Rainbow Road [Super Mario Bros.]

2

They had the biggest crowd ever this year: three-thousand five hundred Walkers, according to Daisy Floral, one of the head organizers of the event.

It made for quite an interesting trek from the castle green and down the highway, especially since it was raining. The organizers had hired a camera crew of Lakitus to film the beginning of their journey, and Mario had the video pulled up on his phone: it showed not a crowd, but what looked like a giant moving floral patch walking down the side of the road, featuring umbrellas of every color of the rainbow, fittingly enough.

Luigi was miserable by the time they got to the Rainbow Ground Gate — he didn't like the rain, among a million other things, but they all had to stand outside in a ragged line as a cluster of officials at the toll gate facilitated them through the terminal a handful at a time. Mario tried to distract him with a video of the last Smash Tournament Grand Finals (Bayonetta versus Cloud, and what a decisive battle it was!) but his brother's eyes kept straying longingly to the lines of buses being docked and locked into tow-tracks, all in a line to make one giant train. Shrooms, he could've been on one of those, sitting warm and comfy beside Mario in a heated plush seat — why couldn't they have headed to Orbit City in bussy comfort?

Soon they were through, but Luigi only got to enjoy the dryness and warmth of the terminal for a split second before Mario ushered him through Exit 5-A, designated a foot trail. Then he was back out in the wind and rain, but treated to an extraordinary sight: the beginning of Rainbow Road. It was a glassy track that started flat against the ground before it rose in a continuous upward slope, disappearing into the rainy haze. His head tilted back in the downpour as he tried to take in the baffling scale of the upward path.

It's like a giant and never-ending highway on-ramp, he thought. Or a vast, painfully obtuse spiral. He found both similes to be lackluster in describing it. What a colossal structure — one made by mortals, no less! Luigi had to hand it to Rosalina and her legion of Lumas — they'd spared no expense on this creation, and the sheer, baffling size of it took his breath away.

It also made his knees wobble: "Are we really doin' this, bro?" Beholding the never-ending on-ramp stretching before him, he couldn't help but wonder if this was all a joke. Him? Walk that? By foot? It wasn't possible! Right?

Mario slapped him on the back. "I already have," he told Luigi. "You can too, bro. It's not as hard as it looks. The first few days might be rough, but with the right attitude, you'll be at the gate of Orbit City in no time flat."

Luigi looked back at the terminal, back at the buses -- they were now being lined up at the terminal gates, ready to mount the anti-grav tracks that would pull them right into space. Mario patted his shoulder.

"Too late, the doors are closin' behind us, bro. The only vehicle taking you into the upper atmosphere are your Chevrolegs." He cracked up, then gave his brother a sterner pat. "Now come on. We're eating Daisy's dust!"