Journey Towards Greatness

On his way out of the Granite Cave, he saw a young man entering deep into the cave, this young man had light blue hair and wearing an exploration uniform, Julian recognized this young man, he is Steven Stone the heir of Devon corporation and the future champion of Hoenn region, Julian took note of him as he had the potential to become as strong as Lance but right now he is still lacking.

Julian came out of the cave and felt the warm sunlight of setting sun on his face and was surprised, being inside the cave he had lost track of time and seeing the day had come to an end he decided to rest for the day. ​​

Julian walked around the town and found a small inn near the beach and decided to rest here for the day as it was peaceful and quite out here, the day ended and the next day arrived, the bright sunlight woke Julian up, he decides to visit the Dewford gym as early today as he wanted to go to the next city as soon as possible as there was nothing interesting left in this small town.

After getting ready he directly went towards the gym, when he reached there he saw a middle-aged man sitting at the entrance of the gym, he was the caretaker of the gym and also advised trainers about the gym leader.

Caretaker "Young man the gym leader Brawly is a fighting type trainer so I advise you to not use normal type pokemon to challenge him"

Julian nodded and walked past the middle-aged man and walked towards the staircase leading to the battlefield, he reached the end of the staircase and found a young man punching a punching bag, he was Brawly the gym leader of this gym.

Brawly saw Julian and stopped his training and looked at Julian.

Brawly "Are you a challenger?"

Julian nodded his head.

Brawly "Great I was waiting for a challenger for a long time, my pokemons need some sparring partners"

Brawly walked towards the battlefield followed by Julian.

Brawly "There is no referee today so I will tell you the rules, we both will use two pokemons and you are allowed to substitute your pokemon in the middle of the battle and the rest is the same as every gym"

Julian nodded and took his spot on the battlefield

Brawly "Then let's begin, go Machop"

Brawly sent out a Machop, it entered the battlefield and performed some punching moved in the air displaying its skills.

Julian "Ralts you're up"

Julian sent Ralts, Brawly became serious as he saw Ralts, he was at a complete disadvantage against a Psychic-type Pokemon.

Brawly "Machop use Focus Energy"

Machop used to focus energy and brought all its power into a single point in its body as it wanted to one hit Ralts.

Brawly "Now Karate Chop"

Julian didn't let this happen.

Julian "Teleport"

Ralts suddenly disappeared from her stop and appeared at another place on the battlefield.

Julian "Calm Mind"

Ralts activated Calm Mind and increased her Special Attack and Special Defense.

Julian "Psyshock"

Brawly "Dig"

Machop suddenly used Dig and hid underground to escape from Psyshock.

Julian "Ralts use Double Team"

Ralts made multiple copies of her self and when Machop came out of the ground to attack Ralts it just passed through one of Ralts's copy.

Julian "Finish it Psyshock"

Since Machop was in the air it had no chance of escaping this time so it got hit by Psyshock and it fell on the ground with a thud, it had fainted.

Brawly "Your Ralts is really troublesome to deal with"

Julian just smiled at Brawly, he remembered how Ralts would mess around with Larvitar and Treecko after getting ideas from Gengar, Ralts had naughty nature right now but he knew it wouldn't last long as she evolves her personality will also evolve with her.

Brawly knew he had little chance of winning this battle but he had fun while battling so he still continued.

Brawly "Makuhita let's go"

Julian "Ralts, Clam Mind"

Ralts boosted her Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense again.

Brawly "Makuhita, Arm Thrust"

Makuhita went forward Thrusting its arms one after another.

Julian [Ralts stay cautious if you see something off use Teleport]

Julian knew he should never underestimate his opponents even if they are at a huge disadvantage and seeing Brawly use Arm Thrust which will have very little effect of Ralts he became suspicious of it.

As Julian had instructed Ralts stayed focused and kept using her Psychic energy to examine the surroundings to notice even slight difference that may happen to her or her surroundings.

As Makuhita got near her using Arm Thrust, Ralts suddenly noticed the change of energy in Makuhita's arms, it was dark energy, sensing danger Ralts quickly teleported.

Julian was right, this was Brawly's hidden card which he came up to face opponents using Psychic-type pokemons, he would instruct Makuhita to use Arm Thrust but the real attack that would hit the opponent was Knock Off.

Brawly was surprised seeing Ralts escape even before she was hit.

Brawly "Man I thought I had it"

Julian was impressed by Brawly, even though he saw that something was off he had never expected a dark move hidden behind the facade of Arm Thrust.

Julian "Ralts lets finish this, Psyshock"

Ralts again used Psyshock and it hit Makuhita with full power, due to Ralts's Sp. Attack being boosted twice the power behind the Psyshock was also very high.

Makuhita fainted on the spot and Ralts won the battle.

Brawly sighed and called back Makuhita to its Pokeball and went towards Julian and gave him Knuckle Badge.

Julian took it and showed it to Ralts.

Julian gave the badge for Ralts to hold as she was staring at it, as soon as she took the hold of the badge she became happy and she liked shiny thing very much.

Julian called back Ralts and decided to leave, as he turned around he saw a familiar face entering the gym, it was non-other than Steven Stone.

Steven looked at Julian and at Brawly.

Brawly "Yo Steven found anything interesting in the cave"

Steven "Na, not yet I came here to ask you about that, as you are the most knowledgeable about the cave around here"

Julian was about to leave when suddenly Steven stopped him.

Steven "Hello, have I seen you somewhere"

Julian turned around and looked at Steven.

Julian "Probably inside the cave yesterday, I saw you heading deep inside"

Steven recalled about yesterday and he remembered seeing someone coming from deep within the caves but he couldn't recall the person's face.

Julian didn't wait around and walked away with giving a second thought.

Brawly "Do you know that guy?"

Steven "No, but I feel like I have seen him somewhere"

Brawly "It doesn't matter but one thing you should take note is that he is very strong, probably as strong as you"

Steven didn't reply and just looked at the door that Julian went through.