A/N: I don’t like to do this normally but I don’t wish to spend the first few paragraphs trying to describe every cub that was born in the Kingdom of Caring. So for your enjoyment, the description of the cubs. I must thank ChildatHeart for helping me design most of these cubs, other than Gift Bear, Meek Heart Unicorn, Wild Heart Unicorn and Forge Heart who are my own creations:
Name: Wild Heart Unicorn Sex: Female Parents: Life Heart Unicorn, Sage Heart Bear Description: Meek Heart’s younger twin sister. Orange unicorn with long purple hair, hoof streams and tail tuft Chest Symbol: Red heart with a yellow lightning bolt through it Current Age: 33 months
Name: Meek Heart Unicorn Sex: Male Parents: Life Heart Unicorn, Sage Heart Bear Description: Wild Heart’s elder twin brother. Purple unicorn with short orange hair, hoof streams and tail tuft Chest Symbol: A red heart resting on a white cloud Current Age: 33 months
Name: Radical Heart Rabbit Sex: Male Parents: Swift Heart Rabbit, Funshine Bear (pre-op) Description: Yellow rabbit Chest Symbol: Red heart wearing sunglasses Current Age: 24 months
Name: Nimble Bear Sex: Male Parents: Cheer Bear, Champ Bear Description: Rose gold bear Chest Symbol: A yellow star on a balance beam Current Age: 24 months
Name: Inspiration Bear Sex: Female Parents: Funshine Bear (Post-op), Champ Bear Description: Yellow Bear Chest Symbol: Microphone with a red heart shaped top Current Age: 24 months
Name: Healer Bear Sex: Male Parents: Take Care Bear, Love Heart Bear Description: Gift Bear’s elder twin brother. Light blue fur Chest Symbol: Bandage with a red heart stamp on it Current Age: 24 months
Name: Gift Bear Sex: Female Parents: Take Care Bear, Love Heart Bear Description: Healer Bear’s younger twin sister. Pale green fur Chest Symbol: Yellow gift box with a blue ribbon Current Age: 24 months
Name: Valor Heart Cat Sex: Male Parents: Proud Heart Cat, Loyal Heart Dog Description: Blue cat with dark blue tabby stripes and a fluffy tail like his mother’s Chest Symbol: Red heart wielding a sword and shield Current Age: 24 months
Name: Forge Heart Lioness Sex: Female Parents: Harmony Bear, Brave Heart Lion Description: Black lioness Chest Symbol: Forge hammer resting on a grey anvil with a red heart shaped stamp on the side Current Age: 23 months
Chapter 38: Back to Real Time, Battle in the Ruins
“Can’t catch me, Nimble!” Wild Heart Unicorn stuck out her tongue over her shoulder as she ran across the cloud with the rose gold bear on her tail.
“No fair!” Nimble Bear shouted as he pounded along on his short legs, “You’re older!”
“Ya!” Forge Heart lioness, a black lioness cub, jumped out at Nimble Heart, slamming into her and knocking them both to the ground. Nimble Bear tried to stop but tripped and landed on top of the unicorn and lioness.
Radical Heart Rabbit slowed to a stop and stamped his foot on the clouds, “Aww, I missed it!” Further complaint was stalled when Nimble Bear started crying.
Cheer sprang up from the bench where she and Champ were supervising the cubs and darted over to the pile. She picked her son up and cradled him in her arms, “Shhhh Nimble, it’s alright. Mommy’s here.”
Nimble quieted down as Forge and Wild stood up from the clouds. “Is he OK?” Forge Heart asked.
“Just a little hurt, he’ll be fine, right Nimble?” Cheer looked down at her son.
Nimble nodded, “Yes, mommy.”
“Good,” Cheer set him down, “just don’t hurt yourself.”
Nimble smiled, “OK,” then darted over to Forge Heart, “Tag! You’re it!” then ran off.
“Hey!” Forge Heart shouted and took off after Nimble as Radical Heart and Wild Heart scattered.
“I’m surprised, Cheer,” Champ said as he walked up alongside here, “You’re having fun aren’t you?”
