Johto, Route 35.
Orders to defend Route 35 came swift for the nearest Rocketers and Nova Branchers. Thus, they were deployed swiftly from their base near the Ruins of Alph and told only the essentials. Two powerful Pokemon were going to congregate there, and they were going to kill those Pokemon.
Nearly two hundred men, mostly ordinary Rocket Grunts, shuffled amidst a forest and its greenery as they took their positions. One uneasy Rocket Grunt stared out into the darkness from the north through night vision binoculars.
"Oh, Aura, why do we have to fight these things?" He hissed under his breath. "I heard some Pokemon destroyed an old Nova Branch base by itself!" The anticipation soon became too much for him, and he slammed the binoculars into the leaves and dirt.
Leaning over toward the nearest man to him, a Nova Branch Grunt, he whispered, "Hey, you! You're from the branch, so you know things we don't, right? What the hell are we up against?"
"Keep focused!" The Brancher hissed, engrossed in his own search for their target. "Whatever this thing is, it spooked our bosses enough to send us out here without notice. Besides, at my rank, I'm privy to about the same information you are. That island business made it so the only independent part of the branch is somewhere higher up the chain of command."
After not seeing anything through the binoculars, the Nova Branch Grunt felt confident enough to relax slightly. "Although," He continued, "I got a notification a few minutes ago that they're deploying Heavy and Launcher for this, so we just have to stall them. Did you get the same message?"
As he awaited a response, the Brancher scanned out into the horizon. Nothing seemed amiss as far as he could tell. No energy signatures, no heat signatures, nothing. The only thing that put him off was the lack of a response on the Rocketer's part.
"Hey," He spoke, prying his eyes from the binoculars, "Did you hear…"
He trailed off when he saw, only two meters away from him, the black cap that the Rocketer had been wearing. His eyes widened further when the hat seemed to float up into the air and spin on its own. Light began to distort near it, slowly revealing Genesect who twirled the hat around her claw.
"Oh hell!" The remaining Grunt screamed. With one hand, he aimed his sidearm at her and fired, causing her form to blur and disappear. The other arm was used to pry his radio off of his chest. He yelled, "It's here! The target is on my locatio-"
Appearing once more from below him, seemingly out of thin air like a phantom, one of Genesect's claws scoured the radio to the winds. The other silenced its holder shortly thereafter.
Genesect watched his body collapse with hunger in her eyes. She flicked her claw to dispel the blood on it. Its same color reflected in the moonlight that peered down on her.
Purple for red. Weakness for strength. Her new red body, modeled loosely after her late leader, shuddered with anticipation. She needed to test her upgrade. Yearned for it! And now, the perfect sandbags lay in wait all around her.
The hunt was on.
As she dashed further into the woods, her eyes flicked from one target to another. Using Lock-On, she secured the knowledge of their locations. Now there was no escape.
The first Grunt did not even know what hit him. At first, he was walking. A silver sheen swiped through the air, and in that fraction of a second, life left him. His body fell to the ground in a heap.
Those nearest to him flew into a panic once they saw him down. As they ran to them, one was suddenly yanked into the darkness between the trees. The remaining two hardly had the time to gasp before Genesect revealed itself to them out of thin air.
A thunderous crash and a brief crack filled the air as Genesect nonchalantly kicked the nearest man into the air. With a gaping jaw, the last of the three men turned tail and fled. A sudden burning pain in his knees made him cry out before falling flat on his face.
He turned on his backside, and when he saw the state of his knees, let out a harrowing moan. Each one had a large, smoking gash. Genesect hovered over him with her arm pointed at his head. The metal of her arm shifted, making the claw retract into itself to be replaced with an open gun barrel.
This is where Chrome's data came into play. All the power of his shotgun condensed into her arm. With a thunderous bang, the man's final scream was drowned out. Genesect then turned her gaze skyward at the Grunt she had sent flying.
A pillar of emerald green light exploded up from her cannon in a twisting mass of raw plasma. The trees nearest to her bent backwards, and the very ground around her was ripped out in chunks from the force behind the blast. In an instant, the falling Grunt was reduced to nothing. A testament to the fates of the rest, and a beacon to catch their attention.
Before she could rush off to engage in further hunting, something caught her eye. To her left, she noticed occasional bright flashes some distance away. There were noises of human excitement, amidst muffled screams just after a flash.
Her instincts and senses suddenly kicked into gear in response to a threat. While her attention was focused on the flashes, a bullet had been fired at her. Her head snapped to the side to let the projectile fly past her. Gleaming red eyes turned back to face the perpetrator, a Nova Branch agent, who immediately realized his mistake and began to back away. Noticing dozens of blips on Genesect's radar close by made her refrain from pursuing.
Several men in black suits revealed themselves where the other man had just been standing. More emerged from between trees and bushes all around her, covering every angle. They dared to rear their ugly heads to Genesect. Amused, she merely crouched down to see what they would do. These ones did not have the same insignia of the men she was after.
They surprised her by brandishing Pokeballs. Now she knew they were different. All the data she accumulated and incorporated held a hatred for Pokemon at its core. This would be interesting. As they hurled their Pokeballs into the air, time slowed down for Genesect. Her eyes went from ball to ball, using Lock-On to firmly know the location of every single one of them. As she did this, her cannon began to disassemble itself. This was the key to her new upgrade. Nanomachines. They provided the ultimate flexibility and versatility, granting her unlimited ways to use her new powers.
Her cannon split itself into hundreds of parts that moved all along her shoulders, arms and legs. Several small beams, nearly invisible to human eyes, locked on to the Pokeballs. And then, all at once, they exploded. The Rocket Grunts cried out in shock and confusion, shielding their eyes and turning away. Dust and the shrapnel remains of the Pokeballs scathed their skin.
None of them knew what had happened or what had caused the explosions. Taking advantage of this, Genesect went on the attack. Her superior eyes saw through the smoke and dust as if it were as clear as air. Quick as a blur, she descended upon them, cutting down anyone unfortunate enough to be in her way with slashes that cleaved as smoothly as silk.
Noticing some of them attempting to flee on her radar, she leapt high into the air and reformed her cannon to fire a potent Ice Beam. In a brilliant flash of white, a glacier consumed part of the forest. Trees, people and all fell still as if time had been stopped. Genesect's cannon turned around and rose, firing a concentrated burst of energy to propel her down into the glacier. With Blaze Kick, the glacier, and all things within it, shattered like glass. While its pieces rained down around her, Genesect turned her gaze forward.
Her piercing red stare met the horrified eyes of more Grunts ahead who were lucky enough to be out of the Ice Beam's range. Their luck soon ran short. As the nearest Nova Branch Grunts aimed their weapons at her, the Rocket Grunts held their Pokeballs firmly with wide eyes. She felt a twinge of amusement as she witnessed the indecision in their expressions.
"Hey!" One of the Nova Branchers yelled to them. "Release those damn meat shields already! It's them or us!"
Hearing a whistle in the wind, the Nova Brancher turned his attention back upon Genesect only to find her arm, changed from a claw to a cannon smaller than the one on her back, aimed at his face. Smugly, she had placed her own head right in the line of fire of his gun.
She let out a chilling laugh that made their legs tremble. "Why do you have to choose?" She asked. "I can accommodate you and your Pokemon."
The Nova Brancher wasted no time unloading his magazine into the face of Genesect. She reveled in the look of despair on his face when he saw that it had no effect.
One of the Rocket Grunts tossed a Pokeball to the ground. "Golbat, use-!"
Genesect's claw pierced the ball before it could touch the ground, spearing it upon her other arm. She had moved in the blink of an eye, still keeping her gun arm trained upon the back of the Nova Brancher. The moment the Nova Grunt turned toward her, she fired at him. His body went limp and fell. She raised the pierced Pokeball for all to see, then scattered its pieces to the wind.
