Dr. Blight's evil plan had finally worked, at last she was in the position she needed to finally bring her destruction of the world full circle. As her and Looten Plunder stood over Captain Planet's broke body covered in waste and finally defeated, Blight looked at the despair in the Planeteer's eyes and laughed.
"Ah ha hah ha hah… Ah…You eco pest have finally lost, no longer will you four get in our way!" Blight proclaimed, Looten Plunder then interjected his say into the conversation, "Yes my dear, finally we will be able to pollute in peace, just as soon as we deal with this." Plunder then pointed his rifle to Captain Planet's head preparing for the coup de grace.
Kwame at this point was enraged, "How can you people do this! I simply don't understand how you can cause such destruction to our planet! You have to live her too!" Gi then added, "You have killed so many! What is wrong with you?!" Linka, stood there for a moment in shock then responded, "You have already taken so much from us! I will not let you take Captain Planet too!" Ma-Ti however continued to sit on the ground, tears running down his cheeks.
Dr. Blight then laughed again as Linka began to move toward them and raised her hand toward the young planeteer showing a single golden ring over her black glove. "How fitting!" She laughed again and then said a single word, "Fire". From Dr. Blight's ring shot out a torrent of flame that hurled towards Linka with incredible speed.
At that very moment, just as Link raised her arms to shield he face time stopped. Standing on the scene now was Gaia, the spirit of earth. "How? How could this of all happened?" She collapsed to her knees on the floor, "Why was I such a fool? This were just kids, children who I foolishly choose to protect my world. Now I have doomed them all…" A single tear rolled down her cheek and fell from her face.
Today was a glorious day for the planet earth, for at last the Planeteers long mission to save the world from pollution was taking a major step forward. Their ten years of service under Gaia had finally presented them with the respect that they deserved, and so the Planeteers were invited to attend the world summit meeting at Mr. Everest. The meeting set was to congratulate the planeteers for their hard work as a nuclear peace treaty was to be signed by the leaders of every nation on the planet to disarm all nuclear war heads. Of course, to dismantle every single war head would take several years by traditional means, and so the star of the show Captain Planet was going to be summoned forth to dispose of the nuclear radiation on an atomic level. The operation would be complicated to say the least, but it was a shot at complete nuclear disarmament, and ever more important, a shot a world peace that they could not be passed up. Despite the agenda, the planeteers were on hope island were in the process of preparing for tomorrow.
Ma-Ti was in the command center looking at the viewing screen searching for his most hated enemy, Looten Plunder. For the last year now, he had spent most of his free time looking for any trace of animal cruelty, genetic engineering, black market trades, and endangered species all in hopes that he would find some clue that would lead him to Plunder. Wheeler walked into the room with him carrying two cups and sat down next to him.
"Hey little dude, com'on." Wheeler had that stupid grin on his face, the type that showed he had the best of intentions but lacked the proper forum to execute them. Ma-Ti didn't pay much attention to him, "Wheeler my friend, I'm a bit busy right now." Ma-Ti then held his ring up to his head and said "Heart". As the yellow energy emanated from his ring, Wheeler grabbed his hand and pulled it way.
"Look Mahtee, I'm not Kwaume, and I know I'm not as nice as Gi, but you need to get over this! You sit in this room for several hours everyday looking for him, but Pludner is dead!" Ma-Ti raised an object, "But Wheeler, we can't know for sure! That man… that man did such horrible things." Wheeler calmed down a little seeing that Ma-Ti was still very tender about the entire situation.
"Look Ma-Ti, he died, we saw it with our own eyes. After Looten had taken the genetic information of all those endangered species and combined with the help of Blight into that genetic monster to sell on the black market." Wheeler grabbed a hold of his friends shoulders and looked him in the face, "Do you remember what happened next?"
"Yes Wheeler, Argos Bleak who Plunder had used as a short cut for the creatures genetic code still had consciousness in the monster, I could hear his cries for help. Finally after the years of abuse for Plunder, his mind and all the hate in his heart broke free and he killed Plunder." Ma-Ti looked away from Wheeler's gaze towards the floor, "after that we called Captain Planet, and he put that monster to rest because he was beyond the point of salvage."
