Beach Battle
Loyal Heart dug through the sand of the beach, finally unearthing an emerald green crystal, "Looks like Illusion Heart," he said holding it up and putting it in a small sack he'd picked up along the way, "With Friend, Secret, Bright Heart, Gentle Heart and Brave Heart, that's six more so far." He turned, "Any luck Swift Heart?" he called over to the blue rabbit.
She looked up from digging her hole, "Nope! Looks like that's the only one here." She walked down to Loyal Heart making sure she kept him between her and the waves lapping at the shore. "That's so weird; I could have sworn I sensed somebody else on this beach."
"I know, I could have sworn I sensed someone else here," Loyal Heart looked around, then a voice got their attention.
"Maybe you sensed her!" They both turned to see Treachery Heart Dog and Delay Heart Rabbit standing further down, Treachery was holding a grey crystal that they assumed was Grams Bear's. Loyal Heart conjured one of his swords.
"Let her go, she's done nothing to any of you!" he barked.
Swift Heart crouched next to Loyal Heart, ready to take off down the beach and snatch Grams out of the opposite's hands. "I'd listen to him if I were you."
Delay Heart noticed her positioning and smirked, "Swift Heart speed won't help you here. This sand isn't going to give you any traction."
She smirked, "Says you!" with two powerful pumps of her legs she was off, charging at Treachery Heart. Loyal Heart followed suit, conjuring a mace and chain in his left hand and whirling it around as he charged at Treachery Heart. The pink dog smirked and conjured one of her shields, actually throwing it like a discus to land in front of Swift Heart where the sand it threw up briefly obscured the blue bunny's vision. Loyal Heart hurled the heavy end of the mace and chain at Treachery Heart, but she deflected it with another shield.
Swift Hear skidded to a halt and threw up her arms to shield her eyes from the sand. Before she could see, Delay Heart punched her in the jaw, sending her flying backwards. "Consider it pay back from when your boyfriend punched me."
Spitting the blood from her mouth she looked up at him, "Don't you know you shouldn't hit girls."
Standing over her he gloated, "I never do as I'm told." Drawing her legs back she kicked him in the stomach. With a grunt he too went sailing backwards.
Loyal Heart finally closed the distance with Treachery Heart and tried to strike at her, but it was clear that the opposite had gotten much better since their fight in the Kingdom of Caring. She easily deflected all of Loyal Heart's attacks and finally lashed out, striking him in the arm with the edge of her shield, which was quite sharp.
Loyal Heart yelped and jumped back, "You've improved!" he said, grimacing as he formed his two weapons into a spear and tried to stab her at a distance.
"That I have, but at least I don't have to hold onto my weapons!" Treachery jumped back and threw one of her shields which hit Loyal Heart's legs, knocking him down and forcing him to dissipate his weapon to avoid accidentally hurting himself.
Taking this opportunity, while her opposite was down Swift Heart latched onto Treachery Hearts arm. "Then allow me to take this off your hands." Opening her mouth she sunk her teeth into the opposite's pink fur.
Treachery Heart yelped and ended up dropping Gram's crystal, allowing Swift Heart to snatch it.
"I'll get you for that!" Treachery Heart said, taking a swing at Swift Heart with a shield on the opposite arm from the one that had been bitten.
Loyal Heart struggled to his feet, his legs in serious pain, and conjured a sword for both of his hands, unable to speak for the moment.
Bending backwards to avoid the shield, Swift Heart put Gram's crystal in the same pocket as Grumpy's. "Missed me!"
Before she could straighten however she felt someone grab her ears keeping her bent backwards.
Delay Heart grinned evilly down at her, "Let's see how flexible you really are." Pulling down hard on her ears he forced her back more causing her to yell in pain.
Treachery Heart grinned, "Good, hold her like that, let's make sure she can't use her legs to run away every again," she said, raising her shield to slice at her legs.
Loyal Heart raised his sword, which had begun to glow bright blue and shouted, "Don't you dare!" and swung his sword in their direction. A blue crescent shaped wave of energy flew at Delay Heart who still had a hold of Swift Heart's ears so she was sent flying with him. Instead of landing on the sand, they both landed face down in the shallows.
Pushing her self onto her hands and knees she began to cough sea water from her lungs "Gro *cough cough*ss."
Delay Heart laughed as he watched Swift Heart crawl out of the water, "I forgot you don't like water. Is it because you can't run here?" He grabbed her feet and pulled her back in, dragging her under once more.
