we've gotta get going," She added more mundanely. "I've got hula class today. Haven't been late in a while, and I'm not gonna start again," She concluded as she turned and left, leaving a still-scowling Mertle to glare at her back until she decided to leave in the opposite direction.
"Wait," Stitch, confused, asked a mischievously grinning Lilo as they walked. "Mertle have hula too, right?"
"Yup," The girl responded. "Any second now..."
"Oh, shit!" Mertle's grating voice exclaimed with piercing shock behind them. Lilo nodded proudly as her panicked peer rushed past her.
"I'm gonna get there before you!" Mertle called back as she shrunk into the distance.
"...Okay," Lilo responded with ticklish mixture of befuddlement and amusement. She subsequently burst into laughter and was joined by her three extraterrestrial friends, who each felt an identical mixture of reactions.
Their bouts of laughter seemed to propel them through time, as the walk to the short wooden building where hula class took place was much briefer than Lilo recalled.
"What is hula, Lilo?" Sparky finally asked just as his new friend was about to enter the building.
"You're about to find out, Sparky," Lilo replied cheerfully. "Oh, but don't come in; Mr. Moses gets annoyed about pets in his class. I know, it sucks, doesn't it?"
"Sucks?" Felix repeated with confusion.
"But you guys can go exploring while I'm in, if you want," Lilo added.
"Good idea," Stitch replied. "We will stay out of trouble,"
"I know you will," The girl responded with a wink. She then pulled the glass door open and hopped inside as it shut slowly behind her. The three Experiments' faces were quickly pressed against the glass windows, with Sparky and Felix staring particularly curiously. Before long, their ears were filled with the mystifying, musical sound of a pair of bongos. Their sights became locked on Lilo, joined by others of equal and greater ages, all clad in grass skirts, which swayed with them like an arrayed multitude of green oceans.
"Ooh," Sparky whispered as he was entertained by the peaceful dancing. He had rehearsed offensive and evasive movements with 149 for years, and so he could not help but be fascinated by the practicing of motions that seemed useless, and yet were infinitely captivating.
"You look like you're enjoying yourself, Sparky," Stitch laughed next to him. The befuddled electrician looked in Stitch's direction. He did not realize until he was still still that his hips had been swaying to the cadence.
"What?!" Sparky questioned defensively. "Is that so wrong?"
"No, it's just funny," The blue Experiment chuckled.
"So how long do they all dance for?" Felix inquired.
"About thirty minutes, I think," Stitch answered. "Usually, after watching them for a while, I go up here." Without any warning, he leaped over the window to land on the bricks above it, climbing until he disappeared over the rooftop's edge.
"What's he up to?" Felix asked Sparky curiously.
"The trick is to follow and find out." The electrician's feet left the ground before he scooped Felix up under the arms, carrying the befuddled Experiment up to the roof. After landing, they were mutually surprised to discover that their ecstatic friend was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a chipper whistle flew through their ears. Turning to its source, they found Stitch waving merrily to them from the next rooftop, which was distanced from Sparky and Felix by a gap as wide as another rooftop.
"What're you doing over there?" Sparky called over with amusement.
"Just enjoying myself," Stitch responded perkily as the electrician made to fly over the gap to join him. "Uh, you know, Sparky," He began, stopping his friend just as he was on the edge of his rooftop.
"I actually jumped and did four front flips to get here,"
"Did you, now?" Sparky pressed slyly.
"Yeah. Would I lie?"
"No, no, I trust you..." The golden Experiment began as he stepped backwards. "I just want to see if I can improve it." With that, he turned around, jumping backwards onto his hands precariously close to the edge. Boosting himself with his fingertips, he was propelled into the air, rolling into a sphere as he flipped before landing on his feet in front of Stitch. Then, for no reason at all, he did one last backflip while scarcely moving his arms at all.
"There," Sparky exclaimed triumphantly. "Six, backflips,"
"I counted five," Stitch corrected.
"What?! Six! That last one counts, too!"
"I know it does, and the four before it make five,"
"No, I did one to start, then four on the way-"
"Three,"
"No-Felix!" Sparky called over to his trunked friend. "Let's see how picky Stitch is about your jump,"
"Oh, um...Okay…" Felix responded quietly before gazing hesitantly over the roof's edge to the alley below.
