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

Chapter 15- Behind Enemy Lines

We took the plane ride over the next day and got to our hotel room after arriving at the airport. We were met by boos and the like, I kept my head down and walked forward. I tried to conceal my laughter as Elio trash talked the crowd there. "You all best be ready to go home unhappy! Alola's back to take what's ours!" Lillie and Stella laughed as we made our way to the room. I had gotten us a rather large one. It had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice living space and it was right next to the stadium, we even had a window overlooking the field. I could see from up there that the field was grass. That's fine. I'll probably need to get the team accustomed to it at some point. For now though I decided to sleep with my very jet lagged wife. Elio and Ninetails went off to their room, and Stella took Eevee to hers.

The next day was the only day I had to check the field. I took the team down and on the field at that time with me was Serena. "Serena! How's it going!" She turned to me from watching her aurorus getting used to the terrain. "Sun! Good to see you. Going to get some practice in?" I nodded, "Yeah, you know half of my core is new, so I need to get them as comfortable as possible for tomorrow." Serena shook her head, "That's tough. My team likes the grass here a lot. Hopefully your new ones will too." I sent out my team on our half of the field. Eevee looked comfy, Serperior was living it, Garchomp was a veteran, but he seemed not to like it all that much. Of course the old 3 were just fine. Serena put a finger on her chin, "I feel like I've seen that Garchomp before, it's not Cynthia's is it?" I responded, "Sure is. She's stubborn but she comes through when I need her to." Serena then looked to me, "You gonna mega evolve it?" I hadn't thought of that, "You know Serena, as obvious as it is, I've never thought of that. I think I might try to, I got a keystone not too long ago, if I could get the stone from Cynthia then I might just do that. Thanks for the tip Serena!" She giggled, "Don't mention it. The least I can do considering how much of my inspiration to battle came from your battles. Not to mention your son was pretty much my first fan, haha." I shrugged, "Hey you deserve it, you work hard. Best of luck Serena I'm gonna get ready to go." "You too."

I was halfway through practice when I received a call from Gladion. "Yeah Gladion what's up?" He talked flatly as usual, "You know, I didn't think I'd ever say something like this to you again, but I'm gonna need you to win that tournament." I snickered, "Why this time?" "That Silver is going to be insufferable if you let him win. Thrash him and make sure he can't speak. If I can offer you some advice though. I mean, I know you might think there's not much a washed up rival of yours can teach you but...try to get in his head. Put the pressure on him. He's been calling you out, pressure him to deliver, any press conference you get, get in his face, talk trash, and make sure he knows how confident you are. The stakes are at the highest for you right now, make his evenly high." That was probably the longest I had ever heard Gladion speak, but that was some good advice. I had always wanted to try my hand at trash talk beyond what I did to Lance. "Sounds good Gladion. I think I'll give it a whirl."

Later I arrived back at the hotel. Lillie was taking a nap in bed so I went over to join her. It was kind of late now so I might just go to sleep. I heard a raspy tired voice from beside me, "...Sun?" "Yeah Lil it's me." she opened her eyes and looked at me, "I'm glad you're back. Relax with me for a bit. You have a big day up ahead tomorrow." I laid down under the covers and stared up at the ceiling. "Hey Lillie, have any idea what I should walk out to tomorrow?" She sighed, "I'm not sure Sun. You always pick pretty well, trust yourself in every facet of your life tomorrow." I shifted slightly and then continued to speak, "Hey Lillie. I know how much of our time this took out of our lives. I'm going to win. We worked hard for this, and I assure you I'm not going to let you, Elio, or Stella down." She chuckled, "I know. I'll never doubt you. Something I've always appreciated about you is that I think you're the only person who has never lied to me. You always mean what you say and you're always genuine and loving to me. I don't take it for granted. I love you Sun." "I love you too Lil. Let's do this."

