The Day Love was Stolen!
“And they all lived happily ever after! The End!”
The children all cheered at the happy ending. True love’s kiss was able to break the never-ending sleep that the princess was cursed with. Once again, love conquered all. The story in the park had ended sweetly.
“Maybe someday, my prince will come!” said a little girl with brown hair.
“Ha, maybe that prince will be me,” replied a boy with blue eyes. “Heehee! I’ll be so happy when that day comes!”
“Well, I’m not happy at all!” a gravelly, screechy voice that sounded very familiar retorted. Before they could tell where the voice was coming from, a massive shark-like vehicle erupted from the ground right next to them. They didn’t have to guess what this was. They knew its name all too well. Sharkmarine. And there was only one person they knew who drove a Sharkmarine…
“Oh no! It’s Professor Coldheart!” they shouted in unison.
Inside the Sharkmarine, Coldheart scowled. “’True Love’s Kiss?’ ‘Love conquers all?’ HAH! Gimme a break! Since when has love ever solved anything?” His stomach churned and his face turned as green as the color of his scarf at the thought of such a thing as true love even existing. “When I’m done with you, none of you will ever believe in such silly things ever again!” He pressed a button on the control panel of his vehicle. A huge ray gun emerged from the top of the Sharkmarine and began charging. It aimed itself straight at the group.
The children all knew what they needed to do. They all raised their voices and shouted together, “CARE BEARS! WE NEED YOUR HELP!”
Just like magic, a cloud car plummeted down towards the Sharkmarine like a meteor from heaven. It struck the ray gun, knocking it out of the way just as it fired a freezing beam of ice magic. It struck a nearby tree, coating it in an icy rime. Coldheart was undeterred; he seized the controls of his vehicle and gave chase. The Sharkmarine was nearly as fast as the cloud car as it raced across the open fields.
Seeing that the Sharkmarine was only a hair’s width away from the cloud car, Coldheart pressed another button on the control panel. The shark’s mouth opened and out of it popped a spinning saw blade. He was so focused on getting just a little closer that he didn’t realize when the cloud car made a sharp pivot, causing him to crash into a big rock. To his horror, the saw blade had become stuck. Try as he might, he was not able to loosen it from the rock.
Seeing their opportunity, the Care Bears turned their cloud car around. “Care Bears Stare!” The stare fired from four Care Bears hit the Sharkmarine in the mouth, causing it to explode in a shower of glitter and rainbows. From the explosion, the children could see Coldheart flying off into the distance, shouting angrily at the Care Bears that had defeated him. They saw him become smaller and smaller until he was little more than a twinkle in the sky. They began to cheer as the Care Bears touched down in their cloud car and stepped out. Once again, the Care Bears had saved the day.
…
Meanwhile in Care-A-Lot, Love-A-Lot Bear’s belly badge began to glow. She was being called down to Earth for a special mission. Love-A-Lot Bear had a very important mission in the Care Bear Family, perhaps the most important of all. As the guardian of love, she was sworn to nurture and protect the warm feelings of people all around the world. And today, she had a very challenging case on her hands. It seemed as though a boy named Benjamin was having a hard time dealing with having a new sibling. A common problem, no doubt, but Benjamin took it particularly hard. So hard, in fact, that he thought his parents didn’t care about him anymore.
Love-A-Lot spotted him wandering around the park, circling around the boulder with the demolished Sharkmarine still sticking out of it. As she touched down on the ground, she could hear him ask himself, “Why does everybody always talk so great about love? I thought their love was forever, and now look where I am!”
“Your parents still love you, Ben. They’re just busy right now,” Love-A-Lot approached the distraught boy.
He turned around. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Love-A-Lot. A Care Bear. I’ve come here because I’ve heard you’ve been having some trouble with your parents.”
Benjamin scoffed. “Well, you’re wrong if you think they still care about me. We just got a new baby. Now they spend all their time with him, and not with me! I thought they loved me forever, but now look!”
Love-A-Lot kept talking to Benjamin, trying to convince him that even though his parents didn’t have time for him, they still loved him. She was so focused on getting him to care again, she didn’t notice that there was a part of the Sharkmarine that was still functional. In the midst of the wreckage, a video camera was picking up the whole conversation.
Back at Coldheart Castle, Professor Coldheart was busy bandaging his myriad collection of cuts and scrapes. Despite being blasted from the park all the way back to his castle, he had managed to get away with little more than a few scuffs. That didn’t make it any less painful, though. He grimaced as he swabbed yet another scrape with disinfectant before wrapping it in gauze. Cursed, rotten fuzzy-wuzzies, he thought to himself. I’ll get them back for this! They’ll rue the day they first heard the name Professor Nathaniel Coldheart! Mark my words!
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden transmission coming from his computer. “But you have to believe me, Ben! You don’t really want to do this!”
