The gears in Lance's mind had been spinning furiously ever since Sidney had threatened Cianwood City. Lance was a great leader, he was good at spotting people's strengths and incorporating them with others, but it was the whole 'negotiations' part of his job that he was bad at. Lance's mind strayed too often to battle and in cases like he this he found himself stuck.

Chuck had assaulted Steven and Steven had rightfully got angry but it was Sidney that had changed a situation which they could have talked out into one where the two champions were backed into corners.

Lance was reaching for the room's door knob when he paused, "Why are you here?"

Jasmine stepped forwards and was looking at Lance with a determined expression, "I'm here to try talk you out of doing anything too rash. This can still be resolved peacefully."

"I'd like to believe you," Lance said honestly, "But I can't simply stand by as a city is threatened. If Olivine was attacked you'd want help." Lance opened the door, "If you have any ideas I'm all ears." Jasmine followed him into the room and began rattling off suggestions but Lance kept rebuking them with an increasing gloom.

"Can you get Chuck to apologise?"

"He's not backing down."

"It could have been a hollow threat."

"It could not be."

"Can't we talk to Steven?"

"He's refusing contact." Lance sighed and sat down. There was a large screen on the wall facing his chair but at the moment all it showed was a black screen, "Jasmine, you can try to contact the Hoenn elite, they might listen to you, but for now I need you to leave."

Jasmine nodded and exited the room, almost immediately after pulling out her pokégear. Lance watched her leave before turning to the screen and turning it on. Professor Oak's image flashed onto the screen.

"What did Birch say? Is Steven taking offensive action?"

Oak mouth was open but wordless for a moment before he started talking, "Professor Birch told me the Hoenn league isn't likely to back down. He says that unless Kahto does something soon they'll have no choice but to fight."

This was the answer Lance had been dreading, "How are we supposed to do that when Steven is refusing contact? I've asked Jasmine to try get through to him but I doubt it will work."

"Are you sure Chuck won't do something?"

Lance shook his head, "He told me himself that he will not let Cianwood be taken, even if it means a war."

Back in Professor Oak's lab, one of the other screens he kept on his desk sparked to life and revealed a picture of Birch.

All of Birch's words were indecipherable to Lance but once the Hoenn professor was finished Oak relayed his words to Lance with a worriedly shocked face.

"It seems that Drake, Glacia and Sidney are indeed calling for war."

Lance's eyes widened, "That can't be serious. Their region is flooded and Kahto combined is a much larger force than Hoenn. Why do they think they can fight us?"

"Birch doesn't know many details himself. All he knows is that the elite is furious and are giving the Indigo league two options, to apologise or face them."

Lance's face fell. This had descended too quickly into a matter of prides and he knew that it was one Chuck would not give up. He also knew most of the Kahto gym leaders would consider apologising a sign of defeat.

Lance turned his chair around to focus on the small window, not wanting to look at Oak at that moment, "I suppose we have no choice but to ready ourselves."

Oak couldn't believe what he was hearing, "What in the world do you mean? You're risking your region and Hoenn just because you won't apologise?"

Lance spoke defensively, "I know Chuck won't back down. We must be ready to counter any type of attack in case Hoenn does attack."

Oak was still incredulous, "But..."

"Just remember that Chuck was Blue's teacher. He won't run." Lance turned around quickly so he didn't have to face Oak before turning off the screen. He sat there was a silent moment. What had he done?

He stood up and went to open the door but found it was already opening. Clair halted outside the door, her hand on the door and looking down the corridor.

She looked at Lance, "Is what Will said true?"

Anger crept into Lance's voice, "What did he say?"

Clair straightened up and put her hands on her hips, "He told us that we were at war with Hoenn." she waited for Lance to deny it but when he didn't she started glaring at her cousin. "You did what!?" she yelled, "You and the other four went to Hoenn just to discuss flooding and you came back with a war!?"

Lance clenched his fists, "Steven didn't follow the rules Chuck set up and then Sidney threatened Cianwood City."

"Why would Sidney do that? Hoenn would have no chance against two regions especially since they've just had flooding." her tone was knowing and Lance realised that Will had told them much more than Lance would have liked.

"How much did Will say?" he asked with the tone of defeat he only let show when he was with Clair.

"Blue and I were both in the league when Will burst in, talking about how Chuck punched Steven and Sidney declared war. Was he telling the truth?"

Lance barely managed to stop himself punching the wall, "Why in hell did he do that!?"

