Eyes narrowed, both superhero and his assistant glared at each other over the net.
Then they both hurled the 3 balls and one birdie the carried over the net and flipped over, and rolled under, the net, batting the balls and birdie with lightning speed with the rackets they carried.
They were battling it out between themselves, - and loving every minute of it.
Sportacus and his assistant and best friend, Sportsicus, were playing a game Sportsicus had invented: Birdie-ball.
The rules were simple: Each contestant had three tennis balls, one birdie, and two rackets.
To win, you had to keep all your balls in the air and never let them touch the ground, while batting your birdie into the other player's goal net and making them pick it back up.
Every ball that hit the goals took away one point per ball from the player who batted it, and for every birdie that hit the net you gained two points.
You had to hit the balls with one net, and the birdie with the other.
You could not hit the birdie and balls with the same racket, or you lost five points.
You batted the balls over a net between you and the other player, and you could go over and under the net, but never around it, to keep your balls in the air, and the other player's birdie out of your net.
You could bat the birdie under the net, but never the balls. Each round was played for five minutes. You could bounce the balls off other objects around you, so long as they did not touch the ground.
The two blue-clad athletes had been playing this game for near 15 minutes now.
Sportacus had won the first round, Sportsicus the second, and now they were struggling to see who would win the third round.
The game was tied, and they had one minute left.
As they passed each other in the air for the umpteenth time, batting the birdies back to each other, Sportacus's crystal began flashing.
A split second later, a space seen only by those who looked closely, so did Sportsicus's.
Both landed on their feet and glanced at their crystals.
Sportsicus's crystal only flashed after Sportacus's flashed and only when there was a dual emergency, or when he required her help.
Normally, she would either come along, and stay in the background observing, or stay in the airship, keeping an eye on him through her spyglass.
If he needed her, her crystal would flash and she would be on her way to help.
Looking into their crystals, they saw Robbie Rotten in a runaway wagon going down Main Street, heading right towards Ms. Busybody who was on the phone.
The second image was of Ziggy losing his balance and about to fall off the wall near the gardens, the other children were there too and there was a huge mess of vegetables and overturned baskets all around them.
" You take Ziggy, I've got Robbie." Sportacus spoke quickly as she nodded, following him as he ran towards the door.
" Door!" he cried.
" Door opening.", the computer responded, opening the door.
Sportacus leaped off the edge, twisting till a pedal ship opened up out of his backpack, and headed down, Sportsicus close behind.
They swerved towards their respective targets, and landed nearby, Sportacus landing first, being the faster of the two.
He flipped over the wall and sped toward the telephone, Ms. Busybody, and Robbie.
Doing 3 back handsprings, he landed behind the wagon, and grasped the edge of it firmly, looking into the terrified face of Robbie Rotten.
The wagon stopped three feet from Ms. Busybody, who gasped when she saw what happened.
Robbie climbed shakily out of the wagon, mumbling uncomfortably under his breath.
" Oh, thank you Sportacus!" Mrs. Busybody cried. " I knew you would save the day!"
" You're welcome." Sportacus said as he watch Robbie out of the corner of his eye, red-faced, shifting from foot to foot next to him.
He turned to Robbie.
" Are you all right?" he asked.
" Wha- why, I'm always all right!" Robbie fumed.
" How did you get into Stingy's wagon?" Sportacus asked, hiding the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth.
Robbie stammered a moment, then said, " Those kids pushed me, yeah, that's it. I was picking, those, those, vegetables," here Robbie grimaced, " And here come those brats, and pushed me into it. I didn't do anything." Robbie said, ending sort of pleading, with a wide-eyed innocent look on his face.
Sportacus just looked sideways at Robbie, and folded his arms across his chest.
" Anyway, gotta go!" Robbie said, and turned and hurried off, grumbling angrily to himself about sporting athletic elves and how they think they are so good.
Sportacus shook his head and turned to go." Wait, Sporty!" Ms. Busybody called.
Sportacus turned to see her holding out an apple for him.
" Thank you." Sportacus said, taking it and biting into the crisp, juicy apple.
" Mmm, just what I needed." He said after he swallowed.
Ms. Busybody beamed and continued down the street, humming to herself.
Meanwhile, Sportsicus had been busy saving Ziggy.
She landed her ship and, not waiting for it to refold, ran to the garden jumping and flipping over the walls.
By the time she flipped over the garden wall, the pedal ship had retracted so she could roll under Ziggy and catch him as he fell.
" Oh thank you Sport- uh, Sportsicus!" he said happily.
