FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A/N: This story references TakeCareBear's story "Visions of the Past" and while I will describe the events here, reading her version will be more complete.

Chapter 17: Information Retrieval

"A complete failure, that's what it was!" Doctor Fright pointed accusingly at Quenos, "They figured out its weakness and destroyed your nanomorph before it could kill anyone except the guard it replaced!"

"It was not a failure." Mental Heart's telekinetic powers forced the vampire looking monster away from Quenos.

"Exactly." Quenos waved Doctor Fright off, "This was just a test to see if the technology worked as expected. Tests like this are more important that a 100% success. One of the problem I find with the rest of you is that you stop after one failure instead of refining your failures into something greater."

"And it proves my suspicion. That brown bear from Star Fox is from the future, he must have told them how to destroy the nanomorph before they could learn anything about it on their own." Mental Heart turned around to face the others, "For now we shall continue to operate as normal, don't let them know that we know their secret."

"Very well," No-Heart said, "Now as for you, Illyana. Bring some of your mercenaries here. I need to see just how valuable their aid will be. Mental Heart will escort you and them back here."

Illyana snorted, "Alright, but this had better not disrupt my other operations."

"Your operations are for us now," Mental Heart had appeared in front of her and stared her down. Cold as she was, even Illyana couldn't avoid shivering at the man's cold stare before he wrapped them in a psionic bubble and they flew off."

OoOoO

Anger Heart was just putting lunch on the table when he heard the knock on his front door. "Seriously? Now of all times?!" Anger Heart growled, leaving Guidance and Flair to eat the potato soup he had made.

Anger Heart opened the front door and glared at Futureheart, "What do you want, future Tenderheart?"

Futureheart cleared his throat, "I wanted to talk to you about what I heard from Love Heart, about you being on leave."

Anger Heart sighed, "He decided I needed some time off so I'm trying to enjoy that right now."

"You need to stop holding back." Futureheart was blunt in his pronouncement.

Anger Heart was startled, "What?"

"You said your power is growing, you need to let it grow. It could be the key to winning this war," Futureheart stepped forwards.

Fear crept into Anger Heart's face and he shook his head rapidly, "No! I can't let myself lose control! I'll just end up killing everyone!"

"What if you can use it to save everyone?" Futureheart stepped forwards and grabbed Anger Heart's arms, "We can't afford to give up any advantage we have! Let it happen!"

*SPLASH!*

Futureheart found himself soaked by a deluge of water that dumped on him from overhead and looked over to the doorway to the kitchen where a furious Guidance Heart stood. "Let go of my husband now!"

"But-" Futureheart couldn't get another word out before Guidance Heart held up a hand and created a bright light that shone directly into Futureheart's eyes, which forced him to let go of Anger Heart so he could block the light from his eyes.

"Anger Heart has been through enough shit lately without you telling him to blow up!" Guidance Heart advanced on Futureheart, who backed up out of the front door away from her, "He's here to rest with his family not to be bullied by someone from the future who thinks they know better. Now let us eat our lunch in peace!" Guidance slammed the door, shutting Futureheart out.

The brown bear blinked, unable to think of anything to say, then turned and walked away from their house.

Anger Heart had calmed down and watched in amazement as Guidance took several deep breaths. "Thank you, that was... amazing."

"Wow mom, I think you were angrier than dad's ever been." Flair stared at his parents, mouth hanging open.

Guidance Heart smiled sheepishly, "Well I don't think I could ever be as mad as your father has been, but I couldn't just stand there and let him take that," she turned to Anger Heart, "Are you alright?"

Anger Heart smiled and gave Guidance a kiss, "I am now, thank you Guidance. Now let's eat before the soup gets cold."

Guidance giggled and nodded, then kissed him back before they went back to lunch.

OoOoO

"Hurry up Shimmers, we're going to be late." Love Heart stood facing the downstairs bathroom door.

"Almost done!" Shimmers carefully tied the sides of his diaper up and washed his hands before he stepped out. "Three days!" He said proudly.

"Four more dry days and you can stop wearing that diaper," Love Heart took his son's hand, "Now let's get going."

Confidence Heart and Mira were waiting outside the front door and the four of them walked together towards the Care-a-Lot gym, Shimmers all but skipping along beside his parents.

They finally stopped right near the tummy symbol training range where many of the Magi were waiting.

Love Heart's demeanor changed as he walked among the others, letting go of Shimmering Star's hand. "Alright, all enlisted line up."

Shimmers was about to follow Love Heart when Mira grabbed his hand, "That's us. Just wait and stand in line here while dad talks." She took Shimmers to stand in a line with Flair Heart Raccoon, Wild Heart Unicorn, Meek Heart Unicorn, Aqua Bear, Lonesomeheart Bear, Redemptionheart Bear and Melancholy Bear.

Love Heart stood in the center of a line with Sage Heart Bear and Life Heart Unicorn on his left and Confidence Heart Fennec and Guidance Heart Raccoon on his left. "Alright everyone, welcome to Care Bear Magi Training. Most of you haven't attended this training session yet so I'll go over the basics," he turned to his son and the new arrivals from the last few weeks, "We use a system of ranks with all active members being assigned an officer grade while those in training have enlisted ranks. Shimmering Star, Lonesome Heart, Redemption Heart, Aqua and Melancholy, you will start at the rank of Private and will advance to Corporal once I'm certain you have a grasp on the basics of combat and magic. I know some of you," he looked at Aqua, "already know more than most of your fellow trainees but you will need to be evaluated and graded before I feel safe advancing you to the rank of Corporal at which point you will pick out both your magic and combat styles. You will start learning advanced techniques once I promote you to the rank of Sergeant and when I think you're responsible enough to fight in self-defence and develop more personal fighting styles you will advance to the rank of Warrant Officer. When you graduate from training I will grant you the rank of Lieutenant. Note that unless you are at the rank of Warrant Officer, like Miracle Heart, Flair Heart and Meek Heart, you are not to engage in battle with enemies or practise potentially dangerous magic without supervision." As he spoke, Wild Heart Unicorn visibly winced. "For now, Privates, you will train with Lieutenant Guidance Heart Raccoon who will evaluate your magical abilities and for those of you who haven't even begun to learn magic she will teach you the basics of conjuring mana. Sergeant Wild Heart, you will be training with Lieutenant Life Heart to work on your spell control."

"Yes sir," Wild Heart had to force herself to keep the bitterness out of her voice as she went over to her father and the five privates followed Guidance away to where she trained the beginners.

"Now then, Warrant officers." As Love Heart spoke, Mira, Flair and Meek stood to attention. "Warrant Officer Meek Heart, you're working with Captain Confidence Heart today, you need to shore up your close range combat so you aren't helpless against someone who gets too close to you in a fight. Warrant Officer Flair Heart I want you to work on your kinetics with Captain Sage Heart, you can't rely on close combat all the time." Love Heart watched Sage Heart and Confidence Heart lead their trainees away.

"Warrant Officer Miracle Heart, you're working with me; you said you had something you wanted to work on?" Love Heart looked down at his daughter.

