FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A/N: much of the backstory from this chapter can be found in an old series. For those who wish to read it for themselves I can give the links in notes or in comments. Melony is my own character but the other new characters introduced belong to an old friend, Sue Wehking

Chapter 13: Love Heart's Last Mission

Illyana had listened to the report from her mercenaries about the attack on the island where her old prizes had been found. The appearance of more exotic animals that could fight back intrigued her, especially the reports that they came from the sky. She had done her homework and she knew they were Care Bears. She found it contemptable that the U.N. recognized them as a nation or even sentient species, not that it would stop her.

She heard the tired and strained laughter from Lily as she entered the torture chamber, seeing the man in the control booth monitoring her.

"Ms. Illyana," He turned to her, "I was just about to finish up her torture session for the day. She still won't talk." He moved to push the 'stop' button.

Illyana grabbed his hand, "No, don't stop. In fact," she reached for the controls and turned up the intensity.

Over the years, Lily had been reduced to an emaciated husk, barely kept alive and only capable of speaking in a hoarse whisper when she wasn't laughing. Her chest nd stomach ached constantly from the daily torture sessions, even breathing was a chore most of the time as her breath was short and thin.

What little relief she anticipated was shattered as the tickling machine sped up on her and she let out roars of laughter.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAAAAAA!" Her laughter started to become more hoarse as her eyes went wide. She forced herself to stare at her captors as Illyana watched her and her vision began to fade. Her lungs were burning and the pain in her chest intensified. She felt a rush of air as one of her ribs completely broke off her rib cage and pierced her lung.

"Aahahahahaaaaaaa........"

Her breath deflated as her vision faded away, the last thing she saw was Illyana's sinister glare as she slumped limp in her shackles.

In the silence that followed, the operator shut the machine off then went to inspect her, "She's dead."

"Good, take that carcass off there and keep it somewhere safe." Illyana turned to leave the room, "Get the new machine and AI ready. We will have new guests soon."

OoOoO

Love Heart had woken up too early and couldn't go back to sleep. He and Confidence were still embracing each other when he woke up but now he lay on his back and just stared up at the ceiling; Confidence Heart had rolled over but hadn't noticed her husband was awake. Love Heart sighed then slid out of bed, he had to use the bathroom.

Love Heart didn't stop thinking even as he dried off after his shower and re-entered the bedroom to find Confidence Heart awake and staring at him as she propped her head up on her arm.

"Good morning, darling," Confidence giggled.

Love Heart gave a brief smile, "Good morning."

Confidence sat up as Love Heart sat on the foot of the bed, "What's wrong, Love Heart?"

Love Heart sighed. They could always read each other so there was no point in hiding it. "I'm worried if I'm going to keep being a good father or not."

"Really?" Confidence's tone changed from concern to apathy, "After 10 years with Mira you're worried about that now? It is because of Shimmers?"

"Partly. It's more that I'm worried that with things picking up around here and all these lost Care Bears to find I'm not going to be around enough for them, especially Shimmers." Love Heart stared at the floor.

"It hasn't been that long." Confidence turned sideways and slid next to her husband, "You've been doing great, why so worried now?"

"Remember when you looked after Meek and Wild for about a week three years ago?"

Confidence Heart smiled, "Yeah, that was a fun week. You were off with your parents right?"

"I was I..." Love Heart took a deep breath, "I needed to hash out some grievances. I wanted to be understanding but... mom and dad hid away from me for over a decade and I thought they were dead. Your parents were great..." both of them tensed up remembering how things had ended, "But I still wish I could have grown up with my parents, and known my sister when she was younger. I wanted to be a real big brother and I wanted my parents around.

"We went down to a hotel and I just unloaded on them, everything I missed and had wanted when I was growing up and how much I wished things had been different. I know dad was just trying to protect mom but it was selfish to not even come back and look for me and Indy." Love Heart clenched his fists in his lap. "The thing is," he relaxed, "They apologized for everything and didn't even scold me, well until I told them and apologized for being so mad. But now, I'm worried that one of these missions will be the end for me. What if Mental Heart gets the drop on me or Andross drops a bomb on my head or..." he shook his head, "I don't want to leave our kids alone, or leave you..."

