Chapter 5: The Shadows of Shadow Heart
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With all the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins inside one of the larger meeting rooms of Capsule Corp, the place looked very colorful indeed. Bulma had, with True and Noble Hearts help, gotten all the tired, worn, and upset Care Bears and Cousins inside the meeting room. Upon Tender Hearts suggestion, True Heart returned to the Forest of Feelings and gathered the remaining Cousins as well, in the event Shadow Heart attacked their home also.
Leaving all the Cousins and Bears in Tender and Brave Hearts capable hands, True and Noble went with Bulma as she showed them what she thought to be the best room to house them all; the Capsule Corp Banquet Hall.
"Oh Bulma, this is really nice of you. Are you sure?" Noble Heart asked. With a smile, Bulma nodded, "Of course Noble Heart. I'll encapsulate the dining tables and chairs so the room will be completely empty, there should be plenty of room for you here, and you can even touch it up like you did mine and Vegetas room if you want."
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In less than an hour, the banquet hall was transformed into the Hall of Hearts. The boring old beige wallpaper was now speckled with hearts, stars, music notes, flowers, and a multitide of other emblems. The room, now bare of furniture, contained enough makeshift beds for the entire Care Bear family. Despite the loss of their entire kingdom, the Bears were in high spirits as they went finishing up the redecorating, some hanging new curtains up, some tidying up the makeshift beds. Bulma watched from the door with a smile on her face, for despite all their loss, they still had not forgotten their love and caring for the world.
'I wonder how Vegeta will take this?" she thought. She went to the window and looked towards thr Gravity Chamber. Vegeta was still inside, training. 'Oh well, I'll tell him later.' she concluded. She left the Family to check with the Research and Development supervisor on the teams progress.
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7 hours later, at roughly 8:16 p.m., the gravity in the Chamber dropped to 0x and the sweat-soaked Saiyan emerged. 'Now a bad workout, if I say so myself' Vegeta said with a smirk. He had been working at 700x Earths gravity for the last 2 hours, and was rightly tired (not to mention hungry) by it. 'Well, I think I'll help myself to the womans food supply' he thought with a smile, which abruptly dropped.
"Hmmmph" he said, seeing the Cloud Ship near the house. Having been training all day, he didn' realize he had company. "Oh well, its only a few of them, I suppose I can manage" he said aloud. He walked inside the side door, dropping his sweat-soaked towel on the floor. Surely he, the Prince of all Saiyans could survive a few Care Bears staying with him for a couple of days. He strolled down the hallway towards the kitchen, his mouth already starting to water at the thought of the well-stocked fridge.
"Ah yes Vegeta, and once you've achieved your rightful power, you can turn that bake Kakarott into the whimpering little baby he-" he started, but cut himself off as he opened the refridgerator. "Is?" he said, his voice barely a squeek. The fridge was bare! Leaving the door opened, he checked the cupboards, finding the same result. A search of the kitchen revealed the only food inside was a pack of saltine crackers and about half of a bottle of mustard.
With an angry growl, Vegeta headed for the dining room. "The woman has started dinner without me, ME!" he raged outloud. As soon as he opened the door, however, his rage was replaced by utter shock.
The normal dining room table was gone, replaced by one at least three times as long. Bulma, Goku, Gohan, Goten, Piccolo, Mr. Briefs, Trunks, and #18 were sitting there eating, along with True Heart Bear, Noble Heart Horse, and over 30 Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins.
The amount of food on the table was enormous. Bear, Human, and Saiyan kind alike laughed like old friends. Vegeta walked slowly to the empty chair beside Bulma and numbly sat down. Bulma put an arm around him, "Hi honey, hungry?" she asked. Vegeta just sat staring..staring at the Family, staring at the food, staring at Kakarott make an utter ass of himself eating, with no regard to how he looked.
With a defeated sigh, he said, "Sure....why not?".