"Trust me, Felix," Stitch reassured him merrily. "It's nothing compared to crashing in a pod going hundreds of miles an hour."
With this in mind, the medic took another look at the alley. There was still a knot in his stomach, but it felt easier to ignore. Felix took a few steps backward, released an anxious breath, and then made a running bound over the alley, rolling twice in the air on the way over. He landed in a kneeling position with his fingertips touching the firm rooftop, looking as if he were bowing to Stitch and Sparky.
"Not bad," The blue Experiment complimented as Felix arose.
"Not necessarily good, but not bad," Sparky added mischievously. "A good start." He then ran towards the roof's opposite edge, where another gap awaited him. "Now, how about I set the bar this time?" With that, he ran over the edge, flipping three times in the air before landing on his feet, after which he bounded vertically into the air and flipped three times more.
"Please, hold your applause," He called cheekily over to his fellow Experiments.
"Oh, I will," Stitch whispered. He leaped downwards from the rooftop, momentarily confusing his friends, until they saw him bounce off of the opposite wall. Stitch repeated the action to initiate a rolling leap consisting of four backflips, concluding on his hands. He looked cheerfully up at a wide-eyed Sparky.
"...Well, I did more flips in the air," The electrician hastily excused.
"Your turn, Felix!" Stitch called over to the final acrobat. "Then you can tell us whose jump was more impressive?"
Felix beamed as he approached the roof's edge, ready to speed up in only another second. It occurred to him then how much jumping the Rebellion's numerous exhausting missions and battles required. He had so often been left sweating and red after a struggle, so he was now joyously surprised to find the reverse happening now. His first soaring leap had imbued him with more energy than he had ever felt at once. He was gleefully anxious at how much more energy would surge through him after another leap. As he lifted his foot to make the first pounding step, however, he found himself feeling some kind of elevation, but not the kind he had predicted. All three Experiments heard a soft, practically hypnotic cadence that seemed to flow around them like a flying river. Sparky only experienced a millisecond of the heavenly medley, as Stitch desperately covered his ears before he could properly absorb it. The rest of the seemingly wondrous music, sung in the Experiments' tongue, settled for only Stitch and a captivated Felix, separated by an alley-wide gap, as its audience.
Let my will speak through you
Let nothing disgust you
Lay your guilt to rest
Refusal is meaningless
The lyrics had been burned onto Stitch's mind like a brand ages ago, mere hours after his first mission for the Rebellion. To Felix, however, the song was brand new. At its close, Stitch's heart hammered as he released Sparky's ears, while Felix's heart pounded like a child did upon stairs as they raced downstairs on Christmas morning.
"Um, was that what I think it was?" Sparky inquired worriedly as he and his blue companion looked anxiously at the tranquilly smiling Felix. "Because I have no idea what it sounds like, so I wouldn't know,"
"No doubt," Stitch answered in a tense mutter. As he spoke, a pink-furred creature with long, waving antennae, who was all too familiar, scaled Felix's building and joined him on its rooftop. As she turned to face their opposition, Stitch and Sparky anticipated her to shoot them a frigid glare, but instead, she was frowning, and not even with scorn or disappointment. She seemed immensely miserable.
"You see what we need to do now to keep us all together?" 624 questioned rhetorically.
"I wouldn't say that you'd need to brainwash your friend!" 221 retorted with outrage, his claws glowing with sizzling sparks.
"Actually, you're right, 221," The pink Experiment responded as she folded her arms. "We shouldn't need to, but thanks to all of you and 345, we do,"
"You shouldn't and you don't," Stitch interceded fiercely. "Do you or 621 or the rest of you think you're attracting us back towards you?! Because what you've just done is doing exactly the opposite!"
"Doesn't matter." While Stitch and Sparky refused to show it, 624's tone was sending the coldest shiver down their spines. While they expressed their outrage with scornful exclamations and growls, their former comrade only lowered her head at them and spoke firmly, like she was a brutal interrogator looking to bring her suspects to crack.
