Stephanie decided it was best to go back to her uncle's house. What else could she do with that mean, rotten man out there?

The song that she felt was no longer upbeat and fun, but rather, a depressing and melancholy piano tune.

"Have you ever been sad?" Stephanie sang as she walked, in the same melody as before. "Have you got a friend who'll stay? Have you ever been lonely?" Her voice broke she finished her reprise: "all I want is just to play."

Stephanie spoke aloud as she sat on her bed, writing in her diary; "dear diary, it's my first day in LazyTown. It's really weird here."

"Ah! Hot cocoa, Stephanie?" Milford walked into the room with a mug in hand.

She swallowed a comment about how strange it was to drink hot cocoa in the summer. "No thanks, Uncle Milford."

"Uh, what's wrong, my dear? You... you look so... so sad!"

She smiled glumly. "Well, I'm really glad to be here with you."

"Ah, yes."

"But, LazyTown, it's kind of... well... it's a little bit messy."

"Ah! You think so? Uh, well I suppose I could clean it up."

"That'd be a good idea. You are the mayor."

"You know, that's true! I'll... I'll pull the weeds, and fix the gate! Oh dear, that's a lot to do."

"But the real problem is that the kids don't play outside in LazyTown."

"Oh, well I... I can't change that. Well you know they used to, but uh... but then they stopped."

"I don't want to sit inside all day playing video games."

"You know, there might be someone who can help you!"

"Really?" Stephanie began to perk up.

Her smile got bigger as her uncle went on, "yes! I remember a story about a hero who came from an island in the North Sea. I can't remember his name, but there was a big Number 9 on his chest. Oh, and he moved around all the time. Swish swish swish! I think he may have even been a superhero."

Stephanie gasped. "A superhero?!"

"Yes, yes! And he lives in an airship! When people wanted to contact him, they would write a letter, and send it to him in a tube by the mailbox."

"Wow! Do you think I could send him a letter?"

"I don't know if it works anymore, but it's worth a try! I think I have that tube around here somewhere. I'll go get it. Now, where did I put it?" he asked himself as he left the room.

He returned a moment later with a red wrench-like object in hand. "Here it is!" Glancing over, Milford realized that wasn't what he meant to bring back. "Oh, no! That's a cake decorating device! Uh... be right back!"

Stephanie nodded, but she began to worry even more for his overall wellbeing.

He soon returned with a small metal tube, just big enough to roll up a piece of paper inside. "Here you go, my dear!"

"Thanks!" Stephanie held the tube in her hands, studying it. She knew just what to write, too.

With her letter ready, Stephanie found the mailbox with the tube next to it, just like her uncle said.

Even the laziest of bad guys needed to stretch their legs once in a while, and who should happen to be in the same place she is than Robbie Rotten himself? He froze as Stephanie tried to loosen the rusty top of the tube. "What? No! Don't do it, little girl! It will only cause trouble!"

Considering that Stephanie removed the plug anyway and didn't even glance in his direction, Robbie realized he was once again out of earshot. Now, Robbie knew he could easily run over and try to stop her (especially since she took extra time to pluck the weeds that had grown around it) but... he didn't want to.

"No! No! Leave it alone! No! No! No! Don't do it!" He knew what that tube was, what would happen if she managed to get the letter through, and what would happen to the status quo of the town.

Stephanie pulled the letter from her bag. "Please work!" she said as she dropped it in the tube.

"No! No! Don't pull that!" But he knew it needed to happen, as much as it scared him to admit it to himself. He knew she needed to pull it, summon the hero, and change everything. No hero has ever truly succeeded in defeating Bessie Busybody, but it seemed with each attempt the town got just a little bit closer to freedom from her tyranny. He's been a part of Busybody's sick and twisted game for so long... and there were days he didn't want to play anymore. Today was one of those days.

Stephanie pulled the lever, and they both watched as the tube shot up into the sky.

"NO!" If Robbie had any chance of stopping her, it was long-gone. Now his only hope was his "no"s from a distance was a convincing enough performance that he had actually made some effort.

