Chapter 21: Sticking to the Plan
"Whew…I think this is good enough. What do you think friends?"
Eterna had been practicing for hours. She had a bad headache and was feeling tired. Her new animals friends were exhausted as well as they had visualised their most important imageries that were related to global warming repeatedly so that Eterna could choose which mental images to store in Eterna's Vault she had created during the practice. Eterna's Vault was a blackish box with black mist pouring out of it. It was made to store imageries and nothing else. It could also be summoned at will, and she was the only one that could break the box.
She knew that basing on imageries from the Arctic animals were not sufficient enough, so she decided to go to a different environment to gather more information from the native animals. But before that, she thanked her animal friends and insisted on sending them home. The animals took the offer and Eterna sensed that they were happy to help her and wished her that her grand scheme would be successful. She cried as not many people she had met in her life would thank her sincerely.
Her animal friends were surprised of her reaction and tried to console her. Eterna reminded them it was fine and she opened Abyss's Door that would lead each animal back to where they belonged. The animals looked at her and said in their own "language". Eterna nodded in appreciation and tried to hold up her tears. After that, they moved into the portal and it closed behind them.
Eterna made her vault disappeared and deactivated her barrier. When she was walking towards the research institute, she reminisced of her experiences with her animal friends. Eventually, she reached the door and she knocked on it. Within a minute, the door swung open to reveal Aaron greeted her excitedly.
"Oh! You are back! How was the practice?"
Eterna nodded with a grin and showed him a mental image that she wanted to eat something.
He chuckled, "Hahaha! Anyone would be hungry after a hard day at work! Come on in! I shall make a dish for you."
She went in and saw her friends chatting and eating some of the Pokémon World's berries. When they noticed her, they ran to her and hugged her.
"Hey! What gives?" surprised Eterna.
Loggerhead replied, "Well we reckon that you are feeling cold now so we are trying to keep you warm."
Eterna giggled, "Hahaha. I am fine. Hey guys, since Aaron is cooking now, let's make our escape. I want to go to another area."
"Why? And do you know anywhere else besides your homeland?" asked Chestnut.
"I need to gather more information for my plan. I do know a place in my mind that there are many animals roaming the area." She did not mention that the place she knew was based on a newspaper. She really hoped that her Abyss's Door could take them there as there was something she wanted to show them. She continued, "Did Aaron use something on you guys?"
Ice Kacang responded, "I saw him use some sort of a black box and a flash came out of it. Then, he placed it next to a screen with many buttons at the bottom of it, and he uh…inserted a black string into a box?"
Eterna used her right hand and smacked her forehead, "This is not good…Oh well, he is going to be surrounded with occult people if he uploads the pictures in the internet, but I think he is smart enough to avoid doing it. Ok, let's us depart!"
She conjured Abyss's Door, and they leapt into the portal. However when the portal was closing, Eterna heard of loud moan from Snubby.
"Oh shoot! He noticed?" she thought. Immediately, she sent a mental image to Aaron and Snubby of her bowing down to show her gratitude before the portal closed.
The group had arrived in a tropical forest. The air was humid and as the late afternoon sunrays penetrated the canopy of the tall Shorea Superba trees that they could see the mist shrouded the forest's floor. Eterna shouted yes in her mind that her plan succeeded.
Ice Kacang admired the scenery, "Wow! I have never seen these kind of trees before."
Eterna responded, "Of course. But this is not the area I intended to show you all. Follow me."
It took them just a few minutes to reach the forest clearings. Upon their arrival, Chestnut, Loggerhead and Ice Kacang could not believe what they were seeing; a charred land that spanned as far as their eyes could see.
"What…what had happened here!?" flabbergasted Chestnut.
"This…was done by humans. They burned the forest to make way for agriculture. Many animals could not flee in time and were burned to death. This is what happened when people want to earn money to make a living. Seriously, money can determines one's survival in this era. If the humans stick to tribal style, they would probably be happier in their lives as they do not need to worry about having money to find food, and there will be no pollution as well. Ah…but this will never happen as humans have been reliant on money for too long. If money is no longer in used, there might be a decline in technology advances, or even numerous suicides. That is why I have to come out an alternative solution to convince people to stop pollution and clearing forests."
Chestnut tried to motivate her, "Eterna…you really care about the wellbeing of humans and the world so much that you have burdened yourself for thinking that you are unable to make a change before. But now with your power, you can make the change! And, you have us to help you as well!"
Eterna looked at Chestnut, but she was still worried, "Yes I know…But I am limited to my abilities. I hope this plan of mine will be good enough."
