Chapter Five: A Gift and a Goodbye

Steven woke early the next morning. It took him a moment to remember where he was. There was a knock on his door. He threw his cloths from yesterday back on.

"Come in," he called. Bloom walked in.

"Morning. So, what do you feel like doing today?' She asked.

"I'm actually not sure. Yesterday I had more fun than I've probably had in my entire life. Everything here is so beautiful and wonderful, and I actually have my own net navi!"

"Well let's get some breakfast. Maybe we'll run into someone you'll want to get to know," Bloom suggested.

"Great idea, let's go."

By this time, word of Steven had spread through the entire realm. The cafeteria was totally crowded. Everyone looked up when Steven and Bloom entered.

"Uh, hi everyone," Steven said nervously. "I think I've become a celebrity," he said to Bloom.

"You're right. So, are you going to greet your fans?"

"If they swamp me, just remember I'm not as resilient as you anime girls are."

For the next few hours, Steven was the center of attention. They all wanted to know everything about him and his world. He showed them Angel. Lan told them how she beat Megaman. Everyone wanted to talk to him at once. After breakfast, they took him to the city he'd seen from the air the day before.

"So Steven, we've got stuff here from all the realm. Anything you really want?" Zoey asked him. Steven was fascinated by the things he saw in the shop windows. Battle chips, cloths, and tons of magic items.

"This is, without a doubt, the most incredible place I have ever seen," he said. Then he saw something he really wanted. "Hey, persocoms!" He was staring into a persocom store. "Ever since I saw Chobits I've always dreamed of having my own persocom."

"Well, let's get you one," Bloom said.

"But don't they cost a fortune?" Steven asked.

"In this realm you don't have to pay for anything. This place was designed so that everyone could be happy. The only catch is that most of what you buy here you can't take back to your own reality. Still, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to take your stuff back as long as you keep it hidden."

Steven and the girls walked into the store. A girl with green eyes and purple hair greeted them.

"Hello, welcome to Star Electronics. I'm Hikari, can I help you? Oh, you must be this Steven everyone's talking about," she said.

"Yep. I came here yesterday."

"I heard how you looked after Bloom. So I guess you're looking for a persocom?"

"Yep, probably a mobile unit though. I doubt I'd be able to hide a human size persocom from my family."

"Sure, I've got the perfect one right here." She went into the back for a minute and came back out with a laptop persocom. She was the same size as Kotako, with long blond hair that ended at her waist. She also had a small light blue headband with small white wings at the ends.

"She's so cute," Steven said.

"She's the latest model, custom made actually. She's got great learning abilities, a top of the line firewall system, incredible internet speed, backup memory and wireless control of electronics."

"Ok, now she's cute and incredible," Steven said. "I'll take her."

"All right. Here's the manual and some additional software. Take good care of her."

"I will. She'll probably get along great with Angel."

"Angel? Who's that?" Hikari asked.

"She's my net navi. Yai made her for me," he said, holding out his P.E.T.

"Hi there!" Angel said.

"Hello there, you are so cute," she said.

"Thank you," she replied. "So, I'm getting a sister?"

"She's a persocom," Steven explained. "She's like you only she has a physical body. When I activate her I'm sure you'll be great friends.

"So, where to next?" Bloom asked once they'd left the shop.

"I'd just like to see the city," Steven said. So for the next few hours the girls took Steven around the city. They had lunch in Yahoot's Number three curry. Angel beat Magicman and Torchman.

"You're pretty good," Mr. Match said when they were leaving. "Here, take this as a trophy," he said, tossing Steven a fire tower battle chip.

"Thanks," Steven said.

After lunch and some more exploring, the group returned to the mansion. Steven went up to his room to program his new persocom. It was a lot more complicated than he thought it would be. After an hour and a half though, he was finally ready. Everything had been installed. All he needed to do was activate her. He pressed a section of her neck and slowly, with the sound of a computer powering up, her eyes opened.

"Hello master," she said, bowing.

"Hello. My name is Steven, you can call me that."

