Just as times were tough outside Bowser's Castle, so were things inside the great palace. The king grew increasingly frustrated throughout the day as the snow continued to pile up outside. Not only might he have to recall Larry from outside the castle, he was concerned about all sorts of things: keeping the castle up and running during the storm, stopping Roy from running amok… Speaking of which, Bowser had to excuse himself from the Roy search so that he wouldn't burst a blood vessel. He had a mind to just punch something, but he decided that would wait until later.

Koopa Troopa #23 decided to approach the king in the dining room when he was working on his supper. As to not disturb His Majesty, the Koopa Troopa waited until he was done eating. Forty minutes later, Bowser finished his meal, but his minion stopped him from leaving the room.

"What are you doing?" said the king. "Come on, get out of the way..." He tried to avoid the Koopa Troopa, but the lackey kept blocking the doorway.

"Please. It's about your kid," said No. 23. "He's a crafty sort. He's like one of them action heroes-"

"I'll believe it when I see it," said Bowser. He raised his foot to kick No. 23 in the stomach, but the Koopa dodged the move as he continued to prattle on.

"But, your Majesty! You don't understand. He blasted my partner in the face! He's alive, but I had to take him to the castle infirmary, and when I came back-"

Bowser donned a smug face. "Children these days! They just don't know when to stop, do they?"

"No sir, they don't-"

"What's stopping you from catching him? He's a bloody Koopaling! You could just trip him or something!"

"Trip him... Thanks for the advice, your Majesty!" No. 23 stuck his hand out to Bowser, who responded in kind with a sharp blast of fire breath. The Koopa Troopa yelled as he scrambled for the nearest sink, as Bowser stormed out of the dining room.

While all that was going on, Wario was busy mustering up the strength to get Larry's body through the window. This was going to take some effort, but Wario felt it was better to be safe than sorry. After stretching for a couple of minutes, he conked Larry on the head, who retracted into his shell in response. Wario was weirded out, but waved off the feeling as he prepared to make a jump to the window. After backing away from the window quite a bit, he trotted slowly, making some short hops along the way. Wario repeated this routine a couple of times before he was able to make a substantial jump, hitting the wall. He stretched out his arms to reach the window bars. After a bit of struggling, he was able to make his way to the ledge.

"OK!" said Wario as he grabbed onto the bars. "Here I go!" He attempted to push them apart, but made little progress. He stuck one of his fingers in his mouth, yanked off one of his gloves, and tossed it in the snow, then removed the other one the same way, so that he could get a better grip on the bars. Wario muttered, "This is worse than the snow shoveling!" as he strained his arm muscles trying to bend them. Before he knew it, he had bent the window bars enough that he could easily make his way in or out of the castle if he wanted. But first, he had to get Larry.

Wario jumped down from the window, nearly falling face-first into the snow. He then lifted the Koopaling's shell into the air and tossed it up and down a few times like a heavy volleyball. After a quick rest, Wario made a few short hops before he was able to jump high enough to reach the window again, upon which he hurled Larry's shell through the opening, then dashed into the castle himself, without regard for physics.

As expected, Wario was quite pooped out once he was inside Bowser's castle. Tough as he was, he was quite out of shape. He panted and grasped his chest. "Oh, my lord! Don't think my heart can take much more of this!" His heart was fine, though he and Larry had fallen more than a couple of feet.

Larry briefly poked his head out of his shell. He was dazed and shivering, but felt somewhat better upon seeing that he was in what appeared to be one of the castle's many hallways.

"Ugh… Solid ground!" said Larry. "I'm so... hungry!"

"You're telling me!" said Wario as he started to nod off. "Let's call it off now. I wanna go home." He immediately fell asleep.

Larry rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling. While he hadn't actually completed his task (not that he cared), he was sure Bowser would somehow notice the progress he'd made and let him off somehow.

Meanwhile, in a secluded office within the castle, a Sledge Bro was watching the video feeds from the castle's security cameras. He had noticed two short figures coming in through one of the corridor windows. Although he couldn't tell who the figures were, the minion called Bowser on his cell and notified him of their presence.

"What's that?" said the king. "Intruders!? Just what we need! Send some guards down there right away!"

"Right, sir!" The Sledge Bro sent for a handful of Hammer Bros. to assess the situation.

Elsewhere, Roy was sneaking around the castle, wearing a thick trenchcoat that was too large for him. Inside, he was carrying Ludwig's flamethrower. Roy had been running around for a couple of hours, evading those in pursuit of him. This time around, he was near the last floor of the castle. As the Koopaling peeked into a random room, he found himself surrounded by a throng of Hammer Bros. in fireproof coats from every direction.

"SURPRISE! We've got you now!"

"Show us your weapon! Wait for the king!"

Roy simply smirked as he readied to face off with them. If he didn't have the weapon on him, there would be no way he could get himself out of this situation. He pulled the flamethrower out of his coat.

"You want it?" said Roy. "Prepare to regret it!" He started swooping the weapon from side to side as the guards accosted him, firing all the way. Some of the Hammer Bros. dashed away, while others were unnerved by the heat. One of the guards attempted to get Roy in a headlock, but before he could get a grip on the Koopaling, he was pistol-whipped on the head. Then, the remaining Hammer Bros. Tried to attack Roy, only to find themselves on the receiving end of some rough beatings.

When all was said and done, Roy broke into a kind of maniacal laughter his siblings would've never expected from him. It was long, loud and rather unnerving. The Koopa kid caught himself in the middle of a guffaw when he spotted an unconscious Hammer Bro shifting his position at the corner of his eye.

"At least I haven't gone too far," said Roy.

A couple of floors down, Ludwig was pacing around the castle hallways, keeping to himself. After Roy ran off with his flamethrower, Ludwig had thrown away the rest of his forbidden materials (including gases, Earth magazines, Venetian blinds, etc.) and got scared that Bowser and his minions would be able to trace the weapon to him. As he was shuffling around, he had jumped at Iggy waving hello to him, and ran away at the sight of Bowser Jr., who wanted to ask him about a way to steal some candy or something. Ludwig was completely unsure of what to do.

To be continued…