Genesis

by Chesterization

What would happen if the Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeon universe take the same social evolutionary steps as us human? And what would happen, if they go a little further than us? The result would be a chaotic place where you can find a gun toting Kirlia; a sword wielding Snivy; a cyborg Alakazam; an Emboar duel-wielding flaming machine guns; and lots of horrendous creatures.

5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. They belong to Game Freak and Nintendo. The songs I reference here belong to their respective artists as well. With that out of the way, please enjoy this piece of fanfiction.

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Catherine was lying on a pile of white stone rubble. She could felt the sharp edges from the broken pieces leaving impression on her back. She looked forward, reaching her hand out for something to grab on. However, in front of her were just a veil of complete darkness and a voice. "I should have done this, years ago!" It said. Before she could react, a large object struck her in the chest. It went through her flesh and crushed a piece of her rib. Yet, it miraculously missed her heart. The pain was there, but the feeling was off. It felt disconnected somehow, but it was still real enough to make her wish to scream.

Yet she could not scream. She could not even make so much of a whimper. Her mouth was sealed from an unknown source. The object dug deeper and deeper and then went right through her. The tip of it made a "crack" when it broke something behind her, probably the piece of marble she was laying on. The cold metallic object stayed there, letting her blood warmed up its surface. Her heart touched it in every panic beat. The object then pulled out from her body. It was then did she could see the outline of a beautifully decorated sword drawn with her own blood. The blade was raised once more and quickly dropped down.

"Hey, Catherine, wake up." The voice of Rick instantly made the rubbles and the blade disappeared. She quickly opened her eyes and realized she was sitting on a seat of the Killian plane (a piece of trivia that the pilot named Rave had told her with pride a few hours back). The doorway at the side had already been opened, revealing an afternoon glow and few tall trees outside. Inside, Axel was cleaning parts of his sniper rifle on one of the seats. He did give a quick glance at her but resumed to his business shortly. Doc was nowhere to be found and Rick was looking at her with some genuine concern in his eyes. He was waving his armored arm in front of her. Catherine then quickly stood up, feeling droplets of sweat running on the back of her clothes and on her forehead.

"Are you okay? You don't look so good." Rick asked before setting up the hydraulics on his left side.

"I'm fine." Catherine said and rubbed the sweat off her face with the sleeve of her coat.

"Are you sure? You were shaking pretty hard back there." Axel said before setting the trigger back in place.

"Yeah, want something to drink?" Rick said.

"I said I'm fine, didn't I." Catherine said, sounded a bit defensive. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Not for long." Axel said before putting the barrel back to the base.

"Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to give you a rude awaken but, you know, mission. Doc can't wait much longer." Rick said.

"Emboar, there is no need. Live up to your figure. You are a fucking mass of rage, match that." Catherine pointed her finger at him and summoned her Cerberus shotgun. When the weapon was in her hand, she loaded an elemental clip into it. Rick did not say much else, just a quick shake of his head and a mysterious grin. As if that attitude reminded him of someone he knew.

"Come on everyone. Discoveries are ahead of us. Weapon of mass destruction, historical archives, and tons of technological advancements await. No time for slacking off." Doc yelling came from the outside, urging everyone out.

"Alright, let do this!" Rick yelled enthusiastically and hopped out of the plane. Axel finished assemble his rifle and soon joining Rick, leaving Catherine with nothing to do but following them.

(The song "Do the evolution" by Pearl Jam begins to play)

Chesterization proudly presents.

A Pokémon fanfiction

Genesis

(Song ends)

Chapter 5: Under the hole

The team made their way through the 268 forest. The walk had become a welcoming change of pace for Catherine. The dry and hot air in the Outland had turned damp and relatively cool. Surrounding her were thick layers of foliage and rustling sounds made by Doc's eager mechanical feet. Despite the more comfortable atmosphere, Catherine was still somewhat unease. Her movement was just short steps with a rhythm that matched her every breath. She looked around with shotgun in hand and finger on the trigger guard. Keeping her eye peeled for any sign feral Pokémon. Rick might be the slowest member of the group, but the one that was falling behind was Catherine. Axel, on the other hand, was way ahead. He had transformed the blade on his device to a chained-whip with a hook at the end. He swung this at the tree braches and pulled him toward them, using this as his mean of traveling through the forest. The rest were going on foot, following a trail made from chopped down trees and deep tires tracks.

After she had lost sign of Axel and detected no trace of wildlife, Catherine sped up and walked beside Rick.

"Hey." Catherine said, making Rick slow down a little.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rick turned to the side, facing her.

"Just curious about where we are heading to."

"Well, a human facility on top of a bandit camp, pretty straight forward." Rick said and stroke out his index finger, pointing at Doc's direction.

"Of course, I got that, but. If whatever you guys said were true, then all this time, Genesis most advance and successful techs were coming from the human? The thing that spit objects out of thin air, the base and everything?"

"No. Well, not quite though. We did have our fair share of creativity. But after discovering that human can do much better. Most of our engineers just except their defeat and put the human tech in good use, like real mons. A lot of Pokémon think we have just scratched the surface of human tech potentials."

Doc interrupted them while kept moving forward. "Well, that a pretty harsh statement. I say we have cut rather deep into a large chunk of human techs potentials. A suitable metaphor should be something like a rather serious flesh wound. Don't underestimate those kind of wound, could easily get you amputated. And Rick do us a favor. Don't demeaning our engineers."

"Yeah, sorry about that, man." Rick said, his hand made a salute gesture.

"So how the fuck did you guys find these out anyway?" Catherine said.

Rick scratched the back of his head, trying to remember words from the hologram located in Genesis hall of records. "Um, it started years ago. A few years after the wars had stopped, Genesis sponsored an archeology group. And what do you know, they dug up the first ever human archive with basic stuffs like history and tech. The blasts in the wars probably had made things easier to be dug up. Anyway, the boss saw the potentials, took full advantage of it and created the foundations for most of our current technologies with the knowledge found in that archive. The archeology group probably got a big raise afterward because then they just, disappeared; probably for an extended vacation in Asuna."

Catherine just let a low. "Uh huh." Confirming an assumption that the Genesis corp. was not always represented by the happy underground city she saw the day before. Axel words echoed back. "For the most part" It said.

Rick continued. "After that, we Foundation agents were ordered to do some similar expeditions, discovered various facilities that used to belong to the human, like this one. Some hold tech and weaponry, some hold information archives. Those are the things that let us know about the human and what they did to be the once dominant species on Essal. Their tech seems to be the answer for everything. And I mean every friggin problems. Energy, soil, grass, I don't know, it's out there."

"You know, for discovering something so ground breaking but would not have any credits attached to whatsoever, you guys seem happy about doing it."

"Well, we got paid a lot for our effort. And who said we got no credits. Our current boss is a nice guy"

"For the most part" flashed in her mind.

"He did have a hall of record just for us.'

"I guess it make that fair." Catherine shrugged.

"Ah, we are close." Doc said before kneeling down beside their first dead body of the day. It was a Meinfoo bandits, ravaged by bullets holes on his torso. Axel's voice then echoed through the forest. "Over here." The team picked up the pace, moving toward the source of his voice. They came across more and more bodies as they did so. Some of whom were wearing the same type of armor as those the team had fought the day before. There was a Machoke got a clean round hole stapled on his abdomen and chest. A Bisharp got a three-foot long crystal liked harpoon in his rib blade gaps, which pierced right through him. Fifty more feet or so, a camp laid in a large clearing was seen.

The camp was dead silent. It was consisted of a number of wooden sheds, none of which was in one piece. The ones that were still standing have at least a dozen bullet holes on them. A few were half-burned to the ground; the remaining ashes lay beside the mangled corpses of the bandits. The bandits did put up a fight though. All their bodies were holding some type of ballistic weapons and they were clutching to their respective weapons tightly. A Scrafty appeared to be reloading before getting his chest chewed up by something.

The team stepped in deeper and saw an abnormally huge mutated feral Manetric. If it could stand on its hind legs then biting off Rick's face would not be a problem. Its electric hair or fur was a mess and was stained with blood. Catherine raised her shotgun and took aim but Axel immediately intervened, pointed at the Foundation logo on its collar. The Pokémon appeared to be a tamed as it saw the team coming and remain unhostile. The Pokémon then walked toward them, while sniffing for something. Rick then whistles a strange tune, making the Pokémon quickly ran to him and looked up at him, like a pet begged for a treat.

"Hey there little fella. Where is Craig?" Rick asked casually before petting the Pokémon on the head with his armor-free hand. The spiky hair shocked Rick as he rubbed his hand against it. It did not seem to bother Rick as he just laughed and pulled his hand back. The Pokémon then jerked its head to a shed on the left and let out a stretched out bark. The sound signaled a Pokémon to step out from the barely-standing shed. He was a Monferno wearing a faded grey adventurer khaki outfit completed with a leather fedora. On his back were a large harpoon gun and a few orb like grenades. "Oh, you came, Doc. How is it going, mate?" He said

"Well cybernetics is still holding up. Nano bots still making sure my fresh not decaying anytime soon and myself is relatively excited." Doc said while approaching the Monferno, offering him a handshake with his real arm.

"A short "I'm fine" would be okay, mate." The Monferno said and shook Doc's hand.

"So what is the situation?" Doc asked the Monferno.

"Everything is under control, see these chumps?" He pointed at the bandits remains. "Didn't stand a chance."

"Good, What about the bandit planes that made it here?"

"We managed to capture most of them before taking off in an attempted escape. The landing pads are a few meters away from here. Two were shot down, but sadly one little dag ran off. It was dark, so, really hard to poon it."

"How unfortunate, so what exactly are inside the planes then?"

"Civilized folks. Mostly refugees and immigrants. And also a few bandits that claimed to be the servants of his majesty. A nutty bunch I tell you."

"So Pokémon trafficking, huh? Force labor? Yes, possible, someone has to build the castles for them. But why escape with them? Still need data. What are the survivor status?"

"Exhausted but alive. They were sent back to their nations a few hours back."

"Good. Don't know how that is better for them, but good. And have you done any investigation on the strange signal?"

"Yes, Celeste found out that it was coming from a flipping hole in the ground west of here."

"A hole. Well, should be a possibility. Remained hidden for so long. Need to be dug up. How deep?"

"You got to see it to know, mate. Survivors said they had been digging this thing for the bandits for months. They were forced to do this every single day."

"That deep? And it seem like they do that on purpose. Is there any oil drills or rare gemstone near the dig site?"

"No mate, just a bloody hole and lot of dirt."

"Then what is the point of them digging it?"

"I don't bloody know mate. Kill them all already. Doubt any of them wuss would answer it either way."

"What exactly is down the hole?"

"Well, from the look of things it could be a steel wall of some kind. Heavily protected from all sides. Got a control panel on it, probably for the door. A few bandits tried to get in with that. One was even dumb enough to poke it with a stick. Figured that what triggered the defense system. All got zapped pretty hard in the end. Their bodies are all there, along with a few refugee workers that they had dumped down. The bodies are decaying rather fast so you will need a bloody gas mask for it mate."

"Will do. Did the bandit made any attempt to reclaim this position?"

"No, mate. They just ran and never return. I had set up a few traps and sensors around the forest in case they come back. Nothing has bitten so far."