Sportacus heard a small thump hitting the ship. Reacting quickly, he jumped out of the piolet's seat and landed on a panel on the floor. Sportacus grabbed the silver tube that shot up from the floor.

Number 9 had told him about this: it was a way for the citizens to send letters to the airship. "I've got mail!" At first he was excited: this was the first social contact he'd had with anyone in weeks, but then he began to worry: how did they know he was here? Had his location been found out? Sportacus guessed it was only a matter of time before their technology picked up his airship. In case he was bugged or a camera somehow got planted on his ship, Sportacus decided it would be best to play dumb and hope that they would see him as less of a threat, and underestimate him. "I wonder what it says," he said as he removed the pink piece of paper from the tube and unfolded it.

"I need help. No one to play with in LazyTown - Stephanie," Sportacus read aloud. Number 9 suggested he read any 'legitimate' letters out loud, so that if someone like Radiant were to send him a formula or something of the like to help him complete the mission, it would be more believable when he pretended to read a different message aloud. Opening his sports candy machine, Sportacus flipped over it and opened a compartment. "I have heard of LazyTown before. Here it is."

Sportacus took out a heavy book and set it down on the table of the sports candy machine: the cover reading "History of LazyTown", and opened to a random page in the middle of the book. What he hoped the potential cameras wouldn't see was that this book was actually a compilation of Number 9's previous notes; the cover was just a disguise.

"It used to be a great place to live. But now, it needs help. 'Kay." Sportacus grabbed a piece of blue paper from the stack kept next to the book. This could very well be a trap, and Number 9 had heavily warned him not to leave the ship unless someone was really in danger, but if they already knew about him, Sportacus didn't see the point in hiding any longer. The only piece of information he got from above the clouds was that there was some kind of invisible barrier around LazyTown, so he wasn't going to solve much just sitting here. And if he were really being honest, he mostly just wanted a cure for his stir-craziness. He spoke aloud as he wrote "help is on the way."

The stationary that had been given to him was a special kind: its nanotechnology was able to float down exactly to the mailbox's coordinates. It was possible this 'Stephanie' person wasn't waiting by the mailbox anymore, but it was his best chance of responding to her. "Well, if Stephanie needs me, then I'm on my way to LazyTown," he said as he folded it into a paper airplane. "Okay, let's go!" He flipped over and hit a switch on the floor that opened another compartment filled with sports equipment. "In you go..." he said, stuffing the paper airplane inside of a bowling ball, "and off you go!" he flipped and rolled the bowling ball through a ball-shaped door that opened towards the back of the ship.

Stephanie leaned against the mailbox. She had been waiting a full minute, and still had no response. "I guess no one's coming," she said to herself.

Robbie began to feel a mixture of relief and alarm. "Maybe it won't work! Maybe he's on a vacation! And maybe, he's quit all the superhero business!" Not that Robbie would blame him after the way things ended. On one end, he was pleased there was no sign of the hero: having someone to threaten Busybody's plans was a danger to everyone, the hero included... but if the hero wasn't coming, Robbie was truly on his own.

"Got it!" Seeing the girl now had a blue piece of paper in her hands, it meant that the hero had responded after all.

"What? What, no!" Robbie began to notice a creeping feeling of regret over not stopping her.

"Help is on the way!" Stephanie read aloud.

Just as she said it, a giant shadow passed over them. Said shadow belonged to a blue, dark red and white airship that stopped a short distance away from Stephanie. Suddenly, a strapping tanned male jumped down from an opening at the bottom of the ship, landing feet-first on one of the many yellow walls scattered throughout LazyTown. Leaping into the air, he flipped and somersaulted until he had landed right next to the pink-haired girl.

"Are you Number 9?!" Stephanie asked, excitement in her voice.

"Nope, I'm Number 10," he turned around, showing her the number 10 on his back. Turning back around, he introduced himself: "my name is Sportacus," he extended his hand for her to shake.

She took his hand. "I'm Stephanie. Pleased to meet you."

