Tree of Life
The interior of the tree had gone mostly silent as its residents turned in for the night. In a chamber near its top, the tree's monarch readied herself for something different.
In her arms was Shaun, sound asleep. She sat perfectly still as she gently stroked his green hair. Her voice, a rhythmic hymn of humming. Through mixing Sing and Aurora Beam, a feat only one such as she could do, she could make her voice quite literally dance through the air in a choir of colorful ice.
Only when she was absolutely confident that Shaun was completely asleep for the night did she halt the hymn. When her voice stopped, so too did the flow of the ice. It turned to slush, falling around them into the grass. Mew warped out from underneath Shaun, leaving a bubble in her place to hold the Ralts. He hardly moved an inch. Satisfied with her work for the night, Mew darkened the lighting in the room to keep him asleep and teleported out of the room to leave him to his slumber.
Above the tree's highest leaf, Mew reappeared. Now that the business with Shaun was done, she had to prepare for something else. During the last two months, she had done everything in her power to make things right in the tree. It didn't matter. The Pokemon dwelling within it would always run from her unless they needed something, but those instances could be counted on her fingers.
She liked to believe she was getting through to Shaun. The boy seemed to know that she was trying as hard as she could to change, and had never tried to escape again. Yet, he rarely ever seemed happy, and it was never when she was present. He went along with whatever they did together, sure, but she had a feeling that it wasn't because he necessarily wanted to. But she never forced him. Not anymore.
When she looked back on her past behavior, there were times where she felt outright sick. It was clear as day to her now what she was on her way to becoming. If...it hadn't been there to stop her, she would have done things that she could never forgive herself. But, even though she was trying, Mew couldn't shake off the feeling that she had not yet left that path fully. There were so many wrongs she had committed over the longevity of her life. She had to make up for them somehow.
It was difficult to know where to start, and something that she had spent every waking night since her revelation thinking about what to do. Fixing her relationship with Shaun and the tree's denizens could take years, but the Legends? After all she had done, where could she even begin? That question plagued her. Would any even be willing to listen? And if there were any, would it only be out of fear?
That wasn't something she wanted. Not anymore. But of all the Legends, she didn't know if there was even one who did not hate or fear her for something. There was only one conclusion she reached. Only one Legend that might listen to her.
With a heavy sigh to push away as much of her doubt as she could manage, Mew raised her head to look forward and summoned a golden ring. Before her fears could weigh on her mind, Mew took a gambit and flew through. Where else could she start other than the beginning?
In the split-second moment that existed where Mew was in the ring, hundreds of expectations of what laid ahead of her flashed across her vision. What would his reaction be? What would he be doing? It only just occurred to her that she hadn't actually checked in on anyone outside of the tree, so she had no clue about his status. For all she knew, he might not even be there, relocating to protect the others from her. Or, perhaps he was still weak after his bout with Necrozma, merely resting in that same spot as usual.
But when she entered the hall, she was met with neither of those. At the end of the hall, perched atop his throne, Arceus stood rigid as power seemingly swelled all around him. Dozens of portals opened around him, pulling energy from somewhere. It was clear to her that Arceus struggled to handle it. His head hung low, and he perpetually grunted and hissed as the energy was pumped into his body. Loose traces of it that could not be controlled occasionally burst from the streams as plasma that wracked his body. There were numerous burn marks adorning his skin.
But what was most concerning to her were his eyes. They burned a fiery shade of red as he stared out into open space. His eyes hadn't been that way in what now felt like ages. At least, she hadn't seen them this way.
"Arceus," Spoke Mew, almost breathlessly at the sight, "What have you done to yourself?"
At her voice, Arceus's eyes shot wide. He recoiled backward in shock, unintentionally cutting the flow of energy. Without his support, the portals collapsed and disappeared. "Y-you!" He roared. His voice was filled with fear, which pained Mew.
Mew nodded solemnly. "...Me."
Something in her voice was unusual to Arceus. There was not her typical playfulness or sarcasm. On top of that, she avoided his gaze. That was never something she had done before. Slowly, he raised his head to get a better look at her. There were bags under her eyes, and no shine in them either.
"I...um…" Mew attempted to speak, but now that she was face to face with her old partner, the weight of his gaze made her will crumble. She wondered if this was how it felt for the other Legends every time she pushed them around. Or if this was how Arceus felt on that day...when she tried to take Palkia away.
This quickly became too difficult to watch for Arceus. There was clearly something wrong. "Mew...look at me."
Nodding, she obeyed his command. Immediately, she was met with an even more overwhelming pressure as she forced herself to meet his gaze. Unbeknownst to her, Arceus felt that same pressure. Looking into the eyes of their once-beloved partners who forged the world together, the two gods were, at first, unsure about one another. And yet, merely looking into one another's eyes, the creators felt something certain: Change.
"...So," Spoke Arceus, "Something has happened."
Mew asked, "You can tell?"
Chuckling, Arceus replied, "Of course I can. We have known each other for far too long for me to not notice something like that." Mew was surprised when, of all things, Arceus actually began to smile. "I am glad, Mew. So very, very glad."
Mew's head perked up. "What? You're...glad? I-I thought you would be angry to see me. I thought you'd try to chase me out! I thought you would never want anything to do with me after what I've done!" Violently, she shook her head as memories of the atrocities she committed came to her mind, too innumerable to count. "I did horrible things to you; to so many, many Pokemon and people! Our children…" She tried to wipe her wettening eyes with her arm. "Because of me, they…"
But Arceus only continued to laugh. "Angry? Mew...I was never angry with you. I do not have the right to be angry at your actions when my own crimes are perhaps even more grievous. No...I am glad because I believed that my actions had caused me to lose not only the trust of my own children, but the camaraderie of my partner. Mew…" Uncontrollably, he doubled over and began to laugh in utter relief. "I thought I had well and truly lost you—that my failures had pushed you away forever."
"Your failures…?" Mew was in utter disbelief at those words. "Arceus...no, no, I was the one at fault! I overreacted and attacked you! I tried to kidnap the new Palkia! You were right to try to stop me. I wouldn't have trusted myself back then either."
When Arceus heard Palkia's name, his smile faltered. "Well, let us not dwell on that any longer," He said. "If we do, we are liable to start an argument again over who is at fault but with opposite targets." Though he laughed at his own joke, it did not last long. Clearing his throat, he added, "It does not matter which one of us is more at fault. Let us put that behind us now and be glad we are again in one another's company."
Mew let out a sigh of such intense relief that she actually floated downward for a moment. "I...all this time, I thought that…after everything I'd done, I would never..."
Arceus tilted his head at her. "Mew," He said gently, "Come, sit by me. It is clear we have much to discuss." Mew raised her neck and stared at him for a moment as she tried to process her next words. When she was unable to find them, she merely gave a small nod before taking a place at his side.
It felt odd for her to sit in this throne again. Though it hadn't even been three months since she was last perched upon it, there was something about it that felt alien to her now. Silently, she mused if it was because she no longer deserved it.
From Arceus came a long, weighty sigh. "I admit," He said solemnly, "After the war, I became increasingly worried about you. Before, I thought I could reasonably stop any conflict within the hall without breaking any promise between us, either of feuds or secrets. But...I became weak, both of will and body. I feared that I could not stop you if you...did anything drastic. And soon, I began to simply fear you outright."
Mew looked to the ivory ground beneath her. "I can't blame you. When I look back on the things I did…" She shook her head and winced. "I just...can't believe myself." Looking up at him, she added, "You were right in the end."
