Issue 19: Monsters on the Loose

Monsters on the Loose is the nineteenth issue of the Winx Club Comic Series.

Synopsis
All of the pixies of Pixie Village are preparing for the arrival of a long awaited visitor: the Traveling Pixie. Eager that they finally have a worthwhile story to tell the Traveling Pixie, Ninfea and the others have made a picture book to help fill their friend in on the events that had recently taken place. Meanwhile, groups of students from each of Magix's three major colleges must return to where Darkar's Fortress once stood in order to destroy any of the dark lord's remaining shadow monsters so that they can finally move past the whole ordeal.

Plot
The Pixies are decorating their village for a long-awaited visitor. Ninfea finds finger marks in the icing on their cake and immediately scolds Chatta for it. Chatta claims that she just wanted to see if it tasted good but cannot remember how it tastes because Ninfea upset her, and tries to sneak in another tasting. While they are arguing, Tune comes to Ninfea wanting to know what or who they are setting up the village for but, before she can answer, Livy flies by and tells them that their guest is coming. All of the other pixies scramble to finish the preparations and Tune asks Ninfea who their guest's identity is. Ninfea says that the traveling pixie is returning to Pixie Village to share tales of her adventures. Ninfea scolds Chatta for trying to taste the cake frosting a second time while everyone else flies towards the center of the village once they see the Traveling Pixie's wagon pulling in. Once she arrives at Pixie Village, the Traveling Pixie unloads her large trunk of gifts for everyone. As Ninfea tries to show the traveling pixie the feast they had prepared, they find that Piff is asleep on the platter that the cake was originally on. Chatta scolds Piff for eating the cake before everyone else could have a slice and she starts to cry. Tune and Ninfea try to calm Piff down and Ninfea lets it slip that Piff and her friends have gone through dangerous hardships while the Traveling Pixie was away. The Traveling Pixie asks what Ninfea meant by that and all of the other pixies decide that they should tell the Traveling Pixie what happened while she was away at the Story Tree.



At the Story Tree, Ninfea is just about to tell the traveling pixie about all that had happened but she does not know where to start. Chatta and Tune suggest that Ninfea show her the pictures they made and so Ninfea has the Reporter Pixie retrieve the picture book that all of the pixies made. Ninfea then opens the book and begins to tell the story:

It all started in Darkar's Fortress, where Lord Darkar had kidnapped a group of pixies and planned to make them tell him the whereabouts of their hidden village. The Traveling Pixie interrupts the story to ask what Darkar could have possibly wanted in their village but Ninfea claims that it is a bit too complicated to tell her, so she simply says that he was after "a crystal." Chatta says that that was the reason why Darkar kidnapped them and Tune adds in that most of the pixies managed to escape but she and her friends were still being held prisoner. Chatta and Tune argue over which one of them should tell the story and they end up waking Piff. Ninfea settles them down until the Traveling Pixie realizes that Darkar must have been after their piece of the Codex. Ninfea decides to continue telling the story from where she had left off:

A fairy they know named Aisha managed to climb up Darkar's Fortress, however, she was not able to make it as Darkar caught her climbing the side of his fortress and threw her into the river below. Aisha miraculously survived the fall and managed to make it to one of the magic colleges: the Alfea School for Fairies, where she had collapsed and was quickly found by a group of fairies. These fairies, who called themselves the Winx, were able to care for Aisha and became such good friends with her that she enrolled into the school and became a member of their group.



Chatta interrupts the story to talk about how the Winx became that of their big sisters figuratively, and that she bonded with Flora. Digit mentions that she bonded with Tecna. Lockette talks about how Bloom is the fairy she bonded with and that she is a really nice person. Tune says that she bonded with Musa and that they have so much in common, while Amore talks about how much she loves Stella, the girl she bonded with. The Traveling Pixie is impressed that they were able to be freed thanks to the Winx, but Ninfea tells her that it was no easy task for them to do so.

She continues the story, telling her that Aisha, the Winx and their friends, the Specialists, had to brave through the dangers of the underground world in order to get to Darkar's Fortress. As they did so, Stella and Brandon got separated from them and were even close to dying. They were then captured by strange creatures who lived in the underground and became their prisoners. Since Stella was getting weaker with every second she stayed underground away from the sun, she needed to be brought to the surface as quickly as possible. So, in order to do so, Brandon was forced into a marriage with Princess Amentia, the princess of Downland.