Confidence Heart took Love Heart's head in her hand and turned him to face him, "Love Heart," she leaned in and kissed him on the mouth, "That's very sweet of you, but you're worrying too much."

"I know, but I think I know what to do." Love Heart smiled, "I'll go on one last mission to find lost Care Bears today and after that I'm staying at home. No more missions, no more going out searching for trouble, I'm going to be a stay at home dad and armchair general until the kids grow up."

"You sure about this?" Confidence Heart asked, "What about the U.N.?"

Love Heart rolled his eyes, "I can still make it to the meetings, but that's not every day. I'll be here to look after them and protect the Kingdom of Caring. Defender can be the field leader from now on and I'll dispatch everyone else to deal with problems. In fact," Love Heart stood up, "I'll go tell him right now and search out the last Care Bears I'm going to rescue."

"Don't forget about me," Confidence Heart headed for the bathroom, "I'll take you up on that too. Gonna stay home unless things get serious."

Love Heart smiled. He would have joined Confidence in the shower but he had more important things to take care of now. Two of those things he found standing outside their bedroom door, clearly having been listening in on them.

"Well good morning," Love Heart looked down at them, "something wrong? Need a change, Shimmers?"

"No," Shimmering Star Bear shuffled awkwardly.

"You're giving up being a Magi?" Miracle Heart Kitsune looked up at him with worry, "You don't need to look after us, I'm a big girl, daddy."

"I know you are, both of you," Love Heart tousled their headfur, "But I don't want to risk missing anything with you two. I know you can look after both of you, Mira, but I want to be here for you two like I have been since you were born. I promise this isn't because of you, this is something I want to do." He crouched down and hugged them both, "Now let's get you some breakfast then I'll go and finish my last mission."

OoOoO

Love Heart didn't need to do much to handle the changeover. Defender Bear was all too willing to take over as the field commander from Love Heart and once that was finished he reached out with his tummy symbol... and found two locations with lost Care Bears. Suspecting that the Great Wishing Star was going to make his last mission day a memorable one, Love Heart took Anger Heart with him and the two took off, without cloud cars, to find them.

Anger Heart was visibly uncomfortable as they flew, "Couldn't we just take the Cloud Cars?"

Love Heart shook his head, "Flying takes less energy from us and we need to be able to summon them if things get bad, and I don't want to get caught belted to my seat when Mental Heart shows up."

"Right..." Anger Heart glowered but didn't protest, "How much farther to the first destination?"

Love Heart's tummy symbol glowed red as he focused into it, "Not too much farther... there." He slowed to a stop over a small town. Anger Heart almost flew past him but swung his feet forwards so the jets of fire coming out of his feet slowed him to a stop.

"So where are they?" Anger Heart looked down below at the town below.

"Not sure, I'm trying to sort out both signals from each other, I just know it's down there somewhere." Love Heart was also scanning the ground below them.

Anger Heart growled and folded his arms, "You couldn't be a little more precise?"

"Quiet, Lieutenant." Love Heart didn't look up.

Anger Heart shut up. Love Heart never called anyone by their official rank unless things were serious.

Love Heart began to descend closer to earth and Anger Heart followed. Finally, Love Heart stopped and turned to where a cluster of noise was coming from. "some sort of commotion over there. We should check it out."

"General, do you think she's over there?" Anger Heart's tone was serious.

Love Heart shook his head, "I don't know but if there's trouble over there we should try to help whoever's over there."

"Of course, Sir."

Love Heart smiled, "You can drop the sir, Anger Heart." He took off towards the commotion, followed by Anger Heart.

The commotion and crowd was gathered around a four story building. Love Heart's first instinct was to search for any police officers nearby. Spotting a squad car, Love Heart and Anger Heart landed some distance away and approached on foot.

"Excuse me, officers," Love Heart raised his voice as he came close enough for the man and woman in uniform to hear him. When the officer turned to face them, Love Heart spoke up again, "I'm Love Heart Bear from the Kingdom of Caring and this is Anger Heart Fox. What's going on here?"

The female officer was the first to speak, "We have a young woman on top of that building named Melony who's threatening to jump. We can't get anyone up there without risking her jumping.

"Maybe we can help," Anger Heart offered.