"Excellent." Doc handling him a chip card with his metal hand. "Thank you, Craig, for securing the sight. Here a little extra for you and your team effort."

"Thanks mate, appreciate it." The Monferno took the chip and patted Doc on the shoulder. "And have fun with the hole. No innuendo joke there."

"Oh, I will do, will do."

The bark also made another Pokémon get out from a different shed. She was a Sylveon with a pink nurse outfit, similar to Mercy's but with extra armor plating on the shoulders. She had a single shot grenade launcher on her back. There were some syringes with pink or green liquid and ton of grenades strapped on her clothes. She was standing upright on her hind legs, making her a bit taller than Axel. Her front paws were replaced with mechanical hands; all painted in pink and got stickers all over them. The Pokémon waved at Catherine, who was confused at first. However, afterward she realized that the Sylveon's wave was meant for Axel (who gladly waved back with a smile), she got off their line of sight and went the other way around the camp. The Sylveon approached Axel and spoke with an enthusiastic female voice, bombarded him with questions after questions regarding the weather and his well-being. He answered them all while remaining pleasant look on his face. Catherine did not need too much explanation for that. Only after fifteen questions or so did the Sylveon look at Catherine, who was turning her back at both of them.

"Axel, who is that?"

"That's Catherine, Mark's replacement."

"Oh, is she the one that you guy recued a few weeks back?"

"Yup, that's her."

"Wow, recovered that quickly? And she is in your team now?"

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it? And I've just said that she is Mark's permanent replacement."

"Well, good for her." The Sylveon said as one of the ribbons on her head began to twist itself.

"Hey, is something wrong?"

'Huh? Nothing.' The Sylveon waved her arm and kept a smile on her face.

"Are you sure?" He pointed her ribbons.

She then straightened it and said. "Okay, maybe a bit jealous. I worked for three years just to be in your team and well, you know." She pointed at Craig, who was laughing heartily with Doc. "and now, this." Her ribbon pointed in Catherine direction.

"Well, trust me. I tried to convince her not to, but she is quite stubborn. And my team had the spot left open for a while. Rick has been itching for a mission quite some time." He reassured her with a slight hug. "Worry not, it wouldn't change anything between us. And come on, you don't expect me to"

"I know, I trust you. Just a bit jealous that I didn't get the spot in your team that's all."

"Well, I blame the Foundation system. But we still doing assignments together are we not."

"Yeah, but just…"

"Come on, we went through this. It's nothing to be upset over. Cheer up." He patted her gently on the shoulder, she returned him with a grin. "Anyhow, she is from Celestial nation. Kind of new to world, don't use that as a mean to harass her, okay?"

"I'm not! Who do you think I am?"

Catherine did not care much about their conversation. She focused more on finding a small rock to sit down and clean the golden rings on her boots. The little walk had let a few speck of dirt and dried mud on them. She just rubbed her sleeve against them and used her reflection as a signal to stop. Satisfied, she walked to the perimeter of the camp and noticed the sound of something coming her way. It was rapid and fast, a clear thumping noise stuck on repeat. Catherine quickly took a knee with the shotgun ready.

What next were a rustle and a small gust of wind went in her face. She then saw a large shadow jumped over her. A loud thud emitted from the ground behind her as the figure touched the ground. "Oh shit!" She exclaimed before turning back and saw it.

The figure was a regular form Keldeo with few pieces of armor added on his chest. And of course they have the Foundation logo imprinted on them. His most noticeable accessories were a pair of miniguns on his sides. Riding on his back was a Chespin, whose color was a bit off. All the green was replaced by a dark, metallic grey. The Chespin's back were littered with spike and an armor plated tail. The Pokémon had a happy, childish smile on his face. Unlike his Keldeo friend, who bore a rather irritated look.

"C'mon that's hardly top speed." The Chespin said.

"Kid, I'm not a miracle worker and the forest isn't my kind of place to run." The Keldeo said.

"No, you just got lazy. C'mon, I need my innocent back after killing those guys." The Chespin said as he kept patting his paw on the Keldeo's back.

"What the fuck?" Catherine muttered to herself as she could not say much else afterward. What else could say when witnessing two nearly impossible things just happened in front of her? A Keldeo and Chespin with the voice of a 13 years old kid are Foundation agents. Impossible, as one is a Pokémon so rare that only in the deepest parts of Essal did you can find a feral one, this one is clearly civilized. The other is a child. Catherine can only guess that he was the one responsible for the death of that one Machoke with the enormous hole.

The Keldeo heard Catherine and turned around, noticed her shotgun was pointing at him. "Whoa, there, easy. All Foundation members here. No need to raise arms, okay?" He said while putting up an awkward smile.

Before the Keldeo could say anything else, Rick stepped in. "Hey, my little Ponyta, how ya doing?"

The Keldeo closed his eyes, repressed mild anger. "I told you guys not to call me that."

"C'mon, everyone think it's cute. It's better than my nickname, that's for sure." The Chespin said.

The Keldeo said. "Don't encourage him, Bryan."

Rick paid no mind to that and changed the topic. "So you guys met Catherine, huh? She is our newest addition. Common, dudes, say hi."

The Chespin jumped down and raised his paw. 'Nice to meet you Catherine, I'm Bryan. But everyone call me Casheel, stupid name, I know."

"And I'm Leon, sorry for startling you. It is a pleasure to be your acquaintances." He raised his front hoof, expected Catherine to take it.

Catherine put the gun on the back of her waist, refused to take his offer. "Pleasure to meet you both. And now, let consider this conversation has never taken place." She said.

"What?" Bryan said, eyes wide opened.

Both Rick and Leon looked at themselves and said. "Agree."

From a far, Craig shouted. "Okay we are no longer needed here, let's go." His words were followed by Doc. "It time for some investigation. Large quantity of human tech are waiting for us and probably unforeseen danger." Craig then handled Doc a small remote. "For the electric-traps and censors network. Any non-Foundation intruder that get through the shock, it will let you know. Bleed your bloody ears right out."

"I wouldn't mind as all. Mine have already been removed, but thank you for the warning."

Bryan and Leon headed out to the trail. Celeste waved Axel goodbye and ran along with Craig and the rest.

Doc and the team them moved to the other side of the camp. The bandits were nice enough to construct a sign out of wood which indicated the location of "The hole". The handwriting were so bad that Catherine could feel her stomach cramped up inside. She wished that she had killed these bandits herself. Passed through a few bushes and then they saw it, the hole that Craig was talking about. He was not kidding. It was truly something that needed to be seen. It was at least 60 meter wide and was so deep that even sunlight could not shine all the way to the bottom. Running along the rim was a series of loosed stairs made from planks of wood. A few pieces appeared to have fallen off after twenty steps or so. The whole thing seem to be dug up in a rush as there were load of excess dirt that piled up around the hole, building up into uneven small hills. The team approached it and looked down into the abyss. Not a single lantern or light was down there.

"Allow me." Doc said and dropped a small machine down the hole. It sprung wings on the side and hovered downward slowly and steadily. After a few meters, it shot 4 attachable lights at the wall around it, lighting up a portion of the hole. The team watched eagerly, following each meter down. It took the machine over 20 minutes to touch the bottom.

Rick let out a whistle and said. "Damn, son."

Axel rubbed his chin and said. 'This doesn't look like an oiling hole or serving any other kind of function. What did the bandits wish to accomplish when they dug this? And how did this happen to lead to something like human tech?"

"That's something I have been asking for a while. But doesn't matter now. Wouldn't change the result if standing still and don't collect data. See you down there." Doc said before jumped straight down. When he was half way through, he activated the jet engines on his feet and slowly descended. He remembered Craig's words and proceed to push a button on his metal arm, summoned a small collar device. Doc put it around his neck, allowing the device to generate a transparent force field covering his head. "I should have replaced my lung for a reactor months ago." He told himself. When his feet touched the bottom, he looked around and yelled upward.

"There a lot of dead body down here that could break your fall. Feel free to dive down. Hehe, just joking, these won't save you. You will definitely break your neck and your other bones if you try. Anyhow, the air is filled with contaminants, so it is recommended to put on a gas mask in advance."

Axel handed Catherine a similar collar device and before jumping down. Just when gravity began to take him, he surrounded himself with and orange ball and glided down. Catherine put on the gas mask. She stood still and watched the force field take whole. She teleporting herself on the first plank and went down the hole from there. There were a few pieces came loose on her way, but her teleportation was fast enough to bypass that. Rick took a several short breaths and put on his gas mask. He looked down and saw Catherine and Axel had almost made it down at the bottom. "Alright, let's go." He said then curved himself into a somewhat round ball and performed a Rollout. The ball started spinning, rattled the ground around it, whipped up dust. When the speed was at its highest, he moved forward and touched the first blank. He gained momentum after every planks and reaching the bottom. Rick was maintaining a steady pace and rolled along the stairs of the hole. He crushed the planks, piece by piece in his track, destroyed any chance for the team to walk up conventionally. When he was nearly at the bottom, he uncurled himself and quickly jumped out. What followed him was a downpour of wooden planks. Before he could land, Catherine put her hand in the air, channeled her psychic power and suspended most of the pieces in a dark purple coating. When Rick was back on his feet, a few planks hit him and the team. Catherine pointed her shotgun upward.

"Hey, Emboar, can you do something about that?"

Rick summoned an oversized triple barreled Gatling gun. It took the effort of both his arm to lift the weapon up. He turned the safety off then reduced all the planks into splinters in a hold of the trigger.

"That's more like it." She said before squeezing her shotgun trigger.

"Wait Catherine." Axel said

She sent three red orbs upward, which ate up the floating splinters instantly. What happened next was a quick combustion, turning the team view of the outside of the hole into a view at the gateway of hell. "Oh fuck." Catherine said as the flame began to expand. The ball of flame dived down at the team. "Barrier" Catherine shouted while putting her hands together. A sheet of thin purple glass shut the space above the team tight, successfully blocked the raging fire. Doc summoned large cannon with two-battery core beside the grip. He then shot a ring of invisible shockwave at the flame. Breaking Catherine barrier and sending the fire upward, outside of the hole. The end result was a fireball that reached over the highest tree in the forest.

"Yeah, that will definitely not cause any unnecessary attention whatsoever." Rick said, instances before the blue sky was in his vision again.

"That is very rational coming from you, Rick. But now how do we supposed to go up?" Doc said.

"Dude, how do you expect me to go down that fast? The stair won't hold me for long. And no way can I drop down without making you feeling something fierce on your back and lower body in the next morning."

"Quit whining like bitches. With the stairs gone, I can gravity everyone up quicker. Just don't expect any marathon though."

Doc shrugged and said "Fair enough. Apology on my part."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." He then change the subject. "So is that the thing?" Rick said while pointing at the tall grey wall behind Doc.

The wall was made from sheet of thick metal and there were traces of char all over it, probably caused by explosions set off by the bandits. Speaking of whom, a few of them were seen near the doorway on the wall. All of them were burnt to crisp. The only way to distinguish them and the refugees were the scrap metal clothes on their backs. On a panel near the door was a crude and blacken metal stick stuck inside. Enough proof for Craig earlier remark. Catherine saw dead bodies of various Pokémon covered by a few planks of wood lying at the bottom of this hole. They were all mangled and twisted. A sickish shade of black and green on their skin made Catherine turned away. She did not know the stench "Thanks fuck" since the machine on her neck gave her nothing to smell but her own breath, which was filled with the revenant of that day breakfast. A luxury that she had not had in weeks. It had been egg and something they called cell-bacon.

