Although Larry had failed to dig up the bomb as Bowser ordered him to, he was not grounded. The boy preferred to stay in his room, if only so he wouldn't have so many people asking what was troubling him. Larry knew he wouldn't have much time to get out of his quandary, but he was off his game today. A sick day was out of the question, as Larry clearly wasn't sick. And as much as he would like to, he couldn't just go missing, or else Bowser would pull out all the stops to look for him. Back to the old drawing board, then.

While racking his brains, Larry kept himself occupied by checking the weather on his phone. He wasn't able connect to the Internet, but he noticed he had overlooked a recent advisory message from the Koopa Weather Service. Another eight to twelve inches of snow were expected to fall in Dark Land over the next couple of hours, and was estimated to go on until 8 AM the next morning. Larry rubbed his head in annoyance and covered his head with a pillow. "8 AM..." Was he really going to have to keep on his feet all night? The only thing worse would be if this was meant as a punishment, which it could be interpreted as, anyway.

Some time later, the Koopaling heard somebody knocking on his door. He rolled out of bed and opened it, where he found a Goomba servant balancing a foil-wrapped plate of food (and accompanying silverware) on his head.

"Good evening," said the Goomba. "King Bowser told me to come here to give this to you."

"That's great! I'm starving." Larry picked up the plate and carried it to his bed. "I must've forgot all about it. I've been so busy."

"Also, the king told me to deliver a message. He says that maybe he shouldn't have been so harsh on you. He'll allow you some breaks tomorrow to come inside if you get tired getting the snow cleared. He'll have your snow gear ready tomorrow. Enjoy!" The Goomba bowed gracefully and scuttled off to parts unknown.

Larry sat on his bed and tore the tin foil off the dish to find a well-done porkchop garnished with ketchup and a singular large carrot on the side. He figured it must've been King Dad trying to make the best of what was available. "I guess it is nice to have a father who cares about me..." said Larry, who doubted whether what he was saying was sincere or not.

The night drifted on as Larry finished his dinner, washed up, and went to bed early. Brooding notwithstanding, he actually had a decent night's sleep, up to the point when he found himself desiring something to eat.

"What a night..." moaned Larry as he shifted in his bed, not quite willing to leave. However, he supposed it wouldn't hurt to stay up and walk around the castle for five minutes.

Anyway, Larry went down to the kitchen, but there weren't any snacks or fruits that he wanted. When he came to the freezer, he stopped himself from opening it at first, as he could already sense that Bowser or someone had tried to stuff the freezer with as much snow as they could. Larry turned away from the fridge for a few seconds, and grimaced as he flung the freezer open, only to find his suspicions had been confirmed. He shut the door just as quickly.

"That's all the dessert we're going to have for the next few weeks, isn't it?" said Larry. He sighed and sulked on the way back to his bedroom, again mulling over what he was going to say to Bowser in the morning. A fear of snow, ice, cold, the color white. Larry saw something like that in a movie once. No, he needed a justifiable reason, a reasonable reason why he shouldn't be outside. Too weak, too slow, too young, too old? Bowser would think of a way to get Larry out of the house anyhow.

Before going back to bed, Larry planned to set his alarm clock so he could go over his plans in the morning. Too bad the clock display had gone blank. Larry was in no mood for mind games this late at night, but he looked under the table to see it was still plugged in. Sure enough, it was. Larry threw up his hands and got under his bedsheets.

Sometime around 3-5 AM or thereabouts, Wario woke up in a cold sweat, coughing a little. He had slept off most of his weariness. He was at the stage where he might open his eyes every few minutes and assess whether or not to go to sleep again. He could hear maybe a handful of prisoners stirring in the background, but little else.

One of the guards had dropped off a tin of canned bread and a glass of foggy-looking water inside Wario's cell while he was asleep. The "dinner" had been sitting undisturbed for several hours. Wario rubbed the crusty gunk from his eyes and grabbed the cup, being careful not to spill it. The water wasn't too exciting, but it was something. He felt a little refreshed, and so he picked up the canned bread as well. He squeezed it tightly until the lid popped right open, twisted the lid off the can and peeled off one of his gloves so he could dig into the contents. Although Wario was none too thrilled about the quality of the canned bread, the taste brought him back to simpler times, when he was a college student trying to cut back on expenses so that he could afford to buy his first McMansion. Those were fond memories, alright, but no time to reminiscence. Now, it was time to get to work.

Wario stuck his arm outside the cell, feeling around for a lock or keyhole. He located the keyhole and found it was too small for him to stick his pinky finger in, like he wanted to. He took out his arm and noticed that the bars he had forced his arm through had deformed slightly. He poured some loose, smaller pieces of bread from the can into his mouth, and saved the rest of the can in his winter coat, which was lying on the floor. Wario flexed his arms and twisted his body around until he was absolutely ready and aware enough. Finally, he glanced at his watch one last time and charged at the cell door, creating a loud clattering noise. The bars didn't budge. Undeterred, Wario jostled the door, moving from subtle shakes to forceful, jerky movements. He clenched the solid iron bars and began pulling them away from each other. His muscles pulsated, and his eyes bugged out like he had seen something terrible. Still, Wario soldiered on, suppressing his grunts and taking deep breaths.

