Inside the Simpson house, Lisa was soon telling her mother about her experience with Colin as the blue-haired woman was vigorously scrubbing the floor due to dirty tracks left on the floor.
"Oh, wait. I didn't tell you the best part. He loves the environment. Oh, wait! I still didn't tell you the best part. He's got an Irish brogue. No, no, wait! I still didn't tell you the best part. He's not imaginary!" Lisa told her mother out of excitement.
"Oh, honey, that's great, but the very best thing is that he listens to you," Marge smiled as she put her arm around her eldest daughter warmly. "Because nothing means more than for a man to-" she then looked up to see that the ceiling was now dirty. "How did the pig tracks get on the ceiling?" she then asked.
"Spider-Pig. Spider-Pig. Does whatever a Spider-Pig does~," Homer sang as he began to move the pig across the ceiling, singing a song based on an old-time Spider-Man theme song. "Can he swing from a web? No, he can't, He's a pig, Looooook out, He is the Spider-Pig~"
"Let's hope that little joke of his doesn't get old and repetitive after a while." Cherry remarked as she sat in the living room with Lionel.
"Yeah, hopefully not," responded Lionel. "Although I can't quite wait to see how this backfires."
"Our visit with The Simpsons or Homer's bond with his new pig friend?" Cherry asked with a dry smirk.
"...Yes." Lionel retorted.
Cherry rolled her eyes a little.
"Mom, Dad, Bart's going fishing with Mr. Flanders tomorrow." LJ soon told his parents.
"All right... That should be interesting," Cherry shrugged. "You can go too if you want."
"Hmm... I dunno," LJ responded. "You sure I shouldn't hang back with you and Dad?"
"Whichever makes you feel comfortable," Cherry shrugged. "I know David and Maggie are bonding and so are Lisa and Zofia, I just didn't want you to be left out if you wanted to hang out with Bart some more."
"Well... I guess I could," LJ said, before hugging Lionel. "Just making sure to thank my lucky stars for having a positive relationship with my dad."
"Aww... I like you too, buddy," Lionel said. "We'll probably read some comics later."
"And you can have pizza burgers and other snacks too," Cherry soon added. "Meanwhile, I think I'm gonna look more into old Grampa Simpson's 'psychic psycho prediction'..."
"Okay! See you then, Mom!" LJ said as he took off and went out to join the others.
"Have fun!" Cherry called out. "And wear a sweater!"
"Okay, Mom!" LJ called back.
"Wear a sweater?" Lionel asked Cherry. "It's the middle of summer."
"Eh, it's just a thing parents tell their children," Cherry shrugged. "I'm trying to be a good mother."
"What says you gotta try?" asked Lionel. "You already ARE good!"
"Well, I do my best," Cherry replied. "I just hope the kids will be okay in whatever happens."
"I'm sure they will be," Lionel said. "Now let's just try to relax and enjoy our summer vacation while the kids enjoy their new adventure."
"All right, but that's not gonna stop me from doing some research if I can help it," Cherry replied. "I know it doesn't seem like much, but I can already tell that Homer's father's outburst in church is gonna lead to something big, especially with us involved and the world of adventures tends to follow me wherever I go."
"Oh, yeah... It wouldn't surprise me if things got really hectic." Lionel responded.
"Besides, if anything just went normally or nonchalant, then this story would be kinda boring." Cherry then added.
"Lisa told me about how she and Bart went to Kamp Krusty one summer and then another summer where they went to Itchy & Scratchy Land and even one summer where they went to a Dude Ranch, so this should be pretty interesting for all of us at least, especially away from Greendale." Zofia piped up to her parents.
"Those two have a lot of summers for kids who have only just started getting older." Lionel commented.
"Huh... That's a pretty good point..." Zofia pondered before she gasped. "Maybe they're trapped in some sort of time warp and they just never get any older!"
"Come now, don't think like that, dear~" Cherry replied. "Besides, it's not like they're gonna be 8 and 10 for three decades without anyone noticing."
"...Right," Lionel replied dryly. "Anyways, we might as well get started on trying to figure things out."
"All right, let's see what we can do to fill time before the conflict comes into play." Cherry suggested.
"Fine by me!" Lionel nodded.
MEANWHILE, AT THE LAKE...
Bart, Mr. Flanders, and LJ were out in the middle of the lake, aboard a little wooden boat, each of them carrying a fishing pole.
"Are we having fun yet...?" Bart asked, boredly... Seconds before his line hooked a fish.
