- I'm very sorry I haven't updated in so long! On a side note, here's chapter 14! Hope you enjoy. -

It had been three days since Perry's birthday, and he was still in his room. During all that time, he had never set foot outside his house, let alone his room.

"Lenny was right; I am a freak." Said Perry to himself as he stared out his window watching his so-called friends play outside without him. He couldn't dare show his face, especially since his neighbors despise him for his powers.

Lillian had tried to convince Perry to come out of his room, but Perry had locked the door. The least she could do was to slide his favorite food under his door. By now, she was severely troubled to see her son just isolate himself just because he was different. She had to do something.

So earlier that morning, she had gone to the library to do research about why her son got his powers. It took a couple hours, but she had finally found the answers she needed. And now, she'll use the book she rented to convince Perry that he wasn't a freak.

"Perry, we need to talk. May I come in?"

"No, Mom. I can't let you in. It's just going to put you in danger, because I'm a monster." Perry replied.

"You're not a monster, Perry. You're a little boy who is scared and confused. What happened was an accident, nothing more."

"I still could have hurt someone! Please, just stay away from me before you get hurt."

Realizing that Perry was always a determined boy, Lillian sighed and slid the book underneath his door.

"If you won't let me in, at least let this book in. Read the page I bookmarked."

Perry picked up the book and did as his mother asked, and what he read was interesting.

" 'Star Children'?" Perry asked.

"Yes, read the first paragraph."

Perry read aloud:

"Star Children are children born with special powers granted by a star that is planted the moment certain children are born. This star, experts say, is the main source of the child's power and doesn't become active until it feels the need to activate, such as when the receiver is in danger, or has an overflow of a certain emotion, such as joy, anger, fear and vice versa."

Perry finished reading the paragraph.

"So this book's saying I had it in me the whole time? And the happiness I felt on my birthday triggered my powers?"

"That's right. When you were born, the doctor discovered by x ray that you had an actual star in your heart and told your father and me about it. We were concerned how this star would affect you, but we saw you weren't hurting from it or anything, so we thought nothing of it, until now."

"Wake up!"

King Boo had jolted Perry awake from his flashback dream for a reason unknown to Perry.

"W-what's going on?" Perry stammered, still in shock from the sudden awakening.

"That princess friend of yours is coming to save you. I need you awake to see her defeat." King Boo replied with a smirk.

"Peach? I think you're underestimating her a small bit." Perry replied.

"The only reason she's gotten this far is because of you. Let's face it, kid; she doesn't stand a chance on her own, which will make her defeat all the more satisfying."

Perry looked at King Boo with a slightly creeped out expression as King Boo turns invisible, out of sight.

Back with Peach, she was still trying to navigate the maze of doors after what felt like several hours. All too often, two of a set of three doors led to the same room she was in; eventually it was getting to the point where Peach started to mentally keep track of which door led to which room.

At long last, she was at the last room with the last three doors of the mansion. While she had visited this room before, two of the doors she tried led to the room she started with, so that left the last door to the right for her to open.

"This is the last door I have to open. I hope this works."

Peach opened the door to find a room so dark that only a chandelier with blue fire lit the room, which was enough for Peach to just barely see her way around the room. Having enough of being blind, Peach took out one of her extra fire flowers and used her new fire powers as a flashlight.

"Peach!" Perry called as Peach turned her attention to Perry's silhouette, as she could barely see.

"Perry? Is that you?" Peach shouted, when suddenly, she heard a creepy laugh coming seemingly out of nowhere.

"You think you're so tough, Princess? Wait till you get a load of me!"

King Boo revealed himself with blue fireballs in both of his hands. Once the fireballs were charged, he shot them at Peach, who dodged them.

"Looks like I'm fighting fire with fire, as corny as it sounds."

After she spent a few minutes fighting King Boo's blue fire with her fire powers, the lighting helped her to notice staircases to platforms that led to four lanterns that each occupied a corner of the room. That's when she knew; since ghosts hate light, the lanterns would be key to defeating King Boo.

It wasn't easy for her though. King Boo knew that Peach was going for the lanterns, and in an attempt to stop her from turning them on, he kept blocking her path.

"Sorry, not letting touch those lanterns. Keep trying!" King Boo taunted, as Peach tried to find another lantern to use.

However, every time she tried to reach one lantern, King Boo would block a path to that lantern and Peach will have to find another one. After a few minutes, Peach knew that King Boo would disappear and reappear every few seconds in a consistent pattern, so that's how long she had to light up each lantern.

Peach made her way to the lantern on the top to the right, and once King Boo disappeared, Peach jumped out of the platform and used the chandelier as a swing to get to the lantern on the other side and lighting it up with the Fire flower, causing slight damage to King Boo.

"Ow! It's going to take more than one lantern to stop me!" King Boo taunted as he disappeared and Peach swung to the other lantern at the top and lit it up. Then, she jumped from the platform to light up the lantern below, leaving one more lantern to light before King Boo's defeat.

"No!" Yelled King Boo. "I won't let you beat me!"

In an act of desperation, King Boo let out a flurry of blue fire balls, which Peach managed to dodge while running to the lantern on the other side and lighting it up, finally brightening up the room.

"NO!" King Boo shouted as he disappeared from sight in defeat.

The forcefield Perry was held in broke as he started falling to the floor, screaming. Luckily, Peach managed to catch him on time, and the two were reunited.

"Whew, thanks for saving me, Peach. I owe you." Perry sighed in relief, with Peach shaking her head.

"I owe you, Perry. You've been helping me the past couple days; I'm just returning the favor. Now, let's get out of here before more ghosts come back."

"I'm with you!" Perry agreed as they exited to another room that led to a window west of the mansion; west is where they wanted to go.

"I can see the next area from here, Perry. Wavy Beach, right?"

"Yep."

Peach jumped out of the window and floated to the ground, where they made their way to Wavy Beach.