Inside, Asterion found Minnie joining Persica, Sonia, and Lord Shellie. Sam piloted the ship and in deep focus. After the platform lowered, Gamer bounced out of Asterion's arms.
"Sorry, I blacked out there for a second. What..." Gamer started, but a dragon's fist leveled him to the floor.
"Menace!" Lord Shellie growled.
"Pookie," Persica conciliated her man by patting his butt. It made him blush and calmed him down. They moved over to the side seats and fastened in.
"Hang on, everybody. I'll find an opening and get us out of Chanterelle," Sam promised. She diverted all power to the shields and thrusters. Her flight saw them avoiding the beams while heading skyward. She was a master class pilot.
Minnie ran up to the windows. She glanced across the land and the destruction before them. The coverage of the invasion completely destroyed the castle. The people she saved were annihilated in a few flashes of energy. Shroomans were all that remained, and were flailed through the air with each bombing. Minnie cried out, "This is horrible! The poor shroomans!"
"It's fine. They can't die," Gamer stayed on the floor and favored his jaw.
Babas zipped about in a panic. Their incorporeal bodies phased through flying debris and the ground. Asterion pitied, "The poor babas."
"It's fine. They're already dead," Gamer fanned a hand dismissively.
Persica noted the fracturing of the ground and the numerous mollies. They were like popcorn in the onslaught. Mandy burrowed up and called out, "Gamer! Save me! Save me and our sixteen children!"
Many baby mollies popped their heads out of the ground, all with Gamer's hairstyle. They all adorably called out to their daddy, before a beam from the heavens eviscerated the lot of them.
"Oh no! The poor mollies!" Sonia covered her mouth.
"Huh? I didn't hear ya," Gamer purposely wiggled a pinky in his ear, and turned as if he hadn't been paying attention.
Persica and Lord Shellie held one another while they watched their world dissolve. The lord vibrated with wrath, but based on what he saw, there was nothing he could do. Persica quietly processed the loss of everything. Distress slowly worked away her hardened expression into held tears and flickering despair.
Sonia helped Gamer up, "Things are getting way worse. I...don't know if I can stay here any longer."
"They're really breaking the game. Illegal additions, banned settings...it's getting way out of hand. Mortimer's not only going to lose his position on the council, he'll be facing jail-time for a long time," Asterion sneered.
"I don't blame you guys. No need to take any risks on my behalf. We'll figure this out and make them pay. If all goes well, you'll see my shitty mug next to the new Total High Score. Thanks for everything," Gamer gave them a thumbs up.
"Don't die to those assholes, Gamer," Sonia nodded. She went to log out, but she remained. Horror filled her eyes and contorted his face, "What..."
Asterion tried to log out, too. He shared the same gut-wrench feeling, "No, they didn't..."
"You can't log out? Samira?" Gamer gawked.
Samira frantically texted, "They turned on the conflict lock setting! You can't leave the game while in the middle of a battle!"
Existential dread fell upon the still-living players. Asterion stared at the floor, with his son's warning echoing in his mind, "They locked us in..."
"What do we do? How do we fix this?! I can't lose everything now! This can't happen!" Sonia started to pace and fidget with her hands and arms. Her voice cracked, stricken by panic, "Gamer! Samira! Please, say you have a way to save us!"
Samira sent, "I'm sorry, Sonia (っ╥﹏╥ς) I don't have any way of turning it off. I already tried."
Gamer turned to Sam, "Get us away from these alien ships as fast as possible. They can log out the moment we're free."
"On it!" Sam locked in.
"Um...the ground is making a face..." Minnie said.
Sam turned on the outside cameras and projected them on her screens. The group saw the ground below glitch, clip, and morph. It churned like liquid, and every so often made out features that were not so different from eyes, a nose, and a mouth. When there was more form to it, the mouth erupted open and fired pixelated debris upwards like volcanic debris. Alarms went wild inside the cockpit. Sam veered the ship about to avoid collisions from below and above. Her skills proved useful, and they avoided the chunks of broken game code. Where the mouth exploded, the group saw a gaping chasm with an ethereal yellow glow from deep within.
"It can't be..." Lord Shellie breathed.
"Oh no..." realization came over Persica.
"What is it?!" the frazzled Sonia asked.
Lord Shellie, in a rare instance, appeared nervous, "Remember King Kruel, the alligator with the golden belly? He acted as the sea's most notorious pirate. He had beef with a societal group of primates known as the dongs. One day, Kruel and his cronies stole all the bananas in the dong's legendary hoard of golden bananas. War broke out, called the Bananza War. After the dongs overpowered and smashed the alligators ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Kruel used his armada to sink the dongs' jungles into Chanterelle's depths. We thought them extinct."
"And we just dumped a high-tech foreign alien power into it," Gamer realized.
The earth churned and crackled. It ebbed up and shaped into a gargantuan face. The sinkhole opening became its mouth, and it gained eyes, ears, and the shape of a head as the earth shifted in place. A titanic, enraged ape's head glared up at the spaceship.
"Andreas, the first dong!" Persica and Lord Shellie gasped.
"Another one of my father's tricks. Just like what he did with Shade and Gamindorf," Gamer grumbled. Andreas' head was twice the size of Persica's Castle 2.
Andreas actually spoke, with a quick yet booming voice, "Dame tu plátano!" ("Give me your banana!")
Andreas opened his mouth and breathed in. The forceful pull ripped nearby village structures from their foundations. The high intensity suck pulled on the spaceship. Sam engaged the thrusters, but they barely did any good. They were deadlocked. Even the alien spaceships were yanked out of their orbit and fell into the cavernous maw of Andreas.
