FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXrmv1T5Tmk

Chapter 39: Darkfire

Cautious Heart replaced the book she had finished on Take Care's bookshelf and began scanning for a new one. Take Care looked up from her own book and smiled, "Find anything interesting, kiddo?"

"Not yet. Hmm?" Cautious Heart's hand stopped on a rather large green book. It looked so out of place she was surprised she hasn't noticed it before. Even as she pulled the book out she felt a sudden nerve run up her spine that only increased when she saw the cover, which had a round green face with shut eyes right in the middle. "What's this?"

Take Care tensed up, "That's the spirit book. That thing is alive and it tried to destroy the Kingdom of Caring while I was away at med school. Bright Heart brought it back so no one would use it after they got it away from Nicholas and when I came back he gave it to me. I thought I'd find some use for it but I just sort of forgot about it."

Cautious shuddered and replaced the spirit book on the shelf just as Indy entered the room. He glanced the unnerving face on the cover as it was being stowed, "What's that, Cautious?"

"Just a malevolent book of ultimate evil magic mom keeps around, no big deal," Cautious Heart tried to joke but the thought unnerved her.

Indy nodded, "Right, the Spirit Book. I've heard of it. Didn't think it was still around."

"Better here then lying around waiting for another depressed kid to find it," Take Care said.

"That's enough risk for one day. I'm going to out for a while," Cautious turned to leave, "See you later, Mom, Dad."

Indy stood stunned, mouth agape as he watched Cautious Heart leave. "Did she... just call me... dad?"

Take Care smiled and marked her page so she could stand next to him, "she did."

Indy's face lit up into a smile, "She called me dad, I mean Get Well still calls me Indy..."

"I think Cautious Heart looks up to you," Take Care put an arm around Indy's waist, "She did see you almost every day for ten years. It took time for her to process, but you're part of our family now."

Indy didn't say anything, just turned to hug Take Care as he cried tears of joy.

Their moment was interrupted by the front door opening as Soulful Heart Fox stumbled in seemingly doubled over with pain. Take Care immediately stepped away from her husband, who gave her the space she needed. "Soulful, what's wrong?"

"Sorry, wrong door," Soulful mumbled, "Don't know, just hurts..."

"Right, let's find out then." Take Care guided Soulful towards the exam room.

Indy watched him go and shuddered, then turned to where the Spirit Book had been placed back on the book shelf. He trusted Take Care but it didn't stop the uncomfortable feeling the book's presence brought.

Or maybe it was something else...

Neither of them noticed Soulful Heart's shadow flickering as though it were cast from an open flame...

OoOoO

"They are finished!" Cold Heart stepped back from the collection of a dozen gray humanoids that all stood limply, "Even without Quenos' help I've finished the nanomorphs, though not nearly as powerful as The Prank." Cold Heart turned to where Quenos was working on something then waved him off dismissively.

"Very well. You, at least, don't disappoint, Cold Heart." No-Heart slouched on his uncaring crystal throne, which had reduced to half its size in the last few months. "Now my shadows, bring them to life." He held up a hand as shadows poured out from around him, each possessing one of the nanomorphs.

"How do those help?" Andross watched as the nanomorphs shambled to life, "They're barely sentient as it is."

"They will work well enough for our purposes. They can act more autonomously as long as the shadows possess them." No-Heart turned to Illyana, "Prepare your enhanced mercenaries to accompany them."

"They've been ready for an hour," Illyana took a long drag of her cigarette, "The destinations are chosen so let's get on with it."

No-Heart pointed his hand out, "Then go, my shadowmorphs, show the Care Bears what true terror is!"

OoOoO

Soulful Heart had stumbled home after his check-up, still in a fowl mood and now with more pain coming from his tail to join the pain in his gut as he slumped down in a chair so he could read something on his own. He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard a knock on his front door. He gave a sigh of irritation and got up to answer.

Gentle Heart Lamb and Bright Heart Raccoon stood at Soulful's Heart's door with their now toddler aged son, Eager Heart Ram, in a stroller and all three managed to jump somehow when the door was practically slammed open.

Soulful instantly calmed down when he saw who it was and managed a weak smile, "Hi. Sorry been a rough day."

"I gathered," Bright Heart took a deep breath.

"We just wanted to come visit, and give you a chance to see your godson," Gentle Heart carefully pushed the stroller forwards.

Eager Heart gave a cute grin up at the fox, "Hisoul."

Soulful Heart couldn't help but give a snarky laugh at the young ram's muddling of his name as he crouched down in front of him, "Hi, Eager, want to come in?"

Eager Heart just nodded so Soulful stepped aside to let the three in, turning the lights up. He gave Gentle Heart a look over as she walked by, "I'm still getting used to seeing you like this."

