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Chapter 43: The Trap is Sprung

Confidence Heart stood vigil over the sleeping Sweet Heart and Passion Heart, tapping her foot on the cloud as she waited for one to wake up. Something tugged at the back of her mind as he eyes drooped from the boredom, then shot open. "Right, the stare!" she reached into her chest symbol and pulled out both of Bright Heart's radios, setting one on the clouds next to Sweet Heart she turned on the other and spoke. "Hello, this is Confidence Heart can everyone hear me?"

"Yes, we can hear you," the voice came from Love Heart, "Is everything alright?"

"Sweet Heart's out cold and so is Passion Heart," Confidence looked over at the two, "But I've got something important: you can use the Care Bear Stare to destroy those green balls stuck to all of the Shadow Magi."

"Really?" the voice came from Flash Heart Bear, "But I don't know how to do the stare."

"We'll help you with that," Love Heart said, "Thanks, Confidence. I love you."

"I love you too. Kick some ass!" Confidence said as she lowered the radio.

"Oh you bet we will," Crafty's voice came through the radio.

Now all Confidence had to do was wait for one of her two charges to wake up.

OoOoO

Marine Heart Otter, Calm Heart Lynx, Snowy Heart Fox and Flora Bear had been deposited at the forest's edge and were combing through it for their prey. Marine swiped his claws at a tree, leaving a deep scratch, as they trudged through, "Where are they! You said you knew where they were Snowy."

"I saw the fennec take off from here, so it was just an educated guess. Once we find them we'll take care of them." Snowy kept his eyes facing forwards.

"Yes, and once they're all dead we can finish this," Flora twirled some vines around her fingers.

"Hold, I feel something," Calm Heart held up an arm. "A false cave...this way!" she pointed then took off, the other three hot on her heels.

They kept running, avoiding tripping and falling over rocks and roots, until they found a square shaped hole gouged in the earth with stairs leading down.

Marine Heart laughed, "HAHAHA! Are they serious? They didn't even bother to seal it up."

"It's likely a trap," Snowy stared down the hole.

Marine Heart snorted, "Then they'll drown in their own trap!" He shot both his hands forwards and twin stream of water blasted into the cave. It took almost five minutes but the water filled the entire system right to the brim of the steps. "And that's the end of that."

"Almost," Calm Heart waved a hand and a rock shelf slid over the entrance, "I can't feel any other entrances, whoever is in there will drown now. Hopefully that's all of them."

"I could have frozen it," Snowy said.

"If you did with it that full the expanding ice would shatter the cave, better not tempt fate," Calm Heart said, "but we have more to search for."

"Oh no, you're staying with me so we can fish the bodies out for proof," Marine Heart grabbed the lynx's arm, "We're not making that mistake."

"Then Snowy and I will search for any stragglers," Flora motioned for the fox to follow her. She paused for a moment, contemplating giving the otter a kiss, then turned and walked away as if the idea disgusted her.

Under the water, Crafty Heart Coyote and Hidden Heart Wolf floated in their new watery world. Crafty grinned, "Breathing OK?" she asked.

Hidden Heart nodded, "The water breathing and night vision spells are working."

Crafty gave her a hug, "I knew you could do it. Time for my part, just stay close." Crafty let go then turned around and held her arms out, palms facing forwards. Hidden Heart held her from behind and watched as the water (except for a small bubble that surrounded the two of them) began to freeze.

Snowy and Flora were only a few meters away when they felt the ground shake. "What's going on?!" Flora grabbed a nearby tree to steady herself.

Snowy turned and saw the ground in front of the sealed off stair case cracking and start to rise up, then spotted Sage Heart with his sword point down in the ground nearby, "There!" He shouted, forming his bow and drawing a freezing arrow to take a shot.

"Fuck off old bastard!" Marine Heart launched himself forwards, surfing on a wave of water that appeared under his feet.

