Tattoos
No-Heart observed the fruits of his labors, the reason he'd had Beastly steal DNA. Though he would never say so he was pleased that Beastly had brought him Fauna's DNA and held a particular regard for three of his creations. They were clones of the CBF, but not just clones, opposites; opposite in almost every way, mainly in their attitude, making them evil, gender, and in some cases, abilities. The three that were clones of Valiant Heart, Snowy Heart, and Loyal Heart also had some strange powers of their own, but nothing he was aware of, and of course, Fauna's opposite could shape shift. It was doing do as it was finishing its growth, shifting in various chimeric states as it wasn't fully aware of itself.
"With these," he said, "and their special talents, I will finally be rid of the Care Bears!"
Champ, Valiant, Brave Heart, and Grumpy were working out in Care-A-Lot's weight room, unaware of the danger No Heart had in store for them. Finishing his set, Champ put his weights down and wiped his forehead. The sweat band around his head slid a little. "So Valiant Heart, what are your plans for today?"
Valiant Heart smiled, "Actually I'm glad you asked, I was thinking about going down to earth and getting a tattoo."
"A tattoo?" Brave Heart asked, surprised.
"Yeah, you know one of those pictures they graft onto your skin, like our tummy symbols," Valiant said.
"Ha...ha...look who has a sense of humor." Grumpy commented from his place on the treadmill. "He knows what it is; he's just confused as to why you want one."
"I want one because, well, I think it would be cool," Valiant admitted, "What other reason would I need, it's the same reason Swift Heart got her belly button pierced."
Brave Heart laughed, "You want to get a tattoo to tease and flirt with Grumpy?" Scowling Grumpy threw his water bottle at Brave Heart.
"Harharhar," Champ said, "He wants to get one for fun, Brave Heart. You know, I think I might join you on that," he said, "it sounds cool."
"Join me if you want," Valiant said, "the more the merrier."
"I guess I'll come too. Just to watch though. I want to see the look on your guys faces when you see that needle." Grumpy told them.
Illusion Heart came walking in, about to start his work out. "Wuz dis I hear 'bout needles?"
"We're going to get tattoos. It was Valiant's idea. Want to come?"
He thought for a moment before answering Brave Heart. "Oui. I tink I will."
"Cool," Valiant said, "I think we should go around and see if anyone else wants too, but keep Noble and True Heart out of the loop, I don't need a lecture from them, or Tenderheart."
"Gotchya," Champ said.
Grumpy went home to take a quick shower before going down to watch the guys get their tattoos. On his way back to the meeting point, he stopped by the Hall of Hearts. Swift Heart was in there on caring mission duty. Currently she was writing up the report from a mission she had just completed. As always her ears picked up on Grumpy walking towards her.
"Hey Grumpy. What's up?" She tilted her head up for a quick kiss before he sat down.
"Some of the guys are going down to earth to get tattoo's and I'm supposed to be asking the others if they want to go. Want to go?"
She smirked as she wrote, "Tattoo's huh? No thanks I'm good. What are you going to get?"
He fiddled with one of her spare pens, "Nothing. I'm just going to watch."
"Really? You're not even going to get a little one?"
He crossed his arms, "Nope."
He was quiet for a moment as he watched Swift Heart write, "You don't want me to get one, do you?"
She stacked her papers, tapping them on the desk. "Oh I don't care either way." She went to the filing cabinet to put her papers away, "But you know what my piercings do for you, so could you imagine what a tattoo could do for me? Especially if it was in a less conspicuous place, just like my belly button ring. You know how when we're making out and you like to-"
She heard his chair scrape back as he bolted for the door. Smiling she closed the cabinet draw with her hip, "Like a puppet on a string."
Champ managed to get Birthday Bear interested. As for Cozy Heart, she said she'd been joking a few months ago when the girls got their piercings. Love-a-Lot decided to some along to see what Valiant would be getting, but didn't want a tattoo herself.
Conjuring a couple of cloud mobiles the gang headed down to earth, chattering excitedly about what they were planning on getting. "Mine's going to be a tribute to Cheer. I'm thinking a heart with her name in it right here." Champ pointed to his left bicep.
"Very original," Birthday Bear said trying to contain his laughter.
Valiant just rolled his eyes, "Not sure what I want, but I'll look at what they have down there when we get there."
"What about the rest of you?" Love-a-Lot asked, curious.
Etienne grinned, "Mines gonna be a tribute to my heritage anmy new name."
Grumpy shrugged, "No idea."
Brave Heart stood up, "Mine is going to be a symbol of my awesomeness!"
Birthday thought, "Honestly, I'm not sure, probably something simple."
Landing outside the tattoo parlor the others followed Valiant inside. The walls were decorated in pictures to help give potential clients ideas and in the back were curtained off sections where the tattooing took place. A girl with pink hair and quite a few tatt's herself was waiting behind the front desk. "Hey welcome to Ink Well can I..." she paused looking up at the Care Bears, "...help you?"
