A Dragon Ball Z / Care Bears cross-over
Chapter 1: The sickness descends
*Rated R for language and violence*
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Prolouge:
In the early morning hours of June 3rd, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the kids were outside playing, and smell of summer was in the air. It was the kind of day that your glad to be alive. Ironic then, that this type of day would signal the starting of mankinds horrific fate, that this type of day would announce the greatest threat to humanity, surpassing Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu, Dark Heart, or the Spirit Book combined ever could have. This story is set in somewhat of an alternate universe. The threats to the world ended with Cell, Majin Buu never existed. However, the characters still have the abilities they had in the saga (SSJ3, Fusion, etc). In addition, this story begins less than a week after the end of The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation. This story could also be called Shadow Heart: The Care Bears Movie III, but since its centered more or less equally instead of leaning towards CB, it isn't.
Now sit back and enjoy.
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With the sun shining through the window, Bulma Briefs sat sipping her coffee and reading the morning newspaper. Her day had started as normal, get up at about 7:30, cook Vegeta his breakfest, then send Trunks to play with Goten while Vegeta took to the gravity room to train. She pondered that a moment, 'train for what? There hasen't been a threat to Earth in over 4 years' she thought to herself. Nonetheless, Vegeta insisted on at a minimum of 15 hours a day training, sometimes he trained for 20 or more hours, until his body eventually gave out from exhaustion. She always worried about him though. Despite his alien bodies resistance to fatigue, sickness, and injury, she had seen him time and time again overdo it way too much and have to spend some time off from training.
She smiled a bit in spite of herself, knowing that even though Vegeta was arrogant, boorish, and stubborn as Dende knows what, he truely was a determined man who never quit no matter what. It was those very qualities that made her love him in the first place. From the first time she saw him on Namek, she knew there was something about him that she was attracted to, besides his killer body of course. She almost lost herself in her daydreams before she shook herself out of it. Snapping back to reality, she once again glanced over the newspaper she was reading, stopping at a headline that caught her interest.
"Police/Hospital say 6 more victim of mysterious 'Coma Disease' say sources"
'Hmm? Whats this?' she thought, reading more indepth to it. "Police and Hospital Officials say there is as of yet no known cause or cure for the mysterious "Coma Disease" thats had a few cases pop up in cities across Japan this past week. Victims of the disease appear to lapse into a coma like state, with vital signs hanging on by a thread. There appear to be no noticeable symptoms of the disease, as said by one hospital orderly, 'I don't know what happened! She was in her room eating her breakfest, I went to change the toilet paper in the bathroom, and when I came back I found her lying on her back in bed, her eyes glazed over and her body cold'.
"Officials of both the police and the hospitals warn the public not to panic, but to take extra measures to safeguard theirselves and their families against germs". Bulma stared at the paper for a good two minutes, her mind trying to think of what could possibly cause such a disease and in such a short amount of time. Having gone through the best schools Japan had to offer, she thought she could remember even a tidbit about anything similar to this in her college days. But after painstakingly racking her brains, and a few of her old textbooks, she could think of nothing even close to this sort of disease.
Sighing, she put her paper down and stared out the window. For a long while she just stared and thought. Thought about the disease and thought about the people who contracted it. She wondered what must be going through those peoples minds after they have caught the disease. She shook her head to clear her stray thoughts then turned back to the article. "The last reported case was in Orange Star City...thats where Gohans high school is, and its only a half-hours drive from here. I think I'll ask Chi Chi to ask Gohan if hes heard anything about the disease while hes in school" she said outloud. She reached for the phone and dialed Gokus house. After 4 rings, Trunks picked up.
"Hello?" came Trunks voice from the other end of the line. "Hi sweety, are you behaving?" Bulma asked. "Yes mom" came the reply from both Trunks AND Goten. Bulma giggled a bit, those two were always together. Not that she minded however, it was just that whenever Trunks or Goten was by themselves, they acted like angels. When you mix Goten and Trunks together however, it was hell to get them to behave. And if they should fuse into Gotenks, it was the devil himself to try and get to behave. "Hey Trunks? Put Gotens mom on the phone ok?" Bulma asked. After a minute of silence, Chi Chi picked up.