Miracle Heart nodded, "Yes, General, I want to learn some of your kinetic techniques."

Love Heart folded his arms, "You don't have to stand on ceremony now that the speech is over. I can teach you a few of my techniques but you should develop your own combat style and abilities."

"I just want to learn one," Mira held up her right index finger, "That thing everyone says you used to paralyze No-Heart and Dusk Heart."

Love Heart smiled, "Ah, the electric paralyzer orb. Alright I'll show you that one, as long as you promise to try and do something different with it."

"I promise," Mira wagged her four tails. "Let's get started!"

Guidance Heart led the newcomers a fair distance away from the other trainees before she asked them to sit down. "Alright, today I'm going to be evaluating how far each of you are along with learning magic and teaching you the basics of magic if you don't know it. First, Aqua, Lonesome, Redemption, I want you three to show me what you're already capable of."

"OK!" Aqua enthusiastically held up his hands and a moment later water and ice were dancing effortlessly in his palms.

Guidance smiled, "Very impressive. I'll need to do some evaluation, and speak to the Love Heart, but I believe you can be promoted to Corporal by the end of the week." She turned to watch Lonesome and Redemption. Lonesome had a small mist of darkness hovering in her hands while Redemption was visibly struggling to lift a small piece of cloud up.

"So water, darkness and aether," Guidance pulled out her heartphone and made the notes next to their names.

Redemption stopped trying with her magic and slumped, "May I go home now? Take Care gave me a bunch of homework I need to do if I want to be a doctor."

Guidance nodded, "Very well, but practise conjuring your element if you have time, levitating pencils and pens towards and away from you would be fine when you are off duty." As Redemption turned to leave, Guidance returned to the mates standing in front of her, "As for you two, practise conjuring your elements as much as you can until you feel tired," she glanced down at Lonesome baby bump, "Don't hurt yourself though."

Lonesome snorted, "I'll be fine!" She held up her hands as more wisps of darkness appeared.

Guidance let Lonesome's attitude pass as she turned to Melancholy and Shimmering Star. "Alright, now that I've evaluated the others, it's time to begin your training. The first thing I need to teach you is how to conjure mana." Guidance held up a hand as a shimmering cloud of energy appeared in her palm, "Reach deep down inside yourself and try to find that spark of magic within you, then grab hold of it and pull it into the real world."

"Like this!" Shimmers held up his hands, a small cloud of mana already forming.

"It's that easy? Let me try," Melancholy held up her hands and focused. She grunted a few times but nothing happened, "I can't do it?"

"It usually takes a long time to do that," Guidance said, "It took me weeks to get it right."

"Same here!" Lonesome piped up, "Aqua got it almost as fast as Shimmering Star."

"It's just different levels of talent, but Shimmers still got it faster than I thought was possible," Guidance said. "Just take your time, Melancholy, you'll get it."

Melancholy wiped away some tears forming in her eyes and sniffed, "OK, I'll try."

OoOoO

Redemption Heart lived in Love-a-Lot Bear's former house while Aqua and Lonesome lived nearby in Cheer's old house. It helped that she was near her friends but most of her time at home was devoted to studying and homework. It reminded her of her days growing up with Audrianna except the work Take Care and Get Well gave her was much harder and more extensive and she was expected to do most of it on her own, since Take Care was busy training Get Well at the hospital.

Redemption was struggling with one of the problems on her current assigned and reached into her tummy symbol to grab a calculator she thought she had stored there, instead her hands grasped something else. She withdrew the items: two paintbrushes and two long eagle feathers. The tickle torture implements that had been her greatest source of joy on the island.

Now she stared at the objects in her hands, fear and hatred coursing through her. She couldn't forget what had been done to her for over a week, tickle tortured by Illyana's sadistic robot, which did the same thing to her and Anger Heart that she used to inflict on those she called her friends. Her desire to return for these implements of torture had gotten them captured in the first place, if she had just left them lie there...

She gripped the feathers and brushes in both hands, shaking as she moved to tear them apart, then stopped. No matter how much it pained her to look at the cause of her second imprisonment she couldn't bring herself to destroy them. She looked around her room and spotted an empty shoe box, probably left behind by Love-a-Lot when she moved out.

Abandoning her studies for the moment, Redemptionheart grabbed the shoebox and ran out to her backyard. She used her paws to gouge a small holed in the earth, threw the paintbrushes and feathers into the box then shoved it in the hole and covered it with dirt, packing it tight.

Redemption just stared at the patch of dirt where she had buried her favorite tools. She was shivering even though the weather wasn't that cold. She couldn't tell anyone about this, what would they say? Especially after what she and Anger Heart had been through. She carefully got her feet and walked back into her house. No more studying for today, she just needed to relax, somehow...

OoOoO

Everyone had gathered in the Hall of Hearts for the meeting that day, even the Star Fox Team, called by Brave Heart about something important he had to tell everyone. The only one not present was Jolly Heart Platypus, though a very much not pregnant Cozy Heart Penguin was there.

"Cozy, where's Jolly, and your baby bump?" Playful Heart asked as they took a seat.

Cozy Heart smiled, "I laid my eggsss two daysss ago. Jolly sssaid he didn't want to sssit in on thisss meeting ssso I sssaid he could ssstay home to keep them warm while I went." She patted her flat midriff, "It doesss feel niccce to not have all that weight on my belly. Jussst sssix more weeksss until they hatch."

"Alright everyone, settle down." Brave Heart's voice boomed out over the assembly. "I have something very important to tell everyone." Everyone quieted down and Brave Heart continued. "Earlier today I was contacted by someone from the FBI. They asked to come and meet us and discuss something away from the rest of their peers. Before you ask, I already invited them here and he said he'd be here within an hour about an hour ago."

Peppy Hare stood up, "Wait, I thought you said only people who knew how to get into the Kingdom of Caring were able. How can they even get here?"

"Because I've been here before." Everyone turned to the entrance to face the tall blonde haired man who had entered, wearing a black suit, sunglasses and an earpiece, looking very much like one would expect a member of any of the United States' security services.

"That voice," Noble Heart turned to True Heart, who nodded back and the two were up and heading for the door, True Heart waddling a bit, hand on her baby bump.

The FBI agent smiled down at True Heart as she approached, "Hello, True Heart, it's been a long time." He removed his shades revealing the blue eyes behind them.

"John!" True Heart smiled.

"John!?" almost every member of the Care Bear Family shouted.

"One and the same," John chuckled, "I've come a long way from babysitting, and you've come along way too, except," he squinted at the founders in front of him, "I swear you two look younger than the last time we met."

True Heart had let her hair grow out even farther, now down to the middle of her back and naturally curly. Noble Heart was much the same with his mane nearly the same length. They leaned up against each other and smiled.

"Care Bear aging is complicated," True Heart rubbed her belly, "And we have two new ones on the way."

