The air was cooling as evening was giving way to dusk. The last vestiges of daylight’s touch were even now, slowly sinking into the darkening horizon.

Around him were people who shifted about. It was unintentional but dangerous none the less. Their prey could discern sound nearly five kilometers away.

The cards were stacked against them. This would be a hard-fought battle to the bitter end.

Everything had been building towards this moment. This was perhaps their last chance. The resistance had been whittled down to just this small group.

Oh, there would be others in the future, but the commander doubted that they would be as well equipped or as well trained.

He had to succeed. For the people of tomorrow and the children that we're growing up now. Starving and poor.

Times were hard and the people had hardened with it. The current tragedy was of such magnitude that it had united almost all people on earth.

It had always been stated that if the world unified then there would be few obstacles that could not be overcome. Ironic since their unity was useless against their present apocalypse.

Out of the original seven billion people, nearly a billion of them were killed in opposition. Another billion from anarchy and, if numbers continued as predicted, four billion would starve to death in the next five years.

Modern food production was deemed non-ecofriendly and were destroyed. Now everyone starved.

Alternative food science was now impossible as there was no funding. Money had dried up very quickly in the last thirty years as oil become illegal.

The foundation of the global currency had been banned and it had simply imploded as local currencies worldwide withered into nothingness.

Bartering was the way to go and the world changed. The world grew again as long-distance travel became harder and harder.

From there new laws came into place. Like a meteor striking the land, the shockwaves were felt worldwide.

No excessive farming.

No excessive fishing.

No deep mining.

No more than ten wind turbines per hundred kilometers.

No dirty fuel. Coal, radiation, etc

No dramatic change to landscaping, new cities, dams, etc

The list grew by leaps and bounds. The chains that had been clamped onto humanity grew heavier and heavier.

Soon, if analysts were again correct, then humanity would be reduced to medieval culture in the next two decades before plateauing at that level forever.

That is if they were allowed to live that long.

The source of the issues was the spirit of the earth herself, Gaia. She had grown weary of human exploitation and took a firm hand in ensuring her survival.

However, even she could only do so much without heavily injuring herself in return.

No.

The real threat was her champion.

Captain Planet.

He had simply started to destroy all oil refineries that he could find and in doing so began the downward spiral we were in today.

His inhuman abilities and strength allowed him to simply continue virtually unopposed.

He killed all opposition and pre-emptively took out humanity's most powerful people and weapons.

Nukes were useless without launch codes and they were easily disposed of into deep parts of the earth afterward.

Without oil to feed the economy and fuel the vehicles, the military options literally dried up.

Or at least it did publicly.

Thirty years was a long time and people were persistent when their lives were on the line.

It had taken that long to research the new methods of combat as whole countries collapsed into memory. Anarchy reigned like an intense fire for nearly a decade.

Yet no fire could last forever.

The new world was unified in its desperate attempt to survive. They would prioritize life and survival over anything else.

Or so they proclaimed.

In truth they did. Communities changed over too far more archaic lifestyles. It was the only way.

Or the only way that the leaders stated officially.

Unofficially was the clandestine accumulation of knowledge and weapons. They would pool together the means to fight the menace that threatened the very existence of humanity.

As the last of the daylight faded into total darkness, so too did the signal to start to begin.

The battleground was the old oil refinery that was rigged to start burning. There was a decent well of oil here and the smog generated by such a fire would not go unnoticed.

Nor unpunished but it was the chosen bait for a reason.

Captain Planet would show up. They had set the stage with the eerie compliance and conformity that would have made lesser men insane from boredom.

Even the illustrious Captain Planet would crave some excitement. After all, the thing could laugh and rage.

The fire sparked brilliantly in the darkness.

The plumes of thick smoke rose into the air.

There was a time that this would have sickened his heart. A time that he would have fought hard to stop or reduce such things.

A time that he would have been unable to murder a person so that he could have enough to eat.

A time that brought was brought to a finish by the very thing that was now descending from the night sky.

