Verboten
Chapter 13
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Fore Note: Unlucky 13. ;)
Roxy and the Winx had arrived at the horse ranch around mid-morning and had procured seven horses after finding out that they could not drive the RV into the forest. After having a refresher course of how to ride a horse from the ranch owner, the girls we on their way. The ranch owner warned them to be cautious when they got to the farm that Roxy had described saying that the new owner, Mr. Batson was not exactly the most generous person on the planet and that he was very territorial.
"Just be careful and if he tells you to leave, leave," the rancher advised.
The girls thanked the owner and trotted down a dirt path. Some of the girls found themselves comfortable on the horses, primarily Stella, Layla and Roxy, while the other girls did not.
"I'm not used to riding animals. This sfeems really wrong," Flora commented as she reined in her chocolate brown mare to the left.
Roxy slowed her horse down until she was riding right beside the flower fairy. "But don't you have animals on your planet?"
"Yes but I've lived in trees all my life. The only time I ride something is when I travel far."
"You lived in trees?" Roxy asked perplexed.
"Mm-hm, Linphea's magic is based on plant life and we've never really found much use for metal where I live," Flora babbled. "We live in coexistence with the animals and the insects and the plants."
"What's it like, the city you're from?"
"Well, it's in the trees. The trees here on Earth are like seedlings compare to the trees on Linphea. They gigantic and even go into the clouds like mountains some times. Oh, and there's flowers everywhere!"
Roxy tried to imagine a city in the trees. She reasoned that everything had to be made from wood since Flora said they did not use much metal. She found it extremely hard to imagine what Flora was describing and gave up. It all sounded too unreal to be real anyways but she was sure that the tanned girl was telling the truth.
Abruptly, Flora closed her eyes and started to groan in pain. Roxy stopped and yelled for the other girls and turned back to Flora who started to look ill.
"Flora, are you okay?"
Flora was slouched down on her saddle. "No, my head hurts. The trees are frightened! They keep asking for help!" Flora started to waver and Roxy jumped out of her saddle to help the other fairy down.
The other girls came around the two and hopped off of their saddles to help settle Flora who was beginning to pale on the ground.
"I don't feel well," Flora said sickly. "I have a major headache."
Layla offered her some water which she gratefully took. Several minutes, Flora's pounding headache began to subside and she was able to stand up again although she was shaken.
"What happened?"
"The trees, they're scared." Flora closed her eyes for a moment as she regained her senses. "We need to keep moving. Maybe we can help the trees later."
"Right."
The girls got on their saddles and moved forward down the trail. Slowly, the density of the forest started to lessen and the girls noted the incredible amount of stumps around. Flora had an uneasy feeling about it which only served to make the other girls worry about this person named Batson. They came upon a quaint little fenced farm with a central house in the middle surrounded by several barns. The earth looked well trodden and full of weeds and the occasional tree stump. A brook flowed right behind the property along with several acres or so of abandoned crop fields.
They reined their horses and dismounted, leaving their horses just outside the fence of the property.
"Helloooo!" Bloom called out. "Looks like no one's home."
"My scanner is going haywire, girls," Tecna read her PDA with a worried face. "There's an impossible amount magic circulating through this place."
"That must mean that was we're looking for is here, right?" said Musa.
Roxy looked about and she could see her father and herself in everywhere running around, having a picnic, her father helping her to mount her horse. So many memories that she had never bothered to remember until now. Where there was once a towering tree where she had ate lunch now stood a stump. The fields that used to bring strawberries every summer were gone. Roxy sighed nostalgically. If only her father could see this place now.
"YOU!" someone shouted. "What are you doing on my property?! This is my land. Leave or else!"
A man stepped out from a barn wielding a dangerous-looking double ax. He was a tall man with a receding hairline and moustache and wore jeans with an old cotton shirt.
"Uh, good afternoon, sir…" Bloom said bravely after seeing the ax. "You must be Mr. Batson. Please, can we take a look around your farm?" the fire fairy came up with on the spot. "We promise not to touch anything!"
"Yeah, we're just here to collect some samples of flowers for our school project!" Musa suddenly added.
"No," the man said grouchily. "Leave immediately. I don't like anyone snooping around my farm." He wielded the ax threateningly.
"Girls," Tecna whispered loudly for only the girls to hear. "Let's just leave now before we start a problem."
The other girls agreed and began to walk back to their horses. They mounted and rode up the trail but took a detour to rest the horses. The girls sat in a circle talking while eating lunch (which consisted of cold sandwiches and juice).
