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Chapter Text

The lights seemed to wake up with Sportacus as he flipped out of bed and began his morning workout. Some would say that Sportacus had an unhealthy obsession with being active, eating healthy and moving around, but he didn't care what anyone else thought. He had spent several months getting ready for the biggest mission of his life, and he needed to be ready for anything. What mission, you might ask? A rescue mission to save former hero Robert Radiant from the death trap disguised as the near-abandoned LazyTown.

Unfortunately, said mission wasn't as straightforward as simply grabbing Radiant by the arm and running off: LazyTown was right smack dab in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles away from civilization, and while there were plenty of ways in, the only way out was through train... and said train was run by puppet thugs who answer only to their mistress. It was a miracle that his predecessor, Hero Number 9, was barely able to escape with his life. Every other hero that tried before him was never heard from again.

Not even Sportacus' airship would be able to escape. Why was that? Nanotechnology? Magic? Well, nobody knows how exactly evil mastermind Bessie Busybody managed to do it, but she made all other ways of getting out of LazyTown virtually impossible. He should know: he had been stuck floating over LazyTown for weeks now, though he hoped he was at too high of an altitude for them to notice him.

Grabbing a carrot from his sports candy machine, Sportacus knew even though the situation he had gotten himself into was dangerous, he was grateful his food supply would last him for several more months before he would really be in trouble.

In a narrow teal house, four puppet children sat staring at a screen, their plastic eyes glazed over from focusing on the TV in front of them. Only one of them, a redheaded Black child wearing a headset was actually playing the game, stopping only to grab a sip of soda. His three friends were either sitting next to him or behind him, munching on popcorn and candy.

"Stingy, will you let me have some popcorn?" the only girl of the four asked the boy in front of her.

"Well I could give you one little piece," the boy held it up, as if briefly debating whether or not to share, "but it's mine," he decided as he took it for himself.

"Stingy! Let me have some popcorn!" the girl complained.

"What, what? I need some... uh... oh!" the redhead said to himself as he was losing the game.

"Game over!" the girl said, a chuckle following shortly after.

"So, uh... what do we do now?" a small blonde boy on the other side of the couch asked.

"Same thing we always do, huh? Play it again."

The other children only watched as he restarted his game.

A large yellow building sat in the middle of the town. This was LazyTown's Town Hall. Inside were two puppets: one a balding, middle-aged man frantically dusting his office (and couldn't help but sneeze as he got some dust in his nose), the other a blue-haired woman, cheerily chatting on the phone.

"It's true!" the woman said to her companion over the phone.

"Oh my!" the man mumbled to himself.

"And you will never guess what she said to her." The woman followed her comment with a hysterical cackle as the other voice spoke.

As the puppet man made his way over to the desk, he wasn't paying attention and accidentally brushed the woman's face with the duster.

"The Mayor Meanswell, for goodness' sakes!" the woman snapped, holding the phone to her chest.

"Ms. Busybody, please forgive me," the mayor begged, a hint of sheepishness in his voice.

Luckily for him, he had caught her in a good mood. "Why are you running amok with a feather duster?" she asked. "As mayor of LazyTown, you are supposed to prevent problems, not create them."

"Well, today's the day my niece Stephanie is coming to stay with me. Look, here's her picture," the mayor pointed to the pink-framed picture of his human niece on the desk.

"Oh, that's who it is! She's lovely." A lovely addition to my collection, that is, she thought to herself. Finding new citizens to tr-, er, move into LazyTown had been getting increasingly difficult over the years. Especially now that children could so easily be considered 'missing', the technology to find them was getting greater, and the chances of being exposed being increased along with it. Even with the population at an all-time low, Bessie stopped trying to find people to move here, waiting for them to forget about LazyTown before she tried again. This girl, being the mayor's niece, was something of a 'freebie'. If she was supposed to move here anyway, then she wouldn't be considered 'missing' if the outside authorities knew where she was.

"Ah, yes," the mayor agreed.

"But you don't know anything about raising children."

"What's to know? They just stay inside all day playing video games and eating candy."

"Well, yes, that's true. Still, you'll need some help. Now take some notes, because there is a lot to learn."

The mayor nodded as he pulled out a paper and pencil.

"Children need a lot of attention."

"Children..." the mayor began his note.

"Oh, and they need lots of rest," Ms. Busybody added.

"Oh, yes, uh... children need..." he stopped writing and looked up at her. "What was that uh, first thing, again?"

"Lots of attention."

"Ah, yes..." finishing the sentence, he looked over at her again. "Erm, Ms. Busybody?"

"Do I need to write this down for you?" Exasperated, Busybody took the paper from the mayor before he had a chance to answer, and wrote down everything she wanted to make sure that he did in clean, neat print so the simple-minded puppet man wouldn't have any misunderstandings.

"I was just wondering, uh, does Stephanie have to go through...'the process'?"

"Of course she does! Every LazyTown resident does!" she responded without hesitation, not even looking up from the paper. "Besides, you've told me what happened to her parents. This means that her stay with you is permanent, is it not?"

"Y-yes-"

"So then what's the problem? If she has no one to go home to, there'll be no one to ask questions."

"But, oh, uh, I think she might... when she's noticed that she's not going home."

"Why's that? She knows what's happened to her parents."

"Ah, uh, well," the mayor looked down, nervously tapping his fingers together.

Ms. Busybody stopped writing to look up at him. "... She does know what's happened, doesn't she?"

"I offered to be the one to tell her at first, but then, uh... then I... kind of panicked and uh, only said her parents asked her to stay for the summer."

"What?! Milford! Oh for crying out-" the blue-haired woman face palmed.

"I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Busybody."

"Well, perhaps with any luck, she might not ask at all. I've never once heard the other children ask about theirs."

"Oh uh, I suppose that's true."

"Yes." Reviewing the piece of paper to make sure there was nothing else to add, she handed it back to the mayor. "That should do it for now. Why don't you go home and get things ready for our newest resident, and worry about that whole 'parent' fiasco later?"

"Ah, yes. That's a good idea, Ms. Busybody." The mayor then turned to leave.

"Oh, and Milford?"

"Yes?"

"If you know what's best for your niece... you won't interrupt the process."

"... Yes, Ms. Busybody."

Deep in an underground lair, evil laughter echoed through the room. Its source was a tall, thin man with slick, plastic-like black hair and plastic eyebrows, pulling a cake out of a smoking microwave.

"Ah, yummy!" He had been playing the role of the town villain for so long, evil laughter has become something of a verbal tic for him. "Mmm-mmm!" One might not think that antidote-flavored cake sounds particularly tasty, but even if Robbie didn't like it, it wasn't like he had much of a choice if he wanted to keep whatever was left of him was human. Humming and walking over to his periscope as he continued to laugh, he said to himself "well, let's take a peek. Mwahaha."

Clearing his throat, he peered into his periscope, glancing around at various places of the empty streets above.

"Ah, perfect! This is exactly how I, Robbie Rotten, planned it. LazyTown is the laziest town on the planet..." he commented, taking a bite of his cake. "Mmm..." Looking down at the camera staring straight at him, he decided to reassure whoever may be watching on the other side, "and I'm going to keep it that way."

Laughing evilly, he sat down on the keyboard behind him, discordant notes startling him and forcing him to drop his cake. He growled in anger (in part caused by dropping his cake, and in part from his frustration at being so easily startled) before regaining his composure. "I meant to do that," he said to the empty air.

Mayor Meanswell stood outside of his tiny yellow cottage. "Oh, when will she be here?" He took a moment to look at the watch wrapped around the thumb of his oven mitt. "Oh! Oh my! Oh dear! Any time now."

And really, she was almost there. The pink-haired human girl made her way through the abandoned town. Where is everybody? she wondered. And why does everything look so... broken?

Out of the corner of her eye, Stephanie noticed a green butterfly that seemed to follow her wherever she went. She assumed it would be nothing to worry about, but in the back of her mind, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being... watched, somehow.

The butterfly wasn't the only thing following her: Robbie (who had just picked his cake up from the floor) had just noticed the human child that walked by his periscope.

"Hello, Stephanie!" the mayor called.

Gasping, Robbie spit out the bite he took, and once again dropped his cake. Hands shaking, he gripped the handles of the periscope. Could he believe his eyes right now?!

"Over here, Stephanie!"

Stephanie smiled as she saw him in the distance. She knew it had been a few years, but she couldn't help but notice just how different he looked from the last time she saw him. She had been told he had a lot of plastic surgery, but she didn't expect that he had so much he looked like another species altogether!

"Hi, Uncle Milford!" she called back. To be polite, she said nothing about his new appearance, approached him and hugged him anyway. "I'm so glad to be here!"

"And I'm so glad to have you! Oh, we'll have a wonderful time! How was your trip?"

You mean besides from the weird-looking staff that also had too much plastic surgery? Stephanie thought.

She shrugged. "It was okay, I like riding in trains."

"Ah, uh, let's get you to your room. I'll take your suitcase..."

The mayor bent down when Stephanie beat him to it. "Oh no, it's okay, I got it." She hurried back to the house carrying the heavy bags.

"Oh! Uh, strong girl!" Milford said to himself.

"Well, this could mean trouble!" was what Robbie said out loud to the camera. What he really wished he could say was 'again?! How many more people - how many more innocent children do you need before you're satisfied?!'

"I'm so happy you've come to visit!" Milford exclaimed as they walked into the kitchen together. He would tell her the truth when the time came, but for now, he didn't want to spoil her usually perky demeanor.

"Wow, Uncle! This is a nice place! I think I'm going to like it here."

"Ah, yes..."

Stephanie stopped smiling for a moment and scrunched her face slightly. "What's that smell?"

"Ah! Oh my! Oh, oh dear!" her uncle panicked as he rushed to the oven, and started coughing as a cloud of smoke filling the room. "Oh dear! I was baking a cake for Ms. Busybody, but I think I'm only making a mess for myself."

Stephanie began to feel a little sick when she inhaled some of the smoke.

Some of it remained in the room as Milford closed the oven. "Why don't I show you to your room?"

Stephanie was originally smiling because she didn't want her uncle to know that she was concerned about his well-being and the general weirdness of the town, but after walking out of the kitchen, colors in her yellow and pink environment seemed brighter and more inviting, so it was easier to smile for real.

"Make yourself at home, and have a rest," the mayor said from the door.

"Oh, I'm not tired."

Milford gasped. "Really?"

"Really! In fact, I was kind of hoping to play now."

"Oh, well, uh, here you go," Milford pulled a deck of cards from his pocket and handed it to her.

"...Playing cards?"

"Have a nice summer!"

When Stephanie said she wanted to play, she meant something along the lines of playing outside with other kids. Before she could protest, however, her uncle had already left the room. Did he really think playing cards, all by herself would keep her busy for the next three months?

An hour had passed, and while balancing cards on a cushy bed wasn't an easy task, Stephanie had built a stable tower out of the whole deck. It wasn't the most fun she ever had, but it was still better than nothing at all to do. Now with one card left, she did her best to carefully place it at the top.

"Having a good time?" Stephanie looked at her uncle standing in the doorway of her room.

"Give me another deck of cards and I'll build the Empire State Building," she deadpanned.

The sound of an egg timer came from the kitchen. "Oh! My cake! Oh my!"

Stephanie shook her head. Since when had her uncle become so obsessed with cake?

Grabbing a ball from her bag and following him into the kitchen, she was pleased to find at least the house wasn't filling up with smoke this time. "That's a lovely cake, Uncle."

"Oh yes, isn't it beautiful?" He noticed the ball in her hands. "Oh, uh, where are you going?"

"I was going to go out to find some kids to play with."

"Oh! Kids playing in LazyTown! Oh, that's a good one!" He began laughing.

A bit nervously, Stephanie joined in with a small chuckle.

"No one does that," he said flatly, breaking their laughter.

"What?"

"No, really, no one plays outside. And what if something terrible should happen? What if you played so much that you got tired?"

"I'm just going out to play!" She walked out the door before he could stop her.

"Oh well uh, please, be careful!" Milford called out to her as she closed the door behind her. Sitting in silence for a moment, he whispered to himself "please, please be careful."

He wasn't the only one watching her leave: Ms. Busybody spotted the young girl through her butterfly camera. This didn't surprise her one bit: knowing how much human children loved to wander off, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Busybody focused her mind's eye towards her minions. It didn't particularly matter to her which one went to go check on her, but she figured Stephanie would be more at ease with other children around her. Now... whom to choose...?

Ziggy's sight fell into a tunnel vision. He felt numb, and his surroundings became much quieter. He let his popcorn bag fall to the floor as he faded away from the room. The others were so entranced by the television, they hadn't even noticed their friend's absence.

When the feeling was over, Ziggy found himself outside in Lazy Park. That's weird, how'd I get here? Just a minute ago I was with Pixel and the other kids... oh well. Lazy Park isn't too far from Pixel's house, so I can just walk right back over.

He had almost passed the strange pink-haired girl sitting by herself on a park bench, rolling the ball back and forth.

"Hm?" Ziggy took the lollipop out of his mouth to talk to her. "Who are you, and do you have any candy?"

"Um, no," Stephanie responded. She paused, studying him for a moment. Did everyone in this town get plastic surgery? Even the kids? What a strange place. "I'm Stephanie, I like your costume." She offered her hand for him to shake.

"I'm Ziggy, and I like candy," Ziggy replied, taking her hand.

Stephanie struggled for a bit to pull her hand from Ziggy's own sticky fingers. "I can feel that." Shaking her hand, as if she could rid of the stickiness that way, she asked, "so where do all the kids in LazyTown play?"

"Kids? Playing in LazyTown?" Ziggy laughed.

Just down in his lair, Robbie returned to his periscope to look up at the scene above.

"That's funny, Stephanie," Ziggy finished.

Robbie gripped the handles of his periscope. "What!?"

"No, seriously! Where are all the kids and where do they play?"

Robbie's heart raced faster, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he felt himself getting worked up. "Who is she? What is she talking about? There is no playing in LazyTown!"

Ziggy went on to tell her what the kids did do: "Mondays through Fridays, we watch Pixel play video games and I eat candy." He sighed happily at the thought of candy. "And Trixie," he added, frowning, "she takes my candy and hides it!" he scoffed in annoyance. "And Stingy, he has a lot of candy, but he won't share it! And I... I eat more candy. Ah..."

Stephanie shook her head in disbelief. "That's it?"

"Well, sometimes we eat cake. Yeah!" Ziggy had to dig through his hollow head for a bit to find whatever else he and the other kids would do.

"Cake's okay sometimes, but... don't you guys play?"

"No! Nobody likes to play! Now go home! Shoo! Hello! Go home! No playing!" Sure, what Robbie was saying could've been taken as 'go back to your house with your mayor', but what he really wished he could scream was 'GET THE HELL OUT OF LAZYTOWN AND NEVER COME BACK! IT'S A TRAP, YOU HEAR ME?! A BRIGHTLY-COLORED, SURGARY INFESTED TRAP!' But he knew she probably wouldn't be able to hear him from there. And if anyone was watching him right now (which he was certain they were), he was bound to get in trouble for saying such a thing.

"Play? Pfft. If we would play, when would we eat candy? Well, that's important."

"Wait... she's talking to Ziggy. He only wants to eat candy... so there is no problem! Ha ha ha! Whoo!" Robbie wiped his forehead. "That was close."

"Do you want to come meet the other kids?" Ziggy offered.

"Yeah, sure!"

"It's right around the corner here... yeah, come on."

"But where are they going?" Robbie asked, watching the two walk away.

Back at Pixel's house, Pixel kept playing the game while his friends watched.

"Uh uh, here we go, uh uh uh, aaah..." Pixel spoke to himself.

Ziggy and Stephanie came into the house, Stephanie closing the door behind her.

"There they are. Hey guys! Hey guys! Guess what?"

Pixel glanced over for a second before returning his eyes to the screen. "Not now Ziggy, I'm busy!"

Ziggy, ignoring him, continued. "I want you to meet..."

"Ziggy, I said I'm..." the dark-skinned puppet suddenly went into shock on seeing her, losing all focus on his game. He couldn't believe his eyes:

She's... she's... human.

Images flooded his mind: grass on his bare feet, puffy white clouds floating in the sky above, the warm embrace of a larger woman; her scent sweet, and her skin soft. Were these... memories of his? Maybe... he didn't exactly daydream about stuff like this.

Trixie's voice began to bring him back to reality. "Pixel, you're losing the game!"

His expression hadn't changed. "That's okay," he said calmly, her words just barely registering over his headphone covered ears.

"What?!" Trixie was taken aback: this was so unlike her friend!

She wasn't the only one: Stingy accidentally got a popcorn kernel stuck in the wrong tube. "Is it? It is?" he asked.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie, the mayor's niece. I'm from out of town."

"Uh, what's that you're holding?" Pixel asked.

"A soccer ball!" Stephanie exclaimed. "Do you guys want to play?"

"Um..." Pixel didn't seem to enthusiastic.

"That's what we're playing, Pinky," Trixie said as she pointed at the soccer video game.

"No, not in the TV, I mean outside. Don't you ever play outside?" Stephanie asked.

The kids all shook their heads in disagreement, accompanied with "mm-mm"s and "no".

"But playing soccer outside is great!" Stephanie exclaimed. "You know, running, and jumping, in the sunshine and the fresh air?"

"The... the fresh?" Ziggy asked, confused.

"Yeah!"

Trixie and Stingy continued to shake their heads and look at each other with muddled expressions, while Pixel's visions were beginning to fade away.

Stephanie was equally bewildered by these kids' lack of experience in what came so simply to her, and maybe even just about every other kid in the world. "Haven't you ever kicked a soccer ball before?"

Again came the shaking of heads and mutual disagreement.

"No, we haven't," Ziggy muttered.

"Hit a baseball?"

Somebody's gonna have to teach them how to play outside, Stephanie thought after another round of confusion from the other children. I guess that somebody's gonna have to be me.

"Come on, follow me!" She turned and rushed out the door.

The kids sat there for a moment, reluctant to do as she said. It wasn't until Pixel said "...okay! Up and at 'em guys!" that they did so. (Being the oldest of the children, it was usually his lead the others took after.)

An upbeat tune suddenly played in Stephanie's ears. But she liked fast, peppy songs, so she decided not to fight it.

"Have you ever skipped rope?" Stephanie asked in song.

"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh," the puppet kids shook their heads and sang in time along with her.

Did his ears hear correctly? Was that... music? Robbie growled. What was going on up there?

Storming towards the front of his lair, he climbed up the ladder, and struggled to lift the heavy hatch door. He hadn't been active since... well, he couldn't remember when, but he wasn't as strong as he used to be. Then again, that's what happens when you stay in LazyTown for as long as he has.

It had taken him longer to get down the ladder than he would have liked, but in his condition, he needed to take at least a little bit of time, or he could seriously hurt himself.

Robbie covered his eyes as he jumped off the ladder. It was always that last step that was a doozy for him. Closing the latch door behind him, he headed off in the direction of the music.

The closer Robbie got to the source of the singing, the more he could hear some of the lyrics:

"You gotta listen to me, can't you see that life is full of games? And they make you feel so happy!" He hadn't heard that voice before: it must've belonged to the new girl! She had only arrived a couple of hours ago; could this mean that she was beginning to fall under her control already?

Sneaking up out of sight, Robbie could feel his stomach sink as the sight he saw confirmed his suspicions. Plugging his ears to tune out the cleverly-disguised mind-control, he watched in horror as the pink haired girl hopped, twirled and sang. She really had no idea of the danger she was in. And the puppet children were dancing with her?! And being active?! It seemed she also wasn't aware of all the trouble she could get the rest of them into!

I must put a stop to this! But how? Think Robbie, think! As the song ended, it dawned on him: the controllers! Just the temptations needed to keep each child under control just in case something like this happened. He needed to notify Ms. Busybody right away... if she wasn't aware of this already, that is.

It wasn't long before the kids were running around the abandoned sports field.

Trixie held the ball in her hands. "Hey, guys! Check this move out!"

Kicking it over the fence, the others cheered and applauded in awe... which happened to be short-lived when the ball was caught, the slender figure holding it revealing himself, making the puppet children gasp.

"Uh-oh, it's Robbie Rotten," Ziggy said.

"Who's that?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh, just the laziest, grumpiest, no-do-anything-est guy in all of LazyTown," Trixie said as Robbie made his way to the other side of the gate.

"Why, thank you! Took years of practicing." Little known fact: it really did. "So, what is this?" he asked, pointing at the ball in his hand.

"A ball! We were playing," Stephanie said.

"Playing?!" Robbie exclaimed.

"Uh-huh!" Ziggy responded enthusiastically.

Robbie pulled a small pile of candy from his back pocket. "Want this?" he asked Ziggy.

"Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!" Ziggy wiggled his fingers excitedly.

"If I give it to you, will you go away?"

"I'm already gone!"

Robbie tossed the candy to Ziggy, the latter running off to go enjoy his new snack.

"And look-ie what else I have: a new video game!"

Pixel gasped as Robbie pulled out a copy of Super Power Lizards.

"I hear it's got 5000 levels!" the villain continued.

"No, 6000, plus bonus levels!" Pixel soon ran off in the same direction as soon as Robbie gave him the game. "Oh, wow! Gotta get home now! Gotta get home! Gotta get home! Gotta get home!" Pixel said to himself as he ran off.

"And by the way," Robbie said to Stingy, "that was yours."

Stingy gasped. "Wait! Come back! That's mine!" he yelled, running after Pixel.

Stephanie put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"Have you ever heard the sound of a rubber ball breaking a window?" Robbie asked Trixie.

"Uh-uh," the puppet girl responded.

"Would you like to?!"

"Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!"

Robbie tossed the ball to Trixie.

"Oh, yeah!" She giggled mischievously as she left.

"Hey!" Stephanie complained.

"You didn't stand a chance," Robbie said smugly. "Now why don't you sit quietly and do nothing like a good little girl?" he asked, laughing evilly.

Staying long enough to hear just what a rubber ball breaking a window sounded like, Robbie stalked away, turning to wave at Stephanie before ducking back behind the fence.

Robbie could hear her storm off on the other side. He sighed under his breath, partially from relief, and partially from guilt. If only he could tell her why she needed to sit and do nothing... but he found the more the residents were kept in the dark about this, the safer it would be for them. For all of them.

Chapter Text

Stephanie decided it was best to go back to her uncle's house. What else could she do with that mean, rotten man out there?

The song that she felt was no longer upbeat and fun, but rather, a depressing and melancholy piano tune.

"Have you ever been sad?" Stephanie sang as she walked, in the same melody as before. "Have you got a friend who'll stay? Have you ever been lonely?" Her voice broke she finished her reprise: "all I want is just to play."

Stephanie spoke aloud as she sat on her bed, writing in her diary; "dear diary, it's my first day in LazyTown. It's really weird here."

"Ah! Hot cocoa, Stephanie?" Milford walked into the room with a mug in hand.

She swallowed a comment about how strange it was to drink hot cocoa in the summer. "No thanks, Uncle Milford."

"Uh, what's wrong, my dear? You... you look so... so sad!"

She smiled glumly. "Well, I'm really glad to be here with you."

"Ah, yes."

"But, LazyTown, it's kind of... well... it's a little bit messy."

"Ah! You think so? Uh, well I suppose I could clean it up."

"That'd be a good idea. You are the mayor."

"You know, that's true! I'll... I'll pull the weeds, and fix the gate! Oh dear, that's a lot to do."

"But the real problem is that the kids don't play outside in LazyTown."

"Oh, well I... I can't change that. Well you know they used to, but uh... but then they stopped."

"I don't want to sit inside all day playing video games."

"You know, there might be someone who can help you!"

"Really?" Stephanie began to perk up.

Her smile got bigger as her uncle went on, "yes! I remember a story about a hero who came from an island in the North Sea. I can't remember his name, but there was a big Number 9 on his chest. Oh, and he moved around all the time. Swish swish swish! I think he may have even been a superhero."

Stephanie gasped. "A superhero?!"

"Yes, yes! And he lives in an airship! When people wanted to contact him, they would write a letter, and send it to him in a tube by the mailbox."

"Wow! Do you think I could send him a letter?"

"I don't know if it works anymore, but it's worth a try! I think I have that tube around here somewhere. I'll go get it. Now, where did I put it?" he asked himself as he left the room.

He returned a moment later with a red wrench-like object in hand. "Here it is!" Glancing over, Milford realized that wasn't what he meant to bring back. "Oh, no! That's a cake decorating device! Uh... be right back!"

Stephanie nodded, but she began to worry even more for his overall wellbeing.

He soon returned with a small metal tube, just big enough to roll up a piece of paper inside. "Here you go, my dear!"

"Thanks!" Stephanie held the tube in her hands, studying it. She knew just what to write, too.

With her letter ready, Stephanie found the mailbox with the tube next to it, just like her uncle said.

Even the laziest of bad guys needed to stretch their legs once in a while, and who should happen to be in the same place she is than Robbie Rotten himself? He froze as Stephanie tried to loosen the rusty top of the tube. "What? No! Don't do it, little girl! It will only cause trouble!"

Considering that Stephanie removed the plug anyway and didn't even glance in his direction, Robbie realized he was once again out of earshot. Now, Robbie knew he could easily run over and try to stop her (especially since she took extra time to pluck the weeds that had grown around it) but... he didn't want to.

"No! No! Leave it alone! No! No! No! Don't do it!" He knew what that tube was, what would happen if she managed to get the letter through, and what would happen to the status quo of the town.

Stephanie pulled the letter from her bag. "Please work!" she said as she dropped it in the tube.

"No! No! Don't pull that!" But he knew it needed to happen, as much as it scared him to admit it to himself. He knew she needed to pull it, summon the hero, and change everything. No hero has ever truly succeeded in defeating Bessie Busybody, but it seemed with each attempt the town got just a little bit closer to freedom from her tyranny. He's been a part of Busybody's sick and twisted game for so long... and there were days he didn't want to play anymore. Today was one of those days.

Stephanie pulled the lever, and they both watched as the tube shot up into the sky.

"NO!" If Robbie had any chance of stopping her, it was long-gone. Now his only hope was his "no"s from a distance was a convincing enough performance that he had actually made some effort.

Sportacus heard a small thump hitting the ship. Reacting quickly, he jumped out of the piolet's seat and landed on a panel on the floor. Sportacus grabbed the silver tube that shot up from the floor.

Number 9 had told him about this: it was a way for the citizens to send letters to the airship. "I've got mail!" At first he was excited: this was the first social contact he'd had with anyone in weeks, but then he began to worry: how did they know he was here? Had his location been found out? Sportacus guessed it was only a matter of time before their technology picked up his airship. In case he was bugged or a camera somehow got planted on his ship, Sportacus decided it would be best to play dumb and hope that they would see him as less of a threat, and underestimate him. "I wonder what it says," he said as he removed the pink piece of paper from the tube and unfolded it.

"I need help. No one to play with in LazyTown - Stephanie," Sportacus read aloud. Number 9 suggested he read any 'legitimate' letters out loud, so that if someone like Radiant were to send him a formula or something of the like to help him complete the mission, it would be more believable when he pretended to read a different message aloud. Opening his sports candy machine, Sportacus flipped over it and opened a compartment. "I have heard of LazyTown before. Here it is."

Sportacus took out a heavy book and set it down on the table of the sports candy machine: the cover reading "History of LazyTown", and opened to a random page in the middle of the book. What he hoped the potential cameras wouldn't see was that this book was actually a compilation of Number 9's previous notes; the cover was just a disguise.

"It used to be a great place to live. But now, it needs help. 'Kay." Sportacus grabbed a piece of blue paper from the stack kept next to the book. This could very well be a trap, and Number 9 had heavily warned him not to leave the ship unless someone was really in danger, but if they already knew about him, Sportacus didn't see the point in hiding any longer. The only piece of information he got from above the clouds was that there was some kind of invisible barrier around LazyTown, so he wasn't going to solve much just sitting here. And if he were really being honest, he mostly just wanted a cure for his stir-craziness. He spoke aloud as he wrote "help is on the way."

The stationary that had been given to him was a special kind: its nanotechnology was able to float down exactly to the mailbox's coordinates. It was possible this 'Stephanie' person wasn't waiting by the mailbox anymore, but it was his best chance of responding to her. "Well, if Stephanie needs me, then I'm on my way to LazyTown," he said as he folded it into a paper airplane. "Okay, let's go!" He flipped over and hit a switch on the floor that opened another compartment filled with sports equipment. "In you go..." he said, stuffing the paper airplane inside of a bowling ball, "and off you go!" he flipped and rolled the bowling ball through a ball-shaped door that opened towards the back of the ship.

Stephanie leaned against the mailbox. She had been waiting a full minute, and still had no response. "I guess no one's coming," she said to herself.

Robbie began to feel a mixture of relief and alarm. "Maybe it won't work! Maybe he's on a vacation! And maybe, he's quit all the superhero business!" Not that Robbie would blame him after the way things ended. On one end, he was pleased there was no sign of the hero: having someone to threaten Busybody's plans was a danger to everyone, the hero included... but if the hero wasn't coming, Robbie was truly on his own.

"Got it!" Seeing the girl now had a blue piece of paper in her hands, it meant that the hero had responded after all.

"What? What, no!" Robbie began to notice a creeping feeling of regret over not stopping her.

"Help is on the way!" Stephanie read aloud.

Just as she said it, a giant shadow passed over them. Said shadow belonged to a blue, dark red and white airship that stopped a short distance away from Stephanie. Suddenly, a strapping tanned male jumped down from an opening at the bottom of the ship, landing feet-first on one of the many yellow walls scattered throughout LazyTown. Leaping into the air, he flipped and somersaulted until he had landed right next to the pink-haired girl.

"Are you Number 9?!" Stephanie asked, excitement in her voice.

"Nope, I'm Number 10," he turned around, showing her the number 10 on his back. Turning back around, he introduced himself: "my name is Sportacus," he extended his hand for her to shake.

She took his hand. "I'm Stephanie. Pleased to meet you."

When the blood rushed around his head a little less, Sportacus began to realize that he wasn't the only non-puppet there. He wasn't sure whether the pink hair was a side-effect or not (he certainly hoped it wasn't!) but this girl didn't seem to be very far into the process... yet.

"Another one?!" Robbie couldn't believe it; not only did they send a replacement Sportacus, but the replacement's name was also Sportacus?! Did that mean... Number 9 didn't make it out alive?

"Are you a superhero?" Stephanie asked.

"Let's just say I'm a slightly above-average hero."

Sportacus smiled at Stephanie's giggle. Even when he was growing up he'd always had mixed feelings about children: some, he got along with great and enjoyed being around, others annoyed the living daylights out of him, and as an adult reminded him of just one of many reasons why he swore he would never have kids of his own. He had only known Stephanie for about thirty seconds, but he had a feeling she would easily fall into the former category.

A beeping noise interrupted his thoughts. Looking down, he could see his crystal was glowing.

"What's that?" Stephanie asked.

"That's my crystal. Someone's in trouble. Sorry, I have to go."

The best thing about having a hero crystal is that you knew exactly who was in danger, and where it was coming from. He had arrived just in time to jump on the rising end of a teetertotter, sending Stingy flying into the air before he could fall from the top.

Sportacus held his arms out. "I've got you! Don't worry!"

Just as planned, the boy landed right in Sportacus' arms. "Thank you," the puppet boy said.

"Yeah, nice catch," Trixie added.

"Are you okay?" Sportacus asked, putting him down.

"Yeah."

"Be more careful next time," Sportacus said before flipping back over to Stephanie.

"Wow, Sportacus! You are incredible!" Stephanie exclaimed.

Before Sportacus could respond, his crystal beeped again. "More trouble!"

"Over there!" Stephanie pointed towards the wall on the side opposite to the seesaw, where two children were about to fall and hurt themselves.

Not on his watch: Sportacus dashed and flipped over and caught them both.

"Are you okay?" Sportacus asked them.

"Thanks!" the girl of the two responded.

Wait a minute, wasn't that girl by the teetertotter a few seconds ago? Sportacus thought. Either she's got a twin, or something very suspicious is going on here...

But Sportacus wasn't the only one who noticed: just moments ago these children were in their rooms, occupied with their usual controllers and were just fine until the new hero arrived. Why would these children only now be outside getting themselves into trouble, especially when they're not too fond of playing outside in the first place?

Busybody. It could have only been Busybody. Obviously she was furious about Hero Number 10 being here, so she took control of the kids to get them in trouble on purpose so he could fail at saving them, prove he's not really a hero, and therefore not welcome in town. But this new Sportacus seemed more than capable of handling everything she's thrown at him so far... and surely it wouldn't be long before Robbie would be punished for being a bystander while Stephanie was inadvertently a spanner in the works for Bessie's master plan.

Unless... there was still a way to turn this around. If Robbie could at least pretend to try and stop him, the hero wouldn't have to abandon the mission he was finishing for Sportacus (the second one finishing for first one, that was. He was going to have to find a way to differentiate them in his mind before he confused himself), and maybe he'd get off... maybe not scot-free, but hopefully lighter than usual.

Time to get into character: "they're not going to ruin LazyTown! I'll see to that!" Robbie said aloud for the nearby camera he couldn't see but had no doubt was around there somewhere.

"And now, it's time to put an end to Sportakook!... once and for all." Robbie finished with an evil laugh... just before he started digging a hole in the ground. "A trap! For Sportakook!" he said between grunts.

All right, all right, if anyone passing by saw the hole, Robbie knew what they'd be thinking: 'a hole? That's your plan to stop Sportacus?' Well, this wasn't a plan meant to succeed; just enough so that it looked like he was actually trying. Besides, he was supposed to be a "lazy" villain, right? If he were to really put any effort into his plans, that wouldn't give him much credibility towards what he supposedly stood for.

Ms. Busybody slammed the door behind her as she stormed out of her house. Oh Robbie's really done it this time! He might not have summoned the hero directly, but he may as well have. She's known him long enough to pick up on little acts of rebellion here and there, but he should know by now rebellion is not something she was willing to tolerate, especially from him!

Slowing her walk she remembered there were people over in Robbie's area. Surely they would suspect something if they saw her so infuriated, so she needed to think of something else to keep her calm. (On the outside, anyway.) Taking deep breaths, she began to think about her upcoming trip off-base later today. Even she took breaks to go to the nearest city and spoil herself. Working around the clock 24/7, no one deserved it more than she.

That's it, Bessie, she thought. Just think good thoughts and keep your composure...

"Oh! Note to self," Ms. Busybody giggled, starting to feel a bit better. "It's a hair appointment!"

Robbie was setting leaves down to cover the top of the hole. Instinctively, Robbie scrambled at the sound of her voice, gasping and panicking as he hid behind the nearest wall. "It's Bessie! She'll ruin my trap!"

"Yes, a wonderful day..." Busybody said to herself. She seemed much more distracted than usual.

"No!" Robbie gave a disapproval gesture in her direction, but she didn't seem to notice.

"It really is a lovely day... how gorgeous!"

"No! To the left! Not there!"

Too late. Bessie had already fallen into the hole.

"Aw, jeez." Robbie couldn't help but smile a bit as he shook his head. The hole wasn't intended for her, but he couldn't help but feel a rush of satisfaction. That way, he could say she ruined his plan instead of him not trying hard enough. Besides, if Busybody was your boss, you would take any chance you could to 'accidentally' harm her.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was far more concerned about Bessie's wellbeing. The girl rushed over to her uncle, who was coming out of their house, carrying a cake. "Uncle! Somebody's stuck in a hole!"

"Stuck in a hole?!" he instantly became as worried as she was.

Sportacus leapt up on a wall and looked around. "I don't get it. It's still blinking. Who did I miss?" admittedly, that was hard to say with a straight face. He knew too well the crystal was responding to Bessie Busybody falling in a hole. However, the hole she had fallen into was only waist-deep by puppet standards, and it wasn't enough to hurt her besides minor injuries, if even that. Of course he would have to save her: the hero code specifically states that anyone who's in danger must be saved, even if they're a villain, an enemy, or just someone you generally don't like. But he knew who she was, and what she did to people. Not to mention she's spent at least the last several weeks inconveniencing him by trapping him here. It wouldn't kill her if he made her wait just a few minutes in turn.

Milford and Stephanie returned to the hole, the girl with a life preserver around her neck.

"Send help right away..." Bessie was on her cellphone. Bessie wasn't entirely sure how Pixel would manage to get help, but with Robbie being too far out of line, and Milford being... well, Milford, Pixel was the next-best thing that she had.

"Oh, Ms. Busybody! Oh, oh my!" the mayor was distressed seeing her trapped like this.

"I brought a life preserver!" Stephanie announced.

"I brought a cake," Milford added.

"Oh! Nice cake," Ms. Busybody chuckled a bit to hide her re-boiling fury. As much as she wanted to scream and take her bad mood out on everyone around her, she still had to put on the 'nice lady' act for young Stephanie over there.

"Oh, thank you. I made it just for you..."

Idiot, Ms. Busybody was not amused.

"Oh! Oh, we must save her!" Milford exclaimed.

"Okay, stand back! I'm going to throw the life preserver over the branch." It had only taken the girl one try to do as she said; for most kids of her size, it would've taken at least a few, but back in her hometown, she was the fastest and strongest kid in her class (even being faster and stronger than the boys, that of which she particularly got a kick out of).

"Good throw! Lower... closer... closer... yes!" Ms Busybody grabbed a hold of it. "Oh, I've got it. Now my bag..." she situated herself, making sure she had her purse over her shoulder. "Ready?"

"Hold tight!" Stephanie responded as she and the mayor began to pull the puppet woman up.

From a distance, Sportacus could see the rope beginning to break. Okay: that was enough making her wait. Somersaulting over, he arrived to catch both sides of the rope, just as it snapped in half. It was a good thing he did, too! The mayor would've crushed the cake he worked so hard on had he fallen.

"I CAN'T... HOLD ON... MUCH LONGER!"

Sportacus tried not to roll his eyes. He had been warned Busybody was downright evil, but nobody mentioned that she was also a drama queen! Once Stephanie and the mayor were able to get back on their feet and she was within his reach, Sportacus grabbed Ms. Busybody by the waist and set her back down, keeping a hand on her shoulder to make sure she didn't fall back in. "Are you okay?"

"Oh! My hero!" Bessie growled that last word through her teeth, following her comment with some angry giggling.

Goodness gracious: Sportacus could already tell dealing with this woman was going to be a nightmare. "Glad to help!" he chimed, pretending to ignore her tone.

Robbie had just realized: now that Bessie was out of the hole, it wouldn't be long before her wrath rained down on him. He grabbed his chest, debating whether or not to rip his heart right out of it.

"You're amazing, Sportacus!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"So were you!"

"Oh, yes, yes," Milford agreed.

Ms. Busybody found herself hyperventilating partially from anger, partially from panic. There was yet another damn hero in town, which meant another attempt against her. Should she even leave, knowing how easily this hero could unravel all those years of hard work? "Oh dear," she said to herself, voice shaking.

Soon the puppet children gathered around her, talking over each other and worried about her safety.

"And as Mayor of LazyTown, I would like to offer you an official thank-you for your heroic actions. Uh..." it seemed Milford was at a loss how to actually thank the hero. "... Thank you ... uh, number 10!"

"You're welcome! Please call me Sportacus!"

"Sportacus?!" the small crowd of puppets exclaimed, though the children far happier than the adult.

Bessie turned around to find Robbie peering over the wall, his expression a mix of fear, sheepishness and anger. She knew he knew he was in deep sh-

"You know, LazyTown is really starting to feel like home for me."

"Me too."

"Will you stay?" Stephanie asked him.

"Will you, huh?" Ziggy asked.

Even though Robbie knew Sportacus couldn't see him from where he was standing, he made a disapproval gesture anyway.

"Will he?" Stingy asked when Sportacus didn't respond right away.

"... I think I will." Not like I have much of a choice anyway, Sportacus thought.

"Yay!" the puppet children cheered in unison.

Robbie gasped. "Stay? No!" Truth be told, he really had mixed feelings rather than purely negative ones about the new Sportacus being here, but now was not the time to break character, especially with everyone else nearby.

"Well, I got to get back to my job, then," Milford said.

"We can help you! No one's lazy in LazyTown!" Stephanie said before running ahead of the group.

"Yes!" Sportacus liked this girl's attitude. If she were to ever be affected by anything they would do to transform her, he was feeling optimistic that it wouldn't happen for a long time.

The other puppet children began to join in, beginning to help pull weeds from the various places they popped up in all over town, and clean up trash scattered in the streets.

Suddenly everyone began to feel a similarly cheerful and upbeat song while not the same as the first, gave everyone an urge to dance.

"Bing bang digga rigga dong, funny words I sing when I am dancing... bing bang digga rigga dong, silly words that can mean anything!" Stephanie sang.

Sportacus knew this song: maybe not its tune, but Number 9 pointed out this song in particular. One thing Sportacus did to keep himself busy during his many nights alone was practicing the moves to this dance, which Number 9 outlined in detail for him. Doing this would give the illusion he was beginning to fall under Busybody's control, and therefore loosen her suspicions of him until he had time to figure something out. All those years he had spent in LazyTown before him, Number 9 never did figure out exactly what the song meant, he did notice a pattern: it played whenever Radiant (or 'Robbie Rotten' as this villainous persona was called) had failed Busybody in whatever plan he could to keep the town lazy and run the hero out, and sometimes seemed to act as a signal to tell her this when she wasn't around.

After spending the rest of the day dancing, cleaning up, and playing games with the children, Sportacus returned to his ship. He would need to remind himself of the exact protocol of what to do when another human ended up in LazyTown, but if it was one thing he decided that day: he wasn't going to give up until Busybody was defeated, and both Robbie and Stephanie were safe, no matter how long that would take.

Robbie stomped the whole way back to his lair, muttering indistinctly what would be safe to assume was about Sportacus, and brushing the leaf crumbles that had gotten on his clothes. (He accidentally fell into his own trap trying to sneak out, but he got out unharmed.)

Sliding down the chute to his underground abode, things were awfully quiet as far as he could tell. Maybe he had gotten away with it after all.

"Hello, Robbie." The first sight to greet Robbie when he landed from the tube was Bessie, who seemed to predict exactly where he'd land. Accompanying her were two hulking puppets twice her size, both of them dressed like train staff. These goons were usually the ones who ran the trains, bringing in supplies and sometimes more victims with them, but every once in a while, Ms. Busybody would summon them from off the train.

... There was only one reason she ever summoned them off the train.

Ms. Busybody raised a plastic-like eyebrow. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out what was going on, here?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Robbie lied indignantly, getting up from the chair he landed in.

"Oh, I think you do," she growled.

"If this is about the new hero, I swear I had nothing to do with that!" Rapidly Robbie looked around the room, as if he could somehow find an escape route he hadn't known about before.

"Go on, boys: you know what to do."

Desperately spinning around, he had gotten about three steps away he was grabbed by the leg, and yanked to the floor. Though he knew it was no use, he tried again to get to his feet, but was promptly interrupted by the other goon stomping down on his arm. Robbie screamed as he heard the bone snap, but a swift kick to the stomach from the other goon knocked all the air out of him, leaving only tears to form in his eyes as one of his legs was broken in a similar fashion.

Tears streaming down his face as he struggled to move, or even breathe, he curled over his body, trying to protect his organs as much as he could while the goons beat him to a pulp. All of their blows landed where he was clothed, which he knew was so no one could see the bruises or other injuries and ask about them. He hated their laughter, and how they always enjoyed this a bit too much, but he was nowhere near strong enough to fight back.

When they finally stopped, Robbie felt a familiar heeled shoe resting on his head.

"Consider yourself lucky I need you alive."

Robbie barely choked out a whimper at the sharp, hot pain of the tip of the shoe striking his forehead, a thin, warm stream of blood soon spilling from the tiny wound.

He didn't open his eyes until they left. Well, that actually wasn't as bad as he was anticipating: she's had her guards do worse to him before... which, in a way he supposed was a good thing. Because her torture methods usually resulted in serious injuries, that motivated him to stock up on special supplies ahead of time, such as an advanced plaster bandage that sped the process of healing a broken bone from six-to-eight weeks to merely one week. There should still have been some in the medicine cabinet...

The pain really began to sink in as Robbie used his intact limbs to push himself towards the bathroom of his lair. Whenever the pain got this bad, his mind couldn't help but drift to a time where he wasn't Robbie Rotten, pawn of Bessie Busybody, but rather Robert Radiant, hero of LazyTown.

Many years ago, LazyTown was not only a real town, with real families, tourists and other hardworking citizens, but actually a nice place to live: it was a thriving town that welcomed all kinds of people, even aliens and other non-humans! Like any other hero, Robbie kept the town's citizens safe, and encouraged small children to eat healthy and get plenty of time outside.

But strange things had happened since puppet sweets peddler Bessie Busybody moved to town: the sweet and/or fatty foods she sold became highly addictive to the populace, unnatural fumes emitted from the ovens and other machinery in town, cameras would pop up in various places, and worst of all, people gradually began to transform... into puppets. Which Robbie supposed wouldn't be such a bad thing... if the process hadn't left you a former shell of yourself that she could control any time she pleased. While she never officially took any sort of office, Bessie Busybody had single-handedly taken over LazyTown from behind the scenes. Even Radiant wasn't immune to these effects: over time, various parts of his head, mostly from the eyebrows up had been puppetized. Every once in a while, he could feel himself slipping away along with everyone else, joining in on eating sweets and becoming less active.

He didn't know what Busybody's end goal was or why she was doing this (and still doesn't, to this day), but in a desperate attempt to save the people who weren't puppetized, he struck a deal with her: whatever people were still human would be allowed to leave LazyTown and be spared from the process, and she could keep the ones who were visibly puppetized for her use. She agreed, with some terms of her own: not only would Radiant have to step down as hero of LazyTown, he would also have to play the villain so he would be a scapegoat, keeping the residents lazy (which he soon found out was to help speed up the puppetizing process) and driving other heroes that would try to stop her away. That way, the residents would have someone that wasn't her to blame for the state their fair town had fallen into, and she could continue with her scheme as planned.

The unaffected people were soon evacuated, but the rest of the populace hadn't been so lucky. Puppetizing was not only a process that would fully change a person, but also a very risky, even deadly process. Only a handful of people survived the initial wave, and even people in that handful that would die a few months later. Over the years, the population of LazyTown had gone down from about three-hundred to nine, himself included. There were several nights he lost sleep thinking about it, thinking about how many more people he could've saved, how he should've found a way to stop her and save all the townsfolk... but it was too late now.

That didn't mean all hope was lost, however; there was a pattern: overall children were found more likely to survive than adults (thus why Busybody targeted the former group more often), and the chances of both groups increased the less they fought the process, meaning they should avoid being active and eating food that didn't have the mind-control drugs she used.

