Thank you, G66XD66 (I haven't read the host, but I have seen cloverfield and it's probably because Japan's deserted like New York became xP) , Latios 381 (Saburo's a smart lad, he might be okay. If he's not dead, I mean ;) ), Shamaru009 (you might not have to wait long...), Apo350 (Vengeful Fuyuki gained over 9000 exp.! And if you continue to spot those mistakes, please point them out so I know what I'm doing wrong), Lunatic's Lament (they are just the cutest frog invaders ever, right?), Tybalt C (I've wondered it from the start, but only now thought of a story to go with it :) ), Erinunu (I shall keep 'em coming, never fear~!), and ZanyAnimeGirl (um...yes? ^^) for your comments! So many reviewers~ me such a happy toad~ ^^ I am so sorry that this chapter is so late. D: Blame the British education system. Who said we HAD to do coursework, huh? But I swear, this fic, it will never die; it may stagnate, it may loll, it may take me flipping ages to get one ruddy chapter out, but it shall always be updated until it is complete...! (aaaand speech over, back to the fic) Oh, but I will be on an OFFICIAL HIATUS after this chapter...which is a funny thing to announce seeing as I've been on an unofficial hiatus for four months xD bit awkward.

Would you kindly review, you lovely people? :3


"It was...there, I think."

Garuru followed Giroro's finger, pointing to the ditch just a few meters away from him. "The Pekoponian fell there."

As he had planned the day before, the two of them departed with Private Tamama under the guise of investigating possible refugee camps. Which didn't please Sergeant Keroro much. "What was the point of asking HQ for more troops if we're wasting them on work Tamama can do by himself?" was vaguely what the green Keronian had whined when he thought Garuru was out of ear shot.

But Garuru knew he was taking a mighty risk. If Headquarters discovered that the Kero Ball had been lost, or that Giroro had failed to recover it when he had the perfect chance to do so...If they even discovered that Giroro had fled from the scene, merely because of one dead alien, it could ruin his military career. Ruin his reputation. His life. Really, the list of what could be ruined was endless. Which is why the two brothers had to 'come across the lost device purely by chance' as quickly as possible.

Garuru looked at his brother. Tiny beads of sweat had formed on his forehead, and if he focused long enough, he could see the red hands trembling ever-so-slightly. Being here was already ruining him. Strange, really. On the battlefield, Giroro could decimate legions of enemies with rounds and rounds of gunfire, without a shiver of fear passing through him. But coming to terms with the fact there was one less terrified, starving, hopeless Pekoponian, because of his hand, reduced him to...To something he did not want to see his younger brother as a moment longer.

"I'll go," Garuru finally said. As he marched up to the ditch, he thought he heard Giroro croak a "thank you".

Standing at the edge, the purple Keronian looked down into the ditch. He saw a big, soiled mattress slumped at the bottom partially covering a rather big stain, the colour of rust.

"Dried blood," Garuru recognized. He jumped into the trench and shoved away the mattress. There was a big blood stain, and nothing else. No dead Pekoponian. No Kero Ball. "Shit."

"Well?" Giroro called out, anxiety making his voice a tad higher than usual.

"It's not here," Garuru grunted, climbing back to his brother.

"The Kero Ball or the boy?"

"Neither."

"Huh? How could that-?" The red Keronian's eyes widened with a mix of emotions, but mostly shock, "Do you think...The boy could've survived? Took the Kero Ball with him?"

"...Doubtful, seeing how much blood he must of lost," Garuru mulled aloud, "but then Pekoponians have more blood in them to lose before they die."

"So he could be alive?"

"Maybe...Or maybe another Pekoponian found the body, moved it, in which case they would have the Kero Ball now."

"But there is a chance the boy could still be alive?" Giroro pressed. Garuru was about to point out the damage a Keron Army Standard Issue Plasma Rifle could do even when fired by a lemming with bad aim...but then he was the desperation in his brother's eyes. He so wanted this Pekoponian- this child, who was likely to have tried to kill him anyway- to not be dead. So to spare his brother's conscience, Garuru lied through his teeth.

"Yes, there's a very good chance."

Giroro sighed a deep, shaky breath of pure relief.


"Katazuchi-san?" Momoka knocked on the door of the sergeant's personal office/quarters, Fuyuki just behind her. She stole silent glances at him while they waited.

She felt ashamed to admit it to herself, but over these couple of months she had not really thought about him. To be honest, she had been a bit preoccupied with being escorted around secret underground passage ways that were being bombed, helping to tunnel out of said underground passage way that had caved in, being escorted around the ruined Tokyo, being rescued by a wild dog attack, and finally having to sit around the Sanctuary watching Paul get sicker and sicker...

But now he was within sight again. She could now once more stare at her handsome Fuyuki Hinata-kun from a distance inside the safety of the Sanctuary.

Suddenly, the office door opened and a smiling Katazuchi greeted them. "Hey you two, what's up?"

"Um, w-well Katazuchi-san...We were...Hinata-kun was wondering..."

