A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews! Hope you enjoy the next part.
Chapter Three - New First Impressions
"Please, my Papa will be worried, let me go home?" The pale-faced young girl begged her kidnapper. Then turning to the computer screen. "Please Mal? You said we were friends!"
The green face was unusually silent but his mistress had enough to say for both of them. "Alina, my little technological-menace-in-waiting, you don't realise what we're offering you."
She strutted around the control room of the ship, gesturing about her. "Knowledge… technology years ahead of anything you've seen before and the chance to be mentored by a genius! It's the opportunity of a life time!"
"To do what?" The little girl asked suspiciously.
"Anything you want! Money, fame, scientific discovery, what more could you ask for?" Blight gave her a dazzling smile, assuming she'd made a perfect argument.
My family could use the money, I could do so much for them, but… Linka's eyes filled with tears, she was frightened and she knew every moment was taking her further from home.
Blight rolled her eyes and Mal took over. "Everyone would want to be your friend Alina, no one would ever dare bully you again because you would be making the rules. They'd all have to listen to you, follow you, fear you."
"That does not sound like friendship to me." The Russian said quietly, looking down at the floor and beginning to tremble.
The doctor sighed heavily. "Mal, take her to her room, she can stay there until she gets with the program."
Linka followed Mal without a fight. Entering the small room he indicated, and curling up on the bed with her knees pulled up and her head resting in her arms, the young girl began to sob.
"Why have I got to take her dinner to her?" Wheeler complained. "I'm not a baby sitter!"
Blight gave her companion a look and he turned to his young protégé saying smoothly. "Alina is having trouble adjusting, she needs someone to reassure her, someone who is closer to her age than we are. You've settled in so well, I know you'll do a good job."
The American boy pulled a face and addressed Blight. "If she doesn't want in, we should just cut her loose! There must be hundreds of girls that could help you, if you really need a girl."
Plunder frowned, a dangerous note in his voice, "Are you going to disappoint me Jason?"
Wheeler's eyes opened wide. "No Mr Plunder!"
The two eco-villains watched him scurry from the room and laughed loudly. "So who's next Barbara my dear?"
"Kwame. I don't want any more bawling kids around here." Blight replied contemptuously. "He's older than the other two and he should be grateful to get out of that dust bowl he calls a home."
"Do you think it's a good idea to let those two get to know each other?" Mal asked, looking thoughtfully in the direction Wheeler had gone.
Again Blight laughed. "Why not? They'd never have amounted to anything without Gaia, and we still want them to work together, we're just giving them a new direction… to fight against the planet!"
Wheeler re-adjusted the tray he was carrying and pressed the door release of the new girl's room.
She looked up as he entered and the young boy paused, suddenly forgetting what he was going to say. Despite the slight redness around her eyes and the tears still running down her cheeks, the delicate blond looked adorable, in fact, she was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen.
"Er, hi." He swallowed. "I'm er, Jason."
Linka sniffed and asked in a small voice, "Do you work for Doctor Blight? Or are you a prisoner too?"
"No, er… kinda." He stepped forward, offering her the tray, and then put it on the side when she shook her head. "Blight and Plunder… they're okay, a bit nuts maybe, but they've been good to me."
He sat on the end of the bed. "They want to help us."
"Do you really believe that?" Linka looked at him curiously, her tears beginning to dry up now that she wasn't alone.
Wheeler shrugged. "I don't have a reason to doubt them."
Linka hesitated. "Doctor Blight would not let me contact my father… do you think you could convince her?"
The boy swallowed and then shook his head. "Don't think so, sorry. Blight doesn't listen to anyone, except maybe Mal, and though Plunder would like to think otherwise, she's pretty much in charge around here."
Trying to fill the silence that followed, he pointed to the tray. "You should eat something."
Again she refused, but her posture was beginning to relax and she persisted with her line of thought. "What about your family? Have you been allowed to speak to them?"
Wheeler looked away and said sulkily. "I haven't asked, I don't want to talk to them."
"Why not?"
"You ask too many questions for a kid!"
Linka's eyes misted up again. "I am sorry."
The American winced. "No, I am… I just… don't want to talk about it, okay?"
She nodded.
"What's your name anyway? And that accent… it's kinda cool." He smiled and she found herself smiling back.
"Alina. I am from the Soviet Union." Her voice was just above a whisper. "You can call me Linka if you like… it is what my family calls me."
The boy grinned. "What about your friends?"
She looked away. "I do not have any."
"You do now." Wheeler stated firmly, and held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you Linka."
Linka blushed. "Me too, Jason."
They shook awkwardly before quickly reclaiming their hands, and it made Linka giggle, unconsciously wrapping Wheeler still further around her little finger.
"You know, the best thing you can do is go along with them… I know it seems hard now but it'll get easier." She looked sceptical so he continued. "They'll allow you more freedom if you help out, I have the run of the ship… maybe after a while we'll find a way to get a message to your folks."
"You will help me?" There was something about her, perhaps it was because she looked so vulnerable, but as she sat there looking up into his eyes, Wheeler realised he would have promised her nearly anything.
He nodded. "Yeah, I will."
The pretty young girl's face broke out into a smile, turning him to mush. "Maybe I will try eating something after all."
The Planeteers parked the geo-cruiser on top of a familiar apartment block in Brooklyn and made their way down to Wheeler's parent's home. It hadn't taken them long to work out 'when' they were, so they'd decided to follow the only lead they had.
"Who are we going to say we are?" Gi asked. "Wheeler must be, what? Thirteen? We can hardly say we're friends of his."
"Ten." Linka replied softly. "Do you think he will be here?"
Kwame frowned. "I do not know… it is possible I suppose. After all, Gaia said that whatever it was, happened over time, she did not seem to think he was dead. Perhaps we can say we are with the board of education?"
Linka looked worried. "I do not think we should say anything that could get him in trouble with his father…"
The African met her eyes and nodded in understanding.
"Let's just be ourselves." Ma-Ti suggested. "They will never have heard of us but that does not matter."
The Planeteers exchanged glances and nodded in agreement before knocking on the apartment door.
A nervous looking older woman with red-rimmed eyes and a bruise fading from her cheek, answered the door and spoke in a hushed voice, "Can I help you?"
"Mrs Wheeler?" Kwame waited for her to confirm that they had the right place. "We are the Planeteers, we were hoping to speak to your son about taking part in a community project?"
The thin woman gave him a frightened glance and mumbled that her son wasn't home, trying as she did so, to shut them out.
"Mrs Wheeler." Linka stepped forward. "We do need to speak to him, it is very important, please? Can you tell us where we can find him?"
"Is he… in trouble?"
"Not with us." Kwame assured her, "But we are concerned for him."
Wheeler's mother was clearly upset. "We haven't seen him, he… er," She cast a nervous look over her shoulder. "He hasn't been home in weeks… I know I should call the police but… he had an argument with his father and…"
A door slammed somewhere inside and a rough male voice yelled out. "If you're selling something we don't want it!" The front door was yanked open roughly to reveal a middle-aged man who smelt strongly of liquor.
"They were asking about Jason…" Mrs Wheeler didn't get any further.
"Useless bum!" He growled. "You want him, you can keep him."
Linka's eyes flashed with anger. "He is your son! How can you say such things?"
The man glared. "Who has a better right to say it? Get out of here, Commie Bitch!"
The Wind Planeteer's cheeks burned red but no one noticed because when Wheeler's mother screamed and pointed at her, it was because she was disappearing…