Heroes | Sportacus

A Whole New Ballpark

It was the next day. Sportacus hated to admit that he had had no luck in learning about Emilia. In fact, he realized how right Stephanie might have been; perhaps he did like Emilia.

No, no! he thought, taking a bite of an apple—what he liked to call "sports candy"—as he paced about his airship. This was very difficult for him. He hadn't met a woman he liked in a long time. He was far too busy protecting the citizens of LazyTown. He smiled at the thought of how much he loved his job.

"I wonder what the kids are up to," he said aloud. He stepped onto the circular panel and it lowered him from the airship. "Ladder!"

Sportacus smiled again as the ladder fell from the airship. He stepped from the panel and began climbing down the ladder. Looking around, he spotted Stephanie and the other children playing baseball together. As he approached, he almost returned to his airship at the sight of Emilia.

I can do this, he thought, taking one deep breath to relax.

Emilia had been taking a jog through LazyTown that morning. Since Emilia's ankle had healed, her doctor had recommended jogging to build her strength back up. Emilia knew that was easier said than done.

However, she had been stopped by Stephanie and the other children, who wanted her to play baseball with them and had begged until she agreed to join them. That was why she now stood on the pitcher's mound in the park.

"Are you ready, Stephanie?" Emilia asked. There was nothing worse than an unprepared batter.

"Yep!" Stephanie smiled, setting herself to bat. "I'm ready!"

The other children began shouting words of encouragement, such as "Go, Stephanie!" and "You can do it, Stephanie!"

Just as Emilia was going to pitch the ball, Stingy shouted, "Wait!"

Everyone on the field froze immediately. They all turned to him and raised their eyebrows in confusion. What could he possibly want?

"Be careful with my ball, Emilia," Stingy complained.

Emilia and the children laughed. They shook their heads at Stingy. Of course, he would stop a game just to say something like that.

Emilia nodded, "Don't worry, I will be."

Emilia then prepared herself to throw the baseball. She set her grip to throw a knuckleball since she guessed Stephanie could hit it. After Emilia made a wind-up for the pitch, she threw the ball to Stephanie. Stephanie leapt away from the base, not even wanting to try hitting the ball. She had never seen a ball go that fast!

"Wow, Emilia!" Stephanie exclaimed, dropping the bat and running to the mound.

"That ball was so fast!" Ziggy shouted. He and the other children joined them.

"You mean my ball was fast," Stingy stated.

"How did you do that?" Trixie asked.

"According to my data, that was a knuckleball," Pixel said.

"It wasn't that fast. That's the average speed for that pitch," Emilia tried to explain, but the children wouldn't have it. They were still very impressed.

"Hey, guys," Sportacus greeted. He had finally gained the courage to approach the group, specifically Emilia. "What are you up to?"

"Emilia just threw an amazing pitch Sportacus! It was so fast! Stephanie couldn't even hit it!" Ziggy shouted excitedly.

While Emilia only laughed and shook her head, the other children agreed with Ziggy. They were loudly explaining what had happened—("First, she put her arm back and then the ball was all, like, whoosh!")—before he arrived. Sportacus could barely—("Yeah, it was so cool, Sportacus!")—hear himself think over the chatter.