Match 19552 Linka (Planeteer) vs. Jessie Rasberry

[JohnnyChany]

Linka looked down on a photo with her and her fellow Planeteers with sadness in her eyes.

“Oh my sweet Wheeler,” she whispered.

“Is that a picture of you all?”

The sound of the question shook the Russian blonde from her momentary trance. She looked over to the red bandana wearing brunette sitting across from her. Jessie Rasberry was smiling back at her.

“Yes it is.” Linka handed over the picture.

Jessie gazed at it. “How cute, you all have matching shirts. Do you still wear yours?”

“No. Not for some time,” Linka replied.

“Tell me how this Captain Planet summon works again,” Jessie implored.

“It’s not really a summon,” Linka explained. “We would all just shout out our ring’s element and ‘by our powers combined’ he would appear.”

“How interesting,” Jessie marveled. She placed down the picture and then motioned over to a chest of green glowing orbs. “Your rings aren’t too dissimilar to materia. You can slot these babies into your weapon or armor and then you can instantly access the materia’s properties whether it be fire, ice, lightning, whatever.”

Linka was puzzled. “You can access them all at the same time?”

“As many as your equipment can hold,” Jessie responded. “Every type of weapon and armor has a certain amount of slots that you can fill with materia. The boss man, Barret, has a lot of slots for materia on his gun and in his armor. But all of that stuff is too bulky for me. My gun and my armor only have one slot each to link materia.” Jessie rummaged through the orbs of materia. “I usually go with Fire or Poison for my gun, and Barrier for my bangle. They are the most effective against Shinra guards.”

“Fire from a green orb, Wheeler would have never believed it…..”

Linka grew silent. Jessie moved closer to Linka and picked up the picture.

“I have been hesitant to ask, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but why did you leave the Planeteers? You all certainly seem very happy in this photo,” Jessie observed.

“We had a  strong difference of opinion,” Linka answered. “Everything changed after Wheeler died. I thought it was a clear wakeup sign that we needed to be more proactive in taking down those that continue to harm the planet. The others did not agree.”

“Sorry to hear that. I’ve been there. It is strange how some of us can see the truth so clearly and others can’t,” stated Jessie.

Jessie then tried to inject some positivity into the conversation. “Their loss is going to be our gain. It will really be nice to have another girl on the team other than just me and Tifa. And Barret will be relieved to find out that I have already trained a replacement should something happen to me.”

Linka chuckled with some unease.

“I would love to introduce you now, but Barrett is always on edge before a big mission and tonight is the biggest one yet. Tifa is bringing in some outside help, an old friend of hers who is apparently some bigtime mercenary now. I’m curious to see how he’ll do. We need all the help we can get right now, but I think it's wise not to dump all of these new faces on Barret at once.” Jessie clicked her tongue and winked at Linka. “Not to worry though, you care for and want to protect the planet. Barret will love you, I’ll make sure of it.”

Jessie’s eyes grew wide as she looked over at a nearby clock. “Oh no, I’m going to be late for the pre-mission  meeting at Seventh Heaven. I have to go.”

“What do you want me to do while you're gone?” asked Linka.

“Keep working on those new fake IDs just like I showed you. If you can finish them up while I’m gone that would be a major help.”

Linka nodded. “You got it.”

Jessie walked over to the door and opened it to leave. “See you here later or from behind bars in a Shinra prison.” Jessie closed the door behind her before reopening it to smile and stick her tongue out at Linka. “Psych!”

After Jessie left, Linka sighed to herself. She admired Jessie’s friendly and upbeat attitude despite the situation she was in. Before he died, Wheeler had talked about the group AVALANCHE and his desire to possibly join and take a much more active role in saving the planet. Linka didn’t think much of it at the time, until that fateful day.

About six months ago, the Planeteers were in hot pursuit of the villain, Duke Nukem, when Wheeler was knocked in a vat of nuclear waste and died. His death hit all of the other Planeteers very hard, but particularly Linka. They had grown so close after all these years. Kwame was also badly shaken as he blamed himself as the leader for failing to keep Wheeler safe. After the initial shock of his death had faded away, one thought kept returning to Linka. They should have done more. If they had been more aggressive in taking down Nukem earlier, Wheeler would still be alive. Linka convinced herself that Wheeler had been right, they needed to take the fight to those that were hurting the planet, AVALANCHE was the way to go.

