Plunder Goes for Gold

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Plunder laughs looking down with a smile from his giant mobile mining platform, as it reduces enormous trees to splinters.

"Time's up chief, this place is mine now!" He calls over a loud speaker, as the shadow appears over the Kayapo village.

Screams fill the air as people flee in all directions. From the forest, appear Gi, Ma-Ti and Jose, staring on in shock and horror, as homes are reduced to splinters before them. The sounds of breaking wood, and the smell of fire fill the air. Plunder turns and heads for the great hill to the east. Tremors shakes the ground beneath their feet, as they try not to fall.

"Oh no! Those are our ceremonial areas." Ma-Ti cries out, running into the village. "My Grandfather!"

"Ma-Ti, wait!" Gi calls.

"You don't understand. I lost my parents long ago. Grandfather is the only family I have left!"

Gi and Jose watch as his bare feet pound the dirt. The young planeteer is frantic in his race to beat Plunder's machine. Suddenly Jose grabs her hand and begins to run the other way.

"Come on, we have to stop Plunder and help our friend." He calls out.

"What do we do?"

Jose looks around frantically. "The river! Can you create a muddy area?"

"How will mud help us?"

"If the ground is soft, maybe we can trip Plunder's machine up. Do you have a better idea?"

Gi takes a deep breath. "Here goes, Water!"

Her ring glows and a column of water jets from the river soaking the ground in front of Plunder's machine. Slowly it lumbers forward, stepping into the puddle, but nothing happens. Meanwhile, a tearful Ma-Ti dashes into the door of the hut.

"Run Grandfather, Plunder is about to smash our home into the ground!" Ma-Ti cries out, grabbing the old man by the arm.

Rrr! They hear the sound of the mechanical mining machine coming closer and the earth under them shakes. The old man jumps to his feet with Ma-Ti pulling at him as hard as he can. Together they slip out the door as a black shadow falls over them.

"Run indeed, Shaman!" Plunder calls out over the loud speaker. "If you won't claim the gold you sit on, I will! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

The sound of Plunder's evil laugh fills the air as trees above them snap like toothpicks. Just then, Kwame jumps from behind a bush and points his ring at the ground.

"Earth!" He says.

The ground shakes and splits open, causing the leg of the machine to sink and making it topple over. Now he dives in and pushes Ma-Ti and his Grandfather out of the way. The elderly man shakes his head as he looks up.

"I am truly sorry to be so rough, Shaman! I didn't think I could save you two from being killed."

"You did a good thing! Thank you." The old man says. "How do we save my village, and my people? My spiritual magic cannot fight this evil."

"Ma-Ti, contact the others. It's time to match Plunder's force with force of our own."

Ma-Ti puts his ring to his head. "Friends, we need Captain Planet!"

A moment later, Wheeler, and Linka run out of a trail. "Ready when you are, Ma-Ti!"

Kwame steps back and aims his ring into the air. "Then, let our powers combine. Earth!"

"Fire!" Wheeler calls out.

"Wind!" Linka yells.

"Water!" Gi says.

Ma-Ti points his ring skywards. "Heart!"

In a flash, a ball of light as bright as the sun appears right in front of Plunder's machine. Plunder quickly turns away and shields his eyes. Inside of it, the figure of a man forms.

"By your powers combined," He says, as the glow disappears. "I am, Captain Planet!"

"Go Planet!" The five planeteers call out.

The arm of the giant mining machine hurdles towards the tiny hut, but Captain Planet grabs it in midair. "Not this time, Plunder! It's time I taught you some manners."

Taking off, Captain Planet picks the whole machine up and races away towards a large waterfall. "When you build your fortune at someone's else's expense, it always leads to a fall!"

Captain Planet tosses the machine into the water and watches it goes over the edge. Inside, Plunder and his henchmen are tossed about as the mining machine tumbles toward the rocks below. The machine is swept downstream, until it crashes into some rocks. Inside, Looten Plunder sits up and holds his head. Suddenly, the wall breaks open and a powerful gust of wind throws him into a wall.

"I hope you like stripes, Plunder, because I'm putting you in prison!" Captain Planet says shooting some vines at him. "If anyone calls, I'll tell them you're a little tied up!"

The vines wrap around Plunder tying his hands and feet up. Now Captain Planet grabs the villain by his shirt and flies away. They streak back to the village, where he drops Plunder by a hut.

