Disclaimer: Lazytown belongs to Lazytown Inc and was created by Magnus Scheving
Disclaimer: Lazytown belongs to Lazytown Inc and was created by Magnus Scheving. This is a sequel to Trynia Merin's Behind the Crystal. As such, all OC's belong to her
Behind the Crystal Part Two
By Dreamweaver1985
Original Concept by Trynia Merin
A/N: from this chapter on, all thoughts – as well as any potential occurrences of Telepathic communication – will be written in italic.
Chapter Two
Hidden Things Revealed
Stephanie returned to the counter, where Pixel was still scanning the professor's capsule. The readouts went by too quickly for her to read, but every now and then she caught the words 'NOT RECOGNISED', which even she knew wasn't good.
'What is it?' she asked the Pixel, with curious interest. The gizmo guy entered new commands into the scanner, then turned to Stephanie and replied, 'I don't know. It seems to be similar to the mist we were caught in over the weekend' A mixture of frustration and perplexity crossed his face. 'But the scanner can't identify the composites parts.'
Pixel pressed another button, and the 3-D holo-display withdrew into the scanner as it powered down. 'I'm gonna have to go to my house so I can compare them to my computers databases and the internet. You guys wanna come?' he asked, turning to Ziggy, Stingy and Trixie, who all nodded yes. Then he turned to Stephanie. 'What about you, Pinkie?' He asked, using her pen-name, which was unusual for Pixel.
Stephanie hesitated, trying to decide if she was up for it. In the resulting silence, the pain of Sportacus' absence rose within her again, stinging her heart and soul. Finally, she decided 'Nah. I think I just need to rest, you know. It's been a long day, and I really don't feel up to doing much right now.'
With an understanding nod, Pixel made for the door, indicating the others to follow. Stephanie turned sadly to watch her friends leave, struggling to hide the pain she felt within herself. Outside, Pixel turned back for one last look at his friend - her face hanging low against her chest in an effort to hide her face – before pulling the door slowly and quietly closed.
Stephanie heard the door click into place, locking out the world or – from her point of view – locking her away from the world. Left alone, Stephanie felt a warm, salty tear trickle down her cheek. Wiping it away, she scolded herself again, re-strengthened her resolve, and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.
Sportacus glanced at the monitor to check on the Professor's progress. According to the GPS, Drekspatz had just entered German airspace and was quickly headed inland toward Intellectual City.
Sportacus noticed the clock display in the corner of the GPS locator, which read '19:30 EST'. 'We better find somewhere to pitch up for the night' he said to Gretchen, who was attempting to perform some power lifts on Sportacus' hanging trapeze bar. 'Here!' he called suddenly, locating a small island to the west of their location.
'Can you… hear…that rushing…sound?' Gretchen asked, gasping for breath from the strenuous activity.
'I've got mail?' Sportacus questioned, confused that he should get mail this far out. He brought the ship to a halt, then pushed himself away from the pilots seat and up into a triple back-flip, landing smoothly before the mail tube dispenser, which spat the mail tube into his hand. He pulled out the letter, which read:
To Whom It May Concern:
Please help us! Our island – Aquatic isle – has been covered by a mysterious mist which is causing everyone here to become slow, sluggish and sleepy. I don't know what to do.
Yours,
The Mayor
Gretchen dropped down from the trapeze and staggered across to him. 'What's happened?' She asked. She read the letter over Sportacus' shoulder and said 'I know Aquatic Isle. I have friends there'
'I don't like it,' the sports elf replied exasperatedly, 'but I have to help them. To ignore a cry for help – for whatever reason – goes against not just the hero's code, but also everything that I stand for.' He rushed over to the monitor to locate Aquatic Isle. 'Luckily, we were headed that way anyway.'
Feeling emphatic towards the sports elf, Gretchen walked up behind him, and gave him an encouraging kiss on the cheek. With a frustrated sigh, Sportacus jumped back into his seat, brought the propeller engines back inline, and continued on to the island with as much speed as he could muster.
Stephanie returned from the bathroom wearing her nightgown, her already bright pink hair shining brighter than usual. Grabbing her hairbrush, she walked over to her mirror-desk and ran it through her still wet hair, drawing out the knots. Then she brushed her teeth (sadly singing the Twenty Times song in her head), washed out her mouth and crossed to her bed to write the days entry into her diary. When she came to write about Sportacus, she stopped. It hurt her even to write about her love interest, but all the same, she forced herself painfully to complete the entry. Then, unable to hold them back any longer, she pulled the covers up over her head, lay down and cried into her pillow. By 8:08, she was fast asleep and dreaming fitfully, tears still streaming down her face.
