112I finally came with this story, hooray! This is the sequel to Ripple of Cheating, one of my other stories. This story is a Mario/Final Destination (3) fanfic, like the others. I own a few of these characters, but some aren't mine.
The following story takes place in Las Vegas and in the ride Insanity on the Stratosphere Tower. If you don't know what that is, check google or yahoo or askjeeves for "Stratosphere Tower Insanity". It won't make sense if you don't know what it is. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this first chapter of the sequel!
Chapter 1: Killing Insanity
"Oh my gosh, that was so crazy!" called out Wendy, exiting the ride with her brother Ludwig. "Like, let's go again!"
Goombella turned and saw her friend Lahla, coming from the XSCREAM ride along with her other senior friends. They were all having a huge Las Vegas Party for their graduation, and a few people were invited to come. Her boyfriend to-be Goombario leaped up from the ride and made his way to the exit.
"You should have gone," said Goombario. "It was amazing! Nothing like Las Vegas without the Stratosphere Tower!"
"You know that I'm afraid of heights," reminded Goombella, holding up her camera. "I forgot that I need to take pictures for my Senior Scrapbook." She held up her camera to take a picture of Goombario.
"Then take me first!" said a voice from behind them, and it was no other than the obnoxious Poochy, the punk dog whom everyone hated. He flopped down in front of the stairway and gave a thumbs-up pose, and Goombella flashed a picture despite the fact that she never wanted to be reminded of him when she moved away.
"I can't believe someone invited him to this party," said Goombella in disgust, and she and Goombario laughed as they walked over to Lahla, Goombella's best friend.
"It's cool that they added the new side-cliff garden," said Lahla, the three of them made their way to a separate door, leading to a huge glass Green House which was literally leaning over the edge of the tower. Goombella tried to hide her anxiousness as they made their way to the end side of the greenhouse and peered below them, looking at the city a thousand feet below. The sun was setting beyond the far mountains in the background.
"Looking down makes me so want to go on XSCREAM again!" said Koopie Koo next to them to Steve, her boyfriend. Steve, the albatross-koopatroopa, was too busy reading the brochure at the entrance of the green house. Goombella set up her camera.
"Smile!" she said, and Koopie Koo wrapped her ipod around her arm, then raised her hand to signal a pose. Steve stretched out his hair just as Goombella took the picture.
"Let me see," said Koopie Koo, looking at the picture on the camera. Goombella noticed that there was a stream in the greenhouse, and emptied out where she had taken the picture. Koopie Koo had nearly fallen into the water.
"Steve's head is blocking most of the sun!" noticed Koopie Koo, looking at the picture. "Our picture looks so dark, although the sun is nearly setting."
Goombella decided to leave Goombario and Lahla behind and exited the Green House. It was approaching nighttime.
As she made her way up to the observation desk, she saw Dry Bones in front of a birthday celebration, who seemed to be cracking jokes to the little children. Dry Bones was always known to be the jokester in their classes, and was good friends with Goombella.
"Turn around, Dry Bones," she smiled, causing him to turn around, unaware of the red table cloth stuck to his shirt. Goombella took the picture just as he cleared the whole table of cake and soda, casing a mess and screaming among the little children. Other friends from their college roared into laughter, and Goombella left the scene quickly, looking at the picture she had just taken. It seemed as if the red tablecloth was a blast of fire, and looked at it closely to realize that it did resemble fire in an odd way.
She saw Wendy and Ludwig, the Koopa siblings, standing outside the newly-created Stratosphere cinema.
"I want this movie, you dumbbutt!" whined Wendy, and turned around to see Goombella behind them. Ludwig seemed frustrated and looked at the movie posters, trying to choose the best one which they would both agree on.
"Pose for the camera!" said Goombella. Wendy her hands out to the side in exasperation, while Ludwig looked at the camera, his eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Damnit Goombella, I hate pictures!" stated Wendy. "Ludwig, choose a movie already!"
"None of these movies are worth the money, so be quiet," he told her. Goombella looked around and decided to go to the rotating arcade, knowing that Thomas Fan the goomba would be there. He had an addiction to playing and videogames, making him popular among people. But his IQ was a mere forty.
