Chapter 15

The midday sun beat down onto the abandoned chairlift station. The walls were pockmarked with holes, melted and decaying. The weak walls creaked under the weight of the roof. Inside, a girl and three mutations, stood over the corpse of a hovercraft.

"This is a delicate operation. We need to repair this hovercraft, so we can get back to Kauai and save your cousins. Sparky, I need you to power it. But first we need to rebuild it. We have lots of metal to build the outside. Stitch, you and Sparky fix the wiring and the electronics. Trilby you have to put it together. But… Trilby I want you to use Stitches power." Lilo looked between the two.

"How do I do that?" Asked Trilby,

"Nagaa tobaca," Stitch huffed, and punched Trilby as hard as he could.

The force of the hit shook the building, causing several beams to fall from the building's roof. Weakened even more the roof tilted on its support frame, on the point of collapse. Trilby on the other hand, was barely affected by the punch. Instead he felt his body adapt to the punch, he felt fur bristle, changing. The electricity drained from him like water, but instantly replaced by a different power. He felt the force ricochet through his body and his mind. His will bent to the inassailable call of his genetic coding. His attachment to Sparky's power, dissipating. The ovals began changing colour, yellow morphed to a dark blue- same colour as Stitch's fur. The ovals, now full, began to spread. The blue in the ovals spreading out to the fur. Within seconds, his body had switched the fur from its former yellow to a dark blue, with a lighter patch on his chest. The antenna shrivelled back into his head. His ears stretched becoming longer and wider. What now stood before them was a convincing copy of Stitch.

Trilby inspected his knew body. The others looked on in amazement as the transformation happened. Over the course of ten seconds, Trilby changed from Sparky to Stitch. Stitch looked at him with indignation. He was the original and if he tried anything to replace him…

Sparky was impressed with the transformation. To him, it was like someone doing a very good impression of someone, funny. He laughed, his brother was funny.

Lilo, who had seen many amazing things, liked the colour show. But they had different, more important matters.

"Ok get to work guys, Trilby grab that pile of metal bring it here, then remove all the screws and bolts." Trilby bent to pick up the pile of metal, expecting resistance. There was none, Stitch's inhuman strength allowing him to pick up the metal with ease. He felt the strength in his arms and body. The power, it retained. Yet he decided, flying is more fun.

Sparky and Stitch, cousins cooperated to fix the wiring. Stitch pointed out the problems, Sparky melted the wire, allowing fireproof Stitch to move the wires and metal to the right places.

Lilo turned to Jumba's computer reading the list of complicated wiring. A thought occurred to her. Nani, Jumba and Pleakly. She closed the schematic and opened the communications tab. A list of names- including her house phone- appeared. Tapping the phone option. A dial tone started ringing.

After the third tone, a voice came out over the speakers.

"Hello?" Pleakly's voice.

"Pleakly!"

"Oh… Lilo where are you? You have been gone since morning."

"Pleakly… Has anything strange happened?"

"Well there was that loud noise, and then suddenly all the experiments went wild. Me, Jumba and Nani have spent hours trying to keep the people safe. This is going to take some explaining, but we have managed to heard them to the broken lighthouse." Sparky looked down." You had better get back quickly Lilo, these people are getting restless!"

"We should be there in about half an hour,"

"Really! That's great!" There was a commotion over the computer, and then…

"Little girl is you!?"

"Yes Jumba I'm here."

"Listen here, there is big ship above town, I am guessing Hamsterviel has plan to catch rampaging experiments once they get exhausted. You need to get on ship and shut it down."

"Once we have repaired the hovercraft we can get onto it."

"Listen is 629 there?"

"You mean Trilby… Yes,"

"I must warn little girl, I did not make him but I did design him, he was supposed to be evil genius masterpiece. I designed him to have the powers of every experiment. I did not make him because his molecular density would have to be huge to sustain movement. It would seem that, Dr Hamsterviel filled in the gaps. But 629 can only use the power of one experiment at a time and the experiment has to transfer the power. His body should adapt to the experiments strengths and weaknesses, but he can only change once an hour, so his molecules don't implode under the stress."

"You hearing all this Trilby," Lilo asked,

"Yes, but Jumba I am not a spy."

Jumba's tone lowered almost threatening, "I am still not so sure 629, I am not as trusting as the little girl. I did not make you so you are not part of the experiment family. None of this would have happened if you hadn't taken my computer and given it to Hamsterviel. All of this is your fault."

"Jumba you don't know Trilby, he might have just made a mistake!"

"Little girl! Look at evidence, experiment made by Hamsterviel shows up, steals my computer to help Hamsterviel! He is big problem. Most of my experiments will not trust you now either, especially since I sent those messages out. Dr Hamsterviel used my lab to create you and I have a copy of 629's blueprints here. You are a devious experiment, who uses the surrounding to your advantage, so there is no way I can know if you are truthful. There is no place for Hamsterviel's evil creation."

