A couple of pirates and something that looked like a gremlin shoved Lisa Marie, Vernon and Drake into a wide circle of jeering teddy bears in the town’s main square. Dozens of people were huddled together at the far side of the circle, most of them dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns. They were on their knees and guarded by a pack of snarling werewolf bears. Screams and howls in the distance suggested more prisoners would soon be joining them.
Drake had a black eye and a swollen nose from his fight with the pirate bear, and he hadn’t really said much since the bear had jumped off him. He gazed around now at the circle of furry monsters, his eyes getting wider and wider with every new type of teddy creature he spotted in the crowd.
“Believe us now?” Vernon whispered.
Drake’s mouth flapped open and closed, as if he was trying to reply but the words weren’t quite coming out. “Muh… Um…”
In the centre of the town square, an armchair had been placed on top of a car. Grizz sat in the chair, looking tiny against its high padded back. The Stuff-U-Lator rested across his knees.
He idly traced his claws along its metal and plastic surface and watched as Lisa Marie, Vernon and Drake were marched over to join the other captives.
“Wait,” Grizz said, when they passed by his makeshift throne. He leaned forwards and peered at Vernon. “I know you. You’re the one who made me. Right?”
Vernon tried to reply, but his throat had gone dry, so he could only nod.
“You made a teddy bear?” Drake said, finally finding his voice. “What a baby.”
“Silence,” Grizz commanded. He fixed his gaze on Vernon and gestured at himself. “Good job, meatbag. You really made me something special.” He waved to the bears escorting the children. “Now put them with the others.”
“Wait!” cried Lisa Marie. “What are you going to do to us?”
Grizz grinned, showing off his vampire teeth. For a long while, he said nothing, but then he held up the Stuff-U-Lator. “See this thing? It’s magic. Or maybe science. Or a little of both, who cares? It was invented by… I don’t know. Some dude. And then it was stolen by some other dude, who used it to bring us to life.”
The demon-vampire-werewolf bear stood up and hopped down on to the bonnet of the car. “And why? So he could use us. So he could make us his slaves. Because that’s what you do, isn’t it? You meatbags. You think you can just pick us up whenever you like, then toss us away when you get bored of us. You think you’re better than us.”
“I never thought that!” Lisa Marie protested. She crossed her arms. “But I do now. You’re horrible. We’re much better than you.”
She jabbed a thumb in Drake’s direction. “Well maybe not him, but everyone else.”
“What did you just say?” Drake spat.
“Lisa Marie, shut up,” Vernon whispered, almost as scared of Drake as he was of Grizz.
“Is that a fact?” Grizz growled, still holding Lisa Marie’s gaze. He jumped down and padded closer, his paws leaving sizzling prints on the tarmac behind him. “I think you’re more like me than you realize.”
Lisa Marie shook her head. “I’m nothing like you.”
Grizz’s grin grew so wide it almost split his seams. “No? Well maybe we can do something about that.” He shook the Stuff-U-Lator. “See, I had this thing reprogrammed. And it’s about time we put it to the test.”
He glanced at Vernon. “Hold her or I’ll blow you to bits.”
Vernon gulped. “What?”
“You heard me,” Grizz growled. “Grab her, hold her still and you won’t suffer the same fate. I might even let you serve at my side. You could help me rule the world!”
“Um…” said Vernon. His eyes went from his sister to Grizz, and then down to the weapon in Grizz’s hands.
Fire flickered behind the demon bear’s eyes. “Last chance, kid. Hold her. Now.”
Vernon shook his head. “N-no,” he said.
Grizz’s face darkened. “No? No?! You dare say no to me? You just made a very big mistake, meatbag.” He pointed to Drake. “You. Hold her.”
“My pleasure,” said Drake, almost snapping to attention. He caught Lisa Marie by the back of the neck, just like he’d done to Vernon earlier. Lisa Marie yelped in pain and tried to struggle as Drake shoved her forward.
“Vernon, help me!” she pleaded.
“You wish,” Drake sniggered. “I’m doing him a favour.”
Vernon stood frozen to the spot, watching Drake push his sister towards Grizz.
Stepsister. He meant stepsister, not…
Ah, who was he trying to kid?
He would probably regret this, he knew, but he’d regret not doing it even more.
Taking a deep breath, Vernon stepped in front of Drake and Lisa Marie, blocking the way. When he spoke, he expected his voice to shake. But it didn’t. Not even a little. “Take your hands off my sister.”
The grin fell from Drake’s face. He stood there, unmoving, unblinking, unsure of how to react. No one had ever tried standing up to him before, and he didn’t quite know how to deal with it.
“What did you say?” he hissed at last.