Huh? He dashed over to the monitor. The video camera inside of the Sharkmarine had survived, it seemed. And it was recording a conversation between the pink lovestruck fuzzy-wuzzy and a little boy. Coldheart leaned in closer to get a better listen.
“Do I have to tell you a million times, Love-A-Lot?! True love isn’t real! Now leave me alone!” the boy ran off, infuriated.
Ah, a young man after my own frozen heart~ Coldheart mused to himself. One who has lost all faith in love, just as he should. After all, what has love ever done except cause pain and suffering? Then it hit him; he would have to capture that fuzzy-wuzzy. She, after all, was the protector of love, and as long as she was there, the whole world was subject to the torments of love. No question about it, he needed to capture her and strip her of the symbol on her belly that spread around the insipid emotion wherever it went. But how…?
…
Back on Earth, Love-A-Lot wondered what to do. Sometimes it took time for people to realize that they were cared for, for sure, but if she left him alone, who knows what would happen?
Meanwhile, from behind a tree, dressed in a black cloak to shield himself from recognition, Professor Coldheart spotted the Care Bear. He picked up his capture beam gun and took careful aim.
“It seems like this job is too big for me to handle alone! I’ll go back to Care-A-Lot and ask Tenderheart and Cheer Bear for help!”
But before she could make a cloud car to go back to Care-A-Lot, a beam of light split the air and hit her in the back. She found herself wrapped in a glowing net, unable to move. When she tried to use her Care Bear stare on it, the netting simply absorbed it into its weave. That’s when she heard distinctive cackling behind her.
“Nyah hah hah! And here I thought Care Bears were hard to catch!”
She knew that voice. “Professor Coldheart! I should have known! Let me out of this!”
“Afraid I can’t do that, fuzzy-wuzzy! You have something I want!”
And before she knew it, she was thrown across the mad professor’s shoulder as he mounted his electric-blue motorcycle. Together they rode for miles, the city disappearing behind them as the landscape turned icy and dark. Even in the midst of summer, the evergreen forest they had disappeared into was locked in a state of eternal winter, blanketed in snow and ice, with aggressive black clouds turning the day to night and spewing blue lightning overhead. Love-A-Lot Bear knew the name of this place.
The Land Without Feelings.
As Coldheart turned and rode up a mountain trail, Love-A-Lot got a better look at the castle resting on top of that mountain. It was a frightening sight; crooked candy-cane spires stuck out at odd angles from the base of the palace, which was made of dark cobblestone and decorated with what looked like frosting icicles, like those you would paint onto a gingerbread house. Colorful Christmas lights were chaotically strewn about the spires and the base, and some even encircled the pine trees closest to the castle. Perhaps most frightening of all were the snowman statues that guarded the entrance, their expressions twisted in pure wicked joy. The whole thing looked like a gruesome parody of Santa Claus’s castle up at the North Pole.
Coldheart slowed down as he pulled into the foyer of his castle. Parking his motorcycle off to the side, he dismounted it with Love-A-Lot still on his shoulder. The two ascended what seemed like endless flights of stairs before Coldheart came to a door on his right. As he opened it, Love-A-Lot could see that they had arrived at a laboratory of sorts. On the opposite end of the room, there was an enormous glass dome attached to a strange machine with a hollow glass cylinder attached to the top.
He unceremoniously shoved her into the dome as the energy net around her dissipated. Love-A-Lot sighed with relief; she was still trapped, but at least now she had more breathing room. Through the glass, she saw the professor focus his attention on the machine attached to the dome.
“Let me out of here, Coldheart! Whatever you want, I don’t have it!”
Coldheart laughed. “Oh, you definitely have something I want. Something I want for sure!” He flipped a switch on the machine.
Love-A-Lot’s body was wracked with pain as electricity surged through the dome. She could feel a tug on her belly badge as the machine whirred faster and faster. Finally, the tension on her belly was gone with a pop, and the machine fell silent. Love-A-Lot slumped to the floor.
She slowly turned her gaze back up to face Coldheart. He was holding the cylinder that was on the machine earlier. Now it contained two hearts: one pink and one red. She looked down, and to her horror, she noticed her belly badge was no longer there. Coldheart had torn it off and put it in that jar!
“Wha-?! My belly badge! Give it back, Coldheart!”
He gave her a chilling glare. “Not on your life, you nauseating, love-sick fuzzy-wuzzy! I’m locking this away where it can’t do any harm!”
“Harm?! What do you mean by ‘harm’?!” Love-A-Lot was getting sick of these games.
He sneered back at her. “Don’t act like you don’t know! You have the power over love! Love, the soft, sickly feeling that leads to all sorts of trouble. Do you have any idea how many people in this world are willing to get themselves badly hurt over and over? All for the sake of love! Blegh! This belly badge of yours is a life-ruining machine with a deceptively sweet cover!” He took a minute to catch his breath and compose himself. “But no matter. Once I’m finished, no one will have the heart to care for it, or you, ever again!”
