Thanks for all the support on my Patreo-n so far! 3 advanced chapters at /xlucqs. I also posted the first two chapters of another story I have been working on, which is a MHA SI.

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  The first thing William did as soon as he entered his room was fall face-first onto the couch. His eyes flickered, begging for sleep, but just as he was about to doze off, he was suddenly reminded of his Pokemon, injured in their pokeballs.

  With one last push of energy, he forced himself to sit upwards, took some groggy steps across the room, and placed all of his Pokemon in the healing station.

  Usually William would struggle getting to sleep, and when he got to sleep nightmares often plagued his dreams. He would often have Kirby sing him to sleep with her high pitched lullaby to help with that, but this time he crawled back to the couch, and fell asleep instantly.

  …

  …

  …

  William woke up several hours later. He had been so tired that his nap had turned into an entire night's rest. He rubbed his tired eyes, wiping the exhaustion away. The room was quiet, accompanied by the occasional beeping and shaking of the healing station.

  There was a knock on the door. William jumped up, searching for his mask.

  "It's me. I'm on my own." It came from Shelly.

  He immediately relaxed. "Come in," he said.

  Shelly walked in, taking off the mask of her own William had given to her. It was a basic mask made to fit her head shape, designed with flowers and thorns, curling their way across the mask.

  "How are you holding up?" she asked.

  "Better now that I've had some sleep." William replied. His body still ached and his mind was still fatigued, but he didn't mention any of it.

  Shelly fidgeted nervously, biting her bottom lip. "I just wondered…Was it all really a coincidence? I mean, I've been thinking about it, and some things just don't add up. I mean, I could be wrong, it's just…"

  "You're spot-on," William responded. "But don't worry, I sorted everything out."

  "Really?"

  William nodded. "I saw you in that room before. You were trying to get everything under control, but no one was listening. Do you remember what I told you back then?"

  She nodded back. "You said if I wanted something, I needed to take it with strength."

  "Correct. I did say I will show you how to do it. This applies to the current situation as well. If you want to be respected, to be listened to, you need to show you have the strength to be respected and listened to. Otherwise, your voice will never be heard. You have a powerful team, you almost won the Conference League—I have no doubt you can beat everyone here. Well, aside from me, of course. The point is—you have the strength, now all you need to do is to show it. Got it?"

  "Got it." Shelly responded, giving a thumbs up.

  "Anything else?"

  "Yeah…" Shelly said, her voice taking a slow and controlled manner. Like every word needed to be perfect. "My Pokemon told me how difficult the fight was—they were watching from the distance. How you almost died on multiple occasions, how you almost lost, how it was much closer than you made it out to be out there."

  William stared sharply at her. "Is there a question in there?"

  "Well, what I'm trying to ask is—are you okay? I mean, you almost died, William. My Pokemon told me about the meteors, the Aerodactyl, Lance's persistence. That's not something you should just…ignore. You should really get—"

  "That will be all, Admin Ashe." William cut her off before she could continue. Shelly looked at him, sighed, put on her mask, and then walked out the room.

  Now left alone to stew in silence, Shelly's question bounced in his mind.

  Was he really okay? The events that had happened—not just today, but for the past year or so—everything had been going so fast, it was like he was living life pressing down the accelerator.

  William had come close to crashing so many times. But he knew he had reached the point where he had been pressing the accelerator down so long he didn't know how to live without it pressing it, his body didn't know how to ease up on the control, and instead kept pressing down, going further and further, deeper and deeper.

  William sighed, running a hand through his hair. Even with the equivalent of a full night's rest, the exhaustion was slowly seeping back into his bloodstream.

  He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment—but just then he heard something from the adjacent room.

  It was Bond.

  In the small room connecting to William's office was a narrow well of water which could be accessed by his Pokemon. This was how Bond returned from missions, rather than William needing to go outside the base and put him back in his Pokéball like he was fetching a child from daycare—which was very inefficient.

  The door opened, and Bond walked in. He had grown so much from when he was just a Sobble. Now he was an assassin and advisor—his assassin and advisor.

