Chapter 4

Sportacus raced through town, dodging walls and sliding around corners.

He kept his teeth in the apple, chewing slightly.

He did not dare for a moment remove the vital sports candy, or he might have fallen and dropped it.

As he skidded around the corner where he last saw the villain and Sportsicus, he saw that they had moved.

Or at least, Robbie had moved Sportsicus.

She was in a heap by Robbie's big cannon, looking as if she had been thrown there.

Sportacus didn't waste a second.

Dashing past a surprised Robbie, he removed the apple and held it to his assistant's lips.

As he did so, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Looking up, he was met by a pair of furious gray eyes and the apple was snatched from his grasp as his knees buckled under him.

Robbie threw back his head and let out an evil laugh, thereby not noticing the superhero removing his crystal.

When Robbie glanced back down, his eyes widened as Sportacus pulled back his arm and threw the crystal with all his might.

Then Sportacus leapt to his feet, strong once more, and snatched another apple out of his backpack.

This time, the stunned Robbie made no move to stop him as he gently helped his friend take a bite and chew it.

As she swallowed, Sportsicus's crystal glowed green, then pink as it registered Sportacus's crystal gone from him.

She looked up at Sportacus with a look of shock on her face, then her mouth opened as she tried to shout a warning.

But it was too late.

The villain had already seen his last chance and had slipped Sportacus's hat off his head and grasped his ears firmly between his fingers.

Sportacus gasped in pain as Robbie slowly forced him to the ground.

Sportsicus tried to rise, but when she moved, Robbie cruelly twisted her friend's ears, making him groan in pain.

Eyes wide, she remained on the ground as Robbie loosed his grip and began to rub and stroke Sportacus's ears gently, making the look of pain slowly change to one of shock, then pure bliss as he contentedly closed his eyes.

Then Robbie reached forward, and slipped Sportsicus's hat off as well, ad set to work on both of them.

He brushed the tips with a special brush, making them squeal softly, then rubbed them with a warm wet washcloth, causing them to squeal louder.

Robbie chuckled wickedly to himself as he continued ministering to the elves ears.

This is too easy!

He thought to himself as they both went limp on him, tumbling into his lap, groaning with pleasure.

Meanwhile, Sportacus's crystal, still flying through the air, started glowing.

It zipped past Stephanie as she exited her house, giving her a brief glimpse of it as it shot past.

" Sportacus's crystal!" she gasped, and took off after it.

She chased the disappearing streak until it crash-landed outside the town walls.

Stephanie turned around and raced to get to her uncle.

Besides her, he was the only one who knew that both heroes were elves, as Sportacus did not feel right in living in Mayor Meanswell's town without him knowing.

And Stephanie had a feeling that something elfish was afoot, so she avoided all the other kids as she ran to get her uncle in his office.

" Uncle! Uncle!" she shouted as she ran, breathless, into his office.

" Yes, my dear?" the mayor asked sweetly, looking up from his paperwork.

" Sportacus's crystal! It landed outside the town walls! Something is up and I need your help!" Stephanie stated, trying to catch her breath.

" Right away my dear. If our hero needs our help, then we are there!" he announced bravely.

Stephanie gave him a crushing hug. " Thanks, Uncle." She said, and led the way.

When they reached the edge of town, the mayor opened the gate and they both hurried out to where the crystal had been last seen.

Searching desperately, the finally located it when the mayor stepped on it and fell down.

Stephanie rushed to his side and picked it up.

" Great job, Uncle!" she cried, and taking his hand, rushed back into town.

" Now go and save Sportacus." Her uncle told her warmly, as she flashed him a bright smile and dashed off towards the tree house to locate the superhero.

Minutes later, she arrived at the tree house and clambered to the top. Without pausing for breath, she scanned the town, spotting something strange by Robbie's cannon.

She squinted her eyes and gasped as she saw that both blue-clad athletes were down in the villain's lap, hats off, eyes barely open as he fondled their ears.

She set her mouth in a firm line and climbed down the tree house ladder as fast as she could.

When she drew near the spot where she had spotted Robbie and her two best friends, she slowed.

She decided to sneak up on Robbie, which wouldn't be hard, she thought.

She carefully snuck up behind him, listening to the sighs and moans of the elves as Robbie tickled their ears just right.

She had always loved that sound, ever since on day many years ago, a while after he had moved in, Sportacus had decided to let her in on his secret.

He had bent down one day while she was telling him what a great hero he was, and how she wanted to do something nice for him, when he had told her softly to remove his hat.

Eyes wide, she did so, and her eyes nearly popped when she saw his pointed ears.

" You're-you're an elf!" she had gasped quietly, as Sportacus nodded.

