Authors Note: I'm really ahead of schedule on this story, so I figure I'd post the next chapter early. Happy early birthday present, I guess you could say?

Anyway thanks to those who have been reviewing, and for those who haven't…what are you waiting for? Read this chapter and review right away! Here's chapter 8, I hope you enjoy it.

Please Note: It was brought up by a fan of the story that I am not characterizing Flavio and Bobbery correctly. In the games they were not nor were they ever pirates, and in The Great Espiritu they are said to be/ have once been. I gave these two characters different backgrounds than the ones given to them in the Nintendo games, and I hope none of you are bothered by this. For catching this error, I think you should all check out LadyBow8's story SS Flavion, along with the rest of her works. Now, let's get on with the chapter, shall we?

Chapter 8: Back to the Tavern

The crew of The Avido had no luck finding anyone on Balboa's ship, but Mario knew exactly who he needed to find for answers. He had told the rest of the crew that if they wanted to find Bobbery and the others, they would have to first find the one person Mario could never get out of his life: Bowser. Flavio, saddened by the disappearance of his friend, announced that they would start searching for the beast the following morning.

When Mario returned to The Avido, he and Luigi immediately went below deck and into the room they shared to get ready for bed. Mario was still holding the piece of paper with Bowser's name of it. Luigi sat next to his brother on the bed and patter him on the back. "Don't worry, Mario. I'm sure we'll be able to find Bobbery and The Great Espiritu. Flavio knows a lot of people around here; one of them had to see Bowser."

"Yeah," Mario replied, "You know, at first I really didn't think Flavio was going to be this helpful. But we seem to be on the right track now."

Luigi stood up and placed his hat on a broken shelf. "Flavio's always been useful on our adventures. Why didn't you think he was going to help us? He's a good man, Mario."

"I don't think he's a bad person," Mario told Luigi, "But to me, he always seemed to care a little too much about himself and whatever he was after. At least that's what he was like on our other adventure, and"-

"Well maybe he's changed since then!" Luigi interrupted, "He's my friend, bro, and I wish you could see him as more than some kind of pirate. Well, I'm going to bed; see you in the morning." And with that, Luigi blew out the candle in the room and fell onto his bed. They didn't talk anymore, but Mario stayed up for much longer, thinking about how immature his brother was acting. You don't care what Flavio's like, Luigi, he said to himself, you just missed having me around, and jumped on board with the first person who you saw as a replacement for me.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

Mario wasn't sure what time Flavio clumsily walked into their room, but he was pretty sure he hadn't been sleeping for very long.

"Flavio, what are you doing in here?" Luigi asked, also awakened by the noise, "It's still dark out!"

The captain lit the candle in the room and smiled at the brothers. "I know its early boys, but I figured we should get an early start today. We'll have more time to search for Bowser, plus we won't have to deal with the crew."

"Mario got up and grabbed his hat from the dresser. "Flavio, who's awake at this hour? The town has to sleep at some time."

Flavio gave the chuckle he always gave when Mario was wrong. "You're mistaken, Mario," Flavio told him, "The people in Foschia Island never sleep. What I mean is… the bars are never empty. Now let's get a move on, you two!"

Mario and Luigi quickly got dressed and followed Flavio to the upper decks of The Avido. They walked carefully by the rooms where the crew slept, as to not wake them up. Flavio was just about to go up a flight of stairs when Mario saw him trip right in front of him. Not knowing what had happened, Mario pulled a match out of his pocket and lit it. What he saw was actually quite amusing; Flavio had fallen flat on his face and was crushing Curoso, the person he had tripped over.

"Curoso, what are you doing up at this hour?" asked Luigi, who was helping Flavio up so the tiny goomba could breathe.

"I could ask you guys the same question," replied Curoso, "But I won't because I already know. Flavio woke me up when he walked by, and I overheard the conversation you just had with him. I'm going to come with you!"

"Flavio sighed, but knew that there was no way he could change the young goomba's mind. "Fine, you can come along too, young explorer. But be quiet so nobody else wakes up."