"We are now!" Flanders smiled. "You've got a bite!"
"WHOA, MAMA!" Bart cheered as he was suddenly animated and grabbed onto the fishing pole to reel the fish in... Only for the pole to suddenly fall into the water.
"Oh, no! My good pole!" Ned cried out.
Bart then expectingly choked and gagged only for nothing to happen to him as he found no hands around his throat and he soon looked confused at his neighbor. "Huh? You're not strangling me." he then said, feeling very confused.
"What the-? Strangling's only good for-" Ned replied before he then shook his head. "Well, it's not good for anything. The only time you should lay hands on a boy is to give him a good pat on the back." he then added with a warm smile before reaching out and gently patted Bart right on the back.
"Hey, what the hell are you-?" Bart complained until he realized how nice that felt. "...One more time." he then requested.
Ned smiled as he soon did just that as Bart enjoyed the feeling of a good father. LJ looked on with a small smile, happy that Bart at least knew what it was like to have somewhat of a positive experience with a parental figure. Bart then looked over at LJ with a nod as he smiled back.
However, Springfield Lake wasn't 100% a pleasant day for people visiting.
On the shoreline, Krusty had dumped a tank of flop sweat into the lake while The Crazy Cat Lady scrubbed her cats on a washboard and tossed them into a basket next to her, and a truck dumped a pile of bottles inside the water with Barney Gumble buried inside.
"Honey, I'm home!" Barney slurred after landing in the water and bottle pile.
Lisa snarled as she snapped her clipboard with a petition in two as she looked on at the sight of that.
"Time for drastic measures." Zofia said to Lisa.
"Agreed." Lisa nodded.
Later that night at Springfield Town Hall, a banner was shown that read: "Lisa Simpson & Zofia Schwartz Present: An Irritating Truth". Nearly everybody in town was there as the two girls were on a stage and Colin accompanied them by playing the guitar for background music while Mayor Quimby stood at his podium at the side so that the girls could give their presentation.
"We are at the tipping point, people. If we don't do something now-" Lisa began to tell her audience before she shook her head nervously and smiled at the boy next to her. "I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought. Isn't he dreamy?
"Agreed." Mayor Quimby replied as he banged his gavel.
"Maybe you should skip to the end." Zofia suggested to Lisa.
Lisa nodded. "Okay, so here's the bottom line: If we don't change our ways right now pollution in Lake Springfield will be at this level." she then began to say as she pulled on the scissor lift, but it suddenly stopped at a low point on the graph next to her.
"That's not so bad." Lenny commented.
"No, the lift is stuck!" Lisa groaned as she kept pulling on the lift before it moved up and down before finally elevating high above the ceiling, smashing Lisa through the ceiling with it.
"That has to hurt." Zofia winced as that looked and sounded painful.
"Am I getting through to anyone?" asked Lisa.
"Hell, yeah!" Krusty responded. "We need a NEW one of those things!"
"All in favor of a new scissor lift, say aye!" declared Mayor Quimby.
"Aye!" The people declared.
"NO!" The girls cried out together as Lisa was finally lowered back down.
"This lake is just one piece of trash away from a toxic nightmare." Lisa warned.
"But we knew you wouldn't listen, so we took the liberty of pouring water from the lake in all your drinking glasses." Zofia added with a sly smirk.
The audience then did a collective spit take from their water after they realized what they were drinking.
"This is why we should hate kids." Moe groused from the audience.
"...Well, at least my mother's never said something like that that I know of." Zofia commented to herself.
"This is serious, people. No more dumping in the lake," Mayor Quimby soon told his townspeople. "I hereby declare a state of emergency. Code Black."
The audience then gasped and murmured at that news.
"Black? That's the worst color there is!" Lenny panicked before looking at the seat next to him. "No offense there, Carl."
"I get it all the time." Carl reassured his best friend.
The next day, the girls were in the newspaper as the "pushy kids who nagged the town" into doing a group clean-up together for Lake Springfield. Carl and Lenny plugged the drain spout with a giant cork and left the lake as their pants and shoes melted from the lower halves of their bodies after being in the lake. As the clean-up continued, a group of mobsters was shown with "garbage" to add to the lake dumping only to be stopped by the police.
"Sorry, sorry. No dumping in the lake." Chief Wiggum warned.
"Fine. I will put my yard trimmings in a car compactor." Fat Tony replied darkly before they got out of the way.
"Chief, I think there was a dead body in there." Lou spoke up in concern.