Doc pulled the black stick out and opened up the panel. With a push of a button on his arm, Doc morphed his fingers into tentacles with tendrils on them. The fingers then punched through the dials and got into the panel. He twisted his hand, let various humming to sound from both his arm and the panel. The dials on the panel were blinking at a near blinding speed. Doc's head twitched slightly when the humming on the door turned into violent siren. A plate on the door opened up, revealing two cannons.

"Eh, dude." Rick said and dropped the expired ammo pack on his Gatling gun down on the ground.

"Nothing to worry about, because I, got, this, under control." He snapped his flesh finger and everything stopped. The front door let out a beep while the cannon retracted back inside the wall. The door began to shake and bulged out; let loose a lot of black dirt. Doc pulled out his finger and reached for the door. He grabbed the lit with a clank from his metallic arm and slid the door open. Clouds of white vapor were pouring out from the inside with an unsettling hiss. Doc let out a sigh of relief. "Whew, this facility got some serious defense matrix. Must have something important inside. Are you excited yet?" The team just gave a unison shrug of their shoulders. "Well, I truly appreciate your enthusiasm."

Everyone made their way in, though Rick had some trouble squeezed his way through the door. Behind the impenetrable wall made from the unknown alloy, was a small darkroom. The gas mask collars automatically turned on the lights mounted on them, giving the team a clearer view of the room. Catherine had a look. The first things she saw with the limited light were wooden desks and a pile of unknown object, all had fallen apart.

"So, this is it?" Catherine asked.

"It looks that way. Are you sure about this, dude? Look like my gramma house." Rick said.

"I expect it to be a lot flashier." Axel said before turning on his visor and looked around. "Doc, there's a power box Behind the wall at your right. See what happen."

Doc followed his suggestion and punched open the wall with his mechanical arm. It broke away easily, as if made out of crackers. He then lit up the room in blue when he summoned a small robot with wheels. He threw the contraption inside the crude hole and controlled it with a hologram screen on his arm. After a few flick and tap of his finger, the lights mounted on the ceiling lit up everything inside. However, that just brought in more disappointment, especially to Doc. It was still just a mall box-liked room. There were a few computers, the obsolete kind, with box head screens and analog keyboards. At a corner was a large multi-color pale of garbage, or at least what Catherine thought was garbage. Beside those, there were just desks, chairs, and a large amount of paperwork put in order on various shelves. All were black with age. Catherine tried to pick one up and it fell into dust.

"Again, this is it?" She asked. "Where the fuck is the advancement?"

Doc walked around the place. "No, it cannot be. If this is all there is then why bother with the reinforced door and the defense matrix? And the energy. All the energy didn't went up here and just the door. There got to be more."

Axel changed his visor's color into red and looked down. His eyes opened wide in realization. "There something down under. Rick, get the drill." Axel said

"Whatever you say, my friend." Rick summoned up a large drill with the size compared to his Gatling gun. He put what presumably to be a power core into its back, pulled a lever on it and the drill head began to spin. "Everybody, clear." He held on to the handles and raised the drill as high as he could. Then he forcefully stabbed it at the floor. The tips of the drill broke through the floor tiles effortlessly and shot up crushed pieces of them, but Rick then experienced powerful recoil and a loud clank. The reacted force pushed the drill upward, nearly made the Emboar feel over. He tighten the muscles around his body, figuring away to keep the spinning drill from falling on him. After a grunt of pain and some real struggle, he managed to keep the drill under control and away from his face. He turned off the machine and drop it on the floor. He then held his back with his left arm. "Aw, my back! The hell, man?" He said before clenched his teeth, allowing him to bit the pain from straining his back.

"Yes, I knew it. There's more to this." Doc said. Excitement hinted in his voice. "Everybody clear out and pardon me." He said and summoned the large cannon from before and shot a large ring of air at the hole Rick had just made. With tighter space, the weird sound the cannon emitted from before turned an unpleasant screech. That screech was apparently strong enough to trip the floor in front of him completely. What left behind was a large metal sheet with a white dust blanket and debris. Doc jumped on it, flew some of the dust up and brushed some with his lab coat. He dusted away the remaining junk and found a circuit board. He jabbed his arm into it, seemingly without thinking. The machine let out the sound of rejection, making his arm shot out electric sparks. Doc twisted his arm while shooting his version of insults at it. They were just technical jumbo and not a single swear. Some brought out humor rather than intimidation. Nevertheless, to the machine, those words seem to hurt. The machine fought back with more sparks and rejecting sound played on a higher pitch. Doc raised his arm and slammed into the machine, forcing it to obey. And it gave in. The floor under Doc's feet opened up, almost dropped Doc down. Probably the last comeback the panel could give Doc. Doc jumped to the side and saw a large panel slowly elevated from down under. Doc stepped on it and tinkered with a few controls.

"I understand that they tried to hide this and all, but the reinforced door was a death giveaway. No wonder why these guys extinct." Axel said.

Doc said. "Well, don't say that. We don't even know how they became extinct yet. Get on, the panel is fixed. It should be running now."

The team stepped on the panel, waited for Doc to punch a button to make it went down. The speed of the thing was compared to that of a tired old forklift. And the sound it made was spot on too. After over 30 minutes, they reached their destination-A large room that had been already lit up with white lights. It was still a bit dimly lit and some of the lights were either flickering or out of commission. But what would one want more in an ancient hole on the ground? There were two doorways, one at the end of the room and one to the right. Both seemed to be locked tight, indicated by the red lights on top of them. There were various monitors and machines inside the room. All were smashed into pieces. At the center was a large green crystal-liked column. There were various computers with blank green holo-screens and hologram keyboard attached to it. Surrounding it were human shape dark spots with pieces of near decomposed synthetic material clothing. Doc raised his mechanical arm and said. "All in favor of having Catherine gravity us up, please say: "aye"." And the words Doc expected from his teammates were amplified by the metal surrounding.

"Whatever. Better pay me extra for my fucking effort." Catherine said before standing up from the panel floor and straightened out her coat.

Everyone set foot inside. The dark spots on the floor were there first thing the team approached. Upon closer inspection, some miniature red and white ball could be seen on their clothes as well. "So, I guess these are the human?" Catherine said, pointing at the spots.

"Seem like it, they were all arranged in a well-placed manner, too." Axel said

"Execution?" Rick said.

"Not quite sure. Over ten thousand years, not enough data. Could be toxic gas or mass suicide, never know. Go around, see if you find anything. I'll look into this information hub, maybe there's something." Doc said while approaching the column. He proceeded to extend the tendrils from his arm and plugged them into one of the machines on the column. With a snap of his finger, a hologram screen popped up from his forearm, giving him space to drag his finger on. While waiting for result, Axel switched on his visor and scanned the room. With his visor, everything in the room became a network of wires and tubes hidden behind the walls. Both were rather focus to what they were doing, leaving Catherine and Rick to just wandering around. After seeing nothing of interest, Catherine tried to make small talks with Rick.

"So what is the hell are these guys?"

"Who? Doc, Axel or the human?"

"The human of course, smart ass. Although I might try the others later on."

"Dude, I don't know. Not a historian or anything. As much as I was told from others, they said the human lived with us like ten thousand years ago. Worked with us or used us the same way we use the ferals. See those little balls on their clothes."

"Yeah. What about them?"

"Those are digital storage for organic lives. Organic lives like our ancestors."

"Gross. And let me guess, like the digital fabricators, it breaks things into sparkling dust and put it back."

"Yeah, that's the idea, but with us."

"I kinda heard those from legends. Keeping us in orbs, bound our soul and all that poetic bullshit. The Councilor also mentioned that the human had guided us Celestians at some point. Acknowledging our potentials for greatness. They showed us how to grow food and stuffs. But all stories about them just stopped after a period of time. Do you know what the fuck happened to them then?"

"We are not so sure about that. Records of the human have never mentioned it as well. It like in one day they just, poof, disappeared." He grabbed his hands tightly and then let go, simulated a child's description of a magical explosion.

"Disappeared? How the fuck can a race disappear?"

"I don't know. Many stuck up scientists claimed it was the wars that the human created. But I call that's bull crap right there. If that was war then someone got to be alive. The victors, no one win and then kill themselves. And if that was a total annihilation caused by the human wars then none of us would have been here. Would be just Dunspare and Geodude. You know, the dudes that hide underground like a bunch of sissies.

Scientists always draw comparison to us and the human just to get the "War is bad" message across the board. And there's also the meteorite theory but, well, again, we wouldn't be here. Doc and most Genesis's scientists are still working on it. In the end, I don't question those. The dudes and ladies are dead, what different would it make? I say just focus on what they left for us, make the best of them."

"Humm." Catherine put a hand on her chin, and shot a look of disbelief at the Emboar in front of her. Disbelief not because of the story of the human but disbelief for seeing this Emboar to be more than the Arcadians Catherine had faced over the years. With most Arcadians, who were dull and just unpleasant to talk to, she had a feeling of being looked down upon whenever she had to speak with them for her uncle's sake. All were going on about how great their nation was, how great they were for being born there. And the opposite happened as a result, she looked down at every one of them. She was deciding to make an exception for this one and it was for a reason that she hadn't quite put her finger on yet. His laid-back attitude or the rage filled bloodlust on the battlefield. Or something that made her keep coming back for making small talks with him. Catherine stopped her trail of thought and continued the conversation.

"Well, if I know what the human had created that lead to their final moments, I would stay the fuck away from it."

"Huh, good point." Rick then raised his fist at her.

Catherine quickly took a step away from it. "What the fuck are you doing? Threaten me?"

"No, this is just what I do in pretty much every occasion. I just admit that was a good point and just want to show you that it's cool. You just need to punch it back."

"No thanks, that's just be weird. Really fucking weird. I don't appreciate physical contact, either. It's a cultural thing Emboar."

"Yeah, well then my culture asks you to call me by my name."

Catherine chuckled. "Fine, if you don't do the fist thing then I will call you by your name."

"Heh, you cheeky runt. Deal." He took back his fist and crossed his arms. All while maintaining a smile on his face.

"Good. Let it stay that way, Rick." And that was official for her. She was going to make exception for this one Arcadian. They both then looked back at Doc and Axel, who were still do the same things. Axel just moved around and traced his fingers on the wall, and Doc kept his attention on the screen on his arm.

"So, you said something about your grandma, have families?" Catherine asked.

"Huh? Well, no, it's just an old remark. My grandma passed away a long time ago. I don't know what her house look like. It was destroyed in the war, with her still inside. And think I have a cousin back in Arcadia, he maybe still alive."

"Oh, sorry to hear that." Catherine said.

"Nah, nobody is a charity case on Essal. So don't sweat it."

"Where the fuck did I hear that?" Catherine asked in her thoughts.

"What about you? Leaving anyone behind?" Rick continued.

"No, and that's for sure."

"Oh." Before Rick could steer the conversation to another direction, Doc snapped his fingers and said. "Pokémon gather round, I have found something rather interesting."

When everyone was standing around the column, Doc pushed a button on his arm and changed the display on the holo-screen. A broken image could be seen on it, accompany by a static filled voice. The voice was appeared to be panting rather hard.