The woman officer was skeptical but her male partner spoke up, "I trust them to try. The Care Bears convinced me not to run away from home when I was ten, if anyone can stop that girl from jumping it's them."

The woman sighed then turned to the two Magi, "Can you help?"

"Yes..." Love Heart paused, "If the lost Care Bear is here they should notice us if we help here. Anger Heart, go and talk her down, I have to get to the second location before Mental Heart finds them." Without another word, Love Heart flew up into the sky, vanishing above the clouds.

"HEY! DON'T JUST... uggg," Anger Heart grumbled.

"Still trust them?" the female officer asked,

"Just watch me! I can do this," Anger Heart took a deep breath then jumped up as fire jets shot out of his feet and he flew up to the top of the building.

"Flying Bears and Foxes," the female officer shook her head as her partner picked up his radio.

"We've sent a specialist in to talk to the jumper, keep an eye on her."

Anger Heart landed on the top of the building and spotted Melony right away. He couldn't make out her appearance because she had her back to him and wore a grey hoodie with the hood draw up.

Anger Heart approached her, "Melony, I'm-"

"Stay back!" Melony's voice was high and sharp, "I'm going to jump!"

"Don't!" Anger Heart stepped forwards. "You can't do this!" This was new territory for Anger Heart and he was doing his best to keep a level head. Fighting was one thing, he knew how to fight, even raising his son wasn't this hard, at least there one mistake could be fixed and he had years to try to make things right. Now? Now one mistake could cost this girl her life.

"Can't I?" Melony's voice trembled, "I have nothing left, no home, no money, nowhere to go. Even if I step back they'll just shove me in an asylum to find out why I tried to kill myself instead of helping me." Anger Heart could tell by her voice that she was crying.

Anger Heart took a deep breath, moving slowly towards her in the hopes she wouldn't jump from the sound of his approach. He felt his tail twitch, a reminder of how hard it was to control such a dangerous situation. "I know it's bad, but if you jump then that's it, it's over. You won't have a chance to fix things or make things better. I know things seem bad but... if you end it now then you'll never have a chance to make things better."

"You can't understand how I feel!" Melony's shout made Anger Heart freeze in place. He was only two meters from her, he could have lunged at her to grab her but that might make things worse. "I spent my whole life being picked on for being different, then for not being the special kind of different that meant something. I heard there were people like me here so I spent everything I had, everything but the clothes on my back and I find out they left this place years ago... I have nothing...no chances left...I won't live on the street but I will let it take me."

Anger Heart watched as Melony stepped off the ledge. "NO!" He shouted and ran as she jumped. Blue fire shot out the bottoms of Anger Heart's feet and he flew faster than her ever had over the ledge. Time slowed down around as he saw that Melony had only fallen one story by the time he appeared over the ledge. His tail automatically split into eight as he rocketed down to catch her, grabbing hold of her shoulders when they were halfway to the ground.

"What?!" Melony felt herself wrenched upwards as Anger Heart pulled her into a full nelson and swung his legs down to point the fire jets at the ground as he fought to slow their descent.

They hit the ground hard, not hard enough to break anything but enough to send a shockwave through Anger Heart's legs and back as he cushioned her fall. He stood there, holding her and lowering her to the ground.

Melony was panting, "Why... why did you do that... how did you do that?" she turned to face him and balked.

Anger Heart was still shaking off the pain when Melony lowered her hood, then he saw her face. "You're a Care Bear!"

Melony was a dark blue Care Bear with blue eyes. She stared at Anger Heart for a moment then turned away from him, "No, I'm not. If I was special enough to be a Care Bear you would have found me before..."

"That's not true." Anger Heart said and was about to continued when Melony rounded on Anger Heart, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Yes it is! You have no idea what my life has been like! Always being teased and picked on for being different! Told by everyone that you're not special enough to be a Care Bear!" Melony broke down and fell to her knees, "I heard there were more rejected Care Bears here so I spent everything I had to find them, but they left years ago! No one can understand what my life has been like..."

Anger Heart felt his blood boil at the woman's tirade, his teeth bared and fists clenched. Then he stopped and stared at the bear, small and broken as everyone kept their distance, waiting to see what Anger Heart would say.

