Chapter 2: Winx You're Magic Now
The new day dawned, Erasiel had woken up before the Trix do to the return of Kerborg who had delivered his report, Erasiel now had an idea of what was going on, and more importantly the name of the mystery girl, who had just recently arrived at Alfea, her name was Bloom; an interesting name and a familiar one; maybe the same person he was thinking of, but there was only a few ways to be sure; also he had to gain her trust before anything could be done regarding his theory.
Kerborg also had told him that the portal stone had only taken Nurgash a few blocks from their position and that he had attacked the nearest house, which unfortunately had been Bloom's now there was major inconvenience, the attack had failed and Nurgash had been captured by the Specialists, which was a major development and one he had to correct and correct quickly before he blabbed, which left him with only a one option Nurgash had to die.
Right now Erasiel was in the Black Marsh Swamp, the Trix were at Cloud Tower in their classes, he had been following a transport that had Nurgash on board along with a team of specialists, different from the ones who captured Nurgash, but he now had more loose ends that need tying up, Gripmaw would take care of the ship, he had infiltrated the crew by killing one of the Specialists when they had stopped at the Spaceport to refuel and turn their quarry over to a the different team that now manned the ship he had made sure they were over the swamp to make sure any rescue team had to deal with the terrain as well as the local Goblin tribes that inhabited the swamp.
On the Shuttle…. Gripmaw had assumed his guise, then made sure that the coast was clear before pulling off his sabotage, he headed to engine killed the engineer by pulling off his head and began to rip apart the navigation and other systems to ensure a shuttle crash. "It would have been easier to blow the ship up, but no you had to insist on an accident" Gripmaw complained telepathically.
"Too messy and importantly too obvious, best they think that Nurgash escaped, caused the ship to crash and then make the whole thing look like it was his fault, which it is because he decided to go rogue in the first place" Erasiel responded, Gripmaw continued his work, he had transformed to Nurgash to make it look like a Troll had trashed the place, then ripped out the power to the cell-block allowing Nurgash to escape, he had already blinded the camera in that cellblock allow him full run of the ship in Nurgash's form killing any specialist he came across in the hallways, he soon took out the stabilizers and then auxiliary stabilizers, only when the ship began to turn belly up did he leave.
The ship crashed downward, to Erasiel's annoyance it didn't burn on impact, but it did smash down, he had Gripmaw follow Nurgash to make sure the Troll didn't get too far into the marsh, soon Erasiel intercepted him, he turned into his battle form and then cast spell on Nurgash before he could react. "Burning flare of light, dawn take you and be stone to you!" Erasiel yelled, Nurgash's blue skin hardened into rock, becoming a stone statue, Gripmaw landed on his shoulder as Erasiel smirked behind his war mask, he then heard a shout of "Why did you do that?!" and he turned to fine the source of the voice, a lovely specialist who was unscathed from the crash she was young attractive, she had short spiked magenta colored hair and violet eyes, she was dressed in a blue and white uniform with a blue cape, the gem on the cape clasp was dark red. In her right hand was a Phantoblade, the Phantoblade was a fuchsia saber, in her left hand was a shield, she looked ready to fight. "Hello, don't mind me I am just friendly neighborhood troll-hunter" Erasiel responded, he knew that that Specialist wouldn't buy that one, but he was buying time, so he could think of a better plan, this wasn't something he expected his plan didn't account for survivors, he made sure Gripmaw killed the crew before the crash.
"I don't believe you, you had something to do with the crash, didn't you?" the Specialist asked.
"Nope" Erasiel lied, even if he wasn't wearing his war mask she wouldn't be able to tell if he was lying as he had no sign for it, but she didn't believe him anyway, and began to charge him, he gracefully drew his sword from his staff then passed it to Gripmaw, before materializing his shield from its storage dimension; the proud crest of House Darkar bold on the front before receiving the charge from the specialist and the fight began.
