[04] Pac-Man!

[Ander]

Power pellets? Ander wondered. For someone who had taken third twice and supposedly should have been no threat to him, she sure knew a lot about this game. Once again, he’d luckily landed a partnership with somebody who could cruise him through the event and take another one home. After all, she danced perfectly in the palm of his hand at this point… save for one rather scathing rap that put a little bit of a damper on his mood. Sure, she’d apologized rather profusely for the lyrical jabs, but still, he’d been brutally schooled by a girl with pink hair. That didn’t exactly do much for one’s confidence.

He rolled over the event in his head: catch more flavored bubbles than a team comprised of two bickering opponents, run away from colorful 8-bit ghosts, gather up random fruit, and use something called “power pellets,” which could only mean something really cool and really amazing.

Ander allowed himself to be led around the arm by his vivacious companion, letting her set the pace of their progress as they stumbled around the mazelike structure, their footsteps accompanied by that peculiar and unidentifiable noise.

“There’s one now!” Ashe pointed out excitedly.

Floating near a cluster of bubbles rested a large, yellow sphere, the color matching their ridiculous spandex outfits. The pair approached it, neither daring to reach out and grab it, Ander for uncertainty, and Ashe because she knew that whatever their function, the pellets needed to be carefully conserved in their perilous quarrel against the ghosts of the maze.

“Soooo…” Ander said. “You said you don’t know exactly what these things do?”

“No, and something tells me these things aren’t flavored,” the girl replied.

Before either of them had a chance to contemplate the subject further, Ander noticed a pair of ghosts creeping up behind Ashe.

“Uh, time to find out!” he blurted. He grabbed the pellet, feeling a firm texture, and yet once he grasped it between his fingers, the sphere crushed in his grip, emitting a quick flash. The ghosts, colored a misty cyan and a bright orange, suddenly reverted to a deep blue, offset periodically by flares of white. They halted their impending charge, their wide eyes shrunken to little dots and their mouths beset with squiggly frowns. In fact, once the pellet burst, the ghosts reversed their direction to flee instead of pursue. Ander quirked an eyebrow, putting two and two together that the pellet was the cause, but unsure of what exactly it did. Before his partner could stop him, the thief bounded after their humorously frightening enemies.

“H-hey, wait! What are you doing?!” Ashe called after him.

Ander didn’t stop, his curiosity getting the better of him.