Cheer giggled, “I am now. Reminds me of when we were cubs. Besides I think we all made Life Heart suffer enough for the first year and I didn’t want Nimble to think I was a bad mom.” She leaned up against Champ, “I can’t wait to see how he grows up.”
“Wait for me!” the voice came from Gift Bear, Love Heart and Take Care’s pale green daughter, as she charged across the clouds away from where the other children were playing to join the game of tag.
Nearby, Loyal Heart and Proud Heart were watching the other children play in a huge sandbox. Their son Valor Heart Cat was trying to pack sand into a large bucket and make a sand castle, only for it to fall apart as soon as he pulled the bucket up.
“Stay up!” Valor Heart pouted.
“It’s needs to be wet,” Meek Heart Unicorn shuffled over to Valor Heart, “Like this.” A small blob of water appeared at the tip of his stubby horn and dropped to the sand.
Valor Heart packed the now wet sand into his bucket then upended it, grinning when he saw that the castle piece held. “Thanks.”
Healer Bear, Love Heart and Take Care’s light blue son, sat with Champ and Funshine’s daughter Inspiration Bear playing some sort of game they had made up in the sand.
Proud Heart tried to keep her eyes on the cubs, but she kept finding her eyes drawn back to Loyal Heart even as he was keeping his eyes on their son. She wanted to edge closer to him, to put her arm around his shoulders and snuggle up as they watched their son playing in the sand, she even knew he might accept it as a fellow parent and friend, but it wouldn’t be the same for her. She did her best to push those thoughts out of her head and turned back to the cubs.
For his part, Loyal Heart felt happy watching his son at play. He wished Defiant Heart could be there with him but he was training and they both agreed that he needed to train for the inevitable battles that were to come.
Further thoughts were interrupted by a flash from overhead. Everyone looked up and Valor Heart turned to his parent’s “Mommy, Daddy, what’s that?” he sounded so afraid.
“I don’t know,” Loyal Heart looked up. Then the announcement came over the Kingdom’s PA system in Life Heart’s voice.
“Attention everyone. The time barrier is coming down. Everyone please gather at the Caring Meter. Attention everyone. The time barrier is coming down. Everyone please gather at the Caring Meter.”
“It’s been three years already?” Proud Heart stood up, “I didn’t realize…”
Loyal Heart put a hand on her shoulder, “Let’s get these kids back to their parents,” he picked up his son, “Let’s go see OK?”
Valor Heart smiled, “OK.”
OoOoO
Champ, Cheer, Proud Heart and Loyal Heart ushered the cubs back to their parents but kept their own with them, Defiant joining Loyal Heart and Proud Heart for a moment as they watched the sky pulsing. Love Heart took a moment to say hello to Gift and Healer and kiss Take Care before he went to take his place at the Caring Meter with Confidence Heart, Sweet Heart, Anger Heart, Guidance Heart, with Defiant Heart joining them a moment later.
Anger Heart had six tails now and stood at the same height as Love Heart with a more muscular frame. Guidance Heart was only a little shorter and had matured as well, though other than her height she looked much the same as she had when they arrived in the Kingdom of Caring. Defiant Heart had matured greatly as well, his shoulders much broader and looked, for lack of a better term, ripped. Sweet Heart no longer looked like a child and had shot up like a weed, now only a head shorter than her brother, with wider hips and a B-cup chest.
Each of the Magi were dressed in what they had created to be their “battle uniforms” as Confidence Heart had insisted they all pick something to wear when preparing for battle. Love Heart wearing light brown shorts and t-shirt and a dark brown army cargo vest, Confidence Heart in her gi’s pants with a black belt and a white t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, Anger Heart in a blue tank-top and red shorts, Guidance Heart in a pink blouse and black shorts, Defiant Heart in blue sweats and an orange to-shirt with the front ripped from the neck down almost to the hem to show off his ripped chest, Indy in a white shirt with black pants and a black longcoat, and Sweet Heart wearing a long backless sky-blue dress with a slit all the way up her left leg.