Gi dismissed AVALANCHE as overzealous eco-terrorists and counter productive to what the Planeteers were trying to accomplish. Ma-Ti warned Linka that her heart was becoming consumed by vengeance and anger over Wheeler’s death and feared it was clouding her judgment. They argued intensely and Linka made the decision to leave the Planeteers behind. Linka knew she should have turned in her Wind ring, that it was the right thing to do, but she didn’t. Linka was honestly surprised Gaia has still not appeared to claim it after all this time.

Linka traveled to Midgar to seek out AVALANCHE. That is when she met Jessie, and they bonded over their love of technology and hacking. Jessie set Linka up with an apartment in the Sector 7 slums. She explained to Linka the history and the ambitions of AVALANCHE. She also talked about their main target, the Shinra Electric Power Company, and how the corporation was killing the planet by sucking out all the mako energy it could.

As she finished the new ID for AVALANCHE member, Biggs, Linka was startled by a loud news report that suddenly flashed across the tv. 

“Breaking News! There was an explosion tonight at Mako Reactor 1! Details are still slowly trickling in but the belief is that it was not an accident and is the handiwork of the terrorist group, AVALANCHE! We take you live now to the scene!”

Linka gasped. “Bozhe moy!”

She watched with horror as the cameras displayed the destruction and fires engulfing Sector 1 as rescue crews tried desperately to reach terrified citizens.

“This is too awful. This is not right,” Linka cried.

Gi was right, these people were too extreme. Linka stopped what she was doing and sat in silence until Jessie returned to her apartment later that night.

“I saw the news. What happened?” Linka asked.

“Everything didn’t go exactly to plan,” Jessie admitted. “But we will do better next time.”

Linka shook her head. “No, you can’t! You can never do that again!” 

“I’m planning on using a weaker blasting agent for the next reactor. It should go much smoother,” insisted Jessie.

“You are willing to risk that much collateral damage again?”

“We will avoid it as much as we can, but we can’t stop now. Bombing the reactors is the only way we will ever make a difference!”

Linka shook her head again. “I… I can’t be a part of this.”

Jessie lowered her head. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand.” She slowly walked over to the unfinished IDs. “I’ll take these with me, I need to get them finished by tomorrow.”

Jessie picked them up and walked to the door to leave. Linka quickly used her wind ring to close the door in front of Jessie.

“What are you doing?” Jessie wondered. 

“I’m sorry Jessie, I can’t let you continue with this. Not when I know it will lead to more innocent people suffering,” Linka declared.

“You don’t want to do this.”

“No, I don’t,” Linka agreed. “But we must act when we know it’s right. That is what you told me, yes?”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Linka, but I can’t stop now. My friends are counting on me,” said Jessie.

“We both must fight for our beliefs,” stated Linka.

“Yes we do.”

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Linka (Planeteer)
Read more about Linka (Planeteer) at Wikipedia
Official Site: Turner Links: Wikipedia Captain Planet Wiki Comicvine

Jessie Rasberry
Read more about Jessie Rasberry at Wikipedia
Official Site: Square Enix Links: Wikipedia

[DSkillz]

Good entry, Johnny. Never played Final Fantasy, but from looking up Jessie, you seem to have a good feel for her personality. Also, interesting twist with Linka and the Planeteers. 

As for the match, I can't seem to find much concrete on Jessie's abilities in combat, other than she's good with a gun and (apparently) in martial arts.  Linka might be able to keep her at bay with her ring power if she doesn't get hit by a stray shot.

Gotta think on this a bit. 

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
4.70 - Boratz
4.60 - DSkillz

FPA Calculation:
2 Total Votes cast
9.30 Total Combined Score
9.30 / 2 = 4.65 Final Rating on the match

MATCH SCORE
Linka (Planeteer): 2
Jessie Rasberry: 0