Reflections of the Pokémon Anime, Part 4
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Sometime in the future, perhaps a few centuries from now (assuming both worlds are the same or at least similar), the ecology of the planet Earth will be in turmoil. Humanity's population will have to spread to the breaking point, and the planet's resources will be in danger of disappearing completely. Despite conservation efforts, it will be obvious that humanity and other life forms on this planet will become extinct in a century or less. At some point, in a South American country, Mew will appear. Mew, a feline Psychic powerhouse, not only will have the ability to reduce its opponent's endurance (Pressure: The opponent uses its allotted moves quicker), but also could use any major attack that future Pokémon will be known for (in the game mechanics, it can learn any Technical or Hidden Machine skill). Yet how did Mew first appear? ImJessieTR,s own fanfics notwithstanding, it is possible that it appeared in one of two ways. The reader is invited to take his or her pick.
Let us imagine the silent objective hand of evolution creating Mew. Unlike the endangered "real" animals that were vanishing all over the planet, Mew was set up to grant new life by altering established members of the ecosystem or creating new ones from life forms that inspired many myths and legends. Every once in a while, one can read about elephants in India that somehow have reversed evolution and re-developed features not seen since the Ice Age, such as large, protruding skulls. Personally, the "werewolf" syndrome, where people are born with excessive hair growth, could be evidence of our ancient primate past. In any case, at some point in a particular feline's family line, a feline was born with a genetic code that either did not wear down normally or did not wear down at all, leaving the chromosomes virtually immortal. Also, although the cells of this feline differentiated to some extent, let us imagine that the majority of its cells remained in a perpetual stem cell state, which would permit it to become or act any way its situation demanded. With its ability to take on characteristics of an entire menagerie of life forms, it could thus influence the evolution of just about any life form on the planet, given enough time. It had the ability to create fire, water, electricity, and a host of other elemental abilities, which it then shared with other creatures through the process of procreation (assuming, of course, that at the time it was never caught and spayed or neutered). Thus, "Pokémon" were born, humanity probably having chosen that term "pocket monsters to describe normal animals that had acquired new skill sets.
Of course, there is also another possibility. With the current real-world furor over stem cell research (and cloning, for that matter), it is possible that a human team of scientists in South America, away from the prying eyes of any scientific ethical board, learned how to reverse cells to their original stem cell state, and begin this project with local feral cats. In the course of the research, one particular feline, imbued with an abnormal level of stem cells and nearly immortal chromosomes, will escape from the laboratory and live the life of a feral feline, complete with procreating with multiple species, transferring its abilities to other life forms similar to the first scenario.
Mew probably began creating almost immediately. The ancient Pokémon, such as Aerodactyl, Relicanth, Kabuto and Omanyte, were created either by adapting any descendents or by somehow reviving fossilized tissues (of course, after creating Ho-Oh or Moltres, the phoenix Pokémon, these could have revived life forms as well for Mew to empower). These ancient Pokémon, coupled with the appearance of the legendaries, naturally frightened the human population as it faced near extinction from the Pokémon wrath.
Also, natural disasters would have increased in number and intensity since some, like Kyroge or Lugia or Zapdos can control, or at least influence weather, climate and perhaps the entire water cycle. Faced with this horrible onslaught, humanity used its own myths and legends, and recalled the golems from different ancient cultures. Having been brought almost back to the Bronze Age from all the destruction, humans created the Regis: Regice, Registeel and Regirock (as homages to different periods of human history). These golems were designed to protect humanity against the awesome power of the new creatures threatening their survival, but the Regis soon escaped the control of their creators and ransacked whole landscapes until they were sealed away. Sadly, this would not be the first time nor the last that humanity would try to control animals or technology for its own purposes, from greed to mere survival.
The human population then divided on how to deal with these new creatures: Some began forming cooperative relationships (with and without religious undertones-- note the many Pokémon-centered cults, particularly in the islands) with them, while others saw them as biological weapons that trumped current (and possibly heavily damaged) military technology. Wars were fought with conventional weapons and powerful Pokémon. Villages were built with the help of friendly Pokémon. Societies fled to major urban centers where their technology could protect them, or fled to island locales presumably far from the major sources of Pokémon-human violence, or fled to distant rural or forested locales to commune better with nature.
As time went on over the centuries, and societies regained a technical strength not seen since before the creation of Pokémon, humans began to take an even greater interest in the multitude of forms possible. Porygon (a sentient artificially-intelligent "cyber-Pokémon"), Magnemite (a floating steel ball with U-shaped magnets on either side and a giant eye in the middle), and the glitch Pokémon of the games (non-canon, but an interesting concept-- after all, research leading to the creation of Porygon must have been prefaced by earlier, less well-programmed Pokémon) seem to be human attempts at creating their own Pokémon. Porygon, with its Trace and Conversions abilities, makes it seem as though this Pokémon was developed specifically for the purpose of studying a wide range of Pokémon from the comfort of a computer lab.
As the Pokémon world enters the modern ages, we will begin to see the formation of Pokémon schools, leagues, etc. We will also chronicle major technological advances as well as challenges to ethics and morality that this world faces. Also, we shall take a look at specific characters and draw very appropriate conclusions from them. We hope you shall continue to travel with us to this whole new world.