"Well, this isn't good," Layla said obviously.
"We need to take a look all around the property if we want to find out what was behind those pictures of yours, Roxy," Bloom said biting into a sandwich.
"But how do we do that? I'm pretty sure that Batson will call the police on us if stick our noses even an inch on his property."
Flora interrupted, "The trees say that it's been Batson who's been cutting them down."
Stella muttered something about casting a spell on the man.
"I'll pretend that I never heard that, Stella," Bloom said.
"Look. Just because we don't like the man, doesn't mean we can cast spells on him all we want," Tecna reprimanded. "We're full-fledged fairies, Stella, not witches."
"Well, what about our believix?" Musa suggested. "If he sees us as fairies, I'm sure he'll let us take a look."
"No, that's not right, Musa. We can't force people to believe. That only gives birth to fear."
"Plus," Roxy spoke up. "I think it'll give him a heart attack." Again, she found something funny in that situation and chuckled a little. "But I'm sure there's a way."
Unable to come up with a suitable solution, the girls continued to eat and cleaned up.
"Trust me, Roxy. We'll find a way," Bloom said placing her hand on the new fairy's shoulder. They were about to mount their horses and return to the RV when the wind picked up. Roxy shivered and turned. Finally, her eyes widened in fear.
"So you trust them, do you, Roxy?" a deep voice spoke. Ogron's smile dripped malice as he and the rest of the Black Circle stepped out of the shadows of the forest into the clearing. "That would be ill-advised if you look at their record."
Ogron had blood red chin-length hair and alabaster white skin with unnaturally blue eyes. Like the rest of his companions he wore a complicated black jacket intricately designed with belts. To his right stood Duman the shapeshifter with a maroon red Mohawk and on his left was Anagan the dark skinned trench coat wearing speed demon. On the far was Gauntlos with shock white blond hair who looked very much like a hunter.
The fairies turned to face the wizards, ready to jump into action.
"No! The wizards…but—?!" Bloom cried.
"But what, Bloom? How did we find you?" Ogron cooed. "Left us a very noticeable to trail to follow considering the wreckage you left behind in the first hour of travel this morning." Ogron meant Stella's terrible driving. "Men, you know what to do. Capture Roxy and eliminate the others," Ogron ordered.
There was a blinding flash of light as the girls transformed into their believix form. Roxy hid herself behind some trees while the others did battle. Duman transformed into unrealistically large bear and charged at the girls. Bolts of light came flying from every direction as the girls tried to fight off the shapeshifter. Their attacks simply bounced off him until Flora commanded tree roots to capture the bear. They wound themselves around Duman tightly as he struggled.
With ease, Duman broke the bindings and returned to his brethren wizards. He changed back to his human form. "The little one caught me by surprise," Duman said.
Ogron nodded to Gauntlos. "Would you like to try?"
"With pleasure." Gauntlos jumped into the air with a maniac smile and came hurdling down to the earth, causing a crater and a dozen miniature earthquakes.
All the girls flew up into the air but Bloom suddenly remembered that Roxy was wingless and came swooping down to catch her. "Are you okay?! I'm here!"
"And so am I!" Anagan sped across the clearing-turned-battlefield charging at Bloom.
Bloom heaved Roxy bridal-style into her arms and flew off in a hurry as Tecna flew in creating a green force field bubble to receive Anagan at full charge. She bounced back in her bubble and was thrown in another direction like a rubber ball.
Bloom landed and put Roxy on the ground. "Roxy, hide somewhere!"
"But—!"
"Just RUN!" Bloom threw bolts of fire at the wizards to buy time. "Fire Arrow!"
Roxy ran through the forest past the skittish horses. She felt their fear which only increased hers. She could hear her heart pounding wildly as she decide to go down one path and then another and then another until…
The girl took note of her surroundings and realized with a brfeaking heart that she had lost herself in the forest. She came to halt at a fork in the road and tried to catch her breathe. The wind picked up and she saw the sky turn violet pink. She was sure that the wizards were opening gates of the Black Circle to welcome her in. She panicked at the thought.
She heard branches move and trigs snap ahead of her and see looked, ready to bolt in the opposite direction. There was no way that the Black Circle could be open without all four wizards so there was no way that whoever was out in the forest with her was one of them. She looked through the dense bush and found that somebody was walking towards her.
What could she say? Tell him or her to run? She would only put the person in mortal danger.
