Mario Kart: The story

[S1x]

This was the course? Sure, it had a starting line, and it went in a complete circle, but this place just seemed too gloomy. I could even see imprisoned workers trapped in large cells off to the sides. Even though it was the daytime, the sky acted as if it was permanently stuck on nighttime. I was already sweating from the high concentration of lava on the course, and I wasn't even inside my kart yet. We still had another 15 minutes to prepare. My vehicle was sitting on the starting line, patiently waiting for its chance to boost off the line.

Just like Koda said, he wasn't here. However, this was the first time I'd seen Yoshi and Daisy. I tried talking with Yoshi, but I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. He did smile at me, though - or maybe he was always smiling. My conversation with Daisy wasn't much better.

"Hey there. How many times have you raced on this course?"

Enthusiastically, she replied, "Hi! I'm Daisy!"

That answer seemed pretty irrelevant. "...Uh, okay, you didn't really answer my question there. Why'd you say that?"

Acting as if I was talking about her career, she gave a confused look to me. She then stepped slightly closer to me and secretly whispered "Because they give me extra coins every time I use that phrase."

"Who's 'they'?"

"........."

She ran. I didn't get a chance to speak with her again.

_________________________________________________

Including me, there were now eleven racers all vying for the same prize. I, of course, was also battling for a long-term prize. Koda warned me multiple times about the bridges and the lava. If I crashed and melted my kart, I have no idea where I'd get enough money to try making a new one. I needed to be completely aware of my surroundings, which Koda told me wouldn't be much of a problem as long as I was winning.

There came the Lakitu dangling the light from what seemed to be a fishing rod. I couldn't really tell what he was hanging it from. If it actually was a fishing rod, who cares? That's not what everybody stares at anyways. The only thing that mattered was the buzzing lights. As the first two lights came on, I mapped the exact line I would follow for the first part of the track with my eyes and see what I could do from there. The green light went on right after I finished my line, and I boosted down it perfectly, cutting two racers off, forcing them to slown down. I cut right to the inside of the series of turns, grabbing my first item (just a banana) and preparing for a straightaway of Thwomps.

As I looked to see what paths the others were taking, I realized something - nobody was in front of me. I managed to get an early lead in. The ultimate question was, could I hold this lead for the four laps needed to finish the race? In my mirror were Yoshi and Toad, agile enough to dodge the Thwomps that were slamming onto the track. All three of us cut through quickly, and Yoshi saw this as a time to hurl a green shell. I noticed this in advance and sailed to the right of it, where it ended up getting flattened anyways. I took a sharp right next, and almost flew out of my kart. The next drop was steeper than I expected. I straightened myself out for the stone bridge I was about to cross, but a lightning bolt crashed down onto where I was driving.

This time, I was more used to the feeling - I was small and wasn't going as fast. About seven seconds later, we were restored and going through the second half of the lap. A quick glance to my right had revealed that Luigi had caught up to my spot and was battling for the lead. Yoshi and Toad still weren't too far behind, either. I was setting up my banana for him, when I heard a peculiar noise. A faint romromromromromromrom was coming from behind me. No time to worry about that. I cut Luigi off, slamming him into my banana. I power slided off the next turn and was darting past several pictures of Bowser's big head, which became the least of my concerns when I heard Toad scream.

The ROMROMROMROMROMROM came from an incoming spiked shell. There was no way I could avoid it, so I braced for the impact. I flew straight upwards, hopped into the direction I was supposed to be going, and punched the gas to not lose much time. Yoshi did pass me, but he was an easy target - if I had an item. He took the last set, so I waited patiently as we ended the first of four laps.


Origin of Entria

[S1x]

Yoshi and I bent around all the sharp turns with ease, neither of us gaining or losing any distance in between each other. At the items before the Thwomps, I acquired and sent out a red shell; he countered with a banana. The confusing turns put me on the inside of him one moment and on the outside the next. I wasn't trying to steer too sharply out of the fear of going too far and ramming a wall, putting me far behind. Once we reached the Thwomps, my whole strategy went out the window; I now had to try my best to dodge them while not slowing down.