Most of the Rocketers fled in terror, but a hail of bullets from the trees prevented Genesect from pursuing them. She kicked into the ground to dart backwards, swerving out of the way of the bullets that followed her. Before long, the projectile attacks of Pokemon followed them, and she found herself having to deflect them when there was no more room to dodge.
The data of Ryder's reaction speed and reflexes helped her greatly. Though she found herself under fire she could not dodge at this level of minimal effort, they approached her with all the speed of a Slugma in her eyes. It was likely that she did not even need to dodge them, but this served as a suitable test for her flexibility. However, the time soon came to cut this test short.
Her gaze shot through the projectiles to scan their sources. Lock-On gave her their faces and locations before long. Human, Pokemon, it didn't matter. She could no longer be called a mere Pokemon. These were not even enemies. Targets were a far more suitable designation. Kneeling down, she dug her heels into the ground to slowly stop her backpedaling and prepared her cannon for a test of firepower.
Lock-On suddenly failed when her back smacked into something behind her. Genesect and whatever she had bumped into turned to each other, then darted away. Genesect shifted her arm back to their normal claws while her new target crouched down on all fours, snarling at her. As she scanned the creature, she was surprised to find that it matched no existing Pokemon in her database.
It was a black Pokemon with vibrant yellow fur. Its paws seemed far larger than the arms and legs they were attached to, and though it seemed most comparable to what Genesect knew as a Lucario, this new Pokemon also sported long claws as if it were feline. Yet the rest of its features clearly indicated that it was canine. It surprised her further when it spoke with language rather than its name.
"What in the world are you?" Asked Zeraora, grimacing in disgust at the machine standing before it. "Some kind of manmade weapon meant to look like a Pokemon? Typical."
Chuckling in amusement, Genesect swapped her claws into hands with jagged metal fingers and stood up, fully dropping her guard. "I admit, calling me a weapon is not entirely inaccurate, but I am no longer manmade."
Zeraora raised an eyebrow at her. "No longer…?"
"What are you?" Inquired Genesect. "You don't match any Pokemon in my database."
Scoffing, he replied, "You haven't answered me yet."
"All you need to know about me is that you should stay out of my way."
Zeraora's eye twitched in irritation. "Is that so? I'll have you know that I've scrapped more machines than either of us can count." He crouched down, setting the night aglow with loose streaks of cyan lightning from his fur. "It won't take me more than one attack to turn you into spare parts."
This only served to earn another amused chuckle from Genesect, who made no move to defend herself. Dodging lightning would be a perfect test of her new reflexes. "I am so much more than a machine."
As Zeraora opened his mouth to respond, a small rustle amidst the surrounding leaves caught his attention. All around them, Nova Branch Grunts peered at them through the trees, keeping their weapons steady. Genesect and Zeraora glanced back at one another, and through the meeting of their eyes, there was a silent agreement.
In a flash, the two sped off in opposite directions. A hail of bullets flew, but the fingers that triggered them were not fast enough. One unfortunate soldier, noticing a sudden brightness above him, looked up with a gradually paling face as he saw Zeraora's sparking fur above his head. In but the single flash of a lightning bolt, Zeraora descended upon him.
The boom of the thunderclap caused those nearby to cry out, momentarily shaken by the light and noise. They turned their weapons upon where it had came from, but they saw only the sparking body of their comrade. Before they knew what had hit them, the ground was swept out from underneath them. A swift kick from Zeraora sent them careening into the sky.
Crouching down, Zeraora allowed his lightning to leak off of him in droves, causing his body to vibrate to the point the onlookers could almost see through him. He took off toward those onlookers with a thunderous boom, sending up rock and dirt. In the blink of an eye, he went from person to person. It only took a single tap to generate enough electricity through their bodies to collapse. The only thing they could perceive was a yellow streak before their vision went white.
Genesect was much less clean with how she dealt with them. She raced from target to target, cutting down any who were unfortunate enough to be in her warpath. She juggled one of them with kicks as she ran before using the jagged toe claw of her foot to send him careening into others ahead of her. They were knocked down like bowling pins.
Though amused by this, she was not able to relish in the moment for long. Hails of bullets flew at her from all sides. With Ryder's reflexes, they were no threat. With ease, she bobbed and weaved between them, twisting her body into impossible shapes to escape harm. She sliced into the ground and pierced its top, pulling up a wall of stone to shield her from one angle. Using this cover, she was given the second she needed to scan the locations of her attackers ahead.
Changing her claws to hands, she tore the chunk of stone from the ground and hurled it ahead of her, then raced after it. The stone acted as a shield while Genesect followed it, both from the bullets and from the remains of the trees it shattered as it flew. However, it was quickly falling apart. Chunk after chunk fell from the stone, leaving dwindling room for Genesect.
A wide-eyed Nova Brancher cried, "Get down!"
He and those near him dove to the grass just as the rock passed overhead. One of them, a young, pale-faced man who was short of breath, looked up just as it shattered. But he did not see this, for the boot of Genesect was in the way. He gasped and tried to aim his weapon up at her, but her strong metallic hand snatched it out of his hand and crushed it as if it was paper.
"Now for the durability test."
She knelt over slightly. While the other Grunts, slowly getting back to their senses, aimed their weapons at her, her cannon split into two on either shoulder and aimed down. When the Grunts noticed the cannons gradually lighting up, they fired into them. Others tried her eyes and the joints of her limbs. None of them seemed to impede the mechanical monster hovering over them. Some of them tossed down their weapons and began running for the hills.
It didn't matter.
A pillar of emerald green light erupted from the forest, reducing trees, stone and the very ground they sprouted from to dust in but an instant. All that remained of everything caught in Genesect's attack was a pillar of smoke that rose from between the trees that had been spared. From that smoke, Genesect emerged. Sparks of lingering energy danced across her unscathed metal form, only serving to make it shine more. Her attack hadn't scarred her new body in the slightest.
Her gleaming crimson eyes stared down at her hand. She flexed her fingers as the energy twirled around them. "Hm. Looks like the improvements I've made to Heavy's defensive data paid off."
A bright flash caught her attention. She looked up from her hand to see that yellow Pokemon from before handling its own share of the Grunts. Her scanners indicated that the rest of the Grunts on her side of the field were much farther away.
"Perhaps," She started, slowly marching toward him, "That one wouldn't mind if I took some of the kills for myself."
Zeroara held up the last of the Grunts on his end by the back of his head. He struggled, clawing at the yellow paw that held him until a jolt of lightning made his body twitch spastically before falling to the ground in a heap. A rustle to his left caught his attention. Evidently, he had missed one. One leftover Grunt abandoned his weapon and ran for the hills. He was stumbling over the tall grass, heaving for air as he ran.
Smirking, Zeraora brought his wrists together and curved his hands out toward the fleeing man. "You're not escaping! Zap Cannon!"
Sparkling lightning spiraled around his fingers between the palms of his hands, resulting in a pressurized spearhead of raw lightning. However, when he fired it, something struck the man down from the shadows, pinning him to the ground. His eyes widened when he found that it was the machine from before.
"Hey, watch out!" Zeraora gave a slight gasp at himself for calling out to her. She was just a machine. "Why did…?"
Still, the alert was enough to catch Genesect's attention. Belating the killing blow to the prey beneath her, she rose up to face the oncoming attack. Kneeling, she allowed the spear of lightning to impact the palms of her hands.
Immediately, her heels slid down, crushing the back of the Grunt she stood upon. His screams went unheard even by himself. The roar of the thunderclap boomed so deafeningly that all other noise was silent in comparison.
Scowling, Genesect kicked the man out from under her to get a more steady foothold. Loose streams of lightning leaked out from the Zap Cannon, fully encompassing Genesect's body. The countless nanomachines that decorated her exterior trembled like leaves in autumn.
Something bit at Zeraora's conscience. He bared his teeth in frustration while debating about going to save her. Then, something about her behavior caught his attention. The loose lightning dissipated slowly, shrinking until it was only within her hands.
Courtesy of Launcher's data, jets of pressurized air from her hands kept the attack in place. She compressed the attack, forcing it to bend to her will. Though it continued to shrink, its luminosity stayed the same. Yet that did not phase Genesect.
