Chapter 8 – Cracking emotions
As Thief arrived back in Care-A-Lot he was met with Good Luck and Swift Heart holding Mend back. As Thief got off the motorcycle Mend broke past the two and walked over to Thief. Before Thief could say anything Mend slapped him hard.
	“YOU IDIOT! You recklessly messed up and fought Void Heart and lost your badge! How are we going to fight back now?!” Mend was fuming, they were angry, they had tears rolling down their cheeks. Thief couldn’t find words to say, luckily Cheer and Lotsa were walking over.
	“Well, Mend, we actually do have a method.” Cheer walked over to the two.
	“What do you mean, Cheer? Also congratulations on having your belly badge back.” Thief gave a small smile.
	“Thank you, Thief. I looked at the bracelet you created that Lotsa used. When I copied it, instead of being stuck in cooldown mode, the copy was ready.” Cheer showed the copied version, Thief looked it over and checked. He nodded and smiled.
	“That means the others can use my ability. Leave the ones that need to cooldown back and have ones for the next attack on his castle.”
	“The next attack?! Thief, even if we have a good plan, I can’t trust that Void Heart won’t set up traps to get the badges of those we send in. He took yours…If he takes the others, we start losing the small advantage we have. How am I—”
	“Don’t fret, Mend.” Tenderheart walked over and put his hand on Mend’s shoulder. “If you start fretting and overthinking, you’ll have mistakes pop up.” Mend sighed as Tenderheart talked them down. Mend looked at Thief.
	“Sorry, Thief. For the slap and going off on you. I’m heading back up. I need to plan the next mission.”
	“Mend, wait.” Mend turned as Thief rushed over and hugged them. “Sorry, I really messed up. I need to go apologize to Champ and Funshine. I’ll come join you once I’ve apologized, may have to apologize to others as well…”
	“Just, don’t expect everyone to trust you again so easily. I am still mad but Tenderheart is right. I need to calm down and plan carefully. Cheer I’ll contact you about the amount I need.”
	“Sure thing Mend, I’ll try and head up to join you in a bit. If not just call me.” Cheer and Lotsa headed off. Tenderheart and Mend headed up. Good Luck, Thief, and Swift Heart all stood looking at one another. 
	“Well, I guess I better go start apologizing. Funshine and Champ for sure…”
	“Obviously, you save me first and then mess up? That’s like, a big faux pas dude.” Good Luck chuckled a bit. 
	“Now don’t be mean, Good Luck. Thief why don’t we go find Funshine together? I’d feel it’d be good to get to know you a bit more. Especially since you’ll be stuck here until your badge is returned.” Swift Heart held out their paw as Thief did a bow and gently took it. They walked through Care-A-Lot looking for Funshine while talking about stuff. Eventually Swift’s ear’s twitched as they heard sobbing, the two of them went toward the sound and saw Funshine near the docks, his legs pulled up and arms wrapped around them. Thief patted Swift’s arm to let them know he was going to do this talk alone. Thief walked down to the dock and over to Funshine.
	“Hey shine-boy. Can I sit with you?”
	“…What do you want, boop breaker.”
	“Ok harsh but deserved. Look, I know I hurt your trust, breaking the promise boop and everything, and I’m sorry. I know it won’t magically fix everything, so if you want to hit me or whatever it’s deserved. So—” Thief felt Funshine’s head lay on their shoulder. Thief looked as Funshine moved closed and put their face into Thief’s chest and hugged Thief. Thief gently rubbed Funshine’s back as he cried into Thief a bit. 
	“You idiot…You risked your safety just to get one badge. Champ even said you could have gone after another. Sure he wanted Bright Heart’s since they’re in love but are dumb…but…the risk was too high. I don’t want to see others risk their badges or lives! I…I just want us all to have our badges back and resolve this whole event! Please…Even when you get your badge back…Please don’t do something so risky.” Thief frowned and laid their muzzle onto Funshine’s head.
	“Yeah, I won’t. This event taught me how reckless I was. I have a lot to do to fix my wrongs, but until I can help out with my own powers, I can do things here in Care-A-Lot so that when it’s time, we can do what we have to against Void Heart. No one gets left behind, that’s my motto.” Funshine chuckled and released his hug as he sat up and looked at Thief face to face.
	“Alright, the three of us should go find Champ.” Funshine winked a bit. Thief tilted his head before feeling Swift Heart hug them both.
