Happy REALLY Late Birthday, Rainbowkittyblossomwings! :D (I really gotta stop getting distracted on my due dates)

...*breath*...*breath*...*breath*...My name...is Nitata.

I...I've been shot. I tried to escape. But...*cough* *cough* *wheeze*...*choke* I...I was framed for something...I didn't...*cough* *cough* I'm not a spy. But...they...*cough* *breath* *gasp*

...Listen. I'm not sure how long I have. *breath* If anyone finds this...find out...w-who I am. Tell my family...*gasp* tell them I love them. Tell them I'm sorry...I never got to tell them myself. I love you, Mom. Grandma. Everyone. ...*choke* I love you all. I'm sorry. ...I'm so sorry.

...D-Dad. *gasp*...If you ever...hear this...*breath* Know that I love you. I've alw...*static* loved you. ...*static*-ove you, e-*static*-th-*static* *gasp* Plea-*static*...please fin-*static*-e. *choke*

*static*

Giroro dug through the ship's inventory as fast as he could, carelessly throwing supplies to the floor while struggling to find anything that could be of use. He found entire racks of nothing but loaded weapons, but ignored them, as they were worthless against an army of ships. He could just summon as many weapons as he wanted himself anyway, so that made them even less important. He found an emergency power switch, but had his hopes demolished when he pulled it several times with no success. The ship was trapped in the middle of a field of electromagnetic pulses that made any equipment they had which required power to work bootless. He found boxes upon boxes of first aid medical supplies, but it would take far too long for him to patch himself up, not to mention that fixing his injuries were the least of his problems. He didn't think about the pain in his arms and legs. As long as they were still in danger, pain didn't exist to him.

Natsumi rushed into the open area, Teri still crying in the cockpit. She was exhausted, and spoke in a winded voice. Her legs shook in a powerful struggle to keep herself standing. She found Giroro scurrying through every door and cabinet that could be opened without a key. He planned on breaking the remaining doors open with the guns after he was done with the lock-less ones.

Natsumi jumped in to help him. Giroro saw this and screamed when she made it to one of the doors he hadn't reached yet. "I'LL HANDLE THIS! STAY WITH TERI!"

"I'm fine!" she yelled, digging through the closet's supplies, which appeared to be nothing but emergency oxygen tanks and masks.

Giroro wasn't in the mood to argue. He dropped everything he was currently holding and dashed toward her, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "NO, YOU'RE NOT!"

"GIRORO!" she snapped, yanking him away with a furious tug. "WE'RE BOTH IN DANGER! TERI'S IN DANGER! I CAN DO WHATEVER YOU CAN DO, PROBABLY MORE! I'M NOT GOING TO JUST SIT AND WAIT FOR THEM TO KILL US!"

A bullet was fired. Natsumi nearly fell backwards in surprise from the mysterious loud bang. She turned around, seeing Giroro holding a steaming pistol pointed at the ceiling. "I don't need your help! I need you safe!"

Natsumi almost lost her mind with her husband's brash decision. That bullet could have shot a hole in the ceiling, allowing space to tear apart the ship from the inside. "I'm not going to get hurt! The longer we argue,...!"

He fired two more bullets, the scowl across his face growing more vicious. Natsumi knew how dead serious he was, but she wasn't leaving. She wasn't going to let her slowly dying husband search for a way to save them all on his own. He had never been this protective before. He was rarely ever protective at all. He knew she was stronger than him. Why the hell, of all times, did he decide to start arguing about her safety now?

She remembered the situation they were in. She frantically went back to searching. Giroro screamed her name, but she didn't listen. He fired his gun again. She didn't listen. He marched over to her and grabbed her arm. She violently threw him off the moment he felt her touch. Giroro was sent tumbling backwards into the wall. The thud of his impact caused Keroro's forgotten suitcase, that had been resting in a small cubicle inside the wall, to fall from its standing position. It landed on Giroro's head, causing him to grunt loudly in pain as he grabbed his cap tightly.

Giroro was furious. He felt his emotions boil to a breaking point. The suitcase suddenly popped open after it slammed against the floor. Giroro followed the noise, and saw the open suitcase laying in front of him, revealing what was inside. His eyes widened. He wasn't concentrating on Natsumi any longer. The button-covered sphere inside Keroro's suitcase was far more worthy of his attention.

