FEBRUARY 6, 2021 ♡ SATURDAY

It was a bright, sunny day in Wyndon City, chilling breezes flowing through the air to remind everyone that winter was still here. It was a stark contrast to our Champion, who was currently warm and cozy in her bed at home. 

Joohyun feels something tapping on her head, but she chose to ignore it, being half-asleep still. The tapping gets aggresive after each tap to the point where she couldn't tolerate it anymore.

"What?" The Champion growls, turning over to come face-to-face with her startled looking Mimikyu.

Her Mimikyu points his tail towards her clock, which read that the current time was noon.

"That's right ... I told you to wake me up in time for lunch today ..." Joohyun yawns, half-lidded.

She usually started her day bright and early to tend to Champion duties, training, or sometimes both, but she cleared her schedule today since last night the Champions wanted to go out to a nightclub in Wyndon to celebrate their last night in Galar. Whenever they all had to come together for their monthly meetings, the Champions that had to travel to the meeting location usually stayed in the region for a week to spend time with one another and have some vacation time before they all had to go back home. Last night she had to babysit Wendy and Seulgi, since the guys weren't as reliable because they were buying girls drinks. To say she was exhausted was an understatement. 

"Why are my friends such a handful," Joohyun sighs, throwing her blanket off of her and proceeds to get herself ready for the day.

"Joohyun! Wasn't last night such a blast?" 

Joohyun could hear Hoseok's annoying voice come from the only occupied table in the restaurant, which rested right in the middle of the room. Her friends had agreed to meet at a restaurant for lunch for a much needed recovery from last night, and it seemed that Joohyun wasn't as late as she thought.

"Where's the rest of the guys?" Joohyun asks, taking the empty seat between Wendy and Seulgi, who had their heads rested on the table. 

"They're on the way, I just called them a couple minutes ago and they just woke up. They should be here in a few, the hotel's just down the street," Hoseok replies, "I hope you don't mind that I asked for the whole second floor to ourselves. I'd just like my last day here to be fan-less."

"Wish I could say the same for myself," Joohyun sighs, "I have to go to Hammerlocke and meet with Raihan to investigate some incidents the city has been having with Dynamax energy. I cleared my schedule for today for a reason, but it seems urgent."

"I hope everything's okay," Hoseok furrows his brows, "did he tell you what was going on?"

"Only that the Dynamax energy at the Hammerlocke stadium seems to be making Pokémon there extremely aggressive after they Dynamax. I won't know what's wrong until I get to the stadium," Joohyun explains, "I'm hoping it's something that the power plant there can try and fix, but I'm worried something's going on."

"It just sounds like a malfunction with the system that manages the energy, don't think about it too much," Hoseok reassures Joohyun, "after all, you already have a lot to worry about today. Today's the ceremony, isn't it?" 

"Yeah, I was hoping that you could all attend and we can get dinner afterwards, but ..." Joohyun looks at Wendy and Seulgi, who seem to be in misery.

"We'll be there, Joohyun," Hoseok chuckles, "they just need a long nap but they'll have the whole day for that. Just go out and do what you have to do."

Just then, Jimin, Seokjin, and Yoongi all walk into the room together, joining their friends at the table. 

"Well well well, look who's miserable-looking after saying 'I'm only gonna have two drinks'," Seokjin snickers, ruffling his hand in Wendy's hair before he sits down next to her.

"Please," Wendy groans, lifting her head up to look at who was talking, "lower your voice ... my head is pounding." 

"You guys ... can't believe you had Joohyun take care of us while you went off girl hunting," Seulgi mumbles, the second to come back to life.

"That's one way to call mingling," Hoseok shrugs his shoulders.

"If you wanted to come, you could've just asked. If you came along, I wouldn't have to go 'girl hunting' as you call it," Jimin winks playfully at Seulgi, who pretends to gag.

"I'm nauseous. Plese don't test me today," Seulgi rests her head in her hands and exhales loudly, "is the food here yet? Can I get water?"

After Joohyun's lunch with her friends, she bade everyone farewell and headed to the train station to get to Hammerlocke City, her hometown. When she arrived at the Wyndon Train Station, she made her way straight to a train heading to her destination, hoping she wouldn't catch anyone's attention. Each Champion that earns the title undoubtedly gains fame, but every Champion's hometown takes the most pride in them and are practically recognized as the city's or town's heroes. Hammerlocke only brought back painful memories to Joohyun, and so she rarely stepped foot back in the city. Today, she would break her streak.

After about half an hour, the train Joohyun had taken seems to have arrived at her destination. Joohyun looks up from her Rotom Phone as the train slows to a stop. 

"Looks like we're here, Hatterene," Joohyun looks over at her signature Pokémon somberly while grabbing her bag and standing up.

Hatterene blinks once, looking back at Joohyun blankly as she watched her stand up. 

"How do you feel?" Joohyun hears a voice in the back of her mind, well aware that it belonged to Hatterene.

