Captain Planet, all respective characters and concepts are the property of their respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended, or profit made, from this work of fiction.
Kwame picked up a handful of sand, letting it trickle through his fingers, staring out at the crystal blue waters with a faint smile on his face. The Planeteers had come to Bondi Beach in Australia, for a vacation. Nearby, Ma-Ti was building a sandcastle with Suchi sitting on his shoulder. Further along the beach, Wheeler and Linka were walking together, eating ice-cream and laughing.
'It's beautiful here.' Gi said, sitting next to him with her arms wrapped round her legs. 'The water's so clean and clear.'
'It's like a paradise.' Kwame agreed.
'There's supposed to be Turtles in these waters.' Gi said. 'I'd love to see them up close.' She said, standing up. 'I'm going for a swim. Want to come?'
'No, thanks.' Kwame said, with a smile. 'I think I'll take a walk.'
Gi shrugged, unzipping her jacket to reveal her wetsuit and jogging towards the water. Kwame watched her go, before standing up and dusting himself off. As he left the central beach behind, the crowds rapidly thinned out. Here, the sand was completely undisturbed and there was no sound other than the whisper of the waves. It was heartening to think that places like this still existed, despite the damage that had already been done to the planet.
If only everywhere was...huh?
Kwame stopped, looking ahead of him to where the sand was churned up, with tracks leading from the water. Slowly, Kwame stepped forward, his eyes widening at what he saw and he pulled out his cell phone, hitting his speed dial.
'Planeteers, we have an emergency...'
Wheeler finished his ice cream and wiped his mouth, just as his cell phone rang.
'Kwame...what's the...? Alright, alright, we're on our way.'
'Vat is the matter?' Linka asked, as Wheeler shut down his cell phone.
'Kwame needs our help. Get Gi and I'll explain on the way.'
Linka nodded, sprinting over to the water, and Wheeler called to Ma-Ti.
'Ma-Ti! Kwame needs us. Come on, we've got to go.'
Ma-Ti scrambled to his feet as Gi and Linka jogged over.
'What's wrong?' Gi asked.
'Kwame's found a Turtle.' Wheeler replied. 'It's injured. Come on.'
Wheeler led them across the sands to where Kwame was kneeling and he held up his hand.
'Come closer.' He said. 'Slowly.'
They advanced, carefully, dropping to their knees next to him, looking at the Turtle that lay on the sand. It tried to raise its head weakly, the remains of fishing net wrapped around its limbs, deep cuts evident in its flesh.
'What happened to it?' Wheeler asked and Gi answered.
'It was caught in a fishing net. It obviously tried to escape, which is how it got these wounds.'
'Then, let's cut it free.' Wheeler said, extending his hand. 'Fi...'
'No!' Kwame said, grabbing his hand. 'We might make it worse. We need to get to someone who can treat him. Come on, give me a hand.'
They made a makeshift stretcher from their jackets and, lifting the Turtle gently, carried him towards the Geocruiser.
Dr Ashley Anderson stepped out of the clinic, looking up when she heard the roar of an engine in time to see a yellow aircraft shot overhead. As she watched, it swept around and dropped lower, touching down in the parking lot, the wind whipping her brown hair for a second until the engines shut off. With a faint whirr, the cockpit cracked open and a dark-skinned youth dressed in a green jacket and shorts, with a red t-shirt bearing a stylised emblem of a globe, vaulted out and dropped to the ground.
When he spoke, he voice was strong and confidant.
'Are you a doctor?' He called, as four other figures wearing the same emblem clambered from the aircraft, carrying a makeshift stretcher of jackets between them. Ashley's eyes widened as she saw the head poking out from the jackets and she raced over as they laid it carefully on the ground. Even as she approached, she could see the remains of a fishing net wrapped around it and the deep gashes that had been cut into its flesh.
'Where did you find it?' She asked and the dark-skimmed youth answered.
'On the beach.'
'Bring him inside.' Ashely ordered and they picked up the Turtle again, following her through the doors into the surgery.