"Could we...uh, speak inside your office, Katazuchi-san?" Fuyuki quickly asked, looking up and down the corridor furtively. The friendly sergeant nodded, and motioned for them to enter.

The office was little more than a concrete box furnished with a plastic desk and chair, a tiny fold-up bed in the corner, and maps lining the walls. "Katazuchi-san must really be amazing," Momoka thought, "to be able to stay so happy when he's cooped up in...Here."

"So what's this about?" Katazuchi, still smiling, leaned against his desk and crossed his arms.

"Uh..." Neither of them could talk. It was like their throats had been seized up by the atmosphere, like standing in front of a head teacher, knowing what you have to say but being incapable of saying it. Remarkably, Fuyuki was able to clear his throat and talk, "I was wondering...w-well, hoping...If I could become part of the Earth Resistance?"

Katazuchi's eyes narrowed suddenly, and then settled suspiciously on Momoka. The air in the room became a lot more stifling. "How do you know about that, Fuyuki-kun?"

"I...I told him," Momoka admitted quietly.

"I sort of forced it out of her, Katazuchi-san," Fuyuki said quickly, "Nishizawa-san shouldn't get into trouble for telling me."

"A-actually...I...I would like to join the Earth Resistance as well!" Momoka announced, using all her courage.

"Seriously?" Fuyuki blinked in shock. "It'll probably be really dangerous, Nishizawa-san. Are you sure...?"

"H-h-he's worried about my safety! He's actually voicing his concerns about my safety! H-he must care about me! Even if it's a little, he's cares about me!" That string of thoughts zipped through her mind before Momoka managed to untie her tongue enough to speak. "Yes, if you're joining Hinata-kun, I want to join with you. Um, that is..." she looked nervously to Katazuchi, "...if we're allowed to join?"

The sergeant had been unnervingly silent for a while now. His eyes studied the two of them, one at a time. "How much do you know about the Earth Resistance?" he asked.

"Not much," Fuyuki answered. "Just that it exists...and that if I went north, I could find it." After explaining about the graffiti message he had seen, Katazuchi's eyebrows knitted into a bemused frown. He then prompted Momoka to answer.

"I, um...I only heard about plans about the Earth Resistance in passing. Like, my father and Paul had planned that, if something like the invasion were to really happen, I'd be taken to the Sanctum for safety, and my family would give as much support to the military in return for security."

Katazuchi shook his head and sighed. "Listen you two, I know you mean well, and I've gotta commend you on your courage, but the Resistance can't have children as soldiers."

"We're not children; we're preteens," Fuyuki retorted. Momoka and Katazuchi looked at him with awkward sweatdrops gliding down their heads. "Yeah, it sounded way better in my head," he grimaced, "but we can help the Resistance!"

"How?"

Fuyuki inhaled and became very serious. Momoka felt her cheeks get hot watching him pull out the alien weapon. "He's so cool..."

"This is called the Kero Ball," Fuyuki began. "It's one of their weapons; a pretty important one, I think. And powerful...And I'm the only human who knows how to use it."

Katazuchi pushed himself off the edge of his desk, eyes fixed on the weapon. Then his usual, big, friendly smile spread over his face but his eyes twinkled...dangerously. "Welcome to the Earth Resistance, kids."

"Uugghh...This is sooo boorrriiinngg!" Private Second Class Tamama whinged. For the past seven hours, the tadpole had been whizzing around the dull wasteland on his hoverpad, investigating points on a map that might or might not be Pekoponian Resistance camps. Out of the six he had already searched, only one was an actual camp. And even that was boring. It was just a few poxy tents with about twenty Pekoponians hiding in them. All Tamama had to do was spit out a few Tamama Impacts and call Kururu-senpai to send in his 'special robots' and that was job done.

Ideally, Sergeant Keroro wanted Tamama to check out all of the sites on the map, but there were at least twenty more, and the little private was getting quite hungry.

"I wonder if there are any decent candy stores around here that haven't been demolished...?" Tamama wondered, checking his map again. "Huh, the next campsite isn't that far from here. Less than a kilometre, actually."

Suddenly, there was a weird sound. Well, a succession of weird sounds. First, a clank, then a thump, and then a scary, rubbly noise, from close by.

"Tama...?"


"Well...we got into the Earth Resistance!" Momoka tried to cheer up Fuyuki.

"But he sent us to fetch water. Fetch water. It's like saying 'go sit at the back of the class with the safety scissors and glitter'," he complained, trudging side-by-side with her through the ruins, the both of them carrying large, metallic, empty bottles.

While thinking how else she could attempt to cheer him, Momoka's thoughts drifted back to the events that transpired a little under an hour ago...

"As your first mission for the Earth Resistance," Katazuchi announced, "I want you two to pop out to a near-by well and fetch a few litres of water."

"...Seriously? Fetch water? You want us to fetch water?" Fuyuki repeated, looking thoroughly dissapointed.

"It might be a small mission, but without water, the whole Sanctum will collapse," Katazuchi smiled, trying to make him feel better.

"But, wh-what about the aliens?" Momoka asked, worriedly.