The Traveling Pixie cuts in to ask who this Brandon fellow is and Ninfea explains that he is a member of the Specialists: a group of boys from Red Fountain that come to help where help is needed. Amore adds in that he is dating Stella and that it would have been a tragedy if he were to marry Princess Amentia. Chatta scolds Amore for spoiling a part of the story they have not gotten to yet and tries to continue where Ninfea left off, only for Ninfea to scold her and continue the story herself.



She mentions that the Trix were locked up at the Fortress of Light for their past crimes, until Darkar flew in and freed them, so long as they would help him achieve his goals. They were capable of escaping the Fortress of Light thanks to the new powers that Darkar bestowed upon them: Gloomix.

In Darkar's Fortress, when Aisha, the Winx and Specialists arrived, the Trix were there as well, waiting for them. The Winx and Specialists barely managed to defeat the Trix and make their way to the kingdom of Downland, where they rescued Brandon.

The Traveling Pixie asks how they were able to rescue Brandon as he should have been married to Princess Amentia before they got to Downland and Ninfea tells her that, thanks to Amore, Amentia fell in love with one of her subjects by the name of Sponsus, so she let Brandon go free. The Traveling Pixie is glad that the story ended on a happy note but Chatta jumps in and tells her that that is nowhere near the end of the story.

Ninfea adds in that Darkar let most of the pixies escape so that he would be able to track them down at Pixie Village and steal their piece of the Codex. He had even sent a spy that masqueraded as the new professor who was expected to teach at Alfea that year, Professor Adonis. As the fairies and pixies were occupied with their own problems, the Trix worked in secret to gather the other pieces of the Codex and no one realized this until they already had the pieces from Red Fountain and Cloud Tower. Lockette adds that Darkar needed Bloom's Dragon's Flame to become stronger and was eventually able to corrupt her, turning her into Dark Bloom. Fortunately, Bloom was able to overcome Darkar's dark influences and became good again. The final battle with Darkar was waged and the Winx and Specialists came out victorious.

Chatta adds that Flora met and fell in love with Helia: a handsome new Specialist and Saladin's nephew. Amore tells the Traveling Pixie that the real Professor Adonis, the one Darkar had imprisoned, was able to make it back to Alfea. The Traveling Pixie asks about what happened to the Trix, to which Ninfea responds by telling her that they were buried under the rubble of Darkar's now destroyed fortress and that they will not be hearing anything from them for a while. The pixies all cheer at the story they have told and now want to hear stories of the Traveling Pixie's travels. Before she is able to, though, the Specialists and Winx arrive to pay a visit.



Lockette tells Bloom how much she missed her and Bloom tells her that it does not matter now that they are free and that they are together again. Amore asks if Stella is with her boyfriend and Stella explains that they are helping the Specialists with a very important mission. Even though Darkar was defeated and his fortress is now destroyed, everyone needs to go back where the fortress once stood to scout for signs of any surviving monsters. Bloom is afraid to ask Lockette for the pixies to come along with them but Lockette tells them that they cannot come anyway because they have already gathered to listen to the Traveling Pixie's stories. Each group agrees to go about their own business and they part ways.

A short while later, the Winx and Specialists land in the canyon that led to Darkar's Fortress and come across a group of girls doing their own searching. The group of girls happen to be a group of Cloud Tower Witches that have been assigned the same task as the Winx and Specialists, however, the witches figured out that the Specialists would be searching around the canyon's area and decided to head there with the hopes of meeting them. One of the witches starts flirting with Sky and Brandon, which annoys Stella greatly and she tries to get her to back off. However, since the Specialists are available to anyone that needs help, they are also obligated to help the witches if they decide to help the Winx, or any fairies in general. Since the canyon is a very large area to search and the Specialists are already running late, they all decide to split into groups to search the canyon more quickly. A few witches go with Timmy, Tecna, Aisha, Stella and Brandon while the other witches go search with Sky, Bloom, Riven, Musa and Flora.

