Hoo…boy. Sorry for the extremely, extremely long delay between chapters, my faithful (or unfaithful) reader(s). I was merely being a lazy, writer's-block bum. Without further ado, I now present to you the fourth chapter in The Saga of Stars. (Great name for the series, huh?) – Kribble the Mighty (Really, I'm sorry. This thing has been out for around two years now, and this is only the fourth chapter of the story, although it is the second to last.)

VI.

Luigi dashed up the glittering walkway with Mario hot on his heels. He saw the door was ajar in the ruined castle, he jumped…

spun

through

no space

at all

…And landed more or less squarely on the cold gray stone of a broken fortress. He looked around warily, and then relaxed.

That is, until Mario landed squarely on Luigi's head.

"Whoops… sorry, Bro," Mario chuckled nervously, an embarrassed expression on his face. "Right," growled Luigi after he had managed to stand up. "Ya know, Mario, you're not going to help things by smashing my skull in,"

"Hey, who knows," Mario joked weakly, "maybe you've got a 1-Up inside your noggin."

Luigi did not even crack a smile at this feeble attempt at humor, and Mario quailed.

"Come on, let's go, " said Luigi to the silver Luma, pointedly ignoring Mario. The Luma bobbed up and down a couple times, and squeaked, "Yeah!" in agreement, and entered Luigi's body to enable his spin move. Luigi marched off, and jumped into a spotlight moving along the gray stone wall.

The next thing he knew, everything shifted sideways. The floor he had been standing on was now a wall, and the wall was now the floor. "Whoa!" yelled Luigi, who had been unprepared for this sudden 90-degree shift in perspective. "Wow, that looks awesome!" said Mario excitedly. "Let me try!" "At least wait until I've gotten to the first platform, Bro!" Luigi said exasperatedly. Mario subsided with nothing more than a couple of mutters about who was the one who saved the Mushroom Kingdom last time? Not Luigi!

Luigi rolled his eyes and continued. He kept standing in the spotlight, but he had to suppress a wild urge to jump out and see what happened. A couple of seconds brought him to the first platform, and he stepped on it with relief.

The overeager Mario quickly jumped in the spotlight, and had trouble staying in. Only then did Luigi realize the amount of conditioning that the months of grabbing elusive stars had given him.

The next second he turned ashen as he realized that Mario had not been as successful as he had.

Even as Mario spun to grim death, he screamed up to his brother, "Don't worry! I've got a 1-Up on me!" Luigi sagged with relief. No matter how annoying and women-monopolizing his brother might be, he was terribly glad that he had thought to bring a 1-Up Mushroom. The odd thing about the mushrooms was the fact that they actually reversed death, but if you were Player 2, they were also a one-way ticket back to the Comet Observatory. Which means I'm not going to get any help, thought Luigi, and gulped. Nonetheless, he ventured forward into Bowser's warped domain.

VII.

Luigi shivered as he climbed onto the warp for the next planetoid. It looked like it was in Bowser's usual style – hot lava and unpleasantly thin moving platforms. It took a very agile foot to avoid third-degree burns. Luigi grimaced as a wave of heat washed over him. Whether he fell in the lava or not, he didn't think he was going to be able to withstand the high temperature for long. He began to run along a continuously receding platform – definitely in Bowser's style, thought Luigi dryly, and then he yelped, ducked, and just missed getting hit by a fireball. Thank you, Bowser, thought Luigi more sourly this time, just as he reached the end. The rest of the small fireball planet was a cakewalk; just a couple incredibly fast-sinking platforms and he was home free. Just a few jumps left and- ouch! Ohcrapohcrapohcrap. He had just stepped off a platform into the extremely hot lava. He managed to control the pain after a couple of seconds clutching his burned foot and swearing, but he felt significantly weakened as the warp took him to his next destination.

As Luigi stepped off the warp onto another small platform, he noticed a very significant drop in the temperature. He looked down, and sure enough, snow and ice festooned the tiny planet. He stepped on to the ice, and started to run on its precarious surface, because he wouldn't put it past Bowser to make this even more difficult than it already was. He was proved right as he saw platforms vanishing behind him. He jumped up like a scorched tiger, and doubled his running speed, dashing as fast as he could to the oh-so-far-away warp, and then he noticed something interesting but dangerous. A 1-Up was sitting on a nearby platform. It was a surefire way to make sure he made it to Bowser, but if he went off course for it… He looked down and shuddered as the icy grip of the unforgiving planetoid beckoned. Even with his overblown caution, Luigi knew the importance of having as many of the little green mushrooms. So, with one great leap, he flew over the raised platform in front of him and landed right on top of the life-saving fungus, collecting it. But his touchdown was faulty, due to his burned foot, and for a moment, he seemed to stare at death in the face as he skidded on the extreme edge of the slippery platform. He regained his balance, but he saw that the platforms were catching up to him. The one he had jumped from had just disappeared, and the one between it and the one Luigi stood on was about to do the same. Nothing for it, he thought, and turned his back to the escape platform above him, bent forward, and somersaulted directly into the warp. He watched the last of the platforms disappear as he safely floated up, and relief flooded through him.

Relief is such a passing emotion, though, and soon it faded altogether with the realization that he was in a very untenable position, what with even more disappearing platforms, and the need to wall jump very fast to avoid a drawn-out death in another one of Bowser's black holes. There was nothing for it, but to jump! – jump! – and again jump! – into a reverse gravity zone. A sigh escaped Luigi. Gravity? he thought. Really? It had used to be so simple. One jump, two jump, hit a couple blocks, and you've saved the princess. But I need to stop woolgathering, he told himself sternly as a line of fireballs just missed his other, undamaged shoe. He studied the rest of the line of fireballs. Bowser always was one for the puzzles… although that might just have been Kamek's irritating amount of brains interfering, he pondered wryly. But his window was disappearing so he needed to go – now. So again jump! and jump! and jump!, and he was away, spinning through the cosmos yet again. An unpleasant sight met his eyes. A tube of lava, not unlike the one in Melty Molten Galaxy, was stamped with Boswer's sigil, and absolutely bristling with Bullet Bills. Luigi hated Bullet Bills. There had been a horrible incident when he was younger involving a can of diced Super Mushrooms, an interestingly obvious bomb, and an enraged Banzai Bill… No, no and no! I am not going to think about that!

"G-g-g-gah," stuttered Luigi incoherently. "Th-th-th-th-Thwomps…" He hated Thwomps, mainly because of what they had done to his teddy bear when he was two, but at least he was past that hellhole now. But all lesser fears were put to flight by the sight of the sickly green and icy white of Bowser's stronghold. Of course, as soon as he stepped onto the floating stairway to Bowser's stone citadel, he had to be moving, because of Bowser Jr.'s nasty habit of firing meteors at casual visitors. Not that Luigi was a casual visitor, but the idea was there. Stopping only to collect a 1-Up Mushroom and a Life Shroom from side ways, he made his way up the stairs to confront Bowser, the Koopa King…

Oke-doke! I'm finally finished with this chapter! So, the next part is up to you readers, if I still have any after that interminable pause of many months. If you want me to write in Luigi's fight with Bowser, say so in your reviews, and I'll do the best I can. If you don't, then tell me not to in your reviews, and I won't. I also won't if I get no votes for the other way, but even if you don't care, please review! It's such an ego booster for me writing this story. Thanks! – Kribble the Mighty

(By the way, I know I missed the sand planetoid, but I only realized that after I had written the part about the crystal-jumping thingie, so I'm just gonna leave that out. If you want me to add it in, please just say so in reviews.)