"I know, but I feel a lot better than I used to," Gentle Heart giggled as she unbuckled Eager Heart and lifted him out of the stroller onto the ground. He was a bit unsteady on his feet and in his training pants but Eager Heart was able to walk around after the adults as they sat down in the living room, Soulful in the chair and Bright Heart and Gentle Heart on the couch with Bright Heart right next to Soulful.

"Relax, the place is baby-proofed," Soulful said as he rubbed his sore belly again, "With the baby boom I decided to err on the side of caution for the library."

"We weren't worried, not about that at least." Bright Heart looked at Soulful rubbing his stomach, "Are you alright, Soulful? We haven't seen you much lately, even with a child to raise."

Soulful looked at his two closest friends then over to his godson. Much as he didn't want to talk about it he didn't want to worry them too much. "I've been in pain a lot lately, physical pain. My gut's been hurting for a couple weeks off and on and then my tail started hurting earlier this week," Soulful put a hand to his forehead, "And now I'm starting to get a headache."

"That does sound serious," Bright Heart was starting to get a mild headache himself but he didn't say anything, this was Soulful's time.

"Did you go see Take Care?" Gentle Heart asked.

Soulful Heart winced as a pain shot through his gut though it seemed to be at Gentle Heart's question, "I did, she said she couldn't find anything wrong with me, medically, but the pain seemed to go away when Indy came in. No idea why."

"Not sure about the stomach pain, but the tail pain might be park of being a Kitsune," Bright Heart looked thoughtful for a moment, "Anger Heart had the same kind of pain right before his tail split for the first time."

Soulful Heart was momentarily bewildered, "But I haven't been using magic, my training and power have been in psionics."

Bright Heart's eyes lit up, "Actually I've found that on a fundamental level there's not much difference. You see the energy of life and magic is called many different things across the world: mana, chi, ki, aether, essence and so on, but they are all the same source of energy for supernatural powers."

"So psionic abilities are the same as magic," Soulful managed to sit up straight despite the pain.

Gentle Heart couldn't help but giggle as she knew what was coming, Soulful gave her a worried glance and she just waved at him, "Don't worry, this won't take long."

"Actually there's a few differences between the different kinds of magical arts," Bright Heart said. "Magic, or spell magic, is done by channeling the magical power in ones body with the natural mana of the world around the caster often through gestures or words or spells one has learned to cast without such things, unicorns and unicorn spawn can use magic through their horns and stars to cast spells without this inconvenience, same with the pegasi and their wings. Reagent based magic, or alchemy I suppose you could call it, uses objects with inherent magical power and mixes them with magic from their surroundings to produce similar effects but often has greater power because it takes so much longer to generate. Kinetics involves manipulating the mana inside your own body and projecting it in various shapes usually in the form of raw magical elemental energy like ice or fire but it's much more limited and requires more physical training than book learning, not that you can't make your abilities stronger if you research ways to use it better. Psionics is similar to kinetics except instead of physical training it comes from your mind, directly turning your thoughts into reality or at least as much as you can as you learn to control it. There are some differences in effects, like Alchemy can create stronger magic because of the time and care put into it, Kinetics is the most instant in affecting the physical world and Psionics is the best at reading minds and precognition so there is some nuance to it. Except for alchemy all these powers cause mana to flow through your thamaturgeolical currents, like a circulatory system for magic in your body, and can ignite it which is part of how the whole kitsune transformation process takes place, at least as far as I understand it."

Soulful Heart was just staring at Bright Heart, absorbing everything his friend had said. Eager Heart was standing at the side of the couch his parents were sitting on and listening intently to his father. "Wha's that?" he asked.

"A lot of stuff that even I have trouble understanding," Gentle Heart lifted her son up onto her lap, "but basically the differences between all the kinds of magic."

Soulful smiled, "Leave it to you to find the science behind how magic works. So if I keep up my psionic training I'm going to become a Kitsune sooner than later."

"I think it's already begun, the only real choice is to try and accelerate or delay the process, but if what happened with Anger Heart is any indication, there's no stopping it. Yowch!" Bright Heart had reached over to give his friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder only to receive a rather painful static shock.

"Ouch!" Soulful rubbed his shoulder. "Didn't think the weather was that dry."

Bright Heart shook his head, his headache having become worse, "I think we should head home. Just keep in touch, Soulful."

Gentle Heart stood up along with her husband as they headed for the door, "Don't worry us again please."

Soulful Heart smiled, "I won't." His headache and stomach ache were actually feeling better.

As Gentle Heart strapped Eager into the stroller and they walked away, neither her nor Bright Heart noticed that Bright Heart's shadow had darkened considerably and was flickering as if cast from an open flame.

Soulful stayed in his chair after his friends had left thinking about what had been said. The pain in his head and gut were subsiding again which only drew more attention to the pain in his tail, and what that meant.

