Book 6

## Chapter 1

“George—” Ice bear gaped at the note breathlessly. “How?” She flipped the note over and saw more written at the back.

I stole the you alternate selves’ ring and diamond from the police man in the alternate universe I was trapped in. WAHAHAHAHA —George

“His handwriting is terrible,” Ice bear groaned. His words were nothing but messy scrawls over the paper. Although he probably had written the note in a hurry before they came back to the house.

Just then, Hop came running over. “Icy! Ic—” He stopped when he saw Ice bear in the bath.

“Um…the GOT wants to talk to us!” Hop bear exclaimed after a few seconds.

“Oh, is this about George?” Ice asked. Hop’s face turned into a confused expression. “George? He’s trapped in a parallel universe, remember?”

Ice bear flipped the note back to the I ESCAPED side and showed Hop. Her brother looked horrified.

“WHAT????” Hop bear screeched, flailing his limbs as he sank to the lush garden grass. “Oh man. I was hoping we’d finally seen the last of him…” He blinked up at Ice bear. “Well hopefully we can stop him with the new ability GOT said we unlocked on the ring,” he replied, getting up. “Come on, he’s in the living room!”

*A new skill? Maybe this will help us with George for good!* Ice thought. She climbed out of the tub and followed Hop into the house. The GOT was there on his cloud as usual, fiddling with their Xbox.

“Hi, GOT!” Ice bear said.

“Huh? Oh, I wasn’t playing video games!” The GOT whipped around to face her as the Xbox dropped to the floor. “Uh…so anyway…”

“What did you want to say?” Ice asked him, narrowing her eyes. The GOT told her, “Oh right. You have unlocked morphing mode on the ring. All you have to do to activate it is stomp on the floor 3 times with your left foot and clap, and then say what you want to morph into.”

*Morphing? Like, we can become anything we want?* Ice bear felt a little dizzy. *If this ever falls into the wrong person’s hands…*

“Uhh…” she stuttered. “That’s kinda complicated. And how did you know we unlocked it?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” the GOT smiled. “Whenever you unlock a new ability on your ring, it glows. Also, you can’t get abilities on the diamond. Look, there’s the badge of a bear turning into a boat that says ‘Morphing’ on it!”

Ice bear had pulled out the ring and could see all three badges they had earned so far: Morphing, freezing in time and boomerang. The badges were small, differently coloured virtual circles that appeared on the ring’s surface with both the ability’s name and matching pictures along with them.

“Cool!” she exclaimed. Then she remembered George’s note. The GOT didn’t know about George’s true identity yet! She shook her head to clear her mind. “Wait!!! I need to tell you something GOT!!! George is AN ALIEN! The one who would have beheaded us in 2079 if the DOT didn’t save us!!! And he came from Bangladesh just to track us and the ring down!!”

The GOT looked half surprised, half…scared, for some reason? Scared of George? That was weird. The GOT always knew what to do. “Oh no!” he said.

“No wonder he took great pleasure in beheading us in the other timeline…” Hop muttered.

GOT blinked, as if trying to recall something. “Ice, can you show me that note?”

Ice bear handed the slip of folded paper out to the floating grey cat. “Here you go. Not anything important. It’s just George evilly laughing for most of it.”

Hop bear snatched the note out of the GOT’s paws.

Suddenly they heard their parents, Free bear and Cold bear, calling. “ICE! HOP!” They soon appeared in the doorway connecting the hallway and the living room and paused. “Who’s that cat in a top hat and why is he in our house?” Free bear, their mother, asked.

“Oh…he’s our friend, and we’re gonna have a pla—sleepover!” Hop stammered as an excuse. *He must have wanted to say playdate but changed it so we would have more time together*, Ice realised.

Luckily, Cold bear and Free bear’s faces relaxed. They obviously believed Hop. “Okay, have fun with that CAT!” their mother said.

Ice bear sighed with relief. That crisis was averted, and now they could start planning how to get rid of George. She took the ring from GOT, stamped her foot three times, then clapped her hands. “George!” she blurted out.

Suddenly Ice felt her body rise up to meet the height of the middle-aged man. A black, furry moustache grew under her nose, and a striking red top hat appeared on her head. Her fur also grew two times thinner and greasier, making her gag.

Hop bear was staring wide eyed at Ice bear’s new form. “OH my gosh Icy that is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Her brother stepped away from her warily.

“Don’t worry.” Ice bear was shocked at her now deep and sketchy voice.