The fight was a decent warm up as far as Erasiel was concerned, his opponent attacked him furious abandon, he gracefully parried, blocked and dodged her attacks, he had no intention of killing her but rather convincing her to join his side thru a test strength, despite the fight being a warm up as far as he was concerned his opponent was quite formidable and was no slouch in when came to swordsmanship, she was not as graceful as a Solorian fencer but had the attacking ferocity of a Marauder champion fused with the agility of an elven sword master, not that his opponent was an Elf or a Marauder. "You are quite a formidable opponent, but you are out of your league, I've fought more enemies then you could dream of, I have millennia of combat experience, I fought in the Phoenix wars all 16 of them, I defeated the reborn Demon-lord Demise, I have fought the Ancestral witches by myself for five months during the fall of Domino, I have slain Dragons, Waylors, Ettins, Hydras and Manticores and even more ferocious monstrosities, I have defeated Arch-Demons, Greater Daemons of all four of Dark Chaos gods, vanquished countless armies and death can never truly claim me, I am Phoenix of the most prestigious house Darkar, I am Erasiel son of Argulus Darkar and Avarra Brightstone, the herald and consort of Asha the Phoenix Queen I will not be defeated by you, nor can you ever dream of beating me" Erasiel responded as he had gotten bored of the fight, and with sudden flurry of parries disarmed his opponent knocking her blade out of her hands into a swamp bush.
The specialist had been knocked to the ground she expected to be swiftly executed, to her surprise the creature that had carried the staff of the mysterious warrior returned, then the warrior's shield vanished, he took the staff from the creature and put the blade back into the staff and lifted up his face mask revealing his handsome face before walking to her and surprising outstretched his hand to her. "Come on, take it, I'll help you up" Erasiel stated she reluctantly accepted the hand and he pulled her up without effort in his part. "I never kill a worthy opponent much less one who had no idea who they were fighting or why they thought it was good idea to fight me in the first place, anyway I'm Erasiel Nathan Darkar, refer to me as Nathan, I reserve my first name for those who have known me for a century" Erasiel stated looking the Specialist in the eyes.
"Why didn't you kill me? I tried to kill you, what do you have to do with all this?" the Specialist asked.
"For starters, I already explained I am honorable in that I don't kill people unnecessarily much less people who are foolish enough to attack me without cause, I had no intention of killing you; as to my purpose for being here, troll hunting, I have been out here for hours searching for one, until now no trolls, now this one is a good stone stiff, perfect for a lawn decoration or a museum piece; provided you can carry it, as for introductions I have given you my name why don't you introduce yourself" Erasiel responded.
"I'm Riven, I am taken aback by this whole situation, my apologies, my ship crashed, everyone else died, that troll escaped, you killed it, we were expecting to get answers out of it for why it was on- never mind that isn't relevant now that it's dead" Riven responded.
"I saw your ship crash, this must be the culprit" Erasiel stated pointing at the Troll, Riven didn't get to respond as a loud explosion shook the bog, the ship's reactor had blown up leaving a towering pillar of smoke. "I do believe that was what was left off your ship" Erasiel said rhetorically
"Yes, that was definitely the sound of a reactor blowing up, I'm sorry I got you raked up into this" Riven responded, Erasiel turned into his civilian garb.
"No problem indeed" Erasiel stated shaking her hand, she was unaware of the injection from his ring which resonated pheromones from him, not enough to cause her to fall in love with him, but enough to put her at ease and to trust him.
"Come on I can get you back to Red Fountain the Headmaster is a friend of mine we will see about those injuries" Erasiel stated, he picked up her Phantoblade and tossed to her from the bush it had landed in.
"Thanks for your offer to help, I really mean it, is there anything I can do for you" Riven asked.
"Well actually there are a couple things I you could do for me, I need someone to keep me in touch with the goings on at Red Fountain also I would like your phone number" Erasiel responded, Riven agreed handing him a copy of her number which Erasiel recorded into his phone, she then surprised him by kissing him on the cheek.
"That is for beating me in combat, nobody has beaten me with such ease and been so nice about it, also that's for sparing my life" Riven responded, Erasiel left with her.
Meanwhile at Alfea…. Bloom had arrived a few hours earlier and currently was using an alias of a friend of Stella's by the name of Princess Veranda of Calisto which she wondered if she was referring to Jupiter's moon, which had the same name or to some different planet altogether which she assumed might be the more likely option, she hadn't gotten the opportunity to ask before running into Deputy Headmistress Griselda; a completely rude woman who was very bossy; Bloom had strong dislike for her even though she only doing her job, she felt a lot like a former substitute teacher she had in middle-school, a shrew of woman named Mrs. Krebb who looked like the Headmistress of some rotten orphanage and she was twice as mean, fortunately Mrs. Krebb got what for when Mitzi and her friends and bunch of other students Bloom included toilet papered and egged her house one of the rare occurrences when she agreed with Mitzi on something, the shrew herself was never seen in her class again, hopefully someone would put Griselda in her place, even though Griselda looked rather young, a beautiful woman who wore glasses and had short pixie cut brown hair brown eyes, and dressed in clothes that were rather simple but looked a bit old-fashioned, her demeanor and posture and tone of voice made her think she was as old as mean old Mrs. Krebb if not way older, also she had a feathery teal tail like that of a bird but is had great plumage like a peacock's tail, so despite how human she looked she was anything but.
