Chapter 3
Andy was hard at work with his notebook as he was hearing a teenage boy vent about his problems.
"So, this man, this pastor wanted to take advantage of you?" asked Andy. The teenage boy stood up with tears in his eyes.
"He did more than that! He took pictures of me!" he cried. The boy grabbed a pillow, put it on his face and screamed. Andy nodded.
"Was this man ever arrested?" asked Andy, grabbing his phone from his pocket. The boy nodded. "I told a Nun about it. She was devastated to learn what the pastor was doing. I even found out that she and he were a couple." Said the boy.
Andy, a young man with golden hair and gentle blue eyes stood up and sat next to the boy. "It's not my place to say this, but now that this is over, I believe it's time to move on." Said Andy.
"How can I move on?!" cried the boy.
Andy cleared his throat and carefully chose his words. "This all happened when you were only eight. Today, you are seventeen and you have the right to choose what you want to do with your life. You have been taking good care of yourself yes. However, those memories still haunt you. I suggest you keep yourself busy with hobbies. What are you interested in?" asked Andy.
The boy thought for a moment. "I like working with cars. One of the monks owned this really expensive car and he sent me to do repairs with the mechanic." Said the boy.
"Good. You see, we are going to buy a bus so we can all go on field trips. Tell you what. I'm working on one outside the Shelter. Perhaps you could give me a helping hand along with my other helpers." Said Andy.
The boy smiled and shook Andy's hand. "Thanks man. I think I'll do that." He replied. As the boy left, Gracie came in with a bag.
"Brought you lunch." Said Gracie. Andy stood up and greeted his wife. "Thanks. It better not be that spicy chicken burger." Said Andy.
"Nope. It's a regular chicken burger with extra bacon." Said Gracie. "You are lying. I know you got me the veggie burger." Said Andy to his wife. Gracie chuckled and handed the bag to Andy.
"Just take the burger!" she demanded. "Yes hon." Said Andy.
"How did it go today?" asked Gracie. Andy shook his head. "We have another victim of the unholy churches. I tell you Gracie, what were their parents thinking!?" said Andy.
"I know. It's sad. Oh yeah, Eddie and Bryan are back!" said Gracie. "Still alive are they?" asked Andy jokingly.
"Yep. And they have news. Wolfshiem is looking for Shelly." Said Gracie.
"Why am I not surprised. And what the heck were Eddie and Bryan doing!? I told those two pea brained fools to not venture into gangster territory. But do they listen? No they don't!" said Andy.
"Tell it to them when you see them. They are by the arcade." Said Gracie.
"Later. Right now, I just need to take a break. That story I just heard from that boy made me feel awful and sick to my stomach." Said Andy.
"I know." Replied Gracie.
"Excuse me?" said a soft voice from the door. Gracie and Andy turned and saw a boy about thirteen standing by the doorway.
"Is Dr. Andrew open?" he asked. He was rather slim, had an orange T-Shirt and shorts.
"Actually…." Gracie turned to her husband and he nodded, with a warm smile. "I'm open all day kid. Come in." he greeted.
"I'm Logan. I'm new to the area." Said the boy.
"Your one of the new comers? Nice. I have been expecting one of you guys for a while now." Said Andy as he nodded to Gracie. She smiled and turned around.
"Please sit down and tell me a little bit about yourself." Said Andy.
"Yeah, I'm actually really secretive sir. I'm not one to talk about myself that much." Said Logan.
"It's fine with me. The choice is yours. But don't worry. I have kept a lot of secrets of so many of our friends here." Said Andy.
"So your like the keeper of secrets in the Shelter?" asked Logan.
"In a way, yeah." Said Andy.
Secret Bear, Funshine Bear and Wish Bear managed to escape and found Grumpy Bear by the docks of the cloud kingdom.
"You two got away!? What happened to the others!?" cried Grumpy.
"No Heart locked some of them up in crystals!" Said Funshine. Secret Bear turned to Funshine and whispered in his ear.
"Oh yeah….. Tender Heart told me not to tell you what was happening. He said you'd probably go back and help." Said Funshine. Secret Bear slapped his fuzzy forehead.
"Darn right I was going to do that. But it's too late! We have to go to the cousins and tell them!" said Grumpy.
"We better hurry! No Heart realized that some of us are not there!" cried Wish Bear.
As the four friends got on the cloud boat and sailed into the cloud sea, they heard the ominous voice of No Heart behind them.
They turned around and saw him standing by the docks with his red eyes glowing with intense hatred. "There is nothing you animals would do! I have finally won! Care a lot is mine and soon the world!" he proclaimed.
