Furiously, Tweeg marches down the mountain. L.B. follows, bouncing as quickly as he can to catch back up to him. He calls out to Tweeg, falling short of breath.
L.B.: "Twig, hey Twig! Wait up!"
Tweeg does not respond. He's so angry that all he wants to do is walk off of the face of the earth, never to be seen again. He doesn't care.
L.B.: "Hey, where are you goin'?"
In the middle of nowhere, Tweeg finally stops so that L.B. could actually catch up.
Tweeg: "I've had it, L.B.! Nobody has any respect for me! Not you, not my mother, nobody!"
L.B.: "That's not true, I sorta kinda respect you."
Tweeg throws his arms up in a ragdollish protest.
Tweeg: "You can't even say my name right!"
L.B.: (Sighs) "What if I promise you something, here and now?"
Tweeg leans in, spitting as he talks.
Tweeg: "Another broken promise, I'm sure."
L.B.: "Nah, I'm serious. I usually ain't this serious, but I mean it this time. What if I promise to never mess up your name again?"
Tweeg: "You'll stop calling me 'Twip', and 'Twap', and whatever other mocking names you've given me?"
L.B.: "And Twig, and Twerp, and Tweak..."
Tweeg just folds his arms, giving the little bounder the stink eye of disapproval. L.B. responds with a guilty, trollish little smile.
L.B.: "Yeah, all those things. As a sign of good faith, I'll never call you any of those things again, scout's honor."
Tweeg: "You've never been a scout."
L.B.: "Junior division of the Bounder Scouts when I was 5 years old."
Tweeg: "I didn't know that."
L.B.: "There's a lotta things you don't know about me, Tweeg."
Tweeg: "Say it again."
L.B.: "Tweeg. T-W-... uhhh... eeg. Yeah, Tweeg."
Tweeg: "Say it again."
L.B.: "Tweeg."
Tweeg places his palms on his cheeks in pure ecstasy at the bounder's proper recital of his name. It's like music to his ears.
Tweeg: "Now, call me 'lord and master'."
L.B.: "Don't push your luck."
Tweeg rolls his eyes.
Tweeg: "Fine."
L.B.: "There. Feel better now?"
Tweeg takes in a large breath and exhales, letter the stress roll off of him.
Tweeg: "Yeah. I feel better now."
L.B.: "So, now what are you gonna do?"
Tweeg turns around and shrugs.
Tweeg: "Honestly, I just don't know anymore. I can't go to M.A.V.O. I can't go to mother. There's nowhere for me to go. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place."
L.B.: "You know, I could probably just bite the bullet and get Buffy to agree to let you stay for a few days, just 'til you get back on your—"
Tweeg silences him, placing a finger over his mouth (a very dangerous thing to do to bounders, by the way, but Tweeg trusts him enough).
Tweeg: "No. I don't want to intrude on you and Buffy. You deserve your right to happiness away from me."
L.B.: "Ah, come on Tweeg, it's not about getting away from you, it's more about just havin' some privacy. I couldn't get any of that living in that tower of yours."
Tweeg: "I understand."
He looks over to L.B. and realizes he's still carrying Gimmick's bag.
Tweeg: "Gimmick's invention. Of course!"
He runs over to the bag, pulling out the remote and the tiny, shrunken Reducing Machine. L.B. looks at him with a sense of major curiosity.
L.B.: "Yeah, what about it?"
Tweeg: "This thing can shrink and grow things, right? It's even been proven to work on people, as a witness and a subject myself."
L.B.: "Is this goin' where I think it's goin'?"
Tweeg looks at L.B. with a maliciously twisted smile.
Tweeg: "Think about it, L.B., you fire that thing at me and make me grow to the size of a colossus, and I'll stomp right over to M.A.V.O, and show them all what for!"
Tweeg imagines himself for a moment, the size of a mountain, stomping all over Grundo. He kicks over trees and laughs maniacally, first stomping all over Gimmick's house, then marching over to M.A.V.O. kicking the walls and towers in with ease, causing havoc and pandemonium in his wake. He kicks and stomps and monsters run around in a panic. Inside the tower, he spots Quellor, shaking his fist in retaliation against the giant Tweeg. He shoves his giant arm into the tower, gripping the tiny Quellor in his massive hand. He pulls the tiny Oppressor over to his face, squeezing the daylights out of him...