"I thought that too, until he said yard trimmings," Chief Wiggum replied. "You gotta learn to listen, Lou."
"Let us now make sure this barrier is completely idiot-proof," declared Mayor Quimby, before he turned to Cletus Spuckler. "Cletus, try to dump something in the lake."
"Okay," Cletus nodded as he picked up a possum and went towards the lake... Only to bump into the barrier two times. "Ah can't. Ah simply can't!"
"Brilliant. Very effective." The builders murmured in approval.
Hopefully, this would be a good solution for a while, but only time would be able to tell.
"Well, I did it. I was able to help out a new town on my first week in it," Zofia said hopefully. "There's nowhere else to go from here besides up. Right?"
"Of course," Lisa replied. "The only way this could be worse is if a total idiot did something stupid that would plunge the world into chaos."
Just then, an ominous musical chord played.
Back at home, Homer and the pig, Plopper, were watching a show about Bumblebee Man, who just kissed a donkey at a kissing booth. "Ay-yi-yi!" he exclaimed. "Un burro amoroso!"
Homer laughed while watching the show, before looking at Plopper. "...Maybe WE should kiss just to break the tension." he suggested.
"What's going on here?" Marge demanded as she suddenly walked into the room.
"Uh, nothing! Nothing!" Homer smiled nervously before he sat innocently on the couch with the pig.
"I'm not sure that pig should be in the house," Marge said firmly before she began to look curious and concerned. "And by the way, what are you doing with his... Leavings?" she then asked.
"Don't worry. I've devised a most elegant solution." Homer reassured.
Soon, they were outside in the backyard with a giant silo with the words "Pig Crap" written on it, though above the word crap was the word "shit" that was crossed out.
"Ugh... It's leaking." Marge cringed.
"It's not leaking, it's overflowing." Homer defended.
"He filled up the whole silo in just two days?" Marge then asked.
"Well, I helped." Homer smirked before he began to walk away.
"Homer, stop! Stop. I know it's easy for your mind to wander, but I want you to really concentrate on me," Marge warned her husband as his mind did end up wandering anyway briefly before he looked back at her to look like he was paying attention to her. "I can't escape the feeling that this is the crisis Grampa warned us about and that Mrs. Schwartz has a point about it being suspicious. You have to dispose of that waste properly."
"Okay, Marge. I will." Homer nodded.
"You can take Spider-Pig with you." Marge then said with a smile to make him feel better.
"He's not Spider-Pig anymore, he's Harry Plopper." Homer replied as he gestured to their new pet pig.
Plopper snorted as he was shown to be wearing glasses and had a lightning bolt painted on his forehead.
Soon after, Homer was in the car with Plopper, waiting in line at the waste disposal unit when he got a call. "Hello?" he asked.
"Homer, you gotta get over here!" Lenny exclaimed. "The health inspector shut down the donut store, and they're giving out free donuts!"
"Oh, my God, oh, my God!" Homer gasped frantically like a teenage girl in a shopping mall with an unlimited credit card, but he still at least remembered what Marge told him to do. "I just got one thing I gotta do first." he then told his friend on the other line.
"Well, you better hurry," Lenny advised as he and many other citizens gathered at the Lard Lad Donuts' place. "They're going fast."
Chief Wiggum even stepped by, eating a donut off his gun along with many others until he accidentally set off his gun, but he luckily missed near his mouth. "Whoa, that was close." he then smiled in relief.
Homer groaned before he decided to take a shortcut since there were too many cars ahead of him, so he headed right for the wall around Lake Springfield that was heavily guarded by innocent children. Several signs read "No dumping", but he kept driving through them, even Hans Moleman's sign that read "You suck". Soon, Homer broke right through the wall with his car and turned the car around to release the silo straight into the water.
The silo went right inside and suddenly, acidic bubbles rose up out of the water and all of the water fizzed before it turned pure black and a skull and crossbones appeared through the surface.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL!" The skull spoke in a deep, booming voice and not in a comedic way like Mermaid Man.
Homer then jumped in the back of his car. "Drive, drive, drive! Oh, right." he then urged, then realized that Plopper was in the front seat, then he went back to the front seat, pushing the pig aside to drive them away from Lake Springfield.
A red squirrel with big blue eyes was soon shown from the other side of the lake before suddenly getting scared away by a snarling raccoon and the squirrel landed right in the lake before emerging from the water with multiple eyes and snarled as he was now mutated and looked pretty scary, frightening off the raccoon before smirking to himself with razor-sharp teeth.
