Shadow Heart: The Fall of Mankind
Chapter 2: Two Worlds Collide
In the days following the Care Bear Family's last meeting, quite a bit had changed on Earth. Share and Wish Bear had been sent from Care-A-Lot to Earth to confirm with their own eyes the horrors of the so-called "Coma Disease". Upon their arrival at the hospital in River Town they encountered far more sick with the disease than they originally planned. Dozens of people sick and dozens more coming in by the day wih no cure in sight, and space in the hospital rapidly running out. But worse than that, by an unholy accident the first floor of the hospital caved in, killing dozens of patients, doctors, and nurses.
With this recent turn of events, the people in River Town were one more mile up crap creek with no paddle and no hope of coming back downstream. Wish and Share returned to Care-A-Lot and immediently asked Tenderheart Bear to call an emergency meeting at the Hall of Hearts, with a special plea for Noble and True Heart to stay around and attend.
It didn't take Tenderheart long at all to agree, and the announcement went out all over Care-A-Lot that every Care Bear was to cease whatever they were doing and attend the conference. Badly as it pained him to do so, Tenderheart ordered all Caring Missions be immediently suspended until after the meeting was over. Through it hurt him to do so, he knew in his heart that ALL the Care Bears needed to be here to hear what was said.
At present Wish and Share were testifying before the Hall of the events of earlier in the day. Wiping the silent, never-ending tears from their faces, Wish and Share took turns recounting the events of the day before the Hall of Hearts, with the entire Family and all the Cousins sitting at the heart shaped table, True and Noble Heart seated at the crown, the two testifying bears standing in the center of the table space, all eyes upon them. They retold the dozens, possible hundreds of sick humans on Earth, the failure of the Care Bear Stare, the feeling of dread, then the collapse of the floor literally right out from under them. They informed them, with saddness both in their eyes and hearts, it was confirmed from Earth News that out of the 214 patients on the first floor, 183 died immediently, an additional 19 died later of injuries indirectly related to the collapse. Two doctors, 5 nurses, 3 orderly's, and one janitor also perished in the accident from injuries sustained during the collapse.
"202 out of 214 people... gone?" Noble Heart Horse asked, far more than a little sorrow in his voice. Wish Bear nodded, "Earth television says the floor fell because of the support beams. They don't know how, but the support beams just... crumbled..", she said, her voice trailing off. There was general murmurs from the Family, each of them looking at each other as if one of them would suddenly laugh and say the whole thing is one big joke that never happened, that the people with the Coma Disease are merely sleeping, and all 202 people are really alright afterall.
Of course, nobody could do such a thing.
"So, what do we do..?" Good Luck Bear asked. Braveheart Lion cleared his throat, "Brightheart has the latest disease counts, we'd like him to read them to us please". Brightheart Raccoon stepped to the space in the middle of the room, still occupied by Wish and Share Bear. Smiling sadly at them he read his report. "The reports of the Coma Disease continue to climb as we speak. Five days ago, United States, France, Isreal, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, China, Russia, Germany, and Poland were the only countries reporting the disease. We have now added the United Kingdom, Cuba, Ireland, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Austria, Finland, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Denmark, plus all the islands of Japan instead of the major areas. Also, we've heard every major city in the Earth continent of Austraila is reporting infection".
There were several gasps of horror at this report, but Brightheart read on:
"Total infected for United States ranges between 750,000 to 4 million, total for United Kingdom is between 540,000 to 2 million, total for Japan is up from 92,000 to..." Brightheart Raccoon stopped, his voice breaking.. "Up from 92,000 to...1,212,900.." he forced out. At this point he took a deep breath, swallowing back the tears. "Adding in totals from all over the world, total estimates for Earth are 312,743,921 confirmed infected.." With that he sat back down, his face in his hands, sobbing quietly.
For a long moment, nobody spoke. Then Cheer Bear stated in a half-whisper, "Is the count truely over one billion...? Isn't it possible the television is wrong..?" she whispered hopefully." Brightheart crushed all hopes of the TV being wrong when he informed her the Earth news stations are UNDER reporting the victims to prevent world-wide panic. Share and Wish sat down, comforting and crying on each other. Most sat in stunned silence. After a long while, Love-A-Lot spoke up, "So.. I guess thats the end then..?". True Heart looked at Noble, then back to her Family, then at Noble, who smiled at her and nodded. She stood,facing her Family.
