AN: This'll be depressing, gory, probably crappy, most likely nothing like Keroro Gunso, and –oh yes- will involve character death (or will it~~~?) Dislike, don't read and just do not flame- you just make yourself look silly. POVs will flit about a bit but I'll try to keep it in third person. Please tell me if I need to change the rating or tone down the violence.
And now- since I can't write openings- let's crack on and drop head first into it! (who likes long chapters?)
Chapter one: Fall from grace
-BANG-FLASH-CRUNCH-ow.
Ow. No, really- Ow. Keroro peeled his face off the rough, rocky ground. Rough, rocky ground? The green sergeant had been happily constructing a MSM -03 Gogg in his room- his room with no rough rocky ground to implant his face in. And it was red. Kind of a Giroro red, a dried blood red. And from the indentation his face had left in the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground, Keroro must've fallen a great height. Not too great to kill him on impact, but great enough to make every bone in his Keronian body to shudder hideously before settling back down in their original positions.
"S...Sergeant?" The most familiar voice to Keroro mumbled from somewhere behind him.
"Gero? Fuyuki-dono!" Keroro raced- well, stumbled quickly really, he was in far too much pain to 'race' anywhere- over to his best friend, laying face down on the rough, rocky, dried blood ground, with a similar indent where his head had landed "Are you alright, Fuyuki-dono?"
The frail boy tried to lift his frailer body, but by how his fresh face writhed the second his tried to move, he must've been in immense pain "Sergeant...are you hurt?"
"A...A little bit, it feels like we fell pretty far..."
"Do you- ow-" Fuyuki groaned, getting into a kneeling position to look at his friend "Do you know where we are?"
"No...but," Keroro looked around, looked at the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground, looked at the mucky, oily sky with muckier, oilier, angry, rolling clouds, looked at how they met at the almost never-ending horizon. Jagged mountains- or what looked like jagged mountains- jutted out of the terrain in the distance, like big, black, ugly silhouettes on an uglier background "...Fuyuki-dono, I don't think we're on Pekopon anymore."
"Kukuku...That's an understatement if ever I've heard one, Captain." Fuyuki and Keroro turned quickly to where the voice sounded behind them.
Kururu, along with Saburo and Dororo and Koyuki and Tamama and Momoka and Giroro and Natsumi- everyone was almost right behind them, laying painfully on the ground, as if they had fallen from the sky just as Keroro and Fuyuki had. Which, most likely, they did.
"Ow...So where the hell are we?" Giroro growled, heaving himself up groggily, before clambering to Natsumi's side. He was holding a rifle and a small pistol, he'd probably been cleaning them before...whatever happened to make him suddenly fall out of a sky that he'd never seen before.
Kururu didn't look at him. The yellow amphibian's head was tilted downwards, but not in with the air of sinister surrounding him "I don't know." He admitted.
Those words- just three words- pretty simple words- felt like searing white hot swords shot clean through their stomachs.
"What..." Giroro sounded like he was shifting a huge lump in his throat, "what do you mean, 'don't know'? Can't you find out?"
The next word was just one, less than before, and even simpler, felt more like a battalion of expert marksmen shot two thousand searing white hot swords and nails and lead straight through them;
"No."
Panic started to grip them, they'd spent less than two minutes in this...place, which they didn't know what it was, where it was, and if they didn't know what it was and where it was, how will they know how to get back? Saburo was the first one to say this.
"Can you get us back, Kururu?" His voice remained level and calm, but he was just as jittery on the inside as everybody else.
"I'm...kuku...not certain."
"Why not?" Natsumi got to her feet. Her voice was breaking, just slightly, enough to give away how scared she was.
"Do you see a computer? Do you see my lab? In fact, apart from my smexy glasses , do you see any piece of working technology right here?" They took a moment to gaze around the wasteland, already knowing the answer "Kuku, didn't think so."
