In this Homestar Runner fanfic, Homestar Runner and his friends are going to be visited by a demon! Oh no! But it's not as bad as it sounds...especially for Strong Bad.

In fact, he's going to be responsible!

Chapter 1: The Homestarnomicon

Homestar Runner (who for some strange reason decided to name the show after himself) was feeling rather cheerful today. Of course, when was there a time when he wasn't feeling cheerful? Of course, it probably helped that today was the day that he was going to get to participate in a race.

Wait, hadn't he already been in several races before? He had been in running races, car races, timed races, mine cart races...he had even raced to the moon!

And yet, somehow, he had managed to get trophies in those particular races every single time. Usually, he managed to score 1st place, though sometimes he did not always win.

His girlfriend Marzipan was very proud of him, to say the very least. In fact, she said that if he managed to win the race, she was going to give him a kiss.

Of course, she was probably going to give Homestar a kiss even if he DIDN'T win the race. She was his girlfriend and all that, even if Strong Bad had no idea what she saw in him.

Speaking of Strong Bad, he was going to be his opponent in the race. Unbeknownst to Homestar, Strong Bad was not planning to play fair...even during the practice rounds.

Nonetheless, he always lost to Homestar...most of the time. It was getting on his nerves.

And speaking of practice rounds, this was in fact a practice race. Both Homestar Runner and Strong Bad had decided to warm up before the real thing.

Currently, Strong Bad was planning to cheat...by having his buddy The Cheat put a banana peel on the race track. Ironic, eh?

Incidentally, The Cheat happened to like bananas.

Now all that was left to see if that would work. Alternatively he could simply run before Couch Z blew the whistle. Unsurprisingly, Couch Z was in charge of the race. He simply loved sports.

Incidentally, he was going to start the real race as well. He was glad that Homestar Runner and Strong Bad wanted to practice together before the actual race. It would be a more interesting race that way.

Unfortunately, he missed his chance to dash before the starting whistle.

"On your marks...get set...race!" exclaimed Couch Z, blowing said starting whistle.

"Darn it!" bellowed Strong Bad. Why didn't he do that before the start of the race? He was sure that Homestar Runner and the couch wouldn't notice.

Now he was going to have to try to keep up with Homestar Runner, as hard as that was. He wished that Homestar Runner wasn't so fast so that he would have a chance to win.

He was jealous about all the trophies that Homestar Runner had obtained. He had visited his house to TP it once and woe and behold, he could see about a hundred trophies looking out from the window alone.

This time it was going to be different. He was going to win this practice race against his opponent...and then he was going to win the real race.

Homestar Runner would never know what would hit him...then again, he never knew what hit him. Last week Strong Bad hit him on the head with a dodgeball and he hadn't noticed that Strong Bad had tossed it...even though he was standing just a few feet away from him.

He had just said "Hello" and then he was on his way.

Strong Bad ran across the race track, hoping to reach the finish line before Homestar Runner did.

Unfortunately, he still remained directly behind him.

As such, he decided to have the Cheat give him an unfair advantage.

Immediately, he gave the Cheat the signal...which was "Strong Bad is so much better than Homestar Runner."

A few seconds later, The Cheat put a banana peel on the track that Homestar Runner was using.

"Yes!" exclaimed Strong Bad. Now he was going to win this practice race for sure. Afterwards, he was going to win the REAL race.

Unfortunately, his plan turned out to have a flaw.

As soon as Homestar Runner slipped over the banana peel, he ended up falling on top of Strong Bad.

"Aah!" screamed Strong Bad.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Homestar Runner.

Fortunately, he was unhurt, and he dusted himself off.

"I need to watch where I'm going! Otherwise I'm not going to win the wace! It's a good thing that nice man caught me when I fell..." stated the runner.

A few seconds later, he continued heading towards the finish line.

Unfortunately for Strong Bad, he was not so lucky. He had stars around his head...stars that ironically resembled the star on Homestar Runner's shirt.

"Ow..." murmured Strong Bad, rubbing his head.

The Cheat immediately gave Strong Bad a First Aid Kit.

"Thanks..." answered the boxer as he put bandages on himself.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Homestar Runner had managed to cross the finish line while he was using the first aid kit.

"Yay! I won! Sort of! To be honest this was Strong Bad's idea...appawently he wanted me to chicken out of the weal wace because of how awesome he was..." said Homestar Runner.

And yet, HE was the one that had won the practice race. Perhaps he could win the real race too. He was looking forward to getting a new trophy, even if he didn't know where to put them all.

Maybe Couch Z could help him with that.

Strong Bad was feeling very frustrated. Every time he raced against Homestar Runner, it always seemed like he had managed to win against him. He was getting sick and tired of it.

This time he wanted to do something more drastic than resort to cheating.

What exactly could he do, though? He didn't have much time before the real race began..from what it said on his calendar, he only had a week. And coming up with elaborate plans to cheat like he would like to do would take a whole time.

