Impulsive or Reckless?
True Heart was going over a recent mission report in her office in the Hall of Hearts and sighed sadly, it was Impulsive Bear again. Impulse was a new addition to the family, he was pale orange and his symbol was a few pieces of candy, with heart shaped bits, and gum, classic impulse items, and it was his job to teach children how to control their impulses, but he had trouble with his own impulses. Brave Heart and Impulse had become best friends easily as they went well together though Brave Heart was doing his best to teach the new family member things he had learned from experience. However things weren't going so well, once again Impulse had attacked someone on his caring mission.
It wasn't every time but whenever Impulse went on a mission to deal with a bully or someone's tormentor, he always ended up punching the bully to chase him off, and that just wasn't acceptable. 10 times it had happened now and each time True Heart had warned him and Impulse had promised not to do it again, but each time he had broken the promise and acted on his somewhat violent impulses and struck someone on his mission, not all of them just the ones where he dealt with bullies and tormentors. Loyal Heart was very vocal in his protests of Impulsive Bear's behavior and he was the one who was basically his probation officer, and he was the one who wrote the reports about his violence each time. This time, however, it had been Brave Heart who wrote the report as Loyal had been on a mission and when Brave Heart was worried about Impulse's reckless behavior, it was serious.
A downcast Impulsive Bear entered True Heart's office and sat down. He knew why he was here. True Heart sighed and shook her head before speaking.
"Impulse, you know why you're here right?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied, softly.
True Heart shook her head, "This is the tenth time you've had to report to me because of your acting on your impulses, I'm not sure what to do with you," she stood up and faced the window, "in the care bear family we don't use violence. Our duty is to help people learn to care by our example and all you're doing is adding more problems. Fighting fire with fire won't do any good, all your actions accomplish is to make the people you hit angry at of scared of us and we're supposed to help them, not harm them."
"I know," Impulse said, "I'm sorry and I promise it won't happen again."
"Ten times now you've said that," True Heart turned to him, "and nine times you've broken that promise now. Impulse you need to learn to control yourself," she sighed unhappily, "Impulse, I'm ordering you to take a week off, you won't be allowed to participate in Caring Missions or help in any sort of scenario. Take this time to work on your impulses and try to control them, if you don't, I'm not sure what we'll do with you."
Impulse was downcast, but he knew True Heart was right, "I understand," he said, standing up, "can I go home now?"
"Yes, please and think about this, you have a week."
Impulse found Brave Heart outside the Hall of Hearts, Brave Heart looked at his friend and asked.
"So how did it go?"
"I was suspended," Impulse kicked the clouds angrily, "for the next week I can't help in missions or any trouble caused by our enemies. I'm just supposed to work on my impulsive issues."
"Impulse, I hate to say it but you need to learn to cool off, until you arrived I was the most reckless member of the family and even I never attacked anyone. Com'on, I'll walk you home." The two friends walked, heading to the bear's house.
"I'm not sure I can do this, my impulses are as natural as Swift Heart's speed, and your bravery," Impulse admitted.
"I know, but each of us has at least learned to control our actions in that regard, I'm your friend, Impulse, and I think you need some time off, just like True Heart said. Can you at least try," by this time they were at Impulsive Bear's house.
Impulsive Bear sighed but smiled, "All right, I'll try, Brave Heart."
"That's all I ask, Impulse, you have a week to try harder, but I have something to attend to, good luck," Impulse waved to his friend as he left then closed his door and sat down. He had a week to figure out how to calm down. Maybe he'd look up something in Yoga or one of those things that helped him find his center. He went to his computer to look some of them up, he should keep this up as much as possible so he could be ready in a week.
As the week passed, Impulsive Bear did his best, he kept looking up ways to calm himself and while he had very little time he was able to learn some important stuff that would help him. By the end of the week, Impulse felt he was ready and he was assigned a caring mission, with both Brave Heart and Loyal Heart along.
On the way down, Brave Heart glanced over his shoulder at Loyal Heart, the dog was here as a judge as this mission was a test for Impulse. The last bully that Impulsive Bear had hit a week ago was causing problems again, and this time they were going to help him, and hopefully Impulse could fix things so he could learn not to attack people because of their actions. Impulse certainly seemed to be calmer than he used to be but Brave Heart had his doubts, if he failed this test he might be forced to remain in the Kingdom of Caring indefinitely.
They landed and stepped out of the car, Loyal Heart hanging back to act as evaluator and the two friends moving forwards, this part of town was abandoned except for the bully who was about to enter the area after beating up a little kid, as they had seen form above. Brave Heart put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Nervous?" he asked.