"May 27th, 3002, Doctor Reigh.

We made it *pant* and we are still breathing. The outer shields of the lab manage to keep us alive from the neutron bombardment. *pant* I knew it was a good Idea to install the experimental plates over the decoy house, disguises mean nothing at the time being. However, the bad thing is we stuck here. I tried to contact the General. The signal was sent but nothing indicated it was received.*pant* All the doctors and personnel are alive. The provisions should be enough for us to wait for this to blow over."

The image stopped moving, ending the video log.

"3002 human time. This is a few decades before the mass extinction." Axel said. "Is there more of this, Doc?"

"Yes, only a few. Some deleted themselves when I hacked into the system. But I managed to save some. Here is one. " He played another one.

"July 14th, 3002, Doctor Reigh."

The same voice from before spoke up. "The readings on this Neutron bomb are not good. Its effect is lasting much longer than we expected. The censors are taking its toll; they could be break down at any moment. And none of us could go out and repair them." The voice took a deep sigh. "We planned to use some of the prototype to scout the area, but their plating are just the standard alloy. Not good enough for surviving the effects of the fallout. Heavier armor mean redesign the entire frame. And of course opening the door would put everyone's life at risk. Still no words from the government, but we will continued to hold out. We will not lose hope. In the meantime we will be safe, the plating should hold, I designed them so they better do so."

"Neutron bombardment. Genesis did plan to reverse engineer it a few years back. But the effect it brought was too devastated that even Lucious banned it." Doc said.

"How bad was it?" Catherine asked.

"Imagine tini tiny razor blades that cut your flesh. The blades hidden in the air you breathe. And they stay there for a rather long time so, yeah, these guys are out of luck." Rick said.

"Ouch, that's really fucked up." Catherine said then tried to repress the image of herself under the effect of a said bomb. But the more she tried the more vivid the image became. She saw herself started to bleed from every part of her body. Her skin turned red and her flesh began to melt. She didn't have a good imagination but that was enough to make her shake her head and try to think of something else.

"Some alloys with the right chemical structures could survive it. And the outer shell of this place seem to be a shining example." Doc said and typed a few things on the screen on his arm.

"They mentioned of a prototype. I wonder what those were." Axel said.

Doc said. "Wonder no more, because here another." Doc played another log.

"September 1st I mean 2nd, 3002" The speaker's voice was the same but he was not as calm as before. "Things are looking grim. Our provisions are nearly depleted. The government hasn't returned our signal yet. We lost three more man today. I have to personally use incendiary devices on them. Some consider eating the remains but, I don't know. I'm a doctor, not a savage. We will hold on to these provisions. With less people, means more time for the rest. Let hope there is time for everyone."

"They sure not doing too well." Rick said.

"Cannibalism, desperation, would happen sooner or later. Push that topic aside, there's more." Doc pressed another icon displayed on the screen.

"October 31st, Happy Halloween." The same voice laughed while sounded like holding up tears. "Sorry for not updating for so long." He said that through a sob. "The provision had been depleted. The scientists had become mad. All mad. They tried to, to, cannibalize each other. First their Pokémon and then themselves. It was a nightmare. I did what I have to do." He sobbed some more. "They are all dead now. I killed them, retaining some their humanity. I'm the only one left." He laughed again. "Till this point, I realized that the living here the whole time was a wasteful practice. No progress was made, nothing was accomplished. The government didn't even care about us. I should have died in the blast.

I am the only one remain, but not for long. The government, they gave up on us. I guess they don't want their shiny new toys that bad. So let be it. There're no point to this anymore. Whoever finds this, tell President Blake that he is a dick. This is Doctor Reigh, signing off." What left was the sound of a single gunshot. The video log kept on showing a static screen.

"So, we now know what happened to these guys." Axel said

Doc rubbed his chin. "They mentioned the phrase: "shiny toys". I don't know what it is but that politic for great experimental techs that could kill. Not what I was hoping for but not bad, I like experiments on new weapons and reverse engineering. Everyone split up, try salvaging whatever you can find."

"There's nothing here, Doc." Axel said.

"Well tried the other room, let me open them for you." He opened up the two doors by using a few command on the column. "Axel, you head that way with Catherine." He pointed at the door in front of him. "Make sure she doesn't mess anything up." Catherine let out an air spit at that. "Rick go check the things on the right. That's an armory, store room and weapon testing chamber. Would be perfect for you, correct? And I shall remain here with this hub for collecting more data."

"Dude, don't you watch horror movies, splitting up is always a bad idea." Rick said.

"Well, "Dude". You have done this type of mission before, why scared now?"

"I'm not scared, just concern. Before, it was just an abandon archive. The human just, you know left. Here we have dead humans and cannibals. That's an f'ed up combo."

"Bah, with that logic, every inch of Essal should be haunted. Just get on with it."

"Dude, I'm fine with it, just worry about you guys."

"Thanks a lot, but that won't be need." Axel said.

"Yeah, I fought ghosts before, nothing surprise me anymore." Catherine said

"Yeah, well, okay, see you guys later then." Rick said before taking his way and Catherine along with Axel took their.

Doc said, instance before the two doors closed. "Aright, report back to me when you find anything interesting."

Catherine and Axel reached a long corridor. It was empty and like the rest of this place, rotten. They found a large cluster of those black spots in the corner. The spots infested a small portion of the wall and a few metal tiles on the floor. The cluster was next to a double door with small bullet holes on it. Axel tried to open the double door by jabbing his crystal blade in between the gap and used it as a lever. Catherine looked at the dark spots.

"They said Psychic types could sense things in the past and build images that reenact the events. I'm so glad that all that is bullshit." Catherine said before turning away from the spots.

Axel did not give any comment, he just focused on using his strength to wedge the door open. He manage to made the gap a bit wider, just enough to fit a pair of hand.

"Well, that's interesting but can you give me a hand with this?"

Catherine could not do anything else but just grabbed one of the door with her hands and joined his effort to open them. She channeled psychic energy into both her hands and moved one of the doors with a dreaded dragging noise. After some hard time spreading the doors opened, they can only see a few lockers and metal beds that were blocking the way.

"Hmm, look like someone didn't want to be disturbed." Axel said. Catherine tried to punch one of the beds. It did not have any effect. "Well, look like we are not going in there." He said.

"Easy, I can blast these opened with one shot. Give me a sec." Catherine stepped back and ready for a Focus Blast.

"Save your effort. There's probably nothing there but another black spot. Let check the other rooms first."

"Sure, whatever." Catherine said and power down.

They followed the corridor and made a turn to the left. There was a large double door in the middle of the wall; another room at the opposite of it; and one at the end of the corridor. Axel made his way to the first room. The door did not put up a fight like the last one. Instead, it opened up automatically and played a welcoming jingle sound.

Inside was a room filled with various machines, tools and screens mounted on the walls. There were several black spot lying nearby a few tools such as a drill and an electric chain saw. The lay out of the room made both Catherine and Axel draw comparison between it and the ones at the Foundation base. In the middle of the room, surrounded by decayed and falling-apart leather chairs was a large table with a large metal bug liked Pokémon with multiple eyes on it. The Pokémon shell was painted with a faded shade of purple and white stripes. The only thing that stood out on the shell was a black serial number and words that appeared to be laser carved on the back of the Pokémon head. Both of them approached the table and examined the strange creature.

Axel read the carved words aloud. "Property of the Osiris corp."

"So this must be what they were talking about." Catherine said. "What do you think it is?"

"Well, from the look of it, a robot of some source. Doesn't look like anything we have seen so far." Axel held his tube device near it, activated a scan on the Pokémon body. "Hm, organic traits? That's strange." He then changed his visor to the red setting; what he saw inside made him took off the visor to rub his eye.

"What the fuck is it?" Catherine asked.

He put the visor on and resumed looking. What he had seen had not changed. "There're what look like muscle tissues under the shell. That's impossible."

She shrugged. "What's the big deal? You fuckers got machines and flesh stuck to each other. Pokémon like Doc isn't it?"

"Catherine, Doc's are add-ons. Here, the tissues are entirely made out of metal. They are merged in one. Or synthetic material fabricated in the image of organic tissue. That's why they didn't decay."

Catherine gave a sideway glace. "Well, I'm lost. But okay, I'll pick it up for you fuckers." Catherine encased the Pokémon with her psychic power and lifted it up. However, before she could get it off the table, the Pokémon body whiplashed. It was stopped by a number of wires connected its back and the table. Catherine curled her hand in to a fist and attempted to yank the Pokémon out with her mind forcefully.

"Not so fast, Catherine. "

She ripped the wires apart. But a bubble of green force field suddenly emitted from the table, stopped her from getting it on the ground. "Oops." Axel made a face at her. She retaliated with a "What the hell do you expect me to do?"

Axel turned his communicator back on. "Doc, we found something."

Doc's voice immediately responded. "Found what? The Genesect, I presume."

Axel looked at the Pokémon and said. "I have no idea what that is, but we found what appeared to be the prototype the human was talking about. "

"Yes, that's what I meant. The Genesect, that what the human call them."

"Them?" Axel said, before turning to Catherine, who did the same thing as well. "There're more?"

"Yes, there are multiple recordings of the human claiming to have created multiple Genesect. There are six in the lab. They are in the process of getting their body and armor prepare for repairing the outside sensor. The process obviously has been stopped by the whole cannibal fiasco. Fiasco? Oh dear, I am becoming Rick. Side notes, there are a few in the store room near the armory, nine to be exact. All are weaponized and fully tested for combat."

Rick's voice came in. "Weaponized? That sounds bad. Or good, if they are having whatever stored in this place." The sound of the door slide open was heard. "Oh. Never mind, I saw them. Yeah, they are mean looking son of bitches alright."

Axel said. "What exactly are these things, Doc?"

"Ah, yes, how to put this. Um, the process the human went through to create these are rather complicated and extraordinary."

"I'm fucking done.' Catherine said and get to one of the chair. 'Hey how the fuck do you turn the voices in my head off?"

Axel gave her the keep quiet gesture. "Just tell us, Doc. I want to see what we are dealing with."

"Dealing with? Relax, these things are left like this well over 10000 years. I don't think they will"

"The lab's lights and computer systems are still running. What makes these things so different?"

Rick said. "Good point, dude."

"Point acknowledged. Allow me to give some insight on these thing. Well, let's see over here. Oh, these humans' intentions with these things are rather questionable. But the effort they when through to fulfill them is, well, just amazing."

"Still getting no answer Doc. What are these things?" Axel said.

"Oh sure, forget my rambling. Bear with me. These humans used a machine that reanimate or rather rebirth a few pre-historic Pokémon, by using their fossils."

Rick said. "Okay, that explains the rocks and huge the smashed up machine I found in the room next to the armory."

"That's sounds fucking impossible." Catherine said.

"I know. And they did so in so little time. You could get a newly revived pre historic Pokémon in a day. You said the machine had been destroyed, Rick? Oh well, search for any kind of blue print around it. Might be useful. It can always be recreated."

Rick said after a series of rustling sound. "Yeah, I saw a few. They are in better shape then the document from above, collecting them now. But, wait, what kind of Pokémon did they used? I can only see rocks and nothing else there."

"All of them were Kabutops. Or had been." Doc said.

"Kabutops, you mean those things we fought in that cave in Veganra?" Rick said.

