Unexpected encounter
There was something that could be said about how Shadow’s vivid nightmare was; it had brought him right back into the traumatic event in which his entire world had crashed around him. Why? Why were they doing this? The Professor was a kind man, his research was supposed to help these ungrateful humans!
Death surrounded him, the strong smell of blood mixing with the fumes. Shadow grew more and more desperate with every corridor he traversed, passing the crumpled bodies of soldiers, and scientists alike. A pit formed in his stomach as he found he recognised some of the lifeless scientists, their faces displaying their final horrified expressions, before their lives were snuffed out.
Ears pinning backwards as he ran, quills flowing behind him, Shadow easily knocked aside any GUN soldier that got in his way. Many of them were shouting to each other to stop the Ultimate Life Form, firing gunshots at his retreating back.
As she burst out of a research room, Shadow very nearly collided with Maria as he darted down an empty corridor. Thank Chaos, she was safe. They both immediately clutched at each other’s hands, tears were clearly visible in Maria’s eyes as she pleaded the black hedgehog to help her save all of the experiments, and her grandfather.
"Yes, Maria. I will protect you, I promise.”
He’d surely save her this time, right..? There was no time to think about it, for the troops had found them. Attempting to disguise his own fear, Shadow clutched Maria’s hand tightly and led her off down the passage.
Shadow was only now vaguely aware of Luigi following him all this way. Having no idea that this was a dream, and believing that he was truly reliving it; Shadow was confused about the plumber’s presence. He couldn’t have found a worse time to be here, though. “You need to escape,” he commanded to Luigi. “I must save her!”
The horrifying sights and smells and sounds reached Dreamy Luigi, and even with him possessing the electronics he managed to take in the full experience of it. It made him more than a little unhappy; how could anyone dream up something like this? How could the Pi'illos allow these kind of dreams to pass? They ruled over the Dream World, didn't they? That's what Prince Dreambert had told them... Far as he remembered.
'Maria'. The name sounded familiar, but Dreamy Luigi couldn't remember where he'd heard it from. Shadow had said it once already, but now that he could put a face to the name he felt as though it wasn't the first time that he'd heard him say it. He would've given her a bright and cheery greeting, but he could see the tears in her eyes and it halted him before he could've said anything. And the oath that Shadow made -- just what was going on in here?
He had appeared outside of the machine as he ran after Maria and Shadow both. He was quicker than his more portly brother, and considering Shadow had to keep himself slow in order to prevent from yanking Maria's arm off, it didn't take him long to catch up to the two of them. He wasn't even huffing and puffing! Not that he would have in the Dream World. Dreamy Luigi went past the living limitations of his real world counterpart.
He eyed the black hedgehog again, his expression more urgent the last two times he'd tried to speak with him. "Escape from what?" He was frowning hard. "What are we running from?"