When the blood rushed around his head a little less, Sportacus began to realize that he wasn't the only non-puppet there. He wasn't sure whether the pink hair was a side-effect or not (he certainly hoped it wasn't!) but this girl didn't seem to be very far into the process... yet.

"Another one?!" Robbie couldn't believe it; They sent a replacement for Number 9? Did that mean... he didn't make it out alive?

"Are you a superhero?" Stephanie asked.

"Let's just say I'm a slightly above-average hero."

Sportacus smiled at Stephanie's giggle. Even when he was growing up he'd always had mixed feelings about children: some, he got along with great and enjoyed being around, others annoyed the living daylights out of him, and as an adult reminded him of just one of many reasons why he swore he would never have kids of his own. He had only known Stephanie for about thirty seconds, but he had a feeling she would easily fall into the former category.

A beeping noise interrupted his thoughts. Looking down, he could see his crystal was glowing.

"What's that?" Stephanie asked.

"That's my crystal. Someone's in trouble. Sorry, I have to go."

The best thing about having a hero crystal is that you knew exactly who was in danger, and where it was coming from. He had arrived just in time to jump on the rising end of a teetertotter, sending Stingy flying into the air before he could fall from the top.

Sportacus held his arms out. "I've got you! Don't worry!"

Just as planned, the boy landed right in Sportacus' arms. "Thank you," the puppet boy said.

"Yeah, nice catch," Trixie added.

"Are you okay?" Sportacus asked, putting him down.

"Yeah."

"Be more careful next time," Sportacus said before flipping back over to Stephanie.

"Wow, Sportacus! You are incredible!" Stephanie exclaimed.

Before Sportacus could respond, his crystal beeped again. "More trouble!"

"Over there!" Stephanie pointed towards the wall on the side opposite to the seesaw, where two children were about to fall and hurt themselves.

Not on his watch: Sportacus dashed and flipped over and caught them both.

"Are you okay?" Sportacus asked them.

"Thanks!" the girl of the two responded.

Wait a minute, wasn't that girl by the teetertotter a few seconds ago? Sportacus thought. Either she's got a twin, or something very suspicious is going on here...

But Sportacus wasn't the only one who noticed: just moments ago these children were in their rooms, occupied with their usual controllers and were just fine until the new hero arrived. Why would these children only now be outside getting themselves into trouble, especially when they're not too fond of playing outside in the first place?

Busybody. It could have only been Busybody. Obviously she was furious about Hero Number 10 being here, so she took control of the kids to get them in trouble on purpose so Sportacus could fail at saving them, prove he's not really a hero, and therefore not welcome in town. But Sportacus seemed more than capable of handling everything she's thrown at him so far... and surely it wouldn't be long before Robbie would be punished for being a bystander while Stephanie was inadvertently a spanner in the works for Bessie's master plan.

Unless... there was still a way to turn this around. If Robbie could at least pretend to try and stop him, the hero wouldn't have to abandon the mission he was finishing for Number 9, and maybe he'd get off... maybe not scot-free, but hopefully lighter than usual.

Time to get into character: "they're not going to ruin LazyTown! I'll see to that!" Robbie said aloud for the nearby camera he couldn't see but had no doubt was around there somewhere.

"And now, it's time to put an end to Sportakook!... once and for all." Robbie finished with an evil laugh... just before he started digging a hole in the ground. "A trap! For Sportakook!" he said between grunts.

All right, all right, if anyone passing by saw the hole, Robbie knew what they'd be thinking: "a hole? That's your plan to stop Sportacus?" Well, this wasn't a plan meant to succeed; just enough so that it looked like he was actually trying. Besides, he was supposed to be a "lazy" villain, right? If he were to really put any effort into his plans, that wouldn't give him much credibility towards what he supposedly stood for.

Ms. Busybody slammed the door behind her as she stormed out of her house. Oh Robbie's really done it this time! He might not have summoned the hero directly, but he may as well have. She's known him long enough to pick up on little acts of rebellion here and there, but he should know by now rebellion is not something she was willing to tolerate, especially from him!

