Once the group left, it was someone else's turn to meet withAudino entered the room. She had about twenty documents.

"It's not your turn yet, Audino." The board stated

"It's urgent." Audino said. The board decided to hear her out.

"I believe that the Phantom Corp is making plans for something that could potentially hurt millions." She explained. The Board leaned in closer and urged her to explain herself. Audino took the first document,

"Phantom Corp members Blackout, Marshall and Arsenal confirmed that Donquixote himself, Vida and Dreadnaught went to meet somewhere. Alvida was seen with a briefcase, indicating that she planned to bribe someone."

"Why does that prove that there is something dangerous going to happen?" Audino took the next sheet of paper.

Audino spent the next couple hours answering questions from the board and providing evidence to prove her point. The newly constructed battleship, suspicious meetings regarding 'targets,' she was incredibly thorough with the information. The board whispered amongst themselves before asking,

"If this is true, what do we suppose we do?" Audino answered without an ounce of hesitation,

"We need to alert the public. That should throw a wrench into their works."

"No." They said immediately. Audino shook her head,

"But you don't understand, thousands of people could die!" she argued.

"The public will panic."

"They'll panic even more when there is a sudden attack."

"Who knows what the Phantom Corp could do?"

"It'll disrupt their plans! Donquixote has gone out of his way to keep the Phantom Corp hidden. If we reveal their presence, not only will we allowing the people to investigate and help us, but we will also force Donquixote's hand and he'll have to fight. We can beat him!"

"Enough, we'll look into it." The board said.

Audino stormed out of the boardroom. She slammed the door and screamed into her elbow. She then quickly started to breathe and calm herself. She hated what she was thinking about doing. She knew how horribly illegal it was. However she had no idea how much time she had. There was an invisible timer counting down to destruction. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Audino was suddenly pulled aside from an unknown force. She tried to scream but the figure covered her mouth. She was pulled into the darkness, into a wall. Audino couldn't make out their features, but she recognized his voice. This was a Phantom Corp agent! Before she could do or say anything, however, the agent told her,

"Don't freak out. I…I want to help."

"Wait, what?" exclaimed Audino. The agent shushed her,

"Keep it down, Arceus. For a rat, you really don't know how to keep your trap shut!" they hissed. Audino glared at this agent,

"...What do you know?"

"Enough about everything you need to know regarding Operation Blackout," said the agent, "know what do you wanna know?"

"When is it going to be carried out?" asked Audino. She had hundreds of questions but she needed to be extraordinarily thorough. Any and all details were important in an investigation.

"New Year's Eve. Don says it's a time of reinvention. Perfect for creating a 'brand new era.'"


(A/N):I know this chapter is a whole lot shorter than I usually do but this needed to be done. Without going into specific details, this week has been rough for me mental-health wise, and while I am feeling better now, it still severely impacted my writing capabilities. I was tempted to offer you guys a double chapter next week, but that's a promise I'm not sure I can keep. Secondly, and less depressing, this was supposed to be the ending to the last chapter, however, due to the changes I made, I figured this wasn't suited as the ending anymore, but I couldn't just abandon this. It's far too important to show this.

I'll see you all next week, where I'll have some good news for you regarding April Fools. Hope you enjoy.