Chapter 16: Down To Earth -or- For The Future
KAUAI, HAWAII
Ever since Lilo left on Dr. Hamsterviel's ship, Nani's gaze never left the sky. No one could snap her out of her trance, not David nor Agent Bubbles. She just stared at one of the brightest glowing stars that night hoping her sister made it back in one piece, of course everyone else too but Lilo was first on the list. That particular star seemed to get brighter the more she stared, so it wasn't long before she figured it wasn't a star. With a smile, she joined her o'hana and the small group of UGF members at the cliff to welcome the ship.
The circular ship docked as close as it could to the hillside, all power leaving when it planted itself next to the Grand Councilwoman's ship. The doors opened to reveal Lilo, Dr. Hamsterviel and four of the six experiments, safe and sound -for the most part.
"Aloha, we're back," Lilo waved to everyone waiting.
"These restraints are too tight, you miserable, oppressive do-gooders, you," Dr. Hamsterviel complained from his hoverpad.
"Dr. Hamsterwheel," the Grand Councilwoman adressed him.
"Actually, its Hamsterviel," Lani said from behind the adults. "The likes to be referred to a food instead of a tool, no matter if I still think otherwise."
They were all equally confused why Lani was standing behind them, they were sure she was on the ship. She wore the same black suit she always did when she met with the Grand Councilwoman, this time standing with Chopsuey and 627 instead of Angel.
"Agent 3017, is that what I should call you?" the Grand Councilwoman shook her hand.
"Depends what you know, ma'am," Lani smiled at her.
"I know experiment 624 isn't Agent 624, its you I'm questioning," the councilwoman told her.
"Oops," Angel smiled weakly. "Soka."
"Shaka, Angel," Lani laughed it off. "Alright, I'm not an agent. But Lilo, Stitch, Sparky, Chopsuey and 628 should be, they stopped the dirty rat."
"Hamster!" Dr. Hamsterviel squeaked out.
"We catch bad guy, you're welcome," Stitch stood proudly.
"And they also helped me solve a little problem of my own," Lani stated.
The Grand Councilwoman took notice of a creature behind Lani, one that she couldn't identify. If that was the problem they solved on top of what they had to go through, they surely deserved something. Speaking of the matter, Dr. Hamsterviel was still not in any form of custody other than handcuffs and a hoverpad. No trial was needed for his sentence, he'd already escaped his punishment more than a few times. Now that he was retrieved, he'd have to pay.
"Place Dr. Hamsterviel in the high-security gerbil cage," the councilwoman ordered to her real crew.
"No!" Lani, 628 and -oddly enough- Chopsuey yelled at them.
The outburst earned them collective looks of confusion, something Lani was slowly getting used to. Though even she was confused why Chopsuey screamed, was he the one who snuck in the theater.
"No?" the Grand Councilwoman shook her out of her thoughts.
"Yes, you can't put Hamsterviel on Prison Asteroid K-37," Lani spoke carefully.
"And why can't I," the coucil leader eyed her suspiciously.
"Um, well..."Lani gulped away her fear of being descovered. "I have it under a...Reliable source that if he does go, he's going to find a way to capture experiments from there."
"As well as escape," 628 whispered to her.
"How can you be certain of this?" the Grand Councilwoman asked. "And how can I be certain to trust you?"
"Um...How about a little wager?" Lani asked her. "If Lilo and Stitch can find the on...A home for Sparky, you don't gas the planet to get the other experiments and I get to choose where Hamsterviel ends up."
Everyone looked to the leader to see her choice, wondering if she would really put the galaxy's safety in the hands of a child's bet. In one of her rare moments, the Grand Councilwoman accepted the challenge. Leaving it up to Lilo and Stitch entirely, they all stepped back to let them figure things out without any help. Just like before, Lilo figured Sparky needed something to put all of his energy into. Thanks to Stitch, her attention was drawn to the abandoned lighthouse.
With Sparky connected to the old flashlight, it shined with light for the first time in a long while. It was one of the key moments in the timeline that Lani felt needed to stay unchanged, since this was the moment those two found their purpose. Of course no one but her knew how important the moment was, instead their focus was on the nostalgia of the sight. The Grand Councilwoman had to admit it was quite beautiful, maybe the Earth would be in good hands after all. Still, she did have more curiosity to relieve.
"So, Miss..." the councilwoman didn't know what to call Lani.
"Alaula, Lani Alaula," the girl from the future introduced her cover name.
"Miss Alaula, why is it that you care so much about these experiments?" the Grand Councilwoman had to know.
"They're o'hana, cousins and family," Lani turned to Lilo and the experiments.
"And each one of them has a place where they belong," Lilo joined her. "Just like Sparky belongs at the lighthouse, and Stitch belongs with me."
"Cousin have o'hana?" Stitch asked Chopsuey.
"Actually, I do," Chopsuey nodded.