"Please don't come near me!" Roxy shouted.
The person gave a throaty laugh. It was a woman's for sure.
The person approached until there was scarcely twenty meters between them. Through the darkness of the trees, Roxy could see that the person was fairly short with long wavy blond hair and an admirable figure. She looked to be about Roxy's age. She had a curious look on her face as if she was seeing Roxy as a cute oddity. The woman pointed to Roxy's left where one of the paths in fork led to.
"What are you saying?"
The woman did not clarify and pointed again. She smiled though.
"You want me to go that way?"
The woman nodded.
Suddenly, Roxy's mind was assaulted with images of Batson's recently visited farmstead but this time, it was from another point of view. Roxy saw herself and the six Winx talking to Batson from a high cliff that overlooked the valley the farm was on. Roxy could feel the emotion of concern.
Not up to questioning what had just happened, Roxy bolted for the path that the woman was pointing to. She found herself going downhill and at the end of the path, she found Batson's farm and went right in not caring if the owner was there. She hid in the closest building which was one of the barns. Thankfully, Batson was not there and she hid behind a neatly stacked pile of wood. Then she waited.
Hours seem to go by until Roxy heard a faint buzzing sound and looked up. She must have been hallucinating, she thought as miniature versions of the Winx girls came swooping in from a crack in the wall to land right beside her on the wood.
"Roxy!" a Barbie-sized version of Bloom squeaked. "How are you?"
"Good. Where are the wizards?"
"We ran. We weren't doing too well," Stella said, who looked indeed like a real Barbie.
"We couldn't control our powers properly," Flora added.
"I wish we had more time to train our powers," Stella said sadly.
"I don't think we have time for experimentation right now!" Musa said using the crack in the wall as her window. "They're here!"
The wizards muttered something loudly and abruptly, the place started to fill with noxious grey smoke. One corner of the barn started to blacken as if fire were consuming it. The entire barn was filled with wood so it did not look like a good idea to stay inside. The fairies scattered and flew to the crack.
Roxy coughed and maybe she was dizzy from hypoxia but she swore that she heard someone singing in the barn. She heard the fairies say something about someone getting hit and they flew out to Roxy inside. Roxy did not care though. She just wanted to know what that humming was and so she looked around the barn.
At first, she thought that a fire had entered but she found the light to be white and emanating from sometime on the floor. She approached warily and saw a white hoop-like object on the floor. Kneeling, Roxy inspected it more. The singing was coming from it. It was about the size of a Frisbee.
"Well, look at that," Ogron said curiously. The barn doors were wide opened and Roxy was blinded by the sunlight that spilt in. "What do you think you're doing?" He saw the white hoop on the floor and swore. "The White Circle—what on Earth is this doing here?" He bent down to pick up the white hoop.
That was probably the closest Roxy would ever to a wizard and curled back afraid that he would shoot with something. At the same time, she had stupidly approached to look at the object and what the man holding it would do. The white thing burned in Ogron's hands making him drop it.
The ring rolled across the ground to her and she picked it up while running out of the barn. After that, Roxy was not sure what exactly had happened and she had a vague recollection but she had held the ring high above her, there was bright pink and purple light and she had said something rather mystically oriented. She had felt the ring drain her of energy and at some point, her vision became blurry and the stars were calling her. Then came the swarms of animals and insects flying from out the wazoo and then she collapsed in exhaustion.
She had opened her eyes once to see Bloom in the sky absorbing fire into her chest and that almost gave Roxy a heart attack. She closed her eyes again and found Flora rousing her from her doze and telling to get up.
"What happened…?" Roxy felt like her body was heavy. She leaned heavily on Layla and found that all the girls had reverted to their original forms.
"Sweetie, just relax. You're tired," Flora said.
Roxy looked around and saw that the fire was gone and that Batson was talking to me. Believe it or not, he was smiling too. Then there was some conversation about the bar, the boys, something specific about Brandon, having smoothies and the trip home.
The way back to the horse ranch was rather difficult as Roxy was not fit to rein in her own horse. The other girls had Roxy ride on with Layla and Roxy's own horse was led by a lead. There was some apparent trouble about her falling asleep on the saddle and the fear of her falling off the horse though.