Then that brought him to little Stephanie: it wasn't that he wanted her (or anyone!) to be forcibly turned into a puppet, but he knew too well of this fate that was about to become her if she couldn't be saved in time. Obviously, best-case scenario was that the new Sportacus would find a way to sneak her out of town and she could keep living life as a normal human girl, but in case that wasn't achievable, he figured he'd at least try to give her the best chance at survival possible. And that wasn't even getting into the fact Bessie was basically holding him at gunpoint (or, puppetizing-point might've been a more appropriate term) to play along and do as she said. The only positive to working for her was that she was occasionally willing to give him ingredients for an antidote cake that not only would stop the puppetizing process in its tracks, but even give him temporary immunity to the drugs and mind-control in the food and fumes throughout LazyTown.

He had tried before to rebel against her, he had tried before to try and leave the town, he'd even tried magic at one point (only to find that there was a high-tech, anti-magic shield around her at all times) but every time he made some sort of attempt to change his situation, the blue-haired devil made sure he would suffer for it, bringing him right back to where he was before. Maybe he deserved this fate. What kind of hero lets more than half their town die?

It had taken several agonizing hours, but Robbie patched himself up, and used one side of his body to make his way over to his favorite orange chair. But he could never relax: especially not with the cameras all over his lair constantly pointed at him, watching his every move. Tears still strong in his eyes, he knew he had to keep going on... lest the situation he was in become worse from not being in character.

"I, Robbie Rotten, will not be beaten by a costumed Sportaloony and some pink cheerleader!" he stomped his right leg on his footstool, briefly forgetting it was broken. "Owww ow ow ow! I'll stop them if it's the last thing I do. And then, LazyTown will stay lazy forever!" He moved his right arm when laughing evilly... forgetting also that that was broken too.

Mayor Meanswell had told him once he had become quite convincing to those watching on the outside... but Robbie hated that he was just as much of a helpless hostage as everyone else here in LazyTown.

Chapter Text

Dear Diary, I've been staying in Lazytown for...

Stephanie furrowed her brow as she wrote. How long had she been here? It didn't feel that long, but she hadn't been keeping track.

...a while now, she decided, smoothing her forehead again.

I guess it's nice here. I made some new friends and even got everyone to help clean up the town. The only downside is sometimes a bunch of smoke fills up the house when my uncle tries to bake something. I try to stay away from it but it makes me kinda sick.

"Stephanie!"

The girl turned her attention to her uncle standing in the doorway of her room.

"Why aren't you outside, playing?" he asked.

"Well, Stingy's got this new soccer ball, but he won't share it. And Pixel wants to play soccer, but only on his computer. And Ziggy's taking a nap after breakfast, so he can be hungry for lunch!" Stephanie complained.

Milford gasped. "No one is outside playing? Oh, that's terrible!"

Stephanie's expression didn't change. Her uncle was acting awfully strange, considering when she first arrived he insisted kids didn't play outside in LazyTown.

"But I know someone who can help. Wait right here! Oh, yes," he said as he left the room.

Chances are he was going to go get Sportacus. Exhaling, Stephanie went back to her diary entry:

My best friend so far is Sportacus. He's a superhero and really good at sports! But even he acts kinda weird sometimes. Like yesterday when we were all out playing ball he seemed like he was looking for something but he wouldn't tell me what it was. When I asked him about it he said he got distracted watching a bird (I didn't see any.) and then there was a second time he did the same thing and said the sun got in his eyes. (It was cloudy all day.)

Stephanie's assumption was correct: Milford hated seeing his niece so down in the dumps. Even though he knew the kids weren't supposed to be outside playing, all of the kids adored the town hero and looked up to him; surely a visit from him would cheer her right up!

Besides, Ms. Busybody reminded him that today was Sportacular Spectacle Day (she often served as his calendar since he didn't have one of his own), and suggested he invite Sportacus. And she was right! What kind of celebration would Sportacular Spectacle Day be without someone like Sportacus?

"I can always count on Sportacus!" Milford said as he inserted the letter into the tube and sent it soaring into the air.

The hero had been happening to run a surveillance of the town from above. Now that he didn't have to fly so high to hide, he actually could supervise the town a little more while being less at risk for encountering the drug fumes.

It seemed these last few days worry was beginning to build in his mind. Where was Radiant? Did something happen to him while he and Number 9 switched places? It had been a whole week since he arrived and there was still no sign of him! The notes said that occasionally he may have been lurking behind a wall or spying somewhere close by, but Sportacus hadn't seen him even once.

The radar on a control panel telling him about the letter coming his way broke his thoughts. Flying over to collect it, he flipped out of the piolet's seat and caught the tube as it shot into the room.

Opening it, Sportacus read the letter aloud: "I need your help - the mayor." Oh no. Was something wrong? His crystal wasn't going off, but sometimes Sportacus wondered if staying up in his airship put the crystal out of range. "This must be important," he decided. "I'm on my way!"

Sportacus flipped from where he was standing back into his seat... only to have landed in it backwards. Shrugging, he turned around in the pilot's chair and flew the ship towards the mayor's house.

Stopping only a few meters away from the yellow cottage, Sportacus jumped from the ship and ran in the mayor's direction... only to find that he had accidentally sped past him. Skidding in his tracks, he turned around and hurried back the way he came to find the puppet man waiting by the mailbox.

"Mr. Mayor?" Sportacus asked. "What's the trouble?!"

"Oh, well-"

"Flood?"

"No," the mayor answered.

"Fire?"

"No."

"Earthquake?"

"No!"

"... Thunderstorm?" Sportacus really wasn't sure why his mind was jumping to various (and obvious) natural disasters, but something inside of him felt the need to get the worst-case scenarios out of the way first.

"Actually, it's that nobody wants to go outside and play!"

"What?!" Sportacus exclaimed. Sure, it wasn't an immediate danger-type situation, but from the standpoint that Stephanie wasn't outside and exercising to fight off the puppeting process, this was still something important to be concerned about. "... That is terrible!" Sportacus looked around to find they were the only two people standing outside. "You're right: no one is playing outside."

"Do you remember when last year you showed everyone how to play baseball, and they all wanted to hit home runs, hm?"

Sportacus couldn't help the bewildered look on his face. What did the mayor mean 'last year'? He hadn't gotten around to teaching the kids baseball at any time in the one week he had been on the ground!

"Well, maybe this year, you can get the kids excited about playing, uh, uh, uh - soccer!"

"Yeah?"

"Oh, oh, Stephanie loves soccer."

Sportacus could understand Stephanie asking him to help with this, even if for a second time, but the mayor? A puppet agent of Ms. Busybody's? Complaining about one of the very things that would keep their plans running smoothly? "... Well, I do know one cool move..."

"Wonderful! Oh, I knew I could count on you, Sportacus!" The mayor said as he walked past Sportacus.

"... Hm." Sportacus wanted to give the mayor the benefit of the doubt since puppetizing was often accompanied with brain damage affecting the victim's ability to remember things (assuming they survived), and perhaps his memory didn't work like it used to. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right here...

The mayor put a hand on Sportacus' shoulder. "Follow me," he said before dragging the hero off by his muscled arm.

Not to far from the city hall was a seemingly empty area that the mayor had brought Sportacus to.

"This way, Sportacus!" Sportacus watched as Mayor Meanswell grabbed hold of a lever sticking up from the ground. "Yes, uh, I hereby declare Sportacular Spectacle Day to be uh, well uh... today!" Pulling back on it with all his might, the short-statured mayor fell backwards to the ground as a stage, complete with decorations and a banner reading "Sportacular Spectacle Day", popped up in front of them. "Ta-da!" Mayor Meanswell said as he got back up.

Sportacus had no idea what was going on, but he needed some space to go and figure it out. "I better go and... practice my move. I don't want to disappoint Stephanie! ...Or anyone else."

Without objection from the mayor, Sportacus leaped over the nearest wall and bolted away. The hero hadn't seen the periscope sticking up from the ground, watching him.

"If it wasn't for that good-for-nothing, warm-hearted, generous, healthy quack, everyone would still be lazy in LazyTown!" The way Robbie saw it, that was both a good and a bad thing for different reasons, but his default behavior had become acting like a cross between a stereotypical over-the-top ham of a villain and a grumpy old man, so he just growled into his periscope while watching Sportacus do a couple more flips.

Looking around to see if anything else was going on, his eyes rested on the banner. "Huh?" Oh dear. Robbie may have only been visibly puppetized in some parts of his head, but there were times he wondered if part of his brain were affected as well: he couldn't read as well as he used to. "S... P... O... R... 'Spor'?! It's 'Spor'! No, it's Spor... tackle... cull... locker... sportackle? Sporcurgle? Spurtang-?" The pieces finally clicked together in his mind, "... Sportacular Spectacle?! AH! It's that day! This was my favorite day before Sporta-kook came to town!" Though... as far as he could remember, this would actually be the Sportacular Spectacle with Sportacus in town (the new one, of course. He decided while waiting for his injuries to heal that he was going to call Number 10/the new Sportacus simply "Sportacus" (amongst the other nicknames he'd used on the original), and Number 9/the old Sportacus "Number 9"). If Sportacus was going to be the main attraction, was this why Bessie had instructed him to create controllable replicas of Sportacus' shoes? 

Didn't matter: he happened to feel like evil monologuing, whether the cameras were watching or not. (Which of course, they always were, but that was besides the point.) "Back then, the sports were pie-eating contests and diving into chocolate syrup - those were the days! Oh, never mind that. Soon, the town hero will be the town zero! Hahahaha! Thanks to my newest most brilliant invention ever," he said, grabbing the remote "the Flee Feet Racer 6000!" Robbie moved the controls so the boots walked towards him. "Ah! You are so beautiful! My precious!" He began to use the controller to play with boots, making them dance on the table. "Hippity-hop! Hippity-hop! Sportacus is going to flop!"

It was unfortunately at this moment he had gotten so carried away that one of the boots accidentally kicked him in the face. While on the floor, he thought he could hear them doing a jig of their own. Hopefully this didn't mean anything bad like a malfunction or the like would happen with them later!

Robbie got up and shook his head. "And now for my favorite part! It's disguise time!" he said with an evil laugh.

The boots followed Robbie as he went to go look at his disguise options.

Robbie began with a Napoleon Bonaparte-esque costume. "Too loony!" He moved on to the second one, an astronaut suit. "Too moony!" The third one: "too..." a baby? "...Puny," (he wondered why he even had that). Finally came to the last one - at the end of the row, a gray and yellow business suit. "Too good to be true! Ha-ha! Perfect!"

Stephanie wasn't normally the kind of kid to sit in front of a TV in a dark room for hours on end, but mindlessly watching cartoons at Pixel’s house at least gave her something to do before the Sportcular Spectacle Day show began. At least she wasn't sitting, really; she was standing with her arms resting on the back of the couch. She didn't like to sit still long, and somehow she couldn't shake some underlying anxiety that if she were to sit down, she wouldn't want to get up!

"Is... it time yet?" Ziggy asked. Stephanie ignored him as he paced in front of the TV. "Is... it time yet?" he asked again. "Well what time is it?"

"It's ten seconds later than the last time you asked!" Pixel snapped. He had been trying to focus on the computer game in front of him, but Ziggy's constant talking and questioning didn't make that easy.

"Sorry, I just can't wait to see Sportacus' big new stunt!" The hyperactive child paced back to the other side. "... Is it time yet?"

"NO!" Pixel glared at him.

"... So every year, Sportacus does a special sports stunt?" Stephanie asked.

"Exactly. On the Sportacular Spectacle Day," Pixel confirmed.

"Yeah, like last year he did this awesome stunt and he was all like-" Ziggy added the sound effects to his zig-zagged movements as he described it the best way he could: "woosh! Woosh!" He went back to the other side of the couch before tripping and falling.

"... Only he did not land on his face," Pixel added. A fanfare caught the pre-teen's attention. "Oh, it's the mayor," he said, looking up at one of the screens in the upper-right corner.

Mayor Meanswell tapped the microphone to see if it was working. "Ladies and gentlemen..."

"Changing to TV..." Pixel pressed a button on his controller. Soon the image of the mayor was where his friends could see it.

"Sportacular Sports Day is about to begin! Sportacus will do an amazing soccer trick."

Ziggy let out an exclaimation of excitement. "Does that mean-?!"

"It's time!" Pixel and Stephanie said simultaneously.

"COOL! Wow! Wow!" In his hurry to get out the door, he ended up tripping over various objects.

Pixel looked over in concern. He always thought his pleathora of screens lit the room well enough, but every once in a while the thought of investing in a lamp or two came to mind.

"I'm okay!" Ziggy assured his friends from outside.

Sportacus was using the last few moments he had of peace and quiet to try and kick the soccer ball into the goal behind him. He missed every time, but even as he was partially distracted by mentally searching his notes, he was still determined not to stop until he got the ball into the net. Sure, Sportacus could've gone back to the ship and see what Number 9 had to say about it, but perhaps others would find it too suspicious that he would stay in his ship and read rather than try to practice his stunt. Luckily, he's read it over and browsed it enough times that he had a decently solid memory of the contents.

Number 9 hadn't mentioned Sportacular Sports Day. Not directly, anyway: the letters "SSD" popped up on a page in his notes, but he never said what it stood for. What he did say about it, however, was that he being the hero was targeted on this day, and an "accident" had left him gravely injured. Had Radiant not stuck out his neck and managed to sneak him some of his own regular healing items while Bessie's back was turned, he might not have made it. Even this story in itself was rather vague: sure he could only fit so much in his notes so that the book looked the same size as a regular LazyTown history book, but the lack of detail left Sportacus in an even worse state than he was in this morning: what kind of "accident" was Number 9 talking about? Did one of Robbie's "plans" have something to do with it? Was he going to be next?

Sportacus didn't have much time to worry about this; the show was going to start soon whether he was ready or not. Maybe if he could just get this "stunt" thing over-with, he could live another day to figure this out.

"One more time," he said to himself. Taking a deep breath, he threw the ball in the air, and kicked it behind him. What do you know? he thought to himself. I got one! "I'm ready."

Sportacus was so distracted by his anxiety that he hadn't noticed the salesman that had to dodge his ball just seconds ago. Getting up and straightening his tie, he caught up to the younger man. "HELLO, SIR!"

Sportacus was caught off-guard by seeing yet another human. At the moment, an exact quote from Number 9's notes popped into his mind:

If you see another human about as tall as you, regardless of what they're wearing, assume it's Robbie in disguise.

So then... that meant... this was...

The salesman extended his hand. Sportacus could see his lips moving, but his words didn't quite register to him; he was already so preoccupied with the dawning realization that Robert Radiant, his childhood hero, was standing right here in front of him, shaking his hand. In disguise, yes; pretending to be a villain, also yes, but still Sportacus fought off the feeling of being awed, star-struck even in his presence to try and keep his cover.

Suddenly remembering that Robbie acted as a double-agent for Busybody, it occurred to him that there might've been a plan formulated to take him out at his Sportacular Spectacle Day performance. He had to get out of here before he was right where they wanted him!

"Excuse me, but I-" The second Sportacus tried to run, the salesman linked his arm with Sportacus, making the two of them spin around a few times. Guess I'm not going anywhere... Sportacus thought.

Robbie sighed and set the briefcase he was carrying down on a nearby object. "Have you ever thought to yourself, 'boy, my shoes are sure covered by slimy smelly goo'?"

What? Why? Where is he going with this? Sportacus thought.

"Huh? Have you?" Robbie asked when he didn't respond right away.

Sportacus glanced at his shoes and shook his head. "No..." he was about to excuse himself and try once again to escape, but before he could say anything else, Robbie pulled a thermos from his briefcase and poured a foul-smelling purple slime and poured it over Sportacus' feet, clearly disgusted as he did so. Sportacus looked down at his shoes and back at Robbie as he tossed the thermos aside. What... what was that for? That better not have been toxic!

"Now have you thought to yourself 'boy my shoes sure are covered by slimy smelly goo'?"

Sportacus could quickly feel his initial wonder for the man fade to impatience. "I'm trying to get to some place."

"Well! Let me CLEAN YOUR SHOES first! With my..." he took a moment to pull out what Sportacus thought was some kind of shoe polisher. "...Shoe Cleaner 6000!" WOAH! Ha-ha!" (it seemed he was trying to imitate an audience reaction as he turned it on and off again.) "Shoes, please."

Sighing, Sportacus reluctantly leaped out of his boots. Robbie plugged his nose, revulsing as he picked up the boots and put them behind the opened half of his briefcase. Turning the cleaner on, he started to clean the boots. Or so it might've looked like from where Sportacus was standing: the second he glanced over the briefcase, he could see the shoe polisher wasn't even remotely touching his shoes. Looking over in the direction of the stage not too far in front of them (in part to check on the crowd and in part not to burst out laughing while Robbie made all those silly faces while he exaggerated what he was doing), Sportacus could see there was still no one gathered yet, but he hated being late.

If you want to fake-clean my shoes, fine, but couldn't you at least fake-clean them faster? Sportacus thought.

Robbie turned off the cleaner. Good; was he done?

He shuddered as he held the messy boots. "Out, with the real shoes..." Robbie whispered, giggling evilly, "...and in with the trick shoes!"

Sportacus watched as Robbie set the goopy boots on the ground. He also noticed not only how loud he was speaking for a whisper, but the tone he said it in, as if he intended for him to hear what he said!

"There you go, sir!" Robbie held up the aforementioned trick shoes.

Sportacus knew he was getting into fakes, but if he were to let on he actually knew about anything that was going on, he could end up endangering both him, and Robbie. "Thank you," he said before jumping into the new pair.

"And good luck!" Robbie called as Sportacus did a jump-flip over the wall and ran towards the meeting center. "Wahaha. You'll need it." Robbie gagged as he touched the goo on the original shoes. "Goodbye, shoes," he said, being sure to throw them in a trash can sitting in plain sight so Sportacus could get them back later, "Goodbye, Sport-a-cus!" he said in a sing-songy tone. He wasn't sure how much Sportacus was able to hear pick up on what he was saying, but hopefully he had said and done enough to at least give the hero a general idea of what was going to happen soon.

Robbie looked back and forth for any oncoming people. Opening and closing the tiny fence behind him, he repeated the process before crouching down behind it just as everyone was starting to come to the town meeting area.

"Sportacus!"

The hero smiled at the young girl coming his way. "Hi, Stephanie."

"I'm so excited! Everyone's talking about the big stunt you're going to perform."

Sportacus knew Stephanie probably didn't intend to make him more on-edge than he already was, but what she said didn't exactly calm him.

Ziggy, of course, was waiting far ahead of everyone in the benches behind him. "This is so exciting!"

"Oh, I know!" Trixie said from her own seat.

"Are you nervous?" Stephanie asked, her tone sympathetic. Sportacus figured she picked up on his body language. She certainly was observant... perhaps too observant for her own good.

"Um... just a little bit." In the week he had been there, Stephanie was the one person Sportacus felt comfortable calling a "friend". There was so much he wished he could tell her: he wanted to tell her about the mission, the drugs in the fumes and foods and what they did to people (especially if they didn't eat healthy and exercise), how much danger she and Robbie were in, how he needed to find a way for all three of them to escape and do so without getting puppetized, how even though he knew he had some allies to help him there were times it felt like his mission rested entirely on him, and perhaps worst of all, there was no one he could really talk to about it; he had to keep it to himself, and if he were to break down and/or let his emotions get the better of him or everything else would fall apart.

The night he arrived was when he found Number 9's instructions on what to do when another human entangled themselves in this web of chaos; he was not to tell any other humans anything about the mission. The risk that the human would inadvertly expose him to Busybody, or worse yet, try to stop her themselves without any type of training or means of defending themselves was too high. Sportacus agreed; that risk got even higher for someone as stubborn and optimistic as Stephanie.

But... maybe there was a way he could vent a little without her catching on.

Sportacus crouched down to Stephanie's level. "You know, sometimes, when you wanna try something, and do it really well? You get those little... butterflies in your stomach." 'Butterflies in your stomach' was an understatement, sure, but he didn't know how to describe this kind of anxiety to an eight-year-old.

Stephanie placed a hand on Sportacus' bicep. "I know you're gonna do great."

Sportacus briefly returned the gesture. "Thanks, Stephanie." The goal was to have her assume he was talking about the stunt, when really he was talking about everything going on altogether. Luckily, she seemed to buy it. Even if she didn't know about any of this somehow he felt she would say just the same to him if she did. "I won't let you down!" Sportacus called as Stephanie went to go sit on one of the benches.

Sportacus wasn't sure if he was imagining this or not, but he thought he could hear intense, eerie music, almost as if an omen for something terrible to happen.

"Welcome, everyone, to Sportacular Spectacle Day!" Mayor Meanswell said into the microphone. "And please welcome our wonderful town hero, Sportacus!"

Everyone in the audience clapped and cheered.

"Go, Sportacus!" Stephanie hollered.

Sportacus got up on stage and bowed.

"What amazing stunt are you going to do with a soccer ball, Sportacus?" Ziggy asked. He was now sitting by Stingy and Trixie on the front bench.

"A quick flip and a kick!" the hero replied. It wasn't like he had a name for it.

Still the audience loved it and gave it applause, even when he hadn't started yet.

Sportacus noticed Robbie giving him a thumbs-down from a distance. It could've been taken as an antagonizing gesture, but something about it felt like he was saying "get ready".

"Uh, yes, uh, Pixel! Uh, drums please," the mayor said.

"Right!" Pixel pressed a button on his high-tech watch and a funky dance beat played from it.

Almost immediately, Stephanie's first reaction was to get up and dance, almost on a compulsive level.

"No no no no no. Not those kinds of drums. A drum roll, please," Mayor Meanswell clarified.

"Riiight," slightly embarrassed, Pixel turned off the music.

He wasn't the only one, Stephanie sat back down in her own seat. Normally she'd never feel ashamed of dancing (she even wanted to be a dancer when she grew up!) but that all was just so... random.

Pixel now playing a drum roll sound effect, Stephanie pushed her brief sheepishness to the side and waited on the edge of her seat in anticipation... but she couldn't see Robbie switch the controller on.

Chapter Text

"I can't wait to see his act!" the hero heard Ziggy from the crowd.

Sportacus took that as his cue to spin around and get into position. Okay, Sportacus. Just do what you were doing on the sports field, and maybe you can take off the shoes before something happens.

Just as he thought it, he struggled to keep his balance and started kicking his feet out in front of him!

"What's wrong?" Ziggy asked.

"Well that's some fancy footwork!" the mayor commented.

Sportacus felt himself beginning to slip as if he were on ice before falling into a split. Glancing out in the crowd, he couldn't help but notice the evil smirk on Bessie's face. Even if she wasn't directly controlling his feet, Sportacus had no doubt she was the mastermind behind this whole scheme.

"Oh dear."

"He fell!"

Sportacus tried to get back up but lost balance and tumbled backwards. He began to suspect there were tiny wheels at the bottom of these shoes, but it wasn't like he could check.

Stephanie's jaw dropped. She knew Sportacus was nervous about this stunt, but she didn't know he was that nervous!

Sportacus thought maybe hopping would make it better but, instead accidentally kicked the mayor (who had gotten dizzy watching him) in the back.

"Sorry, Mayor! My feet are going cuckoo!"

"This is terrible!" Stingy said as he covered his eyes. "Oh, I can't take it anymore!"

"WOOOAAAH!" A second later Sportacus found himself rocketing off of the stage!

"Sportacus!" The mayor called.

"Oh no!" Ziggy had been the last to speak before silence fell over the crowd.

Shooting back to the stage, Sportacus slid around on it, going so fast that his feet were skidding.

"Sportacus! Try to balance yourself!" Ziggy suggested.

Sportacus did as Ziggy suggested and actually managed to stand still!

"Yeah, try it."

"He's okay! He's okay!"

With a mischievous grin on his face, Robbie went right back to controlling Sportacus' feet; he had stopped just long enough to give him a moment of false hope. Of course, Robbie knew Sportacus was here to help the situation overall and they were more or less on the same team, but he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't having fun with this. Besides, this time around he made sure that there was nothing that would make the boots catch fire so easily, and as far as he could tell, it didn't seem like Sportacus was getting hurt from it.

"Not again!" Ziggy cried as Sportacus fell into another split.

Watching one more time to watch Sportacus struggling to stand like a foal trying to steady itself on its hooves for the first time, Robbie gleefully pressed a button on the controller that sends Sportacus zooming into a nearby park bench.

Sportacus tried in vain to hold on to them so he could remove the boots. "Stay!" he told his feet as they violently and involuntarily kicked in the air (though he knew that wouldn't help anything).

"Is that part of his stunt?" Stephanie asked, her voice full of disbelief.

Ziggy frowned. "No way! There's something really wrong here!"

The other puppet children nodded and agreed with him.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go help him!"

"Off you go!" Bessie followed her exclamation with a slightly sinister laugh as Stephanie led the way for the other children.

Not too far from her, Robbie had also given one of his signature evil laughs as he set the controller to 'autopilot'. "With Sportacus out of the way, I think LazyTown needs a new hero!" he said as he used his magic to switch into his homemade costume.

Soon Mayor Meanswell and Ms. Busybody were the only ones left in the square. The puppet woman hummed and occasionally looked around to hide the fact she was switching her psychic energy from holding the puppet children back to keep the mayor right were he was. At first she thought it would be better to hold the children where they were so nobody could help Sportacus, but then she realized if she didn't have control over the mayor, he might've come to his senses and cancelled Sportacular Spectacle Day. Milford's heart was too big. He cared too much about his citizens and their safety... which normally would be a fine thing, but any real help the hero would get was not welcome from her.

"... Maybe it was all part of the stunt."

It had taken Ms. Busybody a moment to realize he was talking to her. He looked so out of it she wouldn't have guessed otherwise. "Oh, yes!" she chuckled nervously. "Maybe," she said as she focused harder to keep him quiet.

Sportacus tried to grab his feet so he could take the shoes off, but they were so out of control he couldn't reach them!

"Stay!" Sportacus tried to grab his left foot and failed. "Stay!" he tried the same thing with the right foot with the same results.

"Sportacus! What's wrong?!" The hero could hear the clear distress in Stephanie's voice and began internally kicking himself (no pun intended). He had thought that by putting on the fakes and playing along he might've been able to protect Robbie and himself, but he hadn't thought about what might've happened to him and the children were watching while he'd get into some kind of accident. Sure, his situation was probably going better than Number 9's (whatever it was that really happened to him), but how in the world was he supposed to explain to her that he knowingly and willingly got into fakes?

"It seems like... I just can't control my feet!" Sportacus wished he could come up with something better, but at least what he said was true.

"There's always a way, Sportacus! I know, try this!"

Yet another upbeat song made its presence known, and Sportacus was propelled off of the bench, forced to follow her further into the field.

We're doing this now, when I can't control myself?! Sportacus thought as Stephanie started dancing. He tried to balance himself but fell into another split before stumbling to his feet.

"If things don't work out like you want this time, around..." Stephanie sang as Sportacus straightened his goggles. He hardly used them, why did he wear those on his head again? "You can try to turn the problem up-side down!"

As he tumbled backwards on the ground, Sportacus decided it would be best to tune her out. Even his best efforts to do so were not perfect however: he had tried to imitate Stephanie's movements just as he did whenever they danced together, but this time was a bit different. It was hard to describe, but there was an electric-type feeling in his arms that sparked a hint of dread within him. Was he getting a taste of what the kids felt whenever music played?

The children had tried just about everything they could to help him. First Stephanie tried to hold him in place, when that didn't work, Ziggy and Trixie tried sitting on his feet (being puppets, they weren't terribly heavy so this attempt didn't last long). Then they tied a rope to his foot, with predictable results.

Now the kids were trying to restrain him to the bench he had been sitting on earlier which... wasn't really helping much, given that he didn't have much control over his arms at the moment either.

"This is too hard!" Ziggy struggled as he was getting bounced up and down by Sportacus' leg. "I can't hold on forever!"

Clearly holding his limbs down wasn't going to work. "There must be something else I can do!" Sportacus said just before he accidentally kicked Ziggy in the face.

Thankfully, that had given Stephanie an idea: "I got it! Why don't you use your hands?"

"That's it!" Why didn't I think of that?! Sad that this child was hopped up on drugs and mind-control frequencies and still had better ideas than he did. Putting his hands out in front of him, Sportacus balanced himself into a handstand. Whatever was really controlling his feet must've been stopped for the moment, otherwise he wasn't sure he could've pulled this off.

Sportacus had a vague idea of what Stephanie singing about, believing in yourself and whatnot, which was very touching for the moment, but he couldn't help but feel concerned that she seemed off in her own little world as she continued her song for nearly another minute or so.

"Let's go tell the mayor!"

Oh thank goodness: it was finally over. Sportacus thought Stephanie had a lovely singing voice, but this was probably the longest he'd seen her fallen to the mind-control. "Right behind you!" Sportacus said as he tried to keep an eye on her feet. (He had difficulty telling where he was going otherwise.)

The singing seemed to have stopped. Did that mean the children had given up trying to help Sportacus? Bessie wasn't particularly paying attention: she was too focused on incapacitating the mayor. Speaking of which, he seemed to be past the point of cancelling anything, so for her own mental strength, it would've been better to let him go.

Suddenly, a figure clad in purple and orange slid across the stage.

"Mr. Mayor, say 'hello' to your new town hero, Lazycus!" the figure shot his fist into the air in front of him.

"Robbie Rotten? B-b-b-b-but, you're not a... hero!" Milford protested.

Damn right he's not! Ms. Busybody thought. I told him specifically 'no' and what does he do? He does it anyway! Earlier this morning Robbie got the bright idea that LazyTown would be easier to control with love than fear, and thus he should be a hero that promotes laziness. Anyone with even a shred of common sense knows that fear, manipulation, control, and negative motivation was far more effective than anything opposite (after all, there was a reason she had managed to keep this up for so many years), so Bessie shot the idea down before he let Milford know about it. (The last thing she needed was Milford of all people following Robbie's lead!)

"Yes I am! I have a letter on my chest, a nifty hat, and a tablecloth! Uh, a cape! It... well, okay fine it's- I couldn't find a cape it's a tablecloth, but it's close enough! Whataya say?" Robbie asked the mayor.

"Uh, oh, I don't know, uh, Sportacus may still come back..."

"Sportacus..." Robbie grumbled. In his normal voice he continued, "Ah, you mean the cuckoo-footed man who walks like this?" Gobbling like a turkey, Robbie danced in a circle, somewhat similar to how Sportacus was moving earlier. "So he's not a hero anymore, he messed up his big stunt! Remember?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Loonycus, I just-"

"IT'S LAZYCUS!" Robbie boomed. Lowering his voice back to its usual volume, he asked "so, what do I have to do to be a superhero?" before striking the same pose he did earlier.

"Oh, well, if you could uh, perform a stunt for Sportacular Spectacle Day, uh, Sportacus always does."

"Sportacus always does," Robbie repeated mockingly. "Well no problem!" He got to the middle of the stage and put his hands out. "Stand back!" He briefly glanced at Bessie, as if asking for approval.

Fine; he may as well since he's already here and dressed like an atrocity. "...Yes," was all she decided to say in response.

Slowly sliding down in what was supposed to be split... Robbie got stuck halfway through before falling backwards. Panting, he got back up.

"Ta-da! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you very much!" he said as he waved to his imaginary audience.

Bessie couldn't help but shake with rage. This was the best he could do?

"Uh, that's all it is?" the mayor asked. "Uh, doing a split?"

"Well I didn't quite get it, but you must admit that the style was great! Besides with Sportacus gone, I'm your only choice. I hereby declare myself-"

"Wait!" Robbie had stopped mid-pose to look at the pink-haired girl running back towards the town meeting area. "Sportacus can walk on his hands!"

Sportacus followed closely behind her, walking on his hands, accompanied by a puppet-child entourage.

"He's doing it! He's doing it!"

"He's on his hands!"

Robbie growled, starting to feel adrenaline rise up within him. Not because Sportacus and the kids found a way Sportacus could still do a stunt, but because when he looked over at the benches... Bessie was gone. That couldn't have been a good thing.

Sportacus hand-walked to the stage and the kids got back in their seats, Ziggy shushing them.

"Wonderful. Now go join the circus! We're busy here!"

Sportacus reminded himself this was probably part of the 'villain' act Robbie had going on, but he wasn't going to lie: that stung a bit coming from him.

"But walking on his hands is incredible!" Stephanie said, coming to his defense.

The puppet kids spoke over each other in agreement.

"Couldn't that be Sportacus' Sportacular Spectacle Day stunt?" Stephanie asked the mayor.

Robbie took his controller and turned it on, hiding it behind his back, but that didn't mean that Pixel didn't see the antennae of it sticking up from behind him.

"Well, it does seem rather Sportacular!" the mayor said.

Robbie gave out a derisive, evil laugh. "Sportacus, why don't you show us your amazing stunt?"

"Yeah, go for it!" Ziggy encouraged.

"Okay..." Sportacus tried to move a hand, but a second later found himself falling to the ground, kicking and flailing.

"I smell a rotten rat," Pixel said as he got up from his seat.

While the kids watched in horror, and Robbie chuckled evilly at Sportacus' situation, Pixel snuck up to the side of the stage behind him, gasping when he saw what Robbie was holding: "a Feet-Crazy-Maker 6000! Cool! ... But a rotten trick!"

Robbie could hear him over the commotion he was causing, but he thought it was a good thing the puppet kid was taking matters into his own hands. Forcing Sportacus' legs up and down a few more times, he hit the 'autopilot' button... and dropped it into Pixel's hands. "Now step aside and let the real hero, take over!" he said, glancing over in Pixel's direction to be sure that he caught it.

Pixel shut off the remote, and the trick shoes went flying off of Sportacus' feet. Everyone gasped as they watched the direction that they flew. Normally, this would be an internal moment of relief for Robbie, knowing that 'his' plan didn't work, but just as he looked over with everyone else, Pixel's eyes turned bright blue. It was brief, sure, but that half a second was all it took to tell Robbie that Pixel was no longer in control of himself. Fighting the feeling that he didn't think this through enough, Robbie rushed off the stage to retrieve the fakes.

After a moment, Sportacus stood up.

"He's on his feet!" Ziggy exclaimed.

"I can stand still!" Looking down at his feet, Sportacus asked "but where are my shoes?" as if he didn't know what just happened.

"HERE THEY ARE!" Lazycus ran back to the stage. "Here they are!" he repeated. "Put 'em on! PUT 'EM ON!"

Unsure how to react to the panic in Robbie's voice, Sportacus put his hands on the fakes, about to take them back from him.

Pixel was back in his place in the bench closest to the back. "Wait! Wait, Sportacus! Do not put those on!" He looked over at Robbie. "Robbie... why don't you put those shoes on?" This tone was so unlike the intellectual yet friendly Pixel; instead it sounded manipulative, controlling... domineering even.

It was enough to send a chill up Robbie's spine. "Me?! Well, no thanks." Wordlessly he pleaded to Sportacus to take the shoes.

"Aw come on, Robbie. Unless you're afraid," 'Pixel' challenged.

Robbie gasped. "Me? Afraid?" he laughed. He knew where this was going, but it was either this, or whatever Bessie would have in mind for him if he didn't do as she said. Neither scenario was going to end well for him, but he may as well pick the less impactful of the two. He looked at the back of boots for a minute before jumping into them. "There's nothing wrong with these shoes! Ha-ha."

"Mm-hm." 'Pixel' revealed the controller in his hands.

Robbie gasped. (He thought maybe if he pretended to be surprised, deliberately dropping the controller into Pixel's hands would look more like an accident.) "What?!"

"Goodbye, Robbie." 'Pixel' said before activating the controller.

After the puppet children scattered out of the way for an out-of-control Robbie, everyone (especially Stephanie) laughed at his supposedly self-sowed misfortune. Everyone except Sportacus. He tried to smile with them, but he had trouble hiding how tense he was at the moment. Watching Robbie, and not being able to help him because his crystal wasn't going off. (If he were to suddenly take Robbie's boots off when he supposedly wasn't in any danger, the townsfolk might've lost trust in him, thinking instead he was taking the villain's side.)

"Robbie, be careful!" Sportacus called.

One of Robbie's feet fell into the garbage can nearby the meeting area, making him fall over. Trying to remove his foot from the can, he made Sportacus' real boots, still covered in goo fall out. He found he was able to have just enough control to free himself, before he was unwillingly carried away again.

Stephanie noticed the boots in the distance, and ran to pick them up.

Ziggy noticed too. "Those must be Sportacus' real shoes!"

Coming back by everyone else, she used a cloth she usually reserved for getting dirt or mud off of the sports balls she and her friends would play with, and wiped the goo off.

Sportacus pretended he hadn't known about his real shoes. "Hey! My shoes!" At least Robbie was thoughtful enough to leave them nearby where he could get them back.

"Just like new," Stephanie said as she returned them to Sportacus.

"Now that's what I call 'Sportacular'!" the mayor said it as if he were reciting a line for a cheesy children's show.

Sportacus put a hand on Stephanie's shoulder. "Thank you!" he said before jumping back into the boots.

"For you!" Sportacus' noticed a hint of anger in Bessie's voice before tossed him the soccer ball. Strange, he didn't think she was there just a moment ago.

Catching the ball, Sportacus decided for the sake of the mission he was going to pretend that he had no idea Busybody was the one who was behind the whole thing. "Thank you." Sportacus turned his back to the goal. "Ready?" Tossing the ball in the air, he kicked it as he flipped, sending it soaring into the goal behind him.

He had heard a scream when he hit the ground, and turning to see if the ball made it, Sportacus realized he had almost accidentally hit Robbie in the face with the soccer ball.

"Wow! Did you see that?!" Ziggy was more than satisfied with the stunt.

"Wonderful!" Milford praised.

"Now that was a sportacular stunt!"

Didn't your uncle use that line already? Sportacus thought. "Thank you, Stephanie."

The cheerful, upbeat intro of "Bing Bang" started to play, and Sportacus knew it was time to dance. He was still rigid and on-edge from everything happening earlier that day, but he paused for a brief moment to watch Bessie dancing along with the puppets (shaking as though to hide her fury while she did), she didn't seem to be paying much attention to him. Still, he couldn't take that risk.

Sportacus briefly turned around to look at the field behind him before doing his split jump, again when she sang "move around and clap your hands together!" and "down down turn around". All three times, Sportacus noticed Robbie was out of sight, and found he couldn't help but worry about him. Robbie might not have been in danger right now, but who was to say he couldn't get hurt later, and perhaps worse yet, out of range of his crystal picking up on it?

It had taken at least a few hours but Robbie finally got the boots off of him. They stopped moving, so he figured after all this time the controller had run out of batteries. He relied mostly on what little upper-body strength he had to climb into his lair.

Hearing a 'click' shortly after landing on his chair, Robbie flinched at the sight at Ms. Busybody waiting once again in his lair.

"Hello, Robbie..."

Or so he thought she was. To his relief, he soon found it was just a hologram. A hologram that still didn't look any less angry than she would've been in-person.

"I was originally going to leave you a note, but then I remembered reading isn't your strong suit, so I've left this recording for you instead. My minions are out of town to get more supplies, so I won't be using them... this time. Now, pay attention, because I'm only going to say this ONCE." She took a moment to pause to be sure he was really listening. "YOU... ARE NOT... A 'HERO' ANYMORE, ROBBIE." She lowered her voice, still shaking with wrath. "You haven't been for years. May I remind you that it was you who gave that privilege up when you swore your allegiance to me? Your days as Robert Radiant are long-gone; the sooner you accept that, the better it'll be for everyone else. To make things better for everyone else..." her face twisted to an evil grin, "... that's what you wanted, right?"

The device beeping rapidly, Robbie took cover before anything that blew up from the tiny transmitting device hurt him.

At first, he just stood there, stunned. Sometimes her words hurt more than any torture method she put him through. Soon the feeling of rage began to burn within his belly.

He ripped off the hood of his costume and despite the burning in his legs went back towards his disguises to change into his pajamas. "So! They think they can just humiliate me?! In front of the entire town?!" he snapped to the camera, which had just turned on. "Oh, I'll show them! Just they wait until my next brilliant plan! Oh-ho-ho, they'll be sorry! They'll be sorry..."

Of course, by 'they' and 'them' he really meant 'Bessie' but there were multiple people watching his downfall that day, and he could've easily been referring to Sportacus, Pixel, maybe even that Stephanie girl, but as long as he didn't specify, Busybody couldn't accuse him of trying to attack her.

Chapter Text

Bessie had a love-hate relationship with phones. On one hand they helped her feel a sense of connection with people both on and off the base... on the other hand, she hated being forced to resort to these primitive devices of communication.

"Hold on! Hold on! Yes, BIG NEWS coming up!" Even with not one but two cellphones by her ears, they barely picked up any signal and didn't block out any noise like, like... whatever it was Milford was doing to that gate. "Ahem, Mayor Meanswell..."

At the mere sound of her voice catching him off-guard, the mayor hit his thumb with the hammer.

"Whatever are you doing?"

"Oh, well, I thought if I just uh, gussied things up around the sports field a bit, I thought maybe the good people of LazyTown would take more of an interest in Sports Day."

Bessie immediately felt a crawling feeling of disgust. She did her best to hide it by picking up the phone and talking into it. "OOH! Yes, you first heard it from me..."

Milford couldn't hear the rest of the conversation as she walked away. Ms. Busybody has been quite testy since Sportacular Spectacle Day last week. Was she mad that he remembered Sports Day before she did? Normally she was the one to remind him of these things, but he always knew exactly how long Sports Day was after Sportacular Spectacle Day.

Suddenly he found himself jumping at the gate falling over behind him. "Ooh!"

Stephanie found her friends hanging around just outside the sports field. "Hey, everybody!"

"Hello!"

"Oh, hi!"

"Hi, Stephanie!"

"Look at this cool book I found at the library: it tells the whole history of LazyTown. Did you know that today is LazyTown's Sports Day?"

"Well that book's like a hundred years old, Stephanie!"

Ignoring Trixie, Stephanie asked, "but what is Sports Day?"

"It's a day when everyone competes in an amazing super race that takes place in the town square," Pixel explained.

"Yeah, first you have to run..." Trixie added.

"Then you scooter..." Stingy continued.

"And skate..." Pixel mentioned.

"Then you race on a bicycle..." Trixie spoke again.

"And finally, you skateboard to the finish," Stingy completed the explanation.

"And we're not gonna do it!" The way they said it in unison made Stephanie think they had rehearsed this ahead of time.

Of course, anyone who knew Stephanie should know by now that she wasn't one to give up easily. "Oh, come on, guys! It sounds really cool! Pixel, you're excellent on skateboard."

"Most excellent!" Pixel agreed.

"And, Stingy, you've got those cool new skates."

"I have several," Stingy bragged.

"And Trixie can scooter really fast..."

"Like lightning!" Trixie exclaimed.

"And just imagine if Sportacus would compete! We'd be the best team ever!"

"Do you think Sportacus would wanna be on our team?" Pixel asked.

"Yeah, we're really not that good," Trixie added.

The group looked up as they heard an engine noise, soon to find that a familiar blue and white airship was hovering right above them.

Stephanie looked back at the group. "I think this year's going to be different."

Sportacus jumped down from his ship in front of the kids. "Hi, everybody!"

"Sportacus!"

"Hi, Sportacus!"

"Hey!"

"I've got great news!" Sportacus began.

"Uh, you've found a big mountain made out of chocolate?!" Ziggy guessed, a sparkle of eagerness in his eyes.

"No-"

"Uh, you've found a small mountain made of chocolate?"

"No, it's Sports Day! My favorite day of the year."

Ziggy sighed, clearly disappointed.

"I told you guys this year would be different! Let's get goin'!" Stephanie closed the book, set it down on the table, and followed close behind Sportacus as the hero flipped over the gate.

The two were about to go into the sports field, when they realized no one else moved from their spots.

"Hey guys, aren't you coming?" Stephanie asked.

"Nah..." the puppet children responded.

"You can count me out!"

"Me too."

"Me three!"

"We'd rather just stay here and do nothing!"

"And we have a lot of 'nothing' so it could take a while," Stingy sneered. "Besides, we can't play on the sports field: it looks like a garbage dump."

"I just saw the mayor, and he's fixing it," Sportacus informed him. "He's just cleaning it up." Turning, he added, "should be ready... just about now."

The rest of the group focused their attention on the mayor, who waved at them as the gate fell down behind him again.

"Well... almost ready," Sportacus said.

"1-in-6000 data alert!" Pixel pulled out a periscope-like device. "Gate: damaged. Mayor: he's all right! Sports field: ready for super-race!"

The other kids started cheering.

"Come on guys," Stephanie urged. "Let's give it a try!"

Just a moment ago the puppets were so adamant for not partaking in Sports Day, now all of a sudden they were ready to start training? Perhaps the mind control was at play, but if it wasn't? Sportacus would never understand children.

The trouble with being a former hero forced into laziness was that sometimes you would get little bursts of energy here and there that you didn't know what to do with. Perhaps worse yet, those little bursts left as soon as they came. This time, Robbie decided to use his to run to his row of disguises and costumes.

"Oh, deciding what to wear is so tiring!" He briefly studied a Carmen Miranda-esque outfit. "Too girly!" he decided quickly before moving onto a clown outfit. "Too curly." Then his Napoleon Bonaparte outfit had moved places from the first tube to the third tube. "Too..." it took him a moment to think of a rhyme "...early," he settled with a chuckle. In the fourth row sat a fencing uniform. "Too fencing!" he exclaimed, taking a moment to have an imaginary fencing battle with... no one, really "... that doesn't rhyme." Finally, at the end, was his usual outfit. "AHA! Perfect!" All right, fine, he'd planned on wearing this from the beginning, but he liked to find little ways here and there to keep himself entertained.

Laughing evilly, he powered up the Style Maker 6000... to find that his outfit turned out much tinier than usual. Picking it up by the tips of his fingers, taken aback by the sight of it, Robbie knew it could've simply been a coincidence (it was a bit too small to be puppet-sized, after all,) but a part of him couldn't help but worry if this was a threat from Bessie. He was already on thin ice from the last time he tried to betray her!

Shrugging, he spun around, using his magic to make his outfit normal-sized again as he got dressed instantly. An alarm with a red flashing light at the top of his end of the periscope went off as soon as he was finished. Figuring he should check what the fuss was about, Robbie pulled the periscope down and peered through it. At first, he didn't see anythi-

Letting something out between a gasp and a scream, it had taken him a second to register that he happened to find Bessie lounging around on her front lawn, smothered in another one of her cucumber facials. It didn't matter how many times he'd come across her like that, it was no less startling... or stomach-churning.

"Uck!" he stuck his tongue out for the camera. Hopefully she wouldn't go back and see that later.

Squinting, Robbie went back to scanning the area above. Soon he found Sportacus and the children playing ball.

"What?! They're doing sports?! On the sports field?! Rrr!"

'Well yes, Robbie. That's what a sports field is for,' some smart-ass might've said had they been listening.

