Episode 50 - Pukemon Whero, Part One   This story is about a 50-something year old former-gamer with 9 kids and 9 mokopuna. Oh, hold up, that’s me! I didn’t set out to make it about me, but I was there when Space Invaders hit Aotearoa. I spent most of my time in arcades, making me the foremost 80’s arcade expert, so it just made sense, hence the Whero at the end of the title. But, the Whero also plays on the game name, Pokemon Red. We have to jump forward a few decades, of course, to get to Pokemon, which of course means pocket monsters. I know! But it was one of my moko who came up with the title "Pukemon". He was doing the little kid thing, making up his own little waiata, which only had one word in it, "Pokemon". Except he was saying "Pukumon", and I thought, "Hey, Pukoro monsters, Pocket monsters, same thing." I adjusted the final title though to "Pukemon", as "Pukumon" sounded like monsters in desperate need of Keto… Anyway, this is what I call a whāquel. You know, sequel, threequel, and fourquel in Māori equals Whāquel. And it’s a game/story about gods, monsters, epic battles, and betrayal. Without spoiling any of the stories, all I will say is that all of the taniwhā in these stories are real. Every single one of them. To be honest, I knew some of them; others I had to hunt down... on Google, of course, but hidden under obscure keywords. Some appeared to me as if they were trying to be found. Get ready for realities to merge and blur, where the delicate balance of our world is about to be throttled by a hidden darkness. Long-forgotten taniwhā crawl and slither into our world. Get ready to push the start button. Let's go!   T.A. Whero