A/N: While I hate author's notes, I absolutely hate "Twelve Angry Animals" even more. HATED it with a passion. It made no sense to me; putting the Planeteers, of all people, on trial for anthropogenic extinctions? If I were a Planeteer and had to go through that ordeal, I'd throw the ring in Gaia's face and tell her to fuck off, as my (unpaid) environmental efforts were clearly not appreciated by her or those stupid animals who picked the absolutely least deserving people on the planet for that. So, I figured, how could I make the episode better? I thought that at least putting the Eco-Villains on trial made more sense, although still a weak premise in general.

Well, enjoy. Or not. It's your decision. The power is yours!

Plunder had no idea how long he had been laying there on the cave floor, but he knew it was long enough, considering his shivering. He managed to push himself up, leaning against the cave wall for support, his knees shaking.

He wondered how he had even got here in the first place. Plunder assumed he had somehow been rendered unconscious, but he didn't feel any sluggish side effects of any drug, nor did his head hurt from any blow. The last thing he remembered doing was visiting one of his many oil rigs off the coast, far away from any sort of cave. It had been a rather stormy day, so he had worn one of his more substantial trenchcoats, a fact that he was very grateful for now. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he found that he could see his breath. Even more alarming was the ceiling of the cave, which appeared to have icy stalactites hanging ominously above him, some of them dripping water on to his head. Plunder felt it prudent to be as quiet as possible.

He carefully stepped around the icy pools, slowly making his way towards a slightly brighter light further down. He had a feeling that he was descending deeper into the cave, but he really had no way of knowing that, and besides, he doubted his chances of survival would be very high even if he reached the surface. There was no doubt that the outside environment of the cave was quite inhospitable.

Looten froze momentarily when he heard a sound. It wasn't the sound of the water dripping, or the echoing of his own footsteps. It was different, more organic. He cautiously followed the sound into a small adjacent chamber.

Although it was dark, it was impossible to not spot the bright, unnatural color of the figure huddled between two large rocks. He squinted and stood tall, trying to figure out exactly what it was. The figure made a high-pitched whimpering sound. Looten's eyes widened when he recognized the voice. He trotted over as swiftly as he could, trying to prevent himself from slipping.

"Babs!" he exclaimed, kneeling beside her.

Blight's eyes were shut, her arms tightly wrapped around her body. She was shivering violently, which was unsurprising to Plunder considering that all she was wearing was her regular pink jumpsuit, a garment that he doubted would keep her warm in these temperatures. He shook her gently.

"Babs, wake up!" Plunder didn't know much about hypothermia, but he did know falling asleep in an environment like this was not a good idea. She cracked open an eye, and looked up at him.

"L-Looten?" she stammered out. "How did..." She abruptly stopped, and curled up even tighter.

"I don't know what's going on. But you have to get up."

She shook her head. "I feel warm if I stay right here..." she trailed off.

Plunder frowned. He doubted that she really did, but it worried him that her mental state might be altered by the cold. He gently grasped her arm. "No, you need to move around. Come on, you need to get up."

She slowly managed to get to her feet, but was unable to walk without leaning heavily on him. After a few minutes, she knelt down in exhaustion.

"Babs..." He didn't know what to do.

Wait!

He had an idea.

Plunder knelt down next to her and looped his arms under hers, clasping his hands across her chest. Looten managed to slide her over to a dry part of the cave wall. Unbuttoning his coat, he sat down and then pulled off his suit jacket, which he draped over her shoulders. Pulling her on top of him and with his back against the wall, he covered the both of them with his trenchcoat. Plunder felt colder than before, of course, but he figured her body warmth would make up for any heat loss of his, and besides, she was much worse off than him.

After what he guessed was an hour, her shivering became less violent, and he heaved a small sigh of relief. But he was now concerned about the both of them falling asleep, as his own eyelids were starting to feel heavy. Plunder squeezed her arm.

"Babs..." he started to speak, but was interrupted by a yawn of his own.

"Hmmm?" she murmured softly, eyes still shut.

"We need to get up." He tried to sit up a little more, but he felt incredibly sluggish. He blinked rapidly.

Blight didn't respond, her breathing deep and regular and her body relaxed. She pressed up closer, her head resting on his chest. Plunder suddenly relaxed too; he didn't feel quite as chilled now, with her against him. And he was pretty tired.

He decided that it wouldn't hurt to take a small nap. After all, he thought as he drifted off, it would be a welcome escape from the cold...

Hoggish Greedly was completely dumbfounded. He stood there, trying to figure out how in the hell he went from dozing in his tent in his poachers camp to standing ankle-deep in a pool of icy water in a dark, freezing cave. He shivered a little. It was cold, and he wasn't wearing anything appropriate for the new conditions. Greedly wasn't immediately concerned though. He knew that he had a decent amount of time before he needed to seriously seek out warmer clothing or shelter, as he knew from experience that his substantial weight helped keep him warm.