"That is not my point," Arceus told her plainly. "The past is the past. Now, I concern myself with the future as much as my memories will allow."
Sighing, Mew replied, "I wish I had that strength. How do you do it?"
"I have had much time alone to think," He replied. "And I came upon my realization earlier than you did. Giratina made it clear to me that the Legends, my own children, were deathly afraid of me after the news of the deaths of the Swords of Justice. Then, Necrozma shattered all that useless pride I had built up and forced me to come back to reality: The reality that I had no right to call myself a god when I was not even good enough to be a father."
He turned his gaze down at Mew. "Evidently, you seem to have had a similar realization. Tell me. What happened, Mew?"
She stared off into the empty hall. "...It's not that different from yours actually."
Arceus looked at her oddly. "What do you…?"
"I saw it," Mew told him. Her voice was nearly a whisper. "I saw...well, you know." She looked up at him. "You saw it too, didn't you? During the war? When I was in the tree, I thought I felt something, but being surrounded by all that Aura, it was hard to tell the difference. I only heard stories later, so I didn't care too much, but...seeing it yourself…"
He looked at her with surprise. "You...it returned?!"
Mew shrugged, replying, "Well, it's gone now, and it said it wasn't coming back."
"That's not the issue," Arceus replied. "What did it do? Did it speak to you? Did it do something else?"
Kneeling over, Mew let out a long sigh as she suddenly felt a pain in her stomach. "It showed me what happened," Mew told him. "It showed me what I failed to stop seven months ago." After all the crying she had already done, there were no tears left to visualize the extent of her sorrow. She looked off into emptiness, only seeing the bodies of her children in front of her with their echoing screams replaying in her mind. "I can still hear them...see them. It showed me the battle. It showed me our children dying for us, Arceus. Because I sat back in the tree, not even bothering to watch it, let alone intervene!"
As her frustrations welled up once more, she buried her head in her hands, clawing into it. "I watched our children's funeral!" Wailed Mew. "And I didn't even care! I just went on as if nothing was wrong!"
In an attempt to console her, Arceus replied, "You are not entirely alone, Mew. You were not the only one who hid and watched as that tragedy took place. I too did the same, residing in the hall as the war raged on and I did nothing to stop their deaths."
"You at least went and fought," Mew replied. "That's more than I can say for myself."
Scoffing, Arceus shook his head. "Such morose topics do not need a comparison. As I have said, what matters now is the future. Do not dwell on what you can no longer control. The past is the past, and we should concern ourselves with the future. There is nothing we can do for the departed, but we still have the ability to make things right with those who remain."
He chuckled mirthfully, shaking his head. "I say this, but...I cannot say for certain that I have lived up to those words often. Now that you are here with me again, this may be more plausible."
Mew sat back, staring up at the hall's roof. "Make it right with them?" She wondered aloud. "I don't even know where to begin. I barely had the courage to face you again. You saw what the others were like. They all either fear or despise me, and they're right to do so! How am I...how am I even supposed to face them, let alone make things right?"
"Well, you won't have to do it alone," Answered Arceus. "I still have as much to redeem as you do." With a heavy sigh, he said, "You and I…we really are fools, aren't we? Back then, we talked of greater goods when we sent our children to their deaths. In doing so, we allowed the greatest good to slip away. We have much work to do."
Arceus rolled his weary neck to loosen up his stiff old bones. "What you saw of me earlier was my attempt to regain the strength to carry out that work." Shaking his head, he added, "It's almost funny. Here I am, holed up in the Hall and gathering power while our children battle with our enemies. I'm repeating the same history that put us in this mess, but I cannot think of a better way. Surely, it has to be better than staying so useless that I cannot even pick myself up off the ground."
Mew's brow furrowed as gears turned within her mind. "Wait a minute," She said aloud. "Arceus, where are you pulling this power from?"
Nodding up at empty space, a red flash from Arceus's eyes spawned another portal. On the other side, there was a star. It looked unstable, warped beyond the ordinary shape of a sphere and sparking spastically.
"With the pitiful energy I had left, I reached out toward this star," Arceus explained. "It has no life nearby and was quite close as far as stars go. I should only need one this time around, rather than the hundreds I extinguished in my fruitless attempt to combat Necrozma."
Mew hopped up into the air near Arceus's face. "How in the world did you get the energy to start pulling from this one to begin with? The last time I saw you, you didn't even have the strength to stand up!"
The portal closed. Arceus sighed, preparing for her response to the bad news. "I believe you know what I did already."
Though he was right, Mew couldn't help but to look at him in utter disbelief. "You...you're trading permanent strength for temporary strength? Arceus...are these Team Rocket people that much of a threat?"
"Not if I do not allow them to be," He replied. "I do not have the luxury of choice. It was precisely our decision to prioritize the long term over the short term that cost our children their lives."
Mew flinched and backed down.
Continuing, Arceus said, "Even if it means permanently limiting the strength I can recover in the future, having the power to save our children here and now is what matters."
"...But...you have me again," Offered Mew. "I'm here now, and I'm going to help. You don't need to do something that drastic!"
But Arceus wasn't having it. "For the safety of our children and our world, there is nothing I will not do anymore. Your help will be irreplaceable, but I cannot afford to be useless anymore."
He suddenly stared down at Mew so intensely that she felt weak. "Mew...you do not know the situation at hand. I have finally learned the location of Yveltal, but…"
Arceus shuddered in the middle of his sentence with utter fury. "They have him, Mew. All this time, our enemies had Yveltal in their grasp and we never even bothered to spare the time to think of him until recently. For seven months, he has had to endure this."
Mew felt her heart sink. "Oh...oh no," She wailed breathlessly. "Do we know anything about where he might be?"
Arceus's first thoughts were of Lugia's thoughtless actions that prevented that exact information from currently being in their hands.
"...We do not."
Her fur suddenly paled a bit. All she could offer in response was a shrill sigh as she buried her head in her hands.
Still, Arceus was not finished being the bearer of bad news. "We managed to destroy the Nova Branch's leadership, but that has led to Team Rocket taking in the rest of their assets. On top of that, many of those we sent to combat them suffered grave injuries. Keldeo and Reshiram were in grave condition when they returned. That is why I am sacrificing my potential. I will not let this happen again."
At first, Mew couldn't find the words to respond. She tried to vocalize something, but it ended only in breathy nonsense. All she could do was shake her head and mentally berate herself for the additional sins that kept piling onto the growing mountain of them.
But Arceus knew he was not finished. He had omitted what was quite possibly the most grave situation out of them all. No one had been told but Dialga. Even Ash had been kept in the dark. Doubt clouded his every waking thought, but for this, the sake could be said a thousand fold.
Would it be right to withhold this from her?
No. It was secrets that destroyed their relationship to begin with. If he were to right his wrongs, starting here and now, he would have to start from the beginning. Mew was his partner, and he was done keeping secrets.
"...Mew…"
She raised her head up at him, but now, he found himself unable to lock eyes with her. He took in a sharp inhale to prepare for the coming storm, then said, "It's Palkia, Mew...he's gone."
In the dark of night, amidst the cover of the trees, a caravan of black vans raced across a path that cut through the forest. The front-running vehicle soon came to a stop, signaling the rest to do the same.
"This is the place," Informed the driver as dozens of men piled out of their vehicles. From the back doors, weapons were passed out to each man. Full-body suits adorned their persons, coated in a shade of green so dark that it looked almost black in the night. Dull, red screens over their eyes acted as visors that saw through the night's black veil while keeping themselves hidden. Embedded in their suits and over their hearts, there was an image of an exploding star.
