Anonymous Review replies since (09/08/2011)

CoolKid13: Thanks for the reviews mate. I might release what I've written about Milhouse's Mask later on, or alternatively I might recycle it into something else. ;)

[Unnamed] Yeah, I noticed in the comic books and the cartoons that the objects the Mask produces don't always vanish into thin air once the Mask is removed, but I think it's more interesting if they do and it kind of make's sense since the clothes and everything else a Mask wearer wears also vanishes once its removed. Anyway hope you enjoy the newest chapter and I hope it doesn't disapoint.

Chapter 25

The Final Kick

While Lisa chased after the Mask Bart, Homer and Bob continued to fight each other. Bob reached out and tried to pull on Homer's hair, or what's left of it, and ended up pulling out the two strands he'd combed over.

"My hair, my hair!" Homer screamed letting go of Bob's shirt, "OH I'm a freak!"

Desperately Bob tried to get Bart off him, the boy had grabbed hold of both his legs in a desperate bid to stop him chasing after the Mask.

'10 seconds' said the warning computer and loud warning klaxons sounded. 10 seconds until the reactor blew? They were doomed.

There came an almighty bang followed by a crash of thunder and lightning from an open doorway where Lisa had chased the Mask. Oh no, she didn't? She didn't! She did because the familiar whirling sister twister burst through the door sparking and glowing, jets of lightning blasted out from the core of it.

This transformation distracted Bob, Bart and Homer from their fight and they just stared dumbly at the transforming Lisa.

'9' said the computer as the transformation came to a halt revealing Lisa, the other Lisa with the usual blood red dress, rubber green face, blond hair that curled back like shark fins, large teeth and creepy looking, lunatic, red eyes.

"Guess who's back!" she grinned showing her two rows of freakishly massive, white teeth.

'8'

"Lisa?" Bart said in shock, "Lisa!" Homer asked even more shocked and a little worried. Bart didn't know why Homer looked worried, Lisa hadn't tried to kill him yet.

'7'

"That's my name!" she said rolling her eyes in a crazy fashion.

'6'

"Sorry, can't stop, I've got to save my town and family" slowly she slid one of her feet behind her and then as quick as a flash she was a blur of motion going straight through the exit.

Less than six seconds to save everything? Plenty of time! That didn't concern her at the moment, what did was that she was back in the saddle, back in the driving seat. Oh how she'd missed this, the power she could wield at her finger tips and nothing to stop her using them, no ego, no super Ego to tell her what to and not to do, just the pure ID. She felt like she'd been set free from a prison like how the Genie must've felt at the end of Aladdin when he was set free from the lamp, she knew exactly how that felt. She had what she wanted, she had existence.

Within seconds she was in sector 7G where Homer operated as safety inspector, very badly she might add judging by the state of the corridors with green goo seeping out of all the pipes and the rats the size of big cats.

'5'

She came to a stop when she was inside Homer's work station. She had less than 5 seconds in the real world but with the powers of Loki she was slowing her perception of time, so 5 seconds became considerably longer, giving her plenty of time to flip through the console manual very quickly so she understood how it worked. She found some very curious reading material tucked between the pages of the manual. One minute she was reading about nuclear fission and the dangers of a radioactive meltdown when she was suddenly reading about how to make the perfect cupcake. Looking back Homer had tucked several issues of the Big Bake monthly between the pages of the manual which did nothing but hinder her quick learning.

'4' she heard the computer say as she finished the final chapter, slammed the book shut and went up to the console and began operating the controls to lower the control rods and vent the excess steam and inject cold water into the system to cool it down. But as she operated the controls they didn't appear to respond in the way she expected or wanted.

She flipped a dial which should raise the control rods and a small light should appear above the console to show that this was happening, but the light wasn't coming on. What was wrong now?

Quickly she dropped to the floor and ripped open a panel in the base of the machine, she didn't have time to find a screwdriver so she really did rip the panel off with her own fingers as easily as if it was made of cardboard. She nearly yelped when an avalanche of pastry, cakes, pies, buns and so on, fell right on top of her. Digging herself out she realised that Homer had filled the console with cakes. What a fat bastard!

Quickly she reached into the console and removed all the cakes she could find as fast as she could. Her mouth dropped to the floor and her eyes blew out with the sound of a whirling alarm. The console had no innards! All the circuits, all the electronics had been stripped from it to make room for all the pastry and baked confections.

'3'

This was not good, and that was an understatement. Still if the plant explodes she'd be alright, wearing the Mask she could easily survive this, but strangely she still felt motivated to stop it, she didn't understand why when she could do whatever she pleased, whenever she pleased and simply not care –she didn't have the capacity to care- yet for some reason she did.

Quickly she thought of what she could do now. The reactor works by lowering and raising control rods into the reactor core, well if she couldn't lower the control rods, then raise the reactor core!

"NEW PLAN!" she proclaimed and raced off back to the reactor and zoomed past Bob, Bart and Homer who from her point of view were moving incredibly, incredibly slowly, around the same speed as the average KFC staff.

She wanted to do something mischievous, like put a safe directly above Bart and Bob and watch it slowly drop on top of them but when the computer uttered that only 2 seconds remained she rushed past them into the reactor and dived into the water pool not even bothering to alter her attire to suit her environment. The water was very warm, so warm it would hard boil an average person in a microsecond, yet to her it just felt like a moderately warm pool.