	“Alright, let’s go find Champ on the quadruple! Then we’ll see what you need to do, Thief. Maybe apologize to Grams for being reckless?” Funshine and Thief paled realizing how upset Grams might be with Thief. Swift helped the two up as they all went toward the basketball court, where Champ was throwing free throws while Bright Heart watched. Bright noticed the three and looked at Thief. Funshine gave a small signal and Bright nodded and gestured his head toward Champ. Thief gave a silent ‘thank you’ to the two boys before heading to Champ.
	“Hey there, all-star. Could we—Oof…Talk?” Thief was holding the basketball thrown at his chest. Champ was giving a bit of an annoyed glare. 
	“Start, explain why you’re here and be quick.” Champ bounced his ball for a moment before shooting the shot. 
	“Well, I came to apologize. I was reckless, I didn’t make the smart move of retreating and rethinking plans.”
	“…Let’s play.” Champ put his ball up as Swift took the one Thief was holding. “First to five total goals. Points don’t matter. First to five.” Swift threw the ball up as Champ and Thief began the game. Thief used his agility to move with Champ as much as possible. After a good while, Thief was on his back huffing as he sighed. Champ looked at the score, three to five. Champ had won, but Thief had kept him on his toes. 
	“You wanted to apologize, right?”
	“Yeah, I know it’ll take time to regain the trust of those I hurt. You, Funshine, Mend, and probably a good amount of others. I’ll do whatever I need to, to mend the trust I broke. No matter how long.”
	“You’re a bit of an idiot, Thief. Yeah, trust is easy to break and hard to fix, but you already realized how badly you fucked up way earlier then others.” Champ held his paw out, Thief took it as Champ pulled him up. The PA system let out a tune signaling lunch.
	“Oh! Lunch time! Let’s go!” Swift Heart grabbed Thief’s paw as they led the way. Funshine, Bright Heart, and Champ following as the others were heading toward the dining hall from their locations. Noble Heart was taking a head count. As he scratched his head Thief’s gang arrived.
	“Ah, there you five are! There’s some seats open.”
	“Thief, over here.” Mend was sitting next to Grumpy and gestured to two open seats next to them. Thief sat next to Mend as Swift sat next to Thief.
	“Hey Mend, about earlier today…”
	“I have a plan. Just wait.” Noble took his seat next to True as they began to eat. As they were finishing Tenderheart rang his bell to signal an announcement.
	“Mend Heart has figured out the next mission. They’d like to go over it. Mend if you would.”
	“Thank you Tenderheart. With Thief Heart currently out of commission, Share proved she could make extra bracelets that Lotsa utilized in the last mission. With the total number of valid members, we are at ten. I’d like to send five out. Grumpy, Share, Funshine, Good Luck, Bright Heart. You five are the chosen. Funshine and Good Luck already have experience.”
	“As for the rest of us, we can use our belly badges to knock the enemy back, stunning them and letting us do the theft part. If the plan works.” Grumpy muttered as he gathered the plates with Cheer. 
	“Oh, Grumpy! We can use the test chips we made.”
	“We’d need Share to make copies so we can use them without losing them all.”
	“I can handle that, Grumpy. What do they do?”
	“Electrocute. Paralyzing enemies.” Everyone looked at Bright Heart and then to Grumpy with a bit of shock and intrigue. 
	“Anyway, You boys need to make sure your sister also gets out safely.”
	“Of course, mom! Why else did I learn archery if not to protect my siblings?” Funshine smiled at True Heart and hugged Share and Good Luck who were next to him, the three of them chuckling. 
	“Alright, with all that figured out. You five head to the Cloud Car. Thief, Mend, we’ll work as mission control.”
	“I guess this is a way for me to kind of patch things up given my reckless mistake?” Thief looked over at Tenderheart. He gave a skewed face and gave a so-so hand gesture. The Bears and Cousins split up around Care-A-Lot as the mission control walked with the group that were going to invade Void Heart’s castle. Mend got them all fitted with their bracelets as Tenderheart handed them five earpieces. 
	“Something Grumpy fixed up, they each have a color out of a hundred, customizable. It helps when we’re tracking you.”
	“I figured more colors, more options, and no fighting over a certain color.” Grumpy set his to a dark blue, Good Luck set his to green, Funshine yellow, Share a lilac color and Bright Heart to darker purple. The two high-fived as they took the elevator to the garage. Thief, Mend, and Tenderheart sat down and got their communicator headsets on and pulled up the trackers.
	“Alright, the mission is all set. Be careful you five, don’t do anything stupid like I have. Come home safely.” Thief Heart heralded them off as Grumpy drove the Cloud Car to Void Heart’s castle.