At least three of those obnoxious blue blocks were within a small Chain Chomp's reach of our karts when they slammed down. Nearing the last group of Thwomps, I actually bumped into Yoshi in an attempt to evade those things. We just barely had the speed to pull through.

Ahead of us was a large explosion. This didn't make sense at all; nobody was ahead of us and nobody would be slow enough to be that far behind. As we drove up further, nearing the stone bridge (which was less than a few feet above the lava), I saw that a cell of Bob-ombs off too the side of the track had been freed. At least one of them must have felt suicidal enough to free everybody. But the main concern was the lead. My next item was a mushroom, which I promptly used across the bridge. Yoshi armed himself with three green shells, so I had to be very observant of my mirrors.

After another 90-degree turn, Yoshi had picked up one of his shells and was aiming at me. After I was preparing to swerve off of wherever he would aim it, our conentration was cut off from another horrific explosion, this time from behind us. We were too far up to see exactly what happened, but I definitely heard more than a wall blowing up this time. It sounded like a part of the castle itself had shattered; I wasn't sure whether it was part of the bridge or part of the concrete. I had a feeling the race would be stopped. I couldn't be sure, though, so Yoshi and I kept going at it.

We finally exited the underground part of the castle and were on the large balcony. It was getting way too dusty down there, and seeing everything wasn't exactly a cakewalk. After breathing some clean air, I passed another item box - a fake item block. I was trying to set it up at just the right point - the last sharp turn before the line - but it was taken out with Yoshi's second banked shell before I could set it up. Yoshi again tried banking his last shell, and this time, it caught me off guard. He passed me by only a few meters when I was trying to straighten out my kart.

When we crossed the finish line, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. If something happened that would cause the race to completely stop, the Lakitu would be holding a flag that would signal all of us to completely stop right there. He wasn't holding anything. The race would seem to continue. I saw absolutely nobody behind me and only Yoshi in front of me. It seemed that he was my only competition.

The same battling happened throughout the Thwomp area - we all seemed to be lucky enough to not get squashed. Even if one of us got hit, the other one would also be flattened due to the fact that we were so close to each other.

The next five seconds contained a steep drop, another easy turn, and then both of us slamming on the brakes as hard as we possibly could. We finally discovered what happened. The Bob-ombs had walked over to the bridge, somebody had to have hit one, they lit their fuse, and blew up the bridge. ...Well, most of the bridge. The only passable part left was a narrow strip of bridge not much wider than our kart. In theory, somebody very foolish could try to hop across the gap that was made and reach the other side, but it seemed way too risky of a move, and they would have to already be traveling extremely fast to build the momentum. I saw quite a few Lakitus fishing out at least five karts.

Yoshi looked at me for a little bit. Out of courtesy, since he was ahead of me before we stopped, I let him pass across the narrow path first, and I slowly moved in front of him. Midway through doing this, I saw Luigi and Toad pull up. When we were okay to speed up, they were slowly crossing as well. Far away, I heard Wario shout something like "Get out of the way!" He didn't care at all; he shoved Toad out of the way into the lava, and a Lakitu had to get him out. Luigi made it across before Wario could ram him. Yoshi and I turned the corner while I set my sights on pulling ahead. A distant thought crossed the depths of my mind during this: What if Koda was in this race? What would have happened to him?


Origin of Entria
S1x's superior puzzle is approaching...

[The Doctor]

Woo, nice work.

[S1x]

Woo?

(I'm kind of struggling on what to do after/if Charles wins three times. IM or PM ideas, please.)


Origin of Entria
S1x's superior puzzle is approaching...

[The Doctor]

Woo as in "Woo Hoo" or "Woo, yay, Hoopla"

[S1x]

This wasn't a time to worry about what would have happened. The only thing that mattered was what was happening right now. Yoshi was still within aim, and I carefully bounced along Bowser's stairs until I hit another item box. This was perfect - it was a red shell. I decided to not use it now; it would be safer to wait until we got out of all the sharp turns. Even sliding through them, my kart came very close to hugging the wall, just like everybody else.

My opportunity came near the line. I let the thing go and it hit its target perfectly - going into the final lap, I didn't have much to worry about... or so I thought.