- - -
Pixel checked the last piece of the capsule against the internet, unable to find it on her databases.
'I think I've got it!' he cried at last. Double-checking to confirm his suspicions, he continued 'It IS similar to the mist from the weekend. Only it's much worse.'
'What do you mean 'worse'?' asked a suddenly worried Trixie.
'What I mean is, anyone who inhales this mist will fall into a coma-like sleep, from which not even sports candy can wake them'
'You can come up with something to reverse it, can't you?' asked Stingy, uncharacteristically concerned.
'I think so. But I think it should wait till morning. It's almost 8:00, and I think we should head to our homes and get ready for bed and get some sleep. Stephanie's right. It's been a long day'
His friends nodded in agreement, and Trixie led the gang out into the street, where they split up and went into their respective homes.
Alone in his room, Pixel was left to his thoughts. When he'd looked back at Stephanie, he'd suddenly felt a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach, something akin to butterflies. Now as he brushed his teeth - thinking briefly and unintentionally of the Twenty Times song, to his amusement - and preparing for bed, he was running through calculations and formulas in an attempt to put a name to this feeling. The last shocking thought he had as tiredness overcame him was that he was falling in love with Stephanie. Preposterous! He thought to himself. Everyone can tell she's in love with Sportacus. Soon, he too was asleep and dreaming fitfully.
- - -
Sportacus arrived over the island, and he and Gretchen saw immediately the extent of the mist's reach. As soon as they saw this, Sportacus' quick-thinking mind came up with the only plausible solution.
Bringing the ship down into the eye of the mist, he brought the propellers to bear, turned them up to full power, and set the ship into an axis spin, using the engines to blow the mist out to sea to dissipate. He used his crystal to monitor his progress.
When he was confident that the last of the mist had dissipated, he slowed the ship to a halt and jumped out of his seat, flipping and somersaulting his way to the bed at the back of his room. Pushing it open, he brought out two large, wicker baskets, and handed one to Gretchen saying 'Fill this up with as much sports candy as you can.' Once both baskets were full to bursting, Sportacus beckoned Gretchen over to a short fire-mans pole in the center of the ship. 'Platform Down' he called in a commanding voice. The floor beneath them obediently dropped slowly away from the belly of the ship to become a second viewing platform. Then he looked back up into the ship and, in the same commanding voice, called 'Ladder' and climbed down the rope ladder that had appeared. Then he called to Gretchen to drop her basket – which he caught easily –and climb down after him
Quickly locating the Mayors office, he ran across and was pleased to see the mayor wide awake waiting outside. After brief introductions, he gave his basket to the mayor, and indicated for Gretchen to drop hers at his feet. 'Hand these out to everyone who was affected by the mist' he instructed the mayor, who summoned a small group of strong young men and repeated the instructions to them.
'Almost 8:08' Sportacus said quietly to Gretchen, glancing at his wristwatch. 'We'd better get back to the airship.'
Back on board, Sportacus performed some more exercises, encouraging Gretchen to do the same – though she gave up after five push-ups, proud just to have achieved that. Then he jumped to his feet – helping Gretchen to hers – and said 'You can use my bed during your stay. Bed!' he added, speaking to the airship. He walked over to the bed with Gretchen and pulled the covers up to make sure she was comfortable, kissing her goodnight in the process. Then he walked back to the middle of the room and called 'Futon!' A large floor mattress dropped down from a hidden department in the roof and, pulling a spare set of covers from a second storeroom, he laid down to sleep.
Laying in the silence, hypnotised by Gretchen's slow, rhythmic breathing, Sportacus thought about all the strange events over the weekend – both big and small. As his eyes grew heavy, he realised – with a shock –the reason why Stephanie had suddenly started acting so shy and embarrassed around him recently. Could she have fallen in love with me? He asked himself. He prayed to the earth that it was just a side effect of his elven charm, because if she was in love with him, he would have to let her down gently or risk expulsion from the association. Soon both he and Gretchen – like their friends in Lazytown – were fast asleep and dreaming fitfully.
Ok. Next chapter, I'll introduce a (sort of) new character (I hope). Just a quick note: Not sure if there is a forum discussion on this, but has anyone ever noticed that Stephanie is the only child in Lazytown with a parental figure (IE: her uncle)? Where are the 'rents of the other kids? If there is a forum board for this, can someone please let me know?