Chapter 14
Having two Sparky's was confusing. Trilby was sat explaining what had happened down the mountain. Stitch was unconscious from being so close to the torturous sound. Sparky was asleep recharging in the sun, courtesy of the hyper efficient solar cells. Of course Trilby was recharging too. The indoctrination of Sparky's lightning power seemed to have changed his anatomy. His once plain, not particularly special body makeup had changed to a complete copy of Sparky, down to the last cell, this included, the solar cells. Trilby reckoned that, as long as he had a small fraction of Sparky's power, he could recharge. Use too much energy at once and he would lose the power of electricity, and return to his normal self. All theory. He allowed the lightning to flow through his body. Up his antenna. Expelling it out into the metal roof. It came so naturally so easily. The resistance of air being no obstacle. It felt good, empowering.
Trilby was now a copy of Sparky. They almost were identical were it not for the ovals that were the same yellow as the fur around it but still smooth. Lilo seemed a little more renewed now that she had two Sparky's she now had almost infinite power. Now she needed the remains of her last hovercraft and they could fly back to Kauai. She noticed that, considering how long it took Sparky to get exhausted, they had about a day to get back to Kauai. Because Gantu couldn't take on rampaging experiments. A day to repair a hovercraft. They couldn't get started until Sparky and Stitch woke up. Until then Trilby played around with his ill gotten electricity, while Lilo tapped at Jumba's computer looking for the schematic on hovercraft model 4 style T-144.
"Hey can you read this?" she called, Trilby who at the time was allowing another bolt to snap out of his head.
"Oh… uh… yeah, sure I can, 'insert the inert flux capacitor into the modified engine compartment. Seal with solder.'"
"How will we get Solder?"
"Well me and Sparky can concentrate the flow of electricity in a high concentration melting the metal, and isn't he fireproof?" he pointed to Stitch lying face up on the floor.
"Yes he is… Trilby can you copy any experiments powers?"
"I don't know, maybe." They heard a groan. Stitch was waking up.
"That noise, it makes me angry. But it knocked Stitch out. I think we had better make sure he can't use it again or he might knock all of us out."
"So what, ear plugs?" Lilo was bent over Stitch.
"No… I think there might be a way to wipe its effects away permanently. But we need Jumba to do it,"
"I hope they are ok,"
"Well he almost killed me before so… You know."
"He tried to kill you?!"
"Oh so you missed that bit,"
"We left early to get to the lighthouse,"
"Well he designed me so I have him to thank I guess but he tried to melt me, then told the other experiments to find me, I almost melted that ice experiment, Slushy was it? Before getting caught by the big grey alien and taken here. Where I fall down a mountain, hear the sound fight Sparky and get his powers. So I have had a pretty long day."
"Me too,"
Stitch woke suddenly,
"Lilo!" He shouted," What happened,"
"The noise knocked you out," She replied,
"Oh… sorry,"
"It's ok, but now all your cousins are going to get angry and bad again. So we need to get back to Kauai as quickly as possible."
Stitch looked past Lilo, "Sparky?" He asked,
"So much noise," Sparky had apparently woken up when Stitch shouted.
"AHHH, two Sparky's!"
"No Stitch, that's Trilby, that's Sparky," pointing to them respectively. "It's good your awake Sparky I need you and Trilby to fly down and pick up my hovercraft."
"Sure, Sparky lets go." They took off as bolts of lightning. Trilby a little less gracefully than Sparky.
"OK Stitch I need you to rip up the metal plates off the walls, make sure they don't have big holes in them, then I need you to take down the cannon outside. OK?"
"I'm on it Lilo," He jumped up, hugged her for good measure and left through the door.
Lilo turned to the computer. Who exactly was Trilby? Last time she saw him was in her house. Then he was in a capsule with Gantu. She hit an option. A list of alien letters appeared, she scrolled down the list of different alien letters. A row of letters marked 'English translation' appeared. She pressed it . Instantly the alien language changed to English. She heard the plasma cannon start firing and almost as quickly stop.
"Stitch does work quick,"
She read the options. They were all very long words but Lilo found one she understood 'Experimental Genetic decoding and categorizing' a large window opened displaying a list of experiments, pictures, with long lines of letters and numbers next to each one. She started to be grateful about the genetic science lessons Jumba had given her. She pressed 'new entry' a message appeared on the screen 'awaiting input'. Lilo assumed Trilby had carried the computer because a red hair was stuck to the hinge. Taking the hair she inserted it into a drive which closed. The computer whirred. Analysing the cell makeup and general DNA. Once it was finished a message appeared 'Complete', and then,' removing anomalies, then another,' Complete'. Just then Stitch crashed through the roof cannon in hand. He had managed to disable it intact.
"Good job Stitch, now dismantle it we need the metal plates. His ears drooped. Clearly he had wanted to use the cannon on the hovercraft.
"Actually, if you can fit it on then fine you can have a cannon." Throw the dog a bone she thought. Besides there was actually plenty of metal around. They just had to stop the cannon shooting them.
"What is Lilo doing, he asked."
"I want to find out who Trilby really is. So I'm looking up his genetic code." As if on queue the computer beeped showing a message Lilo had looked for- 628 matches found.
"Look at this," She said," Trilby has DNA from every experiment so far, including you Stitch. It's like storing a file in his brain. He needs an experiment to hit him for him to gain the power of the experiment. Make sense."
"Trilby could be another me?"
"You know Stitch I think we could use a second you."
"No me is me!"
"I just want to try it out… and the hovercraft would be built faster. Then he can change back to Sparky,"
"Hmmm… fine,"
Sparky and Trilby flying back to the plateau, the ground was scorched, the house was a smouldered ruin on the hillside. A the debris sparked occasionally.
"I could get used to this you know," Trilby said.
"flying, or the electricity?"
"Both I guess, when you have to walk everywhere it feels pretty good to fly."
"I could always fly so I don't really know." When they reached the plateau they managed to dig out an extremely mangled shell of a hovercraft, the red paint was scraped off in most places. But they only needed the internal parts. Wires, panels, flux capacitors and so on.
They both looked around their battleground.
"you're pretty good in a fight. I mean when you tricked me- that was impressive."
"Thanks you are a good fighter too."
"So… uh… no hard feelings,"
"Sure, normally we experiments would fight each other anyway. So I guess that makes you family,"
"Wouldn't that make us twins," Sparky thought about this one. He had been alone for a long time. Cousins were good and all… but a brother. Someone to have his back- of course! Another lightning user means someone else could match the lighthouse… He stopped his trail of thought. But he liked the idea.
"Ok… little brother…"
"That's pushing it." They threw off the loose bits of metal and grabbed the ends of the hovercraft.
"Ready," And they took off, it was heavier than they had expected, they made slow progress up the mountainside.