A/N: Ta-da! Chapter 12 is here at last! :D

Last chapter we saw the long awaited arrival of Genesect, and the prelude of an epic battle between Genesect and the Slendermon, the two Team Plasma weapons. Well, here is that battle, plus the return of a familiar face. I hope you enjoy...

On with the show...

For a moment time stood still on Route 14 as the Slendermon, PW102, and Genesect, PW101, faced each other in battle stances. The wind had picked up again on the Route, and the breeze sent leaves twirling around and between the legs of Genesect, while the black mane of the Slendermon ruffled and waved. It was almost completely silent, except for the low whining from the machinery of Genesect, the occasional whirring of gears, and the clicking tap of the foot-long claws of the Slendermon stood opposite the Bug/Steel type.

For a brief moment Aaron Rhodes lay on the earth watching the scene. The Slendermon had had him and Ronnie cornered, at its mercy, before Genesect had arrived to stand between them and the monster in the nick of time. He should have been dead. Yet he had been saved from the wrath of a Team Plasma creation by another, the original weapon.

For a moment Aaron admired Genesect. Everyone in Unova knew about the Palaeozoic Pokemon; Team Plasma's ultimate creation, a Pokemon weapon like Mewtwo made by Team Rocket before. Unlike the Genetic Pokemon however, Genesect's origins were more difficult. After being revived from a partially complete fossil, robotics and mechanics were needed to keep it alive, turning it into a Bug/Steel type, and a cannon was added to the robo-Bug's back, making it the weapon it was. After that however, N cancelled the project when Genesect was completed, on the grounds that it was a violation of a Pokemon's rights to turn it into a weapon. Genesect was shut down, lost forever in a hidden laboratory. Until now.

Aaron's eyes travelled over the hefty cannon on Genesect's back, over the purple metallic armour, over the two fiery red eyes. It had only been reawakened by accident by Sage Giallo as part of an emergency plan to defeat the Slendermon, the replacement experiment/weapon, but Aaron could see the rage in those red eyes at seeing another Plasma weapon, and an anger that wanted to destroy it.

Only then, at this point, did time start to go back to normal, and Aaron realised that he was prone on the floor 6 foot away from two machines of war and killing, capable of destroying Unova by themselves.

"Run!" he yelled, pulling Ronnie to her feet and bodily pulling her away from the two experiments.

Then all hell was let loose. The Slendermon snarled another primal growl, the Shadow Aura that had turned it into a monster coalescing around it, and tentacles, thin piercing serpentine needles of Shadow, stabbed towards Genesect. The razor-tips slammed against the purple armour, making a noise like heavy rain on a Bronzong, but the armour held strong. Then the Shadow Aura returned to the Slendermon, forming a large ball of negative energy, which smashed into Genesect, denting the armour and pushing the Bug/Steel type back.

Genesect stood firm however, and now it was the Bug's turn. It stepped forward and shrieked, an ear-splitting, deafening high-pitched whine that set hairs on end and made the Slendermon leap into the air as red waves of energy hit it. As it writhed from the pain of the Bug Buzz attack, it roared, before pushing out another ball of Shadow Aura, but Genesect was not there. The Palaeozoic Pokemon Flew into the air, avoiding the attack, before crashing down to earth and barrelling into the Slendermon.

In pain, the Slendermon roared again, and lashed out with its long claws, but the glancing blow clanged off the armour. In return, Genesect charged up an X-Scissor attack, the super effective blow getting past the Slendermon's Wonder Guard to do some serious damage. Genesect tried another X-Scissor, but this time the Slendermon's claws clashed against it, forcing Genesect back, before another slice carved a gash in the Bug/Steel type's armour.

However, before the Slendermon could land another strike with its claws, Genesect kicked out into the stomach of its assailant, pushing the Slendermon away. Then, a whining noise filled the air, as the cannon on Genesect's back charged up to focus on the once-Zoroark, shooting a blast of fire into the Slendermon, singing and burning the black fur.

