Red Fountain
Sky, Brandon, Timmy, Riven, and Helia were walking down the hall to the headmaster's office following Codatorta. The intimidating teacher had just come to collect them from their battle tactics class and informed them they were wanted by Saladin.
When they reached the office Codatorta pushed open the doors and waited for the five boys to file in before shutting it and leaving.
"Ah boys you're here. I have an assignment for you. Ms. Faragonda has asked me to assign a team of specialists to look after some of her girls while they are on a mission."
"Awesome." Riven cut off the headmaster. "Where are we going the realm of frost? Under cover spy mission?"
Instead of chastising him Saladin only smirked. "Not exactly Riven, Ms. Faragonda is sending a few students to the resort realm in order for them to relax and reconnect with each other. I think you are all acquainted with the girls." Saying this Saladin waved his hand over his desk and a holographic image of the Winx club appeared. "I assume you already know about the cat fight spell that was cast on them. They are going on this trip in order to get over the lingering side effects of that spell that is keeping them from working together by being in a stress free environment. You boys are going as bodyguards because in the resort realm they won't be able to access their magic."
The boys perked up a bit at the thought of going on vacation with the girls. Seeming to have read their minds the school head quickly shot down those thoughts. "Now this is an official mission and you will be graded on it. This will be replacing your final exam." This bummed the boys out but the thought of an easy final was exciting.
Saladin went on to debrief them of their specific assignments. "Sky, Brandon, Timmy, and Riven will be on active duty with the girls at all times. Helia you will be going as back up. At the end of each day you are to update Helia on all occurrences, suspicious or not. If anything suspicious is to occur you are to inform him immediately and always keep him updated on your location. As this is a mission there is to be no flirting with your girlfriends." As this was said every head in the room turned to give a pointed look to Brandon.
"What? Don't look at me I haven't even done anything yet." Brandon huffed indignantly and crossed his arms.
The boys continued to stare at him as Saladin smirked.
Riven then commented. "You've been spending too much time with Stella. You're acting like her now."
After a short laugh the guys got serious again as Saladin finished briefing them on their assignment then sent them off to pack.
Helia parted way with the others at the ship as they loaded into the Owl and Helia went to the smaller Crow. He fired up the ship and flew out of the hanger shortly after the others, staying out of sight of sight of the others but hidden so he could see the girls as the guys picked them up at Alfea.
The girls were stood in the courtyard with the pixies and their luggage as the ship landed in front of them, blowing their hair around in the wind it stirred up.
Sky and Brandon stepped out of the ship to greet the girls. Flora excitedly ran onto the ship with a smile gracing her face and Helia couldn't help but smile himself as he saw her. Bloom, Tecna, Musa, and Stella ran after her leaving Layla still standing behind them holding a sleeping Piff in her arms. Helia's brow scrunched together in confusion as he saw the annoyed look on her face before she ran after them.
'Maybe that spell still has a stronger effect on them than we thought.' Hopefully with this trip they'll be able to shake off the remnants of that spell and start acting like themselves again.
As the girls entered the ship Helia turned on the speaker between the two ships, muting his side.
He heard the slight confrontation between Tecna and Timmy ad Musa and Riven. He felt bad for them, Timmy because he was already so nervous around Tecna but also knew this was an assignment for them and they really weren't supposed to socialize. Tecna, because she clearly liked him but never came right out and said that to him, leaving them in the current in between state of their relationship they were in now.
Riven just clueless in general when it came to girls and Helia couldn't help but roll his eyes at the way he greeted Musa. Finally, he felt bad for Musa because she was so obviously in love with Riven but because of the protective front she put up to protect herself wouldn't let herself tell him this. Added onto the fact that Riven was clueless and rude without even trying to be half the time.
It was a long flight and Helia kept the speaker on for most of it but needed a break when Stella started panicking about forgetting her conditioner and even requested that they go back so she could get it, not that they did, and at that point Helia turned the speaker off for the time being.
Helia was focused on flying the ship when a message came through from the other ship and immediately knew it was from Riven.
Hey you can't just turn the speaker off. If I have to listen to that blonde harpy complain about her hair then so do you.