"Yes, those things. The ones that you called, here I quote: "ancient-Pokémon-with-twin-blades-that-cut-bitches" with affection."

Tired of staying outside of the conversation, Catherine throw in her opinion. "Why these fuckers don't just created robots? Less effort then strapping machines on to a revived pre historic corpse."

"The human don't simply strap machines to living things like myself, but they rather turned the living things into machine. And well, you made a good point Catherine, like I have stated, questionable intentions. How and why they turned flesh into metal. The details for everything seem to be hiding in an airtight security protocol in this archive. I need to hack them to find out.

Nevertheless, in a few recordings, the human said they did so by using an energy harvested from. Oh, you do not wish to tell me that? Something unknown for now. I'll do some more hacking into this."

"So what were they trying to accomplish with these living machine? Sound like a gaping hole will with flaws to me." Rick said. 'Why would you add something that prevents these things to be used in the long run? If something is alive then it going to die at some point right? And why Kabutop, why don't them just use regular Pokémon."

"Again, questionable intensions. Maybe ancient Pokémon are easier to be turning into organic machine. Not quite sure. But one thing is sure that Axel is correct, these things could be alive but they are in a deep slumber caused by the human, of course. Clever, creatures. They have created a well, a failsafe in each and every one of these things. So let just hope those are the only thing that keep them from going berserk on us."

Rick said. "What do you think they made these for? And don't give me the questionable intentions."

"Here they said the original intention was using these as super soldiers that could sneak and kill. They have organic brains with creativity and unpredictably that would prove deadly on any ground. Plus, organic brain so cannot be hack. And with the failsafe, which are just devices implanted to their brains that could kill and keep them in check, so no backfiring, probably."

"I don't see how these could kill me." Catherine said.

"Well, you are probably looking at a basic model. No weapons or anything special, but with full equipment, these things could travel at high speed using a silenced engines. They could carry any weapons that you wish to strap on the back. Heck, some scientist tried to install a mini nuclear reactor inside one and used it as an expensive smart bomb to use behind enemy line. The armors are light for said reasons, but the doctors are trying something to make the plating resist the effect of neuro bombardment."

"How?" Axel asked while checking on the table.

"They used the, agh, you still not wish to help me. A special energy to help them rearrange the molecules of the plating, making them tougher and denser. Explained the shell around this lab that keeps the human alive. Probably the same kind of energy that turned the Kabutop into machines as well. They tried to do the same on these Genesect, but well that process takes time and time is what these human didn't have. Plus the extra machine and other changes needed for them to operate under the effect of the fallout are something that they couldn't afford when stuck like this. However, over here, they admitted that one was fully upgraded and reprogramed but still had not gone through testing."

"With all that in mind, are you sure that these things won't come down on us?" Rick said. "Because I'm looking at them right now."

"Hum, we still need some data to make sure, until then, proceed with precaution."

Rick said. "Oh, great, I'm stuck in a room with these and you said precautions. Thanks man."

"You're welcome, just don't destroy them out of paranoid. We need samples for Genesis. Rick, did you find anything else in the armory?"

"Well they have a few cannons with identical size. Some of which was placed on these Genesect. Look pretty beastly. Probably using the same elemental drives as the one we found before, ancient hulking mass of whatever you engineer dudes feel like calling them. Looked okay, I might pick up them up a long with a few fossils on my way out."

"Good. Be careful everyone. Doc out."

Axel said before turning off his visor. "I'm guessing the other Genesect are in the other rooms.'

Catherine said. "Well, no shit."

Rick was in the room next to the storeroom, a large testing chamber for weapons. It had all the things you expected in a room with such function. Target practices with bullet holes, concrete slabs. Something just to make the effect from some weapons more, appealing to look at. Along with that, there were numerous cameras and detectors; a machine that did all the calibrations; weapon mounts. The only thing that was out of place was a gigantic splatter of the black sustain on the wall. Under it were torn pieces of clothing and a few dark spots.

Rick located a chair and crushed it under his weight. He did not seem to mind as he could not feel anything through his armor. The only thing that he could feel was the back pain from the whole incident with the drill. He patted the back on his armor. That could not tackled the pain at all. He tried to find way to work it, tried other motion, which only made the pain worse. He laid his assault rifle on the floor and thought to himself.

"God, I'm losing it. So much for the bandit lord." He smiled. "Heh, good times they were. What did they used to call me? A volcano of rage. God, I miss those dim witted sumbitch. Probably dead by know." He sighed "Oh well. You chose this, deal with it."

He finished his string of thought before putting his foot on the floor. He heard the banging sound of an air vent of some kind under the floor.

In another room, Axel tried to access a few computers inside the other lab. With a few seconds from his tube device, the monitors on Catherine's right opened up and revealed four Genesect in glass pods. All placed behind the monitor wall. All had the same color as the last one. However, these are more complete. The paint looked new and spotless. Each had a cannon mounted on their back. At the end of their weapons was a small cube device with a different color each.

Axel tried a few buttons on the keyboard. "Hum, they have a few recordings in this lab." He said.

Catherine looked at the Genesect. "They definitely look strong. But still don't think they can kill me though. Eh, sorry what are you saying?"

Axel then just played the recording. The voice played was equally distorted like the last but it sound like another person.

"January 25th 3002. Doctor Reving.

We have successfully transformed the Kabutop using the ascension procedure. A few doctors are currently studying them for more data. I have my doubt on these things though. Mr. Jackel suggests them to be weaponized immediately after their process was complete. Fortunately, everyone agree that we put a failsafe bomb on the neuro network first. As all intelligent being, it would turn on us if it gets the chance. Therefore, it is always better not to give it any chance. Make me feel safe to live underground with these things, too. It will take a lot of time and effort in testing their functionality. The staffs agreed to name these things Genesect. I couldn't care less about it."

"Hm, let see what else they have to say." Axel said, before accessing another file.

"March 4th 3002. Doctor Reving.

The failsafe was completed, took longer than we expected. Received two casualties during the awaking process. Too bad for Mr. Jackel, he won't be able to see the fully equipped version of the Genesect. At least he had the honor of testing the safety first hand."

He played another.

"March 23rd 3002 Doctor Reving.

That was much faster than we expected. These things are natural in stealth combat. Should take a few more testing and reprograming the get them ready. Their weapons will not pack much of a punch, but the intellect and adaptability should do more than make up for it. We planned to install a few hover motor as well, can't argue with a little speed advantage on the battlefield."

"Is there anything else?" Catherine asked.

"No, my device can't hack like Doc. It is much more limited."

"Okay, so these sounds kinda dangerous, just made sure that they stay inside the pods."

"Yes, madams." Axel took away his tube device.

"Saying that and your Sylveon girlfriend is gonna be jealous."

"Heh, don't flatter yourself."

"Oh, you son of a dick." Catherine spat and flipped him the finger.

Both then exited the lab and went to the last room, which was still locked with the red light. Axel contacted Doc. "Doc, there is one room left unlock. Can you do something about it?"

"In a moment, the security wall is preventing me from getting inside. That room must be the one that held the unknown element in all these researches. May I borrow your ID card mister Reigh. Thank you. Ohooooo, right. Now it is much more cooperative. A few more code and all right. It is finished." The door opened, allowing Catherine and Axel to enter.

"Thanks" Axel said.

The room was filled with a buzzing sound of electric static. It came from two thin glass tubes carrying swirly stream of blue plasma, placed behind a pair of twin generators. All the computer and machines were intact in this room. At the end wall of the room was a round metal container. Surrounding said container was a network of wires and metal cores. In front of the container was a control console.

Axel connected his communicator again. "Doc, I found something strange."

"Do tell."

"A container of some kind, looks rather important. There's a console here, you want to come here and do something about it?"

"No need for me to be there. Remote override should suffice. Someone has to watch the escape route. In case things go South as Rick would put it."

Axel created an extension on his tube fabricator and connected it with the console in the room. He pressed a few buttons on the dial. "Alright. Are you getting it, Doc?"

"Yes, connecting. Give me a few seconds. Bypassing authority wall and assuming control." The panel keyboard and red screens changed into green and the sound of static along with bloop and bleep was heard. "It is done. See, you human, there is no point in hiding these from me. I will eventually hack them all. Oh, that is lovely."

"What is it Doc?" Axel asked.

"Be patient, wait and you will see."

The metal container opened, revealing a round metal capsule with two side that split opened shortly. A small amount of smoke escaped from the inside. Something inside it was slowly pushed out.

"Wow, redundant much redundant." Catherine said.

When everything cleared up, the inside could be seen. There was a small metal plate placed neatly in the middle. It had some writing that were too small for Catherine to see. She went closer and got a better look.

Axel said. "Doc, I'm looking at it but I don't know what it is."

"Oh, forgot, you are not a Foundation agent when that happened. What you are looking at is."

"One of Arceus's legendary Ascension plates." Catherine said.

"Well, some of us call it with the less awe-inspiring name, Elemental plates but yes. So I would take a daring guess that you know what it is?"

"Not exactly. But the councilors mentioned of it or rather them, a lot."

"Well, it's time for us to trade shoes, then. Care to tell us what you know about it?" Axel said.

She spat at the comm. "Pf, like I have a fucking choice. So he is the clip note. So back in the day, the Omni being or just human at this point, told the Celestian's ancestors about the Old Gods. These forces walked the earth before the human time. These gods responsible for shaping all that is Essal and the highest ranking of them all was Arceus or the Alpha being. He created all the other gods, and then. Well fuck, off topic. The fucking thing is, Arceus left a bunch of, eh, you could say fragments of his power on Essal, as a mean to enrich the world. There are 18 of these plates, represent 18 types of well us. All the plates have power over their element and well, I guess the human knew how to use them. Some variations of the story stated that the plates created some of the Old Gods but yeah, let not get muddy here."

Doc then added. "Yes, most of the old archives stated something similar. The Old God in question were well, human called them legendary Pokémon. And they appeared to have failed in explaining the origin of theses being as well. As a result, hey used various works of fiction to do so, just like that Celestian story. Mythology aside, these plates are sights of wonder. I have come across one of these when Axel was still in training. The one we got has the power over all things electric. We are still studying it and using it as the backup power for the Delta base. This one, I say this is the steel element."

Axel said. "I see. So with this, they created the Genesect and plating for this base?"

"That is the most plausible answer. However, judging from the information that has been unlocked here a few seconds ago." There was a pause. "That is the correct answer. This is the mysterious energy stated in all of their works. And now, it belongs to us, imagine what we could achieve with this."

Axel said. "Doc, don't you think, there's something off about this whole thing?"

"What are you trying to imply, Axel?"

"It's too easy. They made the effort to hide this from us but then just show us this way?"

"Human, you'll never know them. And of course it looks easy to you. You are not the one getting your head flooded with ones and zeros to open a door for you."

While Axel and Doc were going on a conversation through the communicator implanted in their molars and every other Foundation agents', Catherine was moving closer to the plate. When she was just a foot away from it, she could read the words engraved on the surface. All in Unown writing was the phrase: "The power to break the will of all metal lies in this plate." She was drawn to it and had the urge to touch it, to feel its power. It was like a trace. She got her hand on the plate and felt a tingling feeling when she did. She moved her finger across it, making the surface of it vibrated somehow. She moved her fingers to the edge of the plate. Out of impulse, she then tried to pluck it out.

