Disclaimer: Am in no way affiliated with LazyTown or any of its characters. This story is a purely non-profit work of fanfiction.
The morning sun rose swiftly over Lazy Town, bringing with it the promise of warmth and clear blue skies for the entire day. One or two of the citizens of this colourful little town were already up and about. Many were in the process of waking up, greeting the morning with enthusiasm. And certain citizens were still fast asleep, determined to use the new day to great effect by sleeping the whole way through it.
Yet all of them were currently unaware of the solitary stranger heading slowly but purposefully into town. A young woman about twenty years of age, dressed in a rather striking outfit of black and red, stalked wearily along the quiet road, dragging a well-worn bag of possessions along the ground behind her.
"Oh man I need to sit down…" The girl, whose name was Kate, grumbled to herself with a tired sigh. Travelling was nice, but the long, straight road leading towards the town seemed to have gone on forever, and she felt in need of a much-deserved break.
With a slim but sturdy figure, Kate bore the liberated look of one acclimatized to wandering the Great Outdoors. Her hair, long and wild, was streaked red and black in perfect match to her streamlined clothes. Despite her grumblings, there was an optimistic look about her that only improved at the welcome sight of the pleasant-looking town ahead of her. Sharp green eyes eagerly drank in her surroundings, her angular but now cheerful face alight with an almost child-like wonder.
"Well, you wanted to see something 'different'…" the young woman mused, apparently to herself.
Something rustled through one of the large bushy trees lining the sides of the road, but Kate just smiled mysteriously, and kept looking straight ahead.
Stephanie and the gang were out on the playground, playing an energetic if rather uncoordinated game of basketball. The kids cheered and whooped at one another as the ball bounced from person to person, before shouting in surprise and delight as the youngest and smallest of the group, Ziggy, scored a perfect goal.
"I learnt from the best!" Ziggy laughed, bounding around in triumph as Stephanie applauded him, grinning.
However, the celebrating came to an abrupt halt when Ziggy realised the ball had rebounded off the wall and was now hurtling straight at him. The other kids gasped in dismay, but a quick-witted Trixie jumped in at the last moment and caught the ball, saving it from hitting Ziggy square in the face.
Trixie laughed in shameless triumph at the lucky save, but stopped when she suddenly caught sight of something.
"Hey, who's that over there?" she exclaimed, pointing beyond the wall to where someone was walking alone down the street.
The kids immediately looked to where Trixie was pointing, and Stephanie's face lit up with delight.
"She must be new! C'mon guys, let's go say hi!"
The kids cheered in agreement at this sound suggestion, and before Kate knew what was happening, she was suddenly surrounded by a bustling group of brightly-dressed, grinning children.
"Whoa!" Kate exclaimed, reeling in surprise and smiling in polite bewilderment at the unexpected welcome. For a moment she eyed each of the kids with unnecessary wariness, but quickly relaxed – as far as she could tell, they didn't seem to have any intention of eating her, stealing her money, or taking her hostage, and that was always a good sign. Kate opened her mouth to speak, but before she could even get a word in, Stephanie had stepped forward to greet her.
"Hi! Welcome to Lazy Town!" the young girl said brightly. She paused for a moment, observing the older girl, then added, "I like your outfit!"
The girl's cheery personality was infectious, and Kate could not help but smile broadly at her. Managing to put aside the amusing fact that the girl has just, in total sincerity, called her home 'Lazy Town', Kate said to her, "Well thanks! I like yours too – your hair is awesome!"
"Thanks!" Stephanie grinned happily at the compliment, absently tweaking her neon pink locks in modest pride.
The other kids, delighted to discover this unusual newcomer to be so amiable and friendly, immediately wanted make themselves known to Kate.
"I'm Stingy!" a prim and preppy looking boy cut in first.
"And I'm Trixie!" shouted a confident girl with black hair in pigtails.
"I'm Pixel!" announced a boy with an unusual hairstyle and futuristic headgear.
"And I'm Ziggy!" piped up a particularly energetic little boy wearing a superhero costume.
"And my name's Stephanie." The pink-haired girl finished, laughing at her group of friends.
"Nice to meet you all. My name is Kate." The older girl said, grinning cheerily.
Ziggy, meanwhile, had once again worked himself up into a state of hyper-active excitement – he didn't know whether to talk or stuff sweets into his mouth, and so was trying to do both, while running around in circles. Unfortunately for him, his frolicking sent him on a collision course with the basketball net. He stumbled blindly into it, causing the tall metal pole to teeter and rock precariously on its base, before - as everyone turned to look – toppling down towards him.
The whole group, Kate included, gasped in shock. Kate was the first to react, starting forward to help even though she knew she would never get there in time. But, as she did so, a sudden blur of blue and white came sailing over her head, causing her to flinch and stop in her tracks. She could only watch, wide-eyed, as the fast-moving enigma did a graceful somersault over the low wall before finally coming to a halt beside Ziggy.
In place of all the blurring movement there was now a dashingly heroic-looking man with a powerful athletic figure and glinting blue eyes to match his sporty blue outfit. In the nick of time the man caught the falling pole with casual ease and swiftly returned it to its upright state.
Only now daring to take his hands away from his eyes, Ziggy stared up in awe at his saviour. "Oh thankyou, Sportacus, thankyou!" he exclaimed with relief, doing a little dance of joy.
"Just try to be a little more careful next time, ok Ziggy?" The man said with an assuring smile, his voice bearing an odd but handsome accent that Kate couldn't quite place.
"Oh I will, I will!" Ziggy replied, nodding with enthusiasm.
