The Attack of the Opposites
The day after the tattooing Fauna walked up to Grumpy's door she let herself in. "Ok Grumpus! Swifty told me about the tattoo and I want to see it."
Grumpy stared at her from his couch, the spoon with his cereal halfway to his open mouth. "Oh thanks I haven't eaten yet." Sitting next to him she took the spoon and the bowl and dug in.
Recovering, Grumpy scowled and snatched the bowl back. "Who needs an annoying little sister when I have you? Get your own bowl and then I'll show you my tattoo." Hopping up she trotted to the kitchen.
Valiant Heart had run into Loyal Heart and Snowy Heart on the way to the exercise place. He rolled his eyes, "Let me guess you want to see it right?"
Snowy nodded, "I am curious, about it."
"I am a bit intrigued myself," Loyal Heart said.
"All right, fine," Valiant turned around and removed his shirt, showing them all the tattoo on his back.
After Fauna and Grumpy ate their cereal while watching cartoons, he showed her his tattoo. She gave him two thumbs up, "I like it! It's very you."
"Well now that I have your approval I can sleep easy."
She shoved him, "Alot of the Pegasus think that this" she pointed to the caduceus on her fore head, "is a tattoo."
"Can't imagine where they got that idea from. How are things going over there?"
"They're going good. I still don't get to see Blue all that often. He's been working really hard."
"So then come back here. You know True Heart and Noble Heart wouldn't mind."
She smiled at him, "You know he isn't the only reason I left." Grumpy shrugged, "Oh well figured I'd try."
"OK, that's good enough," Valiant said, pulling his shirt back on, "Now I do have something to attend to.
"Oh I'll say you do," the dark menacing voice was one they were all familiar with. The three cousins looked up to see No-Heart floating above them and with him, what looked like three care bear cousins, all female, a pink dog, an orange fox, and black wolverine.
"No-Heart! What do you want?" Snowy asked, for even in the short time he'd been part of the family, they'd had to stop one or more of No-Heart's minor schemes, as had the other new family members.
"And what are those?" Loyal Heart asked.
"So glad you asked, I call them the opposites, there's one for each member of your little family and they are your final doom. But these three are different, you see not only can't they use their little stares, but they got something extra, powers like your own. Let me introduce, Treachery Heart Dog, Flare Heart Fox, and-" but he was cut off when the wolverine howled an eerie, soul shattering voice. Valiant tensed up recognizing the sound and drawing his Zanpakuto from where he always had it at his side.
"It's a hollow!" he shouted as his opposite's face was covered in a white skull mask and its body turned completely black with a hole in its chest. It cried one more time and charged at Valiant Heart, knocking both of them back a long distance and out of sight. Loyal Heart and Snowy both conjured their weapons, not knowing what was in store for them.
Hearing the mysterious howl, Fauna and Grumpy came running out of his house. "What was that?" A black blur tackled Fauna from behind, knocking her to the clouds. She shifted into a snake and bit at whatever it was. Jumping away from her, she and Grumpy saw a black wolf with its hackles raised.
"I've been tracking you since the moment No Heart brought us here."
Fauna regained her true form, eyes glowing, "Who exactly are you?" Grinning the black wolf shifted into a Pegasus. His markings were identical to Fauna's, except everywhere she was brown he was black and where she was white he was yellow.
His eyes glowed red, "I'm Hunter. Your opposite!" trumpeting a deep whinny he charged at her, teeth going for her neck.
Grumpy moved to help her but was grabbed from behind, "Uhuhuh. No fair helping." A female voice hissed in his ear. Elbowing whoever it was he broke free and turned. An orange female bear stood grasping her middle.
Grumpy scowled, "Lemme guess, No Heart made you just for me?"
"Good guess grumpy gills." She got her tummy symbol glowing.
Not wanting to take any risks, Loyal Heart charged at Treachery Heart, swinging down with the sword he had created, the pink dog just smiled and raised her arm, a round pink shield forming on it and deflecting the blow.
"What is this, I thought your powers were mine!" Loyal Heart said, backing off.
"It's true, we get our powers from the same source, but while you have offence, I have defense," Treachery replied, "you see not only are we evil while you're good and our genders are reversed, but our powers were flip-flopped to their opposites as well."
