Care Bears Evolution
Chapter 6
The Arrival
Kim was silent throughout the ride to Bright Hearts home, she was still a little shaken by the events that happened. She was actually getting targeted by dangerous people, and she didn't know why. All she knew now was that she wouldn't be safe by herself. Bright heart took a glance back at her from the driver's seat, he was worried about Kim, knowing that she didn't really understand what was happening either. He was just glad that they were able to get to her in time. Once they got back, Bright Heart would have to figure out a way to break the news to everyone, as well as trying to help Kim. He would make it his personal mission to make sure she was taken care of in her time of need.
( No Hearts Castle night time)
"YOU COMPLETE FAILURES!!!!! YOU COULDN'T EVEN MANAGE TO CAPTURE ONE MEASLY CARE BEAR OR COUSIN!!!!" NOT ONLY DID YOU COME BACK LATE! BUT YOU ALSO COME BACK EMPTY-HANDED!!!"
A strong whirlwind began to form inside the throne room that Beastly, Shreeky and himself resided in. His anger brought forth the strong winds, as well as crackling lightning, displaying how angry the tall intimidating wizard was.
No heart was a tall humanoid cloaked figure, he wore a purple robe with two red lines going from his shoulders all the way down on either side. He wore a silver amulet with a red gem in the center. Unlike a human, he had sickly green skin, and big bushy green eyebrows. He wore a hood which hid his face in darkness, the only discernible features were his glowing red eyes and green eyebrows, everything else about his facial features were hidden. No one knew the wizards true identity, and he did his best to keep it that way.
"It wasn't my fault uncle! I was so close to capturing one for you, but beastly messed everything up!"
Shreeky defended, trembling a little at her uncle's fury. It was the second time that night she was intimidated and scared.
Beastly was not doing much better. He was currently cowering and hiding behind Shreeky, he was too scared to defend himself, and when he tried to talk it was just a bunch of bumbling and incoherent speech.
"SILENCE!!! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! YOU TWO WILL GO WITHOUT DINNER TONIGHT! YOU WILL ALSO WAKE UP BRIGHT AND EARLY TOMORROW AND RESUME YOUR MISSION! NOW, OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!"
His final words ended with a boom, both from his voice, and the thunder and lightning that followed, making the two yip and run off to there room scared.
Taking a few moments to calm himself, No Heart was finally able to think rationally, and pick apart some of the things his two lackeys brought up from their excuses.
"Hmmm? I don't recall there ever being a mouse Care Bear cousin……"
( Care A Lot, Landing zone)
The gang finally arrived in the cloud city, one by one they exited the cloud car, Kim was a little hesitant, seeing nothing but clouds and being so high up. Bright heart assured her that it was safe, and that she wouldn't fall through. He offered her a hand, which she gladly took as he guided her out of the cloud car. Love a lot giggled, thinking at that moment, Bright Heart look like a proper gentleman, escorting his date. The raccoon heard the giggling from Love a Lot, he blushed a little, knowing that she was probably overthinking things from the simple gesture. Once everyone was out of the cloud car it promptly dissipated. Leaving the four of them to begin walking towards the city proper.
" I'm going to go back on my nightly patrol. I do wonder though, where is miss Kim going to stay the night?"
Bedtime bear mentioned, this being a pretty exciting night for him. He didn't often get too much excitement while patrolling.
This was a good question, as none of them thought of that.
Love a lot gave Bright Heart a mischievous little smile.
"Maybe she should stay with you Bright Heart? You seem to be good friends already."
Bright Hearts stumbled a little, caught off guard by the pink bear suggestion. Despite knowing she did care about the well-being of Kim as well as he did, he also knew what she was trying to imply, making his cheeks a little Rosy.
"S-she can stay in the guest quarters. I'm sure Kim will appreciate having her own room to be in"
Bright heart said quickly. He really hoped he didn't sound unempathetic to Kim's predicament. He was just getting a little flustered from Love A Lots teasing.
Kim didn't really seem to notice however, still recovering from the day's events. She was currently just looking at her new hands, they were completely alien to her, and she feared that she might be stuck like this forever. To make matters worse there were people hunting her, and it was because she was like this. Kim began to envision all types of people that would go after her, just you dissect and study her. A bit of fresh tears began to build up in her eyes, she was ready to cry again.
"Kim?"
Kim was snapped out of her thoughts by Bright heart, it seems as she was in her own little world, she was mindlessly following the pair in front of her until they reached their destination. Now Bright heart and Love a Lot we're looking at her, they both wore a worried expression on their faces.
"Is everything all right?"
Love a lot asked, she was showing genuine concern for the newcomer.
Kim quickly wiped her tears and nodded slowly.
