Luigi walked slowly to the corner shop. Why is it always me who has to do the grocery shopping?, he thought. After years of living at Toad Town, Luigi found out that although its streets were clean, its houses neat and its residents nice, it was also extremely dull. Being a typical clean, tidy and pleasant town, it was nice to live in but also significantly lacked adventure. Luigi wanted activities out of the ordinary – activities where he could go places, such as Mario Kart.

The corner shop was owned by a green-robed Shy Guy. It often had its share of customers and was extremely popular with the town's residents. This was expected as its prices were all amazingly low – something that is completely ordinary in a nice, pleasant town.

"Hey, Luigi! How are you doing? I'm your self-proclaimed biggest fan!", greeted the Shy Guy warmly. "I've been rooting for you in all of your races, and I've remembered all of your quotes! It is such a delight to meet you first person!"

"Hey, Maskio", replied Luigi; he was a regular at the shop. It was only this year that his number of fans had significantly increased. A couple of toads buying tinned mushrooms at an aisle also turned and pointed.

"Also, Luigi?", asked Maskio.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've noticed something funny about the Bowsers' kart", Maskio continued. "You know how you guys failed the first race? I suspect they have something to do with it. And also, they've apparently tried to race right alongside you, touching your kart for some bizarre reason. You'd better be careful."

"Thanks for the advice", responded Luigi. He did not know wether to tell him or not, but since the Shy Guy was such an avid fan of his, he decided to.

"They have a...a...weapon?", freaked Maskio. "That is such horrid news! You must report them!"

"We've already tried", said Luigi bitterly. With that, he walked out of the shop...

"Hey, Luigi! Got the groceries yet? I'm starving!", whinged Mario, lying on the couch.

"The groceries! How could I forget!", Luigi facepalmed. He had been so occupied with talking to Maskio that he had completely forgotten.

"Oh Luigi, you're such a...anyway, dinners gone, what shall we do? I want to eat!", said Mario, changing the subject.

Just then, Toadbert and Toadofsky burst in. They had instant noodles packaged in paper containers. "Guys, we've got some ramen! You want some?"

"We have to, because Luigi screwed the shopping", said Mario.

Once again there was another trip into space, this time for Rainbow Road. The Mario bros had agreed that, after much consideration, Luigi should do the driving (and Mario item handler). By then, spaceship rides were nothing special for Luigi, and thus he was indulged in a crossword of the Mushroom Chronicle.

Soon, their spaceship arrived at an elaborately designed rainbow structure. A small house was floating right beside the visible start line, and looked like a miniature version of Peach's castle – the flag of the Mushroom Kingdom proudly showing on the top of the centre tower. A glass walkway extended from the front door to the outside, giving the ship a place to dock. The racers all proceeded from the ship to the building, whilst observing their surroundings – the glass walkway was of course made of glass tiles, with golden images of a golden mushroom with wings imprinted on them.

The inside of the building was just as stunning to behold. The rooftops and walls were composed of elegant arches and curves; not unlike the real Peach's castle. There was also a food counter where food was to be served, since the Mario crew would be staying for lunch and possibly dinner.

A screen was taped onto one of the walls, fed by an overhead projector. On it, there was a camera stuck to a kart as it went around the course, giving all the racers a first-person view:

After the start, there was a small curve with star-shaped fences on either side. After an immediate line of item boxes, the road wound around a spherical asteroid before opening out into space; afterwards was a ramp-based section where racers could get boosts on the boost ramps. This was needed to clear the section. Then there was another asteroid, the road wound around it again and this time the road was in sections, racers needed to use the boost ramps to get to the next area of track.

Afterwards was a rainbow-coloured trampoline. By bouncing on it, racers got to the next stretch of road. The road then wound up and down, a line of item boxes were also placed there. Then was a checkpoint before a whopping 270-degree turn, soon after karts were dropped onto the cream-coloured rings of a planet. Racers must be careful as there a holes in the rings and racers might drop through the holes and into oblivion...well not really, since rescue crews would rescue them and then take him or her back to their pit, racer becoming a spectator.