With Timmy's group, a witch starts to flirt with him until Tecna "accidentally" flings a branch in her face, while also warning Timmy to be careful. Stella tries to get the other witch to stop being so clingy with Brandon until the group is attacked by a shadow monster. Stella tries to transform to help the boys fight but because magic is weakened near the canyons, she cannot do so, and she narrowly manages to evade the shadow monster's attacks. One of the witches uses her own magic on the monster and melts it... until the monster reforms, even bigger this time. Timmy is able to blast the monster from behind before it can attack Stella, though, while Stella is safe, when the monster attacked, it caused the witch with her to fall over the cliff. She is barely managing to hang into a branch sticking out from the cliff side until it snaps and she falls into a raging river below. Brandon acts quickly and dives in to rescue her, but the river flows into a cave where both Brandon and the witch named Shilly, fall down a waterfall. Stella immediately starts panicking, thinking that this is all her fault and that Brandon may have died. Timmy then has the group head for the closest valley in hopes of rescuing Brandon and Shilly as Tecna tries to calm Stella down. Soon enough, the group makes it to the cave where Brandon and Shilly fell and go in to find them.

Meanwhile, Brandon is able to force himself and Shilly onto the closest shore and passes out. When he comes to, he wakes up to Shilly checking for wounds. She thanks Brandon for risking his life to save her and claims to be in his debt. Brandon realizes that the waters have risen a bit and that they can build a raft in order to get out of the caves and regroup with their friends. A bit of time goes by and the two are able to make a sturdy raft. As they are about to get on, Shilly claims that she would go anywhere with Brandon and that "a pesky little fairy" does not exactly suit him. Brandon, on the other hand, loves Stella very much and would not leave her for anyone else.



Brandon and Shilly board the raft and barely make it out of the caves. Their friends spot them from a cliff just above the caves and the two reunite with their friends. Stella clings to Brandon with relief as Sky tells Brandon that the mission is over and that they need to return to Red Fountain to look tend to any wounds Brandon may have gotten. Shilly thanks Brandon again before they all board the Specialists' ship.

During the flight back, the other witches pester Shilly for details on anything that happened while she and Brandon were alone in the caves. Shilly says that it was an interesting experience and claims that Brandon is too good to be left with "a silly fairy" as she vows to fight for his affections.

Spells Used
None.

Mistakes

 * There are many minor errors within the Pixies' drawings:
 * All of the Specialists' pins are blue instead of their respective colors.
 * Brandon's hair switches from brown to maroon after page 11.
 * Halfway through the issue, Tune suddenly gains dark blue eyeshadow.
 * The blue swirl that is usually on Aisha's top is missing.
 * When the Winx and Specialists stop by to visit the pixies on page 20, Flora's top is missing its midriff.
 * As the Winx, witches and Specialists fly away from the canyons on page 44, Musa is missing her disconnected sleeves.

Debuts

 * Ninfea
 * Lockette
 * Tune
 * Digit
 * Livy


 * The Traveling Pixie
 * The Reporter Pixie
 * Zing
 * Helia (mentioned)
 * Lord Darkar
 * Shilly


 * Professor Adonis
 * Princess Amentia
 * Sponsus
 * Pulisatilla
 * Tabitha

Characters

 * The Winx Club
 * Bloom
 * Stella
 * Flora
 * Musa
 * Tecna
 * Aisha
 * The Specialists
 * Sky
 * Brandon
 * Timmy
 * Riven
 * Helia (mentioned)
 * Alfea Staff
 * Faragonda
 * Professor Adonis


 * The Pixies
 * Lockette
 * Amore
 * Chatta
 * Tune
 * Digit
 * Piff
 * Ninfea
 * Livy
 * The Traveling Pixie
 * The Reporter Pixie
 * Zing
 * Enemies
 * Trix
 * Icy
 * Darcy
 * Stormy
 * Lord Darkar
 * The Fake Professor Adonis
 * Dark Bloom (mentioned)


 * Cloud Tower Students
 * Shilly
 * Tabitha
 * Pulisatilla
 * Cloud Tower Staff
 * Griffin (mentioned)
 * Red Fountain Staff
 * Saladin (mentioned)
 * Codatorta (mentioned)
 * Royalty
 * Princess Amentia
 * Sponsus

Trivia

 * This issue mainly serves as a retelling of the events of the animated series' second season.
 * Professor Adonis, whom the Pixies mentioned, is probably meant to be Professor Avalon as both were imprisoned by Darkar as one of his minions masqueraded around Alfea disguised as them.