Across from the epic battle between Plasma experiments, Aaron and Ronnie had reached the other survivors of the Slendermon's rage. Sages Rood and Giallo of Team Plasma, unscathed and unharmed from any attack, were seeing to Sage Gorm, who'd been left paralysed when he was trapped under a Rock Slide from the deceased Sage Bronius' Rhyperior. The Sages were with their friend RJ Devon, class nerd, who was busy watching Genesect vs Slendermon until they turned up.

"Thank God you're alive!" RJ cried, rushing over to them. "I thought the Slendermon was gonna kill you for sure!"

"So did I," Aaron muttered grimly, still reeling from the near-death experience.

"I can't believe we survived when so many people haven't," Ronnie said. "We're actually still alive!"

"Thank Genesect for that," Aaron said, making his way over to the Sages. "If it hadn't arrived in time who knows what would have happened to us."

Giallo looked up as Aaron approached. "That was a leettle beet too close for comfort Aaron. We nearly lost you."

"I know." Aaron pointed at Genesect, as the Legendary fired a bolt of electricity from its cannon that made the Slendermon squirm. "I'm really glad you summoned it."

Giallo smiled. "Ha! Eet was an accident signor. Colress forgot to remove emergency plan Delta- eef one experiment escaped, the other would be released to combat eet. And when I accidentally activated Delta after the Slendermon escaped, well, we gained a warrior that could beat thees monster."

Ronnie ducked as a wayward ball of Shadow Aura sizzled past while she walked towards Aaron. "But surely we shouldn't be leaving Genesect alone to fight it?"

"Why not?" Rood asked. "Geneshect ish the original experiment, a Legendary, hash a type advantage in offenshe and defence and hash a bloody cannon! Plush, it looksh like it'sh winning at the moment!"

"Aye," came the voice of the paralysed Gorm from the ground, "but ye shouldnae underestimate that beastie Slendermon. We did."

All heads turned to Gorm. "What do you mean?" Ronnie asked.

"We thought we were winning against it earlier, briefly," Gorm said. "But ai havenae seem anything that could destroy and kill so much in such a wee amount of time. We lost."

"Yeah, and Genesect has its weaknesses here too," RJ said. "The Slendermon's Shadow Aura may not work, but its claws still do. Physically, its more agile than Genesect, and its muscle strength counters Genesect's brute size. Plus, Genesect keeps trying to use its cannon, which is using a Fire or Electric type move, which doesn't work against a Dark type with Wonder Guard."

All of this dawned suddenly on the rest of the group. You couldn't leave something that had this many weaknesses out against the Slendermon, a killing machine who could find a weakness anywhere on any foe.

"Oh shit," Rood said. "We need to help Genesect."

"Queeckly!" Giallo barked. "Avante! Lets go!"

Everyone except the prone Sage Gorm leapt to their feet, drawing Pokeballs. The super-effective Fighting types of Sage Indigo, Mienshao, Scrafty and Conkeldurr, joined Rood's Emboar, Aaron's Heracross and RJ's Venonat as the group charged forward...

To see a scene of extreme and intense violence. Obviously having been made as Pokemon weapons for Team Plasma, neither Pokemon had decent morals, but the level of damage to each one was stunning. The Slendermon bled from several places, its black mane matted with blood, and it swayed unsteadily occasionally- it had lost all of the claws from its left hind leg, while its right foot toes looked broken. Genesect had huge score marks from claws in its armour, along with several burn marks from impacts of Shadow Aura, and a few dents, while the left red eye was dimmer than usual.

Even despite its injuries though the Slendermon was fighting on like the sociopath it was, and the others arrived just in time to see it smash Genesect with a kick from a broken foot. Leaping and landing unsteadily on top of Genesect on the broken foot, it howled, before claws grabbed the twitching cannon and ripped, the heavy grind of machinery loud as the cannon was torn from Genesect's body. Then, the Slendermon got off the stunned Legendary, bodily throwing it into a tree across the Route, and lobbing its cannon after it.

Aaron stood stunned as Genesect slid down the tree and lay still at its roots, the one Pokemon who could have defeated the Slendermon severely injured. "No!"