"Before we darted off Hamsterviel's ship, we noticed that he was controlling Gantu and 345 with a tiny chip of some sort," She explained before turning a hesitant eye towards Felix, who stared anxiously at her as if she had promised him some sort of exciting surprise. 624 forced herself to look away from the agonizing and abominable sight.
"Since I can do something a little similar to what Hamsterviel's done, we thought we'd give it a try with you traitors,"
"Oh, come on, 624!" Stitch shouted furiously, although his new enemy barely flinched at his outburst. "You're smarter than this! How can you hate Hamsterviel so much when you're doing exactly the same shitty stuff that he's doing?!"
"Don't blame your mistakes on me!" 624 snapped back with equivalent scorn. "None of this would even be necessary if you hadn't lost faith in the Rebellion-"
"Well, of course I did! Think about it! Really think!" Stitch's arms shot out sideways, as though he were physically casting his exclamations at 624. "It took us, what, eight years just for the Grand Councilwoman to talk to us over an intercom! Eight years to find and trap out creator, but he's escaped now, so a fat lot of good that is!"
"We'll beat him again-"
"And about seven-and-a-half years for the Federation to kill just two of us!"
"Don't-" 624 growled like a colossal beast, but Stitch hardly cared as his face flushed red with fury.
"No, if you can't see it, then I need to tell you! The Federation kills two of us and feels spectacular, and when we kill entire companies, we feel spectacular, too. But then they train more soldiers, and Hamsterviel has more Experiments made! What does it matter if we're always compensating for the people who die just so more people can die as well?! Sure, we can hit them harder than they can bear, but they'll always run faster than we can chase them!"
"Shut up-"
"Don't any of you see what a big, stupid paradox the whole thing is?!"
"10!" 624 finally commanded over Stitch's rant, leaving both of them panting with scarlet faces. Sparky had been listening intently all the while, albeit never distracting his glare from the infuriated 624. Felix, however, had barely blinked as he stared at the pink Experiment.
"Shut him up," She ordered sternly.
"As you wish," The medic responded with a light and soothing ring to his voice. With that, he darted to the rooftop's edge, kicking off of the very tip of its edge, and bounded high above Stitch and Sparky, looking to land on the former. The blue Experiment evaded him just in time, but was not as quick to avoid the succeeding leg sweep.
"Come on, Felix!" Stitch urged desperately as he rolled out of the path of a maliciously descending fist. "You're stronger than this! I know you are!" He was ignored as he was forced to lean away from a vicious swipe from his corrupted friend's claws. Stitch came close to impatiently demanding assistance from Sparky, but after peering over Felix's shoulder, he discovered that the electrician was locked in his own intense duel against 624. Hastily returning his attention to his own battle, Stitch attacked with a swift punch, but it was caught in the medic's responsive claws.
"I've gotten a lot better at fighting since we lost you," Felix snarled, crafting a sly and deceptive smirk that seemed ill-suited to his inviting, trunked face. "624's taught me lots of helpful tricks." Noticing that his opponent seemed prepared to launch a blow for his gut, the medic pushed Stitch's head downwards, allowing him to step over the blue Experiment's back like a stepping stone in a pond.
"Did she?" Stitch recovered almost immediately and, seeing through only the corner of his eye, shot his arm backwards to grasp Felix's ankle.
"Waugh!" The medic sputtered as he was met with the unforgiving concrete.
"Same here," The former terrorist concluded as he held Felix upside-down by his foot. Stitch regretted his action, however, after he earned a harsh scratch to the face from the corrupted Experiment's claws. Stitch released his opponent to painfully clutch his face, during which Felix aggressively to his feet.
"That will teach you," The medic growled. He received no verbal response; Stitch merely looked sorrowfully up at him with a glance masked by a diagonal crimson slash beneath his right eye and across the same cheek. Felix's glare remained unchanged as he approached the traitor again, but on his way, his head throbbed. Stitch watched on with perplexity as the corrupted Experiment seemed to look at somebody beside him, and looked nowhere in particular at the same time.
"Shut up. He deserved it," Felix growled quietly.
"What did you say?" Stitch demanded curiously. He received his answer in the form on a severe side kick to his gut, making him stumble backwards.
