t'.
Kirere pulled out her gun and fired again, and Giroro found brief sanctuary behind an uprooted computer. He had another gun on him, but this one was smaller, and didn't fire with near the proficiency of the first one. But it would have to do.
More wires snaked out from the ceiling above him, and Giroro jumped back as they all lunged right for him, instead becoming entangled with themselves.
"Just… Die already!" Kirere growled, her patience waning.
"You're not Kirere. You might look and sound like her, but you're not Kirere. You're just being used as a puppet by that Pekoponian," Giroro said darkly, quickly disabling the safety on his gun and standing in front of her, panting deeply. He knew that if things kept up like they were going, she would get her wish.
"How would you even know what she was like!? You divide you time between a harebrained invasion and that woman! Who would want that planet, or that girl?!"
"Heh. That definitely isn't my Kirere. She loves Pekopon," Giroro gave a small laugh, but found it a bit painful to do so. "And she loves Natsumi, too. She wants to be just as strong as Natsumi one day, she's said so herself."
"That Kirere was a fool, just like you are," she pointed her gun at Giroro, and he did the same.
"…I'm sorry you felt that way, like you were of no use to us," Giroro's voice dropped. "You may not be at my level in certain things, but you surpass me in others, even at your age."
"If you're trying to beg me not to kill you—"
"I love you," Giroro looked dead ahead at her, and Kirere faltered back a moment, the glaze leaving her eyes for a few moments yet again. Keroro stopped his scratching at the door long enough to quietly watch this exchange in awe. "We all… Love you. Even that idiot, even if he doesn't show it, there's something there. I don't know how Kururu's mind works, but he thinks of you are more an experiment. He's not fooling anyone by saying otherwise."
"Sh-shut up! Shut up, shut up!" she yelled and stomped one of her feet down, like a young girl pitching a fit, "Shut up now!"
"I love you, so I have to try this," Giroro threw his gun across the room, and this briefly distracted Kirere while he lunged for her, gripping onto the collar around her neck.
At this point, two things happened. Giroro pulled off the collar, and Kirere hit him with the heavy wrench/gun as hard as she could, sending him flying behind a heap of rubble. Giroro vanished into the rubble, and Keroro remained there, motionless in horror as Kirere hung her head a moment, then looked up and staggered toward Giroro.
"G-Giroro-san?" she knelt down at Giroro's side, and shook him a bit. "Daddy?" she then looked up at Keroro, whose relaxed position became tense with fright as she looked up at him. "O-Ojisan? What happened!?"
"K-Kiere-chan? Are… Are you still evil?" Keroro continued to inch away as he asked this, and she looked truly puzzled. Her eyes were wide and cheerful yet again, and back to their bright blueness, but they were confused. She then looked around the spaceship, and back at Keroro.
"What happened?!"
"Kirere-chan…" Keroro walked over to her, and bent down, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You…"
"Did I…?"
"Ugh…" Giroro flipped over, and both Keroro and Kirere gave a yelp, Keroro grabbing onto her from behind and using her as a shield momentarily, then easing as Giroro once again fell silent, but was clearly breathing.
"Gero?... He… He just passed out!" Keroro exclaimed, followed by a sigh of relief. "Whew! That's a lot less paperwork I have to file!"
"What happened?" she looked up at Keroro, and then stood, eye-level to the sergeant in her adult form. "…Why're you so short…?"
"Well, I…" Keroro scratched the back of his head and laughed. Just as he went to explain this, a white light enveloped Kirere, and when it vanished, she was back to being a normal Keronian kid. "Ah! Also quite fortunate! Now we don't have to worry about you dating! Eh… What's this? Kirere-chan?"
She gripped onto Keroro around the waist and started bawling, holding onto him tight, "Does… Does this make me a baby, because I'm crying again?!"
"No, no, it just makes you Giroro Gocho's… You're just as emotional him is all," Keroro patted the young girl on the head, looked down at Giroro and studied him. She'd knocked out one of his front fangs during her battle with him. He would have to have a new false one anchored in; boy would he not be happy about that, Keroro thought with a shiver.
"Can… Can we go home now? Back to Pekopon? I don't like it here," she sniffed, and looked up at Keroro.
"Certainly! As soon as Fuyuki-dono—FUYUKI-DONO! Geeerrrooo!"
"W-wait, Ojisan! We can't leave him!" Kirere gripped onto the back of Keroro's helmet, and the sergeant went falling down to the ground instead of taking off running as he had hoped. "We have to take him with us!"
"….Do we have to? He'll wake up on his own," Keroro's shoulders slumped, and he sighed, taking up Giroro and carrying him on his back. "Ugh! He weighs a ton! …It's all of those sweet potatoes, Giroro Gocho! Natsumi-dono will never want you with the weight you're gaining!"
"…Say that again…" Keroro found a bowie knife at his neck, then, and of all things, the sergeant smiled.
"Ah! Back in the land of the living, I see, Gocho!"
"Daddy!" Kirere jumped and hugged Giroro, and both he and the sergeant went falling down onto the ground, Keroro landing on top of them.
"Off of me, idiot!" Giroro gave Keroro a swift kick in the ass, sending the sergeant flying, and then looked about, panicked. "Kirere?! Kirere!?"
"Neh…." he rolled out of the way and saw the little girl passed out; she had ended up on the very bottom of the dogpile.