"...Y-Yeah! I'm ready!" Keroro shouted back. He tucked the photo back under his hat and grabbed his suitcase. Turning towards the door, he suddenly froze. "Wait! I forgot something! Give me a second!" he yelled, dropping his suitcase and running to the corner of the room. He looked down at the wooden shelf he kept a few of his belongings in, eyeing the bottom drawer. He slid the drawer open, pulling out the only thing that rested inside.

"Better bring this. Just in case."

He remembered this Keroball being what saved him, Natsumi and Tamama during their final fight before the invasion ended. He remembered the horrible lengths he went to get this weapon. He would never get the taste of blood-soaked flesh out of his mouth. It may not have been the worst memory from the invasion, but it was still enough to give him permanent nightmares. But of course, he knew that it had to be less terrifying than a game of peek-a-boo to Giroro. His memories were without a doubt much worse. They each had their own scars after it was all over. None of them were completely sane.

He grabbed the Keroball and walked over to his suitcase, popping it open and placing the small weapon inside. He decided to keep it close in case the Keron army ever showed up again to finish what they started. It honestly surprised him that they never did, but now that they were flying to the very planet they all inhabited, he wanted to have it around for protection. He didn't know if things would go haywire or not, and since they were only going on the trip to cheer him up, he didn't want to be responsible for putting them in danger.

He brought both ends of the case together and clicked it shut. He felt a comforting breeze brush through him knowing that at least now he could keep them all safe. Lifting up his suitcase once more, he exited the room and followed Natsumi, who was waiting just outside, out the front door.

Reaching inside the suitcase and grabbing the Keroball, Giroro carefully lifted it up while staring at it in a speechless shock. Natsumi turned to Giroro when she heard that he had stopped arguing. Her eyes widened just as much as his. She saw that he had taken the device out of what she recognized as Keroro's suitcase. "Wh-What was Toad doing with that!?"

Giroro cleared his thoughts and looked at her with a deadpan expression. "PUT ONE OF THOSE OXYGEN MASKS ON! AND GET ONE FOR TERI! TAKE THE TANKS TO THE COCKPIT!" he ordered. Natsumi realized that Giroro now had a plan and grabbed as many masks as she could with frantic speed.

The ships were all in position. Their radars had all guided missiles aimed on one single ship that drifted through open space like an ordinary piece of discarded debris. The thousands of keronians that occupied the large fleet of ships weren't used to such a scenario. Rarely would an entire fleet be needed for anything other than a space battle or planetary blockade. Never for just one ship. The thought of what could be inside this seemingly harmless vessel almost terrified them. They were, after all, far stronger than any other army in the universe. Whatever could be waiting inside this one defenseless ship couldn't actually be a threat, could it? These thoughts raced through each of their minds as they prepared to fire everything they had, as ordered by General Borara.

"All weapons are go. On your orders, sir." the General heard over his earpiece. Borara stopped mid-huff on his cigar and immediately answered.

"Fire."

Natsumi tightened the four straps on Teri's seat belt before then buckling herself in. Giroro had ordered that they both keep themselves securely in place with oxygen masks on, which lead down to two tanks of air locked firmly below their seats. Giroro stood in front of them, staring out into the fleet of ships with the Keroball held tightly in his arms. He wore a space suit, his own oxygen tank attached to his back. He cautiously readied himself while waiting for the fleet's signal.

"Okay, we're ready!" Natsumi announced. She had secured herself and Teri as well as she could, praying that it was enough. Her body began to heat up with fear. She nervously shook her fingers as icy goose bumps rolled down her spine. She knew Giroro was putting himself in greater danger than ever before, but what choice did they have at this point? Hopefully, this would turn out in their favor, as it always had in the past. Every single time they had ever been put in a life or death situation, they would always make it just by the hair on their skin. They had endured years of deadly adventures and harsh battles. So many close calls. So many more self sacrifices. And yet, they were still here.

Puffs of smoke appeared in the distances as small grey dots. Giroro knew what that meant. The missiles had been fired. The Keron army had equipped their missiles with cloaking devices to help destroy unsuspecting ships. Giroro may not have been able to see the missiles, but knew enough about Keron protocol to know they were coming. He took his stance. He grasped the Keroball like he would an ordinary pistol. Then, carefully placing his thumb on a certain button while being careful not to push it, he screamed to Natsumi.

"NOW!"