At the same time, Sparky had fired a lengthy electric bolt at 624's feet, causing her to hop backwards, landing back-to-back with Stitch. Finding herself soon caught between two opponents, she quickly grabbed them each with both of her antennae, pinning their arms to their sides. She then immediately smashed Sparky and Stitch's heads together, giving them both the sensation that an earthquake had been packaged into their skulls. 624 followed up by balancing herself on one hand and, with her legs forming the shape of scissors ready to cut, thrust a foot into each of her opponents at once. Stitch and Sparky skidded painfully across the rooftop on their backs, with their respective sparring partners pursuing them as they did. Despite the throbbing that persisted in their heads, both Sparky and Stitch were able to roll out of the path of Felix and 624's impending strikes just in time.
"You need to calm the hell down, 624!" Sparky ordered as he evaded another straight jab from his pink-furred assailant. The elbow that followed the straight, however, landed squarely on his nose.
"Seriously, don't you see how useless this all is?!" He exclaimed in pain as he took an electrically-charged swipe at 624. She swiftly dodged the blow, leaping into the air to retaliate with a powerful drop kick, which sent Sparky stumbling over the rooftop's edge. His palms clutched the concrete wall as his pink opponent glared down at him.
"You're actually right, 221," 624 began cunningly. When next she opened her mouth, a single lyric escaped before Sparky felt a warming rush of intrigue and curiosity. One ear begged to be allowed to hear the entire song as if it were starving, while the other ear begged its owner to halt the blissful music immediately like it was its dying wish. With both ecstatic and desperate agony in his ears, Sparky sent both of his antennae up to halt the source of his anguish before any more lyrics could be heard. The two wiry antennae went taut around 624's ankle and sent a crushing electric shock rushing through her whole body.
Sparky flew back to the rooftop as his opponent fell over. When he landed, he was given mere seconds to notice Stitch being thrown straight at him. Fortunately, those few seconds were all he needed to catch his friend.
"No luck with Felix, I take it?" The electrician hurriedly inquired as he set his ally down.
"No, none," Stitch responded. "Hey, think you could keep him busy while I have a chat with 624?"
"For sure, mate." With that, Sparky took to the skies again, swooping down and picking up a charging Felix like an expeditious eagle. As the golden and green Experiments shot upwards towards the clouds, Stitch turned his attention to the pink one who leaped with a limp to her feet.
"Can we just talk, 624?" Stitch requested sincerely. He was answered with a hook punch aimed at his jaw, which he was quick to duck. "I just want to talk! Come on, don't make this so difficult!" He was met with another punch, which he captured. Another fist, followed closely by two hidden ones, dived in one-by-one until each one was gripped by the blue Experiment. A reddening and boiling 624 found Stitch's head speeding towards hers and braced herself for the headbutt's impact. To her immense surprise, however, there was no headbutt. Instead, Stitch only touched both his lips and his nose to hers.
The kiss was fleeting, but even after it had ended, the two Experiments looked befuddled at one another, their hands still together but with much looser grips. They were not static for more than a minute, but it felt to them like an entire day. They simultaneously felt a powerful need to speak, but Stitch was the first to succumb to it.
"Look what we're doing," He told her softly. Though he could feel his body relaxing, his heart still sprinted, albeit now towards something instead of away from something else. "You know this will never end. We're all too equally matched. There's a much better way to end this,"
"I know, it's just..." 624 began somberly before releasing a weary sigh. The two Experiments slowly sat down at exactly the same time before she continued. "Finding you was what kept us going all those days and nights. I mean, even though we were also excited about finding Jumba and Hamsterviel, it was made more exciting by how pleased we thought you would be with it all. But when we see you again and you've just...Stopped caring, then everything; fighting 627 and L.E.R.O.Y., killing Jumba, taking over their base, all of it, it...It feels pointless without you,"
"I'd imagine so," Stitch responded tenderly. "And as much as I love my new life, what I'd love even more is for you to be a part of it,"
624 sighed. "That's just the problem, isn't it? I know that the Rebellion is the right way, just the same as you know that staying here with those two humans is the right way. 221, 10, and 345 would've agreed with me a week ago, but they took your side so quickly back on Hamsterviel's ship, and I don't-None of the rest of us understand why,"
"Because they realized what was important to them," Stitch answered, his tone perking up ever so slightly. "And I think you realize it, too. But you think you need both it and the Rebellion. Maybe you only need one..." He found 624's head drooping beneath her ears and antennae, so he gently pulled them apart like vines in a forest.
