Chapter 1: Versti fantur

Robbie Rotten cackled gleefully, brandishing a brand new device, put together from scraps of his old projects.

"Finally!" he boasted to no one. "I'll finally be able to defeat that Sportaloser with this!" It was a smallish remote control-like device. On the top it had a single button, and a dial. The dial was labeled with varying levels of adjustment: from "Inclined to believe" to "Follows every word". Robbie giggled again, supremely happy with himself, and did a little dance, cradling the small box to his chest. If there was no way to kick the flipping blue elf out of town, then he'd just have to convince him to leave himself. It was brilliant. His last plans had failed because Sportacus believed that pack of brats over him, even when he had his memory erased. Well, this would fix that…

Still chuckling in mad delight, Robbie exited his lair. This time, he would be victorious.

Sportacus was rescuing a kitten from a tree when Robbie found him. Disgusting. He hated cats. He crouched low behind a fence and aimed the little device at him. Pausing for a moment, he set the dial to a high level. Better safe than sorry, he thought. Not eager to point and shoot wildly once the man would get moving again, Robbie wasted no further time, aimed, and pressed the button.

It was one of the few times Robbie had used a new weapon without trying it out first in the safety of his home. As such, it was also one of the only times his own creation betrayed him (without outside help), and not only hit Sportacus dead in the chest, but also backfired and shot a bright ray of energy into him as well. Robbie yelped and fell backwards, and the remote dropped from his hand, smoking.

This was bad.

He heard Sportacus jumping over to his hiding spot, but he kept his eyes firmly on the ground. If he didn't look, maybe it wouldn't work.

"Robbie? Are you okay? What happened?"

"Like I would tell you!" Robbie snapped, and hastily climbed to his feet.

"Oh…" Sportacus said. Robbie perked up slightly. Sportacus was believing everything he said? "Well, still," Sportacus continued, seemingly unfazed. "What was that light? Were you trying something dangerous again?" Robbie snorted, still refusing to look at him.

"What would you care, Mr. Hero? Besides, it's none of your-"

"But… but I do care Robbie!"

Robbie made a choking sound as he fought with the sudden feeling of trusting what was said. He could feel it, in his brain, consciously making him take those words as absolute truth. He thought he might cry in frustration. This wasn't supposed to happen!

"I'm your friend, remember?"

"What?!" Robbie squawked, even as his brain was betraying him further and he started to believe they really were friends. "Since when?"

"Mmm," Sportacus appeared to be thinking. "Since when you erased my memory that one time. That was really smart of you, saying you were my friend. You know how much I trust them."

Robbie cringed. He never wanted to hear the word "trust" again.

"But come on," he continued. "What was that light? You can trust me, I promise I won't tell."

Robbie cursed. He could trust him, and it was abominable.

"A new invention," he muttered sullenly. "It was supposed to only hit you. But it backfired and got me too. It's totally ruined now…" He felt like burying his face in his hands and crying at the unfairness of it all.

"Oh," Sportacus said simply, and picked up the half-melted controller, examining it. "What was it supposed to do?"

"Make you trust me," he blurted out without stopping to think. The moment it left his mouth he inwardly cursed at himself. Way to go. Tell him that you think he has kissable lips next Robbie. You seem to be telling him everything else.

Sportacus looked at him with wide eyes.

"Robbie, I trusted you anyway! Well, at least most of the time…"

"Doesn't matter," Robbie interrupted, turning and starting to walk towards his lair. He could fix this, somehow. He was not going to be stuck trusting whatever that man said for all eternity.

Sportacus watched him go with an odd feeling. It felt like there was a string between the two of them, and it was growing taunt… Like there was an increasing pressure to follow him the further Robbie stalked away. Sportacus shifted uncertainly on his feet, glancing at Robbie's back. Was it his imagination, or had Robbie slowed down? He shook his head, swooshed through his usual moves, and dashed forward to catch up to him.

"What are you doing, Sportakook?" Robbie growled, increasing his pace again. He was getting worried. The remote was only supposed to make the blue elf take everything he said as truth. But there felt like there was something else there, and it was scaring him out of his mind.

Not to mention he wanted to retreat back to his house to sort out in his mind everything his brain was trying to tell him was the truth.

One being that Sportacus cared, and the other being that he actually had a friend. He shuddered slightly and tried to use his longer legs to an advantage and outdistance the man, who unfortunately for Robbie could keep up by jogging slowly.

"I wanted to talk," Sportacus said. It was true. This whole thing was pretty confusing, and since it was Robbie's invention he should be the one with answers.

"Did you like… tie us together with invisible rope or something?"

Robbie halted and turned to look at him like he was insane.

"What are you talking about?"

"When you were walking away, there was this… thing, pulling. Like we were tied together with a rope, only I can't see it."

Robbie paled. He had noticed it too, but he shook it off as just his imagination. But if he felt it too…

"Shit," he cursed. Sportacus frowned a little at the language but didn't say anything. "Well," Robbie continued. "Then just stay away from me. I need to work to fix this, and I can't concentrate with you bouncing around everywhere."

"I don't bounce," Sportacus complained. Robbie grit his teeth hard.

"You're right," he replied, straining. "You… don't… bounce. But you move. And that's distracting enough. You want to be stuck like this forever?" Sportacus appeared to be considering.

"Don't even answer!" Robbie yelled, frustrated, and he kept walking. "You just keep away from me, got it?!"

Sportacus sighed and let him walk away, trying to ignore the increased strain as Robbie got farther and farther away. It felt incredibly uncomfortable. He shivered and tried to concentrate on doing pushups instead.

AN:

Hi guys! Miss me? You can thank ShinjuTetsuya for this speedy update, because I just discovered "Aleinn um jolin". And also, Shinju is respsonsible for me even finding out about sports elves. And hell, alot of other things. So yeah. PRAISE!

This chapter is short, but the next chapter is longer. I think I shall have many small chapters. Because that's how the story breaks up. Anyone who knows my writing style is cringing at this moment! Ha. I'm using random Latibaer songs for titles. They're probably not gonna have much to do with the story itself. I just like them alot right now.Eventually, I'm going to run out of titles for my fics... oh well.

I put up Kami-chan's fic. With the elf pheremones, yes. They're in the second chapter. Go read, if you got time!

At any rate, enjoy. I haven't been feeling too good lately, so it's not my fault that later chapters keep getting darker. Let's say that I can relate to Robbie. Or maybe listening to this song over and over again for the last 3 hours is affecting my mood. Either way.

Enjoy! Love you guys.