Ms. Griselda aside, Alfea was great and fun, way better than her old High School, it didn't have Mitzi so that was improvement already, it was very much like something out a novel, she had enjoyed the Harry Potter books and wished she could go off to some school to learn magic, now she had, and it was everything she could have imagined. She arrived at her dorm shortly after and met her roommate or rather her roommate's talking plant first, then her actual roommate, a nature fairy by the name of Flora who was unique in appearance she had tan skin, which made her look quite Latina in appearance, with narrow jade eyes, long honey brown hair with blonde within her bangs, her outfit consisted of a green midriff, off-the-shoulder top with puffy sleeves, a fuchsia colored faux wrap short skirt decorated with strawberries, two sets of yellow bangle bracelets on each arm, and fuchsia colored platform sandals, her figure was quite busty but also athletically slender with the grace of a ballerina. She said she was from another planet it was called Lynphea and that is was nature world and the people lived in harmony with nature as best that they could, building their homes in the trees themselves rather than from them, she told her that her world was populated by not just the Lynphian's themselves but also creatures of nature; Wood Elves, Unicorns, Satyrs, Fauns, Centaurs, Dryads, Faeries, Nymphs, walking Huorn Trees, and Ents, even mighty green Dragons, the amount of creatures of fantasy made Bloom joyous that so many of the creatures of myth were real, she also learned that Lynphea was ruled by a Queen and that people loved their ruler, and they had rather queer rules when it came to love, as well as a number of other things, however just because they lived in harmony with nature didn't mean they were vegetarians they ate meat though in moderation much like the Elves did. Flora was quite happy to help Bloom set up her stuff which she had brought from Earth; Her books, her Warhammer models, her games, her posters and her clothes in her wardrobe, also importantly her Rabbit Keko's bed while the little guy was bouncing about looking into Flora's stuff followed by losing a fight to Flora when he tried to go after her plants, the non-talking ones, which resulted in a lecture from Bloom to Keko who wasn't happy at all with that part of the Room's rules. Soon after she was introduced to her other roommates as her room was only one of five rooms and central room for dining, the other rooms were dorm rooms, one of which was empty and would most likely be filled in the future, the other two were occupied by her other roommates, Stella was one of them and she had an entire room to herself, mainly due to the amount of things she owned and had with her; the other room that was occupied belonged to her two other roommates: Musa and Tecna, the faeries of Music and Technology.
They came from different planets as well, Musa came from world called Melody were the entire society was influence by Music to an extreme extent to a point that their religion was devoted to achieving harmony in one's self and one's music, the world was also populated by Elves, in the southern Hemisphere also Dwarves lived in the mountains near Musa's home city, the Royal City of Harmony, where the king of Melody ruled, Musa was related to the royal family thru her father, but he had given up that claim and life a more modest life, Musa refused to elaborate further on her family her appearance was as likewise described Musa is a girl with fair skin, blackish blue hair, blue eyes, her hair was tied in two short pigtails that resembled bells with her bangs straight, her outfit consisted of a red one strap top, one purple colored armband that alternates being placed either upon her right (usual) or left arm, baggy jeans that sagged often enough that someone could see her pink underwear, though she didn't seem to notice or care and Bloom didn't bring up the issue, and red sneakers.
