Rainbow Road [Super Mario Bros.]

18

The next several days were quite painful, but step by step, both they and Rainbow Road continued to pass on by.

Luigi, of course, suffered the most — not only because neither they nor the police continued to see neither sight nor sound of Nabbit, but also because his body was undergoing a slow and agonizing transformation. Later, he would recollect it as being a molten sword that was getting hammered into shape: he was hot and sweaty and achy and dead-beat tired almost all the time, but slowly the muscles in his legs were getting thicker, and every day he was somehow able to walk farther than he had the day before.

It helped that Rainbow Road had plenty to distract him.

At twenty-five miles up they went through an omnidirectional water park, where the water literally floated in blobs and globules in the air, and you could rent a floating pool for 200 coins an hour.

At thirty-five miles up was one of the fabled space dealerships, selling everything from space scooters to pinball-shaped space cars to hulking rigs designed for interstellar flight (all absurdly priced, even for a Mario Bro).

And at forty-five miles up was an active construction site working to build Rainbow Road's first-ever suburban subdivision, complete with satellite homes, a railway to guide public transportation to and from Orbit City, and even a site where they were putting together a school ship, a massive metal galleon that functioned as both the school bus and the place of learning itself.

As they passed through the minefield of metal scaffolding, half-constructed skeletons, and rail tracks that led to nowhere, Daisy mentioned that though closer to Orbit City's generous job pool, a satellite condo out here would put a single occupant back 250,000 coins a year.

Mario whistled at that and jabbed Luigi. "Think they'd give us the Mario Bros discount?" he asked.

Luigi thought this was very funny, meaning not funny at all. Living in a metal ball almost fifty miles above the Earth? No thank you!

The hotels they stayed in during those several days were not as extravagant as the Horizon Hotel or the Orbital Motel. In fact, a couple of these places didn't really look like hotels at all, just giant metal containers tethered to the Road by ropes, chains, or gravity rigs. One place was so cheap that the rooms were literally shipping containers with sleeping bags, tiny urinals, and no room service: you ordered your own food externally, or you went hungry.

None of it really made a difference to Luigi. When they were done walking at the end of the day, the only thing he was concerned with was where to lay his head. All the exercise was taking such a toll on his body that he was even beginning to lose interest in looking at the expanding cosmos through his telescope or taking pictures.

In fact, he was beginning to lose interest in catching Nabbit as well. The further they pushed into space, the more and more his only concern was getting to Orbit City so that he could take the first bus home.

On their seventh day of walking, they departed from their hotel (again, another metal container with barely enough room for a set of bunk beds) with a small group of Rainbow Walkers and headed upward, looking for breakfast. There was a rest stop about a mile above them: the Forty-Seven Mile Rest Stop, which looked like a series of stairways and platforms that had benches and a coffee stand.

Luigi stopped to stare at the sign as the rest of them went up to order caffeine. Forty-seven miles? That couldn't be right. Had he seriously somehow managed to walk so far in the last several days? It didn't seem possible... But if it wasn't, then this sign was lying, and they wouldn't put up misleading signs, would they?

He looked up and saw evidence of this looming high above them, casting a massive shadow over the Road: Orbit City now appeared larger than the actual moon, a swarm of brilliant lights over a body that was dark, rugged, and pointed on both ends -- its shape reminded Luigi of an ancient galactic force he'd once read about in a cosmic horror story. But the sight brought him sudden joy: he'd been too busy being constantly tired over the last few days to notice Orbit City growing bigger and bigger, closer and closer.

"It's almost over." Luigi looked up to see Mario coming down the stairs, bearing two cups of joe. He gave Luigi one and said, "One, maybe two days left, Daisy said. Though she's probably already there: aren't early risers annoying?"

Luigi took a sip of coffee and sighed. It wasn't cold up here thanks to the artificial weather system, but it was still nice to start the day with something warm. "You were right, bro. I didn't think I could make it this far, but..."

Mario patted his shoulder. "I'm real proud of you, Weegee. I can't wait to celebrate with you and everyone else once we get to the Cosmic Sunrise Hotel. We've gotta take a night out on the town, you and me, so you can see more of the city. They've got this really cool theme park a few blocks away, and it's got a haunted house that I think you would--"

"Bro! How many times do I have to tell you? I don't like ghosts!"

Mario laughed. "All right, all right. But we've got to at least go on the Ferris wheel. The view, bro... You wouldn't believe it."

A theme park... That sounded like a great way to unwind after finally crossing the finish line. Maybe Luigi wouldn't take the first bus home after all...

After finishing their coffee, they headed on, just them this time: the rest of the Rainbow Walkers had pulled ahead. Luigi tried to focus his thoughts on the Ferris wheel and the good time he and Mario would have as his legs began to ache and protest again, but quickly those thoughts were literally overshadowed as giant, black forms suddenly rose up around them.

"Look at this, bro," Mario said from a little ways ahead. "It's the Shipyard."

Was it? Luigi strained his eyes, but couldn't tell -- on this stretch of the Road, Orbit City blocked out the sun overhead, so everything except for the rainbow-colored ground beneath their feet was cast into near complete darkness. Against the stars he could make out the outlines of colossal black shapes rising on either side of him, but they could've been mountains, for all he knew.

"It's too dark," he called.

"What?" Mario cried. Besides being dark, it was also noisy way up here: as Luigi worked to catch up with his brother, he spotted flashes in the darkness, and heard orders being shouted on megaphones. Slowly his eyes began to adjust, and he began seeing a lot of metal: rigs, mostly, and giant metallic docks to which even greater forms -- the bulkheads, hulls, and flanks of irregularly-shaped ships -- were attached. Scaffolding was suspended along their sides in towers, and were crawling with workers -- toads, Monty Moles, Koopas, Shroobs, and Shy Guys -- screwing in bolts, hammering down nails, shaping metal, and welding together plates of iron and steel.

When Luigi caught up to Mario, the older bro was staring down at one ship brighter than the rest: it was an airship with an old-fashioned pirate facade, and the workers appeared to be testing the rockets, hence all the lights.

"You know," Mario said, "I heard once that this is where Bowser gets all his airships."

Luigi raised a brow in alarm. That's why the airship looked so familiar... He'd seen Goombas piloting these things on more than one occasion. "Have you told Peach?"

"Sure. But bureaucracy, you know? She's scheduled for the Paratroopa in charge of this shipyard to testify before the Council two months from now."

"And meanwhile, Bowser's still sending these ships to wheel about illegally in Mushroom Kingdom airspace."

"Tell it to Toadsworth. He's the one who talked Peach out of just shutting down the operation, and scheduling that stupid meeting instead." He suddenly looked up. "Hm? What's this?"

Luigi followed his gaze, and saw that light had appeared in the northern skies: red lights, blue lights, flashing lights. As they drew closer and brighter, he was just able to make out the shapes of flying shrooms speeding across the sky, their sirens just barely audible over the din of shipbuilding. There were five of them, and they jerked back and forth across the stars in a bizarre fashion -- what were they doing, a practice drill? Or... Luigi glanced at Mario, who's eyes had gone wide.

"Are they chasing something?" Mario asked. "Something we can't see?"

Maybe the something had induced a Blackout, and was actively reflecting the sun's rays. The two bros watched the zig-zagging sky dance with growing apprehension, until the flying shrooms abruptly spiraled down over the top of the giant transport ship with a flat roof. Mario and Luigi exchanged another glance.

"Nabbit," Mario said. "Have they driven him to ground?"