"I will still finish you, you poor imitation!" Loyal Heart tried to attack again but Treachery Heart just blocked and kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him reeling.
Snowy was having similar issues, he had started shooting his freezing quincy arrows at Flare Heart almost immediately, but she dodged them all easily.
"Maybe you'd like to see my powers, ever heard of the bount?" she asked.
"No, enlighten me!" Snowy said, taking a moment to rest.
"Bount are spirit eaters, though thankfully I don't need to do that, but you see, we fight with dolls, like this one," she took off a pendant she was wearing with a sword amulet and started spinning it around, "Ziget Dich, Flamberge!" The spinning pendant turned into a disc of fire and then dispersed before reassembling as a fox made entirely of fire, save for it's front and hind paws, which were made of some sort of armor. "Flamberge, destroy him!" the fire fox growled and charged at Snowy. Snowy dodged and the heat from the fire fox singed his fur, so he kept firing his ice arrows at it, trying to strike it.
Fauna struck at Hunter with her front hooves, warning him back. "I don't care what you are, you are not going to push me around." Turning into a jaguar she leapt for his neck, sinking teeth and claws into his flesh.
Grumpy was eyeing his opposite as they circled one another. "Are there one of you for each of us?"
She wagged her finger at him, "Sorry trade secret." She stared a beam at him which he avoided.
Loyal Heart and Treachery kept exchanging blows, and it was obvious that the opposite's lack of experience was a factor, Loyal scored several good hits and eventually had his opposite down on the ground and helpless, he stood over her.
"If you were not some sick copy of me, then I would find killing a woman distasteful, but as it stands you are nothing but a clone," he raised his sword.
"Go ahead," she grinned evily, "but what about your pretty wife and son?"
Loyal Heart stopped, "What about them?"
"There's one opposite for each of you, so where do you think her opposite, Depression Heart, is right now?"
"Oh no!" Loyal Heart turned and dashed back home.
Swift Heart was talking with Cozy Heart and Jolly Heart by the rainbow river when her Opposite found them. The orange bunny was leaning casually against a tree, watching the three talk. "Aren't you all just the closest chums. Pitty I have to break this up."
Swift Hearts eyes widened when she saw him. "Excuse me?"
He walked over to her, "Your going to find out soon enough when your family start to fall. I'm your opposite, Delay Heart, and I'm here to make sure you can't ruin No Heart's plans anymore." He charged at her, but she side stepped, sending him sprawling into a bush. Obviously he wasn't in control of his feet yet, and he wasn't quite as quick as her.
"Cozy Jolly hide! I'm getting him out of here." The two purple cousins dove into the river and remained submerged.
Emerging from the bush, Delay saw Swift Heart alone. "Where did the other two go?"
"None of your beeswax tough guy. Now if you want me so bad, you'll have to catch me first." Turning away from him she took off into the Forest, Delay running after her.
Snowy Heart managed to score a hit on the fox, freezing part of it and causing it to howl in pain. Flare Heart flinched and recalled her doll, "Well done, but I wonder, what's happening to the rest of your family?"
"What do you mean?" Snowy asked, lowering his bow.
"There's one of us for each of you, where do you think the others are," Flare Heart laughed maniacally, "as we speak the rest of your family is becoming, shall we say, crystal clear." Snowy cursed and took off.
Loyal Heart arrived home to see a navy blue cat looking around, "Come out, little kitty, I have a present for you and your little boy."
"You will not lay a finger on my wife!" the cat, Depression Heart, turned around only to get slashed across his front by Loyal Heart and fall backwards in serious pain. Loyal Heart was panting from having run all this way and immediately began to search for Proud Heart and Trust Heart.
"Loyal Heart, oh thank goodness you're all right!" Proud Heart emerged from where she'd been hiding behind a tree. Little Trust Heart had managed to sleep through the whole thing. Loyal Heart hugged his family carefully.
"I didn't kill him, we should leave before he gets up," he said, carefully escorting his wife away from their house. Proud Heart was too scared to attempt to argue with him on this.
