Below, in a crevice of the volcano, Minnie fell to the ground. A leg kicked her up like a football, and clasped hands slammed her like a basketball. Each attack rattled her body, and her survival was only thanks to the blue shell.
The crowd of minions were frozen in terror. The mystery man's pursuit of pain and violence made them afraid to move or speak up.
"Durable, but breakable," the man stepped on Minnie. "Gamer's AI project is paying off. If it weren't for that loyalty of yours, I'd be on my way."
"I won't let you get near him!" Minnie took out her hammer and struck the man's shin. He entered I-frames, took the attack, and then dropped his knee onto her face. She muffled a cry beneath the attack, and dropped the hammer.
"Weaklings don't have their way," the man taunted.
"I'm not defective!" Minnie shouted up at him. She bit his knee, and her teeth sunk in. However, he raised on one leg and lifted his bit knee up with Minnie still attached. His display of strength drew the hope out of her eyes.
"Pitiful," the man jerked his knee away and broke some teeth from Minnie's mouth. In the process, he spun and mule kicked.
"Perfe..." Minnie didn't have time, and the kick nailed her in the face. She skid backwards, bloodied and bruised.
The man marched closer to her. The shellies cried out for her to surrender. The billies and sniffers whined for the man to stop.
"No!" Minnie punched the ground. Tears rolled down her cheeks and blood poured
out of her mouth. She met the man's advance by reaching her feet. He simply kicked, and knocked her down again.
"No!" she refused. He smacked her confidence aside.
"No!"
The man wrapped his fingers around her throat and hoisted her up. He cracked the knuckles of his other hand. Minnie continued to cry and bleed all over his wrist, defiance in her eyes. The crowd cried out.
"Dangerous AI, my ass," the man shot his hand forward to puncture his fingers through her skull.
"Atomic Leg Drop!"
The man distressed and released Minnie. The Super came from above, and he shunted backwards to avoid the attack. Asterion pounded the ground next to Minnie. He swirled to a knee, and imposed the man from Minnie.
"You okay?" the bull man asked.
Through her tears and gasps, Minnie said, "He's really strong..."
Asterion and the man glared at one another. Lava exploded out of the side of the mountain and created a new river of liquid fire. It ran behind the man, and caused panic in the crowd.
"Dimitri," Asterion greeted.
"Father," his son greeted.
Minnie limped forward, but Asterion said, "I'm going to send you off again, Minnie. But this time it's because it's personal. When family fights, it shouldn't involve others."
Minnie worked to control her breathing, checked the sensitivity of her wounds, and nodded, "Alright, but before I head back, can you sit on me? I need healing."
Her request disgusted Dimitri, but it made Asterion chuckle, "No, I don't think that'll work."
"Yeah, you're probably right. I don't have a penis. I need to sit on Gamer," Minnie started her way up the volcano. The rest of the crowd watched Minnie force her broken body up. Regardless of how much she struggled, she pushed on.
"She's so strong..." the bowtie shellie gawked.
"I never knew a shellie could be that tough," a sniffer looked around.
In one bombastic agreement, the crowd shouted, "Let's help Minnie!"
The crowd clamored up the volcano in a mass behind Asterion. When they reached Minnie, they raised her up and carried her along, crowd surfing style.
"Helping out AI, father? You've sunk to a new low," Dimitri started with a snide remark.
"Is that why the council allowed you in the game?" Asterion asked. Chanterelle was closed to the public.
"I am the greatest fighting game champion on the circuit. Of course they'd reach out to me with a lucrative offer. Ain't nobody got the skills that pays the bills like me," Dimitri moved as he spoke, unwilling to remain in place or even look at his dad for too long. "They've seen how Gamer is; how he leans on his allies. I'm here to disrupt that."
"You sold out to them," Asterion crossed his arms.
"Ain't that hypocritical of you? Gamer is the epitome of dishonorable. You should hate his guts."
One key factor made a difference, "I can't hate somebody for risking their life for a better tomorrow. The honor in that outweighs his criminal ways."
"So now you side with a criminal because you think he's a great guy?"
"I have a Gamer's Gambit to fulfill. Even if I wanted to leave things the way they are, I'm honor-bound to him."
Dimitri stopped moving, and struck a glare into his father, "A Gamer's Gambit? Really? Such filthy casual trash and old people with Parkinson's. You can't be the best if you have such distractions."
