Title: Pride of Lazytown (Part Four)

Author: PTMalvik
Rating: PG13

Summary: A Sports Day disaster leads to strange revelations and some unlikely heroes. (Sorry for the update taking so long. Real life stuff intervened.)

0o0o0o

After her furious friends marched from the house in an odd, army-like formation, Stephanie's uncle knocked gingerly at her bedroom door.

"Sweetheart, we have a visitor -- if you're up to visiting, that is," he said.

She saw a blue cap just peeking up over her uncle's head and her heart leapt. "Sportacus? Yes, please, come in!"

Smiling and carrying a gift box, Sportacus quietly entered her room, smiling. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him move so carefully and slowly, especially when he sat down on the edge of her bed, taking great care not to jiggle or move the mattress in any way that might cause her injury to start hurting again.

He leaned back against the headboard, his affectionate grin making Stephanie almost forget about her broken ankle . "Are you feeling a little bit better today?"

She nodded cheerfully. "A little bit."

"I see you've had visitors," Sportacus said, pointing to the pile of gifts littering her bed. "Let's see if I can guess who they were. This must be from Ziggy," he said, picking up an empty candy wrapper, making Stephanie giggle. He pointed to the homemade video game controller. "This must be from Pixel. The diary, that's from Trixie, I think and ..." He peered over at her cast where the words "THIS IS MINE" were written in large, bold letters. "That must be Stingy's gift."

Stephanie laughed aloud. "Right on all counts. You're a good guesser."

Leaning close, he whispered, "It wasn't that hard." With a small flourish, he handed her a box wrapped in shining blue and white foil. "This is from me."

Biting her lip with delight, Stephanie ripped the paper away and opened the box. Inside was a brightly colored soccer jersey -- a real one -- professionally made, with the team name and logo of the "Lazytown Jumpers" embroidered on it, as well as her name on the back, curved gracefully above the number "1".

It was baby pink, silky to the touch and possibly the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, biting back tears.

"It's just my way of saying, don't give up your dreams even if sometimes, there's a little pain along the way," Sportacus said, putting an arm around Stephanie and pulling her close. "If you keep playing and don't give up, I promise, you'll have more good times than bad. And, if you can convince the others to keep at it, I'll get jerseys for them too and then we'll have a real Lazytown soccer team. Would you like that?"

Sniffling, she nodded. "I'd like that a lot."

"Speaking of your friends, where are they?" Sportacus asked, looking around. "I'd thought they'd enjoy having an excuse to sit and play video games all day."

With a shrug, Stephanie sighed. "They, uh, kinda went out to ... see ... Robbie Rotten," she muttered.

An expression of confusion crossed Sportacus's face. " See Robbie? What for?"

Remembering her last conversation with them, Stephanie felt her face turn red with embarrassment and more than a little bit of anger. "They went to derottenize him."

"Derottenize?"

Sportacus didn't sound exactly happy with that word, Stephanie thought. Avoiding his searching look, she stared at the jersey and played with its hem between her fingers. "Because he's the one who made me fall and break my ankle," she snapped, feeling miserable and guilty and angry, all at the same time. It wasn't a good feeling. "He's the one who got those kids to play against us and told them to cheat like that and that's why I'm stuck here in this stupid bed, taking pills and not having any fun at all for six whole weeks."

"Do you know that for certain?" Sportacus asked, in an even, patient tone.

No, she didn't know for certain, but did that really matter? At a loss for any better proof, she shrugged again and said: "Who else could it be? He's always been a jerk, especially when it comes to kids having fun."

A few moments of heavy silence passed between them. Stephanie found herself doubting her own words, especially as her anger waned. Guilt too, as she knew her friends were probably pounding the lazy straight of Robbie, right at that very moment.

"You know, Stephanie, I made the same assumption," Sportacus said, finally, breaking the silence. "I went over his house last night and asked him about it. And you know what?"

Oh, this wasn't good, Stephanie thought, her heart suddenly in her throat. "What?"

"I'm almost positive he had nothing to do with it. In fact, he's agreed to a rematch against the other team, with him playing on our side."

