CHAPTER 2
- - - - - - - -
Later that night, after the rain had stopped, a robot dog zipped around the corner, pulling it's helpless owner Robbie Rotten with it's leash.
"Can't you go more slowly?" Robbie complained. "How is it going to look if people see me running all over town? I've got a reputation to keep, you know."
They circled the town several times before arriving at the garbage dump.
"STOP!" Robbie shouted as he pulled with all of his might on the leash, finally bringing the dog to a halt.
"That's better."
Robbie took a giant breath and sighed.
"Ah.. nothing like a nightly stroll through the garbage dump. You never know what you might find!"
After quickly scanning the area to make sure nobody was watching, Robbie began to take a look around. Almost instantly a shimmer of light caught his eye.
"What do we have here?" Robbie asked nobody in particular, and then reached for the object.
It was the mirror that Sportacus had thrown out earlier.
"Now who would throw out a perfectly good mirror?" wondered Robbie, as he looked it over.
"I guess some people don't like to look at themselves. Then again, who can blame them if they don't look this good." said Robbie as he admired his reflection.
"Ruff ruff!" the robot dog barked in disagreement.
"No one asked for YOUR opinion." Robbie grumbled, and picked up the rest of the mirror.
"All it needs is a little glue, and I can stare at my wonderful self all day long."
- - - - - - - - -
A little while later, back in his lair, Robbie had just finished super-gluing the mirror back together.
"There we go, good as new." he said proudly, and yawned as he stretched his arms above his head.
"All this work has made me sleepy. I think it's time for bed. I've got quite the lazy day ahead of me tomorrow." muttered Robbie as his eyes began to close. He dragged himself over to his orange fluffy chair and soon drifted off to sleep.
- - - - - - - - -
Very early that morning, way before the sun had risen, Robbie Rotten awoke with a start. His heart was pounding like a drum, and he was dripping with sweat. He had been having nothing but nightmare after nightmare all night long.
"Whew, I'm glad that's over." he said as he fanned himself with his hand. "I should be giving people nightmares, not having them."
Robbie laid back in his chair to try and fall asleep again, when suddenly the dark room lit up red, and a figure emerged from the mirror.
"What's going on here!" he muttered, still groggy from having just woken up.
"Well well well, what do we have here?" a gruff voice said from the darkness.
Robbie was confused. "Who's there?"
He was shocked when someone who looked exaclty like Sportacus came into view, but wore red clothes instead of blue.
"Sportacus, what are you doing in here?"
There was no reply.
"Sportacus?" Robbie asked again, becoming more and more afraid with each passing second.
"Call me SCORNacus, you weak sack of filth." the figure spoke again, his eyes glowing bright red.
Robbie didn't know what was going on, but he did know that whoever this was, was going to regret coming into his lair in the middle of the night.
"Trouble!" Robbie shouted suddenly, activating his robot dog.
The dog sprung to life, and dove right at the intruder.
Scornacus effortlessly leapt out of the way, and before the dog even landed, he sent it hurtling across the room with his foot.
He then cracked his neck to the side, as the robot dog crashed against the wall and shorted out.
"What do you want?" Robbie squeaked, as he cowered in his chair.
"I just wanted to thank you for fixing my mirror. Oh, and to tell you that this lair now belongs to me." Scornacus grinned evilly.
Robbie was about to say something, but Scornacus didn't want to hear it.
"Just GET OUT!" he growled, leaning right in front of Robbie, and showing his fangs.
"Okay, I can do that." Robbie said quickly, anxious to get away from this maniac.
He leapt out of his chair, grabbed his pillow, and bolted across the room to the ladder that lead to the surface. Without looking back he climbed all the way to the top.
When he was safely outside he let out all of the breath he had been holding in.
"Who does Sportacus think he is, kicking me out of my own home? I'll get him for this!" vowed Robbie, and then hesitated for a minute. "Um... first thing tomorrow."
- - - - - - - - -
The next morning, Stephanie had just woken up to a bright sunny day, and hurried into the kitchen where her Uncle was making breakfast.
"Hey Uncle!" she said cheerfully.
"Good morning Stephanie." he replied. "Did you sleep well?"
"I sure did. I'm going to go outside and play with Stingy and Ziggy okay?"
"Okay just be careful, we don't have a super-hero around until this afternoon!" he reminded her.
"I will! See ya!" waved Stephanie, and closed the front door behind her as softly as she could.
"I'm sure glad things are back to normal with me and my Uncle." she thought, as she hurried to the town square, where Stingy and Ziggy were waiting for her.
"Hi Stephanie!" Ziggy shouted as she approached.
