Back with another episode! Hurray! I hope you like it. Care Bears Z, Episode 3: New Beginnings, the Finale!
~Z~
Terrence had never pedaled so hard in his life. It might not have been the easiest way to reach Philadelphia, but it was definitely the fastest. He had no time to wait for the bus, which was Carenburg's only transportation in and out of the small city.
True Heart had insisted she go with him. After all, she knew slightly more about those shadowy creatures than he did, and was his mom's best friend. She stayed in his backpack throughout the ride, her head poking out of the top, silently worrying. Terrence was running on pure adrenaline, stopping only for passing cars. The night was far from dark; the city lights illuminated the streets. Finally, he came to the hospital parking lot. One side was full of officials like police and medical staff. The other was full of newscasters and reporters. Terrence set his bike down in one of the grassy spots around the lot.
"How are we going to get in?" Terrence asked True Heart, who gazed up at the tall building. She gulped at the sight of the dark, menacing shadows. The horrid creatures circled the top of the hospital like vultures.
"I don't know…" True Heart turned her eyes to the night sky. Not many stars were visible through the street lights' glares. "Great Wishing Star…can you help us?" She closed her eyes. "Star Buddy…are you there? I need you!"
A soft tinkling sound, like that of a bell, reached her ears. Opening her eyes, True Heart saw the little golden friend flying around above her. The Star Buddy floated down to her and Terrence, twinkling gently. Terrence simply stared in wonder at the little creature as it examined him curiously.
"Star Buddy, can you find a way into the hospital?" True Heart asked. The star made the tinkling sound again. It flew upward, and then swooped closer to the building. After a while it returned, and squeaked to get the attention of True Heart.
"Have you found something?" she asked. The star squeaked and gestured to a side of the building covered by the trees and shrubs. It was dark and silent; not a soul was over there. The group could just make out a door behind the bushes.
"Good work," Terrence commended the little star. Star Buddy tinkled happily and flew off in the direction of the door. The boy and Care Bear followed it, making sure to keep out of the shadows' sight. When they reached the door, the little star squeaked and faded away.
Opening the door proved to be easy; Terrence jiggled the doorknob and it popped open. It appeared to lead into an old wing of the hospital, which was probably due to be renovated. There wasn't a person – or light source – in sight. The trees outside obscured most of the moonlight with their growing leaves. Terrence walked as quickly and as quietly as possible, cringing as his footsteps echoed through the dark corridor. True Heart's eyes darted around nervously. She tried to tell herself she wasn't scared, but every shadow seemed to float around, and every silhouette appeared to move.
Terrence walked for ages, peering around corners and into rooms, going up stairwells and through treatment wings, searching for any sign of life. Finally, he saw a sliver of light just beyond one door on the second floor. Peering through the tiny gap in the door frame, he could make out the flickering light of a candle. The dancing flame cast writhing shadows on the wall…then Terrence looked closer. The shadows weren't caused by the candle, they were the shadows. The evil creatures flew silently around the room, their glinting eyes cold and red. On the far side of the room, Terrence and True Heart could make out what looked like several people sitting on the floor. Terrence swallowed a yell of shock when he saw rose-colored hair fanned out on the floor.
"I…I think that's my mom," he whispered to True Heart. She peered through the door, and her grim face confirmed his fears.
"What should we do?" he asked. True Heart glanced at the shadows.
"The last time I fought those things, I did a Care Bear Stare. It's…sort of like a spell. You basically concentrate all your positive feelings into light, shoot it out, and it hurts the shadows."
"Do you think I could do that if I tried?" he asked. "How did you even do it?"
"I…don't know," True Heart whispered back. "I just thought of my husband, my positive feelings, and my determination to win…I suppose it's always been more of a reflex than something I learned to do."
"I still don't remember anything," Terrence's voice was barely audible. "About being a Care Bear, I mean. I still don't know if I'm the one you're looking for. But…I'm willing to do anything, if it'll save-
"Well, what have we here?"
"EEK!" True Heart and Terrence both jumped at the unknown, high-pitched voice. Turning around, they came face to face with a girl that had to be only a few years older than Terrence. She had a pale face, a nasty smirk, and a sadistic glint in her eye.
"Intruders? I thought I told that fool to patrol every inch of this place…" she lost her smirk and gained an annoyed look. "Oh well, you'll just have to join the others…wait, what's this?"
