[Part 1]
Well. The silver lining was that there were no more Gallades in that bunch. That, and two Pokemon corpses lying around made the rest too hesitant to try their luck. Nobody wanted to be a third, and Inabayama could not really blame them.
Which was good news, since by the time they were done with that, and began searching for a place to crash, Hiei looked like she was this close to collapsing.
As much as Inabayama tried to help her conserve energy, the Gardevoir still crossed nearly a half of a snowy mountain path, fought dozens of times on the way here, spent about a hour freeing Pokemon from their capture devices, and had that altercation with her mutated would-be kinsman. She was probably as emotionally exhausted as she was physically.
"Hey," Inabayama called her girlfriend quietly. The beautiful scarlet eyes looked at her dully, "Want me to carry you?.."
Hiei stopped for a few brief moments, then giving her a somewhat sluggish nod. At that, the Goodra smiled, and scooped the malnourished-looking figure up, making sure to carefully support her. Didn't want to accidentally hurt her if Gardevoir dozed off and her strengthening came undone.
"Don't worry, I'll find us a place to sleep soon. You just rest," the dragon assured. At that, Hiei brushed her cheek against hers, and then closed her eyes.
Good. She needed that rest.
Now, finding a shelter in an unfamiliar mountain forest was not an easy task. Trees provided some cover, but not enough to feel safe. A human would probably build a shelter, even if a temporary one - Inabayama stumbled upon some of those by chance over her years of living on the run (their food baskets were usually pretty damn good). She was no human, but could probably build a reasonably good shelter given time, and two free hands.
She had neither at the moment though. Which meant she was looking for one. Preferably (but not necessarily) abandoned. Well, that, or they'd have to pick a random spot, with her staying on guard duty for the entire night.
Luckily, Inabayama found a few berry trees with deep claw marks. They just entered the territory of something big. And something big should have had a-
"Get out of here!" a roar suddenly reached them, after which the dragon saw a large brown bear stomping towards them, "This is my turf!"
"Oi, keep it down, she's trying to sleep," Inabayama looked at them plainly.
"Do you think I care?!" the bear switched from moving on all fours to walking upright, which made them almost as tall as the dragon, "Get off my turf, or I-"
They didn't get to finish, as the dragon's tail whipped around their throat, and began to choke the poor sod out.
"Ight, listen here, you numbskull," the Goodra hissed, staring right at the bear, who tried to claw at her tail to no avail, "My girlfriend is tired, and needs to sleep. We're taking your lair for one night. You can give it up willingly, or I can kill you, and we'll take it anyways. And if you're louder than a whisper at any point of time, you'll be our next meal. Got it?"
The Pokemon nodded frantically, at which point Inabayama was finally able to release him. Those bear claws gave her tail this horrible, annoying itch.
"Now, show us to your lair."
[Part 2]
Despite the late hour, Harunobu sat in his chair, looking at the screen in front of him intently. Just like everything on this base, it was old tech. Ancient even. Most of their tech was from before the Internet was available to the masses - from before governments could entrust the act of spying on the populace to people's own possessions.
This particular piece of tech was only capable of showing green pixels on black screen. There were currently nine of them, with designated numbers next to each one.
Sure, tech like this was highly inconvenient. Impossible to buy spare parts for, difficult to repair, clunky to use. But on the other hand, it left no traces for the Pokemon League to follow. And that was more valuable than mere convenience. Being untraceable was what allowed them to stay alive so far. Hell, despite several abandoned power plants in the area, they made sure to use solar panels instead - since that kind of infrastructure was more likely to still be monitored somehow.
Now, why was he watching a, to be frank, pretty damn terrible screen that looked like a pre-historic game of pong straight out of a museum gone wrong?
Roughly a day ago, came the news from their rangers stationed in the mountains separating Shiga prefecture from Ibigawa. Someone - or something - carved a path of utter, brutal violence through Mt. Kanaguso, slaughtering dozens of Pokemon that kept those mountains safe from any intruders aside from Team Brute. Part of the reason they had these garish purple uniforms was because the beasts were trained to ignore anyone wearing them. Naturally, there were two layers to this exception - the uniforms were also only washed with special essential oil, that gave off a very specific smell that was difficult to wash off even if a Team member went for a swim in them. The uniforms and the smell combined into a free pass through these mountains. Well, if the human patrols didn't pick the intruder up.
By Harunobu's estimation, the Pokemon living on that mountain, combined with the weather and an absolute lack of Pokemon Centres for tens of kilometres, made that cross through the mountains extremely difficult without a uniform. Difficult enough that to do so, one had to be at least a Victory Road contender. And people with those qualifications usually had better things to do than to hike through mountains that presumably only contained ghost villages, and aggressive, highly territorial, yet fairly common Pokemon.