"No, it isn't the end. It looks as though hope is small, me and Noble Heart know this. We know the hopelessness you must feel facing this. So many people on Earth are sick with little hope of improving, but you cannot lose heart, not when they need you the most.." she said, a faint smile on your face.
Proud Heart Cat perked his head in her direction, "What are you saying..?" he asked.
Noble Hear smiled knowingly, looking at True Heart who looked rather optomistic about something. "While we were looking the Earth over, we found someone, or rather, some ONES..."
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415...416...417...418...
Vegeta grunted deeply, a pool of sweat under him as he furiously did his daily 500 push-ups. For most 500 would sound like overboard, for Vegeta it was just another part of training. If he was going to beat Kakarott, he wasen't going to do it by slacking.
As with his custom, he had the gravity set to 200x Earths gravity while exercising. And, likewise was his custom, the Television was on to Earths premier Boxing channel. Vegeta had very little to acknowledge humans for, but even the Prince was intrigued by boxing, which he called far superior to wrestling, a sport Vegeta viewed as little more than, "mostly naked, sweaty Earth men grabbing one another".
Nearing the end of his 500, Vegeta couldn't help but grin to himself. His power was growing stronger day after day, and he wouldn't have long to go before poor Kakarott was stomped into the ground like the third class dog he was, and Saiyan royalty once again claimed their rightful place in the universe!
"Sorry for the interruption of Hall vs. McEchols, it seems a breaking report has just come in from WBKI News 9 in Orange Star City. Here with us at Orange Star is Tayaki Kurosawa, anchorman from News 9 in Orange Star. Tayaki?
"Thanks Misami. At about 1:25 pm this afternoon a Japan Air passenger plane crashed about 35 minutes after take off. The plane was nearing the shoreline of Japan bound for Austrailia when the crash occured, all 192 people on board died. Officials at the Japanese Transportation Commission state minutes before the crash the pilot and co-pilot lapsed into unconsciousness, presumably from stroke or heart-attack related illness. As a result, the plane nose dived into the ground at nearly 300 miles per hour."
"Tragic Tayaki, it really is.." Misami the reporter said, "Our thoughts go out to the families of the victims today, no word from Japan Air as to cancellation of further flights"--CLICK.
Vegeta turned the TV and Simulator off and wiped his brow with a smirk. "Serves them right for never mastering their power", he said. He shut the lights to the Gravity Chamber off and walked out, closing the door behind him. On the walk back to Capsule Corp, a familiar figure blurred into existance next to him. It was Goku, his hand holding a massive chicken sandwich.
"Hwwey Vegheta! Whgat are yhou dhoing?" he spat out, crumbs of his sandwich flying everywhere. Vegeta shivered in disgust. "For your information, I was heading inside to find food", he grumbled. Goku swallowed noisely, "Great, I'm starving! I'll come with you!". Vegeta stared in disbelief, "YOU'RE ALREADY EATING YOU THIRD CLASS CLOWN!! HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY BE HUNGRY!?!!" he screamed at Goku.
Goku laughed, holding his slightly swollen stomach. "I dunno, but.." Gokus stomach emitted a loud grumble.. Vegeta slapped his forehead and turned without a word, walking inside with Goku right behind him..
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"We're sending three of you; Tenderheart, Braveheart, and Cheer. Once you get to Earth, find Bulma Briefs, and give her this, it will explain everything", Noble Heart instructed, giving a small star-shaped projector to Tenderheart. He put it in the Cloud Car they would be taking for safe keeping. The Care Bears, after a long discussion and conference, decided they would most likely be unable to combat this threat alone. The Z Warriors had been discovered by them, and after doing some digging, learned of their exploits at saving Earth. They knew all about Goku and the others, but were unsure how willing they'd be to help against something of a non-combat nature.
Still, Noble and True Heart believed in Bulmas good heart, and that with her scientific knowledge, they could find a cure. It was decided three Care Bears would go to speak with her, and if she agreed, hopefully they could develop a cure for the disease quickly.
If they could get her to help, and a cure WAS found, they could run round-the-clock Caring Missions giving it to people on Earth. It would take some time, but with everyone helping, they could get the planet cured in no time.
They climbed into the car, expecting the worst, but hoping for the best. True Heart reminded them again to find Bulma as soon as they got to Earth, give her the projector, and convince her to help. If something went wrong, they were to return immediently to Care-A-Lot for help. Their biggest concern was what if something DID go wrong, and not enough of them were left in Care-A-Lot to help those not infected? The three waved goodbye and took off, trying to stay cheerful in a situation devoid of cheer.