Luigi and Wario came right towards me along the first few turns leading to the castle's interior. This was when I realized that I only race well when I have somebody to directly compete against. I habitually end up slowing down out of boredom. The competitive fever returned once they kept appearing larger in my mirror. I headed to the item boxes before the Thwomps, and picked up a mushroom. I was going to wait for the right moment to use this one as well. Wario blasted down the pavement next to me with a mushroom of his own. When he got next to me, he stared at me, revealed an evil grin, and bumped me a couple times. This slowed me down considerably, letting Wario in front of me. He started to laugh until he was silenced by a Thwomp smashing down upon him. Now Luigi was the one that was close to me.

The whole course got dusty again. This was the part with the narrow bridge. Multiple thoughts rang inside my head yet again on what I should do. Luigi might knock me out if I was too careful, but if I went too fast, I could lose it anyways. My train of thought was interrupted due to the large drop - I didn't see it because of all the dust. As I regained my senses, Luigi went ahead of me and decelerated to cross.

I straightened out, saw that I was only a few meters from the narrow crossing, and at that point, all logical reasoning and calm spirits flew out the window of my head. I went straight at the lava, tossed my mushroom into the engine, and was in for the ride of my life.

The acceleration boost by that mushroom rocketed me forward, glided my kart across the lava, literally skipped my kart across the red liquid, and bounced me off a curved stone. This was like a crazy roller coaster. The force I bounced agaist that stone sent my kart high enough so that Luigi looked about the size of my wheel. My kart was also tilting backwards from the wind, forcing me to hang onto my life not only to continue the race, but to make sure the thing didn't turn upside-down on me and turn me flatter than if Mario had jumped on me.

I landed the right way, fortunately, and the last of the mushroom kicked in. It let me soar through Bowser's collection of pictures, out of the interior, turn sharply around the castle balcony, and beat Luigi to the finish line.

That was just plain incredible. That feeling of hovering in the air was insane. Luigi greeted me a little after we had all finished and said "That-a was amazing, Charles." He also asked if I could try to show him that again. I told him that something like that was something I wished to do once and only once.

_________________________________________________

I stopped at Koda's place before resting at my pad just so I could show him my 210 Coins I just earned, but he wasn't there. I peeked through the windows, but all the lights were off. Because I didn't really want to wait, I put 10 Coins on the doorstop, wrote a note for him, and stuck the note on the door.

The note said "You missed it. I became a Paragoomba for three seconds."


Origin of Entria
S1x's superior puzzle is approaching...

[The Doctor]

Good Stuff

[S1x]

After coming back from my sixth race (at Sky Garden), I wandered into Koda's garage, because I saw him constructing something covered by a sheet and looking at plans on one of his small desk. He was also weating a small, metallic kind of shell, not his usual one. I'm not sure which was more interesting; the fact that he was trying to build something huge with his own materials, that he was wearing some kind of strange armor, or that there was a mysterious flower in a jar of water sitting on the corner of his desk.

He was so into the moment that I had to walk within three steps of him in order to notice me. He finally turned his head my direction and said a casual "Hey, Charles."

"Hey. I've, um, got a lot of questions..."

"Yeah, you probably do. What did you want to know about first?"

"The metal shell thingy."

"That's so the thing I'm building doesn't collapse onto me and crush me. It's smaller, so I can actually get up if I flip, and you could throw a kitchen sink at me and it wouldn't do a thing."

"It seems kind of uncomfortable, though."

He nodded repeatedly and said "Yeah, I don't put this on often. But this thing is worth it."

I was too curious to not know what was under that sheet. "So, what is that thing? Can I see it?"

He slowly nodded, turned the light on, and waited for the garage door to close before showing me his sacred construction. Once the garage door fully slammed shut, he pulled the sheet off to reveal a kart that appeared to be built for two.

"...W...what?"

"Check this thing out. It's a double kart." He walked around the thing, pointing to it at times, as if he was some kind of game show assistant.

"How much did this thing cost?"

"Not too much, actually. Buying the bases were cheap, and after that, there were only a few more parts remaining that I didn't have. I didn't spend more than 300 coins."