Stephanie's jaw dropped. She gaped at Sportacus. "Are you serious? Robbie Rotten is going to play in a soccer game against those kids? On our side?"

"That's right." Sportacus' voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "Seems that he doesn't like being upstaged in the villain department. Which is what made me certain he had nothing to do with it."

Horrified, Stephanie clapped her hands to her mouth. "Sportacus! You have go and save him! Trixie and Stingy and ... oh, and Pixel ... and Ziggy too all went to go get him! They are there right now and ... oh gosh! You have to help him! They're probably doing something awful to him!"

"Oh no," Sportacus said, quickly rising, his jaw set in a determined line. "I'll go save him. Now you rest, Stephanie, and don't be sad or angry. We're going to straighten everything out. It's all going to be all right, I promise."

"Just hurry," Stephanie begged, swallowing hard. She watched him zip out the door, then through her window, she could see him flipping toward Robbie's house, which sat on the other side of town.

How awful, she thought miserably, biting her thumbnail. Assuming the worst of Robbie without proof was stupid of her and oh why hadn't she stopped her friends from marching out like that? And here she was, stuck in bed and unable to stop them.

Thank goodness she had Sportacus. He'd make everything all right again.

If he got there in time.

0o0o0o

"And take THAT!"

Ziggy whacked his lollipop one more time atop Robbie's elaborately coifed hairdo. It wasn't a hard hit, in fact, it barely moved a hair out of place, but Robbie was lying on the ground nonetheless, cringing and blubbering, then shrieking horribly when Trixie bared her teeth and poised herself to sink them into Robbie's ankle.

"We'll see how much you like this!" she cried, about to chomp down when something quick and blue pulled her up by her collar, leaving her to snap at the air.

"Kids!" cried Sportacus, pulling them one by one, off of Robbie's shaking form. "This is not good. This isn't the way we solve disputes!"

"But he hurt Stephanie!" Pixel protested, aiming his Zapper 1231 at Robbie. The blaster disappeared from his hand as Sportacus quickly grabbed it and tossed it over the wall, where it landed in the grass with a thump.

"I didn't do anything!" Robbie wailed. He was unhurt, but that didn't seem to quell his indignant cries. "Do you see what these monsters have done to me?" He allowed Sportacus to help him to his feet. "These little animals! Why, they could have killed me!"

"Let's not exaggerate, Robbie," Sportacus sighed. He gave Robbie a friendly pat on the back. "It was all a misunderstanding." He regarded the children sternly. "A misunderstanding, guys. Robbie had nothing to do with Stephanie's accident. In fact, he's offered to join us in a rematch against the other team, to show them that we here in Lazytown don't take things lying down."

"Robbie does," Stingy sniffed. "Take things lying down, that is."

"Why you ..." Robbie growled, but quieted when Sportacus lifted his hand for silence.

Ziggy scratched his head, pondering what Sportacus had said. His lollipop was plastered with a few strands of Robbie's hair and he grimaced at it before tossing it aside. "So it was all the other kids who were so mean like that?"

"Yes," Sportacus replied, kneeling down beside Ziggy and putting a hand on his shoulder. "But we can't sink down to their level, especially when it comes to assuming things that might not be true and acting on rumors. We still have to play fair and square and I know we'll beat them that way."

"Does this mean we can't beat up Robbie? I mean, he's done lots of other stuff," chimed in Trixie hopefully. "Just one little ankle bite? Please?"

"No," Sportacus replied firmly. "No hitting, biting, tripping or hurting in any way. Guys, you have to promise me that you'll never do anything like this again, to anyone."

"But especially not to me," Robbie interjected. "Tell them, Sportakook."

"And especially not to Robbie," Sportacus added. "Come on, guys. Promise me."

"We promise," they chimed in as one.

Happily, Sportacus rubbed his hands together. "That's what I like to hear. And now, we need to make a game plan, because the Lazytown Jumpers have a game to win for Stephanie!"

"For Stephanie!" they cheered, jumping up and down.

Robbie rolled his eyes. Was there no end to his suffering, he wondered. "Yay," he mumbled without enthusiasm. "Just ... yay."

0o0o0o0o

to be continued ...