Chapter 3

"Are you sure you should go?" Linka took Wheeler by surprise and he paused in his breakfast to watch as she busied herself with cleaning the kitchen cabinet.

Careful to keep his voice curious instead of his usual flippant, given the awkwardness that had arisen between them in the recent weeks, "Sure, why not?"

"It is a very public event… given the recent attacks…" Linka shook her head, "I just think we could do with a quiet Christmas."

Wheeler hesitated, in two minds about his response, "Lighting the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center is a huge public event, and it's a big deal that they wanted a Planeteer there… I can't just not go Babe. Besides, you know they caught Skumm when the dumbass tried to stage another incident a couple of days after the parade."

"They have not found his lab, or all his men however." She turned to look at him, "I would not put it past him to have them stage another event, especially when there is a Planeteer there."

He wanted to ask if she were worried about him but couldn't see that conversation ending well. Instead he stood and moved closer to her, "You could come with me? You know I wouldn't say that if I thought there was any danger. We can take a couple of days and get back in the Christmas mood, see some sights, shopping, whatever you want. How about it?"

The pause was long enough for her to be considering it but her answer was still, "I cannot. I am sorry, it is just too complicated."

"Complicated," he raised an eyebrow, "The only two Planeteers that actually celebrate Christmas going to see a tree lighting is 'complicated'?"

She turned away and began tidying the things she'd already tidied, "You know what I mean."

"No, actually I don't." he told her, "Because there's nothing else going on that you could mean, right? And two friends spending time together can't be that 'complicated'."

She didn't answer and after a minute he turned and walked towards the door. Annoyed though he was, he still stopped in the doorway to say, "They've banned fake snow machines at the event, there's no need for you to worry."

"Wheeler I…" she turned, but not quick enough. He was gone.

Linka sat on her bed with her knees pulled up, balancing her laptop on them. The live coverage of the Rockefeller Center was failing to bring her into the Christmas spirit even though she wasn't really worried about mutant rats.

I should have gone with him. She brushed away an errant tear. He was right, I am the one making things complicated.

They showed the guests walk out onto the stage and her heart gave a little skip as she saw her friend. If I left now, would it be too late?

She was so caught up in her internal debate it wasn't until she heard Ma-Ti's voice in her head that she took in what she was seeing. ~ Planeteer Alert - Wheeler is calling for Captain Planet! ~ She was already running for the door as she processed the images; the snow falling from the sky, the crowd around the tree starting to hug each other, and kiss, and fight… the alarm on the stage…

~ Earth ~

~ Fire ~

~ Wind ~

~ Water ~

~ Heart ~

They co-ordinated via the Heart Planeteer and then made for the Crystal Chamber, "Gaia, what is happening?"

"It was real snow," Linka added, "I am sure it was."

The Planetvision was already showing the chaos that had been the Christmas celebration, and even with its special abilities it was hard to see through the snow in the evening light.

"There!" Gi pointed suddenly and the screen adjusted as if it knew where she was looking, "It's a plane…"

Kwame's voice was menacing, "Dr Blight."

"She must have been working with Skumm." Ma-Ti added.

All the colour had drained from Linka's face. She had had a bad feeling about the event since Wheeler first mentioned it after the parade, but like him, she hadn't really believed there would be a problem after Skumm had been arrested. "We need to go there."

The others agreed, somewhat dubiously, and Gi said "Hopefully Cap will have it under control before we get there but who knows how many clouds she's seeded. We won't be any help if we get caught up in it too."

Linka nodded in agreement somewhat stiffly, "We will need to be careful, we can use radiation suits if necessary but it will already be morning when we get there, we should go now."

The hospital waiting room was overflowing with people, crying, groaning and blindly reaching out for comfort, while Nurses and Paramedics moved purposely about their jobs.

It hadn't been snowing when they landed on the roof of the building and they'd had confirmation that Dr Blight had been dealt with - though Captain Planet had yet to return to their rings - so the Planneteer's had opted to forego their protective suits.