Doctor Anderson worked quickly, sterilising her hands and putting on a pair of rubber gloves, before inserting an IV into the Turtle's flipper with practiced ease, hooking it up to a bag of fluids. Then, using a pair of clippers, she carefully cut away the fishing net, pursing her lips in concentration. When that was done and she'd administered an anaesthetic, she set to work suturing the cuts and lacerations. While she worked, she observed the youths out of the corner of her eye. The dark-skinned young man sat in a chair with his hands folded in front of him, his expression one of serious and earnest concern. Next to him, a red-headed youth paced up and down, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his brown jacket. Across the room from him, two young women sat in the room's only chairs. One was blond-haired with piercing blue eyes, her lips set in a thin line. The other was Asian, with short black hair, whose gaze kept flickering to the injured Turtle. Finally, a young boy in a tan jacket was seated cross-legged on the floor, with a monkey sitting in his shoulder. They all wore the same symbol on their shirts, which suggested they were a group. Environmental activists, maybe? Finishing the last suture, she stepped back, stretching her stiff shoulders and taking off her gloves.
'There. I've done all I can. He'll need to rest.' She said.
'Thank you, Doctor...?' The dark-skinned youth asked, with an earnest smile.
'Anderson.'
'Thank you, Doctor Anderson. My name is Kwame.' He said, extending his hand and she shook it.
'Isn't there anything more you can do?' The blonde young woman asked and Kwame turned towards her.
'Linka!' He snapped, turning back to Doctor Anderson. 'I apologise, Doctor.' He said and Anderson pursed her lips, gesturing for them to follow her and she lead the outside to where there were twenty plastic tanks scattered around the yard.
'These are all Turtles that have been injured by human actions.' She said, turning back towards them. 'We have twenty Turtles here at the moment and they all need attention. I have four staff here, all volunteers. We do the best we can.'
'I'm sorry.' Linka said and Kwame quickly introduced the others.
'This is Wheeler...' the red-haired man gave her a cheeky wink '...Gi...', the Asian girl smiled at her '...and Ma-Ti.' The young boy was looking around at the turtles, with a distant look in his eyes, but he gave her a nervous smile.
'Uh, who are you, exactly?' Doctor Anderson asked.
'We're the Planeteers.' Kwame said and Anderson frowned.
'Planeteers? What are you? Some sort of junior environmental activists?'
'Something like that.' Kwame said, with a smile. 'We would be willing to offer our help, if you wish.
Kwame walked among the tanks with Wheeler following behind him. Checking on the Turtles in the outdoor tanks was not a particularly difficult task but it was time-consuming, especially in the heat of the day. Coming from Africa, Kwame was more comfortable in the heat than the others, while Wheeler was sweating, despite having left his jacket behind at the surgery. They worked in silence, moving from tank to tank, with Kwame glancing occasionally at Wheeler. He could tell that something was bothering him, although he knew better than to pry. When Wheeler was angry, he tended not to keep it to himself for long.
'Dammit!' Wheeler said, leaning against the tank, not meeting Kwame's gaze.
'This totally burns me.' He muttered to himself. 'These Turtles don't hurt anyone. How could anyone do this to them?'
Kwame leant against the tank, folding his hands in front of him.
'Our anger will not change the situation, Wheeler. All we can do is give what help we can.'
'Yeah.' Wheeler muttered, turning and stalking off. Kwame watched him go, before returning to his own work.
Linka and Ma-Ti were in the emergency ward, walking along the cages where the most critically injured Turtles were cared for. Many had IVs and bandages around the limbs, lying limply on the floor of their cages, heads slumped and eyes half-opened. Linka stopped by the next cage and the Turtle inside tried to lift its head. Gently, she filled a syringe and squeezed a few drops of water into his mouth, repeating this twice more before picking up a squeeze bottle and lightly spraying the Turtle with water to keep his skin moisturised, carefully avoiding his bandages. Having reached the end of the row of cages, she looked around and saw Ma-Ti kneeling by another cage, his ring glowing as he whispered softly to the Turtle, his power conveying his compassion in a way that went deeper than words. As Linka watched, the Turtle's eyes opened and Ma-Ti smiled, stroking its head gently. Even now, Linka didn't fully understand how Ma-Ti's power worked, but it did. While he could not heal them, he could find that spark inside them that seemed to give them the strength to keep fighting. Ma-Ti looked up at her with a smile before moving onto the next cage and she felt a pang of envy.
His power can truly make a difference here.
Gi was assisting Doctor Anderson in the Main Tank, checking on the Turtles that were completing their recovery and were nearly ready to be released. While Abi stood on the side with her clipboard Gi, in her wetsuit, went to check on the Turtles. Taking a deep breath, she dived down, swimming alongside one of the Turtles for a few moments, before surfacing and heading back over to Abi.