Love-A-Lot gasped. This was serious. If Coldheart had invented a machine that could strip Care Bears of their powers, and he was this intent on creating a world without love, then what could they do to stop him?
“W-Where are you taking it?” she asked.
“That’s for me to know, little fuzzy-wuzzy,” he replied as he walked towards the door, “and you to not know!”
As he turned towards the exit, he began shouting for his assistant. “Frostbite! Where are you?! FROSTBITE!!”
A deep and even voice, unlike the professor’s in every way, answered back. “You bellowed, boss?”
“Kindly take this Care Bear out of the dome and show her the way to her room please. And don’t be doing that thing you’re always doing.”
Coldheart’s assistant was about as tall as he was, but Love-A-Lot could have mistaken him for being taller. He possessed a hairy hunchback and tusk-like teeth that made him look like he was part wild boar. Most striking about him, though, were his eyes. They were such a pale blue that they were almost white, giving him an almost crazed stare.
Wordlessly, he fiddled with the machine, opening the door on the dome. Love-A-Lot immediately burst out the door and out of the room. Frostbite began to give chase before Coldheart stopped him. “Leave her, Frostbite. She’s neutralized. Just make sure she doesn’t leave the castle, and we’ll be fine.” Frostbite nodded, grunting in agreement.
Love-A-Lot wasn’t sure where she could go. Any way she turned, she still didn’t have her belly badge. She was still at the mercy of Coldheart and his assistant. She eventually opted to lock herself inside of a small bedroom contained within the east spire of the castle. At least here, she felt a bit safer. Now she could only hope that the others would notice she’d gone missing and come to rescue her.
…
Back in Care-A-Lot, Tenderheart Bear and Cheer Bear were waiting for Love-A-Lot to come back from her mission.
“It’s been about two hours. Don’t you think we should go down there and see what’s going on?”
“It’ll be fine, Cheer. Love-A-Lot’s capable of handling this. Sometimes people need time before they see the light of things.”
“I know, Tenderheart, but-“
The two were interrupted by a sudden alert from the Caring Meter. In just a split second, it had dropped from 99% capacity to 85% capacity! Drops like that didn’t just come out of nowhere; there was something suspicious going on to cause the Caring Meter to drop so suddenly like that. Tenderheart whipped out his caring monitor to find the source of the drop. It was at the same public park Love-A-Lot had been sent to that morning.
Something must have happened to Love-A-Lot! Tenderheart Bear and Cheer Bear got in their cloud car and rode towards the park, hoping they were not too late.
When they got there, they saw Benjamin sitting on a park bench. He was still moping about his parents and his new baby brother. Tenderheart jumped out of the cloud car and approached him. “Excuse me, Benjamin. I know that Love-A-Lot came around here earlier. Do you have any idea where she went?”
Benjamin snapped out of his moping. Love-A-Lot was missing? Now he was concerned. “I don’t know. She came around her some time ago, and I walked away from her.”
“Um… Tenderheart? You might want to come over and see this…”
Tenderheart went over to the tree Cheer Bear stood under. As soon as he did, his stomach dropped.
Under the tree in the middle of summer was a slick, silvery patch of ice. Above, long icicles hung from the tree’s branches.
Tenderheart and Cheer Bear knew of only one person who could make ice that didn’t melt in the face of such warm weather…
“Professor Coldheart!” they mused to each other in unison.
“Professor Coldheart? Who’s Professor Coldheart?” Benjamin asked.
“No one you should be concerning yourself with. If our hunch is correct, he took her back to his castle in the Land Without Feelings.”
“Then we’d better act fast! He could have turned her into one of his green minions!”
“Then let’s go!” They hopped into their cloud car.
“Hey! Wait a minute! Wait for me!” Benjamin grabbed the back bumper of the cloud car as it took off, vaulting himself into the back seat. Whatever they were going to do, he wanted to help.
…
Benjamin shivered at the unexpected temperature drop. He didn’t expect anywhere to be this cold at this time of year. But as they rode towards the twisted castle in the distance, it seemed like they had arrived in a land where summer didn’t even exist. Nor did spring or autumn, for that matter.
They circled around the candy-cane spires, looking for an entrance. Benjamin pointed at one of the windows. “There! I just saw her!”
The Care Bears flew over to the window and entered the spire. Sure enough, sitting in the corner of the room was Love-A-Lot Bear, curled up into a ball.
“Love-A-Lot! Thank goodness! We were worried you were hurt! And- wait a minute, what happened to your belly badge?!” Cheer bear exclaimed.
Love-A-Lot glanced up at them. “Coldheart. He took it. I don’t know what he did with it. He said it was ‘a life-ruining machine with a deceptively sweet cover.’ Whatever he’s planning, it’s not pretty.”