Hunter turned into a turtle to dislodge Fauna. Then before she could shift again he shifted into a ram and hit her in the stomach with his horns. "You may be the original, but you are a mare and therefore are weaker then me."
She got to her paws, trying to regain her air. "Up...yours..." The combatants all stopped however when a yell sounded form nearby. Looking they saw a burnt orange bear staring Wish Bear. Before their eyes she shrunk down and slowly became incased in crystal.
Careless shrugged to Hunter, "Oh well, looks like playtimes over." Turning back to Fauna he saw her in her Pegasus form running away from him with Grumpy on her back.
"No!" Hunter turned on Careless, "You let them get away!"
Yawning she spread her arms, "Where are they going to go?"
Valiant clashed with his opposite over the Forest of Feelings, Valiant' using his powers to stand on an invisible platform under his feet. He struggled against the hollow grimacing.
"I don't know what the others are like, but you are just a monster!" He shoved the hollow back and called out his release command, "Electrify, Alastor!" His sword was released into its broadsword released form and began to clash with the thing again.
In an attempt to loose her opposite, Swift Heart had conjured a cloud mobile and headed for Care-a-Lot. Landing on the outskirts she began walking to the Hall of Hearts. This was the long ago agreed upon emergency gathering place and to her, this was definitely an emergency.
"You're not getting away from me that easily Swift Heart." Whipping around she saw Delay Heart moving away from a black cloud mobile.
"Lucky you I'm up for a challenge." Taking off she headed for the rendezvous point. Snowy dashed up and saw Swift Heart running away from her opposite. He took aim and tried to fire, but the shots kept missing, even as inexperienced as he was, Delay Heart was too fast. He swore and dashed as fast as he could to the Hall of Hearts.
Fauna and Grumpy arrived with the few others who had managed to escape their opposites and get to the safe place. In truth there weren't many, True Heart, Noble Heart, Defiant Heart, Snowy Heart, Friend, Secret, Funshine, and Treat Heart. She was telling Funshine that the cousins couldn't get away. True Heart was trying to remain calm for the sake of her cub, but knowing some of her family had been captured was working on her.
Snowy stayed close to the door, "I passed Swift Heart on the way in. Hopefully she'll get here in time." Grumpy joined him, looking frantic.
Throwing in a last burst of speed Swift Heart pulled away from Delay and arrived at the Hall of Hearts, smiling at Grumpy when she saw his shoulders relax. "Swifty get in they're coming!" Looking over her shoulder she saw a whole bunch of Opposites advancing on them.
She knew they were no match for her speed. "You guys stay inside, I'll distract them." Conjuring a giant lock from her tummy symbol, she sent it flying at the doors. As it connected it pushed the doors closed. She sped off again, not waiting to see if they closed all the way. Running around the building she plugged up the windows in a similar fashion.
Back around front, she came face to face with Delay. "Gotchya!" Grabbing for her he got only air.
"That's strike two Delay!" Yelling he chased her once more. As she moved away from where her family was, she heard Fauna give a distressed whinny. But she could think on the cause.
As they zig zagged over Care-a-Lot Delay taunted her, "Do you really think what you've done will save them? We can break that lock easy."
She turned around, running backwards, "But I gave them something I have plenty of...Time!" Sticking her tongue out at him she turned back around, and tripped over Careless Bears outstretched foot.
"Oops, how careless of me. Hope you can get a refund on all that time you got." Looking around she saw she had led him halfway back to the Hall of Hearts. Attempting to get up she cried out as pain shot up from her ankle. Clenching her teeth she rested her weight on the good foot.
"Oh poor bunny, did you hurt yourself? Here let me help." Delay reached for but suddenly went flying back, courtesy of Grumpy's fist.
"You try to touch her again and I'll make it so you can't walk too!" Grabbing Swift Heart around her waist, he took most of the weight off her foot.
She opened her mouth but he cut her off, "Before you yell at me for not staying in the Hall, remember what I told you in Wonderland."
She softened, "You'd always come for me."
Careless faked a sniffle, "This is so sweet! But too much sweet makes you sick, just like I'm about to be."
Delay stood next to her, "Let's get rid of them." Getting their symbols going they sent stares at Grumpy and Swift Heart. Before the stares could connect however Grumpy shoved Swift Heart out of the path of the stares. As she hit the ground once more she turned back to Grumpy in disbelief. He wouldn't look at her as he turned into a crystal.
