Chapter 6

The mysterious stranger climbed up the ladder and opened the top hatch of the lair, releasing most of the smoke that was clouding it. The stranger took in a deep breath of fresh air then scurried off back into town to continue whatever mischievous plot he had devised.

The storm clouds were nearly gone and the winds died down as Stingy managed to stand back up on his own two feet without fear of getting blown away. He looked around him and was relieved to find his prized yellow Hornet still in one piece.

"Oh, thank goodness…" He sighed as he stroked the car's hood. "I thought I lost you!"

"…Oohh, my head…"

Stingy was startled by the strange voice coming from the other side of his car and fell back. Slowly he crawled around to the other side and gazed at the funny-looking man in the blue jumpsuit, who sat on the grass rubbing his hand against the side of his head.

"That's the last time I let Servo pilot the ship." He said to himself.

As he stood up, he accidentally knocked his shin into the side of Stingy's car and let out a painful yelp. Fearing for the safety of his car, Stingy stood up and caught the man's attention.

"Be careful with that! It's mine!"

"Oh, sorry." Mike then did a double-take. "Hey, wait a minute! Who are you!? Where am I!? This isn't some kind of simulator Gypsy made up, is it?"

"Who?"

"Wait, you're just a kid."

Mike turned around and was awestruck at the strange and unfamiliar town that surrounded him. He looked at the empty ice cream shop with its sign knocked over, possibly from the recent storm. He walked over to the sports field and admired the tidiness of all the equipment and gear.

"Oh my God…" Mike gulped. "This place is like one of Tim Burton's good dreams."

"Hey, mister!" Stingy said as he followed the visitor. "Who are you?"

"Huh? Oh, well I'm--" Mike froze in place as his eyes suddenly gazed at the massive hole in the roof of the town hall. "Geez, what happened here? Is there anyone inside that building?"

"Huh?" Stingy turned around and saw the massive damage that had been done to the mayor's office. "Oh no! Mayor Meanswell!"

Somewhere in the fields, Sportacus awoke to the sound of his crystal and leapt to his feet. He wiped the debris from his person and sprinted across the field to assist the mayor and his niece.

---

Below, Robbie and The Mads shrieked in horror at what they saw. Furious, Dr. Forrester grabbed his mallet and purposely slammed it against Frank's head.

"How did this happen!?" Dr. F began to strangle his assistant. "Frank, you nincompoop!"

"I didn't do it!" He pleaded.

"Forrester!" Robbie steamed. "Why isn't Sportakook up in space like you promised!?"

"Hey! Don't point your fingers at me, Rotten! It's your own fault! If you had set the coordinates exactly as I told you, he'd be up there!"

"Maybe it had something to do with that random explosion." Frank suggested.

"Frank, don't defend the big-chinned oaf. He's as guilty as--wait a minute! By God, you're right! Where did that blast come from?"

"That's right! I forgot all about that!" Robbie gasped.

While the three men searched the lair for clues, Rottenella stood by a burning black spot on the floor and waited for them to notice. When she grew impatient, she whistled loudly and caught their attention. Then she pointed at the floor and directed them to explosion in question.

"A point of origin!" Forrester exclaimed.

"A black hole!" Robbie screamed.

"Pretty lady!" Frank blurted out.

They examined the location closely, swapped ideas and suggestions and muttered amongst themselves while the living doll just stood there shaking her head.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone heard about our experiment and sabotaged it!" Forrester concluded.

"Yes, that's it! Sportakook did it! That would explain why he's not in space right now!" Robbie explained. "No, wait… that doesn't make sense because I had him right in my crosshairs before the explosion. He's fast but he's not that fast…"

"Wait a second…" Dr. F then turned to Rottenella for questioning. "How convenient of you to know the exact location of the explosion's point of origin, isn't it? You did this, didn't you!?"

She simply shook her head and rolled her eyes. Robbie and Frank suddenly became very defensive of the young woman as they stood in front of her so as to protect her from Clayton's sharp tongue.

"Hey, back off!" Robbie snapped. "She didn't do it! She has no reason to!"

"Yeah, she's innocent!" Frank turned and winked at the girl. "I mean look at her! How could you not trust a face like that, Clay?"

"Spread out!" Forrester growled as he pushed the two men aside and came face to face with Robbie's creation. "Confess, you overgrown Barbie! Tell me why you thought it was wise to ruin our plans!?"

With a sigh, Rottenella grabbed Forrester by the shoulders and kneed him in the groin. She wasn't going to let him falsely accuse her of sabotaging a plan that, as far as she was concerned, was completely half-assed.

"Still think she did it, Clay?"

"Shut up, Frank…"

---

"Mayor, are you all right?" Sportacus asked the man as he tossed the large chunk of wreckage aside. "Can you stand up?"

"Yes, thank you…" The man said as he stood up. "Stephanie? Oh, dear! Where is she?"

"I'll look for her!"

While Sportacus frantically searched the ruins of the mayor's office for his friend, Mike and Stingy walked in and were horrified at what they saw.

"Mr. Mayor, what happened?" Stingy asked.

"The storm must have been stronger than we thought." Milford's attention suddenly shifted to the other man in blue. "Who is this?"

"Oh, hi." Mike waved. "I'm--"

"Mayor!" Sportacus interrupted. "I can't seem to find her!"