“Then it sounds like we’ll have to find it ourselves. Be careful now; he’s going to be looking for us,” Tenderheart replied.
“I just hope he doesn’t already know we’re here,” Cheer Bear fretted. …
While Coldheart didn’t know it yet, his assistant had definitely noticed the Bears’ arrival.
‘Uh-oh. Better take care of them,” Frostbite mused as he followed them at a distance. He wasn’t a fast runner, and if he made them aware of his presence too soon, he doubted that he could keep up with them if they ran. Best to wait for the right opportunity to strike.
That opportunity may have come sooner rather than later, he realized. The Bears had unwittingly wandered into the main storeroom. They could just see the jar holding Love-A-Lot’s belly badge on a high shelf. Unbeknownst to them, however, this room was booby-trapped. This was the opportunity Frostbite took advantage of as he whipped out a remote controller and pressed a button on it.
Benjamin managed to duck out of the way as an iron cage descended upon the Care Bears. Tenderheart and Cheer Bear tried to melt the bars with their Care Bear stares, to no avail. Soon they heard mocking laughter coming from behind them.
“Well, well, well. Seems two little fuzzy-wuzzies came to steal my stuff,” Coldheart mused. “Don’t you Care Bears know it’s rude to take people’s things without asking?”
Tenderheart was infuriated. “That isn’t yours! You stole it!”
The two continued to banter, not noticing Benjamin climbing the shelves behind Coldheart. If he could just reach the jar, he might just be able to save the day. If only…
“Well, anyway, you’re too late. With my belly-badge-stripping machine, I can have any of your belly badges I please! Once I get you in there, I will have your powers all to myself! Then no one will ever suffer from the insipid feelings you impose on them agai- AAAHHH!!!!“
Benjamin had dropped the jar on Coldheart’s head. It burst open on impact, sending a surge of pure caring energy straight into the mad scientist’s face. He dropped to the floor, covering his eyes with his hands and writhing in an angry heap.
“WAAAAAHHAAAAAAA!!!! I’M RUINED!!! I’M… I’M… I’m…”
That was strange. He’d expected it to hurt. After all, the cannister just exploded in his face. It hadn’t hurt one bit. Even stranger, an unexpected feeling was coming over him. One that he’d never expect to come over him at a time like this…
“I… what… what’s this? Why do I feel so… so light as a feather? I can’t… I… I feel good!”
And there it was. The burst of energy coming from Love-A-Lot’s belly badge had flooded Coldheart’s frozen heart with warm feelings.
Seeing her chance, Cheer Bear spoke to him, “It would make us very happy if you would get us out of this cage, Coldheart. Please?”
“Heehee! Here you go!” He whipped out a controller of his own and pressed a button on it, and the cage lifted.
“Thanks for everything, Coldheart! It was nice meeting you!” Benjamin shook his hand. Coldheart seemed to enjoy this, giggling as he said his goodbyes.
“All right, you need to go to your room and lie down,” Frostbite said to his boss, hoisting the latter over his shoulder. “And you all had best be going. He can’t hold onto this state forever.”
Frostbite was right; it would only be so long before Coldheart’s secondhand giddiness wore thin. They thanked his assistant and said their quick goodbyes before hopping back in the cloud car and disappearing out the window.
…
Back at Benjamin’s house, Tenderheart Bear, Cheer Bear, and Love-A-Lot Bear were enjoying themselves. Benjamin had summoned the courage to talk to his parents about the baby, and they reassured him that they still loved him. He and the Care Bears had spent the rest of the day playing together, but now the sun was beginning to set, and it was time for them to go.
“Just remember, Ben, that if you ever need us again, just call!”
“Okay, Love-A-Lot! I’ll see you later! I love you!”
As Benjamin uttered those words, Love-A-Lot knew her job was done. Benjamin had learned to trust in love again. And they all lived happily ever after. The End.
Epilogue
Professor Coldheart came to in his bed. He felt like he’d been hit by a train. As much as he wracked his brain, he couldn’t remember what had happened. All he could recall was that he’d had those fuzzy-wuzzies in his grasp, and then…
All of a sudden, it came flooding back to him. That boy. He had dropped Love-A-Lot’s belly badge on him, and it had exploded in his face. After that, he was so out of his mind that he’d let them go willingly. He couldn’t stop giggling. Frostbite must have taken him to bed after that. Coldheart sat up, about to start raging again, when a sudden splitting headache forced his head back on the pillow.
Uuuugggh… Don’t wanna think about it right now… Even his thoughts were laborious and exhausted. Secondhand caring left one heck of a hangover. All he had the energy to do right now was go back to sleep. Well, except for one thing. As he dozed off, he had one more thought.
Mh, I’ll get ‘em back for this… someday…
Fin.