Tecna was far more reserved then Musa on that topic telling her only that her parents were important and that it really didn't matter, in fact Tecna was so reserved that Bloom didn't see her show any emotion in either her voice or face during her conversations with her, Tecna explained that it was due to people on her planet being so logical. Her home world Zenith was one of the most advanced worlds in the Magic Dimension and the people were extremally logical and methodical, they didn't believe in showing their emotions due to they believed it wasted time best spent thinking and it was more logical to think then to convey what you were thinking, Zenith was also a cold world, an ice planet to be more precise, as to how her people lived there since they first were created Bloom had no idea and Tecna shrugged at the question explaining that their people had always lived there. He people were so intertwined with technology that had adapted it into magic, to an extent that few other races had, only the Dwarves Tecna said were more intertwined with Technology then the people of Zenith, but not in the magic sense that Zenithians were, more than that the Dwarves used their Tech to augment their magic and augment with their magic whereas the Zenithians magic combined raw magical energy with technology for a unique one-two punch, their use of magic and technology allowed them to advance at a rate that few other peoples had, achieving space flight 200 years after their invention of the wheel, and had made advances in computers and robotics that people on Earth would think was science-fiction. Her Appearance was as follows Tecna is a girl with magenta colored, asymmetrical bob-styled hair, teal eyes, and fair skin tone. Her face was emotionless and indifferent, her outfit consisted of a soft purple and lime green vest top, soft purple flared fitted cropped pants and shoes of the same color. The lime green triangular zipper functions as a pager that can project images into the air.
Considering the differences between herself and her new roommates she was amazed that she got along so well with them for a girl from a remote world where most people didn't believe in magic, also that she was able to convince to go out to eat with her, though she had to explain the concept of Pizza to Flora who didn't have it on Lynphea, all of her friends apart from Stella were 16, Stella was 17 but she said she had been held back do to accidently blowing up Professor Gelt's Alchemy class, which meant she had to make up the extra year, so of her new roommates and friends Stella was the oldest and most likely to cause something to go horribly wrong.
Bloom and company had no idea Kerborg was watching their every move, Erasiel had instructed him to continue his observations of Bloom, and he had told Erasiel of Bloom's plans to go out to eat, which Erasiel was keen to follow up with taking Trix with him to the same place they were going so as to keep a close eye on them himself. The dinner was as normal as one could be, Everyone ordered their planned meal and drink and enjoyed themselves, the Bloom and Company had no idea Erasiel was hearing everything they were saying from across the room, he was learning as much he could as were the Trix; he was looking for an opportunity to get his hands on Stella's ring without anyone getting suspicious, Erasiel then had an idea, it would solve the Bloom monitoring problem and gaining her trust with the same stone; he would have one of the Trix befriend Bloom and learn more about her; also he had warned the Trix in advance that Bloom would be using an alias so to avoid complicating matters.
Now the question was which Trix sister would be the one to gain Bloom's trust and the trust of her friends: Stormy no, too hot headed and more likely to cause problems then not; Icy: might work but she was too cold and distant to do the job, besides Fire and Ice didn't mix well; Darcy was the best option, she was most friendly of the Trix and the most approachable: also she was neither hot-headed or cold; she also had proven her skill at gaining someone's trust with Stella and the whole Oracle routine and had proven she was the best with people according to her records. Erasiel whispered his instructions to Darcy, who agreed, nodding after taking a drink from her Diet Coke; he would have her do it when Bloom was well more likely to be open to trusting Darcy; in other words, before the whole Witch-Fairy rivalry became ingrained into Bloom's mind: as in right now. Darcy approached Bloom's table with casual grace, introduced herself and began making small-talk with Bloom after she had overridden protests to not talk to witches; Bloom took offense to the stereo-typing as not all Witches were bad in Fairy tales, also that Darcy looked nothing like the witches that came to her mind when the word was use, in fact she felt like Darcy was a good witch, something Erasiel intended to have her be.
That conversation went on until everyone's food was brought, after which Darcy gave Bloom her phone number and went back to her table, to begin eating her dinner and continue to drink her Diet Coke. The Food on Magix was from all over the Magic Dimension but also included food from Earth, which Erasiel had the monopoly of suppling as he was the only one subtle enough to actually get the stuff off Earth without anyone being suspicious of where it was going. The dinner soon ended, and the groups went their separate ways. Soon Bloom and Friends returned to Alfea where they were surprised by Griselda waiting for them at the gate, alongside another woman, a beautiful woman with spiky teal blue hair and wearing circular lensed glasses with purple lenses and Gold frames, these completely covered her eyes and eye sockets, she wore a long-sleeved pink shirt with ruffles at the tips and a navy-blue vest with a white trim, puffed sleeves, and a single violet button. She also wore a long pink skirt with ruffles near her ankles. Her shoes were black high heels with yellow buckles her figure was the same as Griffin.