L.B.: "TWEEG!"
He snaps out of it.
Tweeg: "Huh? What?"
He looks in various different directions, disoriented.
L.B.: "Earth to Tweeg! You just completely zombied out there for a minute."
Tweeg balls his fists and looks down in displeasure at L.B.
Tweeg: "Darnit, L.B.! Never interrupt me when I'm daydreaming about chaos!"
L.B.: "Sorry, but you were starting to freak me out with all the explosion sound effects you were making over there."
Tweeg: "Whatever! Just blast me with that thing! Make me large and in charge!"
L.B.: "Whatever you say."
L.B. Takes the remote in mouth and bites into the red button. Tweeg stands there, exercising the most intense and terrifying pose that he can, and nothing happens. L.B. bites into it, more and more, still nothing. Tweeg taps his foot impatiently as he awaits the ray of power to beam onto him.
Tweeg: "What's the hold up over there?"
L.B.: "I dunno. It doesn't wanna work."
Tweeg: "Give me that thing!"
He marches over and snatches the remote right out of L.B.'s mouth, cringing at the remote in disgust.
Tweeg: "Yuck! Bounder drool! You got it all over the remote control!"
He keeps pressing the button and nothing happens, no ray of light, anything.
Tweeg: "Blast it! Your saliva probably got into the remote and fried the electronic stuff inside.
He tosses the remote to the ground in frustration and then paces back and forth, ranting and raving.
Tweeg: "Of course. Why would anything go right for me? Why would I ever think I could catch a break? It's just one joke right after the other."
He kicks dirt around and throws a tantrum like a petulant child.
L.B.: "Hey, don't blame this on me. If it weren't for me, you'd probably be doing some juggling act for Quellor right now just to keep him from throwing you to the dogs."
Tweeg looks away from L.B., shoving his arms into his pockets.
Tweeg: "You're probably right."
L.B.: "So, uh, now what?"
Tweeg: "Look, I don't know. You should just go home. You've been out all day looking for me. Buffy is probably worried sick about you right now."
L.B.: "The whole reason I'm out here in the first place is because she was worried sick about YOU, and honestly, it kinda rubbed off on me."
Tweeg looks at him in curiosity.
Tweeg: "You... you were worried about me?"
L.B.: "I wasn't, at first, but when I got to your tower and saw that big oaf in front of your door, I started to worry, and when Eleanor said she ain't seen you, then I really started to stress myself out."
Tweeg lowers his ears down in shame, looking down at the ground before him and L.B. is utterly floored by the next thing to come out of his mouth.
Tweeg: "You're a good friend, L.B., you always were. Many times I took you for granted, but I'd likely be dead right now if it weren't for you."
L.B. starts blushing at Tweeg being so uncharacteristically modest towards him.
L.B.: "Aww, come on man. Think nothin' of it. You're getting all mushy on me and it's kinda grossing me out."
Tweeg: "Sorry."
L.B.: "It's getting late. Let's head back to the cabin. In the morning you can figure out what you wanna do. Buffy and I would feel way better knowing that you're safe for the time being."
Tweeg: "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'll sleep on it and figure out what I want to do in the morning."
Together they walk back to L.B.'s cabin. On the way, they converse over what's happened the last few days and how crazy everything has been. L.B. and Tweeg honestly haven't even been apart for all that long but for some reason, it feels to the both of them like they hadn't seen each other in years. Not having L.B. in his life, and not having a home anymore has left Tweeg in a state of dependence, paranoia, and vulnerability. The once high and mighty Tweeg, perched up on his tower, smugly looking down upon the denizens of Grundo with nothing but disdain in his heart is no more. Left in his place is a fallen-from-grace little sad-sack of a man.
As L.B. and Tweeg descend the mountain and back towards L.B.'s cabin, Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick arrive back at home aboard their flying airship after having flown to Nogburt's castle in the home of the Illipers for a casual visit. Teddy was glad to see Prince Arin and Princess Arusia again and Gimmick was most pleased to see Eunice once again and trade invention secrets. Most of all, he wanted to show his work on his new and improved Atomizer shrink ray. Unfortunately, they're in for a rude awakening when they get home. As Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick make their way to the door, they realize, something is a miss. The front door is open, and the house is a mess.