Sage Heart withdrew his sword and jumped back as the ground heaved up and exploded, sending shards of ice flying upwards with Crafty and Hidden Heart riding on a flying chunk of ice. Crafty tossed Hidden aside (as she floated safely to the ground with one of her spells) then conjured her quarterstaff and landed in front of Calm Heart with one of the ends pointing right in her face. "Surprise!" She grinned then struck out. Calm Heart dodged aside but missed the back end of the staff as Crafty whirled around and struck her in the face with a blast of cold that left icicles on her cheek.

Marine Heart stumbled as the ground upheaved then continued his charge at Sage Heart, who raised his sword in two hands to face him. "Too slow!" Marine Heart struck forwards and a torrent of water shot from the palm of his hand. It struck Sage Heart dead on, forcing to step back as Marine Heart ducked under his blade and delivered an uppercut to the blue bear's jaw. Sage Heart's feet left the ground momentarily until Marine Heart spun around and struck him with his tail wreathed in water and knocked him to the ground.

All the wind was knocked out of Sage Heart's lungs as Marine Heart pounced on him. A shell of earth formed on Sage Heart and Marine Heart struck down, claws outstretched, striking right through the armor and into the bear's chest. Sage Heart cried out in pain as he was pierced by all five of his claws.

"DIE!" Marine Heart shouted as he tensed up his muscles to strike deeper.

"NO!" Hidden Heart grabbed Marine from behind, yanking him off Sage Heart.

"Let go of m-" Marine Heart was cut off as a flash of magical energy made them both disappear.

Sage Heart lay on the ground, stunned from the pain and Flora moved in to take Marine's place, "A futile effort," she conjured up a large wooden stake to finish the job.

A yellow laser shot out of nowhere and shattered the stake as Flash Heart materialised, his Kusari-gama in both hands. "Not futile!" he whipped the ball at Flora, wrapping it around her middle as he pulled himself closer, only to have his attack from the sickle blocked by a wooden shield.

"You traitor!" Flora hissed as she grabbed the ball at the end of the chain and threw it to unwind it from herself. "I will take pleasure in killing you!" She shot a wave of wooden splinters at Flash Heart and he dodged aside.

"I'm no traitor," Flash Heart created a sword of light in his right hand, "And by the end I hope you realize that."

Snowy Heart kept shifting his targets as the fights broke out, keeping the frost arrow pulled back. A flash of light briefly blinded Snowy and he lost the arrow as Guidance Heart appeared in front of him. "You're fighting me," her face had a grimness to it that shocked Snowy but he just created another ice arrow and stabbed it through her. The image of Guidance wavered and evaporated.

"An illusion?" Snowy heard a twig snap nearby and saw Guidance Heart running away, "You won't run so easily," he drew back and fired an ice arrow, which passed through the image and evaporated it. Snowy blinked and spotted three more Guidance Hearts running away. He bared his teeth and ran after her.

Guidance Heart was panting from fright as she ran amongst her illusions, eyes focused on her destination. She almost tripped over a root but only stumbled and kept going.

"No more tricks!" Snowy Heart finally caught up to her and drew back another frost arrow, only for a shard of bone to fly out and shatter his bow in two.

"No, no tricks."

Snowy turned to see Defiant Heart Badger standing there, his spear in hand and armor of bone covering his torso, "Fight me now."

"If I must." Snowy used his chest symbol to create a new bow as his broken bow dissolved.

OoOoO

Marine Heart struggled to shake Hidden Heart off as the world around them dissolved, only managing to do so as the world came back into focus. Hidden Heart was thrown on to a broken stone floor and Marine rounded on her, "You'll pay for that!" He raised an arm sheathed in water, ready to launch it at her.

"Not this time!" Marine Heart turned to the voice only for Anger Heart fox to crash into him on jets of fire from his feet. Marine was knocked to the ground and kicked out, throwing Anger Heart off before he managed to round on the fox.

Nearby, Indy sat up against a piece of broken wall near where Take Care was working. He panted from exhaustion as he watched the two square off, "Damn, put too much into healing you. But I know you can do this, Anger Heart."

OoOoO

Calm Heart was immediately on the defensive as Crafty Heart's staff whirled around her, each strike sending literal chills across the lynx's body.

