A/N: Here comes the sixth chapter of Bomb-Trackers! After two months of no updates (so much for posting "every Wednesday"...) I've finally gotten this chapter completed. This has taken me a long time to write because not only is it the longest chapter so far, but it's sometimes hard to get the motivation going. Regardless, I'm committed to finishing this story. I'm expecting three more chapters after this. I'll be making some revisions to the previous chapters soon to add some extra details. Anyway, here it is.

At last, the pack of Hammer Bro guards were able to locate the whereabouts of Larry and Wario. The plowmen duo were still catching their breath in the hallway they had worked their way into. Actually, that's not a completely accurate description. Wario was fast asleep, while Larry was pacing around waiting for him to wake up. If they weren't so worn out, either one or both of them would have made a break for it, and a chase around the castle would have ensued. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. The guards brought out a big butterfly net and scooped up Larry and Wario, then proceeded to the throne room where old Bowser was waiting. The king was resting comfortably in his chair, flanked by large space heaters on either side of him, which were held up by some Dry Bones. Once the Hammer Bros. approached the king, they stopped in their tracks and dumped their captives onto the floor.

"Here you go, boss," said Hammer Bro. #161. "We found these guys in the hallway on the-"

"Oh, yeah, I see," said Bowser, who was more interested in how Wario had snuck his way into his castle, than he was to see that his son had come back inside without his permission.

While Bowser and the guards discussed what to do with them, Larry sat cross-legged on the floor and straightened out his hair, while Wario nearly toppled himself over as he attempted to stand upright. Neither of them were in the mood to go through this whole routine, when it was clear what the outcome would be.

"Say, yellow Mario," said Bowser. "What's your name? Where did you come from?"

"Wha? How do you not know me? My name is Wario and I came here for some well needed rest and relaxation!"

Bowser was at a loss for words. "Are you kidding me?" he said. The Hammer Bros. snickered as the king tried to regain his composure. "In this kind of weather? Do you think this is some kind of hotel?"

"Well, it would be a nice gesture. I mean, I do look up to you."

Despite Wario's best efforts, he couldn't sway Bowser to show any compassion. "Augh! That's enough out of ya, freeloader!"

Wario found himself surrounded by a pack of Koopa Troopas. Wario tried to bop them on the head, but he was wasn't able to do much before he was shackled and escorted out of the throne room.

"What the heck!? No fair!" said Wario. "This is no way to treat a fellow baddie!"

The king shrugged and told him to save his breath. "Hey, you broke into the castle. I don't make the rules. Sorry, kid!"

Larry could only watch as his partner was taken to the dungeon. He racked his brain for excuses as Bowser turned his attention to him.

"Larry?" said Bowser. "Do you know anything about that stinky slime breath fiend who was just here? How did you two get mixed up in the first place?"

The Koopaling tried to get his head together so that he would have something to say. He was inching closer to punishment every second, and so time was of the essence. He stammered out a rambling story about the snow that had fallen outside and how Wario had showed up, blah blah blah they needed to get warm. Bowser was on the edge of his seat listening to the story, ignoring the pleas of the Dry Bones which collapsed under the weight of the space heaters as they tried to make out what Larry was saying.

"Well… This is not something I would've expected from you," said Bowser.

"What do you mean?" said Larry.

"Well, you see… I thought it would serve as a test of character. You know… I wanted to encourage you to put your best foot forward and prove that even the feeblest of my Koopalings could summon up the strength to... I'm not saying you're feeble or anything. In fact, forget what I said. I wish you would apply more yourself more to these things. Do you get what I'm saying, kid?" Bowser shot a cross look at Larry, who gulped and had no choice but to agree.

Roy was still running around with the flamethrower under his coat, looking for targets. He had been able to get a lot of playtime out of it, but by now, the flamethrower was running out of fuel. After taking out a plethora of Piranha Plants on the sixth floor, Roy proceeded for the pantry, prepared to scare anyone away. He went inside, but was careful not to arouse the wrath of anyone there, if there was anybody.

After taking a bread roll off the shelf, Roy exited the pantry, keeping the flamethrower close to him in his coat. At the slightest breeze, he pulled the weapon out and slowly turned around. Nothing. Satisfied, Roy went down the hallway, and attempted to fire a covert practice shot at a nearby wall. The flamethrower warmed up, but it failed to fire.

"Piece of junk!" said Roy as he kept pulling the trigger in vain. He bashed the muzzle against the stone wall, but this proved to be futile. Desperate not to be caught with the weapon, Roy rushed over to the nearest garbage can and chucked it in when no one was looking. In a moment, Roy felt zen coursing through his veins. He walked away whistling, as if the whole incident had never happened.

