//------------------------------// // Ch. 17 The Old Me, and The New Guy // Story: Misunderstood and Mutated // by TheGoldenDragon //------------------------------// As the mane six and Spike met me in the library. All of them with one prevalent question; Why had I yelled like that?... Well, except for Pinkie who seemed to be thinking about five different thing at once, the only relevant one was, “I wonder who Brain is going to tell us about.” ”To answer your questions,” I said, “I was yelling because Spike’s greed seems to have been accelerated, by the creatures I’m going to tell you about.” I said while floating around lazily. “But what does that have ta do with them knowin’ somethin’?” Applejack asked. “Very astute,“ I said, ”This is going to be a doozy so you may want to sit down.” They all sat down in preparation for this story time. ”See back when I first arrived in Equestria, I was very different person. In fact the first five years I had almost zero moral restraints. I did everything in my power to stay free; true mind control, maiming, psychic torture, and even cold blooded murder.” They all showed different levels of shock, Fluttershy’s face almost broke my heart, but I continued, ”What I saw when I went into Spike’s mind reminded me of one of my most common tactics, I would screw with a member of the guards and make them act erratically. Then at the first sign of any further psychic manipulations, such as Luna’s dream walking, a recorded psychic message would be implanted in the intruder’s mind. This would usually be used as a distraction to send them on a wild goose chase.” They all shared looks, trying to figure out how to collectively respond. ”Spike had a message left for me by the Spirits of Existence, Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf. From what Luna has told me and a bit of guesswork, they were the first Arceus sent to this world to make a cult that would summon him here, that plan failed for some reason, and now they’re calling me out.” “But couldn’t it be a trap?” asked Rainbow Dash, giving me a rare look at her military thinking. I rubbed my head as I thought of how to respond, ”More than likely, I can probably hold off on finding them. Individually I could crush them, but together their psychic abilities surpass mine. I need to be careful and plan this out, they will be more than patient with me if their history is any indication.” Any further questions were cut short as an explosion was heard outside the library, followed by several screams. I teleported to the town square to find a Genesect blasting holes into every building he saw. ”Can’t this town go five minutes without something blowing up?!” I angrily asked. Immediately the cyborg pokemon turned around as I mentally heard a cacophony of ones and zeros, “01010100 01100001 01110010 01100111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01000001 01100011 01110001 01110101 01101001 01110010 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01000110 01101001 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01000011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101110” Not only was I blasted with a fire infused Techno Blast, but the string of numbers gave me quite the headache. I tumbled through eventually stopping after smashing through a few trees on the border of the Everfree. As I lifted myself up I found something sticking out of one of the trunks that wasn’t a massive splinter, but instead what looked like a metal sculpture that could fit in my palm, with a blue gem in the ‘head’ and the sculpture looking vaguely like a letter of some kind. I picked it up mostly out of curiosity, and I heard a voice proclaim, “If you need help with a psychotic god, robot gone rogue, or just want to spar, feel free to call upon Omega, the God of Destruction!” I sighed as I saw Genesect charging towards me and reach out through the statue, ”I’m not sure about the psychotic part, but I could use your help Omega.” As Genesect was almost on top of me, a flash of blue descended down and I heard a vicious clang of metal striking metal. The cyborg Pokemon was brought to a halt as it steadily tried to charge at me, but the man in front of me held it in place, the man clad in a red vest, white shorts, and an oddly colored red-and-gold set of boots, gloves, and helmet. “Not exactly sure who the hell summoned me,” The man growled as he continued to grapple with Genesect, before a chuckle came out and he continued to say, “But you certainly seem like a challenge!” “01001111 01100010 01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01000110 01101001 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000110 01101100 01100001 01110011 01101000 00100000 01000011 01100001 01101110 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101110” Genesect stated before the cannon on its back began to glow, and the man threw Genesect to the side before the attack was fired, and a stream of energy tore through several stalls. ”I’m the one that summoned you.” I said telepathically, but the man seemed to ignore me as he drew his gun from a holster and flicked, making the gun become straight and a triangular blade of energy come out with a hiss. “Now’s as good a time as any to try out my new EX Skill,” The man commented to himself, before he swept his saber down in an arc and cried out “Zan’eidan!” At this proclamation, a giant blade-shaped wave shot out and slammed into Genesect, leaving a large gash in its side and making the Legendary Pokemon screech in pain. I rubbed my head as my hands ignited with the power of Fire Punch, and told him telepathically, ”Okay, that’s kind of the spirit but try to avoid hitting anything around him, if you had been just slightly off, you would have leveled Sugarcube Corner.” This last statement seemed to draw the man’s attention, but that thought was quickly quashed as he drew a second gun and switched it into its blade form, then said aloud with a vicious grin, “So I have to fight two Legendaries?! It must be either my lucky day, or I’m about to get my ass handed to me.” I moved back slightly, Great. First creature I find that I can’t communicate easily with, and he seems to be about as violent as I was when I first came to Equestria. I then focused my telepathic connection to him to point of almost screaming, ”BACK OFF! I’m the one that called you here.” This time the message seemed to get through, as the man stumbled back before looking at me with a wary eye. “So you’re the