Loyal Heart tried to move to get close to her, but pain, and another flying shield from Treachery Heart, kept him from going too far.
"So you learned a new trick, let's see how long you can keep it up!" Treachery shouted, about to throw another shield at Loyal Heart. But the blue dog was too fast and released another wave, striking Treachery Heart in the chest and knocking her down, severely hurting her and taking the wind out of her. Loyal Heart did her best to run to the two rabbits, but he was still hurting too much to gain much speed.
Swift Heart struggled wildly as Delay Heart held her under. Her heart was racing and panic was clouding her mind. He had called her out on her number one fear, being unable to run away. That was why she never went in the water and never learned to swim, she didn't like being helpless in the traction less substance. She felt her supply of oxygen running out and knew she would have to exhale. Delay Heart kept his grip on her, smiling widely the whole time.
Looking up he saw Loyal Heart attempting to get to him. "Too slow dog. By the time you get here she'll be dead." Swift Heart's body was already stilling.
Loyal Heart grunted, and stood up as much as possible, his weapons dissipating, "Then something will get to you first!" his symbol glowed and he fired a call at Delay Heart. The opposite rabbit easily dodged but before he could taunt Loyal Heart, the stare turned back on itself and hit Delay in the back, knocking him face first into the water. Loyal Heart did his best to jog, not caring about the small trail of blood coming from his legs as he made it to the water and reached out to grab and pull Swift Heart ashore. Swift Heart remained limp as Loyal Heart pulled her out of the water. A blue light had started to flicker from her pocket however and increased in urgency as it did so.
Loyal Heart recognized her situation, she had swallowed too much water and she was unconscious and not breathing. Thankfully Loyal Heart had learned CPR from Take Care so he put his hands on her chest and began to pump in a pattern, forcing her heart to start beating properly again.
"Don't die on me!" Loyal Heart said as he continued. He was rewarded a minute later when Swift Heart coughed up a bunch of water, but she still wasn't breathing.
"Hope you don't take this the wrong way," Loyal Heart said, he leaned over, pinching Swift Heart's nose shut and carefully breathing into her mouth. He did this a few times until finally he heard Swift Heart start to breath on her own naturally.
Opening her eyes with a groan she saw Loyal Heart leaning over her. Her eyes quickly darted sideways however to Treachery Heart, who was about to hit Loyal Heart over the head with one of her shields.
"Look out!" Shoving Loyal Heart aside, Swift Heart stared Treachery. It did little more then temporarily blind her and briefly stop her from continuing forward.
Loyal Heart summoned up a mace and swung down, smashing Treachery Heart on her head, and she fell down, knocked out.
"She must have a thick skull," Loyal Heart said, noting the lack of blood. He looked over to Delay Heart, who was trying to get up, but made it as far as the drenched sand before falling to his back and getting stuck in the squelching mess, "you all right now, Swift Heart?"
"Better then I was. And I'll be even better when I dry out." She was sitting up now arms crossed over her chest, shivering slightly. It wasn't from cold but from remembering the feeling of being held under. Glancing at Delay Heart she asked, "Would it be really bad if I say I hope he gets washed out to sea?"
Loyal Heart looked over in pity at Delay Heart, "Considering he just tried to drown you, I'd call it poetic justice," he said, "Do you want to just leave him here?"
"Yes I do." Getting up she went and grabbed him by his ears, "But we can't. Because then I'll always be looking over my shoulder and wondering if he's still out there." Pulling she started to slowly drag him towards the black cloud mobile parked on top of one of the dunes.
Loyal Heart looked down at his opposite and sighed, then began dragging the pink dog over to where Swift Heart was going too. "What should we do with them? Treachery is going to have a potent headache when she awakes."
"I have no idea. Maybe we can lock them up somewhere and then go back for them when we've fixed this whole mess."
"Perhaps, or we could try our calls on them. They can freeze us in crystals, maybe we can do something similar to them," Loyal Heart suggested.
She dropped Delay Heart's ears and took a step away from him. "Worth a shot," Getting her tummy symbol glowing she stared Delay Heart, feeling immense relief when she saw him shrink down and crystallize.