On reaching the reception Desk, Gi started to introduce their group but Linka interrupted, "Do you have a Jason Wheeler here? He would have been one of the initial patients at the tree lighting."

The receptionist, her own face covered, reached below the desk and retrieved a pack of face masks. "You'll need to put these on."

Kwame frowned, taking the mask anyway, "there is a danger of infection now?"

"No," the woman answered "but it's best to obscure your faces, they can't help themselves, and if one of them decides they like what they see..." She shook her head.

Linka complied with her instructions but recalled her attention to the subject at the forefront of her mind, "Jason Wheeler?"

"Honey, we don't have a clue who we have here, there are too many, some in a far worse case than this." She gestured around, "It was all we could do to keep er, 'interested parties' separate, if you know what I mean. I don't even have their insurance details."

Seeing Linka tense, Gi stepped in, "Is Doctor Singh working? She knows us and we'd be happy to help however we can."

The receptionist eyed them suspiciously for a moment and then made a call. When she put the receiver down she waved them towards the elevators, "She'll meet you in her office on the first administrative level, it's all labelled."

The short trip to the head researcher's office felt like it took forever to Linka and the others didn't need Ma-Ti's ring to detect her impatience. Still, she greeted the doctor in her usual manner and took a seat on the leatherbound sofa between Kwame and Gi, with Ma-Ti squashed in at the end.

"Sorry for dragging you up here," Dr Singh sighed and ran her hands over her face, "This is the first chance I've had to take a break. It's been chaos, and there are still people being brought in, just trying to keep some of them separate is a logistical nightmare. We're running out of room."

"It's taking longer to treat them?" Gi asked, doing some quick mental calculations.

The Doctor met her gaze, "The treatments aren't working. So far the only people who have been cured are couples who were equally attracted to each other and a few individuals who… zeroed in on an unwilling participant. I don't want to differentiate between attackers and victims in this case because quite honestly I don't believe anyone affected by this contagion had a choice."

Kwame frowned, "To be clear Doctor, are you saying that it is no longer enough for them to…"

He struggled to find the word but after taking a sip of her coffee, Singh answered him anyway, "Make out? Yes, it seems that a full sexual release is now the only way to counteract the toxin, although all the cases I've seen have been somewhat after the fact - because we didn't immediately realise that our previous treatments wouldn't work - so it's hard for me to tell exactly what the counteragent is. It's obviously a chemical reaction, but we haven't been able to replicate it yet."

"Are there not…" Ma-Ti's skin flushed darkly, "You said there were people you were having trouble separating?..."

Dr Singh nodded in understanding, "Believe me there's been a lot of conversations about ethics, and decisions for the greater good, but at the end of the day we have no way of registering consent." She looked troubled, "Potentially irreversible trauma versus death is not a decision I really want to make."

"Death?" Linka croaked.

"We've had three heart attacks, two strokes and some of them just go into comas after a while." She shook her head, "I heard they caught the people responsible, but they'll never be punished as badly as the people we're trying to save. And they're not offering an antidote, so that's no help. I'm sorry, you don't need to hear this."

Linka was rigid in her seat, her hands tight balls in her lap. Gi placed a hand over them and asked the question her friend couldn't seem to voice, "I don't suppose you've seen Wheeler? He's our American Planeteer and he was at the tree lighting…"

The doctor looked from one to the other, "Oh I'm sorry, no, I haven't seen him but I've mostly been in the lab… somewhere I need to get back to." She took a last draft of her drink and stood, "The best way to help your friend is to find a treatment, you can wait here if you want to, or I'm sure there's a hundred ways you could help the patients be more comfortable."

They thanked her and stood as she left, taking a moment to make their plans before heading back down to see what they could do.

"I have to find Wheeler." Linka detained Gi for a moment, "I will help when I know what has happened to him."

"I'm sure he'll be ok…" Gi offered but the Russian shook her head.

"I am not… he would have been one of the first infected, if he is not already in a coma he soon will be…" She swallowed hard. "Assuming that he has not already done something that he would never forgive himself for."

To Be Continued…