"Hey! What do you want to do today?" Stephanie asked them both.
"Let's eat candy all day long until we burst!" Ziggy suggested, full of enthusiasm.
Stingy and Stephanie both laughed and shook their heads.
"I know, we could count all of the things in town that belong to me!" proposed Stingy.
Stephanie rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms.
"Or we could just play soccer." he said reluctantly.
"Alright, let's go!" shouted Ziggy, and they hurried off towards the field.
When they arrived, Stephanie noticed someone sleeping on a nearby bench.
"Wait guys, who is that?" she inquired.
"It looks like Robbie Rotten!" Ziggy remarked.
Robbie grumbled a little, and rolled into a different position.
"He doesn't look very comfortable." Stingy pointed out.
"Robbie what are you doing sleeping out here?" Stephanie asked.
Robbie opened his eyes, and wrinkled his brow.
"Can't a poor lazy man sleep outside without being asked why? Now go away, I've still got a whole lot of sleeping to do."
"Well we're going to be playing soccer, so it might be hard to sleep here." she warned.
Robbie just muttered, and rolled over to try to fall back asleep.
The kids went to start their game, and after only a few minutes, Robbie realized that Stephanie was right.
"Noisy no good kids." he grumbled, and sat up. He grabbed his pillow and stormed over to the tree-house.
"Maybe they won't be as loud up here."
- - - - - - - - -
Over at the soccer field, Stingy and Ziggy were taking turns trying to score a goal on Stephanie.
Ziggy took a shot and just missed. "Almost got it that time!"
"Move over Ziggy, it's MY turn." said Stingy as he wound up for a kick.
Stephanie jumped to block it, but it managed to get past her. She was about to congratulate Stingy on the goal, but was interrupted by the sound of clapping.
"Sportacus, you're back early!" said Ziggy excitedly.
Stephanie stood up with a confused look on her face. Sportacus wasn't supposed to be back until the afternoon, but sure enough there he was, clapping.
"Sportacus, you don't usually wear red." she said suspiciously.
"Yeah, well I figured it was time for a change. Is that okay with you?" he asked sarcastically.
Stephanie decided to drop it. "Yea, I guess so."
"Hah these kids think I'm actually Sportacus." thought Scornacus, while grinning his evil grin. "Maybe I can use them to weed him out from wherever he's hiding."
"Hey Sportacus, wanna play soccer with us?" asked Ziggy as he bounced up and down.
"Sure why not?" Scornacus smiled, as he got a wonderfully evil idea.
- - - - - - - - -
Robbie shook in frustration from up in the tree-house.
"Gr, I can still hear them!"
He put a hand above his eyes to block out the sun, and peered out the window.
"There's that pesky Sportacus again. Maybe I can take back my lair while he's out here." thought Robbie as he tapped his fingers together. He then slid his legs out of the tree house, knocking the ladder over in the process.
Robbie panicked as the ladder crashed to the ground.
"Oh no, I'm stuck!" he cried.
- - - - - - - - -
Down on the soccer field, they had made two teams of two, and were starting a game. Stephanie and Stingy started with the ball, and began to make their way up the field, passing back and forth.
Within seconds Scornacus had effortlessly stolen the ball from Stephanie as she came by, knocking her over in the process.
"Hey!" she cried.
Ziggy shouted from next to the other team's net. "Sportacus pass me the ball!"
"Okay Ziggy, get ready-.." Scornacus cackled, and wound up for the kick.
"..because here it comes."
He kicked the ball with such a force that it rocketed across the field, and plowed Ziggy right in the face. Ziggy was out cold.
Stingy was the first to react. "Ziggy! Are you okay?"
"Sportacus what are you doing?" Stephanie shrieked and ran to Ziggy.
Scornacus didn't answer her, as he was to busy retrieving the ball.
Stingy's eyes widened when he realized that he was winding up for another kick.
"Run!" he cried, and headed for cover, but it was too late. The ball was headed for him at what seemed like mach speed.
It hit Stingy square in the back of the head, and he dropped like a ton of bricks.
"Stop it!" Stephanie screamed in desperation. "You looked in the mirror didn't you?"
Scornacus crossed his arms and laughed. "Not at all, in fact I actually came OUT of the mirror."
Stephanie backed up, a look of terror forming on her face.
"What do you want?" she managed to ask.
Scornacus suddenly leapt into the air, flipped right over, and grabbed Stephanie from behind.
"You and your friends are coming with me." Scornacus told her as he picked up Stingy and Ziggy.
Stephanie struggled to get free, but he was too strong. "Let go! Sportacus is going to come looking for us!" she threatened.
"I know." Scornacus whispered into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine.
