The building was nothing out of the ordinary. It was about the same size as any training center, and had little decorations. It had been painted purple; a rather unusual color for a training center, but even that didn't make it stand out too much. Ordan followed Uness and Satza inside.
The inside was no different from the outside - just the same as a regular gym. Knowing Uness, there should be a hidden elevator somewhere, accessible only if you could find the controls. Ordan looked at Satza. She pointed to a pillar in the other end of the large room, and smiled. Uness raised his eyebrows, then looked at Satza, who smiled back at him. He sighed, and follower Ordan to the pillar.
Uness put his fingers to one of the round shapes in the pillar. The middle of the stadium rose up, and revealed an elevator. The typical underground base setup. Uness ran over to the elevator, waving for Ordan to hurry. Ordan, who was not less curious that Uness was proud, did his best to shorten the timespan he'd have to wait to see the Complex. As he entered the elevator, Uness closed the doors, and the elevator started moving.
The elevator hit the bottom. The doors opened. The outside wasn't nearly as exciting as he had hoped - there were only a few machines there, and they didn't look like they were large enough to contain more than a couple of pokémon. Uness could see the disappointment in Ordan's face, as he explained. "Most of the machinery is below us, and the chambers are behind the walls. What you see is mostly just interfaces." Uness pointed to what Ordan had thought was the chamber. "That's the entrance", he said. "If the chamber needs maintenance, we go in here." "So, tell me about the Shadow Complex, Uness." "Yes, sir."
Uness pointed to a small pokéball slot, like those used in healing machines. "This is the Complex Shadow ball slot. You put the pokémon here, and it's uploaded to the Complex data system, much like the old version. Once you've got some pokémon inside, you can organize them, like the old chambers. Basically, the interface is the way Krane made it. What's new is the way it purifies. The Shadow pokémon should still face something that's weak to it, but the types of the other pokémon don't matter. The purification flows faster under the same conditions, and the chambers can now hold up to 5 pokémon in each set, plus the Shadow pokémon. All in all, the purification speed has been tripled. Also, Shadow pokémon receive experience points in the Complex chamber - even more than they would regularly. They still can't level or evolve, though. But there's more to the Complex than purification. The Complex produces a few items that will help us. First of all, the Master Ball."
The Master Ball was originally produced by Silph, a company in the remote Kanto region. They had only made a few, though, before a sinister organization from the same region had broken in and taken everyone in the company hostage in an attempt to seize the Master Ball. They barely failed, thanks to a young boy and a lot of luck. After this incident, Silph decided that it was best if Master Balls weren't available to the general public, and stopped all production. They destroyed all the information and gave the rest of the prototypes to the government, hoping that they could be put to good use. However, some Master Balls had been shipped, most of them to rich trainers who wanted an easy catch. These trainers used their newly acquired Master Balls to capture some pokémon noone else had succeeded in capturing, like Zapdos or Lugia. Few of these legendary pokémon stayed with their original trainers, though. Since Orre had very few wild pokémon, people in the region preferred battling each other. This drew other trainers to the region, including the owners of these legendary pokémon. People's love for battling drove wealthy opportunists to build colosseums for the battlers, which attracted even more battlers. At about this point, Cipher discovered how to make Shadow pokémon. They didn't have many pokémon to work with, though. This was why they teamed up with team Snagem. Team Snagem were nothing more than petty thieves, stealing pokémon from unattentive trainers. They didn't get a lot of them, and most were weak. Nonetheless, they were the only group in Orre that stole pokémon. After a few years, though, they had completed their Snag machine, a device that turned regular pokéballs into special balls that could capture a pokémon from another trainer in battle. With this, they were able to get many more pokémon for Cipher. Cipher grew from a small group to a large organization. Some of the peons they recruited were among those who had purchased Master Balls from Silph. At this point, Snagem made the portable Snag machine. Trusted Cipher members could use this machine to Snag any pokémon they wished. Those who had Master Balls, used these to capture the legendary pokémon from those who had them. After they were handed over to Cipher, they were turned into Shadow pokémon and given to the admins of Cipher. After this, most of the remaining Master Balls had been used. Ordan estimated that there were about 20 to 25 left in the world. Unless Uness had come up with something good.
"Are you saying... you've made Master Balls?" "Well, yes. I couldn't get them quite like the originals, though. Making one takes a few days, and it can't be used in its current state... you have to turn it into a Snag Ball to use it. I don't know why. So it can only be used against Cipher, basically." "Well, I suppose that's good... it won't change pokémon capturing completely. What other things did you say you'd made?" "Well, this machine produces scents... different kinds of scents, for people who prefer to purify that way. The one over there makes Purify Bands, another thing I've created. A Shadow pokémon holding one will not go into reverse mode, it will be able to use some of its old attacks, and it'll be purified faster in battle and in the chambers." "This is impressive, Uness. With these, I thinkwe can take Cipher out again." "Be careful. All signs indicate that they've made massive progress. Even though we have this, I think they have the upper hand."
Alya was regaining her senses. After a few minutes, she realized she was back in her room in the Cipher headquarters. She noticed a shadow on the floor, cast by something behind her. She turned around. The shadow came from a tall man in a white coat, like most of the scientists in the lab. He opened his mouth. "I don't feel like talking to you", Alya said before he could say anything. The man closed his mouth and smiled. He walked to the door and left her room, all without saying a word.