A new day shines on Grundo. L.B., asleep in his cabin, lays on his side, kicking his little foot in his sleep, lightly twitching in reflex as the God rays pour in through the window and onto his face. He opens his eyes and squints toward the window. He rolls out of bed and onto the floor, smacking his lips as he recovers from REM sleep. L.B. looks around the room to find that Buffy has risen before him. As he takes a whiff of the air around him, he notices a strong aroma of sweetness permeating throughout the room.
L.B.: "What is that dee-licious smell?"
Buffy chimes in musically from the next room over. L.B. walks into the kitchen to find Buffy standing before a stove, humming away with a tiny apron tied around her back and draped over her chest. She stands on a small stool so that she can reach the stove. Half-done pancakes bubble and pop from inside the iron pan as she smooshes them with a spatula using her mouth. L.B. stares off to the side with a romantic smile.
L.B.: "Ah, the married life. Did you sleep well, my little rosebud?"
Buffy: "Like a baby. Oh, that new bed is so wonderful! SO much better than that little hay bale that Twerp used to make us sleep on."
L.B. walks up to the stove and looks in.
L.B.: "Gettin' hitched and outta that dump was the best thing that ever happened to us. Sure smells great, hon."
L.B. gives her a little peck on the mouth as the spatula sticks out to the other side of her mouth.
Buffy: "Thanks. I wanted to try something a little different. Oh, have you ever tried pancakes with the little strawberries on the side like the ones they put in all the advertisements?"
L.B.: "Ya know, I don't believe I ever have."
Buffy chuckles. She bares a dimply little fanged smile as her dulled teeth poke out from the sides.
Buffy: (Musically) "Look what I got."
L.B. looks over at the table and towards a ceramic bowl filled with ripe strawberries the same color as their skin.
L.B.: "Oh, babe, you spoil me rotten."
They chuckle together. Buffy finishes making her pancakes and they both eat them with little strawberries on the side, just like in the advertisements. L.B. leans back in his chair with his tongue sticking out.
L.B.: "Oh boy, I am stuffed like a turkey. That was so good."
Buffy: "Ohh, my tummy hurts. I think I made too much."
L.B.: "Yeah. I definitely think we bit off more than we could chew."
They continue to sit there in silence as Buffy tries to come up with some sort of small talk to kill time.
Buffy: "So, what was that guy at the door trying to sell you last night?"
L.B. rolls his eyes, letting out a belch.
L.B.: "Oh, that was just Twig. That dope went and spent all the money we loaned him already and the tower got repossessed."
Buffy gives a surprised and concerned look at L.B.
Buffy: "What? You mean he lost his home? Why didn't you tell me?"
L.B. grimaces and avoids looking her in the eyes.
L.B.: "We was havin' such a good time last night, and I didn't want to ruin the mood by gettin' you all worried about him."
Buffy: "Honey, as much of a bum as he is, he still gave us a home. He still took care of us."
L.B. sits in his chair, curling his short tail toward his side and looking down at the floor in shame.
L.B.: "Yeah, I guess he did."
He looks at Buffy and has to do a double take as she stares at him with soulful puppy eyes.
L.B.: "What are ya lookin' at me like that for?"
Buffy: "I really think you should check up on him."
L.B. groans. He doesn't want to have to deal with Tweeg again. Also, he's full and feeling lazy.
L.B.: "Can I at least wait until I don't feel so bloated? I'm like a big, red balloon over here."
She just continues to stare at him and he caves to the pressure. He sighs.
L.B.: "All right, all right. I'll check up on him, for you. Just to make you feel better, my little turtle dove."
Buffy: "Thanks."
She smiles back at him. L.B. rolls off of his seat onto the floor with a light thud. He belches with his mouth closed and continues to make gurgling sounds as he passes by Buffy.
L.B.: "I bet he's fine. I bet he's over at Eleanor's place sleepin' in his footie pajamas in his old bedroom."
