She ran over to him and gave him a sharp and painful kick in the leg. Her anger reaching boiling point she began punching Sportacus in the stomach over and over, her fury fuelling her violence. She hated him, she hated him. Sportacus didn't retaliate to what Trixie was doing; he let her carry on venting her anger. He deserved it after all; it was his fault her friend had died.

Eventually with all her anger spent Trixie sank to the ground in floods of tears, the anger that had risen so quickly and burned so harshly had left her feeling devastated inside. Sportacus painfully lowered himself down and held Trixie as she cried. Stingy, Ziggy and Pixel just stood in silence and watched the scene. They were astonished that Sportacus had done nothing to hurt or even hold off Trixie even though she was laying into him, they were even more astonished that Sportacus held her when her anger and violence had ceased. Both Stingy and Pixel weren't sure what to think of Sportacus, half of them said that what had happened to Stephanie wasn't his fault and other half said it was. Ziggy believed that it wasn't Sportacus' fault entirely, he hadn't accepted easily the fact that not even Sportacus could save everyone. It had all happened so quickly that no one could have done anything.

After Trixie had done crying Sportacus helped her up. She began to apologise but Sportacus shook his head indicating that there was no need for it. Trixie nodded her head to agree even though she would have felt better if she'd been allowed to apologise. Sportacus started to walk until he was closer to his airship, as he passed the three boys he nodded.

"Ladder!" He called when he was underneath the airship and with one last look at the four children he ascended the ladder.

Once in the airship he looked around, it was still in a mess from his half done repairs. Robbie was right, Sportacus did get lonely up in his airship sometimes. It sounded bad but he was glad when the kids needed saving as he could come down to help them. He liked playing with them when they didn't need rescuing but it wasn't the same.

Sportacus lowered his bed and sat on it grunting pain when his stomach resisted, he lifted his shirt and saw the multitude of bruises on his stomach where Trixie had punched. For a small girl she had done a lot of damage. Noticing the state of his stomach he thought it would be a good idea to look at his leg. There was a large bruise on his shin where Trixie had kicked him but it wasn't as bad as the bruises on his stomach. He had only realised how much his stomach really hurt when he had sat down and tears formed in his eyes, he fought them and went to make himself some lunch but not before grunting in pain from standing up again.

After eating a couple of apples he emptied the contents of his fruit dispenser into a bag, he'd need his own supplies if he was staying with Robbie for a while. He also put some clean uniforms into the bag and other essential bits and pieces. Once this job was down he climbed back down the ladder and much more carefully than usual for fear of hurting his stomach anymore.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" A voice bellowed from nowhere, Sportacus turned and saw the Mayor stalking up to him his face red with rage.

The shout had come from him and Sportacus began to stand his ground, he had hoped he wouldn't see the Mayor for a while. Sportacus was not the only to hear the shout and Bessie came running out of the Mayor's house not wanting a confrontation between the two. Before anyone knew it the Mayor was right in front of Sportacus and had landed a hard square punch into his Stomach. Sportacus doubled in pain and retched from the punch as his stomach convulsed. The Mayor was about to land another blow on Sportacus but his fist was stopped by a hand which was connected to a red and purple arm.

The Mayor's anger evaporated straight away and was replaced by complete puzzlement at the sight. 'Robbie Rotten defending Sportacus?' The Mayor thought. His face reflected his confusion and he opened his hand, the grip on his wrist loosened and he drew his hand away.

Without another word or look he turned walked towards his house with Bessie close behind, she was just as confused by what had just happened. Sportacus looked up at Robbie his hands clutching his stomach. He was going to thank Robbie but saw that he was too occupied with staring daggers at the Mayor's retreating back. Once the Mayor was out of sight Robbie looked down at Sportacus who was still looking up at him a look of gratitude on his face despite his eyes showing the confusion that everyone seemed to share. He'd never known Robbie to defend anyone except himself and didn't know he had it in him.