"I gotta show this to Andy." The squirrel smirked to himself before he took off again.
MEANWHILE...
Ned, Bart, and LJ were climbing a mountain.
"Look at that. You can see the four states that border Springfield: Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky!" Mr. Flanders pointed out.
Bart took a glance out. "...Oh, yeah!" he commented.
"Huh." LJ repeated, a bit confused by that.
"And if you look real close, you can almost-" Ned was about to add only to be scared suddenly as he shrieked. "Ah!"
"Hey, how's it goin'?" The squirrel from the lake greeted before spouting another eye suddenly.
"That voice sounds familiar." LJ commented to himself.
"Well, this certainly seems odd but who am I to question the work of the Almighty?" Ned commented to himself before he decided to bless the squirrel. "We thank you, Lord, for this mighty fine intelligent design. Good job." he then added before walking off.
Bart then suddenly approached the squirrel with the walking stick, poking the squirrel's eyes out as the squirrel began to scream out of pain. "Jabbity, jabbity, jab, jab, jab!" he said along the way.
"Hey! Jab one more eye and it's a federal crime." A man warned the boy before a woman also appeared with a container the squirrel.
"Who are you?" Ned wondered.
"Environmental Protection Agency." The woman informed before heading over to their EPA van.
"Hey, what's going on?!" The squirrel cried out as he was suddenly taken away. "You can't do this to me! I'm an endangered species! ANDY! HELP!" he then cried out, speaking in a very distinctive scratchy voice.
"And here I thought Springfield starting taking an effort to clean UP the lake," noted LJ. "But somehow, it's started to mutate wildlife!"
"It's probably nuthin'." Bart shrugged.
"Didn't your grandfather say something about a thousand eyes?" LJ then asked.
"Hmm... Yeah, I suppose that's true," Bart said. "I still wouldn't worry about it though. Grampa says a lot of weird things."
"If ya say so," LJ responded. "At least we haven't seen any other mutated wildlife... Yet."
"Come along, boys. You have other things to see." Ned called.
"Coming!" LJ and Bart called back before going to join him for more in their nature walk together.
After much time had passed by, a shadow was enveloping Springfield, causing everyone's jaw to drop (literally in the face of a ventriloquist dummy) as they looked up. The shadow even reached Milhouse, causing him to swallow his inhaler and choke from the shock. People left the church and other people left Moe's Tavern next door before the two groups ran in opposite directions, flowing into each other's location. A tight swarm of military helicopters flew in, each baring suction below them with a very large glass dome, carrying it over the landscape of Springfield. As they lowered in, the town darkened slightly due to the dome and cut right through the L of the Springfield sign.
"We're being sealed in a dome!" Martin gasped from the playground before the dome dropped down on his seesaw, sending him flying in the air and sliding down the dome as he yelled out.
A man was watching the dome descend, looking very paranoid right now. "What do I do? I don't know what to do! If I stay, I'm trapped. If I leave, I'm alone. Oh, God. In, out, in, out! I never saw Venice! I-" he then said in a frenzy only to be crushed as the dome landed on him as he was between Springfield and outside of Springfield due to his lack of decision.
Even Sideshow Bob was shown and was startled by the sight of the dome as he backed himself up out of the way only to suddenly come face-to-face with his second arch-enemy: a rake. This caused him to growl out of frustration as rakes were always a curse for him.
"EPA! EPA! Trapped forever!" exclaimed Marge. "It's all come true!"
"That crazy old man in church was right!" Grampa gasped.
At once, each suction cup pulled itself off the dome's surface.
"D'OOOOOOOOOH...ME!" Homer bellowed to the sky.
Cherry snorted and smirked, unable to resist as that felt like an obvious joke, but it was still kind of funny.
The trapped townspeople soon scattered to one end of the dome to see if they could try to find a way out and they all murmured in fear and concern about how their lives were going to be from now on.
The patrol truck of SPD soon drove right down the street and a SWAT team filed out, aiming their guns right for the dome's surface to try to break them out.
"All right, men, open fire." Chief Wiggum reported to his men.
The SPD then shot against the dome only for the gunshots to ricochet and hit the SPD group right back.
"Who's hurt? Raise your hands." Chief Wiggum requested.
The SPD all groaned and raised their hands as they were in deathly pain now.
"Without the attitude." Chief Wiggum then said flatly.
"People, people. I have an important announcement!" Professor Frink cried out as he rushed over to the townspeople. "I have just perfected an acid-firing super-drill which can cut through anything."