Leaning down, the girl studied True Heart closely. Said bear backed up into the wall, glaring at the girl she didn't think she'd see for a long time. A smile slowly began to grow on the girl's face, and as she stood up, she began to laugh.
"I don't believe it!" she exclaimed. "It's one of them! I found one of them! Haha!" she smiled toothily. "Wait till he sees! Just wait till he sees! He's going to be so proud of me!"
"Shrieky!"
The girl's expression turned back to annoyed as harried footsteps grew closer to them. Terrence's eyes bulged as the owner of the sound came running around the corner, nearly crashing into the girl apparently named Shrieky. It was a young man, looking to be around 19, though he certainly wasn't a normal teenager. His face, for starters, had animal features: his nose was rather pig-shaped, his eyes were a sickly yellow color, and his ears were long and pointed with tufts of fur the color of his hair, light brown, on the tips. Two small, curved horns also poked out of his forehead. Secondly, He was wearing what looked like a 20th century pilot's outfit, complete with a pointed pilot hat and goggles. Finally, his voice was unlike anything Terrence had ever heard. It was high-pitched and whiny, yet raspy and gravelly at the same time. It was unexplainable, and combined with the bizarre features he seemed almost-
"Beastly," True Heart gasped. "Is…is that you?"
"Who wants to know?" the man turned around. Looking down, he caught sight of the little tan bear. "Well I'll be, if it isn't one of the Care Bears! I see you've noticed my upgrade," Beastly flexed his arms for emphasis. "Anyway, Shrieky, I was coming to tell you that I found an open door on the first floor! We might have intruders!"
"These ARE the intruders, you idiot," Shrieky said through clenched teeth. Beastly studied Terrence and True Heart for a moment before realization dawned on him.
"Oh…well, what are we gonna do with 'em?" he asked, smiling menacingly at True Heart. Then he turned to Terrence. "Who's this kid, anyway?"
"You don't need to know," True Heart retorted, suddenly feeling extremely protective. "What's important is that we're here to stop you from harming these people!"
"Yeah!" Terrence glared at the two bad guys, who were beginning to feel awfully familiar. "Why are you holding cancer patients hostage? How low could you possibly sink?"
"They are the perfect candidates for Master No Heart's experiments," Shrieky said. "After all, lives that would eventually be lost anyway are the best kind to use for lab rats."
Terrence's pupils shrank. No Heart…That name was so familiar to him, somehow.
"How dare you?!" True Heart shouted. "These people are on the road to recovery. They aren't guaranteed to die!"
"Oh no?" Shrieky smirked. She pushed open the door. "Just look at them."
There had to have been about twenty people in the room. They were all huddled against the far wall, near the window. Their eyes were tired and fearful; they simply stared at the four in the doorway. Some of them had no hair upon their heads, and a few were even lying on the floor, unconscious. Terrence's heart twisted at the sight of his mother, in the middle of the small circle of people. She was lying between two others that were also asleep.
"They're wasting away already," Shrieky sneered. "Even if their treatments do work, they won't live too long. Human lives are horribly short."
"How…how can you be so cruel?" True Heart whispered. "You're even more heartless than before…"
"That's because I'm the opposite of everything you stand for," Shrieky hissed. "I don't care about anything. Nothing. At. All."
The shadows swooped around darkly, reaching out with their smoky claws. True Heart backed up, but she didn't stop glaring at Shrieky.
Terrence wasn't moving. He stood stock-still, his eyes trained on the group of people. Inside, his heart was racing. Blood rushed by his ears, warmth spread through his body, and a firm resolve welled up in his mind. Things were becoming clear to him. The names, the voices…everything made sense now. Sudden memories entered his mind: visions of him dealing with these two before, visions of them in different forms…and visions of that man, that awful, awful man…then came fonder memories...that of him and others, just like him...he shut his eyes tight. When he opened them again, they were glinting with a newfound light.
"You won't be hurting these people, Shrieky," he said. "And No Heart isn't going to get to them. Not while the Care Bears still stand."
"Terrence…" True Heart gasped.
"I wasn't sure at first…but I know who I am now. I remember." True Heart could feel the warmth radiating from Terrence's heart. She saw his hidden strength that had always been beneath his surface. "I am Terrence Lawson, yes…but I'm also a Care Bear." He smiled confidently.
"Defender of the pained,
Comforter of the hurting,
I sense the emotions of the world
So that I may show them they are not alone.
I am Tenderheart Bear!"