When she broke the surface she flipped her hair back deliberately mimicking a scene from the Little Mermaid and waved at the frozen Bob, Homer and Bart shouting "Come on in, the water's lovely" and giggled a little manically before diving straight down again. She was on a mission after all.

"Okay, lets save the fricken' Universe" she said despite having her lungs full of water. She landed on the surface of the tank and said "Okay, where is it? The reactor cores not the fricken' universe." she explained, who she was explaining to she had no idea.

Slowly she walked towards one of the giant control cubes. Reaching behind her back she managed to pluck out a pair of large looking car jacks from the folds of reality. She placed one each under either one of the cores and pumped them as hard as her short stature could do aided by the powers of Loki, which incidentally made her very fast.

The platform raised up and made contact with the reactor core which was held in place by dozens of steel girders', well not for much longer. They broke away as easily as if they were made of paper and rapidly rose up to meet the control rods, slotting themselves into place perfectly, though this now meant everyone corner of the power plant was being zapped by a radiation leak, but looking at the state of the plant what else was new?

'1'

That was two cores down another four to go, but now she didn't have time to waste jacking them up as well. Car jacks cost money after all and she only had two to spare. Instead a third idea came into her mind. Why didn't she think of this one before? The reactor would go critical only if the cores had a critical mass, if the mass was cut down then you don't have critical mass therefore no atomic explosion.

Out of the folds of reality she produced a massive axe and mallet and began chopping and cutting at the large cubes at lightning speed, she only had nano seconds left. First she cut the cubes in half, then cut them in half and cut them in half and so on and so on. She didn't know what constituted a critical mass for Uranium but if she could prevent the neutrons causing further chain reactions then there would be no explosion.

She stopped and panted madly and didn't seem to mind she was breathing radioactive dust from the water as she did. She'd done all she could, this idea made sense at least to her but whether or not it worked in the real world, well she was about to find out.

'0' said the computer and Lisa shut her eyes and jammed her fingers in hear ears, this was going to be loud '... have a nice day.' Then there was nothing. Just nothing. After that last announcement an atomic explosion was obviously supposed to occur but it did not. She opened her eyes and saw that the glowing material she'd cut up was fading to a dirt black and the raised cores above were also settling down to a faint green glow. She did it! She stopped an atomic explosion! She'd saved this stupid town and her family and with 1 second to spare. Beat that 007!

'Nuclear meltdown averted, all systems returning to normal'

Bob had finally gained the upper hand and had Bart's neck in a lock with his left arm preventing the boy from moving while in his right hand he held a sharp knife which he pointed so the tip poked into Bart's gut.

Bart felt his face drain of colour when he realised he was possibly just seconds from being gutted like a fish.

"Get back or the kid's dog food" Bob said to Homer who slowly backed away holding up his hands.

"Now, now Bob lets think about this" Homer said slowly as if that would help Bob understand what he was about to say next "Now you could kill the boy and me and escape and no one will ever know it was you, everyone will think it was Bobby Green Face" This was supposed to be a reason for Bob not to stab Bart? "But think about it. Really think about it, because not killing us might be the greatest mistake of your life."

"Oh, I quite agree" Bob said and Bart felt the knife nip at his skin and a small amount of blood seeped out and stained his shirt. He thought he was going to die there and then when suddenly something burst through the solid wall spewing dust everywhere. It was the whirling sister twister!

Bart didn't know which he preferred right now, death by Bob or death by Loony Lisa.

"Knock, knock" Lisa said when she came to a sudden halt. "That's one nuclear reactor made safe and one town saved. But I'm going to have to bill you for the dress, radioactive isotopes are murder to get out." Her dark eyes then gazing at both Bob and Bart though Bart didn't know which of them that piercing evil gaze was for.

"Lisa... Honey?" Homer asked staring at the green headed Lisa in astonishment.

"Don't Homer, the Mask's driven her insane!" Bart yelled. Though a part of him wanted to see it most of him didn't want Lisa to attack or hurt dad.

"He's right, I'm insane, I'm so insane!" she rolled her eyes again like a nut to emphasise this. "I'm capable of saying and doing things the original Lisa would never do. In which case dad..." She wheeled on him "I would like to take this unique opportunity to tell you that you are the most pig headed, ignorant, slobby gas bag with a tank ass that's classified as one of the few human features visible from space!"

Homer was shocked into speechlessness, he remained perfectly still looking into the eyes of his possessed daughter. His face showed that he did look very hurt. "Lisa, Honey, you don't mean that right? Right?" he asked like a desperate child wanting recognition.

"As much as Hilter didn't mean to start a war" Lisa commented batting Homer away like nothing before wheeled back to Bob and Bart "Ahhh! That's cleared the air" she said giving them both that loony look again.

"Anyway, that's my side of the agreement done with." she said slapping her hands together for a job well done "Now then Bobby, you like knives right?" Reaching behind her back she brought her hands forward to show she now had a pair of giant, sharp knifes the size of surf boards. She grinned evilly at them both again. "I think the phrase you're looking for rhymes with 'Clucking Bell'!"

Bart felt Bob's grip on his neck tighten and the knife tip in his hand pressed even more firmly into his stomach.

"You think you can get to me before I fillet your brother?" Bob said twisting the knife a little to let the glint it cast catch Lisa's eye. Lisa did not look impressed nor did she look the slightest bit concerned, the only thing she looked was bored.