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Later that night, the Care Bears and Cousins, with addition to Bulma, Goten, #18, Goku, and Trunks, occupied the "family room" as Bulma called it. Vegeta refused to come in, Piccolo had gone back to his 'home', and Gohan was with Videl. Bulma, Goten, Secret, Friend, Share, and Noble Heart were playing Charades (which Secret was winning) in one corner, in another Champ Bear and Trunks were playing a baseball game on Trunks PlayStation 2, #18 and Birthday were looking through some fashion magazines, and the rest of the Care Bears were taking turns telling ghost stories.
The mood was light for sure, but over by themselves, True and Noble Heart were having a long talk with Goku.
"Goku, we saw the battle you and Vegeta had with Shadow Heart. We've heard of the great power you possess, so whats bothering us is, why you or any of the other people here couldn't stop him" True Heart was saying. Goku shook his head with a sigh, "I don't know True Heart. I've attacked people before in cases where my attack didn't hurt them, but it at least HIT them" he said.
Noble Heart thought this over for a moment. "Goku, tell us one more time about this Ki of yours?" he asked. Goku nodded, having explained it before, but not minding.
"Ki is our life force energy. All living things have it. Without it, you can't live. We use it for healing, for speed, for flying, Ki blasting, all sorts of things" Goku explained. Noble Heart nodded, taking all this in. "What do you make of it Noble?" True Heart asked. "I'm not sure. If his power is this great, it should have had an effect on Shadow Heart at least". Goku thought for a moment on this, for a brief second doubting his own ability.
Beep! Beep! Bulmas pager went off. She stopped playing with the others long enough to look at it. Her eyes widened a bit, the page was coming from Vegetas personal cell phone! "Um, excuse me for a second you guys" she said. She exited the room and closed the door behind her. Vegeta was waiting outside the room. "Hey buster, you could have walked in you know." she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Woman, I think you should turn on that contraption you call a TV. I can sense a lot of human suffering" Vegeta said, his voice low. With growing apprehension, Bulma complied, running back inside the room and over to Trunks and Champ.
"Sorry guys, I need the TV for a second." Bulma said flipping the PS2 off and switching to Satellite. While Trunks protested, Champ put a hand on his shoulder, "Thats alright sports fan, we can play it again later".
Bulma found the news station and listened closely. Sensing the urgency, the other Care Bears stopped what they were doing to watch the news report.
"---not sure what caused this, but police and firefighters city-wide are racing to slow it down. Officials believe it may have been caused by faulty concrete foundations or poor reinforcement. I say again for those just tuning in, the Blue Lake City dam has collapsed just minutes ago, flooding the town of Blue Lake with water from the towns water reserve lake. Officials have an unnamed death toll at the moment, but police and firefighters are desperately trying to slow the water flow down"
"Oh dear! All those people!" Harmony Bear wailed. Goku growled in anger, "This HAS to be him, I know it!" "Kakarott, how about you shut your mouth and get moving? If we're going to get this baka, we have to hurry." Vegeta said. Goku sighed and nodded. "Right, Trunks, Goten? Lets go!" Goku put two fingers to his forehead. Trunks and Goten ran over and grabbed Goku's legs. Vegeta just stood there and then, with a defeated sigh, placed one finger on Gokus arm. They shimmered and then dissappeared.
Bulma looked at the Bears. "Comeon! I can take 5 of you with me in my helicopter. It was decided True and Noble Heart would go, with Brave Heart, Tender Heart, and Good Luck Bear (for good luck they reasoned).
They loaded up in the copter and took off for Blue Lake City, the others waiting behind, hoping for good news.
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"Ho..ly..shit Kakarott" Vegeta said with a stammer. The town of about 25,000 residents was now a waterpark. Houses were up to their roofs in water and entire neighboorhoods were wiped out. Looking ahead, Goku saw the dam, or rather what was left of it. The entire middle had collapsed, water cascading down by the thousands of gallons.