"Catherine, what are you doing?" Axel voice ended her attempt to pull it out and the vibration on the plate.

Realized what she did, she made an excuse. "What does it look like? I'm collecting sample."

Axel said. "Don't do that. We don't know what it is yet. Back away from it."

Doc added. "He has the point. It is stated here that the plate powered most machines in this place. Including the hibernation protocol on the Genesect. Do not remove it, unless you feel like getting into trouble."

"Yeah, you said you want to keep them locked right, then don't do it." Axel said.

Catherine pulled her back and left the plate where it was. "Happy?" She said while showing the palms of her hands. Then a siren went inside every room of the base. The white lights were shut off completely for a few second. Soon it was replaced by red and flashing lights. Doc's voice came again. "Apology, an authority wall stopped me. Shouldn't be any problem if I do this?" There was a quick pause. "Oh no, well, Ummmmm, ehh, this is bad but, well, the place has been set to self-destruct."

A distorted male voice was heard. 'Self-destruct sequence initiated.' Doc continued. 'That is what I have said, you obsolete synthetic voice. Please do not get upset. The console will do that in every which way, unless there is a key of the director, which I have no idea where, oh, there it is. Well, too late to abort it.

These human obviously would not want to lose any of these tech to anyone. They probably have anticipated someone like us. Trick us to think that we have tapped in the upmost important secret and then bury us with it. Grab whatever you can and escape. I shall try a few things to keep the exit open. Again please accept my apology."

"What the hell, man?" Rick yelled through his communicator.

"No time, take everything and leave." Axel said before pulling his device out of the console.

"This is problematic, my censors are detecting movement, get ready for combat."

"Oh that is just fucking fantastic." Catherine said.

Rick voice invaded the line once again. "Eh, guys, the dudes are moving."

"Terminate them if necessary, I have their design and everything. The prototypes are not needed." Doc said.

"You don't have to tell me." Rick ended that line with the sound of his rocket launcher.

Catherine looked back at the plate. The capsules around it began to close, taking it back to the original state. Catherine quickly grabbed the sides of the capsule with both her hands and kept it open shortly. She then used her psychic power to pull the plate out, before getting her hands out of the metal jaws of the capsule. The sides closed, the networks of light on the wall behind the capsule began to die down and the sphere capsule sunk down the floor. The male voice returned, it said: "Power core removed, switching to emergency backup power." The plasma in tube changed color, turning from blue to red. The twin generator began to run. The floor was shaking.

Catherine opened her coat with her free hand. Glimpse of shining golden threads and patches with different crests from the inside could be seen briefly. She took out the sunglasses with her psychic power and put the plate in its place. Her body still could feel that vibe on the plate. She closed up her coat with a click and then she calmly put on her sunglasses.

Axel looked at her, puzzled and said. "Seriously, now?"

"I need room to put this thing in okay?"

Both heard the sound of metal came in contact with the floor. It was somewhere in the distance. Catherine teleported behind one of the twin generators and took out the shotgun on her waist. She pumped the weapon for the fifth time that day. Catherine clutched on to her shotgun while Axel ran to the opposite machine, turning on his visor.

(The song It Lives by Overkill began to play)

Catherine had a peek over the cover and quickly dodged down. There was still nothing at the doorway (yet). Catherine quickly gave another peek, still nothing at the door. "Just keep your head down." Axel said. He summoned a long barrel rail gun with no scope. He loaded an 8 inches long shell into its chamber after a ludicrously long sequence of action and locked the weapon with a powerful clank. "I'll try to line them up. Attack when the time is right. Don't be trigger happy." He then became invisible. Catherine put her back against the machine, which she was hiding behind and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her mind was pushing aside the images of a band of shapeless creature as a substitute for the human. The shapeless creature that hided, lived, killed and died in this hole. She pushed aside the image of her dying in the effect of the neutron bomb. She only focused on her breathing and recreating the image of the Sanctuary ground in Celestial nation. With a light inside her mind, everything changed. Surrounding her was no longer a metal underground base. It was now a small chunk of flat stone in the middle of an absolute still lake. This was the place that she and most Angelic Guards soldiers spend their time training their mental capabilities. Suddenly, a droplet disturbed the stillness of the lake in her head.

She opened her eyes. Both were now glowing in bright purple. The sound of of metals came in contact had entered the room. Its tone was much shaper and lighter than Doc metal feet. The Genesect had come to the doorway, Catherine put her finger on the shotgun trigger guard and maintained a steady breathing. The footsteps were becoming rapid and were soon accompany by another set of identical sound. She did not know what Axel was trying to do, but she wish it was a good idea, (maybe). Another one stepped in. Catherine uttered a "shit" in her mind. The malevolent voice decided that was the perfect time to say: "Prove to me that these things can't kill you. Prove you worthy of my strength." A set of clanking steps gained in close to Catherine location. One of them seemed to have noticed the missing plate and went to investigate. It chose to approach Catherine's generator of all the places. "There were not much else in this room anyway, and eventually, one of them will see me and try to fucking murder me." It raised its back cannon and armed the drive behind the weapon, preparing for an attack. It turned its head and scanned the capsule with its eyes. Catherine looked up, seeing the Pokémon jaw and neck. The joints rotated, adjusting the head.

Before it got the chance to look down and fully faced Catherine, she shot it in the jaw with three burning orbs; it was not before saying a simple: "Hi". The machine creature recoiled, let out the sound of distress and alerted the others. In a snap, she raised her left hand, channeled her psychic power into it. With that, she encased the Pokémon's head with the purple glow and tossed it along with the Pokémon at the plasma-filled tube behind her. The Genesect crashed into the tube and shattered the glass instantly. Electrified air was let loose, ran wild and burned the Genesect abdomen. The purple on it changed from black to burning orange rather fast. When the metal turned red, the abdomen burst, released dark green liquid. The Pokémon let out a shriek of an unknown creature distorted by a broken speaker.

Something in Catherine's gut told her to teleport to the other machine; and she was right. A Genesect had finished charging its cannon and shot a Hyperbeam at the previous generator, obliterated it and made a burning circle on the wall. Catherine the jumped out of the cover and shot a few fire orbs at that Genesect while it recharge. The third Genesect flew at her with his arms crossed, ready for an X-scissors attack. Catherine rolled to the left, back to the generator. Then came a loud "Pang" as an 8 inches shell drilled through the air, hit the center of the X scissors attack, snapping the arms of the Genesect like a pair of twigs. The shell kept going and punched through the chest of the Genesect; went through the Pokémon metallic organ and came out of the back. Yet it still had ton of spare momentum to destroy the last Genesect's cannon, moment before the weapon could fire again. However, that was not the last of the shell. It kept on going and ended up as a bang followed by a hole in the wall behind the third Genesect. Catherine had blinked and missed the entire journey of the shell. All she got was a "Pang", the sound of tin foil being pieced through by a nail and a boom in the distance.

Axel reappeared, deconstructed his rail gun and transformed the tube into his blade. With swift movement, he vaulted over the crumpling body of the single holed Genesect, approached and slashed at a screeching Genesect, which had lost it main weapon. Catherine reloaded her shotgun, ready for finishing the last Genesect off. After the shotgun was locked, her barrier was instantly snapped away by a ball of electricity. Without giving her time to react, another ball hit her back. Her coat had soften up the stun but she could still feel the electricity went inside her body. It made her jumped a bit and laid down shortly, leaving her paralyzed along with the feeling of a burning sensation inside her flesh. The abdomen-less Genesect with its smoking cannon was making its way to her. Its movement was slow and seemingly painful to it. The missing charred part on its body began to bleed out the green sticky sustain. Its eyes changed from orange to red. The blade on each arms glowed white, all prepped up for a Slash. Catherine did her best to turn her stiffed head to the side. She saw the attack was coming for her back. The Genesect raised it arm and swung down. But it felt no resistance whatsoever afterward. What it could actually feel was a melting pain on its back. Catherine had teleported behind it and shot the unprotected part of its back with her shotgun. She could not get all the orbs to hit him as raising the shotgun in her numb state was hard enough. The Pokémon recovered from the surprise attack and turned around. Catherine opened up her palm, channeled her psychic power in to it and said: "Burden" under her breath. The ground under the Genesect glowed in a bright purple light and the Pokémon immediately hit the ground. Its legs were twisted and struggled to get the Pokémon back up. The Genesect retaliated with it cannon, shooting a few more of those electrified orbs at her. Catherine evaded them with a few teleport bursts. "Release" Catherine said and then lifted her hand up, making purple glow on the ground transferred to the Genesect chest. Before the Genesect could feel the drop of gravity it flew upward and smashed into the ceiling, breaking the turned off lights. Catherine soon encased its entire torso with her psychic glow and threw it into the remaining plasma tube. This time, its cannon broke the glass and was melted away by the plasma. This time, there was no green liquid, but the Pokémon still let those ear-splitting noise escape its none-existing mouth. She did not let up. Instead, she forcefully pulled and tossed it at the wall behind her. The Pokémon's body whiplashed from the sudden pull then crashed into the wall. Its body went limp, yet still be able to hold itself upward. Probably because the melted cannon on its back had stuck it on the wall. Nevertheless, the melted metal could not held it there for long. Like a wet paper tower, it began to slide down. Before it could fell on the ground, its face received the sole of Catherine's boot. Catherine felt satisfaction as she did so, and it helped her get over the stun.

She teleported back on her feet and covered both her hand with the psychic glow. She grabbed them into fists and started punching the Genesect's head mercilessly. The Pokémon head received twenty consecutive blows. The Genesect couldn't do anything anymore, just let it head whipping left and right after each punch. The helplessness of this thing made her feel dominant and powerful. When the tenth punch was delivered, she drew an ear-to-ear grin on her face. Her head was in an overdrive. It kept making her punches faster, stronger and more painful after each hit. When she could see the blood smear on the Pokémon face, Catherine ended her assault with an uppercut; throwing the Pokémon head upward. Catherine teleported away from it and charged a Focus Blast in her bleeding left hand. The Pokémon tried to move toward her with its somewhat functioning legs. The blade on its arm was glowing again. Catherine said: "Die, bitch" before released the orb. It directly hit the Pokémon's torso, pushing it back to the wall after a small explosion. The Pokémon was still in one piece, something Catherine did not wish to see. However, she saw something else, a gap between the Pokémon's head and neck. It was exposing a few metal wires within the Genesect's body. Catherine immediately threw her arm at the gap and grabbed a handful of those wires. With her right hand keeping the Pokémon's head pinned to the wall, Catherine proceed to rip the wires off. The wires stretched but refused to snap. The thin metal wires bypassed Catherine's glow and cut into her palm, making it bleed harder. Her eyes gave off the purple glow, making more and more psychic power went to her hand and gave her the strength to pull the wires right out. The Pokémon let out those weird shriek again. However, the volume was getting weaker and completely faded before it eyes went black.

Catherine let loose her hold on the Pokémon head and allowed it to hit the floor like a hunk of scrap. Catherine threw the blood-died pieces of wires on the Pokémon's melted back. She tried to say something clever but the knuckle bruises were beginning to swell and shot pain signal to her head. She bit her lips while wincing from the pain. Tasting the iron inside her mouth as she did so.