Delay frowned, "Even though my name may imply I like procrastinating, this is really getting annoying. No more interruptions, you're done." Swift Heart didn't try to move as Delay prepared to stare again.
Suddenly, there was a burst in-between the two rabbits, knocking Delay backwards, and actually creating a crack in the clouds below. In the middle of the cloud, Valiant was struggling with his hollow opposite.
He grunted, "I'm sick of this!" he pushed back and jumped up, slicing the hollow's mask in two. The hollow gave one last strangled cry and dissolved away. "One more monster banished," he said, looking around and noticing Swift Heart lying on the ground injured, then seeing the opposites standing there he put two and two together.
"Stay away from Swift Heart," he warned.
"And what are you going to do about it!" Delay demanded.
"This!" He held up his fingers and declared, "Bakudo number 1, Sai!" suddenly Delay's arms locked behind his back and he fell onto his tummy struggling.
Valiant helped Swift Heart up and said, "Kido, I paralyzed him."
"Then we should run," Loyal Heart said running up with Proud Heart, their son, Jolly Heart and Cozy Heart, at the exact moment a cloudquake shook the place, "It appears that with so few of us active our home is falling to pieces."
"Help Swift Heart," Valiant said, passing the rabbit over to Cozy and Jolly, "I'll get the others." Valiant dashed away, crouching briefly as he ran and suddenly vanishing via a flash step.
At the Hall of Hearts, the opposites were about to break off the lock keeping them out. True Heart, Noble Heart, Friend, Secret, Funshine, and Treat Heart all stood back as Snowy Heart Fox pointed his conjured bow at the entrance and Defiant Heart Badger pulled out and extended his spear, holding it at the ready.
"Get Ready!" Snowy said, drawing back the bowstrings. At that moment the door to the Hall of Heart's burst open, easily breaking off its now weakened hinges. Snowy began firing wildly into the dust cloud that formed and heard the telltale sounds of ice forming, and shattering as the opposites smashed their various frozen limbs against the floor to keep them from behind held fast.
Treat Heart's opposite, Sour Heart Pig, found her easily and stared her, reducing her to a small yellow crystal. Friend and Secret went down next, victims to their opposites Enemy and Loudmouth Bear. Funshine, actually crying tried to charge her opposite, Bleak Bear, with a piece of the door that had landed near her, but she too was sealed in a crystal form.
Defiant Heart had more luck, finding his opposite, a female rainbow colored badger called Conformity Heart Badger, and slicing her in the legs with his spear before whacking her over the head with the spear butt to knock her out. Noble Heart stood in front of his wife True Heart as their opposites, Dishonor Heart Horse and Liar Heart Bear, bore down on them.
"Don't waste your time!" Dishonor said, "if you just give in this will be over faster."
"We'll never give up, not to No-Heart or you poor imitations of us!" Noble Heart shouted defiantly.
"Fine, keep up the spirit, but it won't matter in the end!" Dishonor used his call on Noble Heart. The purple horse turned and hugged True Heart briefly; True Heart had just one look into her husband's eyes, he looked so sad, before he shrunk down and was incased in a purple crystal. True Heart fell to her knees, scarcely able to believe what had just happened. The black bear liar heart walked over to her and grinned down at her.
"Looks like you're pregnant, I wonder? What will happen to your cub when you're sealed, I know that you'll be stuck in suspended animation but will it? Or will it even shrink, I can't wait to find out!"
"Well you're going to have too, Rensei Tokkan!" Valiant's shout was followed by his signature electrical drill attack, which knocked most of the opposites down, and blew a large hole in the back of the Hall of Hearts. Valiant sheathed his sword on his back and dashed over to True Heart, helping her up and saying, "Don't worry we'll get you out of here." He managed to get the founder to Snowy and Defiant and told them to help her escape on a cloud car while he held them off. Before the left Valiant slipped something into Defiant's pocket.
"What's that?" the badger asked.
"Give it to Swift Heart," Valiant Heart said, drawing his sword again, "now get moving, I'll catch up later!" Valiant stood at the entrance to the Hall of Hearts as the opposites fanned out in front of him.