There was a little bit of a silence between the two for a moment, finally Wheeler continued, "There is no way he could still be alive. Look, I know he took Suchi from you, but you have to let go." Wheeler then did something he very rarely did, for his hot headed nature usually prohibited it due to his upbringing, however he reached over and gave his friend a hug. Ma-Ti closed his eyes for a moment and said quietly, "Even so… I must keep looking, I must be sure." Wheeler broke the hug, "Be strong Ma-Ti, be strong." He then stood up and walked off towards the beach.
As Wheeler walked towards the beach, he couldn't help but to feel sorry for Ma-Ti, he had been through a lot, they all had. As he wandered in a half daze, his attention was brought back to him as Gi splashed some water at him. "Hey Wheeler!" she called to him loud. Wheeler's gloomy face changed when he saw her, "Hey Gi, what's up?" Gi was in the water in her scuba diving suit since this part of hope island was particularly deep into the ocean. Since the island was formed from geo crystals that rose up out of the ocean floor, the island was not unlike a tower that was surrounded by water. Gi often spent her free time in the water, she had even befriended a group of dolphins in the area and every few days would go out swimming with them when she wasn't focusing on her PhD in Marine Biology.
"Wheeler, want to join me for a swim? I'll race you around the island." She said as she winked at him. Gi knew that appealing to Wheeler's competitive nature was the way to shake off his gloom, and Wheeler smiled at her, "You're on Gi!" Wheeler then peeled off his shirt getting ready for the swim, but as he did Gi looked away for a moment. "Something wrong?" Wheeler asked as he moved towards the water.
"It's just… you know." Gi replied timidly. Wheeler had a look of confusion on his face, but then he understood and he reached up to with is right hand to the upper left his chest, "Oh this." He said, feeling the scar that was there, "It's nothing." Wheeler had switch to his tough guy attitude. "Wheeler… I don't really like to be reminded of that time." Wheeler looked down at her in the water and said, "Oh, no problem Gi, I'll just keep my shirt on." He smiled at her as he pulled his planeteer shirt over his head messing up his long red hair, he however left his vest on the ground and then dived on. For the next fifteen minutes the two of them raced around the island, and though Gi was the better swimmer, she let Wheeler win because she knew it would cheer him up. After the swim Wheeler put back on his vest and used his ring to dry himself off after a few minutes and then went off into the garden to find Kwame.
As Wheeler entered the garden, he could see Kwame's work paying off. Kwame had taken it among himself to save endangered plants from all around the planet, and transplanted them to Hope Island garden for careful nurturing. Wheeler pushed a few branches of a rather large plant aside as he entered and found Kwame kneeling on the ground with a small hand shovel and a few pots over some fresh saplings. Kwame looked up at Wheeler and smiled, "Greetings Wheeler, what can I do for you?"
Wheeler sat down next to Kwame crossed leg, "Nothing much, just can't wait for tomorrow." Kwame put down the shovel and wiped his forehead from the humidity of garden. "Wheeler, I've been wondering. Tomorrow the world will make a huge step in protecting itself from the horrors of humanity, but do you think we have the right to do this?" Wheeler was a little surprised that Kwame would ask him such a question, "Hey, why are you asking me?" he said has he threw his hands up into the air, "You're the one always making the decisions around here." Kwame laughed for a moment, "I know, but sometimes I wonder what you are thinking about Wheeler."
Wheeler looked down at the ground, half distracted by the saplings and after a moment replied "Kwame man… We shouldn't be the ones doing this. I mean, why is it us always putting our lives on the line to help when so many others just don't care. It's just not fair, know what I mean?" Kwame nodded, "Yes Wheeler, I understand." Kwame then looked up to the sky, "I miss my family too, but it is our duty… our privilege to serve Gaia." Wheeler stopped looking at the ground and looked Kwame in the face, "We have all given up a lot Kwarme, but the nations of the world are trying to do something good, I mean with Cap and all, there won't be anymore nuclear weapons." Kwame interrupted, "No more in our nations hands. What about Dr. Blight or Duke Nukem? With a nuclear disarmament, the nations of the world might be opening their doors to eco terrorist or even full on war." Wheeler sighed for a moment, "And if that happens, we'll be here to stop it. Afterall pal, we're the planeteers." Wheeler then gave Kwame a thumb up, and stood up. Kwame looked up to his friend, "Wheeler, if you see Linka tell her I could use some rain, okay?" Wheeler smile, "Sure thing man."