"Don't worry about it. My scouts have told me that the aliens don't come within twenty miles of the Sanctum. You'll be perfectly safe."

"Okay, Katazuchi-san..." Fuyuki agreed, still looking very disappointed about his first disappointing mission. "But what shall I do about this?" he held up the Kero Ball.

The sergeant arched his eyebrow, mulling it over. He reached to take the weapon, but stopped suddenly. "Keep it with you. Like you said; you're the only human who knows how to use it. So if you need to, use it well."

-CLANK-

"Hi-Hinata-kun?" Momoka turned to him to see the metal bottles he was carrying on the ground, and a look of terror on his face. Suddenly, Fuyuki grabbed her by her shoulders and roughly pushed her behind a small mound of rubble, landing on top of her awkwardly with a -thump-. The shock of his body's warmth and weight beneath his clothes, pressed against her own body, paralysed her. Hell, she may have fainted from happiness if she had not seen how terrified he looked.

"Hinata-kun?" she squeaked, before he clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Ssshh...!" he hissed. With his free hand, he pointed to something over the top of the rubble mound. She followed his finger and saw it.

One of the aliens.

It was short, black and white with a big round head and two, big...she hesitated to admit, cute eyes. It had a yellow hat...thing, and a little tadpole-like tail. It was standing on a hover craft of some sort, looking at an electronic pad thing. It looked up suddenly, but not in their direction- Thank God.

The alien was looking at something to its left. Something hidden by the shadows of a partially standing wall. The something began to skulk out of the darkness, letting a menacing low growl out from between its yellow teeth. Momoka's heart stopped, gripped by sheer fear when it came into full-view. It was a big, hungry-looking wild dog.


It walked on four pawed feet and was covered in mottled brown fur. It had a long snout and a jaw full of teeth and drool. It had two mean little eyes trained hungrily on the young Keronian as it growled. No doubt about it; this was a Pekoponian dog. And it did not look happy.

"N-nice Pekoponian doggy..." Tamama whimpered, backing away slowly on his hoverpad. The dog padded towards him, still growling, still drooling. "Err, you wouldn't eat a space frog, right?"

The Private got his answer when the beast pounced onto the hoverpad, forcing the tadpole to fall to the ground, and tearing the control stick in half with its sharp teeth. After Tamama landed on the hard concrete with a painful -thud-, the broken hoverpad landed on his little leg with a sickening -crunch- . His eyes squeezed shut and a chocked cry escaped his throat as the sharp pain surged through his limb. He opened his eyes to see the dog's big face inches away from his, its warm breath on his skin and its teeth seconds away from his soft, vulnerable flesh. He kicked out at it with his free leg. Too feeble. His foot bounced harmlessly off the beast's nose, making it pause for a moment, just a moment, but that moment probably saved Tamama's life.

In that moment, a rock hurtled through the air, landing on the dog's flank. The force with which it struck definitely was not too feeble that time- the dog fell on its side with a startled yelp, and rolled back onto its paws just in time for more rocks to strike its snout and front paws.

"Get away from him!"

More rocks kept hurtling through the air, striking the ground at the dog's paws, forcing it to back away until it finally turned and fled into the distance. Tamama watched it speed away until it was a furry blip on the horizon, and turned to the direction the rocks were coming from. There was a mound of rubble and a...a...Tamama's jaw dropped; a Pekoponian?

Suddenly, the Pekoponian, who was young and female and had blue hair and looked very concerned and very scared at the same time, raced up to him and knelt down on the ground beside him. Then she abruptly heaved the hoverpad off of his leg. Tamama wheezed with relief that the crushing pressure had been lifted. "Are...Are you alright?" the Pekoponian asked.

"I...Er...Y-yeah..." he mumbled back. The Pekoponian who had just saved his life was now talking to him? What the heck? He was invading their planet, obliterating their freedom, and she was concerned about him? Pekoponians were sure...well, remarkable, was the only word that came to mind.

"...Y-you can talk?" she squealed in shock. She called over her shoulder, "Hinata-kun, the aliens can talk!"

"Wait, you asked me how I was without knowing whether or not I could talk?" Tamama questioned.

"Um...y-yes..." The girl blushed, awkwardly. "Is it just your leg that's hurt? The dog didn't bite you?"

"No, it-" Tamama stopped mid-sentence. There was another Pekoponian, the one the girl had called out to, standing before him now. This Pekoponian was a boy, probably around the same age as the girl, with dark hair and darker eyes. Eyes filled with fear and hate and...just a little bit of bloodlust. Just a little. Just enough to make those blue eyes very dangerous indeed. He stood about two meters away and held an orb in his hand.

"Get away from it, Nishizawa-san."

"Huh? H-Hinata-kun, what are you-?"

The boy held up the orb. But it was not an orb. Tamama gasped when he saw it was the Kero Ball.

"I said get away from it."

Tamama's insides turned to ice. A Pekoponian had the Kero Ball, and he had it pointed directly at Tamama, with his finger hovering over the Death Beam button.