Aizen, Sabrina, Riley, and Phoebe met at the Tree of Beginning at Blanc Island, and from there, they directly Vein Travelled to the Tree of Beginning in Ransei, the region that lay south of both Orre and Unova.
The four of them smiled a little when they came out of the Tree and looked at the sun that was rising in this part of the world.
They took deep breaths, feeling refreshed, and then called out their Pokémon, climbed onto their backs, heading to the coordinates where Edison's Laboratory was located in Orre.
The three Aerodactyl, led by an Alpha Aerodactyl, flew as fast as they could, and almost eight hours later, having flown over the vast desert, with scorching heat all around them, they reached their destination.
Edison's Laboratory was hidden in the northwest part of the Region, in the green hills, only an hour away from the border of the Ferrum Region, which was further west.
Hidden under the shade of tall aline trees, and built inside a hill, it truly was a secret laboratory which could not be spotted from the sky.
The door was big enough, modern, metallic in white and brown, and seemed like a door to a proper research facility.
There were even Pokémon guarding this place. Houndoom, Zoroark, and the Bugs that stayed in the woods, in the terraces on the hill, and they already had their attention.
The Pokémon were alarmed by their sudden arrival but calmed down when Aizen and Riley revealed their auras and conveyed their sincere feelings.
Aizen also silently called out Gengar from the Promise Ball, and the Ghost Pokémon immediately merged with his Shadow.
Phoebe had her own Mega Gengar in her Shadow, and she led the way to the front door of the Laboratory, which was painted red.
A mechanical eye on the door suddenly opened, looked at the four of them, scanned them, and then closed.
They soon heard several clicks, and then the door opened on its own, catching them by surprise at how thick it was, and even the walls were a couple of feet thick.
This place was a fortress.
As soon as they stepped inside, the door behind them closed on its own, the wheel twisted, locks clicked, and Aizen smiled when he noticed a little girl with dark cyan hair, who was probably only seven years old, sneakily looking at them from a wall down the tunnel-aisle.
She had two cute little Pokémon with her, a Plusle and a Minun, and both were acting just like her; curious and nervous.
"Hey," He gently called out to her, and she immediately bolted away in panic.
However, only a minute later, she returned, hiding behind a lady who was barely thirty years old, and who had green eyes and brown hair.
The woman lightly smiled at him.
"Hi. I am Lily, and this is my daughter, Jovi."
"Aizen," He greeted her back with a polite nod, and she relaxed after she heard his name. "Has Krane come back?" He enquired.
"Yes. He is working on something inside the Engineering Unit right now."
Her words made them all curious, and after Riley, Phoebe, and Sabrina introduced themselves to her, she led them downstairs, revealing that the real facility was built underground.
Lily led them to the Engineering Unit, dozens of metres below, and on their way, they learned that she too was an Engineer and a Scientist.
Edison and she had been working together since they were kids, and they had built this place about ten years ago.
"What is he working on?"
Seeing Krane through the glassed wall, they found him behaving as if he was possessed by something. His hands deftly typed things on the holographic keyboard, and his eyes were analysing all the data on the screens in front of him. He was not even blinking as he consumed the information as if his life depended on it.
There was also a large cylindrical machine in the centre of the room, connected with dozens of tubes, and its glassed parts were blinking blue.
"Purify Chamber," Lily informed them and then asked her daughter to tell Mr. Mime to prepare their lunch for eight people.
After little Jovi left, she explained to them what a Purify Chamber was.
"My husband died for this. The Purify Chamber can help purify the Shadow Pokémon. He had been working on it with me for the past three years, and to make it truly work, we needed all the data on Shadow Pokémon Research. We were slowly gathering the data by hacking into the systems of Cipher, but I don't know what he suddenly found on their servers that shook him so much. He did not say a word to me, and left thr very evening, telling me that he had to do something very important..." her voice broke. "He promised he would come back by dawn. He did not return..."
"Any idea where he went?" Riley asled, and Lily nodded her head, wiping the tear away from her cheek.
"He infiltrated the main hideout of Cipher, and I received a message from him, a voice note, an hour before dawn. Our systems received all the data on Shadow Pokémon that he transferred over from the hideout. All this data was encrypted, and he said that only Krane would be able to unlock it."
"Is he trying to unlock that data right now?" Phoebe glanced at Krane, but saw Lily shake her head.
"No," she wiped away anothertl tear and managed to smile. "He has already unlocked it and is now working on perfecting the Purify Chamber."
"Ohh..."
