Level 3: Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes

As Pinky speeds past the Matoroids’ metallic tentacles that Pira just can’t shake off, Thundra unleashes a volley of laser blasts, compelling the distant enemies to take cover behind an asteroid!

Kurumi launches a missile—

—but that’s the moment Luna shrinks the ship to funnel her new friends through Pipespace!

When they grow back, Princess Diamond notices the pixel-dust coated nuke drifting through the void, comparable to a fire-cracker in both size and potency. She works her engineering magic—

Alarms sound! And by now, any of our heroines traveling space for the first time knows that sound in space is extra-loud! The sound waves from the alarms blast the pixel-dust off of the rocket! It soars with an extra-loud WHOOSH—straight at the asteroid where a dozen Matoroids are taking cover—and BOOM!! Chunks of rock, metallic limbs and blobs of tomato juice are everywhere!


Meanwhile, the Pipespace stunt got Pinky past the grabby tentacles, but Matoroids adapt quickly! One tries to take hold of Pinky’s nose come with its tripod limbs!

Our captain makes a hard left—

Scraaaaaaaaaaaaap-p-p-p-pe!!

💙💙💙💙💥💥
🚀

The metal limbs claw at Pinky, tearing violently at her hull—but what they really want is to grab the ship!

Fortunately, there’s just a little bit of pixel dust left from Luna’s stunt. The Matoroid scrapes the last of the glitter, and POW! The ship (and her crew) snap back to full size, breaking free of the tripod limbs as the sudden growth breaks the Matoroid’s tripod limbs!

There are only six or seven Matoroids remaining. Five of them fire lasers!A sixth Matoroid is perched on an asteroid, waiting.

If you’d rather not fight, there is a planet ahead of you, but plenty of asteroids whizzing by. Escaping to the planet is an option, but not an immediate one—unless of course a pilot were to press the rocket-boost button. But then the other pilot would have to do some fancy stunt-driving to avoid a crash.

SHIELDS AT 50%.

. . . 55%. THANK YOU, LUNA

Despite taking a pounding, Pinky is in good spirits. After all, her crew is winning, and they’re all making the right decisions. It just seems as if the mad gods of this universe somehow made life more difficult for the heroines!

The Mini-Ks’ miniboss decides to step up and do something. "Time to fasten our seatbelts, girls—" Morumi is immediately interrupted by Kurlumi’s "Oh!" She snaps her fingers and a fanny pack appears over her dress. Larumi shakes her frizzy head and fastens the actual seatbelt over her sisters. The belt is half as wide as fairies are tall, and the length of the taut belt is of course wide enough for a human. All the belt does is cause Morumi to lose her train of thought. But before she can call her sisters ‘idiots,’ Kurlumi points out the starboard window in the five-o’-clock direction. "Nyuk, nyuk," she laughs. Larumi flits to the window, face pressed against it. "Those Materoids might be stellar at murdering us, but they sure can’t dance!" The seemingly lone Matoroid atop the small asteroid is rapidly kicking its tridpod limbs, as if to jog backwards. The asteroid itself is ‘rolling’ forward. Squiggly tentacles and the glow of rocket fire behind the asteroid imply that another Materoid is behind the asteroid, pushing it.

The three other Matoroids can’t safely shoot at Pinky. Instead, they move even faster than the ‘rolling’ asteroid to hold Pinky still so the ship will get smashed!