Natsumi reached to her side and picked up a large rifle that had been retrieved from the ship's search earlier. She fired circles into the glass that separated the inside of the cockpit from the vacuum of space. The glass shattered, and Giroro was instantly sucked out into space, Natsumi and Teri being held down in their buckled seats. Natsumi's hair raced in front of her face as space violently pulled on it, causing her to clench her teeth. She held the gun tightly in her hands so it wouldn't be ripped from her grasp and carried out into the dark void. She took frantic breaths after she finished screaming, which blew fog onto the end of her oxygen mask. She could no longer see her husband. Everything aside the ships was pitch black.

Giroro flew uncontrollably through space. The world in front of him was a spinning blur, occasionally giving him a brief look at the huge circle of enemies that surrounded him. He pressed the button below his thumb. His entire body suddenly steadied, making him feel incredibly dizzy from both the wild spinning and the immediate halt. He knew the missiles were getting close, even if he couldn't see them, and quickly found the next button. The button that had the capability to destroy a planet. A rather large potion of his training had taught him to fear this button, but he now completely ignored those lessons and angrily and forcefully pushed it.

A giant beam of yellow lightning blasted out of the Keroball's antenna. It shot towards the fleet, creating silent, blinding explosions in the distance before reaching the ships. Giroro grinned, realizing that he had hit the missiles. He swung the Keroball in circles, watching a stream of equally large explosions appear where ever the beam reached. All of the ships really did fire at once, didn't they? They really weren't letting up.

He continued to create eruptions of fiery blasts that looked to Giroro as though it engulfed the universe itself. Once he saw that the explosions stopped, he continued his barrage even after he saw he had gotten all the missiles, hoping he could take out a few of the ships while he was at it. A massive pink shield appeared around each of the ships as the lightning collided with them, protecting the fleet from the attack. Giroro deactivated the beam and pressed another button, creating the same protective shield around his own body.

General Borara watched as a moon-sized beam of lightning that seemed to come out of nowhere obliterated all of their missiles just before vanishing. The video display in front of him zoomed into the area where it appeared the beam had originated from. It eventually detected a red keronian in a space suit carrying a Keroball drifting through space. He stared ominously at the single soldier before turning to a keronian over a computer by his side, knowing that he was already on the task of finding the red frog's identity.

"Is this 'Giroro'?" Borara asked, recalling the name of his target the Supreme Commanders had given him. A few clicks away and the keronian spoke up.

"Yes, General." he answered. Borara looked back at Giroro, who was peering around open space as if he was anxiously waiting for something. The General saw straight though Giroro's stern expression and realized what he was doing; biding time for them to attack with a second bombardment of missiles, keeping himself protected with a shield until the time came to release another streak of lightning. Borara had no idea how Giroro even came across a Keroball. It seems lucky that they had one on hand, since the Keroball had its own self-powered energy source that is kept within it's interior and doesn't require electricity, explaining why their electromagnetic beams didn't work on it. That Keroball would last longer than the ship's power, so it was no use sending out more missiles. Giroro could easily just wait it out until their shields eventually died down and then blow them all to pieces.

"General!" a yellow keronian ran into the room, grabbing Borara's attention. "That soldier has a Keroball, and he used it to destroy all of our miss-"

"I know." Borara interrupted, gesturing toward the video display.

"...Oh." the yellow keronian replied. "Well, should we reload and fire ag-?"

"No. As long as he has that Keroball, our missiles are useless." Borara dropped his cigar on the floor and stepped on it, spreading the hot ashes beneath his bare foot. "Have every ship send out a squad of troopers to overwhelm him. Make sure they're all wearing cloaking devices to avoid being noticed. Tell each of them to focus all they have on destroying the Keroball. One bullet through the center should be enough to amply drain it of it's power. Only after the Keroball is rendered useless will we fire more missiles."

Everything was far too calm for Giroro's liking. A whole five minutes of nothing had gone by since he destroyed their missiles. They must know he was out of his ship by now. And after the huge show his counter attack had created, they must know that he has a Keroball as well. They had to be plotting their next move. Giroro had his eyes focused on every corner of space, waiting to see even the slightest hint of a second attack. His own impatience was quickly getting to him, though.

'Things shouldn't be this calm. They should have tried SOMETHING by now.' he thought. He considered sending out another lightning strike, but that idea was disregarded just as soon as it came. Attacking again was utterly pointless since they likely now had stronger shields than ever. Giroro swallowed distressfully. He didn't have an escape plan, nor could he possibly think of one. For all he knew, there were already more ships coming to aid in his assassination attempt. They were already overpowered as it is. Not to mention their ship was now completely out of power. Even if they did manage to somehow defeat this entire fleet with nothing but a Keroball, they'd still be stranded out in space with no way of getting back to either Keron or Earth.