"They're really mismatched don't ya think?" said Thomas to Goombella. "Steve is all science and school career 'n' y'all that stuff, while Koopie is totally hip an' stylish. I reckon they'll never live to be married, but'll die together. I've heard that Koopie's before boyfriend use'ta be demented, but is long'a perished in an accident far ago." Goombella noticed someone smoking behind him, and she glanced at the 'No Smoking' sign next to the smoking person. A sight of irony.
"Tom, doesn't it strike you also that you seem a bit…dement…never mind," finished Goombella. "Just smile while I take a picture." Thomas leaned his elbow against an air hockey table as Goombella took a picture of him.
"Where have you been?" asked Lahla from behind her, holding a flagpole she had won from a crane game. "We're going already!"
"Where are we going?" asked Goombella, but she was cut off by Lahla, who lay on the floor with her right hand raised with the flagpole, posing in an unusual position.
"Let me guess," laughed Goombella. "You're posing for a picture." Goombella took a picture of Lahla, just as her sister Peeka appeared.
"Get off the floor!" she exclaimed, lifting her up. "What are you doing in the middle of the arcade? We're going to ride Insanity now!" The two boo sisters walked off hurriedly.
"Insanity is that ride thaty'all spin ya off the edge," explained Tom at seeing Goombella's confused face. "We all going, no hesintation 'bout it."
"But I can't ride that!" said Goombella. "I hate heights."
"Do you actually plan to do something else?" he asked her. "You have no choice."
Thomas had no choice but to bring her to the line of the ride, where all the others were waiting. Ludwig was playing his homemade harmonica and was quite bad at it as people booed around him, and Ludwig swiped them back brutally. She saw Koopie Koo, trying to take a brochure away from Steve.
"What does it say?" someone asked Steve. "What is this ride?" Others piped in and listened to Steve.
"Insanity," he read. "At 900 feet above the ground, this spider-like machine dangles riders at a newly increased distance of thirty feet over the edge of the tower and then spins in a circular pattern at approximately forty miles per hour. Two people for every double set at the end of each arm, and up to sixteen people can ride at a time, instead of ten like before."
Everyone was excited and anxious to ride, as the group of friends gradually moved down the long line. As Goombella moved forwards, she bumped into someone, causing her camera to flash and mistakenly take a picture.
"Sorry," said the toad whom she bumped into. "I wasn't moving up.
"That's okay," Goombella replied, looking cautiously at the ride. Goombario put his hand on her shoulder as they watched the ride move it's way off the edge, and spin dangerously over 900 feet. They could hear the people on the ride screamed with fun and enjoyment.
"I can't go on this ride," said Goombella, putting back her camera just as she finished taking a picture of Goombario. "It looks too scary." She kept on staring at the ride as it spun faster and faster .
"But it's fun!" said Goombario, as the machine stopped and made its way to the building and stopped moving. The people got off the ride, pleased and laughing with their friendsas they made their way to the exit.
"How about my camera?" she asked. "It'll probally fall out and kill someone below."
"I'll put it in the Belongings Basket," he said, pointing to a basket near the control panel. "Smile!" He lunged forwards and took a picture, while Goombella stepped back in surprise. She laughed nervously.
"Next sixteen people," said the ride attendent, as the others made their way past the rotating bar and into the seats, and were free to sit anywhere within the eight arms and sixteen feet. Ludwig and Wendy sat together, and in the arm besides them sat Thomas and Poochy. Koopie Koo chose the arm next to them along with Steve, and the other people took the rest of the seats.
"Where do we sit?" asked Goombella. "I can't decide."
"How about if Lahla sits with you," suggested Goombario to Goombella and Lahla. "I'll go with Peeka, you're sister."
"But I thought Lahla and I were riding together," protested Peeka. "Right Lahla?"
"I have to stay with Goombella, sis" said Lahla. "You can leave me, just sit with Goombario." Lahla and Goombella made their way to the empty arm next to Wendy and Ludwig, just as Dry Bones took the arm next to him by himself, with an empty seat besides him. The harnesses were lowered by other ride attendents, and soon enough they were all strapped to their seats.
"Hey!" complained Poochy. "This harness is too tight!" But the attendents already left the ride deck.
"Are you ready?" said Dry Bones to Goombella. "I'm ready for this!"
"Me too!" yelled Ludwig, and the other people aboard the ride yelled out in excitement, just as the ride started to move it's way off the tower slowly. The song "Killing Time" suddenly blared from the speakers.