Then was a darker part of the rings with many boosts placed within; this was one of the fastest sections of track. Then the rings abruptly ended, a launch star shaped ring blasted racers onto a third section. Then the road became very broad, boosts were always placed on the upper portion.

Following was an area with many spherical holes; the holes also moved making clearing them super-difficult. Then they landed on an actual planet, with many craters. The craters were not deep and thus racers could go through them, but this would definitely decrease their time.

Chomp heads were also to be found on the planet. Racers must fly through a particularly large crater to obtain another line of item boxes, before the planet ends and the chomps roll off the track. After the second checkpoint racers could race on actual rainbow road again. A curve was a cylinder which racers race in followed; the cylinder turns and boost panels are located on them. Racers were then thrown to another part of track with many areas. Racers must choose the correct path to avoid losing time. On some areas there are launch-star shaped boost rings which further catapult the racers in front. Then there was a twisty portion before the final end of the course.

The demonstration ended when the rider turned off the camera – it was pre-recorded, and not live. Luigi suspected that it had taken the demonstration driver several times to complete the track flawlessly, anyway.

"The food counter is now open!", announced a koopa waitress behind it. She had a dark blonde hair, and although she also had the yellow skin of a normal koopa, there was also a distinct orange tinge to it. Since there was still 45 minutes before the race, Team Mario Bros had decided to indulge themselves with a high-quality meal.

There was really not much the racers could say, and the room was mostly silent as the racers munched on their meals.

But this was interrupted by Lakitu, as he started calling racers out to their shootouts (since Rainbow Road's starting lineup was based on the final shootout). First up was the Bowsers, who finished eating their meat (which is apparently the favourite food of the Koopas) and rushed out, stopping only to do a victory dance...even though their shootout hadn't started yet. After a few minutes, out of one of the room's many windows Luigi saw the Bowsers' kart - the Koopa King - being driven out to the start line. Bowser Jr. was driving this time, despite also being the driver of the previous race, since on Rainbow Road racers can choose their preferred positions. Since this was a shootout, Bowser decided to not get in the kart and cheered his son on from their pit.

Jr. perfected the rocket start and went around the asteroid. Luigi, Mario, Toadofsky and Toadbert intently watched their rival.

"That wasn't a very good turn", said Toadbert, as he calculated the possible time and others. "He should've cut inside more."

"Hehe, we'll beat them for sure", agreed Toadofsky. The toad was eyeing the glittering, golden Mario Kart trophy placed inside a glass cabinet, placed on the centre of the road for everyone to see.

Luigi didn't want to ruin the overconfidence of the toads, and so he continued to watch the race. The sheer length of the track meant that Jr. was soon out of eyesight.

The young Koopa comfortably navigated the last few obstacles, and without the presence of other racers he found it relatively easy. The crossed the finish line and slowly lost speed, before he came to a complete stop at the sold-out grandstand which cheered; most of his fans were from the Koopa Troop or Darkland.

Soon, Luigi started out for the track; Mario and the toads gave him a final thumbs up and patted his back to reassure him. Luigi ignored both these actions, his mind blank except for one thought: completing the shootout.

I can do this, his mind raced. I am Luigi, hero of the Mushroom Kingdom...this is my time to shine.

Luigi drove his kart via a side road (also rainbow-coloured) onto the main racetrack, these thoughts circling in his mind.

Lakitu took up position on the rainbow-coloured banner with the Mario Kart emblem, light in hand. "Three!"

Luigi's hands gripped the steering wheel.

"Two!"

Luigi let go of the brake.

"One!"

Luigi prepared to put his foot on the accelerator.

"GO!"

Luigi blasted off. He was now racing on the most prestigous Mario Kart track in the world.

NEXT CHAPTER COMING SOON