"Oh, no!" Milford panicked. "Stephanie's missing?"

"I'm afraid so. And what's worse is that my crystal isn't going off."

"Stingy!"

"Yes?" He suddenly stood at attention.

"Gather all your friends and tell them to start looking for Stephanie!"

"I'm on it, Mayor!" And with that, he was off.

"Oh, dear. What could have happened? Do you think she was sucked out by a tornado?"

"I'm not really sure, Mayor." Sportacus shrugged before noticing Mike standing around like a lost dog. "And you are?"

"I'm, uhh… I'm Mike. Mike Nelson."

"Where did you come from?"

"Umm…" He slowly pointed upward. "Up there."

"My airship?"

"Airship? No, from my spaceship. The Satellite of Love."

"Satellite of Love?"

"Yeah. What airship are you talking about?"

"The one that's parked out in the sky."

"Oh, right. Yeah…" He gave him a weird look. "I know this is going to sound weird but am I on Earth?"

"Of course you are. Where else would you be?"

Mike simply responded by pointing his finger in the air again, to which Sportacus nodded with a wink in his eye.

"Listen, can you point me to a phone? I need to make a call."

"Of course but I don't think the lines will be working right now. We just had a storm come through."

"That's funny. There was a lightning storm in space right before I…" Mike suddenly had an idea. "… Oh, wait a second. I'm getting way ahead of myself! How did I get here!? Where is this place!? It doesn't look like any place on Earth that I know about!"

"You're in LazyTown."

"LazyTown?"

"Yes. My name is Sportacus."

"Sportacus?" Mike then squinted at the man. "…Kirk Douglas?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing. Never mind."

---

"Absolutely humiliating…" Clayton grumbled under his breath as he sat down in a chair with an ice pack over his crotch.

"So let me get this straight…" Robbie began as he spied on LazyTown with his periscope. "Only half of our plan worked? While this Nelson fellow is here, so is Sportakook."

"This can't be right." Dr. F shook his head. "I refuse to believe our plan was a failure. It was foolproof!"

"Says you." Frank grinned.

"I'm sure of it! The Matter Transference Device always makes a complete transaction! That's the only way to know if it works or not! If Mike is down here making friends with the town hero then somebody has to be onboard the SOL in his place!"

"All right, genius." Robbie retracted the periscope and looked at his partner in crime with a grin. "If it's not Sportacus up there, then who is it?"

---

Stephanie slowly opened her eyes as she regained consciousness and was alarmed at the sight before her. A hovering blue orb with a lens sticking from the middle hummed and chirped softly as it examined her from top to bottom.

"Hello…?" She waved at the machine. "Oh, I get it. Real cute, Pixel."

She stood up and took a moment to acknowledge the unfamiliar setting she found herself in. The red, blue and yellow lights that stood on the desk before her, the odd piping spread throughout the interior and not to mention the window to space, which had Earth clear in its viewing.

"Oh no…" She gulped. "I sure hope Pixel redecorated his room."

The hovering blue orb continued to circle Stephanie, making her even more nervous. After a while, she realized the robot wasn't a threat but was just curious and simply examining her.

"Hey, little guy." She smiled. "What's your name?"

Beep!

"Huh?"

Just then, she saw what appeared to be a gold machine of some sort with a bowling ball pin for a mouth and a net in the back of its head enter the room from a pair of sliding doors. He walked on two very scrawny legs and held an ice cream sandwich in one hand and a magazine in the other, which was currently keeping him occupied.

"Hey Mike," He started, his gaze still on the magazine. "I wanted to see if I could breathe underwater but then realized I don't need air and instead had a race with my toy boat and Servo's rubber frog and accidentally flooded the toilet so I used your underwear to clean up the mess. Hope you don't mind."

"Uhh…" Stephanie was at a loss for words.

"Look, I know how much you humans value your undies but you've got to learn how to go with the flow, if you know what I mean!"

"Uhh…"

"Mike, what the hell is wrong with--" He looked away from his magazine and froze at the sight of the pink-haired beauty before him. "…you?"

"Hi…" She said with a smile.

The bottom of Crow's pin began to tremble and his eyes widened as he shook in place with the magazine and ice cream still in his hands. Stephanie could tell he was about to scream bloody murder and tried to calm him down.

"No." She said quietly. "Please don't scream. I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Muh-muh-muh…" Crow stammered. "Muh-muh-muh…"

"No, don't! Please!"

"MIIIIIIIIIKE!" He finally screamed. "MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"I'm sorry! I don't know who you're talking about! Please don't scream!"

"MIIIIIIIIKE!"

Just then, Servo appeared from a compartment within the front desk and shook his head at Crow. "Crow, you big doofus! What are you crying about?"

"Servo! Servo! Look behind you!"

"Huh? What? I don't see anyth--WHOA, MAMA!"

"Do you see it!? Do you see it!?"

"I SEE PINK! I SEE PINK! NOOOO! SO MUCH PINK! AAAAAAAHHHH!"

"Oh no!" Stephanie began to panic. "They're scared by my hair!"

"AAH!"

"AAH!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"PINK!"

"She killed Mike, Servo! She killed him, I just know it!"

"You evil pink-headed witch! Lemme at her! Lemme at her!"

"No!" Stephanie backed away slowly. "Where am I?"