Perhaps I need to get more force in, thought Wario. To him, pushing the bars apart was like stirring a very thick cake mix in reverse times five. The more the cell bars began to curve, the easier it was for Wario to distort them. If only he could control the screechy sounds the metal made, but he wasn't counting on sneaking out in complete silence anyway. Once he'd pulled the bars as far away as possible, Wario stepped back to admire the progress he'd made.

"Looks good enough!" said Wario.

The cunning inmate peered out the pathway he created, and lifted one of his arms and legs over to the outside of his cell. The pathway was wide enough he could go through it if he sucked his gut in, and if he were two feet shorter. Wario held his breath while hunching his shoulders and keeping his head down. He squatted low enough to wiggle his head through the open space, then cramming his arm outside of it. Wario gasped, trapping himself between the bars. A Dry Bones guard came along to see what was going on, and saw him standing on one foot, begging for help.

"Good to see you're holding up fine," said Zack. He shrugged and walked back to his station.

Wario pouted as he did his best to inch his body out of his cell. He inhaled again as hard as he could and wiggled his dangling leg. He shifted his body upward by a couple of inches, grabbing onto the bent bars as he did so. By performing some tight, calculated moves, Wario basically squeezed himself out of his cell completely. He dropped to the floor, feeling the work he had just done. This was only the beginning. He hadn't gotten his coat yet! So Wario went in and took it, then hopped back out. He put his coat on and strolled away casually, speed walking on his tip-toes. He passed by a lonesome, wandless Magikoopa who waved at him to get his attention.

"Psst! How did you do that?"

Wario pointed both his index fingers at the Magikoopa. "He-he-he-he-he! Oh, you know... Practice!" He came across the entrance/exit to the dungeon and marched right up the steps. Billy and his twin brother Zack, also a guard, sat atop the platform, decked with all sorts of technology at their side. They were using their castle-assigned laptops to watch YouTube videos, and saw Wario approach them out the corner of their eyes.

Wario yanked Zack's chair out from under him, knocking the guard and his laptop to the floor. Billy shook his head to keep himself awake and looked to find Zack's skeleton had collapsed into a heap of bones.

"Someone stop that guy! He's getting away!" said Billy.

"And what's stopping you from doing that?" said Zack.

Billy got the message and closed his laptop. He called for backup on his radio, forgetting to take into consideration Wario pocketing Zack's keys, which were lying on the floor.

"You look rather tired," said Billy. "You shouldn't be up so early!" He jumped out of his seat and began flinging bones around the place like nobody's business. Wario ducked and guarded his face to avoid getting hit, sometimes jumping or throwing his arm in the air to catch the projectiles flying towards him. Zack's head rotated itself on its side to get a better view of the fight.

"What's taking you so long, man?" said Zack's head. "Just knock some sense into him already!"

Billy shushed his co-worker, not wanting to lose his concentration. How could this fat guy be so limber? He just couldn't comprehend it. Was he off his game, or was his enemy at that just that good at dodging his hammers?

"Ugghhh! I'm out of spare bones!" said Billy. "Could you lend me a hand here?"

Zack's bones vibrated, and he became a whole again. "Oh, no way, Billy! You're always running out of things!"

"I can't help it, man! I get into a mood and I can't stop myself!"

"That's not my problem! You know how belligerent these animals can be."

"Shut up! You're so annoying!"

While the guards kept on arguing over who was in the wrong, Wario saw that one of Billy's attack bones was laying on the ground in a clear spot. Wario snatched the bone and backed away from the guards so he could ambush them. He saw five more Dry Bones guards rushing up the steps, making a great clamor. Wario ran towards them, screaming and yielding his bone in one hand. The mooks rushed to surround Wario and clobbered his body with their own body parts. Zack and Billy dropped everything to watch the fight and root for their co-workers, shouting words of encouragement from their seats.

"Get that guy, Joe! Punch him in the mouth!" said Billy.

"No, I have a better idea!" said Zack. He took a few steps forward and yelled to Joe, "Punch him in the teeth!"

"Do whatever appeals best to you, Joe!"

Wario uppercut one of the Dry Bones in the chin, causing him to fall back on his shell. Wario jumped on the foe and busted him up, to the horror of the other four Dry Bones. As they leapt at him, Wario bowled over the remaining Dry Bones via a swat to their stomachs. The foes crumbled into pieces, which tumbled to almost the bottom of the stairway. Wario took his coat off again and wiped the sweat off his forehead. The Dry Bones squadron reformed themselves, just as he had expected, and it was clear from their expressions they would not accept losing to one man.

To be continued...