Buffy giggles.
Buffy: "You think he really wears that kinda stuff?"
L.B.: "I dunno. I just like jostlin' him around. I'm just playin' with him and he gets so worked up like a big baby all the time. I wish he'd loosen up a bit."
Buffy: "See ya in a few."
L.B. looks back in the doorway.
L.B.: "Later."
With this, L.B. Departs from his cabin. The first place he considers checking is the most obvious one, of course, Tweeg's tower. L.B. hops through the forest on his tiny red legs and within a half hour, he arrives at the tower. He ascends the stairs, mumbling in frustration under his breath that Buffy is making him check up on Tweeg as if he wasn't a grown man capable of taking care of himself. Then again, as L.B. recalls his incompetence, he realizes that the greatest danger to Tweeg is likely himself.
As he approaches the top of the stairs, L.B. is met with a frightening sight before him. Lying in front of the door and sleeping is the massive monster from the previous night. He sits in front of the door, covering the entire frame with his backside and forbidding all entry, voluntary or not. L.B. approaches the beast with caution. He whispers to himself.
L.B.: "Yeesh. This guy's got bunions bigger than me. There's no way he got past this big galoot."
Slowly, he sneaks away from the tower and backs down the stairs. Satisfied with the notion that Tweeg is most definitely not at his tower, he proceeds in the direction of Eleanor Tweeg's house. Eleanor lives in the faraway city of Ying, north of Tweeg's tower and past the trajectory of the M.A.V.O. dungeon. It takes L.B. several hours on foot to reach Eleanor's house, a tall tower perched atop a much smaller hill than Tweeg's. Like her son, Eleanor's tower is several stories high and made of stone. It is framed decoratively and structurally with wood scaffolding and covered from bottom to top in evergreen shrubbery, masking it with the trees along the sides. L.B. approaches the front door with apprehension, knowing that Tweeg's mother is even more temperamental and reclusive than he is.
He knocks on the front door the only way he knows how, with his foot. He waits, looking around the sides with curiosity and waiting. Patiently, he taps his foot before headbutting the door so that the elderly woman may hear him better. From inside, L.B. can hear the muffled sound of someone descending the inner stairway, two individuals, as a matter of fact. One is moving faster than the other. The first resident to arrive at the door is Eleanor's "dog", a snub-nosed, dragon-like beast that barks angrily from behind the door. L.B. is nervous at the prospect of meeting the creature face-to-face.
But then, the sounds of an angry and haggard old woman accompanied by the sound of a cane follow close behind. She curses incoherently as she approaches the front door. The barking is silenced when the dog lets out a loud "YELP!"
Eleanor: "Shut your pie hole, Sparky, and get out of the way!"
Eleanor opens the door. A hideous and thoroughly unappealing elderly woman stands in the doorway. Her skin is completely green and covered in unsightly warts, some of which sit on her long, pointy nose. Her thinning, witchly hair is tied behind her head in an unkempt bun. Eleanor bares a gaudy grey coat with orange-furred trim over a purple and red dress with matching satin gloves and boots that make you wonder how Jack Tweeg ever came to be in the first place with a mother that looks like that.
Eleanor: "What do you want?!"
L.B. chooses to ignore her unwelcoming manner, responding instead with his own brand of polite sarcasm.
L.B.: "Nice to see you too, Eleanor."
She looks around the premises for her son as if he was a coyote prowling on the chicken coop.
Eleanor: "Where's my good-for-nothin' son? Whenever you show up, I know he's not far behind."
L.B.: "I was just about to get to that. You mean you haven't seen him?"
She places her hands on her hips, swinging them with sass.
Eleanor: "Obviously not, you little pimple."
L.B.: "The reason I ask is that he came over to my cabin last night askin' for a place to spend the night, as M.A.V.O. had repossessed his tower."
Eleanor: "Ha! Serves him right. My son's always been a cheapskate."