Combine those news, and Joben's earlier arrival - and he had a suspect.
Red Eyes.
Sure, the codename will have to be updated later on, but for now, from Joben's description, this was the best he could come up with.
He did not know why Red Eyes was traveling through these mountains. Maybe it was on Joben's trail, and wanted to kill the poor man off. Maybe it had some or the other business in these mountains, or past them. Either way, they had no way of knowing just which of the countless paths it would take through these mountains.
Which is why, Harunobu sent out the patrols.
The people sent were briefed on the danger of the situation. That Red Eyes was a highly dangerous Pokemon that was already responsible for killing four Team Brute members. That if found, they needed to report on its location immediately, stay hidden, and not try to capture or fight it. He suspected, that at least some of these people would go against his orders, but hell - they were the only ones who volunteered.
Each of them had a simple, prehistoric two-way radio that would not carry its signal past a few kilometres, used to periodically update HQ on their progress. Additionally, each was wearing a dead man's switch, which is what this screen picked up. If someone wearing one was killed off, their designated pixel and number would go out. Combined with a map of the area in front of Harunobu that showed their patrol route, and the radio reports, they could establish which path Red Eyes was taking.
As for what to do once they do find Red Eyes… Well, he had three plans. Though he really hoped that he'd only need Plan A.
"HQ, this is Bravo. Got the visuals on th-"
One of green pixels went out.
[Part 3]
Hiei woke up in the middle of the night due to an odd, cold sensation, as if her blanket suddenly disappeared. Still tired and a bit groggy, she opened her eyes, only to see Inabayama quietly sneaking out of… A burrow?..
"What's going on?"
The dragon turned to her, pointed outside, and then to the side of her own head. A sign that she heard a human there.
Stopping her with a gesture, Gardevoir extended a tactile gravitational field to a hundred metres radius, and checked three living beings she detected. A bird on a tree nearby. A bear sleeping a good fifty metres from the entrance. A human peering into the burrow.
With a mental gesture, she unbound the forces holding human's molecules together. Just the organics though.
"Done. Check what's left by the entrance"
Inabayama nodded, and went out for roughly a minute, before returning with a pile of things in her arms.
"Okay, aside from junk, they had three balls, and this weird talking box"
"Talking box?.."
"HELLO! I WISH TO SPEAK TO THE ONE WITH RED EYES! I AM TALKING THROUGH THIS TWO-WAY RADIO!"
The device in question looked like an ancient phone without a screen, and with only a few buttons. To be on the safe side, Hiei quickly scanned its inner workings - and yes, it had no suspicious parts.
"Looks like they want to talk to me. This device allows humans to talk with each other without coming face to face," Hiei explained, "Can you handle using it for me? I should not touch it, or it could malfunction"
"Yeah, sure. You sure it's a good idea to talk to them?"
"They seem to be living around these parts. If they know about us, they might prove troublesome. Hunting them all down on a vast, unfamiliar terrain would be a waste of time. I'd rather they give us a pass through these mountains," at this explanation, the dragon nodded in understanding.
"IF YOU HEAR ME, PLEASE PRESS THE BIG BUTTON AT THE SIDE ONE TIME!"
"There's a button at the side. Press it gently, count to two, and then release it"
Inabayama did as instructed.
"GREAT! LET'S USE IT AS A CODE! PRESS THE BUTTON ONCE FOR 'YES', AND TWICE FOR 'NO'! WOULD THAT BE FINE WITH YOU?"
One press of a button.
"OKAY! SO, ARE YOU THE ONE THAT WAS LOOKING FOR POWER BANKS IN NAGAHAMA?"
One press of a button.
"ARE YOU AFTER THE MAN WHO SHOWED YOU THE ELECTRONICS STORE?"
Two presses.
"ARE YOU AFTER SOMETHING IN THESE MOUNTAINS?"
Two presses.
"ARE YOU JUST PASSING THROUGH?"
One press.
"OKAY, I SEE NO FAULT WITH THAT. I'LL CALL OFF THE PATROLS. HOWEVER, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE YOU A PROPOSITION, ONCE WE ARE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE BETTER. MY MEN WILL LEAVE A MORSE CODE MANUAL FOR YOU TO PERUSE UNDER THE TALLEST TREE YOU CAN SEE IN YOUR AREA. AND PLEASE, KEEP THIS TWO-WAY RADIO. TOMORROW, AT A TIME OF YOUR DISCRETION, USE IT TO CONTACT ME IN MORSE CODE, SO WE COULD TALK PROPERLY."
…
One press.