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

Chapter 12- The Rivalry of the Future

I walked back to the locker room and was met by a tight hug. It was Stella, she was basically crying, "Eevee was so good, I'm so proud of him. Can I see him?" I let Eevee out of the ball and it immediately jumped in to her arms." She softly chuckled and sat down with it. Elio and Lillie stood back, Me and Elio clasped our hands together and pulled each other in to a hug, he whispered to me, "You know what, you're not the same guy you were, you're better." I laughed and patted him on the back. I walked over to Lillie and she smiled, "Sun! I'm so proud of you, we're going to take over the world once again!" She pumped her fist in the air as we both laughed. Just then the locker room door opened. In came Lei. He had a wide smile on his face, "So Mr.Sun! You've still got it then huh? I'll get in touch with you soon and let's put the ink to the paper and get this battle scheduled!" I shook his hand, "Looking forward to it Lei! I can't wait to battle you." He laughed and put his hands at his side, "You know, my dream was never to be world champion...it was to beat you. So if anything the pleasure is all mine." He said this as he left. This was going to be good.

I returned home with my family and began to watch the news, tonight's headline, "The King Is Back". The anchors were in awe of what they had seen, according to them, I had been able to put a team together from just whatever scraps I could find and make a well-oiled machine. I think that's where I differ from most people and trainers specifically. Having the best pokemon doesn't make the best team, sure Silver ran wild with his legendaries, but his time is coming soon, they'll see.

The news report went on about my teams raw potential. There was a new buzz in Alola, but it wasn't really new was it? It was like the return of Mike Tyson, parents told their kids about how it was back then when he was on top of the world. Hopefully I would be able to have a better ending than his career though. I wasn't coming back as a fluke. this was long meditated, well planned, and especially motivated. I went to Hau'Oli City that day to do some shopping for the family and I got many "Good job"s, "Glad your back"s, and pats on the back. It felt good to see everyone so excited again. I want to make sure it isn't all for nothing. I got all the groceries as usual and returned home to my family who helped me unpack them. I received my contract from Lei in the mail. I read it over quickly and signed it, the December showdown was set, Sun Vs Lei, billed as Kings Chase Kings. They were even expanding the stadium in the months leading up in anticipation of a crowd of about 100,000. That was something Lei had put in the contract. Good kid. Now was the matter of beating him. I knew Lei as a trainer better than maybe anyone else in the world. Only problem is I taught him everything he knows. So it's like I'm battling myself out there. I think I'll have to train in an unusual way for this one.

Lillie was having a good time recently as well. She loved to do some parts of training with me and the team, and she also loved seeing how motivated and rejuvenated we were when we were working together. She's the best partner I could ever ask for. Another one of those things that I'll just never take for granted. There was a press event coming up soon though, Silver was going to speak about my comeback apparently. I figured I'd watch, if I needed to find any more motivation than I already had, I figured he'd give it to me. Servine jumped up happily on my lap as I sat down on my and Lillie's bed to watch the event.

Silver was introduced and his trophy was with him. He sat down at the table and began to speak, "I don't know why you guys want me to do this. There isn't much to say. Low-Level battles bore me to watch much less talk about. This guy gets called a coward, and instead of immediately taking on the number 1 or 2 or even 3 ranked contender in Alola, he proves my point by almost getting beat by the number 5 ranked guy. I mean he could've battled Hau, Kahili, Gladion, or even Ryuki. They were all ranked higher. He cherry picked an easy opponent and wants everyone to bow down to him already. Alright. You haven't even fully evolved your new pokemon, your old team deserted you, and even your own family knows you don't have a prayer. I called you out because I wanted to expose you, but I'm thinking that kid I punked last time is going to do it for me. I don't know why I bothered calling you back. You're not worth it." He left the stage and I received a call from the Johto News Network to respond. I'll decline that one. They'll put a spin on me or something I'd rather talk to Hoenn or Alola about this one. Sure enough Alola called. "Alright Sun we're live on air, so we have to ask if you saw the press conference?" I chucked, "Eh if you want to call it that. Seems a bit scared if you ask me. Gotta say something about me to cover his own tracks, I'm gonna rip him to shreds and he knows it. I've got enough confidence in myself to cover both me and his own insecurities."  The reporter nodded on TV, "Well folks you heard it here first. The GOAT is not impressed. More on this later, thank you Sun." "You got it." Lillie was sitting next to me as I was going all of this, "Couldn't have said it better myself Sun. Let's keep working hard." I kissed her cheek, "I couldn't do it without you. You know that though. My main problem is I'm running out of ways to compliment you at this point heheh." She sighed, "Sun the years away from you were the worst years of my life...I'm just glad I'll never have to do that again. Don't ever leave me Sun." I nodded "Never will, same goes for you."

                 Author's note
At some point I figured I should mention that it's a complete coincidence that all of Sun's bitter rivals come from Johto. There is just a lot of personalities there that I could see in rivalries. Thanks again!