-
Roxy slept for most of the afternoon or so she had been told by one of the guys in her private playroom in the bar. The playroom was Roxy's own room on the property that her father Klaus had given to her a little kid when they first started the business. The point of it was to confine Roxy to one room where Klaus could keep an eye on her afterschool when he was working. The room had accumulated a lot of stuff over the years and now, there were was desk that she had used to study, shelves of her old school textbooks and other furniture to keep her from dying of boredom. It was almost like a second bedroom like the one at the house. The only thing was that there was no bed and so Roxy found herself sprawled on several beanbags with her pixie pets nipping at her nose.
She checked the time on a digital clock and found that she had missed dinner by two hours.
She yawned wearily and found herself still in the cowboy outfit although someone had the decency of covering her with a blanket. Not that she felt that the outfit revealed too much but she was a little pensive of showing her shoulders off. She blushed hoping that her father did not see it. Undoubtedly, he probably already saw it. There was a knock at the door.
"Roxy, are you awake?" her father asked through the door.
"Yeah."
"I'm coming in," he warned. The lean man came in and sat on an empty chair at her desk. He had a grave face and Roxy felt like she was in trouble. "Where did you go today?"
"To the farm."
He nodded as if he did not believe her.
"I swear that we did!" Roxy promised.
"Where did you get those clothes?" he said with distaste. She could tell that he did not like the outfit at all. How would she explain that?
"Um, Stella gave them to me." Well, that was the truth—not the entire truth but hey.
"What happened on the farm?"
"We went riding around in the forest trails and had a picnic," she lied. She could not tell him about the fight with the wizards yet. He would probably disown her.
"Right." He gave her a stern look as if he wanted to hurt her.
Uncomprehending why he was giving her this treatment, Roxy said, "What?"
Klaus stood up with the veins in his neck becoming pronounced. "How do you explain the condition you came back to me, Roxy?" he roared.
"What did I do?" she screamed. "You don't need to yell at me!"
"You were half unconscious and could barely walk by yourself, Roxy! I had to get the boys to carry you in here." Klaus's eyes were bloodshot, Roxy noticed. "You look like you're high the way you were talking to me! You slept for four hours straight, Roxy!"
Roxy stiffened and realized what he was implying. "No, Dad! All we did was go out into the country! I promise! I didn't do drugs or anything illegal!"
"Those girls are bad for you, Roxy. They had trouble spelled all over them ever since Andy invited them."
"No, Daddy! I swear that we didn't do anything!" Roxy sat up. Her eyes watered as she realized that he was going to punish her.
"I don't want to see you near those girls anymore, Roxy! I don't even want them near this bar."
"But they did nothing wrong!" Tears were falling from Roxy's eyes and her lower lip began to quiver.
"I don't want to hear it anymore. They're a bad influence for you. That's all to it!"
"But you told me to make friends!"
"Good friends that won't bring you home half unconscious!"
"But—!"
"That's enough! I said my share! You tell those girls not to come anymore. Don't get any bright ideas about telling them when I have my shifts here because the boys will tell me," Klaus said with a note of finality.
He turned to the door. "Get changed. Your shift starts in an hour and the cook has made dinner for you." Klaus shut the door.
Roxy's head fell forward unto her lap as she began to cry in earnest into the blanket.
-
It was another half of an hour before Roxy left her room and in different clothes that she had pulled out from a chest in her room. She worked mostly at the cash that night and made some of the drinks or prepared some of the desserts as well as prepare anything for takeout. Primarily, her work was behind the counter.
The bar with filled with raucous noise as Andy and his band played on stage. Some of the specialists asked her if she was fine but she just snapped at them of course. It was a regular night. People came and went eating or intending to have a good time, induced by alcohol or not. With Roxy in middle of all these festivities, she wanted nothing better than to curl up in bed. She found herself restless and would have liked to maybe sleep or spend her time reading a book. However, she felt that she was needed at the bar and did leave. Shirking her responsibilities did not sit well in her mind at the moment. Business started to slow down as midnight approached.
"So what happened to you?"
Roxy took a while to register that someone was talking to her and turned to see Helia, who was assuming the position as her with his cheek resting on the back of his fingers. She belatedly jumped in her seat. For some reason, her reactions felt slowed.
"You OD'ed," he said simply after carefully looking at her.
Roxy growled angrily. Why did everyone think she had taken drugs?! "I didn't take any drugs or drink anything, Goddamit! You of all of people should know that!"
He smiled thoughtfully. "I know…but you still OD'ed like a child."
"What are you talking about?!"
"From what I understand, you OD'ed on magic."
"…what?" Roxy turned on her stool to try to understand what the man was saying. "I didn't take any drugs," she said again.
