Chapter Nineteen - A Fool's Choice!

August 13th, 2022

Blackbird Villa, Asture Region

"Tell me again why we're doing this," Raine whispered, hiding behind a shrub. "We can just go back East and look for her ourselves."

"This was your idea," Mirella scoffed. "We need their help. Without it we're just going to wander around this forest forever."

"Yes, but… Is it too risky?"

"Look." Mirella pointed at the wooden town and Raine followed her gaze to a small, eldelry woman collecting water from a well at the edge of the town. "We just have to be smart about getting the residents alone. As long as we aren't traipsing around in the open we'll be safe."

Raine took a few deep breaths and steeled himself. "Okay. You stay here and keep a lookout and I'll go and speak to her alone." He stood up from behind the bush and parted it in half, stepping into Blackbird Villa for the first time.

There wasn't a lot to see from the angle that they had approached the town. If indeed it could be called a town at all. More like it was the treehouse of every child's dreams. Every building was made of wooden logs and grown over with moss and flowers in order to blend into the surroundings. Not a single tree had been cut down to make way for the buildings. Instead they were used as supporting beams in the construction or were just everyday obstacles for the occupants. Raine had never seen a place so perfectly in tune with nature. Not even Jay Town, that sat in a field of flowers in a clearing of trees, could be called more beautiful.

"Hello," Raine said in greeting, approaching the old lady slowly from in front of her with both of his hands up in an awkward wave. He stopped on the opposite side of the well and rested his hands atop the wall.

"Oh, hello dear, I didn't see you there," she said in a grandmotherly voice. "Were you waiting to use the well?"

"No, actually I had some questions that I wanted to ask you. Would that be okay?"

"Are you Stacy and Joe's boy? George?"

"No," Raine said casually and realised he should have just lied. "I'm from out of town."

"That explains it then," she said and smiled with her eyes. "What's your question, deary?"

"I've come as a researcher from the Pokémon Laboratory in Jay Town. I'm researching Gaia. I was wondering if there was anything that you could tell me about her?"

If ever there was an image to describe the action of clamming up this old lady was perfect for it. Her welcoming demeanour changed entirely and without responding she turned and walked away. Even without her bucket of gathered water.

Raine didn't know what exactly it was that he had said to scare her off. But he knew not to chase an old lady through town so he dashed back to hide with Mirella. "Well that was odd," he said and explained what had happened.

"Why would mentioning Gaia make her afraid to talk?" Mirella queried. "Or was it simply because you said that you're a research assistant?"

"I don't know. But now I really want to talk to more residents so we can get to the bottom of this."

"Maybe next time don't be so upfront about who you are and what you're after."

"Good advice, Mir. Let's stay out of sight and look for any more opportunities to get someone alone."

"Too late," Mirella said, pointing towards the well.

Raine turned again to follow her direction and the old lady was leading a group of nearly fifty people straight towards them.

"He was right here," the old lady said, pointing at the well. "It's exactly like I told you, dearies. He wanted to know Her secrets."

"Come on out," a gruff male voice yelled. "We know that you're out there. We don't want to harm you. We just need to talk."

Mirella and Raine shared a look. What were they supposed to do? Should they capitulate to the town's demands or try to sneak away?

"Come on," the gruff man said. "It's okay."

"Yeah?" Raine whispered, nodding at Mirella.

"I guess," she uttered silently.

Raine stood up with his palms up in surrender even though that didn't seem to be the townsfolk's intention. "Hi," he said, waving ever so slightly and stepping around their hiding bush.

"Well hello," the man Raine denoted as Gruff said, "come on out of there you two."

Raine saw Mirella standing beside him with her hands down by her sides. Together they stepped around the bush and stood closer to the townsfolk, being thoroughly examined.

"Heard you were asking Izmeralda about Gaia." Gruff was a burly lumberjack type with a thick ginger beard and neatly trimmed hair. His muscles were enormous and by the looks of him he was one of the architects of Blackbird Villa's construction. "Tell me what brings you here. Be honest now."

"My name is Raine and I explained to Izmeralda that I am a research assistant from the Pokémon Laboratory in Jay Town," Raine said, lowering his hand to his sides because he felt like a fool holding them up when they were clearly peaceful. "I-"

"Hold on there, Raine. Why are you here instead of Chibs? We usually deal with him. Although we haven't seen him in quite some time."

"I don't know specifically why Chibs hasn't been coming here. But I'm here because we need to protect Gaia."

