The Care Bears and the Bears with No Names
"The Care Bears don't need two pessimists..." Grumpy Bear's voice echoed in the cold Sleep Hall. It was the only place in Care-A-Lot that wasn't warm and cheerful. The Bears who were still awake had tried to make it as cozy as possible for their poor brothers and sisters who were sleeping there, but it was still a place without much warmth.
In the middle of the hall, looking back and forth at the many sleeping forms, sealed in crystal, that were lining either wall, was Tenderheart Bear. He was the target of Grumpy's comment. At the sound of Grumpy's voice, the young, temporary leader of the Care Bears, turned and smiled softly at Grumpy.
"Oh, no, I was just making sure everyone was tucked in properly and sleeping peacefully," he said, his voice still filled with the tender warmth that brought peace to any listener. Except Grumpy.
"Have -you- slept lately?" Grumpy said, frowning.
"No," Tenderheart murmured, not capable of lying, even if he had wanted to. "I never seem to have the time. Most of us don't..." he looked at Grumpy, whom he knew was also up late worrying just about every night.
"You should see Bedtime, then," Grumpy said, looking away. It was his nature to grumble and nitpick, but even he was losing the will to do it as much, anymore. He really wanted to comfort his dear friend, but it was hard to go against his nature.
"Last time I woke him up..." Tenderheart said, looking slightly pained "He said he was having a wonderful dream, where everything was like it used to be. Now that he sleeps so much I'm worried... I don't have the heart to wake him from his dreams."
"..." Grumpy again looked away from his friend, trying to find words that were too foreign to him.
"Well I've got something to get you gloomy gusses back in the pink!" Brave Heart Lion's rumbling voice bounced off the walls loudly. Both the Bears turned to see not only Brave Heart, but also Bright Heart Raccoon and Swift Heart Rabbit entering. The Care Cousins, who usually lived in the Forest of Feelings nearby, had all moved into the Care-a-Lot castle with the Bears after their numbers had started shrinking. Now, in total, there were only 4 Bears and 4 Cousins still awake and about in Care-a-Lot.
Just 8.
"Brave Heart!" Tenderheart greeted, giving the leader of the Cousins a wide grin. "Is there work?"
"You got it in one, brother my bear! The Earth needs us!" Brave Heart proclaimed, throwing out his chest. "Best thing for the glooms, work! Turn some frowns upside down!"
"Well, what are we waiting for! You can debrief us on the way!" Tenderheart exclaimed, dashing over to join the group of Cousins. Grumpy sighed, grumbling half-heartedly about how troublesome it was, though he was secretly glad something had come along to take Tenderheart's mind off of the sleeping forms of their family.
* * *
"So, what's the situation?" Tenderheart asked, as they zoomed over the sleeping Earth in a cloud-car. Grumpy, Brave Heart and Swift Heart were in the car with him. Wish Bear and Bright Heart were floating at their flanks in one-person cloud bikes.
"It's in Japan. We have a young thief doing some breaking and entering. Normally the police should handle it but..." Brave Heart said, looking down at the Earth. As he paused he looked at the others with a suddenly serious face "... it's not so much the -what- as the -why-."
"His heart is crying..." Tenderheart said, and the others nodded.
They were wordless, each pulling up memories from other such missions to look back on. Back then they had had many companions and skills to choose from. Now that they were so few it was necessary for each one to think of the best way for him or her to serve in the mission.
"Japan... huh?" Bright Heart mused silently to himself, looking down at the island nation from the clouds as they descended. It wasn't a place they had gone too many times. Immorality and depression were rampant in the big cities there, though they had often visited the smaller villages in the hills and forests where the humble people still lived. It had been a while, though. The sparkling city of Tokyo lay beneath them like a gem-encrusted spider-web. But they were headed farther north, toward Hokkaido.
"Here we are. Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido. Going down!" Tenderheart said, signaling to Wish Bear and Bright Heart to also descend. The three vehicles slowly floated in a spiraling descent toward the city.
* * *
To the south, standing on one of Tokyo Tower's observation bays, a young boy stood up from where he had been looking at the night sky through the tourist binoculars installed for people to look around at the city. He had seen something that night that no one in Japan had seen in a long, long time. Something he had only heard net rumors of.
'Have you heard of the creatures that ride around on clouds and grant wishes?'...
* * *
Ken Mizuki wasn't even out of grade school and he was already a proficient thief. He had started in 4th grade because he was tired of being different. His dad had put him into a rich, snobby private school to try to make himself look good and rich to all his friends, even though the Mizuki family was hardly scraping by.
