Stephanie sat in her room writing in her diary. Her uncle, Mayor Meanswell, walked in, surprised to not see her active.
"Stephanie," he said. "Why aren't you outside playing?"
"I'm writing in my diary, Uncle Milford," Stephanie replied.
"Oh! Well, what are you writing?"
"I'm writing about yesterday and how we played so many games and how Sportacus saved Ziggy from the tree house we built."
"Oh yes! Yesterday was such an eventful day!" There was a knock on the front door and the Mayor went to see who it was. "Stephanie!" he called. "It's your friends!" Stephanie closed her diary and rushed toward the door. Her friends Pixel, Trixie, and Ziggy were there waiting for her.
"Hey guys!" Stephanie said, waving. She hugged her uncle. "See you later, Uncle!"
"Oh! Be careful, Stephanie!"
"I will!" Stephanie closed the door behind her and followed her friends. "So what are we doing today?"
"What if we sit around eating candy?" suggested Ziggy excitedly. Everyone smiled and shook their heads.
"I know!" said Stephanie. "What about a game of soccer?"
"Yeah!" everyone agreed. They all ran to the soccer field to start their game.
The Mayor was currently helping out Ms Bessie Busybody by trimming her trees. He heard the ladder suddenly fall and he almost slipped. He held onto the branch in front of him.
"Oh my!" he exclaimed. He held on tightly, fearing he might fall.
Sportacus had just grabbed an apple when his crystal suddenly beeped and lit up. He looked down at it and then up again.
"Someone's in trouble!" Sportacus said. He flipped onto a circle portion of his airship. "Platform down!" he commanded. The platform descended and then stopped. "Ladder!" A ladder fell in front of him and Sportacus started climbing down it. He jumped off and ran toward the tree that the Mayor was in. Just as Sportacus was underneath the Mayor, the Mayor fell. Sportacus caught him easily.
"Thank you, Sportacus!" he said.
"No problem!" said Sportacus.
"You're always saving people."
"That's my job," Sportacus said with a smile.
Robbie Rotten was looking through his periscope and saw the whole thing between the Mayor and Sportacus unfold.
"'You're always saving people,'" Robbie mocked. "Why does Sportakook have to always save someone? Can't he just leave someone alone for just once?" Robbie's face brightened with an idea. "What if Sportakook couldn't save anyone? What if it just wasn't his nature to save people? What if Sportakook was, dare I say it, bad?" Robbie cackled as the idea formed in his mind. "I know! I'll build a machine that, once hit by it, anything can turn from good to bad!" Robbie went over to his work table and started putting together his machine. After a few minutes, Robbie had a gun-type machine. He pulled a carrot from what seemed to be nowhere and aimed his machine at it. He pushed a button and the carrot suddenly looked like it was rotting. "Yes!" Robbie exclaimed. "Now all I have to do is point this a Sportakook and he'll turn bad!" Robbie danced in place and then made his way toward the sports field where he knew that Sportacus would be playing with the kids.
"Over here, Sportacus!" Stephanie waved both her hands in the air, signalling for Sportacus to pass her the soccer ball. He kicked it toward Stephanie and she kicked it into the goal. Sportacus ran to get the ball when his crystal went off.
"Someone's in trouble!" said Sportacus. He flipped over a wall and found Robbie Rotten hanging onto the edge of a hole, about to slip. Sportacus grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out of the hole. "You must be more careful," Sportacus told Robbie.
"Oh, yes," said Robbie. "Of course. Thank you, Sportacus." Robbie quickly pulled out his machine when Sportacus' back was turned. He pushed a button and Sportacus got hit with it. He stopped and then shook it off. He ran off toward the sports field to continue the game.
"What about the soccer ball, Sportacus?" asked Stephanie.
"Well, why can't one of you get it?" Everyone looked at each other and Stephanie ran to get the ball. What on earth is wrong with Sportacus? thought Stephanie. He's always helping us and he said that like we were dumb… She ran back toward her group of friends and dropped the ball on the ground. Ziggy was running past Sportacus and Stephanie saw Sportacus intentionally stick his foot out a little, tripping Ziggy. Throughout the rest of the soccer game, Sportacus caused nothing but trouble.
"Okay, Sportacus," Stephanie said. "What's wrong with you? You've been causing nothing but trouble since you helped Robbie Rotten…" Stephanie realised it as soon as she said it. She turned to her friends. "Robbie! He must've done something to Sportacus!"
"Like what?" asked Trixie.
"I don't know, but we have to find out."
"Yeah!" everyone agreed.
Robbie Rotten snuck back to his lair laughing.
"Sportakook never stood a chance!" he said. Once in his lair, Robbie sat down in his orange chair. He happily looked over at the perfectly fine carrot and looked away. "Wait!" He looked back at the carrot. He jumped up and ran over to it. "What is this?!" He gasped. "This must mean that the effects wear off! But that means Sportakook will be back to normal soon!" Robbie threw his hands up in frustration.
All throughout the day, Sportacus caused all kinds of trouble. So much trouble that you'd think it was Robbie Rotten dressed as Sportacus. Stephanie, Pixel, Trixie, Stingy, and Ziggy tried everything they could to reverse what Robbie had done to Sportacus, but with no luck.
"How are we ever going to get Sportacus back to normal?" Stephanie asked. Everyone shrugged.
"Help!" someone yelled.
"That sounds like Uncle Milford!" said Stephanie. They heard Sportacus' crystal beep. He looked down at it and then did nothing about it. "Come on! We have to help Uncle Milford!" They ran to the tree that the Mayor was stuck in and picked the ladder up. They leaned the ladder up against the tree and the Mayor climbed down it.
"Oh thank you, children!" said the Mayor. "It's so strange. Sportacus has been acting so strangely today. He's caused nothing but trouble. It's almost like-"
"Like it's Robbie Rotten dressed as him," finished Stephanie.
"Exactly!"
"We've got to figure out how to change him back!"
"With all the trouble he's causing, we may have to make him leave," said the Mayor sadly.
"No!" everyone said together.
"I'm afraid so," the Mayor sighed. "If he causes any more trouble, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ban Sportacus forever."
"Come on, guys!" said Pixel. "We have to save Sportacus!"
"Yeah!" everyone agreed. They raced off to where Sportacus was.
"Sportacus!" said Stephanie. "I need your help!"
"Why me?" he asked. "Can't you get one of the other kids to help?" Stephanie shook her head.
"It's something only you can do, Sportacus. Can you help me exercise?" Sportacus looked at her.
"I don't feel like it," he replied. Something really is wrong with Sportacus! thought Stephanie. He doesn't feel like working out? That's not right… She gave him a concerned look. Then she noticed something different about him. His eyes weren't their normal colour. They were tinged red. That can't be good…
"But you love to be active, Sportacus! It's what makes you who you are! And you love saving people!" Stephanie looked closer at Sportacus' eyes, and she saw that they were slowly going back to normal. Yes! she thought excitedly. Sportacus shook his head as if to clear it and looked at Stephanie.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Robbie Rotten hit you with something after you saved him and you turned bad," Stephanie replied. "You were going around town causing trouble instead of saving people from it."
"Was I really?" Stephanie nodded. "That's… Wow."
"But you're back to normal now!" Stephanie hugged Sportacus and he hugged her back. Looks like it just wore off, Stephanie thought.
Robbie Rotten sat in his chair moping.
"Why did it have to wear off?" he said aloud. He threw his machine and it bounced off the wall and back toward him, hitting him on the head. "Well. This could've gone a lot better." His head fell to the side as he was knocked out.