"Congratulations," John looked around the room, "I'd love to catch up but I am here on business." He cleared his throat as his demeanor turned serious and walked around to the head of the table where Love Heart, Brave Heart and Tenderheart were seated. "For the last few years the FBI has been investigating the business known as 'Quentin Industries'. We've suspected for a time that their CEO, Clifford Quentin, is involved in criminal activity. This was our first real lead." John produced a photograph from his pocket and handed it to Brave Heart.

Brave Heart and Tenderheart checked the image and gawked at the teenaged girl standing with the older man, "Is that Shrieky?"

"Director Paul and I have kept up with your adventures over the years," John smirked, "That man is Clifford Quentin, one of the only pictures we have of him, and we recognize that girl as Shrieky; we believe she is his daughter."

Everyone instantly put two-and-two together but it was Tenderheart who spoke, "So Quentin is No-Heart's brother?"

John nodded, "More than that, for the last few weeks Quentin's counter-moves against our intelligence have become sloppier and we've managed to piece together enough information for a raid on his headquarters. More importantly we have conclusive evidence that links Quentin to a number of underworld contacts and that among them he goes by another name: Control."

Love Heart had his arms folded, "This is all very revealing, John, by why are you here?"

"I was getting to that, General," John turned to Love Heart, "We're preparing to conduct a raid on his headquarters and we'd like your help. While magic is more commonly accepted as existing, especially in my line of work, we don't have enough knowledge of it to defend against it, not to mention we would like the Star Fox Team's assistance with this." He turned to the Lylatian mercenaries seated nearby, "We don't believe our currency is of any value to you, but if Andross is in league with No-Heart then any information we find at Quentin industries could lead to his location."

Fox nodded, "Alright, Slippy I want you and Ursus Futur to go with them and help them crack any security that place might have."

"You got it, Fox," Slippy nodded.

"I'll go too," Bright Heart volunteered.

"Since you want Care Bears there, I'll go," Confidence Heart said, "you never know what'll you'll find there."

Love Heart nodded then turned to Defender Bear, who spoke up, "I'm sending Truth Bear and Guidance Heart Raccoon with you."

Confidence sighed, "Alright, guess you're in charge, Truth."

Truth bear smirked, "John's in charge of this one."

"Good, I'll have to inform the director about this." John nodded.

"Wait, you said his name was Paul. Is he the same Paul we helped years ago against Cold Heart?" Noble Heart asked John.

John smiled as he replaced his shades over his eyes, "He is. He's the reason I've been able to keep tabs on Quentin as much as we have and why he sent me here."

"I think we need to do more than that." The voice came from Defender Bear, who stood up to address everyone. "If Control is working with No-Heart and Andross he's also probably working with Cold Heart, we haven't heard anything out of him in years and if they're planning something we have to assume he's working with them."

"And if Control is who you say he is then he'll probably find out when we raid his headquarters." Love Heart folded his arms. "If we're going to raid one of their old homes we should send out teams to both No-Heart and Cold Heart's castles and see if we can dig up anything else they might be working on."

"In that case, I volunteer to go to No-Heart's castle," Life Heart stood up.

"I'll go too," Defender said, "No-Heart's castle is dangerous even if he's not there anymore."

"Count me in," Contrary Heart Liger stood up, "Hope, you coming too?"

Hopeful Heart Liger nodded, "I've been there before."

"Will you be OK, mom?" Marina Bear looked up at Connie.

"Relax," Connie ruffled her daughter's headfur, "Aunt Hopie and I have been there a lot, we'll be fine."

"I'm still not taking any risks, Falco and Fara are going with you," Fox said.

"Then I'm coming with you," Tenderheart spoke up, "I've been there more times than any of you."

"That just leaves Cold Heart's castle," Defender said. "If Bright Heart is going to Quentin Industries then we need someone who's decent with computers to try and pull information out of his systems."

Take Care Bear suddenly felt several pairs of eyes on her as Bright Heart spoke up, "Take Care's almost as good with computers as I am, at least she's the best qualified here to try any sort of data retrieval."

"It would be like sifting through all my medical files," Take Care admitted. Truthfully she didn't want to go, even though Cold Heart presented about as much threat as a yapping Pomeranian on his best days, missions always made her nervous.

Indy could see Take Care's nerves and spoke up, "I'll go with her."

Take Care turned to Indy, who also turned to face her. He smiled and took her hand, "Just relax, I'll be there."

Everyone stared at the two of them. Even with her baby belly, Love-a-Lot stood up and pointed at the pair, "What?! When did you two become a couple?!"

Indy and Take Care suddenly realized they had been outed. Take Care at least managed to shoot back, "Ever since the welcome party, but what we're up to is our business, Love-a-Lot."

"Enough!" Tenderheart gently pulled his wife back into her seat, "We have more important things to talk about than Independent and Take Care being a couple. Any other volunteers to go to Cold Heart's castle with them?"

"I'll go!" Sweet Heart jumped up, waving her hand.

"Then I'll come too, along with Peppy just in case," Fox said.

"If his name is any indication we should dress warm," Peppy added.

"I'll go too," Cozy Heart raised her flipper, "I've been sssitting at home too long, and it'sss right up my alley."

"You'll probably need my help there, in case his stuff's broken," Grumpy folded his arms.

"I'm coming too," Brave Heart stood up, "no telling what king of things Cold Heart left back in his castle."

"Alright it's settled." John said. "The raid will take place in two days. Get any equipment you need and meet us here." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Tenderheart. "It was good to see you all again, wish it wasn't in such a serious situation." With that John turned and left. Indy and Take Care departed quickly, neither eager to be bombarded with questions about their relationship.

As everyone began to disperse, Shimmering Star Bear left his father's side and ran towards the entrance. "Wish Bear!" he called out, causing Wish to turn around as he caught up to them. Shimmering Star grinned up at the teal colored bear, "Hi Wish! I wanted to meet you."

Wish smiled down at him, "Well it's nice to finally meet you, Shimmers. I've heard a lot about you."

"Hi, Shimmers, I'm Hope Bear," Wish and Defender's daughter stepped around her mom.

"Wait... I thought Hope was the lion-tiger," Shimmers pointed to Hopeful Heart Liger as she left with her husband Darien Lion and their son Stealth Heart Liger.

Wish Bear chuckled and blushed slightly, "That was awkward but Defender and I had our hearts set on Hope, and her name is Hopeful Heart Liger our daughter is just Hope Bear."

"Oh... OK?" Shimmers looked confused for a moment then looked back up at Wish, "Is it true you can grant any wish?"

"Not every wish," Wish had heard this from many children she helped over the years, "My wishes work better when things are desperate but I can grant little wishes to people that help them along the way. I can't give out too much wish magic at once or I could get hurt."

Shimmers wasn't quite she what she meant but nodded, "If I think of a big wish I need, can you help me?"

"I can try. Just come to me and I'll see if I can grant your wish," she gave Shimmers a kiss on the forehead.

"I'll help too, don't worry," Defender Bear added.

Shimmers blushed, "Thank you, gotta go!" Shimmers turned and ran to catch up with his family as they left the Hall of Hearts.

Tenderheart caught up to Futureheart as he was heading back to the Great Fox. "Futureheart, wait. How did we beat the nanomorph last time? I mean you were there because I was so you had to have seen it."