Slowing her walk she remembered there were people over in Robbie's area. Surely they would suspect something if they saw her so infuriated, so she needed to think of something else to keep her calm. (On the outside, anyway.) Taking deep breaths, she began to think about her upcoming trip off-base later today. Even she took breaks to go to the nearest city and spoil herself. Working around the clock 24/7, no one deserved it more than she.

That's it, Bessie, she thought. Just think good thoughts and keep your composure...

"Oh! Note to self," Ms. Busybody giggled, starting to feel a bit better. "It's a hair appointment!"

Robbie was setting leaves down to cover the top of the hole. Instinctively, Robbie scrambled at the sound of her voice, gasping and panicking as he hid behind the nearest wall. "It's Bessie! She'll ruin my trap!"

"Yes, a wonderful day..." Busybody said to herself. She seemed much more distracted than usual.

"No!" Robbie gave a disapproval gesture in her direction, but she didn't seem to notice.

"It really is a lovely day... how gorgeous!"

"No! To the left! Not there!"

Too late. Bessie had already fallen into the hole.

"Aw, jeez." Robbie couldn't help but smile a bit as he shook his head. The hole wasn't intended for her, but he couldn't help but feel a rush of satisfaction. That way, he could say she ruined his plan instead of him not trying hard enough. Besides, if Busybody was your boss, you would take any chance you could to 'accidentally' harm her.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was far more concerned about Bessie's wellbeing. The girl rushed over to her uncle, who was coming out of their house, carrying a cake. "Uncle! Somebody's stuck in a hole!"

"Stuck in a hole?!" he instantly became as worried as she was.

Sportacus leapt up on a wall and looked around. "I don't get it. It's still blinking. Who did I miss?" admittedly, that was hard to say with a straight face. He knew too well the crystal was responding to Bessie Busybody falling in a hole. However, the hole she had fallen into was only waist-deep by puppet standards, and it wasn't enough to hurt her besides minor injuries, if even that. Of course he would have to save her: the hero code specifically states that anyone who's in danger must be saved, even if they're a villain, an enemy, or just someone you generally don't like. But he knew who she was, and what she did to people. Not to mention she's spent at least the last several weeks inconveniencing him by trapping him here. It wouldn't kill her if he made her wait just a few minutes in turn.

Milford and Stephanie returned to the hole, the girl with a life preserver around her neck.

"Send help right away..." Bessie was on her cellphone. Bessie wasn't entirely sure how Pixel would manage to get help, but with Robbie being too far out of line, and Milford being... well, Milford, Pixel was the next-best thing that she had.

"Oh, Ms. Busybody! Oh, oh my!" the mayor was distressed seeing her trapped like this.

"I brought a life preserver!" Stephanie announced.

"I brought a cake," Milford added.

"Oh! Nice cake," Ms. Busybody chuckled a bit to hide her re-boiling fury. As much as she wanted to scream and take her bad mood out on everyone around her, she still had to put on the 'nice lady' act for young Stephanie over there.

"Oh, thank you. I made it just for you..."

Idiot, Ms. Busybody was not amused.

"Oh! Oh, we must save her!" Milford exclaimed.

"Okay, stand back! I'm going to throw the life preserver over the branch." It had only taken the girl one try to do as she said; for most kids of her size, it would've taken at least a few, but back in her hometown, she was the fastest and strongest kid in her class (even being faster and stronger than the boys, that of which she particularly got a kick out of).

"Good throw! Lower... closer... closer... yes!" Ms Busybody grabbed a hold of it. "Oh, I've got it. Now my bag..." she situated herself, making sure she had her purse over her shoulder. "Ready?"

"Hold tight!" Stephanie responded as she and the mayor began to pull the puppet woman up.

From a distance, Sportacus could see the rope beginning to break. Okay: that was enough making her wait. Somersaulting over, he arrived to catch both sides of the rope, just as it snapped in half. It was a good thing he did, too! The mayor would've crushed the cake he worked so hard on had he fallen.

"I CAN'T... HOLD ON... MUCH LONGER!"