Giroro then remembered a certain button on the very bottom of the Keroball. The teleportation control. One press, and whoever is holding the Keroball, along with whoever or whatever they may be holding onto, is instantly teleported away to a random area in the space they occupy. It was also the control that required the least amount of power, since it was the least easy to control. But the more Giroro thought about using it, the more he wanted to ignore it. The teleportation control is meant to only be pushed when the user is in a small building or field. They were in the middle of empty space. Not having any control over where they end up meant that they could be teleported to literally anywhere in the universe. They could end up stranded somewhere far beyond the explored totality. They could wind up lost in the far end of some lifeless, unknown galaxy. They wouldn't even have any way of being found, since their ship was now completely out of power and could no longer be tracked.

Shaking his mind free of these fears, Giroro concentrated once again on the current situation, finding that the ships were still, after who-knows how many minutes, sitting still and doing nothing. His shield remained up while his eyes continued to scan every inch of the blackness around him.

A painful shock shot through his body. He shrieked in agony while his limbs twitched uncontrollably. Bright jolts of electricity sparked around his shield before it vanished in a split second flash. Giroro let out a soar groan when it was over, followed by a loud, stinging cough.

"Open fire!" one of the invisible keronians said to his comrades through their space helmets. Every keronian aimed their pistols at Giroro and fired rapidly, only to see that his fast reflexes had allowed him to reactivate his shield once more.

"Shock him aga-!" another keronian called out just before Giroro then released his planet-destroying lightning beam on them, obliterating every soldier on sight. He swerved it around wildly, making sure to hit every direction he could think a soldier might be planning a sneak attack, as well as any other dozens of soldiers that may be in that direction. Quickly looking up for the first time, he saw five large rockets heading straight down toward his face at raging speed, huge streams of smoke releasing in silence from their vanes. Five invisible soldiers must have fired their launchers at him from above when he wasn't looking.

Giroro pressed another button nearly the moment he saw the rockets, causing a strong shock wave to burst from the antenna that forced him backwards at the speed of a jet, his body still protected from the stability of the shield around his body. The rockets missed their and flew straight into another group of keronians who were stationed underneath Giroro.

He threw the Keroball over his head as he flew through open space and released the bolt once more, turning every keronian who might be in his way into ash. Once he felt he was far enough away from the majority of the soldiers that were moments ago surrounding him, he pressed the shock button again in the opposite direction, forcing him to immediately halt with a harsh pound to the chest. Giroro winced for a second, thankful that his protective shield was still up, knowing that every bone in his body would have shattered on impact if it wasn't. He swung his body around and released another bolt, continuing what he considered to be an arguably unavailing defense.

Borara and everyone on the ship saw the screen turn a blinding, bright yellow as the huge bolt of lightning reappeared. Several of the men and women who saw it looked at each other with nervous expressions, feeling a sickening pain punch through their stomachs at the thought of all the lives that had just been grisly taken. The rest of them, though, were just glad that it wasn't them out in space fighting this frog.

The general looked on in deep thought. He contemplated their situation deeply and wondered if there was anything they could do to gain a further advantage. Realizing that Giroro's ship was still sitting out in space unguarded, he told one of his men to contact the highest ranking soldier on the battlefield so he could deliver them a new set of orders. If this single Corporal was in fact too skilled with the Keroball for his soldiers to do anything, at least they still had one unprotected target they could take advantage of.

I'm starting to think that I shouldn't have teased you guys with that "Something BIG is happening next chapter" thing. You see, I realized during my burnout that the biggest problem I keep making for myself is that the chapters I write are too damn long, making the stress of having to push myself to my limit just to get one chapter out be the thing that, ironically, keeps me from continuing. So I've decided from this point forward that I'm going to restrict all future chapters of this story and anything else I write to only 3,500 words. No more trying to fill a ton of important shit into one chapter. If I have something important I want to get to while writing but realize I'm close to my 3,500 word limit, I'll simply think of a satisfying way to end the chapter there and move said important moment to the next one.

And well...that's kind of what happened here. So the massively important moment I mentioned last chapter is actually in the next chapter. I apologize for those who were waiting. Hopefully, this new word limit I've made for myself helps me get more work done faster. :)