With a jaw that continuously lowered the longer he bore witness to this, Zeraora could only stammer, "Th-that's not possible!"
There was a bright momentary flash, and then, the Zap Cannon was gone. Genesect's body tilted backward in wake of its leave. A wave of glowing lightning traveled up her body from her hands to her arms. Carefully, her nanomachines carried the energy through her, eventually bringing it to the drive on the back of her cannon. It glowed brightly for a moment, and then, its blue color had changed to yellow.
Genesect let out a satisfied sigh, letting her arms go limp as her torso bent forward. Her gleaming eyes met the wide white ones of Zeraora.
She chuckled. "Did you enjoy the show?"
"H-how?!" Cried Zeraora in astonishment. "That kind of attack should have turned you into an ash pile!"
Genesect returned to her full height, turning to eye the Grunt she had kicked away. He was crawling for the nearest tree and mumbling to himself.
"They're here…! I just…need to…!"
"The fall of my kind was caused by a lack of adaptability," Droned Genesect, shifting her arm into a cannon. A yellow stream of lightning lit up the night for only a split second. Yet that minuscule moment was more than enough to leave a small smoking crater in place of the Grunt. "I will not make the same mistake."
She eyed her arm proudly before shifting it back into a hand. "There is much this body can do. And yet, I believe I have only scraped its surface." Hungrily, she eyed the forest ahead. The remaining Grunts were all congregating in one area, only making it easier for her to reduce them to mincemeat.
"Come," She instructed, walking toward the prey, "The rest are this way. Follow me."
Indignantly, Zeraora stomped his hind paw into the ground. "As if! What made you think you could order me around?"
Chortling, she replied, "It wasn't an order. It was a suggestion. I merely assumed you would want some of the enemy for yourself, but…"
Zeraora barked out a laugh, stomping toward her. "Some of them? What made you think I was planning on sharing?" His fur stood on end as his potent lightning sparked to life all around him. Even the ground became charred black as stray bolts touched it. "You listen here, machine! I still don't trust you one bit, so you had better-"
He winced when her back cannon turned at him, quickly stopping in his place and dropping into a pounding position.
"Be silent!" She hissed.
The shock on Zeraora's face quickly contorted into fury. "You little-!"
She pointed her open palm at him. "I said be silent! Do you hear that?"
Zeraora allowed his electricity to die down. When he did, he noticed a roar in the sky. The roar of an engine.
Far above, a jet blacker than night soared through the air. It passed by in less than a second before disappearing. Astonished by its speed, Zeraora followed the noise it left behind. Genesect, however, was focused on something else.
Two large pods of a similar color to the jet fell from the sky. Zeraora yelped when Genesect suddenly knelt down and fired a Techno Blast at one of them. It endured the beam for but a moment before it lit up the night sky with its explosion.
Genesect's eyes suddenly went wide. She bolted backwards just as something hulking in size flew out from the smoke cloud and punched the ground. Although Genesect evaded the attack's effect by jumping, Zeraora was not so lucky. The force of the large thing's punch shook the ground enough to send Zeraora skyward.
The pod that was unharmed touched ground shortly after. A thick black boot kicked it open, letting a man in black armor emerge. "Any damage, Heavy?" Asked Launcher.
The metal giant merely dusted off his suit before replying, "The pod ate most of it. I'll be fine." He tapped the side of his helmet to initiate his radio. "This is Heavy from HQ. We'll handle things from here. You comb the area for survivors and head back to base."
"Y-yes, sir!" Replied one of the remaining agents.
Taking his hand off his helmet, Heavy turned his full attention upon Genesect, who studied him motionlessly. "Should I take that one?" He asked.
Launcher brazenly stepped toward her, raising his grenade launcher over his shoulder. "No. I want this one. Although…" He stopped in his tracks upon noticing Genesect's features. "The one that escaped was the quivering child. I know for certain that the red one is dead…so why is this one red?"
"None of them had those silver lines and edges either," Heavy commented, "Or those edges on its head."
The eyes of Genesect met with the blank visor of Launcher. He could tell this target was nothing like the ones he faced before. It felt as if his helmet did not matter. She could see his face clearly, and he knew it.
Launcher lowered his weapon and backed away, then crouched into a stance. "Perhaps there was a sixth of their kind hidden away. Either way, this one is different in more than its appearance. Try to deal with the Electric-Type quickly. I may need your help for this."
Nodding, Heavy replied, "Understood." Then, he backstopped, hitting Zeraora with a devastating clothesline as he fell back down.
Zeraora cried out in pain, not expecting the large man to move as fast as he did. He was sent hurtling into the trees past Genesect, who did not flinch. Nor did she move when Heavy stomped after his target. She had a target of her own.
A rising sense of jubilation tore at her systems. The craving she felt on that night came back in full force. "One step closer," She droned, switching her hands to claws. "This will be an excellent test."
Zeraora sailed through tree after tree. He had vastly underestimated the speed and power of the armored giant and it had cost him. Finally, his flight had been stopped by one final tree that he became embedded in.
He snarled and shook his head to try to dispel some of his dizziness. His face twisted into a growl as he snarled with irritation. Eager for payback, Zeraora's eyes snapped open. However, the look on his face swiftly changed when he saw the fist hurtling at his head.
Although he managed to shoot down from the tree, Heavy's punch tore through it like paper. The sheer force behind the attack made a visible cone of air, reducing many more trees behind Zeraora to splinters.
Seeing an opening, Zeraora shot his palm toward Heavy's exposed chest and unleashed a wave of lightning. When the light died down, his jaw dropped when an unharmed Heavy pulled his fist back into a resting position. Leftover plasma still danced along his metal armor, apparently to little effect.
"Attacks of that level won't work on me," Grumbled the old giant. "Even if I'm replaceable, I'm still a decent shield."
Zeraora took a step back and asked, "What are you talking about."
Heavy replied, "Oh, nothing. Just an old man's ramblings." Then, he launched his massive fist at Zeraora again.
This time, he was more easily able to evade now that he clearly saw the attack coming. "I underestimated you before," He said, appearing behind Heavy in a flash of lightning," But I won't make that mistake again. You're fast for your size, I'll give you that, nothing compared to lightning."
When Heavy turned around to face him, Zeraora was already behind him once more. This time, sparking to the brim with lightning. "Eat this!" He roared. "Discharge!"
In all directions, walls of intense lightning raced out and scarred the forest. What remained of the surrounding trees after Heavy's punch were reduced even further. Zeraora's blinding lightning reduced splinters to ash, and ash into nothing. Yet when that same lightning crashed into Heavy, he did not move an inch.
The electricity roared, the sound of its thunderclaps deafening. It shook the ground and burned it black, yet Heavy did not budge. Turning back around, he plunged his hand straight through the walls of lightning to grab at Zeraora, who canceled his attack to dodge upward.
Using Heavy's large arm as a platform, Zeroara leapt at Heavy's head and latched on. "Alright, tough guy, let's see you withstand this! Thunder!"
From Zeraora's bright yellow fur, a spire of concentrated lightning enveloped him and the armored man. The air itself popped and burned from its head, reddening the ground around them. Zeraora gasped, leaping away before Heavy's hand could grab him.
As he slid away, a wide-eyed Zeraora stared at Heavy with a slack jaw. "No way! What the hell are you made of?!"
The giant dusted himself off, scraping away the lone black stain Zeraora had managed to inflict. "That's confidential information. All you need to know is that you can't hurt me."
Zeraora scoffed as he stood back up. "Well, you haven't exactly managed to hurt me either."
To that, Heavy reached over his back and pulled up a weapon: a massive gatling gun with a proportionally small handle. Still, it was enough for Heavy to slip his hand through. It began to whir loudly as it spun, almost rivaling the level of noise Zeraora's thunderclaps could provide.
"Then let's change that."
