StarMage: Now here comes the firey battle I promised you guys. Let's just hope I follow through... Meh... Just pray okay?
Disclamer- I don't own Pokemon. Plain and simple. If I did, not many would watch it.
Notes-
'thought' "speak" (author's notes) ~psychic communication~ spell
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Chapter Nine- Challenge Accepted! The Firey Gym Battle!

Everyone but Billy stood stunned. Reed was the gym leader? This was something unexpected. An uneasy silence hung over them and the current fact. Billy broke the silence.

"So I guess this means your parents retired from gym leading?" asked Billy.

Reed looked at him with a half smile. "Yup. Decided they had enough. Went and moved to Ociana City by Andrew. Said they wanted to be by the beach in their old age. Then I went and told them they weren't that old to be talking like that. Grounded me for a month." Reed rubbed the back of his head. "The smack they gave me in the back of the head still hurts. They just did this yesterday. I forgot how hard they hit. Even though they are kind of old."

"Wait, if you're grounded, how come you get to use the forge and battle?" asked Misty. "Wouldn't they have taken those privilages away?"

"They took off my grounding when they left yesterday when they realized that I have ta take care of all the stuff that goes on here." said Reed with a shrug. "They never did think everything through."

All of a sudden, there was a silvery flash and all of a sudden, Ash's katana was pointed at Reed. The point was centimeters away from Reed's face. Reed didn't even flinch. His gaze never wavered from Ash's face. That scared Ash off a bit. Anyone who could look at you with a sword pointed at them and not flinch was something.

"If you accept my challenge, let's go." said Ash feeling bold all of a sudden.

Reed continued his indifferent stare. "I suggest you take that thing away from my face before I snap it in half. I may have made it stronger, but what I give, I can take away." Ash was startled and blinked. In that instance, Reed's face was near hovering over his. His indifferent gaze remained. "If you want to battle, come this way."

Reed started to lead him to a door, but Billy stopped him. "Reed, I need to talk to you for a minute about something." said Billy before leading him off somewhere. The two returned five minutes later. Reed looked no different as did Billy.

"Like I said, this way please." said Reed before leading them all to the door.

Once they all entered, there was a huge blast of heat. Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu all shielded themselves from it with their arms. Reed and Billy seemed unaffected. The heat seemed to come from behind a very large door that Reed pushed open. An even bigger rush of heat came at them. What they saw scared them except Billy. Inside, there was lava and lots of it. In the middle was a platform, floating there for pokemon to fight. On opposite sides of the platform were places for trainers to stand. It was practicly a copy of Blane's gym back in Kanto. Reed went to one side. Ash moved to the other, but he didn't want to. It was unbareably hot and he was already sweating badly. Reed, however, didn't seem at all phased by the heat. If anything, it was like room temperature to him.

"Prepare to fight Ash. Pick one pokemon to fight." said Reed.

Ash smirked and reached for Totadile's pokeball, but as he touched it, Reed started speaking again.

"I hope that's not a water pokemon Ash. In this gym, only fire pokemon are allowed." called out Reed.

"What?!"

"That's right. You wanna fight in here, you gotta use fire pokemon. Only they can stand the heat here." said Reed calmly while tossing a pokeball up and down in his hand.

Ash growled. Cindaquil was his only choice, but, he hadn't really taught Cindaquil anything new. There was a chance with the mystery pokemon Brian gave him, but if he picked wrong, he was done for. Sighing, Ash pulled out Cindaquil's pokeball from his belt.

"Ready?" asked Reed.

Ash set his face with detirmination. So what if Cindaquil didn't have any fancy new attacks. The regular ones would do just fine. He could take Reed, right? Ash set his face with detrmination. He could do this. He beat three of them already. How hard could the fourth be?

"Go Cindaquil!" shouted Ash as he tossed his pokeball. Through a flash of red light, Cindaquil materialized.

"Cinda!" shouted Cindaquil.

"Is that the best you got? Here we go! I choose you! Flareon!" declared Reed. With another red flash Reed's Flareon appeared.

"Wow, that's one of the best looking Flareons I've ever seen. Reed must be a really good trainer to keep it in such good shape." complememted Brock.

Misty hit him over the head. "Who's side are you on!"

"Calm down you two! The battle's about to start." said Billy.

At that moment, a referee came out nowhere. The referee wasn't sweating either which surprised everyone but Reed and Billy. The referee raised his flags.

"This is a one on one pokemon battle. Challenger has chosen Cindaquil. Gym leader Reed has chosen Flareon. No time limit. Let the battle begin!" declared the referee as he swung down his flags.

