Sun And Lillie Vs. The World (The Sequel to Heart of a Champion)

Chapter 4- The First Battle of the Last Ride

                     The Next Day

I woke up in the hotel bed next to Lillie. I had a long day today, Lillie was going to take Elio to the beach while I went to the battlefield and then to go see if I can't get something for Stella. I got up and got some breakfast for myself and my family. After bringing that to the suite I decided to wake up Lillie and talk to her for a bit before I went out. There was no one who comforted me and made me ready for the day ahead like Lillie, and I made sure to let her know that. I went down through the hotel and made my way to Slateport Arena, where my battle would be held tomorrow. When I got there I noticed that the field was sand, this is good, I'm most comfortable with that, and a lot of others tend not to be. I noticed that Dawn and Calem were on the field already, I'd probably have to wait for one of them to go before I started but I decided to talk to Dawn since I hadn't before. "Hey Dawn!" Dawn looked up from watching her Torterra who was practicing wood hammer. "Oh, hi Sun! What's up?" I shrugged, "Not much, I just came to see the field, you like battling in the sand?" Dawn shook her head, "Not particularly but it's a fun challenge! I'm sure you like it though" we both laughed and I responded, "Yeah you could say that...good to see you and good luck tomorrow Dawn!" She nodded "You too!"

After Dawn left 15 minutes later I let my team take the field. "You guys know the drill, Ninetails and Whimsicott, there's a lot of dragons on that team and no counter to fairy, so you guys can pretty much run wild. That being said I know Iris, she'll probably have something up her sleeve, so get yourselves ready to adjust on the fly." They nodded and then we got to jogging. After all that was finished I said hello to Gold, who was just entering, as I was leaving and made my way to the market. I got there and looked around for something that Stella might like. I found a lot of berries and odd trinkets but nothing Stella would really like, she was only 3 so it couldn't be that hard. That being said maybe I should just go for a sure thing and get something from her favorite contestant May at the contest hall if she's there. I made my way around the now busy streets and walked in to the contest hall's registration area. There the attendant recognized me and asked what I was doing here. "Oh! I was just wondering if May was here, I was hoping I could talk to her or something." The attendant nodded, "Yeah she's in that room over there, I'm sure if you ask the guy outside they'll let you in." "Thanks!" I walked to the guy at the door and he recognized me and let me in. I walked in and saw May, dressed in a more casual red shirt and pants that what she usually wore in contests. "Hey! Can I help- Holy crap you're Sun!" I laughed and scratched the back of my head, "Heheh yeah, and you're May!" She giggled and then tilted her head, "So what are you doing here?" I chuckled, "Well to tell you the the truth, my daughter, her name is Stella, loves watching you on TV and I was hoping I could get something to take back to Alola for her." May laughed, "That's sweet! I'd love to, but there's one catch..." I was confused and asked, "Well what's that?" She pointed to a spot on the wall that had a poster from the last world championship, it was a poster of Me and the other 7 champions. It had already been signed by Brendan. "Would you mind signing that for me?" I laughed, "Yeah why not!" I pulled out the pen I kept in my pocket and signed the poster where I was on the picture. May walked over to a dresser she had and pulled out a print of herself winning a contest and signed it, even writing a nice message to Stella on it. I thanked her and she thanked me in return. Now I decided it would be a good time to go meet up with my family at the beach.

I saw a sea of umbrellas lining the beach and scanned it for my wife. I spotted her sitting under one on the left side of the beach from where I was and made my way over. "Hi Lillie, how's it going!" She turned to me and smiled, "Great, even though we're used to beaches and the like, it's really nice here, something about the water here is nice. Elio's having a blast." I smiled back, "That's great! You mind if I join you?" Lillie patted the towel next to me which signaled me to sit down. We spent the rest of the day watching Elio play with some of the other kids there that day. It was fun just being there. I went over my strategy one last time in my head. I knew what I had to do and I was pretty confident I could do it. There wasn't much to think about really. I think Ninetails is going to have a showing for the ages. We went back to the hotel at about 9 and went to sleep shortly after.

The next morning I went to the arena pretty early. I was just ready to battle. It never really got old, battling in the World Championship was really one of my favorite things to do. I'd miss it sorely after this. I figured I should savor every moment. I didn't bring a flag or anything this time, I wasnt really sure what the away-territory flag rule was now, and I didn't really want to risk it. Lillie and Elio were in the front row, waiting for me to walk out. I always liked to come out second, and being the World Champion, they always let me. Iris had made her way and was readying herself for the tournament opening battle. I waited in the tunnel for my walkout song to start. Moments later "Hello World"

hit the speakers and I began my walk. I ran out and high fived the fans, I was rounding the stands when I noticed May in one of the suites, I acknowledged her with a sort of point/wave combination and she waved back. The fans loved it. I ran over to Lillie and Elio, Elio shouted at me excitedly, "You got this Dad!" Lillie laughed and ruffled his hair, "He's right Sun, good luck." I hugged them both and then made my way to the trainers box.

The crowd was having fun, but respectfully I was right in my pre match thoughts. Ninetails had 3 KOs already and we were up 5-4, I had Whimsicott and Ninetails left against just a Hydreigon. Comfortable situation. She had some plans up her sleeve but Ninetails' general awareness to change ups handled them fine. I decided I'd let him finish it off. We were much more comfortable in the sand than Iris was. The Hydreigon did it's best to fly around and pepper Ninetails but it wasn't working, Ninetails had too big of an advantage and dropped it relatively quickly with an ice beam. 6-4 Victory. The crowd was cheering loudly as I ran over to Iris and shared a friendly hug with her. She left through the  tunnel and I raised my hands in celebration before jogging over to my family. Elio was ecstatic and hugged me immediately, Lillie laughed and patted me on the back as Elio was shouting about how cool that was.

                     Author's Note
First battle down! Hope you guys are enjoying the sequel so far, I decided to publish whatever I can of it today, but I try to make author's notes right before I do so it might even take me until tomorrow. There's about 19 chapters in this one but they're not quite as long as I usually do.