"What matters is that we -appear- to be rich, my boy," his father always said, as he wasted money that should have gone toward food on gambling and nice clothes and jewelry for his mother.
But nothing for Ken.
And so he was forced to go to a super rich school where everyone had nice bikes and cell phones and games and... and everything! Everyone made fun of him for his used clothes, his cheap watch, his haircut, his clothes. He was the butt of all their jokes about how the poor class lived. Everyone knew his parents were just trying to compensate by showing off money they didn't have.
Well all that had changed. Now Ken had all the money he could spend. Most of the really rich people whose kids went to his school were involved in one or two shady deals, so even if their houses got robbed they would hardly ever call in the police. Sometimes they would get guards or security systems but they were never expecting the small child Ken Mizuki to be the culprit. They thought they were dealing with a pro. Well, by this point they pretty much were, Ken thought to himself.
And so, as another super rich family had gone on vacation, Ken had once more paid their house a visit and relieved them of as much jewelry and cash as he could get his hands on. He carried it all in his black leather school backpack, which was now slung over his shoulder, stuffed with spoil.
"Ken! Please stop!" a sudden voice split the silent night, and Ken whirled around, looking into the shadows with wide eyes. He didn't think it was a guard, since they obviously wouldn't know his name. Then who...?
Out of the shadows stepped 6 figures. They were squat, like midget humans, but they looked like walking stuffed animals. Three were bears; brownish, blue and purple. The others were a golden-brown lion with a large mane, a light blue rabbit and a purple-ish raccoon. He could make out their colors clearly as they stepped into a pool of light given off by the exterior lights on the mansion he had just robbed. It was the foremost, the brown bear, who had spoken.
"Who... what they heck are you!" Ken asked, his voice a very loud hiss as he didn't want to yell, under the circumstances.
"We're the Care Bears, and we're here to help you stop doing things that hurt yourself and others. My name is Tenderheart Bear. You don't have to be afraid of us, we just want to help!" Tenderheart said, his voice full of love and tenderness that Ken hadn't heard since he was a toddler, back before money had been a concern for his parents. It made him step back, it was such a foreign thing to him.
"You... you're lying! You're evil spirits and you want some of the jewels! There's no such thing as a 'Care Bear'. Spirits exist because of the feelings people have, and no one in this whole city 'cares' about anything anymore, unless it's money! That's what you're after, isn't it?" Ken's voice was dangerous. It was clear that he was very high strung, and that he hadn't been sleeping much. His illegal activities had had an effect on him, even if he wouldn't admit it. The Care Bears and Cousins ached to take away the pain in his heart.
"All those jewels won't buy you happiness or friends," Grumpy pointed out. Looking on the negative side of things was sometimes helpful. He hoped to point out how worthless these acts of thievery were. "Since you've started stealing has anyone been nicer to you? Has anyone treated you with respect?"
"Sh... shut up!" Ken said, taking another step back. The truth of Grumpy's words had pierced him.
"People look up to a cool dude that's also a nice guy!" Brave Heart put in, raising his chin a little and giving Ken the example of said 'cool dude' "If you learn to help others and show them that you're a good person you'll make all kinds of friends. Maybe those rich kids won't flock to you, but who needs them anyway? You want friends that like your heart, not the clothes you wear or how much money you have!"
The feeling was good. The Care Bears could tell that they were slowly breaking down Ken's defenses. Wish Bear took her turn and stepped forward to stand beside Tenderheart.
"..." she opened her mouth to start, but she was interrupted.
"Won't you all just SHUT UP!!" Ken suddenly yelled, and with a movement of his right hand he drew a long knife out of his pocket, opened it, and lunged at Wish Bear, blade first.
"Look out!!" a voice called out. It wasn't from one of the Care Bears. Ken didn't notice the voice, but just as he was about to stab into the Care Bears, who were frozen with shock at his desperate action, a deep green figure appeared from the shadows and dragged Wish Bear out of harm's way. "Silver!" the green figure then called.
At his call a silver-furred figure appeared and stood in front of Ken, blocking him from the Care Bears. Both the silver and deep green figure were bears who looked just like the Care Bears, though their faces looked a bit older and less open. Plus they were both wearing clothes. The green bear had on a leather aviator's jacket with a fluffy cream collar like one would see on a pilot from the 30s or 40s. He also had a pair of aviator's goggles around his neck with heart-shaped lenses. The silver bear was wearing a white cloth jacket that looked like it came from a traditional karate gi. He was also wearing a white headband.