The four of them walked up the stairs and into the warm air that welcomed them outside. Their journey to town was mostly silent, spare the unanswered questions Curoso frequently asked regarding Bowser. Flavio recommended that they start at Tina's Tavern; for he knew many people there that he thought might be able to help them. The others obliged.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

The town seemed to be just as busy and dodgy at four in the morning as it was during the day, just as Flavio had said. Mario wanted to get out of the streets as soon as possible so he could avoid all of the evil stares he was getting from strangers. When they finally reached the tavern, Mario rushed in as if it had been raining outside.

"Ah, great crowd this morning!" Flavio announced, "Let's grab a drink, boys!"

Mario found that walking into a bar changed his behavior somewhat; the only thing we wanted to de before was find Bowser, but the second he walked into the bar, all he wanted was a drink. He led them to the bar and they all sat on old stools. Flavio was the only one to order a drink from the bartender and owner of the tavern, Tina Koopa. She quickly poured him a mug, and Flavio drank it just as fast. "Well, I'm going to go talk to some of my friends and question them about this Bowser fellow; you three can wait here until I return.

"Hey, wait a minute"- Mario began, but Flavio was already stumbling away, leaving he, Luigi and Curuoso at the bar. "Why does he have to go by himself?" asked Mario, "I mean why did he ask us to come in the first place?"

"He probably just wants to talk to his friends by himself," replied Luigi, "You know, without any distractions."

Mario watched as Flavio sat down with a group of goombas, ordering another beer from a waitress who had passed by him. "So is that what we are to him? Distractions?"

Luigi laughed. "No, it's not like that. He probably just thinks his friends will ask fewer questions if he's alone. You know what I mean?"

Mario turned back to the bar, where Tina was putting away clean glasses. "I guess that makes sense," he said to his brother, "But it really doesn't help our situation if he's drunk all the time."

Luigi snickered.

"Are you sure I can't get you boys anything?" asked Tina, "It looks like you could use a drink."

Mario and Luigi looked at the short, skinny koopa. "We're not here for a drink," Mario told her, "We're just looking for someone."

"Well then, you've come to the right place," Tina stated, setting down a glass she was cleaning and focusing her attention on them, "Hundreds of people come in here everyday, and I'm pretty good at remembering faces. Maybe I can help you find your guy."

"Well," began Mario, noticing that Flavio had moved to another table and was in the process of drinking yet another beer, "You wouldn't forget this guy if you saw him. He's about seven feet tall; a giant koopa with a spiked shell and"-

"Ah, say no more," interrupted Tina, "I know exactly who you're talking about. He was in here yesterday morning with a couple of his friends."

"Really?" asked Mario, glad that he had found information on Bowser before Flavio, "Who was he with?"

"He was sitting up here at the bar with a couple of koopas," answered Tina, now back to cleaning dishes, "They ordered a few drinks and talked for a while. I didn't hear much, but when they finished they ordered a room in the Tavern. I can give you the number, if you'd like it."

"Yeah!" shouted Luigi immaturely, "I mean yeah, that would be great, Tina. Thanks a lot."

Tina smiled as she told the brothers and Curoso that he was staying in room seven. "I really shouldn't be telling you boys this. I mean I doubt you're planning a happy reunion with this Bowser fellow. If there's gonna be problems, don't handle 'em in my tavern, alright?"

"Of course not," replied Mario, glad that they had finally cornered Bowser. "Do you know if he's in the room now?"

She answered them while pouring drinks for a group of piantas who had just sat down at the bar. "They left the bar around eleven o'clock yesterday, and I haven't seen them come back since."

Mario thanked her for the information, and then the trio stepped off of their stools and went to fetch Flavio. They found him at a large booth, enjoying what might have been his fourth beer with a boo and a bunch of bom-ombs. "Ah, master Mario!" the drunk sailor shouted, "I haven't found anything about that Bozo fellow yet, but I have a feeling I'm getting pretty close!"

"Don't worry about it, Flavio," retorted Luigi, "We've already found out where Bowser's staying, so let's get going!" Flavio, however, laughed hysterically before collapsing on the table he was sitting at. At that moment, Mario thought Flavio had never been so useless.