Futureheart stopped, "I remember. Love Heart was there but he only came running after he heard the screams from the delegates. Half of them were dead before he got his chance but he eventually destroyed it by overloading its AI with multiple plasma blasts. We studied the remains as best we could to find its weakness but it didn't do any good. I'll brief you all on The Prank after this mission."

OoOoO

The following day, Bright Heart and Gentle Heart stopped by Take Care's for a check-up and ultrasound. It was earlier than they had planed and Take Care knew they were looking for an excuse to visit after the revelation from the previous day, but if there was anyone other than her daughters she was willing to talk to about Indy it would be them, and Noble Heart.

Take Care showed the black and white picture on the ultrasounds screen, "Looks like a boy, and a sheep, or ram in this case." She turned to Gentle Heart, who still shivered at the touch of the gel on her fur.

"He looks beautiful, Take Care. Thank you." Gentle Heart smiled.

"I think we're done your check then," Take Care shut the machine off and wiped the gel off Gentle Heart's belly. "Now is there anything else."

"Actually yes," Bright Heart reached into the pocket of his vest and pulled out what looked like a portable external hard drive. "I don't know if Cold Heart has updated his input plugs so this has a few different plug-ins to access his computer." He pulled out a set of cables that had numerous different plugs on the ends. "It's a hacking program I created, it should get past most of his security, if he has any, and there's four terabytes of storage for anything you want to copy off his systems."

"Oh, thank you," Take Care wasn't surprised Bright Heart had thought this far ahead, frankly she had been wondering what she would do if she found herself unable to guess a password or straight up locked out of any systems, not to mention how much data she might have to copy.

Gentle Heart cleared her throat as they exited the exam room, "We did want to ask, how did you and Indy become a couple?"

"I'd like to know too." The voice came from Noble Heart, who had just entered the waiting room as Gentle Heart asked the question.

Take Care rolled her eyes, she had been expecting this, "Trying to evaluate my boyfriend dad?" she half-joked.

Noble Heart chuckled, "Not at all, I don't know him as well as you do but I know Indy's responsible enough. Honestly I thought the two of you were asexual so I never thought either of you would end up with anyone."

Take Care sighed and sat down at her desk, swiveling to face them, "You're right about that. I honestly never had any physical attraction to him and he never did either, it's just. Well for years he was my best friend, sorry," she apologized to Bright Heart and Gentle.

"I get it, you're our big sister so it was always... odd," Gentle Heart admitted.

"We still think of you as an authority figure in our lives," Bright Heart added.

Take Care nodded, "We like to read, we can have short conversations without it being awkward, but I think the real thing is that while Get Well was gone and Cautious Heart was asserting her independence, Indy would come and visit me every day. I just got used to having him around and..." she paused, "I think things changed when he looked after me that time I got hypothermia a couple years ago. I didn't realize it at first but that's when I started to look forwards to his daily visit instead of just expecting them to happen. He told me he loved me a couple weeks ago and it was a shock to my system so I said I didn't know if I felt the same way. We had some time apart to think about things, then he invited me over for dinner the night of the welcome party and that's when I knew, I loved him too." Take Care's expression had slowly turned to into a soft smile as she spoke.

"Aww," Gentle Heart sighed happily.

"It makes sense why it took so long," Bright Heart said, "If there was no physical attraction there was no immediate drive to be together as a couple, and why Love-a-Lot never figured it out."

"Right," Take Care shook her head rapidly to clear it.

"I'm happy for you two, Take Care." Noble Heart walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "As long as you two are happy. But I think we'll get out of your hair now."

"Thank you, Take Care," Gentle Heart rested her hands on her pregnant belly as she and Bright Heart left, followed by Noble Heart.

Take Care just watched them go for a moment then set the hard drive Bright Heart had given her on her desk and got up.

"Hey mom, what was that about?" Get Well entered the waiting room from the house.

"Just a check-up and visit from family." Take Care headed for the house, "Watch the hospital, please, I need some air." She passed by Get Well and out the door into the back yard.

Take Care's house and hospital sat right alongside where the Rainbow River exited the Forest of Feelings. Take Care could sit on the bank of the Rainbow River barely stepping outside of her backyard. When she wanted to just relax and think without going into the Forest of Feelings she just sat on the back and watched the Rainbow River flowing by.

Splashing noises drew Take Care's attention as she saw Cozy Heart Penguin swimming up the river; the current was never strong enough to pose any challenge for her. Cozy Heart swam past Take Care's yard then lay on her back and floated slowly down the river towards the forest. She looked over at Take Care and waved a flipper at her. "Hello Take Care."

Take Care smiled, "Hi Cozy. Enjoying yourself?"

Cozy Heart reoriented herself so she was upright, "Yesss, I feel ssso much better without the egg weight."

"Is Jolly Heart doing all the sitting now?" Take Care asked.

"He insssisssted." Cozy paddled closer, "He sssaid it wasssn't fair that I had to carry them for sssix weeksss while he couldn't do anything. I'll take my turnsss after the misssssion tomorrow." There was silence for a moment before Cozy spoke again, "So where isss Indy?"

"Probably at home getting ready for tomorrow," Take Care looked into the forest in the direction she knew Indy's house lay, "He takes his Magi duties as seriously as I take my doctor duties."

"Are you ssscared?" Cozy asked.

"Of the mission?" Take Care looked back down at Cozy, "A little...I've never been to Cold Heart's castle and I'm not looking forwards to bundling up to go there."

Cozy giggled, "I don't have that problem. I love the cold."

Take Care smiled and rolled her eyes, "I remember you always were the first outside in winter, and never needed a coat or hat. You were faster than Swift Heart sliding around when you were cubs."

"Only becaussse sssnow and iccce are hard to run on," Cozy said. "But I'll sssee you tomorrow." Cozy dove back under the water and began swimming back into the Forest of Feelings. Take Care watched her go then turned back to the Rainbow River to watch it go by.

OoOoO

Love Heart stood in front of the assembled teams in front of the Hall of Hearts with Shimmers and Mira at his side. "Check your equipment one last time before you head out." He turned to the team made up of Slippy Toad, Ursus Futur (Futureheart Bear), Confidence Heart Fennec, Truth Bear, Guidance Heart Raccoon and Bright Heart Raccoon, "Infiltration Team, you will rendezvous with John's squad and follow his directions, assist in any way possible to bring back the information stored in Quentin's network."

Love Heart turned to the second team: Take Care Bear, Independent Bear, Sweet Heart Pegasus, Peppy Hare, Fox Phoenix-McCloud, Cozy Heart Penguin, Grumpy Bear and Brave Heart Lion. "Arctic Team, you will proceed to Cold Heart's castle and immediately send a signal back to us when you arrive. Try to retrieve whatever information you can from Cold Heart's computers."

