Robbie Rotten's plans to get rid of Sportacus backfire spectacularly on him when he opens up a pothole to a parallel "Lazy Town" universe.
Chapter One
All Robbie Rotten wanted was to have a quiet day. A quiet, lazy, day EVERY day. What was so wrong with being lazy? Things had been fine until Sportacus and Stephanie had turned up in town and insisted on everybody being energetic.
Damn them! He thought as he tinkered with his latest invention. With any luck it would get that big blue goof out of town for good and everything would go back to being lazy again. Without his boundless energy and those accursed super powers, Sportacus would no doubt up sticks and take a hike right out of town.
An evil grin crossed Robbie's face as he aligned the last of the focusing lenses and connected the last few wires. Turning the switch to "on", the machine slowly whirred into life. "It works! It works" Robbie cried, jumping up and down. But Robbie's joy turned to worry as the machine began to shake and rumble. He backed away slowly and cowered behind his row of costumes as the contraption fired an energy beam from the nozzle of the "gun" and hit the nearest wall. Rather than ricocheting off, a huge shimmering hole of energy opened up. It looked almost like some sort of porthole but Robbie Rotten preferred not to get too close to it. He cautiously moved back towards the machine with all of the intention of switching it off... until he heard a yell and a thud.
Robbie peered around to where he had heard the noise, half expecting to find one of those nauseating children in his lair. Well, the person certainly had pink hair but she looked far too old to be that odious Stephanie. The hair style was all wrong as it was in dreadlocks. And the outfit was all completely off, as she was wearing black and the clothes looked like they belonged to a Goth cult. She was wearing PVC trousers, a bodice style top and boots that were more buckle than boot.
The woman stood up, dusted herself off and took in her surroundings. "Great," she muttered, "which smart arse decided to open this porthole?"
"Err... that'll be me..." Robbie Rotten answered sheepishly from his hiding place.
The woman jumped and spun around to face him. She then eyed the machine. Before she could ask, comment or question, the machine promptly blew a fuse, shuddered and began smoking. At the same moment, the porthole disappeared. The stranger's face turned into one of shock and panic as she looked between the machine and the now solid wall.
"No! It can't close! I can't stay here!" She yelled, banging her fits against the now solid wall. She eventually gave up and sat on the floor.
Robbie, who hadn't said a word during all of this, finally got the courage up to approach her. "Who are you? Where did you come from through that... well, porthole I guess?"
She was silent for a moment before replying "Stephanie... I'm from a place called Lazy Town."
Robbie almost fell over with surprise when she said that. Was this some kind of parallel universe Stephanie sat in front of him? From a parallel Lazy Town? He shook his head. There was no such thing as time travel and parallel universes... was there?
The parallel Stephanie stood up and looked at Robbie again. "Where am I?"
He hesitated before answering. "You're in Lazy Town."
It was far too nice a day to be indoors. So, the children of Lazy Town were doing what they did best; playing. They were totally oblivious to Robbie Rotten's plans for their Superhero friend or that it had gone badly wrong. But their active afternoon was about to be disturbed by the oncoming revelations.
The hatch to Robbie's hideout opened. The alternate world Stephanie poked her head above ground cautiously, a habit born out of years of conflict and having to dodge gun fire. Robbie Rotten had been right, this Lazy Town was quiet and green and certainly didn't have any conflict going on.
Steph felt sad as she emerged from the underground base, Robbie following her, a little uncertain. He had no idea what to expect from this woman, who had literally appeared out of thin air from a different reality, or so she claimed. A Lazy Town that looked more post Apocalyptic that his Lazy Town. It made his head hurt. So Robbie decided he would stop all this thinking lark. Thinking about over complicated stuff got you nowhere, he convinced himself.
"So, um, what do you plan to do now?" Robbie asked uncertainly.
Steph seemed lost in thought for a while, like she was processing multiple thoughts at the same time. Then a look of pain seemed to cross her face for the briefest of seconds, so brief Robbie wasn't sure he actually saw what she saw.
"Is...is he still here? Sportacus? He's still here in your world, isn't he?" Steph looked at him, she seemed pained.
Robbie nodded. Steph took a deep breath to try and steady herself. In her version of Lazy Town, Sportacus was long dead, murdered by her alternate reality Robbie Rotten. This was going to be difficult and complicated but she knew Sportacus would be the one who would know what to do, to get her back home.
The children of Lazy Town were outside playing as Steph approached the town. She was thankful that she had managed to get this far unchallenged. Seeing the children so care free and happy made her smile. Make the most of it she thought to herself then scolded herself for being a pessimist. Why should she assume this Lazy Town would go the same way as her own? The Robbie Rotten she had met here was harmless compared to the one in her world. Certainly not capable of becoming a mass murderer. A massive pain in the backside, yes, but not a mass murderer.
Then she saw her. The little girl with the pink hair, probably no older than her early teens, about 12, 13 maybe. She looked so happy messing about with her friends and Steph couldn't help but feel a little envious, remembering when her life was that simple. Sitting down on the ground, Steph suddenly had the overwhelming urge to cry. Why couldn't life just go back to way it was, before itv went all nuts? It all looked so normal in this reality.
The alternate world Stephanie was so caught up in her own musings and generally brooding over the unfairness of her own reality, that she never even noticed him approach her. But when she felt the hand on her shoulder, Steph jumped a foot in the air. It was him, it was Sportacus! Steph could hardly breath and it felt like her brain had completely disconnected from her body. She just couldn't react in any way. Her Sportacus was dead and here he was, alive again. No, no, he's not my Sportacus, he's dead. This one belongs to this world, not mine. This was going to get really screwy, really quickly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Sportacus said as he stood up and helped her to her feet. "You just looked like you needed help."
Finally dragging her voice out of herself, Steph asked "is it that obvious?"
"Who are you? I guess you're new around here. I don't remember seeing you around before."
"You could say that," Steph replied "and it was you I was looking for. I need your help."
Sportacus raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"
Steph took a massively deep breath. She knew she was going to sound like a complete nut job but she needed to take that step. He still had a hold of her hand from where he had helped her stand up.
"You're probably not going to believe this and you'll no doubt think I'm a crazy person..." she paused and then said "I'm Stephanie...I came here from an alternate universe. Robbie Rotten brought me here by accident. And I need your help to get back."