Most Pokémon are not able to verbally communicate with humans in their language, but certain Pokémon with high intelligence (mostly Psychic Pokémon) have the capability to communicate with humans telepathically. Because of this, it created a strong bond between Joohyun and Hatterene that she didn't have with any of her other Pokémon. Besides the fact that Hatterene was her first Pokémon, Hatterene was also one of the few comforts in Joohyun's life after the incident with Taehyung; however, back then, Hatterene was only a little Hatenna.

"I wanna go home already," Joohyun mumbles, rubbing her arm nervously while waiting for the other people on the train to leave first.

"Just keep your head held high. Handle your business quickly so that we don't have to stay here too long," Hatterene tilts her head a bit to look at Joohyun, who just smiles back at her.

Joohyun nods, taking a deep breath before she exits the train. She adjusts her bag on her shoulder while walking towards the doors to exit the station, her boot's heels clacking on the train station's marble tiling. The instant she exits the building, she hears loud screams and cries from people crowding around the entrance.

"It's her! It's the Champion!"

"Champion, Champion, over here!"

"You've finally come to visit us!"

Joohyun's eyes glazed over the crowd, which was unusually larger than the groups that would usually greet her during her errands at other cities. Granted, though, Hammerlocke was one of Galar's bigger cities. 

Joohyun's stare stops at a familiar figure in the center of the crowd, which was Hammerlocke City's Gym Leader, Raihan. He still had the smug smile of his on his face, and of course, his Rotom Phone hovering by his side, probably vlogging them right now. Her attention turned to his Flygon, who was waving cutely at her with his small arm.

"It's so good to see you, Flygon," Joohyun giggles, petting Flygon's head before turning to Raihan, "why am I not surprised that there's a crowd anywhere you go, Raihan?" Joohyun chuckles, returning his hug as he leaned over to her.

"You think they're here for me?" the Hammerlocke Gym Leader chuckles, "they're all here for you, my dear."

Joohyun smiles back at Raihan, pulling away from him. They proceed to walk towards the Hammerlocke Gym while the crowd follows them, many bombarding the Champion with never-ending questions while Raihan was recording all of it to post online, like he did with everything single thing in his life.

"Champion, will you be visiting the Pokémon Academy today? I'm sure our students would love to meet you!" 

Joohyun's jaw flexes after hearing those words, but she composes herself and answers politely.

"I'm afraid not, I have a very busy schedule today. However, I might consider it in the future when I do have free time," Joohyun smiles at the fan that asked her the question, Hatterene smiling proudly at her trainer. 

The Pokémon floated closer to Joohyun, not wanting to let anyone be in hands reach of her. While Joohyun answered more questions, they eventually arrived at the Hammerlocke Gym, where the crowd could not follow them anymore. She and Raihan said their farewells to the crowd, entering the gym. 

"You sure you don't have time to stay a bit? Your hometown is excited to have you back home," Raihan turns to Joohyun after they entered the building, conversing with her before they tended to what she came to Hammerlocke for.

"My home is in Wyndon," Joohyun forces a smile, "I have a ceremony to prepare for tonight anyway, Raihan. I hope you have your gift prepared for the new Tower Leader."

"Of course I have it prepared! What kinda guy do you take me for, Joohyun?" Raihan furrows his brows.

"A signed picture of yourself isn't a gift, Raihan," Joohyun sighs, face-palming.

"To you it might not be," Raihan lets out a hearty laugh, "anyway, let's get to what you came here for."

The pair made their way to the stadium field, where gym battles with Raihan took place. 

"My Pokémon seem to be fine after dynamaxing, but the Pokémon of the trainers that work under me are experiencing extreme aggresiveness towards anyone they come in contact with after dynamaxing in this stadium, even towards their own trainers. I'm sure it must have something to do with inexperienced Pokémon, but Dynamax energy shouldn't be causing this kind of reaction from Pokémon. I've been around it long enough to know that something's not right," Raihan explains to Joohyun while they walk along the field. 

Joohyun nods, furrowing her brows. Raihan was right. There's no way Dynamax energy would cause any kind of reaction like that from Pokémon, otherwise it wouldn't be an acceptable strategy for trainers to utilize. 

"What do you think, Hatterene?" Joohyun looks over at her Pokémon, "Do you feel any different types of energy?" 

Hatterene stops, as does Raihan and Joohyun, and she stares off towards the other side of the stadium. She then turns to Joohyun.

"The energy's been tampered with," Hatterene says to Joohyun telepathically, "someone or something caused this. Energy, especially Dynamax energy, just doesn't change on its own out of the blue."

"Does Hatterene feel something?" Raihan asks curiously. Joohyun relays what Hatterene told her, and Raihan taps his lips, thinking.

"There wasn't any reports of any break-ins to the power plant, and that's the only place where anyone could do harm to the energy," Raihan explains, "before you arrived, I had my gym trainers personally interview the power plant management team and they had no clue that the Dynamax energy was causing negative effects in Pokémon. They've already looked into reversing the affects though, but I thought I'd have you and Hatterene come here and analyze the energy before it goes back to normal."