"I probably was a bit too hard on you, in retrospect," said Bowser, who was enjoying a hot mug of vanilla-flavored gasoline. He had Larry perched on his lap like he was Santa Claus. "I mean, it was twenty-something feet of snow out there. Or at least, it seemed like there was. I figured it was going to be twenty inches' worth myself."

"Why did you have to send me out there, though?" said Larry. "Why not someone who knows what they're doing, like Ludwig or… Actually, that's all I've got."

"You miss the point, son. You see, if I had sent out any of the other children, they would've tried to get out of it somehow. You know how they are. But I mean... You're all special in your own ways."

"What kind of special qualities do I have?"

"That's a good question," said Bowser. "Fact of the matter is you're usually a good son. And that's what matters most is that you're able to help me and my kingdom personally in any way possible. You're doing a great service."

Larry eased up a little and snickered. "I don't have to go out again, right King Dad?" he said.

"It all depends on the urgency of the situation. Make no mistake, the time bomb is still out there. It may be snowing again, but you're going back out there when it stops, no doubt about that!"

"And wh-when will that be?"

"Let's just say I'll call you whenever the time comes. We Koopas are not ones to leave a job unfinished."

"But it's impossible!"

"Nonsense, nonsense! That bomb is not going to reveal itself anytime soon, so it's vital you go out and find it before someone else does! Is that clear?"

Larry felt like he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide there for the rest of his life. "Yeah, Dad. I understand..." the boy said. He hopped off his dad and left the throne room downhearted. Bowser summoned some Goombas to accompany Larry to his room, and lay back on his throne, staring wistfully into space.

"It's a shame kids today don't know the true meaning of hard work, eh, Dry Bones? What freaks of nature!"

After disposing of his coat in one of the toilets, Roy went back to his bedroom to watch TV. Koopa Troopa #23 stood outside the door, waiting for Roy to approach him, only to get shoved aside as the kid went in. The Koopa Troopa was peeved at first, but when he came to his senses, he found he had some valuable information on his hands. He took out his two-way radio and notified the head of security.

"Jackie, I got our guy. Awaiting response, over."

Roy opened his door to see what was going on outside. "What are you standing around here for?" he said.

No. 23 tossed away the radio and summoned the courage to jump Roy, hanging on for dear life as they tumbled into the Koopaling's room, crashing into things. Roy took the Koopa Troopa by the hand and flung him against the wall. No. 23 retracted into his shell just as he hit the wall and ricocheted, smacking Roy in the head. Roy stumbled backward, holding his head as the Koopa Troopa collided with the floor, its shell coming off in the process. The beleaguered underling crawled over to the two-way radio to report the situation. Roy stomped after him like a zombie, but the headache he had acquired inhibited him.

"Suspect is near his room. Send someone over!" said No. 23.

Larry lay awake on his bed, anxious over what had occurred. He tried to stop worrying about the ordeal by taking a nap, but he kept kicking at the bed sheets until they were off the mattress entirely. Eventually, Larry gave up trying to sleep and rubbed his eyes. He checked his alarm clock and sighed at how slowly time was passing by. The sun had nearly gone down, but it would be a while before the snow finally stopped falling.

"Maybe Ludwig knows something about the bomb my dad was talking about," thought Larry. "It's not unlikely. I mean... Hopefully he doesn't act weird this time."

Larry looked for his cell phone and found it in one of his desk drawers. Thankfully, there was still some charge left on it. He sent a text message to Ludwig, asking if he had any information regarding the time bomb.

"Where the heck is he anyway?" said Larry to himself. He looked right at his bedroom door, which had opened slightly. "Ah, drat! I could've sworn I'd closed that door."

"Oh, sorry," uttered a prickly voice. "I must've forgot."

Larry was totally flabbergasted. He checked his phone and made sure the sound was off, which it was. "I wish people would stop doing this to me!" said Larry. "Is this a prank?"

"No way, dear brother! I am incognito!" Ludwig demonstrated his newfound invisibility by picking up Larry's sweater from the floor and waving it around. "I found my old invisibility potion recipe when I was cleaning up today."

"That's great," said Larry flatly. "What are you doing in my room? You never come and visit me."

"I've been wanting to ask you something all day," said Ludwig. He opened Larry's door to check if there was anyone outside in the hallway. "Looks like the coast is clear."

"I'm all ears. Not like I have much else to do."

Ludwig hesitated to say anything at first, but felt it was pointless to keep up the charade. He badgered Larry to follow him to his room, which he did. When they went in, Ludwig sat at his desk and scribbled some stuff down in his notebook.

