Greetings fellow readers and writers! This is my 16th story, so I hope you like it. Once again we're in the world of Winx Club, but we're also visiting the world of my original characters, The Ramblers. This fic is the sequel to 'Magic and Martial Arts,' taking place a few weeks after the story ended. Please note that I don't own Winx Club, so don't sue me. On with the show!
The Madness of Diaspro
By AndrewK9000
Chapter 1: Unbelievable Betrayal
"Of all the depraved, irresponsible, dumb-assed things a man could do to the woman he loves," spat Brandon, "Sky had to go and do that!"
"I just can't believe Sky would do such a thing," said Flora, "I honestly believed he loved Bloom."
"We all did," said Riven, "I guess you really can't judge a book by it's cover."
Our favorite Fairies and Heroes were sitting at a café in downtown Magicx discussing the latest event to disrupt the relation between Bloom and Sky. Everyone except said persons and Stella.
"It just doesn't seem logical," said Tecna, "Why would Sky do such a thing?"
"I'll bet it was Darcy," said Musa, "This is just the sort of thing a witch would do. Darcy must have put a spell on Sky to make him do that."
"I disagree," said Tatewaki Kuno. He, a swordsman from Japan, Earth, and boyfriend of Layla, had settled in on Magicx to enhance his prowess with the sword. "I have kept mine ears open for word of the foul wench and her repulsive consort, Toro. There has been no sign of either of them since Salusa Secundus, so I sincerely doubt that witch had anything to do with this most unfortunate event."
"Unfortunate?" asked Layla, "Sky just did the worst thing he could possibly do to Bloom, and you call it unfortunate? I thought you had a much larger vocabulary."
"Indeed," said Tatewaki, "I believe a more appropriate word would be inopportune."
"That's much better," said Layla.
Just then Stella came over to our heroes set of tables. "How's Bloom?" asked Flora.
"She's still crying," said Stella as she sat down, her face heavy with worry, "But not as much as she was last night. I still can't believe Sky did that to her."
"Just wait until I next see that no-good bastard!" snapped Musa, "I'll wring his neck out!!"
"Where is the traitor anyway?" asked Riven.
"He went home to Eraklyon," said Brandon, "Just packed up and left."
"A sure sign of his guilt," said Tatewaki.
"Hey, Stella," said Flora, "I don't think it's wise to leave Bloom alone at this time, especially after what happened."
"I didn't leave her alone," said Stella, "You think I'm that dumb? Well I'm not. I left her with Carmen."
"Oh," said Flora, "That makes me feel better."
"Not me," said Musa, "I wouldn't leave Bloom alone with a witch."
"Miss Carmen would die before allowing any harm to occur to Miss Bloom," said Tatewaki, "Remember? She swore an oath."
Shortly after the defeat of The Shadow Riders, it was revealed that Bloom wasn't the last of Sparkx after all. At least a dozen adults and 100 children survived the cataclysmic climate spell that locked Sparkx into a cursed ice age. Among those children was Carmen Dawson, student body president at Cloud Tower. Upon learning of her heritage, Carmen swore loyalty to Bloom.
"I still don't believe what happened was what really happened," said Tecna, "Something is wrong with this situation."
"I'll tell you what's wrong with the situation," said Riven, "Sky hurt Bloom where she can be hurt the most: her heart."
"That's the thing," said Timmy, "I once overheard Sky say that he would give up his live before every hurting Bloom. I agree with Tecna, something is wrong with this situation."
"I also agree," said Elise Caplin as she and Morgan Rodgers sat down. Elise, Cloud Tower genius, and Morgan, Cloud Tower prankster, are Carmen's best friends. "This whole situation defies logic, even for Magicx."
"I think we should have both of them sit down and talk this over," said Flora, "I'm sure if Bloom and Sky would talk about what happened, it would all make sense and things would go back to normal."
"I don't think so," said Brandon, "I tried to speak to Sky about what happened, but he just blew me off as if I wasn't there."