Axel and the final Genesect were still fighting. Axel was scoring many hits at the Pokémon but its armor just transformed those hits into mere scratches. The Pokémon keep slashing away the blades in its arms in frenzy. Nevertheless, Axel finest and slim body kept them from doing what Axel had been doing to the Genesect. Catherine reached back for Anima with her left hand. The swelling had made it hard for her to get a firm grip on the weapon. She tried to put more pressure into it and get the weapon off her back. The feeling of holding a burning lump of coal went all the way to her arm. She bit down some more, replacing the pain with something else and aimed Anima. She charged two psychic bullets into the chambers and shot two concussive bullets at the Genesect eyes. The shot failed to smash the eye open but still managed to stagger the Pokémon. Saw the opportunity, Axel quickly summoned an extension on the base of the device. He then twisted and pushed it inside the tube device, making the base of the fabricated crystal blade began to glow stronger. The Genesect got over the stun and tried to stop him, but Catherine denied it with another double shot from Anima. When the glow on the blade turn into eyes-burning white, Axel took a step back, jumped into the air and sliced the Genesect in half in a diagonal slash. The blade went through and melted every parts of the metal Pokémon like a hot knife cut through butter. The remaining half tried to hit him with its remaining blade. He swung up, cut off its arm then decapitated the Genesect with one final swipe. The head fell to the metallic floor. The eye flashed and stopped shortly. The blade in Axel's hand stopped glowing and the extension part was heating up. Axel ejected and dropped it casually on the floor. The little piece of machine heated to its maximum, turning red hot then died down like an ember. He twisted the device and let it emitted a regular crystal blade.

(Song ended)

"Thanks for the window. That would have taken forever."

With her left eye closed she said through her teeth. "Yeah, I was planning to blow its head off but whatever, let just get the fuck out of here." Catherine placed Anima back and rubbed her hand on her coat, painting it with some of her blood.

Seeing the red on her hand, Axel asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just ignore it long enough and it will be fine." Catherine took out her shotgun and ran to the doorway.

Axel said. "Wait, I got to salvage some info first. Things would be in vein if"

"Fuck you, I'm out." Catherine stepped out of the room and was shot by a stream of water. Her barrier disappeared and she was propelled to the wall.

As the culprit was ready for another shot, Catherine let out the cry of rage and teleported in zigzag pattern. All while shooting a few shot at the Genesect. Catherine exited her teleportation with a shot of her shotgun to the Pokémon jaw. Her right hand was doing an uppercut motion while holding the weapon. She did not pull the trigger until the barrel had made contact with the lower jaw. The attack launched the Pokémon upward and dropped to the floor. Catherine jumped on top of the Pokémon, stomped on its head with all she got, enlarged the gap between the neck and exposing the wires. She summoned and threw a grenade inside it, then jumped back to fire her shotgun. The fire orbs prematurely detonated the grenade. The enclose explosion quickly separated the Genesect head and it body. The body was still moving despite having only one or two wires connected to the head, but its movements were just a twisted limbo, with the sound of friction as the background music. The lights inside the Genesect eyes were still having that orange glow, though they were dimly lit. Catherine proceeded to cut of the wires by emptying whatever left in her shotgun magazine.

Doc voice came from the comm. "A quick update, apparently something had cut the countdown in half. And I have nothing to do with that something. New recommendation, forget salvaging and get out of this facility as fast as possible. Oooooooh dear, now I'm going to need some back up." Catherine looked back at the doorway while slightly squinted her eyes. To her surprised Axel become visible beside her. He sighed and gave Catherine the signal to advance.

Rick was in the testing chamber. He was taking cover behind a wall beside the intersection between the testing chamber and the storeroom. In his right hand was the six barrels rocket launcher. The other was a belt holding a chockfull of frag grenades. When he heard the first breaking sound of the containment glass, he threw the grenade belt inside the storeroom and popped out of cover. "Get owned." He said and pulled the trigger, sending the salvo of rockets inside. One of them, without any surprise, hit the grenade belts and set off all the grenades. The explosion broke all the glasses. The shockwave caused from the explosion enlarged the doorway and pushed Rick back, but he held on to his launcher and his ground.

Tuned out the ringing sound in his ears, he looked at the once storeroom. Nothing could be seen beside puffs of smoke. "Well, so much for sample." He said before hearing the clanking sound under his feet. "Oh what the Fringe-" He then felt a spontaneous heat bit his back. Rick turned around and saw a smoking hole on the metal floor. He deconstructed the rocket launcher and summoned a double barrel shotguns. Loaded two shells into its chamber and he started walking around the hole. He tried to focus, anticipating any kind of movement underneath him. However, without the floor vibrated or not, he could not know, his armor was too thick for him to feel it. He turned on his barrier then concentrated on the noises that were not the sound of the siren.

Something sprung up, burst through the floor and slashed his back, produced a twin clanks. Rick did not bother turning back. He put the gun barrels over his shoulder and shot. An explosion was played beside his ear and the sound of an iron sheet of being bashed with dozen of hammers soon followed. The Genesect took a face full of shotgun pellets and it was taken aback. Heard the sound of screeching, he turned back and face the Genesect. The outer shell of the Pokémon was no longer bored that shiny purple paint, it was blackened either from Rick's inferno rocket or the belt of grenade. Its head was filled with miniature dents. Its mouth wished to open, just to let out a cry of pain. However, the way it was forged had prevented the Pokémon from doing so. Rick loaded up, pumped the shotgun with one hand and shot the Genesect in the chest. The pellets from his gun made the Pokémon fall pathetically on the ground. "Two super shotgun shots, you deserve a metal for that." He quickly loaded two more. The Pokémon raise the blade on its arm and shield its face. He pointed the barrel in its direction. Before he could squeeze his trigger, behind him came a series of those bursting metal sound. His barrier was rattled by an unknown force. Rick pulled the last shot, knocking the Genesect down.

He turned around and found himself surrounded. There were definitely more Genesect that survived the explosion. The Pokémon surrounding him were having that charred paint and all of their cannons were locked on him. He quickly reached for the device on his belt, smashed the button on it. Instances before the Genesect fired their cannon. When the first wave of multi-colored energy orbs came at him, he covered his face with his armored right arm. The first few shot ate up his barrier and went for his armor. The sudden heat returned, this time more intense and bore force more to it. Rick dropped the shotgun and kneeled down; allowed him to block the shots more effectively. The device on his belt was then emitted two large chunk of blue particles on Rick's back. When the firing stopped, Rick was still kneeling down. He created a full teeth smile on his face. His flame beard grew rapidly, his eyes grew red, and stream of flame poured out from both his hand. "Hell raiser." he shouted. The flame engulfed his head and hands. He grabbed the fully reconstructed gun on his back. One was a rifle with two tesla coils in where the iron sight should be. Its barrel was sliced in three pieces and arcing electrical surges were present in between. The other was a shotgun with a large orange crystal bayonet attached to it. The barrel of the shotgun were flat and had two wings attached on top of it. As rick put his finger on it crescent trigger, the wings strung up and the weapon began to hum. The Genesect did not wait for their guns to recharge. One of them extended the blades on it arms and charged toward him. Rick shot it with his shotgun. The gun spat out six spikes that pinned on the Genesect neck, stopping the Pokémon. Another one went from his right and he swiped his shotgun blade at it, fending it away. The spikes on the first Genesect suddenly exploded, exposed its neck. Out of instinct he jabbed the blade inside it, executed the Genesect.

Rick felt something punched through the back of his armor and entered his flesh. The effect of his Hell Raiser had made his body numb from the pain, but that did not mean that he couldn't feel the blade touched his bones. Did not wish to see what caused it as he had already know what that was. He shifted his legs a bit, quickly changed the position of his right arm. With his finger crushed the trigger of the rifle, making the weapon barrels light up and fired a chain of lightning that burned the armor of the Genesect in his left. The effect on the Pokémon was similar to the plasma from the generator room. Rick then yelled: 'SPIN TO WIN!' And as his yell implied, he began to spin his body in 360 degree. The blade on his shotgun swiped, staggered his enemies shortly and the lightning gun melted them. He could still feel the weight on his back. The Genesect that struck him was still there and was having trouble stopping the Emboar. Upon finished his 360 degree spin, Rick stomped his leg and let out a battle cry. "ARGG, THE GATE." His exposed flesh turned red. The blade stuck on his back began to heat up. The Genesect cybernetic brain could feel the heat going up from arm and touched its head. It was regretting its previous attack.

Rick launched geysers of fire from his body and his wound, propelling the Genesect backward. His beard grew bigger and his grip on the gun grew tighter. The other Genesect charged their cannons and fired them at Rick. First was a red laser that his chest and followed by a barrage of energy balls and electric orbs. He took them with a maniacal laughter and a twisted grin. The shot bounced on his armor. The electric shots did go inside but the electric stun seemed to please him even more. When the firing stopped, Rick charged at the first Genesect that he saw like a steam train. He thrust the blade of his shotgun at the Genesect. It hit right directly in the chest. However, the blow broke the crystal blade into pieces and knocked the Pokémon on the ground. That did not bother him, just gave him the chance to see the effect of his lightning rifle. Rick stepped on the Genesect legs and ended its life with a long chain of lightning to its face. The lightning went inside the Pokémon head, burned the surface of the Pokémon's face and broke the eyes from within. The orange eyes explosion reminded him of that one time Rick busted a light bulb by just holding it in his hand. It was way before he could control the gift inside him. The barrel of the lightning gun expanded from the heat and let out some smoke at the end. The weapon let out a beeping sound and stopped firing altogether. He threw the lightning gun with the still burning red barrel at a nearby Genesect. The Pokémon caught the weapon with an awkward grip from both its arm. The beeping on the gun reached higher rate and the heat from the barrel plagued the entire gun. The Genesect did not expect the gun to explode in its grip.

He took out shotgun shells from the holders on his armor and leisurely loaded them into the shotgun. The Genesect keep firing at him. The shots did sting, but that pain would be nothing compare to what he wanted to do to them. He switched the shotgun to his left arm and curled his right into a fist. He proceeded to throw a Genesect back with those spikes from his shotgun blast. He shot a few more explosive shots at the other and took any attack that they could ditch out. When his shotgun ran dry, he rolled to the side while loading up. With a filled shotgun, he stood up and fabricated a few shotgun shells on his right hand gauntlet, right between the knuckles. He lunged forward and punched the head of a Genesect. The shells were set off when contact was made, giving Rick's punch the force of a cannon. The force was strong enough to explode the head of the Genesect. Pieces of the Pokémon flew into Rick's face, scratched it a bit. He shook his fist, ejected the empty shells and summoned new ones in their place. He threw another shotgun punch at a Genesect in the corner.

His punch was stopped by a blade dug into his bicep. Rick let out an in coherent yell at it. The cornered Genesect prepped up its cannon for a Hyperbeam. Rick released some pressure on his right fist, causing fire to come out from the gaps and detonated the shells on his knuckles. The shots interrupted the Hyperbeam charge but also threw his arm backward, locking the blade and made the pain cause by the blade recognizable to Rick. Rick pointed his shotgun at the Genesect in his right, which was trying to forcefully pull its blade out. He let the barrel touch its face and let it rip, emptying his shotgun magazine. When the Genesect face was filled with explosive spikes and the Pokémon let out those panic shrieks, he dropped the shotgun. Then, he used his free arm to rip the blade out from his arm. The tip of the blade was dyed bright red, a few miniature pieces of his flesh was stuck on it as well. Rick gave the Genesect face the back of his gauntlet with a random yell. This "Inferno bitch slap" was less powerful than the one his used the day before but it served its purpose, keeping the Genesect exploding face away from him. When that was not enough for Rick, he kicked the Genesect away with a well place kick to the chest. Every spike on its face went off as expected.

