Chapter six

Destiny: Souchou.EXE

Kururu had tried to sleep that night, but found himself in a mess of dreams full of images that haunted him. The night went by restlessly, and the only way Kururu knew it was somewhat morning was when Taruru came to his cell. "You awake?" he heard the chirpy keronian call knocking lightly on the door. Kururu sat up abruptly, although drained of his energy, he wasn't tired either. "Yeah." he muttered in response.

Taruru burst through the door happily and let Kururu follow him freely. They made their way through a series of hallways in the ship till they arrived at large storage room. "Today we're going on a hunt for the project!" Taruru sang opening the door for Kururu. Silently Kururu entered the storage room to see five sets of suits laid out. Eying a yellow one he walked over to it and reached out to grasp it. "Careful!" Taruru warned. Kururu stopped and looked over seeing Taruru was wearing a pair of leather lined rubber gloves. He stared at them for a moment, silently wondering what they were for.

"These suits Tororo designed last night. They're made with electrically charged components that will allow us to wander around in Sepron's Face! The only danger they propose is the risk of magnification. That's why we're going to be searching for the project separately." Taruru explained in a sing-song voice. Kururu gave him a strange look then looked back to the suit taking his hand away. 'Tororo…?' he was too annoyed to be impressed by the suits; denying himself the idea that perhaps he wouldn't have been able to come with the idea of using already charged metals to reflect the high electricity content of Sepron's Face. "Anyway, I have to finish getting them prepared. Garuru is summoning everyone else in the control room. Go there before you get breakfast." Taruru said turning away from Kururu and back to his work. With nothing else to do, Kururu followed his instructions and left the storage room.

Heading down another series of hallways Kururu ended up in the controls room in less time than he had thought. However before he entered he noticed Tororo not far behind him. He stopped at the doors and waited for him. Tororo didn't seem to notice him until he looked up to push open the doors. He stopped short and jumped back at the sight of Kururu, like a kitten caught in head lights. "What!?" He stammered. Kururu smiled enjoying to idea of scaring Tororo so easily. Kururu opened his mouth to say something until he noticed something about Tororo. With droppy eyes and a crooked helmet, he really did look like he had been up all night designing and building suits, and that's probably why he was so out of it. "Nothing." he said instead, passing through the doors. Tororo would have followed him had Kururu not let to door swing back after passing through, smacking him in the head causing him to be pushed off his feet. Hearing Tororo let out a whiny scream he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Kururu!"

Kururu looked up to see a displeased Garuru glaring at him with his arms crossed. Kururu has missed that side of himself. The side that didn't care as much about the well being of others. "Kuu-ku-ku-ku." he chuckled loudly, not caring if it only served to piss Garuru off even more. Garuru gave him an odd look pushing past him to see if Tororo was ok. When the two had returned Tororo stood next to Kururu awaiting Garuru's orders. "Where's Zoruru?" Garuru asked passing by them picking up a small clip board. As if cued in Zoruru appeared from the shadows, silently joining the small group. "Taruru is already started working." He commented upon his arrival.

"Good." Garuru said turning back to face the three. "As you all know, today we're going into Sepron's Face in search of the project. Kururu, your first task is to provide us with a full description of what we're looking for." Kururu looked up as Garuru addressed him. "Kuu-ku. A jet-black metal cube no bigger than 6 by 6 inches. It should have a small white device attached to the top side and a red dot in the middle of every other side." As Kururu described EXE's storage case the others sweat-dropped. Even Garuru seemed a bit turned off about searching for the project. Kururu would have laughed more at their expense if he wasn't about to share it with them.

"So we're looking for a jewelry box in an electric asteroid field larger than the size of a two planets?!" Tororo moaned furiously.

"Kuuu-ku-ku. It'll take us weeks, even years to search this place with just the five of us." Kururu chimed in. However, Garuru had regained his poster and appeared determined. "We'll find it even if it takes us the rest of our lives." He said growling inside at the challenge. The group looked up at him, reluctantly awaiting his further instructions. "We have three transmission lines left. Keep in mind we need these lines to keep in touch if we're to search Sepron's face safely. Report every hour on the hour. If you're late Tororo will be calling you until you report, I suggest you don't, as to not waste time. Time is against us out here at the edge of the universe. Understood? In other words, if you blow one of the transmission lines, I'll kill you." Garuru seemed more serious than ever, and the group understood well the importantance of communication in dangerous escapades such as this. "Tororo, it's obvious you'll be staying on the ship. You'll be updating the visual map as we begin searching so we don't end up in the same place twice. You'll also be keeping track of everyone, and reporting all individual reports back to me. Understood?"

Tororo nodded intently at Garuru's orders and almost seemed to do a bit of a victory dance seeing as he wouldn't have to go out into the field. Once that was taken care of Garuru looked over the group once final time. "Zoruru, see to it Taruru is updated on what I expect of you all. Everyone, let's suit up."

All except Tororo left the control and proceeded back to the storage room. To Kururu it seemed to take less time to get back to the storage room than it had to reach the control, as if they were for some reason rushing to get outside. It was a game of needle in the haystack, a very dangerous one at that. Garuru separated from Zoruru and Kururu once they had reached the storage room. Either way, they met up with Taruru and within an hour were ready to go. "Where's Garuru?" Kururu asked as Taruru buckled up the last of his protective leather and zipped up the back of his suit. "He'll be here in a minute, I think he was giving Puru-chan her orders, since we'll be out all day." Taruru responded picking up Kururu's helmet and fastening it over his head. It was then Pururu and Garuru came through the door, Garuru already being suited up.