"You did the right thing," Joohyun nods, "however I think you should keep a close eye on the power plant employees. If there was no sign of a break in, then they either willingly let someone inside to mess with the energy, or they did it themselves."

"Great," Raihan sighs, scratching his head, "we potentially have a troublemaker among us, in one of Galar's biggest cities."

"Just increase security at the gym, especially to guard the entrance to the power plant, and review security footage of the night before the energy became corrupted to see if you can find anything suspicious," Joohyun advises, seeing Raihan nod in agreement.

"Well, sorry to have you come out all the way out here just to give me advice," Raihan laughs.

"It's quite alright, I needed to come here in person with Hatterene anyway to see the situation at hand in person," Joohyun smiles reassuringly back at Raihan, "but I definitely need to be heading back as soon as I can."

Joohyun didn't actually have too busy of a schedule, she just didn't want to stay in Hammerlocke any longer. The longer she was in the area, the more triggered she felt. She hadn't been in Hammerlocke since she beat Raihan in a gym battle and earned the last badge she needed to enter the Championships four years ago. Joohyun felt uncomfortable her entire time in Hammerlocke back then, and it was no different today.

The two had walked back into the lobby area of the gym, where Raihan said his goodbyes. Joohyun insisted that she could walk herself back to the train station and that he should get back to his duties with the city. To Joohyun's dismay, the crowd that followed her from the train station to the gym were still outside the gym, seeming to have waited for her. She forces a smile, walking down the street to head back to the train station. As she makes it to the corner by the Pokémon Center, she notices a woman atop of an Alolan Rapidash standing in the middle of the street, blocking her path.

"Didn't think I'd ever see you back in Hammerlocke, Joohyun," the woman said with a smirk on her face, "today's my lucky day."

"Of course," Joohyun rolls her eyes, "Joy."

Joy had been Joohyun's rival since they were children. She was always telling Joohyun how certain she was that Joohyun wouldn't ever amount to anything, especially with a weak team. At the time, Joohyun only had a team of Pokémon she thought were cute, although most of them didn't fare too well in battle. They started their Gym Challenge at the same time, and they were the only two trainers to make it all the way to the Championships, with Joohyun coming out on top. That took a huge swing to Joy's ego, and since then, Joy had been present at every Championships battle to try and beat Joohyun to claim her rightful title. She had never been successful, however, even after four years of trying. 

"Happy to be home, I see?" Joy chimes. Just the sound of her voice was enough to annoy Joohyun to no end.

"Absolutely not," Joohyun looks at her up and down, then proceeds to walk around her, "I was just on my way back to Wyndon. I'm busy."

"Too busy to have a battle with your good friend Joy?" Joy jumps off her Rapidash to walk to Joohyun, now face to face with her.

"I see you enough every three months during Championship battles. I'll see you next month, Joy," Joohyun replies, turning away from her to continue walking away from her.

"What, scared?" Joy calls after her, trying to poke at her ego.

"The only thing I'm scared of is seeing your face more than I should be," Joohyun raises her voice so that Joy can hear her while she walks away.

"Come on, your people have missed you since you became Champion. Don't you think you owe the people of Hammerlocke a show? They hardly know you," Joy yells after Joohyun, a smile creeping up on her face as she sees Joohyun fully stop in her tracks.

Joohyun's most well known work as Champion was attending different Pokémon Academies across the region and speaking to young, wide-eyed trainers looking to make it big in the Pokémon battling scene. It was common for her to stop by academies and speak as a guest or even help train students, however she never once stepped foot in Hammerlocke's Pokémon Academy after her withdrawal from the institution. Because she often stopped by other Galar academies, she was well-loved by children of different cities, and she felt like she formed a family bond with the people of each city except for the very city she was born and raised in. To hear Joy say that the people of Hammerlocke barely knew her touched a nerve. 

Joohyun turns around, her eyes locked to Joy's. She walked towards her quietly, stopping in front of her. 

"The battle field. You know the one," Joohyun says simply before walking past Joy, in the opposite direction of the train station.

Joy laughs in delight, turning around to watch Joohyun head towards the battle field that they always held their rival battles at as children. 

"Ladies and gentlemen of Hammerlocke," Joy announces, "get ready to witness your Champion's strength across the left Pokemon Center! This is a fight you don't want to miss!"

"You're still a stickler for attention, aren't you?"

By the time Joohyun and Hatterene arrived at the small battlefield across Hammerlocke's second Pokémon Center with Joy and her Rapidash not too far behind, there was already a huge group of residents waiting for them.

"Of course," Joy replies to Joohyun's comment, "gotta show our people where the strongest trainers in Galar come from."

"You're calling me strong?" Joohyun laughs, adjusting the belt on her waist holding her Pokéballs.

"I recognize strength when I see it," Joy replies, "but I'll be going right back to calling you weak as soon as I get back that Championship title from you."

"Keep dreaming of that day. Until then, Joy," Joohyun smirks, "I'll enjoy beating you in every single battle we have."