"In fact, I'm starting to think we're all cousins -even me and you," Lilo extended the aloha spirit to the Grand Councilwoman.
The head of the galaxy considered their words for a moment, giving careful thought to what could be done. They truly seemed to care enough about the activated experiments enough to persuade her, in places even the deal couldn't.
"Very well then, a deal's a deal," the Grand Councilwoman smiled. "I won't destroy the experiments, but I'd like to add a condition."
"We retrieve each and every one, and find the one true place where each belongs?" Lani already knew the answer.
"Something like that," the councilwoman agreed.
"But they're out there right now, and they're all very bad, right?" Pleakley worried for everyone's safety.
"Yes, is true," Jumba admitted. "But once experiment is turned to good, is completely useless for bad." He elbowed Pleakley lightly before whispering, though it was loud enough for Lani to hear. "I'm trying to fix for 629."
Lani was about to yell at him for eving thinking of the worst experiment of them all, then again -with her around- chances were that nightmare wouldn't become a reality. Lilo, Stitch, Angel, 627 and 628 were trusted to be the UGF's Undercover Intergalactic Experiment Retrievers, where Lani was now in charge of making sure they could handle it. While the Pelekai o'hana began discussing the future of their experiment hunts, the Grand Councilwoman had one last thing to question.
"Miss Alaula, you said you had a problem before," the UGF leader reminded her. "Would it have anything to do with the creature behind you."
"Yes, it does," Lani tapped the being on the head. "Say hello, don't be shy."
The form picked up a grey head, soon a yellow and black striped body following suit. The Grand Councilwoman was met with a pair of dark eyes, though dark in shading -not attitude. The creature took a moment to analyze the figurehead, soon showing a smile.
"Kaltxì," Seam said, back to her old self.
"This is my daughter, Experiment Alpha," Lani introduced. "But thanks to Angel, we call her Seam."
"Another experiment?" the councilwoman was shocked.
"Yes, but she's good," Lani defended. "I made sure of it."
"Can I add another condition to our arrangement?" the Grand Councilwoman asked. "I wish that 'Seam' be the only experiment of your creation."
"I can't promise you that," Lani shook her head. "But I can promise you that all my experiments will be created for good, and I'll even give you a full biography of them so you can be sure."
"See that you do," the Grand Councilwoman compromised.
"Okay, guys," Lani called for the o'hana's attention. "I'm going to take Chopsuey home and put Hamsterviel someplace he can't cause a problem, but the rest of you have a job to do."
"Gaba yuuga mean?" Angel asked her.
"As of now, experiments 202, 390, 455, 489 and 529 were just activated," Lani openly told them.
"Good luck with that," Chopsuey laughed to himself.
Before he left with Lani and Dr. Hamsterviel, Chopsuey shook everyones hands. When he got to 628 and Angel, he was a bit more hesitant about it. Though with a smile he took there hands.
"Yuuga did butifa today, matyr," Angel thanked him.
"I have to admit, we make a great team," 628 shook his hand.
"I'm glad you both think so, but now I have something to tell you," Chopsuey smiled before a deadly glare was present on his green furred face. "If you ever kidnap me from my home again, next time I won't be so helpful!"
With that, Chopsuey made his way to the SBS. The warm, Hawaiian wind blew all around the area, starting with Sparky and working its way past everyone on the ground. When it made its way to Lani, she laughed.
"Don't worry, I'll be back as soon as I can," Lani said more to the wind than everyone else. "They'll just have to find the experiments without me for a few minutes. How hard can it be?"
To recap, Lani was allowed to continue making experiments, Jumba was free to work on anything but Experiment 629, Nani was reunited with her sister, Pleakley continued to freak out over the newly activated experiments, Seam was back to normal, Angel, 627 and 628 were now free to help Lilo and Stitch capture the newest cousins, Sparky was now comfortable in his one true place and Chopsuey would finally return to his own. In short, this adventure was truly a complete success for the entire Pelekai family.
So far...
A/N: The official end of the story is in chapter twenty, then I'm going to figure out how the series is going to go. For now, I have a few things to say. For any concerned about the quality of my work for the past summer, my brother would like to say he's sorry. Because of our vaction, he said I had to hurry to use any bit of Wifi we could get to. And he also made me take a bigger break from writting than I needed to, which threw off my groove for a majority of it.
So a message from Teller18-djb, he says he's sorry.
Though part of the blame does go to me for this, my brother admits to more of it. I'm sorry myself for replacing quantity of chapters over quality, and for being lazy this time around. So with that settled, I now have to work on the series. This summer gave me a lot of planning time for the "episodes" in it -and even the opening credits-, but not a surefire concept of the chapter length of each "episode". So I'm working to get the theme up in mid September, and at least nine episodes up around say...Halloween.
Next Time: With Lani working to put Dr. Hamsterviel away, a few of her secrets come to light for the evil doctor.