The crowd looked excited and hopeful.
"It's right there," Professor Frink continued, pointing to his invention before he realized where it was in dismay. "Just... Outside of the dome."
The crowd groaned in response to that.
Sideshow Mel was soon shown, trying to beat down the dome with his bone. "What ruthless madmen could have done this to us?" he then complained out of frustration.
Suddenly, as if on cue, a screen appeared on the dome to show an unfamiliar man, even to the Springfield citizens. "The United States government." he then reported to answer that question.
"Who's that?" Zofia whispered to Lisa.
"We don't know him either." Lisa whispered back.
"My name is Russ Cargill, and I'm head of the EPA." The man declared.
"The what?" asked Moe.
"Environmental Protection Agency." explained Russ Cargill.
"Come again?" asked Lenny.
Cargill just rolled his eyes. "Look. I'm a man on a big TV. Just listen. Springfield has become-" he began.
"Springfield!" cheered one guy.
"...The most polluted city in the history of the planet." finished Cargill.
"Drama queen!" yelled Krusty.
"To keep your poisons from spreading your government has sealed you in this dome," Cargill soon continued before he soon concluded with what he was trying to say without any further interruptions. "Believe me, it's the last thing we wanted to do. I own the company that makes the dome, but that's beside the point."
The townspeople gasped in horror at that news.
"You mean we're trapped like rats?" Cherry soon asked as she stood with her family.
"No, rats can't be trapped this easily. You're trapped like carrots." Cargill replied.
"Wait! Wait!" Lisa piped up as she ran up to the screen with Zofia. "We couldn't be more polluted."
"Yes! Everyone stopped dumping in the lake." Zofia added.
"Apparently someone didn't get the message." Cargill retorted.
Homer took a step away from his pig. "Act natural." he then whispered to Plopper rather obviously.
"Hey, buddy! Sooner or later, people are gonna discover this." Carl told Cargill.
"Don't worry about that. We found a way to take you off the map." Cargill retorted smugly.
MEANWHILE AT THAT VERY MOMENT...
A man was driving his car down the road, following his GPS.
"Coming up on your right-" The GPS began to say only for Springfield to be deleted suddenly. "Nothing."
"Well... This is a fabulous summer vacation so far." Cherry muttered to herself as she carried David while Marge carried Maggie.
"When I find the skeezoid who's responsible for this, then they'll hafta carry their teeth in their hands!" Lionel declared, cracking his knuckles.
"Mm~" Cherry smirked and hummed a little at Lionel's dominance.
Homer began to look very nervous at that threat and Cherry's seemed to be worse.
"Tear them in half like a phonebook in the grasp of Chuck Norris or Sonya Blade." Cherry then suggested, both lustful and dark.
"Yeah! Yeah!" Lionel grunted, fuming with anger.
Shortly afterwards, a bunch of swallows flew towards the dome, crashing into the surface. They slid down the surface, falling towards the mouths of some hungry cats. Kent Brockman, the local anchorman of the town, spoke the news about the conditions of the dome, labeling it as "Trappuccino" and that the town was even low on supplies from gasoline to Botox.
Marge was sitting outside and knitting before she sighed, looking to the outside world even if she was outside her house. "I think the thing I miss most is a simple summer breeze." she then said out of depression. As she watched the trees flutter, on the other side of the dome, she saw David and Maggie there, playing with a ball until Maggie saw her mother and she waved at her. "Maggie?!" she then gasped out of disbelief.
Maggie sucked her pacifier as she continued to play with David outside of the dome as Marge rushed back inside to tell someone what she just saw.
David scuttled back down a nearby hole, while Maggie followed behind him. Seconds later, they popped up in the sandbox... from the sinkhole! Inside the house, Homer was watching TV on the couch as everything had changed dramatically for their lives in Springfield with the dome involved that even the commercials had changed for them.
"We've got dome wax, dome polish, dome freshener, all your dome needs at Dome Depot," A man's voice began to say on TV. "Located at the 105 and the dome."
"Dome Depot!~" A chorus added before a bell ding sound was heard.
Marge then rushed over to her husband and pulled him out into the backyard suddenly. "Maggie got out! Maggie got out!" she then told him before looking around outside of the dome, as confused and concerned as Candace Flynn on a regular day. "Maggie was right there. Just outside the dome."
