Chapter 19: 529/Digger & 489/Huggo -or- Know Your O'hana
Jumba made quick work of fixing 628, much to the persistance of Lani -who had arrived before they had. He had a bit of explaining to do about his experiments, the new ones and 628. 202 was designed to jam radars with his high-pitched screech, though he failed because he only hit his taget when he was frightened. 390 was programed to leave a slippery snail-like trail to trip up enemies, only his trail caused allies to slip as well. 455 was designed to be the bouncer for Jumba's lab, though she kept even him out of it until she was dehydrated.
When he told them about 628, that's when he had Lani's full attention. Of course she knew that the sarcastic experiment was created to capture all good experiments for rehabilitation in her own time, though what Jumba said next was something even she hadn't known. Usually, experiments created after the next one would be safe from the effects to some extent anyway. Jumba forgot to work that into 628's design, so the reason 202 was able to effect her was because every experiment could effect her. Adding to that, he never gave her a primary function.
Lilo told Lani what happened with the experiments, bringing a large smile to her face. It was all a misunderstanding, they didn't really know the experiments all too well. When they returned to the Birds of Paradise, Lani prooved her point by walking past her without a problem. All she had to do was say "please", which was all the bloated experiment needed to hear. 390, his slime went away when salt was poured on it. Lani had to make the well practice trick look like accidents, otherwise they would figure out something was up.
"Now all we need to do is find 202, then we can go catch 529 and 489," 628 hurried them.
"Now where would we find a bat in a hotel?" Lilo thought before she and Lani figured it out.
"The attic!" Lani and Lilo pointed to each other.
While they took the elevator with 628 and Angel, 627 challenged Stitch in a race to the top. The hotel didn't have an attic, so they had to settle with the top floor. Stitch made a hole in the roof, which Lilo told him to close up. He was asked where 627 was, though they got their answer when the boy from earlier chased him out of the room with a broom. 627 had 202 in both sets of his sub-arms, while he shook the boy off the broom with his top set. Lani recognized him instantly, looking between Lilo and the boy rapidly.
"Hey, leave him alone!" the boy got back up.
"Evil," 627 mimicked his tone.
"Cousin achi-baba?" Stitch sniffed him.
"Huh?" he didn't know what was going on.
"We'll explain on the way, follow me," Lani ran for the stairs.
They waisted no time following him, except for the boy who had to be dragged by Stitch. On their way out, Angel and 627 grabbed 390 and 455 on Lani's insistance. The buggy was cramped, leaving little room to breath let alone tell the boy about aliens and the experiments. He was amused, then skeptical, then shocked before he eased into it, basically the pattern anyone would take when finding out the truth. Still, Lilo thought it was funny how well he took it compaired to Nani's screaming.
Lani made Stitch stop on the beach, from their the boy could see for himself two experiments. After 202's activation, 529's purple pod was knocked off its sandcastle by a wave. 529 was a tan meerkat-like experiment with a long drill-shaped tail, a round body, short arms and legs with sharp claws, a round head with two sharp teeth that jut from the bottom of his mouth, a dark round nose, dark blue eyes and a row of rounded plates from his head down to his tail. He washed back near the castle where he sat on his tail, soon spinning into the ground.
Nearby, a green pod belonging to 489 was pushed off its perch on a land marker at sea. A large red squid gripped the marker for dear life, which more or less fufilled his function. 489 was designed to squeeze the life out of a person, which by logic didn't go over so well the first time he got near his creator. 529 was made to drill holes through planets, problem was he only seemed to like adventuring in the dark areas than finishing his task. Lani told them they would need to be more cautious with 489, though he seemed calmed when Lilo approached him.
"Cousin," Stitch pointed out 529 was walking away.
"He likes exploring caves, right?" Lani hinted them in the right direction. "Maybe he like finding things inside them."
"Like diamonds?" the boy asked.
"Yeah, that could work," Lilo smiled at the plan. "But where are we going to get a diamond?"
Stitch and Lilo looked around and noticed a group of people sitting by a firepit, looking closer they saw it was Mertle, her friends and her mom. Lilo looked a bit down that they once again left her out of their gatherings, although a devilish smirk crept up on her as she thought about things.