"Don't worry!" said Lahla, seeing Goombella's fright. Goombella dared not to look below her as they made their way further away away from the building. She saw the others near her, laughing and looking below them.
"Goombella, good luck!" said Goombario from the arm across from her, just as the machine stopped moving in the air and, slowly, the arms started to spread. The sky was pitch dark with stars in the sky, and the seats were moved to a fifty degree angle as the arms started to turn slowly, then faster, until it was at its max speed. Goombella heard yells of fun in the tight blur, and she looked next to her at Lahla, who was laughing like crazy as they spun nearly a thousand feet above ground. She heard Wendy's high-pitched screams through the darkness along with the others, and Poochy's barking.
"Yipeeeeee!" screamed Dry Bones, looking below at the dazzling lights of the city. He was surprised at how high they were.
Back on the edge of the tower, a piece of the High Roller roller coaster had gotten chipped off and smashed directly onto the control panel of the Insanity Ride. The ride attendent and the people around it jumped back in surprise and shock.
"Whoooooo hoooooo!" screamed Koopie Koo, her hands in the air as the mechanism continued to spin. "Steve, this is the!-"
The harnesses of Steve and Koopie Koo were disabled, causing them to fall from their seats as the ride coninued to spin at full speed. Goombella froze, her eyes not believing what she had just witnessed. She was the only one to notice, just as she saw through the spinning mess that Goombario and Peeka were not in the arm across from her, but only the raised harnesses could be seen.
The control panel malfuctioned even further, and Poochy's seat harness was released suddenly, his body being smash against the other arms as they spun. Blood splattered among the spinning ride and onto the people in their seats.
The screams of joy turned into screams of horror and confusion as Tom was thrown into the air when his harness was unlocked, falling hundreds of feet below.
"Stop the ride! Stop the ride!" screamed Goombella, but nobody heard her as the entire machine device unhooked from the stretched part that held the ride over the edge. Like a frisby, the eight-legged machine struck directly into the observation deck below, shattering glass as the people in the deck watched in horror. The arm which had struck into the glass was the seats of Wendy and Ludwig, and blood was only seen at the edge of the arm, along with a horrific dissortment of two bodies. The other seven arms were sticking in the air, as two other people fell below, their screams echoing through the air.
Goombella screamed out in horror as Lahla suddenly dropped from her seat right besides her, screaming to her death a thousand feet below. Goombella suddenly felt her harness slightly move and knew that it was soon to be umbuckled, as she grabbed behind her in fright. Two more people on a separate arm fell when their harnesses suddenly snapped, as Goombella looked at the arm next to her and saw Dry Bones, his harness still on and his face full of horror.
"What do we do?" he shouted, looking at Goombella helplessly. "This machine is going to fall eventually!" A piece of a thin pipe from above suddenly collapsed from a device, piercing through Dry Bones' chest. He let out a choked gasp, as blood spurt from his mouth in a strange gurgle, as Goombella watched in terror. He slumped over dead in his seat.
Goombella pressed against her vertical seat, screaming helplessly. She was the only one left alive in the seats.
The entire machine, not being able to support itself with one arm stuck into the glass, broke away from the observation deck. Like roaring thunder, the machine plummeted towards the ground nine-hunndred feet below. Goombella was trapped in her seat as she shrieked as loud as she could, and then her harness suddenly let go, causing her to fall towards Earth, the disconnected ride falling right besides her at dangerous speed. The last thing she saw the lights of the city below.
"This will be great!" exclaimed Lahla, peering below them in excitement.
She was back in her seat, the arms of the ride not yet stretched out and moving slowly off the edge of the tower. She gasped and looked at the others around her in the other seats, only to discover that what she had just sawn was not real, but she felt, inside her, that it was a vision of their fates. The song "Killing Time" blared from the speakers.
"Oh no," she gasped, grabbing Lahla's hand. Lahla looked at Goombella and could see that she was near the verge of tears.
"Don't worry Goombella!" she said to her softly. "It's just a ride." Goombella cried out without warning.
"Get me off!" she cried, moving her feet frantically in the air. "Put me back, put me back!" They weren't far from the deck of the tower, and the ride attendents and the other people in line looked at her in confusion. The others were confused at her outburst.
"I SAID GET ME OFF!" she yelled, her eyes swelling up with tears. "Get me off! We're going to die!" Goombario had the look of fright on his face, and Lahla looked beside her at Goombella as the ride attendent slowly pulled back the machine to the tower. As her classmates looked at her in bewilderment, a ride attendent took off her harness and released her from the ride.