Helia laughed at the fact that Riven was able to get his annoyance to show through in a written message and was about to reply when another message came through.
Helia tell Riven to play nice and stop calling my girlfriend a harpy.
This was obviously Brandon. Helia shook his head and finally gave a response.
Riven play nice and leave Stella alone and Brandon just ignore him. I'm turning the speaker back on now so drop it Riven.
Doing as he said he would Helia turned the speaker to the other ship back on, still leaving his muted as the girls were not supposed to know he was there as well.
The speaker went back on as Brandon told Timmy to land the ship only to hear that there was something else here preventing them from landing. Helia was immediately on alert, more alarmed when Brandon confirmed his own findings that they were the only two ships showing up on the monitors.
Helia looked out the window for himself and was just able to see the ship swerve out of the way before it flew straight into some type of giant bird, he couldn't tell what it was from his distance but it was definitely huge. As soon as the ship straightened out he sent over a message.
Are you guys okay?
The reply cam almost immediately which relieved him.
Everyone's fine, just a bit shaken up but we're all good now.
Helia nodded his head to himself as he heard Bloom's voice over the monitor as she yelled at Sky then sounded sad as she apologized to him.
Helia blinked once then twice shocked at the way she snapped at him. This vacation couldn't start soon enough.
Brandon's voice then rang over the speaker slightly louder, probably both to cut the awkward tension and to inform both those in their ship and Helia that they were finally arriving.
Helia then contacted the security office informing them of the two ships arrival which Saladin had given them a heads up about. It would have been suspicious otherwise to see an unknown aircraft following a group of students.
At this point Helia checked in with the guys once more before heading to the location he had been given where he would stay with the ship while they were at the winter portion of the resort realm.
In the Crow
Helia was bored out of his mind. Sure the guys weren't supposed to be socializing but he was pretty sure at least Sky and Brandon would give up on that soon anyway and at least they got to be around the girls, not to mention go on the slopes with them and then hang out on the beach later in the week.
Helia couldn't help but feel he got the short end of the stick. He hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Flora since the girls came to see them after they got back from Cloud Tower because she had been so busy with her school work and the tension between her and her friends.
Eventually Helia sat down to sketch. There was nothing he could do until it was either time for their dialing debriefing, something suspicious came up on the monitors, or the guys called him in for back up. With those as his options Helia would rather he be a bit bored than for the others to be in potential danger. Besides, at least he didn't have nighttime guard duty.
Later that night
"What do you mean the cable snapped?" Helia yelled over the speaker.
The guys had just called on to brief him on the day's events only to tell him that they had nearly fallen from who knows how far up when the ski lift broke down and the cable snapped. It was only quick thinking from Bloom and teamwork that they were able to build a make shift hang glider in time to get out just before the lift plummeted to the ground.
"Relax Helia, everyone's fine. The girls were even able to work together for the first time in a long time without a complete screaming match breaking out and Bloom ended up earning her charmix." Sky tried to reassure him, though he didn't really think it was going to work too well. He would be reacting the same way if Bloom and his friends were in danger like that and he wasn't told until hours later.
Helia sighed in an attempt to calm himself. "Everyone's okay? Nobody got hurt?" he questioned wanting verification.
"Everyone is perfectly fine." Timmy assured him.
"Relax poet man, Flora is still in one piece and at this moment is currently watching a movie with the other girls." Brandon teased him but he let it slide because he slipped in the information about Flora being okay, that and he really didn't want to start an argument over his feelings for Flora right now. Then a thought suddenly came to his head
"Are all of your communicators working?" he asked
This time it was Riven's snarky remark that came over the speaker system. "Well we're using it to talk to you now aren't we?"
Helia rolled his eyes at the sheer amount of attitude Riven managed to put into his comment. "Then why didn't any of you call me when the lift broke to come and get you guys instead of racing against the clock to build a hang glider you weren't even sure was going to work let alone get done before the cable completely broke?"
There was dead silence and Helia checked to make sure the speaker was still on. It was. It was another couple of seconds before he heard the sound of what he assumed was someone face palming.
