Pokeballs

A pokeball is able to briefly transform a subject into energy, shrink it down, and contain it in a somewhat sleep-like stasis. A person or pokemon that spends three hours in this state of stasis is rested as if they had slept for two hours, but still is able to immediately return to full alertness upon being called out. The stasis also sharply reduces the amount of food and water needed while stored. The pokeballs are programmed with safeguards to limit this to pokemon, but the protagonist of the story disables those safeguards. (He leaves the other safeguards in place to make sure the contained subjects remain safe and healthy).

Pokeballs also implant a compulsion to obey the trainer that used them. This is intended to help with more aggressive and unruly captured pokemon, particularly those that were captured because they were a threat to people, as well as to help trainers and pokemon coordinate in battle without delays. These compulsions are far from foolproof, but it takes a significant effort of will to overcome them. A strong willed subject with a decent motivation will be able to shrug off an order with only a moment of hesitation, while a weak willed subject will need full focus to resist an order that wasn't made very commandingly. The subject being distracted also makes it harder to resist the order, unless their focus directly conflicts with the order.

The compulsion fades some with time without a dedicated effort to reinforce it, and it fades faster if the subject successfully resists orders or otherwise rebels against their trainer. The compulsion is also not transferred with trades.