Chapter 1
"Can you two come in here?" Kululu asked. I walked towards the room he was in, next to the lab. Giroro was right behind me.
"Take a look at this. What do you see?"
I frowned. "I see a snake…? I think." Giroro went pale. "Oh crap. That's not just a snake. That's a nightmare viporian! Where the frog did you get that?!"
"Kukukuku! HQ sent it to me. They want me to try and create an antidote to the horrible poison it produces. Apparently, one of the other platoons ran into a nest of them and are now dying or dead. Fascinating, isn't it? Kukukuku!"
Now I turned pale and stepped back from the hissing reptile. "Wait, dead? A-are we s-safe? And what d-do you want us for?"
"Nothing special, I just wanted you to see it. Ah, good. Keroro, you're here." Keroro, the leader of his platoon, walked into the room, holding a new Gundam model. "Hey you guys! This is no time to be slacking! There are models… I mean, there are battle plans to be made!"
"Uh-huh. I've heard that before." Giroro muttered. "What is it this time?! Take over the hobby shop?!"
"Well, I don't have anything yet…"
"Sir, if I could make a suggestion?"
"What is it, Kululu?"
"Kukuku! This is a very simple one. Come over here." Keroro walked to Kululu's chair, and with amazing speed Kululu placed a helmet of some sort on each of our heads. You'd think that I would have learned by now to get out of the lab when I could.
"Kya! What is this for?! Get it off me!"
"Don't worry. I'm just downloading a copy of your brainwaves for easy access and monitoring. Hold still. Ku!" Kululu grabbed a little instrument and poked Keroro in the arm with it.
"Ow! What the frog was that for?!"
"You'll see. I wouldn't move if I were you, though. Kuku!" Kululu got up and sealed the door behind him before any of us could even register that he left.
Giroro ran to the door and pounded on it with everything two feet of frog alien could muster. "Kululu! Let us out! NOW! This is not funny! I know you're planning something and we want nothing to do with it! Let us out!" When no answer came, Giroro walked over to the corner where I was sitting and sat next to me. "Don't worry. We'll be fine. Kululu likes to hurt people, not kill them. He's probably just trying to scare us." He handed me a small knife anyway.
"Where the hey have you been hiding that?" I smiled a bit, which is probably what he was aiming for. Giroro may be a soldier and acts tough, but he seems to have a soft spot for me. I tried to take the helmet off my head, but it was stuck tight.
"Hyperspace storage. And I don't think that helmet is coming off anytime soon. He probably put some kind of super glue in it to keep it on."
"Crap."
Meanwhile, Keroro was pulling at the helmet with all his might, desperate to get it off. "Kululu! As your commanding officer, I order to get this stupid thing off of me! Gero! Get off of me, you stupid helmet!" An intercom buzzed and Kululu's stupid, chilling laugh poured through. "I'm sorry sir, but it can't come off until the tests are finished. You'll just have to deal with it."
Giroro snarled. "When I get out of here, Crazy Eyes, HQ is going to be the least of your worries!"
I looked around, and my eyes fell on the tank the snake was being held in. It was a truly terrifying sight. The viporian was midnight black, had a hood like a Pekoponian cobra, and eyes that looked like the creature could understand us. Understand us and knew we were crunchy and good with ketchup.
As I gazed warily at it, I realized that there was a strange silence in the air. I saw movement in the corner of the tank. "…G-G-Giroro… please tell me I'm not seeing what I think I am." Giroro looked at the tank and froze. Sure enough, the glass panel of the tank was lowering. The snake seemed to almost chuckle. Keroro, being a man of action, did the first thing that came to his mind: he screamed and fainted. "Hey, this could work. M-maybe it'll choke on Keroro and we can get out," I said, trying to sound upbeat. "If only. Stay back, Moriri."
I clutched the knife and almost choked as the viporian uncoiled itself and slithered toward us. Faster than thought itself Giroro was in the air, a small pistol flashed into his hand. "Hyaaaaaa!" He let out a battle cry, desperately trying to keep its attention on him and not me. Unfortunately, the nightmare viporian is not called that for kicks. Faster than the speed of fear, it had Giroro immobilized in its coils and bit him on the arm. "Moriri! Ru-" Giroro's eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped over. The monster released him and slid over to the unconscious figure that was Keroro and bit him on the leg.
I held the almost pitiful knife in front of me and prayed to every god, spirit, and being that I could think of, tears running down my face, fogging up my goggles. The viporian slid casually to me, avoiding the swing of my weapon. It bit me, and my hand was on fire.
Everything went black.
