Authors Notes: [Edits 26/06/2019]: Updated grammar and spelling.

Bart's version of the Mask is much more dangerous then any of the Masks seen before. Where as Homer was just being himself, Bart's Mask is how the original comic book mask was supposed to be like. Performing comical looking pranks which in real life are particularly violent and probably fatal. This imitates Barts love of the Itchy and Scratchy show and is similar to how the Ipkiss Mask was based of his love of cartoons like the Looney Tunes.

Chapter 5

The Masquerade

Sitting across the road from Skinners house, Milhouse could see their target. Principle Skinner. Milhouse could see Skinner walking around through the front window, but he couldn't see what exactly the Principle was doing. Whatever it was, it was obviously to do with school.

Milhouse felt a bit bad for what he and Bart were about to do to the guy. But the other half of him was just happy to have a friend, Milhouse didn't have many.

Milhouse was a boy of ten. He had a large, bulb like nose, bushy blue eyebrows, which matched his hair and he wore thick, red rimmed spectacles which betrayed his nerdy nature.

He looked at his watch again and saw the seconds ticking away. It was ten minutes past ten, so where was Bart? He's never been this later before. They were supposed to meet at ten o'clock on the dot, and its not as if Bart lived that far away from here. It should only have taken him about an hour, depending on if the cops were out.

Bart had all the supplies needed to pull the prank, like fire crackers. Milhouse wasn't allowed to buy fire crackers, fire works or anything dangerous like that, not since that incident involving the cherry bomb and Skinners coffee; of which Milhouse had gotten the blame.

He ducked back down behind a car when he saw Skinner looking out through the window. If Bart didn't turn up soon then the prank was a bust, Milhouse couldn't pull this off by himself.

Whoosh, boing! Came a noise that sounded like a blowing wind followed by one a ruler makes when you make it vibrate over the side of a desk.

"Hey, Milhouse!" came a creepy sounding voice, that made a chill run up his spin. He turned and looked directly into the big eyes of a green headed person. He yelped in surprise and fell backwards.

"Shhh!" the boy hushed. "Keep it down will you, we don't want Skinner to catch on."

"Bart?" Milhouse asked, getting back up onto his feet and straightening his glasses. "Is that you? Neat disguise!" Bart was wearing a similar, style army camouflage clothes he usually wears while pulling pranks, but these were different hues of red, not green. Barts face was also covered with a big green mask and a wig which made his hair look extra long and completely un-kempt.

"Why, thank you." Bart said, putting a more posh twist to his otherwise unearthly voice.

"But I don't think red is going to work well as a disguise." Milhouse advised, but Bart didn't look like he was paying attention, his full focus was on the Skinner house. Skinner wasn't standing at the window anymore, he was sitting down at a table typing something out on a typewriter. Whatever happened to using plain old computers these days?

Milhouse was astonished to see Bart holding a spy glass he was looking through to view Skinner. When did Bart get that? In fact, it didn't look like Bart had collected any supplies at all for the prank, because he didn't have his backpack on and it looked like all his pockets were empty. How were they going to prank Skinner without the stuff? The spy glass extended, and extended and extended! Until it was up to the window itself and was practically looking over Skinners shoulder!

Skinner was indeed typing something up and by the look of it, it looked like his autobiography. The grey haired man got annoyed when the keys jammed on him.

"Boring!" Bart said as the spy glass retracted back into a small tube. "Time to prank"

"What are we gonna do first? TPing? Fire crackers in the chimney? Dog Poo in a flaming paper bag?

"Naa!" Bart said, waving Milhouses' suggestions away. "Watch and learn from the Prince of Pranks!"

Before Milhouse could ask anything Bart was gone, he hadn't just walked away, he was gone-gone, gone in a flash. Milhouse looked around for a second wondering how Bart had done that, until he saw him standing next to the front door of Skinners house and he was about to ring the door bell!

Ding dong

"Seymour someone's at the door!" An elderly woman shouted from upstairs, "Answer it!"