" Your welcome." Sportsicus smiled as she carefully got up, placing Ziggy on the ground.
" I thought you might be Sportacus, but I see who you are now." Ziggy laughed.
Sportsicus shook her head, grinning.
It was common for her and Sportacus to be confused, especially from a distance.
He was, after all, 5'8", and she was 5'5", both clad in the same costume, both performed the same stunts, both were nearly hyper active, both had the same blue eyes, and what little hair you could see under their caps, rudely called Elfin caps by Robbie, a title they hated, they had the same color of hair.
However, when you looked closer, there were some obvious differences.
For one, she was more slightly built due to being female, he was faster and stronger, he had a mustache, she limped slightly when she walked due to an injury from her childhood back on Earth 1 that, for some strange reason, the healing Icelandic waters nor her elfin blood never healed.
In addition, he had a deeper voice then she, even though she did not have a particularly high voice anyway, and could imitate him easily if she wanted to, thus the reason she could control the airship.
And, there were more subtle differences too.
For instance, he was more agile and cat like in his antics then she was, even after five years of living in Lazytown.
She also had a sweet tooth, though after she drank the purifying Iceland water, and the crystal activated, she went into a sugar meltdown whenever she ate sweets, which rarely happened unless she was tricked into it.
Another difference was his hair was curly while hers was wavy, and she had a whitish streak through her hair that he did not possess.
" Where's Sportacus?" Stephanie asked her, looking around for the missing superhero.
" Saving Robbie." Sportsicus grinned. " As always."
As she spoke, Sportacus flipped over the wall, landing next to her amidst the delighted gasps of the children.
" Here I am!" Sportacus announced smiling at all the children.
" Sportacus!" They squealed, running over to hug him.
Sportacus hugged them all, smiling at Sportsicus over their heads.
She smiled back, guessing what he was thinking, as he said it so often, I am so glad Number Nine let you in.
Sportsicus grinned wider as she thought of the busy superhero patrolling the skies in Earth 3.
It was his job to keep all outsiders out, and not let the jump gates around Earth 1 and 3 to be discovered by accident.
If he let someone in, it was because he saw something special in that person-or elf, in the case of her and Sportacus.
He used to be Lazytown's superhero, but Robbie had blocked the letter shoot, and he thought no one wanted or needed him anymore, so he spoke to the directors, editors, and producers, and seemed to have vanished from sight.
Even they no longer controlled him.
He had given the book of Lazytown to Sportacus after Sportacus had completed his quest to the Icelandic mountain to secure his crystal.
Number Nine had guided Sportsicus to Lazytown to fulfill her quest for her life work.
He had also allowed all the newcomers in Lazytown in: Art the artist and musician, Ms. Pen, the librarian, Dr. Quack, the doctor, and Dr. Green, the naturalist.
Sportacus considered him the true superhero, which is why he never accepted the tile of superhero for himself.
He did not think himself great enough for the title, but his friends strongly disagreed.
" So that'swhy Robbie was riding in your wagon." Sportacus's voice broke into her thoughts.
" Yep." Trixie said, nodding vigorously.
" We really should clean this up." Stephanie said, looking around at the vegetables and baskets.
" Yeah!" the other kids chorused.
" Sportacus, Sportacus! Could you, maybe, help us?" Ziggy asked, hardly containing his excitement.
" Well…" Sportacus stroked his chin and looked thoughtful, then winked at Ziggy.
" Of course we'll help."
Sportacus glanced over at Sportsicus, who gave him a quizzical look.
Sportacus chuckled softly and shook his head, then flipped over the children to land beside her.
" Daydreaming again?" he asked softly.
Sportsicus nodded, blushing.
" Robbie tried to stop the kids from harvesting the garden, and stepped on an acorn squash.
He fell into the wagon, which rolled away with him. That's why our crystals blinked and the gardens are a mess."
" Gotcha." Sportsicus said, squeezing Sportacus's arm and slapping him on the back.
" Thanks. Now lets go."
She then watched as Sportacus flipped over to the other end of the garden.
" Pile the baskets in the wagon." He instructed, turning his back on them and pulling two ping-pong paddles from his modified synth suit.
The suit had been special ordered from Earth 2, when it had the disaster that sparked the books, In The After, and In The End.
The Guardians kindly shared their secret suits for Sportacus to wear, so all his sweat was wicked away instantly, and never had to change, though they had made some adjustments in it for him.
The metal reinforcing harness was a mixture of titanium and aluminum, so it was strong but flexible.
