'Now, if I want to find Sportaflake's sister, where should I start looking?' Robbie pondered as he gazed into his periscope, rotating it every so often to gain other views of the town.

Pulling it down and moving it slightly he pushed it back up, its spying eyes popping up into another area of town. Still there was no sign. Shifting the periscope's position again, to a point on the outskirts of town he caught sight of something interesting. Moving backwards to gain a better view he studied the object of intrigue more closely.

It was a giant billboard, topped with a row of lights and emblazoned with the image of a giant cow with a house on a hill behind, set to a backdrop of the purple mountains.

"Where did that come from?" Robbie asked anyone and no one, "that wasn't there yest….." He broke off as realisation dawned and taking his eyes and hands from his periscope he looked around, straightening his jacket and smiling as if to brush off his mistake. "Of course it was, I knew that the whole time." He chuckled before returning to the periscope.

Just in time for his eyes to be caught by a flash of green.

He whirled around to follow it, his eyes immediately finding their target. He followed with the periscope, trying to keep up but she was moving quickly. Suddenly she stopped walking. Almost as though she had sensed the periscope following her she turned around.

The moment her blue eyes met those of his periscope, Robbie felt his heart jump into his mouth. He felt something he had never felt before. He was certain that as she cocked her head as if to gain a better view of what was clearly staring at her, as if trying to see through the periscope to who was at the other side. As he stared at her he felt as though it was if she was looking directly at him. A sudden surge welled up within him as a slow smile dawned upon her flawless features and he found himself flat on his back on the floor.

She was stunning.

WWWWWWWWWWWWW

Lunchtime was approaching as the kids decided to wrap up their basketball game. For Stephanie it couldn't have come sooner. Though she'd allowed herself to have fun, trying to push down her foreboding about Sportacus' sister, her thoughts had chiselled away at her concentration and distracted her. Her ill feelings had returned when she'd caught sight of Lily leaving the airship.

The others hadn't missed the movements of the girl in green either. Her stealthy descent of the ladder, reaching its midway point before somersaulting from it, landing with cat-like grace on her feet and moving swiftly away. For their part they had chosen to ignore her, carrying on with their game. Missing the quick, spiteful look that had been thrown their way as she'd turned back for an instant.

One that Stephanie hadn't failed to notice.

Every once in a while she'd allowed herself to look up at the airship, missing a pass while her eyes were skyward. Sportacus hadn't come down like he'd promised. Lily had gone and he'd promised he'd come as soon as they'd spoken. A sick feeling had begun to claw at her stomach as she'd noticed time ebbing on. More than once she'd wanted to halt the game, wanting to voice her concern to the other kids but their apparent lack of the emotions she was feeling forced her to silence.

Everything was ok, it had to be.

Eventually, as Pixel called time on the game on account of his rumbling stomach, Sportacus emerged from the airship. None of the kids noticed at first, but there was something strange to his descent. A care in his movements he didn't normally seem to take. They seemed slower, more controlled and deliberate as he climbed down the ladder and came over to them.

"Sportacus?" Ziggy half whispered, a solemn question in complete contrast to his usual ecstatic exclamation when he saw his favourite hero. "Are you ok?"

Before Sportacus could say anything, Stephanie broke in, "Your cheek is purple and red! What happened? Have you hurt yourself?"

As the hero knelt down in front of them, the kids could see a myriad of emotions sweeping across his face. A deep discomfort that played out in the way his eyes avoided theirs, the way in which his mouth seemed to want to open and speak but remained poised on the verge of sound. His breaths in deeper than those coming out as he prepared himself to answer them but holding back on the edge of hurting their feelings.

At last he seemed to breach the tumult holding back his speech and gave a wan smile, "I was showing Lily some new moves I haven't practised properly yet. It went kinda wrong and I knocked myself on the floor. It's nothing. It'll be ok."

Sportacus only wished this was the truth as he looked at each of the kids and hoped they would accept what he'd said.

He was almost certain that Stephanie hadn't.