But if the tiny suit wasn't an accident, and truly a threat from Ms. Busybody, now it was easier to understand why she would be sending him this threat: this was his last chance to redeem himself in her eyes, and he better not mess it up! But how?

"Wait a minute... yes yes! I know how to stop all the sport-y act-tiv-ity... I'm going to buy their sports field!" he added with a crazed laugh. Was that laugh necessary? No. Did he care? Also no.

Robbie approached the idea counter he had towards the middle of the lair. "Hm, that makes four-hundred lazy ideas just this week! Yay me."

Sportacus had been trying to teach the kids how to bounce the ball off of their heads. Briefly demonstrating, he passed it to Ziggy. It had already been fairly easy for the child, not only having plastic for a head, but the ball was big enough that Ziggy would've needed both hands to catch it; normally Sportacus would've discouraged Ziggy's usual choice of snacks on the field, but holding an ice cream cone actually seemed to help him in this endeavor.

"Oh-ho. This is the most exciting day, I say," the mayor said as the children began to gather towards the middle of the field. "This will be one of our best, races, ever!"

The good mood everyone was in was interrupted as Robbie drove up in a bulldozer, forcing the mayor to get out of the way, and stopping just in front of the rest.

Sportacus had a feeling this was going to happen. Number 9 said the last Sports Day was when Robbie attempted to buy the sports field and had plans to build a mattress-spring maker factory over it. The hero had challenged him to a Sports Day race, and despite everything Robbie threw at him, Number 9 won anyway. Robbie seemed to have been actually trying this time, perhaps to please Bessie for his own protection. While this was understandable, this could very well mean that today, Sportacus and Robbie weren't allies in secret, but really and truly proper enemies, as much as the thought pained him.

Robbie got up from his seat, briefly burning himself as he grabbed onto the pipe (forgetting it was hot), and stepped down from the bulldozer.

"Sign on the 'x', please," he said, handing the mayor a piece of paper and a pen.

"Oh, of course. Yes," Mayor Meanswell mumbled.

The look Ziggy flashed to Sportacus told him he wanted him to do something about it, but even Sportacus had time to stop him, he wasn't even sure how to go at this! Was the mayor under mind control at the moment? If not, what would possess him to sign something without even looking at what the paper was?! Sure, this man wasn't the brightest bulb in the room but this, this was something else.

"Ah! Thank you!" Robbie took the pen and paper back. "Now CLEAR THE AREA!" he shouted to the others. "I own this land, and I'm building a feather-pillow-stuffing-factory right, here," he said, pointing dramatically to the ground.

The kids gasped in shock.

"No! You can't do that!" Stingy protested.

"No!" Stephanie joined in.

"This land belongs to me! It's mine!"

Everyone stared at Stingy.

"Huh, what? Yours?" Ziggy asked quietly.

"Yeah, it belongs to me," Stingy's volume of voice matched his.

Ziggy shook his head.

"Uh, I mean, it's ours," Stingy corrected himself in his normal voice.

"Yeah!" the kids shouted.

"Your delightfully un-stingy mayor, recently sold it to me," Robbie said, unfolding the ridiculously long contract "So, now it's MINE!" he yelled in a mocking voice. With an evil laugh, he got back up on the bulldozer and started its engine.

The mayor put his head in his hand. "Oh no... not again."

All right. Being the hero here, Sportacus figured he should do something about it, even if that meant he was walking into the clear trap laid out for him. "Wait," he said, holding his hand up. "We need this field for Sports Day."

"Yeah!" the group repeated.

"And we wanna compete in the super race!" Stephanie added.

"Really?" Robbie raised his semi-plastic eyebrows.

"Yes," Trixie confirmed.

"Then how about this? You compete against me. If you win, you can keep this dump. If I win, I'm building my feather-pillow-stuffing factory, right, here," again he pointed to the ground in a similarly dramatic fashion. "... And Sportacus has to leave town forever," he mumbled.

"Huh?!" it seemed the kids were sharing a mind today.

"I said, Sportacus has to leave town forever," Robbie said in his normal voice.

"Uh, for, how long did you say?" Stingy asked.

"FOREVER!" Robbie's voice echoed throughout town.

"Sportacus would never leave us!" Ziggy protested.

You mean I wouldn't leave Stephanie nor Robbie (though our last couple encounters have certainly made that tempting), Sportacus thought. The rest of you I would abandon in a heartbeat if I could actually get out of this place!

Robbie mocked Ziggy, extending his hand out for Sportacus to shake on their deal.

Sportacus squeezed Robbie's hand hard enough to make sure that it would be sore afterwards. "We'll do it." He jerked the villain's arm up and down in a semi-violent manner before going back by the kids.

Robbie stared at his hand for a brief moment (regretting that he used the same hand that he had just burned on the pipe a mere moment ago) before chuckling evilly before going back to his bulldozer. Sportacus could just barely see a lever that he cranked as he backed up that dropped nearly a truckload's worth of fumes on the group. They were so strong they made Sportacus' stomach drop and his face turn bright red.

"Sportacus, are you really going to leave?" Ziggy asked, clearly worried about the situation.

"Of course not, guys!" Sportacus said, crouching to Ziggy's level. "Cheer up! With all of us, working together-"

"We can, uh, beat Robbie?" Ziggy finished.

"Exactly!"

The kids cheered.

"Hey kids, kids," he said, getting their attention. "Trixie, scooter!"

"Got it!" she said before running off.

"Stingy, bring out your skates. And Pixel, I need your skateboard."

"I'm on it!" The preteen went off in the direction of his house.

"I'll go get the mayor!" Stephanie volunteered.

"Perfect."

"Oh, and what, uh, oh. What about me?" Ziggy asked.

"Ziggy," Sportacus put a hand on his shoulder, "I have the most important job for you: sports, candy, super, visor."

"Yeah, uh" it didn't quite register at first until his brain reached the word 'candy'. "Candy?! Oh that's great! Oh yeah! Oh yeah!" He was about to run off, but then stopped. "Uh..." he went back in Sportacus' direction, "is that a good thing?"

"It is a good thing," Sportacus confirmed.

"Okay, okay! I'm on it! I'm on it!" he couldn't seem to decide which direction he was going in.

It might seem a little strange Sportacus knew these children's interests despite not having seen them with any of this sports stuff yet, but they had been 9's team last year. They hadn't done terribly well, winning just by the skin of their teeth, but it helped to know where each child had their specialty as far as this race went. Perhaps things would go better this year...

Meanwhile, in the field, the kids ran laps back and forth (Sportacus preferred to do his laps through flips, despite that he got dizzier and more nauseous from doing so than usual.)

Soon Stephanie was encouraging Stingy as he did sit-ups. When Stingy wasn't doing so well, Stephanie soon found that holding up his pet piggy bank in front of him was enough motivation to get him energized again.

Sportacus helped Trixie into a handstand. The first time, they got it. The second time, he missed her feet altogether and she fell the way her body was tilting.

Wait a minute, why was he making her do headstands when her job was to scooter? Maybe these fumes were having more of an effect on him than he thought...

Rocking back and forth in his fluffy orange chair, Robbie pretended to exercise his legs. He knew he probably wasn't going to win this race anyway (deep down, he really didn't want to, or have Sportacus leave), but he supposed if Sportacus and the kids would have their own field day, so would he... but a much lazier field day.

When Robbie decided he had enough leg reps, he faked falling into a catnap, working out the more intricate details of his plan for later today.

Sportacus guided Pixel through some push-ups, but in the time it took the hero to do three, Pixel could barely manage one.

Stephanie was able to reach her toes, but she rested her head on her legs, and didn't move for a moment.

"Stephanie?" Sportacus got down on the ground to make sure she was okay.

Sitting up slightly, the girl responded with a giggle. Great, she was still high. Just what the team needed from its second-strongest player.

Ziggy used a dumbbell for his part of the training. But Ziggy's idea of a dumbbell was actually two large lollipops.

Sportacus shook his head. Even for a puppet, they shouldn't have been that heavy.

Good gliding mechanics... check!

Robbie hoisted up the scooter onto his lab bench.

Marble-spilling mechanics... check! he thought with a satisfied evil laugh. Now for the bike...

The bike was supposed to drop fumes on his competition... but the villain unintentionally dropped fumes on himself instead.

"Right here!" Trixie called to Stingy as he skated around her. "Give me the baton!"

"It's MINE!"

"Stingy, no!" Trixie started to run after him.

"IT'S MINE! AH!" Stingy screamed as he ran from the other puppet children.

Sportacus pinched the bridge of his nose. They were going to lose, weren't they?

The kids stood together by a wall, panting and exhausted.

"How are we doing, Pixel?" Stephanie asked while Pixel used his periscope-like device to do calculations.

"Uh, I think we're okay, but uh..."

The group watched as Ziggy fell over.

"... We're not okay."

Sportacus approached them, trying to grasp what few straws of patience he had left. "Kids... the only thing we need now is the right kind of energy," he said, crouching to their level.

Ziggy got up and put his hand on the bag. "I've got it right here. Remember? You asked me to be your sports candy... uh, supersizer? Fly-zer?"

He had to be joking. Did these kids really not know what Sports Candy was? Did Number 9 not teach them? No, surely he would have. They must not have remembered for some reason!

"No, Ziggy. I asked you to be sports candy supervisor. And this," Sportacus said, touching the bag, "is not sports candy."

"Oh sure it is! Look, look, look!" Ziggy opened the bag and took out a yellow piece of hard candy. "This one is running. Duh-dun-nuh-duh-duh! And this one," he continued, getting a blue one, "is jumping. Boing, boing."

The kids giggled. Sportacus tried to laugh along with them, but he found himself really wishing he had a pair of scissors right now... kidding! Just kidding. No matter how much the puppet kids vexed him, Sportacus would never purposely hurt a child, and would still do whatever it took to make sure no harm came to them.

"And this one," Ziggy grabbed another blue one, "is swimming into my mouth."

Speaking of harm, Sportacus probably shouldn't let him finish eating the drug-coated candy. "Ziggy, wait. Check this out!"

Sportacus remembered Number 9 mentioning something about an apple tree in the middle of town. (Apparently Robbie used his magic to grow one for him when 9 ran out of food (and making him eat the food within the town would've been a death sentence at those levels). Not only did this become his main source of food, Robbie also made it so that that the apples grew towards the middle of the tree, effectively hiding the fruit from the cameras (and Busybody in particular).) Sportacus decided to use that to his advantage.

Sportacus flipped over to the apple tree and hit the trunk. "Apple!" An apple falls into his hand, seemingly on-command. Running and flipping back towards the kids, he got down on one knee. "This," he said, pointing to the apple "is sports candy." Get it right, bitches.

"Woah!"

"Yeah!"

"This, is the real energy."

"True."

Damn it, Pixel, if you knew what Sports Candy really was, why didn't you say anything?! "Stephanie," Sportacus tossed the apple to her, which the girl caught and took a bite out of. I've got more in my backpack."

The kids watched in awe as Sportacus did a spinning flip-jump, making the other apples fall out of his backpack. It was always a good idea to keep Sports Candy on you when you could... just in case.

Sportacus then caught the apples as they fall, tossing each to one per kid.

The next thing Sportacus knew...he was singing. "If you wanna be talk of the town, you need energy!" dancing was only so far behind. "If you wanna jump around-"

"You need energy!" Stingy joined in, and the two of them started dancing together.

Maybe it was the fumes talking, but Robbie decided to see how his competition was doing, and snuck over the wall nearby the apple tree.

"There's nothing really like it!" Stephanie sang.

Sportacus and Stingy shared the next line along with her: "you only have to move around until you get your feet off the ground!"

Of course Robbie walked right in the middle of a musical number. He had no doubt the kids would start doing that at some point, but Sportacus? Robbie had dropped about three-to-four times more fumes than usual on the group earlier, but he had no idea they would be this effective! That wasn't even getting into that the usually hyperactive Stephanie seemed to need breaks and sit down during the song.

Did that mean... maybe he'd actually win this time? If he were to win the race, he would be losing the war. For his sake, and maybe even the kids' sake, Robbie decided there must've been some way he couldn't let that happen!

He'd need to come up with an idea on how to do that soon, but in the mean time... he took a mental note that that amount of fumes was probably going just a smidgen overboard.

Chapter Text

Robbie, waiting until the little song and dance was over before peeking around from the other side of the tree. Letting out a laughy growl, he grumbled to himself, "an apple? He thinks he can win by eating healthy? Hah!" While that certainly helped with athleticism and counteracting the fumes, that alone wouldn't fix everything. "IT'S DISGUISE-" shrinking back at the echo of his own voice he paused for a minute before finishing with raspy, strained "... time."

Everyone was under the mutual decision that it was time to sit down for a short snack break before the race.

Sportacus still couldn't believe what had happened just moments ago: he had barely felt the music coming, but then his lips started moving, he couldn't control his body... really, he should've figured this would've happened at some point, (not even Number 9 could escape the occasional singing), but so soon? He'd only been here, what? Maybe a couple of weeks by now?

"So, Sportacus, don't you ever wanna eat, you know, sugar?" Pixel asked.

"Yeah," Ziggy seemed to wonder this too.

Swallowing frustration along with his apple bite, Sportacus wanted to give the kids the benefit of the doubt, and assume they weren't in on it (this time). Hoping he wouldn't regret this judgement later, he began his explanation: "well... I've had sugar all right, but, guess what happened?"

"You liked it so much you keep it everywhere? Even in your underwear? Huh?"

Sportacus chuckled. "No."

"Huh. Uh, me either."

The kids laughed. Sportacus did too, but he also rolled his eyes; gross. Yes, sugar was highly addictive to these people, but Ziggy had taken his unhealthy obsession to new levels altogether.

"So what happened?" Pixel asked.

"Tell us what happened," Stephanie urged.

"I had a sugar meltdown." Sportacus got up from where he was sitting. "It went something like this:" he collapsed face-first into the ground, imitating his very first reaction to sugar.

The kids gasped.

"Woah!"

"Wo-hoh."

Sportacus returned to his seat. "I just melted down. Like all my energy just drained away. That's how I learned, too much sugar," he said, showing off his massive bicep, "is not for superheroes!"

The kids hadn't been the only one watching: Robbie was sitting in his mailbox disguise viewing everything from a short distance. Sportacus and Stepanie had their backs turned to him, and the rest of the kids were probably too high to notice the moving mailbox. It was just as he suspected: Number 9 and Number 10 were the same species! The possibility had been poking and prodding his mind since Sportacus arrived, but now Robbie had proof! At first, he thought Sportacus 10 might've taken inspiration from Sportacus 9, but their heroic intentions! Their purity of heart (and diet)! Robbie was sure this couldn't have been a coincidence! Surely Sportacus 10 had grown since then, but perhaps... would it be so far off to think that, this was the young boy Sportacus 9 had told him about?

"These apples sure are yummy delicious, Sportacus! Do you want me to get some more of those?" Ziggy offered. "I am the Sports Candy Supervisor!"

"Hm, that's a great idea, Ziggy. But we need to hurry up." Sportacus got back to his feet. "Okay, guys, the race will begin shortly! Okay, go! Ziggy, hurry up!"

Everyone except Ziggy headed towards the sports field, the latter instead running towards the nearby apple tree. "Yeah! I'm going, I'm going, I'm going." Whether or not he was under mind control at the moment could've been up for debate, as there was no music there when Ziggy decided to sing to himself. "Sports, candy, supervisor! Sports, candy, supervisor!"

Following him to the tree, Robbie hid behind a half-wall and ditched his mailbox disguise. Brushing the years-old letters off of him that would never be delivered outside the town (the mail system stopped working with everything else years ago), he crouched just out of sight. "Ah, this is too good to be true!"

Ziggy continued to sing as he made his way to the tree. "Sports, candy, supervisor! Sports, candy, super-" Ziggy gasped, stopping his song. "A sports candy! Wow!" he said as he picked an apple off the ground.

It seemed at this rate, things were going to go just the way he planned. "Just the right job for my..." he struggled to lift the heavy device onto the wall, "... Rotten, Candy, Faker-Maker 3000. Turns eh, candy, into healthy stuff, in one second." Robbie had been saying that to clarify for the nearby camera, but realized he sounded like he was talkning as if he were in an infomercial. He summoned a small pile of candy. "Candy in," he counted as he dropped it in one end of the machine, "one, two..." Robbie decided instead it would just be more effective to use the whole thing. Lifting it to turn the crank, only regret over this creation of his was that it was just a tad too heavy. At least he wasn't lugging it around for nothing. A second later, he could hear a buzzing sound and set it back down; "fake apple out!" Robbie sighed, picking the deformed, mutated apple up. "Perfect!"

Ziggy hummed as he came around the other side of the tree. Gasping, Robbie quickly hid the invention behind the wall. That reminded him: he forgot the fishing rod! Luckily that was nothing a quick portal spell back to his lair couldn't fix...

Ziggy sighed. "If I only could find a big and shiny apple for my best buddy, Sportacus. Hmm..." the puppet child looked up to see a big red apple hanging in the branch above him. "Wow! That's big!" He tried to jump up and grab it but alas just could not reach it.

Just as he was about to give up, Ziggy felt something hit him on the noggin. Before he knew it, Robbie's abomination was in his hands. "Wow! That's the biggest, shiniest apple ever! And it floats! Sportacus will love this one!"

"I wouldn't be too sure," Robbie sneered out of earshot.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to begin LazyTown Sports Day!" Bessie's announcement could be heard all the way from where they were standing.

Ditching the fishing rod, Robbie realized he better get there before Sportacus won by default!

Sportacus knelt in front of the starting line, baton in hand. "Kids, have you seen Ziggy? I could really use another apple before the race." The hero wasn't normally a stress-eater, but he wanted to feel ready for whatever Busybody (and Robbie) had in store for him.

The mayor stood next to the starting line holding a checkered flag. "On your marks..."

Robbie joined Sportacus at the starting line, spitting out stamps and post-it notes.

Wait, what? Why is he... Sportacus shook his head, never mind. I don't want to know.

"Get set... go!" the mayor waved the flag, cuing the start of the race.

Even with the animosity that happened between them today, Sportacus was feeling generous enough to give Robbie a few-second headstart; he was going to need it.

"Off they go! Isn't this exciting?" Bessie's laugh truly was that of a demonic madwoman.

Sportacus sped past Robbie, who pretended to be turned around by it.

"Oh, heh heh, wrong way!" Bessie's giggled as if it were an honest mistake, but the evil eye that she had given Robbie was very clearly a warning.

Therefore, he made no hesitation going the right way again.

"Sportacus is so fast!" Bessie commented. "How does he do it?"

Pixle's Quantum 6000 computer was keeping track of the race. "Ha! Eat dust, Robbie!" the tech genius said. "Sportacus is way ahead!"

"Oh, isn't this exciting?! Look at them run!"

Robbie fought off flashbacks of all the other times she used that tone. He liked to call it her 'torture' voice.

"Sportacus!"

Sportacus looked over to see Ziggy on the sidelines.

"CATCH!"

Ziggy threw the apple to Sportacus, the hero catching it with one hand.

"Thank you, Ziggy!" Sportacus took a bite and tossed it back to Ziggy. "Good work!"

It wasn't until Sportacus swallowed that he realized that wasn't an apple he just ate: this was far too sweet. Sugary sweet.

All of a sudden, his legs gave out beneath him.

Sportacus could hear Bessie speaking the background, but her voice sounded distant and muffled, as if she were underwater. "Oh! Sportacus is down!"

Using what little consciousness he had left, Sportacus tried stumbling over to the nearest park bench where Pixel was.

"Sportacus is... really down!"

"SPORTACUS!" In contrast to Bessie's voice, he could hear the utter horror in Stephanie's loud and clear.

"Sportacus, are you okay?!" Pixel asked above him.

Sportacus tried to speak up, but the best he could manage was a soft, slurred, "I'm having a... meltdown."

Continuing on his laps, Robbie did a mocking, apple-eating gesture. The others might not've known what it meant, but it was in his best interest to let Busybody know that it was he who was responsible for this.

"This is no time to be fooling around!" Trixie complained.

Stephanie turned to her, a fire in her eyes that would've told anyone she was willing to come to his defense. "He's not fooling around, there's something wrong with him!"

"Oooh no! I'm gonna lose the race!" Stingy whined. "So much for the world's best super-race team."

"We can't let Robbie win!" Stephanie saw the blonde panicking nearby. "Ziggy!"

His blue eyes a bit wild he looked up at her.

"Take the baton!" Stephanie tossed the baton in his direction (which soon got caught in the apple in his hand). "We'll stay here!"

"Robbie Rotten and Ziggy? This can't be right!" Bessie said, as if she had no clue about the happenings on the field.

Ziggy hesitated a moment before doing as she said. "What have I done?" A sugar apple! He should've known; this was just like last time! "What have I done?"

"Pixel, let's hook your computer up to Sportacus," Stephanie said. "We have to find out what's wrong with him, and fast!"

"Right, Stephanie! One Sportacus virus detection program coming up!" Pixel handed her a pair of headphones to put over Sportacus' ears. "He'll be rebooted in no time!"

"And Stingy, go get Sportacus some water!" The pink-haired girl ordered.

Thankfully, he didn't fight her: "I'm on it!"

"Trixie, you're up next! Go get your scooter ready!"

"Right!"

"How was the apple?!" Robbie laughed evilly as he went past the others.

"And the first lap, Robbie Rotten has taken the lead!" Bessie announced. "Sportacus takes second place."

"Come on, hurry up!" Stephanie called to Trixie and Ziggy.

Trixie soon scootered where everyone else was standing.

"Come on, Trixie, go!"

"Go, Trixie! Go go!"

Robbie took the sight of Trixie coming up in his rear-view mirror as a cue to drop the spilling mechanics. "Don't lose your marbles! Hahahaha!"

"Woah-oh-oh!" Trixie struggled to keep her balance and not get any caught in her wheels. "Robbie, you're rotten... to the core!"

Bessie pitched in with her update: "Robbie Rotten is still in the lead."

"This does not add up: according to my computer, Sportacus should be up and running."

"I... know what... happened to Sportacus," Ziggy panted. "It's all my fault!"

"Ziggy, what have you done?" Stephanie asked.

Ziggy held up the apple. Stephanie noticed right away that this wasn't the typical flesh of an apple: it was white, hard, and had some red substance in the middle she couldn't quite make out.

She then remembered what Sportacus had said earlier: "oh, don't tell me: did you give Sportacus sugar?"

Robbie soon got rid of the scooter in favor for the bike.

"And it's still Robbie! Where are those children?!" Bessie asked, pretending to panic.

"I'M NUMBER ONE!" Robbie sang tauntingly.

"STINGY! GET READY!" Trixie yelled as she got closer to the finish line. (Thankfully, Stingy had come back with the water bottle in time.)

"Step on it, Stingy!" Stephanie urged.

"Okay!" the youngest puppet child began skating towards the starting line.

"GET READY, STINGY!"

"Oh, look at Trixie go!" Bessie did her best to mask her growing anger as excitement as the little puppet girl raced past her.

"Give it to me! GIVE IT TO ME!" Stingy snatched the baton from Trixie the second she handed it to him, screaming as he hurried off. 

"Guys! Guys! Is Sportacus getting any better?" Trixie asked.

"No... Ziggy gave Sportacus a candy apple, and now he's having a sugar meltdown," Stephanie explained.

"I know, I know! Don't rub it in!" the blonde whimpered.

"Wait: maybe it wasn't Ziggy after all. My Quantum 6000 has traced this apple to..." Pixel gasped at the results "... a Candy Faker Maker 3000 machine! Behind... that mailbox!"

He pointed to an abandoned machine lying on the ground in the distance.

"Activating super digital lens magnifier! I see the words... 'Robbie Rotten' written on the candy machine!"

"And candy means sugar!" Stephanie exclaimed. "That explains everything!"

"Oh no, you guys! Look!"

Trixie pointed to Robbie Rotten coming up on on his next lap.

"I'm number one!" the villain cried, perhaps a hint of desperation in his voice.

"Robbie has a blazing lead!" Bessie announced. Faking her worry, she continued: "only a miracle can save these precious, adorable kids now! Robbie Rotten is tiring, but still in the lead."

"Oh, there's nothing we can do!"

Stephanie remembered her tiredness after training, and while it didn't entirely go away, she felt much better after eating the apple that Sportacus gave her. "Yes there is! We just have to give Sportacus a real apple! That'll give him his energy back!"

"And I know where to find one!" Ziggy chimed in, eager to right his wrong.

"QUICK! Hurry!" The human urged.

Making haste, the puppet went back to the apple tree he found the apple from earlier. Boy, that trunk looked awfully tall... but he had to do it! For Sportacus! "'Kay." The puppet placed his cotton-like hands on the smooth trunk, but when he tried to place his foot somewhere for support, he found himself sliding right back to the ground.

"The second lap, and Robbie Rotten is still in the lead!" Bessie announced.

Well, climbing the tree wasn't going to work. Maybe he could try jumping for it! His first jump, he barely made it off the ground. His second, was considerably better, but still not quite within the reach of the lowest apple.

They say that 'third time's the charm'. That may very well have been Ziggy's case, as by some miracle, he was able to finally reach it. His brief rush of accomplishment was soon replaced by adrenaline when he heard the stem of the apple beginning to break. "...Help!"

The stem snapped, unable to hold his weight, and Ziggy fell screaming. Luckily he wasn't hurt: he got up as soon as he fell and took a moment to stare at the fruit in his hand. "I got it!"

"Ziggy!"

"Ziggy hurry!"

"Oh, yeah, yeah yeah!" he started running back towards them before realizing that throwing it would be faster. "Stephanie, CATCH!"

Sportacus hadn't been completely unconscious, mostly just immobile. He heard bits and pieces of the kids' conversation: he'd been given a sugar apple, this was Robbie's evil plan, blah blah blah. He felt his head being propped up, and the skin of... what he was pretty sure was an apple pressed against his lips. All it took was one bite, and he was wide awake and back on his feet.

Just as planned. Number 9 had apparently faced this exact same scenario last year (apparently Robbie had a tendency to repeat his plans, knowing full well the results), and planting the idea of Sports Candy giving you energy into the kids' heads was enough to reverse the ordeal before it got out of hand. 9 never exactly said which child got him out of it, but Sportacus had at least been hoping that Stephanie would be smart enough to figure it out... or Pixel, if not her. The others? Well, there might not've been much hope if it were just the others.

"Hey! Oh, you're back!" Pixel exclaimed.

"Hey! What happened?"

"Oh, the other apple was rotten!" Ziggy cried.

"Really?" Sportacus asked, feigning surprise.

"Yeah! Robbie Rotten!"

Hm, not a bad line, Trixie. "Thank you very much guys. I have a race to finish!" Sportacus took his rightful place back at the starting line.

"Go Sportacus!" Stephanie cheered him on.

"Stingy, you can do it! Come on, come on, come on!" Sportacus grabbed the baton as Stingy skated up to him.

"Sportacus is up again!" Bessie said.

It had only taken half a second for Sportacus to realize Stingy hadn't let go when he grabbed it:

"BUT IT'S MIIIINNNEEE!"

Yeah, he should've seen that coming.

"Give it to Sportacus!" Stephanie demanded.

Sportacus had wanted to see if he could grab it easier if he stopped running, Stingy crashing into him as he did.

"I'm not giving it up!"

Sportacus internally flinched. The child's voice was bordering on demonic. Still maybe he could use Stingy's greed to his advantage: "but, Stingy, I'm on your team."

"My team?"

"Yeah." Come on, kid! I don't have all day!

"Well, all right, but you have to promise to give it back to me."

"I'll do that," Sportacus said, finally freeing the baton from Stingy's grasp and sprinting so the little hellspawn was left in the dust.

"All right. Go, Sportacus! RUN! FASTERRRRRRR!"

"Robbie is on his third lap!" Bessie announced.

Pixel's computer was giving him new readings. "Look at this!" he said to the other kids. "He's running twenty-two-point-seven times faster than Robbie! Amazing!"

"Here comes our hero, Sportacus!" Bessie eye twitched as she said it.

Sportacus flipped onto the bike waiting for him at the starting line.

Bessie was about to make another announcement, when the mayor accidentally waved the flag in her face, forcing her to duck.

Halfway around the track Sportacus did a trick next to Robbie. Had Robbie been sleeping on the skateboard? Regardless, Sportacus' passing seemed to have woken him up.

"Eh, what?!" Robbie got up and began manually pushing the skateboard, as if that would catch him up.

The finish line straight ahead, Sportacus stood up on the seat. "Stephanie, skateboard!"

Stephanie set the skateboard at the starting line. "Here you go, Sportacus!"

It only took one tiny jump in-between the two for Sportacus to make it from the bike to the skateboard, the momentum giving him enough speed that he didn't even need to put his feet down for a boost.

"Will he catch up? Oh, oh, I can't see the race, Mayor Means-" just narrowly, Bessie avoided getting hit in the face with the flag the mayor was waving in her direction.

Whether or not this was because Mayor Meanswell didn't want her to see the results, Robbie wasn't sure, but this gave him just enough of an opportunity to really turn things around. When it looked like he was just panicking and trying to scoot his skateboard forward, he was actually casting a temporary flying spell on Sportacus' skateboard.

The sudden flight had caught Sportacus off-guard for a moment. The jump was planned, but he didn't expect to go this high!

"And he's leaping through the air!"

It was time to get out of this race: Robbie turned the rocket on at the back of his skateboard.

Landing on his feet, Sportacus broke the checkered line at the end.

"We did it!" Sportacus shouted to the cheering kids.

Stephanie ran to him, and Sportacus couldn't help scoop her up and spin her around in his arms. Soon after he set her back down by everyone else, something whizzed past them. Seconds later, Robbie had crashed into the apple tree, buried by an apple pile so big that only his head stuck out.

The team had approached the podium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Meanswell!" It wasn't exactly the same, but Sportacus couldn't help but notice Bessie's laugh here was eerily similar to how she laughed when he saved her from the hole a couple of weeks ago.

"Uh, thank you, Ms. Busybody. Uh, uh, I present to you, this trophy, for being Sports Day Champion!"

The kids cheered, and Sportacus took the trophy the mayor handed him. All the while, Bessie had difficulty keeping her composure at this moment.

"And-and even better: Sportacus will stay in LazyTown, forever!"

Everyone cheered, except for Bessie, whose fake, angry giggle only increased in pitch. It didn't take a private detective to figure out that this wasn't the outcome she wanted.

Stephanie began her usual Bing Bang song, but this time, Sportacus chose not to dance with her. He spent most of the song congratulating the other puppets on their hard work today. Even for a puppet, Sportacus was sure that Ms. Busybody was smart enough not to kill someone in broad daylight, in front of the entire town, but she looked angry enough to be tempted by the possibility, so he figured he should keep an eye on her. Just in case.

The sun was setting in the sky, and most people had gone home.

If it was one thing Sportacus couldn't understand, it was Robbie. Here was this man, still even in all his years captive continued to protect and take care of the town, and according to Number 9 did all of these kind, selfless acts when no one was watching. But in every encounter he's had with Robbie, the guy had hardly been more than a villain in his presence. Sportacus often trusted 9's judgement and wanted to believe everything his mentor said about his childhood hero... he just didn't have any proof. Maybe if there was a way he could talk to him, find a way to communicate under Busybody's nose, then maybe he would see the side of Robbie that Number 9 insisted was there. But how?

Sportacus noticed Stephanie, reading by herself at the outdoor table. Leaping over the half-wall, he joined her on the other side.

"Hey, Stephanie. Watcha reading?"

Stephanie looked up at him, smiling: "this is a really old history book of LazyTown. I've learned so much since I started reading it. Did you know the town was named that because its very first mayor lost a bet?"

"I can't say that I did." From what Sportacus could see of the pages, it seems Stephanie had a real copy of the book, rather than the cover he had. "It looks interesting: where did you get it?"

"The library. I didn't even know LazyTown had one until just a few days ago."

"Really?"

Stephanie nodded.

"I didn't either. You know, sometimes I like to wind down at night with a book, too. Maybe you could show me where it is?"

"Sure!" Stephanie closed the book and stood up. "Follow me."

LazyTown took a very different appearance with the sky getting darker; at least Sportacus thought so, especially now when the two of them were just walking at a leisurely pace versus flipping and running around. Whether it was the drugs or the mind control that made the buildings look different, he couldn't have been sure, but under the influence the houses were brightly colored, making them look far more inviting than how they really were: chipped paint, broken windows, visible signs of building decay... it amazed him that the townspeople lived in these conditions and haven't been killed.

Which reminded him: "how come you aren't at home with the mayor? Don't you go home for dinner?"

"I do..." Stephanie leaned closer to him, voice barely above a whisper, "... but every time he cooks, the entire house fills up with smoke. Something's really wrong with our oven!"

Sportacus chuckled. "Sounds like your uncle's not a very good cook."

"Actually, he's not bad at it," Stephanie said, her voice returning to normal, "I just wish he'd make something besides cakes, pies and muffins."

"He doesn't make any normal dinners?"

"He's told me that's all he knows how to make."

Could that have been true? Maybe, but somehow the possibility that he made only those things under Busybody's instructions was just as plausible to him. "Well, if you ever want some healthy snacks to balance some of that out, I'm always willing to share."

"Thanks, Sportacus. Oh, here we are!" Stephanie pointed at the old stone building in front of them: perhaps the most stable structure that Sportacus had seen so far. "Come on! Race ya!" the small girl challenged.

Keeping his pace to a jog, he decided to let Stephanie win.

It wasn't until Stephanie found the light switch that Sportacus was able to see his surroundings. This place was cleaner than he expected: the dust over the books and shelves was a thin layer at most. Given that the power was working and aside from some piles of books here and there, Sportacus had a feeling somebody had been taking care of this place.

"... Are there... any staff around?" he asked Stephanie. "Are they closed?"

"When I asked Uncle Milford about it, he said the librarian had gone away for a while," Stephanie said, studying some books on the shelf in front of her. "But he also said as long as we put the books back when we're done with them, it should be okay."

Sportacus felt goosebumps at the back of his neck. 'Gone away for a while' or 'something happened to them and they're not coming back?' Given that he, Robbie, Mayor Meanswell and Ms. Busybody were the only adults in town, it could've been safe to assume that something happened to any other working adult as well.

"I think I'm going to look around a bit, see what this place has to offer."

"'Kay." the girl was more focused on the medium-sized book in her hands.

Keeping his footsteps light, Sportacus wanted to be sure Stephanie didn't hear him sneaking around. If he were being honest, he had ulterior motives for asking about the library. It wasn't being deceitful, per se... he was just keeping his cover.

Towards the back of the library was an office, probably where all the office tools and administrative items were kept. Sure, he might've found them at the checkout desk too, but he wanted to be sure no one was watching him.

Sportacus flinched as the door creaked. Looking behind him to see if he had been heard, he got only silence in turn. Exhaling, he stepped into the dark, musty room.

The light switch was easier to find, but they didn't work nearly as well as the lights out in the main library: the ones in this room were dimmer and gave an eerie flicker, but he could see well enough.

The office wasn't a large room: it contained only a couple of desks and some file cabinets on the back of the wall. From what he could tell, there were no cameras on the wall, and the only potential hidden camera was an old mug on one that held various pens and pencils. He rested his fingers on it, and carefully set it down next to the desk it sat on. If it watched him, at least it'd only see his feet, if even that.

Thankfully the metal cabinet-like drawer Sportacus reached for had been left unlocked. It may have been stacked end to end, but it only held two contents: blank papers and envelopes. Well, nearly blank papers and envelopes: the upper-left corners were marked "LazyTown Library" in the upper-left corners, meaning if one were to get a letter from them, they would know exactly who sent it to them.

Which was just the kind of cover Sportacus needed.

His mouth felt dry has he held the paper and envelope together. Sportacus hated stealing anything: sure it was something as trivial as a paper and envelope, but it was still just so... un-hero-like.

Do it: it's for the good of the mission.

The envelope and paper remained in his hand.

Do it...

A bead of sweat started to break on his forehead.

Just do it!

Sucking in breath he quickly grabbed those and two extras (he wasn't sure exactly how many he needed) and stuffed them in the side of his vest, keeping one arm pressed against them so they wouldn't fall out.

Putting the pencil cup back, Sportacus turned out the lights and closed the door behind him.

Passing a shelf on his way through the aisles, a particularly large book caught his eye. Walking over and picking it up, it was about as long as his forearm, and still in pretty good shape. Perfect.

"Hey, Stephanie, I-" he noticed she wasn't there.

Walking by the aisles, he noticed she wasn't in any of them! The library wasn't terribly big, where could she have gone? His crystal wasn't going off, but still he worried. Where was she?

His worry was soon calmed as he found her standing with the mayor outside.

"What's for dinner tonight, Uncle Milford?"

"Muffins!"

"Really?" Stephanie wore one of her polite smiles that would've told more observant people she wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

"I've made blueberry: your favorite."

"Sounds great." Well, at least she did like blueberry. She looked over to find her friend standing nearby. "Oh, hey, Sportacus. Find something you like?"

"Hm? Oh! Yes, it's, um-" Crap. What was the title? He hadn't bothered to look. "... Strangely's Handguide to Mystical Creatures of the World."

"Ah! Yes. It's one of the biggest books we have in the LazyTown Library, if I remember correctly," the mayor said. "The library uh, hasn't been operational for quite some time, but uh, since the townsfolk are starting to take an interest in reading again, I'm hoping to go over the budget with Ms. Busybody soon and see if maybe we can uh, hire some staff and officially open it up again!"

"I think that would be wonderful, Mr. Mayor." Sportacus doubted Ms. Busybody would actually let Mayor Meanswell hire any staff, but it was nice to dream.

"Say, Sportacus, would you like to come over for dinner?"

"Oh, no, actually I can't-"

"The whole 'sugar meltdown' thing..." Stephanie added.

The mayor gasped. "Oh! Of course, my apologies. Perhaps some other night maybe when I've, uh, opened up a cookbook and learned how to make other things. It's been a while, but uh, I used to know how to make a scrumptious duck orange a la mode."

"That does sound good, but, unfortunately I am a vegetarian."

"Oh! Oh, yes, uh, of course."

An awkward silence in the air hung so thick it could've been cut with a knife.

The mayor rubbed the back of his balding head. "... Well, perhaps I'll, uh, work something out for another night. I suppose in the mean time I should get my Stephanie home before those muffins cool down too much."

"I was about to head home myself."

The mayor and Stephanie started to walk off.

"Bye, Sportacus!"

"Goodnight, Stephanie. I'll see you tomorrow."

Sportacus glanced again at the title. It seemed like an interesting book, and maybe he would pick it up for real one of these days, but for now, this book had a different purpose. If his ship had been bugged or cameras had infiltrated it, he didn't know exactly where they were, but hopefully the book would be enough to conceal whatever letters he needed to write. It was only a minor crime that he committed tonight, and though he would probably have to wash the dirty feeling left on him when he returned to the airship, it didn't quite matter as much to him now.

Not that now he finally was able to be on his way to really understanding Robbie and everything else.

Chapter Text

Sportacus assumed his crystal didn't work out of range of LazyTown. He assumed wrong, as he was greeted by a call of danger after breakfast. This wasn't a response to a human, or even a puppet, but a scared kitten that had gotten trapped in a tree.

Strange. He hadn't seen anything like that before; he should save this kitten, but still stay on his toes. "There's trouble in LazyTown," he said, telling potential listeners about his soon-to-be visit to LazyTown.

Closing and tossing his water bottle, it landed right-end down. Jumping into the piolet's seat, Sportacus began his descent to the town below.

Not far from the tree, Sportacus jumped down, flipping over to the tree he had stopped by. He stopped for a moment, making sure he was by the right tree, and somersaulted up. He almost slipped off the bough, but quickly pulling himself up, he was able to stay on just long enough to grab the kitten before jumping back down.

Sportacus took a moment to notice how warm and soft the tiny animal was, feeling its quick heartbeat against his fingers. This was a real kitten all right, but how did it get here? The most logical thing he could think of was that it wandered onto the train somehow, but how or why was another matter. Besides, if anyone happened to own this kitten, whether in or out of LazyTown, he shouldn't take it from its owners.

"You must be more careful next time!" Sportacus said, nuzzling the kitten.

Setting it back on the ground, the kitten meowed at him, as if thanking him for saving it.

"You're welcome."

Looking up, Sportacus noticed a quick flash of red. Was he being watched? Well, okay, LazyTown had cameras pretty much everywhere, but perhaps a better question to ask was, was he being followed? Maybe he should check on the kids... see if they were doing okay.

Leaping over a couple of walls, he found Stephanie, Trixie and Stingy in the usual hangout spot.

Ziggy soon approached the three. "Guys! Guys! You have to hear this! Sportacus just saved a cat!"

A small wave of relief flowed through Sportacus. The red he saw matched the red of Ziggy's cape, so chances are it was just his usual fanboy following him around.

He began sneaking up behind him as the young boy continued to ramble, "he did a triple flip like," he moved his arms in their zig-zag movements and made swishing sound effects with his mouth.

The other kids noticed their hero standing behind him.

"Ziggy..."

Ziggy barely noticed Trixie's attempt to get his attention. "And he jumped as high as the moon."

"Ziggy-" the puppet girl tried again.

It was hard not to notice someone about two-to-three times your size standing behind you for long. "Yeah, hi there." It had taken him a second to register who that was. "Sportacus!"

Everyone laughed.

"Hi, Ziggy."

"I was pretending to be you," Ziggy explained.

"And you were really good, like-" Sportacus mimicked the motion Ziggy had done just a second ago.

Ziggy's response was doing his usual zig-zag even faster than Sportacus had done it; so quickly, even, that he fell over. It looks like he didn't pick up on sarcasm, but what else could Sportacus expect from a bunch of stupid puppets?

"Thank you," Ziggy said as Sportacus helped him up.

"Sportacus, is it true that when someone is in trouble, you can see them in your crystal?" Stephanie asked.

Sportacus wasn't sure why, but her inquiry made him a little uncomfortable. "... Mm-hm."

"Can we see it?" the human girl asked.

"Pleaaase?"

"Please?"

Opening up the crystal compartment was always a risk, and should never be done unless maintenance needs to be done on it. Even then, there was always a risk of it getting lost or stolen. But, then again... if they only wanted to look at it for a bit...

"... Okay." Tapping the front of the emblem on his chest made a small 'woosh' sound as it opened. He removed the panel to the far right where the crystal was attached. "But be careful," he said, handing it to Stephanie (he expected that at least she wouldn't drop or do anything stupid with it). "It's powerful."

One by one, Stephanie showed it to the others, and never once did it leave her fingertips as she did. It might've been amazing to the innocent eyes of a child, but it was sort of an ugly-looking thing, you'd almost think it was plasti-

"Can I keep it? I really want it."

Damn it, Stingy! No! Stingy reached for it, but Sportacus beat him to it. "Sorry, you want it, but I need it." Sportacus enclosed it back in his compartment.

"Well! I'm going to go home... and look at all my stuff... that belongs just to me..."

Sportacus' fingers curled into a fist. How unheroic would I be if I were to punch this small puppet child in the face? ... Very, probably. Resisting the urge, he returned his hands to his hips.

"And I'm gonna drive my car... which also belongs just to me... hmph! Goodbye."

"Stingy! Don't be mad!" Ziggy cried, trying to go after him.

"Aw, let him go! He's being a big baby!" Trixie complained.

Out of all the puppet kids Sportacus hated, Stingy was the worst of them. If he were to look up "entitlement" in the dictionary, Stingy's picture would be the definition.

Just seconds after he left, Sportacus' crystal started to beep. Stingy was about to drive in the hole Bessie had fallen into the other day! Why has nobody fixed that yet? More importantly, how did Stingy not notice?!

"The crystal!" Stephanie exclaimed.

Do I have to?

"Someone needs help!"

Ugh, fiiinnee... Sportacus dashed off in the direction of the hole. Even without Stephanie's coaxing, Sportacus knew he'd have to save this brat anyway.

Leaping over a couple of half-walls to get to where Stingy was, Sportacus planked his body to create a bridge over the hole.

Sportacus tried not to flinch as Stingy drove over him. "They need to fix the street!"

A few things went on in Sportacus' mind. Firstly, there was no way Stingy could be that clueless about Sportacus being there, so it was one of two things: Stingy was hurting him because he was mad about him not letting him keep the crystal, and/or part of the mind control Bessie puts down on the townsfolk is to actively harm, stop, or maybe even kill Sportacus in any way he can, but being a puppet, it was a stupid and feeble attempt to do so. The second thing? Who's idea was it to go and not only make cars so kids can drive them, but to give Stingy a car out of every kid you could've possibly given one to?!

"Sportacus!"

"Phew, heh," Sportacus raised his head to see Stingy looking back at him. For someone who supposedly didn't notice, Stingy doesn't seem all that surprised.

"You saved me. Thank you!"

Sure, pretend to be grateful; you did that on purpose, you little shit. "You're welcome, Stingy," Sportacus said shortly before pushing himself back to his feet and went back to his young fanclub.

"Wow!"

"Did you see that?"

"That was awesome!"

A shimmer had caught Stingy's eye. The crystal? he thought as he picked it up. Sportacus must not have noticed he dropped this...

Stingy looked up at the others.

"That was super brave," Ziggy said.

"You have a hero inside you too, Ziggy." Sportacus lightly poked where Ziggy's heart was. (Or where it should've been.)

"Huh." Ziggy brushed his hand over the area. "My hero must not be ready to come out yet."

"Somewhere, here," Sportacus said before tickling Ziggy's upper ribs, making him giggle.

Maybe I should give this back, Stingy thought.

"Hey, Sportacus!"

Sportacus turned to look at him. "Yeah, Stingy?"

Before he could say anything else, he found himself hiding the crystal behind his back. "Thanks again for saving me."

Thankfully, Sportacus didn't seem to notice. "Okay. No problem. Be careful next time."

"Yeah."

"Sportacus, that was really great!" Stephanie said as everyone began to walk off, leaving Stingy alone.

Now that nobody was watching him, Stingy took out the crystal and took a moment to admire it even more. "Sportacus won't need this for a few minutes..." he thought aloud. "... Or a few hours..."

Not once had Robbie heard from Bessie since the race three days ago. He had been so used to her torturing him when he failed, her not punishing him felt just... wrong.

He donned his mailbox disguise to spy on Bessie, and it seemed she was preoccupied with the mayor. Robbie kept enough of a distance that he couldn't hear much of their conversation, but most of it seemed to be the mayor pointing out things they should put back into business for the benefit of LazyTown; her main excuse being that it wasn't in their budget to hire people to reopen these places.

This wasn't the only time she hadn't tortured him for not succeeding. Every once in a great while, she was generous enough to chalk it up to dumb luck and let him off the hook. Bessie wasn't the kind to praise her minions when she thought they did good (or well enough not to make her too angry)... she merely left them alone. That being said, Robbie had come to assume that no news meant good news for him, and began to relax a bit more than usual.