"Is that supposed to intimidate me?" she asked letting her eyes look at one large knife in her one hand then the other knife in her other hand before returning back to view Bob.

"Give me the Mask or Bart is dead meat" Bob said

"HA! What makes you think I care what happens to Bart? He's been a bane on my life since I was born." she swung the knifes away so the blunt, higher edges rested on her shoulders and she relaxed herself as if she was just going to sit back and watch something on TV. "Do what you want."

"Lisa!" Bart cried, didn't she have any conscience? Any soul, any compassion, any pity?

"Very well" said Bob's smooth voice and Bart felt the knife tip slowly start to pierce his skin and he clenched his eyes tight together and pathetically screamed for "mummy!"

"STOOOOP!" screamed a voice that bellowed out and echoed all around the room like a command from god.

Was Bart hearing things or did Looney Lisa just shout for Bob to stop? Bart opened his eyes to see Looney Lisa –the giant knifes had now vanished- looking at both Bob and Bart eyes wide and mouth open as if she was fearful. Was she?

What the heck was happening? The New and Improved Lisa wondered to herself. Bart was just about to get his guts ripped out, she should be happy about that because finally Bart will be gone from her life and she wouldn't have had to lift a finger or do it herself, so why was she shouting for them to stop?

Bart's fearful eyes were filled with as much confusion as Lisa felt in her head. There was something, some part of her, something still in her mind preventing her, no, outright refusing to just let her sit back and watch this gruesome spectacle. Was she feeling guilt? Pitty? Mercy? She didn't know the meaning of those words... Well actually she did but that was beside the point. She'd never felt any of these emotions before while wearing the Mask so why is she feeling them now?

She felt her brow lower and her eyes grow, her smiling mouth shrank into a serious frown and she could almost feel her eyes burn with red hot anger.

"LET – HIM – GO!" she said slowly now facing Sideshow Bob who looked unsure of this turn of events but Bob himself held the trump card, he had Bart so close to death that if she tried anything, to move anywhere then Bart was dead.

"GIVE – ME – THE MASK-" Bob said equally slowly and pushed the knife in a little making Bart yelp "or Bart is dead. Get my point?"

Gazing into Bart's fearful eyes and Bob's crazed expression just made Lisa even more confused. She'd beaten Bart, tortured Bart, even scared Bart half to death, but not one of her revenge plans she now realised involved Bart dying at the end of it –not intentionally at least- was this the limit she'd really go to in order to get revenge?

It was wired into the brains software to prevent physical harm, or in this case death, from befalling close relations and to try to save them. This must be the software that was only now becoming active in her mind. That's it! She didn't want Bart to die, just suffer a little for his crimes against her. Now she was confused, part of her didn't want Bart to die while the other really wanted to see him squirm under the knife which might result in him dying and that was the thing she didn't want at all.

Her fists clenched tightly and her body began to tremble with hate. She may not want to kill Bart or anyone else but right now she seriously considered making an acceptation for Bob.

"Give me the Mask and I will spare Bart's life" Yeah right, and as soon as you put it back on we're both dead, she thought. "Which will it be? The Mask, or your brother's life?"

This was too much, too much conflict, too much confusion, she couldn't seem to make up her mind what she wanted. An image was suddenly conjured up in her mind showed Bart dead on the floor with his guts hanging out, it was too much for her to take in, the waves of guilt, sadness and grief she was feeling was just too much, she couldn't control it, sort it, handle it. Lisa the pure ID just didn't have the capacity to cope or understand these feelings.

She felt her cartoonish features soften, her angry eyes became sad and she didn't think it was possibly but tears were starting to stream from her crimson eyes over the green rubber. She reached up with both hands and felt her rubber textured cheeks with her finger tips, and then she made her decision.

"Okay" she said in a voice that had lost all its unearthly vibrations to it, a voice that sounded a lot like her real voice "Okay, you win. I'll... I'll take off the Mask" she reached behind her head and dug her fingers into the fold of the Mask and started to part it. She realised this meant surrendering to the original Lisa Simpson and spending the rest of her life being governed by her Ego and Superego, locked away in the subconscious of a wimpy do-gooder. All this time she wanted nothing more than existence, to touch, to see and feel, and she'd abused the powers of this magic artefact to inflict pain and misery on Bart, but when it came down to a choice between her own existence in this form and Bart's life it was paradoxical that she would choose this option which was technically suicide. "Just don't hurt Bart" she added, and she pulled.

After a crack of thunder and a great gale of wind the Mask peeled off Lisa's face. Curiously though this time the wooden thing did not put up any resistance as it detached itself from her face and snapped back into its own inert wooden form. Lisa panted and gasped for breath. She didn't expect to be back to her old self so quickly if at all ever again.

Bob gripped Bart tighter in his head lock and held out his right hand with the knife loosely held in it and waited to receive the Mask again.

"Now, the Mask" he said gazing into Lisa's eyes.

"Don't give it to him, Lis-" Bart said but Bob tightened his grip around his neck even further.

Looking at the Mask, its mischievous face smiling up at her as it waited for its next wearer, she slowly started walking closer towards Bart and Bob.

"The Mask!" Bob said impatiently "Give it to me!" he commanded.