  Bond was much smarter than most Pokemon—a genetic mutation probably, the same way some Pokemon were much bigger than normal.

  Even though they couldn't directly communicate, it was nice to converse with someone he could trust—someone he could bounce ideas and plans with. That was his part as William's advisor, so to speak. But he was also something else. He was also an assassin.

  Given that the Pokemon was designed after 007 in the first place—Bond was the perfect assassin.

  Particularly the move Snipe Shot, in which Bond could shoot water from his fingertip as though it were a bullet. It was perfect for killing people.

  And that is what Bond had been doing for as long as he could remember.

  Everything from people who could know or might know about his secret, anyone who could become a problem later on, and rival competitors—nothing was off the table. Bond had racked up an impressive list of bodies over the past year or so.

  Just recently, William had given Bond his most daring mission yet: to assassinate Maxie, leader of Team Magma. And now he had just returned.

  Bond knelt down on one knee.

  "So was the mission successful? Did you successfully assassinate your target?" William asked, his voice betraying none of his nervousness.

  In a moment, the world hung in a balance.

  Bond took a short moment to compose himself—and shook his head.

  Maxie was still alive.

  It was then that the realisation came to William that assassinating a man like this wouldn't work. He was simply too smart and calculated. Too pragmatic and careful compared to most people. Too important with too many resources at his disposal. And if assassinating a target leader didn't work, then the only other option was to go to war.

  The conference room smelled of bleach and coffee, making Maxie crinkle his nose. Located at the top of Devon Corp's massive skyrise building, it was a huge office space with an equally impressive table covered entirely in white.

  He did not like it at all. The smell, the colours, the atmosphere. It reminded him of the hospital, where he spent many of his early years he would much rather forget about.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He shook his head, regaining his focus—turning his attention back to the presentation. That was what mattered right now.

  Standing at the podium in which rested a series of flashcards and notes, Maxie had front row seats to the rest of the room.

  Closest to him on his left was Joseph Stone, who was seated on the table. Next to him was his son, eyes sharp and taking notes.

  The rest of the room was filled with stakeholders of Devon Corp. Their stake alone in Devon Corp made them more powerful and rich than most people. That was what this was—a shareholder meeting to report on the quarterly earnings of their company.

  Maxie was reporting in front of some of the most powerful men in the region, all eyes on him. It should have affected him, but it didn't.

  His heartbeat and breathing remained as steady as it always was. He had been through much worse in his life to be intimidated by this.

  Most notable was yesterday—in which he was nearly assassinated. The situation had come as a shock, but after all had been said and done he looked at the event as a sign that he was doing something right, enough that someone wanted him dead.

  Maxie had always been prepared for such situations. He had specifically designed his office windows to be bulletproof. In fact, he had even gone a step further and double-layered his glass, so there were two bulletproof glass windows stuck together.

  The attack was strong—it jolted something in his system when the first layer of glass shattered. He was up and moving just as the second pane of glass broke. And before the final shot could hit, his Pokemon had shot out of their pokeballs, ready to protect him from any other possible attacks.

  They circled around him like bodyguards, using their bodies as shields as more and more projectiles ripped through the atmosphere at Maxie. He shuffled out of the room, crawling on his knees.

  That was the worst part of the attack, not the fact that he had been nearly killed—but the fact that this assassin had forced him to his knees in order to preserve his life.

  Maxie had never lowered himself to that point because of someone else. And if that someone else existed, he would make sure they would not live to tell the tale.

  He had his windows breaking made out to be an accident—right now as they spoke new ones were being put in. They would be even stronger—more reinforced. No bullet or projectile would pierce it.

  Maxie now turned his attention back to the task at hand—the boardroom meeting. He pressed a button from a handheld remote, and the large plasma screen TV leapt to life.

  Devon Corp Q3 Summary.

  He pressed the button again. Bullet points and graphs and charts littered the screen.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. I hope you all had a safe trip. Today we will be going over Devon Corp's Q3 actions and earnings, as well as answering any questions or doubts you may have."