"Marge, she's right here with that other rugrat," Homer defended as he gestured
beside the sandbox. "This dome can play tricks on you. You just have to keep calm and-" he then tried to comfort her until he saw his reflection. "Oh, my God. I'm out of the dome. Fresh air! Freedom!" he then laughed before frolicking and running back inside the house, thinking he was running away into the woods. "I'll write ya! Lead good lives!" he then groaned and realized he was stuck back inside his house. "Ohhh!"
Marge groaned and sighed before trudging after Homer back inside. Just as they left, Maggie and David both sank inside of the sandbox and popped back up outside the dome. They then hopped back into the sinkhole and emerged back in the backyard before they soon high-fived each other.
Later that night, Cherry was fidgeting a little while trying to relax at the Simpsons household before she looked like she was about to go back into her urge to smoke which she had picked up after becoming immortal despite promising herself to never smoke for personal reasons and looked like she was just about to take a cigarette out and light up.
"Cherry, what's going on?" Lionel asked as he came into the room.
"We're trapped under a forced quarantine! I can't take this!" Cherry told Lionel frantically as she took out her cigarette. "I'm huffing and puffing and I'm gonna blow this house down and don't you try to stop me!"
"I don't try, I just do!" Lionel said, grabbing her by the arms. "Besides... did you forget I could teleport?"
"So what's your plan?" Cherry narrowed her eyes slightly as she spoke to her husband in a slow, whispery voice that sounded almost dangerous. "We're just gonna take the kids and teleport out of this town and leave the people to fend for themselves?"
"You really have been messed up by this, haven't you?" Lionel asked. "Because I would NEVER do that! I just wanted to take you outside so you'd calm down and NOT SMOKE!"
"Okay..." Cherry groaned and rolled her eyes. "I don't know what it'll accomplish, but get me outta here. I feel like I've been trapped in lockdown for my whole life with no escape!" she then urged him, sounding both urgent and like she was very close to having a mental breakdown.
"Alright... just relax, sweetie," said Lionel as they teleported outside, standing at a diner. "Just... relax. Take a deep breath."
Cherry closed her eyes before she began to take a quick breath at first and she soon began to do it slowly and deeply so that she could properly relax. Eventually, her breathing went back to normal and her trembling went down before she was finally calmed down enough and soon dropped her pack of cigarettes and lighter, though the lighter had the monogram of "Property of Pickles Oblong" on it once she felt settled enough to not pick up smoking again.
"You wanna get a burger?" Lionel asked her. "We can get something to eat, and then come back to help."
"Okay... I suppose we haven't really had time for just the two of us in a while," Cherry said softly and sounding calm enough to carry on regularly for a little while. "Maybe I'll spoil myself too and get a little bit of bacon."
"Hey, that's fine with me." Lionel replied as they went into the diner.
Cherry nodded as they stepped inside and she soon looked around before holding her stomach as it lightly growled. Inside were other couples such as a black-haired man in a blue suit sitting with a blonde woman in a pink dress, a man with short brown hair and glasses sitting with a brown bunned woman with her own glasses who was attempting to place her food order in Spanish, and even another black-haired and bearded man who sat with a black-haired woman with glasses. Shortly after, the grown Schwartz couple got their food, they came back to Springfield.
"Feeling better, at least?" Lionel inquired.
"Mm..." Cherry hummed and sighed in relief. "Yes... The burgers helped quite a bit..." she then nodded.
"All three?" Lionel smirked playfully.
"You're hilarious," Cherry rolled her eyes. "I just hope that nothing too chaotic has happened to the kids or the Simpsons while we were gone."
"Yup." Lionel responded as they went back indoors. As they did, a Kent Brockman news report was on.
"Good evening, this is Kent Brockman. Efforts to find out whose selfish crime caused our entrapment have been fruitless." The newsman explained.
"Phew." said Homer.
"...Until moments ago!" Kent continued.
"Aaaah!" Homer shrieked.
"A shocking discovery has been made here at Lake Springfield." Kent soon concluded.
Eddie and Lou were soon shown by the lake as a silo was shown, dripping wet.
"That could be anybody's pig-crap silo." Homer scoffed nonchalantly.
Soon, the silo turned around to show writing on the side that read: "Return to Homer Simpson. (No Reward)"
Homer shrieked again.
"Homer, it was you," Marge gasped and pointed at her husband before glaring at him. "You single-handedly killed this town."
"I know. It's weird." Homer replied.
"Just a reminder: this station does not endorse vigilante justice," Kent soon told the viewers at home. "Unless it gets results. Which it will."
A picture of Homer was soon shown with a text that read "Get Him!"
"You didn't listen to me after I warned you." Marge frowned at her husband.