As the sky pulsed, Love Heart spoke, “Alright everyone. I know it feels like three years have passed for us but in the outside world it’s only been three months. We took this vacation from time in order to train for a battle with the Shadow Magi, and that time is nearly up. I know you’re wondering what our plan is and for the moment my plan is to keep everyone safe in here, especially our children.” He smiled towards Take Care who was holding Gift Bear in one arm with Healer Bear holding her hand, “But for something more active: as soon as the shield is down, Sweet Heart and I are flying off to No-Heart’s castle to try and gather information. I’ve talked about this a lot with everyone here and the fact that he disappeared right after he first attacked my family over a year ago, in real time, makes me feel like there’s a connection there.”
Sweet Heart grinned then flexed and gripped her right bicep, showing off muscles that weren’t there when they were sealed, “I’m ready anytime, Love Heart.”
Before anyone else could speak they heard what sounded like a shattering sound as the sky seemed to crack into a thousand pieces, that disappeared to reveal a new and clear sky above them as the tower attached to the top of the Caring Meter shut off.
Confidence Heart gave a thumbs up, “Don’t worry, me and Indy will keep things safe here.”
Love Heart smiled and gave Confidence a kiss, “I never doubted it. Ready, Sweet Heart?”
Sweet Heart Pegasus spread her wings, which had gown much larger, “Let’s go!” she jumped into the air and flapped up, followed by Love Heart who launched into the sky though aerokinetics then both took off towards No-Heart’s castle.
On the ground, Wild Heart Unicorn folded her arms and pouted, “I wanna go with them!”
“Now now, it’s too dangerous and you haven’t even started your magic lessons,” Life Heart stroked the orange filly’s purple hair.
“Magic lessons are boring!” She stomped a foot on the clouds.
“They’re fun,” Meek Heart tried to comfort his twin sister, but she just turned away.
Sage Heart sighed, “Let her pout, she’ll learn when she’s ready.”
OoOoO
Flash Heart dodged aside as a heavy blow from Passion Heart’s axe cut a deep gash into the ground. He swung his light sword at the axe and sliced right through the haft then rounded on Passion Heart and kicked him in the chest, which sent him reeling for a moment before he charged again. Passion Heart shot out a huge blast of darkness that seemed to envelope Flash Heart.
Passion Heart bared his fangs in a sinister grin, right up until chains from Flash Heart’s kusari-gama wrapped around his torso and neck and he gave a tug to incapacitate him. The weapon dissipated as Passion Heart fell forwards. Flash Heart stepped over him and walked away only for Passion Heart to let out a growl and fire off a wave of darkness at him. Flash Heart didn’t even turn around but shot his hand backward, and fired off a spiraling beam of yellow light that evaporated the darkness and struck Passion in his shoulder, right next to a glowing green orb stuck there. Flash Heart mentally cursed himself for missing.
“Alright, that’s enough.” Soul Heart stepped forwards and rolled Passion Heart onto his back. Orbs that glowed with a sickly green light were attached all over Passion’s body: one on the back of each hand, one on the top of each shoulder, one on the top of each foot, one in the middle of his chest (on top of his chest symbol), one in the middle of his forehead and all of them the size of a cherry. “Your 200th straight victory, Flash Heart, I’m impressed.” She looked up at Flash Heart.
Flash Heart didn’t have any glowing orbs on his body but his old clothing was in tatters, his pants had been ripped apart below the knees and his shirt and longcoat had been torn apart and the remains crudely stitched together, leaving his right arm and shoulder completely uncovered with a white shirt over his torso and a long black left sleeve with a short trailing black scarf coming off his left shoulder.
Flash Heart stared down as Passion Heart with a mix of disdain and pity, “Even with all that magical enhancement he’s still pathetic.” He turned and marched back towards his house.
“Alright then,” Soul Heart levitated Passion Heart up on a dark cloud, “Time for another infusion.”
Flash Heart slumped down on his couch as soon as he got home and looked down at his scarred arm and torso. For the last three months all of the Shadow Magi, other than Shatter Heart and Blade Star, had been pitted against each other in one-on-one fights every day, often two or three times and every time someone lost Soul Heart would haul them to her home and stick one of those glowing orbs on their bodies, amplifying their strength and magical power but driving them to more and more feral savagery. Now everyone had eight of them affixed to their bodies, some larger than the others as they had lost more, all of them except Flash Heart.