"I do understand," Anger Heart said. Melony looked up, her eyes puffy from her tears, and Anger Heart continued, "I grew up on earth. I was teased, bullied and tormented by the kids my own age for years, me and my friend Germaine. I used to be called Alex Kitun and I didn't even know what I was until the Care Bears found me."

"But why?" Melony stared up at him, "Why didn't you find me sooner? Why not until now when I almost killed myself?"

Anger Heart sighed sadly, "I don't know. I asked myself that a lot after they found me but all I can say is that we can't be everywhere at once." He offered a hand to the sad blue bear, "But we can start now, no matter what it takes."

"Excuse me," A male police captain approached the two, "But after this we need to take her in. She's mentally unstable and she needs to be taken in for her own protection."

Anger Heart saw the sudden fear in Melony's eyes and moved to put himself between her and the captain. "No, she's coming with me."

The captain looked nonplussed, "She's an American citizen and is under my authority. I think-"

Anger Heart cut him off, his rage starting to boil again as he recited the lines Love Heart had told them all to use in this situation: "I am Lieutenant Anger Heart Fox of the Care Bear Magi and by authority granted to us under the U.N. I have the right to evacuate any member of the Care Bear Family to the Kingdom of Caring due to threats against our lives made by enemies of our country." Anger Heart reached into his tummy symbol and pulled out the card with the order written on it he always carried.

The captain read the card then sighed, "Very well. But get her out of here now or I will have to take her on for psychiatric evaluation."

Anger Heart stowed the card and turned back to Melony, "Do you want to come to the Kingdom of Caring?"

Melony stood up, "Yes!" She dried her eyes as best she could on her shirt sleeve.

Anger Heart smiled, "Alright, just a sec." He concentrated on his tummy symbol and a moment later a cloud car materialized in front of him.

Melony watched him walk around to the driver's side and finally noticed the abnormal amount of tails attached to his butt. "Why do you have eight tails?"

Anger Heart stopped, with his hand on the door handle, and turned around. "Crap, lost control," he muttered, "I'm a kitsune, just a sec." He closed his eyes and with visible effort he forced the tails to merge into one again, "They make sitting down a huge pain." He got into the driver's seat and waited until Melony had buckled herself in. "Promise you'll hold on. I'll introduce you to everyone."

"I'll stay seated, I promise," Melony said. She sounded doubtful but she held on to the sides and gasped as the car lifted off the ground and flew up towards the clouds.

Melony's heart jumped into her throat as the car flew upwards but she held on. The wonder of what waited ahead was worth seeing, even if her thoughts drifted to the fact that the height they were at would make things easier...

Any such thoughts vanished from her mind as Anger Heart landed the cloud car at the parking lot in Care-a-Lot then escorted her out of the car. "Welcome to Care-a-Lot, Melony."

"Oh my..." the sight took Melony's breath away even as Anger Heart pulled her away from the parking lot.

"We need to introduce you to the leaders and get your checked up at the hospital." Anger Heart saw the worry on Melony's face and did his best to reassure her, "It's standard procedure, but I will have to tell them about what you tried to do."

Melony gulped, "OK."

OoOoO

"Can you teach me to be a doctor?" Redemptionheart Bear stood in Take Care's waiting room as the doctor worked on her computer.

Take Care sighed. This was becoming a daily annoyance with the grey and purple bear. She turned to Redemption and the young bear continued, "I've always wanted to be a doctor, I can be your apprentice!"

"No, you can't," Take Care stated bluntly, "I can't just let you in to my office on the spot, there's dangerous equipment in here. I can't just train you either, you have to study and work for years to even be allowed to interact with patients, let alone treat them!" Her voice was become more irritable with each word. Thankfully, Get Well Bear stepped in.

"Mom, I can handle this."

"Please do," Take Care turned back to the computer on the reception desk.

Get Well led Redemption away from Take Care, "This is a bad time, Redemption, we have a lot to look after, especially with a bunch of newborns on the way. If you really want to be a doctor I can help you study so you can get into school."

"Why can't I learn here?" Redemption stared up at Get Well, who was a head taller than her.

"Because this isn't a place where we have the space or time to teach, and mom and I have to look after everyone else, we don't have time to be teachers. We can help you study but you have to promise to stop dropping by every day and bothering us." Get Well was about to continue when Anger Heart entered the waiting room.