Sportacus tried not to roll his eyes. He had been warned Busybody was downright evil, but nobody mentioned that she was also a drama queen! Once Stephanie and the mayor were able to get back on their feet and she was within his reach, Sportacus grabbed Ms. Busybody by the waist and set her back down, keeping a hand on her shoulder to make sure she didn't fall back in. "Are you okay?"

"Oh! My hero!" Bessie growled that last word through her teeth, following her comment with some angry giggling.

Goodness gracious: Sportacus could already tell dealing with this woman was going to be a nightmare. "Glad to help!" he chimed, pretending to ignore her tone.

Robbie had just realized: now that Bessie was out of the hole, it wouldn't be long before her wrath rained down on him. He grabbed his chest, debating whether or not to rip his heart right out of it.

"You're amazing, Sportacus!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"So were you!"

"Oh, yes, yes," Milford agreed.

Ms. Busybody found herself hyperventilating partially from anger, partially from panic. There was yet another damn hero in town, which meant another attempt against her. Should she even leave, knowing how easily this hero could unravel all those years of hard work? "Oh dear," she said to herself, voice shaking.

Soon the puppet children gathered around her, talking over each other and worried about her safety.

"And as Mayor of LazyTown, I would like to offer you an official thank-you for your heroic actions. Uh..." it seemed Milford was at a loss how to actually thank the hero. "... Thank you ... uh, number 10!"

"You're welcome! Please call me Sportacus!"

"Sportacus?!" the small crowd of puppets exclaimed, though the children far happier than the adult.

Bessie turned around to find Robbie peering over the wall, his expression a mix of fear, sheepishness and anger. She knew he knew he was in deep sh-

"You know, LazyTown is really starting to feel like home for me."

"Me too."

"Will you stay?" Stephanie asked him.

"Will you, huh?" Ziggy asked.

Even though Robbie knew Sportacus couldn't see him from where he was standing, he made a disapproval gesture anyway.

"Will he?" Stingy asked when Sportacus didn't respond right away.

"... I think I will." Not like I have much of a choice anyway, Sportacus thought.

"Yay!" the puppet children cheered in unison.

Robbie gasped. "Stay? No!" Truth be told, he really had mixed feelings rather than purely negative ones about Sportacus being here, but now was not the time to break character, especially with everyone else nearby.

"Well, I got to get back to my job, then," Milford said.

"We can help you! No one's lazy in LazyTown!" Stephanie said before running ahead of the group.

"Yes!" Sportacus liked this girl's attitude. If she were to ever be affected by anything they would do to transform her, he was feeling optimistic that it wouldn't happen for a long time.

The other puppet children began to join in, beginning to help pull weeds from the various places they popped up in all over town, and clean up trash scattered in the streets.

Suddenly everyone began to feel a similarly cheerful and upbeat song while not the same as the first, gave everyone an urge to dance.

"Bing bang digga rigga dong, funny words I sing when I am dancing... bing bang digga rigga dong, silly words that can mean anything!" Stephanie sang.

Sportacus knew this song: maybe not its tune, but Number 9 pointed out this song in particular. One thing Sportacus did to keep himself busy during his many nights alone was practicing the moves to this dance, which Number 9 outlined in detail for him. Doing this would give the illusion he was beginning to fall under Busybody's control, and therefore loosen her suspicions of him until he had time to figure something out. All those years he had spent in LazyTown before him, Number 9 never did figure out exactly what the song meant, he did notice a pattern: it played whenever Radiant (or 'Robbie Rotten' as this villainous persona was called) had failed Busybody in whatever plan he could to keep the town lazy and run the hero out, and sometimes seemed to act as a signal to tell her this when she wasn't around.

After spending the rest of the day dancing, cleaning up, and playing games with the children, Sportacus returned to his ship. He would need to remind himself of the exact protocol of what to do when another human ends up in LazyTown, but if it was one thing he decided that day: he wasn't going to give up until Busybody was defeated, and both Robbie and Stephanie were safe, no matter how long that would take.

Robbie stomped the whole way back to his lair, muttering indistinctly what would be safe to assume was about Sportacus, and brushing the leaf crumbles that had gotten on his clothes. (He accidentally fell into his own trap trying to sneak out, but he got out unharmed.)

