Luigi is not in this game.

Chapter Five

      Andres and Lacey were thrown onto the castle floor out of the painting. One star down, 119 to go... Andres thought. "Come on, we have to go back in."

Lacey stood there panting. "Already? Can we at least sit down for a moment?"

Andres thought for a moment. "We don't have time..." He pushed his way back into the painting, hoping Lacey was behind. The two landed back in the familiar level. A turtle stood idly near them, waiting to be spoken to.

"I feel like only one of us can do the race," Andres said. "What if we split up and tried to get two stars?"

"That would speed up the process." Lacey nodded. "I can do the race. I think I did pretty good getting to the top of the hill."

"Alright, I'll get chain chomp." He shivered remembering the teeth he was almost crushed by.

"Good luck." Lacey wandered off to the turtle to speak to him. Andres made his way across the bridge and faced Chain Chomp. He barely stood out of Chain Chomp's reach and forced himself to stand his ground. He waited until he had a clear shot to the wooden pole, then sprung on top of it. He jumped into the air, flipped gracefully, and slammed his feet into the pole. It was partially shoved into the ground. Two more to go. He caught Lacey running past him and Chain Chomp with the turtle close behind her. Chain Chomp paused and faced Lacey.

"Hey, watch out!" Andres warned. But it seemed too late for her to realize. He hopped in front of the angry ball and was thrown into the fence behind him. His body screamed in pain, but he watched Lacey advance further into the race away from the turtle. He struggled to his feet, finding another moment to jump on the pole again. He had unfortunately already grabbed the coin that could heal him, so he ran in with little health left.

The last two pounds into the dirt released Chain Chomp from his captivity. He slammed into the bars that held the star prisoner. Andres flopped onto the ground, still incredibly sore from the attack. He crawled his way up to his feet and gathered his well-deserved star. Where's Lacey? He wondered. Before he could go looking for her, he was spat out into the castle once again. His muscles felt relieved of all pain as if he wasn't traumatically smashed into a fence by a concrete ball.

Lacey lay beside him. "Did you get the star?" He asked.

"Yeah, um, I beat him!" She started. Andres checked his pockets, but only two stars stared back up at him.

"Where is it?"

"I grabbed it, I thought..." She checked her own pockets, nothing but dust spilling out of it. "I swear I grabbed it! I mean, it hurt when I tried to."

"Are you saying I risked my life so you could win that race just to lose the star?"

"I won!" Lacey snapped. "I grabbed it, I don't know where it went!"

"If you had it, it would have been counted." He angrily turned toward the painting again and jumped through it. Stupid turtle better be there again.

Luckily he was. But Lacey didn't follow. Fine by me, I can do it myself. He talked to the turtle, ran through the course as fast as he could without being hit by anything fatal, and made it to the top of the mountain where the finish pole stood tall. A moment went by until the turtle appeared and approached him. Andres gathered his star and left.

After hopping back out of the painting, he noticed Lacey was gone. He left the Bob-omb room and went into the main entrance. Lacey was sitting against the wall near the basement doors. "Really?" He seethed. "You couldn't have gone to another level and made use of yourself?" He walked down the short set of stairs and stood over her.

Lacey jumped up defensively, their faces inches apart. "What use can I make of myself if I can't collect stars?"

"You can, you could have gotten more stars! I don't care what you do, we just need to get out of here!"

"I told you I already tried to get it, but I couldn't."

"That's not my fault! Maybe it was a glitch, just be useful."

"Fine! I'm going to the basement if you're gonna have that kind of attitude."

"Basement is locked dummy, you should know that. I thought you'd played this before. And stop acting like you're my mother. You'll never be as good as her." Andres turned his back and stormed to the door. "You'll never be her."

Four stars later, Andres left the Bob-omb room. A beam of light shone down through the ceiling glass onto the patter on the main entrance floor. He nervously stepped into it and gazed up. He squinted tightly as his feet were lifted off the ground. It's a spiral. If you miss it, then you have to... Andres stopped himself. Eventually, he was flung into the level with wings, gliding around towers. First red coin down, then the second, third. He just barely missed the fourth. No! He flew onto the floating platform. It's impossible to get it at that height. He looked down into the bright void below. I have four lives... It's fine. His stomach dropped as he slipped off the edge, blacking out.

Andres found himself lying flat on the castle floor, the light shining down on him. He felt fine as if he didn't die. He checked his pocket in hopes of finding something similar to his stars; green mushrooms. Four of them. Still. That's good to know. The idea of not being able to die, even after falling out of what was practically space, he felt more confident in flying back into the level. In no time, he gathered his eight red coins and unlocked the flight cap. The last thing he had to do in the Bob-omb level was to gather the last star that required the cap.

Star gathered, the whole level complete, and Andres made his way to Jolly Roger Bay. He was hoping to find Lacey in there, but he found something worse. It seemed as if Lacey had just jumped back out of the painting, and in her hand was a star breaking into pieces. She shook as if it was tearing into her skin. Noticing that Andres had entered the room, she threw it out of her hand.

"Take it! Please!" She cried. As the star left her hand, she dropped onto the floor on her knees, holding her ungloved and swollen red hand shakily. The star had slid to Andres's feet, no longer falling apart anymore. He reluctantly picked it up, hoping it wouldn't hurt him. Instead, the pieces molded back together and the now whole star bounced into his pocket.

"Lacey..." He approached her, still bent over her hand. "I-I didn't know that's what you meant."

"It's fine." She glanced away at the holes in the wall. "We should grab that secret star in the wall there."

"How many lives do you have?" He asked, ignoring her suggestion.

"Oh, uhm-" She stood to her feet, shaking off her hands. "All of them, I haven't died."

"Alright, good." Andres shifted his feet uncomfortably. "Good... let's move on with this level."

The first floor was nearly done. The two discovered a way to complete two tasks at once with only Andres collecting both stars without being thrown out immediately. It was somewhat effective, mostly hurting Lacey in the process. She insisted that they move forward with the plan. The two were getting better at maneuvering the levels in real-time. Lacey even found a way to "yahoo" jump, but it involved a lot of involuntary panic. Andres wasn't too worried about Lacey losing a life, after all, you just respawn.