It was gonna be a TERRIFIC day.
Ziggy could just FEEL it.
He opened his eyes sleepily, and sat up, stretching as far as his little arms could reach. Smiling, he leaped out of bed and darted for the front door. Today was the day they had all been waiting for; Sportacus had promised to take them in his airship and head for the mountains to go camping. Ziggy hadn't been able to contain his excitement at the prospect. He'd NEVER been in an airship before! Giddy already, he ran as fast as he could to town square, where the airship had landed (a first for everyone; It was strange to see the massive ship on the ground). Everyone was already up and ready to go, with Stephanie talking excitedly about the trip to Stingy and Pixel. Trixie was busy packing up the last of her suitcase, while the mayor was instructing Sportacus, once again, to PLEASE be careful and keep an eye on the children. Ziggy giggled at that. No one in town was more responsible than Sportacus! EVERYONE knew that!
Stephanie waved at Ziggy happily. "Come on Ziggy! We were gonna leave without you!"
"Oh no you weren't!" Ziggy pouted. "If you did, I'd never share my candy with you again."
She laughed and ruffled his hair. "Aw Ziggy, I was only joking."
Pixel piped up, "Yeah, even if we DID leave you, we could just go back in time and get you anyway." The others groaned loudly, and Pixel frowned. "No really! We could!"
"Pixel, will you shut it about that stupid time machine?" Trixie stuck her tongue out at him. "Time machines don't exist and WON'T exist for hundreds of millions of years!"
Ziggy was confused. "What time machine? What did I miss?"
Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, Pixel got here before me, and was going on about how he made some kind of time machine to Sportacus. It really doesn't exist though, he just gets so excited about this sort of thing." She looked over at the orange-haired boy sadly. "It's really too bad, too. A time machine would've been a lot of fun."
Meanwhile, Mayor Meanswell was STILL reading off the list of precautions to Sportacus. "And make sure all of them brush their teeth and floss, Stephanie's allergic to raspberries so PLEASE be careful of that, Ziggy's mom asked that you tuck Ziggy in before he goes to sleep, and just make sure none of them get lost, alright?"
Sportacus laughed heartily. "Don't WORRY, mayor. I'll take good care of the kids. After all, we're just going to be gone for a few days. What could possibly go wrong?"
Milford just shook his head. "A lot. They're kids, after all. They can get into a LOT of trouble."
"They're very good kids. They'll be fine." The tall hero patted the mayor on the back and walked over to Stephanie and Ziggy, who were arguing the existence of time travel with Pixel again. He shook his head, and smiled. "Pixel, why do you want to travel through time so badly?"
"Because!" Pixel gave them all a look as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Can you imagine what we could learn from our future selves? We could see what problems we have and be able to fix it in the past!" He smiled wider, totally engrossed in his own topic. " OR, we could go back in time and fix PAST problems so they never happen!!"
Somewhere on the outskirts of town, a certain villain's ears perked up.
Sportacus just shook his head. "Pixel, making mistakes and learning from them is a very important part of life! If no one made mistakes, then we'd never learn, would we?" Begrudgingly, Pixel shook his head.
Stephanie tilted her head to the side. "But Sportacus, you NEVER make mistakes!"
Sportacus laughed. "Of course I do! I'm not perfect. I've made plenty of mistakes, but I always learn from them."
"What were you like when you were a kid, Sportacus?" asked Stingy (who was finished labeling all his clothes "MINE").
That took the elf by surprise. "M-Me? When I was a kid?" He scratched his head for a second, and then frowned slightly. "That's not…really important, Stingy. Just trust me, I wasn't perfect." Brightening quickly, he rubbed his hands together. "Well! Should we head out?" The kids let out a cheer and darted over to the airship, eager to get the trip underway. With a last good-bye to the Mayor and Lazytown, the airship took off and soared off towards the mountains.
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Robbie couldn't have asked for a better idea.
"A TIME machine?" He fairly leaped for joy. "This is TERRIFIC! I'll just go back in time and erase Sportakook from the timeline FOREVER!!" His voice echoed in his dingy cave, and the villain did a small victory dance. It was too EASY! Pixie or whatever-his-name-is was gone; his house totally unguarded, and the time machine was as good as his. He darted as fast as he dared out of his lair, sneaking towards Pixel's house. WAY too easy. He didn't even have to search hard to find it once in the room. It was a large door-like device with just a simple time dial on the side, and a lever on the side to activate the device. Robbie smiled wickedly and set the time dial for roughly 40 years in the past (he had heard that stupid elf say once that he was about 76 years old, which meant in human years he was 25 or so. Stupid elf and his wacky aging process). "Perfect!" cried Robbie, as he pulled the lever. The machine sprung to life with a loud WHOOSH, and the doorframe filled up with a glowing pink and green liquid-like substance. "I'll just go back in time and stop little Sportacus from ever becoming a hero…." He paused. That MAY be a little difficult, knowing the sporty little jumping bean. "Hmm… well, no matter what, I'm going to stop him!! No matter what it takes!!" He turned and faced the doorway, took a deep breath, and jumped right in.