Carefully climbing down the ladder back into his underground abode, things were awfully quiet as far as he could tell. Maybe he had gotten away with it after all.

"Hello, Robbie."

Robbie gasped softly, freezing at Busybody's voice.

Please don't have your goons, please don't have your goons, please don't have your goons...

Robbie turned to find that sure enough, Ms. Busybody had been accompanied by two hulking puppets twice her size, both of them dressed like train staff. These goons were usually the ones who ran the trains, bringing in supplies and sometimes more victims with them, but every once in a while, Ms. Busybody would summon them from off the train.

... There was only one reason she ever summoned them off the train.

Ms. Busybody raised a plastic eyebrow. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out what was going on, here?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Robbie lied indignantly.

"Oh, I think you do," she growled.

"If this is about Sporta-whatever, I swear I had nothing to do with that!" Even though escape was virtually impossible, Robbie reached backwards for one of the rungs of ladder with shaking hands.

"Go on, boys: you know what to do."

Desperately spinning around and grabbing the next rung up, he had gotten about three higher before he was grabbed by the leg, and yanked to the floor. Though he knew it was no use, he tried again for the ladder, but was promptly interrupted by the other goon stomping down on his arm. Robbie screamed as he heard the bone snap, but a swift kick to the stomach from the other goon knocked all the air out of him, leaving only tears to form in his eyes as one of his legs was broken in a similar fashion.

Tears streaming down his face as he struggled to move, or even breathe, he curled over his body, trying to protect his organs as much as he could while the goons beat him to a pulp. All of their blows landed where he was clothed, which he knew was so no one could see the bruises or other injuries and ask about them. He hated their laughter, and how they always enjoyed this a bit too much, but he was nowhere near strong enough to fight back.

When they finally stopped, Robbie felt a familiar heeled shoe resting on his head.

"Consider yourself lucky I need you alive."

Robbie barely choked out a whimper at the sharp, hot pain of the tip of the shoe striking his forehead.

He didn't open his eyes until they left. Well, that actually wasn't as bad as he was anticipating: she's had her guards do worse to him before... which, in a way he supposed was a good thing. Because her torture methods usually resulted in serious injuries that motivated him to stock up on special supplies ahead of time, such as an advanced plaster bandage that sped the process of healing a broken bone from six-to-eight weeks to merely one week. There should still have been some in the medicine cabinet...

The pain really began to sink in as Robbie used his intact limbs to push himself towards the bathroom of his lair. Whenever the pain got this bad, his mind couldn't help but drift to a time where he wasn't Robbie Rotten, pawn of Bessie Busybody, but rather Robert Radiant, hero of LazyTown.

Many years ago, LazyTown was not only a real town, with real families, tourists and other hardworking citizens, but actually a nice place to live: it was a thriving town that welcomed all kinds of people, even aliens and other non-humans! Like any other hero, Robbie kept the town's citizens safe, and encouraged small children to eat healthy and get plenty of time outside.

But strange things had happened since puppet sweets peddler Bessie Busybody moved to town: the sweet and/or fatty foods she sold became highly addictive to the populace, unnatural fumes emitted from the ovens and other machinery in town, cameras would pop up in various places, and worst of all, people gradually began to transform... into puppets. Which Robbie supposed wouldn't be such a bad thing... if the process hadn't left you a former shell of yourself that she could control any time she pleased. While she never officially took any sort of office, Bessie Busybody had single-handedly taken over LazyTown from behind the scenes. Even Radiant wasn't immune to these effects: over time, his head from the eyebrows up had been puppetized. Every once in a while, he could feel himself slipping away along with everyone else, joining in on eating sweets and becoming less active.