The children all cheered at the happy ending. True love’s kiss was able to break the never-ending sleep that the princess was cursed with. Once again, love conquered all. The story in the park had ended sweetly.
“Maybe someday, my prince will come!” said a little girl with brown hair.
“Ha, maybe that prince will be me,” replied a boy with blue eyes. “Heehee! I’ll be so happy when that day comes!”
“Well, I’m not happy at all!” a gravelly, screechy voice that sounded very familiar retorted. Before they could tell where the voice was coming from, a massive shark-like vehicle erupted from the ground right next to them. They didn’t have to guess what this was. They knew its name all too well. Sharkmarine. And there was only one person they knew who drove a Sharkmarine…
“Oh no! It’s Professor Coldheart!” they shouted in unison.
Inside the Sharkmarine, Coldheart scowled. “’True Love’s Kiss?’ ‘Love conquers all?’ HAH! Gimme a break! Since when has love ever solved anything?” His stomach churned and his face turned as green as the color of his scarf at the thought of such a thing as true love even existing. “When I’m done with you, none of you will ever believe in such silly things ever again!” He pressed a button on the control panel of his vehicle. A huge ray gun emerged from the top of the Sharkmarine and began charging. It aimed itself straight at the group.
The children all knew what they needed to do. They all raised their voices and shouted together, “CARE BEARS! WE NEED YOUR HELP!”
Just like magic, a cloud car plummeted down towards the Sharkmarine like a meteor from heaven. It struck the ray gun, knocking it out of the way just as it fired a freezing beam of ice magic. It struck a nearby tree, coating it in an icy rime. Coldheart was undeterred; he seized the controls of his vehicle and gave chase. The Sharkmarine was nearly as fast as the cloud car as it raced across the open fields.
Seeing that the Sharkmarine was only a hair’s width away from the cloud car, Coldheart pressed another button on the control panel. The shark’s mouth opened and out of it popped a spinning saw blade. He was so focused on getting just a little closer that he didn’t realize when the cloud car made a sharp pivot, causing him to crash into a big rock. To his horror, the saw blade had become stuck. Try as he might, he was not able to loosen it from the rock.
Seeing their opportunity, the Care Bears turned their cloud car around. “Care Bears Stare!” The stare fired from four Care Bears hit the Sharkmarine in the mouth, causing it to explode in a shower of glitter and rainbows. From the explosion, the children could see Coldheart flying off into the distance, shouting angrily at the Care Bears that had defeated him. They saw him become smaller and smaller until he was little more than a twinkle in the sky. They began to cheer as the Care Bears touched down in their cloud car and stepped out. Once again, the Care Bears had saved the day.
…
Meanwhile in Care-A-Lot, Love-A-Lot Bear’s belly badge began to glow. She was being called down to Earth for a special mission. Love-A-Lot Bear had a very important mission in the Care Bear Family, perhaps the most important of all. As the guardian of love, she was sworn to nurture and protect the warm feelings of people all around the world. And today, she had a very challenging case on her hands. It seemed as though a boy named Benjamin was having a hard time dealing with having a new sibling. A common problem, no doubt, but Benjamin took it particularly hard. So hard, in fact, that he thought his parents didn’t care about him anymore.
Love-A-Lot spotted him wandering around the park, circling around the boulder with the demolished Sharkmarine still sticking out of it. As she touched down on the ground, she could hear him ask himself, “Why does everybody always talk so great about love? I thought their love was forever, and now look where I am!”
“Your parents still love you, Ben. They’re just busy right now,” Love-A-Lot approached the distraught boy.
He turned around. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Love-A-Lot. A Care Bear. I’ve come here because I’ve heard you’ve been having some trouble with your parents.”
Benjamin scoffed. “Well, you’re wrong if you think they still care about me. We just got a new baby. Now they spend all their time with him, and not with me! I thought they loved me forever, but now look!”
Love-A-Lot kept talking to Benjamin, trying to convince him that even though his parents didn’t have time for him, they still loved him. She was so focused on getting him to care again, she didn’t notice that there was a part of the Sharkmarine that was still functional. In the midst of the wreckage, a video camera was picking up the whole conversation.
Back at Coldheart Castle, Professor Coldheart was busy bandaging his myriad collection of cuts and scrapes. Despite being blasted from the park all the way back to his castle, he had managed to get away with little more than a few scuffs. That didn’t make it any less painful, though. He grimaced as he swabbed yet another scrape with disinfectant before wrapping it in gauze. Cursed, rotten fuzzy-wuzzies, he thought to himself. I’ll get them back for this! They’ll rue the day they first heard the name Professor Nathaniel Coldheart! Mark my words!
His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden transmission coming from his computer. “But you have to believe me, Ben! You don’t really want to do this!”
