Someone in Trouble

Chapter 21: Someone in Trouble

All was quiet and calm in LazyTown that night. The streets were empty and the holes had been filled in on the road. Stingy's car had been buffed and polished back to its full glory and sat parked peacefully by the brick wall. Nobody stirred, everyone sleeping soundly in their homes.

Almost everyone, anyway. Deep underground, alone in his lair, Robbie Rotten was having a nightmare.

His head tossed from side to side, his hands clenched into fists, and his legs twitched and fidgeted. Flashes of the day's events kept filling his head in a discomforting jumble. Baiting kids with candy, cars crashing into pitfalls, computers blaring and smoking; chasing children with nets and getting whacked with ladders. Faces full of fear twisting with shock and dismay— maybe even hatred. High pitched panic turning into angry overtones and harsh words as everyone disavowed themselves of Robbie and his friendship, forsaking him, and good riddance to him, who needs him, nobody—

Robbie gasped so loudly that he startled himself out of his restless dreams. But waking up couldn't help him to escape his unpleasant reality. His head pounded from exhaustion, his body was bruised and battered from his last defeat, and he was so tired, but he just couldn't sleep. He found it hard to breathe in the confines of his bunker. Everything he'd done, everything that had happened was suffocating him. He needed some air. He needed to get out.

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High in the sky, alone in his airship, Sportacus was still awake even well after it was eight o' eight. Where he would normally fall quickly to sleep once settled under his comforter as white and fluffy as a cloud, this time a brainstorm was raging in his head. He had a lot to think about from that afternoon.

The party had been put together hastily and was fun for the most part. The kids wanted to know all about what Sportacus had been doing the past few weeks and for him to show off some new moves that he'd learned along the way. He was happy to regale them with his adventures and entertain them with his physical feats.

When Sportacus asked what all the kids had been up to in return, what he got was more than he ever could have expected. Stories about Robbie pulling in the biggest largemouth bass on record, Robbie and Trixie terrorizing the town with their pranks and mischief, Robbie beating the hardest level on Pixel's favorite video game but accidentally crashing the system before he could enter his initials into the high score board. Reliving those times put obvious excitement on the children's faces as they laughed over all the ways that they and Robbie had filled the days.

And in the immediate wake of all those happy memories each child caught themselves laughing and subdued themselves, wiping tears of mirth from their eyes, clearing their throats, and falling silent until the next story bubbled up out of them in spite of themselves... For all the cake and sportscandy set out it was a bittersweet celebration.

A sudden and sharp series of rapid beeps startled Sportacus into sitting straight up in his bed. When he threw back his comforter a bright light pulsed out and filled the airship with a strange and soft glow. He stared down at his chest where his crystal rang and flashed.

"Someone's in trouble?" Sportacus couldn't imagine what sort of trouble anyone could get into this late at night. Jumping to his feet he strode across deck to investigate by means of "Door!"

The door dropped down into a platform for the man to step out into the cold night air. Sportacus pulled out his spyglass and combed over the dark roofs of the town, looking for what could be amiss. Everywhere he looked there was nothing to suggest a problem. All windows were dark, the townspeople safe inside and asleep. What was wrong?

He almost missed it on his first pass and had to take a double look. Way out on the outskirts of town, there on the old billboard was a dark spot just a shade off from the rest of the gloomy surroundings. Sitting precariously on top of the sign was none other than Robbie Rotten.