L.B.: "You're a cheapskate too, ya know."
Eleanor: "Well, of course. Penny-pinching is a time-honored tradition in the family, well, at least on my side. My worthless ex-husband's only claim to fame is that he knows how to ride a plank on some water. Besides, I'm not the one that joined M.A.V.O., now am I?"
She folds her arms in the same stubborn manner as her son.
L.B.: "So he's not here?"
Eleanor: "I already told you, no. Use your little pea brain and think for a second. He was wanted by M.A.V.O., so where's the only place he could be?"
L.B.: "M.A.V.O. Headquarters."
Eleanor: "DING DING DING! We have a winner! Now, how about you scamper along? I have important things to attend to."
She shoos him away like a peasant, and L.B. responds with an inquisitive stare.
L.B.: "And what, pray tell, would that happen to be?"
Eleanor: "Mama's heading out on the town for a shopping spree!"
She slams the door in L.B.'s face without even saying goodbye or wishing him well. He mutters, sarcastically to himself.
L.B.: "Lovely woman... really."
L.B. realizes at this point that there's likely only one place that Tweeg could be, and that's M.A.V.O. prison. Quellor knows very well that if L.B. is around, he's only there for one reason, and that's Tweeg. Being so attached to Tweeg's hip for all those years has not left L.B. with the kind of impression that he'd hope for, so if getting Tweeg out of there is the idea, he realizes he'll need a plan. It's a far trip, certainly out of the way, but L.B. will need to pay a visit to the Gimmick house first.
As he bounds, as bounders do, past M.A.V.O. Headquarters, through the Mizley Meadows, and in the trajectory of Gimmick's house, he ponders to himself. Knowing very well that Gimmick has many doodads, contraptions, and thingies that could possibly be useful in a prison breakout, he figures that many of them could assist in his objective. He also contemplates simply walking up to the door and asking Gimmick, Teddy, and Grubby for help, as they would certainly be the types to put aside their differences and assist, but feels as though it would be a humiliating situation for both he and Tweeg to be forced into.
L.B. approaches the front door, kicking on it with his foot. Several moments later, no answer. Are they home? Have they all gone out for the evening? Curious, L.B. hops his way over to the window, bouncing in place to get a vantage of the living room. It is empty. Fortunately for L.B., Gimmick is not a very secure homeowner and has carelessly left his window open. The window proves to be just wide enough for the small bounder to weasel his way in. Nobody is home, no muttering, no footsteps, he is alone.
L.B. goes towards the cellar way and down into the basement where Gimmick usually keeps all of his weirdest stuff so that he can work in peace. It's easily the creepiest part of Gimmick's house, lined with spiderwebs that Gimmick has gingerly refrained from dusting off the walls, filled with books upon books of technical jargon that L.B. couldn't even begin to comprehend, almost like a mad doctor's laboratory mixed with someone's dad's work engineering station.
L.B. rummages through drawers, pulling out blueprints, documents, and measuring equipment all over the floor. A peculiar piece of equipment that L.B. distinctly recognizes falls onto the floor.
L.B.: "Hold the phone; I think I recognize this thing. This is the old man's shrink-and-grow remote thingy. I should be able to break Tweek outta the slammer real easy with this. How does it work again?"
L.B. lifts the remote into the air with his mouth, biting onto the green button on top. Light beams down from a contraption in the corner of the room, a white metal box with colored lightbulbs. The beam descends upon a wooden chair in Gimmick's lab, growing it to the size of the room. The chair pushes through the wooden floorboards on the first floor, leaving a big trench in the floor.
L.B.: "Oops. So uh, If the green button makes things all bigly, the red one must make things little again."
He bites into the green button and the chair shrinks back to its original size. L.B. examines the shrink ray.
L.B.: "Hmm, that thing's way too big for me to lug around... wait a minute! I got an idea!"
In the opposite corner of the room is a rectangular standing mirror, the kind that one uses to make sure that they're dressed appropriately. He pushes the mirror in front of the Reducing Machine, angling it upward.