But then a white figure came running into their house. Ice bear sucked in a breath and her heart beat wildly as she recognised his moustache and hat. It was George! Luckily he was dressed up as his bear form. It would have been so much harder to explain if he was an alien…and so much scarier for Ice and Hop. “Hey!” George yelled, glaring at Ice and Hop.

Free bear gasped. “WHAT’S GOING ON???”

“Uhhh…” Ice trailed off, trying to think of an excuse. “Acting lesson playdate to um…practise our parts?”

“Oh!” Free exclaimed. “I didn’t know you two were in a play! You should have told us. You’re a very good actor, random bear,” she added to George.

“Why thank you—wait what?” George looked confused at why there were so many other people in the house. Before their mother could ask any more questions, Ice and Hop quickly ushered her out of the room and closed her room door. Cold bear followed too, to give the bears some privacy with their ‘friends’.

Now that they were alone, George let out a loud “WAHAHAHA!!!” and launched toward the ring Ice bear held.

There was no way Ice would let him get it again, especially not with the new ability unlocked on it. Her instincts took over and she stomped her foot three times and clapped her hands. “...” she couldn’t think of anything to morph into.

“Lion!” Hop filled in, grabbing the ring from Ice bear. He started to grow bigger. His paws turned giant, and a fluffy mane appeared around his neck. A light golden colour splashed across his entire body, complete with a long lion’s tail with a tuft at the end. Hoplion!

George gaped, not believing his eyes. It was the first time Ice bear had seen George like this. Completely bewildered. Hoplion charged head on toward George and the bear crouched on the carpeted floor, eyes wide.

Ice bear looked away when she saw what Hop bear was doing. He had opened his mouth wide, and…

When she looked back, she saw that Hoplion had chewed the alien-bear into approximately 9999999 million pieces. Hop was breathing heavily, sides heaving as he looked at the mess he created.

The GOT coughed politely. “I have to go…good work there, Hop,” he stammered. With that, he disappeared. Ice bear couldn’t believe it either. Hop bear had killed someone.

“I think…I think we need to go somewhere to relax…” Ice bear told Hop. Hoplion nodded distractedly, looking like he wanted to hide in his giant mane. George was an alien and he was evil and he’d stolen the ring before and he’d beheaded Ice and Hop…but he was still somebody, and Hop bear had killed him.

“Can we put the 9999999 million pieces of him outside? I don’t want it in our house,” Hoplion muttered. Ice bear agreed; that would be weird. They swept up the pieces and brought them outside, far away from their house.

The two bears decided to go to the library so they could read, relax and get their mind off things. When they stepped into the cool aircon room, a new bear librarian greeted them. Ice bear didn’t recognise her; the old librarian had been a kangaroo.

“I’m Elizabeth, Eli for short,” she introduced herself. “The old librarian was retiring and the library needed someone new, so I volunteered.”

The two bears went to find some books to read. Ice bear found a nonfiction book titled Is time travel possible? and Hoplion found one about lions. They went to their usual comfy reading spot and curled up on beanbags to read. Ice bear sighed. After all that craziness, it was nice to just be relaxing in the calm library surrounded by the smell of books and fresh aircon.

“Hop,” Ice whispered to her brother. He looked up at her. “Don’t be sad. You’re a hero.”

A small smile curled Hoplion’s lips.

While they read, Eli talked quietly on the phone with someone. Suddenly she ended the call, got up and left.

“That’s weird,” Hoplion mused. “Can we see what she’s up to?” The bears put down their books and went to see what was up. They walked out of the library, following Eli. She was walking…towards their house?? No, she was walking…in the direction of where George’s pieces lay…

Hop and Ice watched, as Eli somehow pieced George back together 9999999 million times. Then Eli snapped her fingers, and Ice bear knew she really shouldn’t be surprised anymore. But still, when Eli shapeshifted into an alien…it felt like Ice bear’s whole life was a lie.

How many more times would people she knew suddenly turn out to be aliens???

“Thank you, wife! Let’s go get some resources from our home planet now!” the pieced together but now perfectly intact George said to Eli. Eli nodded at him, and then turned to the bears and winked. Ice bear’s heart almost stopped in fear. With a flash the aliens ran off, leaving the bears alone.

“I can’t do this anymore!” Hoplion groaned, slumping to the ground. Ice bear hugged him, knowing how he felt.

A note lay on the ground where the aliens had once been. Ice bear went to pick it up and read it out loud, her eyes widening as she struggled to understand:

*How dare you eat my husband!! —Eli*