"Maybe you only want one," He smiled. They were like a static tableau for nearly a minute, scarcely disturbed by the skirmishing Felix and Sparky several feet above them. Finally, 624 spoke.
"What's important..." She muttered. She raised her head; her ears arose and her antennae returned to dangle neatly behind her head. "10 really cares about those humans, doesn't he?" She questioned the way an anxious student would during a critical lesson.
"Of course," Stitch answered, curious what 624 would give for his answer.
"I saw you all coming here with the shorter one," The pink Experiment continued frantically. "If he sees her, remembers just how much he loves the new life you and the humans have given him, he just might go back to normal,"
"Will he?" Stitch pressed feverishly.
"He might...I really do think he might,"
"That's good enough for me." Stitch immediately leaped to his feet and ran to position himself beneath the airborne duel.
"Just one more thing," 624 called to him before he could initiate his stratagem. "What's your new name, again? The one that the humans gave you?" She inquired with genuine curiosity.
"...Stitch," He answered with a smile.
"Stitch..." She repeated before returning his smile. "It fits you, actually," She added softly. Mere seconds later, as Sparky swooped above them with Felix clinging harshly to his back, 624's two antennae zipped after them and snared the corrupted medic's leg. Felix was brought down with a forceful tug, landing in Stitch's arms as if they were eager metal restraints.
"Sparky!" Stitch called urgently. "We need to get Felix to Lilo!"
"Why?!" The electrician questioned irritably as he returned to the rooftop, his claws barred in case any of Felix's struggling arms broke free. "What can she do?! Uh, no offense to her,"
"If Felix sees her, he might remember that he doesn't want to be a part of the Rebellion anymore and go back to normal!"
"Might?!"
"Look, it's just a theory, and it's not even mine, but the worst thing that could happen is that nothing changes and we're still stuck with jerk-Felix!" Stitch justified anxiously.
"You guys know that I'm right here and can hear everything you're saying, right?" Felix snapped aggressively at his two opponents.
"I know, I know!" The blue Experiment retorted impatiently as he leaped off the building with the medic still in hand, closely followed by Sparky. The Experiments landed in the alleyway dividing Lilo's hula class from the building beside it. Sparky peered around the corner, finding Lilo standing on the sidewalk, changed back into her typical red muumuu, scanning with curiosity and anxious perplexity the entirety of the town block, while Mertle and her duplicates shrunk into the distance behind her. The girl's eyes quickly landed on Sparky's head and arm protruding from behind the building, and she ran up to him with delighted relief.
"Sparky!" She declared joyously.
"Lilo, need help," The electrician began with panic. "624, mean Experiment, come and make Felix mean. Need you change Felix back,"
Lilo glanced over Sparky's shoulder at the corrupted medic, whose green-furred face grew redder with each second he rebelled against Stitch's stubborn bear hug. When Lilo noticed how the shade of red in Felix's glare contrasted with that in his cackling beam earlier that morning, she knew that she did not have to take Sparky's word for it.
"W-What do you want me to do?" The befuddled girl pressed her new golden friend.
"Talk to Felix!" Stitch answered through clenched teeth as he struggled to find a balance between keeping hold of Felix and maintaining the medic's bones. "Something! Help him remember that he not mean!" The blue Experiment had barely finished speaking when his arms were thrust open like an uncooperative mouse trap, and his corrupted friend was freed.
"Enough crap!" Felix declared as he grasped Stitch maliciously by a tuft of fur on his chest. "You're coming with me and 624, and there's nothing you can-" He was halted abruptly when Lilo hurriedly approached him and, much more calmly, wrapped her arms around his fuzzy torso infinitely more gently than Stitch had done.