"Well," Fuyuki licked his lips nervously, trying to think, "j-just because there isn't any technology here, it doesn't mean there isn't any technology in...this place."
"You're right Fuyuki-kun," Momoka smiled, becoming more and more reassured, "there must be a town or city here. This place can't have nothing living in it."
"And if they are intelligent, they will have some form of technology." Saburo reasoned.
"Even if there is no technology, a civilisation can be intelligent enough to have the compassion and aptitude to help us return home." Dororo added "Just look at ninja villages; no technology is required but the civilisations are just as teeming with intelligence as others are."
"Well, that's up for debate, kukukuu..."Kururu snickered, prompting rare cold looks from Dororo and Koyuki. Kururu adjusted his glasses on his face, and unseen to the others who thought they were just simple glass, altered the lens, silently zooming in like binoculars, but with no obvious change in appearance, apart from a slight twisting of the swirls.
"There's a glow in the distance," He commented, "probably from a campsite fire. Kukuku, our first sign of civilisation maybe...?"
"So let's get going already!" Giroro bellowed, still losing patience despite the new hope lighting in his chest.
"-AHEM-"Keroro cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention "I do believe that I am the Sergeant, the Platoon leader. And as the Platoon leader, I do believe that I am the one to decide and give orders...So, let's get going!"
"Stupid frog." Natsumi muttered under her breath, before setting off on their trek. She didn't know how long the trek was going to be, she didn't know how long she could last before it became too draining to put one foot in front of the other, she didn't know how long until Fuyuki lost all energy to even move, she didn't know if she'd find something, if she'd find anything, if they could help, if they couldn't, if she would ever get back home, what would happen if she didn't...but she pushed every little hideous 'not-knowing' to the extreme corner of her brain, ignoring it totally, and focus only on walking. Walking through the wasteland.
Fuyuki's side had an agonizing stitch tearing him apart from the inside. He held it while he stumbled along, panting heavily. They had been walking...God, he didn't even know how far he'd been walking. The glow from the possible campsite hadn't gotten any closer. Everyone else was panting and almost tripping over their feet too, so it had been a good distance, but he was suffering the most. Everyone's bones still ached from the long fall down. He wanted to ask how far they thought they had walked, but couldn't; he needed every scrap of oxygen to pump into his lungs just to keep him standing.
"Are you alright, Fuyuki-kun?" Momoka asked, for the umpteenth time. Before, Fuyuki answered her with 'I'm fine' and a light-hearted smile. Now all he could do was shake his head and suck in more air to fuel the unnecessary movement. Suddenly-
"What the hell is that?"
Giroro's blunt (and somewhat wheezing) comment made everyone look towards what he was looking at. It was one of the mountains- well, the silhouettes from the distance looked like mountains, but up close where it wasn't shrouded in shadows, the mountains weren't mountains- just something much weirder.
It was half a pyramid, an Aztec pyramid as Fuyuki (despite his serious fatigue) ecstatically pointed out, made out of hundreds and hundreds of yellowy-brown stone steps, with cracks and crevices decorating it like an aged face. The other half, the top half, was the Statue of Liberty. The big green lady herself, neck, head and torch holding arm jutting out of the top of the pyramid like a green, infected toenail sticking out of an unhealthy toe. Where the pyramid ended and the almost quarter of the Statue started was a huge gouge-like gap, exposing the hollow of the Statue's head.
"How can...How can something from Earth be here?" Natsumi asked "I mean, it looks like they were ripped out of the ground and thrown together."
No one answered- no one knew the answer. "C-could the people who live here have carved it?" Momoka suggested, but the tone of her voice hinted to her own doubting.
"Doesn't look like it..." Fuyuki wheezed, taking the opportunity to double over and take in big lung-fuls of air "...If they had (gasp) carved it themselves then (gasp) they wouldn't've (gasp) had that big gap in the middle (gasp) or used both stone and (gasp) m-metal...(gasp, gasp)...and it's the designs are (gasp) exactly the same as the ones on (gasp) Earth..." His sentence finally out of his bone dry throat, Fuyuki fell to his knees, arms wrapped around his blazing waist.
