Rainbow Road [Super Mario Bros.]

20

Luigi's legs seemed to have lost all their muscle and replaced it with petroleum jelly. He was back in the ship's storage bay, facing the large, dark interior. Nabbit stood in the center of the darkness, glaring at Luigi -- his rabbit-eared hoodie made him look like an insane killer bunny, and for some reason, Luigi found him more terrifying than any spirit he'd encountered in that stupid mansion.

Nabbit's eyes shifted, until they were centered on the giant bay door behind Luigi -- the door that was slowly making its way shut, jittering down on a rusty track that rattled in its housing. On the other side, the Monty Mole was whistling a cheerful ditty, completely oblivious to what was happening in the hangar -- besides his autonomy, Luigi had lost his voice when he'd spotted Nabbit coming out of the darkness. Mostly: he'd managed to get on the radio and rasp, "He's here. First floor," into the mouth-piece, but that had taken a monumental effort.

An even bigger struggle was keeping control of his bladder -- Nabbit was stalking further out of the dark now, and Luigi noticed that he was dragging a crowbar across the ground. Abruptly, he lifted it and pointed it at Luigi.

"Out of the way, asparagus," he growled. "Unless you want me to use your head for batting practice!"

Luigi wanted nothing more than to get out of this maniac's way and let Mario handle this... But Mario wasn't here. Maybe in a few minutes he would be, but Nabbit clearly wasn't waiting a few seconds, let alone a few minutes. What to do?

Get him! a voice in his head snapped. Obviously! Didn't you say that you were gonna be the one to take him down? Buck up!

Sucking in a breath, he tried: "I-I can't do that." He hated how his voice shook: Why is this so hard? "S-surrender: you've broken the law. You h-have to go to jail."

He shrugged. "I warned you."

The criminal broke towards Luigi, winding up the crowbar behind him. By the way he moved, his clear intent was to strike Luigi in the head and then vanish through the door. Sweat sped down the side of Luigi's face, and he gulped rapidly, trying not to lose himself to his fear: Mario's not here! You're the only one that can stop him! At least hold him off until help arrives!

It was the same pep talk he'd given himself every other minute during that horrible tour through the mansion, and it worked: what little nerve he had he managed to steel, and when Nabbit was finally close enough to swing, Luigi managed to get his head out of the way.

But it all went wrong from there, because Nabbit didn't actually swing. Instead, he threw down the crowbar and slammed his foot down on Luigi's bent knee, and Luigi realized that it had been a feint: Nabbit had fully expected for Luigi to duck and dodge, and was going to use his knee as another springboard to drive himself fully through the door.

No! Luigi was not going to let himself be fooled twice, be humiliated twice, by the same move! Wildly, he flung out a hand, and managed to dig his fingers into the back of Nabbit's pants leg just as the criminal launched forward. He was yanked back, and Luigi's arm was nearly pulled from its socket, but he hung on for all that he was worth, and they both wound up on the floor.

Quickly, Nabbit rolled and kicked Luigi in the face. "Blast it... Leggo of me!"

"Gah!" Luigi's brain seemed to snap free and play ping pong with the walls of his skull, but somehow he hung on, even when Nabbit brought the heel of his sneaker down on the fingers still attached to his pants leg. The pain was excruciating, but Luigi didn't see that he had another choice but to hang on: it was either that or let go and let Nabbit escape.

Nabbit kicked him again and again, and behind him, the door continued to roll down, inch by inch by inch, until beyond his swollen face, Luigi could see that the gap between the door and the floor had narrowed to a point that there was no way that Nabbit could escape through it. Only then did Luigi finally let go.

Immediately, the criminal leapt up, only to screech in dismay as the door hit the floor with a final, resounding boom. "No!" He leapt at the door, pounding and kicking against the metal, but it was no use -- he might as well have been striking a wall.

Nabbit swung around, fury kindling in his eyes, and seized Luigi by the collar, lifting him from where he lay wheezing on the floor. "Big mistake, cucumber," he hissed. "You think you've just trapped me in here with you? Wrong: now you're trapped in here with me."

He lifted a fist, and Luigi knew that it was the criminal's full intent to punch him right to sleep -- given the terrible pain in his head, Luigi didn't see the downside.

Then a shout came from down the hall.

"STOP!" Mario appeared, with three police toads, including Officer Jack, on his heels. "Let my brother go!"