Greedly shook his head violently after a few minutes of contemplation. He still needed to figure out how to find the exit, and why he was even here in the first place. Glancing about him, he saw that he was in a small side chamber that led out into a larger tunnel. A dim glow, brighter than the ambient light in the room, illuminated the main chamber. He followed it, his breath leaving a floating trail behind him.

He had no idea where it might take him, but he reasoned that a relatively bright light in a cave would have an unnatural source, which usually meant people. Then he could perhaps deduce what was going on. Although he stepped lightly, his footsteps seemed quite loud to his ears. The acoustics of the cave didn't help, and the fact that there was no other sound save for the dripping of water likely amplified the noise for him.

He was focused so heavily on the light that he stumbled and almost fell when his boot hit something soft.

What?

All he had seen so far had been rocks, and all of those had been quite unforgiving. He stepped back from the object, the size and shape of which he could not determine due to the deep shadows cast on the walls. However, something protruded out into the dim light. He crouched down for a closer look.

It was a leg.

Greedly paled and backed up a few feet, shaking a little, millions of paranoid scenarios running through his head. Managing to regain his composure after a few minutes, he tried to examine the limb more closely. His brow furrowed as he was struck with a sense of familiarity. The pant leg was green, and even more oddly, the cuff appeared to be trimmed with some kind of-

"Plunder?" he squawked.

The leg moved a little. He heard a muffled groan. Greedly fumbled around madly at his pockets, searching for the lighter he remembered having on him. Finding it, he held it out and flicked it on.

The faint light was strong enough the penetrate the dark shadows of the cave, and to give Greedly a good enough look. Plunder was limp, his back propped up against the cave wall, his trenchcoat folded over...

"Blight?"

..who looked even worse, despite being covered with the coat and Plunder's suit jacket. She didn't move, even at his loud exclamation. Greedly bit his lip. He was afraid that they were dead or close to it; the thought of being alone in the cave frightened him.

And if he didn't want to be alone, then that meant he would need to try and wake them up.

He nudged Plunder's foot with his boot. Plunder stirred a little, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. However, he didn't open his eyes.

"Dammit," Greedly cursed under his breath. He bent down and shook Plunder's left shoulder firmly.

"Looten! Wake up!" When the other man didn't respond, Greedly started to panic. He grasped both of Plunder's shoulders and shook him violently, causing the back of his head to strike the wall.

"Ow! What the hell?" slurred Plunder in a tired, yet irritable voice. He struggled to get up, temporarily forgetting about Blight laying on him. He blinked, and stared down at her dumbly, his brain trying to get a grasp on the situation.

He looked up. "Greedly? What in the hell is going on?"

"You tell me!"

Plunder rubbed the back of his head. "God...were we kidnapped?" He wrapped his arms around the still-sleeping Blight, and pulled her upright.

Greedly shrugged. "I don't see how, or why. I woke up sitting in a freezing pool of water. None of this makes sense."

"I'll say." said a smooth, hissing voice. Both Greedly and Plunder jumped a little at the new, yet very familiar sound.

"Skumm?" Greedly asked, turning around. "How did you get here?"

The mutant rat-man slunk out from the shadows. Stopping a couple of feet away from Greedly, he wrapped his tail around his feet and crossed his arms in an attempt to keep warm. Skumm snarled to himself in agitation.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

Greedly snorted. "I have no idea what could possibly be going on here."

Glancing down at Plunder, he noticed that he had started to nod off again. Greedly swiftly kicked him in the leg. Plunder's eyes flew open in surprise, and he glared up at Greedly.

"Looten, seriously, get up. You can't fall asleep here."

Plunder sighed tiredly, and threw one of Blight's arms over his shoulder. Placing an arm around her waist, he shakily stood up and managed to hoist her up with him. Her head lolled forward a little, which bothered him - he needed her to be more coherent. He knew he couldn't possibly support her entire body weight for long, at least not in his current condition. Looten awkwardly secured the jacket over her shoulders. He looked over at Greedly.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Plunder rolled his eyes. "Where are we going to go? We can't stay here, and I don't know how to get out. I'm assuming you don't either, otherwise you wouldn't have woken us up."

Greedly raised an eyebrow. "Geez, I'm not that evil. Besides, I found you by accident when I was walking further down the tunnel."

Plunder braced himself and Blight against the cave wall. "Why were you headed in that direction?" he inquired.

"I saw a light, and thought maybe there were people somewhere down there. So far I've only seen you and Skumm, just now."

Plunder glanced over at Skumm, who shrugged. "That was my logic."

"Hm." Looten said thoughtfully, shifting his weight around a little. "Since there's nowhere else to go, we might as well continue."

"We?" Skumm scoffed. "I'm going on my own. You can do whatever."

"All by yourself? You'll get lost."

Skumm smirked a little. "I live in places like this, remember? And since when did you care, Plunder?"