"Yes mother." Seymour Skinner said as he ripped out the paper from the top of the typewriter, screwed it up and threw it away. That yell caused him to make another typing error, so he'd have to start all over again. He really needed to buy a home computer, but Mother wouldn't let him in case he looked on any 'naughty websites'.

Ding Dong!

"Alright, I'm coming." He called as his hand grasped the door knob. He pulled the door open then –SPLAT!- something soft and slimy had just smacked into his face. The force of the impact made him take a step back and he nearly fell backwards, but he just managed to keep his balance. Skinner reached up with his hands and wiped the stuff off his face. Some of the stuff had gone into his mouth and it had the taste of lemon. He'd just been hit in the face by a pie?

He cleared his eyes of the gunk and turned his attention to the door where the thrower of the baked confection would've been. Only there was nobody there, just a plank of wood standing upright. This must've been what pushed the pie into his face with so much force. Skinner walked up to the plank and pushed it out of the way so he could get through the door. There was no one around as far as he could see, but there were plenty of places where they could hide, and he could think of several children who would prank him like this. All of them from Springfield Elementary where he was principle, and one in particular who could think up such a prank. Bart Simpson.

Skinners attention turned to the contraption used to project the pie into his face. Now that was strange, he thought to himself. It was just a plank of wood, that's all it was, there were no springs or rubber bands to speak of. No form of tension device to spring the wooden board upwards to smack the pie into his face. So how had it quickly become erected?

The Principle decided to bring the board inside and he closed the door. If he couldn't find out who did it at least he had some extra wood for the fire.

"Seymour!" Called mothers voice again. "Who was that outside?"

"Nobody mother." He called back up, putting the plank to one side and taking another step forward –smack!- a wooden pole had swung up and smacked him in the face. Taking a step back he felt his nose which had started to bleed. How did that leaf rake get inside?

He removing the leaf rake to a safe, suitable place before returning to his type writer. He sat down and prepared to begin typing again when… That was strange, he thought, because he hadn't replaced the paper in the type writer, yet there was a fresh sheet in it. Also there were three words written on it. They simply read "wed gee me"

"Wed gee me?" Skinner asked out loud.

"YOU GOT IT!" Said a loud strange voice. Skinner yelped as he felt someone take his underwear and pull it up over his head. "WEDGIE!" the perpetrator screamed.

"Hey!" Skinner shouted, and he reached up and pulled his tight, white underwear from his head. He looked around for the menace, but he was nowhere to be seen, at all. He had just vanished? Skinner didn't hear him run away or open the door to escape, so where did he go?

After looking around the house for this prankster he returned to his study. The principles attention was again caught by his typewriter because new words had been written on the paper, just below the words 'wed gee me' was a fresh paragraph. He started reading it…

Skinner reads the paper on the type writer

They simply read "wed gee me"

"Wed gee me?" Skinner asked out loud

"YOU GOT IT!" came a loud strange voice. Skinner yelped as he felt someone take his underwear and pull it up over his head. "WEDGIE!" the perpetrator said

Or right! He realised 'Wed Gee me'- Wedgie Me- it was a play on words. Hey, wait a minute, hadn't this just happened?

"Hey!" Skinner shouted, and he reached up and pulled the white underwear from his head. He looked around for the menace but he was nowhere to be seen, at all. He had just vanished? Skinner didn't hear him run away or open the door to escape so where did he go?

After looking around the house for this prankster he returned to his study. The principles attention was again caught by his typewriter because new words had been written on the paper, just below the words 'wed gee me' was a fresh paragraph. He started reading it…and when he had finished he fell through a hole in the floor.

Well, that last part wasn't true, Skinner thought. There wasn't a hole in the floor for him to fall down. But as he turned around the principle came to a stop immediately. Just as the piece of paper had said, there was indeed a hole in the middle of the room that he was about to step into. Where the heck had that come from?! Skinner looked down into the darkness. This had to be an illusion, Skinner decided, a printed piece of paper or something. The principle reached into his pocket and produced a quarter, which he flipped into the hole expecting it to dance on the floor. But he was surprised when the quarter actually fell through that 'illusion' and continued down until it clanged on the ground where this hole led to. This was no illusion, this was real! But this just raised further questions!