He steeled his heart and calmed his mind. Nearly two decades of meditative training kicked in and his mind calmed into emptiness.

If training had been enough then the rest of his men were doing the exact same thing now.

Under the pale moonlight, his blue skin glittered and his green hair almost looked dark. His eyes were clear as they scanned the surrounding complex of worn materials and flatlands of sand.

His image was clear as he descended to the earth to right the wrongs that he and his master saw.

Captain Planet drew a deep breath and let loose a stream of wind and heat. It was not a hot wind but a cold one.

The cold and heavy winds buffered into the fire and it was slowly whittled out.

He was sure that it was drawn out as the Captain was unafraid of them. Of the ants that scurried beneath his red boots.

Ants that were going to show why they had been able to remove themselves out of the food chain. Intelligence, diligence, and the ability to sacrifice for the greater good.

At the very least, he would carve this knowledge into the monster before him.

With a small, and final, huff the oil fire was extinguished and as night settled once again, he could see the Captain’s perfect teeth glimmer amidst the night.

The man simply raised his hand to reveal a simple flare gun. He knew that the Captain could see him but he had grown arrogant.

With a loud hiss, the signal flare lit up the night sky. It was not bright enough to reveal the world but it was intense enough for people nearly ten kilometers out to see his signal.

The world growled around him as men launched air propelled canisters into the skies above him.

They would then reload and fire a second volley. A third. A fourth…

They had the means to continuously fire rockets all night. The first stage of their assault.

The Captain tilted his head in confusion for a brief few seconds before he understood the danger.

A few seconds for the many rockets to reach their intended altitude and activate.

There was no explosion as the ignition was the worst scenario for these air propelled rockets.

Their content was as simple as it was deadly. Crude oil.

A black rain began to form and the second phase began as other soldiers walked forth. They were covered in thick, asbestos cloaks lined with plastics to ward off oil and fire.

They carried the most practical weapon of choice. Paintball guns. Modified to fire paintballs filled with not vegetable oil but a cocktail of crude oil and a mixture simply called sludge.

Sludge was the fruit of their research from the decades of the 1990s-2010s and it was based on the inventions of that era's eco-terrorists.

The chances of them hitting the Captain were slim, their large numbers meant that they could wear down the monster.

Captain Planet was not invincible. It could be stopped and each glancing blow would quickly add up into victory.

The missiles, after missiles, opened in the air, creating a constant drizzle of pollution while volunteer soldiers advanced with their guns.

The Captain though laughed.

Gaia was stronger than ever and his bond through her strengthened him as well. He ignored them, he snickered at the pun, crude attempts to harm. He on the other hand simply used the elements to purify them.

He burned some, making a few explode.

He froze others, locking them into a frozen death.

He buried them, creating permanent coffins out of sand and earth.

He suffocated others, watching silently as they died gasping for air.

He chuckled at their attempts to fight back.

Even in this rain of oil he could still fly and move at super speeds. He could still command the elements with the east.

Though he could not leave. Every time he turned around, someone had relit the oil fire, forcing his attention to extinguish it.

It was nearly an hour into the battle that the Captain understood the fourth phase of the plan.

He had killed thousands and yet more came. More and more were appearing and his abilities were now failing him. He was overconfident and it was now his downfall as he suddenly lost his flight midair.

His fall did not hurt but neither did his enemies cheer. They simply kept coming and he tried to fight on, to continue Gaia’s will.

They held firm, forming a ring of endless pellets of crude that had now coated the desert land in thick, black oil.

The oil that he had tried to clean off with fire, but he could not keep the oil ignited. The engineer corps carried tools to stop any and all oil fires.

He could no longer command the elements at full power and the endless barrage of oil dulled every sense and abilities.

He had taken to running through the complex. Breaking through walls to find refuge from the soldiers but there were traps everywhere.

Barrels of sludge had been set up behind walls and in hallways. They simply popped open from what he thought were proximity sensors.

Eventually, Captain Planet gathered enough strength to make a great leap outwards. He crouched as the used his right arm to pierce the earth. From here he drew as much energy he could with his contact with the earth.