"What do you think we're here for?" Valiant asked sarcastically, "We're getting tattoos, mind if we look around first?" he asked.
Etienne walked up to the girl at the counter; she tensed up at the sight of him. "Pardon mon ami's manners chere, he don talk to femmes as belle as yoself on a regular basis."
The others watched her melt before their eyes, "It's no biggy. I've seen worse then him. So, you getting inked too?"
"Oui." He leaned on the counter to speak with her. Everyone else other than Champ looked around for Tattoo ideas, Champ knew what he wanted to he asked directly for his tattoo. Valiant looked around, searching for an idea that piqued his interest. Love-a-Lot made suggestions but Valiant was still indecisive, he knew he wanted one, but not what it should be.
Grumpy too was looking around. He had absolutely no idea what he wanted, having given it no previous thought. He moved over to Valiant, "Any ideas yet? I think I saw Brave Heart looking at a superman crest but with a B instead of an S."
"Oh man, I hope he doesn't get it on his chest, and then he runs around without a shirt," Love-a-Lot said, grimacing.
"Not sure, I'm thinking about getting a Japanese character or something on my back," Valiant said. He smirked at Grumpy, "Let me guess, Swift Heart talked you into this?"
"Right," Love-a-Lot rolled her eyes, and then whispered something in Valiant's ear, he smiled.
"Sure, that sounds good, see ya later, Grumpy, hope you can think of something, cause we're not leaving till you get one."
"Well yippy skippy for me." Rolling his eyes he moved on along the wall. Birthday went in with Etienne to watch him get his done. He was going to get 3 fleur de lis, one purple, one yellow, and the third a lighter green then his skin; they were going to be connected by a green, yellow, and purple mardi gras bead necklace. In the center of it was going to be a black Mardi gras mask, in connection to his new name of Illusion Heart.
The tattooer got his first needle ready, "All right tell me how the pain is." He lowered the needle to the inside of Etienne's left forearm. He winced slightly but told the guy it was fine. The humming of the machine and size of the needle caused Birthday to feel queasy.
"IIIII think I'm going to sit this one out." Paling he fled the room.
The artist shook his head, "It isn't for everyone."
Illusion winced again, "Dat fo' sure homme."
Champ and Brave Heart watched Birthday Bear dashing out of the room and heading for the bathroom, "Wonder what's wrong with him?" Brave Heart asked.
"Not sure," Champ said, "Maybe he's chickening out."
Quite some time Later, Illusion Heart walked out with a large area bandage on his arm and the tattooer called the next one in.
"That's me, see yah shortly," Champ said, heading to get his tattoo.
"So Brave Heart, you decide wha' you getting?"
He grinned at the alligator, "I'm getting a BH in a superman symbol with a crown on top." He could do no more than laugh at the leader of the Cousins.
"Uhh huh," was all Valiant could say.
Love-a-Lot decided to have some fun, "Hey, Etienne, what was getting your tattoo like?"
Illusion picked up on her plan, "It was de single mos' excrutiatin thing I have evah done. An I've gotten habanera juice in mon eye." He rubbed his arm weakly over the bandage while glancing at Brave Heart.
Brave Heart started to look queasy, "It couldn't have been that bad, could it?" he asked.
"Imagine a tousand bee stings embedding in yo skin ovah an ovah again mon ami. Dat feels bettah den dis."
"Umm, that's umm, I need to get something bye!" Brave Heart ran out of the store, "Charge, backwards!" Love-a-Lot, Valiant Heart and Illusion were in fits of laughter
"Oh man, that was classic!" Valiant said.
"Well I couldn't let 'Brave Heart the Magnificent' get a superman tattoo on his back and walk around shirtless anywhere," Love-a-Lot said, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
Finally reaching a decision Grumpy sat next to Valiant Heart. "Are you happy? I decided what I'm getting."
"Cool, can't wait to see it, I decided too," Valiant said, "I'm getting Love-a-Lot's name in Japanese characters down my back."
"Nice. I'm getting an old school hammer surrounded by lightning right here." He pointed to his left pectoral.
Love-a-Lot grinned, "Wonder what Swift will think of that?" she asked. Fortunately at that moment, because his tattoo was simpler, Champ arrived and Valiant pulled Love-a-Lot in to watch him before she could embarrass Grumpy Bear further.
"Dey sure love to poke at dat particular soft spot don dey Grumpy?" He scowled at Illusion.
"Yeah. It's because I'm 'Grumpy' Bear and they find it amusing I actually experience 'happy' emotions." He air quoted where appropriate.
Champ slapped his shoulder, "I'm sure we'll get tired of it eventually sports fan. Definitely by your honeymoon." Illusion and Champ laughed as he paled.
Valiant winced as he was lying face down with his back exposed, Love-a-Lot giggled as seeing him without his shirt as the tattoo artist carefully applied the characters to his back.
"Ouch! careful!"
"Just hold still, this isn't' as painful as it would be anywhere else, your back isn't as sensitive.
"Well I won't tell Grumpy that," Love-a-Lot said.
