Last chapter was so short, I feel bad now. But if it makes you feel any better, this chapter is considerably longer than and not nearly as serious as the previous one… for a while anyway! Yay!
Btw, big thanks to Nella Siphron for the lovely review! 3
The five Keronians who made up the members of the A.R.M.P.I.T. platoon were seated around the table inside of their base as they discussed invasion plans. Or to be more accurate, they were seated at the table in Keroro's room as he came up with stupid ideas on how to get more Gundams, embarrass Natsumi, get even more Gundams, and create juvenile chaos in general. (Did I mention getting more Gundams?)
Giroro growled with annoyance at his leader. They were never going to get anything done! Why the hell had he ever agreed to serve in a platoon with Keroro? Sure, they were childhood friends, but if he were in a different platoon with a more competent leader Pekopon would already be under Keron's control! The only real benefit Giroro could find from Keroro being in command was…
"STUPID FROOOOG!" Natsumi's voice seemed to shake the walls as it boomed through the hall leading to Keroro's room.
"GERO?!" Keroro quickly scrambled to his feet in an attempt to escape, but it ultimately didn't do any good seeing as he was immediately blown back off of them the moment Natsumi kicked the door open. Natsumi grabbed Keroro by his head, effectively foiling any further efforts to escape. "Why, N-Natsumi-dono. How lovely it is to s-see you today." Keroro attempted to smile innocently at Natsumi, but due to her death grip on his head, his face instead came out looking rather awkward.
"You see this?" Natsumi snarled. Keroro directed his gaze to the broom clenched in Natsumi's other hand.
"Well, uh… you see…" Keroro stammered to no avail.
"No! You're not shirking off your chores again!" Natsumi cut him off as she shoved the broom into Keroro's hand, "Stop lazing around and get to work… STUPID FROG!" She emphasized the last two words by hurling him out the door, causing him to face plant into the wall directly outside. After watching Keroro's crumpled body fall to the floor Natsumi turned her attention to the other frogs. "Meeting's over! Scram!" Dororo, not wanting to further irritate the fiery red head made no hesitation in teleporting himself out of the Hinata residence. Tamama glared angrily at Natsumi while muttering something which sounded somewhat reminiscent of a threat, but made sure that he took his leave as well. Kururu, on the other hand, lay ignoring her as he lazily picked at his nose with his pinky. Unsurprisingly, he quickly found himself on the business end of her foot. And Giroro, he couldn't help but marvel at the warrior princess. She could burn a forest with her temper alone, and he loved that about her. However, in his moment of admiration, he completely forgot to move and also found himself flying through the air. What a woman.
Later that evening
Giroro had prepared his usual fire in the backyard in anticipation for cooking sweet potatoes, it wouldn't be long before Natsumi would show up to participate in the feast. He found himself lost in dreamy thought as he waited for her, but was snapped abruptly back to reality when Keroro came scrambling out of the Hinata household, Kero-ball in hand.
He was frantically waving his arms about, "Gerooo~! Beat the rugs! Wash the windows! Spit shine the toilets!"
"What the heck are you babbling about now?" Giroro snarled at the green frog.
"It's a message! A message from headquarters!"
"What?!" Giroro shot up from his cinderblock perch and anxiously ran to the Sergeant, "What did they say?"
"There is going to be an inspection tomorrow evening!" Keroro flailed his arms, "We need to stage everything to make it look like we're getting work done!" Panic stricken, Keroro scampered back into the household, effectively denying Giroro the opportunity to snap off a comeback on how they should actually do work as opposed to fabricating the appearance of it.
"Dammit!" Giroro cursed as he ran after his superior, it looked as though he was stuck as an accomplice to yet another idiotic pursuit. He had no choice but to participate in the new illusion Keroro was dreaming up lest things get rough.
It wasn't long before all five of the frogs were working feverishly to create the appearance that the Hinata household was a Keronian dominated structure. Keroro even went so far to create an authentic atmosphere as to produce slave uniforms for the Hinata children, much to Natsumi's displeasure. However, knowing the consequences if things were to go bad, the two decided to play along. Well… at least until the inspection was over, then Natsumi would no doubt pummel Keroro into a bloody pulp.
The team worked throughout the night and well into the following afternoon, putting everything they had into their handiwork. As the evening sun began its lazy descent into the western sky, Keroro wiped his forehead and sighed with relief. After all of their hard work, they were finally done. They all flopped down in the back yard in complete exhaustion, taking a much needed break to catch their collective breaths before the inspection crew made its arrival.
"Gunso-san," Tamama panted, "Do you really think this will work?"
"Gero gero," Keroro chuckled arrogantly, "Of course it will."
"Kukuku. If all else fails, we could always offer sacrifices."
"I'll make damned sure you'll be the first one on the chopping block." Giroro grunted.
Dororo sighed, "I honestly don't think sacrifices would make a difference."
They fell silent as they all stared up at the sky, contemplating the potential impacts the coming inspection might bring. Well, everyone that is except for Kururu who started snoring obnoxiously. Suddenly, a small glint in the sky caught the eye of Keroro who promptly hopped to his feet, expecting it to be the inspection team. He danced around excitedly as he waved and shouted their presence to the distant speck. The others made a point to stand as well (aside from Kururu who still sported the word SLEEP across both lenses of his glasses), although they did not join Keroro in on the act of signaling. As the glint neared their location, Giroro felt strange a sensation go through him, as though something was off. Turning to the others he noticed Dororo seemed to have picked up on this unease as well, while Keroro and Tamama on the other hand seemed blissfully unaware.