"Don't want to live with the pain any longer than I have to," Soulful stood up, "Might as well try and force it out." He took a deep breath and started doing his psionic exercises.

OoOoO

Bright Heart was having trouble sleeping, his head was killing him and now his stomach was starting to hurt. He got up, mumbling to himself and checked to make sure he didn't wake up Gentle Heart. Thankfully she was still sleeping and Bright Heart went to the bathroom. He grabbed an Aspirin from the medicine cabinet and swallowed it down with a gulp of water then held the sides of the sink, even though he knew it would take a few minutes for the painkiller to kick in.

Bright Heart looked up at his reflection then nearly jumped. His shadow on the wall behind him was huge! And flickering! He stared back for a moment then two blood red eyes appeared on the shadow. Bright Heart whirled around, propping himself up on the sink behind him as he stared at his own shadow that had transformed into a massive black flame!

"Yessssss, now is the time!"

Bright Heart tried to scream as the black fire dove into him but his voice caught in his throat. It felt as if his whole body was on fire and he collapsed the floor as the black fire enveloped his body.

Bright Heart exited the bathroom, his eyes now blood red and he started back towards his bedroom, only to stop, then turn and leave the house. Once outside he conjured a rainbow roller made of black clouds, got in and flew away.

OoOoO

Soulful reached out, pushing with his mind to glimpse something, anything beyond this room, only catching a brief image of Bright Heart flying towards No-Heart's castle when the pain in his tail overwhelmed him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He screamed as his tail violently split in two and he collapsed to the floor, leaving him with two tails and no energy as he passed out.

The sound of knocking on his front door finally roused Soulful Heart. His body ached all over from having lain on the floor as he forced himself to stand up. He didn't even register the new sensations from his second tail as he trudged towards the door to make the knocking stop. He was ready to explode when he opened the door, only to be greeted by a very worried Gentle Heart with Eager Heart in a stroller on the verge of tears.

"Gentle Heart?" Soulful Heart shook his head to try and clear the morning mist from his head. Morning? Yes, the sun was rising, it was morning. He shook his head from the rambling thoughts and looked Gentle Heart in her worried face, "What's wrong?"

Eager Heart spoke before Gentle Heart could reply, "Daddy gone." He sniffled then started crying, thankfully not too loudly.

Gentle Heart patted her son's woolly head, which calmed him somewhat, before she turned back to Soulful, "Bright Heart was gone when I woke up this morning. He isn't answering his heartphone so I thought he might have come here."

"And you wanted to check before you reported him missing," Soulful Heart summarized, "I'm sorry but I haven't seen him since yesterday. I think..." he rubbed his sore back.

Gentle Heart leaned over as she saw Souful's tail twitch, or rather 'tails'. "Soulful, you have two tails!"

Soulful turned his head and stared, "Explains why the pain is gone... wait." His vision from the last night flashed before his eyes, "Last night I was trying to speed this up and I saw Bright Heart. He was going to No-Heart's castle." He stood up but winced from the aches.

Gentle Heart covered her mouth with a hand, "But why would he go there?"

"I don't know," Soulful shook his head, "I slept on the floor last night so I need to clean up."

"Alright, I'll call a meeting," Gentle Heart turned to leave as Soulful retreated into his house.

Now that he had a second tail, Soulful Heart couldn't help but feel the extra weight and sensations from an extra appendage. Anger Heart was right, if asked he couldn't have described this to anyone else. Another vision shot through his mind without being called: Bright Heart entering No-Heart's castle in the middle of the night...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bright Heart raised his hands and effortlessly pushed the doors to No-Heart's castle and strode through the empty halls towards the throne room.

No other living things had visited No-Heart's castle since the joint raid conducted between Star Fox and the Care Bears months ago, thus Shrieky still stood frozen in mid-casting pose when Bright Heart entered the throne room. He sneered and walked up to the heir-apparent of No-Heart and tapped her arm.

"-turn to bronze!" Shrieky's unfinished spell from months ago fizzled on her lips as she stumbled forwards. "What?! Who?! Where?!" her mind spun as everything had seemed to jump around in an instant until she caught site of Bright Heart.

She pointed at him with her mirror-staff, "You! Care Bear! Where did the others go! What did you do to them and me?!"

"You are such a disappointment!" The voice that issued forth was Bright Heart's but the tone and delivery were raspier and darker than Shrieky had ever heard.

She spluttered, "How dare you, Care Bear! I'll turn you into-" she didn't have the chance to finish her sentence before Bright Heart grabbed her staff and black fire shot out from his hand, spiraling down the staff and scorching her arm.

