Marina was sleeping over at Love Heart and Confidence Heart’s place with Flair and Mira so Tugs was alone at home. He sat on his and Contrary Heart’s bed with the datapad containing his wife’s future message in hand, watching one section from his wife’s letter that had been hidden behind a file marked: “Don’t show to Marina”.
“Don’t keep hiding your powers from everyone, they could make all the difference. Tell Hope and Chance the same thing.”
“Found it too?” Connie asked, having just arrived at the tail end of the message.
“Yeah,” Tugs set the datapad aside. “Are we going to tell everyone?”
“Maybe…Just not right now,” Connie sat down next to Tugs, “I know it make a huge difference but…I’m just not ready to tell everyone we’ve been keeping this a secret for years.”
Tugs sighed, “I wish I had a secret worth keeping.”
“Aww,” Connie gave Tugs a kiss on the cheek, “I think it’s great, Tugs, don’t be so down. Imagine what you could learn.”
“Like the history of Grams’ cookie trays?” Tugs rolled his eyes but smiled anyway, “Thanks, Connie.”
“So keep it under the hat for now?”
“Yeah,” Tugs lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, “For now.”
Connie lay down next to him, “OK. Don’t worry though. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Tugs rolled over and gave Connie a kiss, “Supper?”
“If you’re cooking,” Connie snickered.
OoOoO
For most people sleep and the dreams it brought was a refuge from the real world, but for Soulful Heart Fox they were anything but. Waking up was the first relief each day afforded him as he pulled himself out of bed to find breakfast. Soulful Heart had nightmares every night, always horrible and none he wished to discuss with anyone around him. This was no accident or even a psychological problem (though some might disagree) but a leftover “present” from No-Heart, one he couldn’t get rid of.
Nightmares were the last thing on Soulful’s mind this morning, they were drawn to the message her had received from his future self. He was psionic, or so he had said to himself, but should he seek training for it? If he wasn’t aware of what the future had in store it was likely he would have likely just ignored this revelation and went on with his life but now…
He finished his breakfast, dropped his dishes in the dishwasher and left his house. If he could do anything about it then that future wasn’t going to occur. Maybe it was impossible but now he would do anything to prevent the deaths of the Care Bear Family, his family. He couldn’t help but smile to himself.
“Hey, Soulful, where ya headed?” The voice came from Sweet Heart Pegasus as she trotted up alongside her with three books in her arms.
“The Great Fox. I have some business there,” Soulful said.
“OK.” Sweet Heart didn’t speak for a moment then asked, “So should I just leave my book returns in your mailbox?”
“If you want. I need to get a book return slot,” Soulful mused.
“I could ask Anger Heart to install one for you,” Sweet Heart offered.
“Thanks. Maybe ask him to come by tonight when I get home.” Soulful said.
“OK, I’ll see you then, bye!” Sweet Heart took off.
Soulful had grown to appreciate the young winged horse’s company. He had initially expected her to be an over-enthusiastic chatterbox who would get into everything whether she was asked to or not; her pink fur didn’t help the comparison between her and Cheer Bear with wings and therefore nearly impossible to avoid. It turned out that she was surprisingly sensitive and considerate… well maybe not “surprising” since he didn’t know her until she joined them in the Kingdom of Caring. To call her “high energy” would be accurate but she wasn’t sugar-rush bouncing off the walls energetic like he feared, at least not anymore as she had buzzed around the Kingdom of Caring trying to learn about everything there in her first few weeks until she knew where everything was.
It was Sweet Heart’s desire to learn that drew her to Soulful Heart. Not having grown up with computers she found reading much more engaging than most humans Soulful encountered these days. She wasn’t a kid anymore and he had watched her grow up from an excitable teenager into a respectable young woman, one who stopped by his house and library every other day not only to borrow and read books but to chat with him and even ask for recommendations when she couldn’t decide what to read.