The Cheat in particular seemed unhappy whenever he decided to use a complicated cheating method without testing it out first. Last time they had done that, both he AND Strong Bad had ended up in the hospital for two and a half weeks.

But on the lighter side of things...Marzipan WAS the nurse.

Of course, who else could the nurse be? She was the only girl in Free Country, USA.

And yet, for some strange reason, Strong Bad got the feeling that was going to change very soon. He wasn't quite sure why.

Maybe he was just losing his marbles...though he DID think of himself as a ladies' man despite his lack of girlfriend.

"Do you have any advice, Cheat? At this rate we're going to lose to Homestar Runner...and he's already beaten me six hundred and sixty-six times!" bellowed Strong Bad. Of course, that was probably an exaggeration...but the fact remained that he had grown tired of losing.

Why was he the title character, anyway? He had appeared in more Homestar Runner cartoons than he did. And since when did people send e-mails to him?

The Cheat nodded. This just might call for something drastic.

Curious, he seemed to have recalled Bubs having a sale at his concession stand. They could most likely find something that they could use to cheat at the upcoming race.

However, Strong Bad didn't seem too interested in visiting his shop. He could have sworn that Bubs was deliberately trying to sabotage his cheating attempts by giving him cheap materials.

"I don't trust him. Let's try somewhere else." answered the boxer.

"Meh meh meh!" exclaimed The Cheat.

"What? He's having a half-off sale? Well, fine, but only for a few minutes. We don't have much time before the race starts and Homestar Runner makes me eat his dust!" bellowed Strong Bad.

Strong Bad and The Cheat immediately headed towards Bubs' concession stand. Unsurprisingly, he was having a big sale.

And yet, there didn't appear to be a big line. How many citizens were there in Free Country, USA, anyway? It seemed kind of...quiet.

"Hey there! Are you here to buy my stuff!" exclaimed Bubs.

"Not really, it's crap." answered Strong Bad.

"Surely there's something here that you want to buy!" bellowed the salesman.

Cheat suggested that Strong Bad stay a little longer. He might be surprised what he could find.

Suddenly, he noticed what appeared to be a book. A rather sinister book.

Curious, he decided to examine it.

"What's this?" asked Strong Bad.

Apparently, it was known as the Homestarnomricon.

Incidentally, it had a picture of Homestar Runner's face on the cover...however, for some strange reason he looked just like a vampire. It was almost as if he was going to leap out of the book and drink his blood.

Strong Bad had no idea what that particular book was for, but he decided to check it out.

Suddenly, one of the lights in Bubs' concession stand went out.

"Darn it! Maybe I'm neglecting my electricity bill..." stated Bubs.

The Cheat started to feel rather nervous. There was something wrong with that book...and he got the feeling that there might be bad results if Strong Bad tried to read from it.

Now that he thought of it...how exactly DID the book end up in Bubs' concession stand?

"Interesting...apparently, I can use this to summon all sorts of creatures...wait, I can use this to summon Trogdor? Awesome!" exclaimed Strong Bad.

The Cheat began to panic. The legendary Trogdor? Did Strong Bad WANT to be burninated? He was all over the history books...he had lost count on how many times peasants had ended up inside his stomach.

If Strong Bad summoned him, Free Country, USA itself could be at risk.

"Meh meh meh!" exclaimed The Cheat. This was NOT a good idea. Strong Bad should discard that book while he had the chance.

Unfortunately, Strong Bad decided not to listen.

"Perfect! How much does it cost?" asked Strong Bad.

"I was thinking of giving it away, to be honest. Every time somebody buys the book, they end up returning it..." stated Bubs.

This worried The Cheat even more. Why exactly DID they return it?

"That doesn't answer my question!" exclaimed the boxer.

"It's 99 cents!" bellowed Bubs.

"99 cents? That's a steal!" shouted Strong Bad.

Oddly enough, Strong Bad actually HAD stolen from Bubs' concession stand in the past, even if he typically thought that he sold crap.

"Then it's sold!" exclaimed Bubs.

Curious, Strong Bad noticed that The Cheat had decided to flee.

"Where is he going? He's going to miss out on all the fun!" exclaimed Strong Bad. He was looking forward to finally winning a race against Homestar.

At night...

"Well, it's time to give this book a test run...I don't even like reading books!" bellowed the boxer.

Still, if he managed to summon Trogdor, it was going to be worth it. Imagine having a fire-breathing dragon with a muscular arm on his side? It would be totally sweet!

He was going to use him to break Homestar Runner's legs so that he wouldn't be able to race. That way, he would be able to win by forfeit.

Of course, he didn't think of the possibility of someone else deciding to take his place...Pom Pom in particular would like to race too.

Nonetheless, thought that it was a brilliant plan...unfortunately, he did not think about how to stop Trogdor from burninating Free Country, USA once he was done serving him.

"Let's see how to summon Trogdor, shall we?" asked Strong Bad.

Immediately, he flipped the page towards where Trogdor was.

"Time to summon a dragon!" exclaimed the boxer.

