Aizen, Riley, Sabrina, and even Lily solemnly stared at the screen where Krane was showing them a few pictures.
There was a Pokémon in these pictures, a Lugia, but dark, with haunting and glowing red eyes.
And its terrifying power was on full display as it attacked a vessel in the sea and then lifted the massive Cargo Ship from the water, all with its Psychic Power.
The Pokémon then dropped it hundreds of miles inland, in the middle of the desert.
"This ship was S. S. Libra, and it was going to deliver hundreds of Pokémon from different regions to the Black Markets of Orre. The Ship belonged to a Criminal Organisation called Oasis, who rules the region of Orre. Cipher used Shadow Lugia to attack it and abduct the ship. Their goal was to take control of all the Pokémon on board so that they could turn them into Shadow Pokémon." Krane revealed to them, and phobe gassed in shock when she saw a video on the screen showing the process of transforming a Machamp into a Shadow Pokémon.
"That's horrible..." she felt dizzy as she could not even imagine the pain the Pokémon was going through.
"Edison found this all when he hacked into the Cipher's Satellite, and he overheard their conversations as well. Shadow Lugia was being controlled, but it momentarily broke out of their control, dropping the ship in the middle of the desert instead of delivering it to the Cipher's Lair. The head Scientist then decided to go ahead with their last experiment on Shadow Lugia to make it a perfect Shadow Pokémon, who can never be purified. My brother... he wanted to save it... but he failed."
Everyone remained silent after his words and the Orayen Prince stared at the images of Shadow Lugia.
"Do we have the locations of their hideouts and headquarters?" He asked, and Krane nodded his head before he showed them the holographic map of Orre, where red dots were blinking.
The Professor then proceeded to show them all the intel that his brother had gathered that night, which included Cipher's relationship with other Criminal Outfits in the region.
There was so much information that it shocked the Action Team.
"We can call for reinforcements..."
"No." The Orayen Prince shook his head, understanding what his friend wanted to suggest. "We are here for Team Doom. The Criminal Organisations who are not directly involved with them are not part of our mission. Oasis, Syndicate, and others are not our headaches."
"Aizen..."
"Targeting everyone will band them together, Riley. We should just complete our mission as soon as possible, and hand over the other information to the Order. They can then decide what they want to do. Also, taking out all the Criminal Organisations in Orre is not the smart thing to do. It would leave the region open for taking to the Criminal Organisations around the world."
Riley and Phoebe frowned but nodded their heads in understanding.
"Four months. That's it. We will finish our task in four months." The Prince said. "And we are killing the scientists who are involved in the Shadow Pokémon Research, save for one or two, who will be handed over to the Order. All the data on Shadow Pokémon will be destroyed. We will not be handing it to even the Arcane Creed."
"Why?" Phoebe frowned. "Are there any Traitors?"
"I don't think so, but I don't trust people with this kind of knowledge." Aizen lightly said. "What they have managed to do to Lugia, must not be done to other Pokémon, especially the Legendary Pokémon. Humans can not afford a war with them." His voice turned grim towards the end.
"I agree," Krane immediately nodded his head. "This research needs to end here. My Brother's last wish was to destroy Shadow Pokémon Research, and I am sorry, but I will fulfil his wish even if you change your mind later."
Riley had never heard this coldness in his friend's voice and sighed in his heart.
"I am no Researcher or Scientist, so I have no interest in these things anyway."
"Me neither." Phoebe too shook her head.
"Wait. What about Dr. Yung?" Riley suddenly asked, raising his brow, and then tensed up when Krane showed him how deeply involved Yung and his Mirage Pokémon Research was with the Shadow Pokémon Creation.
"Dead." Aizen gave his judgement.
"Understood." The Aura Master nodded his head and took a deep breath. "We have to do something about S. S. Agata. The ship will be coming to Orre tonight. There are nearly a thousand Pokémon on board that will be delivered to Cipher..."
"I will rescue the Pokémon," said Aizen as he enlarged the map and showed Riley, Phoebe, and Sabrina a red dot which was blinking. "I want the three of you to target this base tonight. Once I have rescued all the Pokémon on board S.S. Agata, I will rush over to your side."
"That's on the eastern side of the region and a relatively unimportant base to them." Phoebe frowned.
"We need their attention towards the east. If we target the western hideouts and lairs, they will start a search operation, and this place might get discovered by them. Also, do not let your guard down by believing that it is an unimportant place to them. We don't have much information about this base." He warned her.