Flash Heart knew that Soul Heart suspected him of being disloyal and that the increased aggression also seemed to make them fanatically loyal to Soul Heart, much like her two lackeys. Flash Heart had to be tougher, motivated to get stronger with each victory, forcing himself to use his kinetics for healing to the point that every day after he got home he collapsed in a heap on his bed and often woke up in an awkward position, until this month when he hit his breakthrough and somehow became strong enough to keep going without burning through his energy every day.
He sighed and leaned against the back of his couch to stare at the ceiling, “Tarot Heart, where are you?” He turned to look at the abandoned bedroom where his little brother had once slept. Flash Heart had used whatever spare time he could muster to try and find Tarot Heart, but with a whole world to search and barely enough time to recover between fights and forcing himself to keep going… He turned back to the ceiling, “I’m not sure if I’m sad I can’t find you or happy you aren’t here to suffer through this.
Flash Heart sat there for about twenty minutes before he finally stood up, surprisingly still full of energy. “It’s been long enough. I need to find out what happened to mom.”
Flash Heart Bear stepped out of his house and looked around. Everyone was back in their homes where they spent all their time not being forced into duels or being augmented sleeping and eating, they had no time for anything else these days. Green flashes emanated from Soul Heart’s home which meant she was augmenting Passion Heart again. Good, as long as she was occupied he had some freedom to do what he wanted. But how to leave?
Flash Heart stared down at his chest symbol. Creating one of the vehicles the Care Bears Family used wasn’t possible for them yet, none of them had learned to use their chest symbols for more than the conjure their weapons, and some hadn’t even learned that, and Flash Heart’s kinetics didn’t let him fly or hover, the best he could do was teleport short distances. He looked up at the clouds that dotted the sky then towards where he knew the castle of No-Heart stood. He looked in that direction often, wondering how things had gone so wrong.
Flash Heart took a deep breath, “It’s now or never.” He concentrated, then vanished in a flash of light. He reappeared a short distance up and immediately began to fall, but only a short distance until he vanished in a flash of light again. This was hardly ideal as he only had a moment to orient himself once he reappeared before he teleported again if he wanted to keep ascending, losing about a meter or two for the moments that he reappeared as he chain-teleported slowly up into the sky.
Blade Star Bear watched Flash Heart’s departure from the window of Soul Heart’s house then turned to watch the purple bear as she pushed a tiny pin-prick of green energy into the orb in Passion’s forehead.
“Lady Soul Heart, Flash Heart has departed to the castle.”
Shatter Heart grinned, “Want us to take care of him?”
Soul Heart waved off their concerns as she pushed the energy into the orb, which made the unconscious wolverine grunt. “Let him go, he won’t find anything anyway.”
“My lady, why have you not augmented him? Surely he would be easier to control if he was infused, even if he keeps winning,” Blade Star looked down at the wolverine.
“He could turn against us at any moment, why risk it?” Shatter Heart shrugged.
Soul Heart turned to them with an evil grin on her face, “Because he has done something I thought impossible, he has surpassed any augmentation I could have given and through that adversity he has become much stronger and now,” she tapped the orb on Passion’s chest, “I have enough hostages that he won’t think of opposing my decisions. It’s good to have someone with their senses intact and their power at full for the most desperate of times. Flash Heart has even surpassed the two of you no matter how much I enhance you, though he can still tire and if he betrays us he will be surrounded by family who will be all too willing to kill him while he doesn’t raise a finger to fight back.”
OoOoO
“How are you holding up, Sweet Heart?” Love Heart called to his sister as the castle’s dark clouds came into view.
Sweet Heart grinned and flapped her wings a couple times, “I feel great! I finally get to stretch my wings for real!” She turned a quick roll in mid-air then leveled off.