When Soulful emerged from the Forest of Feelings he was surprised to see Tenderheart Bear walking towards the mercenary team’s landed carrier. The brown bear stopped, then teetered on his feet before turning around and almost heading back to his home, until he saw Soulful Heart.
“Hey Soulful,” Tenderheart waved.
“Hello.” Soulful’s reply was curt and he didn’t slow his pace.
“What brings you here?” Tenderheart turned to watch Soulful as he walked past him and towards the Great Fox’s lowered docking ramp.
Soulful pause a few steps from the end of the ramp. “I’m going to ask Peppy to teach me how to use psionics.”
“So was I…” Tenderheart’s voice trailed off.
This caught Soulful off guard and he turned to face Tenderheart, who was staring at his feet. “Was?”
“Yeah I mean,” Tenderheart took a deep breath, “Futureheart is me, from the future and he’s psionic that means I am too. But I’m afraid of what it will do to me if I do, that I’ll turn out like him.”
“Unless you spend five years trapped on this ship fighting a hopeless war I doubt it,” Soulful Heart turned fully to face Tenderheart, “Are you scared?”
“Yes.”
Soulful Heart couldn’t resist a smirk, “At least you admit it.” He looked Tenderheart up and down, seeing the Care Bears’ leader as small and weighed down by his own thoughts. “Don’t let anyone see you scared or everyone will suffer.” He turned back and walked up the docking ramp.
Tenderheart only had to think on Soulful’s words for a moment before he stood up straight and marched up alongside Soulful as they entered the docking bay. They had been shown how to use one of the wall-mounted panels to communicate with the rest of the ship and Tenderheart made it there first.
“This is Tenderheart Bear calling Peppy Hare, are you here?”
“This is Peppy. To what I owe the pleasure, Prime-minister.” Peppy’s voice came through the speaker on the panel.
Tenderheart smirked at the use of his official title but it was Soulful Heart who spoke, “We’re here to ask for your help with Psionic training. We were told that you and Fara psionics.”
“Yes, we are. Hold on a moment, I’ll meet you in the docking bay.” The comm shut off.
“That was rather abrupt,” Tenderheart turned to Soulful, who just nodded.
A few minutes later, Peppy stepped onto the docking bay and walked over to the two. “Welcome aboard the Great Fox. Tenderheart and…” Peppy paused for a moment.
“Soulful Heart Fox,” the fox replied.
“Ahh yes. I assume you’re here because of this,” he held up his own future-message datapad.
Soulful nodded, “Yes, my future self told me I had psionic potential and that I should train it in case it helps with what’s to come.”
“And Futureheart is me from the future so I wanted to do the same.” Tenderheart said.
Peppy nodded, “Very well. I can sense psionic potential in both of you. We should get started right away. Please come with me to my quarters.”
Soulful Heart and Tenderheart hesitated for a moment, then followed the middle-aged hare.
Peppy’s quarters weren’t as Spartan as they had been expecting, but they were small with a few pictures of who they assumed were family. He turned to face them once the door slid shut behind him. “Now then, I need to know if either of you have experienced any strange phenomena in your life, or should I say any that would be evidence of your psionic abilities awakening.”
“I have,” Soulful said. Tenderheart turned to look at him as the fox continued, “Over a decade ago after a member of our family named Flash Heart Bear was killed, I saw his ghost at the funeral and I know Independent Bear saw him as well.”
“Yes, the other resident psion. I could sense him as soon as I saw him. Anything else?” Peppy asked.
Soulful shook his head, “No. I didn’t think much of it after that.”
“And you, Prime-minister?” Peppy turned to Tenderheart.
Tenderheart held up a hand, “Just Tenderheart, and no I haven’t.”
“Alright, so we’re starting from the basics then.” Peppy looked them up and down, “First thing you need to do is tap into that reservoir of psionic energy that lies inside your minds…”
OoOoO
“Hurry up and finish cleaning furball! I have plans to make!” Shrieky sat on No-Heart’s throne and watched the fuzzy brown pig creature running around and trying to get things cleaned up, even though the mess was all Shrieky’s doing.