"To tell the truth, I'm trying to get my hands on something, or someone..." said Ludwig. "Roy stole something that I've been trying to get a better look at, and I hear he's been horsing around with it for quite a while now. I don't know what the current situation is, but apparently, King Dad is furious about the whole thing."

Larry watched his brother's pencil write seemingly on its own, before he snapped back to reality. "I wouldn't put it past Roy to do that. Anyway, what do you want me to do?"

"Well, Larry, you're the sneaky one. Is it possible if you could stall him and grab my possession away from him somehow?"

"You're asking me at the wrong time. I've been running around all day and I don't want to get into any more trouble. Why not wait for the guards to take care of everything?"

Ludwig's chair swiveled around to face Larry. "No, no, no! That simply will not do. When the guards take their hands on it, they'll file it away somewhere or destroy it. I don't think I'll be able to get anyone else to stop that no-good brother of mine at this rate!"

"I'm sorry, but I have enough trouble on my hands," said Larry. "Dad said I should dig up this time bomb he hid somewhere in the snow, but I couldn't find it. You know anything about it?"

"Oh, yes, the texts you sent me!" said Ludwig. "I don't know anything about that though. You forget I'm not a mole."

"Right... Thanks anyway. I should probably go now, but I don't really want to get caught sneaking back to my room..."

Ludwig picked up the vial of invisibility potion from his desk and handed it to Larry. "Here you go, Larry! Drink as much as you want, but there's not a lot in there anyway."

"Uh, thanks?" Larry took a sip and felt his body begin to tingle as he (temporarily) faded out of existence. When he came to, he regained his senses, but confirmed with Ludwig that he was invisible to the naked eye. Ludwig was very pleased.

"I'm glad you like it! That amount should last you a couple of minutes."

"That's more than enough for me. Alright, then!" said Larry. He bid Ludwig goodbye as he went back to his room to get the day over with.

"If you see anything suspicious, let me know ASAP!" said Ludwig.

With little to do, Wario kept himself busy doing lunges in his cell in one of the castle's many dungeons. He had been locked inside for roughly forty-five minutes, but he was already biding his time until he could figure out how to escape. This particular dungeon was your typical, dank, musty, basic Koopa dungeon that would have been in style four hundred years ago, but was immensely outdated. There were a handful of random prisoners spread out all over the place, most of whom lay in their cells for years on end, sometimes without food or water. It was also the dungeon that the Koopalings would be sent to whenever Bowser punished them.

Wario wrapped up his exercises and opted to take in the scenery, before he turned in for the night. At first, there was little to take note of. He heard some clamoring outside the dungeon entrance, where a pair of blue-shelled Koopa Troopas sat on either side. Then the doors opened, and Wario watched Roy being dragged into the room with some Hammer Bros. struggling to restrain him.

"Let me go, you jerks! I was just having fun!" said Roy. "I'll have my revenge!"

The Hammer Bros. showed no interest in getting into arguments with the ornery Koopaling and simply directed him into one of the cells. Roy was placed a couple of spots down from Wario, so he wouldn't be able to interact with anyone.

"Here you go, kid," said Hammer Bro. #48. "Your new home!"

Roy wasn't at all enchanted with the conditions of his rusty cell. "Yeesh! Did someone die in here?" he said.

"Not lately. Now be quiet or I'll report you to the king."

No. 48 and his partners walked away from Roy's cell. Roy stuck his tongue out at No. 48, hoping to get a rise out of him, but got no response. Roy laid back in his cell, thinking about ways to wait out his sentence.

Meanwhile, Wario grew irritated as he paced around his cell. "Maybe if I had been frank with Bowser, I might've had an easier time back in the throne room," he grumbled to himself quietly.

Wario was never really the patient type, but at this point he was willing to wait until the morning if people were going to be talking. He sat down to gather his thoughts, rolled up his sleeve and rubbed the fog off his Rolex. Thankfully, it was still working. 7:35? Is it really that early? Wario took another look at the vicinity, Geez... I'd be ordering takeout by now. He wondered if he should try to get the guards' attention or wait for dinner to be served, whenever that might be. He took off his coat, and tugged at the clothing he was wearing underneath for ventilation. They might have been damp with sweat, but to Wario it was better than stripping down in front of everyone, which he did not care for.

Too bad I don't have a smart watch. I still need to keep alert so I know when to make a break for it. Can't let that bother me now though... Now when I wake up, do I start exercising again, or do I just go? I don't know... I'll have to figure it out.

Wario yawned and took off his hat, then went to sleep for a little while. Roy thought he spotted him, perhaps recognizing him from somewhere, but could not confirm it from where he was sitting.

To be continued...