"Very," Impulse replied.
"Well do your best, I'll be here to help you with this, just stay calm about this and you'll be fine." Brave Heart didn't think the mission would end successfully but all Impulse had to do was avoid attacking the bully and he would pass his test.
The bully rounded the corner and Impulse stepped forwards, the bully recognized him and sneered.
"Well if it isn't the bear who thinks he's so tough, what do you want?"
"I'm here to help you," Impulse said, taking a deep breath, "you need to learn to stop being so impulsive and get along with your peers."
"Are you telling me how to live my life," the bully said, angrily.
"I'm just trying to help you so you don't get into serious trouble, if you go any longer you could get in trouble with the law."
"No one tells me what to do," the bully reached into his pocket, "and now you need to be taught a lesson!" he pulled out a knife, shocking those present. The bully lunged forwards, trying to strike the bear. Brave Heart dove in front of his friend and ended up with the knife stuck in his chest. Not shallow enough to kill but enough that Brave Heart might die if unattended to. The bully let go and stepped back as Brave Heart fell back, stunned and breathing labored leave, being caught by Impulse.
"I missed but I don't think it matters at this point."
"Brave Heart, Brave Heart speak to me," Impulse said, imploringly. Brave Heart looked up at his friend, his eyes clouding. Impulse was pissed and he looked angrily at the bully who was just laughing.
Before Loyal Heart could do anything, Impulse lay Brave Heart down , pulled the knife out of his chest, and lunged and the bully, plunging it into his heart up to the hilt. The bully staggered back, stared at the knife the bear had plunged into his chest, and then his eyes rolled back and he fell, dead. Loyal Heart hit the alert button, calling for help and charged at Impulse, holding him down as they waited. Impulsive Bear offered no resistance, stunned by what he had just done.
Take Care was keeping Brave Heart alive at her clinic and Impulse was under house arrest. After a day treating his wound clean, Take Care determined that Brave Heart would live but he would have to take things easy for a while, Noble Heart and True Heart were relieved to hear that but now they faced something they hoped they never would.
True Heart was seated and had her head in her hands while Noble Heart paced, both of them were thinking the same thing but neither of them wanted to voice it. Never before had a member of the family done something like this before and with Impulsive Bear's previous problems they couldn't see anything else they could do.
"True Heart, you know what we have to do right?" Noble Heart said, facing her. True Heart nodded, she'd tried so hard and now they had to something they hoped they never would have had to do.
Everyone except Brave Heart and Take Care were gathered as Noble Heart and True Heart were sitting at their usual head of the table. Loyal Heart led Impulsive Bear to the middle of the table then stood there as Noble Heart and True Heart stood up.
"Impulsive Bear, we've spoken to you before about your habits," True Heart said, "and until now we've done our best to help you overcome your violent tendencies."
"But now," Noble Heart shook his head, "you've done something we cannot forgive or overlook, you've taken the life of a human, and one you were supposed to help."
"I had hopes for you," True Heart said, "but now, Noble Heart and I are forced to make a decision that we hoped we'd never have to," True Heart sat down, almost crying. Noble Heart sighed, he wasn't looking forwards to this, but he had to do this.
"Impulsive Bear, you've crossed a line and we cannot overlook this, so from this day forth you are banished from the Care Bear Family!" Noble Heart's symbol glowed and he fired a grey stare at Impulse's tummy. A moment later, Impulsive Bear's symbol vanished and in its place a symbol of a broken heart appeared.
"Loyal Heart, please take Impulsive Bear down to earth," Noble Heart said. The blue dog took the outcast outside and got into a car, taking off for earth.
All the way down to earth, Impulsive was silent until right before they landed.
"Is Brave Heart all right?"
"He'll live," Loyal Heart said. They landed and they got out, Loyal Heart continued, "Brave Heart won't hear the news for a while, he's going to be hurt, he was hoping you'd pass that test and now."
"What am I supposed to do," Impulsive said.
"I don't know. I thought you would be able to pass that test, but it looks like I was wrong. I hope you think about this and use the experience to learn something, good bye." Loyal Heart got in the car and took off back to Care-A-Lot. Impulse looked up at the leaving bear, then down at the broken heart on his tummy that forever marked him as an outcast. He was apart from the closest friend he had ever had and now was abandoned, there was a town nearby and he could head there and try to live. He began to cry, he didn't know what to do except head for the town. He wasn't Impulsive, he was reckless, yes that's who he was, Reckless Bear, the care bear who failed…