"Hold this guy for me, will you?" Captain Planet asks. "I need to find Greedly!"

Wheeler and Ma-Ti run over to the bound eco-villain.

"You got it, Cap!" Wheeler says. "You know Plunder, I'm going to enjoy handing you over to the cops."

"You'll pay for this, Captain Planet!" Plunder shouts, struggling to get free.

Captain Planet once more takes to the sky and races off into the jungle. "It's time to go after Greedly!"

While Captain Planet is on his way to find Hoggish Greedly, Gi is in one of the surviving huts with a small chemistry kit and some water samples. Slowly she begins to mix things and add stuff to some test tubes.

"Oh, I hope this works. I've never had to do this in the field before." She says nervously, carefully measuring some chemicals.

Moments later, Linka runs inside.

"Gi, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to see exactly what is in the water here." Gi replies. "We know they are polluting the water, but if we can prove what they are dumping, we have them."

"Let me help. I finally got through the files we took from them." Linka replies.

"What have you found?"

Linka holds up her laptop. "Look for lead, mercury, arsenic, and cyanide. I found all four in Greedly's inventory list."

"Right!" Gi replies, grabbing some chemicals and mixing them. "We'll get them now!"

Slowly the water in the test tubes begins to change color.

He streaks across the sky towards the compound where the mining machines are pulling into the gate. For a moment, he looks at one of the buildings.

"Time to shut this place down, for good!"

Diving in, he punches a hole through the ground.

"Okay Greedly, let's see if you like being the victim of a shake down." Captain Planet says.

Suddenly the whole building begins to shake violently and then crumble. Greedly, who is on the cat walk inside, tumbles over the rail and falls, as lights and machines break loose and crash to the floor.

"Earthquake!" Someone yells, as workers run from the crumbling building in a panic.

Unexpectedly, Captain Planet bursts up through the floor, where Hoggish Greedly is pinned to the wall by a fallen file cabinet. He grabs a hand full of gold ore from the floor.

"My gold!" Greedly yells, his face turning red with rage. "You ruined my business."

"Okay Greedly, time to join your partner in prison." Captain Planet replies. "How about gold bracelets?"

He takes the gold and shapes them into handcuffs, before snapping them on Greedly's hands. Then he lifts the cabinet off of him and grabs him by the shirt. Taking to flight, he races back to the village. With Greedly in hand, he walks over and takes Plunder as well.

"Maybe next time, you two will choose to do something good with your money." Captain Planet says, taking them under his arms. "Right now, it's time for prison. Planeteers, start helping the people and animals here who were hurt by these two."

"Right!" Ma-Ti says, running off into the village.

As Captain Planet flies away, they reach the village. Jose is with the old Shaman and a woman with two daughters. They are wrapping a bandage around a cut on her leg.

"Be careful, it needs to be tight, but not too tight." The old man says.

"Yes sir!" Jose replies, snugging up the bandage.

Ma-Ti runs down a trail to a man trapped under a fallen log. "Don't worry, I will free you."

With all of his strength the boy begins to lift the log. Sweating and puffing, he lifts until it slowly budges, then rolls over. As the log falls away, Ma-Ti collapses to his knees, gasping for breath. Now he looks down at the man's leg, then up at him.

"Are you okay, Ay-Ya?"

"Yes, thank you!" He says. "It will be hard to hunt for a while, but I will make it."

The young boy presses some leaves on the bruise and holds them tightly. "Suchi! Go get the grown-ups. Just stay calm, someone is coming to help."

With a loud screech, the spider monkey scrambles away, leaping and swinging in the trees. Moments later, two adults come running over.

"Ay-Ya, you are okay!" One of the men says. "Thank you, Ma-Ti."

The adults pick up the injured man and head back to one of the huts.

Moments later, Gi comes running into the village with a piece of paper. "We got it. They are using mercury, and arsenic. Time to get these results to the authorities."

"Nice work, Gi!" Linka says, patting her on the shoulder. "Now we just need a way to get there.

"We won today, Planeteers!" Kwame says, bringing over a backpack with some supplies. "But there will be more battles ahead. Good job everyone!"

Slowly the five young planeteers come together and look out over the remains of the Kayapo village. All around them is a scene of destruction and suffering people. Ma-Ti sighs and shakes his head, as a tear runs down his face.

"What did this win cost us?" Ma-Ti asks with a sigh of despair.