Never Look Back Part II: Looking Away

Chapter VIII

Shanna

Music: Overheat from Gradius II NES

While I was asleep, I had another nightmare. It was just like most of my past ones, but this one was way worse. This time, while I was running, images of my friends, captured, flashed through my head. When I couldn't run anymore, I saw that all of my friends were captured and in a cage. That's when I woke up.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that everyone was asleep and okay. That's when I realized that I was the only one who had this dream.

I get up and walked about for a little bit, and then I noticed something in a bush. I scuffled through it and it was a hovercraft. It looked dead. I touched it and it awoke... and so did Sam and Elle.

"What in the world are you doing, Shanna?" Elle snapped groggily.

Sam added, "Yeah, it's... well, I don't know what time it is, but it's in the morning!"

So I told them about my dream. That made Sam go, "Hmm... that's odd. I did not have a dream like that."

"Me neither," Elle added.

"That means something," all three of us said at once. Sam then looked at the hovercraft, which flew away as soon as it saw him.

"Aw..." Sam fake-whined.

Luke

Music: Destroy Them All from Salamander Arcade

Upon waking up the next morning, Shanna immediately took action. "Okay, so their new base is over there, so we're going to go over there and break in. The defense must be heavy, so fight with all your mights. We will defeat the monsters and their master, and save Austin. Everyone ready?"

All of us nodded in agreement. We then marched over to where the monster's base was. When we got closer, I smelled smoke. I assume it was from the base, since there were torches literally everywhere.

"You know, this is kinda like the base we were taken to..." Sean mentioned.

"Well, duh. It's the same monsters." Rachel replied.

Music: High Speed from Gradius V

When we got there, a group of laser cannons came out and pointed at us. When they did, they charged up. I got all of them within 15 seconds, and then a group of monsters came flying out the doors. This lasted for another 40 seconds, and then a gigantic witch-monster on a broom came out. The broom spit venom, which was fast but easy to dodge. She died quickly, and then we broke in.

After that it was monster after monster after monster attacking us. We blasted through most of them very quickly, and then proceeded to the next room. There were monsters surrounding the entire place, and we were attacked from all sides. I got a majority of them with my grenades.

Afterwards, I saw a few monsters throwing chunks of the ceiling at us. I yelled, "WATCH IT! THEY'RE THROWING EVERYTHING THEY'VE GOT AT US!"

After we killed those monsters, Shanna said, "I think the room with the Monster Master is up next. I want to go in alone and take him on. I think this is my fight."

We all stared at her in shock. "Um, okay, if you want to." Rachel said. "Do you want us as backup, or-"

"Just come in if you think you need to. I'm going in now. Wish me luck!" she yelled as she went into the room.

She's gonna need it.