Team Rocket in Pokémon anime has conducted some wild experiments in their quest to make Pokémon stronger with ease, and their biggest success is being able to do just that—even for Mythical Pokémon.
In the fourth Pokémon movie, Celebi: The Voice of the Forest, an elite Team Rocket agent known as the iron-masked Marauder appears, bullying an old man who used to be a Pokémon Hunter, trying to gather information. News of a Celebi is said to have been discovered in the area. As part of his intimidation tactics, the iron-masked Marauder pulls out a strange Poké Ball and uses it on a Tyranitar trapped in the Hunter’s cage. Then he sent Tyranitar, now darker, more violent and very aggressive, and it destroyed the old man’s camp, destroying everything with Hyper Beam until he gave the information.
The black ball is Team Rocket’s dream come true
The Poké Ball used by the Iron Masked Marauder is called the Shadow Ball, and it looks very similar to the one used by Mewtwo in the first Pokémon movie. Like those balls, it can catch a Pokémon even if it’s already linked to another Poké Ball, but it can do so much more. Pokémon caught in the Dark Ball are automatically considered “Demons”, meaning they don’t even want to escape and are also “powered to the highest level”. While levels in the anime are rarely acknowledged beyond the general sense of high/low level, it seems to be taken literally – they have the power of a level 100 Pokémon, for example. A Pokémon max level can easily overcome things like type drawbacks, making the difference almost insurmountable.
Later in the movie, the iron-masked Marauder successfully tracked down Celebi and was able to capture it in the Shadow Ball, unleashing the power of a max level Legendary Pokémon. Celebi’s powers come into play, spreading decay throughout the forest and causing it to create an elf-like body from the trees, roots, and plants of the forest. It nearly killed Ash, but Suicune appeared to help by purifying the pollution. Celebi mustered enough strength to resist the influence of the Black Ball, which caused the ball to be destroyed and its control lost. Still, it’s impressive that the Dark Orb has taken full control of Celebi, and Celebi is still the only one able to get away with it, meaning the Shadow Ball is almost perfect for stealing a trainer’s Pokémon Normal. If these Black Balls are standard issue for Rocket Team agents like Jessie and James, they’ve got Pikachu by the end of the second episode.
Luckily for Pokémon trainers are everywhere, the Black Balls have never been seen again outside of this movie and are possibly experimental prototypes that are difficult to replicate (perhaps Mewtwo’s balls are based on the their previous). While Team Rocket tries to steal Pokémon and turning them into evil certainly continues, their greatest success seems to have been fortunately lost.