Skinner was really starting to wise up to this guy now. "Thought you could fool Principle Seymour Skinner, did you? He he." He chuckled as he turned around, and took a step forward, and fell through a second big hole he hadn't noticed. His screams gradually faded away as he continued down into the darkness.

A few moments later the noise of foot steps thundering up a staircase were heard getting louder and louder and Skinner burst through the door which led to the basement. Quickly, he went back into his study.

"I don't know." Said a voice "I think it needs some work." That voice was coming from near the typewriter.

A little boy of about ten or eleven was sitting at the table in front of his typewriter. Skinner couldn't see exactly who it was, but he could soon fix that. Skinner snuck up on this mischievous boy and intended to grab him when the boy started typing something on the typewriter.

Skinner raised his arms to grab the boy, but as he took another step forward he tripped up from his tied up shoe laces. And sure enough Skinner had just fallen over, because his shoe laces had been somehow been tied up to each other. Skinner got up again and was careful to take minor steps towards him this time.

"Young man, what do you think you're doing in my house?" Skinner said as he reached out for him again.

"Just doing something 'de'structive!" Said the boy. That voice sounded familiar, but it was being distorted somehow, so Skinner couldn't tell with certainty who it really was. The boy began typing again.

As Skinner prepared to pounce, a dirty, used diaper flew through the air and smacked him in the face. Thud! As Skinner fell over from the impact and removed the filthy smelling diaper from his face. The boy laughed hysterically.

Now the boy spun around to face him. He did look familiar but his big green mask, large red eyes and strange hairs style meant Skinner couldn't quite recognise him. Skinner reached out and managed to grab him by the shoulders.

"Alright boy!" Skinner said as he put a hand behind his neck and grabbed at the stupid green mask. "I've had enough of this monkey business, time to see who you are." He pulled on the mask as hard as he could.

A rubber green mask came away in his hands, but what lay under it was… a screaming gorilla's head?! Perplexed, but not deterred, since this was another stupid mask Skinner removed that one too. Another mask was under that! It was of that stupid cartoon mouse from that violent TV show. He pulled off that mask and under that one was a mask of… himself?

"Hello, I'm Seymour STINKER!" The boy spoke imitating 'his' voice, and rather well Skinner had to admit! The principle was getting impatient as he removed that mask, and the mask after that, and the mask after that. How many did he have on? He'd already pulled off a handful of masks, and each time one was removed the boy adopted a different guise with an imitation of their voices somehow. Skinner had already removed ones which look like...

Krusty the Clown. He imitated the clowns laugh

Apu; "Thank you come again"

Super Intendment Chalmers; "SKINNNNNER!"

Homer Simpson; "D'oh!"

Mr. Burns; "EXCELLENT!" He said, drumming his fingers together.

Skinner pulled off that mask and it looks like finally he found the last one, because there was a boy under this one who looked exactly like… "Martin Prince?" Skinner said out loud.

"Oh, you got me, snot bucket!" The boy said, and he spat in Skinners face. The boy then quickly ripped even that guise off to reveal, that first green mask he'd removed from his face. "Got ya!" He said. How did he get that green mask back?

"How many masks do you have on?" Skinner asked, still holding the boy tightly by the shoulders.

"Oh, that's nothing." The boy said yawning. "Watch this!" and with that, he grabbed hold of his upper and lower jaw in his hands and pulled. The green mask shifted, no wait, oh god! His entire face peeled away revealing a bloody skull with popping red eyes, its jaw yammered up and down as it screamed at him!

Skinner screamed like a girl, let go of the boy in terror and he took a few steps back and fell down the hole in the floor he managed to avoid the first time. The boy laughed hysterically.