Launcher backpedaled, digging his heels into the dirt. Narrowly, he managed to curve his body to the side to evade Genesect's Metal Claw. Her slash left a ringing in the air, slicing a tree cleanly in two. Shifting one of her claws into a hand, she grabbed one side of the tree and hurled it at Launcher. He quickly brought up his hand, using the pressured air on his palms to blast the tree apart.
From between the splinters, Launcher could only make out two gleaming crimson orbs. They shifted to the left suddenly, leaving trails in their wake. Launcher followed after them and grabbed the remaining half of the tree. He waited until the luminosity of the orbs grew, then shot the tree at them. Genesect brought up an X-Scissor and carved straight through it. She attempted to pierce one of the holes on Launcher's glove, but a pulse from it stayed her hand.
She struggled against the force of the pulse until her arm slid past his. Her cannon twisted to aim at him, but another pulse sent her flying. It did not take her long to regain her balance and pursue him again. She fell on her back to slide under his hand, kicking up into his side. Launcher stopped his momentum by digging his hands into the ground. He sent a pulse through it, making an eruption of dirt. Genesect stopped in her tracks to avoid the pillar of dust, only for it to suddenly be blasted toward her.
Launcher took a bit of satisfaction from hearing her irritation until a Techno Blast pierced the dirt and shot into his face. It drove him through the ground, making him uncontrollably sprawl across it in a desperate attempt to regain control of his path. He eventually managed to plunge his hand into the beam and force it back with a pulse. Genesect blitzed past the beam as it fired and drove a Metal Claw into his visor. When he tried to reach up and fire at her with another pulse, she drove her claw through his hand.
Even as the claw pierced straight through, Launcher bit back a reaction, using this opportunity to grab her arm and keep her from running. With his free hand, he sent out another pulse at her arm, then grabbed her face. She tried to shift her other claw into a hand to wrest his hand from her, but he beat her to the punch. A booming shockwave sent Genesect flying. Not even bothering to look at his injury, Launcher kept his gaze firmly upon Genesect.
Testing his fingers, Launcher found that he could move his hand fine in spite of the injury. That was good enough for him. The air jets were still broken, however, so he took his grenade launcher into the injured hand to make up for it.
When Genesect came barreling back toward him, he took aim at her and fired. She stopped in her tracks, and in the blink of an eye, swerved behind him. Launcher gasped and tried to whip around to fire again, only to catch a Metal Claw to his visor. She kicked his weapon out of his hand, and before he could react, dealt another blow to his face.
Again and again, she drove her claws into his helmet, increasing in speed to the point he could no longer count how many times she had struck him. He tried to grab her arm, only for her to elbow it away. He eventually sent a pulse at the ground to get her off of him, only for her to dive right back into the resulting dust cloud and continue jabbing at every open area of his body she saw.
"That armor won't stay in one piece forever!" She roared. Before long, he could no longer stand on his feet and fell onto his back. He tried desperately to shield himself from her relentless onslaught to no avail.
Notches all along his armor opened up, surprising her. A massive, full-body pulse tore nearby trees out of their roots, sending their scattered remains into the sky. Although Genesect managed to avoid the full brunt of it by backing off in time, the shockwave made her nanomachines tremble.
"That was not in the data," She admitted.
Launcher pulled his arm out from the rocks to scrape off the rest that covered him, then stood to his feet. "Your data," He said, "Is outdated. That base was our first, yes, but that only meant that we left it behind when it was no longer useful. The data you took is over a decade old."
Genesect chuckled. "Well, my late predecessor managed to get ahold of some of your modern data, which I've used to fill out some of the gaps."
"Your predecessor?" Noted Launcher. "So, you aren't the red one after all." He looked her up and down, noting the irony of what he said. "Well, at least not that red one. What are you anyways? Are you the small one that ran and left the rest to die, or are you a new one that never bothered to save them?"
To his surprise, Genesect craned her head back and barked out a laugh at that. "That," She said, "Is a loaded question. I'd say that the answer is somewhere in the middle."
"Hmph," Scoffed Launcher. "Either way, that data the other red one took came from an older model of Ryder's suit. It has since been upgraded multiple times since we put your kind in the dirt, and so have ours. Whatever data you managed to get from your encounter with Sniper will hardly help you."
Genesect's eyes gleamed hungrily with interest. "Oh? Why might that be?"
Launcher swiped up his grenade launcher with his injured hand, as if it didn't affect him at all. "If you think you could get all of our data using inferior models of only two of our seven members, then you are even more of a fool than we took you for. Our armor is layered with levels of intricacy you could not fathom, but I think I would rather send you to the rest of your kind than tell you anything more."
Once more, Genesect let out a chilling laugh. She crouched down, swapping both of her arms to claws. At least, that's what it seemed like at first. The shape of her arms changed, placing the claw in the center of the arm rather than on top. It extended into a curved silver blade. One which Launcher recognized.
"That sword…"
An identical blade appeared on her other arm. She tested it on the air, relishing the light ringing noise it made. "Did you think I did not notice the differences in the data I found in that base and the data I took from your more modern renditions? I had to get creative to fill in those gaps, you know, and I made many improvements to both sets of data."
The yellow drive of her cannon sparked to life, sending powerful streams of lightning to her arms and blades. "Now, let me test out the fruits of my craft and take your new data as well."
She bolted at him, setting the night alight with the lightning she left in her wake. Launcher responded by firing a Ground-Type grenade at the ground, sending up waves of pressurized sands that made the lightning on her blades die out. Shocked, she stared down at them and was unable to evade the Fire-Type explosive that crashed into her side.
Cutting through the flames, she slashed at Launcher with blinding speeds. Even without lightning, they were still sharp enough to leave a visible gash on his chestplate. He fired at her again, this time with a Dark-Type grenade. Webs of crawling Dark-Type energy cascaded her body. Launcher admired his handiwork until the dark energy settled, seemingly being pulled up to her cannon. The yellow drive within it turned black, and then, that dark energy coated her blades.
"What the-?!"
Genesect dove at him with a mad hunger in her eyes. Leaping back, Launcher instinctually shot a Fairy-Type grenade to counter her dark energy. Using her metal body rather than her blades, she shoulder-barged through the attack and slashed at his shoulders. Their cuts were narrow, but visible. He grabbed one of her blades, hoisted her over his shoulder and slammed her to the ground with enough force to splinter the ground. He followed this up by blasting her further down into the ground.
Stepping back, he aimed his grenade launcher at the ground and rapidly fired scathing hot Fire-Type grenades to melt the ground, then Ground-Type ones to cover it. After that, he shot a barrage of Steel-Type grenades to coat the ground, and before long, a thick, silver sheen had coated the surface Genesect was buried under.
Satisfied with his work, Launcher propped his weapon on his shoulder to admire the metal sheet. "Sleep for a moment. I'll return once I'm done with the Electric-Type."
With that, he turned away and scanned the forest for the other target. In the visible distance, he could see stray bolts of lightning rising from the trees. As he took a step toward it, the ground quaked, making him stagger. When he turned back, his eyes widened from within his visor upon seeing the output of rising energy beneath the steel.
An ear piercing groan rose up from the metal as it bent, rising higher and expanding like a balloon until it popped. Launcher brought up his arms to shield himself as the metal ground exploded like a bomb. The nearby trees were obliterated in an instant.
Launcher fought to keep standing in the wake of fire and pressure racing past him. However, in the wake of what he saw within that fire, the fire itself hardly crossed his mind. Two gleaming crimson eyes pierced past even the red of the fire around them. The sound of metal banging against metal rang louder than the crackling of raging flames.
The fire parted all of a sudden, making way for the ravenous mechanical monster within. Genesect stomped toward Launcher, eyeing him hungrily. Her unharmed exterior shined in the light of the flames to the point Launcher could see himself on the reflection of her head. Right between those piercing red eyes.
Before Launcher could react, Genesect was upon him. She grabbed his helmet, making the metal of his suit creak under the pressure of her grasp. He blasted her point blank with a pulse from his hand, but she refused to move. Launcher felt his cold heart skip when his helmet cracked, and he found himself instinctively grabbing at her arm after dropping his grenade launcher.