Shrieky let out a cry of pain and dropped her staff, clutching her hand which was in searing pain. Bright Heart just stared at her with contempt in his eyes, the black fire still burning on his hand. "You think yourself worthy of taking this place as your own? Pathetic! You've done nothing but waste time and resources on petty acts, none of which have had even an ouch of effect on the Care Bear Family!" The whites of Bright Heart's eyes turned blood red as he spoke.

For the first time in her life, Shrieky was scared. She gave a terrified look as Bright Heart's entire body was covered in black fire, the glare in his eyes reminding her far too much of No-Heart when he was done indulging her. "Wh-wh-who are you?" She found herself stammering as she steppe backwards.

Bright Heart picked up her staff from the floor as the black fire flowed over it, turning the implement to ashes, "I am the new ruler of this castle, and you are an intruder. You have one minute to get out of my sight and never return before I turn you into an ash pile!" He raised his hand as the fire danced towards her.

For once in her life, Shrieky fled in terror instead of arrogance. Bright Heart watched her go then listen as she cobbled together some flying contraption to make her escape, then grinned, "Good. Now to work!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soulful Heart held his head as the vision subsided and he stepped out of the shower to dry himself off. Was that real? It had to be and it was hours ago. Something seized on Soulful, something was compelling him to go there and confront Bright Heart, or whatever that dark fire was. Once he was cleaned up, he stepped outside, conjured a cloud car and took off to No-Heart's castle. His was so preoccupied he didn't realize he had left his heartphone charging by his bed.

OoOoO

Love Heart was running Shimmering Star through his paces in the Hall of Hearts gym, only to stop after only ten minutes, "Alright, Warrant Officer Shimmering Star Bear, I have one last test for you."

Shimmers was panting slightly but stood to attention with his double bladed sword still gripped in his hand, "Yes sir?"

"I need you to try and channel your stare into your weapon." Love Heart pointed to the double-bladed sword. "Focus like you're going to do the Care Bear Stare but try to push it out through your hands and into the sword blades." He smirked as Shimmers grabbed hold of the middle handle with both hands.

Shimmers screwed up his face as his tummy symbol started to glow, trying to push the energy up and out through his hands. It wasn't long before both ends of the sword were glowing with yellow light.

"Wow!" Shimmers stared at his sword blades.

"A good effort for the first time." Love Heart nodded and waited for Shimmers to end the effect, "I think that's enough for today. You're almost ready for full Magi duty."

"Really?!" Shimmers dissipated his sword then followed his father as they left the gym.

"Really," Love Heart pushed the door open, "You're showing a lot of promise. Just give it a little longer and you'll be a lieutenant."

Love Heart almost crashed into Gentle Heart as she hurried past him, pushing Eager Heart in his stroller. He only needed one look to see something was wrong, "Gentle Heart, what's wrong?"

"Bright Heart's missing, I think he went to No-Heart's castle!"

It didn't take long to gather everyone in the Hall of Hearts for an emergency meeting. Once Gentle Heart got everyone caught up Tenderheart did a quick headcount. He frowned. "Where's Soulful Heart?" he asked.

"If he slept on the floor last night then he probably went back to bed," Regal Heart pulled out her heartphone to call him. Everyone waited as Regal's face grew more worried by the moment, "It went to voice mail."

"I'll go check on him!" Zippy Heart Roadrunner was up on his feet and out the door before anyone could raise an objection.

Love Heart sighed, "We might as well wait for him then. In the meantime, we need to organize a rescue for Bright Heart."

At that moment, an alarm klaxon started blaring from the control room. Love Heart was on his feet in an instant with Brave Heart right on his heels as they headed for the control room.

"What a time for a caring emergency," Brave Heart said.

Love Heart was at a panel, "No, it's from the news monitor program we set up to try and catch any sign of No-Heart or Andross", he gaped at the screen then changed some of the screens to video broadcasts all with "BREAKING NEWS" plastered across them. Love Heart turned up the volume on one of the English channels.

"...unidentified soldiers accompanied by some sort of amorphous monsters arrived in New York less than an hour ago and have been attacking killing anyone they see! They've just, no AAAA!" One of the monsters shot an arm forwards like a spear to stab the reporter through her chest.

"Oh my stars!" Most of the Care Bear Family had run after the two leaders and now stood aghast. More reports were coming in from attacks all over the globe.

"Those are Illyana's mercenaries!" Aqua Bear shouted.

"And Nanomorphs, a lot of them," Anger Heart clenched his fists as he glared at the screens.

"Call Star Fox, they need to see this!" Tenderheart shouted, Grumpy immediately moved to do just that.

Before any further action could be taken, the emergency line to the FBI started ringing. Love Heart answered and John's face appeared on one of the screens.

John frowned when he saw and heard what was coming from the Hall of Heart's control room, "I guess you know why I'm calling."