"Get off!" she cried to the others on board. "You're all going to die, I saw it!" Wendy and Ludwig exchanged nervous glances at each other, as Thomas looked at Goombella's eyes. He could see that something was wrong.
"Get me off too," demanded Lahla, knowing that Goombella was warning them about something. "Get me off this ride also."
"Stop holding up the ride!" yelled someone from the line, as a rude outburst of anger rose from the line. As the ride attendent went to release Lahla's harness from the conrol panel, an impatient person bumped him from behind and caused other buttons to be accidentally pushed as well. Dry Bones, Poochy, Koopie Koo, Steven, Ludwig, Wendy, Thomas, and two other unknown people fell from their seats simultaneously when their harnesses had been unlocked, and they fell to the ground in surprise.
"Hey, I wanna stay!" whined Wendy, getting back onto her seat. But the ride attendents didn't let her go back and pushed them away continuously, as Poochy tried to push his way against the people.
"You said to get off, so get off!" shouted the ride attendent.
"But I didn't get off!" complained Poochy, who was being pushed away to the exit.
"Just get off!" roared one of the large ride attendents, and Thomas was also unsuccesful when he tried to make his way back to the ride. Lahla looked at Peeka, who was still on the ride, and she motioned for Lahla to go on and take care of Goombella. But just when Goombella exited through the spinning bar door in a dazed feeling of horror, she realized that Goombario was still left on the ride.
"Wait, Goombario!" she cried out, and saw other people in line take the plae of the missing seats. Tears started to fall down her face as the ride made its way off the tower.
"Goombario! Peeka!" she cried once again, causing everyone to look at her as if she were crazy. Lahla pulled her away, as Goombella saw her last glimpse of the two people left on the ride. They were soon to be dead.
"What just happened?" asked Steve, seeing Goombella enter the lobby with Lahla. "Why did we get off?"
"What's your probem Goombella?" said Poochy in an outburst. "What the hell is your P-R-O-B-L-"
"Shut up!" yelled Dry Bones, casuing everyone to be quiet, even the hotel guests around them. "Goombella, tell us why you were screaming, and why you were telling them to get you off."
"I saw," she stuttered, keeping her tears in. "I saw the ride break, and I saw the harnesses come off and everyone was dying, and…I woke up to find us safe on the ride!"
"How did you have such a long dream," questioned Ludwig, "When during the beginning of the ride? You're wasting our time with your nonsense, it doesn't make sense!"
"Shut the fuck up Ludwig!" said Dry Bones
"You tell Goombella to stop making up stories!" he snapped. Dry Bones delivered a strong punch to his face without hesitation.
. Ludwig punched him back, and chaos broke out as Steve and Koopie Koo kept a distance away from the fighting people, but then noticed Goombella looking at the large observation deck.
"Break it up!" yelled a hotel manager, pulling the fight apart. "I'll call the police if you can't stop behaving." Ludwig reluntantly followed Wendy to a farther section of the large lobby, while the others scattered around.
The others gradually calmed down and sat in various places, waiting for the rest of their friends to get off the ride. Dry Bones looked over at Goombella, and could tell that something was indeed wrong.
Goombella made her way to the observation deck, fearing the worst that what she had seen was true. She hoped, to herself, that she was just going crazy, and the vision of the accident was all in her head.
Suddenly out of knowhere, an intense whooshing was heard. Everyone in the lobby turned to look at the observation deck and saw the eigth-armed mechanism fall from the air, plummeting to the ground below. Horrified gasps arose in the lobby like a ripple in a pond.
"No, this can't be," gasped Goombella, just as chaos within the people broke out, people frantically running about and shouting in shock. Lahla gasped out loud and screamed, as Goombella turned around to look at the others. Poochy seemed traumatized, and Wendy stood where she was, her mouth open in a shocked gape of disbelief. Thomas looked at Goombella, stunned, as they all eventually started looking at Goombella in fear, knowing that what she had seen in her vision had become reality.
Sixteen people were dead, and soon to be dead were twelve more.
Thank you for reading everyone, and I hope you actually liked this beginning! Please review everyone, I'm looking for your thoughts and ideas for later on. I'll try to update as soon as I can when I'm able to.
Once again, please don't forget a review! The next chapter will arrive…