L.B.: "Let's see if this works."
L.B. bites into the green button. A yellow cone beam of light fires from the white metal box, reflecting off of the mirror and back into the machine, shrinking itself.
L.B. hops in place in joy over his little fit of brilliance.
L.B.: "Ha ha! It worked! It worked! Eat your heart out, Gimmick! Dr. L.B. is the real scientific mind 'round here! I shoulda listened to ma and went to college."
At the foot of the stairs, L.B. notices a curious shadow, accompanied by the tiny noise of rustling around.
L.B.: "Huh? What's that? Who's there?"
From beneath the stairs, a small green fob pokes his tiny, furry bean body out.
L.B.: "Oh, he he, just a fob. Beat it, furball!"
Fuzz hops up the stairs in a panic as L.B. rolls his eyes with a smile on his face.
L.B.: "Now to get this thing over to Twerp and bust him out."
L.B. takes the remote and the shrunken Reducing Machine by dumping out the contents of one of Gimmick's handbags onto the floor and stowing them within. Up and out of the basement he bounds, dismissing himself from Gimmick's home and tiredly back towards M.A.V.O. Headquarters in the north. By the time he gets to M.A.V.O., L.B. is positively beat. M.A.V.O. is on high alert, with goons marching back and forth on patrol. They count their steps "one, two, three, four" as they march (although that's probably as high as most of them could count).
L.B.: "Looks like Quellor really turned up the heat around here. I wonder what the occasion could be."
L.B. sneaks his way toward the big castle where Tweeg is being held. On the side of the tower near the ground is a small barred window. L.B. is able to peek inside and against the wall, Tweeg sits in the corner, apparently dozed off after his daily helping of gruel. L.B. whispers to Tweeg.
L.B.: "Pssst, Twig... hey Twig."
Tweeg: "Huh? Who's there?"
L.B.: "Up here."
Tweeg walks up to the window, jumping up and barely grabbing onto the bars, pulling himself up so that he can see L.B.'s face.
Tweeg: "L.B., what are you doing here?"
L.B.: "What do you think I'm doing here? I'm busting you out."
Tweeg smiles for a second before looking back and forth, realizing nobody is with him.
Tweeg: "That's great. Uhh... but how?"
L.B.: "With this?"
L.B. pulls the remote and the Reducing Machine out of his bag.
Tweeg: "What is that thing, a television remote?"
L.B.: "It's one of Gimmick's inventions. It makes things bigger and smaller."
Tweeg shrugs with a frustrated look on his face.
Tweeg: "How in the world is that supposed to help me?"
L.B.: "Like this."
L.B. points the tiny Reducing Machine up towards the window and directly at Tweeg and presses the red button. The wide yellow beam hits Tweeg directly in the face and Tweeg starts to expand to the size of nearly his entire cell, crashing his head into the ceiling and becoming contorted in the cell.
Tweeg: "Ouch!"
L.B.: "Oops. Wrong button. Sorry, Twink."
L.B. bites down on the green button, shrinking Tweeg to just barely four inches tall. He hangs off the edge of the windowsill.
Tweeg: "L.B., pull me up. Hurry!"
An outside guard walks downstairs into the dungeon to see what all the commotion is about when he realizes that Tweeg is not in his cell. He bursts in, spotting the tiny Tweeg hanging from the windowsill. He runs over, grabbing Tweeg in his large hand.
Guard: "Where do you think you're going, Jack?!"
Tweeg: "Outta here, you big lummox!"
Tweeg opens his jaw as wide as he can and bites the guard's hand. The guard flails and flings his hand all over, flinging Tweeg through the air and out of his cell window. He lands on the ground next to L.B.
L.B.: "Quick! Get in the bag!"