The effect of Hell Raiser was wearing off. The pain left in his arm was getting to him. He did not know how long his barrier and armor could holdup. He looked around, the Genesect were from still determent to bring him down. Their cannon was still firing at him from time to time. He decided to end things there.

He threw the shotgun away, summoned a large grenade and placed it at his feet. The giant explosive symbol on it made the Genesect stepped away from him. "Heh. Wuss." He stomped the ground, summoned fire on his arm and began to spin. He was going faster and faster after each rotation. The fire on his arm grew bigger and turning him into a tornado, pulling the Genesect to him. He released more fire from his arm and increaseed the speed of his spinning, sucking the Genesect inside the tornado. When the speed reached maximum he jumped out from the base of the funnel and performed Rollout, gaining some distance from the fire tornado. He summoned the Gatling gun from before and held it with one hand. The other pulled out a detonator from his ammo holder and pressed the button. The grenade broke off into multiple child grenades. They all got sucked up by the tornado and set themselves off into a chain of nasty explosion, destroying the tornado with the Genesect were still inside. The Genesects' remains were tossed all over the room. A shockwave mixed with fire slapped and crashed Rick to a wall.

Rick looked at the wreckage. A few Genesect were still online and got their bodies up. Rick threw the detonator and grabbed the handle on his Gatling gun. He cocked the weapon and fired it. The barrels started spinning and spitting out bullets at supersonic speed, shredding the limping Genesect like sheet of paper. The gun overheated after cleared out the last mechanical Pokémon. Rick moved to the center of the room to pick up his charred shotgun and deconstructed it. He let out a smile and collapsed among the burned metal. The smell of it felt nostalgic to Rick somehow. He opened his eyes. The setting had changed a bit. The burning testing chamber had turned into a portion of the Outland desert. There were a few whimpering bandits keeling down and bowed at him. The remaining parts of machine became burning heap of corpses, all clad with fancy armor. The word fancy was a far stretched as each armor was simply made from shinier scraps found in the Outland. He shook his head, making the world turned back to the underground base, but somehow blurrier. He the summoned a healing hypo and japed its needle into his neck. He then took a long breather and got up. The numbing pain in his arm subsided. "Man, I'm really out of shape." The siren went louder and the sound of Doc in distress in the communicator did not provide him with the answer he need, but it made him stop asking and move on. "Come on bandit lord, you gotta kick some ass." He told himself.

At the room near the entrance

The central hub column had been destroyed. A few lights on top were smashed, but the red emergency lights were enough to let everything in the room be seen. A gigantic rectangle holes was in the floor. There were several machine pieces on the floor. A turret got smashed into chunks and bits of metal. A humanoid robot with a pair of oversized arms was snapped into two. A flying robot that was still active and targeted at the biggest thing in the room a big red Genesect. This one was bigger and bore a shinier armor the rest. On its back was an arsenal. There was a minigun that had been over heated, a pulse canon in the middle and a missiles rack that had been depleted. The Pokémon arms were not blades but a three digits hand and a wrenched-liked hand in the other. The Pokémon swung its arm and crushed the flying machine like a fly, its eyes then locked on Doc.

Doc then activated his Redundant Shield. That was the final shot of the day, and evermore if he could not terminate this thing. He ran toward the Pokémon and slammed his orange bubble into it. The shield pushed and shocked the Genesect, changing the color of the shell but did not melt it or anything else. The Pokémon used it wrench arm to hit the bubble, throwing Doc to the opposite side of the room. Doc shield broke after came in contact the wall, orange particles returned to his arm. The pulse cannon charged up, aiming at Doc. The Alakazam got on his feet and raised his mechanical arm. Doc bionic eye analyzed the cannon and gave Doc the best course of action for his mechanical arm. Moment before the blast left the cannon, his arm opened up and shot a concentrate blue beam from the palm. The attack successfully overloaded sensors built in the Genesect eye, knocked the red paint job off the Genesect head and chest, and shot the Pokémon back to the hole. The laser shot left the Pokémon behind with the dark coating and smoke coming from the head. Doc's feet moved him to the side. His arm was no longer raise, it was limp and Doc was struggling to drag it as he moved. His body were leaning to the left side.

"See, it is not pleasant at all to be hit with an obnoxious laser." He said before stopped moving. The Genesect rose up the arsenal on its back and began to hover above the hole. The Pokémon extended it arm. "Ah, that's more appropriate, I guess." Doc said. It launched itself at Doc. Before it could finish him off with a head on ram, a yell was heard: "Crimson Focus Blast." A ball of red energy just went to its side and triggered a massive red explosion, knocking the hulking Pokémon off its flight path and slammed on the floor. The Pokémon was rolling a few time before landing on its stomach. Another penetrating shell fired from Axel railgun. The shot hit the minigun, smashed the energy drive on the pulse cannon and went out through a busted missiles rack.

While Axel rushed to Doc's aid, Catherine teleported next to the Genesect and shot a few electric shot with her shotgun at its head. The electricity went inside the Pokémon and made the light from the eyes flashed a bit. Nevertheless, the Genesect stood up and let out the machine shriek. This time the tone was not in pain but in rage. The Pokémon swung it arm at Catherine who dodged the attack with a back flip. The Genesect calculated her landing and swung its other arm in advance, but she then teleported away before hitting the ground. Catherine stepped back in another direction and fired her shotgun at the Genesect, trying to keep it away from Axel and Doc. Saw her intention, the Genesect moved to where Axel was helping Doc with his metal arm. Catherine teleported in its way and fired all she had.

As it did not seem to work, Catherine raised her hand and used Burden on the Genesect. Gravity under the Genesect feet grew strong and stopped the Pokémon in its track. The Genesect legs were pulled down but it did not crumble like the last one. Axel got Doc up and summoned his sniper rifle while Doc got his pulse cannon. Axel shot a few bullets at the Genesect eyes, did not seem to do much besides staining the glass with scratches and cracks. The Genesect slowly stood up and moved sluggishly to Catherine, who did her best to keep the Burden up, as much so as using both hands for maintaining the gravity field. The Genesect got really close to her. The three digits on it hand began to spin like a drill. Its orange eyes changed into a crimson shade. Catherine did not let the Burden go, if anything she made the gravity grew much stronger, the Genesect did not want to give up either.

A powerful pang and a penetrating shell went to the Genesect's left eyes. This time it drilled through the outer glass of eye and just stopped when only the head of the shell went in. The shell stuck on the Genesect's eyes while still spinning slowly. The shot was like a hook punch to the Genesect eyes, it stunned him greatly. Axel ejected the remaining case and loaded another in.

"Hi there, you son of a bitch." Rick's entranced marked by his words and the stomp of his armored boots. In his hands was still that gigantic Gatling gun, but his face did not wore that Hell Raiser smile.

Catherine and Axel saw the weapon and clear away from the Genesect. The gravity on the Genesct returned to normal. However, before it could realize it, Rick shot an unstopping stream of bullet to the Pokémon, pushing it back millimeter after each bullet. With the Genesect had not recovered from the blow in the eye, the shots suppressed the Pokémon, prevented it from moving. The bullets bounced off the outer shell of the Pokémon but the force and friction each bullet brought did a number of damage on the Genesect. Doc changed a few setting on his cannon and went behind the Pokémon. He then shot an electric net at its feet. Catherine used both her hands to charge up another Crimson focus blast. Axel shot another railgun shot in the area near the neck of the Genesect, nearly choking it, or what look like choking. Doc constricted the electric net, making the Pokémon lose balance from the Gatling gun assault. Catherine then launched the blast, knocking the Pokémon on its back. Not without a giant explosion that stunned it of course. Doc shot a few more electric net on the Pokémon, making sure it stay down. The Pokémon struggled and tried to break through, but it got itself more tangled up after each move. Catherine performed Burden, making sure the thing stay there for sure.

"Rick, hit it in the neck." Axel yelled and touched the floor. From the metal ground grew two large thorn vines. The vines moved under his command, got in the Genesect neck gap, enlarged it and keeping its head in place. Rick threw the smoking gun and summoned the drill. He jumped on the Genesect, getting a few jolt of electricity went through his boots as he passed Doc electric nets. He stepped on the Pokémon chest and then raised the drill. The pain on his back had never left, but he had to get through it. He slammed the drill down, jammed the head into the neck gap and destroyed the wired inside in a few seconds. The Genesect let out those pain shriek again, shaking in its retrains. When the drill cut the last wire it let out machine death gurgles and the eyes went dark. When the Pokémon stopped moving, Rick fall down on his feet, with the drill still stuck inside the Genesect's neck. Doc and Axel tried to get him up but Catherine just used her Psychic to hold his back.

"I got him. Now let's get the fuck out."

They rushed to the elevator. Doc tried the elevator but the panel was lock. "Just step aside." Catherine said, before she activated her gravity along the wall and allowed the team to run upward. "The line is slim. Stick close to me." Catherine yelled and ran upward, her right hand was holding the Psychic field that held Rick up and her left was keeping the rest from falling. Rick was right behind her and Axel behind his back and pushing the Emboar with vines grew from his collar. Doc just moved cautiously while looking back that the lab that would soon be destroyed.

Only a few seconds before explosion, the team made it back to the bottom of the hole. All stood beside the doorway. Doc told everyone to huddle and brace themselves for the explosion. The explosion went off and shot multicolor dust and flame from the doorway. Everything inside the hole shook. When things were quiet and before the dust was even settle, Doc said."Okay, health check, who's alive?"

"Yup."

"Why the fuck not?"

"Here."

Doc and everyone else immediately separated and everyone looked at Doc. Their eyes were judging him or rather accused him for something. "Okay, before everyone attack on me. Without triggering that I wouldn't be able to access the full archive and get all the data."

"Dude, no offence but we were almost killed because of that." Rick said.

"Facing this type of situation all the time, shouldn't be shy away. If it made you feel any better, I shall bumped this to a SSS mission. And well, it not lost, we all most killed but we got tons of data."

"I don't care for whether hell those are. But our lives should be a priority." Catherine said.

"You have no idea how important these are. And chin up, we are all alive. Well, forget that, I guess it time to return and made a few calls. The rest of the base, let hope that all this can still be salvage. Such a shame."

"Well fuck you then."

Axel remained silent, his hand on his non-existing chin.

From above, at the opening of the hole, there was a Machoke bandit with his body wrapped up in dried blood and bullet holes. He looked down at the group, stretched a devilish grin with the stiffed skin. Words came from the corner of his teeth. "5 down, 13 more to go."

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Author's notes:

Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed what you have just read and wished to see more, please follow or leave a review. They would give me motivation to write more for everyone. All feedbacks will be appreciated. If you find anything lacking or flawed in my story (grammar, word use, etc.), please tell me in the reviews as well. I shall do my best to updates these chapters sooner and make them more polished. This is my first ever story so please forgive any possible mistake in the future and help me fix them.

Thanks again and have a pleasant day.