Yesterday...
Stitch bolted out of the second floor window of the small Kaua'i house. It would have been more reasonable to use the front door, yes, but where was the fun in that? His flexible frame allowed him to tuck himself into a tight ball in midair, a basketball sized sphere of fur by the time he hit the ground. Bouncing twice and breaking into a rapid roll, he skidded around the side of the house towards a worn, rocky path. The only obstacle that could really stop him was the disapproving voice of a young girl.
"Where are you going?" She called. "It'll be dinner soon, you're not going far, are you?"
"No!" Stitch lied with a cackle, and continued his rolling without looking back once. He did feel bad about it, but these 'good lessons', as she called them, were getting on his nerves. He wound around a fork in the path, one which would have inevitably led to the beach, but he had no intention of going to the beach. Too many people there, and far too many opportunities to get in trouble. No, he much rather wanted to go back into space. He'd promised several times to try not to cause trouble, and technically going into space wasn't causing trouble, right? There was nobody to harass, and very few things to break. Well, an overwhelming amount of orbiting junk if you wanted to get technical, but nothing worth breaking that mattered to anyone anymore.
Stitch bounced up and broke into a run, diving into a small hole in the ground on the outskirts of town. The object he was interested was very cleverly hidden out here, buried under loose branches and debris. Often times it would be hidden in different places depending on the tourist season, to decrease chances of discovery. However, he wasn't worried about that right now. The girl would have scolded him for being so careless, but what she didn't know meant he wasn't going to get a lecture about it. There was the healthy thrum of engines, significantly reduced in noise compared to other shuttlecrafts of that size. The large red vehicle hovered off the ground, discarding the foilage which had hidden it. From there, it was only a matter of flicking a few safety switches and pushing his claws forward on the throttle to blast the shuttle towards the sky. Stitch loved the sight of the ground dropping away, taking all of the annoying rules and regulations with it. He knew he'd have to come right back, but just a few minutes in space where he didn't have to listen to anyone telling him what to do wouldn't hurt anything. Besides, it wasn't like he was going very far. What's the worst that could happen?
Unfortunately, the worst that could happen came in the form of a Galactic Federation ship, much bigger and stronger than the small shuttlecraft which Stitch was piloting. A deep voice came through the intercom, one which caused the fur on Stitch's neck to raise in annoyance.
"And just where do you think you're going? Did you really think you could go for a joyride and I wouldn't notice?" The voice asked.
"Gantu!" Stitch growled.
"That's Captain Gantu to you, Trog!" the voice barked.
"Ex-Captain, just big dummy now!" Stitch countered, laughing and steering his vessel further away from the planet.
"You're in for it now! I'll have you arrested for treason! Insubordination! Insulting a superior officer! Maybe all three!" Gantu threatened.
"Gotta catch Stitch first!" the alien challenged, and thrust his shuttlecraft into hyper drive. He didn't have the capability to hit warp at the moment, but he could go pretty fast. Faster, he reasoned, than the massive, clunky Federation ship behind him. Gantu, as expected, took up the pursuit, and the chase was on.
Stitch weaved back and forth through the starfield, navigating through floating junk which had long been abandoned. While impossible to replicate, Gantu chose instead to merely plow right through the debris, which harmlessly bounced off his shields. Stitch growled, he'd have to be more resourceful. He flew his small ship back towards Earth, hoping that Gantu would avoid following him in such a large ship. But his nemesis had done it before, and did so again. Stitch growled, unable to lose Gantu so easily, and pressed forward on the throttle, breaking back into Earth's atmosphere. He'd have to try something drastic. Intent on plummeting his ship towards the ground as fast as possible, he'd be able to use the small size of his shuttlecraft to clear the ground before Gantu did, and avoid an embarrassing collision. Mathematics and formulas were already running through his head, calculating the exact moment of when he'd have to pull up. Gantu, never the smarter of the two, fell into the trap quite spectacularly, and the two ships chased each other closer and closer to the ground.
Stitch grinned. It was so easy, it almost wasn't any fun. Almost. He peered out the window to check the status of his descent, and noticed something very odd. Colors were rippling outside the windows, never the same for more than a few seconds. Red, blue, yellow, red, yellow, green, blue, orange. Always changing, with no noticeable pattern to them. Stitch was so absorbed in this new development that he forgot his calculations completely, and even if he'd been asked after everything was said and done, could never quite explain what happened next. He only remembered a brilliant flash of light and color.
Gantu, however, had been right behind Stitch as the explosion took place, and felt the impact as his ship was hit by what felt like a massive shock wave. He glared down towards the ground, already retreating as he knew that people would have either seen or heard something, and in moments would be flocking to find out what it was. He didn't feel like explaining his presence to the Galactic Federation. He saw only a trail of rapidly fading colors, and absolutely no sign of the ship he'd been chasing.
"What's that little Trog done now?" He snarled. Unable to risk sticking around to find out, he was forced to abandon the scene for now and disappeared off and returned to orbit, loitering into deeper parts of space.