"You shut your mouth!" cried Grumpy. The other bears covered his mouth. "No Grumpy! Don't" cried Wish Bear.
"Your going to get us killed!" screamed Secret Bear, speaking for the first time in a while.
No Heart had no expression on his dark hooded face and he stood on one knee on the cloudy ground. He placed his hand on the cloud ocean and whispered some terrible words. Slowly, from the tip of his fingers, a dark ooze began to form on the cloud. The ooze was spreading and small fragments of electricity were forming.
"What's all this No Heart?!" cried Wish Bear.
"According to the human weather forecast, there is supposed to be thunder storms tonight. I took the liberty of providing said storm. Mind you, the clouds are going to have thunder, so basically your little cloud boat will be electrocuted if it touches the dark gloomy clouds." Said No Heart.
"In other words, your going to BBQ us!" cried Funshine, breaking a joke in the worst possible time.
"But you can't kill us! You need to trap us in your crystals!" said Wish Bear, hoping that will stop the storm.
"What's the harm if four of you bears die? I got the mighty Tender Heart in crystal! All I really need is Noble Heart and True Heart." Said No Heart.
"Can't this ship go any faster!?"cried Funshine in a panic.
Secret Bear smiled at Grumpy, pointing at the storm. Grumpy also smiled and quickly pulled Wish Bear.
"Take control of the boat Wish Bear. Funshine, help her with the mast, and Secret Bear, make sure they play nice." Said Grumpy.
"What?" asked Funshine. Wish Bear blushed and kissed Funshine on the cheek. "I think my secret is not so secret after all." She whispered.
"You told Secret Bear about us?! And no doubt Secret told Grumpy!" cried Funshine.
Secret Bear shook his head. "I tell no secrets. And I didn't know there was something going on between you two." said Secret Bear.
"I didn't tell anyone about us. But let's be honest, we are so obvious." Said Wish Bear.
"Guys, can we talk about this after we beat the storm?" asked Secret Bear.
The three bears nodded and Grumpy was at the back of the boat looking at the ooze catching up to them.
"Gloomy storms huh? I so know how that feels." Said Grumpy as he lit up his Tummy Symbol and shot it at the black storm.
Since his tummy symbol was a cloud, the storm stopped, feeling as if it reached an end point. From far away, No Heart was watching and clapped his hands together. "Bravo Grumpy Bear. You managed to stop my storm. But for how long will this boast of power will last?" he sneered.
"I am powerful." Replied Grumpy Bear with pride.
His tummy symbol glowed ever so brightly and shot a ray of light, clearing the dark clouds briefly.
Funshine noticed and shot his tummy symbol into the sky. The light he was pushing looked as if it were the sun itself.
No Heart didn't say anything. Instead, he walked away and the boat was soaring through the clouds.
"Next stop, the Forest of Feelings!" said Wish Bear.
Secret Bear stood by the mast and whispered to Grumpy. "When are we going to choose the Human representatives? If we do so now, No Heart won't stand a chance." Said Secret.
"We can't do this right now. We have to speak with the cousins first." Said Grumpy.
"And if they think this won't work?" asked Secret. Grumpy shook his head. "It's too soon to think about it. Let's just get our heads in a happy place." Said Grumpy.
"Happy place? You?" asked Secret.
Grumpy chuckled a little bit, and then the boat stopped. "What now?" asked Grumpy.
"We must have hit a reef." Said Funshine.
"In the sky?" asked Wish.
"Weird." Said Secret.
Just then, a large red serpent burst out of the cloudy ocean and the boat rocked uncontrollably. The Bears looked up in shock and fear. They knew all too well who that was that attacked them.
"Dark Heart?! Here in the Cloud Ocean?!"cried Wish Bear.
"I thought he was defeated by Noble Heart and True Heart." Said Funshine.
"Everyone do the Stare!" cried Grumpy.
The red serpent roared and blew fire from it's mouth. The Bears shot their magnificent care bear stare and it counterattacked the fire Dark Heart was spitting.
In an instant, the red serpent then morphed into a red bird and flew down to stab the birds. Secret grabbed a broom from the broom closet on the ship and used it to try to hit the bird.
Dark Heart lands on the boat and morphed into a Boa Constrictor. "Watch out!" cried Funshine as he did the stare. The boa then strike it's fangs and bites Wish Bear on the foot.
Wish screamed an ear piercing scream and Funshine smacks the Boa with his stare. "Wish!" cried Funshine. Wish Bear fell and Funshine held her.
The boa then morphed into a crocodile and ran on his four feet to attack the bears. Just then, a splash of water was shot at the crocodile, followed by a light beam.
"What the?" asked Grumpy.