"I never said that you did, Roxy."
"But you're talking about magic mushrooms!"
"What are you talking about?" Now, it was Helia's turn to act confused. He turned to her and tilted his head to the side.
"Y'know…" Roxy left it hanging but saw that he did not understand. "Mushrooms…illegal drugs that make you see things that aren't there…mushies, shrooms, happies…?"
"You're high, aren't you?"
"Am not! You're the one who brought it up!"
"But I don't even know what we're talking about!"
"We're talking about freakin' illegal drugs that could kill us," she said snippily. Why were men so dumb some times?!
"I got that much! I still don't understand what we're talking about!"
"Of course you don't! You're not from around here. You're not even from this planet!"
"Exactly! So how am I supposed to know what we're talking about? I'm the foreigner!" the artist said exasperated and pouted to the side.
Slowly, Roxy realized that Helia truly had no idea what they we talking about. She juggled the thought around in her mind and her insides began to tremble until she started to laugh outright. Her cheeks ached and the muscles in her shoulders bunched as she dropped her head on the counter in a comical fashion. She even banged the side of her fists on the counter as she realized how the stupid the conversation had gotten.
"You're laughing at me, aren't you?" Helia said flatly.
"Omigod, you're so dumb that it's funny sometimes." Roxy wiped some tears from her eyes.
"You are laughing at me!" he said indignantly with a grin pulling at his lips. Then he pompously said, "I'm not friends with people who laugh at the expense of others." He turned in his chair and feigned being emotional hurt by quivering his lower lip.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said in earnest. "I keep forgetting that you don't know everything about this place."
"I'm just kidding!"
"What you were talking about before though?"
"Like I said, you OD'ed on magic and so you collapsed right after."
"What do you mean by overdose of magic?"
Helia pulled out his pen and notepad and drew a stickman. "Normally, OD happens to little children who don't know how to control their powers yet. For example, one child might get angry and throw a temper tantrum." He pointed at the stickman with his pen. "What some parents do is let the child run his angry through its course because it's just as dangerous to bottle up the child's magic after it's been built up—kind of like boiling a pot of water. If you put the top on the pot, the top might pop up into the ceiling. The same thing applies to a child. The child goes kablooe and dies! Everyone starts crying, they have a funeral and the couple has another child. The end. Blah blah blah…" Helia drew waves that signified explosion around the stick man.
"As you might have gathered from Flora's book, magical energy is not solely derived from your own being—which is why you feel exhausted, by the way. Sometimes, you gather it from your surroundings like redirecting lightning from the sky or using fire from a candle and you will it into another form."
"Like inner and outer magic…ish?"
"Something like that." Helia drew a Venn diagram. Each circle was labeled Inner or Outer. "Depending on your specialty or 'magical power source'"—he made quotation marks with his fingers—"it will pretty much tell how you will adapt to use your powers. Some people have a mix of both skills like Stella or Bloom or Flora, actually, now that I think about. And Layla too because they are elemental forms of magic or energy. Musa is in the Inner category because she generates her own magic from her voice box or flute. Oh, and I think Nabu should in the center, as well."
Helia wrote the first four girl's names with Nabu in the intersecting parts of the circle. Musa was written in the Inner circle.
"Makes sense," Roxy noted. There was a sad note in her voice as she saw the girls' names though. "What about Tecna?"
"I'm not sure but I would like to put her on Outer because her magic is more about redirecting things." He wrote Tecna on Outer.
"And me?" Roxy said expectantly.
"I'm not sure. I haven't seen you use your magic enough. Plus, it takes a while to develop. There are psychological and physiological tests that can help you though."
"Oh…" Roxy's bubble deflated as Helia continued on.
"Listen to me because this is very important. You've shown potential for the 'Outer' magic from what I heard but any form of energy can be hazardous to your health. Remember that child who went boom?" he pointed at the stickman. "That does not happen a lot but it is possible. However, that won't kill you. What will is the exhaustion you feel after your temper tantrums. Physiologically, your body is acting rather violently to your magic. For having a short outburst of magic that only magnified your voice to call animals, you should not have collapsed. Most children just become sleepy or physically exhausted like from running. Your body is not used to having so much potential energy running through it and you're having a bad reaction. Right now, any overdose of magic is going to be like poison from now on until you're used to it."
"I sort of get it but how does the exhaustion kill me?"
"Staying up for twenty days straight without sleep is the equivalent of one childish magical outburst for you or some equivalent. Normally, it should be like missing naptime for a baby for one afternoon. One way or another, it will kill you."