"Hey, Stitch," Lilo stopped him from growling. "How about you pay Mertle a visit?"
"Shouldn't you stop this?" 628 turned to Lani.
"Nah, I wanna see where this goes," Lani gave a similar smile.
Stitch sneaked his way closer to the posse, choosing to do this undercover and not cause another scene at the beach. Lilo caused a distraction in the bushes while Stitch dug his way up to the fire, to take a lump of coal after he ate Mertle's s'mores. Lilo and Stitch sneaked back to their own group, where Stitch stepped on 627's foot. Stitch threw the coal in the youger experiment's mouth, were he chewed it into what looked like a diamond. A closer look would show the coal burried in ice, though it looked close enough to something valuable.
628 threw the ice in the direction of 529, startling the earth drilling experiment. 529 drilled into the sand, digging his way out in front of the group. 202 slipped out of 627's grip and slowly walked up to the driller, giving off small noises that got 529's attention.
"Okay, looks like we caught them," 628 pointed out.
"And they've been turned good," Lani added to the list.
"Now all we need to do is find them their one true place, its sort of our job," Lilo explained to the boy.
"Don't you think you should name them too," the boy asked her.
"You're right," Lilo realized. "Well this shouldn't be too hard."
Lilo thought up the names just by looking at how the experiments were acting, excluding the one who stuck close to the boy. 390 was sliding on the trail and leaving his slime behind, earning him the name Slimy. 455 coninued to call the girls "Mary" and called the guys "Mark", so between the two Lilo chose to call her Mary. 529 was digging again and 489 was wouldn't stop hugging 628 no matter how many times she pushed him away, making them Digger and Huggo respectively. Now all that remaned was 202, who hovered next to the boy's head.
"Hmm, now you're tricky," Lilo had to think about his name. "You're voice breaks stuff, so 'Echo'?"
"No," Lani smiled at the effort.
"Boomer?" Lilo tried again.
"Not quite," 628 dismissed it.
"Pitch," Lilo was sure of it.
"Nope/Naga/Evil," Stitch, Angel and 627 shook their heads.
"How about Jam?" the boy offered. "Because he jams things with his scream."
That name seemed to go over better with everyone, even 202 squeaked in agreement. All that left now was the cousins' one true place, though two of them already found theirs. Mary would stay at the hotel, keeping out anyone who wasn't supposed to be there. Digger belonged in the mines, so he could hopefully find something of value. Huggo would still need some reprogramming from Jumba, so they had time to decide for him later. For now, Lilo had the idea for him to give Mertle one of his hugs.
"We need to find him a better place than that," Lani slightly scolded her.
"Aww," Lilo and Stitch dropped their heads.
"You can spit acid on them, if you want to," Lilo told her blue friend.
"Okay, that's fine," Lani shrugged it off.
With them gone, Lani and the rest of the experiment hunters had to get Slimy to his new home. Lani knew a nice place for him, a farm where he could help with the garden. The boy asked if Jam could stay with him, leaving it one of the best options.
"They could be useful, down the road," Angel smiled to Lani.
"You got it, cousin," Lani had to laugh at that. "Take care of Jam, Keoni. And make sure Lilo takes a picture of you both, just so we have proof of his one true place."
"Alright, bye," the boy started to walk away with Jam but stopped. "Hey, how did you know..."
He turned around to see no one in sight, same as everyone else who didn't tell Lani her name beforehand. There was no trace that any of them were even there, just Jam. The buggy was long gone by the time he looked up, already at the edge of the street. Lani felt happy with the turn of events, for the most part. Dr. Hamsterviel was now free and 628 was messed up because of her tampering, though it didn't matter with the good that came from it all. For their first experiment hunt, that wasn't so bad. Now all that left was the other six hundered sixteen, how hard could it be?
A/N: Now its the end of the story, sort of. Beside Lani's report for the Grand Councilwoman, chapter twenty is going to be like a mini movie -saying everything 627 was doing off screen. Then and only then I'm calling it quits on A New O'hana.
Next Time: A look at where 627 has been when not around is due, and a view at Lani's report about Seam.