Never Look Back Part II: Looking Away

Chapter V

Sam

Music: Aircraft Carrier from Gradius ReBirth

While we were out, exploring, we ran into a empty field. I saw that it looked like the battlefield in my dream. Right then, the camouflaged monsters from the guardian rushes before came out. Which meant one thing:

ANOTHER guardian rush.

Elle moaned, "Aw, really? ANOTHER ONE?"

Then a monster with four arms came out. All four arms held guns in their hands, and they shot in a vertical pattern. While moving up and down. It was very easy to destroy.

Music: Fighter Blood from Nemesis 3 MSX

Next came another bird. This one was exactly like the one in the second guardian rush, only it had more health (making the fight last about 15 seconds longer), its teleporting wasn't as annoying, and it was colored blue. We did the exact same strategy- some hid in one area the bird teleported while the rest went to another area. Because there was four of us, it was a little harder to kill these things.

Music: Theme of the Mechanical Boss from Salamander 2

Next came another dragon, but with multiple (I counted 6) heads. A voice yelled, "SHOOT THE HEAD!"

I retorted, "Um, which one?"

"Well... PICK ONE AND SHOOT IT!"

That made me and Elle laugh.

Elle, Shanna, and I got three of the heads within 20 seconds, and we left Sean to get the other three. He managed to kill two in one shot, and then got the final head.

After that, it was a weird machine with arms that rotated around it. They sometimes curled up into the body and swung back out, which caught Sean by surprise twice. The weakpoint was its eye, so we shot there and managed to get it with a slight amount of trouble (darn thing almost hit me once).

Elle

Music: Theme of the Living Body Boss from Salamander 2

After the four-armed machine came a weird blob surrounded by a bunch of organic stuff.

Ugh. It was GROSS. I covered my eyes while blasting away at the thing.

Within about 20 seconds, we got all of the organic crap out of the way, and then the blob itself came out. It fired two lines of bullets going in a circle, which we had to carefully maneuver around. It screeched every time it was hit, until it finally went down. So far, this one had taken the longest.

Music: Mirror Ball Forever from Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius

Next, there was a monster with very large feet. It jumped up and down, creating shock waves after every landing. They were easy to jump over, and then we blasted away at the thing. It had a lot of health, but it was still no threat.

Music: Boss on Parade 2 from Gradius III Arcade

After that came a GIGANTIC robot, I mean taller than all of us stacked on top of each other! It stomped around, fired lasers in all sorts of spread shots, and dropped bombs on us! And the weakspot was in the dumbest spot ever- the "you-know-where" spot. Sam didn't care, he just blasted at the thing. It took a very long while, but eventually it went down.

"Okay, more difficult than the first two, that's for sure." he said after blowing the thing up.

We all nodded in agreement.

Sean

Music: Shower of Stars from Otomedius Excellent

The final guardian arrived, and we all laughed. It was the exact same as the first one, except it was slightly faster. We managed to nail it within 10 seconds, but rather than blowing up, it stopped. Then, it flew away for a little bit, then came back, this time, colored brown. It then grew TWO extra arms and fired all six guns like mad, moving faster than ever!

After it fired four short bursts, it stopped, and then two trapping lasers fired while it kept moving. One sliced Elle right in the leg, and she fell down, wincing in pain.

"Elle!" Sam screamed, running over to her. The two stepped aside, meaning it was up to me and Shanna to destroy this monster. And trust me, that wasn't an easy task. Because of how fast it moved, and the lasers we had to dodge, it was pretty hard to hit. It took a good minute or two to kill this monster, than we ran over to Elle.

She wasn't injured, but the bad news was, her leg was bleeding terribly. Luckily, we had a first aid bag (don't even ask how I got it), so we managed to cover Elle's wound up, and continue.

Then I saw the light.

---

Music: ROUND3 from Dragon Saber

The Monster Master glared at his minions with devious anger in his eyes. He started, "My boys, you have managed to come this far in our job here. Now, the rest of those kids are still out there, as we should know. I want you to teleport them here-"

One monster interrupts, "We don't know how to teleport them here."

"Then just keep trying until they end up here. Or keep sending ambushes out; that seems to work; it did in the past. Anyways, I want them dead. Is that clear?"

All the monsters saluted. "Yes sir!" Then they marched to the teleportation machine.

The Monster Master then walks to Austin. "Do you know where your friends are, or were?"

Austin, scared out of his wits, says, "No, sir. I do not know of their current whereabouts."

The Monster Master grumbles in disapproval, and then leaves for his lunch break.