Though his arms were still free, Felix found himself unable to control them as they trembled, as though somebody else was commanding them. The medic's head suddenly erupted with a fierce burning as Lilo softly stroked the furry fins that served as his hair. Before too long, the pain seemed to be sucked from Felix's head in a single direction, but was almost immediately thrust back into his cheek like a burning fist. He tumbled to the floor, yet Lilo's arms never seemed to leave him. To his shock, his arms and face felt metal when he was certain that he had been standing on concrete. The befuddled medic glanced over his shoulder, finding Lilo's arms nowhere while the sensation of their embrace still disgusted him with their warmth. Panicked and furious, the trunked Experiment looked up, finding another trunked, green-furred face glowering down at him.
III
"No...No, that's not right," 10 muttered as he attempted to stand up. He was thwarted by another fist in his cheek from his counterpart.
"Stop hitting me!" 10 commanded as Felix geared up for a malicious stomp. "I'm trying to think!" 10 forcefully caught his oppressor's foot and forcefully returned it, sending the reflection onto his back.
"Hold on..." 10 began as he stood above his downed opponent. He gazed with perplexity at the room he found himself seemingly transported to. The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of a silver metal, and beds like eggshells made a row on either side of them, like soldiers in the presence of their general.
"I remember this place," 10 continued as he gazed with glad reminiscence at the ghostly medical ward. "This is where I should be; taking care of my real friends back in space! And you!" He turned and pointed an accusing claw at his recently recovered reflection.
"You're what's keeping me away from that!"
Felix did not respond his aggressive doppelganger. He simply charged at 10, pushed away his accusing hand, and punched him viciously enough in the gut to make him feel like vomiting. An increasingly furious 10 seized his opponent's extended left arm with his own left. Then, with his right hand, he grasped Felix's trunk. 10 separated his arms as much as he could, earning an eerily silent cry from his foe, whose neck and left shoulder fought over which direction to face.
"Why are you only just coming out now, though?!" 10 demanded as he pulled harder. He could still feel the warmth of Lilo's arms possessing him, although now it had moved from his torso to the center of his back as well as behind his knees. There was also a consistent sensation of rising up ever so slightly before coming back down, and then rising again, as if he were floating in a sea of exceptionally tame waves.
"It's the human, isn't it?!" 10 grew more aggressive in his questioning of his soundlessly groaning opponent. "You're trying to call out to her! Well, it won't work! Not while I'm in control!"
To 10's surprise, however, Felix's free arm grasped the one restraining his trunk and dug his claws into it like an excavator's scoop into dirt. 10 released his opponent as he gasped with fright, hunching over as he gripped his bleeding forearm. He didn't wait long to retaliate, but in his panic and pain, he did not plan his move as tactfully as he would have liked. 10's impulsive side kick was caught under Felix's arm. The silent medic immediately knew the best manner in which to follow up; he brought his free fist down onto the side of 10's knee, making it crack like a weary tree branch. 10 screamed as his opponent pushed him maliciously to the floor. Felix wasted no time in pinning his foe by the chest with his knee before attempting to strike 10 in the face. Though his fist was caught, Felix had much more luck the second time. And the third time. And the fourth. And each consecutive time as the ghostly medical ward came alive with an orchestra of cracking bones and agonized grunts. Felix punched and punched and punched, and still he felt voice in his throat or warmth encompassing him, as it did 10, much like the crimson liquid encompassed his face.
It should come soon, Felix thought desperately, taking no breaks between his unhindered blows. He struck 10's eye, then his other eye, then his third eye, then his fourth eye. Felix landed three more blows before he realized the drastic change that his victim had endured. Although the medic had ceased his assault, the plump, four-eyed face that now lay beneath was still barraged by a hurricane of furry fists. Felix fought to steady his breathing as he stood up, looking down as 624, 621, 150, 149, and 300 beat their creator without mercy or exhaustion. He thought briefly to look at their faces, but he remembered all too clearly their hauntingly anxious grins. The only exception was 150, who had a look furious enough to turn anyone who made eye contact into stone. The blood that trickled from Jumba and across the floor was steadily approaching Felix's feet; he turned and abandoned it before it could reach him.
Felix walked as calmly to the medical ward's exit as he could manage. He was not helped at his sudden realization that Jumba's pained grunts had ceased long ago, and yet the Rebellion's blows were as severe as ever. The medic breathed a sigh of relief as his fingers closed around the door's handle, and he was relieved further when his sigh was audible. He pulled the door wide open as his body was encompassed by a soothing and inviting warmth and the doorway was flooded with a white light. Felix stepped without hesitance into the blinding light as the crushing sounds of his former comrade's punches crumbled into silence behind him. He never once felt the urge to look back.