As the men formed up in line, one of them stood ready to give orders. Unlike the plain, rounded helmets of the rest, his had a short disc around its base. "Some of you may have heard the rumor that there has been an unknown Pokemon assaulting our patrol groups up north. Well, the rumors are true. Something out there has been attacking our men and drawing closer and closer to this base."
He came to a stop facing the soldiers and clacking his boots together. "We have reason to believe that this Pokemon is aiming for this base specifically, but we do not yet have a concrete reason why. Dozens of casualties have been confirmed amidst the reported attacks, and there are even reports of minor bases being attacked. Therefore, it is our duty to stop it in its tracks here and now before the Lamella Prima base is endangered. Now then…"
As the commander continued to relay orders, the rustling of leaves caught the attention of one of the soldiers. When he looked over his shoulder, there was nothing but some tall grass and tree branches shuffling in the wind. And then, it occurred to him that the man who once stood next to him was no longer there.
"The hell? What is that idiot doing in the middle of protocol?!" He hissed under his breath. Against his better judgment, he turned around and peered through the veil of leaves, hoping that the commander behind him would not notice. The thought that he had something far worse to worry about only entered his mind for the split second he realized he was being pulled into the green before something struck the back of his head and everything went black.
Immediately, the nearest soldier to him brandished his weapon, pointing it into the leaves. This caught the attention of the rest, as well as the commander, putting them on edge.
"Form up!" He ordered, causing the rest to back away from the leafy edge. Drawing near the one pointing his gun into the forest, he asked, "What happened?" He asked. "Soldier, did you see something?"
"Something just pulled the guy next to me in!" He informed his superior, trying his hardest to maintain his composure. "I think that Pokemon you were talking about knows we're here!"
The commander knelt a bit, bringing himself to eye level with the soldier as he looked into the forest where he did. "So it's tailed us here?! Dammit, didn't the radar say we were clear?!"
A blur suddenly raced by the commander into the trees on the opposite side of the path and knocked him onto his back. The soldiers tried to aim at it, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. "The hell?!" Cursed the commander as he picked himself up. He gave a brief look in between the soldier he was talking to before quickly glancing back at where the blur had gone. Then he realized that the soldier was no longer there.
He quickly backed away toward the troopers. "Into the trees now!" He ordered, directing them into the side it came from. "Split up! Don't let it find us, and swap to radio comms only so it doesn't hear us!"
As they all piled into the opposite side of the forest, the soldiers pressed a small button on the sides of their helmets under their ears. Suddenly, the sounds of their breaths were silenced. They divided away from one another, scurrying about the trees. Some climbed onto them, aiming their weapons down into the forest. Before long, all noise ceased, and the forest fell still. Yet, there was hardly a bush within a mile that was not in range of a reticle.
"Excellent work, men," Came the voice of the commander from within the helmets of the soldiers. "In this position, we are in between the target and the base. It's unlikely that it could get past us without at least one of us putting lead through it. But make sure not to underestimate it. Some people in the branch will tell you that Pokemon are mindless beasts. Beasts, sure, but mindless? That, I wouldn't put any stock in, soldiers."
Out of the corner of their eyes, one soldier noticed a camera that was embedded into the ground. There was a clean gash running across it, making the front half dangle forward. The commander said, "There should have been cameras and tripwires all over this place to detect it. Our radars didn't detect it either. This thing is a menace, and it needs to be destroyed. Don't let it pass us by any means-"
The soldiers flinched as loud static suddenly blared in their ears. Then, there was suddenly yelling and gunfire from afar. Before long, the forest was filled with it. Some of the soldiers tried to hone in on the center of the noise. From the trees, snipers shot at something one soldier couldn't see. He turned his back on the rest and fled, tightly clinging to a radio.
There was something he saw in the middle of the chaos that shook this hardened soldier to his core and made him falter. Something was racing around the forest, quick as a blur. With each appearance came more screams and more static blaring into his ears to the point his head felt numb. But he saw it. For the briefest of moments, it stood still to look at him. It was a shadow with eyes that gleamed red like fire. He could feel its gaze pierce him like a knife, and he was only saved by the foolish action of one of his comrades firing upon it.
Soon, the last of the gunshots rang out, indicating what happened to them. In mere minutes, if even that, the hunters had become the hunted. Everyone had been wiped out. His eyes going wide, the last of the soldiers dove behind the nearest tree and turned off his helmet's radio to speak aloud. The radios in their helmets were only meant to communicate between members of each squad. Only the exterior ones were strong enough to make it back to base.
"This is Private Donn reporting to base!" He whispered as loudly as a whisper could be. "I'm the only one left! We don't know what's attacking us, but we think it's the same one that-"
Something whistled by him suddenly, making him flinch and go silent. When he turned to see what it was, there was nothing but leaves and plants bending back into their original position after a sudden wind blew. He heard something step on grass nearby and tried to whip his head around to see it, but it was too late. His attacker drove its claw through the radio, shattering it and pinning his hand into the tree behind him.
His agonized scream was short-lived once he felt its other claw against his neck. Those same, gleaming eyes from before came back to haunt him. Now, he had nowhere to run, and no one to take the fall for him. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he managed to say, "D-damn monster! You killed them all, didn't you?! You Pokemon are all the same!"
"They're alive," The Pokemon hissed, "Which is more than they deserve. How dare you accuse me of being a killer and a monster after what your kind did to mine?!"
For Genesect, the last two months had been nothing but a manhunt. Every day was a battle, either internally or externally. Each ambush on these men with the nova over their hearts taught her how to better fight them, and soon, the fighting turned into hunting. Each hunt was faster than the last, but very few of them were helpful in the end. Rarely did they offer more information than where to find more of them, leading her only in circles. She figured out their weaponry and how to combat it, as well as how to avoid their detection by using a controlled Shock Wave attack around herself.
Yet, amidst all of what she had accomplished, and the Nova Branch men she had put down, never had she delivered the final blow. Neither did she learn of the whereabouts of the armored ones who had taken the ones most precious to her, leaving her as the only proof they ever existed at all. Their last gift to her, the data they had managed to gather on the suits of the armored men, had told her there was a base somewhere. It was insufficient about telling her exactly where it was, but something instinctual had told her it was near.
"Where are they?!" She roared, driving her claw forward until its base touched his hand and eliciting further cries from him. "The armored ones?! Where are the ones who killed my family?!"
The soldier's reply came in the form of a disgusting blob of saliva. Genesect tilted her head to let it pass, then twisted her claw to make him think twice about acting foolishly again.
"Gaaah- damn!" Screamed the soldier as he hissed for air. "You really are a monster! That's just like you Pokemon, isn't it?! What are you going to do if I don't answer?! I heard what you did to all those other soldiers before! Are you going to kill me too?!"
Genesect leaned in closely, using her other claw to keep the face of his helmet toward her. "You're a poor listener. I have never ended any of your kind's miserable lives, but there is much I can do without stooping down to your level if you don't tell me everything you know about the armored ones!"
To make him think twice about doing anything else foolish, Genesect forced his head sideways to look at his pierced hand. "...Alright," He replied, "I don't want that thing coming off, so I'll tell you what I know. It probably won't be helpful though." He took a moment to inhale deeply, then said, "Rumor has it that someone in the nearby base-"
A shot suddenly rang through the air. Something small went through the soldier's head at speeds Genesect could barely calculate. She leapt away, leaving the man to collapse. The hole in his helmet sparked.
The second shot came the moment her feet touched ground again, and a bullet drilled straight through her ankle as if it were tin foil. She yelped and fell to her knees, but her attacker did not afford her the time for any reprieve.
