Journey Towards Greatness

With the freestyle round beginning Julian noticed the shift in the behavior of the audience, they were clearly waiting for this round.

He watched as the man in blue came back on the stage with his Klefki which has the pretty key on it, the man in blue started to introduce the rules of the freestyle to the audience.

Once he was done he introduced the performers, all these performers passed through the theme style round and now facing off against each other and stand out in front of the massive audience that is going to judge them.

The round soon began and it started with three performers just like before but this time there is no theme, no cooking, only trainers and their pokemons on stage showing off their moves and trying to please the crowd.

Julian watched as all three performers tried to one-up each other by making their pokemons use moves in extravagant ways which made them look very beautiful and unique.

The time allocated ended and they were sent back, the next batch entered and put on a great performance as well, Julian watched Serena and wondered if she is any good as Palermo has her eyes on her.

To his surprise Julian felt that Serena performed the best out of all of them, the freestyle round soon came to an end and all performers stood on the stage waiting in anticipation for the votes to fill in.

The audience picked up a light stick and input the color representing a performer, the light sticks in the audience were glowing brightly creating a beautiful scene, then the light escaped those light sticks in the shape of light fragments and traveled towards the stage.

Julian noticed that every performer was holding a key similar to the one around Klefki, the colorful light fragments headed towards the matching key color filling the ruby in the key that the performers were holding.

Behind them the massive screen displayed the votes as they filled in, every performer were holding their breath as they wanted to win this key, soon the voting ended and the winner came out to be Serena as the key she was holding was glowing brightly as light fragments filled it to the brim.

She seems to be in shock as she couldn't believe she just won, the crowd burst into cheer as the spotlight fell on her. Finally, a big smile appeared on her face as she took to the air with a big excited jump.

The host in blue Monsieur Pierre announced her as the winner of this event.

Julian noticed the smile on her face and smiled as well, it reminded him of the very first badge he won in Kanto.

That first badge will always be the special one.

Julian "This must be her first one"

He said with a smile.

Palermo "Indeed, she didn't do too good on her first performance but I could see that she is determined to win in the future, a quality I like to look for in young upcoming performers. But now I know I want to mentor her, look at that smile, it will look great on the big screen"

She said

Julian "Well, that smile is special, winning her very first key, nothing will stop it unless she wins the whole thing of course"

He said.

Palermo "Why do you think so"

She asked.

Julian "Well I still remember the very first gym badge I won, though I was not as expressive as her, the moment I shared with my Chimchar at that time was special and I will never forget it, it must be the same for her, sharing the stage with her pokemons and winning the very first key"

Palermo understood what Julian said and nodded her head, she had forgotten about her first win as it has been a long time but she still remembers the moment very clearly, her rapidly beating heart, the sound of people cheering for her, though time took its toll and she forgot about the excitement she felt that day but she still remembers it clearly.

The event soon came to an end and Julian bid his farewell to Palermo, she gave him her business card and told him to contact her if there is anything he wants to discuss, he also did the same and they went their own ways.

Julian went back to his hotel and got ready to hit the road again, he had enough entertainment, and now its time for him to reach Anistar city and challenge the Anistar gym.

The next day Julian woke up early and left Dendemille town and entered route 17, his traveling speed slowed down as the road in front of him is covered with snow and it will be hard for him to ride a bike through it.

The further he traveled down route 17 the harder it got for him to use his bike, he had no choice but to put it away and use his feet as it felt much easier.

The snow was so thick that he was keen deep in the show while walking, luckily for Julian he has endless stamina and strength to carry on, on his feet.

After continuing for an hour, he stopped and decided to camp for the day, he still has a long way to go as he will have to cross a mountain to reach Anistar city, though he likes to travel on wheels and feet he knew he won't be able to reach Anistar city within two weeks if he continues like this.

He decided to use Kyurem for traveling for the next few days.