Chapter 14 - Not Quite
His hand froze up on the control and a bead of cold sweat slid down the Corporal's head. Giroro's heart spiraled out of control. If only he hadn't been in such a hurry! The target was slow! It was large! He had the element of surprise! Was it destiny?
Time slowed to a crawl as Giroro glanced backwards at his comrades. They all looked back with a triumphant smile on their innocent faces.
Natsumi looked at Giroro, pride and something else mixing her face. As the ace Corporal turned around, though, something in the girl skipped a beat. His expression was neutral, but there was a deep sadness in his eyes. In one glance, they talked for hours, and suddenly, Natsumi knew what she had to do.
A warm soft touch enveloped Giroro's hand, and guided the shaking Corporal's hand a centimeter to the right. Time sped up again as the missile flew from the turret at the altered trajectory. The exchange between the two had amazingly only taken a second.
The ballistic streaked through the air, splitting at the center the reveal four separate launchers, hurling out their salvo of metal and explosives. A moment later, a massive fireball consumed Garuru's ship like a hungry lion leaving absolutely no trace behind.
There was a moment of silence in the Hinata household, then, an eruption of noise shattered the still air. Keroro jumped up and down: "OOOOH Natsumi-dono and Corporal Giroro! Good teamwork!"
"Yes." nodded Dororo wisely, "Their energies are completely aligned."
Alien and human looked at each other, joined in an inescapable destiny; and smiled.
Kururu's Lab - Two Days Later
Kururu paced the floor, in front of Fuyuki, Natsumi, Momoka, and the Platoon. "Ku ku ku...so...what happened. I don't remember a thing, and I'm the one making the mission reports...so...ku ku..." After the platoon filled the Sergeant Major in on the events two days past and left the labs, Kururu smiled secretly to himself. Slowly, he turned and walked towards his command chair, pulling up a few blueprints on main screen.
"Ku ku ku...those bastards 'forgot' to tell me about the AVCW." the platoon had just described it as just any old apocalypse weapon. "No doubt they figured I would use the idea to my own advantage and were glad that I supposedly lost my memories..."
Rummaging around in a pile of machine parts, Kururu finally found what he was looking for. Smiling triumphantly, he pulled a small belt like machine from the pile and said to no one in particular: "Pocket sized personal shielding. Protects you from everything from missiles to time warps! Buy yours today, kids!"
Living Room - Five Days Later
Keroro lounged around the living room watching the newest episode of Captain Geroro, while Natsumi played an RPG and Fuyuki read the newest on UMAs. Dororo, however, still had reason to worry. After the Hinata house was secured, and several scans of Pekopon revealed no other UFO, both Momoka and Dororo raced home to make sure everything was alright. Koyuki was standing upright in their house, looking at Dororo with mild concern. The portable shield making device stood unused in the corner.
"That's right." Dororo reminded himself, "According to Sergeant Major Kururu, the apocalypse never even happened..." But who had caused it? While he embraced Koyuki with joy in his heart, in the back of his mind the Lance Corporal couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding that gripped his very being. If this mysterious race could get their hands on on AVCW, they could get more, and who knew where they would strike next. Dimentos as well, was still at large. While defeated and in critical condition, Dororo highly doubted the cunning shape-shifter was really gone.
A sudden hum of motors overtook the air. Looking, up Dororo could see a massive alien mail-ship hovering over his house. Walking out, the ninja waved, and a long metal tentacle dropped from a hatch on the bottom, holding a single slip of paper.
The assassin calmly pulled the paper from the tentacle, slightly annoyed. By the looks of it, the delivery had been express, meaning that the recipient had to pay a small fee to obtain their item.
"I didn't order anything…" muttered Dororo crossly as he rummaged around for some change.
"No need," came the metallic voice from inside the ship, "This express delivery is free. Planet Keron has paid for this announcement to be brought to all invading platoons." Dororo froze up, the back of his neck tingling, assassin sense on high alert. Slowly, he brought the paper to eye level.
ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL INVADING PLATOON MEMBERS
PLEASE REPORT TO THE GRAND STAR MOTHERSHIP
WITHIN 24 HOURS.
ALL ABLEBODIED KERONIANS ARE DRAFTED TO DEFEND OUR SOIL.
KERON IS UNDER ATTACK.
Where would they strike next indeed.
END.