When Valiant came out of the back room, Grumpy took a deep breath. Soon the artist called him back, "Last victim."
"That's encouraging." Sitting in the chair he shrugged out of his open button up shirt and took off his white wife beater. Telling the tattooer what he wanted and where he sat back in the chair, gripping the arm rests.
About to get started, he stopped him, coming up with another detail, "Hey could you add a small shoe with wings coming off the handle?"
"Whatever you want dude." Grumpy bit the inside of his cheek as he felt the needle prick his skin.
When Grumpy finally exited, the others congratulated him on going through with it, "Can't wait till we can get these bandages off," Valiant said, doing his best to avoid scratching, "Let's get the two who wussed out and go home."
The next day Grumpy heard the knock on his door and smiled. He had taken off his bandage that morning and had called Swift Heart over to see his new tattoo.
Opening the door he smiled down to her, "Hey. Come on in." She followed him inside, going to sit cross legged on the couch.
"Okay let's see it." Standing in front of her he stripped off his t-shirt, "Ooooo I'm liking it already." Looking to his chest she saw the hammer wrapped in lightning. "Grumpy that is the sickest thing I have ever seen! Come sit here and lemme get a good look at it."
"Check out the last minute detail at the bottom of the handle."
Looking she saw the shoe with wings, "Was that for me?"
He nodded, "Yup." She gently ran her hands over the tattoo, feeling him shudder beneath her.
"Is it still tender?"
"A little. The guy said it would take a while to heal."
She planted a feather light kiss on it, "I can't wait till its all better."
That touch sent a warm tingle up his spine, "I'm very glad you talked me into it." Kissing her he slowly laid her back on the couch, moving to straddle her.
Champ had called Cheer over to the gym to show off his tattoo, he was working out without a shirt on and grinned turned around to show her.
"Champ, is that for me?" she asked, seeing the heart with the words "Cheer Bear" written inside in gold letter.
"Yep, you like it?" he asked, grinning.
She walked over and kissed him, "What do you think?"
Champ grinned and scooped her up, "Want to go back to my house and talk about it?"
Cheer giggled and put her arms around his neck, "Sure, why not?"
Jolly was leaving his house to head to Care a Lot when he saw Etienne sunbathing on the banks of the Rainbow River. His arms were stretched up over his head and on the inside of one Jolly saw a design.
"Croikey bloke, did ya git a tattoo?"
Illusion opened sleepy eyes, "Oui. Me an a few of de others wen' down yesterday."
"Noice!"
"You tinkin bout gettin one too homme?"
"It's crossed moi moind once er twoice. My mates back 'ome all 'ave one. Maybe next toime ey?"
Etienne closed his eyes once more, "Well lemme know frer an I'll go wid you."
Valiant was letting Love-a-Lot take the bandage off his back, he winced as she peeled it off.
"There, that's better," she said, throwing the bandage in the trash, "how do you feel."
"Better," Valiant said, looking behind him at Love-a-Lot, "How does it look?"
"Good," Love-a-Lot snickered, "wish I could read it."
"Well that's your name, I asked to make sure," Valiant said, sitting up.
"That's sweet of you," she kissed his cheek, "Want to go and show it off."
"Sure, I want to show Brave Heart what he skipped cause he was scared," Valiant said, smirking.
Later that night at dinner, when everyone had been gathered in one place, Tender Heart was next to Champ in the line for food and saw his tattoo. "Whoa whoa whoa, where did that come from?" He pointed accusingly at the tattoo.
"You like it, I got it yesterday, Valiant, Grumpy, and Illusion Heart all got one too," Champ explained, not really seeming to notice Tenderheart's irritation.
"They did what!" Turning to True Heart and Noble Heart he asked, "Did you hear that? They got tattoos! Without your permission!" True Heart wasn't sure how to react, normally she would have sided with Tenderheart but at the moment she wasn't sure. Noble Heart stepped in.
"Champ, as interesting as that idea is, you should have at least told us before you did that," he said, not sounding angry, but a bit cautionary.
"No worries Noble Heart, we know all the risks and we went to a respectable place. The guy used sterile new needles for each of us and never double dipped into the ink wells. He also gave us each papers on how to care for them and when to get medical attention if something looks suspicious."
Grumpy backed him up, "We aren't cubs anymore and are more then capable of making our own decisions."
"They're right you know, Tenderheart," True Heart said, "you aren't cubs anymore that's why we're letting you make more decisions on your own now."
"But what are people going to think when we show up looking like a bunch of punk beatniks? Are they really going to want our help?"
"I don't see why not," Valiant Heart said, scooting up in line, "just 'cause some of us have an extra tattoo somewhere other than our tummies."
He opened his mouth to argue some more but Playful Heart launched some mac and cheese into it, causing him to cough and splutter. "Moving on to bigger and better things, who has the ketchup?"
The time had come, No-Heart was ready to deploy his opposites to destroy the Care Bear Family. And especially the special ones he was waiting to deploy. The time had come for his victory day!