"I don't care, actually. I simply assumed we all wanted to stay together until we found the exit. And since when did you live in an icy cavern?"

The mutant threw his hands up in annoyance. "Cave, sewer, whatever! They're all enclosed spaces, and I don't need help navigating in them."

Plunder was about to respond when he felt Blight move next to him, groaning a little. Opening her eyes, she turned her head and blinked in surprise at Plunder.

"What in the hell is going on?" Blight moved her arm from around Plunder's shoulders, and leaned against the wall, still shivering slightly.

"We don't know. We've been trying to figure that out for quite a while," Plunder said, watching her cautiously.

"We?" She looked up for the first time. "Greedly? Skumm?"

Greedly nodded. Skumm looked disinterested.

Blight glared at them. "What did you do?"

"What? What did I do? I didn't do anything!" Greedly sputtered. Skumm's eyes widened a bit at the outburst, but didn't say anything.

"Well, why are you here then?" she snapped.

"Why would I want to be?"

Plunder sighed. "Babs, I don't think they have anything to do with us being here."

Her expression was distrustful, but she nodded after a minute. Glancing down at the coat around her shoulders, she looked up at Plunder with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged a little.

"You weren't very coherent when I found you. You looked like you were freezing, so I gave you that."

She opened her mouth to respond when Greedly laughed. "Yeah, he didn't mention the part were he hauled you on top of him!"

Plunder shot him a vehement look. "I was trying to help her, idiot! And I certainly don't appreciate what you're implying."

"Heh, yeah, and you did such a good job, falling asleep like that. I had to wake you up."

"Whatever, Greedly! Some of us don't have the blubber of a walrus! I'll bet you're nice and warm!"

"Fatass," Skumm snickered. Greedly glared at him.

Blight just stood there for a few moments with a strange smile on her face. She then tightened the jacket around her shoulders, and pushed herself up from against the wall.

"Well, let's go, I guess." She started to walk further down into the cave.

Plunder frowned. "Are you sure you can make it by yourself?"

She stopped. "Yeah. You're coming with me, right?"

"Well, yes...we're headed in that direction anyway...", he said, trotting forward to catch up with her.

Greedly sighed and followed them, with Skumm strolling casually behind. There was silence for a few minutes as the villains made their way to the strange glow that seemed to be beckoning them closer.

Suddenly Blight stumbled forward, tripping on a rock. Plunder managed lunge forward to grab her arm in time to prevent her from falling.

"I thought you said you could walk on you own!" he said in annoyance.

"I thought I could. I feel a little dizzy," she said weakly, latching onto his arm with the both of hers.

He sighed. "Fine, lean on me then." Blight did so, tightening her arms around his quite enthusiastically.

Greedly rolled his eyes. "Are you really going to fall for that?"

Plunder glanced backward at him, confused. "Fall for what?"

The other man stared at him for a second, and then shook his head. "You really are dense sometimes, you know that Looten?"

Plunder quickly shot him a nasty glare but remained silent, continuing to walk forward. Blight looked over her shoulder at Greedly and smirked wickedly.

Looten looked down at her by his side. "Babs, how do you remember getting here?"

She looked back up at him as she spoke. "All I remember is being in my lab one moment and waking up freezing in here the next. Then I vaguely remember seeing you, then I woke up with you holding me up." Blight sidled up closer to his side at that comment. Plunder raised an eyebrow.

Greedly made a gagging sound.

Blight rolled her eyes at little at that. "Why do you ask?"

Looten shrugged. "I'm just trying to figure out how we all got here. And, more importantly, why."

"Beats me. Although..." she said in a distant voice, a thoughtful look on her face.

"What?"

She was silent for a moment.

"It just seems too sudden. Too...instantaneous. I mean, we all woke up in separate places, right?" Blight finally said.

"Yeah." Plunder nodded.

"In a cave, presumably situated in a remote location, far away from where we all had been previously."

"So?" Skumm said.

"Think about it. What purpose would it serve to kidnap us, place us all in random areas underground, and make it look like we had just been teleported there? What's the point? And what kind of person would orchestrate an elaborate set up like that?"

"I don't know and I don't care. I just want to get the hell out," the mutant hissed.

"What are you getting at, Blight?" Greedly asked.

"I don't think that this was a normal abduction. Whatever happened to us, it was decidedly unnatural. And you know what that implies..."

Greedly turned a little pale. "You mean, a spirit did this? Like Gaia? Like Zarm?"

Blight shrugged slightly. "That's my best guess - although while it's certainly within their power, it doesn't make sense for either of them to actually do it. Gaia doesn't generally kidnap people, and Zarm would be more to the point than just vaguely transporting us somewhere."

"Also, Gaia wouldn't likely send someone directly into a deadly situation," said Plunder, a little more vehemently than he intended. Blight gave him a confused look but he didn't see it, staring directly ahead with his jaw set firmly.

"Whatever the case may be, I just want some answers."