"Umm because we didn't think about it." Was Timmy's lame reply. This time the one face palming was Helia.
"You mean to tell me you all very well could have dies today and it was by sheer luck that you're alive right now because you didn't think about the fact that the entire reason I'm here is for back up in case of emergencies like that?" Helia verified somewhat sarcastically. Actually it was very strong and very evident sarcasm but I mean come on!
"Pretty much." Brandon replied weakly. Helia sighed again but there wasn't anything they could change now and everyone was fine so he decided to let it go for now.
"Next time just try and remember that I'm part of the tea m now too okay." Helia said worn out by the last ten minutes of conversation.
"Helia it's not that we don't think you're part of the team. We've never worked better than when you joined us." Sky assured him. "It's just for the last two years it was only us four and then last year everything with the girls we had to deal with on our own. It's just gonna take some getting used to I guess."
"It's fine Sky. Just remember that I'm here now and I don't plan on leaving this team anytime soon so it's not just the four of you anymore, I'm here for you guys and the girls too." Helia said wearily. Wanting to drop the topic he got back to the point of the call. "Is there anything else I should know about?"
"No, nothing aside from the fact that Layla totally creamed Riven and Sky in snowboarding. After the ski lift incident we came back to the resort reported the problem and went back to the rooms." Brandon informed him.
"Okay, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow."
"Later Helia."
"Later."
Helia turned off the speaker and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hand down his face. He knew that it was going to take some getting used to for a team of four for the last two years to get in sync being a team of five but that didn't completely absolve the annoyance of knowing he could have helped his friends but couldn't because he hadn't known they were in trouble. It wasn't the guys' fault and he didn't blame them, he was just annoyed once again that he was stuck here as back up instead of with the guys protecting the girls.
Maybe it was his grandfather that didn't think he entirely belonged with the team. He threw that thought away as soon as it crossed his mind. He knew that wasn't true just like he knew it was always good to have back up in case of an emergency. Just like he knew that the only reason the guys didn't think to call him was because they were acting on the instinct of having to act without any back up.
He knew that up until now they hadn't had any serious missions aside from the school being attacked and Helia hadn't even been a student yet let alone part of the squad and the mayhem globe but that wasn't a solo mission for the squad. It would take some time for all of them to get used the change but Helia was confident when the squad adjusted everything would work out. Helia's mood did lift slightly at the thought of the look that must have been on Riven and Sky's faces when Layla had supposedly 'creamed them' in snowboarding.
A few Days Later
The other guys and the girls had just gone to the beach and woods portion of the resort realm for their camping trip, which apparently Stella wasn't too excited about the fact that they would be sleeping outside in a tent instead of the villa but the other girls seemed happy enough. Helia had just relocated the ship to a new location closer to where the others would be camped out.
Helia was currently sat up in a tree, as per Sky's suggestion, in order to keep an eye out for any danger as well as get some fresh air. He had to admit even though he would rather be with the others this was an improvement from being stuck in his ship for the better part of the day.
He saw the girls lounging around on the beach while the guys claimed to be patrolling the water, though Helia had a feeling they were out on the jet skis for fun rather than the security work they claimed it to be.
Helia chuckled as he heard Layla comment how she wanted them to let her ride one.
Then things started to turn south as Musa suggested Stella join them only for Stella to deny the offer but then drag Tecna into it by pointing out that she wouldn't change. Helia sighed preparing for the potential fight brewing. Luckily they were distracted by Timmy's arrival back to the shore, or rather Layla running up and Hijacking his jet ski the second he was off of it. Luckily the girls' laughter drowned out Helia's own. The only one to notice him was Timmy who had known where he was, thus receiving a cold look from the specialist before he himself started laughing too then went to sit next to Tecna.
About an hour later everyone had reconvened back on the shore and had started a volleyball game, Stella and Layla opting out. As they played Musa brought up a very good point. "I thought you guys were supposed to be in guard duty?" she questioned them as she hit the ball over the net. To which Brandon replied "This is what Codatorta called playing close security detail."
Riven then added. "It makes the enemy think our guard is down." As he sent the ball back over the net only just being saved by Flora. Bloom then replied to him "Well your guard is down." As she hit the ball over herself after getting it passed to her from Flora.