"May I listen to the voice note that your husband sent to you?" Aizen frowned and asked, and Lily nodded her head before taking out her cell phone and playing her husband's last message.
"Lily... I am sorry..." The man sounded like he was very hurt, and his voice sounded a lot like that of Krane, just a nkde deeper. "Tell Michael and Jovi that I love them... I found something Lily, but you must not access it without Krane. The data is encrypted, and only he can access it. They... those scums... they stole Lugia's child! I failed to save it. Lily... I failed to save it... and they have succeeded..."
As soon as they heard those words, chills ran up their spines, but Edison had more to share.
"They also have the DNA of Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno...the DNA of Galarian Guardians and other Guardians too... they intend to clone them and create successful Shadow Guardians... Cipher is not on this alone... they are working for someone... it's an Organisation called Doom, led by the Shadow General..." The man coughed and groaned in pain. "They arr trying to find Ho-Oh's DNA..."
The rest of the message was his apology to his wife for failing her and leaving her behind. And some instructions.
Edison strictly told her to not trust anyone but Krane, and to not make any calls or send out any messages. Everything was being traced in this region.
Hearing the message all over again, Lily leaned back against the wall and lowered her head, blankly staring at the floor.
However, hearing some familiar steps, she immediately schooled her expressions and managed to put a smile on her lips.
"Mama."
It was a young boy, around nine of ten years old, with dark brown, almost reddish hair and green eyes.
On his left arm was some sort of bionic device, however, Aizen could see the boy's Aura and tell that this arm was absolutely fine.
"Michael." Lily smiled at him. "We have some guests here. They are your Uncle Krane's friends."
"Hi! I am Phoebe." The Ghost Master cheerfully greeted the boy, and then Riley and Aizen introduced themselves.
Michael seemed like a quiet boy, and his eyes were a little dull, probably because of the loss of his father. It was amazing how well he eas holding himself and how polite he was.
"So, what's this?" Riley curiously asked the boy.
"It's a Snag Machine." The boy smiled.
"And what does a Snag Machine do?" Phoebe closely inspected it, traced it with her fingers as if trying to learn its secrets.
"It helps you steal other people's Pokémon. Well, Pokéballs specifically... and overwrite the data on them," the boy happily informed them, but then his voice lowered and had touch of melancholy, "...the bad guys use it."
"So, you are a bad guy?" Aizen amusedly asked, and Michael innocently shook his head.
"No, no... I just..."
"His father gifted it to him," Lily informed them. "The technology belongs to Cipher. They use it to steal Pokémon, keep Shadow Pokémon under control, and to keep their own Pokéballs secure."
"How does this work?" Phoebe asked, and Lily patiently explained everything.
Michael then showed the group the storage of the Snag Machine, located on the shoulder, forming a shoulder guard, and inside it, one could easily store about eight inactive Pokéballs.
There was also another variant, which had an additional storage around the chest, forming an armour over the heart, and there, you could store two dozen inactive Pokéballs.
The device also had a health monitoring system, and an alarm system, which would come into effect if a person inhaled or consumed Shadow Energies. There was also a Bioelectric Pulse System inside the Snag Machine, which would prevent the user from falling into a state of confusion by tasing them.
It was truly a marvellous piece of technology, and they were quite fascinated by it.
"All Cipher agents have these on them, and they can easily steal Pokéballs of the other trainers..." Lily dreadfully warned them, and they all nodded their heads, letting her know that they would be very careful.
Later, when Krane finally stopped analysing the data, he came out of the Unit and thinly smiled at them.
"Hey."
"Get some rest, Krane." The Orayen Prince seriously said to him, and even though the man wanted to retort, he shut up when he saw Aizen narrow his eyes at him.
"I will," he promised and then smiled at his nephew and niece, who were playing around with Phoebe's Froslass.
The group sat down at the dining table and had their lunch together.
No one brought up anything serious or grumpy as they had little kids at the table, and Riley shared a lot of exciting stories with the two, who enthusiastically listened to his tales.
He also promised to show them some cool Pokémon later, and Aizen chuckled when Riley told the kids that he would show them a Shiny Shinx and a Shiny Eevee.
However, since he had promised them, Aizen did call out the two Pokémon and also his Riolu after lunch, and Jovi immediately started gushing over them.
Michael was fascinated by the three Pokémon as well, and soon he was playing around with them together with his sister, who was with Plusle and Minun.
Seeing the kids chase after Rinko, Phoebe got up and closed the door of the dining room.
"Let's talk now." Riley looked at his friend, who nodded and then informed them about what exactly his brother had sacrificed his life for...