The Slendermon reared high and roared triumphantly at the midday sky, as Genesect twitched, broken and battered.

"No..." Ronnie said, unbelieving. "Genesect..."

Giallo's ashen face suddenly became grimly determined. "No... I was the one who woke you against your weell. I brought you here to fight our battle. We are going to ween, and I am not letteeng you die!" He turned. "Aaron!"

"Yeah?!"

"Weeth me! I know how to feex Genesect and save eet! We might ween thees battle yet!"

"We'll hold the Shlendermon off!" Rood yelled, as all Pokemon and everyone else turned to face the vicious monster. "Go Giallo my friend!"

Aaron and Giallo ran to Genesect, to be met by Sage Gorm, who'd used his arms to pull himself across the ground to Genesect. "Ye get on with it! Ai'll stay on guard!"

Giallo picked up the cannon as Aaron cradled the head of the Bug, noticing sadly how those red eyes were fading before him.

"Right," Giallo said, "let's look at thees cannon..."

Genesect's eyes suddenly flickered, and Aaron became aware over the noise of the others battling that there were holographic pictures hanging in the air, projected from the eyes of the robo-Bug. They showed a prehistoric landscape, strange plants growing, Aerodactyl and Archen wheeling in the sky, herds of Bastiodon roaming the land.

"What are you trying to show me?" Gorm murmured, and Aaron thought the same.

The images flickered as the viewpoint changed, looking down at a watery surface upon which was reflected the face of an Armaldo, red-eyed. That Armaldo was obviously seeing this- that was what the images were, the sight and vision of this prehistoric Armaldo.

Then it dawned on Aaron. "That's you?" he asked Genesect.

The Bug nodded weakly, before the Genesect of the past looked up to the sky, to see a fiery ball fall to earth, as the sky darkened from ash clouds- the extinction meteorite that killed prehistoric Pokemon 65 million years ago..

The images then changed, now showing a modern laboratory. The viewer was looking in a mirror, where the purple robo-Bug that was the Genesect of today was reflected. However, this Genesect was chained to the wall, and plugged into several computers.

"Now my beauty," came a soft voice with a malicious tint, "let's see what your pain threshold is, shall we? As Plasma's new weapon, you should be able to stand a lot..."

A blonde-haired young man in a lab coat with an evil smile was reflected in that mirror too, and Aaron recognised his face from a diary; Colress, Plasma's master scientist, and creator of Genesect. At this point, Colress pressed something on a tablet, and the Genesect of then writhed in pain as high voltage courses through it. What got to Aaron more though was the scream- it was audible on the recording, a scream of excruciating pain, hurt and anger, yet it only made Colress smile more, and turn up the voltage...

As the recording died and Genesect's eyes faded to red again, Aaron realised what Genesect was trying to tell him; it had had one life already, a happy life, yet it had been dragged back to become a weapon of man's greed, cruelly abused. It wanted no more, and hopefully by killing the Slendermon Genesect would achieve peace with itself at last.

The people holding back the Slendermon were struggling though. Indigo's Conkeldurr was down, and the Slendermon bit down on Rood's hand, biting it off at the wrist before Indigo's Mienshao sped in to carry the Sage away. Cheated of killing Rood, the monster turned, before seeing Giallo and Aaron attempting to save Genesect. It roared, enraged, charging forward with Shadow Aura twirling around its claws...

Only to be stopped when gunfire cracked and shots fired into its shoulder blades. It writhed as the bullets hit it, before turning, and roaring at a familiar sight...

"Yeah motherfucker!" a beaten, bloody, bruised yet still alive Giuseppe Cagliari shouted, gesturing with the Uzi he'd fired at the Slendermon. "I'm back! And guess who I brought with me! Grunts!"

Aaron was amazed; Giuseppe had fooled the Slendermon, making it think he'd been killed already, when in fact he was fetching some backup...

People in medieval armour started suddenly appearing from the treeline and from both directions of the Route, black and white shield logos with blue 'P's visible on their chests. These were the special troops Sage Zinzolin had sent for to back him up, Team Plasma Grunts. And Giuseppe had not only convinced them to change sides to fight for the Sages, he'd got them there in the nick of time.