"Excuse me, Get Well, Take Care, I want you two to meet Melony." He let go of the dark blue bear's hand.

Melony waved nervously, "Hello."

"Another new family member," Get Well smiled, "Hello, my name is Get Well Bear."

"And I'm Take Care Bear," Take Care stood up from the reception desk, "I'm the head doctor here in the Kingdom of Caring. I assume you're here for the newcomer's check-up."

Melony nodded, "Yes."

"Noble Heart and True Heart weren't home, but I do need to talk to you, Take Care," Anger Heart turned to the doctor.

"Then I'll conduct the tests, please follow me, Melony," Get Well led the bear to the exam room.

Once they were certain the two were out of earshot, Take Care turned back to Anger Heart, "Alright, what's wrong?"

"She tried to kill herself, Take Care." Anger Heart's expression was serious as he continued. "I found her on top of a building, ready to jump off and...she did."

Take Care tensed up, awful memories of Brave Heart tragic caring mission racing through her mind.

"I was just barely able to fly down and catch her, still hit the ground pretty hard, not hard enough to break anything but still..." he looked down for a moment then back up at Take Care.

"I...see," Even Take Care couldn't help but feel rattled by this news, "I'll have to have a talk with her. Thank you for telling me."

"Right... I need to go," Anger Heart turned around and headed out the door.

His thoughts were interrupted when he saw Redemptionheart standing in front of the hospital and trying to make her tummy symbol work. It flashed for a moment then stopped. "Come on, work!" she pressed her symbol then tried again.

"What are you trying to do?" Anger Heart asked.

"I need to go back home, I left something important there. I just need to create a cloud car." Redemptionheart started trying to make her symbol work again.

Anger Heart sighed, if he left her alone she'd probably just hurt herself even if she did make a cloud car successfully. "I can take you there, just calm down." Anger Heart easily created a cloud car and got into the driver's seat.

"Thank you," Redemption got in the passenger seat. Anger Heart took a moment to text Guidance about why he'd be late getting home then they took off.

OoOoO

"I'm getting close, I should have been more precise," Love Heart flew across the countryside. A whirring noise drew Love Heart's attention and he slowed to a stop.

"Looking for something, Care Bear?"

Love Heart groaned as the high pitched voice, "I don't time to deal with you, Shrieky." He turned to see Shrieky standing in the bike-copter wit Beastly driving, as usual.

Shrieky cackled, "Oh you'll find time!" She fired off a blast of purple lightning at the green bear. Love Heart easily dodged and fired back with his own blast of blue lightning.

Electricity arced back and forth across the sky as Love Heart dodged and retaliated against Shrieky. "Enough of this!" Love Heart shot forwards and grabbed the collar of Shrieky's shirt. "Shrieky, just give up and go back to your castle. You can't beat me and I'm not even trying."

Shrieky sneered, "Then maybe you should, because I know your weakness." Before Love Heart could stop her Shrieky pulled a handful of gold dust out of her pocket and blew it in his face.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Love Heart screamed in pain as Shrieky blew the rest of the gold across his body. His entire skin burned and he lost control of his flight, then plummeted towards earth.

"Eehahahahaha!" Shrieky watched Love Heart fall, "One Care Bear down, and the leader of their army." She sat down in the passenger car, "Let's go back to my castle, Beastly, I want to enjoy this victory."

"Right away, Shrieky," Beastly's sounded resigned, but Shrieky neither noticed or cared.

Love Heart tried to focus through the pain, but the burning was overpowering his senses. He knew he was falling but he even if he could fly he had no idea if he'd be flying up or down as he spun through the air. The best he could do was force all his concentration to slow his fall so at least it would be non-fatal.

Down on earth, a group of colorful children were playing in front of a house that should have been too small for them.

"I told you, it was lightning!" One of the boys, a lavender wolf argued.

"Can't be, it's a clear day out!" Another of the boys, an orange weasel, shot back as he pointed up at the sky.

The wolf turned, then saw the small growing dot flying down towards them. It only took him a moment to figure out what was going to happen, "LOOK OUT!" He grabbed the weasel's arm and pulled him to the side, hurling the both of them to the ground.

