The Heart of a Champion

Chapter 1- The Climb to the Top

Just figured I'd get this out of the way I don't own any of the characters or anything so yeah don't sue me thanks.

4 Years after S/M

Sun POV

(Team for this story)
Incineroar-M
Lycanroc (Day) F
Whimsicott- F
Metagross- M (genderless?)
Ninetails- M
Kantonian Raichu- M

"...Alright I've been here before, no need to worry." I reassured myself quickly as I drew my last pokeball. "It all comes down to this! The score is knotted at Gladion's 5 to Champion Sun's 5!" The crowd at the recently built Manalo Stadium erupted in support of the Champion and #1 contender to the champion's throne in Alola. Gladion's Lycanroc stood tall at the other side of the battlefield, glaring at me, waiting for me to make my next move. "Alright! You're the last one, give it all you've got Whimsicott!" I sent out my rather unassuming Whimsicott, she never garnered the same kind of respect of the rest of my team did. Luckily for her though she had a type advantage here, though taking my first ever professional loss in a situation like this would probably just make it that much more embarrassing.

Gladion shouted at me from across the field, "It wouldn't have mattered if you had sent out Arceus himself, I'm not losing now, not after I've come this far". Truthfully I was happy to see Gladion enjoying himself at least, he never seems to let the serious side of himself go. "Gladion we've known each other since we were 14, and you know as well as I do that I don't ever plan on letting this Champion title leave my name." The referee recognized that we were both ready and restarted the Battle. "Stone edge!" "Moonblast!" The lycanroc started the stone projectile and then quickly avoided the moonblast with a sidestep and began to run towards my Whimsicott. I was prepared for this though. Whimsicott was biding her time as the stones came, followed on their sides by a quickly running lycanroc. Right, this is what I was hoping for. I raised my wrist that had my Grass type Z-crystal on it. Gladion was taken aback, he had probably assumed that I had my Incineroar's Z-crystal, which would usually be right, but I respected Gladion enough as a challenger to switch up my strategy. The lycanroc had run point blank into a bloom doom as my Whimsicott sidestepped the stones and pulled off the Z-move to near perfection.

The dust settled and Gladions lycanroc laid on its side in the sandy battlefield. "Lycanroc is unable to battle, Champion Sun has defended his title!" The crowd roared with delight, I appreciate the people of Alola more than they know, they've become avid fans of mine. As their Champion that really is what I had always hoped for. I ran over to the wall separating the field and the crowd in the stadium and jumped into the crowd and celebrated with the fans in that section before jumping down and jogging over to shake Gladion's hand. We exchanged remarks and then went our separate ways out of the exit tunnels of the stadium.

As I exited the grey tunnel, I walked out to my usual group waiting for me. I had decided with Kukui's advice to build Manalo stadium on Poni Island. Sure it wasn't the closest to the major population centers in Alola but there was lots of land to develop there, and the people of Alola didn't mind taking a ferry or Charizard to go see the Champion battle. "Hey Cousin! Great battle out there today, Burnet and I were on the edge of our seats!" I walked over to him and gave him a bro hug. " 'Appreciate it Kukui, I do my best, Gladion always knows how to bring out the best in me and my team." I then hugged Burnet, she was something like a second mother to me, I appreciate her a lot. I then went over to my Mom and hugged her as well, "I'm so proud of you Sun, everyone loves watching you." I chucked, "Thanks Mom, see you soon for dinner?" she gladly accepted the offer, I liked to have her over at my house from time to time to catch up over dinner.

I then said goodbye to what I like to call my family there and rode my Charizard back to my house on Ula' Ula' Island, it was dark out by the time I got there. I patted my Charizard on the back and thanked him for the ride. I had renovated the old Aether House at the base of Mount Lanakila, since it was really close to the Pokemon League when I needed to have more formal battles with challengers or sharpen up my Elite Four. I didn't really flick on any lights on the way to the second floor I had added, which was where my bedroom was, I was just so used to navigating it at this point that I didn't really need to see where I was going.

I got to my bedroom and sat on my bed. I looked at the picture that my rotom dex had taken 4 years ago in Hau'Oli City with my best friends Hau and Lillie. I had seen Hau many times recently, Lillie not so much. Hau still lived in Melemele with Kahuna Hala, but Lillie had left Alola after our journey. One of the worst parts about it was that she didn't have a rotom phone or anything. Her mother Lusamine, who also happened to be the reason she left, never let her have that sort of technology for whatever reason. I had to resort to contacting her by letter. Last I heard from her was about 8 months ago. She told me that she was still living in the hospital with her mother while they waited for a doctor that could properly remove Nihilego's toxins from Lusamine's body. She said that Bill was able to tell her that was the best course of action, but it was still not a sure thing. The doctors and nurses at the hospital were nice enough to lend Lillie any open spot they could while she stayed with her mother. I was sure it wasn't easy for her. I admired her a lot for going through all that for someone who seemingly didn't even care for her...

As usual I lost myself in thought and found myself up at 4 AM thinking about this. I had released Nebby the Solgaleo from his ball that I kept on my belt. I always kept 7. My usual 6 and Nebby. I don't allow myself to use Nebby in competition, it just would be unfair really. I always kept him around though, he reminded me of Lillie, how much she encouraged and inspired me, and how much we did together. I always felt like he understood what my thoughts were as I sort of mindlessly stroked his mane. I should probably just go to bed at this point. I promised Hau I'd eat lunch with him at some point, plus I had to meet with the 7 major Champions tomorrow to discuss something important, and as it looked now I would have a really hard time getting up by then. I finally closed my eyes as Nebby fell asleep somewhere else in the room and then I myself drifted to sleep as well.

Author's Note
Alright I'm gonna throw this chapter out here and see what happens. I have pretty much the whole story written already, but any suggestions would be much appreciated. Im mostly just posting the first part so I can learn what you guys want to see and edit the rest accordingly if necessary. I'm not a super great writer or anything but I felt like writing this so don't expect a masterpiece or anything. I was inspired by a lot of you all writing here so thank you, I had a lot of fun writing all this. Thanks for reading anyway!