Chapter 2

Stephanie woke to the sound of her alarm clock radio coming on. Usually the news came on but instead all she got was static. Confused, she shut it off and rolled out of bed. She headed for the bedroom door and turned on the light before opening the door. Sportacus had not come home last night and she had been worried but when she'd gotten a call from him saying he was heading to the airship, she figured he'd spent the night there. He'd done it before, not wanting to disturb her because she had to be up early for her job at the museum.

Picking out her clothes and heading for the shower she tried to go over everything that needed to be done today. At the history museum she was the designated tour guide for small groups but occasionally a school field trip would come in and she and the other tour guide, Joe, would take care of the group, leaving the curator to take care of any other tours that came in. They were a small group in a small museum but they managed.

Now out of the shower, she quickly dressed and headed out into the kitchen where she fired up the coffee pot. Digging around in the fridge, she noticed that the kitchen seemed colder than usual and after putting the milk on the counter she went to the thermostat. It was set for seventy-two but the current reading was below that at a balmy sixty-eight. Confused as to why the heat wasn't on, she picked up her cell and tried to call the landlord. It was busy and she hung up, reminding herself to call when she got to work.

Pouring herself a bowl of cereal, she sat down on the couch in the living room and turned on the television hoping to catch the news. However all she had was static. Now it was starting to bother her and she quickly set down the cereal on the end table and headed for the window. Throwing open the curtains, she saw nothing but white.

It had been a bumpy night in the airship and Sportacus now woke to the alarm from his airship. It wasn't the clock alarm, it was the alarm telling him that the ship had lost pressure in its balloons and the altitude was dropping. Quickly he maneuvered into the driver's seat and pressed the emergency floats button which should have released more gaseous state chemicals, which formed a non-explosive air mix, into the balloons from the tanks strapped in the hold. However it did not respond.

"Emergency floats unable to be engaged. Temperature in hold below freezing," the computer told him.

"Heater status?" He asked as the airship continued to lose altitude slowly.

"Nonresponsive," she answered.

"How long until we are too low?" The hero wanted to know.

"At this rate, we will be below the required elevation above LazyTown in two minutes," the computer barely got the words out of its mouth when a small explosion occurred inside the hold.

"Tanks have exploded, time to impact thirty seconds," she told him as the airship swung wildly down. Sportacus sprang into action and tried to slow the descent by pulling up. If he could get it to coast to the sports field, he could crash it without landing on any buildings. They weren't far and he hoped that they could make it.

"Reverse thrusters!" He ordered. They would not make the sports field without them.

"Nonresponsive. Explosion has destroyed the mechanism," the computer said. He looked out over the landscape and for the first time realized everything was cover in feet of snow.

"Crash in ten seconds. Assume the position," the computer ordered before it too went offline. Sportacus continued to try to pull up as the massive airship slammed face first into the large pile of snow on the roof of Town Hall.

To Be Continued…