"And when I tried to talk to Bloom about what happened," said Stella as she set her cup of coffee down on the table, "She cried harder." She picked up her drink again and took a sip. Immediately she grimaced in disgust and spat out the coffee. "Who put sour salt in my Triple Mocha Late!?!"
"My bad," said Morgan, barely able to stifle her giggles, "I couldn't resist."
"I still think there's more here than meets the eye," said Tecna, "There's a mystery on our hands."
"I know just who we can ask for help," said Stella, "'Cause this is one thing that we really need help on."
Meanwhile in a parallel dimension…
"You sure you're okay to get back to work?" asked Max Kildare.
"If we don't get back into the game," said Steve Austin, "Then we never will."
"You had to say game, didn't you, Steve?" asked Julie Eckheart. A few weeks ago Steve, Julie, along with Michael Long, Fay Valentine, Alec Parkman and Denise Yeager, participated in an experiment in the next generation of video games. Said experiment went horribly when an old enemy of Virgil Blake hacked into The Bureau computers and sabotaged the game, trapping the six players in a virtual world full of zombies.
The safety protocols for the game were disabled, so that if one of the players were killed in the game, they would die in the real world. Julie, Alec and Fay nearly died when their virtual characters were killed in the game. If it weren't for Aaron Spartan's medical savvy, they would have truly been dead.
Virgil then tracked down the sender of the virus and forced the rat traitor to debug the computer, freeing Steve, Denise and Michael before they could come to any further harm. Virgil then handed the hacker over to Homeland Security, for the hacker was also a terrorist who had connections to 9/11.
"How many times do we have to tell you, Max?" said Michael, "We're fine."
""Okay," said Max, "I voiced my concerns and you listened, but you're still going back to work. I respect your self confidence, but remember, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it."
"Since when have you been this negative, Max?" asked Andrew Carpenter. He and Jill, both recently newlyweds, were part of the original eight Ramblers, along with Max and Leon Smyth-Falcon.
"I don't know," said Max, "Maybe I'm just getting old."
"You're kidding!" said Steve, "You're like, what, 25 or something?"
"Almost 26," said Max, "I've been saving the world for going on 10 years now. Maybe I've had enough of the business. Perhaps I should hang up my guns and retire."
"And give up being one of the greatest heroes who ever lived?" asked Jill, "You don't need to retire, you need a vacation."
"Some hero I am," said Max, "Some heroes we are. We save the world from demons, zombie and other nastiest that go bump in the night, yet nearly everyone in the world is ignorant about it."
"I know what's wrong with you," said Laura Hurst, resident psychic, "You're suffering from lack of appreciation. Well you should know that we all appreciate what you have done."
Max was just about to retort when this weird humming filled the room, followed by this bright blue light ten feet off the ground. From the light fell four figures, two boys, two girls.
"Damn!" complained Riven, "I fell on my keys. I thought you knew how to cast portals, Stella!"
"I do," said Stella as she, Brandon, Musa and Riven stood up form their rough landing, "Anyway, we made it, I think. At least I think this is where Max and Jill are."
"Right in one!" exclaimed Jill, "What brings you crazy characters to our universe?"
Old friends greeted each other, while the new crew were introduced to the visitors. "And who is this hunk of eye candy?" Stella asked Jill.
"'Eye candy?" asked a concerned Brandon.
"'Eye candy!?!'" said Andrew.
"He's my husband," said Jill as she displayed her wedding ring, "And I'll thank you to keep your royal paws off him!"
"I just wanted to know who he is," said Stella innocently, "That's all."
"You still haven't answered Jill's question," said Max, "What brings you to our world?"
"We've got trouble back in our universe," said Riven, "Nothing like what happened with Voldemort, but something we could really use your help to settle."
"Sky cheated on Bloom," said Musa.