At that time Helia saw Layla walking back down the trail she had gone down to collect some firewood. Stella also chose that moment to pick up her complaining from before. "I can't believe we don't have a hotel or even a cabin to sleep in. How are we supposed to stay warm?"
"That's what firewood is for." Layla told her as she set in down in the sand. Then trying to calm her down suggested she go for a swim. To which Stella quickly shot the idea down. "Do you know how much I paid for this swimsuit?" At this point the volleyball game had come to a halt as everyone watched the exchange between the two fairies with baited breath.
"Wait a minute Stella, so does that mean you can't get it wet?" Layla questioned the girl.
Stella simply replied by shaking her head and uttering "mm mm mm"
Layla clearly thought she must be joking. "Uh, okay you're kidding right?" she asked with a smile not thinking Stella could possibly be serious.
Stella again replied in the negative shaking her head. "Mm mm mm"
Layla being from Tides and practically growing up in the water couldn't comprehend this. "So you just bought a swimsuit for how it looks? What kind of sense does that make?" she questioned Stella again.
Things only went downhill from there going so far as to make Stella walk off and sit farther away from the others. Deciding to give her a chance to cool down Layla changed and then joined the others in their game.
Not long after that Riven walked off to meet Helia in the woods where the girls wouldn't be able to see or hear them. They exchanged mandatory updates as part of their assignment, not that either of them saw anything that should cause concern, and then Helia went back to the ship to check over the monitors.
That Night
Helia had just gotten a call from the guys for their nightly debriefing, the girls all in their tent and far enough not to be disturbed by them.
"Aside from blondie still being in a mood everything's fine over here." came Riven's less than professional update, Helia could hear the sound of Riven getting hit in the head, likely by Brandon, and then Riven's muffles 'ow'.
Used to this by now Helia ignored it and went on with his report. "Nothing out of the ordinary had shown up on the radar. Any idea what's going on tomorrow?"
Timmy answered this time as Helia could hear Riven and Brandon arguing in the background and Sky trying to break it up. "Flora wanted to hike out deeper into the forest to see the different plants and creatures, and the girls want to make postcards. Of course then Riven got into one of his moods about having to provide '24 hour security so they can play arts and crafts and hang out on the beach.' Because it's not like he was having fun on the beach too." Helia could almost see Timmy rolling his eyes and was sure that Riven would be arguing with him now if he weren't still so involved with his current argument with Brandon.
Helia rolled his eyes at his roommate's attitude. Apparently it wasn't enough that the girls were sent on this vacation in the first place because they weren't getting along, of course Riven had to stir up trouble too.
"Just try to keep Riven in line long enough to finish the week." Helia requested of Timmy, knowing it was a lost cause, as Timmy also happened to point out. "We'll do our best but you know how Riven is and you know how Brandon is when Riven gets him going."
"That's all I ask." With that Helia informed him of a herd of Herlgasaurs nearby and assured him they were herbivores and nothing to be worried about. They finished their conversation and ended the conference.
Later that night Helia noticed a large grouping of the realms creatures but decided it wasn't anything they needed to worry about immediately but would keep an eye out just in case.
The next day
Helia was looking over the monitors and saw a figure that the system identified as Layla walking off into the forest alone, followed by Stella not too long after. Seeing as they were alone he kept an eye on them. They seemed fine at first but then he noticed to other creatures show up on the monitor, some kind of animals from the realm seemed to be cornering them. Helia was about to go intervene when the system picked up on source of magic coming from Stella, had she gotten a charmix too? Whatever she did it got them a chance to get away from the creatures and back to their camp. Helia decided to check in and tell them something was off.
Helia called Riven's communicator and gave him a couple of minutes to answering figuring he had to get an excuse to get away from the girls. Unfortunately according to the monitor now Musa stormed off, He assumed because of something Riven had said, but Brandon followed after her.
Eventually Riven answered. "Yeah?"