"Stop right there and go no farther, you Veranda step forward right now" Griselda stated, and Bloom complied. "I have done some book-keeping and checking and found out that the real Princess Veranda of Calisto arrived late to Alfea after changing her mind about transferring to Beta Academy, now either there are two Princess Verandas or one of you is lying, and I cline to believe the young woman with long purple hair, tan skin and orange round lensed glasses who arrived earlier with royal retinue dropping her off and was dressed in regal clothing, so now who are you?" Griselda inquired, Bloom then told the truth that she wasn't Princess Veranda and that she was just some girl from Earth that saved Stella's life and came to Alfea with her without enrolling.
"This a conundrum Griselda" the other woman stated.
"Indeed, it is Headmistress Faragonda, and I am of a mind to throw her out right now and wipe her memory of the whole thing" Griselda retorted.
"You will do no such thing Griselda" Erasiel stated coming out from behind Bloom in his regular attire staff in hand.
"What are you doing here?!" Griselda yelled annoyed at the sudden arrival of Erasiel.
"Preventing you from making an irreparable mistake my impertinent daughter, Bloom if you would come forward" Erasiel stated, giving Griselda a glare that would have stopped a stampeding herd of rhinos.
"Who are you?" Bloom asked.
"Erasiel Nathan Darkar, call me Nathan, I have seen what you are capable, and we cannot risk you going uneducated about your magical abilities" Erasiel responded.
"Wait Erasiel what do you have to do with all this" Faragonda asked curious about this new development.
"Yes, Father what do you have to do with all this" Griselda added.
Erasiel glared at Griselda then began to explain. "First off Griselda one more quip from you like that and you are grounded young lady; secondly I have been monitoring Bloom for some time, I went to Earth recently looking around for people with magical potential when Bloom caught my eye, her magical energy lit up like a bonfire so I dropped my previous business and followed her to a grove where she and Stella fought an Ogre and some Ghuls; I didn't intervene because I was curious as to what Bloom was doing, well she charged in killed one of the Ghuls with a branch, then after more came to attack her she unleashed a fiery dragon from within her which killed the Ghuls and sent the others running like rabbits being chased by hounds; I didn't do anything but have Kerborg keep her under surveillance just in case she got into trouble that was way out of her league, I recently came here the moment Kerborg saw you two block Bloom and start questioning her" Erasiel explained.
"This is an interesting story, I am surprised however about this, Bloom may not have enrolled properly but I will make an exception for her, not just because of her magical ability but because she is first Earth Fairy to come to Alfea in decades" Faragonda responded.
"This is highly I- "Griselda started to say before Erasiel cut her off.
"Don't you contradict your mother Griselda; side note you're grounded" Erasiel responded, leaving her dumb-founded and surprised. "Welcome to Alfea College for Faeries Bloom" Erasiel stated to Bloom casually, then transformed into his bird form, gripped his staff in both talons and flew off, a stream of purple fire in his wake across the sky like a comet's trail.
"Who was he?" Bloom asked.
"An Enigma, Erasiel Darkar, he is the head of the Wizard's Council, they are in charge of the Colleges of Magic and are the final say on anything related to them including who ends up getting in; his word is as good as formal acceptance letter Bloom, as he said: Welcome to Alfea College for Faeries Bloom" Faragonda stated, then allowed the Winx to pass in without further objections from Griselda.
They continued back to their dorms, then began to discuss everything that had happened when they finished they began to talk about something else. "We should really hang out more, we would make a great team, how about we call our group something" Flora inquired.
"Yes, how about something like Stella's Angels" Stella chimed.
"Or Harmonious Friends" Musa chimed in too.
"Girls I think we should let Bloom come up with a name" Flora responded.
"I second that notion, Bloom what do you think of for a name, do you like my suggestion, Musa's suggestion or have one of your own" Stella asked Bloom, who was about to draw.
"I have an idea" Bloom stated then began to draw a few minutes later she showed the results of her picture a team logo you could call it. "How about Winx Club?" Bloom asked.
"I like the idea it's catchy, we are faeries we have wings" Flora responded.
"I like the idea too, but it needs a cool theme song" Musa responded.
"I love it!" Stella exclaimed.
"I agree with your decision" Tecna responded non-plused by the whole discussion.
"So here we are now, Winx we're magic now!" Bloom shouted, and everyone laughed, Erasiel winked outside the window of the room.
"And so, it begins Kerborg" Erasiel stated to the faceless on his shoulder and then smiled.