Beastly hadn’t changed at all in over a decade, not that anyone would have noticed. Shrieky, on the other hand, had grown up, physically if not mentally. She was not a young woman and wore a purple sorcerer’s robe without a hood or sleeves and her purple and green hair still done back in the ponytail. While she kept backups, her original magic mirror was mounted on a long spiraled staff that she kept at her side at all times.
“I need to find a way to stop those Care Bears and prove that I, Empress Shrieky, am the most powerful evil sorceress in the world!” She banged her staff on the floor which echoed throughout the castle.
A crackling noise from nearby caused Shrieky to jump to her feet. “What’s going on in my thunder pit!” she shrieked and marched over to the magic laboratory, Beastly right on her heels.
The Thunder Pit was a deep stone well filled with thunderclouds that crackled with constant lightning, a massive pool of magical energy and one of the major sources of No-Heart’s magic, one that Shrieky still tried to tap into.
As soon as Shrieky stepped into the laboratory she was someone rise out of the pit and carrying a cloud in his hands that sparked with lightning.
Shrieky didn’t hesitate and pointed his mirror-topped staff at him. “YOU! How dare you intrude on the castle of Empress Shrieky!”
Mental Heart just looked up at her without a hint of emotion in his dark eyes. “You’re not worth my time, I have what I came for.” He turned to leave only for a blast of green energy from Shrieky’s staff blasted the ground in front of him.
“Not so fast! You’re not going anywhere with my thunder pit! Beastly! Grab him!” Shrieky pointed her staff at Mental Heart.
“Right away, Empress Shrieky!” Beastly scrabbled forwards, then stopped in his tracks.
“Don’t stand there, Furball! Get him!” Shrieky shouted.
“He can’t move,” Mental Heart turned to face Shrieky as he held the piece of the thunder pit in his left hand, “He’s not worth my time and neither are you.”
“Why you! You!” Shrieky took a deep breath, “AAAAAAAAAAAAA-” right as she was starting one of her namesake shrieks Shrieky’s voice caught in her throat as she felt her windpipe compressed. She found herself staring into eyes that were full of a quiet cruelty, as vicious as her uncle’s and father’s.
When he spoke, his voice was level but she couldn’t help but shudder at the cold viciousness in his voice, “Let’s make one thing clear, my name is Mental Heart and if I wanted you dead then you already would be. The same with this creature that passes for your familiar, or your servant more likely. You play at being an empress yet all you rule is this abandoned castle full of lore and power you can barely understand. You haven’t made a single move against the Care Bears in years and I don’t blame you, any of the Magi could outmatch you easily. Stay here and play your silly games, empress, while the real powers of this world leave you in the dust.” Mental Heart released his hold on the two and Shrieky and Beastly fell to the ground. By the time they looked up, Mental Heart was gone.
Now that the danger was gone, Shrieky’s bravado returned as she stood up and scowled. “That’s it, Beastly! Get up! It’s time we got ready to destroy the Care Bear Family!”
“Yes, b-b-b-boss!”
OoOoO
The first psionics lesson wasn’t anything too strenuous, but it was still a third-eye opening experience for Soulful and Tenderheart. The brown bear stumbled out of the landing bay and towards his home. Soulful didn’t feel as drained, not physically at least, the training didn’t even compare to the torture he’d endured at No-Heart’s hands. Regardless he could feel the changes ever so slightly, a new sense he never knew he’d had, like a deaf person suddenly being able to hear. But it would still be days, if not weeks, before anything came of it.
As soon as he was home, Soulful remembered his conversation with Sweet Heart and pulled his heartphone out and texted Sweet Heart and Anger Heart to come over. Ten years ago he’d expected the young fox’s volatile temper would prove an imposition but now, he would dare say he called him a friend as they showed a great respect for each other. For the moment, he would just see about getting that book return slow installed.