"Fuyuki-dono! A-a-are you okay?" Keroro yelped, leaping to his side. Fuyuki didn't reply, just kept gasping and wheezing and trying not to die. Natsumi knelt beside her brother, gently rubbing his back.
"It's okay, just focus on breathing...It'll be okay." She told him calmly, over and over. She'd had to do this a few times before, thankfully only few times, and knew that the only way to deal with it was to keeping him calm so he could breathe. If he kept calm, he could focus on breathing, and if he kept focusing on breathing, he wouldn't be focussing on how terrible he felt.
"...sorry...(gasp)...sorry, Nee-chan...rubbish stamina...(gasp)..." The mangled words dripped out of his throat.
"No, it's okay, you're fine. Just try to breathe." Natsumi said, patting his back. She became aware that everyone, frogs and friends, was kneeling down too. Their faces were concerned (not counting Kururu, whose face almost never changed) and Koyuki had pulled out a small bamboo tube filled with water from behind her, wherever ninjas keep their stuff.
"Here you go." She smiled, encouraging him to take it. Fuyuki pushed it away.
"N...No, thanks. I think I'm okay now..." He slowly stood back up. A small embarrassed blush had tinged his face. "S-sorry everyone..."
"You don't have anything to apologise for, Fuyuki-kun." Momoka replied almost immediately.
" Of course not." Saburo agreed "People've got different levels of stamina. And people would be total losers if they didn't accept that fact and get moody if their friend is out of breath and, well, they wouldn't have many friends left."
Fuyuki awkwardly brushed dust and dirt off of his trousers "Th-thanks guys..." He smiled meekly. No one, save his family, had reacted this... nicely when he had completely lost all of his energy before. They would stand apart and watch awkwardly or with disdain while he struggled for breath. But his friends, his great friends, came to see if he was okay. And made him feel okay.
Giroro quickly scanned the area during the pause. More wasteland and the weird Pyramid of Liberty thing. "Since we've stopped, should we take a break here?"
"Yeah, that's a good idea..." Tamama replied "...Taaamaaa, my legs feel like they're about to fall off! What I wouldn't give for a cold shower!"
And then-
-WHOOSH-
Torrential rain spilled from the dark clouds like a waterfall. A freezing cold waterfall. So freezing cold in fact, that the moment an icy droplet touched their skin, it made everyone squeak in shock.
"You had to say it, didn't ya, Tama-ko?" Momoka yelled over the sheer roar of the falling rain. Clothes were soon becoming sodden and plastered skin. For the humans, it wasn't a very enjoyable experience. For the Keronians, however, it was like a nice shower. Keroro cupped his hands to collect the water to throw into his face, fully appreciating the coolness.
"We have to get out of this rain!" Natsumi shouted, wiping her soaking hair out of her eyes. Just after she said that, Keroro began to notice that the rain was getting even colder. And the droplets were getting bigger. And harder. And falling faster. Until they were hitting him like little bullets.
"Oh great! Hail!" Giroro yelled, holding up his rifle like an umbrella "Now we have to get out of this!"
"We can go in there!" Dororo pointed to the odd Pyramid of Liberty, more specifically, pointed to the gap where they can crawl inside.
And so they sprinted up the stone steps. Climbing and sprinting and clambering and racing while the hail plummeted down. In the brief glances Natsumi snatched away from the steps to the sky, she noticed the hail stones getting even bigger- she swore she could see some as big as golf balls. And feel some whizz so close to her skin that she could feel the frozen air splitting. The golf ball hail stones hit the stone steps with such ferocious force that the impact smacked a hole into the stone and threw shards up into the air. "It's like we're being bombarded." Giroro thought as a big ball of ice shattered the stone to his left. "It's been a long time since I've been bombed like this..."