His shout drew their attention as Love Heart hit the ground not too far from where they had been standing, bouncing once then slamming to a stop on his stomach. Love Heart could barely make out what was going on around him but he forced himself up as the gold continued to burn his skin, seeing the two children standing up nearby he reached for them. "Help me..." he begged.

Five more children joined the group, and all of them recoiled at the smell of Love Heart's burning flesh.

"Don't go near him!" one of the girls, a red fox, said, "he could be a demon!"

"He's a bear," Another boy, a yellow goat said, "is he gold?" he was the first to notice the gold dust covering the bear's body.

A blue badger boy approached, "how can we help?"

Love Heart tried to push himself up again but fell down and croaked out, "please... get this stuff off me... use water..."

"I got it!" the other girl, a pink skunk, ran off, followed by a green hedgehog who was missing his entire right forearm.

The pink skunk reached the hose attached to the side of the house and began unreeling it. Seeing the hedgehog had come with her she handed the nozzle to him, "I got this," he said as he ran across the lawn, the pink skunk just barely able to give him enough slack to keep the hose from catching before she turned the water on full blast. The hedgehog stopped right next to Love Heart and aimed at the bear with his only hand before he squeezed.

The powerful jet of water hit Love Heart dead on and brought with it a sense of relief. The green hedgehog hosed him down for a while before the weasel took over to spray every inch of him, before he was rolled over onto his back by the badger and goat so his front could be sprayed clean as well. It lasted almost five minutes before Love Heart was able to stand and stumbled away from where he had been lying, and the sparkling gold dust that covered the ground before he fell to his hands and knees gasping for air.

"I think that did it," the badger said.

"Really? You think?" the weasel snarked as he stopped the spray as he gave a sideways look to the badger.

"What is going on out here? Oh my goodness!" The voice came from an old navy blue bear with brown eyes wearing a white and brown old style 'school marm' dress and brown plastic rimmed glasses. She moved surprisingly fast for someone of her age, even dropping her cane on the porch as she approached the soaked green bear and crouched down to help him stand. Her voice carried a strength with it but clearly showed her age, "What happened? Are you alright?"

Love Heart looked up at the aged bear, even through the haze of his pain he could make out wrinkles under her facial fur. He coughed, "I need a shower, to get this stuff off me."

The old bear was shocked by the appearance of the green bear but quickly composed herself, "Yes, you can use ours. Passive, Curious please help him in."

"Yes mom," the badger and wolf both replied and moved to support Love Heart as he walked inside.

"What is this stuff?" The pink skunk walked over to the saturated ground and crouched down, swiping her finger across the gold dust in the almost muddy ground. "It looks like gold." She stood up and turned around.

"Careful, that stuff could be poison!" the weasel took aim with the hose and sprayed the skunk's hand with a narrow stream.

The skunk jumped back once her hand was blasted and glared at the weasel, "Watch it, you almost soaked my dress!"

Before the weasel could fire back, the elderly bear spoke up, "Thorough Heart! Pretty Heart! That's enough!" She didn't raise her voice too much but she did get her point across as she sat down in the large chair on the front porch of their home, grabbing the cane she had left there. "This is serious, that bear is... he's the first other being of our kind we've ever seen. I want to know why he's here so please be polite and presentable when he's back on his feet. Now tell me, please, what happened out here?"

Thorough Heart Weasel pointed at the sky with the hose nozzle still in his hand, "He fell from up there, almost hit me and Curious while we were arguing about lightning in the sky."

"Then he started groaning in pain and asked us to spray him with water to get 'this stuff' off him," Pretty Heart Skunk said. "So Grateful and I got the hose and sprayed him down, and that's when you came out."

"I see," the old bear nodded. She turned to see the worried look on the red fox's face. "Charity Heart, what's wrong?"

"He fell from the sky. How did he survive?" Charity Heart Fox folded her arms.

Thorough Heart blinked, "You know, she's right. How did he survive that?"

"We can ask him when he's done, just please be patient and don't be rude when he comes out." Teacher Bear leaned back in her chair

Though the burning had mostly stopped after his hose down, Love Heart still felt much better after washing what was left of the gold out of his fur. "Just hope this doesn't leave any scars," he shut off the water and opened the shower curtain. He saw over half a dozen towels hanging on the bars by the bathtub and shook his head. "Not enough time for that." He swung his hand upwards and a small spiral of air dried all the water off his body before he stepped out onto the bath mat.