No iron, since it was lethal to elves.
Sportsicus smiled and pulled out a ping-pong paddle of her own from her suit and scooped up a squash with it.
She tossed it in the air, then Wham!Smacked it towards Sportacus's back.
Deftly, he smacked it with his paddle and zinged it right into a basket on the wagon.
The children clapped and cheered as they began throwing vegetables at him.
Sportsicus chuckled, the picked up the wagon handle and began running around the gardens with it.
She heard Stephanie gasp, but Sportacus just moved faster and landed every vegetable in every basket with perfect accuracy, no matter how fast or sudden Sportsicus made the wagon move.
Finally, the mess around the gardens was all cleaned up.
Both Sportacus and Sportsicus laughed as the returned their paddles to their suits, back flipped and met in mid air, grasped each other's hands, did an aerial cartwheel, and landed facing each other.
Then they fist bumped, spun around, crossed arms and high-fived each other.
It was their special victory move.
Grinning, they turned as one as Mayor Meanswell walked up.
" Well done, children!" he praised them.
" That's one more mark on your "Community Care" worksheet. That makes two now."
The kids all high-fived each other and cheered.
Sportsicus turned to Sportacus, confusion written on her face.
Sportacus shrugged his shoulders, then Stephanie giggled and explained that they were doing a project for school, called Community Care.
They were to get a mark every time they did something to help the Lazytown community, like mowing the lawns, weeding the flowers, or harvesting vegetables.
" So far we have harvested the gardens, and washed the town hall's windows." Trixie reported proudly.
" Wow." Sportacus said, looking over the worksheets the children handed him.
Sportsicus looked over at them too, then turned away, biting her lip.
She listened to the children prattling on to Sportacus about their school project.
Tears sprang unbidden into her eyes as she listened.
Last year had been her last year in school, and she felt as if the children no longer wanted her around.
All the other years, if she got the least bit sad or afraid, Stephanie would notice right off and rush to help her.
Like if she was missing Magnus, Sportacus's real name, or if Robbie scared her, or if she got in trouble again for too much activity during class, or if she was scared about returning back to earth for Christmas, or that the elves would somehow fool Number Nine and steal her and Magnus back to Elfland, or that her Elfin powers were diminishing or getting stronger, or if someone found out they were really elves, or Trixie or Stingy or both were picking on her, or just last year, on November tenth, on Sportacus's birthday.
She had wrote him a song, and was too shy to sing it to him.
The ten year old girl in pink helped her get her courage up and supported her while she sang by her mere presence, as she was Sportsicus's best friend next to Sportacus.
Summer break she always saw less of the children, as she spent more time with Sportacus, her best best friend.
But even he seemed to be tiring of her near constant presence, she realized with a jolt.
He should have noticed she was unhappy by now, and at least nudged her to remind her he was there for her.
He and he alone knew of her mental difficulty, and her constant need to be reminded of his love, and the children's friendship.
A moment later, she felt his hand rest on her shoulder, and squeeze gently.
She relaxed a bit, realizing he must have just had his hands full.
She was about to turn around, burying her grief over her supposed lost friendship with Stephanie, when her excellent hearing, gift of the Icelandic waters and elfin beginnings both to her and Sportacus who each drank the waters exclusively, due to their elfin blood, picked up Trixie and Stingy, and, no, it couldn't be, Pixel too.
They were talking in low voices while Ziggy and Stephanie chatted with Sportacus.
" She carries on soooo long." Trixie was complaining.
" Taking up my time." Stingy hissed.
" Almost as bad as Sportsie." Pixel added.
Sportsie was her nickname a select few used, and her ears burned when they used it like they did.
" Sportagirl must have rubbed off." Trixie said, voice still low, but angry sounding.
" I was kinda glad when she left school." Pixel said seriously. " I wanted things back to normal. She kinda seems messed up sometimes. Don't know why Sportacus seems so taken with her."
" Me neither!" Trixie agreed.
" Uh uh." Stingy shook his head.
" Now Pinky's carrying on. Thought she was glad to see less of Sporta-"
Sportsicus could take no more.
Sportagirl was a name she hated almost as much as Blue Elf.
She mumbled something to Sportacus about needing to do something, knowing he must have overheard as well, since he had tightened his hand on her, wrenched her shoulder free of his grip, then flipped over the wall and ran till she could hear them no longer.
She perched on a bench arm and waited for Sportacus to arrive.
She buried her head in her knees, hugging them tightly while she waited.
And waited.
And waited.