Chapter III
A scar stretched down across her face, from the top of her head to the top of her upper lip. She had recieved the scar protecting her human--Victoria--from an attack from an alien called Kaian. She had recieved many other scars besides this one, but they were all hidden underneath her bright pink fur.
After stretching one of her antennae across the room to turn on the stereo (and then turning it up full volume when she recognized it as a song called 'Aloha, E Komo Mai'), she started to remove her stage lipstick and blush.
After doing so, she decided to change out of her costume. She took off her necklace (which, ironically, was emblazoned with another, ruder word for 'momma dog'), and then slowly let her blue-jean jacket drop from her shoulders onto the floor.
As she started to remove her gray tank-top, she was hit with a terrible headache. Angel winced. She had been having more and more of these as the week had gone by, and she was beginning to get worried. Stitch, the one whom she was in love with (but would never tell anyone that, especially Stitch), had once told her about the time he had suffered the Malfunction, and according to his accounts, each Episode started with a headache.
But, of course, his molecules had not been fully charged, due to the same Galactic Federation who now had 'Wanted' posters of her up in fifteen different galaxies.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the headache dissapeared. Angel sighed a sigh of relief.
And then she threw herself against the wall.
Angel gasped with fright as the headache came back, this time worse than the earlier one. This had never happened before!
"Help!" Angel started to cry, but her yelp was cut short.
"Stop," hissed a voice in her head, "Don't cry out, or else."
Angel's eyes darted around, searching for her attacker. "Who are you?" she hissed.
"Look in the mirror," the voice replied, "and all will be made clear."
Angel squeezed her eyes shut for no known reason, stood to her feet, and then faced her mirror (even with her eyes closed, she still knew where that mirror was). She then opened her eyes...and wished she never had.
Her eyes were blood-red, and looked just like a Shiga's.
* * *
Stitch was lying on his back, sprawled out across his bed. From the bunk below him, he could hear Pwing�s steady breathing.
Stitch frowned. Perhaps he had been too hard on her. After all, he had been teasing her for two straight weeks! He rolled over and peered over the edge of his bed. Pwing was lying on her stomach, staring at the opposite wall.
"Stitch...sorry," he sighed. It had taken him a lot of guts to apologize first.
Pwing swiveled her long neck around and looked him straight in the eye. Her narrow, horse-like face showed an amused expression. "Ya know what? I'm sorry, too. For overreatcing, ya know."
There was an uncomfortable pause, then Pwing clambered nimbly up onto Stitch's bunk. "It's not your fault," she added, "I've just been really stressed out from...thinking."
"Want to talk?" Stitch asked.
Pwing smiled. "I climbed up here, didn't I? You see, it's about what Kaian said, just before we knocked that computer chip out of his brain--thanks for helping out with the saving of my life, by the way--"
"No prob!" Stitch said, while thinking in Ohanan (the Experiment's language), 'She finally thanked me!'
"--anyways, you know he said something on the lines of 'I will please my Master Oglac' or something like that? And if he didn�t, I must have used MindRead on him subconsciously...well, the thing is, I know Oglac very well."
"How so?"
"Well...let's just say we grew up together, that's all. He's three years older than me, and he lived with me and mom...or rather, Tizrah, for awhile. Anyways, when mom died during Angel's creation, Oglac took it even harder than I did. He really looked up to her."
"She was queen, right?"
"Well...yeah, but that wasn't the only reason he looked up to her. You see, she was our mentor."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Anyways, I remember that, when we were kids, Oglac would use the technopathic part of his mind powers to try and piece together random control objects. He soon came up with a type of computer chip that could give him full control, and yet give the wearer full control. It's all very complicated," she added after seeing Stitch's pained expression.
"Nevertheless," Pwing concluded, "if Oglac is behind this--which is what I suspect--then he could have easily implanted all of us donors with his computer chips, then send us off after you guys when the time had come."
Stitch cocked an ear. "If Pwing is saying truth, then Pwing--"
"--should remember, yeah, I know. Sometimes, late at night, I try to remember what happened right before I came to Earth, but I totally draw a blank. It's like that part of my mind is erased."
There was silence for a few moments. Then, the idea hit both Stitch and Pwing like a ton of bricks:
Jumba could invent a memory-finding machine!
