[Part 1]
"Ugh, this is difficult," the dragon complained, looking visibly frustrated with their progress.
To be honest, Hiei was inclined to agree.
Now, they've acquired the Morse code manual - a rather simple, and visibly old pamphlet that the humans left under that tree as promised. And the Gardevoir even more or less memorised its contents, finding herself less and less reliant on looking into it as they practiced. But there was an issue.
You see, while the Morse code consisted of three simple signals - a short signal, and a long signal, and a lack of signal - and could be utilised through both sounds and visuals, there was a catch. It was a code, not a language. And if you did not speak a human language, you would not understand what you are saying in it.
This proved to be a pretty major hurdle, since the Gardevoir couldn't really touch the radio without it going haywire, while Inabayama did not know any human language.
Hiei's idea of how to overcome this issue was rather straightforward - she would slowly knock the necessary sequence against a surface, and Inabayama would repeat it. However, since the Goodra did not understand the precise meaning behind the signals, she was prone to making mistakes here and there. And in a conversation like the one they needed to go through, it was crucial not to make any.
"I'm sorry I'm so bad at this," Inabayama sighed, looking rather defeated.
"I will hear none of that, Inabayama. You don't even know the language we are using, of course this is difficult," the Gardevoir chastised, "You've been copying a sequence of signals without any apparent meaning behind it with an impressive precision. You've done extremely well, despite our lack of preparation for such task."
"But this is not enough. And learning the human language would take even longer"
"It would, yeah"
"Could… Could you teach me? The human language?" Inabayama looked at her nervously, "Not right now, of course. Later. In case something like this comes up again"
"I'd love to," Hiei smiled, "As for this conundrum… Maybe we need to change our approach somehow"
"I wish you were able to just press that button yourself. Your telekinesis also makes it go wrong, right?"
The Gardevoir nodded silently. The energy behind her telekinesis was the exact reason she could not touch the radio in the first place - it coursing through her body caused an interference in the first place. Using that same energy but outside of her body was just applying that same interference directly. And turning the psychokinetic muscle enchantment off was not an option either, and not just because it would leave her in a vulnerable state - without it, she did not have enough strength to press that button more than a couple of times. There was, of course, an option of using her gravitational control to bypass this restriction, but it was akin to using a human-made chainsaw to skin a Bibarel. She'd rather leave it as a last resort.
"Say… How close does it have to be to go wrong?"
"Hm… Let's see…" sensing that her girlfriend was onto something, Hiei slowly moved her hand towards the radio. The distance at which it started to show the signs of interference was less than the width of the device itself.
"Okay. I think I've got an idea," at this, the dragon grabbed the radio as if she was going to use it, and then gently took Hiei's hand and placed it over her own, overlapping them. No interference, "See? Now you can press it"
"You're a genius, Inabayama," the Gardevoir smiled.
[Part 2]
Harunobu was pacing across his office for the past few… Hours?.. Could be that.
If there was one thing he was certain about in regards to Red Eyes, it's that it was a level 101. Like the ones he received from his League contact not that long ago. However, he began to notice a distinct difference between the ominous deadly entity and the 101s he received.
See, he already inspected those Pokemon, to see if they would be helpful in Team Brute's cause. They would. These Pokemon were powerful - each at least as strong as several level 100s. But they also did not show any signs of increased intelligence, and were about as obedient as any properly battle-trained one. Maybe even more so. These Pokemon understood commands and followed them to the letter, but human speech per se? Not so much.
Joben, however, reported that Red Eyes was actually capable of communicating through writing, which could be a sign of a human-like intelligence. Harunobu himself already partially experienced it in their prior conversation - despite them only using 'yes' and 'no' codes, the answers were too coherent to just be a coincidence. Which was exactly why he suggested that they use a Morse code this time.
He could see the League, for example, conducting experiments to teach human language to a Pokemon. He could only imagine how difficult the process would be, but it was still within the realm of possibility. Some bird Pokemon were able to replicate human speech and use it based on a situation they were in, after all. But learning Morse code from scratch meant to recontextualize one's knowledge of a language in a new light. Something that could not be done without actual human-like intelligence.
And he was fairly certain that there were no humans with Red Eyes. Today, Team's rangers followed back on the tracks leading to the manual's drop site. They found one set of tracks, yet signs of two living beings. The tracks belonged to a Goodra - perhaps the same one Joben saw. And just like in his descriptions, Red Eyes seemed to float. No signs of a human being with them though.
Harunobu was not sure if he was ready for the sheer existence of a Pokemon that was as smart as a human. He also knew that he might not have a choice in the matter.
Suddenly, a string of static noises came through his radio. Static noises in recognisable patterns.
"HELLO."
He quickly scrambled towards his own radio, nearly toppling his chair in the process.
"Hello! Thank you for contacting me again, Red Eyes!"
"WHY RED EYES?" even punctuation, huh.
"Oh, uh… That human you met gave us your basic description. Your eyes made a particular impression, so we decided on that code name for the time being. Should we change it?"
"NO. CALL ME THAT FOR NOW."
"Certainly!"
"WHAT DO I CALL YOU?"
Hm… Just to be on the safe side, he'd better use a code name as well.
"Tiger."
"SO. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DISCUSS, TIGER?"
"Well, first… Could you tell me where you are going?"
"I WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT."
"Nor will you disclose what it is you are trying to accomplish there."
"CORRECT."
Yeah, that made sense. They had no reason to trust him, after all. This did, however, throw a wrench into his plans somewhat.
"Say, is the Goodra you are traveling with like you?" he hoped it was obvious he didn't mean 'same species', or something like that.
"CORRECT."
Okay, so he probably should assume that both of them were 101s. This meant a few things.
First, it explained how they were able to overpower everything on their way here. If a trainer with six level 100s could get through these mountains without too much issues, two level 101s could've done so with even more easily. Second - it was probably a terrible idea to try to overpower them. Sure, the Team's got a bunch of level 101s and even more 100s, but the capture would likely be a pyrrhic victory with all the losses it would incur. Third, he probably did well not to refer to either of them as 'it' to their metaphorical faces.
Either way, seeing as Red Eyes was clearly smart, and did not trust Harunobu, he probably had to change his approach somewhat from what he initially planned.
"Have you met a lot of others like you?"
"NOT A LOT."
"You see, we kind of stole a few of League's Pokemon that should be like you. But they are not. And I am not sure why."
There was a delay. A long pause that felt like it stretched forever, as Harunobu waited to see whenever his assumption about Red Eyes was correct. He was already feeling nervous when finally, the radio began another sequence of signals.
"TELL ME MORE."