A/N: This is a sequel to my other story, The Problem With Heroes. You should probably read it first: .net/s/5684535/1/The_Problem_with_Heroes
The young boy closed his front door quietly, though not so quietly that his parents hadn't heard. He mumbled a thoroughly non-convincing "I'm fine" to them, not even pausing as he trudged to his room.
As soon as the door closed he flung the bat to the floor with a snarl. He glared at it for a few moments- it was unharmed. Of course it was. He'd built it for baseball- it was designed to hit even Sportacus's pitches and to be tossed to the ground. Being thrown to a floor covered in carpet and clothes wasn't going to hurt it.
Pride flickered in Pixel's chest, but was quickly replaced with anger.
"Why can't I just be normal?" he growled, tossing off his goggles, "Why can't I just play that game like a normal person rather than thinking of ways to make a machine to do it for me?"
He sat down on his bed bitterly. Around him were parts of the machine he was planning to make his bed for him. It would even be able to track when the sheets needed changing and put on new ones.
Pixel frowned at it. That wasn't normal. Everyone else in Lazytown made their beds themselves. They didn't need help to do it. (Except, possibly, for Stingy who probably had maids to do that- but that was still people making the beds, not macines)
The boy started looking around his room at what else people didn't need. A machine to brush their teeth for them. Or, well, most of his computer things, really. He supposed he could keep his computer and gaming system- but maybe he didn't need all the other machines. The boy touched a hand to the mini-computer on his wrist nervously.
That was definitely something that no one else in Lazytown had. It was also his prized possession, along with the goggles. His father had made it for him when he was younger, even taught him how to upgrade it so he could make it into whatever he wanted, which he had.
Pixel ran a finger over its surface for a few moments. If he wanted to stop being such a geek and start being like everyone else, that would have to go. Gingerly he took it off and placed in on the desk.
"The others will probably be at Stephanie's or in the treehouse," he told himself quietly as he started out the door, hesitating to look back at his room full of gadgets and gizmos that he'd have to find some way to get rid of without dismantling and putting back together in machines that are even more awesome.
This was not going to be easy.
"Stingy, I thought you'd learned to be less greedy by now!" Stephanie complained as she, Trixie, and Ziggy stood underneath the treehouse that Stingy, once again, had decided was his.
"But this tree house is mine!" Stingy reminded them with a huff, "and no one gets up here without my permission!"
"If you don't let us up now, I'm going to go to your house and rip up every last one of your comic books!" Trixie threatened, shaking her fist at the boy.
The young brunette gaped for a few minutes, along with the other two children who hadn't heard Trixie actually make a threat like that in quite some time, before sniffing haughtily, "Fine- but you still won't be able to come into my tree house."
"Why don't you just ask permission to go up rather than yelling at him?" Pixel asked quietly before either of the girls managed to get out a retort. Which was good, because the best they had was that they'd go and get Sportacus to make him let them up- and that was starting to feel a bit cheep as they got older.
"What?" Stephanie asked blankly, turning to the boy who had only recently turned up.
"He won't let anyone up without his permission- why can't you just ask permission rather than yelling at him?"
"Because it's not his tree house!" Trixie snapped, "I'm not asking permission to go into a tree house I built!"
"Yeah, that isn't fair!" Stephanie agreed, putting her hands on her hips. She would have looked considerably more like Sportacus when she did that, if the local hero ever managed to look angry or like he was running out of patience.
Pixel sighed, his first attempt at being like everyone else was not working out as well as he might have liked. He didn't really see what the big deal was. Yeah, Stingy was being a spoiled brat again (apparently near-death experiences weren't enough to beat that out of him), but wasn't figuring out a way to help Sportacus more important than their pride?
The boy smiled shyly at that, "Hey- we all want to help Sportacus, right?" He looked up at Stingy, who was pretending not to follow the conversation. "Right?" he shouted up at the younger boy.
"Yes… But the tree house is still mine!"
"But but but but but, STINGY!" Ziggy yelped at this, "What about Sportacus? Don't you want to help him?"
There was a moment of silence as the 4 children waited and Stingy felt guilt gnawing at him.
"Oh, fine!" he finally grumbled, lowering the ladder back down. The other children climbed up happily, and were soon well into talks about how to get Sportacus out of this latest scrape.
Somehow, simply not playing with toys for a while failed to come up.
"This is going to be tough to figure out," Stephanie said after an hour or two of brainstorming.
"I guess we're going to have to ask the adults for help after all," Ziggy offered.