Clair shrugged, "Only Karen knows what goes on in his mind but what I want to know is what you're going to do about it."

"We have to prepare and ready ourselves in case Hoenn does attack us. We will not make the first move."

Clair nodded, "I'll see if the other gym leaders will join us." she walked out and left Lance once again alone. He called out his dragonite and greeted it briefly before stalking off to find Will which shouldn't have been hard considering stealth, or for that matter discretion, was a foreign term to him.


The gym leaders of Johto and Kanto were all sitting around one table in the Indigo Plateau, all but Jasmine, Morty, Bugsy and Erika. They were a very odd looking group whose outfits ranged from a kimono to a harlequin's to a ninja's. Lance was trying not to get angry at a few of the people there, namely Chuck and Will.

"As you probably know by now Hoenn has made a threat against Cianwood City," Lance began, "And Oak has informed me that they do intend to make an attack." Lance didn't feel the need to mention the condition when Chuck would outright refuse and at least nine of the gym leaders there would be outraged at the thought, "Under no circumstances are we to attack them but if they attack we must be ready."

"There is a way we could win before the fighting starts." Sabrina said slyly.

"What? How?" Lance asked and she smirked.

Sabrina leant on the table and waved her hand in the direction of the Johto map that decorated the table along with maps of Kanto, Hoenn, Unova, Sinnoh and Kalos. "We just so happen to have citizens of Hoenn amongst us. It seems that they're awfully close to Cianwood." she mused, allowing the others to fill in the gaps.

"What!? You can't be serious!" Misty cried.

Sabrina's tone was monotonous but in the way that made her sound constantly scheming, "Serious about what? I'm merely suggesting possibilities for those who clearly do not wish for battle." her words were pointed at Misty who gritted her teeth.

"They've done nothing yet. We can't just threaten innocent people." Lance said, "And there's no chance Morty or Jasmine would stand for that. They both said that they won't get involved in any conflict so we don't have that kind of leverage."

"All we need is a warning." Pryce explained, "We know that we're stronger than Hoenn, especially after their region has been so devastated, so there's a chance they won't even attempt an attack but if we set up a watch on the area between us then we can be prepared."

Falkner raised his hand off the table, "I can do that."

Lance shook his head, "I don't think Violet City should lose its gym leader. We can't worry the citizens over what may be nothing." he looked to Bruno, Karen, Will and Koga.

"I will take the first watch." Koga volunteered.

"We can't tell anyone else about this." Clair's gaze was fixed angrily on Will, "It'll just spread panic." she looked to Falkner and Whitney, "It's obvious why Jasmine, Morty and Erika aren't here but do you know why Bugsy's absent."

Whitney shrugged, "He probably left his pokégear at home while he's off looking for bugs. I don't know where he is and I didn't ask."

Falkner chuckled, "Either that or he's down the ruins of Alph."

Clair rolled her eyes, "Just find him. We need to gauge how much support we'd have if it came to fighting."

Brock spoke up, "About that. What if it does come to that? What will we do?"

"We'll defend ourselves." Lance said simply, "Some of us would have to protect the area between Hoenn and Johto to try and stop any attack before it reaches Cianwood but we'd need people to protect Johto if that fails."

"I can fight against them." Chuck said.

"But it's not like I'll let them gang up on you." smirked Surge.

Blue nodded, "I'll fight if they attack."

"But we'll need to be in more places like that." Everyone looked to Surge with confused faces, "On its own Johto wouldn't have had a chance against Hoenn. No offense." he added insincerely when he saw Clair glaring at him, "But Hoenn knows it's outmatched against Kahto so it'll need to hit strong and fast." he pointed the Indigo Plateau's location on the Kahto map, "They'll almost definitely attack the Indigo league and as a bonus they'd be possibly cutting off any help from Kanto."

Lance looked at the Hoenn map thoughtfully, "Pryce, Sabrina and Brock should go to the league if an attack from Hoenn is predicted. That way we'd be protected from explosive, energy or physical projectiles."

"Do you really not trust the plateau's present defences?" Sabrina asked.

"I hope we need not use them." Lance said honestly.


Despite the ice pack one side of Steven's face had become a large bruise. He was torn with indecision and found he was being silent while the Hoenn elite argued against Phoebe.

"If we don't do something they're gonna attack us!" Sidney yelled.

"They wouldn't do something like that! They don't want war as much as we do!" Phoebe protested crossly, she couldn't believe the elite would be so blind.

"They have our people. We need to rescue them before they're used against us." Glacia said.