When he returned to his lair, a letter stuck out from the mailbox door. Whoever left it there had wanted him to pick it up.

The library? he thought, noting the familiar marking in the upper-left corner of the envelope. But nobody's worked at the library in years... or even the post office for that matter.

Cautiously ripping the envelope open, Robbie unfolded the letter inside.

Dear Robbie,

As you might have guessed by now, I have been sent to replace Sportacus 9. He wanted me to tell you that he was alive, so you don't need to worry.

I'm sorry for not sending this letter sooner, I've been trying to think of a way to communicate with you, preferably under Bessie's nose, but I wasn't sure if letters were the way to go at them. If you have any better ideas, I'm all ears. (Or eyes, I guess.)

-Sportacus 10

It was amazing how a little bit of exercise could bring you your brain back. Robbie still needed to take his time and be sure that he read it properly, but at least he seldom stumbled over the letters this time, much to his own surprise.

Noting the camera that sat about seven meters from his lair, Robbie thought about what to say to cover this up.

"Dear Mr. Rotten," Robbie pretended to read aloud once back inside. "You have an overdue book from the library and we would like it back. As of today, fine mounts, to four-thousand-five-hundred-and-six dollars and three cents?! Please pay this blah, blah, blah." Robbie dramatically threw the paper into the air and chuckled evilly. "Those library people can be so pushy!" Not his best cover story, sure, but how else was he going to explain the library letter? That could've been sitting in his mailbox for years for all she knew!

Robbie flopped in his orange chair, and noticed the book next to him. "Aha!" He picked up the book and opened it. "'Rotten Behavior, for Dummies...'"

Truth be told, he wasn't paying much attention to the book: he was in too good of a mood to be distracted. This was perhaps, truly the best he had been feeling since... he couldn't even remember the last time he could feel hope stirring within his chest. Not only was he starting to communicate with Sportacus and learned that Number 9 was alive and well, he was a little further back from the edges of Busybody's good graces.

If you asked him, Robbie would say things were starting to look up.

Sportacus had returned to his ship for his daily detoxifying workout, waiting to see if Robbie would respond, and even checked what to do when encountering any stray or wild animal wandering around in LazyTown. (He couldn't find anything for the latter, so he assumed Number 9 never came across that.)

Flipping back into his piolet's seat, he was about to head back down to the town... when he noticed that his crystal compartment was open!

"My crystal... it's gone!"

Turning to visually sweep the room behind him, it wasn't anywhere in the ship. That could've only meant that Sportacus has lost it somewhere in the town below. He wasn't sure why, but his first instinct was to tell the mayor about this.

Between trying to keep the town villain in his place, come up with plans to stop or get rid of the town hero, keeping and eye on the citizens as well as making sure they didn't try to form an uprising, AND finding ways to work around the new human child's resistance to the process, Ms. Busybody also had to maintain her unique power-balance with the mayor.

As far as magic, technology and intelligence went, Bessie was far superior. It was safely from behind the mayor's fat shadow that she ran this place, and she was going to keep it that way for as long as she needed to. But the mayor had one advantage over her, and that was political power. What few citizens LazyTown had adored the bumbling yet kind-hearted mayor, and if he could gather enough people behind a cause, chances are his people would follow.

About three years ago, when the mayor had heard about LazyTown, a place that was run down and had fallen to its knees, he naively thought he could save it, bringing it back to life. And it was through his gullibility, high ambitions and soft sentiment that Bessie was able to manipulate him during an election against LazyTown's last mayor, by posing as a secretary to be used for his service.

How the town was persuaded to vote for him was another story altogether, but the point was that now-of-days, managing this simple, nearly brain-dead hulk had taken up much more of her time than she anticipated. Soon enough she was going to have to give herself a break: keeping up with it all was exhausting to say the least.

It wasn't until the mayor spoke that she realized she was falling asleep at her desk. "I'd like to write a letter to the President of the country and say... 'Dear President of the country, it would be an honor-'"

"But-but actually, it would sound better if your letter said, 'Dear President of the country'," (little did the mayor know that this letter was not, in fact, to the president of the country, but for someone she kept a secret from the townsfolk.)

"Ah, yes."

"'We in LazyTown welcome you-'"

The door slammed open, and a blue blur rushed into the room. "Something terrible has happened!"

"Oh dear! Is Stephanie all right?"

... Shit. Bad move: Sportacus had nearly forgotten that Bessie often accompanied the mayor as part of her "job".

Sportacus turned his back towards her so she wouldn't see him without the crystal. "Oh yes, she's fine."

"Oh thank goodness! She's quite special you know. A lovely girl-"

It looked like Sportacus was going to have to compensate for his mistake by using subtlety. "Mayor!" Sportacus gestured to his chest. "Do you notice anything different about me?"

"Ooh! Your muscles are bigger?"

"No."

"You've grown a mustache? No, wait, you've always had a mustache."

Getting frustrated, Sportacus knew he was going to have to point it out for this moron.

"Oh! Your crystal is missing!"

"Yes!"

What?! It was?! Bessie did her best to look shocked and worried, but could barely hide the wicked smile on her face.

"Oh my stars! What do we do? What do we do? Oh, I know! Uh, uh, we'll offer a reward! Whoever finds the crystal will get one wish! Ms. Busybody! Spread the word!"

Sportacus dashed out of the office to go look outside.

"Yes, Mr. Mayor! Right away!"

If Ms. Busybody ever got her hands on that crystal... she would make sure Sportacus would never see it again.

Ziggy was reading a comic book in his room when his phone went off.

"Yes hello?"

RING!

"Hello?" he asked, getting no response. Realizing instead he had been holding a lollipop to his ear this whole time, he chuckled and picked up the real phone. "Yes, mm-hm?"

"Sportacus has lost his crystal! We're going to need all the help we can get!" Ms. Busybody's panicked voice came from the other side.

Ziggy gasped. "Wow, really? Yeah, I'll help, sure!"

"Hello?! Sportacus has lost his crystal!"

"Bessie, that's terrible!" Stephanie responded.

"Hold on a minute! Um..." she picked up an extra cellphone and used it to call Pixel.

"Pixel here, go!"

"Sportacus has lost his crystal!"

"The crystal's missing?! No way!"

"We're going to need some posters; there will be one wish granted to anyone who finds the crystal."

"Of course I can make some posters." Pixel closed out of his game and opened a photo-editing program. "Mm-hm... one wish... mm-hm... good. And print!"

It only takes a second to go from vaguely pleasant dreams to being jolted awake in panic. Thankfully, it didn't take Robbie long to find what woke him: his phone was ringing.

... His phone was ringing?

"Wha...?" he asked to the empty air, heart still pounding while the phone continued to ring without a care. "Nobody ever calls me." Slowly and cautiously, he picked up the phone head, taking a look at it in disbelief before putting it to his ear. "... Hellooo...?"

Robbie's stomach dropped at the sound of his mistress' voice: "Sportacus lost his crystal!"

"... What?!"

"... Em... sorry, wrong number!"

Despite what Busybody said, Robbie knew that calling him was no accident, especially when there were only seven potential numbers to call in town that would be answered.

Robbie sprung to his feet. "HaHA!" His laugh echoed through the underground lair. "Without the crystal, Sportacus won't know when people are in trouble! And he won't be a superhero anymore!"

Laughing giddily, he ran to the periscope. Through it he saw the whole town in a frenzy: the kids searching the ground with droopy, hypnotized eyes, Sportacus flipping around looking under benches and in things like the mailbox and garbage can. Everything was in chaos, and he didn't have to do anything to get it there!

There was a small part of him that was asking if he should help Sportacus look for the crystal, but then he remembered as the villain, he had no reason to.

The kids were so out of it they even bumped into each other!

No one was more agitated than Sportacus, and rightfully so. If this were a truly nice area with no malicious townsfolk, he shouldn't have been worried on this level.

Robbie started to dance. "He can't find it! Hahaha!"

Surveying back towards another wall, he noticed Pixel put up a poster on the wall: "MISSING" it read at the top. "REWARD: ONE WISH" it said at the bottom. In the middle was a picture of Sportacus' crystal. Strangely enough, Robbie wasn't aware that anyone had seen what Sportacus' crystal actually looked like; the way it was put on the posters. It really just looked like a recolored version of...

All at once, a flashback had stopped his thoughts in their tracks:

Sometimes Robbie's surveillance of the town involved not just standing at his periscope, but occasionally going for walks around the town, in the shadows, away from people.  He didn't mind it, even after all these years it seemed he could never truly get the grasp of laziness.  The easiest time he found to do that was dusk. Not many people were out, and it was just dark enough that he would be fairly well-hidden, but not so dark that he couldn't see where he was going.

It was during this walk that he had seen young Trixie go just a bit too high on the swings. So high in fact, that she had looped and accidentally tied herself to the bar.

But of course, she had only been that way for half a minute before the orange-clad hero started flipping in the direction of the playground. Maybe flipping a bit too quickly perhaps... Robbie suppressed a snicker when Sportacus had crashed into a tree. Back in his hero days, he had gotten by just fine without all the fancy flippity-flops, so he wasn't sure why Sportacus seemed to insist on them. This only seemed to faze him for a second or two before he shook his head, got back up, and dashed off to the playground.

"Please, help me! I got stuck!"

"Don't worry, Trixie! I'll get you down from there."

Looking down at a flashing object in the grass, Robbie snuck up to it. The crystal! So that's what it looked like. It must've still been going off in response to Trixie. Did it fall out when Sportacus crashed into the tree?

Robbie rested his back on the trunk, making that his new hiding spot. The crystal sat, as far as he could tell undamaged, in the palm of his hand. Taking one of his long fingers, he traced the orange end of it that had made up a part of the '9' on Sportacus' chest.

"Hey, your thingy's broken."

"My what?"

Robbie peeked from behind the tree to see that Sportacus now noticed his open crystal compartment.

"Oh..." there was a shake in the hero's voice. It seemed he was trying to keep composure but was trying to hide his alarm. "Um... that's okay, I'll fix it. Why don't you head home? It's getting rather dark."

"You sure? I could go get Pixel," Trixie offered.

"No, really, it's okay. I should go home soon too."

"Well, okay. If you say so. Thanks again, Sportacus!"

"No problem, Trixie. Just don't swing so high next time!"

"Got it!"

Sportacus waited until he thought he was alone to show a streak of vulnerability. Frantically he began retracing his steps, looking as to where he might've lost it.

Robbie knew he needed to give it back, but he couldn't do it where the cameras could see him. Noticing a small pebble by his feet, he scooped it up and threw it in Sportacus' direction; it worked: the pebble from seemingly nowhere got his attention.  Robbie held up the crystal, which Sportacus seemed to recognize from a distance.

"Robbie!"

"SHHH!" Robbie waved his arms wildly, apprehensive about potentially being noticed.

"Right," Sportacus said to himself. He glanced to make sure that nobody else was around before running off in Robbie's direction.

"I believe you've dropped this," Robbie said, holding the crystal out a bit in front of him.

"Thank you!" Sportacus snatched it back up. "Ah, you have no idea the chaos that would've been caused if someone else found it first!"

"You mean that Busybody would've taken it for herself and made sure you'd never see it again? Oh, and Heaven help you if Stingy got a hold of it-"

Robbie was caught off-guard by the sudden peck on his cheek. He watched as Sportacus fumbled with the crystal, desperately trying to put it back. Slowly, Robbie raised a pale hand to his reddening cheek, as if to ask him what that was for.

Sportacus seemed to go from gratefulness to embarrassment. Avoiding eye contact, he continued to try and put it back together. "I'm... I'm sorry, Robbie I-I don't know what came over me, I-" before he could even finish his sentence the crystal beeped. "... I have to go." He seemed relieved not to give an explanation at this moment. "You won't regret this," he said, before rushing off to save the next person in trouble.

It seemed Sportacus was so focused on flipping away he hadn't noticed the piece of paper that had fallen from his person. Cocking his head, Robbie went to get a closer look at it. Unfolding it, the paper was an old photograph featuring Sportacus (though not in uniform here, perhaps this was taken before he joined the superhero business,) and to his right was a young elven-looking boy he had his muscled arm wrapped around, both of them smiling up at the camera angled above them.

Robbie didn't know who this boy was, but he must've been very important to Sportacus if he were willing to keep this folded up in his crystal compartment. Carefully folding the picture back in its creases, Robbie decided the best way to return this portrait to Sportacus would be through letter. It'd been long enough that Bessie wouldn't have suspected anything, and besides, he'd be lying if he were to say that he wasn't interested to hear about the people close to Sportacus, granted it didn't put them in harm's way.

Focus, Robbie! Now is not the time to be thinking about the past!

Refocusing his eyes the poster in front of him, (stationed right in front of where his periscope would pick it up) it became clearer why Bessie called him: she wanted him to find the crystal so he could wish Sportacus out of town, in case the puppets couldn't find it and bring it to her first.

He was also realized that the only reason he managed to avert a crisis with Number 9 losing his crystal was because he saw him lose it, and was able to return it right away. Sportacus 10 on the other hand, wasn't nearly as fortunate. And if the puppets found it before he did, there would be no way Sportacus would ever get it back!

Okay, fine. He'd play along, just as he always did. "Ah! Wait a minute! That's it! Reward: one wish, oh how delish! I'll make Sportacus leave LazyTown, forever!"

But he had a good feeling about this one: after all, with his help, Sportacus 10 has dodged every obstacle she's thrown at him so far, and not one of her plans succeeded. Why should this time be any different?

Ms. Busybody realized there was one minion she hadn't checked for it: Stingy. Being able to see through his eyes, he was sitting in his little mini-car, admiring the crystal he acquired. At least somebody besides Sportacus or his little pink friend found it first. To be able to take it from him for herself was something else she'd have to figure out herself later.

"My precious crystal... hm..." The boy snapped, as if suddenly coming to his senses. "NO! I'll give it back!"

Tomorrow? Bessie sent the subtle psychic message to his mind.

"... tomorrow. Oh... or maybe, the day after tomorrow."

That's the spirit!

"But..." he seemed to regain his conscience for a second. "What if somebody notices it's gone?"

I'm sure no one will notice.

"I'm sure... no one will notice at all! Yes, that's it! I'll... hang onto it...for a month!"

Bessie had hoped that he would've said 'forever' instead, but this worked too. It seemed to buy her time to plan her next move...

Chapter Text

Robbie struggled to carry a heavy box to a side of his lair. The box was big enough that he couldn't fit it on the narrow counter, so he dumped the miscellaneous scrapped parts out onto the counter. Sitting on the same counter was a small, microwave-like device. This invention allowed him to create anything he wanted, and the more stuff he threw in, the more accurate the product would come out. In this case, a fake yet identical crystal. He might not have been able to return the crystal to Sportacus right away, but he could at least give him a fake one until the real one could be found. Of course, Sportacus wasn't stupid: it wouldn't be long before he would see right through this, and Robbie wasn't sure how soon he would get said promised wish, so the window of time he had to find the real one was small.

"A lot of shiny things to make a shiny crystal!" Robbie exclaimed between evil laughs while shoving most of the items that stayed on the counter into the microwave. (They wouldn't all fit so he had to leave some out.)

Slamming the door shut, he grabbed a giant, magic-powered hammer that sat on the ground a few feet away from the device. If this were a real microwave with metal parts in it, well that would just be a straight-up fire hazard! But not this, see this was a special, transformation hammer that would help him make these things.

Aiming for the giant orb that sat above it, Robbie hit it. It had taken him three times before he was starting to run out of breath, but three times was all it took. Discarding the hammer, Robbie knocked the remaining items off of the counter. The buzz the microwave gave indicated the fake was ready. Opening the door, he was greeted with fumes on the other side. This didn't surprise him; they often sat in the pipes waiting to be released.

"AH! Hahaha! Oh!" Robbie began to feel lightheaded shortly after he accidentally breathed some in. Coughing, he still removed the perfect replica from the microwave. "I'm a genius!" Just as he seemed to do with inventions he felt good about, he kissed it. "Well, that's obvious, isn't it?" he asked himself with a laugh.

"Why should I give you back?" Stingy asked the crystal in his hand. "I like you more than anyone else."

You're right, Stingy. Don't give me back. Stingy seemed to think that the crystal was actually responding to him, so Bessie decided to use that to her advantage.

"Huh? What's that?" Stingy put the crystal up to his ear.

She couldn't think of a way she could separate Stingy from the crystal without protest or anything that would draw attention to her, so she decided the best course of action was to hide it in plain sight until she could come up with a better idea. In fact, I want to be your hood ornament!

"You wanna be my hood ornament?" Stingy held the crystal in front of the ornament, comparing it for a moment. "Yes... YES!"

"Any luck yet?" Sportacus asked Stephanie.

"Nope," she replied, discouraged. "Looks like we'll need a miracle."

And there was their miracle now: Robbie Rotten approaching them, hips swinging and head held high.

What is he up to? was the first thought that popped up in Sportacus' mind. It was hard to say whose side Robbie was on; he'd never gotten a response to the letter he sent to him the other night, and he could've turned right around and showed that to Bessie for all he knew. "Rob-"

"TA-DAAAAA!" Robbie proudly held the crystal in his hand.

"My crystal!" Almost immediately had Sportacus forgotten his doubts about Robbie as he took his crystal back. "Wow!"

Robbie breathed out in relief as Sportacus was able to fasten the crystal in first try. Maybe Number 9 was able to fix whatever mechanism there was that made it difficult since then.

"You're amazing!" Sportacus said to Robbie.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bessie relatively hidden from everyone else. Feeling her sharp blue gaze on him, it was probably best to show her that he hadn't forgotten about the plan. "Well, that's true! But what about my wish?"

"Robbie..." Stephanie began, her voice full of suspicion.

Both Sportacus and Robbie looked in her direction.

"... You're not usually this nice," Robbie could hear Stephanie's clear distaste for him in her tone.

Robbie straightened his vest before leaning towards Stephanie. "Go away, kid."

Stephanie scoffed, but she didn't budge.

Robbie stood up straight again. "The mayor said something about a wish!"

The next thing Robbie knew, his right hand was once again caught in Sportacus' iron grip, the other hand soon placed on his shoulder while he struggled to stay on his feet being on the receiving end of Sportacus' Handshake of Death.

"You did a good thing, Robbie."

He only went on for a few more seconds, but was that really necessary? Just a simple 'thank you for returning my crystal' would have sufficed just fine. No physical contact needed. Speaking of which, he technically didn't thank him. How rude!

Behind him was the sound of a strum of chords. Uh-oh... there was a song coming on.

"Well, I guess if Robbie Rotten can change, then anything can happen." Stephanie seemed much less wary now.

"That's true," Sportacus said.

Robbie gave a light chuckle, but this was merely to hide the fact he was regretting not making himself a slice of antidote cake this morning...

"Na na na na, na na na, anything can happen!"

Sportacus started doing flips behind Stephanie as she sang.

"Na na na na, na na na, anything at all!"

Robbie noted the entire town, even Bessie started to dance around in the town square and gave an annoyed sigh between clenched teeth. Of course he felt compelled to join them; that's part of how Bessie knew her mind control was working. That didn't make it any less irritating.

"Hey,"

Sportacus dipped Stephanie, just as he often did when they danced.

"Even if you don't think there's a way,"

Robbie did the best to stay as still as he could and resist dancing with everyone else, but the best he could muster was bobbing in place.

"I'm here to say-"

Sportacus reversed the dip, but Stephanie lost her balance trying to get to her feet again. Immediately both he and Robbie went to go help her to her feet. She didn't seem hurt and in fact went right back to singing.

"Black can turn to white and night to day."

Stephanie leaped into Sportacus' arms, and this time he made sure not to drop her this time.

"Oh yes things can change."

Sportacus put Stephanie back down, only to have Robbie leap into his arms right after.

Robbie, what the hell? Was this part of the mind control? Was Robbie also trying to follow Stephanie's lead?

"No matter how weird or wild or strange," Stephanie continued.

Sportacus hadn't realized how distracted he was until he ended up dropping him. He instantly felt concern for the slightly stunned man on the ground.

"So we go na na na na, na na na-"

Sportacus then noticed his crystal hadn't gone off when Stephanie or Robbie fell. This was his first mission using a crystal, so even now he wasn't entirely sure how it worked, but was this because he was next to them already?

"Anything can happen..."

Robbie got up and started walking on his knees, and Sportacus' worry switched from concern to amusement. At least he seemed like he was okay.

"Na na na na, na na na, anything at all!"

Sportacus and Stephanie started to do a synchronized dance next to each other.

And Stephanie of course, kept on singing: "na na na na, na na na"

"Ugh STOP!" Robbie had figured no one could hear him, but Stephanie and Sportacus seemed to be aware that he was still there, as they stepped behind, leaving him to take their imaginary center-stage. Unsure of what else to do, he decided to repeat their earlier movements.

"Na na na na, na na na, anything at all!"

After what felt like forever, the song was over.

Robbie gave an exasperated sigh. "My wish, please!"

His words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Deaf space-elf ears to be exact. "Let's go find the mayor and have a big celebration!" Sportacus dashed off in search of Mayor Meanswell.

"YEAH!"

"Oh no, no, but I-"

Even as excited as Stephanie seemed, she didn't move from her spot. "Yeah with cake and balloons and-"

Sportacus, having noticed Stephanie hadn't come with him, ran back for her. "Stephanie-" he yanked her away by the arm, the two of them running off while Stephanie continued to yammer about the party on the way.

Maybe it was his paranoia talking, but Robbie had a feeling Bessie was still watching him after all that. "RRRRRRGH!" Quieting his growl, he stormed in the same direction they did.

"It's time for the party!" It took Mayor Meanswell a few tries to get it to budge, but he pulled back on the lever until he fell over, in turn setting up the stage in a near-idendical setup to Sportacular Spectacle Day, minus the banner. "Ta-da!" He began to applaud himself, since nobody seemed to be watching. "Wonderful! Wonderful."

Robbie wasn't sure why, but Bessie had decided to vanish from the scene. He used this to his advantage and left the party. If nobody remembered that they were supposed to grant him a wish, then at least he'd use this opportunity to begin his search for the real one, and maybe find a way out of having to wish Sportacus out of town.

"I go through all the trouble of making a fake crystal, and they make me wait hours for my reward!" he ranted to the nearby camera, since he knew too well no one else was going to hear him and his plan. Well, maybe they didn't make him wait hours, but everything often happens within seconds here in LazyTown, this felt like hours in comparison.

He was so busy complaining that he ended up falling in that pesky hole that still nobody has filled yet. "Who turned out the lights?" Did this hole get deeper? Robbie pulled himself up so his head and arms were out of the hole. "Huh?"

A familiar yellow car began to drive towards him, soon to hit him! "WoooaaaAAAAAHHHH!" The car wasn't going terribly fast, but if he didn't give out a dramatic and over-the-top scream, the driver might not of heard him, just as nobody ever seemed to.

Thankfully, the car did stop, just within an inch or two of his face. What else was in his face? "The real crystal. Hm... hello there, Stinky!"

"It's Stingy."

"Whatever." Robbie knew too well that wasn't his name, he just didn't care. "Say, that's a handsome hood ornament you got there."

Stingy nodded.

"Can I... borrow it?" Robbie asked.

"Um..." the puppet child pretended to take a moment to think about it "... no thanks."

Now, the truly evil thing here to do would be to rip that crystal right off the hood and run with it, but Robbie had seen first-hand how fast the car can go when Stingy got really angry, and that usually only happened when he was forcibly separated from his valuables. Therefore, a wiser option would be to exploit Stingy's controller: greed.

"Well I have something that you don't have."

Stingy gasped. "What? Tell me! Tell me!"

Robbie shrugged. "Well, it's expensive."

"Yeah...?"

"And hard to get."

"I want it. Maybe we could, um... make a trade?"

"Well..." Robbie rolled his eyes dramatically. "... I don't know..."

"Meet me at the treehouse. Then we can talk business!"

Robbie grinned. "Okay, but just this once!"

Stingy reversed the car, avoiding the hole when going forward again.

Robbie went into an evil monologue: "mwahaha; the crystal will be mine. And then, Sportacus won't be able to help anyone! Hahaha. Sometimes... I'm so mean, that I scare myself," to put the cherry on top, he finished with an evil laugh.

A meow out of nowhere made Robbie shriek from being startled. He began to panic; he knew the sound came from the hole, and soon found the source: a tiny kitten by his feet.

Great: another of Bessie's familiars. Her last one passed away not too long ago from old age, and it would've only been a matter of time before she got another one. Black and white cats seemed to be her favorite for some reason...

"Wild beast on the loose. Coochie coo!" he said as he lightly scratched the kitten's head just before tossing it away in disgust and brushing his hands. It hadn't been thrown far enough to hurt it, but Robbie didn't want anything to do with it.

Now that that distraction was out of the way, he realized there was another part of the puzzle: he had to actually find something worthy enough to trade with the little snot.

Luckily for him, there was a closet in Bessie's house where he often got the items he needed to trigger said controls. Hopefully, he could convince her to give him the keys...

"Sure. Why not?" Ms. Busybody said, a moderately sized cloud of smoke escaping her lips. It turned out she had gone home for a cigarette break. She rarely smoked in front of people, as she didn't want them knowing about this nasty habit of hers. Because Robbie had caught her in the act enough times, he was the one person she didn't bother hiding it from. The thing that surprised Robbie most wasn't that she wasn't immune to human addictions, nor even that she smoked in the first place, but the fact that even with fireproof gloves she hadn't once set herself on fire.

"... Really?"

"I'm terribly low on energy... I don't have enough to make Stingy bring the crystal to me himself." Bessie used her free hand to reach into her sweater pocket. "This could very well be the best way to get the crystal intact." Finding the small ring of keys, she tossed them to Robbie. "You know what to do."

Robbie nodded and went inside. At the end of the entry hallway in her house sat a bedroom to the right. Inside this bedroom was a deceptively deep walk-in closet; beyond even the rows of shelves that took up the walls was a safe where she kept the really important stuff. But getting into that safe required a passcode... which under no circumstances did she give to anybody, not even her top minions.

He unlocked the door and pulled the chain in the middle of the ceiling, switching on the bulb attached to it. Bessie needed ladders to get to these shelves, but Robbie being the tallest person in town could reach everything just fine.

The first item that had caught his eye was a stack of comic books. He didn't know what they were about, some sort of superhero, he thought, but kids liked comic books, right? He decided to wait until he was done in here to pick them up.

Across from it was a bag. Poking it, Robbie noted the familiar feeling of coins beneath the burlap, and wondered why she didn't keep that in her special safe. Opening it, he found it wasn't just coins from their country, but from all over the world! Including Iceland? (He'd heard it was a very nice place. If he lived to get to the other side of this, he'd like to go there for vacation one day.) But money was no object: no one said the money had to be worth much where you lived.

Closing the bag, a couple shelves above it sat a cup with a map of the state of Texas on it. Stingy came from an Italian family, so chances are he didn't have anything like this.

Underneath the cup was a book. Setting the cup down and picking up the book, Robbie found it was more of a photo album, really. Cautiously glancing out the closet door, no one seemed to be there. Bessie was probably still outside. What could she have pictures of?

On the first page was a picture of a group of people standing in front of the LazyTown sign. It had been taken so long ago, that this was before colored pictures even came out! Most of the people had their faces crossed out or scribbled over... all except for a small boy in a vest and bowtie.

Robbie gripped the sides of the album. It was incredibly surreal to see Stingy in his human form before all this 'puppeting' nonsense took over the town.

Flipping the page, he found the rest of the pictures were usually more individual pictures, or pictures of kids with their families, but just like the first, their names and faces were scribbled out. Throughout the book, most of which on separate pages, he managed to find a picture of each child in their past human form as well as their real name.

Giovanni Viziato / Stingy Spoilero (1908)

Siggi Karason / Ziggy Zweet (1944)

Amelia "Amy" Trable / Trixie Troubleby (1973)

Ronald Westwood / Pixel Hyperbyte (1985)

And he remembered them. He remembered what each and every one of them were like before it all happened. Survival chances aside, that was what was most sickening to him; he might've been fully grown when he started to fall prey to the process, but these kids were... well, just kids! To go through all that... as a child... he couldn't even imagine. And after each and every one of them had been puppetized, they were given new names, names based on whatever their personalities had been reduced to.

Robbie froze as he heard the front door open and close.

"Robbie! Are you still here?!"

Robbie slammed the album shut and shoved it onto the shelf he had found it. "On my way now, ma'am!" he said as he hurriedly tucked the keys in his back pocket and took his three decided items and piled them up in his arms.

Just outside the party, Sportacus sat on a park bench, looking at his enclosed crystal compartment. Everyone was having a good time, moving and dancing around, and by all means he knew he should be joining them. But the truth was his mind was occupied with other things.

What he could remember while singing and dancing is at some point, Stephanie fell over, and he accidentally dropped Robbie. The crystal didn't go off for either of them. Sure, they weren't hurt as far as he knew, but that was still a little odd. Ziggy and Trixie might not have gotten hurt from their fall either the day he first arrived, but the crystal still responded to them.

Perhaps more importantly, he pretended not to notice how insistent Robbie was about getting that wish that was promised. Assuming he was working under Bessie's coercion at the moment, it wasn't hard to tell where this was going. Given that heroes 2-8 didn't live to tell the tale of what happened in LazyTown, what would be next if he was kicked out of LazyTown? Were these heroes... taken care of on the way out? They would've already known too much, and Bessie couldn't risk having that information get out.

The feeling of regret sat in his stomach. Sportacus wasn't particularly a pessimistic person, but if he were being honest, things were looking pretty bleak. It wasn't even the possibility of death that scared him as much but Robbie... Dad... Stephanie... his death would mean that he failed. He'd be letting everyone down.

"Hey, Sportacus!"

Sportacus forced a small smile. "Hi..."

"I'm really glad you got the crystal back."

"That looks like it was it."

"... What's wrong?"

He wanted to tell her what was on his mind, but even as dire as his situation was becoming, he didn't want to worry her. "Nothing... I just had a feeling."

The look on Stephanie's face told him she wasn't convinced.

"I'm sure it's nothing," he assured her again.

Stephanie nodded, not because she believed him, but just because she figured she wasn't going to get him to tell her anything.

It was best to distract her, and himself from the problem at hand, especially if there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. "Let's go some place, yeah?" Sportacus asked her, getting up. "Come on," he put on a cheerful face and ran back to the party, Stephanie not too far behind.

Most kids would've grown bored of their material possessions within minutes. That, of course, wasn't the case with Stingy, who had done nothing but stare at the crystal since he arrived in the treehouse.

"Mmm... oooh!"

Only the sound of the treehouse door opening was enough to focus on anything else.

"Whoo!" Robbie gave a triumphant laugh, setting the items so they rested on his leg; there was no way his magic would be able to hold everything he carried. Climbing up a ladder was hard. Even harder when your hands were filled with heavy items. "Well, here you go, Strinky!" he said as he hoisted up the stack of comic books onto the treehouse floor.

"It's Stingy!"

"Whatever. A mountain of comic books!" Robbie gestured to the pile. "All for you."

"Oh..."

That seemed to work well enough. At the very least, Stingy seemed interested. "Now hand over the crystal!" Robbie stuck his hand out.

Stingy looked back at the crystal in his hand. "Oh... I don't know..."

"Well, a mountain of comic books! And... coins!" Robbie lifted the heavy bag and set it down next to the comic book stack. "From all over the world!"

"Oh!"

"Including Iceland! So, what do you say?"

Stingy looked back at the crystal, his tone clearly showing he was tempted by these offers. "Oh, I'd like to... but um... it's just so-"

"Final offer!"

Stingy looked up from the crystal.

"Comic books, coins, and... a coffee cup! With a map of Texas on it!"

Robbie wasn't sure why but that one seemed to interest Stingy the most. "Ooh!"

As if it would help really get the deal across, Robbie playfully pretended to drink from the mug.

"Ah! I uh... I... can't do it! The crystal doesn't belong to me."

This admission from Stingy surprised Robbie more than the child merely turning everything down out of greed for the item he already had. It was easy for even him to forget that even beneath all the drugs and mind control sat just a tiny little part of each child that was still conscious, still human, and still, even if miniscule, had a sense of right and wrong.

And if that little part was awake right now... Robbie knew just how to utilize it. "Oh, you are in so much trouble!"

"Huh?"

"You took the crystal... and I'm telling!"

"Ah! No! Don't do that!"

"So you're going to trade?"

"Uh... I uh...uh, I can't!"

"Okay. Bye-bye, then."

"Robbie!"

"I'll come back later, and we can talk about it again. Oh, kids. They are so greedy today." One by one Robbie started removing items from the treehouse.

"Wait!"

"Yeah yeah yeah."

"No, not the comic books!"

"Bye-bye!"

"No not the money!"

"Hahaha, bye-bye!"

"Robbie!"

On his way down, Robbie analyzed the situation. Sportacus probably didn't know about the crystal yet, and if he couldn't get the crystal from Stingy, maybe this trade behind Sportacus' back would push the kid to come clean to the hero and give the crystal back. But he didn't have much time left before he would make his wish in front of the rest of the town... how could Sportacus find out the truth in time?

"I am in so much trouble! Oh, piggy!" Stingy begged his pet piggybank. "Piggy, you have to help me!"

Come to think of it, the treehouse was close enough to the town square that Robbie could hear the music from where he was standing. Would it be so far off to think that perhaps cries of help could in turn be heard from the square?

Stingy heard a creaking sound that didn't quite sound like it was coming from the ladder but... it started from where it was propped up?! Oh no... he knew what was going on.

"Robbie! Wait!"

But it was too late. All Stingy could hear was Robbie's evil laugh and the ladder making a loud crash as it hit the ground.

A second later the crystal began to beep and glow.

"The crystal! Somebody's in trouble!" But, if everyone else was at the party, then... "it's me!" He turned towards the window; "AH! HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP! HEELLLP!"

"Ah, yes! Everyone gather around! Gather around, everyone!" the mayor said into the microphone. On stage next to him was Sportacus, and Robbie was hiding behind the nearest pole. He had grown accustomed to hiding behind things and staying out of the way... it felt safer, somehow.

The rest of the children gathered in front of the stage.

"Ah, yes, there you are."

Robbie knew Ms. Busybody wasn't there... but he had a feeling she was watching from her camera room. There was no telling how people would react when they found out it was a fake: not Sportacus, not the townsfolk, and really, not even Bessie (though some form of punishment was inevitable). He'd found himself a lose-lose situation either way, but while he was losing he figured he may as well take the lesser of the two losses: to keep Sportacus in town and deal with whatever Bessie had in store for him, than to send him out and force the agency to send yet another one after him.

"... Robbie Rotten!"

"... I didn't do it!" He'd been so lost in his thoughts he hadn't paid attention to what the mayor was saying.

"Uh, nonono, come here." The mayor pointed to a spot in front of the podium. "On the stage... yes."

Robbie gave a short nod and took an awkward step towards the spot. His legs were so long that it only took one to get where he needed to be. Looking behind him, he could see the somberness in Sportacus' eyes. He seemed to know what would happen to him if Robbie's plan didn't work, but his otherwise stoic face belied any emotions he may have been feeling at the moment.

"Uh, now, because you returned the crystal to Sportacus, you are hereby granted one wish!"

Was... was he too late? No, no. Now was not the time to break character; he had to pretend that he really wanted this. "Hahahaha! I wish-"

"Helllp! Somebody help me!" Stingy's voice echoed from the distance.

Stephanie looked over in the direction of the treehouse. "I hear something!"

Robbie felt a mix of adrenaline and relief stirring in him. "Well, it's me... talking... go away."

But everyone, himself included, knew Stephanie was smarter than that: "no... it sounds like Stingy's calling for help!"

Sportacus looked down at his crystal; so he figured it out... and just in time. "My crystal isn't working!"

In an instant Sportacus' expression had gone from grave to enraged, and he glared right at Robbie, who was instinctively looking for an escape. The villain had flinched as the hero yelled in his face: "I knew there was something!"

A second later, Sportacus had made haste to go save the day.

Robbie straightened out, taking a moment to process that Sportacus hadn't hit him... and everyone was staring at him. "Well, I... no, it... no I didn't."

Sportacus couldn't believe this: really, and truly he couldn't! Even as defective and unreliable as the crystal was, he still needed for when people might really be in danger, including Robbie! Did that idiot know that through this scheme he had endangered not just him and Stephanie, but that Robbie also put himself in danger as well?!

Of course, then there was Stingy, who he was certain ended up stealing the real one, and Busybody, who most likely orchestrated the whole thing from behind the scenes and made it harder for Sportacus to actually go and get his crystal back. But he couldn't really yell at them for it: Stingy was just a little kid, and people might find it odd he was bitching out the mayor's secretary for no reason.

Stingy had tied a white cloth to a stick and waved it out the window, trying to flag someone down. "Help! Somebody help me! I'm stuck up here! Help!"

Being close enough to the tree, Sportacus started flipping in Stingy's direction.

"Sportacus! Help me! I'm stuck up here! Help!"

Sportacus jumped on the lower end of the ladder, which slanted it back against the tree, allowing him to climb up.

"Stingy, step back!" As soon as Sportacus pushed the door open, Stingy rushed towards him. Technically, Stingy should've been able to climb down by himself, but he appeared to be genuinely shaken up and scared, so Sportacus obliged in picking him up. "You okay?"

"Yeah..."

Sportacus took a couple steps down. "I'm going to jump," he warned. The hero leaped off the ladder, safely returning Stingy to the ground.

"Woah!" For whatever reason, it seemed Stingy couldn't keep his balance, so Sportacus had his hands on Stingy's back and torso to keep him from falling over. "Thanks, Sportacus."

"You're welcome."

Taking Stingy back to the town square, the mayor and the other kids are gathered around the two. Robbie probably snuck off sometime in-between, and Bessie was still nowhere to be found.

"Sportacus, I made a mistake."

"Stingy, the things you do affect everybody; not just you." Sportacus straightened Stingy's slightly crooked bowtie, then removed the fake crystal from his chest. "Do you understand?" he asked, making an effort to appear calm.

"I found something that didn't belong to me, and instead of giving it back," Stingy said, handing Sportacus the real crystal, which was then returned to its rightful place, "I... kept it." His voice broke as he apologized, "I'm sorry."

Stingy shouldn't have taken the crystal, but then again, he was just a stupid little puppet kid and didn't entirely know what he was doing, but hopefully he learned the consequences of his actions. As long as he didn't have to deal with his crystal going missing again, Sportacus decided to let the kid off easy.

"You made a mistake, but you admit it. You said you were sorry. And that effects everybody!"

The rest of the group cheered, but Sportacus immediately felt nauseous. He was trying to be uplifting, but that was so sappy and sweet he was surprised he hadn't gone into a sugar meltdown just from saying that!

"And, since you returned the real crystal, you get to make a wish!" the mayor added.

"Is it okay, Sportacus?" Stingy whispered, his dark eyes asking for reassurance.

"Of course!"

"I wish, that I'll never take anything that doesn't belong to me."

Oh please, this kid would be back to his old ways again in a few days. But Sportacus supposed that was why it was a wish, not a promise. "Good wish. Let's celebrate!"

As if on cue, Bing Bang began to play. Sportacus danced along with Stephanie and the puppet kids, and they even tried to join in on a few lines. He couldn't help but wonder how well the puppet kids knew this song, and who was the one to alert Busybody before Stephanie arrived.

Being shot out the chute entrance of his lair, Robbie had a bit of a rough landing in chair.

"Well... I think I need a bigger pillow." Normally, Bessie would've been there waiting, or left some sort of thing to carry out punishments for her, but cameras aside, Robbie was completely alone. "...There's something missing."

Just as he said it, the items he had picked from Bessie's closet earlier came flying in down the chute, one by one landing on his lap, finishing with the Texas cup on top.

"Huh. Texas." Robbie pretended to sip from the cup.

So... that was it? Just throwing down the items from earlier? This was rather tame in comparison to the things she usually did... not that he was complaining, of course. Quite the opposite, really. Perhaps tonight she was too tired to dole out a "real" punishment.

He supposed that meant these things belonged to him now. Groaning, he nearly threw out his back trying to pick the pile up, so he settled for just setting it to the side of his chair.

Getting up to stretch his spine, he noticed the discarded piece of paper on the floor: Sportacus 10's letter to him from earlier. Besides from being an honest hero, he didn't know much about Number 10... except that he lacked patience, and while he seemed like he tried to keep it under wraps, had quite a temper!

A small smile curling at the edge of his mouth, he'd only hope Number 9 didn't have his hands too full with 10 as a child...

Robbie, on his way home, couldn't help but think about Sportacus kissing him, even though it was simply on the cheek. If he were being honest he'd fancied him for some time, but he didn't know Sportacus was actually into men! 

As far as he was aware, none of the heroes before him were, but it's not like you can tell just by looking at someone. Robbie himself had known that he was a homosexual for several years now, and sure, he'd heard that people dating people of their same gender weren't beaten or stoned to death anymore, (or at least, not as much as they were back in the old days), but still he seldom said anything to anyone about it. Why would he need to? It was none of their business!

Carefully unfolding the photograph once more, he checked for any tears or wrinkles that may have happened on the way down. Thankfully, there were none.

Robbie did as he always did the few times he wrote letters to the hero, laughing evilly and grumbling vague insults to mask whatever he really had to say.

Dear Number 9,

That crystal wasn't the only thing you've ended up dropping tonight. Might I suggest duct tape?

I hope you don't mind but I happened to take a look at the picture. Unless you think talking about him would put him in danger, I'd like to know a bit about the handsome young man next to you.

Regards, Robbie.

P.S. If you wanted to kiss me, all you had to do was ask!

Robbie had briefly left his lair to shoot the letter (picture enclosed) up to Sportacus. Thankfully, it was late enough at night that everyone else was asleep, and even with the cameras on, he couldn't picture a lot of people watching him right now.

The superstitious hero insisted on going to bed every night at 8:08 PM, but it was the middle of the night when Sportacus' response came in the form of an orange paper airplane that had made its way into Robbie's lair and landed on his lap while he sat on his chair.

Robbie unfolded it and immediately found this was a much longer reply than the short notes they passed back and forth every now and then.

"My goodness! I send one insulting letter and he comes back with a monologue. The audacity! Doesn't he know it's the villain's job to monologue?"

Then he employed a technique he often used when he got long letters in turn. He would pick up a book, read it slowly, and after a few pages when he would be sure that the watchers forgot he even had the letter in the first place, would read it silently from behind the cover.

Robbie-

Thank you again for returning something I've lost to me. I hadn't realized it fell out until your letter came. The townsfolk can say what they want about you, you can keep up that villain act all day, but truly you're a saint!

I figured I was going to have to explain myself soon for kissing you. I've been under immense stress lately, and your alliance has been invaluable to me. I suppose I got a little carried away earlier, and hadn't really realized what I had done until after I did it.

I've always found you a very attractive man, Robbie. Even with the few puppetized features of your face you're every bit as handsome as you were nearly a century ago. I don't know how the years of your species works, but it amazes you more or less don't look much different now than you did in 1904!

But even then it's not just what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside that's even more important: I can see even after all these years despite the abuse from Bessie and the scorn from the few citizens this town has, you continue to protect the home you've known since you were a child. Even though you have to do it through intricate schemes and carefully-thought steps, you've saved me from death's doorstep more times than I can count, and I can assume you've made every effort to do so with all the heroes before me. Those things by themselves say a lot about you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... I really like you, lack of better way to put it. I'm not too great at this 'flirting' thing, I can't remember the last time I've had time to engage in this stuff. And I guess since you didn't mind me kissing you, perhaps we could make that a fairly regular thing? Off-cameras, of course. If you're not interested, that's fine, and we can just keep it professional from here on out.

Robbie discreetly turned the paper over to find that there was more written on the back. With the original signature scratched out at the bottom, it seemed Sportacus had been debating whether or not to write this next part:

The boy's name is Alex. He's my son in every way except through blood.

Since my home world is already a pacifistic utopia, we decided to use our resources to spread peace and help life on other planets reach the same level of civilization that we have. Instead, the humans we encountered decided to take us as slaves to work in the mines because we're far stronger and faster than they are. (We're smarter, too, but they clearly didn't think so.)

Alex had been born here on Earth. His birth parents lived and worked in the same caves I did. I don't know what they originally named him (they were punished for calling him anything other than the human name our "masters" gave him for their own convenience.) A few years after he was born, his parents died in a cave-in. Thankfully, Alex was too little to be put to work at the time, and nowhere near the site. Having no parents, however, I took it on myself to protect him as if he were my own: he was too vulnerable to be trusted with the humans.

It had taken several years, but finally our people rose up and overthrew our captors. This is the first picture we took together, just a couple of weeks after we escaped to a better life. I keep it on me for good luck, and I believe it's been working!

Not long after this was when we found the hero's academy you co-founded. Alex always loved hearing your stories of bravery and maybe even looks up to you more than he does to me! I'm sure if I brought you to meet him (which I would like to do one day, when all this is over) he would be utterly ecstatic.

Until that day comes, all I ask is you destroy this letter when you're done reading it. His life could be further endangered if Busybody or somebody else finds out about him.

Awaiting your response - Sportacus.

Up until now, this town hero, perhaps more than the others particularly came across as a mystery to Robbie. If finding that picture was all it took to get him to open up, Robbie would've done so much sooner! Sportacus wasn't aloof or unfriendly, but he was always so secretive, and rarely, if ever, talked about himself. And that was probably in part due to being a superhero, but it seemed they were now at a point where Sportacus trusted Robbie enough to tell what seemed to be some very deep-rooted secrets!

Robbie obliged in tearing the letter to unreadable shreds. Bessie had enough victims already as it was, and Alex didn't need to be one of them any time soon. This next letter on his end should probably be the last letter for a while, but if Sportacus was expecting a response, the polite thing to do would be to make one.

I think I'd like that. Both to meet your son one day and to be your... well, I'm not too sure what they call it these days, but I wouldn't mind one bit if that's what our relationship becomes.

My only concern is that we need to be very discreet about how we go at it: it's never pretty whenever Bessie finds out I've been trying to work with a hero, so there's no telling what she'd do if she found out I started a relationship with one!

As I'm sure you're aware, I like to send letters in the middle of the night, so you better not be awake when this gets to your ship! If you are, please, for heaven's sake, sleep! LazyTown is always in need of a well-rested hero, and I need my biggest ally to be alert and ready for anything.

With love, Robbie.

Robbie found himself standing in the middle of his lair. He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he lost himself in thought and completely zoned out in his memories. Sure, he found himself caught up in worse moments, but wasn't there was something he was meaning to do?

He picked up the piece of paper on the ground and skimmed the words.

Right! Right. The letter responding to the current Sportacus.