When the third shot came, her claw extended into an X-Scissor attack. She whipped up her wrist to deflect the oncoming bullet, but to her horror, her X-Scissor shattered like glass upon impact. For a fraction of a second, Genesect was able to make out the bullet's design.
The front half of it spun so rapidly that, even with her enhanced vision, it looked like a fuzzy blur while the other half was being propelled like a jet. Her eyes widened, recognizing it. It was the same type of bullet that had been used against her kind on that day. That was all she saw before it pierced her right shoulder and went out the other.
Genesect cried out in pain as she fell onto her side, but managed to hold herself together enough to propel herself away on her remaining foot with a short-lived Extreme Speed. However, it soon resulted in a crash landing.
Tree after tree collapsed in the wake of her emergency escape until she came sprawling to a halt on claws and knees. Figuring that the dust cloud she brought up would buy her some time, Genesect laid low and prioritized looking over the damage before making any conclusions about who caused it.
The good news was that the bullets were not stuck in her armor. The bad news was that they had gone all the way through. Her wounds even looked half-melted, meaning those bullets were extremely hot on top of whatever drilling nonsense they somehow employed. This would take time to heal, even with Recover. And she didn't know if time was on her side.
She began by concentrating the healing energy into her foot injury. By the time the dust surrounding her filtered out, her purple coating would stick out like a sore thumb. Yet, even when her foot was healed, both of her arms would still be useless. She would be forced on the defensive until they recovered.
Genesect's gaze went back and forth between her healing foot and the cloud of dust behind her. Though it provided her cover, the same extended to her enemy. Something fast whizzed past her at a distance still visible to her, impacting a tree. She leaped back on instinct, only momentarily seeing the bullet embedded in the wood before it exploded.
The air itself looked distorted for the split-second Genesect was able to look at it before the shockwave hit her. Her vision phased in and out of static and interior warnings of damage. Every inch of her body felt like was shaken from the inside out like a tin can. Even when she was knocked straight onto her back and the wave passed her, she could still feel herself reeling and shaking beyond her control.
Another loud boom of a gun firing pierced the air. On instinct, she managed to force herself to dart away moments before the bullet would have struck. She dug her heels into the ground, but her injured ankle failed her, and was forced to kneel. As she looked on ahead to try to see her enemy, all her scanners identified was the faintest glimmer of light far, far into the cover of the woods before another shot rang out.
Genesect tilted her head to avoid it, but its sheer speed was too much even for her. It shredded through the edge of her cheek. And then, she could no longer endure the defensive. She doubled over, aiming her cannon into the trees, and fired. Through her Douse Drive, a beam of concentrated water was unleashed from her cannon out toward where she saw the light. But it did not end there. Having completely lost her patience, Genesect sent wave after wave of her Techno Blast attacks across the forest, obliterating almost every tree in sight.
In her terrible fury, Genesect set the entire forest in her vision aflame. And, as she stood atop the ashes of a thousand burning trees, she tilted her head up and let loose a shrill screech into the air; a warning to her enemy to let them know that they had made a grave mistake.
Laying prone amidst the shadows of the trees, an armored man by the name of Sniper peered through the reticle of his gun into the flames that separated him from his target No shadow moved through it. None that he could identify, anyways. There was only a foul noise of a raging animal that needed to be put down.
"Sniper," Came a voice from his internal radio, "We noticed explosions in your area. Are you alright?"
Casting a quick glance over toward the blackened ground and shattered trees to his distant left, Sniper replied, "I am unharmed, site director, sir. However, the same cannot be said for the hunting team."
"I see. That is regrettable. The cameras are malfunctioning in that area, so it will be difficult for me to aid you from here."
Sniper grumbled under his breath, finding it difficult to focus with the man's irritating voice distracting him. "Either way, don't you have more important things to worry about than me? Things like running your site?"
The site director chortled. "I'm only trying to extend a helping hand. After all, it was this site that produced your kind. It would be a waste if something as lowly as a stray Pokemon were to kill you."
"Exactly," Snapped Sniper. "This site was the first modern base of operations for the Nova Branch. Your duty is to see to its protection from within. I will do the same from here, so please, let us both tend to our own duties as our master orders."
Sighing, he replied, "As you wish, Sniper. However, our leader would not tolerate your death. Simple Pokemon or not, he would not approve of you fighting alone against an enemy smart enough to wipe out our detection systems and a squad of our men. I won't bother you anymore, but I am sending two Black Suits to back you up. Take care."
Before Sniper could mutter out a protest, the site director ceased transmission. He sighed in exasperation. "Why does he feel the need to interfere? They'll only get in the way." In any case, there was still his mission to accomplish. Silently, he rose up to a crouching position and marched parallel to the flames in the direction of the base.
When Genesect regained her senses, she cursed herself for acting so foolishly. If she hadn't been lucky, her little fit would have been the perfect opportunity for one of those bullets to have a one-way tour through her skull. At the very least, it had allowed her leg to fully heal. The same could not be said for her shoulders. They would heal in time, but for now…
Kneeling down, Genesect scanned the wall of flame she conjured up with scrutiny. Surely, whoever was attacking her would have finished the job by now if they could see through it. She certainly couldn't. Slowly, she began making her way toward its leftmost edge.
85%
Those numbers flashed across her vision, pulling her head toward the East. Her goal was there. The nearer she drew to this base, the more intensely the numbers appeared. It was as if it had a voice. It called to her, pulling her toward her goal. And behind those words, she could hear them. The anguished cries of her brethren, roaring out in rage for vengeance. That is why they bestowed the armored men's data upon her. That is why they sacrificed their lives for hers. Through her spirit, they lived on. And through her claws, they would be avenged.
Yet again, she was encompassed by burning trees. This time, it would be different.
When she came upon the end of the flames, she was met with the sight of a small man in armor staring back at her, coming up from the opposite side. Genesect felt her heart skip a beat. She gasped and rolled back behind the cover of the flames, unaware that Sniper had done the same.
Genesect set her foot ablaze with Blaze Kick and dashed it through the wall of flames. Blindly, she kicked outward, sending out small bursts of the mixing fires in hope that one would hit them. Another shot dashed those hopes. The bullet drilled through her shin as she retracted it, eliciting a cry of shock from her.
She whirled onto her front as she fell and pierced the ground with her claws. A small wall of dirt and stone flew up from the ground as Genesect launched herself away with Extremespeed. Banking on that covering her backside from another shot, Genesect again clawed at the ground again to bring herself to a stop.
The green energy of Recover quickly went to work to repair the new wound, but Genesect herself was hardly concentrating on that. That person who she saw… Even though Genesect had only managed to glimpse at them for less than a second, she was sure of what they were.
That was one of them.
At first, Genesect expected herself to suddenly fly into a rage she could not control; to return to her reckless onslaught with a blank mind. And yet, that rage did not come. Her entire body was trembling, but that burning frustration she felt moments before did not wash over her.
Instead of rage, there was excitement. Elation, even. Genesect could not remember the last time she felt this happy even with her brethren. She was so utterly awash with glee that she threw her head back and laughed.
"At last!" She cried to the moonlit skies. "I have found one!"
Never had she felt such jubilation in her life. Even she could not explain it at first. What could she have been possibly happy about? She was in combat with one of the killers of her family. This person had brutalized her kin and was now doing the same to her in the exact same scenario.
And then, it hit her. Her instincts, every mechanical nerve that made up her being, cried out for the hunt. She felt this glee because of what this human had taken from her, because now, she had the opportunity to do the same and more. The thrill of the hunt was what it was.
