Author: Bob Rating: PG
Jigglypuff Meets Godzilla
Some days Ash Ketcham felt every one of his 103 years. Today, however, was one of his good days. It was pleasantly warm without being oppressively hot. He sat on the porch of his retirement cottage on a remote beach on Cinnabar Island. He lived there alone, although his great-granddaughter who lived in a nearby town came by to check on him on a daily basis. As he sat, he heard a Pidgey chirping in the distance. In his front yard a Charmander and a Squirtle were tossing - Heaven help us all - a softball back and forth. Idly he wondered where they'd found it as he watched a boat pull into the harbor. That'd be the 11:30 ferry from Pallett Town bringing visitors from the mainland, he thought. A half-hour later, as he was beginning to think about lunch, one of those visitors walked up the road to his house. It was a young woman in her early twenties with a look of earnest determination on her face. Ash sized her up. Grad student written all over her, he thought. He knew the type. Even now, after all these years, he still got the occasional Pokemonology student who came looking for insight or a new angle for a dissertation. Sure enough, she came up to him and spoke.
"Forgive me for disturbing you, sir. My name is Naoko Tanaka, I'm a student at Viridian City University. I was hoping to speak to Ash Ketcham. Would that be you?"
"That's right. Let me guess. You're here to get the old Master's insight on Pokemon."
"Not quite, sir. Actually, I'm majoring in daikaiju studies. While I'm aware of your reputation as a great Pokemon Master, if I may, I'd like to ask you a few questions about something else entirely."
"Alright, well why don't you come on in? It's just about lunchtime, anyway."
The two of them traded small-talk over a light lunch of tea and sandwiches. Afterwards, they went and sat in the cottage's small parlor. Once they had made themselves comfortable, Ash spoke up.
"I'm assuming you're here to ask about Godzilla..."
"That's right," Naoko said, "I was going through some old files when I came across a report that said that you and some of your friends reported sighting Godzilla several months after his last attack on Tokyo and shortly before the creation of the Cerulean Forest Restricted Nature Preserve. The report was a little sparse on details, and I was hoping that you'd give me your story of what happened that day."
Ash sat silently for a moment, and then said:
"I don't see why not. Someone ought to hear the story, and everyone else involved is long gone. It was a summer day 92 years ago, and I was traveling with two of my friends. Brock - that's his picture over there - was studying to become a Pokemon breeder. He specialized in Rock Pokemon, and eventually settled down in Saffron City. Married a nurse named Joy. He passed on about twenty years back. His grandson still breeds Rock Pokemon, comes to visit me about once a year. And Misty - that's her, over on the mantel - she never did settle down. She specialized in Water Pokemon, you see, and she roamed the ends of the earth looking for them. Misty died about sixty years ago, when a freak summer storm capsized the sailboat she was in. Any one of her Water Pokemon could easily have saved her, but it happened to be one of those rare times she went out without them, and so she was drowned, just like that. That was a terrible day , let me tell you."
Ash paused for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes. Then he continued:
"And of course there were the Pokemon. As you may know, a Pokemon trainer typically keeps his Pokemon in Pokeballs, except during an actual battle. We had two exceptions - that is, two Pokemon who traveled with us outside of Pokeballs. One was Togepi, a baby Pokemon that had adopted Misty as its 'mother'. At the time it was unique, although others have been discovered since. And the other, of course, was Pikachu. Ah, Pikachu! He was my first Pokemon, and still the one I remember best. Pikachu was kind of a booby prize for me, you know. I showed up late to Professor Oak's the day I became a trainer, and Pikachu was the only Pokemon he had left That was one time where being late really paid off for me. It's quite possible that I would never have become a Pokemon Master if it hadn't been for Pikachu and what I learned from him. He lived a good thirty years, which is a fantastically long lifespan for a Pikachu. I still miss him. One of his descendants is around here someplace."
"At any rate, on the day in question we were walking along the shoreline on the far side of the forest well north of Cerulean City. We had heard that Moltres had been sighted in that area, and we were all eager to see it. We never did see Moltres, but we saw something even more remarkable that day."
"We were talking about the latest news from home. Misty said she'd heard that a trainer we knew named Mike Birch had captured a Gengar. Privately, I doubted that that stumbling halfwit could've caught a Ghost Pokemon. More likely, the Gengar had allowed itself to be 'caught', as Gengar sometimes did out of boredom or a desire for companionship. I should know, it happened to me once."
"Suddenly, from behind us, we heard a rustling in the bushes. We turned around and saw that once again we were face-to-face with Jesse, James and Meowth - three members of Team Rocket! Team Rocket was, in its day, the world's largest ring of Pokemon thieves. The organization was ultimately broken up about fifty years ago by our old friend Commissioner Jenny. But these three were our particular nemeses. We dealt with them so much that we got to know them as well as if they were old friends. Let me see, I think I have a picture of them here somewhere..."
Ash pulled an ancient photo album down from a shelf and began thumbing through it, muttering to himself as he did so.