"Watch it, boy," Asterion warned with extra bass.
"No, father, you watch it! First you stop coming to my competitions in favor of a stupid rebellion, then you ignore my hard-earned promotions, and now you kick your precious honor to the curb to enable a digital gambler," Dimitri spat in Asterion's direction.
There was too much history to go over. Too many tangled emotions. Words would fail to express it. Asterion moved into a fighting position, "You'd never understand."
Dimitri took his own position, but left his posture open. Almost like he invited an assault, "Another pathetic parent response."
Asterion and Dimitri shunted forward, stomped, and mirrored one another with powerful haymakers.
Up near the start of the drawbridge, Ripley's flames fanned out at Sam. She saved herself by double-jumping over the flames and Ripley.
Sam landed behind Ripley and fired balls of energy from her arm cannon. A couple pegged the space pirate, but the dragon whipped its tail to disperse the others. It lunged at her, and the bounty hunter danced the deadly dance of death with it.
Lord Shellie laid on the ground, curled up like a cat, and even purred like one. His head rested in Persica's lap, and she brushed his mohawk.
Persica stopped petting him and watched his eyes. Immediately, they opened with a Proforce-induced rage. Flames coalesced in his mouth. Persica calmly went back to grooming him. Lord Shellie returned to roleplaying a cat.
Persica huffed in frustration, "Gamindorf's hooks are too far in. Is this all I can really do to prevent your madness, my love?"
Minnie and the slew of Lord Shellie's forces came up the volcano. They saw their lord and the bride and ignored the blasts and roars of Sam and Ripley in the background.
The obscene situation perplexed the princess, "Minnie! Are you okay?"
Minnie dismounted the crowd and limped over, "There's a really strong guy lurking around, but Asterion is handling him. I brought new allies, though."
The bowtie shellie stepped forward and saluted Persica, "We're here to be helpful and serve our future queen!"
"That's wonderful news. Where are the shellie mages?" Persica asked. The crowd was too quiet.
"That strong guy killed them," Minnie answered, heartbroken at the unnecessary deaths.
The universe empowered Persica's heart and raised it to a whole new level. She achieved Nirvana, "This is truly the happiest day of my life."
"What can we do for you, queen?" the bowtie shellie asked Persica.
She estimated their numbers, calculated, and answered, "Lord Shellie is under the control of Gamindorf. If I were to lift my touch from him, he'd rampage. There's only one means of which I believe we can prevent him from harming us or himself..."
Persica glanced to the edge of the bridge, "We must throw him into the lava moat."
Across the bridge, Gamer and Sonia dodged the myriad of Hero's items. They avoided the dildo bat, vibrator boomerang, analshot, mice bombs, and even a bow that shot dick-shaped arrows. Gamer took flight on his broom, while Sonia relied on her footwork. After a barrage of attacks, Gamer and Sonia found themselves beside one another again.
An eruption of darkness on the balcony caught their attention. The coalescing blackness seeped around and impregnated the environment. Textures and colors glitched and warped.
Sonia recalled the UI glitches, "Gamer, tell your sister to avoid Shade. He corrupts everything, including navigator access."
"Hey, sis, did you catch that?" Gamer checked.
No response.
"Samira?" he furrowed his brow. The lack of a response didn't bow well. He fought the intrusive thoughts, and focused back on Shade's growing cancer.
The Proforce symbol blackened and exuded a darker aura. After it did, the Proforce appeared on all the mind controlled NPCs heads. Hero writhed when black tendrils wiggled out from behind the mask and gave him a dark mane of hair. From out of the crater, King Kruel crawled up. The fall hadn't killed him, it merely cracked his golden body armor. His bloodshot eye vibrated wildly as he joined Hero's side. His scales began to drip with a black ichor, like rot on a banana.
"Mattaku! He's not dead either?! Baka played possum!" Sonia grew upset at the lackeys' ability to survive.
"My sister isn't here right now. Got any bright ideas or tricks, speedrunner?" Gamer prepared for a pain in the ass.
Sonia quickly responded, "Actually, I do. Do you mind spamming that teleportation book you have?"
"Abuse of power is my middle initial."
"Good, then I want you to teleport into me. We're gonna do a roll recoil," Sonia held up her bounce bracelet.