Loggerhead reassured her, "Miss Eterna, I believe you are going for the 'spreading the news starting from a city approach' aren't you? It may take time but I am sure your plan will succeed."
Her eyes widened, "Wait…how did you know…Haha, you know my strategy huh. I guess I should show you all this."
She summoned her Eterna's Vault, and her friends were taken aback from its sudden appearance.
"This is my vault. I store important mental images from the animals in here. I intend to let humans open the box, and they could see the hardship experienced by the animals due to their greed. Okay. Right now, I need some animals to come here to share their thoughts to me. Will you guys help me out?"
Her friends gladly accepted her request and went off to search for them. As for Eterna, she needed to find food. She unsummoned her vault, went back to the forest to find a coconut tree. She used Shadowable to lift herself up to the fruits and plucked ten of them; nine of them were placed in her sling bag. She also placed her Joy Ribbon into the bag as she believed she did not need it anymore. Then, she sliced the tip of the coconut using Shadowable and feasted on the sweet coconut juice and pulp.
After her meal, she descended her Shadowable towards the ground. As she was doing so, she spotted a green cloaked figure gazing at her with her azure blue eyes.
Eterna exclaimed, "Earth's Spirit! What are you doing here?"
The spirit spoke like an echo in the wind, "Oh Eterna, I see you are trying to invoke humans a sense of guilt for affecting the lives of the animals. It is a good approach, but you should know it isn't good enough."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The change of the ecosystem affects many other animals, but humans are adaptive creatures so they will still do well as long their cultivated plants and farm animals remain unaffected."
Eterna felt underappreciated that the Earth's Spirit criticised her strategy. She vented her frustration on her, "Since you know what is best for the world, why don't you do it?"
"I am trying my best to maintain the ecosystem here. The natural disaster is an automatic system of cause and effect. With the rising levels of greenhouse gases trapping the heat from the sunrays, the severity the climate changes will increase as well. That is why I concluded it is best for you to kill all the humans. And by doing so, everything will be back to normal."
"Not everything. The increase in activity of the sun can affect the lives on Earth as well. But I get what you mean. You prefer the changes to be gradual so all animals and plants will have enough time to readjust to the changes. It is unfortunate that human's activities hasten the changes that caused many of them to be extinct. But I can say this: there will be another species that will take over our place. And as how life goes on Earth, the new dominant species will act like us so that they can have a comfortable life. So what are you gonna do about it?"
"That will not happen. I can choose a selective species to be a dominant species, yet they are better than humans. An animal that truly cares for other animals even though it occasionally hunts them is my dream goal. It is my fault for allowing humans to be obnoxious and ruining the paradise I had created."
"But since you assist in our evolution, you should know what we need to change our ways. But it seems you are out of option so you ask me instead. As for my solution to your problem, I will still stick to imageries. It just takes time for humans to understand that they need to do something to make the world a better place for everyone. Just give us a chance to redeem ourselves okay?"
Earth's Spirit took some time to digest Eterna's conversation to her, and then she smiled, "Very well, you may do it your way. It was a good decision of me to recommend you to Xerneas so that you will learn there are ways to save the world without annihilating the humans. Alright, it is time for me to depart. May your plan be as effective as what you have believed in."
And she vanished. Eterna was relieved that her words managed to have some weight to her. She did some deep breathing to calm herself while waiting for her friends to come back. And soon enough, they had return and each of them brought an animal. Chestnut carried a tiger and there were scratch marks all over his plant coat; most probably due to he was trying to seduce the tiger. Loggerhead carried a white egret and Ice Kacang carried a tarsier.
Chestnut was the first to speak to her, "Whew, this beast is as nasty as Zoroark."
"Haha, I can see that. Well then, it is time for me to gather the last batch of imageries into my vault!
After gathering many mental images, Eterna had decided it was time to warp to her homeland's city at tonight so that she could place her vault in. She knew her country's government was not so corruptive so when the news spread from there, it would be close to hundred percent valid.
The group had warped to the central business district area. It was late at night so there were no people around. Eterna placed her vault on the grass and nodded. Her task was over and now she wanted to visit her family. But would they accept her? They might not recognise her in her Pokémon form.
Her friends noticed her sad looks. They understood that she wanted to meet her love ones. Ice Kacang patted her back and said:
"Miss Eterna, we should go and see your family. As you have a close bond with them, they will know that it is you even if you look differently. They will be happy to see you as they know that you have safely returned to them."
Eterna looked at him and thanked him. She was glad that her friends were beside her to ease her worries. She smacked her face, and created an Abyss's Door. It was now or never to meet her family after her disappearance from her home for three weeks.