Then Love Heart turned to the final team: Life Heart Unicorn, Defender Bear, Contrary Heart Liger, Hopeful Heart Liger, Tenderheart Bear, Falco Lombardi and Fara Phoenix-McCloud, "Darkness team, you will remain in the Hall of Hearts until the signal is given and use the Rainbow Rescue Beam to teleport to No-Heart's doorstep then proceed to invade his castle and find any magic or other information you can get from his work, anything at all that might prove crucial."

Love Heart turned around for a moment then turned back, "Be careful, everyone, I don't want anyone to get seriously hurt or die today. If you think you can't handle it then pull out, I value your lives over any information we might retrieve."

OoOoO

John and two members of his team were waiting some distance away from the main building of Quentin Industries down an alley with a van hidden from street view. They all jumped when they heard the humming sound from overhead as the Rainbow Rescue Beam materialized the team of Care Bears and Lylatians in front of them.

John held up his hands a one of his team was about to draw a firearm, "Hold on, this is our backup." Truth Bear and Bright Heart were at the front of the group as they finished rematerializing, "I wish we could get that kind of technology down here."

Bright Heart shook his head, "Sorry, but it's powered by Caring Crystals and we haven't found a way to get normal electricity to power this, at least in a sustainable way. Maybe we'll have something when Slippy and I have more time to collaborate, assuming global transportation companies don't get everything tied up in red tape for a decade..."

"We can talk about this later," Truth Bear looked at the van, "Is everyone ready?"

John nodded, "Five FBI agents, including myself, and half a dozen riot police special requested from the local area. It'll be a bit cramped in there but we're ready to move out as soon as we get the signal from your other team." He stepped the back door of the van and gave a short knock. A moment later it opened and they saw the police and agents sitting cramped in the back on two benches.

"At least we're smaller, less cramped for us," Confidence got in the back, followed by Guidance, Bright Heart, Slippy, and Truth with Futureheart needing to stand, the large sword strapped to his back making it impossible for him to sit down with the others. The last two FBI agents and John crowded in before John gave the signal to the driver, who was dressed in plain clothes, and the van started to move.

OoOoO

"Why do we have to take these white puff-balls down to Earth?" Fox tapped the squishy side of one of the Cloud Cars.

Brave Heart was got into the seat of a different car, "Because we need the Shadow Team ready to beam down at a moments notice and it was hard enough for us to get you permission to bring your side-arms down to Earth. Getting everyone to agree to let you bring your advanced Starfighters down would have been a nightmare and taken weeks, and we don't have weeks." He looked at the others, "Three cars, I'll drive Take Care, Cozy will drive Independent Bear and Sweet Heart and Grumpy will drive Fox and Peppy, let's go."

Take Care shot an odd glance at Brave Heart but didn't object as she got in the passenger's seat. She figured she knew what he was up to but they'd talk about that on the ride down.

Once they were in the air and their conversation wouldn't be overheard, Take Care asked, "Are you going to ask me about Indy too?"

Brave Heart smirked, "Never could get anything past you. Yeah I wanna hear about it."

Take Care sighed, "I'm surprised I didn't have everyone beating down my door yesterday to get details."

"Believe me they wanted to, but I told all of them not to bother you," Brave Heart chuckled.

Take Care smiled, "Thank you, I did not need that kind of swarm yesterday. So what do you want to know?"

"Mostly how serious are you two?" Brave Heart kept his eyes forwards.

"Fairly serious, I mean we haven't made long term plans or anything but we've been...together for about ten years." Take Care smiled, "It's just that how we feel has changed recently."

"I'm happy for you, Take Care and I don't think I've seen you this happy since Get Well graduated." Brave Heart gave her a brief sideways glance then looked forwards again, "I know you'll be fine but I can't help but want to look out for you, since you've looked out for me so much before."

Take Care leaned up against the door, "I appreciate that, thank you."

The flight continued in silence until the air started to cool off. Indy shouted out, "Alright, we're going to land a short distance away from the target and get changed. There's cold weather gear in the trunks of each cloud car."

The cold weather gear was really just thick down hooded coats, pants and gloves with heavy snow boots, goggles and scarves plus belts to hold external equipment. Sweet Heart grimaced slightly as she pulled her own on, "Ugg, I hate when my wings are bound."

"Better than frostbite," Grumpy said as he zipped up the front.

Cozy snickered, "But he alwaysss wearsss warm clothing."

"What?" Fox gave the penguin a confused look.

"Frostbite is short fat dimwit that serves Cold Heart," Brave Heart tied off his scarf and put the goggles on, "We'll explain more once we land. Just don't freeze."

Cozy Heart was the only one still not dressed, in fact she was still seated in her car's driver's seat, "I never freezzze."

"Yes we're all impressed, Cozy," Grumpy said, muffled through his scarf, "We never had to wear this stuff before."

"And you nearly got actual frostbite every other time you came here," Take Care said.

"Alright, let's go!" Brave Heart hopped into the car and they took off again. The rest of the flight passed in silence as they approached Cold Heart's castle.

Brave Heart was the first to land and pulled out his heartphone, which he had stashed in one of his coat pockets, "Love Heart, we've arrived at Cold Heart's castle."

Back in the control room, Love Heart's gaze hardened, "Right, sending the Darkness team now." His raised voice was the signal for the team on the Rainbow Rescue Beam pad to teleport down to No-Heart's castle.

At the same time, down on Earth, the FBI van had pulled up in front of Quentin Industries as the back opened. Minor sighs of relief were drowned out as the team of humans, Care Bears and Lylatians stormed into the entrance of the building with John at the lead of the group. The two security guards and the woman at the reception desk were all stunned as John stepped up to the desk, holding up his badge.

"John Parker, FBI, I have a warrant to search this building." John produced the paper from his pocket and handed it to the receptionist to look over.

Before she could finish, one of the security guards stepped forwards, "Mr. Quentin is currently out on business. Leave the premises at once."

Futureheart was keeping his mind open and caught a stray thought from the receptionist. "She's calling security!"

Confidence Heart jumped forwards, a burst of air propelling her over the desk too late to stop the receptionist from pressing the silent alarm under her desk. Confidence had her in a headlock as one of the security guards pulled his sidearm from under his shirt, only to be shot by one of John's FBI cohorts and fall to the ground clutching his leg. John pulled out a taser and shot the other guard as he was reaching for his own weapons.

"Shit! I was hoping to do this without a fight." He shook his head as the guard he had tased went limp then turned to the riot police, pointing to two of them. "Secure this entrance and tie these two up then radio for any reinforcements, we may need SWAT here. Don't let anyone in or out."

"Yes sir," the two police moved to zip tie the two guards, Confidence managing to force the receptionist unconscious.

"Now what?" Slippy asked.

"We take the stairs up as high as we can go," John pulled out his handgun, checking to make sure it was loaded then releasing the safety, "If we take an elevator they can just trap us between floors at their leisure. Find the security office so we can blind them to our movements and the elevator controls so we can use them to travel wherever we want." He pointed to a door off to the side of the elevators, "Up the stairs."

While the two riot police secured the staff and floor, everyone piled towards the fire exits. Bright Heart gulped visibly which caught Futureheart's attention. "Scared?"

