Swiftheart had just finished a caring mission and was getting ready to head back to Care-a-lot. She made her way into a nearby wood and looked around. The day was warm and the woods were bathed in golden light from the midday sun that shown down through the green tree tops of the secluded clearing. Once she was sure no one was around she began powering up her tummy symbol to create a cloud car when her ears suddenly perked up in response to a strange rustling noise in the distance.
"Whose there?" she asked aloud as she caught a glimpse of something yellow running into some bushes.
She made her way over to the bushes where she had heard the sound. She couldn't make out the figure through the dense underbrush but decided to investigate. Unfortunately her super speed was of no use in this thick shrubbery. She struggled through the branches, chasing after the silhouette of the figure.
"Wait up!" she called after it.
Every time she was about to get close enough to make out the figure it seemed to move farther on ahead. Speckles of light danced wildly through the green brush as she pushed harder through. The bright flashes of sunlight created an air of confusion to the chase and she became a little disoriented. Finally she fought through into a clearing. The air was quiet and still and there was no movement of any kind. She stood there for a moment as she looked over the clearing, but saw nothing. The silence of it all was eerie and she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. "I must be losing my mind," she finally said as she turned around, right into the face of Trick.
Meanwhile Goodluck was on a caring mission of his own. A little boy had gotten lost, separated from his mom and dad on a family outing.
Goodluck was able to find the boy alright…but something wasn't right. The boy was sitting on a rock in an open clearing, hunched over and appeared to be crying. But as Goodluck got closer he noticed that the boy wasn't making any sound. "Is he crying?" Goodluck thought to himself as he walked closer.
"Little boy…," he spoke softly, not wanting to startle him.
The boy didn't respond but sat there in the same position, Goodluck moved closer.
"My name is Goodluck, I'm a Care Bear, its okay, you don't need to be afraid. I'm here to help you find your parents."
But still the boy said nothing and didn't move. He was standing almost right behind him now and Goodluck reached his paw out to touch the boy on the shoulder.
Crystal was in shock. She suddenly felt a wave of emotions flow over her that she hadn't ever felt before.
"Wh-what did they do to me?!" she cried out. She felt horrified, hurt, betrayed…those whom she had called friends, those she trusted, all this time they had been lying to her about everything. She began to sob uncontrollably, unsure of what to do. Who could she trust now? What would they do to her if they found out what she had learned? She felt her heart start to race and suddenly hurt and betrayal were replaced by panic and fear, her emotions were out of control and she couldn't concentrate, couldn't think clearly. She became overwhelmed with a sudden urge to run…to get away from Care-a-lot as fast as she could.
"Tenderheart…Tenderheart!" shouted Wish Bear as she burst into the Hall of Hearts.
"What is it, Wish?" asked Tenderheart.
"It's Swiftheart; she was due back almost an hour ago."
"Are you sure she just didn't forget to check in?"
"Positive, I checked around, no one has seen her anywhere."
Tenderheart looked over to Champ and Lotsaheart.
"Let's form a search party right away and ma-," he was suddenly cut off by Wish.
"But that's not all…her mission…it was near the town that we encountered Trick in!"
"You don't think…"
Wish only nodded.
"Who else is on caring missions in that area?" inquired Tenderheart.
"Just Goodluck, although his mission was a good 20 miles from Swiftheart's."
"Alright I want to form two teams, one to find Swiftheart and one to check on Goodluck."
Tenderheart started giving out orders and organized the two search and rescue parties, unsure of what they could expect.
Before Swiftheart could even react Trick grabbed her by the paw, thrust his other paw against her forehead and fired off an electric shock at point blank range, instantly rendering her unconscious. Trick let go of her and she fell to the ground. He cocked his head slightly to the right and let out a little smile.
Just as Goodluck was about to touch the boy on the shoulder he suddenly jerked around and grabbed his paw.
"Wha-what are you doing?" asked Goodluck, a little startled by the reaction.
The boy continued to just stare at him, gripping his paw tightly. Goodluck tried to break free but found he couldn't, this was no boy…it was something else.
The boys eyes suddenly became pale and turned bright white, his hair fell from his head and his skin began growing black fur. The transformation took only a few short seconds. What once looked like a little boy now resembled a Care Bear, with raven colored fur and dead, lifeless white eyes that seemed to stare straight through Goodluck's soul. The creature then began changing again, this time its fur turned to green, a four leaf clover appeared on its belly and his eyes became like Goodluck's. It was like he was staring into a mirror, only the reflection looking back was stolen.
"There!" shouted Champ, as he noticed a bright flash coming from the woods below them. The search party steered their cloud cars towards the flash and rushed in. Champ saw them first, Swiftheart was lying on the ground and Trick was standing over her, his arm outstretched, ready to blast her. Champ wasted no time and put the cloud car into a free fall. It dropped about 200 feet before he reengaged the engine at the last second, just a few feet off the ground. He immediately jumped out and ran towards Trick, with the other bears close behind. Trick retreated the minute he saw Champ coming towards him; he jumped into the thick underbrush and seemed to disappear without a trace. Champ moved quickly over to Swiftheart to see if she was alright.
"Is she hurt?" asked Friend Bear as she ran over to the two with Secret Bear trailing behind her.
"No, she's alright, but she's been knocked unconscious."
"Where did Trick go?"
"I don't know; he ran into the bushes as soon as he saw me coming, he could still be nearby though."
"Should we retreat?"
Champ nodded.
They brought Swiftheart back to Care-a-lot and Champ went to the hall of hearts to check in with Tenderheart.
"Swiftheart is alright, Friend Bear and Secret Bear are looking after her, she got a nasty jolt to the head though, knocked her unconscious," Champ reported.
"I'm assuming because of Trick?" Tenderheart asked.
Champ nodded and said, "When we found Swiftheart, it was strange, he didn't attempt to attack us at all, ran off as soon as he saw us."
"He may have learned from his last encounter, choosing to go after individual targets, we should start assigning multiple bears to each caring mission."
"That'll make it harder to get the level of caring back up…although I suppose we don't have much choice. Any word about Goodluck?"
"I'm afraid not, they haven't been able to find him, what's more, the little boy who was supposedly lost, Wish says she lost track of his parents shortly after Goodluck left and she never saw the little boy come out of the woods, nor Goodluck for that matter."
"Have they searched the woods?"
"Twice already and I was planning on sending out another couple of search teams."
"I'd like to join them."
Tenderheart nodded as Love-a-lot came into the room and walked up to Tenderheart with a concerned look on her face.
"What's wrong?" asked Tenderheart.
She first looked at Tenderheart and then glanced for a second at Champ.
"I um…I'd like to talk to you privately if you have a minute," she said as she blushed a little.
Champ gave a little a smile and said, "I'll leave you two alone, and don't worry, I'll find Goodluck, I promise!" he said as he took his leave.
"Tenderheart…"
"What is it, Love?" he asked as he took her paw in his.
"It's…it's Crystal, I went to Records and Research Building to check in on her like you asked but I couldn't find her anywhere…"
"It's alright, I'm sure she just took a break or someth-," she suddenly cut him off as she squeezed his paw a little.
"NO…she…the computer…"
Love-a-lot really looked worried now and Tenderheart felt her trembling.
"What's happened?"
"On the computer…she accessed the log entries, YOUR log entries…"
"You mean?"
But Love-a-lot didn't need to answer; Tenderheart could see it in her eyes and suddenly understood why she was so upset. Things had suddenly become much more complicated.