"No" Lisa said simply and her eyes snapped back up to meet Bobs, who looked a little unsettled by the look she was giving him. In the next few seconds Lisa had used the indestructible Mask to knock Bob's knife held hand wide and catapulted herself forward with the Mask held out in front of her, its face still facing her and its inside facing her brother's head "I'll let Bart 'Give it to you'"

She rammed the Mask fully onto Bart's face and instantly she watched its edges stretch out like four tentacles very quickly, encasing Bart's head like a clawed hand.

Lisa pulled herself away from him, but Bob didn't have time enough to react because as soon as the tentacles joined together behind his head there was a brilliant flash of light which produced a great gust of wind as Bart's form was forced to twirl into the tornado, a transformation that pulled Bob into the twister with Bart. Bob screamed as he was sucked back into yet another vortex.

The transformation stopped and Bart emerged as his original Mask self. He held Bob in a dancing pose with Bob leaning back in Bart's arms as he leant over him, a romantic look in his eyes.

"Oh you're so dominating" he chuckled "Has anybody told you for someone with large feet you move very well" and Bart laughed again before dropping Bob painfully to the floor. Stepping over him Bart threw up his arms and shouted. "BJS is back in DA HOUSE!"

Slowly Bob started crawling away from them and Bart didn't seem to notice as he was too busy giving Homer a radioactive nuggy.

"Bart, Sideshow Bob's getting away!" Lisa called and in that instant Bart was standing next to her making her jump, she still wasn't used to that.

Bart seemed unconcerned about Bob as he reached into his trouser pockets and pulled out a length of paper again and gazed at his prank list. "All in good time, sis" Bart said peering at the paper "We've fallen behind on our prank list. Let's see we were up to here, number 8, drop a spider down Lisa's dress."

Lisa shrank away a little when Bart reached into his trouser pockets again and pulled from it a live wriggling spider just as Bob made his exit out the door.

"Bart, if Bob get's away he's just going to come back for us again and again" Lisa shouted more desperate to avoid this prank then stop Sideshow Bob. Bart seemed to consider these words for a moment and rubbed his rubber chin with his free hand.

"You make a convincing argument." He said at last, then he grinned a little unsettlingly "and this party wouldn't be a party without a clown to torture."

Bart leaned so far back the laws of physics say he should fall down, yet he didn't, it was a cartoonish pose to indicate when a character was about to zoom off. But Bart hesitated, straightened up and glanced at the wriggling spider still in his hands.

"Here, look after this for me would ya?" he said, quickly opening the front of Lisa's dress and dropping the spider down it. Lisa screamed in disgust as Bart finally catapulted himself out the door after Sideshow while cackling like an utter loon.

He did it again, how could he have fallen for the same trick twice? Bob wondered as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him away from this insanity. He'd had unlimited power, the ability to shape reality to his will and he threw it all away because no one believed he was Sideshow Bob. Only now did he realise this was a trick to get him to take it off. Fat Tony was right, one of Sideshow Bob's weaknesses was his pride.

Passing a row of windows he looked down into the nuclear plants car park and could see the battered police squad car he'd stolen the night before. If he could get to it he could escape, after all 'those that fight then run away will live to fight another day' and he wasn't going to try to kill any of the Simpsons, not while they were in that mask.

Dozens of flickering blue and red lights suddenly appeared on the horizon followed by the distant whine of sirens. It was the police! Bob wasn't intending to go back to jail, to stay in one spot where any munchkin wearing the Mask could get him. He'd get down to his stolen squad car and take the exit off the plant before the shooting started.

Bob's heart suddenly skipped a beat when he felt something leap onto his back and short arms snake around his neck but not so tight that it was a stranglehold.

"Where do you think you're going?" said the unearthly voice of Bart Simpson in the Mask. "Somebody around here promised me some laughs, and you're gonna give me them!"

Bob yelled in panic and swung himself this way and that trying to dislodge the kid but he held on too tightly.

Bart gripped the collar of Bob's creased suit in both hands and leapt off his back at the same time ripping Bob's clothes from his body like it was one all one piece of clothing. Bob was panicked to find himself in a clown outfit and he now had a helmet rammed onto his head so hard it covered his eyes momentarily until he managed to remove it. Bob's eyes widened as he saw the massive item Bart pulled from inside his red jacket. It was a massive cannon with yellow and red painted patterns on it.

Bart grinned manically at him and said "I think you can see where this is going."

Sideshow didn't have time to react as he was hoisted up and into the mussel of the cannon, it tilted upwards so it pointed directly through the window. Bob heard the unmistakable hiss of a fuse just being lit and...

"It's probably a bad time to ask, Bob" Bart said "but you are wearing a helmet, right?"

If Bob had time to answer he still wouldn't have. He was fired face first through the window of the three storey building, raised up in an arc and began to rapidly descend to the ground towards the arriving police cars.

He honestly thought he was going to die there and then until someone got in his way. Lou and Ed had just stepped out of their squad cars and with several officers in toe were advancing towards the power plant when Bob slammed right into them knocking all of them to the ground, and somehow producing the sound of bowling pins being knocked over as he did it.

Bob landed on the solid concrete a little bruised but otherwise okay.

"Is everyone okay?" Lou asked getting back to his feet.

"Hey Lou, you're not gonna believe who this is!" said another cop. Bob had finally decided he'd had enough, he couldn't take another encounter with that crazed masked Bart again.