"Wow. How does it... work?"

"Two people race at the same time. The person in front does all the steering. The person in the back seat, here, handles using all the items and counterbalancing the kart."

"So everybody needs a partner..."

"Right. And you know who I've chosen, right?"

"Me?"

"Who else?"

"Uh, there's just one problem."

"Hm? What's that?"

"I didn't win yet."

"You're serious? I thought for sure you'd conquer at Sky Garden."

"I thought I would too. But there was just that one moment where Bowser bumped me directly into a banana, and before I was able to regain my balance, I fell off the course. It took a while to get back into it."

"Did you do well at all?"

"No, I came in seventh."

"Well, how many races do you have left?"

"Two."

"See, that's more than enough races left for you to win again. Next would be Shy Guy's Toy Box. I'm going to participate again there."

"Alright. Want to act as teammates again?"

"......"

"...uh... I said, want to act as teammates again?"

"......"

"What's going on, Koda? Is something wrong?"

"...no. Nothing." He then blankly walked out of his garage like a zombie. What was going on?


Origin of Entria

[The Doctor]

Nice.

[Wizard Wario]

Wow. Very Impressive.

[Glyph Phoenix]

This may very well be the best fan fiction I have ever read.

[ August 29, 2004, 03:58 AM: Message edited by: Glyph Phoenix ]

[NintendoNut]

I like it.

[S1x]

I was directed to a small little house by a race flyer. Where was the track, though? The house I was standing in front of was just as small as mine. What could be going on inside? I didn't even hear any noise. How would that thing be able to fit ten people and their karts? To answer these questions, I kicked the door open and pushed in my kart.

Nobody was inside. No sign of a race was inside. In fact, the only three things inside were me, my kart, and a mysterious pink box. Seeing as how there was really nothing else I could do, I took the lid off the pink box and saw it - a miniature model of a race track was inside.

Was this a joke? This was the Shy Guy's Toy Box race course? If I tried racing on that, I'd trample it. I had no clue what was going on. I hopped back to the side of the box, and found a sticky note attached to it. It simply said "Toss kart in here ^".

This was the first time I actually laughed in a while. My vehicle probably would not be able to even fit in that box. I imagined what would happen if I tried. Yeah, it would be pretty funny to see what happened. Besides, a sticky note told me to do it. So, I grabbed the back of the kart, pulled it so that it was angling halfway upwards, and then spin-kicked it inside the box.

It vanished. I didn't even hear any noise. This confused me even further. I snooped inside again and the same miniature track was there. Where did my kart just go?! This was creepy. Further inspection of the box showed that a second sticky note was attached on the inside of the box this time. This was even simpler than the last one: "JUMP". Sure, I'll jump. I might disappear along with my kart, but at least we would disappear together. For no reason whatsoever, I held my breath, aimed myself, and took a leap of faith inside.

_________________________________________________

"Took you long enough."

I was greeted by a red Shy Guy with an inspector badge on. To his left was a huge playground made of gigantic building blocks. To his right was the starting line, where everybody was getting prepared.

"...uh, what just happened?"

"You jumped in the box. This is the Shy Guy's Toy Box track."

I just stood there with a bizarre look on my face for several seconds before saying the first thing that came into my head.

"Where's my kart?"

"Set up over there. Everything's okay. Hurry, because you've only got about 20 minutes to prepare."

"Uh, thanks." I walked over to where everybody else was. Koda was there, paying practically no attention to me whatsoever. Something was up with him, yet I couldn't figure it out. Also there were the Mario Bros., the Wario Bros., Peach, DK, Yoshi and Toad. No Bowser? Strange...

The only two things I did before we started was drink some water and try to scope out a good view of the course. This one was pretty long, so we would only be racing for three laps. Nothing else I did was interesting.

Cutting to right before we all took off, I examined my kart even though the Shy Guy inspector said everything was all right. I tried positioning my kart, but then Wario pushed it over to the left.

"Ow. What're ya doing?"

"I'm-a going to get revenge on Mario after what he did to me last time. Out of the way." I think last time, Mario crashed into him with a Starman. I knew not to get in Wario's path at the start.