"Wow! How did you do that?" Love Heart saw that the bathroom door was open a crack and the lavender wolf was peeking in.

Love Heart couldn't help but smile as he walked over to the door and opened it, "Magic."

"Really?" The voice came from the blue badger who was standing near the wolf.

Love Heart nodded, "Really."

"What's that tattoo on your stomach?" The wolf pointed at the cluster of hearts on Love Heart's belly.

"It's my tummy symbol," Love Heart touched the symbol.

"What does it do? How did you fall from the sky? Why were you naked?" The wolf persisted.

"You're just full of question aren't you?" Love Heart said.

"He is," the Badger confirmed. "Mom said she wanted to see you when you were clean."

"Well show me to her, then I'll answer all your questions, OK?" Love Heart said.

"OK," The wolf grabbed Love Heart's hand and led him to the front door.

"Wait, don't you want to get dressed?" The badger asked as he followed them.

The elderly blue bear was startled when Love Heart emerged from the front door led by Curious Heart Wolf at a hurry. Love Heart stood there, then turned to the bear sitting on the porch chair. Things were silent for a moment as Passive Heart Badger exited the building and went to join the rest of the cubs on the front lawn.

Love Heart finally offered a hand to the old bear, "Hello, miss..."

"Oh," the bear took his hand and shook it, "Bluebelle Mulcahey, but most people call me Teacher Bear. And you are?"

"My name is Love Heart Bear." Love Heart saw Teacher Bear smile as he said his name, "What?"

"Oh, it's just a funny coincidence. I'd like you to meet my adopted children," she gestured to the seven cubs one by one who all had their attention on the two older bears on the porch. "Grateful Heart Hedgehog, Thorough Heart Weasel, Curious Heart Wolf, Pretty Heart Skunk, Hungry Heart Billygoat, Charity Heart Fox and Passive Heart Badger."

Love Heart stared at the seven who had lined up as Teacher Bear spoke their names. "Huh, that's odd, and convenient."

"Pardon? What do you mean by that?" Teacher Bear turned her head to face Love Heart.

Love Heart looked out at the cubs, "Most Care Bears living on Earth have more human names, like yours, Bluebelle, and only pick names like that once they join the Care Bear Family."

"Care Bears? Care Bear Family?" Teacher Bear stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, I got ahead of myself," Love Heart cleared his throat, "We're Care Bears, well the rest of you are Care Bear Cousins," Love Heart swept his arm towards the cubs on the lawn, "and we live up in the Kingdom of Caring, in the sky," Love Heart pointed upwards.

"You come from heaven?" Charity Heart strained to look upwards along with the rest of the cubs.

"How did you survive falling from all up there?" Curious Heart asked.

"Magic, I-"

Thorough Heart cut Love Heart off, "Magic isn't real!"

"Is too! I saw Love Heart using magic!" Curious Heart shot back.

"Magic doesn't exist!" Charity Heart joined in the argument.

Love Heart and Teacher Bear watched as the cubs started arguing. "Please, stop fighting about this!" Teacher Bear was about to start shouting when Love Heart stepped off the porch and held up his right hand over his head.

There was a sudden boom of thunder and a bright flash from Love Heart as blue lightning arced around him, dancing in a sphere around the green bear's body which ended the argument immediately as the cubs all turned to watch. After 30 seconds of this display, Love Heart stopped and collected the lightning into an orb in his right hand. "Magic is real, this is elecrokinesis and I'm a kineticist, a master of manipulating wind and lightning." He crushed the ball in his hand.

As everyone stared at Love Heart, Curious Heart was the first to speak, "See, I told you magic's real!"

Before another argument could break out, Love Heart continued. "I'm here because you're all in danger from a monster called Mental Heart, he's hunting others of our kind and he could be searching for us right now. For your own safety I would like you to come with me to the Kingdom of Caring as soon as you can."

"Excuse me," Teacher Bear had stood up, using her cane to support herself. "Love Heart Bear, I would appreciate you not scaring me and my children like that. But," she walked up to Love Heart's side, "I would like to take you up on your offer to relocate. Everyone, pack what you need and bring it out here as fast as possible." Teacher Bear smiled.