I was restlessly bouncing around in the locker room. In the locker room with me today were May, Serena, and Chase. I was without my family today. They weren't in the crowd. It made me feel lonely but secure knowing that they're alright. I opened the locket I kept on my neck. I looked at the picture. May was sitting next to me. She looked puzzled, "Your family not here today Sun?" I shook my head, "Nah. They're in the room. People from Johto are not...not on the greatest terms with me, somehow I always end up being the archenemy of their Champion." May chuckled, "Seems like it. I gotta go get ready, know I'm rooting for you though. Let's show the world that fair battling isn't dead." I fist bumped her, "Knock em dead May, you got this." I got to know Chase a little bit as we talked and watched the match together, Serena was also very interested in the outcome. That outcome ended up being a 6-4 victory for May. Next though, it was like Chase got sent to death row. He walked out and was obviously intimidated by Silver. The match went the same way. Silver completed the first 6-0 in Championship history and the crowd was loving every second of it. He took the microphone in his post match interview. "Glad to see that coward from Alola finally decided to get off his chair. Too bad he flew this far just to get beat. Probably not even by me. Make sure to give him a nice welcome when he comes out here. Pay him back for how he treated Lance all those years ago. Humiliate him. He's not good enough to share the same field as me." With that he left. Serena looked to me. I was unmoved. I had just been sitting there putting my fist in to my hand again and again. I was focused. Nothing he said mattered to me. Like Gladion said, he's said enough already. It's my turn now. I got up and started to move to the tunnel. Serena called out to me, "Sun." I looked back, "Don't lose. We have a point to prove." I reached in to the backpack I had laying on the bench and pulled out my Alolan flag. "Don't plan on it." She looked shock as I'm sure anyone would. I took Gladion's words to heart though. I'm bringing my flag right to your backyard and planting it. This is my house now. The people here don't like me, but they're still gonna pay rent.

The sound of "King Back"

Filled the arena. I was louder than anyone else's music since there was an enormous amount of boos trying to drown it out. The arena was indoor and it was very dark. And they probably didn't appreciate that I was announcing myself as the king through the music choice. But hey.
The spotlight showed on me as I exited the tunnel, when they saw the flag I held above my head they booed even louder. Just more fuel on the fire if you ask me. I felt one of the pokeballs on my belt shake, it was Garchomp. I think they may have awakened the beast. Who knew Garchomp and I had the same kind of motivation, that being to prove people wrong. I walked over to Gloria and shook her hand before returning to my box. On my way back a foreboding man standing in the crowd gave me a condescending stare. He looks so familiar... Can't focus on that now. I looked at the locket Lillie had given me one last time. I'm ready, there's no way I'm losing now.

Lillie POV

There he is. He's enjoying himself I can tell. I can hear the boos from up here, but knowing Sun it's just motivating him even further. I see on the TV screen that he has that fire in his eyes that he gets when he really wants to win. I think this will go smoothly for him. He ended up sending Garchomp out first, that was an odd choice, in training he made every indication that he probably wouldn't do it. Now I see why that changed. It disposed of Gloria's Cinderace with relative ease. I think something happened with Garchomp, she looked like her old self. The rest of the battle followed and Sun jumped out to a commanding 4-2 lead. He was in fine form. I loved watching him like this. Gloria's a tough opponent but Sun is not taking no for an answer. So far Garchomp had 2 KOs, Serperior had 1, as did Whimsicott. All they had left were a Dragapult and a Rillaboom. The Rillaboom took out Eevee in a close tussle. Stella slouched down in disappointment. "It's alright Stella he did his best. That'll go a long way to finishing this up." Sun had Garchomp, Serperior, and Incineroar left. He met the Dragapult with Garchomp. Garchomp won convincingly. Garchomp was motivated. That's why Sun had her out first. This was a scary situation for any competitor not named Sun. Elio shouted next to me, he was so excited to see this. I was too. Sun was in his element here. Incineroar took his advantage to the fullest and won the match 6-3. That's my husband. We just put the world on notice. They should've learned to let sleeping dogs lie.

Author's Note
Garchomp finally came to. It's motivation has always been to perform on the world stage in this story. It's an arc I've been looking forward to completing so yeah. Thanks for reading.