He coughed allowing the information to settle. Trilby's ears drooped, testament to his forlorn hope that he would ever be accepted into the family. These people didn't trust him and he knew that, he was a burden. Sparky put a hand on his shoulder, the consoling effect of brothers. Even Lilo struggled to find some redeeming factor but truthfully she didn't trust him either. She met him a day ago and he was powerless. Now he could be a threat especially since he was in Stitch's form, and he had already helped Hamsterviel already. By accident or on purpose? Stitch on the other hand was blunt and abrasive. He growled as if ready to pounce on him if he tried anything,

"Maka Eiqua saka!"( get out of my body)

"Stitch stop it,"

Jumba's voice began again," Is experiment 221 there?"

"Yes he is,"

"I would like to point out that the town is blaming you for all the problems they have had, today. Including some of your cousins. I don't think it's safe for you any more here, stay out of Kauai for a while. May take while to clean up mess," Changing tone and subject he continued "The galactic federation contacted me with all this information, Me and Pleakly have managed to reason with a few experiments, my experiment locator shows that all the experiments are either here with us or rampaging. All except Slushy, Yin and Yang. Evil genius is thinking you could use help when attacking this ship."

"little girl the federation they say they will be here in a day, that is too long."

"We should get back to work then guys." Lilo shut off the call.

Time passed and they made steady progress repairing the craft. The mood was dysmal, Sparky was distracted, thinking about where he should go from here, he couldn't go back, his distraction meant he kept overdoing some wires, melting through the wire, Stitch would growl when he did and push the wires back together. Trilby sat in silence screwing and hammering. He always knew he couldn't be part of there family, he wasn't built by Jumba, while the others were. Despite this, Stitch managed to fix the huge cannon to the crafts underside. This meant the hovercraft was going to be much larger and less manoeuvrable. But since they were using copious amounts of metal for the crafts exterior, they were clearly going for a 'tanky' approach anyway.

"Sparky, could you throw me that drive plate?" Trilby tried in vain to force a smile at his new brother, but managed only a twitch. Sparky felt bad for himself, but worse for Trilby, he had a family who still loved him. Trilby didn't have anyone. But they were brothers now. What they had once spoken as a joke began to manifest into reality now that they had problems. They were brothers- and his little brother was unhappy. He walked over to Trilby handing him the drive plate,

"Little bro, looks like we are both in a pretty bad spot huh?"

"You know, it's probably best if you didn't even talk to me- you can still make it up to the people you know?"

"I don't care about that brother, you are my family now, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten, so I'll always be there for you," Sparky spoke these words with reassurance and confidence while in fact the words burned him,' he should really listen to his own words'.

"Thank you Sparky, I'll be there for you too,"

Sparky smiled then. He had a new sense of responsibility. He now had a deeper desire to protect. Being the older brother in this relationship- he being experiment 221 and Trilby being 629- he had a motivation, a reputation to uphold. Despite this he liked Trilby, there was something about the carefree- when not depressed as he was now- nature that made him feel so safe. Like the world was a practical joke to laugh at. Sparky looked back in hindsight, before when he was in the lighthouse. He had nothing to protect- no purpose to speak of. But now Trilby was here, now that he had his back. He had a much stronger sense of duty. Silently, he vowed that if ever Trilby be in danger. He would fly in and save him no matter the cost. If only to make sure that the grin stay, and though this vow was silent, the message seemed to transmit through some unspoken bond. Trilby looked up to Sparky, he trusted his big brother, he was strong ,he knew it firsthand. They were both essentially outcast. Sparky's destruction of the lighthouse and town, and Trilby's origins meant they both weren't trusted by anyone. Even Lilo and Stitch looked at them differently, as if they would try and destroy them the first chance they got. They were alone together, and in Trilby's eyes was the same devotion to their illegitimate brotherhood. These brothers were close. They were strong and devoted to the other. They were outcast, and part of something bigger.

The hovercraft grew bigger and bigger, plates, wires panels all connected in a sprawling mass of confusion. The flux capacitor the cannon, all inserted into a metal shell. Sparky flew down the mountain collecting the generator and any more scraps of metal. The chairlift station still had some spare wires and motors which they integrated. Within an hour they had built the hovercraft shell into a larger more impressive structure. A powerful ship to rival Hamsterviel's.

"I think it's better now than it was before you know." Lilo admired the ship they had built with scrap. They had to move the ship to more even ground since the station was filled with holes. Fortunately, two Stitch's meant it was easy.

"Ok before we leave guys I want Trilby to become Sparky again."

"Fine, but I think Sparky is plenty enough to power the ship."

"Yeah, but I don't want Sparky to use all his power yet." After the quick shock and the ten seconds it took for Trilby to re adapt to Sparky's powerful energy. They boarded the ship, Stitch taking the driving seat. They had scavenged glass from the windows of the station. Luckily the stations old owners were paranoid and used plexi- glass to build the windows. This meant it wouldn't shatter a high speeds but wouldn't stop a plasma shot if it collided with the ship. The ship rose clunking, but smooth.