IV
"He's waking up!" An anxious voice exclaimed as the white light gradually left Felix's eyes. His ears immediately registered Lilo's eager voice, his back instantly felt the smooth, stuffed fabric beneath him, and his trunk already wiggled like a snake at a flute's melody to the newfound scent of cheese, tomatoes, and baked bread all at once. His eyes, however, took a few moments to abandon the white light for the world's true colors. Felix discovered Lilo kneeling beside him, staring with the same anticipation one has when awaiting their doctor to arrive with potentially catastrophic news. Behind her, Felix found Stitch, Nani, and Sparky looking on with equivalent anxiety. When the medic sat up and smiled at them, though, they all reciprocated.
"How are you feeling, Felix?" Lilo inquired anxiously. "You alright?"
"Yes. Meega okitaka," Felix answered. He glanced around, discovering that he was seated on the scarlet couch back in the cozy safety of Lilo and Nani's living room.
"Naga fight?" Sparky added hesitantly.
"Naga...Youga carry Felix back?"
"Yeah," Lilo answered softly. "You just fell asleep, so we took you home right away,"
"How long?"
"About twenty minutes," Nani answered, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside the revived medic. "You've been here for about ten,"
"You look angry when asleep," Stitch noted worriedly, remaining standing with an inquisitive hand on his chin, while a relieved one rested on the soft back of his head.
"Ih," The medic nodded, his black eyes mellowly looking into space. "Felt angry, too..." He savored a deep breath before continuing. "Felix have nightmare,"
"What was it about?" Lilo asked softly. She began gently scratching behind Felix's floppy ear, which soothed the green Experiment as he recounted his unnerving unconscious experience. He glanced briefly at Sparky.
"Sparky will remember," He began, intriguing both the electrician and Stitch.
"Felix was hitting Jumba..." The medic continued. He noticed that Lilo had an underwhelming reaction to the name.
"Jumba build Felix and Stitch and Sparky," He elaborated. Now Lilo's lip hung open and her soft scratching slowed. Felix did not resume his recollection until he felt the comforting motions behind his left ear again.
"Jumba was bad," He continued. "Always lie to us. Hurt an Experiment...Kill two more..." Another mellow breath. "And Felix...And Sparky...And 624...And all others, naga Stitch, hit Jumba and hit and hit and hit until 621 shoot him..." The scratching around his ear never wavered, like an impregnable candle guiding him through a dark, haunting hallway.
"But in nightmare, 621 naga shoot Jumba. Experiments just keep hit him, even when Felix leave...Meega think Jumba not move anymore, but Experiments still hit him...But Felix leave them...Lilo..." He ceased staring into space and looked right at his new friend, who was entranced with concern as she listened.
"Experiments say that...Hating make meega stronger...Meega felt strong, but...It hurt, Lilo...Hurt when Felix kill Jumba, when fight 627, when hear 624 sing...Felix hate lots of things, yes, but they hurt when meega hate them...But when meega with Lilo, and Stitch, Sparky, and Nani, meega feel so happy," He looked up at his friends, Lilo especially. His clawed fingers gently intertwined with the girl's, as if they yearned to touch regardless of their owners' commands.
"Felix only here a little, but meega love seeing Lilo hula, love scratches behind ears, love jumping roofs with Sparky and Stitch, love tickling until can naga breathe. And meega love seeing smiles most. Experiments smile, too, when they hit Jumba..." His lips curled into their own joyous beam, which he shared with the entire room. The medic brought a hand to his face to dry his dampening eyes, then immediately returned it to Lilo's fingers.
"But Lilo's smile is better,"
Lilo said nothing initially. She only pulled her hands from Felix's so she could embrace him in the warmest hug that she could deliver. Neither one of them said anything, nor did Stitch, Sparky, and Nani when they joined in. The family of five maintained the embrace for a time that they did not care to estimate. They felt no rush to exit, and when they finally did, they all did simultaneously, each smiling at their maximum.
"Lilo?" Felix finally and cheerfully broke the savored silence.