"Don't worry, nobody watches this stupid show," Homer told her until he looked out the window curiously. "What's that ominous glow in the distance?"
An angry mob was soon shown, marching through the street bearing torches as they ranted and chanted "Kill! Kill! Kill!" on their way to the Simpsons household... Only to be marching in the opposite direction.
"Marge, look!" Homer said with a laugh. "Those idiots don't even know where we live."
Hearing him, the mob soon turned around that way, continuing to chant, much to Homer's dismay. "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"D'oh!" Homer said, feeling scared now.
"Looks like we know who's at fault." commented Lionel.
"Mm-hmm..." Cherry nodded before she gasped. "The kids!"
"Come on! We're going in!" Lionel told her before he took her to go inside while the angry mob approached the Simpson household.
Bart ran in and hugged his mother as Lisa ran in, pounding her fists on Homer's belly. LJ and Zofia soon followed after.
"You monster! You monster!" Lisa cried out to her father.
"Did you see the news?" Homer asked nervously as her punches did nothing to hurt him.
"Honey, come on, we have bigger problems." Marge coaxed as she tried to console her eldest daughter.
"But I'm so angry." Lisa defended.
"You're a woman. You can hold on to it forever." Marge then advised.
Lisa sniffled a little before she calmed down a little. "Okay." she then said.
Marge smiled before she looked at her husband. "Homer, you have to go out there, face that mob and apologize for what you did." she then told him.
"I would, but I'm afraid if I open the door, they'll take all of you." Homer replied.
"No, we won't. We just want Homer!" Carl's voice was soon heard.
"I'm here for Bart!" Sideshow Bob's voice added.
"Well, maybe not you, but they'll kill Grampa." Homer soon said.
"I'm part of the mob!" Grampa's voice called out.
"Face it, man, you messed up big-time, and now you have to make up for it," Lionel stated firmly. "Because if you don't, then everyone's gonna start hunting you like an animal."
"I guess there really are no new ideas." Homer said nervously.
"Nope!" Cherry and Lionel replied thickly before reuniting with LJ and Zofia.
"Wait a second... Where's your brother?" Lionel soon asked LJ since it was just him and Zofia.
"And don't say 'Who's David?'." Cherry added sternly.
LJ and Zofia looked nervous, but luckily, David actually wasn't too far away and he was still with Maggie as both were downstairs as the angry mob broke into the house.
"Teeny! Take out the babies." Krusty told his monkey sidekick.
Mr. Teeny soon got ready to fight Maggie and David only for Maggie to smash her bottle against the wall, pushing David behind her protectively, and gave her bottle sharp and jagged edges, taunting the monkey and holding the bottle out threateningly, causing Mr. Teeny to flee back into Krusty's arms nervously.
While the Springfieldians raged outside, Lisa gazed out the window... and saw Colin, amongst the angry mob; he was holding up a bouquet of flowers! Lisa let out a little gasp, blushing at this.
"Here, lemme get that for ya." said Carl as he reached over and lit the bouquet on fire with his torch.
"...Oh." Lisa said, sounding dismayed.
Homer soon barricaded the bedroom door, using the classic hammer and wooden planks with his family and the Schwartz family inside with him, but several fists punched through. "Stay back. I got a chainsaw!" he then told the people before he soon mimicked the sound of a chainsaw to scare away the crowd.
That seemed to work at first as the townspeople withdrew their arms before they peeked in to see that Homer was only pretending, causing them to look deadpan and soon try to break back in through the door.
"Uh-oh." Homer muttered as they seemed to be doomed now.
Soon, Ned was heard from next door and brought out a plank from his window to theirs. "Bart! Crawl across. Hurry." he then urged the boy kindly.
"But if they see you helping us, they'll kill you!" Bart retorted as he caught the plank to keep it steady.
"I'm sure your father would do the same for-" Ned reassured only to get a deadpan stare from Bart. "...Point taken. Now, hustle your bustles." he then added weakly.
As the Simpsons and Schwartzes made their way across the plank, Rev. Lovejoy ran into Maggie's bedroom. "And now, to burn the sleeping place of this hellspawn!" he declared as he used his torch to light the crib ablaze.
Of course, due to the crib being made of cheap, flammable materials, the blaze spread quickly through the room and grew throughout the upstairs hallways. Down below, Principal Skinner was standing with several Springfield Elementary kids, all of whom were holding a bow and arrow.
"Archers, ready!" announced Skinner, and the kids readied their weapons.