"Yeah, because that went so well last time," Trixie grumbled, rolling her eyes. An uncomfortable silence settled and Stingy fidgeted awkwardly until Stephanie shot Trixie a look. "Not that it was your fault or anything, Stinge, all the adults did it," she added sullenly. The brown-haired boy seemed to be a bit relieved by that.
"I'm surprised Pixel hasn't suggested that he could invent something to fix it," Stephanie teased, trying to break the tension. For the first time in the last hour, attention turned towards the boy who had been sitting in the corner trying not to say something else that would get everyone annoyed with him.
"Do you think you could, Pixel?" Ziggy asked eagerly.
Trixie chuckled, "He'd probably just make a bunch of equipment to play the games for us."
Pixel felt his cheeks heat up, but his skin tone meant that most of the people wouldn't notice. "Actually," he mumbled, "I was thinking about taking a break from inventing and all that."
The other children stared at the self-proclaimed gizmo guy for a few moments. Stephanie placed a hand to his forehead. Pixel's heart fluttered.
"Well, you don't have a fever!" she said with a nervous giggle, taking her hand back and looking at the others for reassurance. She didn't know Pixel as long as they did, although she had known him for several years now. Maybe it wasn't as odd as she thought it was.
"Maybe he's a pod person," Stingy suggested seriously, "I've read all about them in my comic books."
Ziggy let out a squeak of terror and hid behind Stephanie, glancing nervously out at Pixel.
"Oh come off it, Ziggy!" Trixie scolded, "Pod people aren't real."
Stingy meant to object that they were real and he knew this because his comic books said so, but Trixie shot him a look when he opened his mouth, and decided it was better not to.
"Come on, guys, people can change! There's nothing wrong with that," She flashed a smile at Pixel, "I'm glad that you're trying this, Pixel!" The boy's heart fluttered again, while his stomach twisted uncomfortably.
"Um, thanks," he mumbled quietly, looking away.
"I don't think we're going to be able to think of anything to help Sportacus right now," Trixie said, and they all nodded in agreement.
"We should try to think of some more things, maybe meet back here tomorrow after school," Stephanie suggested. That seemed to work for everyone, and the children were soon filing out of the treehouse, some somber, some chattering excitedly about something or other, Stingy huffing that the treehouse was his and no one was allowed to forget that.
Pixel started walking towards his house, while Trixie followed him. The two walked in silent for awhile, before Pixel stopped. He looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
"Where's your computer?" Trixie asked him quietly, gesturing to his wrist.
"I told you," he replied indignantly, "I'm taking a break from all that. I want to be like everyone else for a change."
Trixie snorted, "Since when?"
"Since always!" Pixel grumbled, "I hate being an outcast here."
The girl looked at him sadly for a moment. He had a point there. After a moment of this the girl shook her head, "You shouldn't have to pretend to be something you aren't just to make friends." Pixel said nothing to that, "And it's not going to be like this forever- you're going to get to college and have loads of people who are so jealous of all the great stuff you've invented!"
Pixel's eyes brightened slightly at that thought, then shrugged again. "Stephanie is happy that I'm doing this."
Trixie grimaced, "Oh, not this again! You need to start liking a girl who isn't in love with someone else!"
Pixel grinned, "Is this you trying to say that you've been in love with me all along and I should go out with you instead?"
"Don't be gross!" Trixie gagged, punching his arm, "You've been watching too many girly movies!"
The two laughed for a few minutes at the thought before they remembered why they were here. "Seriously though, Pix. I've known you way longer than Pinky has and I know how much that computer and everything else means to you. Maybe you shouldn't show off your inventions so much- but everyone's always impressed with what you can do with videogames and computers. You don't have to give up what you love to fit in."
Pixel nodded quietly. "I suppose so."
Trixie smiled, "you know what you could do to be popular and not give up inventing?" The boy looked up uncertainly, this was the girl known for playing pranks on even the mayor. "You could invent something to fix the problems with Sportacus's crystal."
"That's… actually a good—" he frowned for a moment. Like Sportacus, he was no longer taken in by Robbie's "disguises" and knew it was him the instant the tall man appeared earlier that day. Pixel had just been too wrapped up in self loathing to really consider what was going on.
"I have to go," he said suddenly, rushing off in the middle of Trixie's "Well of course it's a good idea! All my ideas are brilliant!"
"Oh, that was so RUDE!" she shouted after him, crossing her arms and huffing grumpily. She glared at the ground for a few moments before smiling.