"Hey Chi Chi this is Bulma! Listen, I was wondering if perhaps you could do me a favor?" Bulma asked. "Sure Bulma, what is it?" came the reply. "Well listen, I'm kinda worried about this whole 'Coma Disease' thing, and the last reported case was in Orange Star City where Gohan goes to school. I was wondering if you could get him to listen out for any tidbits on it while hes in school?" Bulma requested. Chi Chi said she'd ask and put the phone down. A minute later she picked it back up. "Gohan says he will ask around and see if anyone in school knows anything and if they do, he'll fly over there and let you know." Chi Chi replied. Bulma thanked her and hung up, deciding to busy herself with something other than the news.
* * * * *
High above the Earth, in a place called Care-A-Lot, the Care Bears and the Care Bear cousins were having a celebration party to celebrate the defeat of Dark Heart, and the rebirth of the boy known as David Hodges, the boy Dark Heart was before having his soul turned to evil. All the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins were in attendance, and the party was going full swing. Everyone was laughing and smiling and not a grumpy voice was heard, except Grumpy Bears of course. In one corner of the room, Bedtime Bear, Proud Heart Cat, and Wish Bear were telling the little cubs, Hugs and Tugs, how they were inprisoned in Dark Hearts chamber and, with the help of the campers John, Dawn, and Christy, they were able to be freed and defeat Dark Heart, thus freeing the human soul inside his body. The cubs applauded when they finished, asking to hear it again and again, to which the Care Bears smiled and began to re-tell it, just one more time.
In other corner, Tender Heart, Brave Heart, Cheer Bear, and Good Luck Bear were wondering aloud to each other what the 4 campers were doing right now. "I bet David is turning out to be really brave" Brave Heart said. "And hes probably cheery" Cheer Bear said. "AND hes got a lot of luck to have friends like that!" Good Luck Bear put in. "Whatever hes doing, I'm just glad the evil left him. Him and John, Dawn, and Christy have become inseperable as friends since that day. Its hard to believe it hasen't even been a week yet" Tender Heart finished. Cheer Bear agreed, but voiced her opinion that time does fly fast when theres no one to help.
"Hey everyone! Time for a sack race!" Champ Bear yelled. The crowd in the Hall of Hearts cheered and ran outside to participate. After everyone was situated, it was Champ Bear, Good Luck Bear, Wish Bear, Swift Heart Rabbit, Daydream Bear, and Share Bear who would be racing, with True Heart Bear ringing the bell to start them off. The racers lined up and waited for the bell to sound so they could go. Champ, Good Luck, Wish, Daydream, and Share Bear had a feeling Swift Heart would win. He was, after all, the fastest one in Care-A-Lot, outrunning even Champ Bear by a good distance.
Bonngg!! A bell rang out and in less than 2 seconds Swift Heart Rabbit had cleared the finish line and was now doing a victory dance on the other side. 'Wow! I didn't even have time to go!' Champ Bear thought to himself. "Yesss!! Swift Heart Rabbit is uuunnnbeatable!!" he cheered. "Swift Heart! I haven't rang the bell yet!" True Heart called from her spot near the starting line. "Huh? Well if you didn't then who did?" he called back, walking back to the group.
Then they heard it again, Boonnnggg!! This time however, they spotted the problem. The Caring Meter had dropped 3 marks, signaling trouble on Earth. "Oh no, again?" Bedtime Bear asked. True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse, fearing something was wrong with the meter, ran up the platform to inspect it. They opened the back of the meter and spent several minutes examinging the parts, but to their surprise, the meter was working perfectly! "I'm afraid its true Bears and Cousins, the caring meter is working perfectly. I know we just fought a long hard battle with Dark Heart, but the truth of the matter is that theres more trouble on Earth." Noble Heart announced.
This rained on everyones parade. "I knew it wouldn't last long" Grumpy Bear lamented. True Heart and Noble Heart called a meeting so the family could butt heads and discuss a plan. The Care Bears and Cousins regrouped in the Hall of Hearts, discussing what their plan of action should be. Finally it was decided 1 or 2 bears should go to check out the problem. "Ok, we will send Harmony Bear and Birthday Bear down to Earth to see what the trouble is. The rest of us will stay here and wait until they return" True Heart said. Secret Bear suddenly whispered and motioned something to Friend Bear, who announced to the group, "Secret Bear thinks it would be a good idea if they took a Star Buddy along and if its something big, sent it back to us". Noble Heart agreed, and whistled for a Star Buddy to go with them to Earth.