Tweeg makes a running dive into Gimmick's handbag and L.B. leaps as fast and as far as he can off of the premises as the alarm sounds off, blaring into the air and rattling the eardrums of everyone nearby. Panicking, L.B. bounces for nearly a mile, running on adrenaline alone, and bouncing poor Tweeg in the bag.
Tweeg: "Whoa! I think I'm gonna toss my cookies!"
Finally, far enough away, the duo have escaped. Tweeg notices the bouncing getting slower and slower until he realizes that he's stopped altogether. Curious, he climbs out of the bag to find L.B. panting and sweating profusely on the ground.
Tweeg: "L.B., you did it! You saved me from M.A.V.O. prison!"
L.B.: (Gasping) "Yeah. Think nothing of it."
Tweeg looks around, at himself and at the enormous L.B. in front of him. He taps his foot impatiently.
Tweeg: "Well... are you going to just lay there, or are you going to make me regular-sized again?"
L.B. looks over at him and smiles and laughs.
L.B.: "I don't know. I kinda like you this way, Tweek. You look like a cute little dolly from up here."
Tweeg folds his arms in protest, scoffing.
Tweeg: "Hmpf! I am NOT a doll. I'm an action figure!"
L.B. takes the remote out of the bag once more, and the Reducing Machine, aiming it at Tweeg and biting into the red button on the remote. Tweeg is once again enlarged to his appropriate size. Tweeg looks at himself, smiling and grateful to be standard size once again. He looks down at L.B., frowning shamefully.
Tweeg: "You look bushed."
L.B.: "I am. I been hopping around all day lookin' for you. I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you the other day."
Tweeg looks away, trying to avoid eye contact with L.B. due to his embarrassment.
Tweeg: "Yeah, well, I should have known better than to try to ruin the most important and celebratory time in your life."
L.B.: "I guess we both have regrets, huh?"
Tweeg: "Yeah... I guess we do."
L.B.: "So, what are you gonna do now?"
Tweeg shrugs, finally making eye contact with L.B. once again, who just looks at him with a sorrowful expression on his tired and baggy-eyed face.
Tweeg: "I'm going to take your advice. I'm going to move back in with mother until I can find somewhere else."
L.B.: "That's good. Let's go."
He tries to get up but Tweeg places his hand on him.
Tweeg: "Stay there. I got you."
L.B. looks at him, completely dumbfounded.
L.B.: "What are you doing, Twig?"
Tweeg looks down at him with a half-serious expression before turning it into a smile.
Tweeg: "It's Tweeg, and I'm going to carry you, so hop on."
Tweeg turns around, kneeling with his back turned to L.B.
L.B.: "You're giving me a piggyback ride?"
Tweeg: "Yeah... now hurry, before I change my mind."
Tweeg no sooner finishes his sentence and L.B. leaps onto Tweeg's back, causing Tweeg to "oof". Tweeg lifts up into the air, carrying the small bounder on his back as he hunches forward. L.B. gives a tired laugh as he retorts.
L.B.: "No takesies backsies."
He lays his head on Tweeg's back as Tweeg continues the journey to Ying on his own. L.B. falls asleep rather quickly and Tweeg can feel the warm air of his inhalations running down the back of his robe. He finds it oddly comforting having L.B. so close to him, and he doesn't understand why he feels so. He snores as Tweeg ascends the hill up to his mother's house. A long way through the woods, as he treks with L.B. on his back, and despite the cramp in his lower spine, it's the most comfort he's felt in a long time. Tweeg approaches the front door of Eleanor's tower. He takes a long-winded sigh as he knocks on the door. Again, the long wait as nothing could be heard but the nearby crickets and the hum of her porch light, the only sources of navigation in the dark. His mother descends the stairs and mumbles under her breath as she answers the door, raising her brow with an exaggerated scowl as she eyes her son from top to bottom. Tweeg sports a cheesy and disingenuous grin as he greets his mother.
L.B.: "Hello, mother."
Eleanor: "So, I take it the talking tomato found you after all."
