"Homestar? Homestar! You're back!"
Homestar hopped to his feet and spun to face the source of the voice. Marzipan and the rest of the gang were hurrying toward him.
"Aaaa! An awmy of space myoo-tants! Oh, wait." Homestar did a double take. "It's just Marzipan."
"Homestar Michael Runner, if you ever disappear like that again..." Marzipan threatened, but she leaned in and gave him a huge hug.
"What do you mean, I was looking fow you!" Homestar replied.
"I told you I would be gardening when I visited you this morning." Marzipan reminded.
"Oh, well I didn't heaw you. I was busy playing Space Invisitors."
"That was why I left." Marzipan frowned.
"Pom Pom! Hey, good to see you too, man." Homestar turned away from Marzipan and greeted his best friend.
Marzipan muttered angrily.
In a few minutes he had been welcomed back by everyone except Strong Bad, Strong Mad, and The Cheat.
"Where's Wrestle Man?" Homestar asked.
"He disappeared after the last round of Poker." Strong Sad responded.
"That loser owes me a hundred bucks!" Bubs interjected.
"That's probably why he ran away." Strong Sad added.
"Hey, that weminds me… those guys still have my sandwiches! I better go get them." Homestar walked over to Strong Bad's house and banged on the door. Bubs and Strong Sad stood behind him.
"No one is home! Um… Strong Bad isn't here right now. Please leave a message after The Cheat." Strong Bad's voice replied from beyond the door.
"Meh." The Cheat yipped.
"Oh, hey Stwong Bad. It's just me, I came by looking for- oh, you are home!" The door flew open as Homestar was in mid message.
Strong Bad stood in the doorway. "Homestar!"
"I missed you too, Stinkoman." Homestar started to step forward, but Strong Bad slammed the door in his face. There were frantic footsteps beyond the door.
"Whoa, I think Stwong Bad's having a bad day." Homestar said.
"He's gonna have an even worse day if I don't get my hundred bucks in about five minutes!" Bubs glared at the front door.
Suddenly the door flung open again, and a gloved hand shot out and jerked Homestar into the house.
Strong Mad slammed the door and shuffled in front of it. The Cheat hopped onto Homestar's chest and glared at him menacingly. Strong Bad walked up beside Homestar.
"All right listen up." Strong Bad glanced at the door, then continued in a quieter voice. "You gotta help me, man. Bubs is after my blood-"
"I thought he was after your hundred bucks." Homestar corrected.
"Shh! No, you idiot it's a figure of- look, I just- I need you to tell me how to get to wherever you went."
"Why would you want to go thewe? It was pwetty boring. And weiwd." Homestar replied.
"I need to hide until Bubs forgets about the money I owe him." Strong Bad paused, realizing that wasn't possible for Bubs to forget about a debt. "Or at least until Strong Sad gets some more money for me to steal."
"Oh, I see. By the way, can I have my sandwiches back?" Homestar asked abruptly.
"You're… sandwiches? Umm… sorry to tell you this, but Strong Sad ate them."
"What! The tweachewy…" Homestar lamented.
"Yeah, I tried to stop him and stuff. So, you gonna tell me where you went, or do I need to get Strong Mad here to 'persuade' you…" Strong Bad demanded.
"I don't weally know where I was anyway. I got lost." Homestar explained.
"Oh great…"
"But I have a hundwed bucks you can borrow." Homestar stood up and produced a hundred dollar bill from his shoe.
"Meh! Pimeh meh mi!" The Cheat leapt over and grabbed the money.
"Where the crap did you get a hundred bucks from?" Strong Bad asked as The Cheat handed him the bill.
"Well when I was in the altewnating dimension I had to weaw, um, this disguise and when I looked in the pockets thewe was a bunch of money in it." Homestar paused. "So I kept it. But I got wid of the disguise though. When I came back. It was a-"
"All right, all right. Jeez, I don't need your life story." Strong Bad interrupted.
"THE DOOR IS MOVING!" Strong Mad yelled. Someone was banging on the door and shouting.
"Hey, open up! I want my money!" Bubs called from outside.
Strong Mad stepped aside as Strong Bad walked over and opened the door. "Here you go, Bubs. I was just getting it out of… the bank."
"Yeah right. And I'm Miss Texas." Bubs glared.
"I thourt I was Miss Texas!" Coach Z peered around Pom Pom.
"Shut it up, loser." Bubs and Strong Bad replied in unison.
"Okay." Coach Z slunk away dejectedly.
"Man, that's just wrong." Strong Bad went back in the house, and a moment later Homestar was shoved out the front door onto his face.
"Ouch. Oh look, a penny!" Homestar got to his feet and walked away.
Soon everyone had scattered, except for Strong Sad. He was sitting outside his front door, knocking intermittently. "Strong Bad! The Cheat? Can anyone unlock the door? I'd do it myself but the spare key is missing… hello?"
End-o-logue
"Well, Matt. Looks like the plan worked. The site is up again." Mike said as the intro screen loaded on the office computer.
"Great. Let's go get some dinner now. It's been a very long day." Matt wearily responded.
"I hear that." Mike agreed. "At least when we're animating we can take a break from being around our characters."
Matt started humming the Twilight Zone theme as they closed up the office, and they both started laughing as they walked down the empty hallway.
The only person left on the floor now was a janitor, wheeling his squeaky maintenance cart past Mike and Matt on their way out. The janitor walked slowly down the hall until he reached the door to one of the offices. With a metallic clamor he sorted through a keychain, carefully selected a key, and unlocked the door. After a nervous glance in either direction the man entered the office.
A few silent minutes passed before the man came back out of the room and locked the door. As he walked back to his maintenance cart, he carefully slipped a strange metal ball into his pocket and smiled.
ENDETH... ?