  He pointed towards the screen. "Overall, our quarterly earnings have been performing better than our predictive model anticipated. Compared to Q2, our earnings have gone up 22%."

  A murmur of approvals. He pressed the button on the remote again.

  "There are many different reasons we are performing much better than anticipated. One of these reasons is due to our new Champion, Wallace, who has done his utmost best to get the region back on track and running the way it was years ago. With our help of course, Wallace has provided stability and support to the region with new laws, policies, and acts which have contributed to the betterment of the region. People have a bit more to spend, and feel safe spending it, so naturally they go to us, the best company in the region."

  Maxie paused, taking a small sip of water.

  "Another reason is the partnerships we have been venturing into. Most notably, our partnership with Neptune Shipping, which has increased the stability and speed of shipments for our products."

  Neptune Shipping. The name tasted like salt water on his lips as the words came out of his mouth. A brash company run by an equally brash man. That man was expanding his influence on the waters—while it was his very goal to get rid of the waters to make way for more land.

  Why does no one see my vision?

  He had vehemently protested the partnership between Devon Corp and Neptune Shipping, doing all he could to prevent the deal going through, but for all his power in the company, he was just one man.

  "Is everything okay, Maxie?" Joseph Stone asked.

  Maxie blinked. It was only then he realized he had been standing there motionless, too occupied in his thoughts by Neptune Shipping and its owner.

  He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen. The remote seems to be acting up." He gave it a light smack. "Maybe we should consider branching into technology—a Devon Corp remote would never fail."

  He pressed the remote again, and it "magically" began to work again.

  Full recovery, good.

  "Speaking of our products." he cleared his throat. "Our general clothing and item lines, which appeal to most consumers, bring in roughly half of our income. Here is the chart on the screen now. The other half comes from our specialised items for trainers: potions, pokeballs, repels, and status condition healing items. All of these products remain of the highest quality and calibre and are located in each and every pokemart across the region. No one can match us."

  A routine settled in Maxie as the minutes seemed to blend into one, delivering clear and concise speeches detailing the presentation. It was like clockwork. He had already rehearsed and gone over all of the optics many times before. It was easy reading from a screen when it had been ingrained in his muscle memory.

  But now came the hard part. The questions. A year ago, when Hoenn was going through turbulent times, the stakeholders were out for blood, sniffing for weaknesses and reasons to withdraw their support. Those were the hardest times.

  Now, thanks to the new Champion, they were doing much better as a company and the aggressiveness of the questions had decreased. However, you always have to be prepared for the worst. A question you didn't know the answer to—an answer you needed to make up on the spot with quick and critical thinking. Someone who wanted to weigh egos and look for a crack in the armor and attack it.

  He collected the remote one last time.

  "Thank you for your continued support," Maxie finished. "Does anyone have any questions?"

  Hands were raised up in the sky. Maxie took a deep breath, settling himself into another routine.

  Questions of all kinds were thrown at him. Maxie answered each of them with a type of precision and calmness that could only be built and forged over a long period of time and pressure.

  Then came a curveball.

  "I was told by one of my Indigo business associates of an attack that had taken place yesterday morning. The League have yet to make an official announcement, but yesterday a joint operation between Team Aqua and Team Rocket took place in which they raided the SS Anne and looted it entirely of its valuables. Given that Team Aqua initially did business operations entirely in Hoenn, and they may look back towards Hoenn with their new partnership, I was wondering what your thoughts are, as well as the actions you are going to take to ensure the safety of Devon Corp and the region."

  Maxie's eye twitched. That was certainly news to him. Murmurs echoed across the room. His mind shifted into overdrive.

  "Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I was unaware of any attack. All I have to say is that we will wait for any details of the attack from official sources and then coordinate a response plan. However, Devon Corp will do absolutely everything and anything to ensure the safety of Hoenn, no matter how many villain teams threaten it." Maxie collected his flashcards and nodded. "Thank you all."

  And now, relax. Maxie thought.

