Iron-Masked Marauder

"The Pokémon I capture with a Dark Ball become evil Pokémon. And their power instantly increases to the highest level."

- The Marauder explaining the use of his Dark Balls "With a Pokémon like you, no one will ever stop me!"

- The Iron Masked-Marauder taking control of Celebi

The Iron-Masked Marauder is the main antagonist of the 4th Pokemon film, Pokemon 4Ever. He is an elite officer of Team Rocket who schemed to betray Giovanni and take over the world using Pokemon he captured with Dark Balls.

History
The Iron-Masked Marauder is first seen when he persuades a Pokemon poacher to show him where he found the legendary Pokemon, Celebi. When the poacher refuses to talk, the Marauder orders his Sneasel to unlock a cell of a Tyranitar that the poacher caught. He then catches the Tyranitar into a unique Poke Ball called a Dark Ball, which makes Pokemon evil and more powerful (even if the Pokemon in question already belong to someone else). The terrifeid poacher then tells him where he found Celebi just in time when he orders Tyranitar to destroy the poacher's camp.

The Iron-Masked Marauder then searches for Celebi while riding a spider legged machine, along with Jessie, James and Meowth, whom he found in the forest Celebi lived. They decide to go with him out of fear (and the fact that they were just tired of walking). He finds Ash and his friends with Celebi and tells them to give him Celebi, but they refuse and run away. He sends his Sneasel and Scizor to get Celebi but both are defeated by Ash's Bayleef and Sammy's Charmeleon. When he discovers Scizor and Sneasel tied up with the kids already gone, he sees that the kids were tougher than they looked, but considers that it "makes things interesting." The Marauder is so focused on finding Celebi that he doesn't notice or care that Jessie, James, & Meowth had fallen out of his vehicle and moves onward. The Marauder later finds the kids again and succeeds in capturing Celebi with his Spider-Machine's claw, brutally electrocuting it, before capturing it in a Dark Ball. Before the villain could properly relish his victory, Ash attempted to retrieve Celebi with the help of a flock of wild Pidgey. Although the resulting struggle toppled the Marauder's mecha, the Marauder quickly reclaimed his Dark Ball by stepping on Ash's hands until he passed out.

When surrounded by the angry forest Pokemon, the Iron-Masked Marauder decided to demonstrate the corrupted Celebi's power on them, sending it to attack the wild Pokémon and devastate the forest. Iron-Masked Marauder orders Celebi to build a Scyther-shaped monster from forest materials. He then orders Celebi to destroy the kids, but Suicune saves them. He also captures Jessie by mistake, but decides to use her as a witness to see his power. After the Marauder demonstrates by polluting the lake, Jessie promises the Marauder that she'll guarantee him a promotion when he hands Celebi over to Giovanni; however the Marauder tells her he has no intention of handing Celebi over...instead, he plans to use Celebi to usurp Giovanni and take over Team Rocket himself. He attempts to capture Suicune also by using his Tyranitar. Suicune defeats Tyranitar with Bubblebeam and Brock's Onix slammed it into the Lake of Life. Ash and Sammy succeeded in breaking Celebi free from the spell of the Dark Ball (releasing his Scizor, Sneasel, and Tyranitar in the process). The monster was falling apart and Iron-Masked Marauder fell into the lake. He is not defeated, however.

When Celebi is healed, Iron-Masked Marauder suddenly emerges from the lake, grabs Celebi and attempts to fly away with Celebi on his jetpack. But Ash grabs on tightly onto the Marauder's leg as he rises higher and higher. Ash then ordered Pikachu to Thunderbolt the evil man's jetpack, causing it to explode, sending all three plummeting several meters towards the forest floor. While Celebi saves Ash and Pikachu, the Iron-Masked Marauder continues his long fall. He lands in a tree branch that snaps and then lands and rolls down a small hill and lands hard on the ground (losing his mask and Dark Balls in the process). Toya, Diana and Mr. White confront the Marauder along with the forest Pokemon. Surrounded by the angry forest Pokemon, the Marauder tries to send his Pokemon out, but he doesn't have any. The now-powerless Marauder begs for mercy, claiming "This is all a mistake! A big misunderstanding!" The forest Pokemon then tie him up using String Shot, to which Toya replies "I think the Pokemon understand perfectly!" The Marauder's fate is unknown, but he was most likely arrested afterwards.

Characteristics
The Iron-Masked Marauder is skilled at hand-to-hand combat but does not have good balance. His primary combat relies on Pokemon that are brainwashed by his Dark Balls. Once caught, The Pokemon are extremely loyal to him and attack without regards to previous friendships and loyalties. It is not known how he got them, but it is possible that he invented them.

The Iron-Masked Marauder is one of the few examples of a villain wholly without redeeming qualities within the Pokemon franchise- the Marauder was cruel, ruthless, cunning, and generally uncaring of whomever he hurt. He was a sociopath by nature, and willing abused both humans and Pokemon in his scheme to take over the world. Even Jessie, James, & Meowth were horrified by his cruel sadistic methods. He was the first of the kind of the series- he would later be followed by similar villains such as J and Grings Kodai, who drew similarities from the Marauder from their occupations and technology used.