Bob quickly got to his knees and grabbed Lou's shirt with manic fear "Take me away, lock me in solitary" he said trying to pull Lou a little down to his level "just keep that maniac away from me!"

This might not turn out so bad Bob considered, because Bart was wearing the Mask they'd think he was Green Face and maybe, just maybe they could do for him what he's failed to do so many times. Kill Bart Simpson.

Lisa had only just managed to remove the spider from her dress when Bart Simpson suddenly zoomed back into the room, bowing low like a performer just finishing off a neat trick.

"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind" he said straightening up "And for my next trick, I'm gonna make Lisa eat bugs through a straw!"

"Oh no" Lisa mumbled to herself as Bart reached into his pockets again and produced a jar full of creepy crawling insects and a very narrow straw.

"I saw them do this on survivor once!" Bart said grinning like a loon.

"Boy!" Homer said sternly finally piping up after all the madness he'd seen, utter madness that oddly didn't seem to phase him at all, and nor had Lisa's previous comments which he had apparently forgotten. "No one's going to force anyone to eat bugs on my watch!"

"Really?" Bart said suddenly producing in his hands as if by magic a steaming pizza with all the toppings, garlic, pepperoni, cheese, all kinds of peppers and odd looking brown things. "Want a pizza?"

When dad saw that pizza his drool reflex went into overdrive and he threatened to drown himself in his own drool. Without hesitation he dived at the pizza and began wolfing it down.

Bart was suddenly next to Lisa again and he winked at her "It has all the trimmings, tasty soft crust, tomato sauce, with all the finest spices and toppings you could think of. Including a lot of 'escargot'." Bart said the last word slowly.

"Escargot? You mean snails?" Lisa realised.

Homer stopped stuffing himself for a second and turned to them. Lisa thought Homer would have a look of utter disgust on his face. But he glanced back down at the tasty pizza, shrugged and his eating reflex kicked right back in.

"Now who's eating bugs?" Bart wiggled his brow at her.

"Snails aren't bugs, Bart, they're gastropods" Lisa corrected

"You have to kill the moment don't you?" Bart said a little annoyed "He's gonna have a lot of 'gas' from that anyway. I laced the pizza with madras sauce."

Suddenly it registered to Lisa, Bart was standing right next to her. She waited for just the right moment when he was facing her and she quickly reached behind his head with both hands, dug her nails into the fold in the back of the Mask and pulled with all her strength and it quickly peeled off Bart's face with a few flashes and bangs. Just before it disconnected from his face and became completely inert again Lisa saw it stick its tongue out at her before it snapped off Bart's head and returned to its original wooden form.

Yes! She had it, she had the Mask back and this time she was going to make sure it never fell into the wrong hands, or anyone else's again. She was over the moon, she felt as if her fears had melted away like ice bergs, she had a feeling nothing was going to go wrong now.

"OKAY, GREEN FACE WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" said a distant voice amplified by a mega phone. "THIS IS THE SPD, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP AND DROP ALL YOUR WEAPONS, INCLUDING ANY SLINGSHOTS, BATS OR PIES YOU MAY BE CARRYING OR WE COME IN THERE AND START SHOOTING."

"You think they'd be grateful after I handed them Sideshow Bob" Bart said dusting his arms down rubbing his sore looking cheeks after the Mask had stretched them to try to stay connected to him.

"You did what?" Lisa yelled "Bart, what if he tells the police about this Mask? What if he's put two and two together and found out 'we' were Green Face the whole time?"

"Who'd believe him?" Bart shrugged.

"After everything the police have seen us do, do you think they'll be sceptical about a mask that grants its wearer the powers they've seen countless times over?" Lisa argued.

They both gazed down at the Mask in Lisa's hands, the curse that had caused this family so much trouble over the past few weeks and it was still causing trouble for them even when it's not even being worn. "There's only one way out of this" Lisa finally concluded looking at Bart "Green Face is going to have to be seen to die." Lisa looked directly at Bart and held out the Mask towards him but Bart suddenly took a massive step away from her.

"Whoa, whoa, there's no way I'm putting that curse back on my face!" Bart said holding up his hands and spreading his fingers to make it clear he didn't want it.

"I don't want to wear it again!" Lisa insisted holding the Mask out for Bart to take it, but again he refused. "You have more control over it then I do."

"I'm not putting it on" Bart insisted straight back pushing it back towards her.

"Do you really want me to wear it after what I nearly did to you last time?" Lisa said holding it right back out again. But it became obvious that neither of them wanted to put the Mask on again.

"Hey, where's my Pizza?" Homer moaned wriggling his fingers through thin air. The pizza had been made with the Mask and now that it wasn't being worn again the pizza just vanished but Lisa wasn't in the mood to explain that to him right now. Wait a minute!

Lisa and Bart suddenly turned to each other and appeared to have the same idea. Homer didn't cause much trouble in his mask form, all he really wanted to do was just eat and eat and eat. Lisa saw Bart smile a little to show that they indeed were having the exact same idea.

"Oh Dad" they both said turning towards him, the Mask in hand.

With Sideshow Bob taken into custardy and locked in a squad car Officer Lou, in full riot gear and gun in hand, started to advance towards the main entrance of the nuclear plant flanked by several other officers in full riot gear.