"Comeon!" Goku yelled. He blasted off towards the dam, Vegeta, Goten, and Trunks right behind him. As they neared, Goku thrust out his hand and fired a blast towards the dam. When it hit the dam it flattened out, forming a plug of sorts to stop up the water. Vegeta and the kids followed suit, adding their own beams to it. Within a few moment, the 4 were able to 'weld' the dam back together, stopping the water. Sending the boys to help out survivors, Vegeta and Goku fired into the water, using their Ki beams to vaporize the standing water.
"Dadddd!!!" Goten yelled from below. Goku turned and zipped towards his son, who was on the rooftop with a family of 4 lying prone on the roof. "Dad, they're dead!" Goten exclaimed. Goku sensed for a trace of life and found one. He bent down to examine the family. "Just as I feared" he said with a sigh. This family had fallen victim to the Coma Disease also. A check of the city revealed at most 50 dead, but over 23,000 comatose.
"Kakarott, I'm not so sure these people wouldn't have been better off had we left them" Vegeta said. "Vegeta thats terrible! At least now they have a chance!" Goku said. "A chance at what Kakarott? Neither us nor those Bears can help them, so why even bother?" Vegeta retorted. Goku opened his mouth to say something when he noticed the puddle of water on the ground.
"Hey, didn't we dry up all the water?" Goku asked. Vegeta, not following Goku, just absentedly nodded. "Then, why is there a puddle there dad?" Trunks asked. Vegeta looked over the side of the house and sure enough, a puddle of water about 4 feet wide was right below them. "Oh well, we missed one" Vegeta said dismissively.
Goten was staring at the puddle, making faces into it when his face turned into a mask of fear. The water was turning black! "Uh...dad, whys the water turning colors?" Goten asked. Vegeta and Goku exchanged looks and looked down. The water was not only black, but as they watched, a pair of red eyes formed in the middle of the puddle.
"D-d-d-addy!" Goten yelled. As the four watched horrified, the puddle rose up and assumed the shape of a tall man. In seconds, the puddle assumed the physical features of the human Shadow Heart. Before anyone else could move, Vegeta vanished and appeared right in the mans face.
"THIS is for harming the Prince of all Saiyans!" Vegeta raged, ramming his fist square into the mans face. Shadow Heart flew backwards like a rocket, slamming into a building and collapsing it on himself.
Vegeta wound up to fire a Ki blast that would reduce the building to atoms when Goku grabbed his hands. "Thats enough Vegeta, think of the people here!" Goku yelled. After a few moments, Vegeta relented. "Fine Kakarott, but I want it noted that it was ME who destroyed him!" he replied.
The four flew back onto the roof in time to see Bulmas chopper land nearby. The groups re-united, with Goku and Vegeta retelling what happened (and Vegeta not leaving out how it was HIM that send Shadow Heart flying). True and Noble Heart exchanged looks, could he have been stopped that easily? Suddenly, thunder clapped overhead and it began to rain. Bulma turned to the chopper and began dialing the nearby citys police.
"Woman, they have police here you kn--" Vegeta began, but stopped when Goku looked at him. 'Oh right..they are kinda in a coma at the moment' he thought to himself. Bulma notified the nearby city's police of what happened, so they could tend to the wounded. Overhead, lightning flashed. "Well, we need to get back" Bulma said. The Care Bears nodded and turned to climb back into the chopper when a loud ripping noise was heard.
Even as they watched, a lightning bolt tore from the clouds and struck a nearby house, but instead of merely striking the house, it EXPLODED the house! Everyone gasped, then looked up at the cloud. The clould was black, with flashed of red lightning visible inside it.
"No..it can't be! I won't allow it!" Vegeta bellowed.
As he spoke, red lightning struck the ground near the group. When the flash cleared, Shadow Heart stood before the Z fighters and Care Bears. "Wether you allow it or not is not important. Your whims mean nothing, weakling", Shadow Heart taunted, obviously directing this towards Vegeta.
