Super Mario Sunshine

Chapter 14 - A Rollercoaster of Emotion

   Oh good, looks like the commotion over there has finally died down, Darla thought to herself. Wonder what that was about.

   Sighing to herself in the shade of the great wall behind her, the noki girl looked over Pinna Park Beach and shook her head. There hadn't been much business of late, but her job still seemed nonetheless exciting. In her short time as the gate person of the Pinna Island Amusement Park, she had seen thousands of tourists come and go - but never anything quite so interesting as the couple she'd just seen go by.

   They were both humans, or so it seemed; they didn't get a whole lot of those around here. He was strange-looking and clothed in blue; she was pretty but seemed rather upset. As they'd hustled themselves into the park without a backward glance, Darla could've sworn something was just wrong about it all.

   A moment later the strange banging noises had begun from the other end of the beach - but unable to see from where she was, she had resigned to just ignore it. Probably just Huey working on the beach cannon.

   In any case, it seemed all was normal again; at least until yet another anxious figure came running up from out of nowhere.

   This one was also a human, short and oddly equipped; he had a large yellow water tank of some sort on his back. He was in a rush, Darla could already tell, and had been in the ocean recently, too.

   "Hello there... Welcome to Pinna Park!" she greeted brightly, almost biting herself to avoid asking where he had come from. She'd never seen many humans like this one before, but she already knew that he was something else.

   "...Are you new around here?" she asked casually.

   The young man, in a great deal of mental activity, scarcely looked at her. "Is this the entrance?" he asked.

   A little disappointed, Darla nodded. "Oh yes, sir, right through these doors. If I could just -

   "Thanks!" The man was already gone on his way, pushing past her and into the park before she could even think. With a sigh, Darla leaned against the wall.

  Well, so much for that, she thought in frustration. We really should get a little more serious about park security. Glancing up at the cloudy sky, she shook her head. I swear, one of these days this lousy government is gonna make a huge mistake.

~

   The amusement park, at first glance, had everything one would expect a good one to have. It was colorful, inviting, and above all, loud.

Driven by a single thought, Mario ran into the heart of the amusement park and was instantly enveloped in a torrent of noise. In the instant he'd stepped through the gates it was as if he'd entered another land: bouncy music blared over speakers, children shrieked with laughter and terror on overhanging rides, and the smell of enticing fresh food filled the air. It had always been there, faintly on the outside beach, he supposed, but it wasn't until he was actually inside that he felt the entirety of it all.

If he had been to a more compact theme park in the past, Mario had a hard time remembering it just then. The entire place was seemingly crammed into the small plaza where he now stood, which he could clearly see by the high white walls surrounding the place. On his left were some awnings by a few small souvenir shops and restaurants - typical for the setting. Ahead and to his right were spread out the attractions - from here he could see a carousel, some sort of spinning shells ride, and beyond that some giant swinging pirate ships and a Ferris wheel. The anticipated rollercoaster stood overhead, nothing more than a maze of sleek orange track slicing through the sky and trailing around and outside the greater part of the park. A few people milled about among the attractions, carrying oversized pretzels and arguing over maps.