Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since an update. I've been way too busy with school to write, but now I'm back on track and should at least have a new chapter every week. If you haven't read the other chapters left, I suggest you go back and read them first, since you'll be lost if you don't. Anyway enjoy the chapter; there's only a few left until the story ends! Not to worry though, part II will be out this summer.
Chapter 10: Lies and Suspicion
"I didn't expect to see you here, Mario," Bowser said in his loud, obnoxious voice, "I didn't know you had turned to a life of crime."
Bowser and six other koopas now surrounded Mario and Luigi, blocking all of the exits out of the room. The two brothers stood close together, not knowing what the King Koopa and his minions would do to them.
"I think you know why we're here, Bowser," Mario replied, trying to look brave, even though he was somewhat frightened.
"Oh, do I?" he asked, putting his hands on his hips, "I'm afraid you're mistaken; why don't you just tell us?"
The other koopas snickered.
"Well…" began Luigi, but he was too intimidated by Bowser and his crew to finish.
"We know you have The Great Espiritu!" Mario shouted without hesitation. He looked at all of the koopas with an evil glare, and then turned back to Bowser, "Now tell us where it is!"
At these words, Bowser started howling with laughter. See this, his minions soon followed, trying almost too hard to laugh as much as he was.
"Lies!" shouted one koopa, whose decrepit face and missing eye startled Mario, as he had not noticed it before, "All lies, Mr. Bowser!"
"You can't believe that I had anything to do with that!" Bowser shouted looking like he had never heard anything more ridiculous in his life, "What would I need something like that for?"
Truthfully, Mario did not know. Usually, Bowser's evil-doings rewarded him with Peach or money, which the Great Espiritu did neither. Unless he was getting money for The Great Espiritu…
"You come barging into my hotel room to accuse me of something you can't prove?" Bowser asked, smiling at Mario. "I don't know anything about that spirit, and there's nothing in this room that will tell you otherwise. Looks like you've really searched the place…"
Bowser then looked around the room, disgusted by the mess.
Luigi suddenly spoke, "It actually looked like this before we"-
"Quiet, you!" shouted one of the koopas.
Knowing that he wasn't going to be able to accuse Bowser of anything at the moment, Mario decided that the best thing to do was try and get out of this as safely as possible. "You won't get away with this, Bowser."
He looked down at Mario, but said nothing. Instead, he moved away from the door to the hallway, giving Mario and Luigi safe passage out of the room. "I think it's time for you two to get out of here."
Without hesitating, Luigi quickly began moving towards the door, leaving his brother still looked at Bowser. Mario was not going to leave empty handed. He couldn't believe that these papers would tell him nothing about The Great Espiritu.
"Luigi, run!"
Confused were all by Mario's words, but Luigi followed them nonetheless, running awkwardly out of the half-open door, while Mario picked up an empty glass off of the moldy dresser next to him. Concentrating on the dimly-lit light bulb on the ceiling, Mario lunged the glass upward, and just as he had expected, the bulb cracked, sparked, and then died completely.
Not knowing what was going on, the koopas began yelling and running into eachother. Mario quickly grabbed a stack of papers before sprinting out of the pitch-black room, praying that he wouldn't run into any walls. He exited the room safely, assisted Curoso (who looked as if he had just awoken from a concussion), and headed for the stairs back down to the bar.
Now mid-morning, the bar was slightly less crowded than it had been earlier. Mario could see Luigi assisting Flavio back up to his feet, although he was sure he was suffering from something much different than Curoso. Upon walking by the bar, Mario was approached by Tina, whose kind expression he remembered from before was now gone, replaced by an angry look that made her appear older than she actually was.
"I thought you said there wasn't going to be any trouble?" she asked him harshly.
"Tina, there wasn't any trouble"-
"I'm down here cleaning plates and al of the sudden I hear crashing and yelling, and then you come down here with your friend looking like this? Whoever you were up there with definitely won't like you when he realizes he's gotta pay for damages."
Mario snickered awkwardly. "Sorry, Tina," he said, quite sincerely. To Mario's delight, Tina's kind expression returned to her young face.
"I think it'd be best if you guys got outta here," she insisted, "for your own good."
Mario agreed, and thanked Tina for all of her help. He and Curoso met up with Luigi and Flavio and left the bar, welcomed by yet another cloudy, depressing day.
"So what happened in there?" asked Curoso, who was caressing the large bruise that had formed of his forehead, "I got hit in the head by that old crazy koopa."
"All we found in the room was a bunch of papers," replied Luigi, who was supporting the drunken Flavio as they walked down the dismal docks, "We really didn't find out anything."
Mario looked up at his brother. "That's not true! We know that Bowser's here, at least. And these papers might be able to tell us something."
He looked down at the stack of papers he had grabbed before rushing out of the hotel room. At first glance, they didn't look like anything that could assist them. Most were blank; others had writing in languages Mario did not recognize. The last page, containing pictures of a strange mask, made Mario realize that there was nothing here that could help them.
"Anything there, Mario?" Luigi asked in an annoyed voice.
Mario didn't answer his question. "Look, we may not be able to prove anything, but I know that Bowser has something to do with The Great Espiritu!"
Luigi rolled his eyes. "Sure…you see Bowser and all of the sudden he's a suspect."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mario asked angrily, just as they approached their ship.
Luigi stopped walking and stared at Mario. Curoso, noticing that the two brothers were about to argue, took Flavio's hand and guided him onto the Avido. Mario wished they would have stayed; he had no idea what Luigi was going to say to him now that they were alone.
"You've always been the hero ever since I can remember, Mario," Luigi began, still with an angry expression on his face, "You always seem to know what you're doing, always think you're on the right track; but I think you've gone too far this time."
"Uh, what are you talking about?"
"We're on a wild goose chase, Mario! There are hundreds of people who could have taken The Great Espiritu and kidnapped Bobbery, but just because Bowser's here, you suspect him."
Mario couldn't believe what he was hearing. Did his own brother really think that someone besides Bowser was behind all of this? Without saying anything, Mario turned away from Luigi and headed for the ship, leaving his brother alone on the filthy docks.
He got onboard and was welcomed by Bella, nagging to him about not being included in the search for Bowser. He ignored her, and continued on into the sleeping quarters, where Flavio could be heard snoring even though his room was down the hall. Mario jumped into his bed, grabbed one of the blank sheets of paper he had acquired from Bowser's hotel room, and began to write a letter to Peach, someone who here wished was here with him, or even better, who he was home with.
Mario wrote, and told her that they had arrived on the island, that all leads pointed to Bowser, and that she didn't have to worry.
However, he decided to leave out the fact that there really were no leads, that his only friend on the island didn't believe him, and that he was beginning to think that this entire journey was a very bad idea.
Author's Note: It's short, but hopefully you weren't disappointed. Please read and review, and tell your friends! Chapter 11 will hopefully be out within the next week.