"You're very reassuring."
"Thank you. I worked very hard for my psyche minor," Helia said with a flourish.
"Any other degrees that you would like wave in my face?"
"I have my degree for Biological Application of Magic."
"Is that the class that taught you all this?" Roxy pointed at the page.
"No, my grandfather. He's the wizard of the family."
Roxy thought for a moment. If Helia's grandfather was a wizard…did that not make Helia…?
"Sorry to break the lovely conversation," Riven interrupted. "The lady at table number ten would like a pot of coconut tea with a carton of milk." He pointed at a booth where a familiar woman with knee-length black hair in a white dress sat. She read a heavy-looking book with a studious face despite the commotion of the bar. "And a slice of strawberry cheesecake."
"Tea? At this hour?" Roxy asked staring incredulously at Asta.
"Yes, I know and I don't really care about people's tastes," Riven said. "Witches least of all."
Roxy went to the glass display fridge to take out a slice of cake while Helia prepared the tea. Riven went into the kitchen to return some plates. Midnight was approaching and people were starting to vacate. There were only about two dozen people left. Andy's band has decidedly started to play softer songs and the night was coming to a close.
While Helia was boiling water, a dozen men dressed in dark clothes wearing masks came rushing into the bar. They were all holding rifles and one of them shot several rounds that ripped the air into the ceiling to get everyone's attention. Andy's serenade died abruptly and everyone dove for cover. The bar erupted into chaos as some people tried to escape for their lives over the bar's open windows. Roxy dropped everything as she came face to face with someone's handgun. It was natural that something like that would happen considering she was just beside the cash register.
"Hands in the air!" the leader called. "Do as I say and no one gets hurt," he cooed.
All the men scattered about the bar telling people to move into the corners with threats. Some people panicked and some women whimpered pitifully. Everything seemed to painfully happen in slow motion.
It was official: life sucked. First, her dad accuses her of drugs and then he banned her friends from the bar and now, she was in the middle of a robbery. And all in one day.
Roxy's heart knocked against her ribcage while she looked with her peripheral for her father. She was thankful that he was nowhere to be seen. Her arms were above her and she could faintly hear water bubbling behind her. She hoped that Helia had done the same thing because she could not see him without turning. She found that some of the specialists were complying but some of them seemed to have disappeared. They had been there one moment and were gone the next.
She hoped maybe they would be her savior because it was still technologically impossible to dodge bullets on Earth unless the world was really the Matrix. The next best thing was to get the crime over with as fast as possible. Roxy knew what to do. Just comply with the robbers and no one gets hurt. Quick and painless. This is what her father had taught. He had said once that he would rather be bankrupt than lose his daughter and Roxy could see the sense in that.
Brandon was on the far end of the bar standing with handful of people, Sky was near the stage with Andy and his crew and more customers and Riven was in the kitchen, last time she checked. Nabu had disappeared because she was sure he was just at table five cleaning up. Roxy saw some people that she recognized from the warehouse and they were in the crowds being cowed into the corners of the room.
"You there! The boy behind the counter!" the one pointing the pistol at Roxy shouted. "Turn around now."
Roxy turned on heels just enough to see Helia watching a pot of water boil just to her left. He was almost back to back with her and he watched the pot intently. The top was letting out plumes of steam out and whistling. What the hell is he doing?! Roxy screamed in her mind. Was he out of his mind?!
"I said turn around!"
"Let me take pot off the stove, please. It's boiling water and someone might get hurt," Helia said in calm voice, with his back to the main part of the bar where everything was happening.
"Do it." The man holding the gun to Roxy's head had an unsteady stance and his voice was menacing but felt like it was missing conviction.
Helia turned off the stove that had been glowing bright red and lifted the pot off the stove while taking off the cover. He placed the pot beside the cheese cake that she had been preparing for Asta.
Roxy stared up at the specialist and saw an unreadable expression in his eyes. It looked like he was taking note of the situation and where everyone was. He bit his lower lip as if thinking. He looked at the man holding gun for a moment almost contemplating the antiquity of the weapon.
At this moment, Roxy really thought that he was an idiot.
Roxy's world came to a screeching halt as her father stepped out of the kitchen. Maybe he had stepped out to abruptly for the robbers' tastes or he had really surprised them but for some unfathomable reason, a bullet ripped through the air and Klaus collapsed to the ground.