"Some creatures just cornered Layla and Stella in the words but Stella did something to give them chance to get away and they're running back now and the creatures stopped following them a while back, when Layla hit them with a tree limb. Keep an eye out and try not to let anyone else go off alone, I have a bad feeling about this."
Riven grunted his agreement. "You got it, anything else?"
"Yeah, sometime late last night there was a large group of different creatures in some clearing, I can't be sure but it might have something to do with whatever tried to attack Layla and Stella, all the creature in this realm are supposed to be peaceful."
"I'll tell the others, you keep an eye on the monitor and let us know if you see anything else strange."
"You got it." With that they ended the communication and Helia went back to watching the monitors and saw Riven heading back. There didn't seem to be anything or anyone aside from the guys and the Winx near the camp so at least that was a relief for now. He did keep a close eye on Stella and Layla as they continued to make their way back in case he had to intervene.
Helia saw Riven walking back but then suddenly stop. Not long after that he received a call on his communicator. "What's up?"
"Looks like you right about a bunch of animals heading to the same place last night, I just found their tracks and I'm following them now."
"Got you," Helia looked back at the monitors. "it looks like Musa's heading your way." He informed him.
"Understood." Riven then ended the call and Helia went back to watching out for anything following Layla and Stella on the monitors.
Not long after Helia got a message from Riven.
Can't talk Trix are here. About to send a message to the others. Icy and Stormy are setting traps. Darcy is doing something to the animals, think she's hypnotizing them. Stay hidden until called for
Now Helia had definite reason to worry and he had a feeling he was going to be called in soon but did as Riven requested and continued to keep an eye on this from the ship. Helia was pulled away from his surveillance by another message from Riven.
Musa showed up and I passed on the situation, she's on her way back to tell the others.
Helia replied simply understood and once again brought his attention back the monitor where he saw source of magical power suddenly come from Musa, looks like she got her charmix too, good they would need as much power as they could get since apparently the Trix were able to use their magic here somehow. Helia frowned at the thought.
On the screen Helia saw Layla and Stella were once again surrounded, then from the window saw a burst of magic which he assumed to be Stella, Seeing that Musa had not made it back yet sent a message to sky informing him of the situation and what Riven was doing.
The girls had been pretty close to the campsite at this point so it didn't take long for Brandon to get there and take care of the situation. The others arriving not long after but it seemed that more creatures showed up and they all took off running.
Riven caught up to them just before they ran into the traps the witches set and guided them through.
Helia's eyes remained trained on the screen in front of him waiting for the signal. Suddenly Timmy's voice rang through his communicator. "Charlie Horse to Poet Man, code 19!"
Helia didn't waste a second. As soon as Timmy's message rang through he revved up the ship and flew off to the code 19 rendezvous point Timmy had mapped out for him when they first arrived on the realm.
Timmy and he had gone over several emergency back up plans the night they had been debriefing while Brandon and Riven fought and Sky tried breaking them up.
He was sidetracked however by a swarm of various animals flying away. He assumed these had been some of the animals being controlled by Darcy.
Helia was getting worried, his friends were in danger and he didn't have time for all of the creatures to pass. Thinking quickly he decided to go an alternate route and by the time he arrived it seemed he had just made it.
Helia positioned the ship over the wooden shack Timmy had told him about and opened fire with the ships laser cannon.
"Hey there guys." Helia greeted them over the ships loud speaker so the others knew it was him and not to worry about another attack and landed the ship.
"Helia what are you doing here?" Tecna asked.
"Timmy radioed me, I would have been here sooner but I had to bypass a swarm of flying creatures." Helia said as he shut the ship down and lowered the ramp so he could get off and join the others. He made off the ship just as Brandon asked a very worrying question. "Where is the Tim-mister?"
Everyone looked around realizing that Timmy hadn't regrouped with them. It was Musa who spotted him first as she pointed to a pile of rubble that did indeed have Timmy lying under it. "Over there!"
"Oh Timmy!" Tecna shouted as she ran to him and started pulling wood off of him, the rest of the group following right behind her. As they were busy freeing Timmy the Trix made their exit, probablyreturning back to Shadowhaunt.
"The witches!" Flora shouted.