While doing curl-ups on the floor of his airship, Sportacus began to wonder if he'd been a bit too harsh on Robbie earlier. Number 9 had told him that Bessie often abused him from behind the scenes after he failed her, and while Sportacus hadn't actually seen her do it, it didn't really surprise him too much. Besides, if Robbie hadn't put Stingy in danger (though whether or not he did that on purpose he couldn't be sure), he might not have found his real crystal in time, and he would've been forced to leave the town. So it all worked out.

THUNK!

Immediately jumping to his feet and flipping to the letter panel on the floor Sportacus caught the tube, and removed the contents.

Number 9 is alright? That's wonderful! Really you have no idea how much weight you've taken off my shoulders with that news alone.

I understand your hesitance to try anything. It's difficult to communicate without Bessie finding out. Letters are okay sometimes, but send too many of them, and she'll find out what's really going on. (I made that mistake with Hero Number 2. He only lasted a few weeks here.)

In the past, there are other ways I've managed to get around her watchful eye. One of which being morsecode. Do you happen to know it? (She doesn't.) If not, that's fine. Our methods of communication would have to be switched frequently anyway to prevent her from catching on.

Each hero that comes here to LazyTown is a ray of hope in this dark cloud of despair. I have no doubt that this mission has been left into capable hands. I know we've probably gotten off on the wrong foot, but I truly do look forward to working with you. Who knows? Maybe ninth time's the charm!

-Sincerely, Robbie.

"You suck, Sportakook. I hope I'll be able to kick you out of town one day." Sportacus frowned. "Seriously? That's what he wrote? What a waste of paper."

Sportacus bunched the letter into a ball and stepped on another panel that vacuumed it into a disposal tank beneath the ship. His mood eighty percent of the time was perpetual annoyance, so feigning it wasn't that hard.

Getting into bed, the lights turned off for him. Sending that letter had been the riskiest move of his mission so far, but he was glad he did. He wasn't sure he was ready to fully trust him...

...but he was willing to entertain the possibility that Robbie wasn't a complete jerk after all.

Chapter Text

When a video game character dies, they often start the level over again. Pixel was not so different. Only he didn't die: he wasn't sure what happened in-between when he tries to leave the game, but after three short notes in descending order play in his headset, the next thing he knew there would be a controller in his hands and he was wrapped up in another round of whatever happened to be on the screen. Tonight, it was Super Power Lizards.

"Yeah, yeah! Where is he? Oh, he's on my side! He's on my side! Get over there! Get over there! WOAH WOAH WOAH! THIS WAY! THIS WAY!"

Most of him was focused on fighting all the enemies in front of him, but there was a tiny part of him that knew tonight alone he'd tried once to get a drink, three times to go to the bathroom and twice to go to bed. All of the above ended in the same results, and he didn't even remember how it happened.

Sometimes, he noticed his headset doing that, but he couldn't remove it even if he wanted to. The headphones were attached to his head, a few bolts kept them drilled into his skull, and the rest might've been glued on for all he knew. It bothered him at first; he woke up like that one day and had no clue how those got there or why he couldn't take them off, but soon he began to simply accept it as a part of his life. A frustrating part, as sometimes it was so bad he couldn't take care of his own personal needs, but what was he going to do about it? He didn't have any tools, or surgical know-how to remove it.

And so there it sat permanently on his head. Pixel was in control of the game. But he could never get rid of the nagging feeling that something... or someone was in control of him.

Everyone else in LazyTown was fast asleep. Everyone except Robbie.

He was sitting in his orange chair, pillows tied around his head to try to block out any little noise that would make him jump. (Not that it helped much.) Draped over his lap was a tiny blanket with a cow on it, eyes pointing up at him. Ms. Busybody had made him this blanket, when he did not have any of his own. A kind gesture on the surface, but keeping in mind a generic name for them being "Bessie", it was yet another reminder that she was always watching. Even when she wasn't there.

Nightmarish images flooded his mind every time he closed his eyes, but he tried to get through it to get even a little bit of sleep that night.

Peeking out from behind a half-wall, Robbie could see a young girl, about fifteen or so, by herself in the middle of the LazyTown plaza. It wasn't the first time he had seen her: she often haunted him in his nightmares... and some of his waking moments, as well.

Most of her, he could see very clearly: she wore white tights, and a short, loose purple skirt over a black leotard.

"... Am I asleep yet?" Robbie asked to the empty air of his lair.

Normally, she would have started up the boom box she took with her to practice her ballet routine, just as she often did, but this time, she stayed perfectly still. The only thing that moved was her skirt, swaying gently from the light spring breeze.

Robbie wouldn't typically approach this girl when she showed up, but somehow there was just, something so familiar about her that he couldn't shake off. Perhaps, if he could just reach her...

"Hello...?" Robbie wasn't entirely aware he said this aloud in the waking world as well.

As if in response, she turned around slowly. He would have assumed her dark hair was tied up in a bun as not to get in the way of her face when she danced...

... but she didn't have one.

Robbie could hear a scream, followed by sobbing, not realizing at first that those noises were his own. Quieting himself to a whimper, he sat up, hands clutching both pillows on his head.

"... I HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP!"

Opening a portal, Robbie used all his strength to push the chair through it. On the other side was where the roof of his lair would be. The cameras and being watched were unavoidable, but at least up here, there was only one he had to worry about.

It was chilly for a summer night, but nevertheless, Robbie decided to leave the blanket inside. It was only big enough to cover his lap, anyway.

Completely drained, he collapsed into the chair, barely able to get the red pillow he'd take with him against his head. The images from earlier continued to persist in his mind. When this happened, he repeated a phrase to himself that helped his rational side connect with his paranoid emotional side.

"She is not real. She is not there."

He began to relax the more he restated it to himself. Soon he began to get too tired to speak. Maybe tonight he would actually get to drift off.

Bzzzz...

Trashing his limbs at the sound, Robbie fell out of the chair. His eyes wild, he moved his head rapidly in search of the source of the noise. Oh, that blasted fly camera again! He wasn't sure how, but Bessie was able to control that thing from... just about wherever.

"No!" he barked, covering his ears. "No, no! NO NO NO! NO!" he ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.

"You can't have these germs!" Stingy broke out into a fit of coughs. "They're MINE."

Trixie was not amused. "Stingy, I already got your germs."

Number 9 had said that sometimes there were experimental chemicals in the fumes, usually to make compliance, or even the whole transformation easier. In this case, some reacted to it better than others. Half the kids were fine, but the other half (and the mayor) weren't. Sportacus felt a bit sorry for the puppet man; in the afternoon sunlight, he looked pale and sickly. If Sportacus didn't have that bit of information beforehand, he might've thought the mayor and those kids were truly ill with something.

"Are you sure you'll be okay taking care of Stingy and Trixie?" Sportacus asked.

"Oh yes, we'll be fine." Whatever tiredness he had from trying to get the kids into the same place really showed up. "Ms. Busybody has left me a guide telling me just how to care for sick children," he waved a piece of paper in his hand.

"Why isn't she here? Shouldn't she be helping?"

The mayor's eyes widened a bit, as if he found himself accidentally divulging something Sportacus wasn't meant to know about. "Oh, uh, she's uh, out of town for a few days. Visiting family I believe, yes."

So Busybody wasn't here. Sportacus wasn't exactly sure what to do with this information (or if she really had any family to visit), but he'd definitely keep that noted.

"At least my Stephanie or the others didn't catch it," the mayor gave a weak chuckle. Trying to change the subject perhaps? "I suppose if you can keep half an eye on Stephanie, Ziggy and Pixel, then I can take care of Stingy and Trixie."

"If you say so. Just call me if you need anything else."

Sportacus stepped down from the spacious porch of Stingy's house to meet Stephanie and Ziggy who were waiting outside for him.

"Do you think my uncle will be okay?"

"I'm sure they'll be fine. It just looks like a really bad cold, but no sense in having anyone else catch it, right?"

"We can still play baseball with four people, right?" Ziggy asked.

"I'm not really sure; I've never played baseball before."

Stephanie and Ziggy gasped.

"You haven't?! But you're Sportacus!" Ziggy exclaimed. "You should know how to play anything!"

"I know how to play a lot of sports... just not all of them."

Sportacus looked over at Stephanie, her hazel eyes all lit up.

"Well, we can teach you all about it. Right, Ziggy?"

"Right!"

"Then let's get going!" Sportacus said. "If Pixel's there already, we won't want to keep him waiting!"

"Yeah! Yeah let's go!" Ziggy ran off, Stephanie following closely behind.

The claim that Sportacus made about not knowing how to play baseball was, of course, complete bullshit on his end. He had sports gear for just about every sport under the sun in his ship, including baseball; why would he have that if he didn't know how to play?

But Stephanie very clearly looked up to him (so did Ziggy... though it might've been a little late for him), so of course she'd jump at the chance to teach him something new. Even with Mayor Meanswell, Stingy and Trixie being sick, it was probably more akin to a bad hangover, and they would be fine soon enough. His priority right now was to keep an eye on Stephanie, and keep her active so she could sweat out the toxins.

"Yeah, unh! UNH! Unh! Uh-huh. Uh-huh!" Pixel's eyes had drifted from the screen to the clock just as he finished the level. "Oh! I'm supposed to meet the guys for a baseball game!"

That familiar sound of the three descending notes hit again... and he found he hadn't put the controller down, and was beginning another round.

"Yeah, unh! Uh-huh!" Well, one more round wasn't going to hurt, right?

Robbie stormed up to the nearest park bench. He looked both ways to make sure that no one else was there. He'd been to the library, the hospital, even the grocery store, just about any place that wasn't peoples' individual residences. Everywhere he's tried to get a wink of sleep last night, that fly camera would follow, and it forced him to go elsewhere. An uncomfortable bench in broad daylight wasn't exactly an ideal place to sleep... but he hadn't been left with many options.

Throwing the pillow down, he sighed, yawned, and laid down on his back. The dark cloud of oncoming sleep made him too tired to even think about the nightmares or his difficult past, and he almost drifted off instantly.

Bzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzzz

Almost.

At first Robbie hoped simply swatting it away would suffice. When that didn't work, he flailed his arms and legs at it in vain until he fell off of the bench.

Becoming as alert as a sleep-deprived person could get, he stood up and looked for his opponent himself. It made itself known, foolishly right in front of his face. Clasping his hands together, Robbie could feel that he caught it in his hands.

But then he made the mistake of opening his hands to look at it, letting it escape. The fly cam used its newfound freedom to go up, and swoop over his head, making him duck. When it missed, it went down in the other direction, this time poking him in the rear.

Robbie had just about had enough of this! Spinning around, he couldn't find the fly with his eyes, so he settled for an alternate plan: picking up the nearby trash can lid and using it as a shield in one hand. This time he could see it coming: it was up in the air. It wasn't as smooth in its motions, now more just floating above Robbie's head tauntingly. With the trash-can-lid-shield in one hand, Robbie used his imaginary sword to try and fight it off. (Not that it made any difference.)

From what he could see, the fly cam was flying upward, preparing to charge at him again. This wasn't working. Luckily, he had another idea: he got down on his hands and knees, hopping until he was just behind the trash can. He listened, waiting for it to come closer...

BzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ

When the timing seemed right, Robbie got up, aiming to make the fly cam crash straight into the lid. A success! Laughing triumphantly, he closed the lid back on the can, trapping the fly. He was thankful then it wasn't a real fly, or that would've been much harder to trap or get rid of. (Then again, it probably wouldn't have been following him all night either!)

Robbie sat down on the trash can, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Whoo!" Panting, he got up, fluffed the pillow, and took two earplugs (to be honest, he wasn't sure where he got those) and laid back down. Perhaps he'd get some sleep for real this time.

Sportacus, Stephanie and Ziggy ran onto the baseball part of the sports field. Pixel was nowhere in sight.

"I don't know where Pixel is, but we can still play,"

"Okay." Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered to Sportacus if the other kids weren't there. Stephanie, who could still be saved from puppetizing, was the one he was worried about.

"Oh," Stephanie pointed to the middle of the field. "You'll be pitcher, so go stand on the pitcher's mound."

Sportacus pointed to the same spot. "Over there?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." He ran to where she pointed.

Ziggy, on the other side of the field was staring off into space.

"Ziggy!" Sportacus called.

"Yeah?" he asked, staying in that same position.

"Turn around!"

"Huh?"

"We're over here!"

Finally Ziggy found his friends. "Oh, there you are! There you are!" He gave a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm ready!"

Stephanie got into batting position. "It's pretty easy, Sportacus. You throw the ball so that I don't hit it, and I try to hit it as far as I can."

Sportacus shook his head, pretending to have no clue what she was talking about. "Hey, I-I'll give it a try!"

"And remember to really haul back and really give it the gas! And we'll see how far I can hit the ball."

Sportacus exhaled. "Okay." What a strange phrase: "haul back, and gas," he said to himself in a loud whisper. "Right!" his voice returned to normal.

Stephanie tapped her bat against the plate. Sportacus threw her an underhand pitch; it resulted in her hitting it across the field.

"Wow!" Sportacus never really pictured himself being impressed by a child's ability to hit a baseball, but Stephanie easily hit one out of the park!

Ziggy held up his mitt. "I got it! I got it! I got it!" In his excitement, he'd accidentally dropped the lollipop he'd been holding in his free hand. Ziggy, generally having candy as his top concern decided to pick it up instead of trying to get the ball, now out of sight.

"Oh, Ziggy! You missed the ball!" Sportacus did his best to hold back some of his frustration. This wasn't supposed to be a competitive game, but really, how hard would it have been to put the stupid candy away for just a little bit and focus on a game?! Was that too much to ask?!

Just when he'd been starting to get minimal beauty sleep, all that shouting woke Robbie up! Angrily ripping the ear plugs out, and stormed over to the nearest wall behind the source of the noise.

He supposed he would've anticipated Sportacus taking the kids out to play. What he hadn't anticipated was that the group had brought a few spare baseballs, one of which was heading right towards him! Squealing in panic, he dodged just so it flew over his head.

Sportacus heard something from outside the field. He could see Robbie peeking from over the wall. Maybe Bessie instructed him to do some spying while she was gone? "Fantastic hit, Stephanie!" Sportacus complimented the girl, pretending not to notice.

Pixel, dressed up in his baseball catcher uniform, trudged onto the field.

"Oh, hey!" Stephanie greeted him.

"Sorry I'm late. Um..." Pixel looked around at the ground. "... Um... uh, where's my mask?"

"Pixel, you're wearing it."

"Oh, okay." Pixel got into position behind her. "Ready."

"Try it again, Sportacus."

"Right!"

Sportacus gave another underhand pitch. This time, Stephanie missed it. Pixel nearly caught it, but then he fell onto his back.

Even for some weak puppet legs, he'd never seen something like that happen before. "Is he okay?" Sportacus asked.

"Pixel!" Ziggy ran up to his friend.

Stephanie started waving her hand in front of Pixel's face. "PIXEL! ARE YOU OKAY?" She removed his mask, revealing that he'd almost fallen asleep.

Pixel snorted, trying to stop a snore mid-way. "Oh, I was just resting my eyes," he mumbled.

"Pixel! You were up all night playing video games, weren't you?" Ziggy asked as Sportacus helped Pixel to his feet.

"Uh-huh," he admitted softly.

"Ah, Sportacus! Don't you go to bed at 8:08?" Ziggy asked.

How did Ziggy know that? Did he tell them about that already? Or maybe Number 9 said something about his own bedtime routine when he was here? Hard to say, sometimes keeping track was difficult. "Yep. You wanna know why?"

"Oh yeah!" Ziggy responded enthusiastically.

"Uh-huh, mm-hm?"

"It's my secret energy source..." Sportacus paused to make sure Pixel in particular was paying attention "... sleeping." He picked up his own bat and distanced himself from the kids, to be sure he wouldn't accidentally hit any of them. "That's the secret to my energy. When I get enough sleep, I can even learn..." he tossed the baseball in the air and hit a home run.

Ziggy gasped. "Wow!"

"... Whole new sports."

The kids cheered.

"So... he gets his energy from sleeping?" Robbie asked no one in particular. "Well, then I'll just make sure he doesn't sleep!"

"Hey, wait," Pixel said, sounding a bit more awake. "I'll be right back."

"Huh?"

The kids watched Pixel walk away.

"... Where do you think he's going?" Stephanie asked Ziggy.

"No idea."

Sportacus thought he heard Robbie's monologue from... not too far from where Stephanie and Ziggy were standing. When he woke up this morning Sportacus realized he'd forgotten to respond to Robbie's letter from the night before, and wrote one before he went down to check on everyone. He'd been keeping it in his pocket, folded it so it was dense enough to be thrown for a distance. He could get it to Robbie, but he'd need to distract Stephanie and Ziggy first.

"Hey, kids, maybe we should practice while Pixel's gone."

"Yeah!" Ziggy eagerly went back to his place in the field.

"Okay."

When Stephanie bent down to pick up her bat, Sportacus took the opportunity of neither kid looking to toss it over the wall where he had seen Robbie.

Sportacus had missed by a few feet, but still Robbie had seen it fly his way. Reaching over, he unfolded the page and read the contents:

I do know Morse code as a matter of fact. Your school taught it when I was a student there. I think they still teach it now last I checked.

I know we'll have to switch communications every now and then, but if you're planning on using Morse code in some way, I guess it's as good of a place to start as any.

My only question is this: if we're not supposed to send too many letters, how are we going to use it?

-Sportacus 10.

Perfect! So he could still carry on as planned. He remembered back when he and a council of six other heroes (all from different towns) had founded the school, Marcus Braveheart from GloomyTown suggested they teach the trainees Morse Code as part of the curriculum. Robbie initially had thought it was a silly idea, perhaps extraneous information, but alas was outvoted, and it became so. All these years later, he was grateful that he was.

Robbie had accidentally closed the hatch door on his hand. It wasn't until he was able to free it and on the way down that he remembered too late that his chair was outside, and he didn't to move it back to catch himself. It was a mistake like this that had him in for a rough crash-landing.

Still, he pulled himself to his feet and straightened his vest. "I meant to do that!" he announced for the cameras.

Stumbling over to the counter on one side of his lair, Robbie accidentally fell backwards opening a drawer. "That too. Oh!" he grabbed a red whistle and blew into it. "Something noisy!" he laughed as he threw it into the magic microwave. Next he found a small, red dolphin toy. Holding it up to his ear, he squeaked it, not expecting it to be loud enough to hurt his ear when he did. "Something more noisy!" he threw that in along with the whistle. Then he found a small toy bag with a button in the middle. "Hm..." studying the object and pressing the button in the middle, the bag emitted an evil laugh, which Robbie soon imitated. "Something even more noisy!"

The bag was still laughing when he closed the door.

Robbie opened the door for a brief moment. "QUIET!" he snapped.

As if in response, the bag ceased its laughter.

Robbie turned the knobs of his machine. "I have to keep Sportacus from sleeping!" He tapped the orb above, then the microwave a couple of times. Normally Robbie wouldn't breathe in the fumes of his machine, but sometimes it's calming effects were just what he needed. Besides, he'd already had his slice of antidote cake this morning: (no sense in repeating what happened yesterday!) the puppetizing effects would be minimal.

In his hand, he now held a squeaking purple ball. "Let's see how much energy Sportacus has when this noisy ball keeps him up all night!"

"Wow. Look!" Ziggy pointed in Pixel's direction.

The puppet preteen could be seen attached to a machine that appeared to be doing the walking for him.

"What is that?" Stephanie asked.

"I have no idea!" Ziggy responded.

"Hey, guys!" Pixel said when he was finally within earshot of them. "Check this out!" he looked up at the machine. "I call it my Remote-Controlly 6000! What'aya think of that?"

Stephanie and Ziggy approached him.

"Wow! That's really cool!"

"Wooow!"

"Yep, I just program it for softball," Pixel said, hitting some buttons on his wrist device "and..." the machine started moving his arms. "Yep! It can make me play whether I'm awake or asleep!"

Sportacus couldn't believe this: that machine was moving Pixel like he was a puppet on strings... and Pixel was completely fine with this? Just how desensitized do you get to this kind of stuff when the process is over?

"Wow! That's cool!"

The machine moved Pixel so he was in batting position. "Pitch one in!"

Stephanie returned into a batter's stance at the plate.

Sportacus forced an awkward smile, pretending not to be bothered by what he just saw. "Okay... you ready?"

"Yeah..." Pixel's head dropped to one side.

Stephanie missed Sportacus' pitch, but Pixel caught it perfectly this time. That didn't matter much: he fell down a second later.

Stephanie dropped her bat and checked on him. "He's out again!" she complained. "Maybe you should be catcher, Sportacus, and I'll pitch."

"Yeah!" Ziggy said.

"Oh but, then who would hit?" Stephanie asked no one in particular.

"ME! Me!" Sportacus, Ziggy and Stephanie looked towards the source of the voice to find that Robbie was now leaning against a half-wall, dressed in a custom-made baseball uniform and waving at them. "Haha! Me-me me-me-me! Me-me-me!"

Sportacus couldn't help but wonder how long he'd been standing there.

"Huh?" Ziggy asked.

"You, Robbie Rotten?" Stephanie's voice was full of disbelief.

"Uh-huh."

"But you don't like sports!" Stephanie protested. "Or even moving very much."

Robbie could admit the kids weren't wrong: as the 'lazy villain' of the town, that was the image he was supposed to project. "Oh! I move all the time!" That wasn't a lie; but this was: "I can even hit the ball farther than anyone here!"

Robbie went over to Sportacus. "Care to try me?" he asked, pointing both thumbs at himself.

Not knowing how to play baseball wasn't the biggest lie he ever told, but Sportacus couldn't have Stephanie find that out: he couldn't afford to lose her trust. "Well, I-I just learned today. Stephanie would be better."

"Yeah!" Ziggy agreed with him. (Although, Sportacus would be shocked if Ziggy ever disagreed with anything he said.)

Stephanie shrugged. "Okay, yeah."

Honestly, Robbie expected better from the new Sportaflop! Stephanie was strong for her age, and Robbie wasn't as in good of shape he used to be, but a grown man against a little girl still wasn't a fair fight. He got behind Sportacus, hands on him. "Nope! You."

Even when their contact was brief, Sportacus was only trying to ignore the mild heat growing in his cheeks as he'd been caught a bit off-guard.

"Now, whoever hits it furthest wins!" Robbie continued moving and speaking theatrically. "And, to make it more interesting, if I win..." Robbie started standing up straight, his face moving closely but not too closely to Sportacus' "... you leave town... forever!"

The kids gasped.

Why is this a shocker to them? This has been his goal the last three plans... and it probably will be for all the other plans. Unfazed, he extended his hand for Robbie to shake. "The usual, right?"

Robbie tried the Handshake of Death himself on Sportacus. (A small shake of the hero's head was all it took to tell him it didn't quite work as well with him.)

Nevertheless, Robbie was more focused on carrying out his plan. "And now, I need someone to pitch to me!" He swung an imaginary bat in the air as if to hit a pitch.

Sportacus wasn't too worried. All of the plans Robbie did so far involved in him purposely messing up so he wouldn't have to leave the town. Or at least, he wasn't worried...

"Perfect! Oh!" Robbie made his way past Ziggy and Stephanie to get to Pixel, still asleep on the ground. "Perfect! Oh, haha! Perfect!"

... Until Robbie had designated Pixel as the pitcher.

Sportacus ran up to him. "You want Pixel to pitch?!"

"See you in two days, bright and early! Let's say, three in the afternoon." Robbie giggled evilly as he leapt off.

"What?!" Sportacus had been trying to figure out just what on Earth Robbie was doing now. "Early? Three o'clock?"

Robbie came back for a second. "And don't forget your ball!"

Very clearly, that wasn't any of the baseballs they had been using, it was purple. But... maybe this was important. If Busybody wasn't in town at the moment, maybe Robbie was trying to sneak something helpful? (Or at least, that was what he hoped was happening.)

"Okay... thank you." Sportacus took the ball Robbie handed him before the villain disappeared again.

"Don't worry, Sportacus," Stephanie said. "We'll all help you practice."

"Yeah! And we'll all get a lot of sleeping energy too! 8:08, on, the, dot!" Ziggy put his lollipop in front of his eye to emphasize the last phrase.

Ziggy had never been so excited to go to bed. Would this give him superpowers?! Like Sportacus! Oh, he couldn't wait to find out!

He fluffed his pillow, then laid down, about to go to sleep. Suddenly sitting up and gasping, he realized he forgot his lollipop.

"Oh! Uh, wow!" he said, picking it up. He set his lollipop down on the pillow next to him.

Settling down for real, Ziggy kissed his lollipop goodnight.

Since her uncle was busy helping take care of Stingy and Trixie, Ms. Busybody had been nice enough to leave some muffins for Stephanie to eat in case she got hungry. She was never particularly a fan of eating junk food to begin with, but unless they came from Sportacus, fruits and vegetables were really hard to find around here! Besides... wouldn't it be rude if she didn't at least eat some of them?

Stephanie skipped over to bed and tucked herself in. There was still a little bit of time left before it was 8:08... just enough time to write a diary entry.

Dear diary.

Today, I got to teach Sportacus a sport he didn't know. Baseball! Ziggy and Pixel played too but Pixel kept falling asleep. Maybe if he stopped playing video games all night he wouldn't.

I wish Stingy and Trixie could have joined us but they were sick today. So was my uncle. They're all at Stingy's house until they get better. But it's kinda weird. Your parents are supposed to be the ones to take care of you when you're sick but... I haven't seen the other kids' parents this whole time I've been here. Or even if they have other family members.

Speaking of family members my parents haven't called once since I've been to LazyTown. Uncle Milford said they're probably just busy on their business trips like they always are, but even for them this is a long time for them to go without talking to me... I hope they haven't forgotten about me.

Stephanie hadn't realized how much she missed them until she wrote that line. Tears in her eyes, she closed her diary and set it aside. She wanted to cry, but she forced herself to try and sleep instead. Sportacus needed her help tomorrow, and she needed to be at her very best.

Still... that didn't mean she didn't wonder sometimes...

Sportacus put his baseball gear, and Robbie's ball, into the storage closet.

Turning to go to the bed, he looked behind him when he thought he heard some squeaking. He decided not to look at it too long, just in case there were cameras watching him. What was up with that ball? Robbie must've had some kind of plan for it... but which side would it be benefitting?

Pixel looked over his games, a buzzing somewhere in his headset. He'd been asleep most the day, and that meant he wouldn't get much sleep tonight. He figured he might as well spend it actually doing something instead of lying in bed, waiting for a sleep that wouldn't come.

"Baseball! Yeah!" He put it into his handheld gaming device. "Batter up!"

What he intended was to have a virtual practice for what was to come the next couple of days. What he was still only vaguely aware of was that he was merely spending another night just going through motions of a routine he had set up for years.

Robbie looked over at the clock next to his chair (which he was finally able to get back into his lair). "8:08!" He chuckled evilly, leaning back. "Sportacus is going to sleep: time for my noisy ball to wake him up!"

If Bessie were to review the tapes later, Robbie was sure it would seem real enough. But what she wouldn't have known was that this ball had a special secret to it. A secret that he hoped Sportacus would catch onto.

The hero's safety, and the mission itself depended on it.

Chapter Text

Sportacus was on the brim of falling completely asleep when there was sudden squeaking and growling that woke him up. Propping himself up on his elbow and looking around the airship, he didn't see anything.

"Must've been a dream," he said in-between yawns.

The noises came back, and Sportacus noticed the glowing coming from the sports closet.

Wait a minute... he thought. Some of those noises are different lengths...

The most recent sequence seemed to go something like... short, short short, long short, short, short, long short short.

'E I NEED'?

So this was why Robbie was asking about Morse code! He wasn't sure what the 'E' meant, but there was probably a first half of the message he missed!

Immediately jumping out of bed, he had to be awake to hear what Robbie had to say, but in case he was being filmed, Sportacus couldn't let them know he knew what exactly was making the noise, so he pretended to look around the spotless airship for the source, and hoped that it would buy him some time.

Short short short, short long, long.

'SAT'

Sat? Like Saturday? Tomorrow was Saturday, right? Did this have to do with the game tomorrow?

The ball had been quiet for about a minute, and Sportacus could only look in the same places so many times. Would pretending to give up and sit on the end of the bed be suspicious? Maybe. But it was more important he could listen to as much of the message as he could.

Some words were mixed up, and the individual noises were only three to eight letters at a time. Sportacus couldn't tell if that was to trick other people who might be able to decode the message, or if Robbie's thought processes have really just become scattered over time, but either way, Robbie seemed to try and cover three subjects at once.

The first that he really is a captive of Bessie Busybody - he had been for nearly a century - and he wasn't 'in' on any scheme to gain the hero's trust only to betray him. Yes, there would be some times where he would have to turn his back on Sportacus to appease Bessie, but if he could stave her wrath long enough so that she won't kill either of them, Robbie could just as easily come back to Sportacus' assistance if he had the patience to bear with him. He did genuinely believe that Busybody could be defeated, but given that she had very few weaknesses, he couldn't do it alone.

The second topic was about the upcoming game. Robbie's plan (on the surface, anyway) was to make a ball to keep Sportacus up all night so he'd be too tired to train for baseball, and later to fail the game the next day. The instructions for tomorrow was to pretend to be asleep (so much so that nothing the kids would try would 'wake' him up), and then on the day of the game to pretend to be asleep up until it was his turn to bat. (Robbie also promised to throw the game that day to guarantee a win on Sportacus' end.)

And lastly, something about an item to use in case there was trouble. It was something Robbie had originally made for Number 9 in the event that he would come back, but since Sportacus was here to finish what his predecessor didn't, it would be more beneficial to give it to the new hero, instead. Sportacus thought that was all fine and good, except for one problem... Robbie never said where this item was, or what exactly it would do if he were in danger.

Once all of those three subjects had been covered, Robbie gave what Sportacus thought was a warning: just because Bessie wasn't in town, didn't mean she wasn't watching. That's why it was imperative that they play their roles, now more than ever. Hopefully, this would convey to Bessie that Robbie wasn't going to rebel against her again, and that Sportacus only had the basic knowledge of what he was getting into.

Sportacus could see the sky out his window was now a dark blue. Dawn was almost here. Sportacus laid on his back, looking up at the ceiling. He was so tired, he was beginning to suspect he wouldn't have to pretend to sleep today.

The next morning, Ziggy and Stephanie were standing across the street from the mayor's house... no sign of their friends anywhere.

"Sportacus is never late! I mean, he's a superhero; how could he save people if he were late?"

Stephanie only responded to Ziggy's question with a shrug.

"Sportacus!" he called. "Uh, Sportacus!"

"Wait, Ziggy: I have an idea." Stephanie began to run towards the mailbox.

"Oh, uh, I'll stay right here!"

Pulling a tube, a piece of paper and a pencil out of her bag (all of which she had decided to keep on her just in case she needed to contact Sportacus in an emergency), and wrote a quick note reminding him of their baseball training planned for the day to the superhero before sealing it and sending it towards his airship.

When a hero was asleep, and somebody needed to write to him in an emergency, the chute would work by itself and shoot the tube onto the bed.

Sitting up, awoken by the sudden object landing on his lap, Sportacus attempted to gather his half-asleep mind. "... I got mail?" he asked no one in particular before yawning and stretching. "What time is it?"

Stephanie, anxiously waiting for Sportacus to respond, paced in front of one of the benches while Ziggy stood nearby.

"Do you think he's still at home?" she asked him, her voice so quick with anxiety he could barely understand her. "I mean - I wonder if he got my letter!"

Just as Stephanie said it, Sportacus jumped over the half-wall behind the two kids.

"He did!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"Hi, Sportacus!" They greeted him.

Sportacus' head tilted to one side as he pretended to fall asleep standing up.

"... SPORTACUS!" Ziggy called.

As if startled awake, Sportacus almost hit Ziggy with the letter tube.

"WOAH!" The puppet dodged the swipe.

Sportacus underestimated how close Ziggy was to him, but the thought of accidentally smacking Ziggy in the face with a tube was very funny to him. (Not that he would ever show or act on it, of course). He waved the still-closed tube in Stephanie's direction. "I got your letter."

"Are you okay, Sportacus?" Ziggy asked.

Sportacus jumped over the bench to sit on it. "I'm fine."

Sportacus almost couldn't hear Stephanie over his yawn: "it's like he didn't get enough sleep last night!"

"I'm sorry," he said to the kids. "Pillow!"

On command, the airship dropped a pillow directly onto the park bench below.

Ziggy was impressed: "wow."

Sportacus closed his eyes and laid down on the pillow, fake-snoring to add to the effect.

Stephanie was worried: if Sportacus was asleep, he couldn't train. And if he couldn't train, he wouldn't be able to win the game tomorrow. And if he couldn't win the game tomorrow, that means he would have to leave forever!

"We have to wake him up!" she urged Ziggy.

"Yeah, we have to."

"Sportacus!" Stephanie called.

Ziggy copied her: "Sportacus!"

After trying everything, from shining a flashlight in Sportacus' face, setting off an alarm clock right next to him, and playing loud instruments like a drum, cymbals and saxophone, the kids couldn't stir him.

Stephanie groaned. "This is never going to work!"

Ziggy responded with a defeated sigh.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was never one to give up so easily. "Okay, plan B!"

"Huh?"

"We need help."

"Oh, we sure do! Yeah but-" he was about to ask whom they should get, but he gasped upon getting an idea: "LET'S CALL SPORTACUS!" he shouted excitedly. "He always helps!" he made swishing noises as he went into his usual zig-zag movement.

Stephanie knocked on Ziggy's head like a door; the sound it made indicated it was hollow. (Or if he had a brain, it wasn't much of one.) "He's the one we need help with!" she said, pointing to the still-asleep Sportacus.

"Oh, right. Ahem, who do we call, then?"

Stephanie thought for a moment. "Remember the Remote-Controlly 6000?"

"Yeah?"

"Pixel!" The two exclaimed together.

The door to Pixel's house had been left unlocked. Then again, Stephanie couldn't remember a time it ever would have been. Did Pixel even have a key to his house? Did his parents? (If they were still there?)

Ziggy hurried up the stairs in front of her. When Stephanie arrived to the uneven set of stairs in front of her, she realized she hadn't been to the upstairs of Pixel's house. They made strange noises as she started to run behind Ziggy, but about halfway up, she cried out as the stair beneath her gave out, trapping one of her legs.

"OW!" Whimpering, partially from pain, and partially from panic, Stephanie tried to pull herself from the hole, but didn't have much luck.

Ziggy turned back on hearing her. "Oh! Sorry, Stephanie! I forgot to warn you about Pixel's stairs. They can be kind of tricky sometimes, so you really gotta watch your step!"

Grunting, Stephanie used her hands to try and push herself up. When she looked carefully... the stairs had a few holes that, while some of them were twice the size of her fist, she couldn't see them unless she squinted and focused.

"Here, let me help you." Ziggy, being much lighter than she was, was easily able to arrive to the step just above her, and sit on it. "Grab my hand!" Ziggy used what little weight his body carried to sit down on the stair, and act as an anchor to pull Stephanie out. He noticed his friend squinting down at the steps beneath her. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah. I think my leg might be a sore for a while, but I'll be fine. Just gotta watch my step, right?" Stephanie asked. She didn't know how to fix stairs, but she was seriously considering finding something like red tape to mark the unstable parts of the stairs until they could be.

Taking her time, watching for anywhere else she may fall, she was eventually able to join Ziggy at the top of the stairs.

Pixel's was the first room off the stairs to the right. The two friends found him sprawled in bed, still fast asleep.

Stephanie figured the sound of the computer monitors turning on would wake him up.

And it did: "oh, uh, what? Game over!"

"Oh, you were up playing video games AGAIN, weren't you?!" Ziggy snapped.

"No, no, I was practicing, look!" Pixel showed Ziggy the handheld device displaying graphics from the baseball game.

Ziggy only scoffed and shook his head.

"No time!" Stephanie said, nipping a potential argument between the puppet boys in the bud. "You got your Remote-Controlly 6000?"

"Sure, yeah, I'll get it. Just after a few more snores..." Pixel said, yawning.

He would've of course gone back to sleep, had Stephanie and Ziggy not dragged him from the bed, demanding that he get dressed and go and get the Remote-Controlly 6000.

"One, two, three!"

There was no way a puppet child and an eight-year-old human could lift a fully-grown man into the Remote-Controlly 6000. Not by themselves, anyway; that's why Sportacus helped them. When he moved slowly enough to belie any suspicions of him actually being awake, he could give them less weight to lift, even mostly putting himself in the machine.

Robbie was watching this from his periscope. So far so good: Sportacus seemed like a smart kid, and appeared to understand the instructions given to him. No doubt he was tired of course, who wouldn't be after listening to messages that took all night to broadcast? But hopefully he was just awake enough to do what he needed to do.

"One more night, and Sportacus will be so tired, from my noisy ball," Robbie added an evil laugh for the camera. "... That he won't know his bat, from his glove!"

Once Stephanie and Ziggy had Sportacus secured, Stephanie turned towards Pixel and gave him a thumbs up. "Okay, Pixel!"

But he didn't hear her: he had fallen asleep standing up.

Stephanie gave a frustrated growl. "He's asleep again!"

When Sportacus could hear Stephanie and Ziggy walking away - presumably to go and wake Pixel up - he moved his foot. It was taking all he had to fight the terror he felt from this thing. He wanted to trust Robbie - he really did - but somehow he couldn't shake the paranoid thought that he was right where Busybody wanted him. Robbie had already been the almost entirely opposite of the stories that Headmaster Braveheart would tell him and the other students... even with the assuring statement, how would he know for sure that this was an act?

"Pixel!"

"Pixel!"

"Pixel, wake up!" Stephanie snapped.

Pixel gave no response, still asleep standing up.

"Well, I can do this."

Sportacus wasn't sure what Ziggy did, but he could hear beeping noises, and he started to move.

"Yeah! Okay."

More beeping sounds - probably from pushing the buttons - and his movements became more random.

"Wait a minute, uh-"

Stephanie's nervous voice came from the same direction. "Ah! Woah, Ziggy-"

Now the movements became more erratic.

"No!" Ziggy cried. "I don't know about that!"

Sportacus could feel a baseball in his hand.

"Is that okay?" Ziggy asked.

Shortly after, Sportacus could feel said baseball flying from his hand.

"No! NO! YOU DON'T KNOW, uh, you can turn it off!" Ziggy shouted.

Finally, he stopped.

Again, the kids tried calling for their friend to wake up. "Pixel!"

"Pixel!"

At last Pixel could hear them. "Uh, hm? Yeah... here."

Sportacus' legs started moving, but he had no clue what direction he was walking in.

"You had the amplitude up a little high."

"The ampli-what?" Ziggy asked.

"Oh, that's good; oh yeah. Good, yeah," Stephanie said. After a brief pause, she started to become more agitated. "Woah, Pixel!"

"PIXEL!"

"Uh, Pixel!"

"PIXEL, DO SOMETHING! OH! HE'S OUT OF CONTROL!"

"Oh! He's not stopping!"

"The tree!"

Maybe it was a good thing he was pretending to sleep: did he even want to know what was going on right now?

"Careful!"

"DO SOMETHING!"

"You're going to hit it!"

"I CAN'T LOOK!"

"Oh, Pixel, make him stop!"

Just before Sportacus could crash into the tree he couldn't see, he stopped just within a few inches of it.

"That was close! Pixel you really need to get some sleep tonight," Stephanie told Pixel sternly. "We're counting on you if Sportacus is out again!"

"I will, honest!"

"Do you promise?" she asked.

"... I promise on my-my Mega-Pixel 6000."

"Okay..." Stephanie said, suspicion still hanging in her voice.

"So what do we do then?" Ziggy asked. "Should we get him down from there?"

"I don't think I'm awake enough to steer him," Pixel said. "And, no offense to you guys, but clearly you don't know how to."

Stephanie seemed to mull over it for a moment. "... Yeah, I guess we should get him down."

Oh thank goodness!

At first the kids waited near by to see if he would wake up. When Ziggy and Pixel got bored, they went over to the latter's house to play video games. Sportacus wasn't sure how long Stephanie was waiting for him, but she waited a long time before speaking.

"... Sportacus?"

When he didn't respond, he could feel the girl lightly shake his shoulder.

"Sportacus?"

He wanted to respond to her so she wouldn't think he was dead or anything like that, but it wouldn't make sense if she could wake him up now all of a sudden.

"I might go over to Pixel's house for a while. If you need a nap, maybe we can try training again in a few hours when you wake up."

After a few seconds, he thought he could hear her shuffling through a bag.

"Here, so you don't get sunburned:"

Sportacus could feel the familiar feeling of terrycloth draped over his shoulders, covering his exposed arms. He wasn't sure what she had that towel in her bag for, but he was grateful she seemed to come prepared for just about anything.

Next he could feel his hat being moved from the top of his head so it covered the side of his face that was facing upwards. Uncovering the elven tips of his ears might've given away that he was the same species as Number 9, but either she didn't notice, or she didn't say anything. Hopefully the cameras didn't pick that up. It was generally pretty rude to remove someone's hat without asking, but since he was 'asleep', he couldn't tell her so. Then again, she probably didn't mean to be: she just didn't know how long he'd be in the sun for.

That was the best she could do as far as giving him shade would go. Noon was approaching, and without sunblock, it wasn't a good idea to stay outside.

The ground was hard, but it was also warm. Sportacus was beginning to feel himself falling asleep on it... until what he thought was paper brushed against his fingers.

Cautiously opening his eyes and moving his head, Stephanie and the others were gone. He figured it was okay to move now, but he should still try to pretend to be half-asleep.

"What's this?" he asked, yawning. "Where'd everybody go?" Sitting up, he shook his head, readjusted his hat and rubbed his eyes before unfolding the note:

When the ball starts making noise, 'find' it. Listen to its instructions, then bring it to the game tomorrow: I'll need to pitch it to you. Don't worry about how you'll get the ball back to me: I already have that part figured out.

-Robbie

As far as Sportacus could see, Robbie had a way of coming out on the other side of various ridiculous plans and situations in one piece, but admittedly, he wondered just how he would get out of this one.

Sportacus proceeded to tear the note into pieces. "People really should be more mindful of what they drop," he said slightly louder than normal people would speak, in case Robbie was still nearby and listening. "It's littering."

Later that night, Pixel was once again on his handheld video game device, saying his character's actions aloud as he often did while he played: "oh-oh, just one more! I can get one more power-up! Oh, where is it? Where is it? There it is! Gotta get to it. Over there! Over there! Yeah! All right! This is the highest score ever!"

Glancing over at the computer screen across the room, he could clearly said the clock said '8:08 PM'.

"But if I don't get to sleep, I'll be tired and can't pitch."

His imaginary dialogue with the computer was met with silence, as to be expected when there was no other person to talk to.

"But someone else can pitch, right?"

Silence.

"Oh... but I was chosen. I'd let Sportacus down."

The clock switched from 8:08 to 8:09.

"Okay, okay, you're right. Video games are good, but friends are better," Pixel said, setting his device aside, "And my friend, Sportacus, needs me to go to bed. Now." Pixel got under the covers and sighed. "Computer, lights out!"

Something Robbie had realized shortly after Bessie left was that he forgot to return her house keys to her. Thankfully, she hadn't asked in the first place, because missing this detail on her end gave him access to something he didn't usually have: Bessie's camera room.

The door creaked quietly upon opening it. In the back of the hallway, across from the bedroom, Robbie could see blueish glowing lights.

The camera room consisted of monitors, stacked floor-to-ceiling on all of the walls, leaving only space for a decent-sized control panel and an office chair.

"Mew?"

Robbie yelped, leaping backwards. He could just barely see the small kitten looking up at him. He should have expected it to be there. Of course, it wasn't the kitten's fault that his owner was a remorseless psychopath, but in case she could use the kitten to see through its eyes, Robbie couldn't risk having it in the same room.

"Sorry," he grumbled, picking the kitten up by the scruff of its neck. Thankfully, it was still very small and docile, and didn't try to do anything to hurt him as he put it out of the room, and locked the door behind him.

Every once in a while, a camera would malfunction and lose footage. Robbie thought he might be able to use this guise to temporarily disable the ones on Sportacus' ship. He couldn't do this forever; the cameras, whether turned off due to someone tampering with them or they needed self-repair, were programmed to turn back on when turned off after a certain period of time, and messing with them more than once or twice was sure to raise Bessie's suspicions.

His only hope now was that they would stay off long enough for what was probably the most important part of this plan.

Sportacus had barely been asleep when the ball started making noise again. As far as he could tell, the squeaking and growls didn't make any message in particular. Now was as good as time as any to go and grab that ball.

He jumped out of bed, kicking the switch to the closet door, and revealing the glowing purple baseball behind it.

"So this is making all the noise!"

The ball stopped glowing and squeaking altogether for a moment, but Sportacus thought he could hear a whirring noise.

Long short long short, short long, long, short short short. Long long long, short short long short, short short long short.

'CAMS OFF.'

Really? How'd he manage that? Sportacus probably wouldn't get the details but since Robbie didn't do that before, he had to guess it had to do with Bessie not being here.

Long, short long, long short long, short. Short short, long, short, long long.

'TAKE ITEM.'

"Well, okay, but where is it?"

Short short short, short, long short, long short short. Short long short, short, short short short, short long long short, long long long, long short, short short short, short.

'SEND RESPONSE.'

"How?"

It seemed Robbie anticipated that sort of response, so the message repeated itself: 'CAMS OFF... TAKE ITEM... SEND RESPONSE.'

"How?!"

'CAMS OFF... TAKE ITEM... SEND RESPONSE.'

Sportacus was tempted to chuck it across the room in frustration, but he'd be far more likely to break the windows of his airship that way, so he settled for just squeezing it instead. It was a good thing that he did. If he hadn't, he might not have noticed the slight tear in the stitching. Only it, wasn't really a tear, it was more like... velcro? Moving his thumbs up the piece he could peel it back to see what was underneath: the ball had two buttons, a button with a dot, and a button with a line, and above those was a tiny compartment.

'CAMS OFF... TAKE ITEM... SEND RESPONSE.'

Opening the tiny compartment, Sportacus found that inside was a tiny white crystal, about a fourth the size of the one in his chest.

Now a new message played: long short long, short, short, short long long short. Short short, long, short, long long. Short long, short short, long, short short short short. Long short long short, short long short, long short long long, short short short, long, short long, short long short short.

'KEEP... ITEM... WITH... CRYSTAL.'

"'Keep item with crystal'? Does that mean I put it in my chest?"

'KEEP... ITEM... WITH... CRYSTAL.'

Sportacus cautiously pressed open the crystal compartment. "I guess that means I put it in my chest."

'KEEP... ITEM... WITH.. CRYSTAL.'

The hero took a deep breath and put it next to the crystal. White shocks emitted from the crystal and covered the rest of his body, the sudden pain and light making him drop to his knees.

When his vision restored, he found whatever that was, at least it didn't kill him. Robbie was of fairy/faerie descent, if he remembered correctly, so whatever it was, it was probably magic. Sportacus just hoped it was the good kind of magic.