With Wiggum in hospital Lou was put in charge of the investigation and arrest of Green Face who had become such a problem that the mayor had ordered that Green Face be taken by any means necessary. Dead or alive, preferably dead.

Lou however had apprehension and cold fear rising from the pit of his stomach. He knew all too well that the pea shooters they were carrying had absolutely no effect on Green Face but their superiors just would not listen. 'Green Face is a man and a man can be killed' they said. Well they hadn't seen Green Face's invulnerability first hand.

A massive bang and a crash came from three stories up and a whirling twister like object fell to the ground and landed in front of them, unmistakably Green Face and Lou prepared to take a beating from him since he...she... it had recently turned so violent.

The twirling figure came to a stop, but it was not who Lou expected or the form that he expected at least. This Green Face Lou recognized as the first one, a fat man with the usual green head, no ears, red eyes, but he had brown plastic like hair on top of his head and was wearing the clothes of a rock and roll star with a black leather jacket with silver studs in it.

The chubby Green Face was also stuffing his face with pies and cakes and chocolate that he held in his hands.

At the sight of him Lou and all the officers with him drew their guns and aimed them squarely at the gluttonous guy who didn't look very concerned, he just shrugged and said through a mouthful of cake "Hey, there's enough for everyone."

Lou wasn't going to even give him a chance, not after what he saw him do to his fellow officers at the police station last night.

"FIRE AT WILL, AND I MEAN THE GREEN GUY!" he added to stop Green Face making that same 'I'm not Will' quip again.

"Hey, wait a minute" Green Face said almost in outrage dropping all his cakes and pies "I'm the only one who hasn't done a song and dance routine yet!" reaching into his pocket he produced a red, plastic kazoo, he pressed it up to his lips and blew through it.

"I'm going to dedicate this song to a very special friend of mine, who tragically died recently when he was pulled under the wheels of a bus. He was a good man and he'd want me to sing this song for him." He blew on his kazoo again and started to sing.

"OHHHH… The wheels on the bus go round and round

"Round and round

"Round and round….

But Green Face never got to even start his inappropriate song as countless bullets started pelting him from all directions and with each impacted it sounded like he tried to yell the word "D'oh" it was probably supposed to be a longer word for something, a curse word Lou guessed and Green Face just didn't have any time to finish it.

The shooting stopped momentarily as Lou called in for grenades to be thrown in with a simple signal flick of his hand. Green Face stood there with dozens of holes going straight through him with no sign of him dropping.

"Now that wasn't very nice" Green Face said as a couple of grenades landed at his feet. Bending down he picked them up and Lou was certain he could hear him mutter "Mmmmmm, unstable, high explosive shaped like a pineapple" and he drooled a little before devouring the two bombs in one go.

There was a loud bang from somewhere inside his gut and his belly shook and expanded a great deal. "Ohhh!" Green Face moaned clenching his stomach "I think I've got heart burn!" there then came another echoing explosion from his stomach and his gut ballooned out so much Lou thought it was going to pop, and after a little "Uh, oh" from Green Face that's exactly what happened.

His stomach actually ripped open and the green troublemaker vanished in a cloud of fire and the last thing Lou heard Green Face utter was "I regret nothing!"

Smoke fell on all of them clouding their vision. Lou tried to wave it away but it was just too think to see anything through it. He coughed and was ready to fire his revolver if he even caught the slightest glint of Green Face anywhere.

But as the smoke and fire cleared Green Face was gone, just gone, vanished. All that appeared to be left in the fat mans place was a bubbling pool of red goop that seemed to writhe and swirl as if something was trying to come out of it.

Lou cautiously approached and nearly yelped when he saw Green Face's face suddenly pop up through the slime, it looked like it was writhing in agony as it tried to reassemble itself and yet couldn't. Then it looked as if it had given up fighting, its mouth muttered what looked like a silent drawn out 'No!' before the face shape sank back into the red puddle and all became still.

Lou pointed his gun down at the puddle expecting some kind of trick, expecting it to come back together like in the Terminator, because Green Face's apparent end had been similar to the destruction of the T-1000 at the end of the second Terminator movie. But nothing happened, after five minutes nothing emerged from the puddle, nothing weird happened next, no dramatic reappearance at all, all that happened was the red puddle slowly evaporated into nothing, leaving no trace at all.

Green Face was dead, as far as he knew and he hoped it was true. For the rest of the night Green Face didn't show up anywhere else, usually the mischief lasted from night till dawn but there were no other reports of a green faced anything anywhere. The rest of the night was just normal and the rest of this case was just routine as Lou and his fellow officers rescued the Simpson kids and threw Sideshow Bob into a padded cell because he wouldn't stop screaming.

"Green Face isn't dead! Green Face was just a magic mask. Lisa, Bart and their family, they are all Green Face!" clearly he was just as insane as before.

The police had been kind enough to give Bart and Lisa a lift back to the house in a squad car after some emergency crews decontaminated them for radiation, they had been in a nuclear power plant after all, and the technicians were confused why Lisa out of the two of them had the most radiation on her and was still alive, but after decontamination they let them go.

The entire town was in an uproar because of the nuclear threat that had now passed. The place was in utter chaos, streets were blocked, street gangs were waging war with each other and the cops, fires had broken out all over the place. It was a vision of hell and it was all because of that stupid mask.

