Down on the ground, below the events unfolding in the airship floating above them, the kids were playing Basketball. Stingy and Trixie had joined the other three and been quickly filled in on the strange visitor and the intense discomfort she'd cultivated in the three that had had the misfortune of meeting her.

"If she'd have laughed at me like that I'd have punched her in the arm," Trixie had commented, balling her fist for emphasis.

Now in the middle of their game and somewhat distracted, they'd started to lose their unease and have fun.

"I can't believe that Lily is Sportacus' sister. She seems so mean." Ziggy thought out loud, holding the Basketball as he stopped dribbling. The others breaking from their positions as play stopped and walking towards him.

"I know," agreed Pixel, "to be perfectly honest she gives me the creeps. I don't know why but it's just something about her."

"It's not just you, Pixel." added Stephanie joining in the conversation, "she gives me the creeps too and I also think she's mean. She makes Robbie Rotten look like an angel."

The others laughed and agreed.

The conversation concluded the kids went back to their game, trying to ignore the fact that as yet neither Sportacus or Lily had emerged from the airship.

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Robbie Rotten had been listening to the kids' conversation. He'd been looking through his periscope and caught sight of them playing. He'd watched them with disgust but the words they were saying interested him, Sportacus' sister eh? It seemed the kids were about as clued in about this sister as he was and she sounded quite interesting to him. He smiled as he started to feel the cogs in his head starting to turn, the formulation of an evil plan in the making.

Now, to see if he could bring that plan into fruition.

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As Sportacus sat on the floor cupping his stinging cheek he could feel the sensation lessening slightly. The heat radiating from it was nothing compared to the fire of the gaze upon him. He didn't want to look up at her, he didn't want to see her face contorted into a mask of disbelief at how he'd reacted to what would have been his 'reward' for flinching. The violent slap she'd given him in response, his punishment.

By daring to block her oncoming blow, grabbing her wrist in a vice-like grip as she'd swung her open hand towards him, he'd only prolonged the inevitable and received a much harder assault for his trouble.

His neck was aching from the sudden jarring movement it had endured as her palm had met his cheek at full force, snapping his head sideways with the impact. Made dizzy by the hit he'd allowed himself to sink to the floor and remained there. Though vulnerable in this position he was almost certain that his sister wouldn't rally another attack against him. In the periphery of his vision he could see her holding her wrist, supporting it as the bruises inflicted by his fingertips digging into her flesh came through.

Despite her being who she was, despite her having done what she did, he regretted his action in the face of defending himself. He wanted to apologise. If she had been anyone else, he would have done. But to apologise would be to look at her. To look at her would be to potentially invite another blow or see that face. To see those eyes that burned into him.

It was after an agonisingly long period of what felt like hours, when only a few minutes had passed, that he heard her turn and walk away. The familiar sound of the ladder being released from its compartment reached his ears and he felt a rush of air as the platform descended.

For a few minutes more he remained where he was. His body screaming at him to move, his muscles hating being unnaturally still. If he was honest with himself, he didn't feel safe to leave the spot he was on until he was totally sure that Lily had left. He couldn't see her anymore in the small, cautious, glances he made around him but that didn't mean she was really gone.

She'd fooled him that way before.