"I have an inkling," Love Heart was grim, "Where did these attacks come from, John?"

"We're still getting the information but it seems the arrived by helicopter several miles out of the city and marched there in the middle of the night before they sprang out of central park!" John had to look down, "Local law enforcement has been overwhelmed and it will take too long to get the army or national guard there."

"But we can be there in moments with the Rainbow Rescue Beam," Love Heart's mind was racing, "There's five other crisis zones: London, Rio De Janeiro, Dubai, Beijing and Tokyo. We'll have to hit all of them at once if we want to save lives."

"You have our permission but what about the other governments?!" John sounded frantic.

"We'll focus on saving lives now and ask forgiveness later. Besides we're screwed either way, if we just help New York we'll be accused of favoring the United States." Love Heart stood up, "Sorry, John, but I have to start deployment now. If you can talk to the police, then get them to contain the panic." Love Heart turned away form the screen. "Alright Magi! At attention front and center!" Love Heart's sudden order barking got everyone to listen. The Magi all lined up in front of him while every other Care Bear backed off.

"I'm dividing you into six teams, no flying solo this time. Once I give you your target use the rainbow rescue beam to teleport there and take out the mercenaries and nanomorphs. Use your stare or stare channeling to destroy the morphs and try to subdue the mercenaries, but if they give you no choice then you have my permission to terminate them." There were audible gasps and gulps from those present but Love Heart continued as he fished six translator amulets out of his tummy symbol, "If you do subdue them, let any local law enforcement deal with them as they see fit. We're doing this to save lives not step on any toes. First assignment: Captain Confidence Heart Fennec take Lieutenant Miracle Heart Kitsune and Warrant Officer Shimmering Star Bear to Dubai," he tossed one of amulets to Confidence Heart.

Confidence Heart caught the amulet and hung it around her neck, "Got it. Stick with me when we get down there," She darted forwards and shared a quick kiss with Love Heart before running to join their kids on the rainbow rescue beam, which was being operated by Grumpy Bear.

As they teleported away, Love Heart read off the rest of the assignments, passing a translator amulet to each team before they teleported to the target. "Colonel Defender Bear take Warrant Officer Aqua Bear and go to London. Captain Sage Heart Bear, take Warrant Officer Wild Heart Unicorn to Beijing. Major Truth Bear take Lieutenant Flair Heart to Rio De Janeiro. Major Independent Bear take Lieutenant Sweet Heart Pegasus and Lieutenant Meek Heart Unicorn to New York City. Lastly, Lieutenant Anger Heart Fox you're taking Warrant Officer Melancholy Bear to Tokyo."

"But I'm just a Sergeant," Melancholy had hung back out of step with the rest of the Magi.

"Congratulations, you're being field promoted to Warrant Officer. I need everyone I can spare on the ground." Love Heart handed the amulet to Anger Heart. "Anger Heart will keep you safe so just follow his lead."

"Alright," Melancholy took a deep breath and joined Anger Heart on the pad and they teleported away.

"What about us?!" Lonesomeheart put her hands on her hips, sounding a bit indignant.

"I need you, Corporal Redemptionheart Bear and Lieutenants Guidance Heart Raccoon and Life Heart Unicorn to stay behind with me to keep an eye on things and just in case this is a distraction to lure us away from the Kingdom of Caring." Love Heart gave Lonesomeheart a harsh glare, "And in situations like this address me by rank, Corporal Lonesomeheart."

Lonesome stepped back, not used to Love Heart's harshness, "Sorry, General."

At that moment, Zippy came dashing into the control room. "Soulful Heart's gone!"

"What?" Regal to ran over to the roadrunner. "What do you mean gone?"

Zippy stepped back, "I knocked on his door, he didn't answer so I went in and he wasn't there. I found his heartphone plugged in."

"He must have gone after Bright Heart," Gentle Heart said. She'd managed to get Eager Heart to take a nap in the stroller, "Don't worry, Eager, we'll get daddy back."

"Yes we will." Love Heart was about to continue when his heartphone started ringing. He answered only to see a shaky image of Fox McCloud on the screen, and the sounds of automatic gunfire in the background.

"Love Heart, we're under attack!"

"Fox, what the hell's going on out there?!" Love Heart.

"A helicopter landed outside and these soldiers just started attacking us! We're pinned down in the hangar bay!" Fox had to shout over the sounds of gunfire and energy shots.

"When it rains it pours," Love Heart groaned and put the image up on one of the control room screens, "What do they look like?"

Fox pushed the zoom on his communicator's camera to maximum and held it up towards the down ramp of the coking bay. They only had a moment to see the mercenaries in bright pastel camo before a shot hit the communicator and cut off the signal.

"Illyana's Merceneries!" Lonesome shouted, nearly waking Eager up until Gentle Heart managed to calm him down.