Love Heart smirked. His own aerokinetic flight had become effortless by now but Sweet Heart still relied mainly on her wings. She had developed a technique that merged aerokinetics and pyrokinetics to create artificial thermals that allowed her to exert the minimum effort to keep herself on course and even hover in place without burning too much energy. Thoughts about his sister’s innovative flight method were pushes aside as the castle came fully into view.
“It’s in ruins.” Love Heart whispered, though Sweet Heart still heard him as they landed.
“What the hell happened here?” Sweet Heart folded her arms but kept her winds spread.
Part of the castle’s roof had caved in and several of the walls were pierced by large holes. The front door stood in its arch in defiance of the damage to the rest of the castle. Sweet Heart didn’t wait for a moment before she opened the front door.
“Stop!” Love Heart cringed as the door creaked open, expecting the arch to collapse on them.
Sweet Heart winced and held still until the noise stopped, then relaxed and grinned, “No harm done.”
“But it could have,” Love Heart gave his sister a glare, “This whole place is in ruins and any part could collapse if you agitate it. Don’t go pushing on walls or opening big doors, OK?”
Sweet Heart wilted slightly, then stood straight up, “OK. Now let’s go.” She stepped carefully over some rubble followed by Love Heart.
Piles of rubble lay all over the inside of the castle and there were even more holes in the walls. The eight-pointed-stars on the siblings’ heads lit up and several glowing balls were loosed to hover around the entrance room.
“Can you feel it sis?” Love Heart looked around.
“Yeah, but it’s faint. Magic,” Sweet Heart touched a wall where there was an impact indent, “There was a fight here.”
“Kinetics,” Love Heart examined a mark on the wall, “I’ll bet the Shadow Magi were behind this.” He looked around, “Where’s our wizardly welcoming committee? And why would he let his home stay in ruins? Brave Heart said the place has been damaged before and he kept rebuilding it so why not now?”
“Unless he’s-” Sweet Heart whipped her head around as she heard scrabbling and saw a shadow on the wall. With a snort she charged off, leaping and smashing through a half destroyed door.
“Sweet Heart!” Love Heart charged towards the sounds of a struggle.
“OWOWOWOWOW! Let me go!” a whiny voice pleaded. Love Heart arrived just in time to see Sweet Heart holding a scraggly brown furry creature with a pig-like nose by his sides and off the floor; he had skinny arms and legs and was wearing a spiked hat with flight goggles.
“Stop struggling and I might!” Sweet Heart scowled, then turned to grin at her brother, “Look who I caught.”
Love Heart sighed softly in relief then looked the creature up and down, “You must be Mr. Beastly.”
Beastly struggled to escape Sweet Heart’s grip but she didn’t even wince as she held him still. “Yes, now let me go!”
“Only if you don’t run,” Sweet Heart said.
“I won’t! I won’t! Put me down!” Beastly struggled even harder.
Sweet Heart gave a look to Love Heart, who nodded and set him down. Beastly immediately tried to run and Sweet Heart shot a hand forwards, rocky shackles rising up around Beastly’s feet and rooting him in place. “Hey!” Beastly reached down and tried to pull his feet free. “You’re one of them!”
Love Heart walked around to Beastly’s front, “One of who?”
“The Care Bears that killed No-Heart!”
Love Heart and Sweet Heart exchanged shocked expressions, both were thinking the exact same thing: The Shadow Magi.
Sweet Heart walked around in front of Beastly and crouched down, softening her gaze, “What happened? Who was it?”
Despite his fear, Sweet Heart’s now gentle voice soothed Beastly into talking, “Other Care Bears, I never saw them before. They came in here and started attacking.”
Love Heart took a firmer line with Beastly, “What else happened?”
“I don’t know!” Beastly shook his head, “I ran to hide when the magic started flying everywhere!”
“How long ago was that?” Sweet Heart asked.
Beastly tried to count on his fingers, but gave up when he ran out, “A long time ago.”
“I’m guessing at least 15 months,” Love Heart said.
“Maybe?” Beastly scrunched up his face.
“Have you just been living here alone?” Sweet Heart subtly removed the earthen shackles from Beastly’s feet.