"Out of my way!" Ken snarled, stabbing at the silver bear. He then gave a gasp of surprise as the silver bear fluidly swept his foot up and kicked Ken's wrist hard enough for him to drop the weapon. He then smoothly tripped Ken, who went down onto his knees. The silver bear then stepped back, again placing himself firmly between Ken and the others.
"Thank you..." Wish Bear murmured to the green bear who had pulled her away from danger, he smiled at her then turned back to Ken, stepping forward. Then he did something the other bears couldn't understand. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, rubbed at them a little with one paw, then opened them again and stared straight at Ken.
"Listen, Ken," he said, calling Ken's attention to him. "Kirie won't like it no matter what kind of gift you buy her with this stolen money. She's not rejecting your presents because they're not good enough, she's rejecting them because she knows they're bought with dirty money,"
Ken's face went pale, and it seemed as if all the energy went out of him. He opened his mouth to say something but no sound came out. The green bear walked over to him and stood right in front of him, next to the silver bear.
"Not just Kirie, there were other kids like you as well, weren't there? Back in 4th Grade? 2 Years ago you were all friends and it didn't matter what the other kids thought, right? It didn't matter that you were poor. You were friends because you were all in the same boat. But when you got a crush on Kirie you thought she wouldn't like a poor boy since she was one of the rich ones. Even though she'd been so kind to you all along you didn't trust her love because all the rich kids treated you so bad. You thought one day she'd do that too, right? That's why you started stealing, isn't it?" the green bear continued, his eyes gentle as he revealed Ken's history in detail. "You wanted to be a rich kid too, so Kirie would accept you. The other kids still made fun of you, but what was important was Kirie. But when she started acting cold towards you, after you started stealing, you thought she was beginning to dislike the poor you. You had it wrong. She was turning away from the thief you were becoming!"
Ken sank down even more into himself and, slowly he started to cry. Dropping his bag of stolen goods, he scrubbed both hands across his face as he tried to keep his tears from falling.
"It's not too late. Kirie has a kind heart, and she doesn't like the rich kids any more than you do! If you stop this right now and go and just talk to her about everything she'll understand and she'll still be your friend. But if you keep going this way you'll lose Kirie's respect forever and it'll be hard for you to ever find another person who truly loves you for what you are..." the green bear's words seemed to drag Ken down even more into despair. However, it wasn't a cruel despair, but instead the sorrow of a repentant heart. The boy had finally recognized his own mistakes.
"I'm... sniff~ … I'm sorry. Kirie... I'm sorry..." Ken sobbed, still rubbing at his face and trying to stop the tears. The green bear stepped over by him and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, we know you're sorry. You just need to stop. Put the stuff back that you took tonight, and go and see Kirie right away and tell her you made a mistake and you want things to be like they were before. Alright?" the green bear's words were soothing, and Ken nodded slowly.
"~Sniff~... Thank you... I didn't want to be a thief but... I thought she wouldn't like me anymore, and a lot of the rich kids were giving her love letters and I even heard a rumor that she liked one of the really rich guys and... ~sniff~ I should have known she would never like a guy like that... I'm sorry..." Ken sniffled.
"Well, at least you know what's right now. Now go and do what you have to!" the green bear said, giving him an encouraging smile. Ken nodded, stood up, and started back toward the house to put back all the things he had stolen. He paused halfway, turned around, and bowed to the green bear and the others, then straightened and waved, giving them a shy smile.
The Care Bears and the other two bears waved back, all smiling.
* * *
"That was amazing! You knew exactly what was happening in his life just by looking at him!" Tenderheart exclaimed, after the whole thing was over. They had all retired to a secluded park to sit down and talk with the two mysterious bears that had come to their rescue. The green bear was very open and friendly and sat with them quite naturally, but the silver bear stood a little apart, not quite avoiding their company, but looking more like he liked to be at least a little secluded.
"Well, that's our brother's specialty," came a new voice, and the Care Bears looked up to see two more figure coming to join them. The one that had spoken was another bear, light blue almost like Swift Heart, who was wearing a pink hooded sweater with the hood down. For some reason the way it looked on her reminded the Care Bears and Cousins of a monk's robe. Beside her was a black wolf, who was wearing a red cape.
All the Care Bears and Cousins stood to greet the newcomers, and after they had all settled down the green bear explained:
"We're from around here... we mostly work at night, helping the kids around here to keep out of trouble and helping them work out their problems."