85%
Those guiding numbers raced throughout her mind again, even more relentlessly than before. She could feel them pervading her senses. Every inch of her being reacted to them with a burning emotion she could not explain with mere words. It was maddening, but she welcomed it. She yearned for it, because in those numbers, the key to vengeance awaited her with open arms.
It only occurred to her now that she had yet to fully access the data that the others had bestowed upon them. Traces of it had guided her journey, but never had she bathed in the bloodstained information just lying at the tips of her claws. Her kin went through fire and brimstone for this. It was only fair that she give their killers the same treatment using it.
Immediately, the file made her body twitch as thousands upon thousand of battle strategies, protocols, automated defense designs and more raced through her internal computer that was adapting her body to the new information. Team Plasma's technology was nothing compared to this.
The vast droves of information led to hundreds of dead ends where everything just came to a stop due to the missing fifteen percent, but she managed to find out that her current adversary was titled 'Sniper.' He would be a tricky foe to put down. She had gone about fighting him all wrong.
If she was going to slay him, then her foolish tantrums would do no good. Her injuries were a testament to just how inexperienced she was. Even without this data, the Red One would have defeated Sniper by now. This would have to be a battle of stealth. A duel of shadows.
Genesect turned around with a freshly-healed leg and an excited gleam in her crimson, plastic eyes. Despite the whirlwind of new thoughts and ideas that raced around her mind, there was a sudden stillness that suppressed them. The clarity of the mind of a hunter.
She knelt down, staring up toward the dwindling wall of fire where her target was, and slowly shuffled her way from tree to tree on her way back.
The grass could not be relied upon for cover because of her cannon, and so she would have to dart between the trees for cover. It was a shame the Red One never taught her Camouflage. Yet, she wondered about how effective it would have been against the thermal setting of Sniper's visor. Could she control the heat of her own body? Would it even matter?
According to the data, Sniper came equipped with all manner of tech. The black hue of his armor and weapons reflected nearly all light, making it incredibly difficult even for her to see him in the dark. His visor could sense heat where his own eyes failed. And there were too many types and subsets of bullets he carried to name. It was difficult to believe that any of these armored men were mere humans underneath.
She stopped upon reaching the tree closest to the flame wall, which had now simmered down to embers and smoke. Besides their crackling, there was no sound she heard. Not even the wind. The grass and leaves were still. From the data, she surmised that the most effective way to combat Sniper was to simply ambush him from behind, but that would require her to find him before he found her.
The likelihood of that was negligible, given the difference of their color tones. Her metal sheen did her no favors under the moonlight. The best course of action, she decided, would be to obscure his view entirely. Perhaps burning the forest wasn't such a bad idea overall. It would make thermal vision useless, and seeing through the flames normally wouldn't be easy either, but that would easily cause Sniper to easily find her. One clean shot would be enough to end her forever.
An idea struck her. Slowly, Genesect brought her foot close to the tree she hid behind and activated a weak Blaze Kick. It was only a small spark, but evidently, it was enough to transfer the flames to the tree. With her work complete, she darted to the next tree. Judging by how the last fire went, the cold weather of this area would not do well for the fires unless she could spread it quickly.
Pressing her back up against the tree, she scanned the forest in her immediate vision to see if Sniper was in view. The faint moonlight she saw before was not present amidst the green, so he must have still been behind the flame wall. She set this tree ablaze as well, then quickly darted to the next. She peeked out to scan the other side. From what she gathered from the data, he could have easily shot her when she went between the trees with his perception. That must have meant he hadn't yet seen her.
Sniper shifted his aim about in an attempt to spot his target. Though it dwindled, the fire and smoke were still too hot for thermal vision to be useful. He had been scanning for minutes now with no luck. He knew he hit something earlier, but it had been at least an hour since then. It may as well have fled by now.
He shook those thoughts from his mind and focused on the objective. Regardless of whether or not it had fled, his mission was to guard the area until it was confirmed that this Pokemon was nowhere near the base.
"Sniper." Chimed the Site Director.
Sniper flinched at his voice, then muffled an annoyed sigh. "Yes, sir?"
"The Black Suits are in your area," He told Sniper. "They should rendezvous with you shortly."
Sniper quickly replied, "Do not let them near me. My cover will be blown." He pointed his rifle up toward the dwindling flames. "Are you watching my interior camera feed?"
"Yes."
"Don't let them within thirty meters of me. Have them loop around that wall and drive the target toward me."
"Got it. I'll relay that to the Black Suits."
The audio feed then cut, leaving Sniper alone once more. "That guy better know what he's doing, sending them here. If they get in my way, then they're replaceable. The base is not."
As he returned to staring into his reticle, something out of its corner caught his eye. Beyond the veil of smoke, more flames licked away at a row of trees.
"What?" Sniper murmured aloud. "Why is it burning there? It was kicking those flames toward me before."
Slowly, he aimed his rifle toward them. "...Wait." He shifted his reticle across the uneven line of flaming trees. He zoomed in on the one that only had them at its trunk. It was difficult to tell due to the smoke in the way, but he swore that, if only for a moment, a shadow dashed toward the next tree over."
Sniper closed one eye and held his finger near the trigger. "There you are."
"There it is!"
Genesect sharply inhaled as she heard a voice whisper. Her head whirled around to its source, finding a human in long, black clothing pressing a finger to his ear. When their eyes met, the human seemed just as surprised as her. He quickly dove into the trees. As Genesect went to pursue him, a feeling of danger immediately made her nerves crawl.
"It heard me?!" Cried the Black Suit in surprise.
She whipped around and tilted her body just in time to let a spear whirl past her head. It tore through the trees like they were paper before flying off. There was another man who looked just like the other. In fact, they looked exactly alike. She couldn't discern a single visual difference between them. Whatever that meant, she decided to put it off until they were pacified.
As the other Black Suit hurried to reload his spear gun, Genesect grinded her claws together. An emerald green energy sparked to life around them. With a bright flash, they elongated to an X-Scissor attack. She raced after the man and prepared to shatter his weapon, but the man had something up his sleeve. He raised his right arm, revealing some kind of metal device wrapped around his wrist. A barrier manifested from it, and her attack bounced right off of it.
"What in the-?!" She cried.
The Black Suit brandished a knife, which Genesect was initially skeptical about until he pressed a button that sent lightning up and down its length. Gensect knelt down and crossed her arms to guard against whatever he was trying to do.
The scanners in her eyes went to work, collecting the data of the odd machine on his wrist. Another gunshot rang out from afar, striking the barrier and bouncing into Genesect's shoulder. She stumbled and fell onto her backside, expecting it to tear straight through, but it just stuck to her.
Before she could get back up or remove the bullet, the Black Suit descended upon her with his knife. She raised X-Scissor to block it, sending stray electric bursts outward as each blade tried to cut into each other. To both her and the Black Suit's horror, the bullet started beeping.
While the Black Suit kept his shield firm and braced for impact, Genesect immediately tried clawing at it to try to get it off, but in a flash of red, she disappeared behind an explosion of flame.
The Black Suit shielded his eyes with his free arm as blinding light surrounded him. Eventually, it dimmed to a bright red. He heard the voice of Sniper on his earpiece.
"BS-37," He acknowledged, "Did I hit the target?"
Balking, The Black Suit replied, "That, and about the entire forest too. The hell were you thinking, shooting that thing at me?! What if it stuck to the shield?!"