Instead of a Lakitu, a Fly Guy came in holding the traffic light. I guess this entire toy box track was sponsored by them, or something. Half the audience was composed of Shy Guys as well. But I was probably too observant; I should have paid more attention to the light. I slightly missed the timing of when the green came on, so I got a slow start. I did get to see Wario turn his kart sideways and ram Mario halfway into the audience stand. Hah.

The rankings started to spread out during the first straightaway. I went to the far left to pick up an item - a Mushroom. I used it to boost down the center and go into fifth. The turns were pretty sharp, but I was getting really confident about my power sliding move. After that turn, I saw the people in front of me being smacked by small rocks. With a quick glance upwards and to the left, I saw a squad of about five Shy Guys sniping us with slingshots. That was probably their idea of "fun". Luckily, there were pillars of blocks to drive past so that they wouldn't hit me. I pulled past a stunned Peach and collected another item.

Yoshi, Luigi, and Toad were my next targets There were also a few Shy Guys walking along the edge of the track, picking up small blocks and stuff and then putting it in a pile off the track. This was all over to the right of me - first I had to go down a long straightaway and make a quick U-turn before driving down the other one. This put Yoshi in the perfect zone for my item - a Red Shell. I launched it and it did its job perfectly.

I wasn't advancing any more than third place, though. I couldn't gain ground on Luigi or Toad (who were both struggling for the lead), and I saw DK and Koda approaching. I grabbed a banana in the next set of items, and tried laying it down around another corner, but nobody hit it. Now I had to keep focusing on the track itself. I was about to enter a narrow part of the track - tall building blocks were everywhere else. I had to slow down a little just to not bump so much. The zigzagging ended around ten seconds later, where I went up a small ramp and landed on top of the blocks. The item blocks were hard to see with all the bright colors. I ended up missing those. After one more ramp, which was another sharp right turn (Koda passed me on the inside of this turn), I was heading towards a blue tunnel. I could tell that this was going to be fun.

When I entered it, it sloped downwards and pushed me along rapidly. All the Shy Guys needed was several hundred gallons of water and this could easily become the best water slide ever. My kart kept bobbing to the left and the right and back to the left... I thought that I might go completely around, but the slide ended up straightening out and dumping me not too far from the finish line. And I still had two more laps left.


Origin of Entria

[The Doctor]

^ post icon.

[Bowser314]

normally I hate fanfics and all, but this is an excellent and certainly unique take on the Mario Kart series. Adding two whole new characters was a great idea, instead of trying to tell the story of one of the original Karters. Great stuff.

[ August 11, 2004, 02:01 AM: Message edited by: 314 ]

[ZIPPYDIPPY19]

It started off great and is getting better, keep up the great story!

[S1x]

Off the long straightaway after the first left turn of the track, DK was catching me. I picked up a fake item block to try to interrupt him, but he went over to the right of me and crossed me there. Luckily, there were more item boxes nearing the second turn. This one gave me a red shell, which was a lot better than one of those item blocks you just sort of wait for somebody to drive into. The moment I managed to position myself so that DK was in a straight line in front of me, I let go of the shell and DK swerved to the side to avoid it. It hit him anyways, letting me pass him up by far. As I was back in fourth, I saw Toad miss all but one rock fired by the Shy Guys up in the balcony. This put him right up with Koda while I picked up yet another item.

Now I had to use three mushrooms... but very carefully, because the turn was narrow and there were busy Shy Guys on the edge of the track. I slid into a turn and tried using one around the turn while I slid, just to check what would happen. Bad idea; it rocketed me in the path of a horseshoe around a U-turn, and I dropped the second mushroom on accident trying to hang on. Now I crossed into the gap between the blocks again. This area was cool because it was like a little maze - nothing too hard to figure out, since there were arrows everywhere. This was a really cool playground.

When I came out, Koda had nailed Toad with a red shell, and I smacked the mushroom guy again with a banked Green Shell I just picked up as well. This let me get close to Koda when nearing that giant slide. While Koda was bumping around again due to the lightness of his kart, I was sitting on the back of it, keeping it on the straight part and letting me cut right through to position myself less than a quarter of a second behind Koda. What happened next, however, broke nearly every promise we had made to each other.