The ball stopped making noises. Sportacus assumed Robbie had said what he needed to for the moment... now it was his turn to say something back.

By the time he was finished, Sportacus could see that it was 9 PM on the clock. Okay, so only an hour past his bed time wasn't so bad. The ball stopped making noise altogether, so maybe it was okay to get some sleep this time.

The ball hadn't started squeaking and growling again until early that next morning:

Long short long short, short long, long long, short short short. Long long long, long short.

'CAMS ON.'

Short long short, short, long long, short, long long, long short short short, short, short long short. Short long long short, short long short short, short long, long short.

'REMEMBER PLAN.'

Long long short, long long long, long long long, long short short. Short long short short, short short long, long short long short, short long short long.

'GOOD LUCK.'

With that, Sportacus decided to start the day by making his bed, brushing his teeth, and then going through his usual morning work out before getting ready for the game.

Heading down to the sports field, Sportacus was surprised to find there wasn't Stephanie or Ziggy, but a more alert and much better-rested Pixel. There was a part of him that was secretly impressed the kid actually took his advice.

"Pixel! You got a good night's sleep!"

Pixel nodded. "Mm-hm! And boy, do I feel charged! I could strike out the world!" Also realizing how wide-awake Sportacus was in comparison to yesterday, he continued, "but I don't have to! You're awake, too! I bet you could hit the ball a mile further than Robbie!"

Sportacus frowned, pretending to get irritated. "Speaking of Robbie..." he took the purple ball out from behind his back. "I found this in the airship."

As if in response, the ball began to squeak.

"Robbie Rotten?!" Per usual, even the mention of the town villain made Pixel growl in frustration. "What can we do?!"

"Well, I have a plan." In order for the cameras not to pick up what he was going to say next, Sportacus leaned in and whispered closely to Pixel's headphones, "I can pretend his ball worked like it did last night and I'm too tired to play, but this is just to trick him. I'll hit a home-run last-second."

"Mm, yeah! Good idea. Let's go!"

They only needed to wait a few minutes before Stephanie in a catcher's uniform and Ziggy wearing a baseball cap approached them.

"Kids are coming!" Pixel warned.

"I'm gonna lie on the bench!"

"Great idea! Hurry up!"

"Pillow!"

The pillow shot down from the airship. Sportacus laid down and pretended to be asleep.

"HI PIXEL!" Given how wound-up Stephanie sounded, Sportacus guessed that he had just missed a musical number.

"You're awake!"

"That's really great!"

"LOOK!" Ziggy pointed to Sportacus. "Oh no! Sportacus!"

Stephanie began to panic. "HE'S ASLEEP AGAIN! What're we going to do, guys?! Robbie will be here any second, and-" she couldn't even finish her sentence as she broke into a small fit of incoherent sputters.

"I'm sure something will come up," Pixel assured her.

A familiar evil laugh caught the children's attention. "Play ball!"

"Robbie!" Ziggy cried.

"Hello!" Robbie barely looked at the downed hero. "Oh! Someone didn't get his beauty sleep last night!"

The kids exchanged distressed looks.

"Everybody," Robbie hovered his arms around the group as if they were in a huddle. "Let's play ball! Yep, come on, play ball!"

The kids reluctantly got into position as he shooed them towards the sports field.

When Sportacus opened his eyes, he noticed Robbie looking over behind his shoulder. He shook his head, which would hopefully communicate that not only did was he not really asleep, but that he understood the plan and was going through with it.

Robbie walked up to the plate. The headphones probably helped in this endeavor, but few things rattled Pixel. If it were one thing that would make anyone irritated enough to go hard on them, it was to get their name wrong.

"I'm ready! Pitch, the ball, Polo!" he called in his signature theatrical tone.

"That's Pixel!"

"Oh, whatever!" Robbie laughed, purposely looking the opposite direction.

"Play ball!" Ziggy shouted.

Pixel growled, and made the first pitch. Stephanie caught it.

"STRIKE ONE!" Ziggy cheered.

"What?! Wait! No! What?!"

Stephanie, amused, threw the ball back to Pixel.

"YOU DIDN'T WAIT UNTIL I WAS READY! AH! AUGH!" Robbie spit on his hands and grabbed onto the bat. It quickly slipped through his hands, but he picked it up. Okay... pitch away."

On the second pitch, Robbie swung too early, spinning around in circles and missing the ball.

"STRIKE TWO!"

All the kids cheered.

"You're going to be out if you don't hit it this time, Robbie," Stephanie's usual confidence had returned to her voice.

"This isn't working out like I planned!" Robbie stage-whispered. That was a lie: this was working exactly as he planned. "Okay, go ahead! Make my pitch!"

"You can do it!" Stephanie encouraged Pixel.

Ziggy repeated after her. "You can do it, Pixel!"

Pixel made his last pitch and... Robbie hit the ball. Downwards, that was. He pretended to look for it in the air, though he knew too well it was somewhere on the ground.

"It's right there!" Ziggy pointed to the ball.

Robbie squealed in delight and got a measuring tape out. He counted three inches from the plate before getting up to go to the bench.

"He will never be able to hit the ball further than that!" Thankfully Sportacus wasn't completely asleep, and just like before, he had some assistance in getting him to his feet. With all of Robbie's effort, he could only hold the upper half of the hero's body. "Your turn, Sportasnore! Look alive!"

Robbie bounced Sportacus up and down, still partially limp in his arms.

He walked Sportacus up to the plate, kicking his legs just hard enough to make it look like they weren't moving by themselves. Once Sportacus was at the plate, Robbie ran to get the bat by the bench. Sportacus nearly fell forward, but Robbie caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Oh, whoopsie!" Robbie put Sportacus' hands on the bat, and turned his head in the direction of the pitcher's mound.

"Oh, no!" Ziggy groaned.

"Oh, Robbie!" Pixel said as he and Robbie began to cross their paths. Pixel handed him the purple ball. "Don't forget this!" Robbie could hear a slight evil chuckle under the puppet child's breath.

"Thank you," Robbie responded, slightly tense. "I won't."

Robbie pitched to Sportacus, the latter still 'asleep' and fake-snoring. Stephanie caught the ball.

"Strike one," Ziggy announced flatly.

Robbie was far more enthusiastic. "Sti-RRRRIIIIKE ONE!"

"Sportacus, wake up!" Stephanie said as she tossed the ball back to Robbie, which he laughed evilly upon catching it.

"Please... please..." Ziggy whispered as Robbie was winding up his next pitch.

Again, the same results.

Ziggy was starting to become worried. "Strike two!"

"Sti-RRRRIIIIKE TWO!" he danced in a circle, all the while wondering if Sportacus was going to do that thing where you wait until the very last second to succeed. Hopefully that would work in his favor.

"Sportacus, WAKE UP!"

"Robbie is going to win and Sportacus is going to have to leave!"

"This is too easy!" Robbie said, finishing his dance.

Stephanie threw the ball hard enough to be sure Robbie would hurt his hand on catching it.

Sportacus briefly opened his eyes and winked at Pixel.

"Yeah..." Pixel whispered, giving a thumbs up.

Robbie figured he should call the hero, just in case. "Sporty, Sporty, Sporty!" he made sure to make very little effort in this pitch, using only his wrist.

Sportacus' eyes snapped open, and immediately he got into batting position.

"He's up!" Ziggy exclaimed.

It was then that not only did Sportacus hit a home run, the ball flew so far that it landed in Robbie's lair... the lair to which the hatch door 'just so happened' to be left open.

"YAY! LOOK AT THAT BALL GO!" Ziggy shouted.

Sportacus couldn't help but grin. "That was great!"

The kids cheered. Sportacus high-fived Stephanie and Ziggy. Robbie growled, stomped his foot, and took his hat off as he walked away in defeat.

"We did it!"

"We sure did! With Pixel's help," Sportacus said.

"Well... all I did was get some sleep!" the puppet humbly responded.

"Sleeping... is everything," Sportacus added.

"That's true," Ziggy agreed. "Let's play ball!"

After an obligatory 'Bing Bang' song and dance, the rest of Sportacus' day was spent playing baseball with the kids.

Later that night, Robbie was attempting to sleep in the chair... when a familiar squeaking noise woke him up.

"NOOOOOO!" he screamed in a very dramatic manner, as if he had no clue that was in his lair until just now.

Robbie didn't fully realize until now this thing could potentially keep this up all night... but hopefully Bessie would consider this punishment enough.

Chapter Text

A warm cup of tea at the kitchen counter was the only moment of relative peace that Mayor Meanswell was able to find between the techno music coming from Stephanie's room, and mentally preparing for the most important day of the year.

"Oh dear, oh it's Ms. Busybody's birthday today and I just don't know what to get her," he said to himself.

He jumped in his seat a bit as he noticed the music get a bit louder with the open door, and the group of children rushing up from the hallway to the kitchen.

"Please! Children! Isn't it time for a little break?" he asked them.

Stephanie shushed the others, and Pixel turned the music from his wristwatch off.

"Sorry, Uncle Milford. We were just listening to music."

"Oh, I have so much on my mind!" the mayor cried.

"Bessie's birthday gift?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh, yes!"

Stephanie figured as such. He'd been worrying about this all week. She was never very good at comforting people but, maybe she should say something. She put a hand on her uncle's shoulder. "If you mess it up like you did last year, Bessie'll never talk to you again."

The mayor groaned. "Don't remind me," he said, his mind drifting off to that fateful day.

The mayor hummed while straightening his crooked bowtie, waiting for Ms. Busybody to arrive at his door. He opened the door immediately at the sound of the doorbell.

"Ms. Busybody," he held his gift up to her, what he thought was a lovely bouquet of sunflowers, "happy birthday!"

She stared at them, horrified. "OH! SUNFLOWERS?! ACHOO! I'M ALLERGIC, ACHOO! TO, ACHOO! SUNFLOWERS!" Giving one last sneeze, she slammed the door behind her.

The mayor had been so frozen by his flashback, Stephanie had to shake him by the shoulder to get his attention. "Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!"

His disposition became much more cheerful seeing his niece standing next to him. "Hello there, Stephanie!" He noticed the girl had come back with a giant book, roughly half the size of her body.

"Bessie gave you this book so you could find ideas for her presents," she said. "So let's get busy!"

"Oh my. It's a really big book!" Milford vaguely remembered getting something like this last year, but he hadn't fully realized how big it was until he saw it next to Stephanie.

Stephanie flipped to a page with a yacht. Why would she need a yacht? The nearest body of water is several miles away, she thought.

"Ooh, too expensive!" the mayor said.

Stephanie turned to the next page, and there was a vase on it.

"Too breakable!"

Stephanie nodded and turned the page to find a cake on the next one.

"That's a wonderful idea!" the mayor laughed. "Oh, but I'm too nervous to bake a cake," he continued, looking as troubled as he had moments before. "Oh! I'm in even more trouble than last year."

"Don't worry, Uncle Milford, we'll take care of it. Right guys?"

One-by-one Pixel, Ziggy and Stingy popped up in aprons and chef hats, singing "hello" barber-style.

"Initializing event... collecting cooking data!" Pixel said to no one in particular as they started to get to work.

That was weird. How did they get dressed so fast? Did they already know what Bessie wanted for her birthday? Stephanie chuckled nervously. "We'll have that cake ready in a jiffy!" she said as she dashed off towards the others.

After preheating the oven and greasing the pans, it was time to put the dry ingredients into one bowl. Stephanie noticed something unusual about the sugar: it was blue.

"Are you sure that's sugar?" she asked Pixel.

"Oh yeah, Bessie used to use this all the time. Did you know she was a baker before she was your uncle's secretary?"

Stephanie shook her head. Well, if Pixel thought this stuff was safe to eat, then it should have been okay to use.

"Step one, is done," Stephanie declared looking at the freshly-baked tiers of cake sitting on the counter.

Pixel pulled out a handheld device and pointed it at the cake. "Cake: baked. Analysis: undecorated."

"No! No, no!" Stingy ran over.

Startled, Pixel and Stephanie took a couple of steps backwards.

"Stay away! This cake is mine! Don't touch it! Don't touch it!"

Ziggy joined everyone, carrying a giant bag. "Guys, guys, guys, look!" he said as he dumped the lollipops it contained on the counter. "I've got all the sweet ingredients! Ta-dah!"

Pixel's device beeped.

"One major observation:" the prodigy said. "Needs whipped cream."

"Yeah, definitely," Stephanie agreed.

Ziggy began to stick lollipops into the cake, while Pixel began to decorate it.

"What are you doing with that? That's mine," Stingy said as he took the cake decorating device, "give that to me."

"I was using that!" Pixel protested.

All three of the boys started to fight over the cake decorating device. In doing so, Ziggy splattered whipped cream onto the cabinet doors above them.

"That was awesome!" Stephanie started to shoot whipped cream all over the room. "Woo-hoo!"

"Food fight!" Pixel exclaimed.

The children hadn't noticed the mayor walk in through the front door. "What's going on here?!" He ducked as Stephanie shot whipped cream in his direction.

Sportacus was doing flips around the ship when his crystal went off. The mayor was hiding behind a counter, taking cover in the midst of a food fight. It didn't seem dangerous per se, but it might be worth putting a stop to before it got worse.

"Someone's in trouble!"

He did a flip off of his sports equipment closet and grabbed a couple of tennis rackets before heading towards town.

The kids were having a food fight at the mayor's house, just as the vision told him, but what really surprised him was that Stephanie was taking part as well. Acting so wild and reckless was so unlike her... unless she wasn't sober at the moment. Nobody seemed to notice him. He picked up a bit of whipped cream on the door with his finger and shook his head before having to dodge a food projectile.

The mayor was sitting behind the counter, shaking. "Ooh, dear."

Sportacus flipped over to him and got down to his level, putting a hand on his shoulder to let him know he was there.

"Oh! Sportacus! It's a food fight! They've been eating too much sugar!"

Sportacus tried to peek around the counter, but with all the food being thrown, he could barely see a thing.

"Definitely too much sugar." Or drugs, he thought. Both are equally plausible.

Sportacus flipped up onto the countertop, and deflected the flying food with the tennis rackets. Food continued to fly, and nobody knew he was there.

"STOP!"

The kids froze in their tracks and looked up at him.

"Food's for growing, not for throwing!" he said as he wiped the whipped cream off of his face.

Ziggy was the first to apologize. "Sorry, Sportacus. But look! We just made this, uh, beautiful cake for uh, Bessie."

What cake? Sportacus thought, looking at the destroyed baked good.

The mayor groaned. "Oh, Ms. Busybody will never speak to me again!"

Sportacus flipped back onto the floor. "Try it again, but... without the mess," he suggested, continuing to wipe the sticky substance away, without much success.

"I'll just get these beautiful lollipops off. I might need them."

Sportacus internally rolled his eyes, and tried to regain some of this thinning patience. "Save some for later, okay, Ziggy?"

The puppet boy sighed. "Okay."

"Good luck," the hero said to the group.

The kids responded with various 'thank you's.

He looked over in Stephanie's direction. "But don't give up."

Sportacus flipped out the door, heading towards the airship so he could go and rinse himself off.

"Ladder!"

At his command, the ladder dropped, and he was able to climb up.

That was weird. Why was Sportacus looking right at her when he said 'don't give up'? Stephanie supposed she'd been a bit more tired lately but she'd been pushing that aside, telling herself it's probably nothing to worry about. It was strange that before she moved to LazyTown, she used to be neutral about cake but here she is not much later singing its praises with the rest of her friends.

The moment she arrived here, she could feel something wasn't right. It was a feeling she could never completely get rid of, no matter how good she felt with her new friends or dancing around. As if somehow... there was something here, something that wasn't good for her... and that thing was something to fight against.

One of two things could wake Robbie from a deep sleep: one of his usual nightmares, or the pleasant aroma of his favorite baked good.

"A smell worth standing up for-" he paused to laugh evilly. "CAKE!" His eyes snapped open and he jumped out of his chair. To his horror and disappointment, there was no cake to be found. "There's no cake here! I ate it all yesterday!"

It didn't matter to him how much of the sugar concoction he had yesterday: Robbie needed more. He promptly dashed up to the periscope, trying to catch his breath. Today was Bessie's birthday after all; there had to be cake somewhere in town!

At first he couldn't see much, until the eyes of his periscope rested on the tall pink cake, sitting in the window.

"It's a beautiful cake! Waiting for someone to take a bite!" Robbie grunted as he lifted the periscope back into its place. "Maybe I should make a double-trouble-chocolate-gooey-yummy cake!" He chuckled to himself. "Nah. I'll just swipe their cake instead! Swiped cake... tastes better. Everybody knows that. AND I know how to get rid of that meddling Sportacus too." He lowered his voice to a whisper: "it's disguise time."

The first outfit Robbie came to was his usual one. "Too scary." Onto the second one, an orangutan. "Too hairy." He imitated Santa's laugh upon arriving to the lookalike costume. "Too merry!" The fourth one, a fairy princess outfit. "Too fairy!" Then, last but not least, "ah-ha! A detective! Perfect! I'll eat the cake, and I'll find a way to make everybody think that Sportacus did it!"

Robbie hit the keys on the Style Maker 6000 and pulled a level to power it up. A moment later, the chosen disguise shot out and pushed him back.

His hands began to shake. Partially from withdrawal, and partially from fear: nobody he knew took their birthday more seriously than Bessie. Was it really a good idea to make her angry today, should this fail? At the same time, he couldn't not do his job today. That might make it worse.

Robbie put the hat on, and worked out the little nuances in his plan. "... Perfect!"

Stephanie pulled the hollow box off of the cake, revealing it to everyone in the room, including the mayor.

"Bessie's birthday cake has been downloaded!" Pixel declared.

"Ooh! Ms. Busybody is going to be so happy!"

"Call her!" Stephanie urged him. "Surprise her!"

"Yeah!" Ziggy said, joining in. "And then she'll come over, and we can eat this beautiful cake. Call her! Call her!"

"Right now?" the mayor asked.

"Yeah!"

"Uh, maybe she's allergic to cake, too."

"No, silly. Come on, call her!"

As the rest of the kids started to usher him towards the phone, they hadn't noticed the town villain lurking just outside the window, preparing to steal the cake they worked so hard on.

Mayor Meanswell only heard the dial tone when he picked up the phone. "Uh, hello? Hello? Oh! She's not there!"

"You have to dial her number, Uncle."

"Yes, yes, of course. 516... da-da-da-da... here we are!"

A moment later, Bessie's irritated voice came on the other side. "Hello?!"

"Oh! Ms. Busybody."

Robbie was about to climb in the window until he heard her name. Instinctively, he looked around for her to make sure she was nowhere nearby.

"Mr. Meanswell," he continued. "The mayor."

"Oh! Yes, haha."

"I was just wondering if uh..."

Robbie had gotten on his hands and knees while trying to balance himself on the windowsill. Halfway through, he noticed something incredibly unusual: sunflowers. How did sunflowers of all things get into LazyTown? Besides rebellion and lack of control, there was hardly anything Bessie hated more. Whenever other puppets came across sunflowers, they started to become more restless and less likely to listen to any sort of order. She claimed to be allergic, but her sneezes around them never sounded real.

While Bessie might not have been allergic to sunflowers... Robbie was. His sneeze made him knock the vase over and fall back out onto the ground beneath him.

"... I love sunflowers!" Then again, his main reason for loving sunflowers was specifically because Bessie hated them, but he thought that was as good of a reason as any.

Despite that little commotion, the coast was clear: he was still free to steal that cake!

The mayor continued to speak on the phone, surrounded by the children. "I'd like to invite you over-"

"For a nice surprise!" Stephanie whispered.

"To put flies on your eyes!"

"WHAT?! FLIES ON MY EYES?!"

"Uh, nice surprise, not flies on your eyes. So uh, yes, please come over as soon as you can. Bye!"

"I'll be right over," Bessie growled, hanging up. "Ooh, party time."

One would think that their own birthday would be the day that they would be caught off-guard. Not so. In fact, Bessie is more alert this day than ever. Not when last year, she was almost taken down with sunflowers! Thankfully, that was just Milford being an idiot, but what if someone with half a brain discovered sunflowers were a weakness of hers?

Now of course, it was more likely that they were making her a cake, from what she could see over the cameras, but even cakes could be full of deadly surprises.

LazyTown was a small town, and it didn't take Bessie long at all to get to the house. The mayor opened the door as soon as Ms. Busybody rang the doorbell.

"Ooh! I came as soon as I could, you wonderful man!" she did her best not to sound tense, but she couldn't help but tremble, and it wasn't with excitement. Still, in case this wasn't a rebellion, she couldn't blow her cover if it turned out that it wasn't the case. All she could do for the moment was to wait it out.

"We've got you a surprise Ms. Busybody," the mayor said, "a delicious one!"

The kids, waiting in front of the giant box, nodded.

"It's not sunflowers this year, it's-"

"Ta-da! Happy birthday!"

They pulled off the box to reveal... absolutely nothing.

At first, Bessie was relieved. So there was nothing to be worried about. But in an instant later, she felt furious and humiliated. There was a cake there, she saw it with her own eyes! Have they eaten it without her?!She wasn't taken down, but the motherboard was insulted and disrespected by those beneath her!

"ANOTHER BIRTHDAY, RUINED!" she declared as she slammed the door behind her.

But just in case there was something going on somewhere else... at least this was a convenient excuse to go and hide somewhere safe.

Chapter Text

"Let's find the cake!"

"Find it!"

In a panic, the kids looked around the room, dumbfounded at how such a large cake could just suddenly disappear.

Their attention was soon caught by the front door slamming open, and a tall detective standing in the doorway. "A stolen cake! Bakery burgalars?"

"Mmph! Mm!"

The detective noticed the mayor trapped behind it and pulled it back so the puppet man could unstick himself from the wall.

"Who are you?!" Mayor Meanswell asked.

The detective proceeded to slam the door back in the mayor's face, "AHA! I am Henchlock Foams-" he said, showing an agent-like I.D. card, "-private eye."

"What?" Pixel asked, confused as the rest of the kids.

"The first step to detecting a cake thief is to find..." Henchlock took out a magnifying glass and held it in front of his mouth "... cake clues!" he concluded in a sing-songy tone.

"Ah!" The children, with a better understanding of what was going on, were now more excited to get to the bottom of this case.

"Walk this way," the detective instructed as he put the magnifying glass in front of his eye and walked out the door.

Stephanie was among the last to leave. Remembering her uncle behind the door, she opened it to let him out from behind it. "Aren't you coming, Uncle?"

"Be right there..." the door must have hit him a time too many, given that a second later he fainted.

Meanwhile, a freshly-cleaned Sportacus jumped down from the ladder, ready to go back and check on everyone. Well, he was almost freshly cleaned: the pink substance ended up on his hands when he grabbed one of the lower rungs before landing.

The Hell? he thought. I just washed this stuff off!

"You!"

Sportacus looked up to see the detective with the rest of the group.

"You with the funny blue hat, let me see your hands." Henchlock grabbed Sportacus' hand, which of course had frosting all over it, and gasped as if shocked to see it there. "AHA! Frrrosting!"

The rest of the group gasped as he showed Sportacus' hand to them.

"Hands up, Mr. Cake Thief!" Henchlock continued. "You are under arr-est!"

Okay, that's it: I'm so done with this town, Sportacus thought. I'll just take Stephanie and Robbie and leave now, thank you. But of course, since that couldn't happen, he instead went on to say, "I don't even eat frosting!"

Henchlock laughed. "Then what's this?" he asked, grabbing Sportacus' hand again. "Finger-paint?"

Ziggy took some of the frosting off of Sportacus' hand and tasted it. "I know frosting, and that's frosting!"

"We've never had a cake thief in LazyTown before," the mayor commented.

Henchlock triggered the lever, which hit him right in the stomach. He coughed. "That didn't hurt," he claimed though his voice was clearly strained with pain.

The detective struggled to pull the lever, but once he did, LazyTown square was set up. He, the mayor and Sportacus went up to the stage, while the children watched from a short distance.

"Court is in session! The honorable Judge Mayor presenting," Henchlock put a powdered wig onto the mayor before jumping off the stage and made Sportacus sit down on the edge of it. "Isn't it true no one saw you not stealing the cake?"

"How could somebody not see me do something?!"

"So, you admit that nobody didn't see you not do it?"

Sportacus could feel his blood starting to boil. "... What?!"

"That doesn't make any sense," Stingy said.

Stephanie agreed. "No."

Ziggy only shook his head.

"I rest my case!" Henchlock declared.

"Well, the mayor's not gonna believe this, is he?" Stingy asked.

Henchlock held up an eye exam sign. "Cover your right eye and read this," he said to the mayor.

So he did: "uh, Sport-acus is guil...twy."

"... I didn't catch that. Read it again!"

He tried again: "Sportacus... is... guilty!"

Henchlock tossed the sign aside. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Hahaha!"

As he stood up, Sportacus took a moment to question his life and the choices that led him to this moment.

"And... guilty boys go to jail!" Henchlock said, invading Sportacus' personal space on that last word.

"Really?" Sportacus asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"No!" Stingy and Pixel exclaimed together.

Ziggy and Stephanie could only stand there in shock.

"But, we don't have a jail in LazyTown," the mayor said.

"Try to keep up with me, genius," Henchlock growled to him. He tried to push Sportacus along, but failed.

"What's he doing?" Ziggy asked when he tried again.

Henchlock went to go get a running start but fell flat on his face when Sportacus walked off in said direction by himself.

"Who is this detective anyway?" Stingy asked.

Stephanie and Pixel seconded that: "yeah."

Truth be told, there was a jail in LazyTown, but like the hospital, library, grocery store, and other businesses, it had been shut down due to lack of funding long before Mayor Meanswell's time. Besides, last Robbie checked on it, its cells were rusty, ineffective, and even unsafe. Even so, said cells wouldn't have been used for something as petty as a stolen cake. Thankfully, Sportacus took being locked up like a pro, something which he was grateful for.

This plan had been used before, but last time it was a stolen pie. Stealing Bessie's birthday cake was a risky move, but he had to use something to frame the hero for, or this would never work. This cell was to serve three purposes for today's plan:

The first, if Sportacus has done a crime and needs to go to jail, the mayor could decide that Sportacus shouldn't be a hero anymore and might even ban him from the town to keep him from thwarting Ms. Busybody.

Secondly, the small size of the cell greatly restricted Sportacus from moving around very much. He might not be able to consume the sugary, drugged food in LazyTown, but he was by no means immune to the fumes. The stiller he held, the more of an effect it would have on him.

But if the mayor wouldn't ban Sportacus, and the drugs shown no effect by the end of the night, then locking him up would make it easier for Bessie to dispose of him when no one was looking. Robbie was sad to say this was how she had gotten rid of poor Number 5.

Sportacus would typically find Robbie's sassy nature amusing if he weren't so pissed off at the moment.

"Ta-ta!" He gestured to the tiny cage. "Step in, my friend."

Are we friends?! He wanted to shout. Because you'll say that one moment, then stab me in the back the next!

But instead, Sportacus said nothing, trying to keep in mind what Robbie said about coming back to Sportacus' assistance if he could just have patience with him.

Robbie opened the heavy cage door for Sportacus (though he could've gotten that himself). Sportacus stepped down into the cell, and Robbie gave his signature evil laugh as he closed the door. Robbie walked away and brushed his hands.

"Detective?" Sportacus asked, kicking the door open. "Don't you have to lock the door?"

Robbie ran back over, pulling the door shut, and using the lock this time. The slight glare he gave Sportacus as he did told the hero he had a missed opportunity to use that as an escape.

Once the crowd had dispersed, Robbie took the lollipops he had previously stolen from the cake, and began to make a trail. He also left a trail of cut-out footprints and a whole top of a cake for someone else to find, but in case those didn't work, Ziggy, the closest thing to a hero on the puppets' end, would surely find this candy, and be led to the real cake thief. Either way, someone would figure it out sometime soon, he was sure of it.

On the back of his neck, Robbie felt that usual stare of judgement, coming from the direction of the cage.

"You know, kid," Robbie said, not looking up from the lollipop trail he was making, "I get enough of those stares for what I do every day. I'd really appreciate it if you don't add to those stares."

It took Sportacus a good few seconds to realize Robbie was addressing him directly; something he hadn't done unless he was pretending to be the villain. Whether it was out of guilt, or whatever fluctuating respect he had for him at the moment, Sportacus obliged in looking at the clouds instead as Robbie finished what he was doing.

Under the assumption that Bessie would want to keep an eye on him until nightfall, Robbie, pretended to be asleep on the hammock next to the cage. He became slightly more alert however, when he noticed a series of scrapes and taps:

Scrape, tap tap tap tap, tap... tap tap tap, scrape tap scrape, scrape tap scrape scrape... tap tap, tap tap tap... scrape tap tap tap, tap scrape tap tap, tap tap scrape, tap.

The sky is blue.

What may have sounded like a random and out-of-context message on Sportacus' end, Robbie knew what he was doing: this was a special form of communication taught in hero school in which the other party would first use body language to answer an obvious "yes" or "no" question, before answering later "yes" or "no" questions that were a bit more specific.

For "yes" Robbie chose to yawn.

Scrape scrape, scrape tap scrape scrape... tap tap tap tap, tap scrape, scrape... tap tap, tap tap tap... tap scrape tap, tap, scrape tap tap.

My hat is red.

For "no", Robbie scratched his face with the lollipop he was holding.

Tap scrape scrape, tap tap, tap scrape tap tap, tap scrape tap tap... tap tap tap, tap tap tap tap, tap... scrape tap scrape, tap tap, tap scrape tap tap, tap scrape tap tap... scrape.

Will she kill me?

Unfortunately, that answer was more complex than a "yes" or "no", so Robbie yawned and scratched his face at the same time.

Scrape tap tap, scrape scrape scrape... scrape tap scrape scrape, scrape scrape scrape tap tap scrape... tap tap tap tap, tap scrape, tap tap tap scrape, tap... tap scrape... tap scrape scrape tap, tap scrape tap tap, tap scrape, scrape tap.

Do you have a plan?

That could've meant anything, but Robbie assumed that was in the context of a plan to help him out, so he responded with a yawn.

Sportacus was fairly quiet for a while after that. Thinking of just "yes" or "no" questions was harder than he thought. Especially when there were more specific questions he wanted to ask him, like what that mini-crystal was supposed to do. But asking too many of these questions might've given something away, and so he decided to stop. Instead, he took the time to exercise a bit within the cell, both to pass the time and try to lessen the effects of the fumes, which he could smell in the air somewhere.

"Lollipops!" Ziggy's voice came from the distance. "This must be a clue!" His voice got louder as he came closer to the two. "More lollipops! Wow! These look exactly like the ones from the cake!" Now Robbie could hear him right next to him. "A piece of the cake! Huh?! Wha?"

Well, it seemed the trail of lollipops was enough to get him to where he needed to be, but Ziggy was so focused on the candy, it wasn't enough to get him to figure it out. Robbie rolled over in the hammock and smacked Ziggy in the head, making him fall over.

"What was that?"

Apparently, that wasn't enough either. Robbie wiggled and a lollipop fell from his lap onto Ziggy's head.

"A lollipop!"

Robbie wiggled again and another lollipop fell closely behind him.

"Another one!"

Clearly he wasn't getting it, so now it was time for more extreme measures: Robbie gripped the side of the hammock and dumped all of the lollipops that were on his lap onto Ziggy.

"Hm... all these lollipops..." Ziggy finally looked up. "He stole the cake!"

Ziggy ran to where his friends were waiting: on the other side of the half-wall. "Guess what?! Guess what?! Guess what?!"

"You ate a lot of sugar?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes! Uh, I mean no! It's the detective! He stole the cake! Look at these!" Ziggy held up the lollipops that he had collected in Henchlock's detective's cap.

"Lollipops! From the cake!" Stephanie exclaimed.

Ziggy nodded. "Mm-hm!"

"Data update: Sportacus is innocent!"

"Then he shouldn't be in jail!"

"No!"

Did these kids really think he would be able to sleep through all of this? Whether they knew it or not, they could wake him from a sound sleep when they were halfway across town. Even if they didn't, they certainly weren't being as quiet as they thought they were. He could hear everything from where he was.

"Target acquired. Objective: get that key!"

"Yeah!"

"Stephanie, put this remote antennae on Stingy's car."

"Okay."

Stingy spoke for the first time since the news. "Wha- what're you doing?"

Ziggy sat down on the car, which began to move backwards.

"Careful!"

"Oh, Ziggy! Don't scratch it- I can't watch," Stingy buried his face in the cloth he'd been using to polish the car.

Pixel began to steer the car towards the key. "Activate microcontrol!"

"Pixel, be careful with my car!" Stingy whimpered.

Ziggy was briefly positioned under the key, but then it drove past the tree. "Too far!"

"Stop, stop."

Ziggy wasn't even trying to be quiet anymore: "Back up! Back up! Back up! Kay closer, closer... I think I can reach now!" Ziggy stood on top of the car. "Steady.. steady..."

"He's reaching for the key! He's almost there!"

He was, but then he fell down.

"Missed it!"

Ziggy returned to his feet and tried again, but missed that time, too.

"Oh!"

Suddenly, Ziggy had an idea! He took a lollipop from his back pocket...

"No!" the kids exclaimed in unison.

... He licked said lollipop...

"NO!"

... Then used it to stick to the key.

The others cheered.

Ziggy moved over to the cell to go and unlock Sportacus.

Sportacus shushed Ziggy. "Let's go!" He then did a flip over Robbie, the slight breeze that gave off letting him know he successfully escaped the cell. "Ziggy! Ziggy!" Sportacus motioned to him.

"Sportacus! Sportacus!"

"Thank you very much!"

"You can always count on me!"

"I knew it. Ziggy..." Sportacus motioned a thumb at Robbie. "... He ate all the cake, too."

"I know a cake we can bake for him..." Ziggy gave an evil chuckle.

The mayor walked through the front door of his house. "Has anyone seen Ms. Busybody?" He noticed the hero with the kids and two seperate cakes readily baked. "Oh! Sportacus! You broke out of jail!"

"No," Sportacus said, "the kids found out who really took Bessie's birthday cake."

"Yeah, it was the detective!"

"Yeah! We baked a surprise for Bessie, and the cake thief," Stephanie added. "We'll catch the real one, this time!"

Ziggy placed the cake inside the open cell. "I'm gonna put it right here," he chuckled.

Everyone watched from behind the half-wall as Robbie began to stir.

"I smell a cake!"

"He's falling for it!"

"Yeah, it's working!"

Of course, Robbie could hear them loud and clear, but he continued to play dumb: "I thought I ate them all." Sniffing the air, Robbie fell out of the hammock, and found a piece of a cupcake on the ground. "A cake!" Then he found another one right next to it. "Another cake!" He began to follow the trail of cakes. "More cake! And more cake! Come to Daddy!"

Sportacus had to bite his thumb to stifle a snicker. Even if he were completely sober, he could still admit he loved Robbie's sense of humor.

Robbie then arrived at the biggest cake of them all: "A giant cake!" Getting into the cell, he triggered a trap that closed the door behind him.

"Robbie Rotten!" The kids shouted together.

Robbie then 'realized' he was 'trapped'. "Oh no!"

"It was you who was swiping the sweets!" Stephanie said, pointing at him.

"Yeah!"

"No it wasn't!" Robbie protested.

"But your face is covered in FROSTING!"

"Yeah, I can see it!"

Bessie, who had noted the commotion in her camera room a few minutes before, left to see what all the fuss was. "Now what's going on?" she asked the group.

Unfortunately for Bessie, she happened to be right in the path of the frosting that Robbie flicked off of his face, which now landed on her. "Now it isn't!"

Sportacus just stood there, stunnned. Did he really just do that? And without breaking a sweat? How was she going to react?

The same way she always did was humiliated and angry but other people were watching: she fake cried and started to storm away.

"Ms. Busybody! Come back!" the mayor called to her.

Sportacus shook it off and reached for the bigger cake. "Mayor..." he said, handing him the cake, "... don't forget this!

"Thank you, Sportacus! Oh, Ms. Busybody!"

Robbie waited until the adults weren't looking to show any nervousness. "Well," he said, sticking his head through the upper bars, "gotta go, bye-bye!"

The kids only laughed as he took the cage with him while he ran away.

"Ms. Busybody," the mayor presented the giant, meticulously-made cake to her. "Happy birthday!"

"CAKE?! YOU MUST BE JOKING!"

The mayor could only stand there in fear and shock.

"... Only kidding. This way, I've got forks."

Forks, huh? Sportacus thought. Something tells me you don't like surprises.

Chapter Text

The playground looked different today: its usual bright colors seemed duller than usual. Or at least Ziggy would have thought so if he had been paying any attention. At the moment, he was too busy taking on his new identity: Sportacandy.

Dressed in a costume that he made himself, he climbed to the top of the faded red slide and looked down at the lollipop positioned below. "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I, Sportacandy, hear my crystal beeping! That LazyTown lollipop is in trouble! To the rescue! YEAH!" Upon sliding to the bottom, he grabbed the lollipop. "Ha-ha! You're safe, lollipop!"

"Well thank you, Sportacandy!" he said, giving the lollipop a voice.

"You're very welcome," Ziggy responded in his normal voice. "And delicious!"

Superheroes didn't normally eat the people they rescued... but Ziggy couldn't help it.

Pixel and Stphanie stood in the middle of the fairly dark living room, their eyes glued to a blueprint on the many screens in front of them. The preteen genius was secretly taking pride in keeping the pink-haired girl so interested in the blueprints and plans he had to show her. It almost made him ignore the low growling in his headphones that was really starting to hurt his ears.

"Mm-hm, add a little shape here..."

"Yeah..."

"Throw a little texture on it... I'm using a 3D rendering program for the stress point of our new clubhouse; check it out!"

"So when do we start to get building?" Stephanie asked.

"Um... I just did," Pixel said, gesturing to one of the screens.

"No, I mean in real life, with wood and..."

"With what? Interesting. Hm..."

Ziggy burst into the room. "DAH-DAH DAH-DAH! HAVE NO FEAR, SPORTACANDY IS HERE!" Resting his elbow on the 'on/off' switch to the computers, the room went dark.

Suddenly, that low growling increased into vibrations that nearly made Pixel shake. Barely thinking, his first instinct was to shout. "AH! ZIGGY! YOU MADE ME LOSE MY CLUBHOUSE PROGRAM!"

Pixel flipped the switch back on to find that the blueprints were actually okay. Those vibrations decreased in intensity, and they returned to the low growling that was much more preferable by comparison.

Ziggy stuttered, trying to think of words to say before chuckling, "that wasn't very superheroic of me."

"Maybe you should be more careful, Ziggy," Stephanie said, looking down at him with an unusual scorn in her eyes.

"I CAN FIX THAT-"

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Pixel snapped before Ziggy could hit the switch again. "Superheroes can use the door."

"Oh..."

"Now, Ziggy!" the redhead insisted.

"... I'm sorry."

Deep in his lair, Robbie lay sideways in his chair, attempting to sleep but with no luck.

He took a breath and sat up. "Why can't I sleep?" he asked himself. "I'M TIRED, I'M COUNTING SHEEP, AND... I'VE GOT MY BLANKET!"

His cow blanket wasn't the only one Bessie had made for him: she made on with a chicken as well. He wasn't sure what the chicken was supposed to mean, but knowing her, it had to be something menacing.

Robbie sighed and growled. "I'VE BEEN AWAKE FOR THREE DAYS!" he threw himself back into the chair. "I should be asleep!" Suddenly thinking of something, he sat up. "Unless... I am asleep. Ha! And this is all a dream! Ah, and if this is all a dream, then that means nothing... can hurt me."

To be sure he was sleeping, he pinched himself. Maybe a bit too hard, as he screamed out from the pain he brought himself and kicked his legs in frustration.

The mayor was about to put a letter in the mailbox, then pulled the hand with the letter back. "Ooh, my! I forgot to put a stamp on this letter! Now uh, where did I put those stamps?" He took a moment, trying to remember. "Uh... ooh, yes! In my pocket of course!" Reaching for the stamps, the mayor put the letters in his mouth to leave both hands free.

Ziggy began to walk by him. "Oh, hi, Mr. Mayor."

The mayor hummed a 'hello' back, papers still in his mouth.

Unfortunately for him, Ziggy got the wrong idea: "the mayor is choking! HAVE NO FEAR, SPORTACANDY IS HERE!" Ziggy ran towards the mayor and jumped on his back. "I'm gonna help you!"

The mayor tried and struggled to get Ziggy off of his back.

"PLEASE STAY STILL!"

Finally the mayor was able to throw him off, but Sportacandy was undeterred.

"Hold on!" he yelled, returning to the mayor's back. "BREATHE!"

Ziggy hitting the mayor in the shoulder forced him to spit the letters out.

"BREATHE!"

Ziggy hit him again and they both fell forward.

Mayor Meanswell tried to catch his breath. What had gotten into this child?! He was supposed to be compliantly fumed and eat the sugary foods, not get in the way! "Ziggy... what are you doing?!"

"Don't thank me! I'm just doing my superhero job!"

Mayor Meanswell could only watch as a gust of wind blew the stack of letters away. "Oh my! That envelope contains a very important letter to the president of our country! I must get it back!"

Sportacus sat at the helm of his ship, looking over LazyTown. It used to be such a nice place, and from this height, one might not have guessed that it fell into such a horrible state.

Crystal going off, Sportacus got a vision of the letters flying away, generally close to the town mailbox.

"Someone needs help!" He flipped into the pilot's seat and began his descent to LazyTown.

Landing on the ground, Sportacus performed more of his signature flips towards Ziggy and the mayor.

"Sportacus!" the two puppets said together.

"My letter!" the puppet man said when Sportacus was back on his feet. "Ooh, please get it back!"

Without another word, Sportacus sprinted towards the nearest tree, and leapt up to grab a low, strong branch. Circling it a few times, he was able to make the flip higher and grab the escaping letter in one try.

"YEAH!"

Sportacus flipped back over to them. "I got it," he said to the mayor. He had no idea what was in the letter or who it was for (though he had a few guesses), but he had to play the role of the hero and give them over, no matter what.

"Thank you, Sportacus," Mayor Meanswell said. "Once again, you have saved the day."

"It's all my fault. I was trying to be a superhero!"

Sportacus hadn't noticed the superhero outfit on Ziggy at first. Kids weren't generally something that he would consider "cute", but he had to admit it he found it rather endearing that Ziggy wanted to take after him so much.

The hero patted him on the shoulder. "Start small, Ziggy. Just take one step at a time," he said before flipping away.

"One step at a ti- uh, Mr. Mayor? Do you have any small superhero jobs that maybe I could do?"

"NO!" Quickly composing himself, the mayor rephrased that: "uh, I mean uh, not at the moment, Ziggy. Uh, I'm gonna go, uh, find some stamps."

"There must be something I can do," Ziggy said to himself as the mayor left.

A short distance away, he could see Stephanie, Pixel and Trixie building something.

"YEEEEAAAAAHHH!" Sportacandy's grand entrance resulted in running into some wooden boards that were sticking up from the ground.

"Ziggy, what's the big idea?!" Trixie scolded.

Pixel joined her. "Yeah!"

Stephanie seemed to be the only one showing concern for their friend: "are you okay?"

"I'm fine! Huh, I'm Sportacandy!" he stuck his hand in the air. "Can you help me up?"

Stephanie smiled, amused. "Yeah."

"Superhero?!" Trixie laughed and shook her head.

"I am! Watch this! Ha-ha! Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah!" Ziggy ran and crashed into a tree. "I'm fine!" Unphased, he sped back over to them. "Dah-dah-duh-duh duh doo-doo-doo, hey!"

"Ziggy, you don't have to prove anything to us; we're your friends," Stephanie said.

"Yes, but a superhero, helps his friends," Ziggy responded.

Trixie, being the bully she was, only continued to laugh at him.

"Ah! Let me carry that for you!"

Ziggy took the heavy board from Stephanie, but alas, he could not hold it up for long, and it fell into Pixel's paper blueprint, ripping it in half.

Stephanie's tone became harsher "Ziggy!"

"Um, uh-"

"My blueprint!"

Sportacus was about halfway up the ladder to his airship when the crystal beeped again, this time showing an image of the ripped blueprint. If it were just a ripped blueprint, Sportacus wasn't sure why it would need to alert him of that. But if it were anything he learned about this town, things were always more sinister than what they seemed to be on the surface.

"Ziggy! Now I have to make another blueprint!"

"Yeah!"

"Uh, it's a small job! Let me!" Ziggy aimed to take a small piece of tape from the dispenser at first, but having trouble breaking it off, he ended up grabbing far more tape than he thought he would! "This is obviously not superhero tape!" It wasn't long before he found himself tangled up in the tape he had been trying to break off.

"Okay..." he tried to untangle himself from the tape, but he only made it worse.

"Maybe playing 'superhero' isn't such a good idea," Stephanie said.

Ziggy was nevertheless determined to prove himself. "Watch this!"

As if by some kind of magic, running around made most of the tape come off (though his donut goggles had fallen in front of his eyes). Now, what do to do prove he was a superhero? Ah! Jumping over that big pile of boards should do it!

His friends could instantly see what he was thinking. "NO!"

Ziggy jumped... and for a moment, he was flying! Or, he thought that for a moment before he realized that was just Sportacus catching him mid-jump.

"I thought you might need a hand."

The other kids laughed. Sportacus put Ziggy down and moved his donut-goggles back to his head.

"Be more careful next time, Ziggy."

"Thank you, Sportacus," Ziggy said, his voice glum.

"You're welcome."

At the top rung of his lair ladder, Robbie started to open the hatch door. "Maybe a change of scenery would help me sleep." Pushing it open, a flood of light hit him in the face all too fast. "TOO BRIGHT!" The door slammed on his hand as he recoiled.

Conjuring up his sunflower sunglasses, he tried again. Ah, much better. They blocked out the light very well, and even though they weren't real sunflowers, there was a chance that this meant Bessie couldn't bother him while he tried to sleep. It was perfect! (In theory, anyway.)

Now where was... aha! The ladder. Climbing down the outer ladder was hard enough as it was, but when he could barely see a thing, it was like climbing it in the dark. After a moment, he could feel both of his feet hitting solid ground. He thought his eyes would need to adjust, but still things were too dark. Oh well.

Robbie straightened his vest and picked a direction to walk in... but then he stubbed his toe on what he assumed was something attached to the hatch door.

"Ziggy?"

Ziggy was there one minute, then gone the next. The last Sportacus saw him was the kid was walking away with his head down. But, he disappeared so fast, Sportacus had no clue where he went. For once, it wasn't Stephanie he was worried about. She was okay for this minute... besides, as town hero, it was his job to worry about everyone's wellbeing, not just hers.

Thankfully, he found him, sitting on a nearby park bench by himself.

"You seem upset," Sportacus said, going to sit next to him.

Ziggy didn't look up from his feet. "Mm."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Ziggy sighed. "It won't do any good. I'm no superhero. I'm a super-zero."