"Protect Gaia?" Gruff laughed and his boisterous outburst matched perfectly with his image. It was throaty and loud. "As long as this world still stands Gaia is safe from human intervention. No one can touch her."

"Okay, but you don't even know who or what she needs protection from," Raine explained, trying to remain calm.

"Oh, and what might that be?" Gruff asked, placing a hand on the head of the axe that was looped through his belt.

"There is an organisation calling themselves Team Omni who are terrorising the Asture Region and hunting down legendary Pokémon across the globe. I believe that they are searching for Gaia and will use her for their evil purposes. She is not safe."

"Raine," Gruff said in a disappointed fatherly tone. "I'd like to see them try. We as the Guardians of Gaia will stop any who wish to take or harm Her. You needn't be worried."

"Team Omni will come and burn this forest to the ground in order to get to her if that's what it takes. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals."

"And we will stop at nothing to protect her." Gruff patted his axe and plastered a massive grin on his face. "Trust me, they will not be the first ones to come and try to take her from us. We have protected her for hundreds of years and will do so for even longer still. You don't need to worry or get yourself involved."

"I can't just leave this task up to you," Raine said, realising how helpless they were making him feel. He couldn't be helpless. He had to have a mission to distract him from the nightmares in his mind. He could not just stand by and watch Team Omni take whatever they wanted. Not again. "I need to help you protect her. And if that means bringing her out in the open to ensure her safety then that's what I'm going to do."

"Gaia will not show herself to you. No matter what. She is safest when nobody knows where or how to find her but us."

"We just want to make certain. If you know where she is, Team Omni will get that information out of you in one way or another."

"I get it, I really do. But who is to say that you do not have your own cruel intentions for her? Perhaps you are Team Omni."

"Us?" Mirella spat. "How dare you! They are terrorists."

Gruff raised his hands and patted the air between them. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cause offence. You're just really pushing the point. Gaia remaining hidden is the best way to keep her safe, alright? There's no need to see Her for yourself to guarantee Her safety. We have that covered. No one here will break and give Her away."

"But you're just a village of regular people," Raine noted. "How do you propose to stop the likes of Team Omni when you don't even know the power that just one of their members wields?"

"We're no freshies," Gruff said, sounding very offended. "We can take care of ourselves and our Gaia."

"So what, we just leave it to you," Raine stammered and turned to face Mirella. "I don't think that I can accept that, can you?"

Mirella shook her head while looking at Raine and then faced Gruff. "We've come to help and we're going to do just that. Tell us what we can do."

"We don't need you."

Mirella growled. "You don't know what this means to us."

"And you clearly don't understand what Gaia means to us."

They were at a stalemate and neither side knew how to make the other back down.

"Show them what they did," Raine suggested.

Mirella brought Zangoose out of her Poké Ball to stand between the two groups.

"Do you think that yours is the first Pokémon to suffer from such a cruelty?" Gruff asked dismissively. "We have suffered even more so to protect our secrets. Many of our Pokémon haven't survived what happened to them."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't assuming anything," Raine said before Mirella was required to respond. "We're on the wrong foot right now. Can't we just agree that Gaia needs protection and we want to help with that."

"Yes, but it was foolish for you to assume that you could just come here and do things the way that you want them done."

"I realise that. You clearly know how best to protect Gaia. I'm sorry we keep pushing, but you see what happened to Zangoose is only the beginning of what they have already done to us. They destroyed half of Jay Town and murdered the Pokémon Professor. My mentor and friend."

"Ah well of course I heard that there was an attack and I'm sorry," Gruff said. "I didn't connect these two things. Team Omni you said they are calling themselves?"

"Yes."

Gruff scratched his head and let out a long sigh. "Perhaps we could come to an arrangement. If you are certain that they will come looking for Gaia you can stay here in the Villa. We won't get in the way of you stopping them from hunting Her. But if you so much as ask anyone here a question about Gaia you will be out on your butts. Got it?"

This was not at all what Raine had in mind. He and Mirella were not up to the task of battling Team Omni alone. Especially if August brought his Charizard and legendary birds along.

"Understood," Raine said anyway.

They would figure things out as they went along. Surely all of the townsfolk wouldn't be as set in their ways as Gruff. They could convince someone to tell them more one piece at a time so they didn't get thrown out.

"We need to go back to the Pokémon Centre on Route Four to collect our packs, but we'll return in the morning," Raine said. "Nothing should happen before then."