As the cloud car with Harmony and Birthday Bear headed towards the source of the trouble, True Heart and Noble Heart watched from the platform where the Caring Meter stands. "They've been through so much recently, I hope its nothing bad again." True Heart said. "I agree True Heart, but we have to find out in anycase. In my opinion, its probably just a routine caring mission" Noble Heart replied confidently, hiding in his heart the feeling of dread that was creeping up on him....
* * * * *
"500 times Earths gravity!? Thats as high as this damn machine goes?!" Vegeta raged. He had been training in the gravity chamber since 8:00, almost 4 hours ago, and was at the moment a highly pissed Saiyan. Feeling he could move easily at 490 times Earths gravity, Vegeta foolhardedly pushed the Maximum Gravity button, preparing himself for some sort of seering pain, or numbness, or something. Anything but nothing! He felt a hairs difference in the 10 digits of gravity and was now seethingly mad at having had to put up with Bulmas father putting off making the gravity machine, only to be cheated by it only going to 500 x Earths gravity. 'One day, I'll get that old man for this' Vegeta vowed.
For a while, Vegeta just stared at the machine, wondering to himself why he didn't specify any higher than 500 times Earths gravity. "I'll teach this infernal contraption" Vegeta fumed. He pulled the safety plate off the instrument panel and stared at the maze of wires underneath. 'Hmm..that woman used a special typing device to repair this thing last time, so it must still be here' he thought. Looking in the storage compartment under the control console, Vegeta found the programming keyboard he had seen Bulma use to reprogram the machine for him. After staring at the diagram for several minutes, he was able to connect the keyboard to the proper wires, and the small LCD screen on the keyboard lit up. The layout looked simple enough to him, so he smirked and continued the re-programming.
'Hmmph..no machine is a match for the Prince of all Saiyans' he thought smugly. Copying the commands he had seen Bulma do, he reprogrammed the machine so the 'Max Grav' field was changed from '500 X' to '1000 X'. He finished up and saved all the changes to the program. Smirking, he disconnected the keyboard, stowed it away, then replaced the safety plate as best as possible. He then pressed the button for Max Gravity again. The lights dimmed and the machine hummed. 'Hahaha...now I shall see what this machine has!' he thought proudly to himself. Then suddenly, the lights brightened, then dimmed, then went out. The machine made a soft frying sound and promptly shut down, returning the gravity to normal.
"DAMMMITT!!!" Vegeta raged, shaking the chamber. After all his hard work the baka machine decided to go and break on him! Now he was behind a whole hour in training. He reared his fist back to smash it into the machine, then realized it would take a lot longer than last time to resume training if he decided to wreck the control console. In anger, he stomped over to the door, pressed the open button, and stalked into the house to find his baka woman and make her fix the machine again.
* * * * *
Bulma was sitting on the
couch figuring up this months employee payroll when she heard it. At first
she thought it was the TV, then she realized the TV wasen't even on. She
listened and heard it again, and what she heard bothered her. It was the
unmistakeable sound of something blowing up in the distance. "That damn
Vegetas blown up the room again! I swear to Dende this time I am NOT fixing
it!" she fumed. "Trunks! Get out to the gravity chamber and tell that idiot
father of yours to get in here.....now?" Bulma stopped short, seeing Vegetas
shadow fall over her. She turned around to confront her seething husband.
"Vegeta you idiot! You blew the machine again! This is the 6th time this month I've..." she started, but was cut off by his yelling of "Quiet!" at her. She stopped, staring surprised at him. Vegeta raised his voice a lot, but not often directly in her face. "For your information, I didn't blow the damned chamber up. It shorted on me and I came to make YOU fix it! Here, look out the window and see for yourself!" he commanded. She just stared, then looked out the window, seeing the gravity chamber on the other side of the lawn in perfect condition. "Well if you didn't blow that up what DID you blow up?" she asked.
"I haven't blown up anything...yet" he replied with a smirk. She opened her mouth to retort, but the sound of sirens in the background made her cease. She rushed to the door and stepped outside. It took perhaps 3 seconds before her jaw hit the floor. "Vegeta! Come quick!" she yelled. He grumbled but stalked to the door. "What is it now woman?" he demanded impatiently. Bulma said nothing, but pointed up to the Capital Center Hotel building a block and a half away. Known for its elegance, not to mention price, the building was no longer its former picture of luxury. Now it was charred, blackened, flaming, and smoking. It looked as though a bomb had gone off inside the 3rd floor. The fire was raging and the firemen trying to put it out were fighting a lost cause. The flames reached high into the building the and intense heat was driving the fireman battling the blaze back.