"Bull sh$t!" exclaimed Laura. The other Ramblers were in a state of shock, except for Michael, Julie and the new additions to the team, who needed to catch up with the news.
"When you mean he cheated on her," said Jill, "Did Sky go out with another girl? Or is it worse?"
"It's as worse as it can get," said Stella, "Sky did the worse possible thing that can be done to ruin a relationship."
"Let me guess," said Julie, "This Sky, he parked his car where it shouldn't be; in another girl's garage."
"And Bloom saw him doing it," said Musa, "It wasn't a pretty sight, from what Bloom told us, when she managed to stop crying for a few minutes."
"You mean Bloom caught Sky screwing another girl!?!" exclaimed Laura, "That two-timing man-whore!! I ought to rip his nuts off, so he can't contaminate the universe!!"
"I can't believe this," said Jill, "Those two seemed so much in love. Why would he do that? It doesn't make any sense."
"That's the thing," said Brandon, "It doesn't make any sense. I know Sky, and he would never do anything to hurt Bloom. He must have been influenced by outside forces."
"We think Darcy and her consort, Toro are behind it," said Stella, "In revenge for what happened to Icy and Stormy."
"If Darcy wanted revenge for her sisters," said Riven, "She'd go after the ones who killed them. Tatewaki killed Stormy, while Carmen blew up Icy. It doesn't make sense for Darcy to go after Bloom."
"Since when has anything a witch done make sense?" asked Musa.
"I take it you don't like witches," said Julie.
"Only the really evil and nasty ones," replied Musa, "Some of them are decent people."
"Back to why we're here," said Stella, "Jill, Max, we could really use your help in clearing this up. Bloom is my best friend; I can't stand to see her suffering like this. So, will you please help us?"
"What do you think?" Max asked Jill and Andrew.
"I say we help," said Andrew, I'm curious to see these kids' world."
"And this might just be the thing to get the spring back into your spirit, Max," said Jill.
That settled it. After securing permission from Director Walker, Max and his fellow Ramblers got ready to go back with Stella to Magicx. Those who were going were:
Max
Jill
Andrew
Steve
Michael
Aaron
Tyler
Fay
Julie
Virgil
Laura
Shawn
Violet
Denise
Alec
D.P. and Leon were on vacation, while Maria was AWAL again, so Max and the others would go on without them.
"As you can see," said Jill, "The team has grown a lot since we last met."
"I'll say," said Brandon.
"I think we're missing someone," said Shawn.
"He's right," said Alec, "We're one gun short."
"Why are you bringing guns?" asked Musa, "It's not like we're trying to save the universe or something."
"Standard procedure," said Fay, "Whenever Bureau agents go on any mission that involves travel to parallel realities, they go prepared for anything."
Fay then noticed that Stella, Musa, Riven and Brandon were starring at her. "What?" she asked, "You see something you like?"
"This is going to sound a bit strange," said Brandon, "But didn't you die or something?"
"He's right!" said Stella, "Back on Death Eater Island, you got hit by a killing curse. I was there, you died!"
"Of course I died," said Fay in a sarcastic tone, "I'm just taking my sweet time decomposing, that's all."
"Oh Fay was dead, alright," said Violet, "I should know, I carried her soul in my head for a few weeks."
"We made a clone of her body," said Aaron, "And inserted her soul into it."
"I'm still getting used to the new body," said Fay, "But everything works."
Just then Sally-Ann Carpenter came in. "Sorry I'm late," said Sally-Ann, "Traffic was terrible."
"Then you should have taken the back roads," said Julie.
Under normal circumstances Sally-Ann would have made a snappy retort, but today she was unusually quiet. "Let's just get this over with," she said.
"Okay," said Stella, "This seems a bit awkward, so let's just go!" With that she made a large portal and everyone went through to Magicx.
The end of chapter 1. Next chapter The Ramblers arrive at Alfea to help out Bloom, 'nuff said. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. I mean, who doesn't love cake and pie? See you next time!