Huh? He dashed over to the monitor. The video camera inside of the Sharkmarine had survived, it seemed. And it was recording a conversation between the pink lovestruck fuzzy-wuzzy and a little boy. Coldheart leaned in closer to get a better listen.
“Do I have to tell you a million times, Love-A-Lot?! True love isn’t real! Now leave me alone!” the boy ran off, infuriated.
Ah, a young man after my own frozen heart~ Coldheart mused to himself. One who has lost all faith in love, just as he should. After all, what has love ever done except cause pain and suffering? Then it hit him; he would have to capture that fuzzy-wuzzy. She, after all, was the protector of love, and as long as she was there, the whole world was subject to the torments of love. No question about it, he needed to capture her and strip her of the symbol on her belly that spread around the insipid emotion wherever it went. But how…?
…
Back on Earth, Love-A-Lot wondered what to do. Sometimes it took time for people to realize that they were cared for, for sure, but if she left him alone, who knows what would happen?
Meanwhile, from behind a tree, dressed in a black cloak to shield himself from recognition, Professor Coldheart spotted the Care Bear. He picked up his capture beam gun and took careful aim.
“It seems like this job is too big for me to handle alone! I’ll go back to Care-A-Lot and ask Tenderheart and Cheer Bear for help!”
But before she could make a cloud car to go back to Care-A-Lot, a beam of light split the air and hit her in the back. She found herself wrapped in a glowing net, unable to move. When she tried to use her Care Bear stare on it, the netting simply absorbed it into its weave. That’s when she heard distinctive cackling behind her.
“Nyah hah hah! And here I thought Care Bears were hard to catch!”
She knew that voice. “Professor Coldheart! I should have known! Let me out of this!”
“Afraid I can’t do that, fuzzy-wuzzy! You have something I want!”
And before she knew it, she was thrown across the mad professor’s shoulder as he mounted his electric-blue motorcycle. Together they rode for miles, the city disappearing behind them as the landscape turned icy and dark. Even in the midst of summer, the evergreen forest they had disappeared into was locked in a state of eternal winter, blanketed in snow and ice, with aggressive black clouds turning the day to night and spewing blue lightning overhead. Love-A-Lot Bear knew the name of this place.
The Land Without Feelings.
As Coldheart turned and rode up a mountain trail, Love-A-Lot got a better look at the castle resting on top of that mountain. It was a frightening sight; crooked candy-cane spires stuck out at odd angles from the base of the palace, which was made of dark cobblestone and decorated with what looked like frosting icicles, like those you would paint onto a gingerbread house. Colorful Christmas lights were chaotically strewn about the spires and the base, and some even encircled the pine trees closest to the castle. Perhaps most frightening of all were the snowman statues that guarded the entrance, their expressions twisted in pure wicked joy. The whole thing looked like a gruesome parody of Santa Claus’s castle up at the North Pole.
Coldheart slowed down as he pulled into the foyer of his castle. Parking his motorcycle off to the side, he dismounted it with Love-A-Lot still on his shoulder. The two ascended what seemed like endless flights of stairs before Coldheart came to a door on his right. As he opened it, Love-A-Lot could see that they had arrived at a laboratory of sorts. On the opposite end of the room, there was an enormous glass dome attached to a strange machine with a hollow glass cylinder attached to the top.
He unceremoniously shoved her into the dome as the energy net around her dissipated. Love-A-Lot sighed with relief; she was still trapped, but at least now she had more breathing room. Through the glass, she saw the professor focus his attention on the machine attached to the dome.
“Let me out of here, Coldheart! Whatever you want, I don’t have it!”
Coldheart laughed. “Oh, you definitely have something I want. Something I want for sure!” He flipped a switch on the machine.
Love-A-Lot’s body was wracked with pain as electricity surged through the dome. She could feel a tug on her belly badge as the machine whirred faster and faster. Finally, the tension on her belly was gone with a pop, and the machine fell silent. Love-A-Lot slumped to the floor.
She slowly turned her gaze back up to face Coldheart. He was holding the cylinder that was on the machine earlier. Now it contained two hearts: one pink and one red. She looked down, and to her horror, she noticed her belly badge was no longer there. Coldheart had torn it off and put it in that jar!
“Wha-?! My belly badge! Give it back, Coldheart!”
He gave her a chilling glare. “Not on your life, you nauseating, love-sick fuzzy-wuzzy! I’m locking this away where it can’t do any harm!”
“Harm?! What do you mean by ‘harm’?!” Love-A-Lot was getting sick of these games.
He sneered back at her. “Don’t act like you don’t know! You have the power over love! Love, the soft, sickly feeling that leads to all sorts of trouble. Do you have any idea how many people in this world are willing to get themselves badly hurt over and over? All for the sake of love! Blegh! This belly badge of yours is a life-ruining machine with a deceptively sweet cover!” He took a minute to catch his breath and compose himself. “But no matter. Once I’m finished, no one will have the heart to care for it, or you, ever again!”