  Joseph Stone came up to him shortly after, shaking his hand. "Well done with the presentation. The stakeholders are pleased. That last question was certainly news to me as well. Although there was that one issue…" Joseph's eyes took a dark undertone.

  "The remote," Maxie said.

  "Ah yes, the remote! Do you have it? You do? Let me see it," Joseph said with a smile.

  Maxie handed him the remote. Still smiling, Joseph gripped it between his two hands and broke it in half. He discarded the pieces in the bin.

  "I'll make sure that company goes under." Joseph said. "You were maybe onto something about going the technology route. I'll speak to you later about it."

  Joseph walked off. Next came his son. Between the two men, Maxie was much more apprehensive of the latter. Joseph was smart and calculating, often hiding his anger behind a carefully hidden mask of a friendly and warm old man. Sometimes he let that mask slip. Just like just then.

  Despite the unpredictable wrath of the CEO of Devon Corp, from his years of experience working with Joseph he had a pretty good idea how to manipulate and tick all the boxes to satisfy his ego and placate his anger.

  Sometimes however, that anger needed to be redirected.

  Joseph's son, Steven, on the other hand, was much more dangerous because he couldn't figure him out. What was behind the eyes and the smile that seemed so genuine?

  "Father's happy. Looks like you live another day, Maxie," Steven said jokingly—though the statement was somewhat truthful.

  "Steven," Maxie greeted neutrally.

  "You did really well. If it was me up there, facing all those stares, I'd fear I'd crumble under the pressure."

  Maxie nodded in thanks, saying nothing.

  "I made some notes about the presentation," Steven said, flashing his notebook. "Maybe I could run them by you in your office later on? I have a few things I'd like to clarify with you if that's okay."

  "I'd be glad to. Though it would have to be elsewhere. My office is under reconstruction at the moment." Maxie said.

  "Oh? Some upgrades?"

  "Something like that."

  "Well, I'll sort something out. I'll arrange it with your assistant."

  Maxie nodded, glancing left to right. "Speaking of my assistant, I need to find her. Excuse me." and he abruptly left.

  Maxie found Courtney at the edge of the room. Small, unassuming—nobody paid attention to her. Nobody knew what she was.

  They made eye contact as Maxie signaled for her to follow him. They left the room and made their way out into the hallway. Maxie looked around, making sure no one else was there.

  He leaned in and whispered, "What the hell was that?"

  "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know."

  "I thought we had spies in Team Aqua. Why were we not informed of this? This is information we need to know. You remember what I taught you? Information is everything."

  Courtney nodded, "I'm not sure, sir. Our contact has gone radio silent. No response yesterday. Maybe…"

  "Maybe what?"

  "Well, to be blunt, our informant was only our informant for the handsome amount of cash we were paying him. If he was offered another deal, or the raid on the ship gave him lots of money—and he no longer saw the risk in selling information to us…or maybe, at worst, he was killed."

  "All three are just as likely as another," Maxie sighed. "From now on we consider him compromised and we will not contact him again. Remove all evidence we did. What about our team? How is recruitment going?"

  "We are doing as you said—slowly and subtly spreading incentives online about the key points you made. Our members are infiltrating Online forums and spreading the message. If we see someone who might be able to be brought to the cause, we will initiate private conversation with them and slowly convince them to join Team Magma."

  "Good. Make sure you keep bringing up that they will have a chance to use their own Pokemon—which we will give them—for battling. Lots of people have never had the chance, and that will be a key selling point as to joining Team Magma." Maxie said, marching forward. He needed to clear his head—he needed to go outside.

  He weighed the outcomes in his mind. Two opposing ideals from two different teams. Just like with the world itself—the problem of the limited amount of space arose. Team Aqua were now operating in Indigo, but that wouldn't just mean they were leaving Hoenn open for the taking. The region wasn't big enough for both of them.

  They were waiting to seize an opportunity. But so was Maxie. They both wanted to rule and spread their opposing ideologies. When all came down to it and each variable was analyzed the outcome could be condensed into a single word.

  War.