"Thanks for the help." Pururu said to Taruru, in a bit of a huff as she took his heavy gloves and got right to helping him into his own suit. Kururu blinked at Pururu, curious as to if she knew the story behind what they were doing. He hadn't seen her around since the incident in her lab, and wondered just what she had been doing the whole time. "Are we ready?" Garuru asked when Pururu had just finished suiting up Taruru. She turned around to face him and nodded. "Check your transmission line before you head out." she warned.

Garuru nodded back to her and she left the storage room heading to who knew where. "Alright then, let's begin. Zoruru, you are the first one out." Garuru ordered. As soon as instructed Zoruru turned from the group and headed out the door. Silence over took those still in the storage room, until they heard a small rumble from the backside of the ship. "Zoruru dispatched." Tororo's voice announced over the intercom. "HURRAY! MY TURN!" Taruru cheered running out of the storage room. Moment later another small rumble, and another announcement. "Taruru dispatched."

Garuru then nodded to Kururu, who gave him an odd look. "Go out the door, take a right and head all the way down." he ordered sternly. Kururu rolled his eyes and followed his instructions to the back of the ship. There was a dispatch room ahead of him, and he proceeded inside. Through the sliding glass doors, the ship rumbled softly as a small white gas poured into the dispatch room. Once he was been disinfected the doors on the opposite side of the dispatch room opened up and Kururu descended into space. As he left he could hear Tororo's announcement. "Kururu dispatched!"

The first site to greet him was the darkness of space, and it was amazing. The lights of the ship caste a faint beam into the open space, and distant stars sparkled all around him. He had been in open space several time before, and every time he was astounded by his surroundings. However, his mission remained fresh in his mind, and Kururu activated his custom wing pack, taking off in the direction of Sepron's Face. Flying down towards the huge purple crystal mass Kururu stopped short of it, sensing danger.

He was confused at first. Hand to hand combat wasn't his forte, and he wasn't that great at sensing danger, but he couldn't deny his strong feelings of warning. 'Exe…' Kururu's fist clenched as he began to recognize what was going on. 'tch…' Shrugging it off, he decided that perhaps he just didn't want to go into Sepron's Face. The place was dangerous, and he didn't quite like the idea of getting struck by electro magnetic rays, and hope his suit didn't become magnetized. But then when he thought about it further…he still didn't have a choice. Reluctantly, Kururu flew down into Sepron's Face, descending upon the most dangerous place in the entire universe.

"This is DeathStar-1, Transmission check, all respond."

Kururu flinched as he heard Garuru's voice come over the transmission line, reminding him they only had three transmission lines. "966, over." Kururu muttered into the small mic in his helmet. "T-1, over!" Taruru's voice sounded, followed by a brief, "Bot-0, over," from Zoruru. "Transmission check complete. Maintain radio silence via orders." Garuru finished. Kururu let out an annoyed sigh, but felt pleased he didn't have to listen to Tororo for the time being.

However, his silent luck didn't last very long when a rambuncitous voice sounded in his helmet. "966? What is that? Some sort of fail way of 666?" he heard Tororo ask on a private line. Kururu stopped where he was and contemplated responding. "Maintain radio silence via orders." Kururu said, chuckling to himself.He found it funny how Tororo was disobeying orders just to pester him.

"It's a private line, baka." Tororo responded. Kururu tensed at Tororo's taunting and put his hand over the communication controls attached to his suit just under his neck. "What do you want?" he growled.

"If you destroy the private line it'll cut the transmission line all together. I suggest you don't do that. Puu-pu-pu!" Kururu flinched again knowing now that Tororo was somehow watching him. "By the way," Tororo added, "Fly 12 meters south in 3.…2.…1..."

Kururu looked up seeing a massive electric wave coming towards him and found himself too surprised to move. He was sturck before he could grasp what was happening. His suit vibrated all over, shaking Kururu violently and the electricity colliding with the suit made him glow all over. The electricity shot through his suit and began to circulate until it stopped and exploded off of him and continued off in the path it had been going. Kururu looked up when it was over, stunned by what had happened. "What…" he breathed glancing about him for a better warning of anymore waves. "Like my suits? It uses electricity already present in the components of the suit to-"

"I know what it does!" Kururu nearly yelled interrupting Tororo's explanation. The radio felt silent until he heard a whimper on the other side. "Stop trying to piss me off. I'm busy." he growled straightening himself and continuing on his way. Tororo fell silent for awhile as Kururu searched up and down different crystal masses. But this silence that Kururu found awkward didn't last more than an hour. "966 status report?" Tororo demanded later. Kururu rolled his eyes hating how Tororo had pronounced the numbers but quickly answered, "Nothing yet." and continued.

The work was tedious, but internally, Kururu didn't mind. He was taking comfort in the hours that passed that EXE wasn't discovered. Although it was a game of needle in the haystack, Kururu couldn't shake the feeling that it would end before he knew it. After that a gaping hole loomed in his plans. What he would do once EXE was found, still remained unresolved in his mind.

AN- Gomen, gomen, I had planned on updating sooner, but school is started and etc etc. I dunno about you guys, I'm highly displeased with this chapter because it seems like a tedious chapter. I have better ideas for chapter 7 which is already half written. Tell me what you think, yes?