Gimmick: "Goodness gracious! It appears as though someone's gotten into my house!"
Grubby: "Oh, no! What if they're still here? If we're gonna go inside, we'd better be careful."
Teddy: "Right. But who would have just barged in here like this? It seems strange."
Grubby folds his arms and makes a stern look at Teddy.
Grubby: "I'll give ya two guesses as to who it could possibly be."
Teddy looks at Grubby in an unintentionally deadpan manner.
Teddy: "I assume you're going to blame Tweeg, but that's impossible."
Grubby: "Huh? Why's that?"
Teddy: "Don't worry about it."
Gimmick places his hand on his chin in a pondering manner, rubbing his light stubble in thought.
Gimmick: "Hrmm, now that we've come in and started making all this ruckus, I believe whoever was here may have, uh, fled the premises."
Grubby turns to Gimmick.
Grubby: "Ya think so?"
Gimmick: "Yes, boys. Er, um, search the house for clues. We need to find whoever—WHOA!"
Not paying attention as he walks, Gimmick trips over the big trench in the floor of the living room.
Gimmick: "Er-gah, what in the world?! Why is there a big trench in my floorboards?"
Teddy goes to help Gimmick up.
Teddy: "Gimmick, are you okay?"
Gimmick: "I'm fine, Teddy, but this, er, situation is getting more and more peculiar. As I was saying before I tripped, we must search for clues."
Grubby points at the floorboards, stating the obvious.
Grubby: "I think this counts as a pretty big clue."
Gimmick places his hands on his hips, looking down in dismay at his once beautiful floor that he'll have to spend his time repairing, shaking his head and scowling.
Gimmick: "I do believe you're, uh, right, Grubby."
Teddy: "I'll search the ground floor."
Grubby: "I got the upstairs."
Gimmick: "And I'll check my lab."
Newton Gimmick stumbles down into his laboratory basement. He becomes riddled with concern over its condition, as everything appears to have been touched. He looks up and notices that the trench is directly underneath the fallen-over wooden chair. The next thing he discovers is that the standing mirror has been removed from its original position and placed before the Reducing Machine, and then, becomes immediately filled with worry when he realizes that his Reducing Machine, as well as its remote, are missing. As much as Newton Gimmick loves a good mystery, he isn't too fond of having one at home to tend with. Gimmick ascends the stairway and back into the living quarters to find that Grubby and Teddy have returned to the axis. He reveals his findings.
Gimmick: "Unfortunately, it appears as though the intruder went down into my lab, and, whoever it was, stole my Reducing Machine!"
Teddy and Grubby gasp in unison.
Teddy: "That's terrible!"
Grubby: "That's awful!"
Gimmick: "That's the work of a thief! Er, uh, whoever did this was cunning and was able to think several, uh, steps ahead of us. Whoever did so, entered through that window right there."
He points to the open window in the corner of the room.
Gimmick: "The thief, uh, made their way into the cellar, where they found my Reducing Machine. Um, whoever did it must not have been strong enough to carry it on their own, therefore requiring the standing mirror. In order to, uh, find out how the machine works, the thief tested it on the chair, which created the trench in the floor. Um, apparently, the thief pressed the red button first, growing the chair, and then the green button next, reducing the chair back to its original size. Placing the standing mirror before the Reducing Machine, the thief set the machine to shrink, and reflected the shrink beam off of the mirror, and into the machine itself, using it to shrink itself! Fascinating! Then the thief made off with the machine using another item they stole, my handbag."
Teddy: "Wow, Gimmick, you sure are a clever sleuth."
Gimmick: "Only one thing, I can't, er, uh, figure out who did it."
Grubby: "Oh, that's easy. It was L.B."
Teddy: "L.B.?"
Gimmick: "L.B.? I see. So, uh, you assume that whoever the thief was must have been small, or, a bounder, and therefore unable to easily swipe my machine. How could you have ever reached such an intellectual conclusion so quickly, Grubby?"
Grubby: "Huh? I just asked Fuzz."
Fuzz pokes his head out from behind Grubby.
Fuzz: "I saw everything. It was L.B. He said something about breaking Tweeg out of 'the slammer' with it."
Gimmick crosses his arms on his chest and looks at the two boys.
Gimmick: "It looks like we'll have to, uh, pay a visit to L.B. tomorrow. Get some sleep, boys."