"Charge!" Giuseppe yelled. The call was taken up by all 50 of the Grunts, all of whom accompanied by at least two Pokemon, and Team Plasma rushed the Slendermon, who leaped right into the fray and started with the killer claws almost immediately.

Aaron refocused on Genesect. "You really don't like being Plasma's weapon do you?"

Genesect shook its head, at which point Giallo returned with the cannon.

"Look," the Italian Sage said to the Bug, "I know you don't like eet. I never wanted to create you. But we need you- without you, we cannot ween. Please!"

Genesect stared, the red eyes dimming, before it nodded its head resignedly.

Giallo nodded, before attaching the cannon loosely to where it had been torn off. "Okay, let's watch the mageec happen here..."

"What's up with the cannon?" Aaron asked, over the noise of grinding gears.

"Simple. Genesect's cannon, by default, ees set to use Techno Blast, a Normal type move. Eef you put a cassette eento eet, eet changes Techno Blast's type- Douse Drive for Water type, Chill Drive for Ice type, Shock Drive for Electric type and Burn Drive for Fire type."

"So what did you do?"

"I put all four Drives eento Genesect. Wheech activates..." A panel on the top of the cannon flipped open, to reveal a switch. "Ah-ha! Keellsweetch engage!"

"Killswitch?"

"Si! Now Genesect's cannon weell use a laser to attack and keell, rather than a typed move. We can harm the Slendermon at last!"

There was a whirring within Genesect, and Aaron was stunned to see cogs and gets click into place, resecuring the cannon to the Bug's back. Slowly, the lights grew stronger in Genesect's eyes.

"Genesect," Gorm said, "Ai'm sorry we hadtae make ye a weapon again. But we need ye. Look!"

From the ground Genesect took in the scene- with no experience fighting the Slendermon, and with inferior and ineffective Pokemon, the Plasma Grunts had taken a severe beating- at least 25 lay dead at the feet of the monster, and it was hunting more down, while Giuseppe tried to help Rood, Ronnie and RJ coordinate an attack.

"Here," Aaron said to Genesect, offering the Legendary a Full Restore he'd taken from his bag, "you'll need this."

Genesect stared in wonder at the Full Restore, and in shock at Aaron offering it, before taking it. Bathed in a green light, the purple robo-Bug suddenly lurched, eyes gaining brightness, before it rose to its feet, gears whining loudly, and shrieked again. Genesect was back!

The Legendary turned to Aaron, and the metal plates at the corner of Genesect's pith turned up in a robotic smile. At this point the others from the group ran over.

"Giuseppe," Gorm said, "ye're alive!"

"Uh-huh," Giuseppe nodded haggardly, "and I have Ryoku's Pokemon, plus all the other surviving Pokemon I could find. But I'm really sorry I didn't arrive earlier guys- maybe we could have saved Dave and Saskia."

"Don't blame yourself," RJ said. "In fact, now you are here, we can win this fight!"

"And we have Genesect back," cheered Ronnie, the mentioned Bug smiling again. "Let's do this!"

They all turned to face the Slendermon, who finished its brutal murder of the last surviving Plasma Grunt to stare at them, angry at the sight of survivors and at the sight of the revived Genesect.

"Here goes nothing," said Giuseppe grimly, releasing all the Pokemon he had on him, the others all doing the same.

"Today we face the Shlendermon for the lasht time!" Rood yelled.

Genesect shrieked "Sect!" before it fired from its cannon. A pure white beam of energy, different to before, sizzled through the air and struck the Slendermon, burning a hole in the flesh of the shoulder of the monster, making it scream in rage.

"Let's win this now!" Aaron shouted, and the group charged forward, ready to end this battle with the Slendermon once and for all...

A/N: Ooh Genesect! Don't give up on them buddy, you can beat the Slendermon! :D

Next chapter- Genesect vs Slendermon part 2, the loss of something huge, ANOTHER familiar face and... the beginning of the end...

Thanks for reading! Please review, and until next time, adios amigos! :D

Sharkness