[Part 1]
The world was filled with incessantly loud crackling of unceasing electric charges, showering them from every possible angle. Was it not for the psychokinetic barrier that Hiei emerged nigh instantaneously, these could deal some serious damage - Gardevoir had to constantly pour more energy into said barrier, or it would crack open in mere seconds.
Too much power for autonomous security features.
Too blindingly bright to actually see what was going on.
"Stay put," she glanced at Inabayama, before extending a tactile gravitational field for an, energy-wise, insignificant radius of fifteen metres, then concentrating on the shape of the matter around her.
Eight bird-like shapes consisting of floating segments amounted to roughly two thirds of the attack. Additionally, a dozen of those smartphone devices were also constantly shooting electric charges at them.
"These are Pokemon."
"Wait, what?"
"Eight artificial ones, look like strange unnatural birds. Made of magnetically shaped gas-like matter, can be destroyed with a hard enough impact. Twelve ghosts, able to possess electronics, should emerge if the device they're possessing is broken, but will likely hop to another one quickly"
"The humans… Left their Pokemon behind? In a dangerous area? Just to-"
"To guard their things. Yes," Hiei nodded grimly, then looking at the dragon, "You take the artificial ones, I'll deal with the ones in the human devices."
"Yeah, sure"
Without wasting any more time, Inabayama swiftly dashed out of the protective bubble, drawing part of the attacks away from Hiei. This finally dimmed the surrounding area enough for her to be able to have a visual on her own targets, allowing her to drop the tactile gravitational field.
Raising a claw at one of the lightning-shooting smartphones, Gardevoir telekinetically snapped it in half, and then immediately reapplied that same telekinesis to violently twist the emerged form of an orange plasma mote until it exploded into electrified dust.
Quick and efficient.
Next.
[Part 2]
Electricity was really weird. Like, it made Inabayama all tingly, and if there was too much, it also made her a bit jittery, and left minor burns for some reason? The worst part about it was the difficulty to gauge the amount of damage it dealt. Could be nothing special, could be enough to render her unable to fight. And the delay to recognise how much damage she took was annoying beyond any belief.
Which made it her third least favourite type of attacks to take, after cold ones, and glittery ones.
So she did not risk trying to shrug off the incoming barrage of electric bolts. Rather, she weaved and dodged as much as she could, quickly shortening the distance between her and one of the weird blue-and-pink things that resembled a bird if that bird was made of electrocuted balloons.
A solid punch in the beak - and instead of blood, bones and viscera, the thing erupts into small glowing cubic chunks of SOMETHING, that almost instantly dissipated, as if made of mist.
Yeah, these birds were really weird, and the Goodra was still not sure if she liked to fight them or not.
And of course, these weird birds were not dumb enough to repeat the same attack as their numbers dwindled. Seeing as their electricity was simply dodged, the rest of them switched to spewing star-shaped rays at Inabayama. Clever buggers. She knew that attack - it was completely pointless to dodge. Good news were, those rays were just making a strong impact with whatever was the target. And even if those hit, she could measure them.
Switching up her strategy, Inabayama ripped one of the nearest shelves out of the ground (it was bolted to the floor, but who cares?), and used it as a cover against the brunt of the attack, as she made a mad dash towards the closest weird bird, grabbed them by the beak, and threw into another bird with enough force to shatter both, and leave a deep burrowing mark on the point of collision - though by that time, she was in front of the next bird already.
Another throw, this time into two more, all three exploding into misty cubes. Yeah, this was not as satisfying as brawling with Pokemon made out of flesh and bones. The difference was like… Punching one of them sandbags she used to train with, and punching a hollow glass thingie.
Also, there was something else that added to the feeling of wrongness, though she had a hard time putting her claw on it.
Wait…
"Hiei, the human! Where is he?!"
Her girlfriend, previously busy wringing some orange blob into dust, shuddered, and scanned the room with her gaze.
"Damn… Hold on…" whatever she was doing, it caused her to stop the disposal of the remaining five concealed opponents that still threw lightning against Gardevoir's barrier, "He's… Underground, in a car. Cover me, I'll need a moment to kill-"
It was then that, with a bright flash, everything around them suddenly exploded.
[Part 3]
While hotwiring a delivery van was easier than disabling the honestly scarily advanced security measures in Eelektroniks, Joben still felt like it took too long. Like he was running out of time. Like at any millisecond he would be found, and then killed. Painfully.
The Watchbirds were a standard security measure in Eelektroniks store. Rotoms could hide in plain sight in there, allowing them to act with impunity. With an access to a wide array of electronics to choose from and several Porygon-Z uploaded from the security servers assisting them, they turned this store into a deathtrap for any would-be-thieves.
Or at the very least, they proved to be a good enough distraction for Joben to slip away while his captors were busy with the onslaught. He took extra care not to use that same route he showed them, and made sure not to just try and run from the building on foot - if those two were done too soon and saw him escaping, they could easily try to recapture him. They'd likely succeed too.
A car was louder and easier to spot, but could probably outrun either of them. And sure, using it meant he risked getting detected by the military, but he'd rather risk dealing with those guys. Getting sent to prison was preferable to being, you know, dead.
Ah, finally. The engine was on.
It was then that something suddenly and loudly rumbled in the building. Getting a bad feeling about this, Joben hit the gas and sped out of the underground garage, nearly driving the car into the walls and support beams on three separate occasions before finally making it outside.
Not risking slowing down, he only chanced a short glance in the rear view mirror before switching his attention back to the road.
The top two floors were half-demolished, as if something exploded in the building. And several rays of light shining through the night sky before exploding into what was left of the top floors explained this phenomena - looks like the rampaging Gyaradoses on the lake noticed the flickering lights from the fight, and took it personally.
Thank Arceus for whatever caused their rampage.
Joben didn't feel safe stopping his car anywhere near Nagahama, but the car's tank had other plans, zeroing just a few kilometres away from the city. Well, it's not like he could take it that much further. Instead, he had to grab whatever he managed to save from this encounter, and then go the rest of the way on foot.
It would take half a day across the snowy terrain to get to the nearest Team Brute outpost. Joben did not plan to stop until he was within the relative safety of its walls.
[Part 4]
"Oof. I'm gonna feel this tomorrow," her girlfriend groaned, throwing a pile of rubble off herself. Between the dragon dealing with the falling debris and Hiei shielding them from the light beams, they came out of this ordeal relatively unscathed, "Well, at least we're both okay"
"Yeah."
Yeah, they were both okay - which could not be said about the store, or about the bags Inabayama was carrying, for that matter.
"Welp, we'll need to get some new blankets now. And then, find some other place with the power bank thingies," Inabayama sighed.
"Let's return to that shop we've met the human in. It has food and water, so we can rest there"
"And with any luck, the human returned there as well," the dragon suggested. Not that she seemed to believe in such a miracle herself.
They'll have to deal with the aftermath of this fiasco later.
Rest now.