"It was a distraction," Love Heart growled and bared his teeth. The sound of gunfire was now audible to everyone in the Hall of Hearts, as everyone was silent until the screen came back on, this time with Fara on the screen.

"They're here for you!" Fara said, "I can feel it."

"Me too," Tenderheart spoke up. "It feels terrible..." Love-a-Lot put an arm around her husband and stroked their son, Big Heart Bear's, head as he was clinging to her leg nervously.

"Can you take them out, Fara?" Love Heart asked.

"I don't think so, we're pinned down and they keep alternating firing to keep the pressure up." Fara winced as a bullet ricocheted off the container she was crouched behind, "Theses containers are bulletproof but we aren't and we can't get to the heavier weapons to break it up."

"Any of them could break off to come here," Love Heart's mind raced then he turned to Life Heart with a grim expression on his face, "Lieutenant, how long could you maintain a magical shield around the Hall of Hearts?"

"As long as I need to," Life Heart's eyes were full of worry, "Love Heart, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going out there." Love Heart's tummy symbol lit up as he conjured his swords in scabbards that he strapped to his back, "Put up the shield as soon as I leave and keep it up until I return. Fara, I'll be there in a few minutes, just hold out until I flank them, then unleash hell."

"Right, we'll be ready," Fara cut off the transmission.

Love Heart turned to the rest of the family, who were still assembled in the controls room, "Regal Heart Lioness, Stellar Heart Tiger, Contrary Heart Liger, Hopeful Heart Liger, Chance Heart Liger, Patient Heart Liger and Faith Heart Liger I need you all here now!" Though his voice was harsh everyone knew they had to listen to him as the Liger Family pushed their way forwards, their mates and children not far behind them as they faced Love Heart, none standing at attention but they weren't Magi so Love Heart didn't mind.

"I need you to teleport to No-Heart's castle and bring Soulful Heart and Bright Heart back here. You all know Soulful better than anyone other than Bright and Gentle Heart," he turned to Gentle Heart with an apologetic look on her face, "Sorry but you should stay here, Gentle Heart."

Gentle Heart was patting her sons head, while he slept despite the noise, "I know, I can't leave Eager alone or take him there. I trust you to bring them back."

Love Heart nodded then his face became more severe again, "Lieutenant Guidance Heart Raccoon, I need you to accompany the 'Lucky Seven' on their mission, just in case anything goes wrong that needs your help."

Guidance Heart saluted, "Yes, General!"

"I'm going too!" Hugs Bear had darted forwards and grabbed onto Patient Heart's arm.

"What, Hugs!" Patient Heart was startled enough that his voice raised, albeit just barely.

"I'm not letting you march into that death castle without me, I can help," Hugs turned to Love Heart.

"Tugs isn't going, and I still am," Contrary Heart folded her arms.

"Because I have to look after Marina, besides I..." Tugs paused. He wanted to say how his special power wouldn't be much help, even if they knew about it that might arouse suspicion as despite having shown 'Freeze Frame' to a bunch of the family last time she went to the castle, Connie hadn't told most of the family about her and her sibling's special powers.

Love Heart looked at Hugs and the serious expression on her face. She didn't know he knew about her own ability so he nodded, "Alright, Hugs will go too. Just bring them both back safely." He turned to the rest of the Ligers' families, mates and children, "No one else can go, I can't send too many."

"Yeah, yeah we get it! Sheesh!" Darien rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry," Stellar gripped Regal's hand tightly, "We will!"

Love Heart watched the nine of them board the pad and be teleported towards the castle. "Right, now it's my turn!" Love Heart's face turned grim as he marched towards the exit, the rest of the Care Bear Family parting to let him through.

"What about me?!" Lonesomeheart tried to dart forwards but Life Heart managed to catch her by the arm.

"You need to stay here in case any of them come here to try and get us while he's gone," Life Heart wasn't lying but she turned to watch Love Heart go, "And also... I see in my son's eyes a rage I haven't since Dusk Heart. You don't want to be near him..."

At the end of the crowd, Brave Heart stood with his wife, Feral Heart Tigress, and their son and daughter Royal Heart Liger and Joyful Heart Liger. Brave Heart patted his friend on the shoulder, "I hate to say this, but knock 'em dead, Love Heart."

Love Heart nodded to him as he headed for the door, "That's the plan."

As soon as Love Heart was outside a dark green magical energy shield rose up around the Hall of Hearts. Love Heart didn't look back as he turned towards the firefight and charged off, lightning coursing around his body as he did so.

OoOoO

"How can they keep this up?!" Falco shouted as he readied himself to take a shot, "Are they every going to run out of ammo?!"