"DAD!" Roxy screamed at the top of her lungs. Her eyes started to water profusely and she had a hard time breathing.
"You idiot!" one of the robbers swore profoundly at another. "Don't waste your bullets!"
It was now that the guys decided to act, seeing that everyone's attention was drawn to Klaus. All chaos let loose as the boys jumped into action with military precision. The air was filled with bullets as the specialists moved in on them.
Helia pulled Roxy out of the way and threw the pot of scalding water at the robber's face in front of the cash register in the same instant. The man screamed and blindly shot bullets that were meant for her and instead sent bottles of spirits exploding on the shelves behind her. Roxy found herself kissing the ground at the force which Helia threw her while he leapt over the counter to grab the man's gun arm and knee him in the face. The artist's weight forced the robber fall on his back with Helia sitting on his chest. With terrifying precision, Helia wrestled with the man's arm until there was a satisfying crack. Helia took the gun and pistol whipped the offender. He then shot two more robbers perfectly in the legs.
Riven dropped from the ceiling rafters in the circle of the robbers and took out two people midflight with well-aimed punches and kicks. With Riven then surrounded, tt was then that Nabu shook off his invisibility spell and was back to back with the redhead. Two more robbers tried to riddle them with bullets but that it did not work as they each grabbed a robber's gun arm, forcing the arms up into the air while firing several rounds and landing kicks right on their chests in a synchronized fashion.
Asta bashed the head of one ignorant thief with a stool and picked up a steak knife to throw it with deadly accuracy between the shoulders of another near Sky. The knife sunk all the way into the hilt and he fell. Brandon had grabbed the guns from the men that Helia had downed earlier and shot two more down who were about to attack Asta. Asta did a roundhouse kick that felled the two shot men.
Sky, farthest from all the commotion and the last to act had calmly taken his serving tray, held it above his head and threw it between the eyes of another robber who was across the room as if it were practice. He then pulled out a switchblade from his pocket and threw it into the shoulders of a man who was trying to crawl out of the bar. Everyone took a defensive stance as they did a headcount.
Seeing that there were no more, Sky spoke up. "Well, that was anticlimactic," he said with a weary note. "Exciting, but anticlimactic." Sky jumped onto the stage and asked everyone to remain calm and that all the bills were on the house. He also told them stay while they called the ambulance and police.
"I ripped my dress," Asta said in a whiny fashion after seeing the long rip on her side that had appeared when she kicked the robbers.
The specialists and some of the customers then began to line up all the downed robbers in a neat line in the middle of bar. All the while, Roxy sobbed over her dad's body as she screamed for him to stay with her. Her world had just collapsed. Klaus was the only sane thing in her life ever since the Winx Club had come in. They had showed a far more exciting life than what she currently had and suddenly, the only person who kept her grounded was on his deathbed.
"Lady, calm down. You're gonna make it worst for him if you keep screaming," a man with snowy white hair and startling red eyes said. He had a boyish charm about him and was one of Sky's people. He jumped over the counter to kneel over Klaus and Roxy found him almost painfully short for a guy.
"Please, he needs help!" Roxy whimpered. Her father's shirt had a large splotch of blood and was only getting bigger. A small puddle had started to form at his shoulder.
"Roxy," her father said in a strained voice. "Just calm down and do what he says."
"B-but—!"
"Lady," the boy caught her attention. "Listen to him because I'm gonna need you to help me here." To her father he said, "Sir, my name is Artos. I have some medical training. Will you let me help you?"
"Of course," Klaus agreed in a dazed voice.
"Good. Sir, I'm going to have to move you into a more comfortable position, okay? Roxy, help me here. We're going to turn him around. Sir, tell me if anything hurts." Artos told her to go to her father's head as Artos went to his feet to move him to the left. Klaus had fallen in the space between the bar and the kitchen door and he was fallen in an awkward position leaning against the wall. They moved him until he was lying flat on the ground.
Artos worked in a methodical fashion as he checked the old man for any other injuries and asking many questions. He told Roxy to fetch him the first aid kit and clean towels. Roxy was sitting at her father's head when Artos pulled out a pair of scissors intent on cutting Klaus's shirt wide open. Roxy turned afraid to see the wound. Artos saw this and told her to go fetch Asta to replace her.
Numbly, Roxy did as she was told and fetched Asta. Asta then told her to sit down at one of the tables with the customers. It was then that Helia came to her, offering a glass of water and told her to drink. He sat across from her.