Gamer, assuming the doggystyle position for stability purposes, wanted vindication against the enemy designer, "Go to Hell, Herbert, you vore-loving bitch!"
Andreas closed his mouth and started to chew what he consumed. Sam's ship jotted forward, and caused those not in seats to tumble about. They didn't get far. After he chewed for a bit, Andreas then violently spewed everything out at them. The debris turned into a shotgun blast of glitched pixels.
"Hold on!" Sam yelled.
Sam took evasive maneuvers. The combination of regurgitated debris and slow alien beams made the maneuvers tight and precarious. She masterfully shot for gaps and got by with just a few grazes that the ship's shield could deflect. On the inside, everybody but Sam, Persica, and Lord Shellie were flung about as if in a perpetual nightmare bounce house. Samira tried to catch people, but was always flipped and spun when somebody clipped her edges.
The debris died down and a clearing came where no beams threatened the ship. However, Andreas glided along the ground like a ravenous fissure. He roared and yelled like a monkey in a barrel. He started to suck in again, and with no debris to fill his mouth, it was nonstop. The vacuum power prevented the ship from escaping, and began to pull it earthbound.
"Sam, can you use lightspeed to get us out of here?" Persica pleaded to her friend.
"Not while in the atmosphere!" Sam's arms and body vibrated from the force enacted on her console and steering. "Entering lightspeed will only tear us in two! We'd die!"
"We're gonna die if we don't do something!" Lord Shellie glared out at Andreas.
"No! It can't happen like this! It isn't fair! They're fucking cheating!" Sonia shrieked. She hyperventilated and clutched her head. Gamer stumbled over and attempted to reassure her. His words didn't seem to have an effect on her, and she struggled to breathe. Beads of sweat dabbed Gamer's forehead. He digitally looked to his sister, who was powerless to help. He couldn't use Anubis without sacrificing his life, which would defeat the point of everything. But it meant ruining everyone else's lives – and he'd die anyways. He clinched his eyes shut and let his mind race to anything that might be able to save them.
"I'll stop him," Asterion pierced the darkness. He expressed pure conviction, "I'll perfect guard him, and you guys can escape to safety."
Gamer shot to his feet, "No! Nobody is going to die to these pricks. We'll find a way without jeopardizing anybody!"
"I can tell you have no counter," Asterion remained tranquil.
It only angered Gamer more, "Dude, you have a life! If anybody dies here, it should be me! This is all because of me!"
"It's okay," Asterion placed a loving hand on Gamer's shoulder. The sentimentality and peace on the bull man's face struck Gamer's heart. It weakened him. He clutched Asterion's wrist and then fell forward into a hug. The two men embraced.
And then Gamer command grabbed. He hoisted Asterion up and performed a reverse suplex. Both men landed on the floor with a heavy thud, and shocked everybody. Gamer rolled over, mounted the bulky guy, and pinned him. In a bizarre twist of events, Gamer used a palm and slapped the floor thrice.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" Sonia freaked out.
"Making sure he doesn't sacrifice anymore of his life," Gamer grinned.
"You seriously simulating a wrestling match?!" Asterion was baffled.
"Take care of your son," Gamer refused to let the council, developers, and his father beat him down. He stood up, winked and saluted Sonia, "Go earn your wish, and give the council a big middle finger for me."
And then Asterion command grabbed. He hoisted Gamer right up, and powerbombed him. Gamer clutched on and ignored the pain. He applied a grappling move that lodged his forearm into the minotaur's throat. He attempted to put him to sleep, "Stop!"
"You stop!" Asterion covered Gamer's entire face with a single hand and pushed.
Minnie stepped onto the center platform and activated it. She rose towards the roof hatch. Her action made the men stop fighting, and shocked the rest of the cockpit. The captain remained steadfast and focused.
"Minnie?" Gamer's eyes widened.
"I'm the shield. Get back to your sister, Gamer," the shellie innocently smiled and waved before exiting to the roof.
"Minnie, no!" Gamer's gut rolled at the resolution in her voice. A new fear awoke in him. Asterion and him scrambled to their feet and called out to her. All eyes went to the monitors and the outside cameras. Minnie faced the blustering winds and the earthly ape spirit. Gamer rushed over to Sam and demanded, "Call it back down! Get her inside!"
"We all die if I do that," Sam's words carried finality.
Gamer growled, yelled, and stomped. Samira tried to text him, but his mind was overrun with emotion. He couldn't see or think straight. His vision blurred with the tears that got in the way, "Minnie!"
Minnie heard Gamer's love, and it solidified her resolve. She equipped her boxing shell and hammer. She stared down at Andreas. His suckage yanked her from the spaceship. She righted herself and quickly approached the gaping maw. It reminded her of the first time she and Gamer met when they fell to the underground. How he saved her, freed her, and gave her life meaning. How he showed and gifted her friendship, respect, and most importantly, love.
When she breached the cave entrance, she blocked too early and yelled, "Perfect guard!"
Minnie disappeared into Andreas's mouth. After a moment, the ancient ape's eyes bulged, and it gagged as she and her indestructible blue shell became lodged in his throat. The suckage stopped, and relinquished the ship. The group's ship shot straight up and out of Chanterelle's atmosphere. More alien ships descended upon the world. Sam primed the lightspeed coordinates, aimed away from the swarm of alien invaders, and punched it. Sam's spaceship slipped into faster-than-light speeds and escaped Chanterelle's utter destruction.