"Understood."
The Orayen Prince then discussed the plan with his Team. After tonight's operation, they were going to keep a low profile, and Aizen was going to infiltrate Phenec City to understand the Underworld as its operations in Orre. Even though they did not need to deal with other organisations, it was important to understand hoe deeply the pthet organisations were connected with Cipher and Team Doom.
Once they had a plan and everyone understood their tasks, he dismissed them to get some rest.
In Sabrina's case, she entered the room with him and started meditating on the couch, preparing for tonight.
Since they did not want to alarm the enemies too much, they could not go all out, and needed to keep tonight's operation as quiet as possible.
Later, the two of them transmuted and changed their appearances, and Aizen quietly left the Laboratory at 5 pm, when Riley and Phoebe were still asleep in their room.
The Orayen Prince, atop his Aerodactyl, flew above the clouds, regulating his Aura to help him breathe at such a height, and then told his Pokémon to keep gliding when they spotted S.S. Agata, which was only four hours away from reaching Black Harbour.
As soon as the sun started to set down, Aizen used his Aura Sight to scan the ship, and his heart turned cold when he saw over a thousand Pokémon signatures and 20 human signatures. Most of the Pokémon were terrified, a lot were hurt, and they were praying to Arceus to save them.
"Dive," he ordered his Pokémon, who dived down right at the ship, trusting him completely, and halfway, Aizen sent Aerodactyl inside the Promise Ball and then teleported right into the control room of the vessel.
With a burst of his Psychic Power, he made several unsuspecting Poachers go unconscious, and then his eyes eerily glowed in a violet light as he controlled the mind of the Captain, making him slow down the ship to its minium speeds.
His Gengar had already exited the Promise Ball and silently left to deal with other people on the vessel, and within half an hour, the two of them had taken care of all the twenty humans.
Aizen took away all their Pokéballs, throwing them inside his Promise Ball, and then destroyed the surveillance before entering the Cargo Hold.
His heart ached as he saw the terrible condition of some Pokémon, and since the Poachers could not keep them inside Pokéballs without leaving a digital trail, most had been left to die or survive in their pitiful conditions.
Using his Aura, he sent out waves of calming feelings, and as soon as the Pokémon sensed him, they started sobbing and asking him for help.
Aizen did not bother breaking the cages, he but broke the collars they were wearing, and then started sending them all directly inside the Promise Ball.
His Gengar, Electivire, and Sabrina's Lucario, whom he had taken with him, soon brought the Medical Supplies to the Cargo Hold, and the Orayen Prince, with the help of a group of Audino and a Chansey whom he had rescued, gave the first-aid treatment to the injured ones.
It took him nearly four hours to clear the entire ship, and then he found himself staring at the twenty unconscious bodies in front of him.
"Meta..."
"Break into their minds." He ordered, and his Pokémon immediately did as he asked.
An hour later, three people, including the Ship's Captain were woken up and made to watch a terrifying sight.
Their seventeen companions were thrown into the sea by the Orayen Prince, and when they woke up and tried to swim up, an invisible force held them underwater, just below the surface, where they would momentarily come out and fight for breath and beg for mercy.
It was a slow and agonising death for them, full of fear and regret.
Several minutes later, their lifeless bodies sank into the depths, and the faces of the three survivors were deathly pale when Aizen turned to them.
Their bodies trembled when they looked into the eerily glowing eyes of the black-haired boy.
"Next time when we meet, and I find out that you are still involved in these criminal activities, I will give you a death much worse than the one you have just witnessed. Now, get out of here before Cipher comes for you." He threw their Pokéballs to them and then teleported up into the night sky, on top of Aerodactyl's back. "Let's go, mate. We have a long flight to take. I hope you are not tired."
His Aerodactyl roared at him, telling him to not look down on him, and then flew at his full speed in the direction of the Cipher hideout that Riley, Phoebe, and Sabrina were attacking right now.
Half an hour after the Captain of S.S. Agatha and the two other survivors ran away on their Water Pokémon, the Cipher Agents landed on the sinking vessel, and they were in disbelief when they found it empty of all life. Even the surveillance had been completely destroyed, leaving no traces, and their first thought was that their Poaching Organisations had betrayed them... The second thought was that the Oasis were getting back at them for the S.S. Libra mess.
It would be a while before a they would truly understand who was doing it.