"Feeling the cold?" Crafty grinned, then dodged back as Calm Heart's mace swung down, coming within a hair's breath of hitting her head.

"Lynx are mountain cats. I can handle the cold." Calm Heart brushed some of the frost off her arm, "but this is becoming annoying." As she spoke, a thin metallic film began to coat her body.

Crafty stopped grinning and took up a fighting stance again as frost formed across her body, covering her in a suit of icy armor, "I'll be more than annoying then."

"You'll be dead." Calm Heart charged, her body covered in a metal shell and long steel blade forming on her left arm which she stabbed forwards. Crafty failed to dodge but the blade only glanced off her own ice armor as she jumped back to avoid the swing of the mace. Then was shocked after Calm Heart swung upwards and the ball of the mace detached, a metal chain extending from the handle as the mace stuck Crafty in the stomach. This time she felt it and nearly fell back.

"I have learned so much more than you could imagine with my master's infusions," Calm Heart pulled her chained mace back then shot her left hand forwards, sending out a spray of razor sharp metal shards. Crafty barely had time to react and threw up a wall of ice that shattered under the barrage, letting two shards through, one stuck in her armors the other grazed her cheek.

"I've learned a lot too," Crafty Heart spun her staff around, water and ice streaming off opposite ends until a solid disc of ice had formed. Calm Heart was about to launch another attack when Crafty pulled her weapon behind her, "Glacial Disc!" She hurled the ice disc right at Crafty. With nowhere to dodge the lynx held up her arms as it struck her, the ice disc grinding into her and forcing her back. Both the disc and the metal on her forearms wore down as she blocked until she formed a row of razor blades on her arms and shredded both the ice and staff that held it in place.

Calm Heart looked up only to be blasted in the face by a stream of cold, Crafty had run around her own attack and gotten into melee range again. Staff and mace came out and clashed again as they struck out at each other, bursts of frost and small explosions of metal filings flying off at each impact point. Crafty was forced to cover her face in transparent ice to avoid the injuries, Calm Heart wasn't as lucky and she was forced to shut her eyes against the spray. Crafty took her chance and froze the ground under Calm Heart's feet then swept at her legs with her staff. The staff broke and Calm barely even stumbled as she opened her eyes again.

"I can handle icy terrain better than you can," She commented before she brought the mace down on Crafty's head. The helmet of ice on Crafty's head shattered and she felt a massive pain in her skull. She was forced to crouch and hold the broken part of her staff overhead to block another swing, that shattered the staff. Crafty shot a blast of ice at Calm Heart's feet, freezing her in place, then turned and ran.

"This isn't even a hindrance," Calm Heart swung her mace at the ice prisons on her feet and shattered them, then stopped and shivered slightly before following Crafty Heart.

"Think Crafty think," Crafty muttered to herself as she ran, "OK metal is a conductor so that metal armor can't be doing much to keep my cold out, even with her feet exposed." She stopped and hid behind a tree, "If what Confidence said is true I just need to disable her long enough to charge up a Care Bear Stare, but I can't do it through the ice armor and I can't take a shredding from her metal either." She looked down, "Too many tree roots for her to swallow me up under the earth at least. Hmm." A solution dawned on her as Calm Heart finally came back into range.

Calm Heart slowed to a stop, "I heard you. If you don't come out I'm going to shred everything in this forest." Metal shards appeared all around her and began to spin.

"Gotta hit me first!" Crafty darted out from behind a tree, just barely avoiding a barrage of sharp metal shards and shooting off a blast of cold at Crafty, striking her dead on.

"Then I will." Calm Heart began firing off shards from her assembly so fast they made whistling noises as they flew through the air. Trees splintered and shredded everywhere and Crafty Heart wasn't fast enough to avoid all of them. Her armor cracked as chunks of ice broke off at each hit, several pieces of metal even getting through her armor and piercing her skin. She grit her teeth against the pain and let off flurries of weak cold blasts, aiming to hit Calm Heart through the storm of metal flechettes.

Calm Heart was focused on her target so much she didn't even notice her movements slowing down as the cold metal shell on her body began to cling to her skin. Only when she felt a pain in arm did the realize what was happening. "Clever coyote."