"That sounds like what we do too!" Tenderheart exclaimed. "We're the Care Bears, and the Care Cousins. We help everyone care more for each other and learn about the good feelings we can all have! My name is Tenderheart, and the others are Wish Bear, Grumpy Bear, Brave Heart Lion, Swift Heart Rabbit and Bright Heart Raccoon."
The various Care Bears and Cousins nodded or bowed as their names were called.
"The Care Bears? Hmm... I think I've heard rumors of you guys around in the big cities sometimes, though Japan is a pretty hard place to work, even for us and we've lived here all our lives! As for our names um... hehe..." the green bear gave a nervous laugh "Well, we don't quite have what you would call names. Before they could name us our Big Brother and Big Sister left on a journey, so we've been waiting to receive names all this time. Mostly we just call each other by our colors or what we look like. Everyone calls me Forest, or big bro since I'm the oldest. River is the one in the sweater and Twilight is the wolf. Silver is the one who protects us, though I feel a little silly being protected by my own little brother," Forest smiled cheerfully.
"Are you all a family?" Tenderheart asked, looking between the four nameless ones. They all nodded.
"We're all born from the same place, so we're all family. There used to be so many of us! But a long time ago a dangerous person attacked our home and our leaders had to escape with the children. Only 5 of us were left behind to make sure no one could get into the Valley of Rainbows, and since then there's only been 1 more little sister born to us. Other than that it's just been us four that you see here and one other sister who is at home watching over the youngest and our home," Forest said, and River nodded in agreement. After a moment, Forest tilted his head and looked at Tenderheart closely. "Actually, now that I look at you closely... I wonder if just maybe... Could it be that you kids know Big Sister Bear and Big Brother Horse?"
The Care Bears and Cousins looked shocked. The story he told sounded so much like their own. Tenderheart answered slowly "You don't mean... True Heart Bear and Noble Heart Horse? They took us when we were just babies to flee from Darkheart..."
"True Heart and Noble Heart... that must be them! It sounds just like them!" Forest exclaimed, suddenly jumping forward and hugging Tenderheart tightly "I knew it! I knew I recognized you all! You probably don't remember me but I've been thinking about you all every day since you were taken away! I'm your big brother! You're the lost cubs of the Valley of Rainbows! The lost Rainbow Children! You've finally come back to us! River! I told you they'd come back some day! I knew we'd see Big Brother and Big Sister again if we waited and protected the Valley for long enough! Oh today is the happiest day of my life!"
River and Twilight the wolf also came forward and hugged the Bears and Cousins with many exclamations of love and happiness. Only Silver stood apart, but his eyes shone with tears and there was a soft smile on his face.
After he had hugged all the others, Forest came back to Tenderheart and wrapped one arm around him again. He was slightly taller than Tenderheart, so he looked down into Tenderheart's eyes with a big smile on his face and stroked his little brother's head fondly. Somehow, the whole feeling was nostalgic to Tenderheart, and his face matched Forest's smile.
"Now, let's take you guys to the Valley of Rainbows. It's time for you to see the place where you were born, and meet the rest of your family. Shall we go?"
* * *
Anjin's Notes: Woot! Already getting into the thick of things right from the get-go. I wanted this story to be paced fast enough to get a lot of the story told quickly to get people hooked into it and to show that I actually know what I'm doing with the characters. Though obviously the story has a darker overall tone than the original series, I tried to retain the Care Bears themselves as shining beacons of hope despite their circumstances.
I also tried to keep the chapters 'bite-sized' so people don't get too long; didn't read syndrome. You can think of the first four or five chapters as a sort of 'two-hour pilot episode' for the series, after which I intend for each chapter to be a self-contained story if possible.
I think the main reason I have so few Bears and Cousins in the beginning is so everyone can get to know each of them better. I want their separate personalities to be distinct before I start inundating you with tons of Bears and Cousins to keep track of. For old-time lovers of the series it might not be hard, but for new folks looking to catch a little hope from this series without knowing the source too well I want to take it slow.
Please post some comments on what you think and if this story is giving you a little hope or making you feel warm and fuzzy. Suggestions always welcome with open arms. The next chapter will be up here in a day or so, I've actually already got it and the next one ready to go but I want to give folks time to digest things first n.n Plus I want to delay a little so I can prepare more chapters so there's not a lull right after I put up a bunch.
Good night and lots of love!