Rapidly, he fired pulse after pulse into her arm in a desperate attempt to remove her grasp, to no avail. To his horror the metal in her hand began shifting to accommodate the presence of holes on its palm. And then, a pulse of pressurized air launched Launcher across the forest.
A white glow encompassed her body upon using Extreme Speed, which she used to send herself rocketing after Launcher. Upon catching up, she booted him skyward. Craning her arm back, she tilted her torso upward to lock onto Launcher, then shifted her hand into a claw.
"You're mine."
Suddenly, Launcher found himself under assault from every angle. Slashes upon slashes that he couldn't even begin to count sent him flying further into the night sky with every slice. Each hit chipped away at his armor.
Genesect soared past him until her back faced the waning moon. Her claw raised to the sky, she coated it in the silver sheen of Metal Claw before descending upon him like a bullet and crashing it into his visor. Helplessly, he was sent hurtling back toward the ground, but Genesect was far from finished with him.
With the haste of her Extreme Speed, she raced back to the ground before he could touch it. Kneeling down, she gathered energy to her cannon, and when he fell into its range, launched a Techno Blast. It smashed into his body and encompassed it before long. The burning ray of plasma burned away at his armor, making him hiss in pain as it carried him away. Genesect raced after him.
Zeraora darted through the collapsed remains of burnt trees to evade the stream of bullets that followed him. When they would draw near him, he would zip back around to their opposite side to evade. Though these were just as easy to evade as Heavy's punches, he dared not test them.
From Heavy's rotating gun, an endless stream of bullets shredded anything they came in contact with. Leaves, trees, and even stone. They folded like paper under the impact of Heavy's gun. Yet, if they could not touch his target, what use were they?
Launcher's rapid approach caught his attention on his radar. Ceasing his fire, Heavy knelt down and used his free arm to dig into the ground before pulling up a geyser of rock and dirt. An unfortunate Zeraora found himself still in the midst of a jump as this happened, and he was only able to bring up his arms in defense.
Heavy whirled around just in time to catch Launcher with a loud bang. Immediately, Heavy took notice of the battle damage Launcher had endured and asked, "It got you good, didn't it?"
From the dust cloud, an emerging Zeraora held a Zap Cannon between his hands. "Eat this!" He roared.
Before he could throw the attack, Launcher whirled around and fired a Ground-Type Grenade up at him. An explosion of heated sand snuffed out Zeraora's electricity, and made him cry out when the tiny, sharp stones berated his skin and eyes.
"I'm fine," Answered Launcher. "At the very least, I can still fight. However, that Genesect is nothing like the others. Apparently, that data was of more use to it than we gave it credit for, because now it's using our moves and incorporating them into its own."
A rising source of energy drawing near caused their suits to warn them. Leaping in front of Launcher, Heavy held out his hands. A screen materialized in front of his fingers just in time to catch a Techno Blast. Stray beams that the screen could not fully stop were deflected toward his sides, burning the ground.
The beam soon came to a stop, followed shortly by a small gust of wind. The screen faded when Heavy let his arms down. His visor went to work, attempting to lock onto the source of the beam. However, nothing appeared on the radar for over a dozen miles ahead of them.
"Barrier projection was not on my data either."
Heavy and Launcher whipped around at the sound of a voice. Genesect stood behind them, arrogantly folding her arms as she looked them over. "That is something I'll have to incorporate into the next upgrade."
Not bothering with wit, Launcher quickly aimed his hand at her. In response, she uncrossed her arms to do the same. Two shockwaves blasted the two away from one another, although Heavy managed to catch Launcher by the arm before he could fly away altogether.
Genesect rolled across the ground until she regained her footing, at which point she wasted no time sprinting back toward the armored men with Extreme Speed. As she blitzed past the trees, a furious yellow streak of light met with her white one, and the two raced back into the frey.
In a brilliant blaze of lightning, Zeraora crashed headfirst into Heavy just as he brought up another barrier. Genesect darted around the screen and delivered a swift double Blaze Kick to the back of his legs, making him buckle and collapse under his own weight. In his shock, Heavy dropped the barrier.
A grinning Zeraora slipped between his arms as he fell onto his back and grabbed onto the giant's helmet. "No more games, big guy. I'm gonna fry you inside that tin can!" Sparkling cyan bursts of lightning flew from the fur on his arms in droves. From within Heavy's helmet, his danger alarm went off in response to the rising energy.
"PLASMA FISTS!"
Heavy raised his arms to grab at Zeraora as the wolf raised his hands in preparation to slam them down upon the metal helmet. Quickly realizing that Heavy would not be fast enough to stop this, Launcher raised his weapon to fire another Ground-Type grenade. A swift kick to the side of his abdomen stopped this, sending him sprawling across the ground on his face.
When he raised his head, Launcher was met with the sight of an oncoming Genesect. He shot at her without hesitation, and in turn, she shifted her arm into a cannon and fired a gleaming ball of concentrated flame. The two grenades exploded thunderously, clouding the area with smoke.
A deafening thunderclap shook the ground, telling Launcher of Heavy's fate. The crack on his helmet prevented him from looking at Heavy's vital signs. He pulled himself back to his feet as Genesect crossed through the smoke, peering at her cannon arm.
"What was that?" He rasped.
Raising her cannon to her face, she asked, "Oh, this? Why, this is your own data. Those grenades of yours certainly come in handy. It's a shame that your old design did not come with the elemental grenades, but my Type-based incorporation technology should bridge that gap in time."
Launcher scoffed. "That was meant to be one of my grenades? It was merely an orb of raw energy."
"As I said," Began Genesect, taking a step toward him, "I made some creative upgrades to your data. Although I did not have the elements, I was able to keep the plain energy together in orb form even without metal like your grenades."
Chuckling, Launcher replied, "That would certainly save us some extra costs. My superiors would appreciate being able to allocate that metal to other projects." His boot crushed the ground beneath him as he stomped toward Genesect. "Surely you met the survivor in that lab when finding our data. How do you fancy the same treatment?"
Genesect let out a harrowing laugh in response. "Now, that would be quite a sight, wouldn't it?" Slowly, she brought up her arm cannon. In turn, Launcher did the same with his grenade launcher. "But I don't think I'll be allowing that. Instead, how about I pry you apart like a toy? You're more machine than human, just like how I'm more machine than Pokemon. How much would it hurt, I wonder, for you to…"
She slowly trailed off upon hearing pained screams. In wake of the clearing smoke, Genesect could now see the result of Zeraora's attack. Heavy had managed to grab onto Zeraora after all, sporting only a large black, crumpled spot on his helmet for the trouble. Rolling her head, Genesect pointed her arm at the ground and fired.
Dashing from the new smoke cloud, Genesect sprinted toward Heavy. Noticing this, he allocated one hand to making a screen to ward her off. Heavy's eyes widened from within his helmet when she disappeared in a white blur. He felt two more impacts in his legs, but this time, managed to keep himself upright.
Zeraora pried at Heavy's hand. Slowly but surely, his fingers were becoming loose. Heavy faced him again, only to be met with the sight of Genesect's claw hurtling toward his visor. The impact of her Metal Claw attack knocked his head back, making him stagger as if drunk.
This allowed Zeraora to finally break free from his grasp and zip to safety. "Phew! Thanks for saving my hide back there!"
As Heavy leaned forward, he tried to grab at the two with his left hand. Noticing his right hand moving toward the dirt, Genesect shot herself at it and knocked it back with a Blaze Kick before backpedaling toward Zeraora's side to evade his retaliating swipe.
"I just didn't want your blood to stain his hands. It would be more difficult to put him down if he was slippery."
Giving her a look of disdain, Zeraora sarcastically replied, "How pragmatic of you. Well, luckily for you, that attack of mine wasn't for nothing. I managed to cave in part of his helmet. If we can break it, we can put him down without having to deal with those arms of his."