"Forget them let's just get Timmy out of there." Brandon said as he pulled the last chunk of wood off of Timmy and Sky pulled him to his feet. Seeing that Timmy was okay Helia started walking closer to Flora and was just able to make out Musa's comment to the flower fairy. "Heads up Flo, boy alert."
If Flora had waited just another second before hiding her head he would have noticed the blush the covered her face.
Helia's path to Flora was halted by Riven walking over to him wanting to know when he and Timmy had come up with that plan. Helia informed him that they made that plan and several others in the time span that he and Brandon had been going at it and Riven looked a little shocked that they had had that kind of time.
As Timmy sat on a log with his head in his hands he apologized for messing up. Helia was about to contradict him when Tecna beat him to it telling him that he was a hero and how scared she was when he thought he was hurt. This admission of hers also happened to gain her a charmix. Helia looked again to Flora and as he looked at her face saw the relief that Timmy was gone and the joy for her friend getting her charmix but also saw the disappointed and slightly defeated look on her face from not yet getting her own.
Before Helia could try to go and talk to her again everyone's attention was diverted to Bloom, Layla, and the pixies as they walked out through the trees. "Hey everybody look who me and the pixies found!" Bloom called out to them.
Everyone replied with their greetings but stopped when they realized the pixies wouldn't stop sneezing, concerned looks crossing the girls' faces they rushed to their bonded pixies sides.
"What happened to you girls?" Flora asked as Chatta sat in the palm of her hand.
"We found these weird looking flowers in the woods and I went and bounced on them. They looked like fun. I didn't know the spores would get us sick." Chatta answered her miserably.
Flora hated seeing her pixie so upset. "It's alright sweetie, you couldn't have known." Seeing Chatta didn't look quite as sad anymore Flora looked around. "Well it looks like all the animals are back to normal."
"Good cause we're out of enchanted fruit." Brandon said as he fed the last piece of fruit Stella and Musa had charmed to reverse the spell on the creatures to one of the animals.
Helia looked up as he saw Bloom walk over to him. "I heard what you did Helia, thanks for coming."
Deciding it may be best to not let the girls know he had been there the whole time after the way they acted after they got back from Cloud Tower and thought the guys doubted their abilities he chose not to tell them that fact.
"You don't have to thank me Bloom. As soon as I heard you guys needed back up I was on my way." Helia replied glancing again to Flora. Mush to the amusement of Stella and Bloom who followed his gaze.
"Hey guys the pixies are really bugging over here!" Musa called from the rock where she and Layla were standing with the pixies sitting on it, looking as if their colds had gotten worse in the short time since thy had been back.
"Why's the forest spinning?" Amore questioned alarming the girls and guys.
"Well it looks like our vacations ending a little earlier than expected." Layla said.
Bloom spoke up "I tried to use a healing spell but it didn't work.
Layla shook her head and the red head. "The only thing that can cure a sick pixie is tea brewed from the flower of life and that's in pixie village."
Stella cut her off. "But we can't go to pixie village or else Darkar will find the last piece of the codex. Or do you not remember the monsters he sent after us when we stopped the pixies from going back because I don't know about you girls but I smelled like gross Shadowhaunt creature for a week."
Helia suddenly realized that he had never had a chance to tell the guys what Saladin had informed him of a few hours ago and even if he had they probably wouldn't have told the girls yet. It's kind of hard to relax when you know that the evil maniac out to take over the realm of Realix now has all four parts of the codex he needs to unlock the door.
Helia grew somber at this thought. "Actually Saladin informed me a few hours ago that Darkar got the codex. Avalon got hit with some kind of poisonous flower and Palladium sent Livy to go get the cure from the village but Icy followed her.
"Oh no!" came from the girls and the guys when they heard this information.
Flora calmed down first and got the attention of the others. "Well there's nothing we can do about it now. All we can do is go and get the pixies their tea and keep training until Darkar makes his move." The others agreed with her that worrying will get them nowhere. The group decided that they would drop Bloom, Stella, Musa, and Tecna back and Alfea and Riven and Timmy at Red Fountain to tell the heads about what happened and so they can get back to training while the rest of them went to Pixie Village.