Love-A-Lot gasped. This was serious. If Coldheart had invented a machine that could strip Care Bears of their powers, and he was this intent on creating a world without love, then what could they do to stop him?
“W-Where are you taking it?” she asked.
“That’s for me to know, little fuzzy-wuzzy,” he replied as he walked towards the door, “and you to not know!”
As he turned towards the exit, he began shouting for his assistant. “Frostbite! Where are you?! FROSTBITE!!”
A deep and even voice, unlike the professor’s in every way, answered back. “You bellowed, boss?”
“Kindly take this Care Bear out of the dome and show her the way to her room please. And don’t be doing that thing you’re always doing.”
Coldheart’s assistant was about as tall as he was, but Love-A-Lot could have mistaken him for being taller. He possessed a hairy hunchback and tusk-like teeth that made him look like he was part wild boar. Most striking about him, though, were his eyes. They were such a pale blue that they were almost white, giving him an almost crazed stare.
Wordlessly, he fiddled with the machine, opening the door on the dome. Love-A-Lot immediately burst out the door and out of the room. Frostbite began to give chase before Coldheart stopped him. “Leave her, Frostbite. She’s neutralized. Just make sure she doesn’t leave the castle, and we’ll be fine.” Frostbite nodded, grunting in agreement.
Love-A-Lot wasn’t sure where she could go. Any way she turned, she still didn’t have her belly badge. She was still at the mercy of Coldheart and his assistant. She eventually opted to lock herself inside of a small bedroom contained within the east spire of the castle. At least here, she felt a bit safer. Now she could only hope that the others would notice she’d gone missing and come to rescue her.
…
Back in Care-A-Lot, Tenderheart Bear and Cheer Bear were waiting for Love-A-Lot to come back from her mission.
“It’s been about two hours. Don’t you think we should go down there and see what’s going on?”
“It’ll be fine, Cheer. Love-A-Lot’s capable of handling this. Sometimes people need time before they see the light of things.”
“I know, Tenderheart, but-“
The two were interrupted by a sudden alert from the Caring Meter. In just a split second, it had dropped from 99% capacity to 85% capacity! Drops like that didn’t just come out of nowhere; there was something suspicious going on to cause the Caring Meter to drop so suddenly like that. Tenderheart whipped out his caring monitor to find the source of the drop. It was at the same public park Love-A-Lot had been sent to that morning.
Something must have happened to Love-A-Lot! Tenderheart Bear and Cheer Bear got in their cloud car and rode towards the park, hoping they were not too late.
When they got there, they saw Benjamin sitting on a park bench. He was still moping about his parents and his new baby brother. Tenderheart jumped out of the cloud car and approached him. “Excuse me, Benjamin. I know that Love-A-Lot came around here earlier. Do you have any idea where she went?”
Benjamin snapped out of his moping. Love-A-Lot was missing? Now he was concerned. “I don’t know. She came around her some time ago, and I walked away from her.”
“Um… Tenderheart? You might want to come over and see this…”
Tenderheart went over to the tree Cheer Bear stood under. As soon as he did, his stomach dropped.
Under the tree in the middle of summer was a slick, silvery patch of ice. Above, long icicles hung from the tree’s branches.
Tenderheart and Cheer Bear knew of only one person who could make ice that didn’t melt in the face of such warm weather…
“Professor Coldheart!” they mused to each other in unison.
“Professor Coldheart? Who’s Professor Coldheart?” Benjamin asked.
“No one you should be concerning yourself with. If our hunch is correct, he took her back to his castle in the Land Without Feelings.”
“Then we’d better act fast! He could have turned her into one of his green minions!”
“Then let’s go!” They hopped into their cloud car.
“Hey! Wait a minute! Wait for me!” Benjamin grabbed the back bumper of the cloud car as it took off, vaulting himself into the back seat. Whatever they were going to do, he wanted to help.
…
Benjamin shivered at the unexpected temperature drop. He didn’t expect anywhere to be this cold at this time of year. But as they rode towards the twisted castle in the distance, it seemed like they had arrived in a land where summer didn’t even exist. Nor did spring or autumn, for that matter.
They circled around the candy-cane spires, looking for an entrance. Benjamin pointed at one of the windows. “There! I just saw her!”
The Care Bears flew over to the window and entered the spire. Sure enough, sitting in the corner of the room was Love-A-Lot Bear, curled up into a ball.
“Love-A-Lot! Thank goodness! We were worried you were hurt! And- wait a minute, what happened to your belly badge?!” Cheer bear exclaimed.
Love-A-Lot glanced up at them. “Coldheart. He took it. I don’t know what he did with it. He said it was ‘a life-ruining machine with a deceptively sweet cover.’ Whatever he’s planning, it’s not pretty.”