The wolverine stared them down, "I already destroyed my own opposite and I'm sure I could do the same to any one of you, so bring it!"
"Oh, I'm sure you could, Care Bear, but this has gone on long enough," No-Heart floated down in front of Valiant Heart with the two other unusual opposites, Treachery Heart Dog and Flare Heart fox next to him.
A Red opposite stood forwards and shook her fist, "Yeah, and where's the bear I'm based on, Good Luck, I haven't found him anywhere."
"Wouldn't you like to know," Valiant said.
"We will find him, and any others who have eluded us, once we've dealt with you!" No-Heart declared, raising his hands to prepare to finish of Valiant Heart.
Valiant Heart sealed his Zanpakuto and sheathed it, "Actually, I very much doubt that," he held his hands together and the shouted.
"Hado 33, Sokatsui!" but instead of shooting it at his foes, he shot the blue ball of energy down at the clouds under his feet. The blast had the expected effect of throwing up a cloud to cover him, but what was unexpected was the massive cloud quake that hit at exactly the same moment. The whole ground shook as the clouds of the Kingdom of Caring began to break apart, the Hall of Hearts collapsed in on itself and as Valiant Heart used his flash steps to get away the opposites were forced to create their black cloud vehicles to escape as most of the clouds beneath them broke away.
Valiant stood a fair distance away on an invisible platform he had created and watched, feeling a pang of guilt at abandoning their home and their friends to No-Heart and his opposites, even moreso as he watched most of their home break apart, leaving only a few scattered cloud islands with the ruined Hall of Hearts and a few patches of forest left. He sighed and turned, once again flash stepping away.
No-Heart looked around, "Feh, it's still here, but no matter what's left of their precious homeland will vanish after the rest of them are gone." He looked over the pile of crystal sealed Care Bears on a small pillow that his opposites had collected, "There are a few missing," he said, angrily, "but for now, I'll keep these and find some use for them."
"Don't bet on it, No-Face!" suddenly a fly that had been nearby turned into Fauna's natural form and charged, kicking the pillow and crystals out of No-Heart's hand and scattering them around. The crystal sealed Care Bears all flashed for an instant, and then they plummeted out of sight.
No-Heat cursed and turned to see Fauna fleeing to catch up with the remaining family members briefly before she once gain vanished form view, changing form to avoid being seen. "Get them all! NOW!" he shouted at his opposites who obediently took off after the remaining Care Bear Family members.
Somehow, the remaining Care Bears: Defiant Heart, Swift Heart, Jolly Heart, Cozy Heart, Snowy Heart, True Heart, Proud Heart, Loyal Heart, baby Trust Heart Valiant Heart and Fauna managed to elude their pursuers and land in a heavily wooded area where they would be hidden from any aerial searches for a while. As expected they were all very downcast, even the normally stalwart Valiant Heart could think of nothing to say to rally their spirits. Their home was gone, most of their family were sealed in crystals and, according to Fauna, could be anywhere in the world now, and they were vastly outnumbered by No-Heart and his opposite army.
Swift Heart sat back against a tree, head in her hands. Her ears were flopped forward creating a veil for her face. "Did that really just happen?" Cozy Heart stared an ace bandage out of her tummy symbol and gave it to Fauna to wrap around Swift Heart's injured ankle.
"Those Opposite blokes came outta no where. Our bum's would abeen up tha gum tree if Swifty 'adn't a distracted that yankee roo."
"Not to mention," Loyal Heart said, "two of those opposites are more than just dark versions of us. They have powers like mine and Snowy's." Proud Heart was now trying to soothe Trust Heart, who had started crying a moment ago.
"And my shifting." As Fauna thought about Hunter she didn't realize she was wrapping Swift Hearts ankle tighter then necessary.
"Too tight, too tight!"
"Oh sorry Swift Heart." Loosening the bandage she finished up wrapping it before standing and moving away. True Heart was crying, more than anyone here she felt as though she had failed because almost everyone was gone, especially her husband. She was hugging her pregnant tummy defensively as she sat down. Defiant Heart put his now collapsed spear back in his pocket and felt something in there, something that Valiant Heart had given to him earlier.