Sportacus put a hand on Ziggy's back in attempt to comfort him. "Why do you want to be a superhero so much?"

"Well, I wanna do cool moves. Like this-" Ziggy stood up and imitated flips with his lollipop. He threw it up in the air and it hit him in the face. "Ow..." judging from his tone of voice, if puppets could cry, he'd probably be crying right now.

"Ziggy, are you okay?"

"I... yeah," Ziggy responded, his voice strained.

Sportacus lifted him back onto the bench.

"But I keep messing up," Ziggy continued.

If Sportacus were being blunt (which he often was before he had gotten a few rounds of sensitivity training), he would tell Ziggy that there was a way to be a hero, and a way to not be. Especially if the way he did it kept getting him into trouble. Chances are Ziggy didn't have all of the details like the adults did, but maybe there was still a way he could learn to help. But he would be a hypocrite if he didn't follow his own advice, and that was to start small. Training Ziggy would take the same thing.

"Well, to do cool superhero moves, you need one very important ingredient."

Ziggy gasped. "CHOCOLATE?! IS IT CHOCOLATE?!"

Sportacus shook his head.

"Please say it's chocolate!"

"No, practice!"

"Practice? What does that taste like?"

"Delicious!"

"Really?"

"Mm-hm. The only way to be good at something is to do it..." he got up and dribbled a basketball while his body circled around it.

"Wow."

"And do it..." Sportacus continued to dribble standing on one hand, "... and never give up!" he finished by shooting a hoop from all the way across the court.

"Wow! Hey! Sportacus, can you teach me how to be a superhero?"

"Of course! Superhero practice, begins right, now!"

Most of the afternoon from that point was spent doing things like practicing poses, doing push-ups, jumping over hurdles, jogging and jump-ropes. Ziggy really was trying his best, though he just wasn't as athletic as his hero. (Though then again, even regular humans often weren't.)

They then moved on to shooting hoops, facing backwards. Sportacus, of course, made his without a problem.

Even though that was a feat on its own, Ziggy never failed to be impressed with anything Sportacus did "WOW!"

"It went!"

"Can I try it?"

"Of course! You can do it!"

"Okay... one, two, three!"

To make a hoop from all the way across the court facing backwards was surprising enough from a human, but to have that made by a puppet was shocking. Even so, that was what Ziggy managed to do.

This feat seemed to be enough for Sportacus: "Ziggy, I now pronounce you, superhero for a day!" And maybe longer than that, if your tiny attention span manages to last.

Ziggy pulled his goggles down. "I'm Sportacandy! Yeah! Dah-dah-dah, doo-doo-doo-doo!" Ziggy ran off, but also into a half-wall.

"Ziggy..." Sportacus said as Ziggy stumbled back, "... keep on trying. A superhero never gives up!"

"A superhero, never gives up!" Ziggy repeated.

"Yes."

"Thank you, Sportacus."

"You're welcome. I'll be around if you need me!"

"I won't let you down, Sportacus!"

They said their goodbyes to each other, and Sportacus was gone.

Out of habit, Ziggy was about to take a bite of his lollipop, but then decided against it. Superheroes didn't eat candy, and maybe that's where they got all their powers from. He might not ever stop eating candy, ever, but he really should cut back if he was going to be just like Sportacus someday.

Chapter Text

Robbie stormed up to the nearest park bench and looked ways to make sure there was no one else there to wake him up. Throwing the pillow down, he yawned and sat down on the park bench. One-by-one he pushed his spare set of earplugs into his ears until he couldn't hear a thing. Satisfied with this, he laid back down onto the bench and began to drift off to sleep.

Close by, Stephanie, Pixel and Trixie were trying to raise the sides of the clubhouse, using a tree and ropes as a pulley system.

"Come on, guys, keep pulling!" Stephanie encouraged. It's almost there."

"Do you guys need help?" Ziggy asked, approaching the group.

"No!" Pixel protested.

"We already went through this!" Trixie snapped.

"But I've been practicing with Sportacus! I'm a real superhero, now! Let me see this thing-"

Ziggy started to grab the rope from Pixel, who fought him, taking a step back, crashing into everyone and making the wall fall down.

"Ziggy!" Trixie scolded as she pulled herself off the ground. "Ziggy, just put up the window shades," she instructed, handing him a polka-dotted curtain. "Nobody can mess that up."

"'Kay, curtains, coming up! Duh-duh-duh-duh doo-doo-doo!"

Standing in the walls they've already raised... it was like something indescribable hit Ziggy all of a sudden. This faint, low growling in his ears... it just made him want to...

The next thing he knew Ziggy was rushing towards one of the walls, but immediately got stuck in the window.

"We have to help him," Pixel said.

"Oh, Ziggy." Stephanie grabbed one of Ziggy's feet, and Pixel grabbed the other.

"And PULL!"

Pixel and Stephanie worked together to pull him out.

"And PULL!"

Thankfully, all it took was two tries to get Ziggy out of the window.

"Ziggy!"

"I'm fine." Ziggy leaned on the wall, which began to wobble.

"Ziggy, the wall!"

The group ran away, just in time for the walls they worked so hard to raise fall on top of each other.

"I did..." Ziggy held up the curtains that were still in his hand. "... Wow, these are nice, huh?"

"Ziggy!" The tone in Trixie's voice told Ziggy that she wasn't going to warn him again. Ziggy couldn't put his finger on it, but it seemed like Trixie just, wasn't herself at the moment.

But Stephanie and Pixel's twin glares were giving off the same message. Ziggy might not have been the brightest bulb in the room, but he knew when to take a hint.

"... I'm sorry." Ziggy started to leave, taking the curtains with him.

"Wha-hey! He took the curtains!" Trixie complained.

"They were nice though," Pixel said.

"Yeah."

"Back to work! Let's go! Come on!"

"Okay, we better get started on that wall..."

It wasn't the musical number that woke Robbie, but rather the hammering that occurred just moments afterwards.

"Oh- what?! Who could sleep with all this noise?!"

Robbie tossed the earplugs he had ripped from his ears and stormed over to the kids.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!" he cried, fingers in his ears. "Why are you torturing me with this racket?!"

"We're making a clubhouse," Stephanie responded.

"Eh?" Robbie realized he couldn't hear her with his fingers in his ears. "What?" he asked, removing them.

"We're making a clubhouse," she repeated.

"Yeah."

"Don't you have a house already?" Robbie asked.

"Sure, but it's more fun to do stuff in the clubhouse!" Pixel answered.

"Yeah, we'll sing songs-"

"And dance-"

"And play games!"

"And play games!" Robbie said mockingly. "What part of 'lazy' don't, you, understand?!" he demanded.

"Lazy? But we're not even done yet! Hey guys, we're going to need some more wood."

"Let's go get some!"

A clubhouse, huh? In Robbie's experience, he found that when children in LazyTown build something, it was usually to further Bessie's plans. Traditionally treehouses were used to double as communication towers and stations for more focused mind-control, but whatever this was for, he supposed could have its own nefarious purposes as well. It was best he put a stop to this, but how?

Looking up at the branch above him, he got an idea.

"Well, we'll see about this!"

Ziggy walked by himself through the town. "I should just go and join the circus," he said to himself. "But I'm afraid of elephants! Aw... I could go live in a cave. But I'm afraid of the dark!"

He had been so caught in his raincloud of sadness that he almost bumped into Ms. Busybody, talking with someone on her phone.

"Oh, yes, well thank you, my dear, I'll call you back." She hadn't seemed to notice him either until she hung up. "Oh, hello little, um, um..."

"... Ziggy."

"Ziggy. How are you today?"

Ziggy sighed. "Well, I'm a big super-zero nobody. I can't do anything right!"

"Oh, that's lovely. Have a nice day."

"Ms. Busybody, hello!" The mayor stood outside of his house with a pair of oven mitts on.

"Oh, Mr. Mayor, I was just calling you! What a coincidence!"

Nobody could hear the puppet child sigh and sniffle as he returned to his dwelling.

"The clubhouse, is here," Robbie explained to the nearby camera, pointing to the image on the magical chalkboard behind him with a chalkboard stick. "The tree, is here. And the branch, is here. If the branch falls, the clubhouse disappears!" he then pointed to a destroyed clubhouse that was drawn next to it. The chalkboard then went flying into the air. Weird... Robbie didn't command it to do that. Was there even really a chalkboard there?

No matter. This clubhouse was going down, and that was final! Grabbing the saw off the ground, it left him wondering what responsible adult would leave children with dangerous tools such as these without supervision while he climbed the tree.

Ziggy sat alone in his bedroom. The next words that fell out of his mouth were words were ones that no one would have expected: "Sportacus was wrong! Not everyone can be a... superhero!" Ziggy scooted into his bed, pulling the blankets over his head. "Oh, they don't want me. If I would try to help them, they would only yell at me!"

"Ziggy..." Ziggy could hear the words as if Sportacus were right next to him, "... keep on trying. A superhero never gives up!"

Imaginary Sportacus was right. What was he doing just sitting here in bed? He couldn't let Sportacus down! "... But they're my friends." Ziggy jumped out of bed. "HAVE NO FEAR, SPORTACANDY IS HERE!"

Robbie had been sawing at this branch for what he thought might've been several minutes, and without much luck. "What is this thing made out of?! Wood?!"

It wasn't until he heard a slight snap that he realized how little his sleep-deprived mind had thought this plan through. "... Nice tree..." he tried to move the saw, but the branch was becoming increasingly unstable. He kept going, as if it would appease the tree to keep its branch right where it was: "strong tree! Brave tree! Nice... nice tree..."

Sportacus was skating around the sports field on his skateboard. He had decided to stay on the ground just in case Ziggy couldn't handle this 'superhero' thing himself yet. Nobody could their first day.

At the sound of his crystal going off, he got visions of Robbie stuck in a tree, its branch slowly breaking. Not only was he stuck, but if the kids came back, the branch could fall on them!

"Someone's in trouble!" The hero threw the skateboard down and ran off towards the source.

The three kids returned to the half-finished clubhouse.

"Okay, so first we finish the walls, then-"

Stephanie was the first to notice Robbie in the tree. "Hey! Look up there!" she said, pointing. "It's Robbie Rotten!"

"What's with him?"

"Yeah."

"I'M STUCK!"

"Just climb down," Pixel suggested.

Robbie shook his head. "I can't!"

"Well then jump down!" Stephanie said.

"I won't!"

"Then fall down!" Trixie chuckled evilly.

"... I might!"

Sportacus flipped over the clubhouse wall. "What's up?" he asked the group.

"Robbie Rotten," Stephanie answered.

Well, she wasn't wrong: there he was, still in the tree.

"Oh, help me..." he whimpered softly.

"Robbie?" Sportacus held his arms out. "Jump!"

"Go away!"

Sportacus didn't have time for this hot-and-cold game. "You just asked me to help you!"

"Why are you listening to me?"

Before either of them could argue any further, the branch snapped in half and Robbie fell into Sportacus' arms. The kids cheered, as they often did when Sportacus did a heroic deed.

"Put me down. NOW!"

Sportacus didn't take it too personally. This crankiness was coming from someone who clearly hasn't slept in days. Still, he obliged in dropping him, just as he instructed.

Nevertheless, Robbie got up and brushed himself off. "What? I wasn't scared!"

"Yeah, right," Pixel deadpanned.

What everyone was unaware of was though the branch had snapped, it was still about to fall on top on Robbie! Everyone except for Ziggy, who could see the whole thing from a distant hill.

"SPORTACANDY TO THE RESCUE!"

Ziggy grabbed a vaulting pole that was lying conveniently on the ground, using its leverage to propel himself over the clubhouse wall, and push Robbie out of the way just as the branch finally hit the ground.

Sportacus stood there in shock. Why didn't his crystal warn him? Stupid faulty thing. But this temporary exasperation at his crystal was replaced with relief when he saw that both Ziggy and Robbie were okay, and that was what was important.

"I SAVED HIM!"

Everyone except Robbie cheered for the newer hero.

"Ziggy, you saved Robbie!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"Well done!" Sportacus praised.

"Anyone can be a hero," Ziggy said, "if you start small, and take it step-by-step!"

"That's right!" The older hero encouraged.

Robbie was back on his feet. "I DON'T NEED ANYONE TO SAVE ME! I WAS FINE BEFORE YOU-"

Trixie snapped a twig, startling Robbie back into Sportacus' arms.

"Hahaha! Just joking!"

"Everything is getting so tiring! So tiring... very... very..." the last of Robbie's energy ran out and he fell asleep, head drooping near Sportacus' shoulder.

The kids laughed before being cut off by Sportacus shushing them.

"Don't wake him up!" he whispered.

The kids walked away. As much of an honor as it was to have been saving his own childhood hero, Sportacus couldn't carry him around all day. A half-wall wasn't exactly the most comfortable place for someone to sleep, but it was better than nothing. Besides, he had a feeling it was time to go and dance with Stephanie and the others.

The next thing Robbie woke up to was a fly buzzing in his face. He tried to swat it away, but to no avail, he found himself falling off of the half-wall. It seemed Bessie was there to rub some salt in his sleep-deprived wounds, so to speak. So what was it he decided to do then? He ignored the fly-cam, and pretended to sleep in the grass. He was too tired to care. She and her fly-cam could bite him.

Chapter Text

"Now, how does this thing work?" the mayor asked himself as he hammered a stake into the ground... holding the hammer backwards and continuing to hit it until he once again struck one of his bandaged fingers. "Ooh! Ooh my! Ooh!"

Ms. Busybody was lying back in a reclining outdoor chair, her face covered in a cucumber facial. She had been recovering since she finally got rid of those awful sunflowers but she wasn't fully herself again. But that was what minions like Milford were for. "Oh, Milford, thank you so much for helping me fix a little few odds and ends around my yard."

"Yes, but, I don't know my hammer from my screwdriver, Ms. Busybody."

Ignoring him, the puppet woman waved a rolled up piece of paper in his general direction. "Oh, you big strong man. It's only a couple of teeny-weeny things..." letting the paper unroll, the list of tasks she had for him to do was so long that it reached the mayor himself where he stood.

The mayor's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "A couple of things?!"

"Give or take. You're such a dear. I'm sure you won't have any problem!"

Swallowing, Milford knew he better not mess things up or make her angry! He hated it when she was angry. "I'll do my best," he muttered defeatedly. He continued to hammer the stake when the top of the hammer went flying off. "AH!"

Robbie watched Stephanie through his periscope as she walked by, tossing a disc up into the air, and repeatedly catching it. "UGH! No! NO! Stay INSIDE! It's a lovely day to be lazy!" he cried, nearly begging. "What's wrong with that little girl? Can't she read? The sign says 'no playing!'"

The hammer piece that had flown off from its handle just moments ago hit the sign Robbie put up, making it fall over.

"Kids these days, they just don't listen!" Robbie put the periscope away and began to walk among the various signs in his lair. "Why, I remember a time when everybody listened to what I said!" he complained to the cameras. "If I told them to be lazy, they were LAZY! If I told them, 'don't play', they would stop! I... was king... of doing nothing! Now look at me." Tears welled up in his eyes, in part missing his days as a hero and in part playing his role. "All alone... forgotten... and completely not listened to."

At the pull of a chain, a speaker came down, playing a clapping soundtrack.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Deciding that wasn't quite enough, Robbie turned the volume up to some soft cheering.

"Thank you, thank you-"

Growling, he turned the volume to maximum, making the speakers shake with the roar of applause.

"THANK YOU! AHAHA! THANK YOU! HAHAHA! Thank you!"

It was a good thing he didn't have a real audience besides the cameras. Otherwise, it might look rather strange blowing kisses to an imaginary crowd.

Ziggy, Trixie, and Pixel were laying under the sun, listening to relaxing tropical music.

"Boy, it sure is warm here," Ziggy said.

Pixel agreed with him. "Hot even!"

Rather than sit in chairs like her friends, Trixie had chosen to lay on top of a half-wall. "If you listen real close, you can hear the ocean!"

"I'll turn it up."

"Huh?

Pixel pressed a button on his wristwatch that turned the music louder.

"That's better," Trixie leaned back further.

Her friends began to relax much the same, when Stephanie's disc landed on the table.

"Hi, guys!" the pink-haired girl greeted. "Wanna play catch?"

"Nah, too sweaty. Can't you do nothing like us for once?" Trixie asked, her tone carrying harshness.

"But I thought that-"

Trixie cut her off: "Ah- just go with the flow... Pinky."

Weird. Stephanie's friends weren't normally so against being active. Well, okay, yes they were, but they were rarely this mean about it. Then again, they usually did what she wanted to do... maybe it was only fair that she did what they wanted to do sometimes.

"... Okay, yeah! Surf's up. Woah, look at those waves! They sure are big."

Sportacus jumped over the nearest half-wall behind them. "Hey, kids."

Ziggy became slightly more alert. "Sportacus!"

"What are you up to?" the hero asked.

"... Nothing," Stephanie answered dejectedly.

"Yeah, and we're liking every second of it," Ziggy added, not picking up on Stephanie's disappointment.

"Great!" Sportacus jumps and flipped into one of the reclining chairs.

"What?! Huh?!"

"It sure is hot..." Sportacus said.

"Mm-hm."

"Yep."

"This doesn't compute." Pixel lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head. "Sportacus, aren't you going to do something... uh, active?"

"Nope."

The kids either gasped or muttered confusedly.

"But... Sportacus!" Stephanie protested.

"What's going on?" Ziggy asked.

What was going on was that Sportacus had been feeling off all morning. It took him an hour to get out of bed, and his pace getting ready was much more sluggish than usual. He didn't know how exactly she did it, but Busybody was making the effects of the fumes even stronger. It was as if for the first time in years his body was begging him to take a break, even for just a day.

But that would be exactly what she wanted. She would make him slide down this slippery slope until he was just as lazy as everyone else in town. Not going to happen.

"Gotcha!" Sportacus said, sitting up. "Just joking."

The kids laughed as he did a flip over the table.

"Can I borrow this?" He asked Stephanie, pointing to her disc.

"Mm-hm."

He picked it up. "Let's play catch."

"Yeah, let's play catch!"

"Except for you, Pixel."

"But... I wanna play."

"Yeah!"

"Gotcha!" That time, he really was messing around. Pixel and Ziggy were the only two puppets he was beginning to find tolerable. He was just glad Stingy wasn't here right now.

Robbie watched the group play catch through the periscope. "What is wrong with them? They never listen to ME! And only listen to that blue-suited blowhard? It's the mustache, I bet." He chuckled, thinking for a moment how he's always loved men with facial hair. Er, not 9's son, however. He was objectively handsome, no doubt, but that would just be too weird.

Focusing again, it was time to implement his plan of the day: pretending to be Sportacus to get the kids to listen to him. He had had this costume for a few weeks now and couldn't wait to use it. "I have to make them listen to ME!"

Using the keyboard to fire up the Style Maker, he was instantly dressed in a uniform almost identical to Sportacus' original clothing.

"Haha Perfect! Now what kind of things does this... overactive jumping bean do? Aha! BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP! Someone needs help!"

Robbie practiced all of Sportacus' poses that he knew. The one with the hands on his hips, the finger, and then the zig-zag (which nearly made him throw out his back.) Then he tried things like jumping jacks, push-ups and running in place, but when Robbie found he could barely do any of them without losing his breath, he began to wonder if he could make this plan work long enough that it wouldn't fizzle in an instant.

Milford was trimming the tree in Ms. Busybody's yard.

"Oh and remember, Milford, not too much off the top!"

The clippers he was using almost cut his face. "Oh! Almost got my nose on that one."

While her incompetent minion was busy in the yard, Ms. Busybody had been plotting a way to get closer to Sportacus. Robbie had sent her a letter insisting that the fumes had an effect on him, and thus there was no reason to kill him. (Yet.) She supposed with the amplifier now in place, this could well be true, but she still wanted to see the results for herself. The trouble was, Sportacus was diligent about keeping his distance from her, and was never alone with her. The best way to go at this was to get someone in trouble and observe him there. But how?

"Mine. Ooh, that's mine. Ooh, that is definitely mine!"

Ah, perfect.

"This fence is mine." Stingy hummed as he entered the yard. "Hello, Ms. Busybody. Oh, she's sleeping."

Milford had no idea that Ms. Busybody was mentally guiding Stingy towards the ladder. He was too busy trying to swat a bee from his face. "Oh, shoo! Shoo! Oh my, that's a big bee!"

"Hey, what's this doing here? That's mine. Well, no..."

Ms. Busybody could sense his hesitance to take it. It's your father's, she thought quickly.

"... It might be... my father's."

Milford was preoccupied in getting the bee away from him. "Get away! Get away! I'm getting out of here. Now, where's that ladder?" It wasn't until he took a step back that he realized the ladder was gone. Just barely was he able to keep himself from falling out of the tree by using the branch to pull himself back up. "Help, Ms. Busybody!"

"Of course you're helping, Milford!" You have no idea.

Ziggy was preparing to catch the disc coming his way. "I got it, I got it!"

Having just missed it, it was Sportacus who dove behind him and caught the disc.

Not that Ziggy was disappointed; "WOW! Great catch, Sportacus!"

Sportacus' crystal went off, accompanied by some visions of the mayor stuck in a tree. "Someone's in trouble. Uh, keep playing, kids. I'll be right back." Oh, but he didn't want to have to run... besides, the mayor was in trouble now, and the ship would get there faster. "Ladder!" At his command, the ladder came down, and Sportacus climbed up.

Nobody noticed Robbie lurking behind the half-wall, ready to put his plan into action. "Hahaha! Perfect! I knew that clown would have to go and save someone, some way, sometime. Bye-bye!" Robbie used his magic to quickly change into Sportacus' uniform and proceeded to climb over the half-wall.

Stephanie and the others kept playing like nothing was different. "I'm open, Ziggy! Oh, nice catch."

Robbie did Sportacus' signature zigzag move, but no one noticed until he started flexing what little muscle he had.

"Wow, when you say you'll be right back, you really mean it," Stephanie commented.

"Uh, yeah yeah yeah, little girl," Sportarobbie said in a notably raspy voice. He chuckled and patted her head.

"Are you okay, Sportacus?"

"What?" he asked, voice still raspy.

"Your voice sounds kinda funny."

Perhaps his Sportacus impression wasn't as good as he thought. "Oh, uh," he coughed and summoned a small orange object. "Hairball," he said, his voice normal, flinging the small orange object far into the distance. He hadn't seen Trixie throw the disc that promptly hit him in the head.

Ziggy ran up to him. "Sportacus! Sportacus! What happened? You missed it!"

"Yeah."

"A-am I supposed to catch it?" Sportarobbie asked.

"With your hands, even!" Trixie answered.

Sportarobbie's back cracked as he leaned over and picked the disc off the ground. Cautiously, he sniffed it. "Ew, it's sweaty."

The branch was beginning to break under the mayor's feet. "Help, Ms. Busybody!" he pleaded again. "Anybody?"

Thankfully, Sportacus was there to catch the mayor as he fell. Guess the ship really was faster.

It wasn't long before Sportarobbie found himself covered in discs. The kids had thrown them all at him, obviously expecting him to catch each and every one. "That's ENOUGH OF PLAYINNNNNNG!"

"What?"

"Haha!" Sportarobbie jumped around then imitated Sportacus' finger pose. "Well, I want everybody to listen to me now!"

"Yep," Ziggy said.

Sportarobbie actually wasn't expecting that. "You will?"

"Yeah, Sportacus," Ziggy continued. "We always listen to you."

"Yeah."

"And don't you ever forget it. Haha! The first thing I want you to listen to is... bring me some bubblegum!"

"Bubblegum?"

"Yeah, it's-it's, good for you! It helps you... build these strong jaws!"

"According to my computer, you're joking."

Trixie laughed.

"Bingo bongo, you are wrong-o!" Sportarobbie said.

Ziggy seconded him. "Wrong-o!"

"Now bring me bubblegum, and lots of it!" Sportarobbie commanded as he struck more poses. "Huh? BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!" he shook his shirt as he imitated the crystal. "Somebody needs help!" he struck one last pose before he leapt over the half-wall, then tripping and falling upon landing.

"Sportacus? What're you doing lying down there?" Ziggy asked.

Sportarobbie got up. "Just resting!" He laughed nervously.

Stephanie took a moment to pull her diary out from her bag and make an entry.

Dear diary. Sportacus isn't acting right. But I'm afraid to say anything! What if they laugh at me?

Bessie took a cucumber off her eye and looked over at Sportacus and the mayor. "Are you taking a break, Milford?" she asked, a hint of anger in her voice.

"Oh, no no! Not at all!" The mayor gripped onto Sportacus' arm and hushed his voice, "you have to help me, Sportacus! I just can't say no to her, and there's just too much for me to do by myself!"

Sportacus didn't really want to, but judging from the bandages on his fingers, maybe the mayor could use a helping hand. "Of course!"

As if on cue, Sportacus' crystal beeped, and he got a vision of Ziggy being shaken down for candy.

"Maybe after I save him."

"Hurry back!" The mayor called as Sportacus flipped away.

"Milford? Oh MILLLLLLLLFOORRRRRRD!"

All the poor mayor could do was sigh.

"What's the problem?" Sportacus asked Stephanie as he arrived on the scene.

"Ziggy ate all of the bubblegum and didn't share," she answered.

"Come on," Sportacus said to her.

Pixel and Trixie put Ziggy back on his feet.

Sportacus held his hand out in front of Ziggy. "Ziggy..." he said sternly.

Ziggy spoke with his mouth full: "Okay!" he spit what small amount there was into Sportacus' hand.

"All of it," the hero said.

"Yeah, come on, Ziggy!"

It took a moment to get it up his throat, but Ziggy vomited all of the bubblegum onto the ground.

"I don't think I want it anymore!" Trixie cried, disgusted.

Sportacus still didn't feel like being active, but he knew he had to keep moving. What kind of example was he setting for Stephanie and the others if he wasn't? "Why don't we play basketball?" he asked.

The kids responded with a cheer.

"Basketball!" Sportacus called to the ship, which dropped one in his hand. Sportacus dribbled the ball, then dunked it in the basket. Then he spun it on his finger.

Sportacus' crystal gave him a vision of the mayor working on the fence. Not an emergency, but maybe this crystal wasn't going to let him get out of a promise that he made.

"Someone's in trouble." He tossed Stephanie the ball. "Guys, have fun, I'll be right back."

"Mayor?" Sportacus asked, returning to him. "How's it going?"

"This, is, hopeless."

Sportacus looked at the unfinished fence, grabbed the hammer from the mayor and quickly nailed the boards in. If he could hurry... he wouldn't have to be around Busybody for too long.

Chapter Text

Just as he was finished nailing the rest of the fence in, Sportacus could feel something. It wasn't something he could describe; the closest thing he could get was an impending sense of doom. He knew he had to return to his ship immediately, but he needed an excuse to leave. "Now I need to get the kids something healthy to eat! Ladder!"

As soon as the ladder dropped, he couldn't climb up faster.

And it was a good thing he did, because just seconds after getting up to his airship... he broke out into song: "when I move, I'm feeling all right. Bing bing bang and I'm ready to go! Jump high - from left to right, and you'll be going strong!"

Down below him, Stephanie was singing the same song: "find the beat and express yourself, you're racing like a train... like a human hurricane and we say-"

Neither of them knew it, but their voices were now together in sync: "Go go! Get it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown! Hey hey! Sing it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown!"

Stephanie sang her solo again, "find the beat and express yourself. Show them who you are. Show them you're a superstar and we say-"

Again they were singing together: "go go! Get it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown! Hey hey! Sing it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown! Go go! Get it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown! Hey hey! Sing it together, no one's lazy in LazyTown! No one's lazy in LazyTown. No one's lazy in LazyTown."

Only Sportarobbie was able to stop the song: "STOOOOOP! WILL YOU LISTEN... to me? Well, I have some snacks for us!" He proudly held up a bucket containing junk food like fries, burgers and pizza. "Ha ha! Here it is! Health food!"

"Wow!"

"Oh wow!"

"That's awesome!"

Stephanie didn't understand. Sportacus wouldn't encourage things like eating all this greasy gross fast food. "Sportacus!"

"Shh! Don't say anything!" Trixie urged her. "We really wanna eat this stuff!"

"Yeah."

No matter how hard she tried Stephanie just couldn't say anything else. It was as if something was stopping her. "... Never mind."

Sportarobbie leaned down to Trixie and Stephanie. "You want a fry?" he asked, offering a fry to the pink-haired girl.

Well... maybe a little bit of junk food couldn't hurt. Stephanie reluctantly took the fry from Sportarobbie's hand while Trixie giggled.

While the kids were snacking, Robbie faked another rescue getaway, and found himself in front of Bessie's house. Casually, he touched one of the fence panels, its falling over making him flinch.

Bessie, still with cucumbers over her eyes, couldn't see what was going on for once. "Oh, good work, Milford. Haha."

Robbie wasn't sure which side this would be benefitting, but why not? Just how many more of them weren't nailed in properly? Nearly all of them, as he found within a matter of seconds.

He was about to leave when he heard Bessie talking to herself. "Oh, that sounds like the fence is all done. Ah."

Robbie ran back over and knocked the last one over. This was fun, but he'd better leave before Bessie figured out what was really going on.

Finally with the song being over, Sportacus decided he'd better stick to his alibi and bring the kids some fruit. He was just grateful he didn't reveal anything about Robbie or their secret alliance while singing.

Sportacus flipped over the wall and found all the discarded junk food wrappers, and puppet children with distended bellies. "What happened here?"

"Uh, we ate everything you brought," Stephanie answered, exasperated. "Don't you remember?"

Sportacus picked up a soda cup. "That I brought?" he asked skeptically.

"Yeah! You-you brought it!"

Sportacus didn't know how to answer that, unless he somehow brought that to them during the song and he didn't remember. Songs tended to mess with his mind and leave out specific details. "I-I-I brought you fruit."

"What?!"

"Uh-uh. I couldn't eat any more," Pixel said.

Robbie was watching from behind the nearest half-wall. Stating his plan out loud wasn't very wise, but in case Bessie ever decided to go back to her camera room, she needed to know that he was actively making an effort to get rid of Sportacus. That, and perhaps he could arouse Stephanie's suspicions if she heard him. "They're not listening to him, because they're listening to me!"

"I didn't give them any junk food," Sportacus said to himself. "What is going on?"

Ms. Busybody requesting a lemonade gave Milford the perfect opportunity to get to his house and away from her. He knew that his willpower was limited, but this was going too far. If he kept his up, he'd soon have more than just bandages on his fingers and head. Stephanie had been bringing home extra sports candy that Sportacus gave her. It had been so long since Milford ate fruit or vegetables willingly, but it that was what would help him get control back, then so be it.

"Hey, Uncle Milford," Stephanie joined him behind the countertop.

"Oh! Hello, Stephanie." He noted the discouraged look on her face. "You don't look very happy. Ooh."

"Can I speak with you?"

Milford began to pile bananas and pears into a bowl. "Oh, of course! I'm all ears. Heh heh. ... Well, really I have only two but you know what I mean."

"Well, you see, I wanted to play catch, but no one else did."

"Mm-hm," he was half-listening and half trying to get as much fruit into the bowl as possible.

"So, I didn't say anything. And then Sportacus came in and he talks them all into playing catch but then he left, and when he came back, he was acting all funny and his voice sounded weird and he looked strange but- he brought us all this junk food!"

"Hm!"

"But I still didn't say anything because I really really wanted the junk food, and now I don't know what to do."

She... wanted the junk food? Oh dear. The longer she stayed here, the less Stephanie seemed like herself. "Oh dear. And you didn't speak up?"

"No! I couldn't!"

He had to say something. Certainly she would have to complete the process someday but letting her stay unhealthy and unhappy just didn't feel right. "Oh, Stephanie. Sometimes you have to speak up! Even if... no one wants to hear it. If you don't, you won't be true to yourself."

"I won't? Thanks, Uncle Milford," Stephanie said, hugging him. "You always say the right thing."

"Oh, really?"

"Oh MILLLLLFOORRRRD!"

Caught completely off-guard, he knew the sports candy would have to wait. He could barely remember why he was putting it all in a bowl in the first place. "Ooh, ooh, oh my goodness. Oh, yes. Coming, Ms. Busybody!" Grabbing the drink he'd prepared just moments ago off the countertop, he started to run as quickly as he could.

"Maybe you should try speaking up, too," Stephanie said as he rushed out the door.

"I'm coming!" he called as the big red house showed up on the horizon.

Just as he arrived, Milford tripped, and the glass went flying out of his hand... leaving the ice-cold liquid to dump all over Ms. Busybody.

"I JUST- I JUST- MY DRINK! AH! AH! MILFORD!"

The mayor stuttered, frozen with fear as Ms. Busybody stormed up to him.

"MILFORD!"

Had it not been for Sportacus' presence, she might have tortured him for that, right there on the spot. Instead, she opted to go inside and change. Her facial mask was ready to come off anyway.

"Oh my god. Oh dear. Oh, Ms. Busybody. Oh dear."

Sportacus put a hand on the mayor's to snap him out of it. "Looks like my work is just beginning."

"What have I done? Oh, oh dear."

Sportacus was planning to help with the yard, and decided to look for a list or something that would give an indicator on what to do, but instead he ended up face-to-face with...himself?

"... I'm Sportacus."

"No, I am Sportacus."

They circled each other slowly.

"No, I'm Sportacus."

"Me too."

They mimicked each-others' movements as if standing in a mirror. Sportacus considered that he might've been hallucinating for a moment, until his twin decided to start dancing with him.

Ah, Robbie. That would explain where the kids got the bubblegum and junk food in the first place.

"What's going on over there? Two Sportacuses?!" The mayor and Stephanie looked back and forth between the two. "Which one's the real Sportacus?" he asked.

"I'm the real Sportacus!" They said simultaneously.

"Me!"

"Me!"

"It's me!"

"It's me!"

"It's me!"

"It's me! Hello, I'm Sportacus, see this moustache?" Sportarobbie stroked his mustache.

"I know! Sportacus does these great, incredible moves. Why don't you guys try?" Stephanie suggested.

"Something like this?" Sportacus asked before doing one of his signature split-jumps.

"Wow!"

"Ah..."

Stephanie pointed to Sportarobbie, "now you try!"

Sportarobbie stepped forward. "No problem. I can even do it..." he leaned slightly towards Stephanie and the mayor, "... faster. Haha!" He stood still for a moment. "Do you wanna see it again?"

"But, I didn't see anything!" Stephanie protested.

"That's because you blinked your eyes! You shouldn't be blinking your eyes, I'm too fast for that."

"There's only one way to figure this out:" the mayor said. "We'll have to keep them both. You can never have too many Sportacuseses."

"But, there's always a way! Let's have a race: Sportacus is the fastest runner there is."

"And may I suggest that the loser has to leave town-" Sportarobbie leaned close to Sportacus' face for a moment "-FOREVER?" He straightened his back, standing straight again. "Just a thought."

Sportacus had beat him in a race before, he could do it again. "Let's do it!"

All of them now stood on a track just outside of the Sports Field.

"All right, Sportacus and uh, Sportacus. Whoever rings the bell first, wins," the mayor said.

Not too far behind him, Stingy was still carrying the ladder he had taken earlier. "This is mine," he informed the mayor.

"Yes, uh, of course. Now, on the count of 'three' now..."

Fully dressed, Ms. Busybody noticed everyone standing by the sports field. "What's all the commotion?" she asked herself.

"One, two, two-and-a-half..."

It seemed there was going to be a race between Robbie and Sportacus. No doubt loser would have to leave town. Noting the wagon next to her, she decided if that was the case, then she had just the way for Robbie to win.

"THREE!"

Sportacus and Sportarobbie started running, but Sportacus was obviously much faster.

Ms. Busybody used her mind's eye to control Stingy into pushing the ladder into her so that the wagon moved. To be sure that Sportacus' attention was caught, she screamed as the wagon started to roll downhill.

Halfway through, the race, Sportacus' crystal went off. Saving Busybody was a trap of some sort, no doubt, but in case she was really in danger, he couldn't take that risk. "Stephanie, basketball!"

Stephanie threw the ball while he leapt up into the air. Sportacus then quickly threw it so it hit a board with one of Stephanie's throwing discs. Sportacus caught, and threw it at the wheels of the wagon, stopping it abruptly. To finish it off, he caught Ms. Busybody right before she hit the ground.

"Gotcha!"

Sportarobbie took the bell from the mayor and rang it. "I am a winner! The real Sportacus!" Out of breath, he collapsed to the ground.

"What happened?" Pixel asked.

"OH NO WE LOST SPORTACUS!" Ziggy cried.

"Oh dear."

The fact that Robbie won really sunk in. There was no last-minute saving Sportacus from leaving town, and he would soon be alone again. Of course, with Bessie nearby, he couldn't let her know what he was thinking. "I'm number one! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'm Sportacus! Ha! I won! I'm Sportacus-" he hugged the mayor in attempt to hide the horrified expression on his face. "-I knew it!"

Stephanie and Sportacus ran back to the crowd.

"Quiet, everyone! I declare this to be the real Sportacus, and you, being the big phony, are banished from LazyTown, forever."

"You, but, I'm me! I-you want me to leave?"

"Well, uh, yes, uh, you're not the real Sportacus."

"Okay. If you want me to leave..." Sportacus began to walk away. So... that was it? He'd just... leave? Was it really all over so soon?

"Wait! This isn't right, I have to speak up."

Sportacus smiled. Maybe not.

"That-" Stephanie pointed at Sportarobbie while he pretended to be appalled, "-can't be the real Sportacus."

"He did win the race," Trixie said.

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah, fair and square," Ziggy added.

"Yeah."

"That's just it: he didn't stop and save Bessie. Only the real Sportacus would give up a race to help someone in trouble. I mean, he has to! Or he wouldn't be Sportacus."

Sportarobbie squatted down to Stephanie's level. "Now, listen to me, little girl: I won. End of story. Have to go. Adios! Ciao!"

Now that Stephanie had a closer look, the last piece of the puzzle finally clicked. "No, it's time for you-" she pushed a fingertip in his shoulder threateningly, "-to go..." she ripped the fake mustache right off the villain's face, "... Robbie Rotten!"

"Robbie Rotten!"

With nothing left to say or do, Robbie ran away.

Sportacus hugged Stephanie. She had no idea that she just saved his life.

"I knew you were the real one," she said.

"Me too. I'm glad you spoke up."

"I just had to follow my heart."

"That's always a good thing."

Of course Ms. Busybody wasn't happy about Sportacus staying in the town, but that didn't matter much. Now that her powers were almost completely restored, she could take control once again... and keep minions like Milford from slipping through her fingers.

Chapter Text

What awoke Robbie that morning wasn't one of his usual nightmares, but instead an alarm clock in his lair. Half-asleep, he grabbed some popcorn he had had on his lap from the night before and stuffed some in his ears. Curse the blasted thing! The only reason the laziest guy in LazyTown had an alarm clock was because Bessie put one there. And he wasn't allowed to remove it.

When he couldn't block out the noise, he figured he may as well start his day the way he started most days: by making another slice of antidote cake.

He sniffed the blue slice, freshly baked. "MM-MM! Creamy!"

"Ziggy!" Pixel called from outside Ziggy's window. "Wake up, it's your birthday!"

Ziggy sat up, fully awake. "Yeah!"

"Later!"

Robbie went to go eat his breakfast by the periscope. Walking by was Ziggy, chewing on taffy.

"Oh, what a cute little boy, heh heh. Eating candy."

Ziggy's voice came from the other side of the periscope. "Ah. I love the taste of taffy in the morning. It tastes like... taffy! Oh, gotta get that invitation to Sportacus! To my birthday!"

Robbie spit out the piece of cake in his mouth. "WHAT?!" Throwing the cake aside, he looked through the periscope again. "A birthday party?!" That could only mean that today Bessie would give out one of her anti-aging speeches that binds the birthday kid in question to their childlike body.

Robbie turned his attention to the rest of the kids standing behind a half-wall.

"What are you gonna get him for his birthday?" Stephanie asked Trixie.

"It's a surprise!" she giggled.

"What is this?" Robbie asked no one in particular.

"What about your gift, Stingy?" Trixie inquired him.

"Huh? Who me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah."

"Oh, well, um, well I already have it, but I'm saving it."

"Saving it?"

"It's a birthday gift, Stingy," Stephanie said. "You can't keep it."

"Well, he always wants the same thing every year!"

"Mm-hm."

"Taffy," the kids said in unison.

Ziggy rushed over. "DID SOMEONE SAY 'TAFFY'?!"

The kids ducked behind the wall.

"Where?! Where?! I could've sworn I heard someone say 'taffy'!" Ziggy stuck the taffy back in his mouth, but couldn't get it back out. Thankfully, he still had one free hand to drop the tube he was carrying into the chute.

Robbie gasped, pretending to be offended. "Why wasn't I invited? Well, we can't have that, can we?" Of course, no sane adult would get so angry about not being invited to a child's birthday party, but Robbie Rotten was no sane adult. At least, not in the eyes of the townsfolk. All the more reason to give him an excuse to carry out his evil plan for the day. And if he happened to stop Bessie from saying one of her infamous speeches today, well then that was certainly fine by him. "IT'S DISGUISE TIME!"

Robbie teleported in front of his disguises. "Whoo! That was fast." He flinched when he thought he saw someone standing next to him, only before realizing it was a mannequin with a copy of his usual outfit. "Too bunny," he said as he passed a giant rabbit outfit. The second one was a Marie Antionette-esque outfit. "Too funny," He laughed, moving onto a doctor's outfit. "Money..." At the end of the row was a fairy outfit. "Oh! This is perfect! Now, all I need is a wonderfully good gait*. And when I say 'good', I mean... 'bad'!"

Sportacus had happened to step on the panel that shot the silver tube into the room. "I've got mail!" He opened the tube to find a card with Ziggy's face on it. "Hm, what is that? Hm..."

As soon as Sportacus opened the card, it sang in Ziggy's voice: "come to my party, come to my party, come to my party, now. Bring lots of presents, bring lots of presents, bring lots of presents, now!"

Sportacus closed the card, feeling a mix of amusement and embarrassment on Ziggy's behalf.

It sang when he opened it again: "everybody's welcome, everybody-"

"Ha, this is sweet." Sportacus tapped the closed card in his hand. "But what does Ziggy really need for his birthday?" Growing up, Niu had said that it was tradition to give children what they needed, in contrast to Earth children, who instead got what they wanted. Ziggy would probably get enough of what he wanted... but Sportacus wanted to get him something he needed. "Aha! A soccer ball!"

Sportacus stepped on a panel and a soccer ball came flying out. The hero promptly caught it and did a backflip-kick to kick it back to the hole it came from. "Soccer ball? No... something else." Sportacus got up and did a flip to open the sports equipment closet. "Something he can't do without." He grabbed a baseball mitt. "Baseball!" He stepped on another panel, and a baseball shot out behind him. "No..." he said to himself after catching it. "Maybe something else."

Sportacus started pacing back and forth. What would Ziggy need? Looking up at the nearby sink, he started to think about how much candy and sweets Ziggy tended to eat... which gave him the perfect idea for a gift.

Most of the town's citizens stood in the town square, wearing party hats.

"Time to set up the stage!" the mayor said to himself. He struggled to pull down the lever but got it on the third try.

The kids gasped in awe as the stage was set up. Ziggy, wearing a crown, was sitting on a chair in the middle of it.

"Ta-da!" the mayor said into the microphone. "I now declare this 'Happy Birthday, Ziggy' day!"

Everyone cheered.

"MILFORD! Oh, Mayor! Mayor! Don't start without me!" Ms. Busybody joined the scene with a rolled-up piece of paper in her hand.

"Oh no!"

"Not again!"

"Circuits overloading!"

"Stephanie, this is what we warned you about!" Stingy cried. "You have to help us, please! Talk to your uncle!"

"Yeah!"

"Please?"

"Okay. Uncle?" Stephanie climbed up onto the stage.

"Hm?"

"You can't let Bessie say her speech."

"But that's what we do for everyone's birthday."

"Well, we know, that's the point. It goes on..."

"And on..." Stingy chimed in.

The other kids followed: "and on..."

"And on..."

"And on..."

"Thinking about it, I guess it does get to be a little bit too much," the mayor said.

"A little bit?!" Stephanie protested. "It's awf-"

"Milford!"

"-fully nice day, isn't it, Ms. Busybody?"

"Oh, yes. Now, is it time for my speech yet? I wouldn't want to miss my chance to bring a little ray of sunshine to the birthday child."

"Oh boy," Ziggy grumbled.

"And I've added a few little things for the occasion!" She unrolled the long list, which fell off the stage.

The kids gasped.

"A few little things, won't take long. Now, where's the beginning here?"

"No!"

Perhaps Stephanie was right to interrupt the speech, but Milford couldn't make Ms. Busybody angry. The best thing he could think of was stalling. "Uh, uh, first, the uh, uh, presents!"

"Did someone say 'presents'?!" Ziggy asked.

"Mm-hm. Yes, uh, who's going to start?"

"Me! Me! Please! Me!" Stingy started to push ahead of the group.

"He always goes first!" Trixie complained.

Stingy grabbed his present and ran towards the stage. "Me, me."

"For me?"

"My gift."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Ziggy struggled to take the present from Stingy, who wouldn't release it from his vice-like grip.

"Stingy, let go!" Stephanie exclaimed.

Finally, Ziggy was able to rip the box from Stingy's hands, making him fall backwards.

"Happy birthday," Stingy said weakly.

"What's this?" Ziggy gasped as he opened the box. "A piece of taffy! Ha, it's my favorite!"

"Just one?" Stephanie asked.

"Stingy, how did you know?" Ziggy asked.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Trixie repeated.

"... Lucky guess. Can I have the box back please?" Stingy took the now-empty box from Ziggy.

"Oh, well, uh-"

"And the lid."

It was Trixie's turn: "make way! Coming through! Look out! Here's a really big one, Ziggy! Haha, yeah!"

"Wow!"

"Open it! Come on, open it!" Stephanie urged.

"What's inside?" Ziggy asked.

Trixie answered his question with a question: "well, why don't you open it?"

"Open it."

As soon as Ziggy did, he screamed as a jack-in-the-box startled him. Everyone else laughed.

Ms. Busybody's patience was wearing thin. How was she supposed to do this age-stilling spell if no one would listen to the speech?

"Heh heh, wow. That was funny," Ziggy said when the jitters left his body.

"That was cool, Trixie," Pixel said. “Woah, look out, incoming present. Ziggy, have I got something for you."

"Yep."

"Here you go." Pixel handed him a blue envelope with white markings on it.

"An envelope! Oh, I've always wanted one of those!"

"Huh?"

"Thank you."

"Um..."

"Next!"

"Ziggy, you have to open it!" Pixel exclaimed.

"Yeah. Open it!"