“Then it sounds like we’ll have to find it ourselves. Be careful now; he’s going to be looking for us,” Tenderheart replied.
“I just hope he doesn’t already know we’re here,” Cheer Bear fretted. …
While Coldheart didn’t know it yet, his assistant had definitely noticed the Bears’ arrival.
‘Uh-oh. Better take care of them,” Frostbite mused as he followed them at a distance. He wasn’t a fast runner, and if he made them aware of his presence too soon, he doubted that he could keep up with them if they ran. Best to wait for the right opportunity to strike.
That opportunity may have come sooner rather than later, he realized. The Bears had unwittingly wandered into the main storeroom. They could just see the jar holding Love-A-Lot’s belly badge on a high shelf. Unbeknownst to them, however, this room was booby-trapped. This was the opportunity Frostbite took advantage of as he whipped out a remote controller and pressed a button on it.
Benjamin managed to duck out of the way as an iron cage descended upon the Care Bears. Tenderheart and Cheer Bear tried to melt the bars with their Care Bear stares, to no avail. Soon they heard mocking laughter coming from behind them.
“Well, well, well. Seems two little fuzzy-wuzzies came to steal my stuff,” Coldheart mused. “Don’t you Care Bears know it’s rude to take people’s things without asking?”
Tenderheart was infuriated. “That isn’t yours! You stole it!”
The two continued to banter, not noticing Benjamin climbing the shelves behind Coldheart. If he could just reach the jar, he might just be able to save the day. If only…
“Well, anyway, you’re too late. With my belly-badge-stripping machine, I can have any of your belly badges I please! Once I get you in there, I will have your powers all to myself! Then no one will ever suffer from the insipid feelings you impose on them agai- AAAHHH!!!!“
Benjamin had dropped the jar on Coldheart’s head. It burst open on impact, sending a surge of pure caring energy straight into the mad scientist’s face. He dropped to the floor, covering his eyes with his hands and writhing in an angry heap.
“WAAAAAHHAAAAAAA!!!! I’M RUINED!!! I’M… I’M… I’m…”
That was strange. He’d expected it to hurt. After all, the cannister just exploded in his face. It hadn’t hurt one bit. Even stranger, an unexpected feeling was coming over him. One that he’d never expect to come over him at a time like this…
“I… what… what’s this? Why do I feel so… so light as a feather? I can’t… I… I feel good!”
And there it was. The burst of energy coming from Love-A-Lot’s belly badge had flooded Coldheart’s frozen heart with warm feelings.
Seeing her chance, Cheer Bear spoke to him, “It would make us very happy if you would get us out of this cage, Coldheart. Please?”
“Heehee! Here you go!” He whipped out a controller of his own and pressed a button on it, and the cage lifted.
“Thanks for everything, Coldheart! It was nice meeting you!” Benjamin shook his hand. Coldheart seemed to enjoy this, giggling as he said his goodbyes.
“All right, you need to go to your room and lie down,” Frostbite said to his boss, hoisting the latter over his shoulder. “And you all had best be going. He can’t hold onto this state forever.”
Frostbite was right; it would only be so long before Coldheart’s secondhand giddiness wore thin. They thanked his assistant and said their quick goodbyes before hopping back in the cloud car and disappearing out the window.
…
Back at Benjamin’s house, Tenderheart Bear, Cheer Bear, and Love-A-Lot Bear were enjoying themselves. Benjamin had summoned the courage to talk to his parents about the baby, and they reassured him that they still loved him. He and the Care Bears had spent the rest of the day playing together, but now the sun was beginning to set, and it was time for them to go.
“Just remember, Ben, that if you ever need us again, just call!”
“Okay, Love-A-Lot! I’ll see you later! I love you!”
As Benjamin uttered those words, Love-A-Lot knew her job was done. Benjamin had learned to trust in love again. And they all lived happily ever after. The End.
Epilogue
Professor Coldheart came to in his bed. He felt like he’d been hit by a train. As much as he wracked his brain, he couldn’t remember what had happened. All he could recall was that he’d had those fuzzy-wuzzies in his grasp, and then…
All of a sudden, it came flooding back to him. That boy. He had dropped Love-A-Lot’s belly badge on him, and it had exploded in his face. After that, he was so out of his mind that he’d let them go willingly. He couldn’t stop giggling. Frostbite must have taken him to bed after that. Coldheart sat up, about to start raging again, when a sudden splitting headache forced his head back on the pillow.
Uuuugggh… Don’t wanna think about it right now… Even his thoughts were laborious and exhausted. Secondhand caring left one heck of a hangover. All he had the energy to do right now was go back to sleep. Well, except for one thing. As he dozed off, he had one more thought.
Mh, I’ll get ‘em back for this… someday…
Fin.
Yes, the intro is a reference to Anpanman. Professor Coldheart's basically just Baikinman with an ice motif and hypnosis powers.
Comments