OoOoO
Futureheart’s world was consumed in darkness when he awoke, only the sounds of the nanite healing chamber let him know that he was still awake. No… he could sense someone’s presence outside and he sent out a telepathic message, ‘are you going to let me out of here now?’ The muffled replies from outside really made Futureheart wish he could read minds and not just send telepathic messages.
A small crack of light nearly blinded Futureheart as the lid cracked open and when his vision returned he saw Take Care and Bright Heart standing over him.
Bright Heart whistled, “Looks like it worked.”
“Hmm?” Futureheart sat up and looked into a large mirror that had been set up for him. His body had been reshaped, he was about 20 centimeters taller and he had what could be described as a more toned body contrasting the teddy bear-like appearance that the rest of the Care Bear Family. His tummy symbol was still there as was his heart shaped nose (and butt-stamp) but he did look much more like a lylatian than a Care Bear now, just like Confidence Heart Kitsune.
“Alright, check-up time,” Take Care pulled Futureheart to his feet.
Futureheart stumbled as he tried to adjust to his new weight distribution but nodded, “No, I need to talk to our leaders as soon as I can.”
“After your check-up. I need to make sure this chamber left you stable.” Futureheart was about to protest when he caught Take Care’s look. As tough as she had been, Future Take Care had been worn down enough that he could have ordered her to let it go, but here she was just as vital and strong-willed as ever.
So he relented, “Alright.” He picked up his old uniform from the wall, then looked down at himself, “I’m going to need Grams to make me a new uniform.”
An hour later, Take Care pronounced Futureheart to be healthy and sent him on his way, where he stopped by Grams to ask her to modify his Star Fox Uniform so he could wear it on his new physique, half an hour later he left her to her sewing and called Fox, Tenderheart, Brave Heart and Love Heart to a meeting. The small leaders’ office in the Hall of Hearts proved even with just two more people inside it. Fox and Futureheart were forced to stand as Futureheart spoke.
“The U.N. meeting where you formally introduce the Star Fox Team to the world is in two days, right?”
Tenderheart nodded at his future counterpart, “Yes.”
“Good, I’m going there with you and you need to introduce me as a member of Star Fox, Ursus Futur.”
This made Brave Heart snicker, “Bear of the future?”
Futureheart sighed, “Alright so I’m not good with names, but I need to keep my cover, now-”
“Hold on,” Fox McCloud grabbed Futureheart’s shoulder and turned him around, “You might be Star Fox’s commander in the future but right here, I’m in command. I’ll accept you as part of my crew, designate you as the test pilot for the new prototype Arwing Mk V, but this is my team.”
“I agree,” Love Heart stood up, “We appreciate your warning, Futureheart, and we’ll follow your advice, but this is our world and we will make the decisions about what happens.”
“Right, so why don’t you go get some sleep upstairs and let us sort things out,” Brave Heart stood up and ushered him out the door.
Futureheart turned to look at his past self, but Tenderheart was unmoved, “If you’re me you know how I feel about this. Let us handle our lives and we’ll take your advice about future events.”
“Alright, just be careful,” Futureheart said as he was forced out. He stared at the closed door, then sighed and headed up to his room.
There wasn’t much else to do as he waited for his uniform to be refitted and for the meeting day to begin. He stared over at the box that had been full of the future messages. Then he saw something. He’s missed it before but there was a small compartment in the bottom, underneath where all the other letters had been. Inside he found another datapad with words written on the back ‘For Future Tenderheart’. Futureheart was confused and sat down on his bed to watch the message.