"No." Steven said, "Jasmine said that she and Morty would protect our citizens and wouldn't participate."

"You spoke to Jasmine? What happened to 'Never cross Hoenn again or you'll face the wrath of our region'?" asked Winona and Steven clenched his teeth.

"She wanted to tell me something very important. Lance is readying the Indigo League for war and is being informed about our actions from Professor Birch."

Norman raised an eyebrow, "How's that possible? He hasn't been to his lab so he couldn't contact Kahto."

"Apparently Oak has been relaying the information."

"They're just trying to negotiate a peaceful solution. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT!?" Flannery's second sentence was much louder as if she thought her first was too passive sounding.

"The problem is that they weren't trying to end this. They were using this to plan." Steven's voice sounded tired.

"Speaking of planning, we should start." said Roxanne.

"How can you just accept this?" Phoebe asked incredulously.

Roxanne raised her hands defensively, "I agree the situations aren't ideal but have you heard the phrase 'You might as well win'?" Roxanne ignored Phoebe's shocked face, "There's no way we can attack Johto without Kanto getting involved so that means we're outnumbered about nineteen to ten if you don't count Morty, Jasmine, Watson, Brawly, Tate or Liza. Since Fortree City is one of the only untouched cities and air travel is the quickest I suggest Winona leads the attack. It's a shame that Tate and Liza aren't here though."

"We don't need type advantages. If anyone should know that it's me." said Norman.

"It's still good to have." she explained, "And since we're that outnumbered I think we should attack hard and fast here." Roxanne pointed to the league and looked expectantly at Flannery, "You should be able to manage that."

The expression on Flannery's face clearly showed she didn't want to but Flannery nodded anyway. Normally the league would have talked to her and encouraged her not to put on the façade but they had larger problems than her confidence to discuss.

Steven was silent while the others talked. His fingers were laced and his face appeared thoughtful but inside he was such a mass of emotions he couldn't even decipher how he felt. Well, not quite. He could understand one thing, he felt utterly hopeless.


Oak had his head in his hands while he told the other professors about what Lance had said and what he was planning to do.

"He'd really risk war?" Professor Elm asked worriedly and Oak nodded.

"What are we going to do?" Sycamore wondered.

"We can't join for obvious reasons. I'm sorry Samuel but the other regions will have to be neutral in this conflict." said Rowan.

Birch opened his mouth to protest but he sighed in resignation, "Right…You can't interfere without taking sides. Sinnoh's on good terms with Johto but then again Kalos and Hoenn have always been partners…"

"We can't do anything except negotiate to stop it." Juniper summed up.

"But Lance pretty much declared war!" Oak protested.

"So it's up to us three to try talk sense into the leagues?" Birch asked and Juniper nodded sadly.

"Even if we do anything it could be seen as favouritism and I don't think Iris, Calem or Cynthia would like that."

"I'll see if I can…" Birch spotted his lab's door opening and hurriedly turned off the screens. He got out of his chair and found Norman walking in. His footsteps echoed loudly in the almost empty lab and Norman seemed to have something troubling him.

"Hello," Birch greeted anxiously.

Norman crossed his arms and sighed, "Did you tell Oak about what our league's planning?" he asked, trying to get this over with.

"What?" Birch was surprised by his old friend's sudden interrogation, "Why?"

Norman didn't meet the professor's eyes, "Jasmine told Steven that you had and just wants to know what side you're on."

"'Side'? There aren't any sides yet. I just want to avoid a war."

"It's too late for that." Birch's eyes unconsciously flickered to the screens, thinking he had to warn Elm and Oak. Norman furrowed his eyebrows, "That's what he means. Nothing will be accomplished if Kahto knows all our plans." Norman forced himself to turn and walk out, "You can't contact the other regions." he said finitely.

Norman walked outside with a heavy heart while Birch battled with himself inside his lab. He had to warn the Indigo League. The way Norman had phrased everything made him sure that Hoenn were planning to attack soon but he realised how serious Norman had been. They'd been friends for years and he knew that by betraying Hoenn he'd also be betraying him. Even though Norman used to live in Johto he seemed to hold no loyalty and was going to fight.

Birch made up his mind. With robotic and halting movements he moved his hands towards his computer's keyboard and typed a short message.

This is my final message. Steven doesn't want me contacting you. Heads up.


It was a choice between Norman or Oak. Whether he made the right one is up to your opinion. War has been declared and thus begins the long one and a bit years of fighting.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review! :D