" Shh!" he had warned her, glancing around and putting his finger to her lips. " It's a secret, could you help me keep it?"

She had promised, and he had told her how he told her uncle that the day he had moved to town.

Stephanie was further surprised when he had asked her to stroke his ears, a strange look in his eyes.

She had tentatively reached out a hand and stroked one ear gently, being rewarded with a soft sigh as he half closed his eyes.

" Keep going." He had murmured, so she did, giggling at the sigh of the hero's dreamy expression as she got bolder and stroke both.

When she had rubbed the tips, he had startled her with a low groan. She had yanked her hand back, but was reassured when her uncle entered her room, having heard what was going on, and assured her this meant he was blissfully content.

Mayor Meanswell had then showed her various ways of sending the super hero into the greatest bliss and contentment, even getting a squeal out of him once.

Stephanie had giggled and made him squeal again, and ever since, when she wanted to reward him for an especially good job, she and her uncle would invite him down in the evening to have his ears fondled, or "twitched" as he called it.

His eyes would get real wide when they told him to kneel down and remove his hat, and he always did, a giddy smile on his lips.

But they never did it for too long, as he had warned them about over doing it and getting him addicted to it. So they saved it for only special times, and then only for a little while.

Whenever they stopped, Sportacus would look up at them with dreamy eyes, and clap his hat back on, and crush Stephanie in a bear hug, and shake the mayor's hand vigorously.

Stephanie had always loved the sound of the elves groaning with pleasure, for when Sportsicus came, she was delighted to find the ritual and was usually under Stephanie's fingers for the rubbing.

The bond between them had grown every time, and Stephanie credited the rubbings with the reason they were such close friends. Sometimes she would get Sportacus, but most times she got the elf-girl.

Now, as she listened to the usually comforting sounds, her heart sank.

Sportacus once told her that some humans had what the elves called "The Touch", and it could very nearly hypnotize an elf into doing whatever the person wanted them too, in exchange for more of the rubbing.

He had assured her that neither she nor the mayor had it, but he had a dreamy look in his eyes as he told her that once he had experienced The Touch, and he sort of wished he could again, " Just once more." He had told her quickly, seeing the look of alarm on her face.

" It's one of the most best feelings an elf can have, being fondled by the fingers of one who has The Touch." He had explained.

Now, as she listened to the crooning of the elves, she knew without a doubt that Robbie had The Touch, as he had never seen either of the athletes so relaxed, so still, and so content looking.

Grimly, she snuck up on Robbie, and reached around him to secure the crystal into place on Sportacus's chest.

The latches were too stiff for her, and she couldn't risk being found out by Robbie.

So she sat back on her heels, and tried to think of a plan.

Suddenly, the perfect plan struck her: Robbie was ticklish! Very ticklish.

Sportacus had demonstrated that once, when Robbie was pretending to be nice, and was really trying to steal Stephanie's diary.

Sportacus had reached around him as he picked it up, and tickled his sides unmercifully.

Robbie had screamed and squealed, and finally ran away.

Grinning, she reached her fingers around Robbie and tickled him.

Robbie stiffened, then doubled over, screaming with laughter into the dirt at his feet, his head nearly resting on Sportacus's legs.

Both elves slowly got to their feet, looking dazed, shaking their heads from side to side, wobbling a bit.

Stephanie continued tickling the helpless villain, till both of her best friend's heads cleared and Sportacus had locked his crystal back into place.

Then she removed her fingers and turned the gasping Robbie to face her.

" Robbie." She said severely. " That was not nice of you."

" What?" Robbie said, the smile vanishing from his mouth as his eyes widened.

Stephanie tickle him again.

" Stop it! Stop it!" Robbie screamed as she grimly held onto him.

She stopped and allowed Robbie to catch is breath.

Sportacus grinned down at Robbie. " Promise you won't tell?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"I promise!" Robbie yelped, jerking away from Stephanie.

Robbie cowered against the wall as Sportacus bent down and pulled him to his feet.

" Thanks." He said, grinning widely at the frightened villain.

Sportsicus shook her head form behind him, chuckling.

Sportacus let go of Robbie, and the tall thin man turned tail and ran away.

Then the hero turned to Stephanie in time to see his assistant melt into tears and cling to the girl in pink, hugging the breath out of her.

Stephanie hugged her back, smiling.

" You still love me, I love you too Stephanie." Sportsicus whispered thorough her tears.

" Of course I do." Stephanie assured her.

Sportacus knelt down, and enfolded both of them into a great crushing bear hug, burying his face into Stephanie's shoulder.

" Thank you." He whispered into her ear.

Stephanie just hugged both of them harder with the one arm she had free.