A picture of Bright Heart appeared, it looked like it was in the docking bay of the Fox McCloud. He looked left and right before he turned back to the camera. “Tenderheart, if you’re seeing this it means the plan was a success. You’re in the past and hopefully you’re going to change everything. I know it’s a lot of responsibility but I know you can do it.” He took a deep breath then continued, “There’s one thing I forgot to mention. I know you probably guessed this but this trip was one way, the psychonite will be spent by the time you get where you’re going but that’s not all. Time travel…doesn’t work like you think it does, actually it’s doesn’t really work at all. You haven’t gone back in time, you’ve been taken out of time and time has been…rewound. As soon as you started travelling backwards, everything from the future onwards of when you are now ceased to exist, me, Cheer, everything we accomplished and everything that was lost never happened, I no longer exist and neither does anyone else we fought alongside in this timeline. As for you: the real function of the time drive and the psychonite was to separate you from the timeline so you could change everything without being erased. You’re a temporal leftover and I don’t know what you’re going to do with yourself after this just please, know that you can make a difference! I hope you preserve the letters, they’re the only proof that any of us ever existed now.”
Futureheart stare at the datapad in shock as the recording finished, then dropped it and buried his face in his hands and wept.
OoOoO
Fox McCloud adjusted the translator pendant around his neck as he stepped out of the Cloud Car along with Prime-Minister Tenderheart, Foreign Minister Brave Heart and Prince General Love Heart in their formal UN uniforms (Tenderheart and Brave Heart in suits and Love Heart in his dress uniform) and the rest of his Team, including the newest member ‘Ursus Futur’, even Kat with her daughter Kalico asleep in her arms.
Futureheart looked up at the U.N. building, a hundred memories flooding into his mind then he turned to Love Heart, who was standing next to him. “One more thing before we go in: I think there are more lost Care Bears on Earth, we need to see if we can get a provision to relocate them to the Kingdom of Caring for their safety.”
“I’ll try, but let’s take things one step at a time,” Love Heart answered.
The tension in the U.N. assembly hall was thick enough to cut with a knife as the Star Fox Team marched up to the central podium along with Love Heart Bear and Brave Heart, neither of whom were used to being in the main hall.
Usually Tenderheart sat in his appointed seat near the back of the hall, being at the main podium was a new experience for him. He cleared his throat before he spoke into the microphone.
“One week ago, we detected the presence of a starship heading towards Earth, containing the first extraterrestrial lifeforms ever contacted by humans, or Care Bears. For the last week we have been talking to them and learning about them. I know what you’re thinking: they look like earth animals or even Care Bears, but according to what we’ve learned they are definitely extraterrestrial. There’s a lot to get through but I’d like to turn the floor over to Fox McCloud.” Tenderheart stepped aside to let Fox speak.
“OK, first I want to thank the Care Bear Family for giving me this translator pendant so I can talk to you today. My name is Fox McCloud and I lead the Star Fox Team,” he gestured behind him, “From what their science minister, Bright Heart, has told me I know you were expecting your first contact to be a more important occasion, but we’re not scientists or explorers, we’re mercenaries.” A few murmurs passed through the assembly before Fox continued, “We didn’t expect to find any star systems inhabited by other sentient species and when we return to our home system, Lylat, we’ll tell them about this place and hopefully they’ll send someone more qualified to conduct diplomacy.”
“Does this mean you won’t be sharing your advanced technology with us?” A voice came from the assembly.
“We can’t leave the actual technology behind, we need it for our mission, but we are willing to share the schematics for most of our technology with the Care Bear Family, and they will share it with you, Slippy,” Fox stepped aside as Slippy set a projector on the podium and turned it on, projecting the large image of a monkey in long robed for the entire assembly to see.
“This is Andross, former emperor of his own empire and a war criminal of the Lylat system. He is responsible for: ecological devastation, kidnapping and experimenting on citizens of the Lylat system and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of its people and the destruction of cities and space stations leading to massive devastation. Our mission is to find him and return him to our capital on Corneria for trial, or kill him if he can’t be taken alive. His technology is on par with our own except his stealth capabilities are far more advanced due to his mastery of psionics. We want to make this mission on Earth as brief as possible to avoid dragging you into another war so any cooperation in tracking him down would be appreciated. We also believe he is working with an adversary of the Care Bear Family known as No-Heart.”
