[Part 1]

It seemed like Goro's bout of paranoia was surprisingly infectious. Joben only needed about half a minute to unlock one of the two doors leading to the backdoor, and about a minute more to deal with the last lock between him and whatever was outside (he just took a peek. Seemed like a narrow-ish area to unload goods from a truck, as well as the place for the trash bins). Then, he had to stay put and wonder, where the hell were the rest of his teammates. According to the eerie silence, they were not coming from the main area yet.

Gin and Doi probably got too greedy with half-expired produce they just HAD to rescue from the bin. That's what they were doing at the very moment he disabled the cameras, after all. Maybe the blockheads were busy filling an entire bag's worth of sausage, cheese and smoked fish to snack on later, sure. But their squad leader seemed to be in too much of a hurry to just let them continue with that for what, three minutes now? Four?

And how quiet it was - too quiet - only made Joben more nervous.

He decided to risk using the comms.

"What's the holdup, guys?" he tried not to let too much of his nervousness seep into the question, but to little avail, "Guys?.."

Nothing.

Crap.

He was just about ready to barge through the back door and run for the hills, when he finally heard some noise at the entrance of the staff area.

"Oh, finally, you-" he started, only to cut himself off at the realisation that the dark figure barely lit by three glowing scarlet blots was floating through the air towards him. And this dark figure was neither of his teammates, "…oh shit."

Before he could even rationalise what was going on, Joben was already out in the shop's barely lit backyard, bolting past trash bins, shopping carts and trash bags without much of a care for stealth. He was just about to scale a low wall separating this place from a small parking lot, when what he previously mistook for a particularly large trash bag struck through the dusk, grabbing him by the leg, and then forcefully dragged him back, causing him to stumble, painfully plant his face into the pavement, and lose consciousness for just a moment.

By the time he came by, he was hanging in the air, suspended by his arms spread apart - and the restraints, whatever they were, simply refused to budge. His legs did not fare better, as they were tied together. Also, he was still woozy from hitting his head just now.

He did manage to make out that dark figure from before, being in front of him and predatorily shining with all three red lights. The top two were… Eyes?.. Yeah, eyes. And the lower one looked like some kind of a sharp crystal spike.

He had NO idea what it was, but it didn't look like any Pokemon he knew. Which left two options - either this was some sort of an extra-rare Pokemon, or it was a literal alien. The cold, predatory intelligence in those eyes made him think that it was the latter.

He also tried to check the one that seemed to hold him, and only managed to notice several green lights. If these were eyes, there were too many, and… Yeah, his head was spinning too much to make heads and tails of that one for now.

Then, a clawed hand grabbed him by the chin, and forcefully turned his head back to face the figure with glowing red lights, while some sort of a horrible, low growl sounded through the air. It DID sound somewhat like a Pokemon cry, though for the life of him he could not point out which Pokemon it was supposed to be. Also, the possibility of it being an alien still was on the table.

What about that other one?

He tried to turn his head to the one holding him, and noticed the dangerous glint in the red. Oh. He was supposed to look at the one in front of him. Got it.

Seeing as Joben got the message, the one with glowing reds waved its clawed hand, and several small objects had risen into the air, forming some sort of a pattern in front of his face. It took his poor, woozy head a few seconds to try to understand what he was looking at.

Were these…

Were these Unown?

No, wait. These were too small to be real. Also, unblinking, and not really moving their… Limbs?.. Their whatever. Hmmm… Wait. Were these Unown thumbtacks?

Where on Earth did those things even-

Ah, right. The store. The one they all just were in. It probably had some on the shelves. And the one with red lights probably took these from there. Makes sense.

More importantly, WHY was it showing him Unown thumbtacks?

"Wait, are you… Trying to communicate?.." he hazarded a guess. The red one nodded, clearly understanding his speech. So they understood him, but couldn't speak to him directly? "Hold on, let me try to read these…"

Damn, why were they using UNOWN thumbtacks? These little things were a pain and a half to read even WITHOUT, probably, a light concussion!

Damn it.

Let's see… 'Can you read these'… Huh.

"Yeah, I can read these. Not easily though", at this, the clawed hand waved again, and the phrase disappeared, replaced by a new pattern.

Uhh…

'How familiar are you with this town'

"I've lived around these parts for a few years? If you need to find something, I can help find it!"