On the other side, Persica, Minnie, and the crowd of minions were nearly able to lift and push Lord Shellie to the ledge of the broken bridge. He'd take quite the tumble, but end up in lava for sure. What made it difficult was Persica's constant repositioning so as to pet him into submission. Before they could nudge him off, the darkened Proforce symbol appeared on his forehead.
Lord Shellie's eyes snapped open and he lurched up. It surprised his servants, but they were eager to topple and save him. Persica tried to keep him at bay, "No! Please, we're trying to help you, love."
"Kill Gamer!" Lord Shellie roared. His body, like King Kruel's, started to turn black. His mohawk slowly transformed into a wreath of flames. With one claw, he easily battered a swath of the crowd away. They fought back with tackles and tickles, but nothing worked. With one more powerful lurch, Lord Shellie shoved everyone away. Persica remained on Lord Shellie's shoulder, but could do little. The lord jumped across to the broken bridge to make his way towards Gamer.
Persica called out to Minnie, "Minnie, I need you to use your Super. Attack me!"
"Attack you?!" Minnie gasped, though she went ahead and put her boxing shell on. Persica shot her a begging glance, and she trusted in the princess's judgement. Minnie unleashed her Super and fired the shell at Persica.
It reached the princess halfway up the bridge. Persica jumped, pulled out the shrooman, and used the little guy to counter the Super. It ricocheted down and nailed Lord Shellie on the head. Lord Shellie and the boxing shell collided against the bridge so hard that the structure shattered in half. Persica hopscotched over to the volcanic rock and avoided falling. Lord Shellie plummeted towards the lava moat.
A draconic screech came from above. Ripley sped towards Lord Shellie like a missile. The Proforce empowered the space dragon, who was hellbent on rescuing the lord. However, a plasma whip caught its tail and dragged along Sam. She used the tension to launch herself into Ripley. Her suit allowed her to morph into a perfect sphere, but whirred with energy. The energy embodied a nova, and gave her the display of a spinning star. She grinded into Ripley with rapid spins. The attack sent the space dragon off course and, like Lord Shellie, towards the lava pit. Sam returned to her normal form midair, concentrated the nova energy into her arm cannon, and fired a mini-sun at Ripley. The blast singed the dragon's wings, and it careened with an airplane noise into the lava below. To add insult to injury, Lord Shellie landed in the lava on top of his purple kin.
Persica crawled up to the others. Minnie helped her up, and the two ladies shared a hug. They then looked to Sam, who landed with the nova energy discharging around her space armor. It looked like it took a toll on her, but she maintained a calm demeanor, "Excellent work, team. All of you are so impressive."
"Thanks! You're not half-bad yourself!" Minnie stayed chipper, even if the swelling and missing teeth looked painful.
"Lord Shellie is safe now. We should be able to stop Gamindorf before he returns," Persica glanced across the missing drawbridge. "Unfortunately, we don't have a means to get to Gamer."
"We can make a chain link from all of us, and you can crawl over!" the bowtie shellie suggested.
Persica declined, "Too dangerous."
"You can ride us as we blast over and explode on everybody!" a billie suggested.
Persica declined, "Too dangerous."
"We can get high," a sniffer pulled out a bag of volcanic rock. They snorted the shit out of it.
Persica hesitated to decline, "Hmm, too detrimental...but we can later."
Sam cleared her throat and pointed towards her spacecraft, "I have a means, m'lady."
In the fortress courtyard, Hero and Kruel stood guard against Gamindorf's opposition. However, even when prepped to attack, they hesitated. Gamer had pulled out the tome of wisdom.
"Ready?" Gamer asked.
"Go!" Sonia bit into the flare flower he gifted her. She then clasped the bracelet on, and auto-hopped. Soon enough, the power up kicked on and the blue blur became the burning blur. Her clothes changed their color scheme. Fire licked out of her eyes and her highlights became red.
Gamer used the tome to teleport into Sonia's space. They timed it with a bounce, and when he appeared, she curled up into a ball. Their frames collided, and as planned, it rebounded the burning blur. She blasted forth at incredible speeds.
Hero raised his shield next to Kruel's golden plate. They attempted to block the speeding fireball, but were taken away by the power and speed. The shield and gold armor shattered. Both goons were blasted through the fortress wall by a fiery sonic boom.
Sonia took up their spots, and bounced in place. She clutched her stomach and laughed like a maniac.
The squad was defeated.