"It didn't, so quit your whining," Retorted Sniper. "Besides, amidst the dark of the forest and the smoke, your glowing barrier provided the easiest target. Now collect what's left of it and deliver it to the other specimen. We've already wasted enough-"
"What the hell?!" The Black Suit suddenly cried.
His head peeking up from the noise, Sniper asked, "What happened? Respond!"
"It's not dead! It's coming right for you!"
Sniper immediately tore out his earpiece to focus on what was ahead of him. Through his reticle, he was met with the sight of his target racing toward him at breakneck speeds. Her eyes gleamed like a hungry demon's now that he was in her sights. Yet, she was in his as well, and her head was conveniently positioned in his crosshairs.
He pulled the trigger without hesitation. The distance between them shouldn't have been enough for Genesect to even think before her head would be blown open. That is what Sniper believed. Those beliefs were swiftly turned on their head when Genesect dug her heel into the ground and used her momentum to twist her body, pivoting around the bullet before it could strike.
"What the-?!" Exclaimed Sniper. "That movement… It's like-"
As a certain swordsman occupied Sniper's thoughts, Genesect closed the gap. Sniper snapped out of his momentary trance and raised his gun, but before he could pull the trigger, she descended upon him with a fearsome Metal Claw that struck at his chest.
He cried out in pain in fits of choked gasps as the air was knocked out of him. Genesect looked at the wound she inflicted with disappointment. All she had managed to do was create a large crack in his armor. As she raised her arm again to finish the job, a thick wire wrapped around her wrist.
Genesect turned around to find one of the Black Suits flying toward her as the wire pulled him toward her. She sliced up at the wire to sever it. With her now-freed claw, she lunged at him with another Metal Claw, which was obstructed by his barrier when they finally clashed.
She spared a backward glance to gauge the status of Sniper, and to her chagrin, he had somehow snuck out of sight already. Furious that her prey she had been chasing for so long had now escaped, Genesect whipped back around to glare death into the eyes of the Black Suit. Though their kind was typically stoic, the Black Suit flinched under her gaze.
If her prey was going to escape, there was no way Genesect was going to allow the one responsible for that to get away either. She forced her Metal Claw against the barrier, aiming to drive straight through it and put an end to the nuisance.
The Black Suit found himself beginning to lose his footing. As the mechanical huntress pressed her claw further and further through his shield, his knees were trembling as his attempts to withstand her raw strength failed. His arm felt like it was on fire, but if he wavered in the slightest and let the shield fall, it was over for him.
Genesect glared down at him with a burning hatred in her eyes. Yet, behind that hatred, there was something else driving her ferocity. This man had taken her prey, and in turn, became it in Sniper's stead. It was hunger. Not for the sake of sustenance, but for satisfaction. She wanted blood. A hunt could only end in blood or disappointment, but she never even considered the latter option.
Just as her blade halfway punctured the shield, the other Black Suit rolled out from the bushes on her left, aiming his spear gun at her. She whipped her arm around to drag the shield, Black Suit and all, in between her and his partner. Quickly, he retracted the gun and threw something small over the barrier, clacking at Genesect's feet. She tried to pull her hand away and run, but it had penetrated the shield so deeply it became stuck.
"Keep that shield up!" Ordered the man outside of it as he distanced himself from them.
The object beneath Genesect's feet whirred to life, letting loose a burst of electricity up at Genesect. Her knees buckled from underneath her as her metal skin let it conduct throughout her body. While she was immobilized, the other Black Suit came around and aimed his spear gun at her once more. As she saw him rounding the barrier, she managed to push against the electricity's influence, aiming her cannon at the ground.
By the time the Black Suit had raised his weapon, it was too late. The glow of Genesect's cannon made his eyes go wide, and he wisely abandoned the notion of attack, favoring defense. His barrier was raised just in time to avoid being reduced to dust. The full power of her Techno Blast blew back the trees, sending many skyward. While the two Black Suits were protected behind their shields, Genesect bathed in her flames.
They crackled against her skin, charring it blacker than it already was from the explosion. Yet, it did not concern her in the slightest.
As if the flames were not even there, she raised her head and glared into the eyes of the Black Suit behind his shield.
She stuck her other claw into the hole she had made, and with a savage growl, began prying it open. Horrified, the Black Suit desperately began slashing at her claws with his knife. Each hit badly scarred her, digging deeper and deeper to the point it seemed like they might fall off by the next slash.
And then, it shattered. The Black Suit looked down in horror at the device on his wrist as it sparked, sporadically lighting and dimming before it shut off entirely. The moment he looked back up at his enemy, she had already driven her claw through his abdomen. He only mustered half of a scream before the flat side of her arm knocked him out.
Her gleaming eyes shifted toward the remaining one. His spear gun was aimed squarely at her, but she tossed his partner's body at his feet. The slight glance down at him was all she needed to run past him and disappear into the red-hazed forest. A part of him wondered if that was a message.
Sniper peered through his reticle at the aftermath of the explosion that had suddenly occurred. As it stood, he was still directly between the target and the base, but after tonight, their base would have significantly less natural cover.
"Sniper, come in." Spoke the remaining Black Suit.
Sighing, Sniper enabled his microphone and replied, "This is Sniper."
"My partner got hit bad. Normally, I would prioritize the mission, but the island incident thinned our numbers too much already. I'm taking him back to base. Should I request further backup?"
Sniper told him, "Reinforcements are unnecessary. I will take things from here."
"Roger that. Signing off."
The moment the audio feed cut off, Sniper aggressively jammed his thumb into the microphone button on his helmet to deactivate it.
"Useless pieces of…" He cursed to himself. "All they managed to do is make the mission messier. I would be done by now if they had stayed out of the damn way!"
As Genesect raced through the burning forest, her sensors indicated that there was damage to her abdomen that she didn't notice. A half-circular hole had been torn through it. She knew neither of those men from before had struck her, so it had to have been from Sniper.
She was reminded of when she tried to emulate the armored man known as Ryder's movements. It had slipped her mind at the time, but now that she had a moment to think, it was possible that the bullet clipped her then.
"This body…" She mused aloud, looking down at herself. By now, there was more black than purple. There were missing pieces everywhere. If just one of these armored men was able to do this, she had no idea how she would take down the rest.
"My technology is becoming obsolete. Team Plasma's hardware cannot keep up with their software. I was too slow to copy him." Her gaze shifted toward the direction of Sniper. She had already managed to use Lock-On on him before attempting to dodge his bullet, so there was no hiding from her anymore.
"For now...it will be enough."
If she attacked him head on now, she had no doubt that he would put her down. If there was any saving grace to the monstrous transformation that Team Plasma forced her family to undergo, it was that they had the sense to keep their ability to use moves intact.
As she hunched over, dozens of visages of her manifested at her sides. From what she had learned, Sniper could reload a bullet in only a small fraction of a second if need be. A headlong charge would result in death even if she managed to dodge even one of them, but with Double Team, she stood a chance.
The Genesects darted off in all directions, aiming to encircle Sniper and put him down for good.
A rustling from a nearby bush caught Sniper's attention. He whipped around toward its source, and when he saw the devilish, red-eyed glare of Genesect, took the shot without hesitation. Instead of its head shattering like glass and plastic, it just seemed to dissolve into thin air.
"What in the…?"
He was not given the luxury of time to make sense of it before Genesect appeared to him again. Again, he took the shot, and the result was the same. Two more appeared out of the corner of his eye, and upon turning toward them, found six more. As he looked around, he only found more and more of them at every turn.