'It looks good.' She said, pulling herself out and accepting a towel from Abi. 'How long until they can be released?' She asked, as she dried off her hair
'Hopefully, within a couple of days.' Doctor Anderson replied, tucking the clipboard under her arm. 'You have a natural affinity with animals, Gi.' She added, with a smile.
'I grew up near the ocean in Malaysia.' Gi said. 'Ever since I was a girl, I would go swimming with the dolphins in the bay. But, our family was forced to leave when a company wanted to build a resort on the beach. I've seen the damage that can be done to the oceans. That's why I became a Planeteer, to stop any more destruction through ignorance and greed.' She said, wrapping the towel around her shoulders, and Doctor Anderson led her back towards the clinic.
'There's showers in the back. Why don't you freshen up and then we can all break for dinner? I'll call and get some takeout delivered.
'I think we can do better than that.' Gi said, with a smile.
'It is just so horrible.' Linka said, leaning against the wall, raising her voice over the running water. 'Even after all the good we have done, there are still people in the world who don't care about the harm they cause, as long as they make money.'
'We knew this wouldn't be easy.' Gi said, as she rinsed her hair. 'We've done a lot of good today, too. A lot of these Turtles get a second chance, thanks to people like Doctor Anderson.'
'They may not be so lucky next time.' Linka muttered, to herself as Gi stepped out of the shower, wrapping her towel around herself.
'Go on.' She said. 'Hurry up. Kwame and the others will be back soon with the food.'
Gathering up her things, Gi headed for the cubicle to change and Linka headed for the shower, undressing as she went. Stepping under the hot water, she leant against the wall with her head bent low. Hearing Gi's footsteps approach, she raised her head with an effort and started washing her hair, listening with half an ear as Gi chatted to her from outside.
Kwame tossed the tofu in the pan, lightly browning it, throwing in a handful of chilli and garlic, a spicy smell filling the air. After letting that cook for a few moments, he added peppers, onions and sultanas, turning the heat down to let it cook slowly.
'That smells wonderful.' Abi said, moving to stand behind him as Kwame added salt to a large pan of boiling water, pouring in two cupful's of rice.
'Thank you.' Kwame said. 'It's biryani, a traditional African dish that my Mother taught me. I had to substitute a few things, but it looks like its ready.'
He gave the pan another stir and took it off the heat, ladling it out onto the seven plates, which he, Abi, Wheeler and Ma-Ti carried into the other room, where Linka and Gi were waiting. They sat in silence, eating quietly, until Wheeler broke the silence.
'We need to do something.' Wheeler said, putting down his fork, angrily. 'How can this be the case? All the good work we've done, stopping Plunder and trying to protect the world, and what good has it done? Look at what's happening here. Fighting against Plunder and his schemes, we can do that. What use are our Rings here? What use has any of it been?' He said, throwing down his fork and storming out.
'Wheeler...' Kwame began, but Linka interrupted.
'He's right, Kwame. What can we do against this? It's not something that we can fight against.' She said, pushing back her seat and heading towards the door as well.
'What's gotten into them?' Gi muttered and Ma-Ti stood up as well.
'They should not hide how they feel.' Ma-Ti said, following Linka out.
Wheeler was sitting on the wall, overlooking the beach when he heard footsteps behind him and he turned to see Ma-Ti standing behind him. He looked away, staring back out at the water, as Ma-Ti moved to sit next to him.
'Are you okay?' He asked, moving to sit on the wall next to him.
'Yeah.' Wheeler muttered, without looking round. 'I just don't see how Kwame can be so calm about this. What's the use of doing any of this if we can't solve this problem?'
'I hate it, too.' Ma-Ti said. 'There's so much suffering here, that I don't even know where to begin. I can feel the suffering of the Turtles and I can take it away, but what will happen next time? They may not be so lucky this time.'
'Yeah.' Wheeler said, staring at his ring. 'We've got so much power, so why shouldn't we use it. We could summon Captain Planet and he could sink all the fishing boats. That would solve all our problem. But, it's wrong.'
'Yes, it would. But, could we live with ourselves?'
Ma-Ti asked, Wheeler continuing to stare out at the ocean.
Linka lay on her bunk as Gi came in, hanging her jacket on the back of the chair and sitting down.