"Vegeta there are people inside! You've got to go help them!" Bulma yelled frantically. Vegeta stood dumbfounded, his expression said he had just been asked something horrible, like Bulma asking him to strip to his underwear and pole dance in front of the whole of Japan. "NOW!!!" she yelled. Grimmacing, Vegeta flew towards the building, mumbling about always having to save worthless human ass. As he arrived at the building, he could see firemen and police leading some survivors out of the burning building. Unnoticed by the police, he slipped inside the hotel and began working his way towards the blazing section. The heat from the fire and the smoke were a bit more than he expected. Even with his Saiyan composition, he was still affected somewhat by smoke and heat. 'I have to hurry and get out of here, I'd hate to have this building collapse on me. Besides, that woman would never let me live it down.' he thought.
He closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind, despite the pain, to sense the Kis of the humans still inside. He counted 4 weak powers and within minutes, had drug them all out to safety. He laid the helpless humans on the grass near the building, making sure the paramedics and firemen knew that the people were safely outside. It was then the Chief of Police noticed him and ran to him. "Thank you Mr. Briefs. You have helped prevent a great tragedy here today" the Chief began. "Save it. I did this for my mate, not you" Vegeta grumbled, then asked as an afterthought, "How many dead?". The Chief replied, "2 dead, over 20 wounded. Damnest thing, the workers that were suppose to be monitoring the gas lines were caught on camera as sleeping on the job. I know the manager of this place and its unlikely his employees would just fall asleep like that".
"Sleeping on the job?" Vegeta asked with slight interest. "Yea, the cameras show them just slumping over in their chairs 5 minutes before the gas lines ruptured and blew" the Chief replied. Vegeta grunted in reply and took off back to Capsule Corp. 'Odd, that place has a reputation for safety, and now all of a sudden it blows up because a couple of bakas can't stay awake?' he thought to himself. He arrived home soon and related to Bulma what had happened, finishing by telling her only 2 people died in the explosion. "Thats horrible! Did they suffer much?" she asked. "I doubt it, the man known as the Police Chief said that they were caught on camera sleeping right before the place blew, so it would stand to reason they didn't feel it a whole lot." Vegeta replied, headed out the door.
'Sleeping on the job? At the Capital Center? That doesn't sound like them at all!' Bulma thought to herself. That place had a habit of hiring only the best people to work in the established hotel, having workers just fall asleep for no reason didn't sound right to her one bit. It was all just a bit too weird, considering the luxury involved in that hotel. 'There MUST be something more to it than just workers falling asleep on the job' Bulma thought. For several minutes she just sat and thought, then the time dawned on her. 'Oh damn! I have to have this done before 3:00' she thought to herself. She decided to try and put the days events out of her mind and get back to work on the employee payroll.....
* * * * *
"This must be the place alright" Harmony Bear said as they parked the car in the underground parking area of the Capital City Hospital. Tender Heart had directed them to this hospital, noting that it was the source of the Caring Meters disturbance. "Maybe its some children who need cheering up?" Birthday Bear asked. Harmony Bear shrugged and together the two Care Bears walked inside the hospital. What they saw made both of them gasp. Doctors, Nurses, and Paramedics galore. They walked past the frenzy of employees, careful not to get in the way. "I wonder what all the trouble is about Harmony?" Birthday enquired as they walked down the hall. They saw soon enough. At least 40 people quarantined off in one of the meeting rooms. The people were all sufferers of the mysterious Coma Disease. "Oh no, this is bad, really bad" Harmony Bear wailed. She ran back to the cloud car and sent the Star Buddy back to Care-A-Lot as a signal for the others to come.
When she returned, orderlys were ushing another 6 or 7 people into the room. Fearing the disease may be contagious, the Medical Staff Director ordered those inflicted to be quarantined off from the rest of the hospital to control the spread. Birthday Bear tugged on the corner of one of the nurses shirts. "Excuse me, whats wrong with all these people?" she asked. "We don't know, they were fine one minute and then comatose the next, we don't know what to do, their vitals are barely within living range" she replied quickly before rushing off to assist the other doctors. "Comatose? All of them?" Harmony asked more to herself than anyone else. "Birthday Bear, what could possibly have caused this much sickness here on Earth?" Harmony continued.