When they arrived home Bart and Lisa immediately rushed upstairs, past mom who wanted answers to questions like "Where were you at this hour?" "Where's Homer?" and "Why were you brought back in police cars." Lisa wondered if she had not see the TV broadcast earlier that alerted the entire town, but apparently she hadn't for whatever reason.

They both ran into Bart's room and shut the door behind them because they didn't want mom to see what was going on. There they found Homer still wearing the Mask laying on Bart's bed as they had arranged with him before letting him put the Mask on again. It was a brilliant idea to make Homer make Green Face appear to die because Homer could be easily controlled with a simple promise, the promise of food and so far it had worked a treat, as far as the police knew Green Face was dead.

Homer had a bucket of fried chicken in one hand and a remote control in the other for a massive plasma screen TV on Bart's desk that was not there before.

"COOL!" Bart said at the TV that appeared to be showing some kind of wrestling type show. But Lisa wasn't interested in what was on TV. She approached Homer and held out her hand.

"Dad" she said stretching her fingers out to receive the thing Homer knew she wanted.

"Where's my giant cake?" Homer asked between bites on a chicken leg.

"You get it when you take the Mask off" she waved her fingers upwards a little "Come on, off with it and we'll throw in a tank of beer." She lied.

"BEER!" Homer yelled excitedly. He reached behind his head and pulled off the Mask so quickly it ripped off all Homer's stubble from his face leaving it bare and his head looking very awkward. He quickly passed the thing to Lisa and a large collection of short beard hair fell out and scattered onto the floor. Homer now clapped excitedly.

"Cake? Oh boy , oh boy and beer!" Homer clapped again.

"Dad there wasn't any cake" Lisa confessed putting the Mask behind her back to stop dad getting at it again.

"No cake? But you promised" Homer said his eyes drooping childishly in a way that made Lisa feel sorry for him.

"We just haven't got it yet" Bart interjected "But if you raise our allowance we might get it quicker."

"Done and done!" Homer said reaching into his pants, pulling out his wallet and giving Bart a handful of green bills.

Homer then left them both alone in Bart's room with the Mask of Loki. They both peered at its mischievous look and its ominous glow that attracted so many unwary and unwise and tricking them into putting it on. But it didn't work on Bart and Lisa anymore because they were all too familiar with it.

Then Bart uttered the one question Lisa herself was considering. "Okay, what are we going to do with it?"

Epilogue

The sun rose on a beautiful new day in Springfield, a perfectly normal day or as normal as you could get in this crazy world that Bart and Lisa lived in, but it was much less crazy now without someone wearing the Mask every night.

School was full of chatter that Green Face had been killed and completely obliterated by the police, discussions were still going on even weeks after the nuclear incident. Some whispered that he was still alive because they never found a body, just a mass of goo. But to both Bart and Lisa Green Face was dead and this time he was going to stay dead.

Bart and Milhouse were friends again after Bart's little outburst against his friend the night he lost the Mask and Lisa's grades were coming back up to scratch now that she didn't have to worry about the stupid thing because it was safely tucked away under the floor boards in her bedroom again.

Lisa studied hard and Bart pranked even harder until the time came one day to go home on the bus. Dinner was quiet and mom had never mentioned or asked anything about the Simpsons involvement in the death of Green Face a few weeks ago. Lisa guessed dad might've explained everything to mom, but knowing dad he probably didn't.

An hour later when Lisa and Bart carried a large, empty trunk down from the attic mom seemed to understand what they were up to without even asking and just turned away to let them get on with it. Lisa had asked where Bart had managed to find an empty trunk in the attic but he just said 'it was full of Homer's crap' which meant it was not empty when he found it. Lisa later found out it used to contain dads record collection made from the more brittle wax rather than the more sturdy and impact resistant vinyl, a fact they later had to conceal to stop Homer getting mad at them.

The news from Kent Brockman that night was all good. The Krusty the clown set had been rebuilt, Sideshow Bob was finally back inside prison and thrown into a padded cell, and Police Chief Wiggum had made a full recovery and was expected to be out of hospital in a few days. Plus Kent briefly mentioned there was some danger alert because unexploded dynamite from the collapse of the Springfield Beaver dam a few months ago was still being found all over the banks of the Springfield river.

All in all the day wasn't just normal, it was good.

A couple of hours after dinner both Bart and Lisa left the house on their bikes, Lisa had a back pack strapped to her back and trailing behind Bart's bike was a little red wagon with the large trunk in it.

They pedalled until they arrived at an old, stone bridge overlooking Springfield river. No one was around, not at this hour at least which means no one was going to witness what they were about to do.

Bart unlocked the pad lock on the truck using an old looking key, removed the lock and opened the trunk. Bart had filled it with Homer's old tools, tools which never got used except to build crappy furniture that fell apart the moment you looked at it. So it wasn't as if they were throwing away anything useful and they needed something heavy to weigh the case down anyway.

Lisa unzipped her pink backpack and pulled out the Mask. This was it, they were finally going to be rid of it for good. She handed it to Bart who parted the mass of spanners and screwdrivers and placed the wooden mask into the trunk before covering it with the tools. They both had one final gaze at the mischievous thing before they shut the case and clamped it closed. Bart then replaced the small padlock onto the case and clipped that shut as well.

Together they heaved the heavy, rattling case onto the side of the bridge and prepared to shove it off.