Bright Heart nodded, "I just saw someone shot and he was going to shoot Confidence. I've never been in a life-or-death situation like this before. Are people going to die?"

"I can't promise anything," John stopped at the door and waited while everyone did last minute weapons checks. Once he was certain everyone was ready he pulled the stairway door open.

The stairwell was larger than they expected, completely square with narrows stairwells allowing a large open center going up. Almost as soon as the door opened, shots rang out from above which forced John back into the lobby, "Damnit! They've got us pinned down here."

"Leave this to me," Confidence Heart cracked her knuckles as her tummy symbol glowed and metal arm and leg guards appeared on her in a flash of light. "This is why you brought us along, right?" she winked.

John nodded, "Just be careful."

Confidence Heart pulled the door open then charged in. Gunfire from overhead prompted her to fly up with her arms over her head, moving swiftly to block each bullet as it flew at her. She popped up over the 3rdfloor landing where the security guards were firing. They were stunned by the flying fennec as she landed a flying kick to one of their chests, punching his handgun so hard it split in half. She rounded on the other one just in time for him to shoot her, only for her arm to fly up and deflect the bullets. Confidence ducked then jumped up and kicked out at the guard's neck, her armored shin passing through his neck seemingly without effect only for him to slump over unconscious. The guard who had been kicked tried to get up only for Confidence to do the same to him.

"It's clear up to the third floor!" She yelled down as she stood over the unconscious guards.

John was in the lead as they came up the stairs. "Did you kill them?" he asked Confidence.

Confidence looked down at the guards then held up her arm to show off the arm guard, one bullet still embedded in it, "No. The weapons we Magi create can't kill anyone unless we want them to, otherwise it causes temporary pain, paralyses limbs and even knocks them unconscious."

"Right, don't expect everything to be bloodless," John signaled to one of his men, "Cuff them and drag them back down to the lobby, everyone else split into two teams and search the second and third floors for any sort of security office or control room."

OoOoO

"So who are we expecting to find here?" Fara pulled out her sidearm and checked the charge.

Tenderheart looked up at the huge double doors that served as the entrance to No-Heart's castle, "Probably just Shrieky and Beastly. They're not a huge danger but be careful."

Defender walked up alongside Tenderheart, "There might be his shadows too, but we haven't seen them in years. Let's get going." Both bears pushed on the double doors and led their team in.

Falco drew his own sidearm as he and Fara walked to the sides of the group with Connie and Hope at the middle, Tenderheart and Defender in the lead and Life Heart right behind the liger twins.

"It's too quiet in here, I don't like it," Falco was tense.

Fara nodded, her charge-pistol raised and finger on the trigger, "I know what you mean." She took a deep breath and reached out with her mind, "Other than us there's only two other sentient beings in here... and what feels like fragments..." Fara stood still and looked around, "I think I feel the fragments that way," she pointed to the left wall.

"Then we should split up," Defender pointed to a where the main hallway split off to the left and right, "I'll take Fara and Hope search for these 'fragments', Tenderheart you take Life Heart, Connie and Falco up to No-Heart's throne room and lab as planned."

Tenderheart nodded, "Right."

"Good luck Connie," Hope clasped her twin sister's hand.

"You too Hopie," Connie gave her a thumbs up as they split off into two groups.

It wasn't long before Tenderheart's group came to the double doors of what was once No-Heart's throne room. Tenderheart nodded to Life Heart and Connie, who knew what to expect, then pushed the doors open.

Shrieky was seated on No-Heart's throne, her magic mirror atop a staff at her side. As soon as she saw the Care Bears she shot up and screamed, "Beastly! Why are there Care Bears in my castle!?" She didn't even wait for Beastly to respond before she aimed her staff at the group. "I'll make sure you don't leave! Magic Mirror make them pay! Make them forever rue this day!" A blast of purple energy shot out of her mirror right as the group.

Everyone dodged aside, Falco doing a combat roll and aiming at her with his charge pistol. "Stay out of this you overgrown brat!" He fired off a single yellow energy bolt that Shrieky stumbled forwards out of the way of, letting to blow the top off her wooden throne.

"Stupid Care Bird!" She rounded on Falco and sent out a continuous steam of energy towards Falco, forcing him to dodge aside as the beam turned sections of the floor into bronze.

"Care Bear Stare!" Tenderheart shot off a blast of multicolored light at Shrieky, who grunted in pain as it struck her.

"I'm going to make you into bronze statues for my new throne room!" She turned her blast on Tenderheart, who barely dodged back in time.

Life Heart's horn flashed and a transparent barrier of energy appeared in front of Tenderheart to block the beam, a skin of bronze appearing on the wall.

"Care Bear Stare!" Thoughts raced through Connie's head as she fired off her own stare at Shrieky, striking her again. She could easily end this with her tummy symbol power but she was still nervous about showing her abilities to the rest of her family.

Nearly being bronzed by a beam from Shrieky made up Connie's mind. She charged up close to Shrieky and shouted, "Freeze Frame!" her tummy symbol flashed like a camera and in an instant, Shrieky froze in place. Everything stopped for a moment as Connie wiped her forehead in relief that it had worked.

"Shrieky?" The whiny voice came from Beastly, who had been hiding behind the doorway to No-Heart's lab where the Thunder Pit was located. He crept up on the purple-haired woman, still stuck in mid-casting pose.

Beastly was about to touch Shrieky when Connie shouted, "Don't touch her!" She stepped forwards, "Unless you want her to start moving again."

Beastly stepped back, "N-n-n-not really."

"Good, then just stay back while we search through No-Heart's notes." Connie turned to the other three in the hall, "All clear."

Life Heart nodded then turned towards the door Beastly had emerged from, "Alright, if that's No-Heart's lab I'll start searching his notes."

"Here, let me help." Falco holstered his blaster and jogged after Life Heart as she entered the lab.

Tenderheart narrowed his gaze towards Connie as she approached him, "Contrary Heart, what was that?"

"What was what?" Connie tried to play innocent.

Tenderheart's voice became harsh, "Don't act like you don't know. What did you do to Shrieky?"

Connie gulped, she was afraid this day would come and now that Tenderheart was staring her down she couldn't get out of it. She sighed, "It's something I found out I could do with my tummy symbol by accident, I can make people or things freeze in place until something living touches them."

"How long have you known you could do this?"

"Since I was a cub..." Connie averted her gaze.

Tenderheart softened, "Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Because I was afraid of what everyone would think, I felt weird and out of place even with the Magi around..." Connie turned back to Tenderheart, she was desperately trying to hold back tears.

Tenderheart approached her and took hold of her shoulders, "Contrary, why would we treat you like that. We're all different whether that means strange powers or different personalities."

"Are you going to make me tell everyone about this?" Connie shrugged out of Tenderheart's grasp and rubbed her eyes.

Tenderheart sighed, "I'm not going to force you, but you shouldn't keep this a secret." He looked over at the lab, "I'll talk to Falco and Life Heart about this."

Connie visibly relaxed, "Thank you, Tenderheart."