"Yeah, I knew that. Hehe. Wow. What's inside?" Ziggy pulled out a piece of paper that was inside and read it out loud. "'WWW dot... taffy dot com'. Hm."

"Oh, yes. Very good, very good," the mayor said.

"You can download jpegs of broadband data rates of any taffy ever made!"

"Really? Thank you, uh... can I eat them?!"

"No! You just look at them."

"Oh, um, okay. What's next?"

Ms. Busybody pushed past the mayor. "And now - excuse me, excuse me- and now for my speech!"

The kids gasped.

"Testing, testing. Oh! Did I mention I've added five more minutes to the speech, just for dear little Wiggy."

Ziggy was confused. "'Wiggy' what's uh-?"

The mayor approached him with his present. "Right before I give him a little something."

"What?" Ziggy asked.

"Taffy-flavored... uh, taffy!" the mayor said as he handed the box over to Ziggy.

"Oh! The best kind! Thank you! Oh, oh, oh, Stephanie! Did you bring taffy too?! Huh?!"

"Well, sort of," Stephanie answered.

"Huh?"

Stephanie grabbed her pom-poms and started dancing. "Taffy, taffy, two-by-four, come and get some more more MORE! Whoo! Taffy! Whoo!"

Everyone cheered.

Stephanie returned to the group. "I call it, 'The Taffy Cheer'!"

"Stephanie, that was so beautiful, I could almost taste the winning taffy."

"Thank you, Ziggy."

All right, all the presents had been given... "and now, for my speech!"

Before she could say a word of her 'speech' Sportacus somersaulted over a half-wall.

"Sportacus!"

Busybody was the last to say his name. "Sportacus." Her tone and glare let Sportacus know she didn't approve of him being here. Not that he cared.

"Didn't think I would forget your birthday, did you?" Sportacus held up his own present, a long, thin, dark yellow box.

"What'd you got? What'd you got? What'd you got?"

"A very special gift," Sportacus answered. "One, that will last a lifetime."

"Is it, uh, two-hundred-year supply of Sugar Smackles?" Ziggy asked.

"No."

"Is it, an 85-pound uh, Cocoa Crunchies?"

"No."

"Is it a, truckload of Ice Cream Dubbits?"

Sportacus figured he'd better bring the present over or Ziggy would be guessing all day. Sportacus did a flip-jump while he opened the box, revealing a red toothbrush. "Here you go!"

"Wow."

"Ooh..."

"What is it?" Ziggy asked.

Pixel wasn't used to seeing a manual toothbrush. "Where do you plug it in?"

Sportacus smiled a fake smile in attempt to keep from losing his temper. "You don't plug it in, it's a toothbrush!"

"Yeah."

"Haven't you ever heard of a toothbrush, Ziggy?" Stephanie asked.

"Heh heh, yes yes yes yes... uh, no."

"Waitwaitwait, let me check my database!" Pixel pressed some buttons on his wrist, and an image of a toothbrush appeared. "'A toothbrush is a self-powered, highly portable, bristle-enhanced hygiene module with long-lasting effects'!" He read to the group.

Stephanie furthered the explanation: "you use it to clean your teeth of all things decay."

"But I keep some of my favorite things in my teeth," Ziggy protested.

"Oh, that's disgusting!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"Ew, now I have to wash my brain out with soap!" Trixie complained.

Sportacus had a feeling he'd say something like that. "Look, it's just like mine!" He held up his own toothbrush, a grayish-purple color.

"Well, how do you use it?"

"Haven't you heard the 'Twenty Times Song', Ziggy?" Stephanie asked.

Very well. If these children wouldn't settle down for the speech... perhaps a song and dance would tire them out. Ms. Busybody pulled back her sweater sleeve pressing a button on her secret watch, which led a song to play.

Chapter Text

"I really wanna try it," Ziggy said when the song ended.

Sportacus somersaulted over to him. "Why don't you give it a spin?" he asked, handing him the toothbrush.

"Twenty times time!" Stingy exclaimed.

Ziggy marveled at the brush in his hand. "Wow..."

Soon the sound of loud humming and an approaching bulldozer interrupted the moment.

"Huh?"

When the bulldozer stopped, a figure in a white and purple dress (with a matching jester hat) jumped down. "Hahaha! AHA! You didn't think I'd forget your birthday, did you?"

Ziggy had no idea who this strange person was. "Uh..."

Trixie laughed. "Who are you? You're girlier than she is-" she said, pointing to Stephanie who was clearly offended, "-and that's saying a lot!"

Ziggy giggled.

"Well, I'm the birthday fairy!" the figure said, waving her wand around. "I travel around the world and give presents to all the kids on their birthday."

"Birthday fairy?" Stingy asked.

Robbie could assume that Stingy was ranting something along the lines of how the Birthday Fairy never came to his party once and how he owed him, but he plugged his ears almost as soon as he started talking. He was in no mood to deal with his shrill, navally voice and entitled attitude.

Ziggy's voice got past his ears: "where's my present?! Where's my present?! Huh?!"

"Aha!" The Birthday Fairy waved her wand, then pulled down a tarp covering a machine that the bulldozer had previously been towing behind it.

"Wow!" the kids said in unison.

"For me? Huh?" Ziggy asked.

"Yep!" The Birthday Fairy confirmed.

"W-w-what is it?"

The Birthday Fairy approached Ziggy's chair. "It's the-"

Pixel interrupted her: "electro-ultra-voice-activated-candy-matic! Only the latest, greatest thing in automated candy-making!"

"Well, there's something you don't see every day," Trixie commented.

"I do hope they hurry," Ms. Busybody said to the mayor. "This is taking up valuable speech time!"

Sportacus tried not to give a worried glance at her. He didn't know what the speeches were for, but his guess was they couldn't have been good. Was Robbie here to stall? Didn't matter, it seemed to be working.

"You, and only you, can ask what you want, and it makes it!" the Birthday Fairy said to Ziggy.

"Only me?"

The Birthday Fairy ran up to the machine and gave one of its knobs a slight twist to turn it on.

"Wow! I turn it on, and I make it stop," Ziggy noted with awe. Suddenly brushing his teeth seemed a lot less interesting. "Nah," he said, dropping it." "Taffy!" he called out to the machine.

The machine turned towards him and its cannon fired a piece of taffy, but Sportacus was quick to catch it. "Do you think that's a good idea?" the hero asked. Did they really just go through that whole musical number for nothing?

"It's a great idea!" The Birthday Fairy interjected.

"Yeah!" Ziggy agreed.

"Let the kid live a little!" the fairy continued. "Now come on, go go go go!" she said, shooing Sportacus. Sportacus didn't budge from his spot, but he did at least give Ziggy some space.

This time the taffy successfully fired a yellow piece into Ziggy's mouth, which the blonde-haired boy happily chewed down on.

"It's really taffy..." he said almost with disbelief.

"Want more?" the Birthday Fairy encouraged.

"Taffy!"

The machine fired another piece. As soon as he caught it, Ziggy attempted to run off with the piece in his hand but slipped on the toothbrush he just dropped.

"Taffy!" he called out as he fell. Ziggy managed to catch it in his mouth just before he hit the ground. Getting up again just as quickly, "I say it, and I get it," he remarked with a mouth full of taffy.

"It can make anything!" Stingy exclaimed with envy. "Oh!"

Ziggy ran to catch the next piece. "TAAAAAAAFFFYYYYY!"

"Taffy?" Stingy growled at not getting any. "I want it. I want it!" He began hyperventilating. "IT'S MINE!" Stingy ran to climb the machine, face right in front of the cannon.

Bessie supposed she should try to intervene; she needed them alive, after all. "Stingy, please get off the machine!"

"TAAAFFFYYYY!" Stingy screamed, his voice echoing into the cannon.

Ziggy shook his head, knowing his cries would go unheard, for he and he alone controlled the machine. "Taffy, taffy, taffy!"

Three pieces fired straight into Stingy's face. Taken aback by the sudden force, he let go of the machine, falling to the ground. "Taffy..." he sighed woozily.

Trixie and the birthday fairy laughed at his misfortune. Stingy growled at the Birthday Fairy who only waved in turn to him. All of this was enough to make Stingy scoff and walk away.

"Stingy... TAFFY!" A piece fired way into the distance making Ziggy chuckle. "STOP!" he called.

At his command, the machine powered down.

Ziggy gasped. "It works!"

The other kids spoke in awe of Ziggy's new gift.

"Taffy, taffy, taffy!" Ziggy exclaimed as he ran up to the machine, mouth open wide.

The machine powered back on, and the Birthday Fairy cackled evilly as they turned the machine on to full power. "Full power!"

Ziggy repeatedly called out for taffy, leaving everyone else to dodge the candy as it flew in various directions through the air.

Sportacus (who wasn't amused by any of this) had a feeling this was going to get very out of hand, very quickly.

"Don't worry, presents," Stingy, who had gotten the taffy off of his face said to the empty boxes. "I'll stay right here with all of you."

It was only a few seconds later that the machine started firing multiple pieces at a time... without Ziggy's command! He would have stopped it, but his mouth was full of taffy!

"We gotta shut this thing down, now!" Pixel exclaimed.

Stephanie tried in vain to shield herself from the sticky projectiles. "Can you turn it down?" she asked Ziggy, a clear distress in her voice. She screamed and ducked behind the cake as the taffy continued to hit her.

"STOP!" Ziggy cried, mouth full.

But the machine didn't listen. It was almost as if taffy was raining from the sky.

"Ziggy, cut it out!" Trixie called from off the stage.

Stephanie tried to pull the taffy from Ziggy's mouth, but it was stuck! "Come on, spit it out!"

Stingy started to duck behind the presents. "This is one crazy birthday party!"

Stephanie thought maybe Sportacus would know what to do! "Sportacus!"

"Stephanie, keep helping Ziggy," he instructed. "I have just what we need in the airship. Ladder!"

"I gotta get to the machine," Pixel said to no one in particular. With all the chaos going on, no one would have listened to him, anyway. He was able to reach the machine, where he found Trixie hitting it repeatedly with a box.

"Pixel, make it stop!" she pleaded.

Pixel tried to turn the wheel, but that too was stuck.

"Oh my!" the mayor muttered.

Robbie's plan to sow chaos was working well. Perhaps a little too well. Regardless, it at least seemed to keep Bessie from giving her speech. "A gift that keeps giving and giving and giving!" the Birthday Fairy exclaimed.

Trixie continued her efforts to hit it with a box. "You have to turn it off!" she yelled to Pixel.

"I can't! Only Ziggy can turn it off!"

Stephanie came out from hiding to go to the mayor. "Uncle! Uncle you have to do something, or else LazyTown will have to change its name to 'TaffyTown'!"

"Why don't we just eat it?" the Birthday Fairy suggested.

The mayor was clearly taken aback "Excuse me?!"

"The candy!" the Birthday Fairy repeated. "Why don't we just eat the candy?!"

Milford supposed that only made sense. Everyone was waist-deep in taffy. How else were they supposed to get rid of it? "Everyone, this is an emergency!" he announced into the microphone. "EAT FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Trixie was the first to take action: "bon appetite!"

Stingy tried, but there was just too much of it: "I can't eat fast enough!"

The Birthday Fairy had joined in at first but soon found herself slipping and falling from the sheer amount of taffy. Stephanie stopped for a moment to try and help her up, but she only slipped and fell again.

How was Ms. Busybody handling the situation? By using the mayor like a shield, of course. "Milford!"

No matter how much everyone ate, the taffy just kept piling higher and higher.

Stephanie's voice just barely rose above all the noise: "turn it off, Ziggy! Turn it off!"

If it were the last thing Robbie imagined when he woke up this morning, it was meeting his demise through drowning in taffy. "I've had enough taffy!" He yelled as he made his way to his vehicle. Through all of his deceptions and plans for the day, he did speak one truth: "if I'd known the party would turn out like this, I never would have come!" He stood at the door of his bulldozer, but he couldn't make it start.

Sportacus, now up in his ship, flipped to open the sports closet. "I have to hurry."

Arming himself with two tennis rackets, he aimed to leave the ship faster than he entered it.

Meanwhile, back below, it was up to the puppet children's chins. Stephanie clung to a pole on the stage, and Ms. Busybody found herself dangling from the banner.

As everyone called out for help, Robbie realized he may have put himself (and everyone else) in a situation they couldn't get out of. "Uh-oh!"

Ziggy tried to pull the taffy from his mouth, but he couldn't even get it to break off.

Sportacus came down and landed with his feet on the taffy.

Robbie could hear that above him, but couldn't see anything: "what is that?"

As the town hero batted the taffy away, Bessie said something she had never said before, and never, ever thought she'd say it aloud: "go, Sportacus!"

Sportacus was doing what he could, but Stephanie knew that wouldn't work forever. "Your toothbrush! Where is it? If Ziggy has a toothbrush, he could clean his teeth of the taffy and tell the machine to stop."

Trixie's head barely sat above all the candy: "yeah! Brush your teeth, Ziggy!"

"It's never going to work!" Ms. Busybody exclaimed.

Sportacus could just barely hear her from where he stood. Really, Bessie? he thought. You're on the verge of death and you're still trying to wedge your foot between the children and healthy habits?

"Where'd you leave it, Ziggy?" Stephanie started digging through the multicolored sea. "It must be here somewhere!"

"It's at the bottom of that?!" Stingy started to panic. "AAAAH! I'M DOOOOMED!"

Sportacus wasn't exactly sure how long he could keep hitting the taffy (or if that was even doing anything) but he kept going until he flung a red piece into one of the holes of the cannon.

And, just when nobody thought it would, it stopped.

"Ah! It's stopped!"

"Huh?"

That was easier than he thought. Sportacus returned the rackets to their place on his back... when smoke started coming from the machine.

"It's gonna blow!" Pixel cried.

Again, candy started spewing out. Well, there really was only one way to solve this. For once, Sportacus' goggles served to protect his eyes as he dove to retrieve the toothbrush.

For a moment, the only sound was the machine sprouting more candy. Everyone held their breath when he didn't surface.

"Where is he?" Trixie asked. "Where's Sportacus?"

"What if he's not coming back?" The mayor asked.

"He's gotta come back," Stephanie said. "He's Sportacus, right?"

The machine started to shake, making everyone nervous.

"Oh, no!" Stephanie seconded Pixel's words from before: "IT'S GONNA BLOW!"

Everyone screamed just as Sportacus resurfaced with the toothbrush. "Got it!" It may have been against his better judgment, but Stingy was at the midpoint between him and Ziggy. All he would have to do is throw the toothbrush Ziggy's way and they'd be out of this mess.

And thankfully, that's what happened. "Catch, Ziggy!"

Ziggy's mouth was still full: "the toothbrush! The toothbrush!"

The other kids' heads were starting to disappear under the taffy.

"Brush for your life!"

"Twenty times up!"

"Ziggy, twenty left!"

"Ah! I can't see!"

Just as everyone was beginning to drown in taffy, Ziggy finally had his mouth clear. "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

On command, the machine powered down. Everyone with their head above the surface cheered and started to catch their breath.

"Wow. Wow! This is the best gift, ever!" Ziggy said, promptly beginning to kiss the toothbrush

Robbie repeatedly hit his body against a door that wouldn't budge. All right. He messed up. Royally. No one can argue that. He almost destroyed the last of the town. But... Sportacus would still help him if he called for it, right? He would have to, it's his job! "SPORTACUS! HELP!" Luckily, the purple-gloved hands of one of his lanky arms was able to stick above the surface.

Ignoring for a second that Robbie nearly got everyone killed, Sportacus didn't think twice about flipping over to the person needing his help. He was able to pull him through an open space in the bars above his vehicle, but in doing so he accidentally ripped the Birthday Fairy's hat off.

Stephanie was the first to see it. "That's not the birthday fairy!"

"IT'S ROBBIE ROTTEN!" the rest of the town exclaimed in unison.

"Robbie..." still feeling obligated to help him all of the way up, Sportacus finished getting him to the surface.

That was enough nonsense for one day. This could not wait a moment longer! "And now for my speech!" Bessie started into the microphone.

She began to speak, but barely anyone could hear her over the usual "Bing Bang", and most of the town's efforts to clean up the taffy.

Robbie was still a little shaken up from before. "But, I was a great birthday fairy!" He turned to walk away, sobbing, just before falling back where he was stuck before.

"Happy birthday, to you!" Bessie finished. "Yes, I think that went very well."

"Happy birthday, Ziggy," Stephanie said as she gathered some of the taffy into a large bag. "Sorry Robbie Rotten had to ruin it."

"Are you kidding?" Ziggy asked her. "I've got enough taffy for a lifetime! This is the best birthday ever!"

Sportacus looked up from the taffy he was sweeping to glare at him in disbelief. "You're not eating all this taffy, are you?"

"Oh, nonono, of course not! I'll have some on Monday, some on Tuesday, some on Wednesday... and I've got plenty to share with my friends!"

Sportacus simply sighed, shook his head, and went back to sweeping.

"By the way, I never asked you: how old are you today, Ziggy?" Stephanie inquired.

"That's easy! I'm-um, I'm..." Ziggy's smile faded from his face. "I'm..." his expression faded, and he just began to look at his feet.

"... Ziggy?" Stephanie waved her hand in front of his face.

"I..." he looked back up at her. "... I don't remember."

"You... don't remember?"

"... No."

"But, everyone remembers how old they are," Stephanie said. She looked a little to her left to see Trixie a few meters away. "Trixie, how old are you?"

"How old am I?" she took a moment to think about it and just shrugged. "I dunno."

Stephanie couldn't believe this: "you don't remember either?"

"Well do you remember how old you are, Pinky?" Trixie snapped.

"... I'm eight," Stephanie responded, arms folded.

"... Oh."

"Does no one remember how old they are?" Stephanie asked into the air.

It was something she shouldn't have said so loud. Ms. Busybody certainly noticed. Perhaps she would have to keep a closer eye on this one... she was smarter than she seemed.

Chapter Text

Sportacus smiled as the lights woke him up that morning. It had been three days since anyone was in immediate danger, possibly a new record.

"Time to get up!" he said to himself. Sitting up and stretching before getting out of bed, his foot hit a panel on the floor which provided him with a toothbrush.

When he was done brushing his teeth, he decided to go on sky patrol. He may as well, if no one needed him on the ground right now.

In her bedroom, Stephanie was dressed in a scout's uniform, getting a bag ready for scouting.

Milford entered her room. "Oh, Stephanie! Are you sure you have everything you need?"

Stephanie smiled at him. "Yes, Uncle."

"Are you sure? Maybe you'll need a curling iron!"

Stephanie giggles and shook her head. "No."

"No no no, of course not." The mayor left the room only to come back a moment later with a small bucket. "Maybe you'll need a can of paint!"

"No, thanks."

"No no, no no." He left one more time to come back with a small metal object. "Oh, perhaps toenail clippers! You never know if you'll need toenail clippers! Ha ha."

Stephanie had come to terms some time ago with the fact that her uncle was a strange man, but like his name, he only meant well. She continued to smile and shake her head. "No thanks, Uncle. You've never been camping before."

"Oh, no," he agreed.

"Trust me, I've got everything that I need, right here," she said as she sat her bag up. She puts it on and headed towards the door of her room. "Bye!"

"Oh, yes yes yes, of course you're right. Let me know if I can do anything for you, Stephanie. Oh, and, have fun!"

Robbie was asleep in his lair, reclined in the fluffy chair, a bowl of popcorn on his lap.

Robbie looked in the mirror at his reflection. His muscles! They were back! And was that a mustache on his face? He looked great, felt even better!

"I feel I may be strong enough to finally defeat Bessie!"

Suddenly he found himself at her house.

The blue-haired puppet witch kneeled in the doorway, shielding her eyes.  "Your muscles! Oh, Robbie, you've grown too strong! I will no longer be able to turn people into puppets!"

"Damn right!" Robbie gave a heroic laugh and flexed his muscle. "I'm the hero again, and don't you forget it!"

Suddenly, something loud woke him up, bringing him back to his lair (and sadly, reality).

He let out a growl at being stirred from the best dream he'd had in ages. "Who made that ghastly noise?!" He tried to put his chair back the way it was, but got his hand pinched where the reclining part gets tucked back in.

Stomping across the lair and making a show of getting popcorn all over the floor, he threw the now-empty bowl before approaching his periscope. Looking outside, he finds the source of the noise: Stephanie blowing on a horn.

He could hear her on the other side, "all Sportascouts, fall in! Hup!" She began to march off to what Robbie could only assume was where the kids usually hung around.

Kids really were the most inconsiderate beings on the planet. As the 'villain' of the town, he figured there should only be consequences for waking him for a rarely-found good sleep. "She is not going to ruin another day! Not as long as my name is Robbie Rotten."

Though, he found himself in a moment of doubt. What should his villainous persona do today? What would he do right now? Nothing that would harm the children, of course, but something still in-character and in line with Bessie's best interests. She said 'sportascouts' did she not? That meant she planned to go scouting. ... He was pretty sure he had a scout's master disguise somewhere, and making badges shouldn't take too long.

In the town square, Ziggy, Stingy and Trixie are all sitting around, also waiting in their scout uniforms. Stingy in particular was sitting in his car.

"What's that?" Ziggy asked him.

"It's designer," Stingy replied.

Stephanie arrived. "Hi, guys!"

The others greeted her.

"Who's ready to go scouting?!" she asked enthusiastically.

"Me!"

"We are!"

"I am!" Trixie exclaimed. "Everybody, follow me."

Stephanie noticed there was something different about Trixie's hat. "Uh, Trixie?"

"Yeah?"

"Your hat."

Trixie paused. "... What about my hat?"

"Well... it's on sideways."

"Ha! That's the way we wear our hats in LazyTown. Right guys?"

Ziggy and Stingy were unsure of what to say at first - their hats were on straight.

"We do?" Ziggy asked.

Stingy took a moment to think. "... No, I don't think so," he said after a short pause.

Stephanie noticed Ziggy licking a lollipop he had in his hand. "Ziggy?" she asked, amused. "Ziggy, what are you doing?"

"It's an important experiment!" he responded. "I'm finding out how many licks it takes to finish this lollipop."

"That's not scouting, Ziggy," Stephanie said. "We're learning to survive outdoors."

"Me too! Once I know how many licks it takes to finish a lollipop, I'll know how many to bring on our next camping trip."

Somehow, Ziggy had gotten his lollipop stuck to Stingy's car.

"Hey!" Stingy complained.

Stephanie didn't notice. "Come on, guys! Let's get going."

"Just a minute!" Stingy called back.

Ziggy managed to pull the lollipop free.

"I just waxed that, Ziggy!"

"Oh, sorry."

"Come on, we have to clean that up." Stingy looked at Ziggy and back at the car. "Come on, clean it up."

But Ziggy didn't have anything to clean it with on him. Instead, he had just gotten the lollipop stuck again. "It's stuck again," he said as he pulled it loose.

"Not another spot!"

Stephanie tried again, "come on guys, let's go-"

"This way!" she and Trixie spoke at the same time, pointing in opposite directions.

The boys only looked at them, confused.

"That way!" the girls exclaimed again, this time pointing in the opposite direction from which they originally pointed.

"This? Or that?" Ziggy asked. "Um... I'm confused. Maybe we need a leader?"

Scotty arrived on the scene, dressed as a camping leader in a fake mustache (hey, it worked last time), carrying a lawn chair and a large orange blanket. He got their attention by blowing a whistle.

"Who are you?" Stephanie asked.

"Hey! I'm Scotty, the Scout Master! Can't you tell by my very real-looking scout uniform?"

"We're going to hike! And camp out!" Ziggy said excitedly.

"Yep," Stingy seconded.

"Camping?" Scotty laughed. "Oh. That's not scouting!" He began to set up the lawn chair. "You mean like sleeping on dirt?" he laughed again. "Ah, that's what dogs and chickens do!" he said, sitting down in the newly set up chair.

Stephanie was skeptical. "Well, what kind of scouting things do you do?"

Robbie had a vague plan thought out - just teach the kids everything opposite of what scouts were expected to do... but what that actually was? He has to think about it. "Well... I teach you how to um... make excuses. And how to... sleep late."

That had caught Trixie's attention: "oh! That sounds interesting!"

Ziggy's too: "mm, yeah. I would like to learn that."

"That's not scouting." Stephanie said.

"What?" Ziggy asked.

"What about doing nice stuff, like helping people cross the street?" Stephanie asked. "Scouts always do stuff like that."

Scotty pretended to be confused. "Helping? Oh! You mean that kind of stuff!" He laughed. "I've done that a hundred times."

Across the street, Scotty noticed Bessie was watching, most likely to ensure that he was doing his job today. Immediately becoming more tense (and letting it sink in that his fake mustache would not, in fact, protect him like in his dream), he felt the need to do something, anything. Getting up from his chair, he rushed to help her cross the street.

She gave him a quick glare, as if to ask him what he was doing, but before she could say anything, he helped her across the street. Repeatedly, back and forth.

"Voila!" Scotty said, returning to the group. "And now I've done it a hundred and five times!"

"Wow, yeah, he's quick," Ziggy commented.

"Very fast," Stingy agreed.

No one noticed Bessie being very dizzy from how quickly Scotty "helped" her and fell over.

"And I have lots of other great scouting things to do! Like... collecting... badges!" He turned over the orange blanket on his arm to reveal shiny silver badges.

Trixie was impressed. "Wow!"

"Check it out!" Scotty encouraged.

The puppet kids approached the badges, Stingy doing so in his car.

"And..." Scotty continued, "I teach you how to salute!"

"Oh, really?" Ziggy asked.

"Like this?" Stephanie gave a proper salute in demonstration.

Luckily, Scotty had thought of how a Lazy Scout would salute before he arrived. "No, like this," he pretended to yawn before saluting.

Stephanie continued her doubts. "I don't think this is what scouting's all about."

"This is what Lazy Scouts is all about!" Scotty said.

The puppet kids seemed to like it. "Yeah!" They began to chant: "Lazy Scouts! Lazy Scouts! Lazy Scouts!"

A song began to play, in which Scotty sung about things like being slovenly and keeping your eyes on the ground. All of the kids except for Stephanie got into it and sang and danced along with him.

When the song was over, everyone but Stephanie, was laughing.

"But what about food?" Stephanie protested. "And... what if it rains? Where are you gonna sleep?"

Scotty held up one of the badges. "Who wants a badge for ignoring the girl with the pink hair and the bad attitude?" he asked the others.

"Me! Me!" the kids clamored.

"All Lazy Scouts, let's have a Lazy Scouts salute!" Scotty ordered

Everyone except Stephanie did the Lazy Scouts salute.

"Good job!" Scotty praised. "Well done."

Stephanie was really starting to get irritated. "THIS IS SILLY! You're not even going hiking!"

"Hiking?!" Scotty thought fast. "Of course we're going hiking!" He laughed, getting up from his spot. "All Lazy Scouts, forward, march!"

Everyone began to walk, following behind Scotty.

"Stop!" the scout master said after a few seconds. "Perfect! Okay, Lazy Scouts, let's hit the ground and go to sleep."

Ziggy was confused again. "But, but, this is just a few feet away from where we were!"

"And your point is?" Scotty asked.

Ziggy gave a nervous laugh. "Nothing, it's a nice spot."

Scotty laid on the ground, pulling the orange blanket over him, using a rock as a pillow.

"This isn't what scouting's about," Stephanie stated again.

Scotty sat up, annoyed. "Now what? Oh, you got your 'salute',"

The puppet kids backed him up: "right!"

"You got your hike..." Scotty continued.

"Right!" the kids sounded again.

"You can always go home," Scotty suggested.

Trixie seconded that. "Yeah, you can always go home."

Stephanie had had enough. "Fine! I will! Ziggy?"

Normally Ziggy would be the one Stephanie could count on, but instead he said, "wow... maybe I can stay here? For a teeny, tiny bit? Can I? Can I?"

"A scout master is supposed to help kids and teach them things and..." Stephanie couldn't take anymore. She screamed in frustration and stormed off.

Ziggy called after her: "St-Stephanie!"

Scotty mocked Stephanie under his breath. He looked over at the kids. "What're you looking at? Hit the ground and go to sleep!"

Ziggy and Trixie did as he said, bumping into each other on the way down.

"Stingy, you too," Scotty ordered.

Stingy, refusing to leave his car, just set his head down on the steering wheel.

Back at her house, Stephanie threw her bag down on the bed in anger. Then she pushed it aside and laid down.

It didn't take long for the mayor to notice his beloved niece had come back. But, she didn't seem happy. "Stephanie! What's wrong? Did you forget something? You need uh, a vacuum cleaner? Uh, uh, basketball?"

"No..."

"Ballet slippers?"

Stephanie sat up, sadness in her voice: "no, Uncle Milford. I didn't forget anything. I brought everything with me, it's just..." she sighed, "they didn't want to scout with me."

"Oh dear!" the mayor said as she laid back down. "I can't go camping. I'd like to, but, I've never been." He paused for a moment, but then he got an idea. "Oh! But I know someone who has!"

In the other room, the mayor wrote a quick letter and went outside to the mailbox.

"I can always count on Sportacus!" he said as he sent the letter up.

Having taken a break from his patrol, Sportacus was in just the right place to catch the letter as it shot up into the airship.

"I've got mail!" He instantly recognized the mayor's handwriting. "'Stephanie needs help? No one to go scouting with? Please hurry.'"

Scouting? Like... camping? Sportacus was pretty sure he had packed camping gear before he left. Flipping to open his closet, he found to his relief that he did in fact have various camping gear.

When Sportacus arrived at the mayor's house, he found Stephanie in her room, crying quietly on the bed. Tiptoeing over to her bed and sitting down on the edge, he held a finger to his mouth to signal the mayor not to say anything.

"So, Stephanie?" Sportcaus asked, getting her attention.

Just his presence seemed to immediately lighten her mood. "Sportacus!" she sat up and embraced him.

Sportacus was slightly taken aback by the affection but accepted it nevertheless. "Hi! You still wanna go scouting?" he asked as she broke the hug.

"Yeah!"

"Come on, let's go!"

He took her by the hand, and they went outside.

LazyTown might've been in the middle of virtually nowhere, but it wasn't known for forests or any "natural" spots. Still, they settled on a spot a bit further away from town.

"Tag, you're it!" Stephanie touched him as soon as he set the gear down.

He chased her around for a moment, before pretending to get tired. He didn't know much about kids, even after all the time he spent in LazyTown, but if it was one thing he did, it was to always let them win when you play a game.

"Okay... you win... maybe we should set up camp?"

It didn't take long for them to get a tent together. The next thing to do was to start a campfire. Sportacus could hold multiple heavy rocks at a time, and soon he was able to make a makeshift fire pit out of them.

"I'm going to go find some wood. I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay, I'll just get some snacks ready."

Luckily, they weren't so far out of the town that they were far away from the buildings. Sportacus managed to find some planks of unused wood near a building that needed repairs, but it looked as if it had been stopped or forgotten about.

Apparently, Scout Master Scotty had gotten the same idea.

Sportacus saw right through the disguise. "Where are the others?"

"They're fine," Robbie answered in a hushed tone. "I'm just getting wood."

"... Me too."

"Is she with you?"

"Of course," Sportacus pointed to Stephanie, who was still in eyesight.

Scotty gestured to the pile. "Help yourself."

"... Thanks."

They both had gotten what they came for and parted ways. They couldn't be seen much around each other anyway.

Sportacus brought the firewood back and set up a lantern on one of the few trees that LazyTown had.

Ziggy had tried to set up a tent by himself back at the Lazy Scout's campsite, but it fell on him.

Well, he tried. Scotty laughed and gave him a badge anyway.

Scotty was the only one in the group strong enough to pick up the heavy rocks, but unlike the strapping Sportacus, he could only move one at a time. And even then, he struggled and fell over.

Trixie offered to carry the firewood Scotty had gathered. Scotty agreed, though he kept an eye on her. Was she getting stronger? He had never seen the puppet children lift that much.

Scotty added one more plank of wood to her pile. It was all too much for her to carry and Trixie fell over. Scotty laughed and leaned up against a tree. She didn't seem to be hurt, she was fine.

Soon, both of the camp sites were completed (or, as completed as the underprepared Lazy Scouts could be). What neither of them had expected, however, was if their sites were strong enough to handle the storm brewing in the sky...

Chapter Text

Sportacus and Stephanie now sat at the fire of their newly constructed campsite.

"Where are your friends?" Sportacus asked.

"They wanted to do things differently than I did," Stephanie said. "Maybe we're not really friends after all."

Well, that's harsh. Sportacus thought. "Just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean that they're not your friends. For example..." let's see, how would he put this in terms a kid would understand? "... I think jumping in mud puddles is fun. Do you?"

Stephanie shook her head. "No way! Too messy."

"See? We disagree, and we're still friends. Right?"

"You always make me feel better."

"Good."

The mayor sat at his office doing some paperwork, when a strong breeze comes in through the open window.

"Oh dear!" he said to himself. "The wind is getting very strong today."

Meanwhile, at the Lazy Scouts' campsite, Scotty was asleep on the ground. He found, to his glee, that not only was he having a good dream, but it was a continuation of the one from before:

Bessie was being carried away by the police, who had stormed LazyTown to check all of the illegal supplies she was using and study them.

"Wow, Robbie! You're amazing!" Sportacus 10 exclaimed. "Maybe you're not such a bad guy after all."

"Yes, Robbie, thank you again for saving the town!" Sportacus 9 arrived behind Number 10. "I'm so sorry for leaving you in this crapsack town. Please, will you take me back?"

Robbie only gave a heroic chuckle. "Water under the bridge my love. Watch me fly!"

With a jump, he took off into the air and flew above the clouds, everyone in town joining.

"Hooray!"

"We're free! We're free!"

"And it's all thanks to Robbie Radiant!"

Trixie looked at the sleeping man, confounded. "How can he just sleep all day?" she asked no one in particular.

"Trixie! The wind is getting stronger!" Ziggy cried.

The Lazy Scouts' flag (which was really just a pair of underpants attached to a pole) fell over.

"Ziggy, he's sleeping," Trixie said.

"Trixie! I wanna go home!" Ziggy complained. "Maybe Stephanie was right!"

"You don't wanna play video games, do you, Ziggy?"

"No! But, but, we don't have any food!"

Trixie pointed at the candy in Ziggy's hand. "Your lollipop is right there!"

But just as she said it, the wind was getting stronger: strong enough to blow the lollipop out of Ziggy's grip. "Oh no! I lost my lollipop!"

The wind almost knocked Ziggy over, but Trixie held onto him, and Stingy held onto Trixie.

"Hold on, Ziggy! Hold on!"

But the three of them couldn't hold on any longer and found themselves knocked down by the wind.

Sportacus and Stephanie, not being too far away, were caught up in the same winds.

"The wind is getting stronger! Let's make sure the tent won't blow away," Sportacus got down on one knee, preparing to fix the stakes in the ground.

"Here's the mallet," Stephanie said as she handed it over.

"Thank you." Sportacus began to hammer the first stake further down, when he heard Stephanie cry:

"My hat!" Soon she ran off to try and catch it.

In the distance, Sportacus could see a storm brewing the clouds. "This is not good. We better go back to the Town Hall." He grabbed his bag, Stephanie's bag and some rope. "Stephanie!"

"My hat!" she exclaimed again.

"Don't worry about your hat, it's not safe out here! Come on, we're going to Town Hall."

Thankfully, she didn't put up too much of a fight and followed him.

Ziggy and Trixie were trying in vain to hold onto the tent.

"Maybe we should tighten my tent's ropes?!" Stingy suggested loudly to Scotty. "SO MY TENT DOESN'T BLOW AWAY?!"

The half-puppet man refused to be woken from his slumber. "QUIET! I'm camping!"

The wind was beginning to pick up quite a bit. So much so, that it blew Stingy's car from its place and down the street.

"Oh! Hey! My car!"

The tent began to rip on its poles.

"Hey! My tent!"

The tent broke and blew away. The kids began to panic: they were in the middle of a storm and had absolutely no training on how to handle it!

The mayor moaned in worry at the darkening clouds outside the window. "Oh, I hope Stephanie is okay. Oh, I never should've let her go scouting on a day like this. Oh, my, my, my, my."

To his relief however, Stephanie and Sportacus rushed in through the door.

"Stephanie!" the mayor exclaimed as she ran to hug him. "I'm so glad to see you. Oh my, oh, Stephanie! I was so worried about you."

"Hi, Uncle Milford."

Sportacus heard a rapid knocking at the door. "MILFORD!" the muffled voice came from the other side.

Oh boy.

Feeling obligated to answer, Sportacus stepped aside as Bessie practically fell into the room, hair all messy. It took a lot of willpower not to laugh at how she looked; he didn't even know puppet hair could get messy and wind-blown. But then he began to worry. If she was outside in a dangerous storm, why didn't his crystal tell him?

Bessie struggled to form a coherent sentence, "oh, goodness! There's things- flying, everywhere!"

"Oh my!" the mayor said as Bessie stumbled around the room.

"Oh g-" quickly remembering there was a child present, Bessie changed her language "-my goodness."

Stephanie giggled. Bessie probably didn't know that there was a lollipop stuck to her back.

Bessie lightly pushed the mayor aside. "Oh, get out of my way! My desk-"

"Oh, Ms. Busybody, I, I..."

Bessie sighed and brushed herself off. Milford flinched a little when she looked his way. She picked up the mirror to see the damage.

"Oh no, not the mirror!"

Bessie screamed at the sight of her current state. "I LOOK LIKE A SCOUNDREL!"

That's because you are a scoundrel, you dumb bitch. Sportacus thought.

The mayor tried to reassure her, "oh, no, no, no, no. It's not that bad, Ms. Busybody."

Bessie practically had a panic attack at her desk trying to fix her hair, and Sportacus thought he could hear someone else calling for help outside.

"That sounds like Pixel," Stephanie said.

The mayor looked out the window "oh my! He's hanging onto a large soup bowl."

Bessie, who had managed to fix herself to a fairly presentable level, joined him there. "I believe that's a satellite dish," she corrected.

"Oh, yes, of course you're right," the mayor mumbled.

What was Pixel doing outside on a satellite dish, in the middle of a storm? Didn't matter: "He needs help!" The town hero bolted out the door, letting a large gust of wind in behind him.

"Oh my, my hair!" Bessie cried.

Sportacus flipped over to the spot, somehow managing to catch Stephanie's hat as it blew to him in the wind. Putting it into a pocket on the inside of his jacket that he recently sewed on, he somersaulted over the half-wall and extended his hand to a scared Pixel. "Pixel! Grab my hand!"

Pixel had one hand on the dish, the other trying, and failing to reach Sportacus.

"Come on! Reach out!"

Finally succeeding, Sportacus pulled Pixel close to keep him from blowing away.

"Phew! Back to the Town Hall!" Sportacus ordered.

Pixel agreed without hesitation. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Holding hands as they ran back together, they made it back to the building.

Stephanie was waiting with a blanket and a mug of cocoa. "Pixel! Oh, are you okay?" she asked, wrapping it around him.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Pixel answered. "I just, I was up on my roof and I was trying to connect my power blaster, and I guess I got blasted instead."

Power blaster? Sportacus wondered. Is that some kind of weapon?

"Here's some cocoa," Stephanie offered.

Pixel accepted it gratefully. "Oh, thank you!"

"Sure." Stephanie took Pixel's tool from his hand and set it aside.

Oh, that reminded Sportacus: "Stephanie, I found your hat," he said, handing it to her.

"Thanks, Sportacus! I thought it was gone for good."

Bessie was still at the window. "Oh! There goes Stingy's car!"

Go figure that everyone was still outside. Sportacus started thinking about two things: why in the hell his crystal telling him about anyone outside and in danger, and number two... puppets aren't very bright, are they? It would seem that everyone in town was outside, on the worst day to be outside.

Now, he could easily go outside and save them all himself, but Stephanie still seemed to be sulking a bit over whatever argument she had with her friends before. He wasn't entirely sure if she could handle the storm outside, but this would probably be a good opportunity for her to make up with them... and see how capable she might be.

Kneeling down to Stephanie's level, Sportacus decided it was time to imbue some of that "big brother" influence he had over her. "Stephanie, we've got to save our friends."

Stephanie shook her head. "They don't need me," she said glumly. "They said so themselves."

"Friends forgive friends. And right now... your friends need you."

Stephanie looked at the ground, thinking about it for a moment before nodding. "Okay."

"Good." Standing up Sportacus said, "we need rope."

"Got it!" Stephanie said, grabbing it.

"And a flashlight."

Stephanie got one out of her bag. "Got it!"

"Perfect! Let's go!"

They headed towards the door.

"Ready?" he asked her.

"Yeah!"

Sportacus opened the door and something went flying in his face. A pair of boxers? Tied to a flagpole? He's not even going to ask. "We better hurry!" He held the door open for Stephanie "Go!" Briefly holding a hand towards the mayor as he too ran out the door after her.

"Oh, oh, be careful, Stephanie!" the mayor called from his spot.

Scotty shivered under his blanket, still half-asleep. The air they were flying in certainly did get a lot colder...

The puppet kids, on the other hand, were wide awake. Trixie and Stingy held onto Ziggy, gripping like a flag onto a flagpole, to keep him from flying away.

Sportacus and Stephanie struggled against the wind.

"Hang on!" Sportacus called to the kids. "We are on our way!"

It was finally too windy and cold for Scotty to sleep, a gust of wind blew the blanket off of him, making him tumble backwards and into a tree. After struggling to find his footing, he was finally able to hold onto the tree, but it was only a moment before his fake mustache was blown from his face.

"That looks like Robbie Rotten in disguise!" Trixie exclaimed.

"That is Robbie Rotten!" Stingy confirmed.

The three of them screamed in terror. It was hard to say what scared the kids more: being out in this storm or being out in this storm with the town villain.

Sportacus wrestled with the blanket that landed on him.

"I can't hold on any longer!" Ziggy cried, losing his grip.

Thinking fast, Sportacus and Stephanie used the blanket to catch him before he blew away too far.

"Gotcha!" Sportacus wrapped Ziggy in the blanket and threw him over his shoulder.

"Great catch, Sportacus!" Stephanie complimented.

Stingy lost his own grip from where he was, practically flying from the wind.

Stephanie pointed to Trixie. "I have to go save Trixie!"

"Okay!"

"Trixie!" Stephanie called.

Stingy, weighing next to nothing was struggling as he was being blown around, before finally landing into an open garbage can. "Trash? Darn it! What is this stuff?!"

Well, that's convenient enough. Sportacus picked up the can with his free arm and jumped over the half-wall.

Stephanie made her way to the event stage where Trixie was. "Come on!" she called.

Trixie screamed as she lost her grip and started blown away, but Stephanie grabbed her hand.

Even the most mischievous of puppet children could express genuine gratitude. "Thank you, Stephanie!"

"No problem."

Before either of them could say anything else, a pole fell over, which would have crushed Stephanie if Trixie didn't pull her out of the way.

"Thanks, Trixie!"

"You're welcome!"

They took a moment to hug and be friends again. That didn't mean they forgot how dangerous it was outside.

"We better get going!" Stephanie said. "Come on!"

Sportacus ran to the town hall, a kid on each arm as he kicked the door closed. Thankfully puppet children weren't as heavy as human ones. He set Ziggy down and took the lid off of Stingy's can. "Guys, are you okay?"

"It stinks!" Stingy coughed from the smell. Looks like he would need a bath after this.

"Yeah."

Stephanie and Trixie ran in close behind them and shut the door. They took a second to catch their breath before exclaiming together "that was awesome!"

"Hey, guys!" Trixie greeted the others.

"It's wonderful to see everyone here. Oh! Drink up!" the mayor began passing out cocoa to the kids. "Hot cocoa for everyone, ha. Thank goodness you're all safe."

Sportacus pressed his lips together. "Not everybody."

"Robbie Rotten is still out there," Ziggy said. "He was wearing a disguise!"

Of course. When wasn't he? "I have to save him!"

The people inside gasped. This may have been against Sportacus' better judgement, but he threw the rope to the mayor and Bessie. There was no telling if the mayor could handle what was on the other side, and Bessie could have let go of the rope for all he knew, but surely, surely there was a chance she needed her minion alive and would behave if other people were watching, right?

Stingy and Ziggy also grabbed onto the rope.

"Got it."

Robbie was still out in the storm, still clinging to the tree. Perhaps a solid plan would have done him some good today. "Help!"

As if in response, a lasso was thrown around Robbie's waist. Oh no, this wasn't how he was going to be brought inside, was it? His body stood no chance against that wind! He continued to grip tightly onto the tree as Sportacus pulled.

"Let go!"

"No!"

Sportacus kept trying. "Let... go!"

"No!"

All right. It looked like he was going to need some help. Shaking the rope, he alerted everyone at town hall.

Stephanie was the first to feel it. "PULL!"

Robbie's grip may have been strong, but the entire town pulling at once was stronger. Robbie went flying over the half-wall, falling onto the ground. But that didn't stop everyone pulling, throwing Robbie around onto benches and into half-walls, Sportacus following closely behind.

"Keep pulling!" Pixel exclaimed.

Everybody pulled until Robbie was inside and slumped over a banister in the office.

"Here you go, Robbie!" Stephanie draped the last blanket over his shoulders.

"Oh, Robbie, you're okay!" Stingy exclaimed.

"Here's a hot cocoa!" Sportacus handed him a mug.

"Huh?" Still trying to process what just happened, Robbie took it from him.

"Do you have marshmallows?" Stingy asked.

Robbie nearly set it down, his hands were slightly burned from how hot it was.

"That looks good."

The mayor gasped. "The wind is gone, and the sun is shining! Let's go out!"

The kids cheered.

"Come on," Stingy said to Robbie. "You wanna go outside?"

Well this was odd, why was Stingy taking such an interest in his wellbeing all of a sudden? Surely, out of everyone in town they knew each other the longest and perhaps had some sort of casual kinship... but why now?

Robbie kept the blanket wrapped around him as he followed everyone outside. The sky was bright blue, and if it weren't for the mess that the storm had left, you might not have guessed that there was one at all today.

Robbie looked tense. Sportacus figured he should say something to lighten his mood. "Robbie, it's not a good idea to go camping without the right equipment."

Robbie growled, maintaining his usual villain posture. "Pish-posh. I'm always ready for anything," he said as he took the blanket off his shoulders.

What he wasn't ready for was the group of kids sneaking up behind him, making wind-blowing noises.

Letting out a scream, Robbie ran off, leaving his blanket behind.

Well, that wasn't very nice... but it was kinda funny. Sportacus thought as he grabbed Stingy's car. Did he deserve it? Maybe a little. Hard to say. "Stingy," Sportacus said, holding the small yellow automobile. "I found your car!"

"My car! Thanks, Sportacus."

Sportacus was more than happy to stay and help the townsfolk clean up, maybe play some games with the kids, but if he were being honest with himself, he couldn't wait to go back the airship and have a cup of plain hot tea.