Spotting a phone across the room the boy rubbed his hands together. He had a suitable mischievous idea as he crossed the room in a flash picked up the phone and begun to dial.

Meanwhile in Moes Tavern...

Moe the troll of a man who usually served Homer his daily shots of beer was working at the bar cleaning one of the dirty glasses. His customers were getting a little too over excited over the pool table as Homer Simpson tried to win a bet to see how many balls he could fit into his mouth without choking. Moe knew this wasn't going to end well so he had the ambulance on speed dial. Homer was too valuable a customer to lose.

Ring, Ring! Went the phone at the bar and Moe immediately picked up and answered

"Moes' Tavern." he said.

"I'm looking for a mister 'Ta'stiffy' first name 'Igot'" said the caller.

"One moment I'll check." Said Moe as he turned to his customers at the bar.

"Igot Ta'stiffy, is Igot Ta'stiffy here? Hey everybody back there, settle down will you? Igot Ta'stiffy!"

For some reason Moe couldn't work out everyone around the bar suddenly burst out laughing and pointing at him.

Wait a minute… Moe thought, Igot Ta'stiffy… I've gotta stiffy?

"Why that little!" He heard a loud hysterical laugh coming from the phone. It was him! That stupid little kid who keeps calling him!

"Listen you, when I get hold of you I'll ram my fist so far down your mouth I'll pull the label off your underpants!" He shouted in a rage.

"Now that's not a bad thing to try." Said the voice as, for once the kid hung up first. Moe slammed the phone down as hard as he could in annoyance.

The boy continued to laugh hysterically as Skinner came back up from the basement again, and carefully he avoided the holes he'd already fell down as he approached the boy again, arms outstretched ready to strike.

The boy turned around to face him, stuck out his tongue and did a road runner impression. "Meep Meep!" before quickly avoiding Skinners arms and leapt over his back opened the door and disappeared outside. Skinner of course opened the door and followed him out halfway down the path to his house before the boy stopped. No doubt he wanted Skinner to follow him, which meant he had another trap waiting. He could see the mischievous child standing on the street.

"And stay out!" Skinner yelled as he turned around to go back into the house. Or he tried to turn around. He couldn't move his feet, they were stuck firmly to the cement path in front of his house. Skinner tried to remove his feet, but they weren't coming away at all. He slipped his feet out of his shoes and took a step forward in his socks. They became stuck as well! What the heck? He pulled hard and his feet left his socks and he continued on in his bare feet, but he only took one step when his feet became stuck again, and no matter how hard he tried to move he couldn't get them unstuck.

This had to be the green faced boys doing; and he was right as he saw the boy hold up a small tube, on the side it said 'Fast Drying Super Glue'.

In all his years as a school principle he'd never met a child so unruly. He made Bart look like an angel. The boy suddenly had a water gun in his hands –where the heck did that come from?- he pointed it squarely at Skinner and a high pressure jet of liquid squirted out the nozzle and hit Skinner in the face. Skinner held up his hands to shield himself from the liquid, which had a very pungent smell to it.

Only when the spraying stopped did he have the chance to ask.

"What is this stuff, water?"

"It was water this morning!" The boy replied showing his large white teeth in a smile. The expression told Skinner whatever this stuff was it wasn't simply water.

"Wait until I contact with your parents!" Skinner shouted at the boy as the principle struggled to get his feet free. But the boy just fell over laughing.

"Bart Simpson!" Skinner screamed.

"Huh?" the boy stopped laughing as he heard the name.

"…is an angel compared to you" Skinner finished.

"Seymour! What are you doing shouting like that?" His mother shouted down.

"Just a young punk mother, I can handle it." He shouted back up.

"Yeah right, you couldn't handle puberty!" Said mother's shouts and the boy doubled over laughing again. Why did she have to embarrass him in public like this?

He felt a chill run up his spine and when he looked down he noticed his clothes were all missing, all of them. They were gone! Skinner looked up at that green faced boy and saw he was holding his suit and shirt in his hands. How did he manage to get them off him without him noticing?

