Chapter 2
Different Worlds
Adam got off the elliptical and grabbed a towel, lightly dabbing at his forehead. He'd only barely broken a sweat; his heart wasn't really in it this morning. Still, it was important to stick to a regimen of some sorts.
Lord knew he'd done enough to buck that belief in the past 24 hours.
Tea sat on the couch, frowning as she scrolled through the 9th generation iPad 9" in her lap.
Their eyes met and she sighed. "Well, the good news is, everyone is on your side, so no worries there."
"Side?"
"Yes. Pikachu has been seen as turning heel, and no one's really a fan of that. So you're set there. Everyone thinks you're insane, of course, but you're being given a huge amount of leeway to act insane because of how everything went down.
"Anyway, your schedule for the day. I'm sure at any minute Tommy will stop by–"
There was a bzzt of energy from the teleportation beam, and suddenly Tommy was there, hand on his watch. He smiled and nodded generally at the room. "Hey, bro!" he announced.
Adam chuckled and went to his bedroom to pick out some clothes for the day.
"Hey, buddy!" Tommy gushed. "Before you change, you wanna do a little karate?"
"Not right now, Tommy, I just finished exercising. Maybe later?"
Tommy looked sad, but quickly brightened again, getting in a pose and thrusting his hands back and forth a few times. "Sounds good!" He then relaxed.
Tea continued. "Anyway, Mr. … Godzilla should be along in just a little bit, and apparently he'll be bringing his child with him?" Tea displayed a moue upon her chiseled face.
"Oh, yeah?" Tommy asked as Adam moved behind a divider to change. "That'll be cool! A mini monster!"
"We've dealt with like a thousand of those over the years!" Adam called.
"Yeah, but, like … a friendly one?" Tommy asked.
Adam gave a shrug, admitting the point to Tommy, as he emerged from behind the divider, buttoning up the short-sleeved reflective silver shirt he wore. His trousers were comfortable dark jeans.
Tea droned on from the other room: "Needless to say, later today while you're all practicing with the backup dancers, I'll be calling the local … bishopric or what have you. I'm sure we can get everything annulled and disposed of in no time."
"Annulled?" Adam asked.
"Of course. Last night was understandable, but we don't want this farce to continue any longer than it has to."
Tommy sensed the tension in the room, and his face cycled to his concerned look. "Hey," he started. Adam and Tea looked at him, but Tommy seemed to be finished with his thought, and he just slowly nodded meaningfully. Eventually Tea looked at Adam again.
"This situation," began Tea carefully, "is untenable. It's none of my concern if you and Pikachu get back together again or not – I'll do my best to spin it either way – but you can't just continue on with this charade marriage to a complete stranger."
"This complete stranger," Adam countered, "was willing to marry me and turn the evening from a cryfest into a celebration. I'm not going to just … throw him away after that, like … old onions." He wrinkled his nose.
"Granted," Tea granted, "I'm sure he's a perfectly fine person. I'll give him a severance package, if you'd like. But we have to end this quickly and focus on moving things forward."
"Or," Adam said, checking himself in the mirror, "we could try to make it work."
"I'll make it quite generous," Tea said compromisingly.
Tommy again said "Hey," made sure he made eye contact with them both, then nodded.
Tea huffed.
The bell rang, which meant someone was coming up the elevator to the penthouse. Tea glanced over at the security video screen. "It's him." She sighed. "Well, you don't pay me to be your mother, so I'm not going to try to force you into this, but I will say you're being not only foolish, childish, and reckless, but also shortsighted and stubborn, and that you will come to not only regret and rue this decision, but also curse yourself for not listening to me."
Adam smiled and shrugged. "Maybe."
There was an incredibly loud knock at the door and Tea opened it, bowing low before the entrance. "Please, enter," she said in as obsequious a manner as she could manufacture.
"Hey," Godzilla said, obviously uncomfortable as he entered the room. He nodded at everyone politely. His smaller offspring was following half-hidden behind. Godzilla and Adam came close, started to shake, then went for a hug, but it ended awkwardly. Then they laughed awkwardly, after which an awkward silence descended awkwardly.
Tommy looked around, then quickly leaned in toward the youngster and asked, "What's the little guy's name?"
"Ahem," Godzilla answered. "The name is Minilla, but they're nonbinary."
"Oh, hey, cool!" Tommy joyfully espoused, and Minilla giggled, moving out from behind Godzilla more.
"Red," Minilla whispered, pointing at Tommy.
"That's right!" Tommy exclaimed. "You recognize me, huh?" Adam wondered if Minilla actually knew that Tommy was a red Ranger, or if he was just pointing out that Tommy was wearing (as usual) a shade of red today. "Sweet, little dude – uh." Tommy stopped himself, then looked up at Godzilla embarrassedly. "That is, of course, a purely non-gender-specific 'dude,'" he said to Minilla. Minilla clapped and laughed. Tommy returned it and they high-fived.
Tea rolled her eyes, but both Adam and Godzilla smiled big and caught each other's eyes.
Tommy's watch beeped and he held it up before his face. "What's up?"
Muffled sounds came from the watch, and Tommy said, "I'm on my way!" Then he panned his attention around the room and said, "Gotta go. Piggly Wiggly Deathtrap is attacking the abandoned factories outside of town." He pushed a button on his watch and zapped away.
The silence became even more awkward.
"So," Adam said, "you wanna go see my dance troupe practice some?"
Godzilla gave a shoulder movement that was somewhere between a shrug and accepting the hangman's noose as it's lowered around one's neck. "Let's do it."
Most of the rest of the day was a whirlwind of confusion and anxiety for Godzilla. They drove the 20 blocks – max – to the dance studio in a LIMO, for goodness' sake.