He didn't know what Busybody's end goal was or why she was doing this (and still doesn't, to this day), but in a desperate attempt to save the people who weren't puppetized, he struck a deal with her: whatever people were still human would be allowed to leave LazyTown and be spared from the process, and she could keep the ones who were visibly puppetized for her use. She agreed, with some terms of her own: not only would Radiant have to step down as hero of LazyTown, he would also have to play the villain so he would be a scapegoat, keeping the residents lazy (which he soon found out was to help speed up the puppetizing process) and driving other heroes that would try to stop her away. That way, the residents would have someone that wasn't her to blame for the state their fair town had fallen into, and she could continue with her scheme as planned.

The unaffected people were soon evacuated, but the rest of the populace hadn't been so lucky. Puppetizing was not only a process that would fully change a person, but also a very risky, even deadly process. Only a handful of people survived the initial wave, and even people in that handful that would die a few months later. Over the years, the population of LazyTown had gone down from about three-hundred to nine, himself included. There were several nights he lost sleep thinking about it, thinking about how many more people he could've saved, how he should've found a way to stop her and save all the townsfolk... but it was too late now.

That didn't mean all hope was lost, however; there was a pattern: overall children were found more likely to survive than adults (thus why Busybody targeted the former group more often), and the chances of both groups increased the less they fought the process, meaning they should avoid being active and eating food that didn't have the mind-control drugs she used.

Then that brought him to little Stephanie: it wasn't that he wanted her (or anyone!) to be forcibly turned into a puppet, but he knew too well of this fate that was about to become her if she couldn't be saved in time. Obviously, best-case scenario was that Sportacus would find a way to sneak her out of town and she could keep living life as a normal human girl, but in case that wasn't achievable, he figured he'd at least try to give her the best chance at survival possible. And that wasn't even getting into the fact Bessie was basically holding him at gunpoint (or, puppetizing-point might've been a more appropriate term) to play along and do as she said. The only positive to working for her was that she was occasionally willing to give him ingredients for an antidote cake that not only would stop the puppetizing process in its tracks, but even give him temporary immunity to the drugs and mind-control in the food and fumes throughout LazyTown.

He had tried before to rebel against her, he had tried before to try and leave the town, but every time he made some sort of attempt to change his situation, the blue-haired devil made sure he would suffer for it, bringing him right back to where he was before. Maybe he deserved this fate. What kind of hero lets more than half their town die?

It had taken several agonizing hours, but Robbie patched himself up, and used one side of his body to make his way over to his favorite fluffy chair. But he could never relax: especially not with the cameras all over his lair constantly pointed at him, watching his every move. Tears still strong in his eyes, he knew he had to keep going on... lest the situation he was in become worse from not being in character.

"I, Robbie Rotten, will not be beaten by a costumed Sportaloony and some pink cheerleader!" he stomped his right leg on his footstool, briefly forgetting it was broken. "Owww ow ow ow! I'll stop them if it's the last thing I do. And then, LazyTown will stay lazy forever!" He moved his right arm when laughing evilly... forgetting also that that was broken too.

Mayor Meanswell had told him once he had become quite convincing to those watching on the outside... but Robbie hated that he was just as much of a helpless hostage as everyone else here in LazyTown.

A/N

Yes, I know there was also a scene where Sportacus flies over to LazyTown after receiving the letter, but come on now, you can't expect me to believe the letter just *magically* found its way to the airship from that kind of horizontal distance, can you? Also, even if that were the case, why does Sportacus "just happen" to have an entire freaking book on LazyTown lying around? And if he weren't at least somewhat nearby, how did Stephanie get the letter back so quickly? If the original writers can make a mistake like Stephanie originally carrying out a blue dodgeball before switching to a soccer ball by the time she gets to Pixel's house, (and getting a jump rope out of nowhere, as she didn't have her bag on her in her song) how would Sportacus getting the letter perfectly and within seconds without being over LazyTown be any more plausible? (AND don't even get me started how the hole is first as deep as Robbie's waist, then as deep as Busybody's waist, then deep enough to put Robbie underground completely!)

That being said, if there's still any questions, feel free to PM me (or leave a review if you don't have an account) and I'll answer your question as soon as I can.

My goal is to update at least once a week, but since I'm going to be spending all summer moving and I'll be trying to go back to work and school after that, I'll try and sneak in updates where I can, but I can't really promise anything.