"GERONIMO!!"
---
When he finally landed, it became pretty obvious that he was nowhere NEAR Lazytown anymore.
The land Robbie found himself in was a vast green plain, lush with life, and beautiful blue-tinted mountains in the distance. The whole place seemed almost unreal, and….
Magical.
"Where in the name of chocolate AM I?", he wondered out loud. He looked around, trying to see something, ANYTHING, that he would recognize. Robbie spotted a small pack of what looked like children off to the side of the time machine, gazing at him in wonder. They looked like children, but their ears were all pointed. That's when it clicked in Robbie's head: He made it. This must be the island in the Northern Sea that Sportacus was from; the land of the elves and hidden people. Robbie smiled and headed over to the elfin children, who backed up a little from him. "Hello little ones", he said in a sugary-sweet voice. "Can any of you tell me where to find a little elf named Sportacus?"
"Sportacus?" a little girl elf walked up, and nodded. Her accent made her hard to understand, and Robbie made a mental note to tease Sportacus about his accent later. The little girl looked up at him and frowned. "Ja, Ég vita hann."
He looked at her funny. "What?"
She smiled and took his hand. "This way." She tugged him along, surprising the villain with her strength. She couldn't have been more than seven! Eventually, they reached a small town nestled between two hills, with even MORE elves! Robbie hoped upon hope that they weren't ALL like Sportakook. The town itself was a beautiful picturesque place, full of small wooden buildings and intricate carvings, and Robbie would've stopped to look were it not for the mini she-Hercules who had a firm grip on his hand. She pointed to a large cabin up on the hill, and gestured to him. "Íþróttaálfurinn," she chirped happily, and nudged him towards the lodge. "Sportacus in there, but he no good." She stuck out her little tongue. "Hann slæmur." When she noticed that Robbie didn't understand, she said, "Bad. He bad."
"Bad?" That was NOT the reaction he was expecting. Sportacus, bad? Maybe he WASN'T in the right place after all. He started up the hill, looking back every so often at the little girl.
This whole PLACE was nuts…
----
When he FINALLY reached the top, a very strange sight met Robbie Rotten's eyes.
An older looking elf in a rich brown and yellow outfit was chasing a blonde-haired elf boy around, and looking extremely angry with the sandy-haired youth. He was shouting in that strange language that the girl had been speaking, but for some reason Robbie could understand them now. It has to be this place, he thought and shuddered. The instant he found Sportacus, he was getting out of there…
"Get back here, you whelp!" shouted the elder elf, brandishing a willow whip in one hand. The boy just laughed and leaped nimbly to the side, darting over and into a tree before the man could grab him. The older of the two swore under his breath. "I'm serious Sportacus, if you do not shape up and take your responsibilities seriously, then you'll let the entire family down!"
Robbie nearly fainted.
THAT was Sportacus?
That snot-nosed little brat, making faces at a superior and LAUGHING?
COULDN'T be!!
The boy who was supposed to be Sportacus just groaned. "Pabbi, it's always 'responsibility, responsibility, responsibility'!! What if I don't WANNA?" he stuck his tongue out, causing the older elf to grow red in the face.
"Sportacus, do you even WANT to be Number 10?"
Little Sportacus just rolled his eyes. "What if I DON'T?"
Robbie's eyes nearly jumped out of his sockets. He…. Didn't… WANT to be a hero? This had to be a trick of some kind. His luck had NEVER been this good before. Utterly frustrated, the older elf trudged off, and Little Sportacus laughed, swinging back down to the ground.
Only then did the young elf notice Robbie.
"Who are YOU?"
"Me?" Oh great, now he could SPEAK their language?! What was WRONG with this place?! "Oh, I'm just….I'm…." Robbie stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Robbie Rotten." He felt utterly stupid for introducing himself to his future mortal enemy, but the boy seemed unphased and grasped the outstretched hand eagerly.
"Hi, I'm Sportacus!" He smiled up at Robbie, and Robbie got a strange shiver down his spine. This was his enemy…. He could do ANYTHING with this little boy, and it would effect the Sportacus he knew….
"Tell me Sportacus…" He said slowly. "Do you like candy?"
The little boy stuck out his tongue. "I do, but it makes my stomach hurt and I fall asleep for a long time. I'm not allowed to have it." His face brightened. "But I love pastries! Sticky and gooey and…." He smiled mischievously. "And the best part is, they're not good for you."
WAY TOO DANG EASY.
Robbie rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Well, I know a place where you can have all the unhealthy food you want and no one will tell you no." Little Sportacus grinned widely and squeaked in excitement. Robbie offered his hand again. "Here, just follow me."
"Let's go let's go let's go!" Even as a kid, Sportacus had been hyper. Robbie rubbed one of his temples with his free hand, and lead the little elf over to the time machine. He heard little Sportakook gasp in awe when the machine started up, and couldn't stop the little bundle of energy from just jumping right in. Robbie sighed and followed.
His luck had better hold out….
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A/N: I have had this idea bouncing around my head for about a week. So far, I like how it's going.
Next chapter will be up soon!!