Haruki went for another cigarette, but much to his frustration, found the pack empty. He grunted and tossed it out into the dark night, which in only hours would give way to morning. He sat in the doorway of the opened glass sliding doors, looking at his watch and then back out at the backyard. Marco had passed out on the couch from jet lag, and Daisy was preoccupying herself best she knew. She caught sight of Haruki, and tapped him on the head, scaring the mechanic and causing him to jump.
"I feel just as helpless," she admitted, and Haruki stood and slid the door close.
"I'm going for a drive," he answered, and Daisy stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder end then placing something in Haruki's palm.
"If you happen to see my husband, give him that," she instructed. Haruki nodded, putting the ring in the pocket of his jeans, and then walked out and started up his scooter, and took off down the road.
He had only seen the direction they were going in, and continued going in that very direction, 'I know they told me to stay, but I've got a horrible feeling all of a sudden… And I feel like this is what you'd want me to do if you were here, Grandma.'
Rokiki looked out at the forest in front of him apprehensively… It'd been too silent for too long, and Kezanstav had been gone for quite some time. He turned away for the inside, but stopped short; Romama stood there, carrying his bokken sword at his side.
"You look ridiculous out of uniform. And you're insulting me with that thing you call a weapon," Rokiki snapped, and Romama clenched his grip around the sword only tighter. "This is, however, something to brighten my day…"
He pulled out his saber, a long, thick, curved one, and went straight for Romama. The young major managed to roll out of the way, causing Rokiki to fall onto the concrete of the balcony. He gave a growl and then glared at Romama, while the younger Keronian stood up on the rail of the balcony, looking calmly to Rokiki. A bit of wind blew, but Romama didn't budge an inch.
Rokiki snarled, hopped up onto the balcony rail animalistically, and then began to swing at Romama, eventually backing the young boy to the corner of the rail as he tried to dodged blows with the wooden sword. Romama lost balance as he struggled to retain a little bit of footing, and went flying off of the rail. Rokiki grinned widely, then bent over to see his handiwork. All he saw were stars when Romama jumped back up from where he had been clinging on and hit him directly in the face. Rokiki fell back onto the ground, clutching the sore area and snarling.
"You little brat! You've just multiplied your suffering!" he rushed to Romama, but was stopped, knocked down by a low flying object. That same object turned back around, and both were able to get a better look. Romama's jaw dropped, and he was stunned for a few moments, and near tears at the wondrous sight before him. Not only was it Mahihi on the surfboard, but Giroro as well. Both wore white headbands; Giroro's read "723" while Mahihi's read "Daisy". Both had their guns drawn, and Rokiki stumbled back, also surprised at this.
"Wh-What're you… You're alive?!" Rokiki sputtered.
"They're a bunch of kids, but they don't go down easily… I thought I'd stick with the dark horses," Mahihi answered, hopping off of the board and approaching Rokiki. "You've had your fun, Man. Now quit it before you really get my angry."
"After what he did?!" Rokiki snapped. "Never!"
"Everyone he embarrassed you in front of is gone, Rokiki. They're all gone. There's no team to lead, there's no more mission. We missed our mission," Mahihi said, his voice especially soft on his last sentence. Rokiki's own features softened for a moment, but then turned harsh again, and he swung with the saber.
"Mahihi!" Giroro shouted as the large Keronian fell, felling a cold chill of horror go through him. Rokiki, too, was stunned by his own actions, and took a few steps back, away from the fallen Mahihi. Giroro gave a growl and started shooting, while Romama took Mahihi and drug him inside for safety.
While this all went on, Keroro and Natsumi looked out, having heard the gunshots.
"That sounded like Giroro…" Natsumi muttered.
"Gero? Natsumi-dono, how are you so certain?"
"I just know," Natsumi shook her head. "We need to get out there!"
"Agreed, but it's not as though anyone would know we were in here!" Keroro sighed and slumped back down against the wall of the bare room. "To survive your reign of terror only to be done in by a Pekoponian I don't even know, as well as one of my own! What a horrible fate!"
Keroro suddenly clung onto Natsumi as the door again opened, but this fear subsided as Koyuki rushed in, grabbing onto a stunned Natsumi and spinning her around.
"Gwa, Koyuki-chan, I'm going to get sick!" she cried out, and Koyuki stopped, and gave an apologetic laugh.
"I knew keeping one of these would come in handy," Lupapa muttered as she placed the pick in the small case, full of picks, cards, and keys of various sizes, and shoved it back up beneath her hat.
"Dororo! I knew my platoon would pull through!" Keroro wept, gripping onto the ninja's hand in gratitude.