"Hmm, Scully and Mulder, the Doctor and Ace, Badger and Baboon, Bob Dole-Bob Dole? When the heck did I meet Bob Dole? Anyway, let's see, the JSA, the X-Patrol, Liz Patterson...Ah! Here we go - that's Team Rocket, bad haircuts and all! Meowth was the real brains of the outfit - he could speak and understand several human languages, you know. Unfortunately, Meowth and James were killed about ten years after the date in question when their latest ( and final) scheme quite literally blew up in their faces. Poor Jesse was never the same after that. She became quite unhinged, quit Team Rocket and made a fortune as a stockbroker. Odd, really. We never exactly became friends, but she used to come and visit me from time to time and we got along well enough. To the day she died she never gave up trying to get me to invest in Tauros futures. What a driven woman!"
"At any rate, Team Rocket began the ritual recitation of their motto, something they always did without fail."
"'Prepare for trouble!'"
"'And make it double!'"
"At this point, we heard a tremendous BOOM! from out in the harbor, as though God had a kettle drum and had given it a good whack! Team Rocket didn't seem to notice, caught up as they were in their recitation."
"'To protect the world from devastation!''
"From the harbor came another BOOM!"
"'To unite all peoples within our nation!'"
"BOOM!"
"'To denounce the - say, what're you twerps looking at anyway? You're supposed to be looking at us -you know, your archenemies?'"
"'Look out in the water, you fools,' retorted Brock, 'What's going on out in the water?'"
"About five miles out to sea, the water was churning and bubbling like nothing I'd ever seen before!"
"'What can it be?', asked James, 'Some new Pokemon?'"
"'That's more than a Pokemon,' replied Jesse, 'That's a daikaiju!'"
"'That's not just any daikaiju', said Brock, 'That's Godzilla!'"
"Sure enough, as the massive creature reared up from the sea, 100 meters tall, there was no mistaking the King of the Monsters! Now, I've seen some large Pokemon - Onyx can grow pretty big, as can Snorlax - but this creature was just insanely big! Godzilla! At the very sight of the beast a thrill of fear ran through us all. We'd all heard of its attacks on cities in Japan, China, even the United States. But he'd never come to our part of the world before - we'd be totally unprepared - defenseless! And then Godzilla roared, an inconceivable sound that not even the best recordings can convey. Togepi squealed in fright, and we all prepared to run. Team Rocket had a jeep concealed nearby, and in a rare moment of unthinking kindness, they let us ride with them to the top of a brush-covered hill a few miles away from which we could clearly observe the shoreline. We all got out our binoculars and watched the Monster-King march in to shore. Even though they had helped us, I couldn't resist taunting Team Rocket."
"'You guys are always on the lookout for something rare, why don't you try capturing Godzilla?'"
"They appeared to take the suggestion seriously."
"'There isn't a Pokeball made that could hold THAT!' said James."
"'Yeah', said Meowth, 'even the Boss won't blame us for not capturing him!'"
"'Yes', said Jesse, 'I'm afraid this'll have to be the one we let get away.'"
"'What's THAT?' interjected Brock, 'Down on the beach, what's that?'"
"We all looked. Down on the beach, something was moving directly into Godzilla's path."
"'It's a Jigglypuff!', said Misty, 'Is it going to try to put Godzilla to sleep?'"
"'Could it?' asked James."
"'I don't think so', said Meowth, 'Nothing humans or Pokemon can do can really affect a creature like Godzilla.'"
"Still we watched. As Godzilla came into shore it caught sight of the Jigglypuff, the way a man might happen to notice an ant crossing his path. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, Godzilla looked faintly irritated, as though irked that the little Balloon Pokemon was not showing it proper respect by running in fear. I was convinced that the Jigglypuff's life expectancy could be measured in seconds. Godzilla roared again, and in that roar I heard pain, anger and frustration. Pain at being changed by radiation into something nature had never meant it to be, anger at the race of men for their constant attempts to destroy it, and frustration at living in a world that held no place for it. Here was a creature that had been hurt by life, but now had the power to hurt back and every intention of doing so."
"But Jigglypuff must've heard something more, for it still showed no fear of the great titan. Instead, it began to sing. We weren't close enough for it to put us to sleep, but we still hear Jigglypuff's song faintly across the intervening miles. It was just the standard Jigglypuff song, nothing unusual to any of us. But Godzilla must've heard something more, for though still wide awake it bent lower, as though to hear better. A look almost of peace settled onto its face. After awhile, we looked at Team Rocket, and they at us, and wordlessly went our separate ways, to resume our feud some other day."
"At any rate, we hiked back to Cerulean City, and made a report to the authorities there. After verifying our story and deliberating for awhile, they turned that stretch of coastal waters and the whole northern half of the Cerulean Forest into a restricted Nature Preserve. No one was allowed in except a handful of carefully-picked scientists. Even Team Rocket left the place alone. And it seemed to work. Godzilla was never seen outside that area again."
Naoko sat absorbing the story for a moment. Then she asked, "So what do you think actually happened, Mr. Ketcham? Why did Godzilla stay there? Did Jigglypuff hypnotize it?"
"No," said Ash, "I don't think it was hypnosis. Remember what Meowth said. In the end, I think it was something simpler and yet deeper than hypnosis. I think it had more to do with what Jigglypuff heard in Godzilla's roar, and what Godzilla heard in Jigglypuff's song."
"And what was that?" asked Naoko.
"Well, the answer is simple, although I confess it took me awhile to figure it out myself. What Jigglypuff heard in Godzilla's roar was loneliness, and what Godzilla heard in Jigglypuff's song was love."
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