"I think I've gathered all the information from No-Heart that I can." Life Heart and Falco emerged with several books and scrolls in their arms, "I can't stay here to read it all but the topics cover some magic I'm familiar with, stuff I never thought I'd use."

Tenderheart nodded, "Good, now we just need to wait for the other team." As if in response, his heartphone started ringing and he answered. "Hello?"

"It's Defender Bear," the white bear's voice sounded distressed, "We found the source of the fragments Fara sensed and... it's horrifying." The sound of retching came from nearby.

"What was that?" Tenderheart was afraid of the answer.

"That was Hope losing her lunch." Defender turned to look in the room that had caused the reaction, "We found a room full of rotting corpses, of Care Bears." Indeed, the room was full of bodies. The lack of most microbes in No-Heart's castle and the lack of heat in the room meaning the bodies hadn't decayed to skeletons despite their age, nor had they dried out and mummified. Defender couldn't bring himself to look long enough after he saw one head only half intact. Even Fara could barely stomach collecting a few samples in specimen bags that Defender created for her with his magic.

Tenderheart felt his stomach turn, "Do you think Mental Heart left them here?"

Defender averted his gaze, "I don't think so. Fara's collecting some samples of them for Take Care to do DNA tests to see if... we have any relations to them."

Tenderheart was starting to feel queasy, "Right. We have No-Heart's magical notes, we'll meet up with you at the entrance." He hung up.

"Excuse me, what should I do?" Beastly had a hand raised.

"If you want her to stay like that, don't let anything go near her," Connie said, "Or if you don't want to be her servant, run away before she wakes up."

The three Care Bears and Falco left the throne room leaving Beastly to ponder this question. The castle was all he had ever known and the few times he had it to himself were some of the biggest thrills he had ever had, but Shrieky would no doubt punish him for his negligence and he was sick of being anyone's servant. With everyone else gone, Beastly bolted for the tower where his bike-copter was. He wrenched the side car off and hopped on, cycling away into the sky towards the Kingdom of Caring. He could hide in the deep Forest of Feelings where even the Cousins rarely went until he figured out what else he could do. He's snuck around the Kingdom of Caring without being caught before so hiding out would be a breeze. He didn't even notice the infiltrators being teleported back to the Kingdom of Caring, not that he would have cared anyway.

OoOoO

Futureheart unsheathed his large sword and swung it at the locked door, bisecting it then kicking the half connected to the handle inwards. The two men at the security desk were already facing him with their guns drawn but Futureheart was too fast and he charged in, striking them with the flat end of his sword which knocked them out.

"Security room clear," he called back, prompting one of the riot police and FBI agent to move in.

"Right, disconnect everything so they'll go blind," the FBI agent set around shutting off every panel.

Futureheart picked up the radio he'd been given by John on the ride over. "This is Ursus, security room's down."

John was pressed up against a wall as he answered, bullets occasionally shooting past him, "Good, we think we've found the elevator controls but we're pinned down. Me, Slippy and Andrew," he nodded to the FBI man standing on the other side of the wall. "Get one of the officers with tear gas up here."

"Wait, I can help." Guidance Heart came running up to meet John, Bright Heart hot on her tail.

"What can you do?" Andrew shouted across.

"Just give me a moment," Guidance brought her hands together and created a ball of light about the side of a basketball in her hands. "I just need a moment," as she spoke the blue raccoon faded from sight, the bright ball of light the only indication of her presence. A moment later the bal shot sideways then launched itself down the hall, a few shots ringing out but only striking the side wall until the light burst and screams of pain were heard as the light blinded them.

Wasting no time, John, Andrew and Slippy were in the hall, shots ringing out until the cries of pain stopped. It was silent for a moment before they heart John speak, "Hallway clear, going into the control room."

Bright Heart stepped into the hall and stopped when he saw the two security guards, wearing what looked like body armor, lying with blood leaking form their heads, and one with half his torso missing, blasted away by Slippy's sidearm. "They're dead..."

John saw the kind raccoon's face twist in horror and sighed, "They were trying to kill us and we didn't have time to cuff them, not to mention," he picked up one of the weapons, an assault rifle, "Weapons like these mean business. Sorry Bright Heart but in this line of work, people die. Now let's make sure we have this place secure."

Thankfully, the two men in the elevator control room surrendered as soon as John kicked the door down. Moments later they were zip cuffed and Andrew was leading them down to the lobby.

"This is John. We have elevator control. Send Eric here to keep control of things and the last two police here for protection." He turned to Bright Heart, Guidance and Slippy." Once this place is safe, we're taking the elevator up to Quentin's private office. Hopefully we'll find the evidence we need there."

"This is Truth Bear, we've secured the second floor. I'll meet you at the elevator on the third floor momentarily."

OoOoO

The door to Cold Heart's castle was wide open, making it child's play just to walk in. Even through the cold weather gear, Take Care shivered but more from nerves than anything, the bag with the hard drive strapped over her shoulder.

Sweet Heart was having the hardest time staying upright, her hooves not used to the ice that made up the floors. Cozy Heart, on the other hand, was waddling in the lead, not dressed and not at all uncomfortable, apart from being in the lair of one of their enemies.

At first, things went smoothly, until a familiar voice was heard. "Duh, stop right there! Professor Cold Heart said to keep you out." Frostbite stood there armed with a mop, probably the first thing he could get his hands on.

"We don't have time for this," Sweet Heart shivered and was about to shoot a blast of air at the rotund little man, only to slip and fall flat on her face with a dull "ow..."

Cozy Heart was on it. She charged at Frostbite and threw herself to the ground, sliding past him on her belly as he tried to strike her, but missed and almost lost his footing.

"Come back here!" he took off after Cozy.

"You have to catch me firssst!" Cozy taunted, giving herself an extra push as he tried to catch up.

Fox couldn't help but chuckle, "guess we'll leave the security to her. Now let's find his computers and get out of the frozen hellscape."

"Yes, the sooner the better," Take Care shivered again and they set off exploring the castle, occasionally seeing Cozy slide past with Frostbite cold on her trail, but ignoring the rest of the group.

It took the better part of an hour to find Cold Heart's computer room, and it looked like something out of the 50s: a giant machine covered in blinking lights and dials that took up the entire wall of one room with a giant monitor on a second wall.

Brave Heart whistled, "Boy, Cold Heart never did get with the times. I bet my heartphone holds more data than this thing."

"Now we just need to find a computer port," Peppy began searching, as did the others.

Take Care beelined for the giant monitor and began checking the controls. They were a bit frosty but she found the port right away, a very old port that looked like s-video. "OK, let's see." She pulled out the hard drive Bright Heart had given her and the multiple cables. "He really does think of everything," she found the right converter and plugged it in, hooking up the hard drive.

"Hey, don't touch that!" Frostbite had apparently lost Cozy's trail and ran into the computer room. He charged straight at Take Care, mop upraised, but Indy stepped into his path and struck the mop handle with his hand wreathed in psionic energy, snapping it in two, the shoved his other hand into the rotund man's face, a burst of psionic energy blowing him back to slide across the ice.

