Through Shadow and Lightning A Warrior Rises

Chapter 15

Last night was quiet though, which was a relief at this point. They finally made it to Cyllage City and the sun was coming up. X jumped down from the branch and went to the tents. He peeked into Ash and Serena's tent and saw that Ash had his arms wrapped around Serena, their faces inches from each other. Both still had their clothes on. Maybe I should let Bonnie take care of these two, X thought. He went and woke up Bonnie and asked her to go wake up Ash and Serena while he woke up Clemont. Bonnie went to Ash and Serena's tent and had to hold in her squeals of delight. She woke them up and both were red in the face. When they came out for breakfast, X smirked at Ash. Ash failed to hide his blush.  He hadn't really meant for that to happen last night, but it just did.  Ash did feel more free than he had been the last few weeks.  Telling Serena about the poison and her accepting him anyways lifted a weight off of his shoulders.  He felt close to invincible as a result.  The gang finished up breakfast and headed to Cyllage City.  When they arrive, Serena points out that the gym is on top of the mountain.  They reach the gym entrance and walk in.  The inside looks less like a Pokemon gym and more of rock climbing gym.  There were climbing walls and climbing up the walls was Grant and he seemed to be extremely focused.

"Hey Grant!" Ash yelled.

Grant turned around and smiled.  "Good to see you Ash" Grant said hanging by one hand and waving.  "Meet me at the battlefield at the top."

"You mean we all have to climb it?" Clemont asked.

"You can either climb the wall or you can take the elevator, the choice is yours" Grant replied.

X squatted down and jumped up to the battlefield in one jump.  Grant was in shock along with everyone else except Ash.  X just shrugged.  Ash pulled his gloves down so that they were secure on his hands.  He walked to the wall and started climbing.  All the training he had been doing over the years made this a walk in park.  Ash was on autopilot and wasn't paying attention to where his foot was.  His foot slipped off the rock and he was hanging by his fingers.  His left hand lost its grip and he was hanging by one hand.  Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie let out a terrified gasp afraid that Ash was going to fall.  Ash looked up and saw X and Grant watching him.  He happened to glance at Serena and saw that she was scared.  Ash took a breath and smiled at Serena reassuring her that he was fine.  He lifted himself using the rock he was holding with his right and grabbed the nearest rock with his left.  The rest of the climb was simple as he focused on making it to the top.

"I made it" Ash said after he reached the top.

"I'm impressed Ash" Grant said helping him up.  "Just curious, when you were climbing what you thinking about?"

Ash thought about that.  "I wasn't really thinking about anything except not falling and getting to the top."

"That's exactly what I was hoping to hear" Grant said.  "This wasn't just a way for you to get to the battlefield.  I wanted to see if you could understand what I feel when I climb; if you could have that sense of enlightenment like I do.  You scaled that wall well, but your next wall is me and I am not as easy to scale."

"We'll see about that" Ash said.

Ash and Grant went to opposite sides of the battlefield while everyone else stood behind the rail on the scaffolding.  Grant sent out Onix first while Ash sent out Froakie.  As if they had a psychic link, Fennekin came out of her Pokeball to watch him battle (they had yet to find out about their trainers' status regarding each other).  Serena was getting more nervous every minute even though she was not the one battling.  Serena never understood how battling was so nerve racking until a few minutes ago.  Ash was told to climb the wall, almost falling in the process, and now he has to compete in a gym battle against a gym leader.  Serena hoped and prayed that Ash would win it the first time.  She didn't think she could watch Ash try and climb that wall again.  The image of him hanging by one hand was still fresh in her mind.  If he had fallen he would have been severely injured or dead, and that thought shook Serena to her core.