" Yes… sorry just still processing everything that happened today. I will be okay now, and thank you for your concern."
Kim reassured them, although she still felt down and at a complete loss.
Bright heart and love a lot could tell that things weren't exactly okay with Kim, but they didn't want to press the issue any further.
"Well I better head back home, But Bright heart! Make sure she gets settled in okay. It's clearly been a very long and stressful day for her so she'll really need a friend."
Love a lot stated, but this time there was no teasing. She wanted to make sure that Kim was comfortable, and it seems that the two did know each other and considered each other to be friends. So she knew that Bright heart would be able to handle this.
The raccoon nodded, understanding and thanking love a lot as she made her exit, leaving just Kim and himself.
Soon after, Bright heart opened up the guest house door, leading them both inside a comfy little home.
This place was mainly for guests they would bring from Earth. Although it wasn't used very much, and usually reserved for emergencies only. An example would be an orphan kid that just lost their parents, and on very rare occasions, a family that just lost their home. The CBF knew there were a lot of families that lost their homes, or kids that have recently been orphaned. They wish they could help each and every one of them but they just did not have the space or means to take care of them all.
For the time being, Kim would be given this place as her temporary Home, until they could figure something out for her. Bright heart knew that this wouldn't be an ordinary situation however. He would have no idea how the founders, or the other family members would react to Kim, who was once human now being a Care Bear cousin. Deciding to worry about that tomorrow, he began giving a quick tour to Kim. Showing her where she would be sleeping, the bathroom and shower, and the kitchen, which was stocked with various food groups.
"That concludes our little tour, would you like me to go over anything else?"
Bright heart finished, looking at Kim to see if she had any questions.
The pink mouse just shook her head slowly, looking down at the floor, she seemed like she didn't know what to say at that moment. Bright heart understood, he could only imagine what she is going through right now. Deciding that he should let her get some rest, he wished her a good night, and turned around, beginning to walk towards the door, when he suddenly felt arms wrapped around him, he was being hugged from behind by Kim. She was tightly embracing him from behind, tears running down her face as she shook a little.
" Bright Heart! I…. I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry about all of this! I'm such a terrible person!"
Bright heart had no idea where all of this was coming from. Kim was apologizing to him, and crying her eyes out.
" Kim what's wrong? Whatever do you mean? Why are you apologizing to me, you didn't do anything wrong?"
*Sniffle* " I…. We…… we were doing research about you…. We wanted to figure out more about your species. *Sniff* During our research, an accident happened, which I'm sure resulted in why I look like this now"
Bright heart seem to understand what Kim was saying. But he still didn't know why she was getting very distraught and apologizing.
"It…. It made me realize what we're doing… how your friend Tender heart must have felt when I took that picture of him….. the feeling of being discovered…. The dread I would feel if I got discovered like this…. We didn't stop to think how it would affect your lives….. or the people that might try and hunt you down for their own nefarious purposes…. I had to spend the whole day hiding from humanity… and when I was discovered, I was hunted down!
It was utterly terrifying. I was so scared Bright heart!"
Kim continued to hug him, living out her feelings and stress from the entire day.
Bright heart could finally understand what was on her mind. All he could really do was turn around and hug her back.
He wanted to comfort his friend, letting her know that everything was okay and nothing was her fault.
"It's okay Kim. There is nothing for you to be sorry for. We go through this sort of risk every day of our lives, it's part of our jobs as Care Bears and Cousins. The people of Earth are going to find out about us eventually, no matter how discreet we are.
The forums that were both in already proves that people are talking more and more about us, and that they know the truth. Curiosity is a part of life, everyone's curious, especially when it comes to the unknown. The world is a big place, and yes there will be people that will want to know absolutely everything about us. Their method may be invasive and downright forceful, but there will also be people like you Kim, who are genuinely curious and would ask us questions, and become friends with us without the use of force.
I'm pretty sure you didn't plan for this to happen, but I can assure you that you will be completely safe with us for the time being. So you don't have to worry about a thing, and I promise you I will help you figure this out as your friend.
Kim was starting to feel much better now, having let all of her stress out for a friend to listen to. She still felt a little guilty, having been on both ends of seeking them out, and running and hiding from those seeking her out. But bright heart got through to her, as they embraced for a good 15 seconds before finally letting go of each other.
"Thank you again Bright heart. I really am glad I met you."
Kim gave Bright heart a cute little smile, which in turn made him blush a little, as he quickly hid his face turning the opposite direction to make his way out.
"It's no problem at all Kim. Please go ahead and get some rest, i'll pick you up tomorrow morning to get you some breakfast"
Bright heart said a little flustered, despite the situation, Kim in this cousin form had a really cute smile, and Bright heart would remember it fondly. He finally made his way out the door, leaving Kim by herself for the night.