"Sportacus, that was amazing!" Stephanie called out, while the other kids cheered at him.
The man smiled proudly at this, and made a series of rapid arm movements as he swerved away, as if preparing to take off once again, but it was then that he caught sight of the young woman in red and black standing nearby. He dashed forward, and to Kate's surprise he was suddenly standing in front of her, grinning pleasantly. Much to Kate's own annoyance, she suddenly found her manner reduced to that of a shy schoolgirl in the presense of this charismatic man, and she could do nothing but simply grin back at him.
"This is Kate!" Stephanie announced. "She's new in town!"
"Pleased to meet you, Kate!" The man said, offering his hand for a shake as he exclaimed with tireless enthusiasm, "I am Sportacus!"
Kate had to cover her amused smile with a polite cough, and she shook hands with Sportacus (he certainly did have a firm grip!). 'Sportacus'…as if the name hadn't already been burnt onto her memory the first time she'd heard Ziggy say it. The name was both starkly appropriate and the last thing she would have expected him to be called.
"Very pleased to meet you too…" Kate said when Sportacus finally let her have her slightly crushed hand back.
"So, what brings you to Lazy Town?" Sportacus asked her.
Polite introductions over and done with, Kate quickly reverted to her usual eccentric self, and began to babble about the everythings and nothings that she had been through in order to get to where she was standing now.
"Oh well, a couple of months back I had this sudden urge to just step outside and go travelling – nowhere in particular, just seeing where the road would lead me, y'know? So anyway I packed up all my gear and off I went, hiking from place to place, crossing land and water, camping in countryside or staying overnight in towns and cities, doing a bit of partying along the way, meeting some interesting…people…"
While the group of townsfolk stood there, nodding politely at Kate's irreverent tale, another much less sociable citizen was watching the goings-on from behind a low wall.
Robbie Rotten had been woken from his blissful slumber by a great commotion going on in the world above his secluded underground lair, and, naturally, he had immediately made his way to the surface to see what all the fuss was about and, if possible, put a stop to it.
Now, not wanting to venture any closer, Robbie observed the newcomer with interest, but his expression was gloomy. The young woman in the black and red had not taken more the a few steps into town and already she had been pounced on by those meddling kids and that insufferable Sportacus. No doubt they would soon brainwash her into yet another over-active do-gooder who did nothing but run and jump around, and then Robbie would have to put up with her noise as well as everyone else's.
Robbie sighed despairingly and shook his head, muttering to himself, "If only she had met me first. I would have told her exactly how Lazy Town is meant to be – lazy."
"Oh, I wouldn't worry, she's not so easily swayed." Came a voice from somewhere within the leafy boughs of a tree just behind Robbie.
"What would you know?" Robbie responded scornfully. "You're just a…"
Still crouching behind the wall, Robbie swerved round, and found to his alarm that he could not see the owner of the voice.
"…Tree?"
Unnerved, Robbie's eyes roved frantically, trying to locate the mystery speaker. It was only when he peered up at the tree that he saw a pair of large, gleaming green eyes staring out from the tree's shadowy foliage. Staring at him.
With a high-pitched yelp of panic, Robbie threw himself over the wall, scrambled to his feet, and tore across the playground towards the group who, alerted by all the yelling, were now staring at Robbie in surprise.
"Who's that?" Kate asked Stephanie quietly, watching the rapidly approaching man with wide-eyed interest.
With just a hint of weathered disapproval in her voice, Stephanie informed her,
"Oh, that's Robbie Rotten. He's the laziest person in town!"
Kate was going to make a comment about that making perfect sense, considering the town's name, but instead she held her tongue and watched as Robbie, his terror causing him to forget his hatred, cowered gratefully behind Sportacus.
With a look of confusion on his face, Sportacus tried turning to face Robbie, but as he moved round Robbie just shuffled round with him, intent on using him as a human shield against whatever horror was lurking in that tree.
"What…Robbie, what's wrong?" Sportacus asked, good-natured as always but impatient to know what the problem was.
But Robbie did not answer him, for when Sportacus had swung round it had brought Robbie face to face with Kate, and, now able to view each other clearly for the first time, the two of them were locked in some kind of staring contest.
A deep frown furrowed Robbie's brow, but the angry expression did not quite seem to meet his eyes, which were bright and alert, and glaring at Kate with a sort of reluctant curiosity. Kate, meanwhile, was equally enthralled by the odd character standing before her, and stared right back at him. There was a look about him that was noticeably different from the others, and Kate had little doubt that she was in the presence of Lazy Town's very own antagonist. He was strange, but not unhandsome, and Kate found herself smiling at him.
Caught off-guard, Robbie almost smiled back at her, but a combination of fright and pride turned it into more of a grimace.
The unusual man then appeared to literally shake himself out of his momentary daze, like a dog shaking water from its fur, before glancing back fearfully at the tree. Uttering an oddly comical squeal of fright, Robbie glared round at the group as if everything was all their fault, then charged off in an ungraceful sprint back towards his lair, without any word of explanation.
The kids might have all giggled at the retreating villain, were they not just a little unnerved by Robbie's unexplained terror. With a look of pensive concern on his face, Sportacus was the first to ask the question they were all thinking.
"What's got him so spooked?"
All the while the group had been absently watching Robbie running away, Kate was the only one still staring at the tree.
"I think I know." She said softly, and everyone immediately turned to look at her. "I suppose I had better introduce you to a friend of mine…"
Smiling strangely, Kate guided the group's eyes with a vague wave of her hand, and the citizens of Lazy Town watched, speechless, as the source of Robbie Rotten's terror gave an inhuman growl and started to climb down the tree.