"I just skinned, Skinner." He said, and he threw the clothes behind a bush before turning around and running away, faster then Skinners eyes could keep up with.

Skinner struggled in vain to get his feet unstuck. He was in a seriously strange position, stuck outside facing his own house at 10pm at night in nothing but his birthday suit standing completely still, in the freezing cold. He struggled to get free, if the police ever found him like this he was certain they wouldn't understand the situation he was in.

He heard the unmistakable noise of police sirens coming from a distance.

"Uh oh!" was all he could mutter.

Milhouse watched as Bart put the receiver down on a pay phone. Then he burst into laughter and fell to the floor and continued to laugh hysterically. They'd just told the police there was a streakier outside Skinners house, and when they turned up they would find a streakier alright.

"What did you do, Bart?" Milhouse asked, eager to know what went on. But Bart just kept laughing hysterically. His friend did get up to his feet but continued to laugh like a maniac. Suddenly his lower jaw disconnected from his skull and landed on the ground, and he still kept laughing.

Milhouse took a step back. This was all getting too weird for him as he saw Bart pick up his lower jaw and connect it back into his skull with a crunch.

"I saw a little of what you did through Skinners window. How were you able to do all those things?" Milhouse had to ask, he had to know! "Do you think you could teach me?" He asked eagerly.

"Woah there, Milhouse." Bart said holding up his hands. "A Prank Master never reveals his secrets." With in a flash he was standing next to Milhouse with one arm over his shoulders.

"But I'll let you in on a secret buddy." He reached up and grabbed at that green mask he was wearing and pulled at it. The Mask came away from his face and he held it about 20 inches from his face, but it didn't fully detach. The front looked like something solid was concealed in the rubber trying to break out. A solid looking mask with some sort of metal bar running halfway down the middle. The rest of the rubber stuff snaked around the back of Barts head and was holding on quite tightly. Through the gaps in the rubber, which started to appear. he could see Bart's real face winking at him. Bart let go and the Mask smacked back onto his face. Whatever that solid thing was inside the rubber mask it had apparently vanished now and merged in with the rest of it.

"It's all to do with this mask." Bart explained. "I don't know how, maybe Lisa would understand. But it gives me the super powers!"

"Cool!" Milhouse exclaimed, maybe Bart would give him a try with it. After all, he was his best friend. "Can I have a go?" He asked eagerly again, almost begging. But Bart pushed him away gently.

"Maybe later, Milhouse. But first the night is young, and I've got pranks to pull!" and with that Bart swung his leg up in one direction, then in the next his form zoomed off into the night faster than Milhouse could keep up.

"I'll just wait here for my turn then!" Milhouse shouted after him, and he lifted his arm up so he could see his watch. 10:25pm, he now stood alone, in the cold darkness, waiting for his turn with that mask.

Meanwhile back at Moes Tavern…

Ring Ring! Went the phone and Moe picked it up again

"Moes Tavern." He said in a bored voice into the receiver.

"I'm looking for a Mr. 'E. Willey', first name 'Flop'" the caller said.

"One moment, I'll check." He said turning to his customers. "Flop E. Willey, is there a Flop E. Willey here?" None of his regulars were called that so he said. "Hey, would someone check the mens room for a 'Flop E. Willey'?"

Everyone around the bar burst out laughing at him again. Moe also heard a very distinctive laugh coming from the phone.

Wait a minute… Moe suddenly realized, 'Floppy Willey?'

Moe cringed as he realised this. "AHH! Twice in one night?!"

To Be Continued…

Authors notes: I considered leaving out the Moes Tavern bits because I felt I'd have to introduce the character of Moe and what he's like, but I decided everyone who's going to read this will have seen the Simpsons anyway which is why Moe doesn't have the same amount of back story as I've given the other characters.

I'm not going to let Barts Mask get too violent… just yet

If you like this story, why not review it so I know how well its going?