"Roxy, don't ask questions," he said soothingly. "You're suffering from emotional shock. Just drink your water and take a deep breathe. Inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…"
After that, the police and ambulance arrived. They took down names and asked everyone questions. When one of the officers asked a statement from Helia, he left her briefly to explain what he had done to the man with the broken arm. Andy was right beside her with his head in his hands. He was muttering broken sentences until he realized that Roxy was looking at him.
"I'm sorry. I'm just a little frazzled by this. Did you know that the guys could do this?" he asked all of a sudden.
Roxy was unable to speak and only shook her head as a negative.
"Did you see how Sky took out the two robbers? Shit, the man is dangerous if he carries a knife around like that…" Andy's breathing was rapid. "Shit…who the fuck is he?! What did Bloom do, honestly?"
Roxy did not comment.
Andy continued, "Those aren't regular guys. They aren't regular foreign exchange students either… Shit, man… Holy friggin' shit… Who are they?!" He rambled on and Roxy stopped listening.
She saw her father on stretcher and being pulled into the ambulance. She bolted from her seat immediately to follow him. His wound had been temporarily patched and a bullet in plastic bag was on his stomach. He looked to be asleep but Artos keep talking to him to make sure he was still with them.
"Wait! I'm going with him!" Roxy pleaded to medics. "I'm his daughter!" Artos was already in the ambulance though.
"I'm sorry but we have to get him to the ER asap, miss," one of them said.
"But—!"
Sky grabbed her by her shoulder. "Roxy, get in the car. We'll follow the ambulance," he offered.
And that's what they did. Sky and Roxy jumped into the guys newly purchase car and sped off after the ambulance while the others closed the shop and cleaned up. Once at the hospital, Roxy fretted for several more hours in the waiting room with Sky and Artos. The doctor watching over Klaus finally came out to speak with them around two in the morning.
"Well," the doctor said tiredly, "He's fine but suffering some shock. We need to keep in here for at least a week. Because of his age, he's slightly weaker."
Roxy clung to every word. "Is he going to be okay?!"
"Yes, if everything goes right and there aren't any surprises. He might have some pain in his shoulder though. We'll talk about that later. Right now, all you need to know is that he's fine and he's sleeping like a baby."
After that Roxy collapsed again in her seat and fell asleep on her chair.
Latter Note: Holy friggin'… Wow…Things are getting interesting.
Andy: HOLY FRIGGIN' CRAP! Dude, you're not supposed to throw knives at people!
Sky: But it was for the safety of the customers! *puppy eyes*
Andy: Screw the customers!
Sky: You're pretty ungrateful. I just saved your life and bar's financial lifeline.
Andy: What are doing with a knife in your back pocket anyways?
Sky: I use it to cut open boxes in the backroom.
Andy: Honestly, where did you say you were from again?
Sky: Eraklyon.
Andy: Where's that exactly?
Sky: Galaxy NGC 3314b--! *Asta steps on his foot* OUCH!
Asta: Sorry, we're from Heraklion, Greece. My friend here has a very strange accent, even for Heraklion standards. That's why he mispronounced Heraklion.
(I swear to God that there is a Heraklion in Greece.)
1) I do not condone any form of drugs. I severely hate alcohol as well and refuse to touch it.
2) The mysterious blond woman in the forest is indeed mysterious. She was not there in the show nor is she a deus ex machina (plot device). ;)
3) Yes, Asta has her priorities mixed up. ;)
4) I do not recommend that you resist in a robbery. Do what the man with the gun says and give him the money. As soon as he leaves, call the authorities.
5) Helia throwing hot water was inspired by a true story where a woman threw coffee in a similar situation.
6) Sky is carrying a knife because he often has to open boxes in the back…or so he says. ;) Andy is freaked out.
7) The fight in the forest was condensed because it honestly felt god awfully long and useless.
8) Yes, I exaggerated Roxy's condition somewhat but Helia provided the clinical reasons. In theory, she woke up at eight in the evening, worked 'til twelve-ish and fell asleep in the hospital around two. That's about six hours, I think.
9) YES, FRIG! I SHOT KLAUS, OKAY?!?! Right after he accused his daughter of shady business, I had to get him shot and in the hospital. However, don't say that he deserved it. He's only doing what he does in the best interest for Roxy.
You know, I have to say, this story is taking an interesting turn. Roxy is trying to learn magic but then her father gets shot in something as mundane as a robbery. Like trying to live two lives in one. Tell me what you think.