"I'm using a red arrow so I know who I kill!" Nelson pointed out confidently.
From the window, Plopper nudged the plank with his snout.
"No, Plopper. If you push that, Daddy will die." Homer warned the pig.
Plopper stared blankly before pushing the board loose, causing the two families to fall to the ground together.
Homer landed on the grill however and smiled once he saw a piece of leftover shrimp. "Hey, my luck's beginning to turn." he then said before snatching the shrimp with his tongue similar to a frog from the coals before they retreated to the family car.
"Wait! There's something I have to get." Marge said before she ran back inside the burning house and unlocked a keepsake cabinet with a key and grabbed what she needed before starting to flee. She then paused to clean a dirty dish and put it away before she ran back inside as her housewife instincts kicked in and continued out just as burning rafters fell and shook fire from her hair once she made it back inside the car.
"You alright there?" Cherry asked Marge.
"I'm fine." Marge reassured.
"What'd you get?" Homer asked his wife.
"Our wedding video." Marge said as she put the item in a safe place: her hair.
"We have a wedding video?" Homer asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Torch his gas tank!" Krusty's voice called out as Marge had a bit of a hurt look on her face.
Homer shifted into reverse, and stepped on the gas as they backed out of the driveway and seemingly were on the move. "We lost 'em!" he then cheered as he stuck his head out the window... only to see the angry mob carrying the car towards the backyard.
"Should we get to the RV?" asked Lionel.
The car was soon brought to the backyard where others were waiting for the family, including rather murderous citizens who looked rather eager about the death of The Simpsons family.
"I've been waiting for a long time for this..." Sideshow Bob grinned darkly as he was shown with five guillotines ready to chop some heads off including a smaller one with a pacifier.
"Us too!" Jimbo and Kearney added, sitting in a tree together with nooses ready and one that also had a pacifier, which caused Maggie to drop her own pacifier out of shock and horror along with the rest of her family.
"Lionel, let's get to the RV. Like, now." Cherry soon told her husband urgently.
"Aye-aye." Lionel declared as he gave a nod and teleported himself and the family into the RV.
Soon, the townspeople lowered the car and headed right for the doors before they quickly looked confused and overwhelmed.
"Hey... Where'd they go?!" Sideshow Bob complained. "DAMN YOU, UNIVERSE!" he then complained as he lost yet again against The Simpsons.
"Shh~" Cherry shushed David and Maggie as she helped get them settled in the RV while the rest of the family got settled.
"What just happened?" Bart asked.
"Don't question it. Just go with it." Zofia advised.
"Yeah," LJ added. "Besides, we're gettin' outta here!"
"Where are we going?" Lisa wondered.
"Anywhere but here," Cherry replied. "Punch the gas, Lionel!" she then called to her husband urgently.
"Punchin'!" Lionel declared as he slammed his foot on the gas and started the engines.
The RV roared to life as it started moving as quickly as it could towards freedom. The townspeople who saw the RV soon tried to run after and stop it by tossing blunt instruments and Nelson even shot his red arrow just outside of one of the windows, shattering the glass but luckily not hurting anyone inside of it.
"Kiss our butts goodbye!" Bart soon called out as this looked like their great escape.
The RV drove towards the edge of the dome, and Lionel concentrated as the vehicle was engulfed in a shining light. And in an instant, the RV vanished, much to the shock of the Springfieldians. The townspeople looked alarmed and flabbergasted.
"...Well, they're China's problem now." Chief Wiggum murmured before they all decided to leave the Simpsons' residence since they had nothing else to do now.
Colin soon went to the end of the dome with his guitar and soon looked a little crushed that Lisa was now gone and Lisa on the other hand was crushed that she had to leave him behind. Soon, EPA vehicles arrived outside the dome and from one of them, Cargill looked around with binoculars.
"I'm afraid we lost them, sir." An official reported.
"Dammit!" Cargill glared as he tossed his binoculars only for them to bounce off the dome suddenly hit him back in the head as the official ducked before he could get hurt. "Well, then, you find them and you get them back in the dome. And so nobody else gets out I want roving death squads around the perimeter 24/7. I want 10,000 tough guys and I want 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher," he soon demanded as the official wrote down what he was saying. "And here's how I want them arranged: Tough, tough, soft, tough soft, soft, tough, tough, soft, soft, tough, soft."
"...Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power." The official remarked, sounding disturbed.
"Of course I have! You ever try going mad without power?" Cargill defended. "It's boring. No one listens to you."