Without a word Robbie offered his hand to Sportacus again, Sportacus took it and shakily stood up again but this time it was from the pain in his stomach not from the cramps in his legs. Once Robbie had helped Sportacus up he turned back the way he had come and headed for home, Sportacus picked up his bag and followed.

Once back in his house the Mayor sat down heavily on a kitchen chair and sighed, shaking his head. He didn't know Robbie had defended Sportacus, were they in league together now? No, Sportacus would never turn his back on being active and wouldn't be bad like Robbie. Perhaps Robbie was the one that had changed and was becoming good, this was almost as unlikely as Sportacus changing but it made more sense.

He was startled slightly by a plate with a sandwich on it being placed in front of him on the table. He looked up and saw Bessie there; she smiled slightly and sat next to him with her own sandwich. For a while nothing was said between the two, they just concentrated on eating.

Once the Mayor had finished his sandwich he pushed the plate away a little bit and put his hands on the table, "its strange isn't it? I've been turning it over and over in my head but I just figure out why Robbie Rotten of all people would defend Sportacus." The Mayor looked at Bessie to see what she thought about it.

"I agree it is strange," She began, "but perhaps Sportacus just needs a friend right now. As unlikely a friend as Robbie is I think they're suited to each other in some way."

"How?" The Mayor asked confused.

"Well, in a way they're both outcasts now, Robbie, because he's so mean and Sportacus because of what happened to Stephanie."

"I guess"

"Maybe in some way Robbie just took pity on Sportacus. I noticed Trixie attacking him earlier."

"Trixie? Attacking Sportacus?"

"Yes. She saw him when she was walking with the others and ran up to him and kicked and punched him. She was really laying into him with the punches but he did nothing to stop her."

For a reason unknown to him the Mayor felt a pang of guilt for punching Sportacus. The punch hadn't been hard enough to make him double in pain but if he'd known Sportacus had been punched before he may not have done it. He thought on where the pang of guilt had come from, Sportacus had been his friend and after what had happened perhaps he still was. The Mayor was still angry with him and punching Sportacus had made him feel better as his anger had been released a bit. He thought on what he would do next; did he want to make Sportacus leave after all? Who would save the inhabitants of Lazy Town with Sportacus gone? He would hold off on signing the papers until he had calmed down some more and perhaps spoken with Sportacus, he'd have more idea of what to do then.

"I saw that Tricky kid punching you earlier," Came Robbie's voice from across the room. Sportacus was sitting in the orange chair and Robbie was looking through his periscope.

Sportacus guessed that Robbie had known about the Mayor punching him by watching through it, little did he know that Robbie had been on his way to pay Trixie a little visit about punching Sportacus.

"Trixie," came a reply to Robbie's comment.

"What?"

"Her name's Trixie not Tricky."

"Whatever." Robbie shrugged his shoulders and raised the periscope; there was no one around and nothing to look at.

Seeing Robbie come away from the periscope Sportacus stood up to let Robbie have his chair back but Robbie shook his head.

"I have a small surprise for you. Instead of taking a nap while you were away I made this," Robbie walked down the steps and over to a thing covered with a sheet, he took the sheet up and underneath it was a crude looking bed.

"It didn't take long to put together, I had most of the material from some old inventions I haven't used for a while. I thought it would be better for you sleeping on this than the floor." Robbie said indicating the bed.

Sportacus didn't know what to say, he just nodded his thanks and went over to the bed to test it out. When he sat down it squeaked a little but it was comfortable, he guessed that the mattress was made of and filled with old disguises and he was right.

"It's nice, thank you Robbie. If you want to take you nap now I'll be quiet, I might do some exercises as I haven't done some for the last couple of days but I won't disturb you." Sportacus said with pure gratitude.

Without further invitation Robbie sat in his chair and fell right to sleep. Sportacus smiled and shook his head. Robbie's companionship had made a world of difference to the last day, he felt better about what had happened the day before. He still felt guilty but not as guilty as he had done. The Mayor's and Trixie's attacks had also helped; it was punishment he felt he deserved. Instead of doing exercises he sat and thought about what he would do after what had happened to Stephanie.