Kneeling down, Heavy brought up his rotating gun and turned it upon them.
"Although we'll still have to get around that."
Zeraora darted away once the stream of bullets came their way. To his horror, Genesect did not follow him. For some Arceus-forsaken reason, she stood her ground, spreading her legs and digging her heels into the ground. Her arm cannon and claw both changed into long blades, which began sparking with electricity.
"What are you doing?!" Cried Zeraora. "Don't underestimate that weapon! It'll tear you to pieces!"
Genesect merely chortled at the thought in amusement. "If this was enough to kill me, I would stand no chance against Ryder." The test of her reflexes was yet again a success. Even these bullets seemed slow to her once she focused on them. As they approached, she brought up her blades and began cutting away.
Orange sparks from shattered bullets went flying out in all directions like fireworks as Genesect sliced them to ribbons. The sound of metal on metal was like an unending, deafening rain. Zeraora's jaw dropped at the sight, but his attention was caught by something else behind her.
Emerging from the dwindling smoke cloud, Launcher aimed his weapon at Genesect's back. In a streak of light, Zeraora was upon him. Launcher flinched and attempted to swap the grenade to a Ground-Type one, but Zeraora kicked down his arm. The brief contact sent lightning coursing across Launcher's body. His armor was far less packed than Heavy's, and the damage it had already incurred allowed for that lightning to ravage him.
Before long, the bullet rain came to a stop, followed by rapid clicking. Heavy glanced up to see what had become of his target under that sea of sparks. Genesect held steady, keeping the same pose she had endured the bullet barrage with. Her blades had been chipped away, filled with cracks and holes. To Heavy's horror, those holes began to shrink, and the cracks filled themselves. In mere moments, it now seemed as if her blades had incurred no damage at all.
"What in the world?" Heavy mumbled aloud.
Genesect returned her blades to hands, which she ran along her chest to her arm. The countless machines running along her metal skin whirred and shifted at her touch. "That," She said, "Would be my nanomachines at work. Without a body of flesh, I could not recover from damage too great for Recover to work. Now, I no longer need it. They repair the wounds on their own and reshape my body into whatever is needed. This was how I made use of all the data I accumulated."
Smugly, she tilted her fingers toward herself twice to goad him into attacking. He responded by hurling his massive gun at her, then digging his hands into the ground and pulling up another geyser of rubble.
Genesect shattered the gun with a backhand before firing a Techno Blast into the oncoming dust to dispel it. Heavy plowed through the beam with a shoulder barge, protected by a screen barrier. Taken aback by his speed, Genesect hastily attempted to block the shoulder barge, only to find that she couldn't.
He smashed into her with the force of a thousand trucks, sending her crashing through dozens, if not hundreds of trees. When she finally came to a stop at the end of a long crater, she looked up to find him barreling after her in a full sprint. She met this challenge, dashing headfirst toward him.
Heavy's massive hands locked together with hers in a fearsome struggle of might. As he stared down into her eyes, for the first time in decades, Heavy felt a twinge of unease. "This ferocity. Where did you get it? If you truly are the one that got away, how did you transform into a monster like this?"
Genesect laughed in amusement at the question. "Ferocity? Monster? Why, I only learned from the best." Her grip tightened, making their clashing metal groan under the pressure. "You have a lot of nerve asking me that. I'll put everything you taught me to good use as I tear you limb from limb!"
In response, Heavy hoisted the smaller Genesect off of the ground and squeezed. "I don't think so. I've lasted too long to be taken out by you." With his massive hands, he began twisting Genesect's body. Sparks flew from her metal as loud cracking filled the air. One of her eyes flickered upon a particularly loud snap. A portion of the cannon on her back moved to her shoulder. Only when he was staring down its barrel did he release Genesect, but by then, it was too late.
A powerful Techno Blast crashed into him, and this time, he had no barrier to protect him. Even Heavy, as true to his moniker as he was, could not resist the beam. Albeit more slowly than Launcher, he was dragged across the ground, unable to regain his footing until the beam stopped. When it did, he was left with black marks all over his once shining armor.
When he returned his glance toward Genesect, to his horror, her lopsided torso rotated back into place. The various cracks on her body vibrated as countless tiny machines welded her scars back together. In a desperate attempt to stop her recovery, Heavy rushed at her with his fist pumped back. Her eyes snapped toward him, and she threw a punch of her own to meet his. Their fists collided thunderously, filling the air with the sound of ringing metal.
Genesect had met his strength equally. For the first time in decades, when Heavy stared down into Genesect's eyes, fear filled his veins. This shock froze him long enough for Genesect to leap up at him and grab him by the helmet. She hoisted the metal giant over her head before hurling him back toward the previous field of their battle. Digging her feet into the ground, she sped after him.
A sand-covered Zeraora narrowly leapt over a pressurized shockwave that drilled through the air where he had just been. The hot sand clung to his body like glue, making it difficult to summon electricity. However, he was far from defenseless. In the blink of an eye, Zeraora crossed the gap between himself and Launcher, managing to grasp his arm. As Zeraora tried pinning him to the ground, Launcher held up his hand.
Zeraora's eyes widened, and then, a shockwave crashed directly into his chest. He gasped for the air that vacated itself from his lungs upon impact and was sent hurtling across the ground. "Damn nuisance," Hissed Launcher. Holding two fingers at Zeraora as if his hand were a gun, Launcher wasted no time talking to the wolf while he was down.
"You would save yourself more trouble by staying down," He said as his two fingertips lifted to reveal a red-hot, smoking interior within his glove. As Zeraora tried to regain his footing, he found himself clutching at his chest in pain. "All of you will die within the month. The plan is reaching its conclusion. Killing you now would be a mercy. At least then, you would not have to witness the death of the rest of your kind all at once-"
Heavy crashed into his side, making Launcher's arm crumple like a leaf. Zeraora watched with wide eyes as the two flew across the ground before crashing into it in a heap. He flinched when Genesect stomped into the ground in front of him before leaping at the two while they were still down. Her cannon lit green, and though Heavy lifted an arm to produce a protective screen, the two were consumed by an emerald light and a resounding explosion.
"Shake that sand off of you," She ordered. "I'll need you to finish them off."
By now, Zeraora was in no mood to argue. "Y-yeah." Standing to his feet, he rubbed the sand out of his fur.
Heavy came barreling out of the explosion in a shoulder barge. In response, Genesect merely tilted her body to allow Zeraora to fire a Zap Cannon that rocketed past her, crashing into him. Though it did not damage him, it was enough to keep him still for a moment. Genesect locked onto the helmet wound Zeraora had inflicted earlier and leapt at it with Metal Claw.
Rolling out from the flames, Launcher fired a grenade at her. It exploded violently, sending her flying back. Her eyes burned red with hunger. She quickly recovered, sprinting forward even as she was launched back until the momentum faded and allowed her to race at Launcher. As Zeraora tried to shoot a Thunderbolt at him from the back, Heavy stepped in the way to shield him before charging at Zeraora like a mad bull.
Launcher aimed his hand at her. Or, he tried to. To his shock, his other arm would not respond. When he glanced down at it, it swung limply from side to side amidst the winds kicked up by the flames. Genesect was upon him, relentlessly poking at every weak spot on his armor she could find. It wasn't long before she broke through and pierced his flesh, even if only a small amount. He drove his limp arm into her with as much force as he could muster, then backed off.
He was given only a split second before her fiery gaze was upon him once more. Soon, her claws would follow. He raised his arm and shot a Fire-Type grenade point blank, smothering them both. Through those flames, Genesect's claw swiped for his head, but he managed to duck under it and kick at her sides. The petty attack did little more than knock her away, but it gave him the distance he needed. Again and again, he launched more of the Fire-Type grenades at her.
The explosions carried him further away. He rolled along the ground, curled in the shape of a ball. As he dragged along the ground to a slow stop, he tried shooting another Fire-Type grenade into the flames, only to hear a click. Genesect flew from the flames at him. In desperation, he rapidly fired whatever grenades he could at her. It didn't matter what the element was. They were all that stood between him and Genesect.