"Stay back," was all Indy said. Take Care couldn't help but smile behind her scarf at Indy's action in protecting her, even if it was from Frostbite.

Frostbite stood up, "No, ProfessoorrRRRRRRRR!" his speech became a shout when Cozy zipped right past him on her belly, sending him into a tornado like spin until he hit a wall and fell down, stars spinning around his head as the world spun around him.

"Sssorry, didn't know he lossst me," Cozy stood up.

"Just keep an eye on him until we're done. Grumpy can you help me?" Take Care said as Brave Heart, Fox and Peppy went to stand guard over him.

"Looks good so far." Grumpy punched up some data, "Yeesh, not even one terabyte, and it's all text and picture files. Might as well take them all."

"Alright," Take Care looked up at the big screen as images from Cold Heart's oldest work flashed up as they were saved to the hard drive one by one. She started to feel uneasy as each screen flashed up, and catching fleeting glances of a name: Alexander Coldwell.

Then the images came, all labeled "Test Subject" with a six letter code immediately after them. Take Care felt her stomach churn as memories began to surface.

Then she saw it.

It was only on screen for a couple seconds but to Take Care it was up there for hours. Two large cages, one containing two adult bears slumped to the floor as if asleep and the other containing a bear cub, their cub, trying in vain to get out and reach them. Even as the image vanished, Take Care turned and bolted from the room, even the boost designed for ice barely keeping her from slipping.

"Take Care!" Brave Heart, Grumpy and Cold Heart called after her.

Indy was on the move," Grumpy, keep downloading, I'll go see what's wrong." He took off after Take Care, leaving the others to their tasks.

Take Care didn't get far, just two rooms away before she slumped against a wall and sank down the to floor. She was shaking, not from the cold but as memories she hated reliving flowed through her mind again. She didn't even register Indy's presence until he was at her side, shaking her gently to get her attention.

"Take Care!. Take Care what's wrong?" Indy asked.

Take Care turned to face him. Her eyes were teary and she wished she didn't have the tinted snow goggles on so she could wipe them. "It was him..."

"Him? Cold Heart? What was him?" Indy was completely confused.

Take Care sniffed and brought her knees up to her chest as best she could in the winter gear, "Alexander Coldwell... no...Cold Heart. He's the one who killed my parents."

Indy sat down next to her, "Take Care, please talk to me. What happened?"

Take Care turned to face Indy. Though she couldn't see his eyes through the tint of both his goggles and her own, she just knew she would find nothing but sympathy and understanding in them. So she told him.

"It was... before I joined the Care Bear Family, before I was even a Care Bear. I was a bear cub living in woods that were being torn down for a laboratory. I didn't know so I went to investigate the strange thing that was appearing in my home. Then the owner, a man named Coldwell, captured me and stuffed me in a cage." Take Care's voice wavered as she spoke, "then he caught my parents when they came looking for me and... he started testing things on us, horrible things that caused pain and he barely fed us. I was kept separate from my parents but I could see them, I watched them..." she choked up for a moment, "I saw them die! He killed them!" Take Care started sobbing, even through her gear.

Indy didn't know what else to do so he hugged her. "Don't worry, Take Care, I'm here." Both fervently wished there weren't currently several kilograms of cold weather gear between the two of them, but Indy held on to her nonetheless until she was finished.

By the time Take Care had calmed down, the rest of the group had finished their job. Indy helped Take Care to her feet as they rejoined the group, offering to drive her straight home. Sweet Heart and Grumpy agreed to give the mission report so the two of them could spend time alone.

OoOoO

The elevator opened on to the penthouse to silence. Futureheart stepped out first with his sword in both hands, followed shortly by Confidence Heart.

"Empty," Futureheart whispered, loud enough for Confidence to hear.

"Yeah," Confidence motioned for everyone else to follow them: Slippy, Truth Bear, Guidance Heart, Bright Heart, John and his three remaining FBI agents.

"No time to waste then, let's get in there." John walked up to the doors and tried to push them open, but they wouldn't budge.

"Allow me," Futureheart stepped forwards and sliced the doors in half with his sword.

"A bit much, but effective," John couldn't help but smirk as they entered the room.

The office was lavish but looked like a high end office one would find in most office buildings owned by CEOs who didn't do much: large desks, bookshelves full of books and liquor cabinets that were currently empty.

"Search the room, we need to find anything that might give us some clue what Quentin is up to." Everyone scattered to check the room.

After ten minutes of searching with no results, John received a call on his radio. "Hello?"

"John, it's Eric. I've managed to dig through the elevator control system and there seems to be a private elevator in Quentin's office, hidden behind a bookcase."

"How cliché can he get?" John shook his head, "Thank you Eric, keep things going smoothly."

Bright Heart was the one who found the bookcase and Futureheart pried it open to expose the door. Slippy managed to get it open and they all piled in to the elevator and rode it down, a long, long ride that took them deep underground.

They stepped into a brightly lit room full of scientists and computers. John was quick to pull his sidearm and shouted, "Everyone hands up and down on the ground!" The sound of the arriving group was enough to get all the scientists down on the ground. In just a few minutes they were all zip-cuffed and being guarded by the entrance, some protesting they were being held against their will. John assured them he would look into their backgrounds once they were free as Slippy and Bright Heart poured over the information.

"There's dozens of terabytes of data here, some of it might not even be relevant," Slippy stared at the screens.

"Let's get started then," Bright Heart began pulling multiple external hard drives from his tummy symbol.

"As soon as you've copied everything we're out of here," John said, "Overall I think this has been a complete success."

OoOoO

Take Care sat at home between Indy and Cautious Heart as Get Well brought her a mug of tea.

"Thank you," Take Care whispered as she sipped her tea. "It was before I was even a Care Bear. I lived in a forest with my parents. My dad was unusual, since most male bears just leave their children behind, or even try to kill them, but he helped raise me. Someone was cutting down the forest to make room for a building. I was too curious, I went to investigate and got captured and when my parents came...they were captured too." She took another drink, "I heard his name over and over, Professor Coldwell. I... don't like to remember those days but I saw that name on Cold Heart's computer. It was him, he killed them and almost killed me too... and it was my fault." Take Care was tearing up, "If I have hadn't gone to look, they wouldn't have been captured and..." Take Care broke down, dropping her mug of teat and sobbing uncontrollably.

Indy caught the mug with telekinesis, even putting the liquid back in the mug before he set it on the tea tray Get Well had brought in.

"Mom, it's alright." Cautious Heart rubbed her back, "I know it hurts, but if you weren't a Care Bear, what would have happened to me and Get well?"

Take Care sucked in a shuddering breath, "I know, seeing you two so happy and healthy."

"Just let it all out," Indy rubbed Take Care's back and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Don't worry, we're here for you."

Take Care couldn't help but smile through the tears, "Thank you Indy, Get Well, Cautious." Take Care found herself wrapped in a hug from Indy, Get Well and Cautious. She felt safe, and loved, and the pain of her past suddenly felt so much more bearable as she hugged them back. Though she was crying, she was still smiling.