A blast of radiation hit him like a volcanic explosion. It was violent enough to cause his body to spasm in response and his own gathered energies imploded and tossed him into the air.

Pain encompassed the mind and senses of the champion of Earth.

The captain collapsed but no one let up until several burly men appeared and picked up the fallen monster.

They had come with a white box that was wheeled forth. Engineers were carefully unlocking the box, allowing the top to hiss open and reveal a pool of sludge.

The burly men simply dunked the monster into its new home. The engineers expertly locked down the box as they clamped the unit shut.

Captain Planet was now immersed from the head down into a cocktail of sludge, oil, and various other earth harmful chemicals.

In his screams of pain from contact, they had fed him something that entered his system from the mouth. He could tell that it was bad news by their smug emotions.

The neck ring was perfect and sealed with rubber so that there could be no movement from the weakened monster.

It was here that the men finally gave out a hearty cheer as they began to scream in triumph.

They had won!

The cheering continued on for several minutes before everyone quieted down.

It was here that Captain Planet had regained enough of his senses that he could at the very least maintain coherent thought.

The sea of soldiers parted and an old man with a cane walked forward. From the way, other soldiers reacted, this was their leader. A commander or some such.

He was in his fifties, grey hair, and was missing his left eye. He seemed somehow familiar.

“Hello Captain,” the commander began, “You held up better than I thought you could have.”

“You will not succeed,” Captain Planet ground out as his mind still spun to and fro. “I will stop you…”

“Ah, but that is where you are wrong,” The man countered with a chuckle.

“We have won!” the man proclaimed with a raised fist and the soldiers went wild as they huddled closer to listen in.

They quieted as the man lowered his fist and Captain Planet understood the depth of their devotion. They would have all died for this man.

“We will lock you away forever, my dear Captain,” the man said as he slowly walked around the jail cell.

“We studied you. We studied the shattered rings of the ‘Planeteers’ and the fake rings that were interesting. Corrupted but, ultimately, flawed copies.”

Captain Planet could only growl at the sacrilegious actions he was hearing about. His eyes caught sight of the radiation ring that Duke Nukem had once worn but this man was not Nukem.

That at least explained the radiation he had been smashed with.

“This prison contains a very toxic mix of crude oil and some other fun sludge. You will never escape as we have bound you.”

“It won’t last. I will get free,” the blue man’s glare was impressive. The monster actually mustered enough power to create a fizzle of glowing power.

The man was unimpressed. He had seen better glares. Namely every time he had seen his own reflection.

“Do not worry Captain. You won’t be able to dematerialize. We fed you something to keep you... wholesome for a long time.”

“What?”

“Your esteemed mistress will also join you soon enough. I have enough knowledge to seal her as well,” The man said with a smile as he stared at the Captain face to face.

“You cannot. You are dependent on her as well!” the captain spat out in confusion and anger.

“Ah, I never said kill. I said seal. She will be alive… sort of.” The man whispered out as he leaned in towards the Captain’s left ear. “Have a heart Captain. We are not all monsters like you think we are.”

Captain Planet’s mind froze for a few seconds as his brain went into overdrive. Those words, that missing eye…

A young man with a pet monkey, who had pleaded to stop the terrible violence. Pleaded for mercy right before he lost his eye for insubordination.

The other planeteers were executed for assisting the first major human resistance two months and three days later.

“Ma-Ti…” Captain Planet whispered as the man pulled his head back.

“Goodbye Captain Planet. We will not meet again,” Ma-Ti finished as he took a few steps back. He stared at his old hero for a minute before turning around and walking away.

Captain Planet’s mind stared at the retreating back of his old teammate before he noticed that the soldiers were chanting a single word.

‘Victory'

Then the world went dark as a cover was lowered over him. The sounds of metal clamping down and welding filled the interior of the box.

There was a series of movements as he was transported onto a vehicle. Then it was another Vehicle. And another.

Then there was nothing but darkness.