"Yes, Felix?"
"What is smell?" The medic's trunk still wiggled upwards at the hot and delicious aroma that crept through the room. "It smell good,"
"Ah, nothing gets by you, does it, Felix?" Nani responded merrily, leaving the room and returning mere seconds later with a thing cardboard box of pure white. The smell intensified as the box was transported to the couch beside Lilo and the three Experiments, much to the delight of Felix's wagging trunk.
"I don't think you three have had pizza before, have you?" The elder Pelekai inquired, resuming a seat on the wool rug as her sister pulled the box open like an uncovered treasure chest. The three Experiments shook their heads as they each pulled a golden slice from the box.
Lilo wasted no time in acquiring her own slice and digging in immediately, but the Experiments each took a moment to observe their respective slice, as if it truly were part of a newly recovered treasure. When they ultimately did sink their teeth into the first quarter of the slice, their eyes lit up like neon. The remainder of the irresistable, cheesy delicacy instantly disappeared into their mouths, which were then coated erratically in cheese. Lilo, her mouth full of pizza, smiled with stuffed cheeks at the still-chewing Felix. When he noticed her gaze, he swallowed and returned her beam. In turn, she swallowed her own food, freeing her lips to lean forward and plant a soft kiss on Felix's furry cheek. The medic's wonderful, cheese-covered smile, much to Lilo's unparalleled delight, grew even wider.
V
"What do you mean he broke free?!" 621 snapped like a demon, interrupting 624's report.
"I mean he broke free," The pink Experiment answered, raising her voice, but not allowing her face to redden as 621's currently was. "That's it,"
"Don't be smart with me!" The marksman retorted, pointing a frustrated claw at his difficult comrade. "How did he do it?! Is every one of your victims from here on out going to break free of your control?!"
"No, just 10,"
"So what was different?!"
"I don't know; the smaller human just hugged him and he suddenly snapped out of it,"
"Goddammit!" 621 exclaimed, kicking one of the numerous surrounding palm trees with blind frustration. His foot traveled straight through and then back again, sending the tall plant toppling to the ground like an enormous bowling pin. The tree landed just shy of the black pod which the unpleasantly surprised 149 and 150 had been leaning against.
"Calm yourself, 621!" 300 slithered irritably towards the infuriated marksman, thinning and elongating his watery form just enough so he had to look down at him.
"Plans fail; you of all people should be accustomed to that,"
"I know," 621 responded impatiently. "But this one was fool-proof! Do you have any idea how frustrating it is that we now have an enemy that has not only turned three of our own against us, four if you count 345 before Hamsterviel took control of him, but can also break 624's hypnosis that nobody aside from 625, 626, and 627 should be able to resist, and they're fucking humans?!"
"Could-a phrased that a little better, if ya ask me," 149 whispered cheekily to 150, whose lips curled into a smirk despite his best efforts.
"I am in no fucking mood to hear lip from you, 149!" The marksman roared with a furious point of his claw.
"Hey, I'm as pissed as you all are! Don't mean I can't make a joke when I see an opportunity-" The nimble Experiment began her aggressive defense. 624 did not allow her the chance to conclude.
"Everybody, SHUT IT!" The pink Experiment commanded. For several moments, it seemed as though she had consumed every shred of sound in the forest.
"You guys are talking about the humans turning us against each other, but right now, you're doing just fine at that without their help!" Her voice remained raised, although never to the extent which she used to silence her arguing comrades.
"Thank you, 624," 300 responded, his words being the quietest sound heard since 624 reported back mere minutes ago.
"Listen, 621, while it is troubling that the humans were able to cancel out 624's abilities, think about what this implies." It took 621 a moment before he realized that 300 was waiting for him to finish the thought. Once he did, his answer arrived quickly.
"The traitors obviously care immensely for the humans," The marksman began, a scheming finger against a pensive chin. "If it can motivate them to break free of mind control, then perhaps it can motivate them to do...Other things." He found the outline of a malevolent grin form beneath 300's icy eyes, and he could not help but mimic them.
"Now that's more like it," The shapeshifter sneered deeply.
"149, 150..." 621 turned to the twin Experiments, who immediately stepped up anxiously.
"I've got an extremely important task for you two..."