"Weakling am I? Well lets see how weak this is! BIG BANG ATTACK!!!" Vegeta roared, firing the ball of white energy from his palm. It soared through the air and plowed dead-on into Shadow Heart. The ground shook with the force and the Care Bears and Bulma was knocked flat on their backs. When the dust settled, there was only a crater where Shadow Heart had been standing.
"Well I, guess he knows whos a weakling now" Vegeta laughed. He laughter died in his throat when Shadow Heart blurred into existance right in his face. "Yes, I do, and the weakling is right in front of me" he said with his voice of icy steel. Vegeta turned red in the face slightly and growled, which was all he got the chance to do before he was kicked in the stomach with enough force to send him crashing into a hill over 100 feet away.
"Oh by the way, this" Shadow Heart began, "is yours, you can have it back". To Gokus amazement, he raised in hand in Big Bang fashion, palm up at 90 degree angle, arm outstretched, and fired Vegetas own attack! Everyone watched, frozen, as the ball flew like greased lightning, right into the hill where Vegetas was buried. The world shook as the ball made contact with the hill, blowing it up with more force than 500 lbs of TNT.
With a laugh, Shadow Heart advanced on the Care Bears. "Care Bears, Stare!" True Heart commanded. The beams of light struck the man squarely in the chest, but still he walked on! He kept walking until he was within 3 feet of the Bears, who were still staring, even at point blank range!
Shadow Heart stood looming over the Care Bears and Cousins, who held fast through gritted teeth, as they tried desperately to stare their enemy. Without a word, he raised his hands, red lightning flashing on them. He took aim right at the Care Bears, but before he could fire a Ki blast from Goku's hands slammed into him, carrying him off into the distant fields and plowing him into the ground with a thunderous explosion.
"Bulma! Get the Family and kids, and you guys get out of here right now! I'll fend him off long enough for me and Vegeta to escape!" Goku yelled. "But Goku--" Bulma started to protest. Goku growled at her and let his hair flash gold. "NOW!!" he yelled. That did it! The Care Bears and Cousins scrambled to get back in the chopper. When everyone was in, Bulma took off, with Trunks and Goten following close behind.
Goku reached out for Vegetas Ki. He found it alright, and Vegeta was most definately NOT a happy camper. He flew towards the hill Vegeta was buried under, with Vegeta making his way out even as he neared him. "Kakarott, where is he?! I DEMAND to know where!" Vegeta raged. "Calm down Vegeta! I don't know where he is", Goku replied, looking at the empty-crater his blast left. Vegeta started to blast off towards it but Goku grabbed him and, before he could break free, raised his fingers to his forehead and used his Instant Transmission to return to Capsule Corp, even as the black haze began to reform Shadow Hearts body.
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"Dammit Kakarott, I would have finished him off if you had bungled out of my business!" Vegeta fumed.
It had been only 10 minutes since Goku and company returned, but Vegeta was wasting no time in raging about Goku interrupting his battle. "Um dad, that guy was kinda beating you up back there" Trunks put in. Vegeta gave his son a "Shut up or die" look and Trunks, having obviously seen that look before, suddenly remembered he had another couple of Pokemon he didn't capture yet on his PS2. Snarling, Vegeta stalked past the others and out the door, Goku right behind him trying to calm him.
But Vegetas temper wasen't the only problem facing the group. With the Caring Meter destroyed, the Care Bears had no way to monitor the levels of caring on Earth. To combat this, True and Noble Heart had sent the Care Bears out twice a day to "scout" for those in need. It wasen't very effective, but it was better than simply not doing anything.
Bulma and Bright Heart had been working on a sort of portable Caring Meter, which Bright Heart was looking over while he waited on Bulma to arrive. As he looked over the diagram, a blue blur appeared next to him.
"Hi Swift Heart" he said without even turning to face the source.
"Hiya Bright Heart! Still working on the new Caring Meter?" Swift Heart asked, hopping up and down.
Bright Heart nodded, looking at the complicated wiring and circuits involved with the device. He sighed, 'Great. I'm stuck until Bulma gets back, and theres probably a lot of unhappy people out there right now'.