Genesect plunged headfirst into them. The relentless explosions of colliding elements washed over her body, but they hardly slowed her down for even a moment. Before long, Genesect hovered over Launcher with her claw inches from him. He raised his grenade launcher at her head, but she was faster. In one swift movement, she drove her claw into his throat and held him high. The drive on the back of her cannon turned yellow, and then a thrashing, gurgling Launcher was electrocuted through the wound in his neck.
Hearing Launcher's gurgling on comms, Heavy's attention shot toward him. "No!" He cried. Helplessly, he watched on as Launcher's vitals slowly faded. He knew that there was no saving him.
Cruelly, Genesect lowered the voltage to keep him alive for just a bit longer. Swapping her free claw into a hand, she dug her fingers into his visor and began prying it off. She wanted to look into the eye of a fellow monster, and to see the life fade from those monstrous eyes.
Even Zeraora found it hard to watch. Not often did he think about the lives he potentially ended. After all, humanity never displayed any mercy to him. If they died, they died. If not, lucky them. His attacks were always quick and to the point, just like a bolt of lightning. Seeing electricity being used for such a torturously slow purpose disturbed him to no end.
"That's enough! Just finish him!"
As he looked on at the slow execution of his brother in arms, Heavy could hear the warning words of Ryder ringing in his ears. He couldn't withdraw, and there was no spare backup to call. He was alone. Between Genesect and Ryder, Heavy did not know which death would be more painful.
The giant man's breath became ragged, and he unconsciously took a step back. He didn't know what he was doing. All he knew was that he couldn't stay here. Turning his back on Launcher, Heavy ran for the trees and did not look back.
Noticing this, Zeraora cried, "Hey! Get back here!"
He attempted to give chase until the charred remains of Launcher was hurled in his path. When he gave Genesect a questioning look, she said, "He is easy prey. We can hunt him down later if we like. However, you strike me as the vengeful type."
Raising an eyebrow at her, Zeraora asked, "How do you figure?"
She shrugged as she walked near, planting her foot atop Launcher's head. "It takes one to know one, I suppose. Either way…" She pointed her claw ahead. Zeraora followed her gaze to the city that laid ahead, now in clear view without any trees in the way. "…My data tells me that we will achieve greater vengeance there."
Then, she crushed what was underfoot.
Author's Note:
Pokextinction Fact of the Day: The Grunts of the Nova Branch actually aren't considered much higher than a Rocket Grunt. They're like foot soldiers in our own world. Recently, getting into a Nova Branch position, at least as a bottom rank, has been much easier than it was before the war against Necrozma. People in the main part of Team Rocket can request a transfer to the Branch since they're technically the same organization.
However, this makes Team Rocket Grunts lose their Pokemon and undergo boot camp like training. Although mostly done in bases, most forests being devoid of Pokemon allows for easy uses of those locations for training.
Before the war, the Nova Branch was vastly smaller, only being utilized by Giovanni for very niche reasons such as tech regarding security or research into Legendary Pokemon. Experiments such as Zero were not solely carried out by the Branch, seeing that ex-Galactic scientist Charon was the one leading it. At the time, the Nova Branch was only responsible for proposing the idea and monitoring its progress. Ryder and his armored personnel were funded by the central part of the organization for unknown reasons.
Since the Branch was so small for a long time, entering it was much harder to do. It was mostly a word-of-mouth thing. You would know about it only by being decently high ranking in Team Rocket itself, and at that ranking, you had the power to offer personnel that ranked below you to the other branches. Mostly, it was those within the Branch requesting promising personnel. Now, it has ballooned to the point that it can hire anyone and keep them on a need to know basis, so the average Grunt knows very little of its inner workings and likely won't be rising through the ranks.
The Creator: Nanomachines, son. They harden in response to physical trauma AND let you change the shape and size of your weapons.
This was a fun one to write. I got very creative this chapter, both with the introduction of Heavy and the debut of Genesect's upgraded form. Her new red color stems from two purposes. The first is to honor her old leader, the strongest warrior she ever knew. The second was to make sure any messes she makes won't stick out.
Hydra: Launcher had a very brutal end, but in light of all he's done to others in the past it's fitting. It's crazy looking back on things how Genesect went from a scared little girl to a bloodthirsty monster. There seems to be no semblance to who she once was.
To the reviews.
G: Good chapter, so Ash, Serena, Tobias and Latias were to investigate Mahogany town for some apparent mysterious pokemon in this places, and even met to Lance and Claire during their mission. But the most interesting finding was to see that the group discovered that Tobias was harboring an Ultra beast with him; Poipole.
Well, was interesting and satisfactory to see the argument between Latias and Tobias, as both certainly need to vent their frustrations mutually, to could finally releases some tension and could be open each other, allowing Latias and Tobias tell the other about themselves. And personally, was interesting found that Tobias is the brother of Alice, the girl of Alamos town from Pokemon 10 movie, well this can explains several things about Tobias, particulary his Darkrai, as this helped us to understand more about him, as Tobias was always a mysterious trainer with Legendary pokemon. Personally, i would likes that the anime would gives us more details about Tobias, than leaves him in the mystery.
As other point, was interesting as well to finds that the Ultra beasts that survived the war were trying to fixes the damages and tries to patches some old resentments, even they revealed that was Necrozma whom instigated or even forced them to this ruthless crusade against the worlds. Well, it is sad to see that as result of this war, now the Ultra beasts are considered like demons for the pokemons and humans alike, as result of this war that caused heavy casualties, a war orchestrated by Necrozma, making that now the Ultra beasts that are regreted for their actions, are paying the consequences. Well, this are one of the negative aspects that brings the war; the fear, distrust, resentment and even bigotry, especially if your people suffered a great tragedy.
But to considers this finding, after saw the initial reaction of Latias, i wonder if this could means some risk or possible future incident with this Ultra beasts, i mean, to considers that some of the remaining Legendary pokemon became more ruthless, merciless and even twisted as consequences of this conflicts, i wonder what could happens if some of this Legendary pokemon finds this Ultra beasts, particulary Keldeo, Giratina and Lugia, whom suffered more as result of the actions of Necrozma. I just hope that this don't end causing some possible civil war, especially if they learned that Ash already knows about this Ultra beasts, as this could makes that Ash loses their respect, as they could see him like a traitor for be "helping the enemy".
And talking about Lugia, regarding to your question Hydra, could be interesting and difficult this analysis, because to takes in account several points about Lugia, we should analyzes since the beginning about the downfall of Lugia to his current behavior. First, Necrozma attacked and destroyed his home, adding that mutilated him to rips off one of his blue scales, crippling his flying in some level and humilliating him. Second, as result of this destruction, the lies of Christopher Lee and that Arceus ended being forced to undo his support to the ungrateful people, brought as consequence that the people that used to worships the Legendary birds and Lugia, end seeing them like demons and monsters, especially as result of that Moltres burned severely to Harper and Lugia caused a rampage against them for invaded their islands, without count that learned about that Arceus undo his support caused that Lugia begin to harbors some animosity toward him, making that Lugia begin to question his loyalty toward Arceus. And third, Lugia showed us that he become more ruthless and merciless to deals with his opponents and enemies, showed when he had to Lee to his mercy, yet he killed him in cold blood than simply captures him, showing that Lugia became a bloodthristy pokemon that is prone to kills his enemies than considers other options, much like Punisher of Marvel.