At their speeds, it would only be seconds, if even that, before they were on top of them. There was no time to even think. He shot at the nearest ones he saw over and over, flitting between each bullet he fired just as fast as they were flying. But there were simply too many of them to take down. No matter how many he shot, it seemed like two more took their place. Before he knew it, they were upon him.
As a last-ditch effort, he primed an explosive round and pinched its edge until part of it broke open and a faint gas began to emanate from the hole he had made. His finger slid the bullet into the chamber, pointed the weapon into the ground, and fired.
The bullet exploded immediately and violently. Its fire obliterated the Genesect clones and sent the real one, along with Sniper, reeling. Sniper held fast from underneath his armor, but the damage Genesect had inflicted earlier made the area rattle. Genesect herself could hardly feel so much as a thing anymore. Her status indicators were screaming at her, but there were so many burns that it couldn't identify the individual damaged parts anymore.
She stabbed a claw into the ground and forced herself back onto her feet. The explosion hadn't damaged the status of Lock-On, meaning she knew exactly where he was. What's more, she could move, and that was all that mattered. Dashing into the flames, it didn't take long before her eyes met his. He was lying in a heap and clutching his gut, but he held onto his rifle even more tightly.
Genesect lurched forward with Extreme Speed, and Sniper abandoned tending to his pained body to instead take aim at her. The center of her forehead was in his reticle. One shot, and the mission was over. Taking aim, he put his index finger on the trigger and pulled back. Then, his weapon was cut cleanly in two. With an X-Scissor, Genesect put an end to his weapon. And with a Metal Claw on her other arm, she would do the same to him.
Sniper had no chance to defend himself as Genesect's silver-sheened claw was driven into the cracked abdomen of his suit. He grabbed onto her arm, but her strength was far too much for him. His armor could only resist her for a moment before collapsing and allowing her claw inside. Sniper let out a wail of agony into the skies, and then, his body went limp.
Ragged breaths came from his helmet, followed by a pained choke when Genesect removed her arm. "Doesn't this seem familiar?!" She roared, beckoning to the flames around them. "This is what you put my family through! Now you get to meet the same fate. It's poetic, isn't it?"
A pained laugh was his first response. "Good. I'm glad I get to be sent off knowing I made your filthy kind feel this too." He tilted his head to look up at her, relishing in the look of fury his remark put on her face. "My only regret is not squashing the last bug."
Genesect's claws extended into X-Scissor. She slashed his helmet open to expose his true face. No longer could this coward hide behind a mask. She would see the face of her family's killers for who they really were before sending them to meet their same fate. And yet, when she saw that face, she hesitated from delivering the finishing blow.
His face was heavily distorted. Severed wires reached up from the chest of his suit, and there were dozens more within the helmet itself. There was hardly a part of his skin that wasn't covered in some sort of blemish. Parts of his face looked as if they were twisted to the point one of his eyes was slightly lower than the other. But there was something that concerned Genesect more. He looked...young. He looked like a child. Now that she had the opportunity to get a better look at him, he was much shorter than she thought.
"How old are you?"
Sniper chuckled. "I've never been counting. What, do you have reservations about killing the little guy all of a sudden?" He chortled as much as his body would let him before the pain became too much, then let out a long, weary sigh. "How old are you? You were made by Team Plasma in recent years, weren't you? You're probably younger than me."
Sharply, Genesect replied, "My kind were not created by them. We were taken from our homes and weaponized by them! If it weren't for them, my family could have lived in peace!"
"Hats off to them, then," Mocked Sniper.
Genesect's metal body rattled with how badly she shook from rage. "Why?!" She roared. "Why do you hate us so much?! What have we ever done to you?!"
Shaking his head, Sniper weakly replied, "Dunno."
Genesect stared down at him in utter shock. "You...don't know?! What the hell do you mean you don't know?! Are you telling me you killed my family and don't even know why?!" She stomped her foot into the ground so forcefully that the ground quaked under them. And when she glared down at the young, broken boy at her mercy, her eyes had never burned so brightly with hatred.
"You took my family, everything that I had ever known, for no reason?! Don't give me that!"
The two stayed silent for a while after that. Genesect anxiously awaited an answer while Sniper mulled over one. His expression became more and more strained until he let out an exasperated sigh. "Hell if I know," He spat. "My hatred for you is inborn. In my very blood. Whenever I try to think about it, I get a killer headache, so I just don't think about it."
Though it clearly pained him, he continued to laugh at her anyways. "But it's not just for you, no, you're not that special. Our aim is all Pokemon, and it won't be long now. Within the year, every last one of you will be wiped from the face of the Earth." Weakly, he managed to raise his arm and point at Genesect. "But you won't live to see the end. When I die, my team will hunt you down, and you'll be buried like the rest of those junkyard scrap bugs you call a family."
"We'll see," Said Genesect as she began scanning him. "Once I get the last of the data on your suits, I'll know your every weakness. I'll tear each and every one of you apart!"
Unbeknownst to her, Sniper's suit began to heat up. "Not likely. See you and your kind in hell, Pokemon."
Genesect's sensors suddenly screamed of danger as massive quantities of energy began to well up in the suit. She abandoned scanning the suit and darted back. For a brief moment, Sniper's body glowed like a star. And then, that star exploded violently.
She was sent hurtling back from the force behind the explosion. The suit, combined with the explosive rounds Sniper kept on him, culminated in a devastating detonation that ruthlessly scarred the forest. Genesect only came to a stop after impacting a cliffside. Static clouded her vision due to the damage she endured. As she pulled herself out, she did not concern herself with those damages.
At long last, she had made progress. One of the men who took her family had paid. Only four more remained. This was the first life she had taken. And...it felt good. It felt exhilarating. In that moment, she did not care that he was just a boy. He was her enemy and paid the price. Now, there was only the matter of the base itself, which held the secrets of the armored men.
90%
Authors Note
Pokextinction Fact of the Day: Sniper was the weakest of Ryder's Armored Squadron. Due to his small stature, reliance on stealth and quick kills, and another fact that is soon to be revealed, Sniper was more in line for a supporting role in active combat rather than a combative leader or warrior. Thus, the Nova Branch opted to give him lightweight armor so he could reposition himself easier. This came at the cost of his armor being weaker than most of the others.
From weakest to strongest, they would go: Sniper, Auto, Chrome, Launcher, Pyro, Heavy, Ryder. Where does the Burned Man fit into this? We'll see.
The creator- Summer is here, and with it, E3! I can't wait to see more news on Pokemon Legends Arceus. This chapter would have been done much sooner if it weren't for exams.
Hydra- It's summer time! Party time! Imagination! Well this was certainly a tense chapter. Genesect finally got revenge on one of her family's killers, now she only has 4 more left. Let's hope for her sake she can bring them all to justice.
British-vulture- Sorry for having this come in around a month late. I've had to deal with turning 18, finishing up College, got hooked on a couple of games I bought (Monster Hunter World is one of them) and have gotten into focusing on another really good fic (from my view at least), that I didn't really have the time to get to this, so sorry again. Oh, the fic is a Godzilla fic called Abraxas. The author is Hrodvitnon.
Anyway, onto this! Giratina seems to be dealing with something. He clearly holds the attitude that, even if he has done wrong with what he's done, that there's always a reason for it, and that it usually ties back to Arceus and Mew. Considering this, and his refusal to believe that Arceus is trying to change (I know Mew got emotionally curb stomped into doing so by Aura, but Giratina doesn't know that yet), it seems he has suffered some serious emotional issues that have made him instinctively not trust Arceus' attempt at reforming from the get go. Really concerning, and I mean concerning in that I feel bad for both Giratina and Arceus.