The blue bunny caught his unhappy gaze, "Don't worry Bright Heart, we'll get the new Caring Meter working, then we can start helping people again until we figure out a way to defeat this guy!" Swift Heart said enthusiastically.
Bright Heart smiled and nodded. Just then Bulma, Goten, Trunks, True Heart, Noble Heart, Tender Heart, Brave Heart, and Good Luck walked in, having just arrived.
"Hows it coming Bright Heart?" Bulma asked, walking to the purple raccoon. "Not good I'm afraid, I can't make heads or tails of this diagram", Bright Heart confessed. Goku re-entered the room, sighing. "Sorry about Vegeta guys, you know how he gets" Goku said.
-Goku!-
Goku snapped his head up, his eyes wide.
-King Kai! Is that you?!- Goku thought, using his gift of telepathy.
-No Goku, its Bubbles, of course its me! Now pay attention!- King Kai snapped.
Goku nodded and waited for him to continue. -Goku, this Shadow Heart character took me completely by surprise! I never saw THIS coming! How are you holding up?- King Kai asked.
-Not good King Kai. Chi Chis sick with this Coma Disease, as is Krillen and Bulmas mom, plus countless innocent people. I just don't know what to do! Neither me or Vegeta could hurt him- Goku answered back.
-I know, I know. I saw your 'battle' if you will. I think you and Vegeta bit off more than you can chew!- King Kai replied.
Goku sighed. 'Hes right. I saw him vaporize before my eyes, but I also saw him start to reform. Oh Dende, what if hes like Cell?' Goku thought to himself.
-Goku listen to me! King Yemma is reporting to me that none of the people killed by Shadow Heart made it up here yet. He also says he checked those inflicted with the disease for permenent injury to their Ki, and found none- King Kai said.
-Oh, well thats good, if theres no perm- Goku began.
-No Goku! I'm talking about there is no Ki! These peoples spirits are GONE! And the spirits of those that DID die arn't here!!- King Kai yelled into his brain.
Everyone in the room was watching Goku. The Care Bears, who thought Goku surely must have gone nuts, were watching with interest, now that Bulma explained he was communicating with someone through his mind.
-Listen Goku, the Care Bears that are there? Put their leader on!- King Kai commanded. Goku turned to the Care Bears, "Um, which one of you is the leader?" he asked. True and Noble Heart both raised their hands. "Ok, you two put your hands on my arm, and listen close, King Kai can speak to you through me" Goku instructed. Noble and True Heart did as they were asked and a few seconds later, both heard King Kai's voice in their minds.
-Noble Heart Horse and True Heart Bear, thank you for helping out the people of Earth. Its a pleasure to speak with you two after all you've done, you've been a great help to everyone, but evil looms over the planet once again, and you guys must help stop it!- King Kai said.
The two nodded their heads and King Kai continued.
-Its going to take a combined effort from all of you, Goku and company, and all of your Family, to defeat Shadow Heart. Find him! And when you do, ALL of you attack him. The combined power should be enough to overcome him-, King Kai told them.
True and Noble Heart let go of Gokus arm. Goku told King Kai goodbye and then turned to the others.
"What do we do now Goku?" Bulma asked.
"We wait", Goku replied.
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From a cave below the Earths surface,
a figure laughed to himself as he watched the groups every move in a magical
mirror. "Oh don't worry Goku, you won't have to wait long. But first, I
think its time I payed an old enemy of theirs a visit. I'm sure hes just
dying to get re-united with them. And while they are busy with him, I can
prepare to wipe the love and caring, not to mention humans, off the face
of this planet!" the figure in black armour said aloud before changing
into his cloud form and vanishing.
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With even more humans falling
victim to Shadow Hearts Coma Disease, King Kai contacts Goku and company,
telling them an all-out assault by ALL of them is the only way to rid Earth
of Shadow Heart. But will it be enough? And who is this "old enemy" hes
talking about? Find out in the next chapter, "Evil Reborn"