one who summoned me?” He said, and I nodded before he frowned. “Give me a second,” He said, and his eyes seemed to flicker off for a few seconds before turning back on and he told me, “Alright, I think I’ll be able to hear you now.” I sighed again and turned back to Genesect as he tried to raise himself off the ground, ”I have no idea why I couldn’t establish a proper link, I do it subconsciously and it’s never required that much effort. And this guy is giving me only binary.” I finished by pointing a finger at the bug and launching a Fire Blast, knocking it to the ground again. “Have you ever done it on someone whose mind is inorganic?” He asked, and I shook my head. ”Not many of those around here. None that I actually know of.” “Well, there’s your problem.” The man said as he pointed at himself and said, “Ever since I was… transformed,” He paused for a few seconds, as if deep in thought, before continuing, “my mind has been nothing but coding for me, leaving me with many a mental difference. Hell, the only reason I’m picking you up is that your telepathy seems to be detectable on the same frequencies as a radio. As for him...” At this, he pointed at Genesect, and paused for a few seconds before asking, “Just to check, but didn’t Team Plasma mess with him when they made him Bug/Steel?” ”That would make sense, but he was sent by Arceus. Aparently I’ve really pissed that particular god-like being off.” “Heh, join the club.” He said, before frowning at Genesect. “However,” The man said after a few seconds, “If I recall correctly, Team Plasma had modified Genesect for the sole purpose of combat, and restricted him of anything else. As such…” He paused for a few seconds, before finally saying aloud, “I suspect that Genesect has only one mindset: That of a war machine.” ”If you believe the anime and movies, they made five.” I said. Not a second later, Genesect cut in again saying,“01010000 01110010 01101001 01101101 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01010011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101111 00100000 01000100 01100001 01101101 01100001 01100111 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01010000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110010 00101110” ”That is REALLY giving me a headache,” I yelled, teleporting over to it and charging up another Fire Blast, only to be cut short as it grabbed me by the throat. “Don’t charge in headfirst, greenhorn!” The man said as he slashed clean through Genesect’s arm, the Pokemon letting out another screech as I fell to the ground and the man jumped on its back. “Now, let’s see if my theory is right!” He shouted, sheathing his blade before slamming his open palm on Genesect’s cannon. This made Genesect let out a piercing scream as its cannon and the man’s arm glowed with vivid blue lines for a few seconds before grabbing him with its remaining arm and throwing him off, sending the man through Sugarcube Corner in the process. I charged up another Fire Blast, this time twice the normal size and shouted at the man, ”I’m not a greenhorn!” As the star of fire hit Genesect’s torso from point-blank, blackening and melting some of the metal and Genesect screeched in horror again, ”It’s the stream of Binary coming from this thing that’s giving me a migraine!” “Meh, I’ll take the excuse this time,” The man said as he jumped through Sugarcube’s broken wall and looked at Genesect, “But I think we can both agree that teleporting to where it can easily grab you was a rookie mistake.” I sighed, holding the mangled Genesect in my telekinetic grasp, and said, ”Anyway, he’s not in much shape to fight anymore. Every instinct I have tells me to end him, but I really just want to eject him from the universe, less mess.” “That is true,” The man said as he drew his pistol, “But I think that we best put him out of his misery before doing so.” Before I could say anything, he pointed his pistol at Genesect, and said aloud, “Techno Blast.” With this said, he pulled the trigger and a stream of violet energy tore through the air, easily ripping through Genesect’s head and killing the legendary Pokemon instantly. I looked down at what little remained, and used Will-O-Wisp to destroy the remains, ”I think that was the first time I participated in a death in over a thousand years.” “You get used to it,” The man said, then tilted his head as the sounds of puking began to fill the air and smirked, “Though I think it’s best you get the civies used to it. After all, if this is the vanguard, then they better get ready to see blood and bodies fly when the main force gets here.” I shook my head, ”I don’t plan on letting it get to that. This isn’t just an invasion we’re talking about, Arceus seems to be breaking some kind of rule of the multiverse and want’s to override what’s already here so he can’t risk sending a full invasion just yet. I’m just the biggest obstacle at the moment.” It was then that I noticed who had vomited, both Fluttershy and Rarity who were now being attended to by Twilight. She gave me a look that screamed How could you bring this here. As the man turned to see who had vomited, though, he came to a stop upon seeing the three, and his sneer quickly became a mix between a grimace and a snarl. “I’d recommend you send me back now,” The man said, his voice and arm shaking with anger, “before I do something that will gravely make you regret summoning me.” I knew what he meant, during my first five years just the mention of the princesses would make me act that way. ”Fine, our contract is complete, but remember that that type of rage can only hurt yourself, no matter how many you maim or kill, it can only end in your suffering.” “I know that the main populace isn’t responsible for that,” The man snarled, his eyes seeming to appear a bright red as he remembered whatever caused this hatred, “But still… I can’t help but feel anger around them, especially if they are the ‘pilots’ of Celestia’s WMD.” I waved goodbye as I gave him one last tip, ”They’re their own individuals, if you don’t keep them as your enemies they won’t fire on you.” The man stiffened at this, and darkly chuckled before telling me, “As long as they ally themselves with him or those two, there’s no way that they aren’t my enemies. Especially not after what they did.” However, before he could say anything more, he disappeared in a flash of blue light, leaving me standing next to a pile of ash that used to be alive and a town with some decent property damage.