Beastly nodded, “Yeah, and it’s my home now!” He did a little dance in place, “No No-Heart, no Shreeky, no one except me and my castle.”
“Castle in ruins,” Love Heart said. “Looks like we have our answer. Wait?” Love Heart turned his head, “Sweet Heart, can you hear that?”
Sweet Heart stood up and put a hand to her ear, hearing the faint noise of strange pulses coming closer and closer.
Beastly freaked out, “It’s them! They’ve come to finish me!” He bolted before either of them could grab him.
“Worry about him later, we have company,” Love Heart whispered. Sweet Heart nodded and they split up but both headed towards the noises, simultaneous snuffing out their balls of light as they did so.
Flash Heart finally spotted the castle after one of his teleports, adjusted his aim and teleported again. He fell short and tried to grab a ledge then warped again and landed on the edge of a ruined wall. He surveyed the damage, “Hasn’t changed at all.” He climbed over the wall and looked around.
Love Heart pressed himself against the wall next to the doorway and peaked out at Flash Heart as he walked through the castle. The yellow bear looked like he had been through hell, scarred and with his clothes in far from pristine condition.
Sweet Heart crouched behind a mostly collapsed wall, relying on her hearing to keep track of Flash Heart. Her hoof slipped and jostled from rock.
Flash Heart whirled around, “Hello? Who’s there?” He conjured a ball of light in his left hand and held it up like a torch. Sweet Heart held her breath as Flash Heart approached but tensed herself for an attack.
Flash Heart stopped near the wall, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t want to start blasting away in an already structurally damaged building, nonetheless he created a light sword in his right hand and held it up as he resumed his search.
Sweet Heart didn’t exhale until the light had moved on, then poked her head out over the wall. She and Love Heart caught each other’s gaze, nodded to each other and Sweet Heart pointed off in the general direction that Flash Heart had gone. Love Heart nodded and then both snuck off, trying to follow Flash Heart without alerting him.
Flash Heart remained unaware of his pursuers but didn’t let his guard down until he arrived where No-Heart’s throne had once stood, now smashed to pieces on the floor. A noise from nearby made Flash Heart jump and he reflexively fired off a blast of light at the source of the noise. Beastly gave a yelp of panic and he took off.
Sweet Heart had been tense as well and Beastly had been hiding right beside her. She panicked and jumped out of hiding, a blast of fire shooting from her hand. Flash Heart was too surprised to recognise his attacker as he dodged aside then charged at her, trying to slice into her with a light sword, which she dodged by jumping upwards with a flap of her wings.
“Sweet Heart!” Love Heart jumped through the door and conjured his swords. He charged towards Flash Heart right as he turned around, the yellow bear just barely managing to block Love Heart’s swords as they clashed.
Sweet Heart flew up and dove towards Flash Heart, landing a vicious kick to his back with her hoof. Flash Heart reeled and suddenly disappeared, warping away.
“He teleported!” Love Heart and Sweet Heart both whirled around and pressed their backs together. Sweet Heart’s chest symbol glowed and a pair of silver hoof shoes appeared over her feet (not horseshoes that nailed into her hooves, but silver tube-like shoes that covered the hoof entirely and went halfway up her feet).
“Keep your ears open,” fire and wind whirled around Sweet Heart’s hands, “He’s still here.”
Flash Heart had teleported on to an exposed ledge just above the siblings and was crouched while he healed his back. His reflexes were still taut but he hadn’t wanted to fight. He tried to stand and knocked some rocks loose, one of which hit Sweet Heart on the head.
“Up there!” Sweet Heart shot up without a second thought and brought her hands together, igniting the air and unleashing a stream of purple fire at Flash Heart, only to strike right through an illusion as Flash Heart jumped back surrounded by four identical copies of himself that constantly shifted position.
“You’ve grown up fast!” Flash Heart commented as he conjured his Kusari-gama.
Sweet Heart grinned, “You have no idea!” Then charged at him face first.
Flash spun the weighted end of his weapon and hurled it at Sweet Heart, who dodged aside only for her wings to get snared by the chain. Sweet Heart cried out in pain as Flash Heart threw all his weight in the opposite direction she was flying and smashed her into a wall before he jumped and yanked the chain to propel himself forwards, sickle blade ready to strike.