"W-What's happening?" Beastly looked around nervously. The shadows above them howled in pain as light began to radiate from the boy. The patients in the room looked on in silent wonder.
Terrence narrowed his eyes in determination. Warmth and comfort flowed through his body, welling up into his very core. True Heart felt the same warmth she had felt that previous night spread through her again. She stood next to Terrence, unaware that her body was changing, growing into a more human form. Terrence didn't notice either, but the villains before them did. They shrank back as light emanated from the two people.
"We are part of the Care Bear family," Terrence said. "Guardians of all that is good and loving. We will not stand for the wrongdoings of those full of hatred!"
"We will protect the people of the world, and show them the way of love and caring!" Tiara Hart added. The two guardians of caring felt something drop into their hands. They gripped the objects, holding them out toward the villains. Tiara turned to Terrence, who nodded at her. The words came to their mouths without a single thought.
"CARE BEAR STARE!"
Bright, warm light flooded the hospital. The shadows hissed and screeched in pain before dissipating into nothingness. Beastly and Shrieky howled, shielding their eyes from the light. The patients were not harmed by this light, and they merely gaped at the people before them.
The light finally began to dim, and when it disappeared completely, Beastly and Shrieky were gone. However, Terrence and Tiara could clearly hear the girl's shrill voice as she escaped through the hospital.
"You won this time, Care Bears!" she screamed. "But you won't win again! No Heart will stop you! He won't lose this time around! Just you wait and see!"
~Z~
Tiara and Terrence were looking over their new forms. Tiara had become human again, though she was now wearing a tan, long-sleeved, bell-cuffed shirt with her tummy symbol on the stomach, lacy white gloves, a short, tan, scallop-hem petticoat skirt, white, lacy, over-knee socks, and white Mary Jane shoes. Terrence now wore a long-sleeve, reddish-brown shirt with two coattails and a red heart edged in white on the stomach: his tummy symbol. He also wore mahogany colored gloves, cinnamon brown corduroys, and ebony boots. The two guardians also discovered the items they had been given; two ballpoint pens, each one the respective coat color of their owner and having their tummy symbol on the top. Upon clicking them, however, their outfits disappeared, and they were back in the normal clothes they had been wearing before battle. In Tiara's case, she was back to wearing the same outfit she'd been wearing the night before: a simple lavender sundress with long sleeves. The woman was about to make a comment when she looked out the window and saw several figures moving toward the hospital's entrance.
"Come on, Terrence," Tiara urged. "The police will be in here any moment now. There are too many questions we won't be able to answer."
"But…" the boy cast a look at his mother, still lying on the floor within the circle of dazed patients. "But the patients…and my mom…"
"I know," Tiara frowned slightly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "But I don't think we'll be able to do anything more for them right now. We should go."
Terrence reluctantly agreed. Casting one last glance at his mother, he followed Treat Heart out of the room and back the way they had come. By the time they were outside, several flashlights were waving around in the room they had been in. Tiara looked up at the night sky, endless questions bouncing around in her mind. Her thoughts were interrupted by Terrence as he cleared his throat.
"How are we going to get back home? I can't bike you now…" he yawned. Tiara realized just how late it must be. They had left the house at around 8:45, though it must have been almost 10:00 by now.
"I don't think you should ride your bike home," she said, her voice sounding motherly. "It's dark out, and you're already exhausted. I'll get us a bus ticket home."
"What about my bike?" Terrence asked sleepily.
"I'll bring it home for you," Tiara said. "I could rent a chain at that shop we passed coming here, then come back and get it." She grabbed the two-wheeler and set it upright. "Come on, now; you've got school tomorrow."
Too tired to argue, Terrence plodded after Tiara. The young woman did just as she had promised; she rented a chain and bound the bicycle to a post outside the bus station. They managed to catch the second to last bus to their small city. Tiara sat with Terrence the whole ride, smiling softly as he tried not to doze off on her shoulder. When they finally reached Carenburg, Terrence could barely walk straight up the stairs. He flopped down on his bed and was asleep before he hit the pillow.
When he awoke with the morning's light, his bike was sitting patiently in the driveway.
~Z~
There you have it! Okay, some important news:
School is back in session, so updates will be slower. I'm cutting it close just posting this today!
Updates will now be on every Monday, though I promise the chapters will be good!
FUN TWO CENTS OF THE DAY: I found the downloads for a bunch of Care Bear soundtracks. I've been listening to Forever Young and Flying My Colors nonstop! :)
Thank you for reading!
~Smiley :)