"And I'm not even a fox," Crafty slowed to a stop, bleeding from several wounds, "Except in a metaphorical sense."

Calm Heart found her eyes drooping as the cold seeped into even her own fur, "No, I will not fail here." She created a long wall of earth between her and Crafty that weaved through the trees about 10 meters in each direction and set about dissolving the metal armor that surrounded her.

Crafty's armor melted off her body, leaving her soaked as she ran around the long wall. "Alright focus. Care Bears countdown." She saw the edge of the wall as her chest symbol began to glow, "4!" She hit the corner, "3!" She was at the edge, "2!" she finished rounding the wall and began a headlong run towards Calm Heart, "1!" Calm Heart had just finished stripping off her metal armor and turned to Face Crafty with Crafty less than a meter away. "Care Bear Stare!" Crafty's symbol lit up and fired a beam of white energy at Calm Heart. The Lynx had no time to dodge and the beam struck her dead on.

Calm Heart was pushed back as the green orbs attached to her body started to evaporate into green smoke. She could feel her power ebbing and made one last attack, conjuring a long metal spear that she hurled at Crafty. She saw it coming and hit the deck, stopping the beam. Calm Heart was panting, the pathways between her green orbs having shrunk to narrow wire and the orbs themselves only the size of marbles.

"No, I have to keep fighting." Calm Heart formed an earthen shell on her body and conjured her chained mace again. Crafty Heart barely had time to get to her feet to avoid being smashed over the head with the mace and was forced back as a barrage of rocks flew at her.

"Stare!" Crafty forced her symbol to light up and shoot a weaker beam at Calm Heart, but it struck home and by the lynx's pained expression she knew it was still working.

"Earthquake!" Calm Heart slammed her chained mace into the ground and the ground shook, just barely.

Crafty grinned and focused on her symbol again, "Too many tree roots holding you in place! Care Bear Stare!" This time the beam was stronger, and green, and Calm Heart was pushed back, with green smoke seeping from inside her shell she was forced to duck behind a tree, still panting as her mind scrambled from conflicting thoughts. Why was she fighting this coyote? Did they have to fight? Yes! Yes they did! She heard Crafty coming around then stepped out and swung the mace, the chain extended from the handle and caught Crafty in the throat, nearly cutting off her windpipe if she hadn't been knocked to her back.

Calm Heart jumped out and pinned Crafty to the ground, earthen shackles forming to pin her limbs in place. Undeterred, Crafty started the chant again, "Care Bears Countduf-" Calm Heart clamped a hand over the coyote's muzzle.

"No more of that, this ends here." She created a long spike of metal in her hand and readied to stab.

"Fuh! Thru! Tu! Wuh!" Crafty spoke muffled through her hand even as Calm Heart readied the killing stab.

"No chance!" Calm Heart readied to stab as the countdown finished.

Then Crafty bit her, despite the taste of earth in her mouth Crafty bit through to Calm Heart's finger and she flinched away, giving Crafty just the opening she needed.

"Care Bear Stare!" Crafty's chest symbol fired off a beam point blank, nearly blinding Calm Heart. It was the last push that was needed as the green orbs attached to Calm Heart completely evaporated. The spike in Calm Heart's evaporated and she felt forwards, head landing right on Crafty's chest.

Crafty sighed and relaxed on the ground, only now realizing just how much pain she was in. She glanced down at Calm Heart and chuckled, despite the pain, "I don't mind you using my breasts as a pillow but could you move, I need to go get help." Calm Heart gave no response. "Out cold huh, well I guess I'll just lie here until someone finds me. Wait..." she reached into her chest symbol and pulled out her radio, "Hello? I kinda need a pick-me up right about now."

"I'll be there as soon as I can!" the voice belonged to Guidance Heart.

"Sorry, I promised Gift and Healer I'd stay with them and I'm not bringing them to the battlefield," Love Heart answered.

"It's fine. I'll just lie here then." Crafty let her arm fall and stared up at the through the canopy, "At least the view's nice."