Wheeler was a bit surprised at the events today, normally everyone was a little more relaxed but today they seemed anxious about tomorrow. Of course Linka was serious and focused on her work. He went to her door and knocked lightly, "Yo Linka, it's Wheeler!"
"Well duh." A muffled voice came from behind the wooden door, "Come on in Wheeler." Wheeler in the past two years had been spending more and more time with Linka, and so this had become somewhat normal. As he entered her room she was sitting at her desk with a pile of books, one particularly thick book open on the desk with her leaning back in her chair facing towards Wheeler. "Something wrong?" she asked innocently. Wheeler jumped on to her bed laying on his chest with his legs up in there air, "Nope, nothing at all."
Linka looked over him for a minute and said, "Wheeler…" At the same time Wheeler interjected afraid of where it was going, "Hey, whatcha reading?" Linka giggled slightly, "The process of nuclear fission." Wheeler rolled his eyes, "Don't you have anything good?" Linka giggled again, "Let me guess, you would prefer I read you comic books." There was a pause for a moment while Wheeler scratched his unable to think of a good comeback, "So why are you reading that anyways? Is it for tomorrow?"
Link lent back in the chair again and stretched out her back, "Yeah, I am. I need to make sure we are ready for tomorrow." Wheeler started kicking his legs back and forth, "Come on Linka, with Cap on the job it should be a sinch." Linka then looked at Wheeler with one of those serious looks of hers, "Do you remember when we were stopping Hoggish Greedly, and Ma-Ti wasn't able to help form Captain Planet?" Wheeler nodded, "Yeah, Cap wasn't able to control his sense of judgment and almost killed Greedly. But we stopped him, remember?" Linka sighed, "Ya, but don't you see, Captain Planet is made up of parts of us. It was probably your reckless behavior that almost caused him to kill Greedly in the first place." She smiled with that intending the comment to be a playful insult. "Still Wheeler, you know that Captain Planet is made up from parts of each of us. I should really finish the book so that he has fresh knowledge for tomorrow."
"Linka…" Wheeler said suddenly, "Cap's got it covered, I'm sure. Tomorrow will be the biggest day for the planet, can't you take a little break?" Linka smiled, she always had a hard time turning him down, "All right Wheeler, you are right. Tomorrow is a special day so we should celebrate. What should we do?" Wheeler pivoted his body around on the bed to be sitting upright, "I know, there is this killer Italian restaurant in Brook land my parents would always take me to when I was a kid." Linka cut him off, "You want to take me out to dinner in America? You know if you want spaghetti we should go to the source in Italy." Linka finished her statement with a little bit of a laugh, Wheeler however had a look of disappointment on his face, "Oh all right Wheeler, but after dinner then what." Wheeler smiled, "Well we could always come back here; the others should be asleep by then." Linka blinked, "Oh, I see where this is going!" She said as she put her hand firmly on Wheeler's chest and pushed him off the bed, "Americans!"
Wheeler got up and brushed himself off, "Hey hey! I didn't mean anything like that!" Wheeler put his hand up to his vest and felt to see if it was still there. "Just dinner then, nothing special and no tricks." He then put his other hand up in the air, "Scouts honor, promise!" Linka giggled and closed the book on her desk with a book mark. "Very well Wheeler, but we should hurry then if we get there before they close." Wheeler looked confuse, "but it's a little after noon Linka." Linka rolled her eyes, "Time zones Wheeler, time zones! You are such a fool." She smiled at him as they raced off to the Geo Curser.
Copyright 2007 by Nelio Belmont. The characters from the Captain Planet series which appear here are property of and copyrighted by Ted Turner and used without permission. The others are mine. You may distribute this work provided this notice is included and distribution is not done for monetary gain. Please do not post this work to any newsgroups and/or sites without my permission.