However, at that very moment, the window opened and wind came in.

"What the-the weatherman didn't say that it was going to be windy today! I'm going to have a talk to him about this later..." stated Strong Bad.

Of course, considering that the weatherman was Homestar Runner, maybe this wasn't so surprising.

Unbeknownst to Strong Bad, the wind had flipped the pages to a different creature entirely.

In this case, it was a demon.

"Let's see how to do this..." stated the muscle man.

Apparently, he first needed to make a mandala.

"That's it?" asked Strong Bad, drawing a mandala with a crayon.

Next, he needed a blood sacrifice.

Fortunately, it appeared that his brother Strong Sad was cutting his wrists, so getting the blood wasn't so difficult either.

"OK..." answered the boxer. He found that to be somewhat disturbing...but at least he got what he wanted. Perhaps he should help Strong Sad later.

Finally, he needed to read from the book.

"What do I need to say?" asked Strong Bad.

He found it out a few minutes later.

"Alright, let's give it a shot..." stated the boxer. He had a good feeling about this...more than could be said about The Cheat.

"Dæmonium pessimum, et vocavi te in meam cogitationem pessimam!" exclaimed Strong Bad.

As soon as Strong Bad said those words, lightning began to strike outside. Again, he should really consult Homestar Runner on being a bad weatherman.

"I have no idea what any of those words mean, but I like it!" bellowed the boxer.

All of a sudden, he was feeling rather sleepy.

"Well, it's time for me to go to bed. Next week I'll be able to win that race for sure!" shouted the middle child of the Brothers Strong. Homestar Runner was not going to get that trophy on his watch.

Immediately, he went to his bed and began to snore.

Meanwhile...

The Cheat was feeling very worried. It was raining heavily, and it was thundering very hard. Homestar Runner had not mentioned this in the weather report and all!

Then again, Homestar Runner wasn't the best weatherman in the world...as Strong Bad had already noticed.

Still, he got the feeling that there was something very wrong. It seemed very likely that Strong Bad had read from the Homestarnomicon despite his wishes.

If so, it might be up to him to slay Trogdor and do something about it...even if his efforts would probably prove to be futile. Trogdor had slain quite a few knights in the past that had gone off to save the princess.

Why did Trogdor want a princess, anyway?

Personally he wondered if he should talk to Strong Bad about this. How many creatures was he going to summon with that book? Judging from how big it was, there were probably a lot of them.

Free Country, USA could very well end up being overrun. Trogdor might in fact be the least of their worries.

Well, it was too dangerous to go out in this kind of weather. He was going to have to go visit his house once the weather subsided, however long that took.

Maybe he should consider buying an umbrella?

At Homestar Runner's house...

"Hmm, it appeaws that my weather pwediction didn't come twue. Maybe I need to considah a diffewent job..." noted Homestar Runner. Hopefully he wasn't going to get fired, at least.

Suddenly, the lights in his house went out.

"Oh no! I must have fowgotten to pay the electwicity bill!" bellowed the athlete. Why was that so hard to remember?

Unfortunately, he could no longer see his surroundings.

Immediately, he crashed into the wall.

"Ow..." murmured Homestar Runner.

Ironically, he began to black out afterwards.

At Marzipan's house...

Marzipan was feeling rather funny. All of a sudden, she didn't feel so unique anymore. It was as if something had changed in Free Country, USA.

However, she decided that it was probably nothing.

In other news, the rain was making her flowers bloom. She was rather happy about that...even if Homestar Runner said that it wasn't going to rain today.

Maybe he needed to research meteorology a bit more.

Well, maybe she could visit Homestar Runner tomorrow. He would want support for the upcoming race.

Perhaps she was the reason why he always won races. She always supported him in every single one of them.

In contrast, she never supported Strong Bad during his races. He never played fair at all. Why should she?

At the King Of Town's castle...

"Hmm, for some strange I get the feeling that Free Country, USA is going to have a new citizen soon..." noted the King Of Town.

Ironically, despite declaring himself king, he was not actually the ruler of Free Country, USA. It was a democracy.

The Poopsmith was currently shoveling as usual. Why was the King Of Town's castle always so messy?

Perhaps he should welcome his new citizen with open arms.

Oh wait...he didn't have arms. Oh well.

Who exactly was the new citizen, though? He wanted to know who it was.

Meanwhile in Strong Bad's basement...

At Strong Bad's house, the summoning was already underway. The mandala began to glow after Strong Bad had said the summoning words.

Shortly afterwards, smoke appeared.

Inside the smoke, there was a voice.

"What's this? It appears that someone had summoned me...well, I might as well find out who it was so I can do their bidding and all that..." stated the demon.

Immediately, they went to look for Strong Bad.

Oh dear...in retrospect, maybe Strong Bad shouldn't have read from the book. But on the plus side, there just might be a way to dismiss the demon in the Homestarnomicon.

Still, it'd probably be a lot worse if he did end up summoning Trogdor...you know how destructive he is...