As the three Care Bears drove off into the distance, a loud GONGGGG was heard in the distance. Everyone looked to see the Caring Meter had fallen to 8. Noble Heart swallowed hard, definately not what he was wanting to see. "Lets hope she agrees to this.." he said fearfully. The Care Bears knew full well what they would be up against if Earths leading scientist had no answer for them.
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"What do you think shes like Tenderheart?" Cheer asked as they drove down to Earth. Tenderheart sighed, the wind blowing his tuffs of hair gently. "I don't know... hopefully everything will go ok and we'll have this solved in no time!", he said optimistically.
Braveheart gave a dissenting look. "I don't know Tenderheart. You saw the records of what went on on Earth, these people have been in a lot of fights for the planet. Maybe they won't want to help because it isn't something that can be easily seen or fought", he said.
Tenderheart didn't want to admit it, but he was thinking the same thing. What IF these people either would not help, or had no way TO help? How would they tll True and Noble that the people they put so much trust and faith in couldn't help them at all and they were right back where they started? Tenderheart knew full well the consequences if this were so: Eventually the disease would overrun Earth, the Caring Meter would drop to zero, and that would be the end of Care-A-Lot and everything he held dear.
He shook his head. No way that would happen. He was willing to bet every cookie in Gram Bears bakery that this Bulma would have an answer before he even asked the question. He tried to stay positive, telling himself she probably already is aware of the problem and has a top team of scientists on it now.
Heck, they might have wasted a trip.
"Tenderheart?!" Cheer yelled at him. He shook his head, apparently he went into a daydream. "What is it Cheer?" he asked.
She pointed up ahead. The bright, sunny day didn't look so bright and sunny anymore. Up ahead a deep black, ominous cloud was forming before their eyes directly in front of them.
"What in the --" Braveheart began.
He never got to finish. Before Tenderheart could blink, a bolt of pure black lightning roared from the cloud, striking the Cloud Car and blowing it to bits right out from under them. In less than 3 seconds all three of them were falling to Earth...fast.
The three of them screamed and grabbed onto each other, falling like meteors to the ground below.
"What do we do now?!" yelled Cheer. Tenderheart focused hard, and Stared a rainbow bridge from his symbol that lanced to the ground below. With nowhere else to go, the three of them hit the bridge and began a slide directly for Earth.
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"WOW!! I feel so much better now!" Goku exclaimed. He should, after having just consumed roughly 35 pounds of food from Capsule Corp storage.
Vegeta had reluctantly allowed Goku food, on the condition it led to an immedient sparring match between them afterwards. They were at present stretching in preparation of the fight, with Goku yammering on about the superior quality of Chi-Chi's food, but Capsule Corps superior quantity.
After what seemed like forever, Goku finished his stretching and him and Vegeta assumed fighting stances. Vegeta was just about to charge when all of a sudden, a rainbow landed next to him!
"Whoaaa pretty..." Goku said almost in a slur. "Hey! You think theres a pot of gold nearby?!" he asked excitedly. Vegeta physically restrained himself from slapping Goku and examined the unusual rainbow that had landed next to him.
"Odd.. these Earth things are supposed to be mere illusions".. he mused. Then he felt a slight vibration and heard a rushing noise. Instinctly he jumped back, fists at the ready, just in time to see three equally unusual furry...thing... crash into the ground at high speed, raising a dust cloud. When it cleared, the Care Bears were in a heap on the ground. The rainbow shimmered and vanished.
Silence drug on for a few moments, then Tenderheart stirred and slow stood up, Braveheart and Cheer were out cold. Goku approached Tenderheart with a look of pure wonder, while Vegeta looked at the injured Care Bear as though it might be a Frieza-Approved nuclear bomb in disguise.
Goku was about to say something when Tenderheart, barely able to stand, weakly uttered the word, "Bulma..". Vegeta grabbed Goku and shoved him in front. "Kakarott! Explain this at once!" he ordered, still unsure of what to do. Tenderheart tried to take a step but fell forward. Goku caught him in his arms, himself equally unsure what to do. Tenderheart reached up and held the star shaped projector out to Goku. It was a miracle he remembered the damn thing when the car was destroyed.
Goku slowly took it and Tenderheart again muttered the word, "Bulma.." then fainted away. Goku and Vegeta looked at each other, understanding only one thing: find Bulma... now.
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Now that the Care Bears have made it to Earth, what happens now? Look for Chapter 3, "Evil Revealed" shortly..