Well, to analyzes this points, i thinks that he couldn't become like he used to be, because Lugia proved that he is now a pokemon with a notable grudge in the heart, to the point of be ruthless to deals with his enemies, and even harbors some resentment toward Arceus and possibly Mew for blames them for his loses, as Arceus undo his support in the islands and Mew do not participated in the war and had the nerve of be joking as if all this was a game, making unlikely that Lugia can be the same one again, even if Ash tries to helps him. I says this because we could compares Lugia with Latias, as the latter also suffered several loses, in the Necrozma's war and against Nova Branch, yet Latias didn't become ruthless to the point of lose the control like Lugia, as she showed still has self-control and a relatively intact moral compass, to not attack brutally or outright to tries kills Tobias when discovered Poipole, showing that Latias do not fell too deep into Dark side. But Lugia showed don't has qualms in be aggresive and out of control against his enemies, adding that i could bet that if we replaces Latias for Lugia in this chapter, Tobias would be killed, and the Ultra beast territory devastated, making me thinks that Lugia couldn't be the same pokemon that he was again, to considers all his grudges and hatred.
To finishes, i wonder when we could see the fated and waited battle between Burned man and Moltres, as i really want to know that could happens in this confrontation, as maybe the Burned man could considers to kills Moltres during the battle, but to considers his pain and suffering, maybe the Burned man thinks in a more cruel punishment and revenge against Moltres than simply kills him; strips the bird from the fire type, as maybe the Burned man want to takes away something of Moltres, like the bird did with him, and perhaps could uses some experimental weapon to neutralizes his fire type, leaving Moltres without his flames, turning him only in Flying type, to could humilliates the former Fire bird for burnt him so bad.
Keep the good job.
The Creator: I agree so much about what you said about Tobias. I thought he was so cool as a kid. He must have had some crazy adventures to get those Legendary Pokemon, I thought. Being able to express those thoughts has been liberating, and it's part of why I used Tobias as a prominent character to begin with.
Yeah, the tale of the Ultra Beasts is such a tragedy. Preyed upon the wrong creature as a natural instinct, accidentally created the most destructive force in existence, became enslaved by that force for millions if not billions of years to wage war and conquer or destroy other worlds purely on the whim of your master, finally lose a war and become stranded on the hostile planet that beat you, become the most hated entities on that world just for being beasts, and…well, the tragedy won't end there.
Hydra: Good answer on Lugia, he certainly is shaping up to be a monster himself, let's just hope he doesn't become too far gone like Genesect if that were to happen well… the world might be in serious danger. Have you started to notice the pattern with the legends yet? Each one is becoming more bloodthirsty and doing questionable acts. Now I gotta ask you about Keldeo. Do you think he's just like Lugia or is there still hope for him?
SilverWolf1130: Order 66 for the Legendaries is coming. I can sense it… and it's gonna be brutal…
I do like how you made Tobias an actual character and not the punching bag for Ash most fics portray him as.
Latias, you're walking (floating?) a dangerous road here…
Curious about when Harper is gonna get his rematch with Moltres. Feels like it's been built up for awhile.
Curious as to when Reshiram is gonna show up and if she'll get revenge (every Legendary seems to want that) or will she end up with much worse than a scar?
Regarding who my favorite character in the story is (can't remember if I ever said who) is probably Christopher Lee cause he's such a bastard but he's such a good villain. Such a scheming bastard who doesn't rush his plans at all. He takes things nice and slow. He wants to attack when the time is right, like a predator in the bushes. He wants to savor this feeling of making his enemies suffer as much as possible. To show that the human race is superior to all others. As much as I detest the Arceus movie, I think Lee has an interesting backstory. It shows humanity's own "Immortality" through their Will they'd pass on from generations to generations. An "Immortality" to rival the Legendaries' own. Lee's family line has had this thing planned for a long loooong time… and now the Legendaries are seeing that humans… are the most dangerous creatures on the planet…
Regarding who my least favorite character is. Probably Serena though that's probably because of how I see her in the anime… it's like "Why are you here? What are you contributing?" I just really don't like Serena. Maybe I should reread the story but I just haven't grown attached to her at all. Sorry.
Yeah. I think Lugia is unsalvageable and I think his reckless actions are gonna come back to bite him in the ass eventually, which is sad cause Lugia is one of my favorite Legendaries…
The Creator: That point about Tobias is yet another reason I portrayed him as I did. Most fics that use Tobias portray him as a villain when the show never did. He was shown to be a good sport and commended Ash for his efforts. I wanted to expand on that without him being an overpowered ally.
I can only say that the Legends will have their time in the light. They just might not like the source of that light.
Honestly, I understand why Serena is your least favorite. Her shortcomings are the work of bad planning on my end, more specifically around the beginning of the story. Most of the beginning had no plan, and her role in the story is part of that.
Hydra: Whoa whoa whoa Creator are you implying that we currently do have a plan? Because if you are you would be lying and I don't like liars and I'm sure silver wolf here doesn't like it either. But yeah It's a shame to see what happened to Reshiram. She's always been one of my favorites and I was quite surprised when you guys noticed the irony between how she acted compared with her angel like appearance.
yaabbccd3: "yeah... i actually agree with case of mew atleast... she is like that in anime too... no tention or responsibility for others life... how many people lose their lives it doesn't seem to concern mew…"
The Creator: Mew always seemed to live to the best of her own drum. A drum that played so loudly no one could hear the other drums of everyone else.
Hydra: And only now is it coming back to bite her. I guess it's a good thing she finally started caring about anyone at all or there might've been another Necrozma on the loose.
BritishVulture: "Hello, boys! I'm baaaack!
This time there's not going to be an explanation, because we'd be here all day. Just know that I've committed the ultimate heresy in finding a game that does something similar to Pokémon, but so much better. No, I will not say which game it is.
Finally got to see my favourite Ultra Beast, Naganadel! Even if it wasn't the longest interaction, I still got to see it! Also, Xurkitree isn't being fully honest, I think. I'm of the mind that, while he is being honest to some degrees, he's doing what he's doing more out of pragmatism and 'this has good consequences, this has bad' more than anything.
That scene between Tobias and Latias was nice and fairly emotional. (Also, seeing as I've focused more on the Pokémon more than anything, I will state that the Pokémon-Human Relationship fan-concept is something I don't mind, but don't get involved in. I am against harems, though).
Prediction Time!: Seems there will be a clash near or in Goldenrod City and we'll finally get to see Zeraora, Genesect and Ash and Co., meet properly!
Honestly, Team Rocket is becoming more and more… disturbing. Last I checked, they didn't call the commanding officer 'Master' until recently, so it may be going from Team Rocket to Cult Rocket.
Monster Hunter Trivia: (Yes, I'm going these now, fight me) Despite what some of the abilities shown in game may look like, just about every monster uses biological adaptions and otherwise non-magical means to do what they do. The exceptions are the Crossover Monsters like Behemoth (Final Fantasy XIV). Another exception is the Black Dragons, who include Merphistepholin and Fatalis."
The Creator: Let me guess. Monster Hunter Stories 2?
Not inaccurate about Xurkitree, although it paints him as "Logos painted as Pathos" if that makes sense. Is that all there is, or…? Hmm.
While Pokemon and Humans were said to once marry each other, I really can't imagine Latias participating in something like that. Glad you liked the emotional aspects though.
Keep your breath bated. The show is far from over.
(Don't worry. I like Monster Hunter and its lore too.) I want Shantien to return badly. It would work as the child of Narwa and Ibushi, and more importantly, more people need to recognize its glorious theme song. Seriously, listen to its fourth phase theme.
Hydra: Oh goodness they just end up renaming to the cult of Giovanni or something creepy. Pokemon sacrifices anyone? I'm curious as to how your liking Genesect after reading this chapter? Do you like her as a bloodthirsty monster or the shy little kid who "just wanted to go home"?
The Creator: Next chapter, we'll be seeing what Ryder meant when he said his master was on an errand. We'll also be seeing Xerneas once more. Will those cases be related, or will the truth be even more shocking?
Hydra: Bada bing bada boom that ends this chapter for you. Random Question to you all, what are your thoughts on Rayquaza and Xerneas as well as how they've progressed as characters? Is it funny seeing Rayquaza go from the lord of the skies to babysitter of his reborn charge and are you surprised by how motherly and caring Xerneas seems to be? I look forward to hearing your thoughts next time!