A blast of wind knocked him off course as Love Heart charged in, his electrified swords slicing through the weapon’s chain, which made the length and weight attached to Sweet Heart evaporate, “Don’t hurt my sister!” Love Heart rounded on Flash Heart and swung his swords upwards and out, sending an X-shaped blast of blue lightning at him. Another of Flash Heart’s illusory duplicates shattered at the hit and Flash Heart shot out his left hand, fingers spread wide to unleash five lasers from his fingertips right at Love Heart. Three missed but two hit home, piercing through his vest and knocking him back.
Flash Heart dropped the sickle end of his weapon, making it dissolve and conjured a brilliant white sword that looked like sunlight dancing across the water in his right hand and charged, the duplicates around him reappearing which made it look like there were six Flash Hearts.
As the bright light sword met Love Hearts solid ones, Sweet Heart pulled herself up. Her wings hurt but not enough to disable her and she charged right in, fists covered in molten rock and she punched Flash Heart, but missed even the duplicates only to deliver a pushing kick that, by sheer change, hit home in Flash Heart’s stomach. Love Heart jumped back and dropped his swords.
“Gotta thin the herd,” he brought his hands together as Sweet Heart dodged away from Flash’s light sword. Lightning gathered in Love Heart’s hands, turning purple and condensing into a small sphere. Sweet Heart saw this out of the corner of her eye and waited for the signal.
“Plasma Globe!” Love Heart’s shout made both Sweet Heart and Flash Heart jump away, though Sweet Heart flew back behind her brother as he fired the small purple sphere of plasma, seemingly in the wrong direction.
Flash Heart looked pleased as the orb sailed right by him, until a dozen strings of plasma erupted from the orb and danced around the room. Three whipped right at him before he could react and sliced through all his illusions, evaporating them right before the ball struck the wall and exploded to blow a chunk of stone away.
At that same instant, Sweet Heart flew up and conjured a ball of water and earth, “DORODOKEN!” She brought them together and fired off a large ball of mud at Flash.
Flash Heart was bowled over but managed to right himself despite being covered in mud. He barely had time to react as Love Heart charged in and slashed down at him, just barely blocking Love Heart’s swords with two of his own. The two of them planted their feet and dueled, slashing at each other and each trying to weave their swords under the other’s assault. Tiny cuts appeared all over their bodies as the blades just barely weaved in and out.
Sweet Heart landed behind Love Heart and held her hands up, water, fire, wind and earth gathering in his hands. Love Heart locked his swords and pressed Flash Heart. Flash Heart’s eyes widened as Sweet Heart fired off the four elements at her brother’s back, only for them to split apart, fly around behind him and slam hard into Flash Heart’s back.
Flash Heart reeled and Love Heart took his chance, he swung his swords up and down through Flash Heart’s shoulders. Flash Heart felt his arms go limp as the magical weapons paralyzed his arms. Sweet Heart wasted no time and jumped over, kicking at both of Flash Heart’s knees, her silver hoofshoes going cleanly through his joints and paralyzing his legs. Flash Heart fell backwards, exhausted and unable to even try and rise.
Love Heart panted and sheathed his swords on his back, “Good job, sis.”
Sweet Heart folded her wings and swiped her brow, “No problem. Now what do we do with him?”
“I’m still awake,” Flash Heart glared back at them. “Why not finish me off?”
“If I wanted to, you’d be missing both arms,” Love Heart crouched in front of Flash Heart, “Instead I want to know something: why are you after us?”
“And what happened here?” Sweet Heart folded her arms, “Mr. Beastly said you killed No-Heart.”
Flash Heart averted his gaze for a moment and sighed, “That’s really only one question, and I came here to find out.”
The siblings each gave Flash Heart a confused look so he continued, “I didn’t kill No-Heart, Soul Heart did and it was after that when things fell apart.”
Love Heart stood up, “Well you’ve got time until your limbs start working again, so tell us everything.”