Slippy popped up and ducked down a moment later when a bullet pierced his hat. "I got a look at their vehicle, looks like a cargo chopper not a combat vehicle! They could have ammunition in there for days!"

"Well that's just perfect!" Falco groaned, "How long until the bring out the explosives?!"

"ATTENTION. MASSIVE ELECTRICAL SIGNATURE APPROACHING FROM THE LEFT." ROB's voice cut through the hail of gunfire.

"What? Give me a display, ROB!" Fara shouted into her communicator. A moment later the display switched to a camera view showing a mass of purple strings approaching. Fara squinted as it came close, "Love Heart?"

Love Heart Bear charged straight at the transport helicopter, the electricity around him intensifying and turning into plasma strings that flowed behind him until he shot his hands forwards and the energy converged into his palms.

The mercenary who was unloading another crate of ammunition was the first to notice the purple energy barreling down on him. "What the hell!" his shout wasn't heard over the gunfire, but Love Heart was.

"PLASMA BLAST!" the plasma condensed into a sphere the size of a basketball in Love Heart's hand before he launched it. The ball hurled across the open field and struck the cargo chopper in a massive explosion! The mercenary who had been retrieving the ammunition had dropped his crate and tried to flee but was caught in the blast and perforated with debris as the explosives onboard also detonated creating a small mushroom cloud that left a crater in the clouds.

The mercenaries who were pinning down Star Fox were either hurled to the ground by the shockwave and/or stopped firing to see what happened. Fox McCloud took the momentary distraction and grabbed up his blaster, "NOW!" he shouted as he fired off a bolt from his blaster. His shot missed but the follow-up shots from him and Peppy gave Falco, Slippy and Fara time to get to the weapon's locker.

Falco was the first back with a machine gun in his arms, "EAT BOLT CREEPS!" He gave a shout and opened fire, the rhythmic pulsing of his machine gun cutting through the air and perforating two of the mercenaries.

Slippy ran up and hurled a ball shaped plasma grenade at the mercenaries, the explosion vaporising the two mercs that Falco had shot. "Too bad Katt had to miss this!" he shouted.

"She's fine with this!" Falco shouted as he hosed the area as the mercenaries tried to regroup, only for two to fall to headshots from Fara as she hit them with a sniper rifle, her psionics letting her lead her targets before they even knew where they were going to go.

Love Heart charged in, drawing his swords as they charged with blue lightning as he sliced through one of them and stabbed another in the chest. He turned to see his two targets only fall briefly as their wounds closed up, then heard the moaning as the ammo carrier got up, pieces of shrapnel pushing out of his body and even the ones with holes in their heads from Fara had their heads being filled in and repaired as they got up.

"No choice then!" Love Heart grit his teeth as blue lightning danced around his body he shouted, "THEY HAVE NANOMACHINES! YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE THEY STAY DOWN!"

Fara stared for a moment as the two she had put down got back up, holes in their helmets but no longer in their heads. "That means double tapping," she fired off again, this time firing repeatedly at one until she had to replace the clip and the target's head was completely gone.

"That or something heavier!" Fox had retreated to grab a gatling gun from storage and began hosing the area with blue energy bolts. Each time he locked onto a single target he focused until there wasn't enough body left to repair. Falco, his machine gun proving less useful, ran back to an arwing and hopped in the cockpit.

Love Heart was forced to sheath his swords and jump up and fly out of the thick of the fighting to avoid the crossfire, especially when Falco's Arwing started firing its much stronger lasers out of the docking bay, the power from one shot enough to vaporise a mercenary on contact, the rare times it hit. Love Heart squinted, he noticed for the first time that their camouflage was composed of garish bright multicolored swatches of orange, pink, blue and other completely impractical colors.

The apparent leader of the mercenaries called out, "RETREAT INTO THE FOREST!" as they made a break for the Forest of Feelings. By the time they had vanished, only six were still alive.

Love Heart dropped to the clouds in front of the Great Fox as the Star Fox Team descended to chase the mercenaries, until Love Heart pulled out a sword and swing it sideways to tell them to stop. "No, don't go after them." Love Heart's face was grim, "That's why they were dressed so ludicrously, to blend into the Forest of Feelings."

"So what? Just leave them to wander in there?" Fox was perplexed.

"If they can hide they'll take you out before you know it." Love Heart said, "Clean up this battlefield then keep an eye out. If any of them come back this way, finish them off," he grimaced at the remains that surrounded him then turned towards the forest, "I'll handle this myself." He began his march towards the Forest of Feelings.

The mercenaries had scared off what little wildlife there was in the forest, leaving Love Heart with an eerie silence as he marched through the colorful foliage. He drew his second sword as he scanned the area. "What I wouldn't give to be psionic," he muttered as he moved through the trees.