L.B. mumbles under his breath.
L.B.: "You know, I can hear you."
Eleanor is confused. She looks around to the back of Tweeg, realizing he's still carrying the bounder.
Eleanor: "What in the world?"
Tweeg looks at her with a stern expression.
Tweeg: "I was just returning a favor."
Eleanor: "Returning a favor? Since when have you ever returned favors for anyone? Don't you know anything, Jacky? You take, and only take. That's the M.A.V.O. way."
Tweeg walks in the door past her, laying L.B. down on a chair next to the stairway. He turns and looks to his mother.
Tweeg: "I'm through with M.A.V.O.!"
Eleanor is shocked. Her eyes become wide with concern (but not for Tweeg).
Eleanor: "Through with M.A.V.O.?! How how do you expect to be a successful tyrant without M.A.V.O.?"
Tweeg: "I don't. I don't want anything to do with them and they want nothing to do with me. That's clear as day to me now."
Eleanor: "My son, MY son... a quitter? I've known you as many things, Jack: a crybaby, a sore loser, a bit of a nincompoop, but never in my life did I imagine you a quitter."
She points at him, accusingly and Tweeg gestures at her, defending himself.
Tweeg: "Maybe it's not about quitting, mother. Maybe it's about starting something new, about embarking on a new adventure in my life. This one's a dud. I'm not happy doing what I'm doing, day after day, trying to appease others in these meaningless attempts at villainy that have gotten me nowhere, firing a stupid cannon that won't even work at a bunch of people down below that have never done a single bad thing to me in my life, trying to impress an ungrateful organization of monsters that have done nothing but tax me bone dry and exploit me. Those people aren't my friends. They're vultures, preying on me."
Eleanor looks at Tweeg in disgust. She prods his chest with her stabby, nun-like fingers.
Eleanor: "They're monsters and villains, Jack. What do you expect?"
Tweeg can't even believe what he's hearing in this moment, his mother, playing devil's advocate for a group of monsters that have done nothing but make him miserable from day one. He feels stupid. He shakes his head as he backs away from her in retaliation.
Tweeg: "And you... you've only ever encouraged it."
His mother's eyes become big at Tweeg's accusations.
Eleanor: "What are you insinuating, Jack, that I don't love you or something?"
Tweeg goes to answer, but she only retaliates at him even harder.
Eleanor: "You're just like your worthless father, a namby pamby little sissy boy that just wants to do what he wants to do! Never mind finding success in your life! It's all about me, me, me! Why don't you go live with him? Oh, wait, you took money from him, didn't you, and then you had the gall to give it back to him! You're no villain, Jack!"
Tweeg looks at her coldly.
Tweeg: "You're right, I'm not."
He goes to ascend the stairs, to go and lay in his old childhood bedroom. She blocks his path with her cane.
Eleanor: "Where do you think you're going?"
Tweeg: "I was going to go up to my room. I have no place to live. I won't be here long."
Eleanor: "You're not staying in MY house with THAT quitter attitude, Jack."
Tweeg snaps.
Tweeg: "Fine, I guess I'll just leave then!"
He storms out the front door. L.B. watches as he marches out the door and Eleanor follows him to the doorway. She tosses her cane out the door at him and misses.
Eleanor: "Good! Fine! Don't come back! You're no son of mine! Good riddance!"
She slams the door behind her, forgetting L.B. is still in there. He watches her as she turns around and notices him.
Eleanor: "What are you looking at?! You get out too!"
L.B. rises from his chair, hopping onto the floor and past Eleanor. She stands in the doorway muttering to herself incoherently under her breath. L.B. turns to her, offering his rare wisdom.
L.B.: "You're making a big mistake, you know. Villain or not, he's still your son... your only one at that. Remember your priorities. Goodbye, Eleanor."
With this, L.B. leaves. He hops down the hill, trying his best to catch up with the furious Tweeg, who, by now, is half-way back to Mizley Meadows.