"A true friend never forgets his own!" Dororo laughed, and this led to an awkward silence between the two.
"Urhhh right!" Keroro smiled and nodded. "Good you're here."
"I thought I heard some shots, I think it could've been Giroro," Natsumi said, and Lupapa's face paled.
"I've got to hurry, that could be Rokiki," Lupapa turned to leave, and Dororo went to follow her. She stopped, looking sternly to him. "I can't have you getting hurt, this is a fight I've got to go to on my own. Make sure your friends are all right. If I don't return, just… You'll know what to do!"
"Really she's stubborn," Keroro muttered, sighing and shaking his head. "What you see in here, Dororo, I'll never know."
"W-Why does everyone keep talking like that?!" Dororo said to himself as he then followed the purple Keronian.
"Natsumi-dono, I'll help you out of here!" Koyuki exclaimed.
"Okay, Koyuki, that'd be—WHA!" Natsumi was lifted into the arms of the cheerful ninja girl, and then sprung up into the air continued to jump down the hall at great speeds. It took Keroro a moment to realize he'd been left.
"W-Wait for me!" he called out, running as quick as he could to follow them. He finally ran out of breath, and stopped to hold onto his aching side. He looked up, and his panting stopped, replaced by curiosity. He was clutching onto a black fabric, which, he realized after a moment, was attached to a scary-white masked individual. He jumped back in horror, giving a yell, and Tamama gave a giggle and poked his head out from behind the masked creature.
"Gunso-san, you're all right!" he chirped happily, and then read the terrified expression on the sergeant's face. "Don't worry, it's only Fujuju Socho!"
"O-Oh, Fujuju! You look… A lot different from when I last saw you!" Keroro stood and scratched the back of his head. "What's going on around here?"
"Kezanstav-san has a bunch traps close to the computers he uses, so Momotchi's been taking care of those!" Tamama answered, and seconds after this a large stone statue flew past all of them, knocking against the wall and tearing at the paper to reveal a steel structure beneath.
"Explains why the doors were so hard to open…" Keroro muttered, looking at the heavy metal wall.
"Hehe, he really thinks a couple of toys can stop me," Momoka grinned and clenched her fist, and Tamama returned this with a determined smile.
"Now it's our turn to get to work!" Tamama grinned, but this faded as Fujuju reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder.
"Don't let me get too bad," he asked in a weak tone.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine!" Tamama answered him confidently. "Gunso-san, you might want to make sure everyone's out of here! This could get really messy."
"Uh right…. What is it… You three plan to do?" Keroro ventured to ask, and Fujuju removed a match from one of his gloves, and lit it against the glove.
"Have a little bit of fun with his control room," Fujuju answered, his voice already changed a bit as he held a round bomb in his hand. Keroro took this as the hint to back away.
"I… I'll do my best!" Keroro answered, and Tamama waved him off cheerily. "….It's moments like that that make me realize I wasn't the one who drew the shortest straw. Urk! Gotta make sure there's no one else here! Gotta make sure! Gotta—GERO!"
He had turned the corner at a full run, knocking heads with another thick skull, and he gave a gasp when his vision finally focused again and he saw Kirere sitting across from him, rubbing her own head.
"I'm going to start wearing a helmet!" she moaned, and then shook her head. "Eh….? Ah, Ojiisan!" she pounced on Keroro, knocking the sergeant off of his feet again. "You're okay!"
"Kirere-chan! What… What're you doing here by yourself?!" Keroro asked, standing up and looking down at the young girl.
"I went to rescue you, too," she answered, holding up her large wrench and smiling.
"There's… Just something so wrong about that…" Keroro muttered sadly. "A-All right, Kirere-chan, we've got to make sure there's no one else here! I saw Dororo and Lupapa running to find Rokiki, so we have to get them out of here!"
"Why?" she frowned, and both jumped at the sound of an explosion, followed by a long trail of laughter.
"That's why," Keroro answered, "Come on, they went this way!"
She followed him up until they came upon Lupapa and Dororo, but it wasn't just these two. Rokiki stood there as well, smiling and tossing something up and down in his hand. Kirere paled as she immediately recognized the object.
"Dad's belt?" she mumbled, and Keroro looked at her, and cold see her outwardly shaking.
"Teicho-dono!" Dororo gasped as he looked over his shoulder. Rokiki took this moment to attempt an attack, but was stopped by Lupapa, who blocked the saber with her staff. Rokiki was stunned by this action, and jumped back, and gave a grumble.