'Hi.' She said, but Linka did not answer and Gi frowned.
'What's wrong?' She asked, and Linka turned towards her.
'Do you even need to ask? You've seen what's happening here. And there's nothing that we can do.' She said, clenching her fist and looking at her ring.
'Gaia gave us these rings so that we could stop the damage that is being done to the planet. And what good can they do us? We have all this power, but it means nothing.'
'Not this again.' Gi said, folding her arms across her chest. 'Why are you always so negative?'
'Why are you always so naive?' Linka shot back and Gi frowned.
'At least I don't give up when things get tough.' She snapped, climbing into her bunk and pulling out her iPod, putting her headphones in her ears.
'At least I can accept reality.' Linka muttered, turning over and pulling the blankets up to her chin.
Next morning, Kwame came down to breakfast, walking into the middle of an argument.
'...not as easy as that.' Gi snapped. 'There's still a lot of good that we can do here.'
'Like what?' Linka shot back. 'Patching up these Turtles, just so they can get hurt again? How is that going to solve anything?'
'I never said it would solve everything.' Gi retaliated. 'But, it's the best we can do. They need our help and...'
'We can't just keep reacting to the problem.' Wheeler cut in. 'We need to stop this from happening in the first place.'
'How can we do that?' Gi asked, slamming her hands onto the table. 'What do you want to do? Sink every fishing boat with our rings?'
'We need to teach them a lesson. Every time they go unpunished, it just shows that they can do this again.'
'The Turtles are suffering.' Ma-Ti added. 'We have the power to stop it. Why shouldn't we use it?'
'We're not vigilantes. We use our powers to protect, not to destroy. Gaia choose...'
'Gaia choose us to defend the earth. We can't just sit back and let this continue.'
'We're not. We're doing what we can. Being responsible is about knowing when not to do something.'
'Responsible? You want to talk about responsibility? We have the power to stop any more Turtles from getting hurt or killed. No-one else can do that. How can we not...'
'That's enough!' Kwame said, his voice cutting across the argument like a whip and all heads turned towards him. He grabbed a chair and set it down, folding his arms across his chest. 'Everybody, sit down.' He said, calmly, like the sea before a storm and the others did so. Kwame looked at them for a second, before hanging his head.
'This is my fault. I saw what was happening here and I tried to put a brave face on it. I thought that I had to keep strong, for the rest of you. That, if I didn't admit that there was a problem, then there wouldn't be one. In doing so, I made everything worse.'
He stood up, taking off his ring and laying it on the table.
'These have great power. But, they can't solve everything. With them, we can do great good. We can fight fires, stop pollution in its tracks, save lives. But, we can't solve everything. But, that doesn't mean we're powerless. Gaia choose us to carry these Rings, because of what is inside each of us. We cannot wave our Rings and make this problem go away. There is little more we can do here. But, we can serve as an example to others and show them that there is another way. This is not our problem to solve, not alone. It is for people like Doctor Anderson, who work tirelessly every day, to solve. We could abandon our mission and devote ourselves to this, but we need to look at the bigger picture. We need to lead the way, not do everything ourselves.'
Kwame stopped, looking from one Planeteer to the next, before continuing.
'We knew that this would not be easy. That we would face challenges that nothing could prepare us for. We have all seen and done things that we never thought we could do. We accepted the responsibility that came with these rings. But, responsibility is not just about doing what needs to be done. It is also about accepting what is beyond your control to change. That is what I failed to do. And that makes what happened here my responsibility.'
'And we don't have any responsibility?' Wheeler cut in. 'Maybe what you say is true. But, that doesn't get us off the hook. We all let this get the better of us. We're all to blame.' He said, the others nodding in agreement.
'Wheeler is correct, Kwame. We all must shoulder the blame for this.' Linka said, turning to Gi. 'I am sorry for the things that I said to you. You did not deserve them.'
'No, but you were right. I couldn't accept that things were this bad and that just made it worse.' She said, wrapping Linka in a fierce hug that she returned, after a moment's hesitation.
Kwame smiled, turning to Ma-Ti and putting his hands on his shoulders.
'You were right all along, Ma-Ti. We shouldn't keep what we feel to ourselves, especially from our friends.' He said, turning back to the others.
'Pack your bags, Planeteers. We've still got a lot of work to do.'
Thank you for reading. Any comments, reviews or constructive criticisms very welcome.