"Keep your heads down and keep running!" He yelled over his shoulder, keeping a close eye on the eruptions that were much too near Natsumi "We're almost under cover!"
Still looking over his shoulder, Giroro saw exactly what happened.
One extra large hail stone, a hail stone the size of a football, shot down out of the clouds with the speed of a fatally precise bullet. Straight down, so fast that he would've missed it if he blinked, straight down, straight onto the side of Saburo's head.
There was a -SPLACK-, a sudden spurt of red, and Saburo span from the force, falling and tumbling down the steps and his arms were flailing and there was a painful -smack- with each step he rolled down. "SABURO-SENPAI!" Natsumi screamed, running back down the steps towards his tumbling body. Kururu let out a barely noticeable "Tch!" and ran down as well. Koyuki split off, leaping back down to help, and Dororo was just about to move as well and Fuyuki and Momoka had paused, weighing up whether they should help too until Giroro shouted "The others are helping- too many people and you'll get in the way, keep moving!" So they kept running and dodging deadly ice shells and prayed and begged and begged that Saburo was okay and that he wasn't so hurt that he- and they kept running until they were finally, finally at the clawed out gap and they climbed in, the humans having to give the Keronians a quick leg up before stretching up to get a hold of the cold green metal and heaving themselves up and into the cavern like head of Lady Liberty and it was cold and it was dark and the -CLATTER-BANG-CLATTER- of the cascading hail filled the cavern noisily and Fuyuki looked back to see his sister and Koyuki hauling up the lifeless Saburo and Kururu was running in front of them and there was a big red mess on the side of Saburo's hat and then they finally, finally made it to the gap and Koyuki let go of Saburo's body for a moment so she could jump into the head and pull up Saburo before helping Natsumi and Kururu just clamoured in of his own accord and they were finally, finally out of the bombardment. But that tiny flicker of relief didn't last. Not for a heartbeat.
Koyuki helped Natsumi drag Saburo's body further into the head, further into the safety of the cavern and away from any stray shards of rock and hail. "Wh-What do we do? What- is he even breathing?" Natsumi blubbered. Kururu pushed passed and put his mitt on Saburo's throat.
"Pulse is fine. Breathing's okay. Head..." he carefully pulled of Saburo's slightly red hat "...could be better." Now that was certainly an understatement. There was a red gap in the side of his head, like the gap in the Statue of Liberty's, but red and wet and bruised but not bleeding anymore. But that didn't stop the soaking wet blonde hair being stained a dirty red colour. A colour kind of like the colour of dried blood. Kind of like the colour of the ground of this place.
Suddenly, Koyuki snatched the hat from Kururu's grip and ran to the opening of the head. She carefully- very carefully- reached out and, using the hat like a glove, picked up a hail stone sitting in the hole it made in its impact. And then she rushed back over to the still unmoving (except for the barely rising and falling chest) and held the improvised ice pack just above the red red wound.
"This should keep the swelling down." Koyuki said. Her voice was jittery, but from the cold rain still clinging to her or from the fact she was holding a chunk of ice up to her friend's wet red wounded head in his stained red soggy hat.
From the touch of the frozen shard, Saburo flinched. He flinched. And then he gave a small mewling moan and tried to sit up. Then he opened his eyes. The friend everyone was scared was dead actually opened his eyes. Everyone, even Giroro, let out a shaky, purely relieved breath that almost made them fall over.
"Nnnh...what happened?" He rasped, wincing from the throb in his skull.
"Kuuuukuku! You got pwnd by super hail, kuku!" Kururu sniggered.
Saburo sat up properly, holding the ice chunk up himself now "Yeah, it feels like it." He grinned. His weary blue eyes slowly moved to the opening in the head, to the view of the place with the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground and the mucky, oily sky with muckier, oilier, angry, rolling clouds with shards and chunks of hailing icy death plummeting from them. "So, can we go home now?"
"Ku ku ku..."
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