"So that's how it is with you? You betrayed me, too," he snapped. "You all betrayed me. You didn't say anything when I had proof he'd cheated his way onto that mission, you let him lead you to your deaths!"
"You hurt my dad, didn't you?" Kirere asked darkly, and Rokiki snapped his head over to the young girl.
"Would someone get that stupid brat?! I've had enough with children interfering in the business of adults!"
"He hurt my dad…" she muttered. "And I'm not stupid."
Her eyes flashed, and Keroro saw this as a sign to slowly make his distance from the child.
"Getting back to—" the large wrench swung at Rokiki, landing a blow on him before he could recover, and he went to swipe at the child, only to have Dororo come between him and Kirere, while Lupapa pulled the girl away from the two.
The sword fight between the two was like one between Lupapa and Dororo; one blocking each other's own blade, often tying up the fight. Dororo was managing, however, to put Rokiki into a corner, and had him blocked against a wall and had the upper hand by the time it was to deliver his own blow.
"Your turn," Rokiki snapped, and Dororo stood there a moment, and caught Lupapa and Kirere out of the corner of his eye.
"Not here," Dororo took a few steps back and sheathed his blade. "I will not bring myself to your level."
"So cool," Keroro muttered as he watched all this.
"Rokiki. Stop," Lupapa said firmly, and took a step forward to him. Rokiki went to retort, but all lost their footing suddenly as the ground beneath them began to shake violently.
Lupapa slammed into Rokiki, and he held onto her as the ground continued to rumble. Kirere and Keroro gripped onto one another, and Dororo managed to grip onto the window sill to get a good look at what was going on. Rokiki, too managed to make his way over while Lupapa braced herself against one of the walls, and the red Keronian went pale at the sight before him.
"How did he… He… But he'd need the… Everyone, out!" he turned around. "We've got to get out of here, I know a way!"
"There's no way we're following you anywhere!" Lupapa returned as he rushed to the doorway.
"Trust me!" he shouted before exiting. Dororo, Keroro, and Kirere all looked to Lupapa.
"…Let's go," she said after a pause, waving toward them.
"What's going on?!" Kirere asked as they hurried out.
"Too… Too much running!" Keroro panted. Lupapa looked over her shoulder, out at the large window.
"Lupapa-dono, what are those things?" Dororo asked.
"Those are the ultimate weapons we had on the ship. Only the person who has access to the Kero Ball can use them," Lupapa replied. "If those are active, then… That means that Pekoponian has the Kero Ball."
"Hey, are you seeing this?" Chunini spoke into her microphone headset, and Kururu gave a laugh in response.
"Yes… Ancient Keronian weaponry… Not a lot unlike the mechas we use today," he answered as he looked at the video unfolding on his screen. Chunini was equipped with a video camera in addition to the microphone, which she wore in the form of an eye piece. In front of her were three huge statues, all in the rounded shapes of Keronians, and all lumbering out from the sides of the ship. "Anything you can do to stop them and buy more time?"
"Maybe… I can definitely slow them down," she answered. "You still can't get any of your own weapons in here, huh? You're not very useful without your machines… At least that one little brat can fix the cable if it goes out."
"Do you want my help or not?" Kururu answered, and Chunini gave a sigh.
"Fine, I'm going," she stopped in front of one, and held her mace like it were a baseball bat. She gave out a long screech, and then swung the mace, causing the sound waves to travel to one of the statues and causing part of it to crumble.
"Kuku! Now that's impressive."
"What was that, a compliment I just heard?"
"Me? Never. I'll see what I can do here, kukuku!"
"Same here," said Chunini with a fiendish smile, taking up her mace and preparing to swing once more.
"Kezanstav has a Kero Ball," Rokiki explained as he led them through the forest. Lupapa had Kirere on her back as they walked along… Keroro was on a crestfallen Dororo's. "He must've found it on the ship! Why didn't I remember the Kero Ball!? He's gotten too powerful, he'll destroy even me at this point."
"Isn't that what you wanted?" Lupapa asked. "To get us all out of the way?"
"No… Just him. But this… This is too much," Rokiki stopped, and held up one of this hands. Through the bushes came Tamama, Fujuju, and Momoka, who all looked battle-weary and confused.
"Gunso-san! What's with all of the shaking!? And what's he doing here!?" Tamama went wide-eyed and pointed to Rokiki.
"He's realizing the errors of his ways," Keroro answered.
"The Kero Ball's been used to activate our ultimate weapon," Lupapa said hurriedly to Fujuju.
"We don't have much time then! Tamama-chan, let's go!" Fujuju said from beneath his mask. "I… Have a lot more toys to play with yet…"
"We'll get them!" Tamama clenched his fist. "Let's go!"