"I don't know Harmony, I just don't know. None of the doctors or nurses here seem to have ever seen anything like this. They know what it does, but they don't know why it does it or what causes it or how they can cure it. This is really bad, its the worst I've ever seen this place." Birthday Bear said. The Care Bears were no stranger to this hospital. Caring missions in the past had taken them here and to hospitals around the world to give some cheer to the people who were stuck in them. For a long while Harmony and Birthday just stood there, pondering the events of the day and, particularly, the disease which is now sweeping the country.
Their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of crying coming from down the hall. They walked down and entered the room the sound was coming from. A little boy was sitting in his bed, crying his heart out. "There there" Birthday Bear said, "Its alright. Why are you crying?" she asked. The little boy stopped his sobs for a moment to choke out, "Who..are..*sniff* you?" Birthday Bear smiled and replied, "My name is Birthday Bear and this is Harmony Bear, we're part of the Care Bear Family. Don't worry, we're your friends, so please tell us what makes you cry." The little boy wiped his eyes and said, "Everyone in this hospital is coming down with a disease of some kind. They are fine one moment, then the next they turn all cold and don't move, speak, or even blink. I don't wanna end up like that! The lady in here with me turned into one of those!" Birthday and Harmony looked at the empty bed next to the boy, which undoubtedly once held a victim of this mysterious Coma Disease.
Reading the boys name off his bracelet, Harmony Bear said, "Billy, I promise everything will be ok, and Care Bears don't lie either." The little boys face brightened somewhat as the two Care Bears left the room. "What are we going to do Birthday? Everyone here is getting some kind of sickness and the doctors can't help them." Harmony said. They were walking down the hall to exit when Harmony by chance happened to see an elderly man suddenly fall face first on the floor. "Oh dear!" she exclaimed. Her and Birthday ran into the room. The mans skin had instantly turned cold and his eyes had begun to glaze over. Birthday felt for a heartbeat and found a very faint one. "Hes dying Harmony! Quick!" Birthday Bear said. Her and Harmony lined up next to each other and closed their eyes. A second later, white beams, birthday cakes and hearts, shot from their tummy symbols and collided with the old man. They Stared at the man for a good minute, but the man refused to awaken! "Oh Harmony it didn't work!" Birthday said in dismay. She jerked down the Nurse call-string, then her and Harmony ran from the room, down the hallway and out of the hospital.
"We're in trouble Birthday Bear. All these people are getting sick and theres nothing even we can do to help!" Harmony wailed. They ran for the cloud car. "We don't have time to wait for the others, we have to get back to Care-A-Lot!" Birthday said. They exited the hospital and entered the underground parking lot. As they neared the car, a rumbling noise stopped them dead in their tracts. The two exchanged puzzled looks. "Harmony? Tell me that was your tummy growling, and that you haven't eaten today." Birthday said. "Sorry Birthday, but that wasen't me, whatever it was" Harmony replied.They heard it again, this time they both stood stock still and listened. Then suddenly the roof above them shook with the force of an earthquake. "The roof is collapsing! We have to leave, quickly!" Harmony said. The two ran for the car in a style that would have put Swift Heart to shame. They jumped in the cloud car and Birthday Bear tried to start it, but to their horror, it refused to start! "Come on, come on!" Birthday coaxed from the drivers seat. She tried frantically to get the cloud car to start. With a final protesting groan, the roof gave way and collapsed towards them.
"AHHHHHHHhhh!!!!" the two screamed in unison, their eyes closed as they held each other for their last seconds alive. Then from out of nowhere, a white blue came by and two pairs of hands snatched the two from the cloud car. They cleared daylight with less than a second before that entire section of the roof fell, crushing the cloud car into bits. When they realized they were not dead, Birthday and Harmony opened their eyes to the sight of Grumpy Bear and Wish Bear, with Cheer Bear driving. "Lets get back to Care-A-Lot as fast as possible, we have a big problem on Earth" Harmony said. The cloud car floored it for Care-A-Lot, the life saving Star Buddy following close behind....
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***** During a celebration
in Care-A-Lot, the Care Bears get a distress call from Earth. Actually,
several of them. The Care Bears are once again overbooked, but the problems
are not just there. Back on Earth, more and more people are coming down
with the mysterious 'Coma Disease'. What is this disease, and where does
it come from? And why is it appearing now? After barely escaping death,
the two Care Bears report to the others everything they have seen and heard,
but what will become of it? Look for the next chapter in this saga entitled,
"Two Worlds Collide". *****