Giroro gave an amused shake of the head and lifted her up into his arms, and gently pulled off the yellow visor over her eyes. It made her look too much like someone he already knew. It cracked under his feet as he ran out with Keroro; the objective was now to find the rest of the platoon.
During all of this, Fuyuki was relieved to find that after a lot of searching through long halls Kururu was now at work in the main computer room. He was about to call out happily to the Sergeant Major, but quickly ducked down behind a long row of seats that were bolted in front of the computers as he noticed they were not alone.
Kezanstav stood at the opposite end of the circular computer room, too consumed in his thoughts to notice the little yellow alien tucked under the opened computer console, much less the young boy who now sat crouched down next to him in the shadows.
"Wh-what?! What do you mean, emergency stop?!" Kezanstav yelled, pounding on the computer keyboard stood hunched over. "Like hell… Whoever you are…. I'll find you and have you hanged for this!"
"Kuku!" Kururu's shoulders shook a bit from laughter at this, but he continued typing away. "That ought to keep him busy."
"What're you doing?" Fuyuki remained hidden behind a chair anchored in the ground, and bent over Kururu's shoulder.
"Showing a brat what real talent is… Really, I have to get my fun out of 'doing something for someone else' stuff, too."
Fuyuki pushed himself a little closer to Kururu as the other Keronian, the one in the ancient Keron armor, floated in, looking beaten but still able to move all the same, albeit slower. He slunk over to Kezanstav, who immediately acknowledged him with a glare.
"Some fine work you did!" Kezanstav yelled. "Tell me you took care of them at least."
The teal Keronian only looked sideways at his master, and Kezanstav gnashed his teeth together.
"First they steal back that one little brat who likes to cry, and now you're telling me you couldn't take care of three of your own… Try to be a little more useful and boot up the emergency power, we'll try to override it."
"W-will that work?" Fuyuki asked Kururu in a whisper.
"Kuku! That or overwork the engines so much we explode," Kururu gave another laugh at Fuyuki's horrified expression.
"Blow up? Blow up! And he's cool about it!?" Tororo shouted, putting his hands on his head. "Damn it, he's always cool about it! Grr… Don't worry, you won't blow up…"
"I can still hear you, kuku! What's your sudden worry? Kuku, is there something or someone your care about on here?"
"Shut UP!" Tororo slammed down on his keyboard and went to work.
"…It's the pink one you like, isn't it? That's sort of cute. I should warn you, but... Kuukuku!"
Tororo was seething with rage at this; Kururu blowing up was looking better and better every second. 'Kirere… Please appreciate this…' he thought as he continued to work.
"Looks like it's right there," Kururu motioned over to the center of the room, where there was a large metallic circle in the center of the bottom as well as the top of the floor. The teal Keronian pressed a button on the main control panel, and another, smaller panel rose up from the ground and in front of the metallic circle. After entering a sequence of numbers, a blue beam shot out, forming a tube of pure energy.
"Kuku! That could pose a bit of a problem," Kururu admitted, but kept typing away all the same.
"Eh?" Giroro and Keroro came to a quick halt as they approached another badly-damaged room. Giroro's stop was so sudden Keroro bumped into him, and hit Giroro from behind. The sergeant went down, but Giroro remained stationary.
Zoruru was the first to burst through the rubble, slicing through a sheet of metal that he had been under.
"Hey, it's that guy not even Dororo remembers!" Keroro exclaimed, and Zoruru jerked his head back at this comment, having clearly been thrown for a loop by that.
"Damn… Him!" a hunk of metal and wires went flying, and Keroro perked up, immediately recognizing this voice.
"That homicidal tone! That could only be Tamama Nitohei!" Keroro chirped. "Looks like everyone's here!"
"Yet again, you forget someone," Dororo hopped down from the ceiling, and landed in front of them. "I noticed the ship managed to stop."
"We can attack them from our ship," Zoruru added, flexing his metallic arm and noting a squeaking now as he did so.
"Not yet, Fuyuki-dono is still on board!" Keroro answered quickly.
"And that fool's missing," Giroro added darkly. He looked down as Kirere stirred in his arms a bit, and she opened her eyes.
"Eh?... You're okay!" she sat up and then hopped out his arms, stumbling as she went to do so and landing on her back on the floor of the ship.
"Good to know she's back to normal," Tamama muttered as he watched this unfold from his spot. He, Dororo, and Zoruru looked worn from their battle.
"You. You got on here somehow, you go back and take her with you," Giroro looked ahead to Zoruru.
"Say… How did you get on here?" Keroro wondered aloud. Zoruru simply held up the spiked metal arm. "…Again, cooler than anything we have."
"No, I'm not going!" Kirere snapped, and turned around to Giroro. "I want to help! I did last time, I can do it!"
"Now's not the time to be stubborn," Giroro looked over his gun, and grunted as it remained jammed. It had suffered a lot of damage from his fight with Kirere.
She took the gun from his hands, and quickly disassembled it, and then reassembled it just as quickly, and passed it back to him.
"Good job. You're still not going," he said as he studied the fixed weapon. "I can't lose you again."
"Come on," Zoruru placed a hand on her shoulder, and Kirere watched as the rest of the platoon left them.
"Are they going to be all right?"
"They have to be. I have a score to settle," Zoruru answered.