Fauna went over to True Heart and hugged her from behind. "Truey you have to calm down. It's not good for either of you."
True Heart wiped her eyes, "I know, thank you Fauna," she managed a weak smiled and looked behind her at the pegasus.
Defiant Heart walked over to Swift Heart and reached out his hand, "Here, Valiant said you would want this," he said, dropping the item into her hands. Swift Heart blinked in surprise at the blue crystal in her open palms, it was Grumpy!
"I scooped him up on the way to help the others, we don't know how to break the spell but I figured it would be best if he was at least with us instead of lost or in No-Heart's hands," Valiant explained.
"Thank you Valiant Heart!" She held the crystal close to her chest. Nothing was going to separate her from it. "I feel much better having him here."
Fauna gave True Heart a final squeeze before standing, "So what are you guys going to do now?"
"Us guys?" Defiant asked in disbelief, "Maybe you didn't have the same experience we did, but we're being hunted, and something tells me you don't want No-Heart or a clone of you with your ability to shift into anything to find Pegasus Falls, so you're in it with us now."
"And as for what we shall do," Loyal Heart said, "We need to find someplace to hide ourselves where we won't be easily discovered; we're in no state to defend ourselves or our position if No-Heart locates us."
"Exactly Defiant Heart. I need to get word back home, just incase Hunter does know how to find his way there. So I need to find the nearest gate, let Blue and Wind Rider know what's going on, and then I can meet up with you again. Got a problem with that?" She flashed her eyes briefly.
"That's enough!" Valiant said, taking a stronger stance, "I'm not sure who to side with but I think it best that you wait at least a day, when our clones are tired so you can get to the gate quickly and quietly. Until then, we have to hide ourselves."
Suddenly, the ground began to shake slightly and a patch of earth began to push up. Everyone was suddenly alert until a mole poked her head out of the ground, she was dark green, had a heart shape on the end of her nose and was wearing simply homespun clothes; everyone could see by her eyes that she was quite blind. She poked her head around, seeming to sniff.
"I'm sorry if I am interrupting you, but I felt more people than normal were around the woods," she gave quizzical look as though she could see.
Fauna scowled at True Heart, "You and Noble sure missed an awful lot of cubs on your first time around."
Cozy Heart waddled up to the mole, "Sssorry to have disturbed you. We've been having a rough day to sssay the leassst."
The mole shook her head, "It's no bother, you have no idea how lonely it gets down here, none of the other animals can understand or talk with me."
"Fauna, we were under pursuit by Dark Heart, we were still searching for others when the Great Wishing Star took us to the Kingdom of Caring," True Heart explained to Fauna, then smiled at the mole, "But regardless, it's nice to meet you," she approached careful and extended a hand, "My name is True Heart Bear, one of the founders of the Care Bear family."
The mole held her digging claw out and shook True Heart's hand, almost knocking True Heart down because of how strong she was, "Nice to meet all of you."
"I don't mean to interrupt miss?" Defiant Heart said, trying to guess her name.
"Call me what you want, I don't have a name," the mole said.
"Right, but we were hoping you could help us, we're being hunted and we need a place to hide," Defiant explained.
"If that's the case, my home underground is big enough to accommodate you all for some time," the mole explained, "you can just follow the tunnel down and I'll close it up behind us."
Swift Heart smiled, "I like your style!" Feeling right at home she bounded into the tunnel. Cozy Heart and Jolly Heart followed her down.
The platypus paused next to the mole, "Cheers love fo' yo' 'ospitality."
The mole smiled as the others went down, True Heart and Proud Heart, carrying Trust Heart, going down next, Loyal Heart, Snowy and Valiant went next. Defiant stayed behind and looked to Fauna.
"You coming down with us?" he asked.
She shifted down into a badger herself, "For a day. As soon as day break comes, I have to get in contact with home."
Defiant nodded as badger Fauna slipped down the hole. The mole blinked, as she felt something that was clearly not a horse go past her.
"What was that?" she asked surprised.
Defiant smiled as he got in after Fauna, "We'll explain everything down there." The mole just shrugged but followed them down after closing her tunnel up at the top.