( The Hall of hearts morning)
It was now morning in Care a Lot, and it was quite the busy morning for all of the members of the CBF. A very special meeting was called, and it would be a mandatory one that everyone had to attend excluding one. With everyone accounted for, it was time for the meeting to begin. The one that would start off the meeting was Noble heart.
"Good morning everyone. I would like to thank everyone for showing up. Especially you bedtime, I'm sorry that we have to drag out your shift a little longer but this is important."
Bedtime just gave a little yawn and a thumbs up to Noble, signifying that the sleepy Bear didn't have a problem with it and knew what this meeting would be about.
" With that out of the way, the topic at hand. As some of you may know already, we have a very special guest up here with us today. They are a good friend of Bright hearts, and got in a bit of trouble last night while most of us were sleeping.
Bright heart, Bedtime, Love a lot, and Loyal heart all went down to earth to intercept Beastly and Shreeky, who were attacking Bright Heart's friend."
There was a few gasp of surprise from the gathered crowd, as well as some disapproving looks.
"That's low, even for those two. Attacking a random person out of the blue, It's just so undignified! For shame!"
A Orange cat cousin named Proud heart complained.
" Oh goodness! They must have been so scared, the poor deer."
A green lamb cousin named Gentle heart softly chimed in.
" Please everyone let me finish. Now I will explain the situation as to why those two decided to attack Bright Heart's friend."
Everyone was once again quiet, ready to hear the answer of why this person was a very special guest.
" Due to the circumstances, we decided to have our guest, whose name is Kim, stay with us for the time being. Until it is deemed safe for her to return on her own.
There is however, more to the situation…. Kim was formerly human, but as of right now… she is a Care Bear Cousin."
The whole Hall fell silent for a few seconds, then it erupted into a cacophony of noise.
*Everyone*
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!"
"How is that even possible!?"
"This has to be a joke right? There's no way!"
"What does she look like? Can we see her?"
The Hall of hearts was in an uproar, dozens of questions being asked by the majority of the members in the room. Noble heart was having a hard time maintaining order, banging a gavel to try and calm everyone down. Bright heart was expecting this reaction, and he opted to just let everyone wear themselves out.
( Outside the Hall of hearts)
As the meeting was going on inside the hall, outside in the back of the building underneath a window, was Beastly. He was tasked with eavesdropping on The CBF. Originally both Shreeky and himself were supposed to go. But she told him that she needed her beauty sleep, and it wasn't going to be ruined because of Beastly's incompetence. Not wanting to argue, he begrudgingly made the trip on his own. Hearing the bombshell about Kim, made him jump in shock.
" Oh boy! No heart is going to want to hear about this!" Quickly, beastly ran back to his bicycle helicopter contraption, stumbling and fumbling on his way there due to his excitement to get back"
(Back in the hall)
After about a good 5 minutes of non-stop questions, everything was beginning to calm back down. Enough for Noble heart to continue.
" Now then, it's obvious that everyone has questions. I myself have a lot of questions I would like to ask her. But we must understand that what happened to her seems to be an accident, so we must not burden her. As for what we will do, we will carry on with our lives and missions. We will also make sure Kim is well taken care of, and keep her safe. I am sure things will sort themselves out and answers will be presented in due time."
Noble heart then turn to Bright heart.
"Bright heart, can I trust Kim's safety and well-being to you?"
Bright heart nodded ready to take on this role
"Yes. You can count on me"
"Good. That will conclude our morning meeting then, one more thing before everyone leaves. I know most of you will be eager to meet our new guest. But please keep in mind not to overwhelm her. For the time being, I just want Bright heart to meet with her, so he can get her used to things up here. Once she is comfortable, and is willing to meet new faces, I'll leave it up to Bright heart to introduce everyone to her."
Everyone understood, although there were a few disappointed faces among them.
" With that taken care of then, everyone is dismissed"
With one final bang of the gavel, Noble heart dismissed everyone. Slowly everyone began to trickle out of the hall until it was only him and True Heart left.
"So dear, what do you make of this? You have that look you get when you have a lot on your mind."
Noble heart sighed. He knew he couldn't keep things from his wife.
"I'm not sure sweetie. Other than Perfect and Polite, we've never had a surprise like this. What makes this even more confusing, is that she was human. Meaning some way somehow a human turned into one of us. From what I understand of the situation that bright heart informed me of, she is a scientist, and she was in a department that had research that was all about us. From what I gathered, Kim doesn't really know much about what happened to her, but what worries me is that someone at that facility had something to do with it, and if this is the result of their research…."
"What does that mean for the future, and our family."
True Heart finished, understanding the worries of her husband.