Of course, Giratina also manages to do something some of the other legendaries never did - allow Ash the choice to walk away and stay out of the problem. Ash may come back to it, but for now, Giratina has opted to respect his decision. Clearly, he actually has some goodness and honour to him...
Brilliant chapter, lads! Sorry again for posting late, and keep up the good work!
The creator- I'm just glad to see you back at all. I understand that our fic isn't everything and all of you readers have your own lives and interests. If there's something you like more, we have no right to hold it against you for prioritizing that over us. We're not going anywhere after all. Not to mention that you showed up just in time for the next chapter to be released. I'll try to give that Godzilla thing a read. The name reminds me of that one NES creepypasta.
That Ash part is true actually. Not even I noticed or paid much attention to it until you said that. Most people, Legends included, look at Ash much differently after Arc 1. Some only see Ash for his power rather than his person, and even Arceus struggles with this since he knows Aura firsthand. But Ash doesn't want this. Even in the canon show, he turned down training with Aura because what he wanted was just to be a Pokemon trainer. He only agreed with Riley here because he could do both at once. He wants the world to know him as Ash the Pokemon Master, not Ash, the guy who is related to God. Only Ash's close friends and Giratina seem to know this.
Hydra- You're all good my man I know your pain when it comes to college work. I'm taking a math summer bridge class where I have to go to math meetings 4 times a week for 4 hours a day, it's a lot of work.
DarkPugLord23- Oh man, I thought Kyogre and Groudon's bonding was real wholesome, and then that oversized Magikarp had to go and ruin it. I'm assuming he hates kids, especially those who prefer land. Also, while reading through Giratina and Ash's conversation, I genuinely thought the former was trying to manipulate Ash into siding with him against Arceus and Mew, but then I realized that would only be a bonus achievement for a much needed rant session. Guess even giant centipede dragons need to vent, though I still can't shake the feeling someone's going to get stabbed in the back here, and with how the story's been going so far, it could be figuratively or literally, or maybe even both! I have no clue what's gonna happen next, but I can't wait to find out.
The creator- Backstabbing, huh? Heh heh heh. Nah, couldn't be.
Hydra- One of the things about Garatina's actions is that you can definitely see why he believes it's justified. He's been put through so much he'll during his existence that you can't really blame him for not believing that Arceus and Mew are really trying to change.
Leafy boi- FINALLY got a new phone and y'all been hella busy. Nova and Lee are gone, legends an pokemon got hurt and wake up calls, some scary parts and parts that almost made leafy cry. LOTS HAPPENED. But iss good story still owo especially possesed M2, he was creepy af
The creator- Knowing that a story is good enough to make someone cry is, in my opinion, the greatest honor an author could ever receive. Thank you.
Hydra- Ayyy! Great to see ya again leafy! Happy to have you back. It's great to hear you're still enjoying the story. The Nova branch and Lee are no more, but Ash still has to worry about team rocket and they won't be going down as easy… or will they?
Hall Gowrt- Very Interesting Chapter
Wonder who it got send to actually?
Giratina is soo much interesting here, would love another chapter like this for sure!
The creator- Nice to know that these types of chapters are interesting. Some of my favorites were always the big lore chapters like when Arceus told the Hall about how the world was created. Worldbuilding is fun.
Hydra- Good to hear you enjoyed the chapter. When a chapter is more overall just conversations between characters it's always harder to write then fight scenes so luckily it's paying off. Expect more chapters like this in the future.
G- Interesting and touching, yet sad chapter, so we could see more of the inner thinking from some legendary pokemon, specifically Kyogre and Rayquaza with younger Groundon, and the inner conflicts of Giratina.
Well, in the case of Kyogre and Groudon, was cute in the beginning to see both sharing some relationship like brothers than enemies, as Groundon was even enjoying travels atop Kyogre while the lord of the seas was swimming in his domains. But tragically, this relationship ended strained and sundered after that Groudon created some land that he refused to allowed that Kyogre sink, making that the lord of the seas ended seeing that the young Groudon followed the steps from his past self, making that Kyogre sundered his brotherly relationship with Groudon, something very sad, as despite to be brothers, they are also natural enemies that competes for their territories, making impossible that they can get along forever, poor Groudon. But as consolation, at least Rayquaza can still gives him some moral support, after all, he is the mediator among the trio.
As other point, was also very interesting to see the conversation between Giratina and Ash, as the Renegade pokemon could expressed his frustrations and grudges against Arceus and Mew for all their actions, because he has a point, as while we can tries to accepts that Arceus and Mew did several questionables things for the greater good, no one holds them accountable for their actions and everyone still treats them with the utmost respect, like if they never did anything wrong, something very unfair, especially in the case of Mew, as she not only took some bad decisions, but also was very insensible with the suffering and grief of her children, as if Mew was completely indifferent to everyone else.
Adding that one of the things that Giratina confessed to despise more from Arceus was created a clones from Palkia and Groudon, because since his perspective, Arceus did this as he treats his creations like puppets, making get some resentment against him. Nevertheless, as personal opinion, even if i understand the dislike of Giratina for this, i guess that Arceus did this to honor the memory of Palkia and Groundon, because if he would created some other different new Legendary pokemon to replaces them, since the perspective of Arceus, he would truly replaced his deceased sons, making that he chose created other Groudon and Palkia to could respect their memories, meaning that perhaps the negative opinion of Giratina about this, could be debatable, as to be blinded by his resentment against Arceus, Giratina only looks this since a negative perspetive, than tries to understand that maybe Arceus did this to honor their memories, not for be his puppets, at least in my opinion.
To finishes, so Giratina also expressed his fears toward Aura, as he fears that this entity could be not better than Arceus and Mew, in the sense of be a possible third tyrant, making that Giratina ended questioning Ash about this mysterious entity. Well, i hope that the fears of Giratina about Aura ended being simply paranoia, than be reality.
PS. Regarding to the comparison between The Father and Davoth, with Arceus and Giratina, to considers the events of this fanfic, i thinks that this could be very accurated, in the sense that Davoth as Giratina harbors some notable resentment toward the Father and Arceus for caused them a lot problems and leaves them exiled and hated by all the creations as some kind of Dark lord. Even during some point Giratina and Davoth spoke Ash and Doom Slayer about the "deeds" of Arceus and The Father respectively, to revealed that their so called perfect gods, aren't so noble like they apparent, as Arceus did several questionables actions, and The Father indirectly was responsible of the creation of the Hell and the demons for betrayed Davoth.
Also, could be a great twist plot that Giratina ended being the true original creator and that Arceus was his creation, a creation that rebelled against Giratina, took away most of his powers, exiled him to the Reverse world and rewrote the history like if he was the creator, when Giratina was the original creator.
Keep the good job
The creator- In Giratina's eyes, nothing Arceus does is right. At the same time, he was some good points to back up why. Would anyone sane immediately replace their dead children? Would you trust someone like that to govern the fate of the entire world?
Hydra- It's quite ironic isn't it? To see Groudon of all Pokemon venting to Rayquaza lol. We were unsure how people would react to the dynamic of the weather trio that we conjured up, but it's refreshing to see that everyone is loving it. We always love coming up with what if scenarios and that would be crazy if Garatina was the true creator and Arceus was just another invader like Necrozma who dethroned him centuries ago.
The creator- Next time, we will see Genesect finish the job. What will await her when it is time for her to raid the first Nova Branch base ever created? We'll see next time.
Hydra- That's all for this one guys! Thanks for reading! Now if you will excuse me I've gotta watch E3 have a great day!
