Cat's Cradle
By Kelly "Kielle" Newcomb

Disclaimer No infringement is intended -- the following was written exclusively for Alara Rogers and is NOT to be archived elsewhere. Like Alara, I do not consider myself to be a fan of nor an expert on Pokemon; I do not dislike them, I'm just not deeply into them. However, like Alara, I saw a Certain Movie and was captivated by a certain two new characters...

Everyone knows that the rarest Pokemon in the world is also the most reclusive. The most rarely seen. The hardest to find. The...well, you get the picture. Thus, logically, the rarest Pokemon in the world is also the least understood. Where does it live? Why does it live there? What does it think?

Most importantly, what does it do for fun?

"Now hang on a minute!" you cry. "Back up the boat! It's the most powerful Pokemon in the world -- who cares what it does for fun! Where can I get it? How can I capture it? How do I control it?!"

Tsk. You trainers are certainly single-minded, aren't you? Sit down and think for a moment. Think about what you just said. The most powerful Pokemon in the world. If you had Awesome Psychic Powers, what would YOU do for fun?

Ahhh. Now you're thinking. And I'm willing to bet that most of the thoughts that just crossed your mind were nasty, greedy, selfish little thoughts. No offense meant -- you're only human and this is just a theoretical question anyway. You're allowed to think those thoughts. It's part of the point I'm trying to make here. They're the same exact thoughts anyone would have, anyway:

Who you could control.
What you could get.
What you could TAKE.

"But Pokemon don't care about that kind of thing," you retort smugly. "They're just animals, really. Most of them."

Yes. Lucky for you, eh? But that's a tangent for another day -- back to the subject at hand. We were talking about the most powerful Pokemon in the world, and what on earth it does with all that spare time on its paws. Even animals do things for fun, and I'm willing to bet that this particular "animal" is smarter than you think. Much smarter. It's only logical, given the whole Awesome Psychic Powers angle. Brains tend to be an inevitable result of Awesome Psychic Powers, you know. Even Psyducks and Drowzees are smarter than you give them credit, and they're strictly lightweights in the Awesome Psychic Powers arena.

This is making your head hurt, I can see. Let me give you one last shove in the right direction... What do we have so far? Awesome Psychic Powers, intelligence, the ability to zip anywhere in the world on a whim to do whatever you want -- to GET anything you want -- and yet no sign of a Pokemon regime? Why wouldn't a creature like that want to take over the world? No. You're thinking like a human again. Think like a Pokemon.

No. Better:

Think like a cat.

Good! I think you're getting there. Now, take whatever you just thought and multiply it by a hundred. Now multiply that by a thousand...

Somewhere far away, high in the mountains, the sun is shining down brightly on trees, birds, grass, deer, the occasional hawk, and on something which does not belong there. Something which winks back up at the sun in a massive hilly mass of scarlet, cerulean, saffron, emerald, violet, copper, tangerine, and a hundred thousand other brilliant shades from an natural stone bowl, hundreds of feet across and a hundred feet deep, glacier-gouged from the living rock many millions of years before...

...now filled to the brim with stolen balls of yarn.

Floating effortlessly on the morning breeze high above this astonishing sight is the most powerful Pokemon in the world. She paddles the air with her oversized pink feet and swishes her lithe pink tail as she surveys her cozy "nest" with a critical blue eye -- and Finds It Good.

"Mew!"

FIN