The crocodile rose up and angrily scowled. A pink elephant landed on the boat and shot more water from it's trunk and a light beam from his belly. It was Lotsa Heart Elephant, one of the Care Bear Cousins.
"Lotsa Heart? Took you long enough." Said Grumpy.
"I have a lot to talk about dear cousin. But now it's not the time. We have to get Dark Heart out of here." Said Lotsa.
Dark Heart morphed into his true form, which was a large grey cloud with piercing red eyes.
"He took my cousins and locked them up in crystal! Only a few of us got away. Brave Heart and Swift Heart are with me." Said Lotsa.
Dark Heart didn't say anything. Unlike No Heart, who boasted about his powers and take over, this one stood silent and did nothing but stare at the bears and elephant.
"He's watching us. And no doubt he'll follow where ever we end up going." Said Lotsa.
"Let's use a stare and stop him." Said Funshine.
"No. He's immune to that in his cloud form." Said Lotsa.
"He's right. He's actually at an unfair advantage." Said Grumpy.
"I got an idea. It's crazy, but it's worth a try." Said Lotsa as he turned around and made weird gestures behind him.
Swift Heart Rabbit burst out of the ocean and performed a powerful jump attack on Dark Heart. Since he was a cloud, Swift Heart did go through, but Dark Heart failed to notice a more powerful beam of light hit him. Then a few more. Dark Heart opened his eyes and saw Brave Heart Lion and the others using their power. They were all doing their best and Dark Heart felt weak. He realized even he had a limit to his immunity. He went into the ocean as a large shark and disappeared.
"What the heck happened?" asked Brave Heart.
"I think our powers did a number on him, but only because we were all together." Said Lotsa Heart with a lot of enthusiasim.
Grumpy and the bears walked up to the cousins to welcome them aboard.
"It seems we all are lost. Any survivors besides you three?" asked Grumpy.
"Dark Heart trapped everyone in crystal back in the forest. We are the only ones who got away." Said Brave Heart.
Swift Heart placed her hands on her face. "It was awful. So many of us fought back, but this time things were different! Dark Heart is more powerful than before." Said Swift Heart.
"What happened to you guys?" asked Lotsa.
"Back in Care A Lot, we had No Heart pay us a visit and he did the same thing." Said Grumpy.
"Could there be a connection?" asked Wish Bear.
"I have a theory. What if Dark Heart and No Heart are working together?!" cried Funshine.
"That idea is scary! No way." Exclaimed Brave Heart, feeling goosebumps.
Secret Heart stared out into the clouds. "I don't think they are working together." Said Secret.
"How do you know pray tell?" asked Grumpy.
"They are both after the same thing. World Control. No Heart and Dark Heart are the type of people who don't like competition." Said Secret.
"Boy! I sure miss the days when the only villain we had to deal with was Professor Coldheart." Said Lotsa.
"I'm going to sound terrible, but thank goodness Coldheart is dead! If he were alive, I think we all would have suffered." Said Wish Bear.
"So what's the plan now?" asked Brave Heart.
"We have to find our Human Representatives. It's the only way we can save our land." Said Grumpy.
"We already chose our humans." Said Brave Heart with pride.
"You did? NO fair!" cried Funshine.
"Relax. Believe it or not, the humans we chose are actually friends to some humans who might be good assets." Said Swift Heart.
"Who did you choose Lotsa?" said Grumpy. The bear knew that of the cousins, Lotsa Heart was the most innocent, the most thoughtful, and the sweetest of all the cousins. Lotsa was also respectful of other's life styles and differences. Grumpy felt comfortable being with Lotsa, since he never tried to make Grumpy smile.
Not once.
"The human I chose is sweet as pie! He's a brave soul who cares for others. Oh, and he's got a brother! A grumpy one like you." Said Lotsa.
"A grumpy little brother? Sounds familiar. Do you have a picture or anything so I can see?" asked Grumpy.
"Yes. I took one when I was in the clouds taking a stroll before the attack." Said Lotsa Heart as he took a photo from his pocket and handed it to Grumpy.
"I remember them! In fact, you and I met them as kids years ago!" said Grumpy, smiling for the first time.
"We have? Gosh you have a better memory than I have, which is ironic cause I'm an elephant." Said Lotsa.
"Do you remember those two kids who were in distress at a hospital? Back in the year 2004. Their mother was in the hospital for Seizures. Their father worked in a factory, and the boys had to live with relatives." Said Grumpy.
"I think I remember. Two boys at a hospital. In fact, it was one of the very few kids we helped from hospitals. What are their names?" asked Lotsa.
"I believe their names were Eddie…. And Bryan….." said Grumpy.