Vernon glanced at the circle of teddies, then back at the growling Grizz. He looked into the eyes of Lisa Marie, which were open wide in surprise. Finally, he turned back to Drake himself.
“I think you heard me,” he said. “Let her go. Now.”
“Stupid meatbag!” Grizz cursed. “I offered you the chance to be somebody!”
Vernon turned to face the snarling teddy. The bear’s glassy eyes were sparking like Catherine wheels. Demonic energy pulsed on the surface of his horns. His gums were drawn back, revealing every one of his vampire fangs.
“I’m already someone,” Vernon said. “I’m a big brother.”
“Zap him!” cried a voice from the crowd.
“Tear him in half!” yelled another.
“Teach the meatbag a lesson!”
“Feed him to the zombears!”
Vernon had to shout to make himself heard over the bears. “If you want to test your machine on someone, test it on me,” he yelled. “But let my sister go.”
Lisa Marie’s jaw dropped. As far as she could remember, Vernon had never done anything nice for her before, and now here he was risking his life to protect her. She would have smiled, but Drake was still holding her by the back of the neck, and there was the whole ‘evil teddy bears’ thing going on, so she didn’t.
“Aw, how sweet,” Grizz cackled. He raised the Stuff-U-Lator and took aim at Lisa Marie. “But I don’t think so.”
He squeezed the trigger. A light began to build deep in the vacuum-cleaner tube.
“No!” Vernon cried. He dived for Lisa Marie, pulling her from Drake’s grip just as the Stuff-U-Lator fired. A ball of orange light struck Drake in the chest and he jerked around like a puppet with tangled strings. There was a puff of smoke, a loud sort of flomp sound, and then a series of gasps from the bears and humans watching.
“What?” said Drake, once the smoke had cleared. “Why are you all staring at me like—”
He stopped talking when he noticed his hands. Or, rather, his paws.
Carefully, he felt his face. It didn’t feel like his face any more. For a start it was furrier. His nose didn’t used to be made of hard plastic, either.
He spun to face Vernon, only to find himself looking at the boy’s knees. Leaning back, he looked up and up and up until he could see Vernon’s face.
“I’m… I’m…”
“You’re a teddy bear,” Vernon told him. “A brown one.”
“With a cute little pink bow on your head,” added Lisa Marie.
Drake shook his head, unable to believe what had happened to him. “My mum is going to kill me!” he sobbed.
“You’ve got no one to blame but yourself,” Lisa Marie told him. She bent down and picked the Drake bear up. “If it’s any consolation, that bow really does make you look pretty.”
“Oh, shut up,” the Drake bear snapped, crossing his stubby arms in front of his chest.
“Now, now,” said Lisa Marie, “any more of that and I’ll find you a nice frilly dress to go with it.”
“You wouldn’t!” Drake gasped.
“With flowers on,” Lisa Marie added. “And little pink butterflies.”
“Well at least we know it works,” Grizz sighed, interrupting them. He jabbed a paw at Vernon and Lisa Marie. “Hold them,” he barked to the circle of bears. “This time I won’t miss.”
Vernon stepped in front of his sister to shield her as the circle of teddies began to close in.
“What do we do now?” Lisa Marie asked. “Any ideas?”
“Nothing coming to mind,” Vernon replied. “I guess this is it.”
Lisa Marie nodded, barely holding back tears. The bears were almost on them now. “I guess it is.”
“Sorry,” whispered Vernon. “For being so horrible to you all the time.”
“It’s OK. I forgive you.”
“Yuck!” spat the teddy in Lisa Marie’s arms. “Stop with the niceness or I’m going to puke!”
Suddenly, a loud cry echoed down from somewhere above. Lisa Marie looked up in time to see a tumbling ball of fur come spinning down from the sky. It flipped dramatically in the air, then hit the ground face first with a thud.
“Aw, man, that hurt,” it groaned. Lisa Marie gave a sharp yelp of delight as the teddy stood up and brushed the ash from his soot-stained sequinned outfit. Adopting a karate stance, the bear curled his top lip into a sneer. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he drawled. “The King has entered the building!”
“We’re not in a building,” Vernon pointed out.
“Fair point, son, well made,” Bearvis conceded.
“You’re alive!” Lisa Marie gasped.
“Course I’m alive, little darlin’. Takes more than an exploding jetpack to stop the King. Although, I’m gonna be honest, falling back down sure took longer than I’d have liked.”
He swished his paws in front of him and locked eyes with Grizz. “Now, then, you big ugly … whatever you are, how about you surrender and save us all kinds of trouble?”
Grizz’s lips pulled back in a snarl. He gestured to the circle of bears, who had all stopped advancing. “Don’t just stand there, you idiots,” he barked. “Destroy the traitor!”