Now, he did not join Team Brute because he was eager to help people, Pokemon or aliens. No, he joined because he was sick of doing so - and also because he lost his job, and had no prospects of finding a new one. Buuuuuut these things needed him for SOMETHING, and Joben was fairly certain that it's the only reason he was still breathing. After all, these two were probably the reason his teammates were nowhere to be found.

No, all four disappeared - quickly, quietly, and without a fight to be heard. And THAT was unusual, considering how much of meatheads were Dai and Gin. And them and Goro all had more powerful Pokemon than Joben, so…

So the only way for him to remain alive was probably to make himself useful.

'Look at this electric blanket,' at this, rather than some sort of an alien device, Joben was shown an absolutely standard, run-of-the-mill cordless heated blanket. Possibly one found in this very store, 'We need enough compatible power banks to last it for a week'

"And probably a cord too. Maybe two or three, just to be on the safe side," he nodded, going fully into his helpful and polite handyman persona. Yeah, he could swallow his pride for a bit if it meant not being killed, "I doubt they carry any in this shop, so we need an electronics store. There's a big one just a few blocks away!"

At this, the red one made some sort of a weird noise, and he was lowered on the ground, and released.

Whew. Seems like he made it past the first hurdle. And yeah, he was not well, or dumb enough to try to run. For now.

He had no idea what these two were capable of, after all. Well… The one with red lights shown some sort of telekinetic ability. If it's a Pokemon or something close enough, then it was probably a Psychic type. Which meant he needed to break the line of sight to have a chance of escaping from it. And the one with green lights… Wait, is that a Goodra?..

Okay, so either the one with red lights was an alien that caught or recruited a local Pokemon as its guide, or these two were both Pokemon.

"Come on, I'll show you the way," he nodded, wiping the blood off his face.

Whatever the red one was, it was probably the one responsible for his teammates disappearing. Which meant he had to appease it until he found an opening to run. And for that to happen, he probably needed to explain to it how to choose the bloody power banks and the cords for them. THAT would ensure that if he ran after they've got their eyes on the prize, they probably wouldn't be TOO keen on chasing him.

[Part 2]

Small plastic letters proven to be a good enough method of communication. Now, of course it was not the only possible method of doing so - Hiei could also attempt to write with a pen and a paper, but that took longer, and was way more tiresome than levitating plastic pieces into words.

And using a handheld electronic screen that responded to a touch was not an option for her at all. Since her body constantly had psychokinetic energy coursing through it, it produced a small, yet powerful area of EMP around itself. Not big enough for her to be completely unable to use a mechanical keyboard and a wired mouse, like that time she looked up a map on a computer in that breeding facility - though she did face some issues with it glitching from time to time. But something like a smartphone, or a tablet? Those were absolutely unusable for her.

Maybe, if she taught Inabayama one of the human languages, the dragon would be able to use such equipment instead?..

That… Might actually be a good idea in general. She'll have to bring it up later.

"So, he's been talking for a while. What did he say?" her girlfriend asked, throwing a glance at the human that walked in the front.

"He has been explaining how to choose a power bank, and how to make sure that it's fully charged"

"Ah. Does he do that cuz he hopes that this way, we will spare his life?"

"Either that, or he's looking for a chance to run"

"Too bad for him," Inabayama shrugged, then looking at the human, "This kinda feels like the roles have been reversed, you know? With us Pokemon using humans for our own means, and getting rid of them once they're not useful."

"It does, doesn't it," Hiei sighed, looking at the human ponderously, "Perhaps once our goal is achieved, this might become the new norm. Or humans and Pokemon might come to some sort of a true symbiosis, where both sides are equally beneficial to each other, and treat the other with actual respect and dignity. Or, perhaps, they will war instead, for however long it takes for one to conquer the other."

"If you become God, you could always make them do whatever you wanted"

"I do not plan to constantly watch over the world just to make sure that everyone gets along. Creating a perfect, harmonic world is a job for mortals, not gods. My goal is to make that possible in the first place, and to enact my own Justice. I shall ensure that every Pokemon is granted their birthright of free will. With that, they shall judge the humans in their lives to the best of their ability. Then I shall judge the rest for their sins against our brethren," Hiei could feel her face slowly turning into a scornful grimace, "The humans that abused their 'partners' shall be torn limb from limb by those they presumed to have a dominion over. The blood of those who caused our brethren untold suffering shall rain from the skies and give nourishment to the lands. The rest of the humanity will have to face the new world, or perish."

She peered into the waning moon, as if it was the insignificant face of their bumbling God.

"This will be my Justice."