The little bear cub skipped happily on the sidewalk, challenging himself to jump over as many cracks as he could. Bracing himself, he bounded down the sidewalk until he missed a crack, tripped, and ended up sprawled on the ground. Immediately he sat up and clutched his small stomach, giggling at his own blunder.

"Flippy! Come on, Mom and Dad are gonna take us to the theater in five minutes!" Another bear ran down the sidewalk after him, her pale green fur ruffling in the breeze. "If you don't hurry up, we won't have any time to get popcorn!"

Flippy scowled up at his thirteen-year-old sister. "I don't wanna go to some dumb ol' theater and watch some dumb ol' movie that you picked out!"

Rolling her eyes, Tinsel sighed. "Why did I have to get stuck with an annoying five-year-old kid brother? You picked the movie last time! I had to sit through two hours of a bunch of green slime monsters attacking a city!"

"But that's cool! Now I gotta watch your stupid movies with people kissin' in 'em! Yuck!" Flippy made a face.

Reaching down, Tinsel grasped her little brother's paw and pulled him up. "Come on, it won't be that bad, I promise. Just sit through this movie, I don't even care if you fall asleep."

Flippy stopped, looking up at his sister with eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Share your Twizzlers with me and it's a deal."

"Done!" Tinsel shook the paw she was holding; laughing, the two of them trotted back down the street to the waiting car.

True to her word, Tinsel did not complain later when Flippy fell asleep in the theater; she only poked him once to get him to stop snoring softly. When he started again, she poked him again until her mother, June, told her to stop poking her brother. Since Flippy's noise didn't seem to bother anyone else in the room, June and her husband Ash left him alone.

By the time the movie was over, Tinsel had gently shaken her brother awake, and the four of them had left the theater, it was dark. The parking lot had been crowded earlier, forcing the family to park their car farther away. Now, however, it was empty. The family kept to the sidewalk, close to the buildings and alleys.

Flippy hung close to his mother, shying away from every unfamiliar thing that moved. In an attempt to seem braver than her brother, Tinsel giggled. "Oh, c'mon, Flippy, you aren't scared of the dark, are you?"

Biting his lip, the cub answered in a small voice, "No... I'm just scared of what's in the dark." There was a soft scrape of paws on the ground, and he jumped. "What was that?"

"That was just me, sweetheart," June soothed him. In truth, it hadn't been, nor had it been Ash or Tinsel. But she had no intentions of frightening her son. Far from being reassured, however, Flippy clung tightly to her paw. His apprehension was not for nothing.

There was an ominous click behind them, and a voice growled out, "Turn around. Now. Or I put a bullet in the brat's head."

Slowly, the four of them obeyed. Their attacker was a tall, thin skunk holding a revolver in one steady paw. There was no smell of drugs or alcohol on him, as most petty criminals had; this one didn't need substances for courage. Despite his gaunt appearance, there was a mean, muscular look to him. Ash held up both paws in an attempt to remedy the situation. "Now take it easy," he said carefully. "How much do you want?" Hearing the fear in his father's voice, Flippy buried his face in his mother's jacket to muffle his whimpering.

"All of it," the animal snarled. "Quickly, please."

Knowing better than to argue, Ash pulled out his wallet and tossed it on the ground at the skunk's feet. June turned out her pockets to indicate that she had nothing.

The skunk neither bent to pick up the wallet nor lowered his weapon. Instead he hissed, "I said, all of it. That means the watch, too, dumbass." Ash was about to reply when the skunk fired twice. Surprise registered on Ash's face as he staggered forward and fell.

Tinsel screamed and tried to run to her father's side, but the skunk reached it first. Lashing out with the butt of the gun, he struck her in the middle of the forehead. The adolescent bear dropped limply without another sound.

Like any mother, June's first instinct was to protect the nearest child. Holding Flippy, she dragged him backward, away from the murderous skunk. The latter fired at her, and she collapsed with a bullet lodged in her stomach.

Flippy was screaming, completely forgetting about the skunk standing nearby. "Mommy! MOMMY!" Was his sister still alive? At this point, he no longer cared.

As the skunk stalked nearer, June turned her blood-spattered face to her small son. "Flippy, don't look. Sweetheart, close your eyes!" But no matter how hard the little cub tried, he could not tear his gaze away from hers as the skunk stepped forward and shot her three times in the face.

Sobbing with horror, Flippy stumbled backwards until a corner halted his retreat. Blood quickly pooled from his parents' bodies, soaking the green fur on his paws. It was everywhere; his fur was sticky and wet with it, and if he licked his lips he could taste it. The skunk loomed over him, and his eyes darted left and right. There was no place to run.

Flippy cowered against the side of a closed store, pressing himself against the bricks as if he could push past them. A trembling whimper escaped his mouth as the combination of the sight and smell of blood, the mortal terror, and the undying instinct of self-preservation took over. His entire body shook, but not with fear.

The skunk pointed his gun and pulled the trigger. Click. Inwardly he snorted at his own bad luck. Oh well. There was more than one way of killing a cub than shooting it in the head. Stepping forward, he moved to grab his victim. Then he stopped, staring in first bewilderment and then horror when the tiny cub's eyes shrank and turned green.

The gun clattered to the bloodied ground, and the empty area resounded with one nightmarish shriek.

Only one.

This was to get the juices flowing for an upcoming fic of mine, involving my new character. The fic has nothing to do with my other HTF series. I will not start posting that story until I finish some of the others I've started.