He met all the dancers and knew he'd never remember all their names, but assumed he'd wake up at some point and it wouldn't really matter. He watched their weird mixture of kung fu and dance moves. Minilla was loving it, so his discomfort was assuaged by that fact. During a break, he caught Adam as he sipped from an Evian bottle in a corner of the room and asked, "So, uh, I don't understand how all this works, but wasn't last night the END of the tour? Why are you still practicing?"
"Oh, in three weeks we start touring in South America." He looked alarmed. "You have a passport, right?"
"Yeah," Godzilla said, "my work takes me outside the country a fair amount. But, I mean, I couldn't go with you …"
"Why not?"
"Well, I … I mean … this is fun and all, but … it can't last, can it?"
It was as if a bomber overhead dropped silence into the corner of the room they were talking in. In his peripheral vision, Godzilla espied Minilla dancing with the others, shaking his hips and hopping around.
"What do you say we give it the three weeks?" Adam finally said Solomonly.
"I … sure. Can't argue with that," Godzilla replied, then moved away, making sure Adam had room to return to the main floor. "Hey!" Godzilla called after him.
"Yeah?" Adam asked, turning around.
"Do you have to do anything different in South America? Something seems … off from what I saw last night, and I can't place it."
"Yeah," Adam half-chucked. "We have to spin the other way. Corialis effect, y'know?"
And with that he turned around, clapping his hands to get the group to pay attention. Godzilla gave out a half-hearted chuckle, but he was damned if he knew if Adam was joking or not.
They agreed to spend the next day apart so that they could attend to their personal affairs. Godzilla agreed and turned to leave.
"Hey!" Adam called, and Godzilla turned back around. "What's your Insta?"
"My …? I don't drink coffee," Godzilla answered, confused.
"InstaGRAM," Adam laughed, holding up his phone. "I'll friend you!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but didn't you already MARRY me?" Godzilla rejoindered.
"Never mind," Adam said, pocketing his phone. "Hey, also. Come here." Adam motioned Godzilla's face down close to his own. Godzilla complied, not understanding, but Adam gently cupped his chin and they kissed, gently.
Godzilla couldn't say it was UNpleasant.
"Seeya Monday," Adam said, a charming, goofy grin on his face. "I can't wait to see where you work."
Godzilla could barely make words as he left the penthouse. He could almost hear an upbeat pop song in the background as he and Minilla began walking to the car lot where he'd parked.
As soon as Minilla was comfortably parked in their room playing a video game, Godzilla called Svetlana and asked if she wanted to come over and talk. She made a noise like a tea kettle whistling in response, then hung up. Godzilla began brewing some coffee for himself, idly picking at the old Killing Joke t-shirt he was wearing, confused as to how it had shrunk so much since the last time he'd worn it, when Svetlana pounded at the door.
"I've got it!" Godzilla shouted in response to Minilla's game pausing, and soon after he heard the game start up again.
Svetlana nearly tore the door off its hinges coming in. She hissed at him as she twirled and took off her jacket, falling into the couch. "Two days?!" she shouted. "Two days before you call me?! I'm your best friend - hell, I'm your ONLY friend, and you wait this long before contacting me?"
"Hey!" Godzilla rebutted defendingly. "I know … Kathy in accounting."
Svetlana leapt to her feet and shoved Godzilla. "Shut up!"
"What–"
"You mooned over Kathy for TWO YEARS before finally asking her out, only to realize she was MARRIED."
"How was I supposed to know?"
"She had a picture of her with her husband on her cubicle wall!"
"I thought it was her brother!"
Svetlana gave him a look like she was releasing killer bees of distrust from her eye sockets. She finally gasped with the inability to release her pent-up rage. "Close family," she muttered.
"Sooooo …" she started, eyebrows slowly rising like a window washer starting his third day on the Empire State Building.
Godzilla gave her an innocent expression.
She smacked him with her clutch purse. "Owwww!"
"Are you really -" she started loudly, then glanced at the doorway where Minilla was, and continued in a menacing whisper: "-fluffing married? To a POWER RANGER?"
Godzilla gave a big, goofy shrug. "I guess I am, yeah," he replied.
"That is CRAZY," she said, punctuating the last word with another punch to his arm. She turned away for a moment.
"Ow–will you stop HITTING me!" he protested.
"G!" she said, facing him once again. "This is INSANE!"
"I know," he said, "but if nothing else I'll have a great story, right?"
"Yeah, you know who else will have a great story? Every social media site from here to the Pacific Ocean!"
"What?"
"Haven't you thought this out, G?" She gave him a look that said she was as serious as a music cue change in a movie trailer. "Right now it's all hearts and flowers, but soon your past is going to come to light."
"What? Nobody cares about that anymore! All those records were sealed!"
"For now. But as fast as TMZ took Pikachu down, they'll be just as happy to do the same to you. Or Buzzfeed. Whatever. Doesn't matter."
"But what if … I mean, can't this be a good thing?"
"I … pft … marrying a CELEBRITY? They live in a different world than us, G! And how long before Pikachu comes crawling back into the picture? You think Adam's still going to want you once that happens?"
"I don't know … you make it sound like I've got a time limit on making him love me."
"We've all got a time limit on love. Yours just gave you a one-minute warning."
"Look, I thought you'd be happy for me! Maybe you better go."
"Maybe I should," she said, picking up her jacket. "But maybe you should think about it, too."
"About what?"
She turned as she opened the door. Before she closed it, she said in her most dramatic tone, "Having an exit strategy."
Wham.
Godzilla stared at the door with a puzzled expression on his face, like a cat who walked into a room and realized his feet had somehow gotten stuck in slippers and it didn't know how to get them off, for quite some time.