"Yes mom," the cubs all nodded and walked around the two bears into the house.

"Mom?" Love Heart turned to Teacher Bear, then helped her back to the porch.

"It's a long story, but I can tell it to you while they're packing, Oh," Teacher Bear noticed that Curious Heart Wolf had lingered on the porch. "Is something wrong, Curious?"

"What's that tattoo on your stomach," the lavender wolf repeated his question from earlier, seeming to have forgotten the answer.

"Oh, this, it's my tummy symbol. Every Care Bear gets one when they join the Care Bear Family, which reminds me." Curious Heart and Teacher Bear gasped as Love Heart stuck his hand into his tummy symbol and pulled out his heartphone.

"Does that hurt?" Curious Heart asked.

"No, it's special storage, a magic pocket where we store stuff, but don't you have packing to do?" Love Heart smiled down at the wolf.

"Oh, right!" Curious Heart bolted indoors.

Love Heart dialed the Hall of Hearts, "Love Heart Bear calling Hall of Hearts, is Bright Heart there?"

"Caught me on monitor duty," Bright Heart replied, "What's going on, Love Heart?"

"I just found eight lost family members and I need transport for them and their belongings. Might be a lot," Love Heart looked back into the house.

"The Rainbow Rescue Bear will be the best option. You'll have to be at the middle if we want to grab everyone in one go." Bright Heart said.

"Thanks, I'll call back when things are ready." Love Heart hung up the phone but didn't store it back in his tummy symbol. "Well everything's set now. Just need to wait for your kids. So how did you adopt those kids?"

"That a long story," Teacher Bear leaned back on the porch chair, "For now I'm just going to rest for this long journey."

"Looking forwards to the move?" Love Heart asked.

Teacher Bear smiled, then sighed sadly, "Yes. I mean, I love this town but it's so small these days... My little family is almost half of the people here now, all my old friends and family have passed on: Francis, Angelica, Charles Winchester, Max and Soon Lee" tears began to trickle from Bluebelle's eyes and she wiped them away. "I wanted the children to grow up and move on to have their own lives but none of them wanted to leave me alone, they wanted to look after me just like I did once for Mrs. Mulcahey..." She smiled, "If we move up to where you suggest, will I be looked after and will they be able to pursue their own lives?"

Love Heart smiled and nodded, "Yes, I promise."

Gathering up all their possessions took less time than Love Heart thought, a few bags and backpacks, Tuppermaid containers and some personal items like the stuffed cow that Charity Heart had were piled up on the front porch.

"So when's the ride coming?" Grateful Heart asked.

"Right away, just stand here." Love Heart helped Teacher Bear to her feet then dialed Bright Heart again. He couldn't help but smirk, "Bright Heart Raccoon, this is General Love Heart. One pile of possessions and nine to beam up."

Bright Heart laughed, "Transport in progress, General."

"General?" Teacher Bear turned to Love Heart.

"Beam? What?" Charity looked up to see a rainbow beam fly down from the sky and envelope them and all of their luggage. A tingle flew through them for a moment then they dissolved into the magic beam. Charity Heart and Grateful Heart tried to run but were frozen in place as they all dematerialized.

OoOoO

Anger Heart landed the cloud car on Redemptionheart's former home island and stepped out, "OK, find what you need and then we'll get out of here."

"Right," Redemptionheart darted over to her secret stash and dug around for her tickling implements, the eagle feathers and paintbrushes she had left behind. She was able to stash them in her tummy symbol without Anger Heart noticing. "Got them."

"Good, now let's get out of here." Anger Heart was about to conjure a new cloud car when he heard several sharp shots from nearby and felt two stinging pains in his side.

"Oh no, not again," Anger Heart pulled out the two tranquilizer darts from his side and turned to see the shooter. His rage began to boil up and he held up his hand as he conjured a blue fire bolt, only to stop when his tails started to hurt. This was still a human being.

That moment of hesitation was all that was needed as four of Illyana's mercenaries rushed both of them and held them down until the tranquilizers took their toll. The leader stood up, "Get them on the ship and hurry, Illyana's going to want to see them personally."