Disclaimer: I think Kururu is onto my plan to bribe Tamama. He's a wild card and he may help me just for the amusement but I can't be certain. I'll have to be careful.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

Author Speaking

Chapter 9

Soon everyone except Dororo, who hadn't been seen since earlier, had gathered in an old room off to the side that had possibly once been meant to be used for having tactical meetings, but since that never happened the room just collected dust. Momoka had composed herself after her heartwrenching reunion with her long lost friend and was back to holding Fuyuki's hand, abit in a less desperate seeming manner than before.

"Alright, alright, I guess we do owe you all an explanation… But first, how long has it been since we left?" Giroro asked no one in particular, but it felt to the others as though his question was directed at Natsumi.

"We haven't heard from you in… Four years?" Natsumi responded, unsure.

"Four years, one month, and nine days." Fuyuki said followed by a moment of silence from everyone.

"Wow, it's been that long huh?" Tamama said after a while, "For us it's only been a little less than a year."

The frogs got a few bewildered stares from the collective humans until Kururu cut in with an explanation, "Time is perceived to move slower in space, an astronaut can be in orbit for two years, but to him it will only seem like two months, Kukukuku."

The conversation was interrupted when Keroro blinked open his eyes from where he was slouched against the wall in the dusty corner of the room where Giroro had insisted they store him so he wouldn't get in the way, "Mmnh? Where am I?"

"Kuku! Welcome back Sergent," Kururu said almost mockingly.

Keroro stood up and brushed himself off, "Last thing I remember was whe-" He cut himself off as he finally noticed their old friends standing around the room with them.

The leader of the Keroro platoon shook his head lightly and said with an idiotic laugh, "Well clearly I'm still dreaming, so if you don't mind I'll just get back to my nap…"

Giroro paced over to the green haired teen and pinched him on the arm as hard as he possibly could, earning a shriek from the injuredleader.

"What was thatfor!?" He asked, bristling.

"When people think their dreaming, you're supposed to pinch them. I've seen way too many pekoponian movies not to be prepared for this," Giroro said with a confident shrug of his shoulders.

"Wait… So this isn't a dream?" He asked in surprise.

"Nope! You're not dreaming baby!" Tamama reassured him happily.

"Then that means… Fuyuki!" He yelled as he threw himself at his friend knocking them both to the ground.

Momoka shamelessly let go of Fuyuki's hand with lightning speed to keep from being toppled to the ground with them.

"As we were saying before," Kururu continued even as Keroro was busy nearly smothering Fuyuki in hugs and getting jealous glares from Tamama, "Even though I don't agree with it, we at least owe you all an explanation… Or an excuse, whichever comes first."

"Alright, first off, what the hell you guys? Why did you just up and leave without telling any of us?" Natsumi asked somewhat angrily.

Giroro was the first to respond to his crush's question, "We got a call from headquarters telling us we had to come in for a mandatory strategic meeting, so we decided it would be nice to take a quick three week vacation and see our families while we dealt with that stuff. We didn't want to make it a dramatic mess so we left a note and took off. Though clearlyall that shit dragged on longer than we expected, and without any way to contact you we were stuck there until we were allowed to return to our invasion."

"What note?" Natsumi asked.

"Keroro was in charge of writing the note, though I doubt he did as he was busy trying to squeeze as many gundam models as he could into a carry on bag," Tamama said brightly as if this were a good thing.

"That still doesn't explain how you turned into humans," Fuyuki said after he finally pushed Keroro off him.

"Kuku, that's what the strategic meeting was for, a handful of the current invasion squadrons were chosen at random to test out their new play on the Pekoponian Suit, a gun that actually morphs the target into the species their invading so they can blend in," Kururu said carefully avoiding any long scientific terms the simple minded ones wouldn't understand.

"Chosen at random my ass…" Giroro said with a scowl, "They used it on uscause if we died in the process it wouldn't matter, we were their guinea pigs!"

"That's awesome!" Fuyuki exclaimed, ignoring Giroro's comment.

"It should be, I'm the one who designed it, kuukukuku," The Sergeant Major said with a laugh.

"I'm just glad to be back after all that!" Keroro said with a smile accompanied by an agreeing nod from his teammates.

"Should we tell Koyuki and Saburo?" Momoka asked even though the answer was obvious.

"Of course, but well have to break it to them gently," Natsumi said with a nod.

"Kukukuku! No need to tell Saburo," Kururu told them plainly.

"What the hell did you do?!" Giroro asked, angry that the scientist had broken their agreement not to tell the pekoponians.

"I didn't tellhim… He just sorta found out when we were playing shogi on the roof."

"Is thatwhere you went during lunch!?" Giroro practically screamed at the Sergeant Major.

"It's no big deal, I told you Fuyuki and the others would find us out eventually!" Keroro broke into the conversation before the constant adrenalin-fueled alien could wrap his hands around Kururu's neck.

"No, I remember you saying something along the lines of, 'Kero kero kero,those stupid pekoponians will never even know,'" Tamama said unhelpfully.

Keroro sweatdropped nervously as the humans all shot murderous glares at him.

Quickly trying to moving the subject along, Keroro asked, "Where is the Lance Corporal?"

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen Dororo since the pekoponians invaded out base," Giroro responded giving a light chuckle of thought of the pekoponians actually invading their base.

"So Dororo's gone?" Keroro asked with an underlying tone of concern, "Where could he have gone?"

As if to answer their question the muffled sound of a large explosion shook the ground knocking a few of them off their feet.

"Does thatanswer your question?!" Momoka yelled the sudden shock sending her into 'dark Momoka mode'.

"Come on, we'd better go fix whatever he broke…" Giroro said with a sigh, he had been through this same situation waytoo many times for it to honestly surprise him anymore, "Let's just hope he didn't get his trauma switch stuck again."

I asked my friend DeadLyric to draw pics of the platoon as Pekoponians! As soon as she finishes, I'll post them on my Tumblr if you want to check them out!

Have you guys heard the new V3 Vocaloids yet? VY1 is my new favorite!

I GOT A CAT GUYS! He doesn't have a name yet, if you have any suggestions leave them in your review! X3

I never really cared about Rates or Reviews, but if you like my story please Favorite! Thanks! ^^