Lisa hesitated pushing it though. Strangely this felt a little like murder to her. After all their misadventures with that cursed mask for some reason her mind was looking upon it as a living thing. It was a crazy thought since the only life it had was the one given to it by a person's inner most desires, no matter how mad they may be, but it was more than that. Lisa had a greater respect now for her 'Mask' self because she'd done what was probably the most human thing you could do, sacrifice yourself to save another and in this case she gave up her own existence rather than let Bart die and throwing away the Mask was like condemning her to death.

This was crazy, why was she thinking like this? She was her ID to an extent. Lisa 2.0 may have become a character in herself but that character is a part of her own character. She wasn't dead, she just had barriers to tell her when she was doing wrong allowing Lisa's judgement to decide what was worth listening to and what was worth ignoring. Though this made logical sense it still didn't stop her feeling pity for the thing in the trunk.

"Shouldn't we say something?" Lisa asked her brother.

"Okay" Bart said turning to the case and looked as if he was about to say a prayer or something by clasping his hands together, but he simply said "Good riddance!" and placed his hands back on the case and tried to push with all his might but it didn't budge an inch. Lisa sighed and placed her hands on the case along with Barts'.

One, two, three and they pushed as much as their weak bodies could until the case slipped off the edge of the bridge and fell into the river with a splash. Quickly standing on top of the red wagon to give them extra height both Bart and Lisa watched the case float briefly a little ways down the river before disappearing into the bubbling depths.

It was finally gone, gone for good. Lisa doubted anyone would find it again, at least not in their lifetimes. The Springfield river was so polluted if anyone went swimming or even diving into it then their life expectancy was very low and for once Lisa wished that Springfield never decided to go green and clean up the river.

They both watched the bubbles from the sunken trunk rise to the surface for a few minutes expecting the thing to pop up again like Harry Houdini escaping from an impossible trap. But soon the waters became calm, a slightly radioactive green but calm.

The sun was setting and Bart and Lisa had to get back home before dark or they would face a greater danger then losing their minds to a Norse artefact. Their mother.

"I'm glad that's over" Bart said as they peddled back home together.

"I just hope it is Bart" Lisa said. That Mask was like a bad penny, it always seem to turn up somewhere and end up in someone else's hands but surely this time it'll remain hidden and won't bother anybody for a long, long time.

Lisa didn't want to mention it, but Homer bought Bart that Mask for a birthday present a few weeks ago from a freaky shop near Moes' that she never got to check out, what was worrying was that it was Lisa's birthday in a few months. She just prayed that Homer wouldn't buy her any presents from that very same shop or they were probably going to go through another mad misadventure just like this one.

Later that night...

The silent night and the slight green glow of the polluted Springfield river and the stillness of the air gave no indication of what was about to happen. The Mask had barely been sitting on the riverbed for more than five hours surrounded by slowly corroding tools condemned to remain until someone foolish dug it up again.

However the Mask didn't have to wait long because of where it had landed. Right on top of an unexploded stick of dynamite, one of the dozens that had failed to go off the day the Springfield beaver damn collapsed washing its remains into the river and ironically releasing the Mask from its previous prison.

Dynamite of course was an explosive but it shouldn't go off when wet, but mysteriously this one did spontaneously.

A jet of water spewed out from the river causing a quick radioactive rain to fall close to the bank and a loud bang echoed through the nearby forest but was practically unheard in nearby Springfield.

Scared and burnt bits of the truck surfaced a few seconds later floating with the flow of the river following it to wherever it led. Then it surfaced, the cursed Mask of Loki bobbing up and down in the river its presence hardly noticeable as it followed the rivers current back into Springfield, under countless bridges which had some people late out at night peering over the side down at it but none foolish enough to go after it, because it was after all to them just a piece of junk.

The Mask went straight through Springfield and slowly floated away from the small town. It'd move on, it always did. It would find another wearer, it always did. Someone foolish enough to think they can control the raw power of their own inner demons, and the Mask knew there were plenty of people like that around.

With the lights of Springfield vanishing into the distance the Mask floated past a sign, a big billboard with the words 'You are now leaving Springfield', but a few weeks ago Bart while in the Mask had spray painted an extra two words underneath the sign.

It now read 'You are now leaving Springfield. WELL DONE!'

THE END

...of 'Things to do in Springfield when wearing the Mask'

But the Mask will return...

Authors notes: I just had to bring Homer's Mask back just one more time to see if I could get him to work better.

Though this is the end of 'Things to do in Springfield when wearing the Mask' I am considering writing a sequel where the Mask is worn by many other Simpsons characters. However I want to get my other Mask stories and some other stories finished/started off first before I write it.

I'm also thinking of writing this as part of a series of Simpsons crossovers with other movie/TV franchises.

Special thanks to...

Omnitrix1

OnyxSteelGray1213

TylerFG

The MB

GlaringEyes

DLSF

Maetch

CoolKid13

and to anyone I may have forgotten.

For all the great reviews that motivated me to continue writing and eventually finishing this story.

Very special thanks to

Matt Groening, for creating the Simpsons

Mike Richardson, for creating the Mask

'Things to do in Springfield when wearing the Mask'

Was written by

TimeLordParadox

(A.K.A.) Ross Pickering.

This story should NOT appear anywhere on the internet apart from FanFiction*net.

Hope you enjoyed the story and any future stories I may write.

Cheers

-TimeLordParadox