Before Giroro had the opportunity to vocalize his suspicions, the glinting speck produced a blast, which pierced through the air before striking the snoozing Kururu dead on. It was an attack! Keroro screamed and jumped back as a thick cloud of dust erupted from the blast site. Another blast whizzed through the air, this time aimed for Keroro. He barely had the opportunity to jump out of the way before it tore into the ground where he had just been standing. Three more shots pierced the ground with Keroro frantically dodging each, before a blast finally made contact and he too disappeared from sight.
"Gunso-san!" Tamama screamed. Immediately engulfed by rage, Tamama turned toward the glint and blasted his Tamama Impact in response to the distant attacker. The attacker swerved effortlessly out of the way, enraging Tamama all the more, causing him to fire off several more volleys of the deadly blast before running out of energy for repeating the attack. Realizing he was out of ammo, he attempted to take cover, but was ultimately caught by the ensuing attack. Now it was just Dororo and Giroro remaining, but they would be the hardest to overtake.
Hearing the raucous noise outside, Natsumi flung the door to the backyard open. Expecting to find another stupid plan instigated by the frogs, she demanded, "What's going on out here?!" She whipped her head around scanning for the frogs up to some mischief, but saw only Giroro and Dororo with their weapons drawn, positioned in battle stances. The two Keronian soldiers were surrounded by the airborne clouds of dust and smoke which only proceeded to get thicker with every blast shot off by the unknown assailant. Something was very wrong, and she was determined to do something about it. In the rush of adrenaline she ran off of the porch, completely forgetting to shut the open door behind her.
Giroro took notice of this. He knew she would try to participate in the battle, but three platoon members had already been taken out and he couldn't stand the thought of her going down too. He had to keep her safe. He had to stop her. Using his recently donned wing pack, he darted over to the running Natsumi and took advantage of the door she'd left unclosed. "Sorry about this Natsumi." He thought to himself as he slammed his body into hers, knocking her back into the house. He blocked the exit with a large piece of wood which had ripped free of the overhanging eave in the midst of the attacks, it wouldn't stop her for long, but hopefully it would stop her long enough for him to handle the situation at hand. Turning back, he watched as Dororo zipped effortlessly through the air with his blade unsheathed, dodging multiple blasts as he neared himself to the attacker. The enemy had gotten much closer since the attack had begun, but was still completely indiscernible in regards to their potential identity. Readying his guns, Giroro followed Dororo's lead and began the climb upwards into the sky to confront the enemy. He dodged some blasts, and counteracted others with blasts of his own as he raced to the unidentified attacker. As he climbed higher, he watched in horror as a quick volley of shots clipped Dororo, it broke his form and left him exposed as another blast made direct impact, knocking him to the ground below. "Dororo!" Giroro shouted as Dororo's body slammed into the ground, making yet another plume of dust billow into the air. He was the only one left now. He turned his attention back to the still unknown enemy, more pissed off than ever. He was going to find out what was going on no matter what. He raced through the sky, dodging blast after blast as he grew ever closer to the enemy. Finally, he reached a point where he was close enough that his eyes could distinguish the attacker. It was his own brother: Garuru. "Garuru? What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Garuru made no reply. "Dammit, answer me!" Giroro demanded again as he flew towards his brother to strike, but right as he was about to land a punch, Garuru disappeared from sight. He turned his head unsuccessfully trying to figure out where he'd disappeared to, but froze when he heard the sound of a weapon powering up behind his head. Giroro realized in horror that Garuru was directly behind him. He slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder and found himself face to barrel with Garuru's weapon. His wide eyes shifted quickly to those of his brothers.
"I'm sorry… Giroro." His eyes looked full of regret as he squeezed off the trigger.
Giroro plummeted to the ground, creating another plume of dust as he hit that only further obscured the backyard. Garuru stared at the spot where his brother had fallen for what seemed like forever before finally turning and taking his leave. Shortly after he left, Natsumi and Fuyuki working together managed to shove the wooden barricade out of the way, only to be met with faces full of dust. After taking a moment to get the dirt out of their lungs, they looked around at the torn up lot that was formerly their backyard before they looked up at the sky. Seeing nothing but dust and a few birds above, they decided the attacker had moved on.
"We need to find Gunso and the others." Fuyuki said urgently to his sister. Natsumi nodded and they began their attempts to sift through the wreckage for the five little frogs. The dust was still thick in the air and made it hard to see, but it was even harder to navigate their ways through the blast torn ground. As he couldn't see the ground below him, Fuyuki made sure he stepped carefully through the wreckage, doing his best to avoid accidentally stepping on one of his alien friends. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he felt as his foot finally touched against something soft. He dropped down to get a better look at the unknown object; he hoped to identify the item as one of the brightly colored friends. As the dust gradually dissipated his eyes began to focus better, and what he saw stunned him.
"Sis!" Fuyuki called to his sister, "Sis! Come here!"
"Where?" Natsumi called back, her head popping up from the dust.
"Here!" Fuyuki waved his arm as he called back. It wasn't long before she found her way through displaced ground to her little brother.
"Did you find them?" She asked worriedly.
Fuyuki silently pointed to the spot where he'd been looking. It took a moment for Natsumi's head to register exactly what she was looking at, but when it did her eyes opened wide with shock.
"I-is that?"
Fuyuki nodded.
Oop! Cliffhanger! You're going to have to wait for more. What will they find?
I'll get to the next chapter soon enough, but you have to realize I'm almost exclusively limited to writing at night. Until then, cheers!