"Be careful!" Kirere called out, and Tamama looked at her, surprised. "I need someone to pick on, so don't get hurt!"
"Just like me and my siblings," Lupapa said with a sigh.
"You had siblings?" Kirere looked over at Lupapa, and she nodded.
"I was to oldest of eight," she replied.
"We don't have time for this, let's move out!" Rokiki barked, and then continued on, parting ways with the split personalities, who hurried toward the moving statues.
They stopped, and came face-to-face with Lee's sword, as they came to the small camp that had been set up by their group. Kururu looked up from his laptop, and Fuyuki held up his hands and stepped in between Lee and the Keronians, "I-It's all right, Lee-san, it's just them!"
She eased her hold on her weapon, and Keroro and Kirere slid down the backs of Dororo and Lupapa.
"You!" Natsumi shouted, pushing past Lee and gripping onto Rokiki by the top of his head. "You're not so tough now! What's going on!? What're you doing around here now?!"
"I think he's on our side, you can put him down," Lupapa answered. "This isn't him."
Natsumi did so, although hesitantly, and Rokiki looked about at the group, "I… I don't know how to stop this… Romama was the only one who was able to have access to that thing."
"If I had mine this would be much easier," Keroro grumbled and kicked at the ground.
"What, this?" Fuyuki pulled out the Kero ball from his jacket pocket, and Keroro's eyes lit up, and he hugged onto Fuyuki's leg.
"Fuyuki-dono! I knew you'd come through for me!"
"That thing doesn't even work half the time!" Natsumi huffed. "He's got a perfect-working one!"
"Kuku! If only you had someone who worked on machines," Kururu muttered, and Keroro gave a look, as though he'd been struck by a bolt of brilliance. He turned round to Kirere and grinned, holding the ball out to her.
"What? I… I can't work on something like that! It's too important!" she yelped, backing away all of the way until she hit against Dororo. "I… I wouldn't know where to start!"
"With a screwdriver, preferably, kuku!"
"You can do it, Kire-chan! Go, go, Kire-chan!" Keroro waved out like a cheerleader, and Kirere took the ball hesitantly, and sat down on the ground. She cracked it open and went to work.
"This thing looks like it went through a dryer!" she exclaimed in a mutter, and Keroro gave a sheepish laugh.
"Do you think she can do it?" Lupapa asked as she watched the little girl work. Kirere looked up, noticed all of the eyes on her, and scooted around until she wasn't seem, although there was a small flush of red from being the focus of attention still on her cheeks.
"Kirere-chan is to this what you are to what you do best, Lupapa-dono! She'll be fine!" Dororo reassured her. Lupapa returned this with a nod, and Rokiki watched this all in silence, then looked back down at the ground. He was too deep in his thoughts, and was caught off guard by the strong punch, that sent him flying back. All stopped, and Kirere looked over her shoulder.
Giroro was balanced against Mahihi, and Mahihi was leaning against the smaller red Keronian, who held up his still-balled fist. Mahihi picked up the belt that had fallen to the ground in the process of Rokiki's flying, and passed it to Giroro.
"That's yours, Aka Baka," he heaved a breath, and Giroro slipped it back over his shoulder.
"You… You're all right! You're both all right!" Kirere gasped, and hopped up onto his feet.
"Congratulations," Kururu deadpanned.
"Sure! Can't kill us easily!" Mahihi exclaimed, and then flinched, "When he wakes up, I get to punch him."
"Wait a moment… Where's Romama-san at?" Fuyuki asked suddenly, and Keroro gave a yelp.
"I… Didn't even think about it… My own family…." Keroro muttered. "Oh dear…"
"Stupid Frog!" Natsumi snapped.
"Gwa! I know, I know!" Keroro groaned, clutching onto the sides of his helmet.
"Last I saw him, he was headed to finish some business," Giroro said amongst this, and looked over to the large mansion in the distance.
Kururu sat up from his computer, and listened intently to what was being said to him via his earphones.
"Looks like they're in need of backup. Hurry up on that thing," Kururu instructed Kirere, and she nodded, and went back to work.
"Don't rush me!" she snapped back, and Kururu gave an amused laugh.
"I never knew it'd go this way…" Rokiki admitted with sigh, looking down at the ground.
"Eh, you've always been a little bit of a moron," Mahihi admitted. "But you don't make for a good villain, even if you're scary. This group… Are morons, too. But I think between all of us there's half a brain somewhere."
"Let's hope," Rokiki looked over at all of the humans and Keronians, and then glanced at the explosions off in the distance.