Love Heart found the silence unnerving but at the same time welcomed it, because it meant he was on the right track and that hopefully he would be able to hear the mercenaries before they could open fire. His ear twitched and he rounded on a bush only to see a terrified bird fly away. Love Heart immediately darted next to a tree and pressed himself up against it as he held his breath.

One minute

Two minutes

Three minutes passed before Love Heart let himself exhale then returned to his sweep.

He kept quiet and searched for another ten minutes before he finally heard something. He held his breath and sped up his pace, doing his best not to step on anything that might give away his presence until he could finally hear the voices.

"It's not a Care Bear, what do we do with it?"

There was a click from a weapon, "Just kill it already!"

"Nooooooooooooooo d-d-d-don't!"

Love Heart's eyes went wide. He knew that voice. He picked up his pace as the conversation ahead continued.

"No, we can't waste any ammo now that the chopper's gone."

Love Heart got close enough to peer through the foliage and see the six mercenaries surrounding something, "Then just stab him and let's move on, we need to set up an ambush camp before that crazy green bear comes after us."

"Too late." Though level, Love Heart's voice cut through the group right before one of Love Heart's swords, wreathed in blue lightning, cut through the first one to turn around and face him. With a yelp, the thing the mercenaries had captured jumped up and scampered away as gunfire rang out. Love Heart jumped out of the line of fire, the bullets having little effect even with crossfire. The man in two halves cried out in pain as one of his comrade pushed his severed torso over to him.

Love Heart managed to watch from where he hid and stared in both horror and amazement as the merc's waist and legs were reattached to him and despite his cries of pain he stood up a moment later, wobbly at first but firm on his feet in an instant.

So this is what the nanomachines could do? Love Heart sighed with regret as he focused his energy into his sword, purple strings of plasma dancing around his blades.

"There! Shoot!" The man who had been sliced in half a moment ago opened fire on the purple flashes of light. Love Heart reacted a moment later that he should have and felt the sting of three bullets impact him right before he flew out of the tree then dove down at the mercenaries, strings of plasma illuminating his body and swords. He sliced the first man in a cross, the plasma burning so hot it scorched his body, burning it to ash shortly after he had been quartered. Love Heart spun around and sliced another twice across, again leaving nothing but ashes even as his fell in three parts.

A sudden pain in his side made Love Heart spin around, the bayonet pulling out of his side as he ran the offender through his chest. His body landed intact but most of his chest, including his heart and lungs, burned away. Two of the mercenaries opened fire but Love Heart jumped up and flew out of their line of fire, dropping his swords in the process. Once he was overhead he condensed the plasma still coursing around his body into two small balls in his hands and hurled them at the two as they aimed upwards at him. The blasts vaporized most of their bodies.

As Love Heart came back to Earth, the final mercenary's nerve failed him. He dropped his assault rifle and backed away. "N-no! Care Bears can't do this! If people find out-" Love Heart cut him off.

"I'm a Care Bear Magi. I'm a soldier and you're our enemies!" he turned to the mostly intact corpse and conjured another plasma ball, "You invaded our home," he shot the ball at the body, scorching most of what was left to ash. "Tried to kill visiting guests from another planet and us." He turned to the last mercenary and created another ball of plasma that he slowly extended into a thin sword. "And worst of all, you tried to kidnap my children and put them in a zoo! There is no mercy for monsters like you!" Love Heart suddenly charged. The mercenary screamed as he tried to pull out a weapon, only to be ran through by Love Heart's plasma sword, the intense heat burning his body to ash.

Love Heart sighed and let the magic disperse before he turned to see the remains on the battlefield and began his tidying up.

As he was in the middle of burning the bodies with lightning, he heard the sound of something approaching from behind. He reflexively spun around, ready to draw a sword, only for the creature to fall backwards which made him stop.

"Beastly?!" he stared at the brown pig-like creature, still wearing his spiked aviator hat and goggles.

"Uh-huh," Beastly was shaking but stopped when he saw Love Heart relax.

"How long have you been here?" Love Heart asked. He was still on guard but he didn't need to do anything drastic.

"Uhh..." Beastly tried to count the days on his hands, but gave up after 8, not using his thumbs to count, "Since they came to the castle and froze Shrieky."

Love Heart blinked as he thought back. Connie had told him about that incident privately, just to keep him up to date, "That was months ago." He shook his head, "alright you're coming with me."

"But why?! Can't I stay here?" Beastly begged.

"I'm not going to hurt you, but we need to decide what to do with you. We can't have you living out here right now." Love Heart was about to grab Beastly's arm but surprisingly he turned and started walking back to Care-a-Lot. Love Heart sighed in relief and moved to walk in step alongside him back to the Hall of Hearts as he sent a message to Star Fox.

"The mercenaries are dead, the Forest of Feelings is clear."