He blasted me with a green shell behind him at point-blank range, grinding me to a complete stop. There was absolutely no alternate explanation to this whatsoever. He knew I was directly behind him - he even glanced backwards for a second to make sure it was me. He nailed me right outside of the slide, so there was no chance I could swerve. Maybe, just maybe, his eyes were fogged up or something, or it was too dark in the slide for him to know it was me. Either way, I hit the accelerator again to not try and lose it and start the final lap.

Toad tryed passing me, but I tricked him by zigzagging and laying a banana at the right time. He spun out, putting DK a little ahead of him. I tried keeping up with Koda as much as possible, but he was agile, able to dodge the Shy Guys with slingshots quite easily. Okay, he didn't have an eye ailment. I followed a straight path and luckily didn't get hit.

Around the next sharp turn, I got a Mushroom. I knew better than last time and waited until I slid around the large bend of the turn to put the thing into my engine. The boost got me behind Koda again. To turn on me yet again, he put down a banana right then. So it wasn't the darkness! How could he go back on everything he said?! There was absolutely no point in him hiting me when I was behind him! We agreed not to do that! My mind was spinning from confusion... no wait, my whole kart was spinning because I just hit a banana. The next blur I saw was a Blue Shy Guy in panic as my out-of-control kart was about to peg him. Surely enough, the poor thing became a hood ornament on the front of it.

"Aaaahhh!! Nooooooo!! Make it stop; please, make it stop!! I don't wanna die! Help meee!!! Stop right now! Get me off! Aaaahhh!!"

"...uh, the kart's not moving."

He looked over to his left, back over to his right, and surely enough, it wasn't moving. "...oh. Sorry." He then casually jumped off and went to clean up his pile of blocks.

Due to that mess, Toad, DK, Yoshi, and Wario had all passed me. I finished passing the pedestrians and hurried myself around the narrow block path. I grabbed an item which was slightly out of the way, and got myself three red shells. The first one crashed into a block, so I waited until the moment we exited there. The second one nailed Wario, letting me pass him, and the third one hammered Yoshi, allowing me to go past him on the other sharp turn and beat him through the slide. But when I got out of the slide and crossed the finish line... that was it.

I finished in fifth, one of my poorest runs for a while. Koda, Luigi, Toad, and DK all finished before me. And I could have actually stood a chance had one of my best friends not betrayed me.

I didn't even stay for the after-race coverage. I sort of went away from the crowd, not knowing what to do. How would I be able to win the only race I have left without anybody to turn to, anybody to trust, trying to complete my goal alone...?

Somehow, it had to be possible. This couldn't be it for me. Even without Koda, it had to be possible. I wanted to race. I will race. There's no question that I'm going to conquer the next one. Then I'll go and enter a grand prix... and win the gold trophy... and show it to all my ancestors, about how you can live your dreams out... it absolutely had to happen.

The moment before I attempted to exit, the blue Shy Guy I crashed into before halted my progress.

"Hold on! Don't jump yet."

"Hm? What do you want? I'm sorry about earlier..."

"Ah, that's alright. I'm the one that held you up. It's not much, but here."

"What's this?"

"I was building a tower made of small blocks. This one's an extra; you can have it."

"But why do I want it?"

"I don't really know. But just take it."

"...uh, alright."

"Thanks." He skipped off towards the big Shy Guy Playground now that nobody was racing on it for a long time.

Again, I slowly walked towards the trampoline to get out of here, when I heard a break in the multiple voices in the crowd. It was somebody calling my name. Actually, it was Koda. After he broke from the group of fans, he just stood there, not saying anything, staring at me, as if he was trying to say something vital but wasn't able to. All he did was yell "Charles" again while I jumped upon that trampoline and exited myself from the stupid track.

...now what?


Origin of Entria

[Glyph Phoenix]

When I first started reading this last part, I was really too tired to be reading. Even then, the storyline was just too good to pass up. This is my favorite fanfiction.

[The Doctor]

Need I say more.

[dux_is_me]

*Has no notion of up and down*

That, and I have nothing more to say, really. This is quite well done.