Loyal Heart nodded and used his call on Treachery Heart, but nothing happened, "Hmm, it seems that I can't do the same to her, then again No-Heart did say they can't use their own tummy symbols. That's why she's tried to kill me rather than imprison me. I do not think we should bring her with us though." He picked up the orange crystal that was Delay heart and pocketed it, "Can you help me drag her somewhere? I can use my powers to chain her up until we can come back for her." Nodding Swift Heart grabbed one of the opposite dog's arms.
Loyal Heart and Swift Heart dragged the pink dog over to a bunch of trees. Loyal Heart began to conjure chains and used them to attach his opposite to a particularly large one. After half a dozen chains were holding her in place, he sighed and sat down, tired form using his powers so much. He asked Swift Heart, "Can you run, or should we try and brave the skies. We can probably rest here if we find shelter. She won't be getting up even if she wakes up and I don't think they will send anyone over here for the next few hours at least."
She grinned at him, "Trust me a good run is exactly what I need right now." She held her paw down to him, in it was Grams' crystal. "Store this with the others and then point me in the direction you want to go."
Loyal Heart nodded, taking Grams' crystal and putting it in the small sack, "For now, I think you should take up somewhere secluded so we can rest, my legs need a chance to heal and you almost died back there. I had to give you CPR. Grumpy was worried too, his crystal was blinking when you stopped breathing."
She patted her pocket, "Trust me he wasn't the only one. I'll head for that stand of trees we passed about 10 miles back. Sound okay?" In truth as much as she wanted to run, she new 10 miles would be pushing it for her exhausted lungs. But she wanted to get as far away from the ocean as she could.
"Yes, that's good," Loyal Heart said, taking her hand as Swift Heart shot off.
Once they were among the trees, Loyal Heart managed to build a fire to help Swift Heart dry off. He was wet too and as it was a fairly cold night, his clothes weren't helping. Once the fire was built he stood up, "Excuse me, I need to get out of these wet clothes and shake myself off before I start to stink," he said turning and limping away until he was hidden from Swift Heart's view.
Taking Grumpy's crystal from her pocket she ran her hands softly down its faceted surface. "I really wish you were here right now. I've never been so scared in my life." She was surprised when a few tears splashed onto the gem. Wiping her eyes with a frustrated groan she put the crystal in her lap and held her hands out to the flames.
Loyal Heart returned later, having removed his soaking shirt, which he hung over a branch. His fur was noticeably dryer as he sat down and took out the crystals they had gathered, taking Delay Heart's crystal in particular, "Well this is who we have so far, I wonder how the others are doing," he looked over to Swift Heart, "You feeling all right? Are you cold?"
"A little. Tired mostly." She picked up Illusion Heart, "You know if we knew how to reverse the spell, I bet you could make us something good for dinner." The crystal gave off a slight energy that Swift Heart swore almost felt smug.
"That would be nice," Loyal Heart said. He looked over Delay's crystal in his hand, "what do you think we'll do with the opposites we manage to capture ourselves?" he asked Swift Heart.
She looked at the crystal. "That's a heavy problem Loyal Heart. One that I couldn't even begin to think about tonight." Taking a stick she poked at the fire.
"I understand, part of me wonders if we could, reform them," he suggested.
She shook her head. "If they truly are our Opposites then they can't be reformed. And personally I don't want mine to be, not after that."
"Maybe," Loyal Heart said, "But remember those two we ran into in Wonderland, Shatter Heart and Blade Star, they hated us even though they're Care Bears normally. These opposites may have opposite personalities to us, but they're still just children. They've only been alive for a few days and they were raised by No-Heart, hardly a good parental figure. They could be no different than Beastly, obeying his orders out of fear of death rather than any form of loyalty," Loyal Heart yawned as he packed the crystals back in the sack, save for Delay Heart's.
"A wolf raised by humans is still a wolf. There's nothing stopping him from acting as nature intended. Look at Fauna, True Heart and Noble Heart raised her to think like them and that went right out the window." She shoved the crystal away with her foot. "Put that thing somewhere, I don't want to look at it."
Loyal Heart pocketed Delay Heart and said, "True, but Fauna hasn't left for good, she still is willing to give us a chance, something the other Pegasus weren't willing to without her to insist upon," Loyal Heart lay down, "for now, I need to sleep. If you hear any screams of rage, that's probably Treachery Heart waking up," he added before he closed his eyes.
"Just what a gal likes to hear. The sweet serenade of vengeful curses to lull me to sleep." Curling up on her side, head cushioned by her arm she instantly fell asleep.