"I understand Master Steven. What is my name?"

"Hmm, your name is…Kurumi."

"Kurumi confirmed. Master Steven confirmed. Would you like to install a password?"

"Not right now. So, I think it's actually time I went home. This place is amazing, but I think I should go back before I become so attached to this place I can't leave."

He went downstairs and told the girls the same thing.

"I'll miss you Sam," Bloom and Zoey said.

"You gotta come back soon so we can have another net battle," Lan said.

"Don't worry. I promise I'll be back," Steven said. Bloom began opening a portal back to Steven's reality.

"Wait, we're coming with you," Bloom said. The Winx Club entered the portal along with Steven. "I just want to say goodbye in your world, since that's where we first met," Bloom said.

"Ok, but we should probably exit in a place away from my house. Someone'll probably notice the light flash from a portal. Let's exit near the pool. Can you do that?" Steven asked.

"Sure," Bloom replied. The portal deposited the group at the edge of the community swimming pool.

"Well, I guess this is good bye, at least for right now," Steven said.

"Here, take this," Bloom said, handing him something that looked like a TV remote but that had only one button. "Just use this to open a portal to the cross realm. Come back soon," she said.

Bloom was getting ready to open a portal when a blanket of darkness blanketed the area. It was definitely anime.

"What's going on?" Bloom asked.

"What indeed," a voice said. A man stepped from the shadows. He looked about twenty-five and had brown hair and cold gray eyes. He was not anime, but he had an anime device in his hands.

"Who are you and what do you want!" Bloom asked. She and the other Winx girls had transformed.

"You can call me Derek. I'm an anime hunter. You see, ten years ago, Minmay from the anime series Robotech came through my TV, the same thing that happened to you. She had powers in this world. I wanted to be her friend, but she was afraid of me. She also reused to give me any of her powers."

"They're not allowed to give us powers," Steven said, stepping front of the girls.

"No one would have known! A few days later more anime people came and took her back to her world. I did however, manage to get her drunk enough for her to give me this," he said, holding up his anime device. "This has the ability to take power from anime people. Now I'll get what should have been mine ten years ago!"

"No, I won't let you," Steven said. "These girls are my friends. I won't let you hurt them!"

"Get back. This thing is very damaging to normal humans."

"I won't let you do this!" Techna shouted. "Digital Web," she said, sending out an immobilizing web of energy. The anime hunter simply pointed his device at the attack and it was sucked inside. Techna was then held in a red beam which appeared to be draining her Winx

"Stop!" Steven said, lunging for the devise.

"You fool!" The anime hunter said, stopping his attack of Techna and pointing the device at Steven. The red beam caught him in the chest. He felt his bibs break and the energy course throughout his body. He cried out in agony and fell to the concrete.

"Steven! NO!" Bloom shouted. "Girls, attack his from all sides. He can't block all if us!" She commanded. The girls surrounded the man and attacked at the same time from five different directions. The man jumped and dodged.

"I did not anticipate such strength. Farewell, I promise we will meet again," he said, then pressed a button on his devise and vanished.

The girls rushed to Steven's side. Techna did a med scan.

"He's hurt very badly. All his ribs are broken; he had internal bleeding and organ damage. The energy also left something behind that's blocking all my attempts to heal him."

Steven managed to open his eyes.

"Hey, is everyone all right?" He asked weakly before coughing up blood.

"We're fine. Thank you Steven," Bloom said. "You're not doing so well though. That beam he hit you with nearly killed you and it's blocking our attempts to heal you."

"Well, at least you're all safe. I alwaysfantasized about giving up my life for someone."

"Don't say that! We'll find a way to save you," Bloom promised. Steven gave a nod and then passed out. The last thing he heard was "but what would hethink if we did THAT?" He only hoped they were talking about a way to save him. Then he was out cold.

How was that chapter? In the next one you'll find out what happens to Steven. Did you like the anime hunter Stormrose/Aurora? I hope you keep reviewing, you're the only one who seems to like this story. Well, see ya soon!

ENTILZA