"Well then, I guess it's just gonna be the three of us," said Mario, and he led Luigi and Curoso towards the stairs that led up to the hotel. He saw his brother shakes his head at Flavio before walking away.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

The stairs creaked at Mario, Luigi and Curoso carefully walked up to the second floor of Tina's Tavern. Mario wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do once he reached Bowser's room, but then again he didn't even know for sure whether or not Bowser was in there. Curoso and Luigi were following him, hoping that he knew what he was doing, but when they reached room seven, the room Tina had told them Bowser was staying in, Mario just stood there.

"Should we go in?" Luigi asked, more saying that they should rather than asking, "Tina said they hadn't come back yet, so what have we got to lose?"

Mario was very hesitant about the whole situation. He wanted to know what Bowser was up to, but he didn't was to face the consequences. But when he saw the looks of curiosity and excitement on his companion's faces, the ex-plumber knew that there was no turning back now.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess we should go in," Mario replied, still a little nervous, "But I think Curoso should stand guard out here. You know, just in case."

"What!" Curoso should obnoxiously, "Man, I didn't come here just so I could"-

"Sh! Be quiet!" Mario interrupted, "You're staying out here. If you see anybody, especially Bowser, just whistle and we'll hide, or something.

Curoso looked extremely disappointed, but agreed to do his job. Mario thanked him, and nervously turned to the paint-chipped door once again. He put his hand around the rusty metal doorknob, and after looking at Luigi, Mario quickly turned the knob and swung the door open. He was hoping that this would be easy, that they would just find Bobbery and his crew tied up in chairs in a circle with The Great Espiritu in the center, but deep inside Mario knew that even Bowser was smarter than that.

The hotel room was dirty and messy, and at first sight Mario and Luigi could see nothing that connected Bowser with Bobbery's disappearance or the Great Espiritu's. There were papers scattered all over the room and the bed wasn't made; it was definitely a place where Bowser would stay, making Mario believe that they were on the right track.

"I guess we should look around," Luigi suggested, and he started by picking up a pile of papers and going through them. Mario walked towards the desk next to the oversized bed and opened its two drawers. They were both empty, except for a small gum wrapper in the bottom one. He then joined Luigi in searching through all of the papers, for there was nothing else in the room that would help them.

"Find anything?" asked Mario, not having luck himself after several minutes.

"Not really…" replied Luigi, "There's this, but I don't think it will help us much." He handed Mario a crumpled piece of paper, and he smoothed it out in order to read it.

Three days, Bowser… were the only three words written on the paper, and Mario had no idea what they meant. "It doesn't make any sense, but it's better than anything I've found."

"Most of these papers have nothing to do with Bowser," said Luigi, "They're just pages from books and…hey, check this out!"

"What is it?" Mario questioned, taking the large, folded paper from Luigi and observing it. It didn't make much sense to Mario at first, but then he realized what it was: blueprints. To what, Mario did not know, but this was definitely something. Whatever it was the blueprints were made for, it was absolutely enormous. From what Mario could tell, it was bigger than Peach's old castle in the Mushroom Kingdom.

As good of a find as this was, Mario sighed. This wasn't answering any questions, just creating new ones. What exactly was Bowser planning?

Just then, Mario heard a small yelp from the hallway. He and Luigi looked at each other oddly. "What was that?" Luigi asked his brother.

They both stood up and looked at the door, right before it was kicked down by a person too familiar to Mario. It wasn't Curoso. It was Bowser, followed by a bunch of his koopa cronies. Outnumbered, Mario was a little nervous, and he could tell that Luigi was too.

"So Mario, we meet again," Bowser stated.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

Author's Note: I am sorry to say that due to circumstances that would bore you to sleep, I must go away once again, and I probably won't be back until Tuesday. Not to worry, though; chapter 9 will be up soon after I return, probably on Wednesday or Thursday. In the meantime, let me leave you with a little poll…

Like J.K. Rowling, one of my heroes, I usually kill off a main character at the end of a story, and The Great Espiritu (Part One) is no exception. Sadly, one of these six main characters will die by the end of part one:

-Mario

-Luigi

-Flavio

-Peach

-Toadsworth

-Bowser

Who do you think it will be? Please send me a PM (I want to keep answers private) telling me who you think will die. I'll post the results with Chapter 9: Tessa's Tale (Yes, that's right, I'm giving you the name of the next chapter!). Also, please review this chapter!