"Let's go Cindaquil!" shouted Ash.

"CINDAA!" shouted Cindaquil while igniting the fire on it's back.

"Flareon, show no mercy!" shouted Reed.

"Flare!" said Flareon with a nod of it's head before charging forward.

"Flareon! Fire Blast Veriation: Hyper Burn!" shouted Reed as he pointed forward.

Flareon ran forward and as it did, it let out a huge fire blast attack, but the flames were near white. Flareon let out five more of these. However, they didn't go far. They stopped about three feet away from Flareon. Five of them swirled around one in the middle. The fire blasts spun faster until they merged with the one in the middle. They became a swirling ball of white hot fire. As soon as it did, it flew forward towards Cindaquil.

"Cindaquil! Agility!" declared Ash.

Cindaquil sped up and moved to dodge it. Reed smirked.

"Split it now!" he shouted.

"What?"

Flareon's eyes glowed red. The white hot fire ball split back into six fire blasts. They spread out and covered the entire width of the platform.

"You have no place to run now Ash!" shouted Reed.

Ash's eyes widened. Reed was right. Cindaquil couldn't run anywhere to avoid them. All the fire blasts moved at the same pace. He would have to fight fire with fire, litterally.

"Cindaquil! Create a fire wall around you with Fire Spin!" yelled Ash.

"What? Is Ash crazy? He'll hurt Cindaquil like that!" said Misty.

Cindaquil quickly did comply. Soon, a giant pillar of swirling fire surrounded Cindaquil. The six fire blasts made contact with the fire spin. As soon as they did, flames few out at everyone. Everyone shielded themselves. Well, everyone but Reed. His eyes just glowed and the flames kept away from him. Ash, however, couldn't really do anything. When the flames lept at him, he could only raise his arms in defense. They were slightly burned and his clothes a little singed.

"Ugh...." growled Ash a little.

When the embers and smoke cleared, both Flareon and Cindaquil were okay.

"Charge Flareon! Tackle!" yelled Reed.

"Cindaquil! Quick Attack!" comanded Ash.

The two pokemon charged. Both at great speed. When Flareon lunged to attack Cindaquil, Cindaquil vanished and ran in circles around Flareon before it striked. Flareon managed to jump out of the way.

"Grand Inferno!" declared Reed.

Flareon jumped into the air. When it was high up, it let out a giant blast of fire that would eventually cover the entire battle platform.

"Use your Flame Thrower to keep a space open for you!" said Ash to Cindaquil.

Cindaquil let out a huge flame thrower to combat the large blast of fire to fight for space to survive. The blast rapidly decended. As soon as the two fire attacks hit, there was another explosion of fire and power. Flareon decended durring the explosion and tackled Cindaquil on the head through it all. Cindaquil stumbled a little bit after that, but regained it's bearings to fight a minute or two later.

"Cindaquil, use Flame Thrower and attack!"

"Flareon, charge and use Lava Wave!"

Cindaquil ran and unleashed it's flames yet again. It's obvious exaustion ever present. Flareon's eyes glowed red again. Lava from beneth them came up and infront of Flareon. It surged forward, near melting everything in it's path. Cindaquil's flame thrower met with the lava. The lava turned even hotter if possible. Cindaquil kept trying it's flame thrower. The lava inched closer.

"Cindaquil! Jump up and use flame thrower!" yelled Ash.

Cindaquil took a good jump up and let the flames rip again. It flew straight for Flareon who was too busy controling the lava to notice. The attack conected and Flareon was hit back and into the platform. Flareon got up and glared. The lava dispersed. As Cindaquil fell back to the platform, Flareon didn't wait for Reed's command. It started blasting away with fire blasts. Cindaquil somehow did the same. All the attacks hit their targets. In the end, both pokemon were knocked out. The referee raised both his flags.

"Both pokemon are unable to battle. Tie match!" he declared.

Reed jumped on to the platform to console his Flareon. He took it into his arms and cradled it.

"You did such a good job Flareon. You definately deserve a rest and a break. Return." said Reed. Flareon looked up at him and licked his arm before going back into his pokeball.

"Cindaquil!" shouted Ash. He too jumped onto the platform dispite how burning hot it was and that his sneakers were on the verge of melting. He picked up Cindaquil just as Reed had. "Cindaquil, are you alright?"

Cindaquil opened it's eyes. "Cinda!"

"Good. You can rest now. Return." Cindaquil turned into red energy again before going back into the pokeball.

"Well Ash, since our pokemon training skils are equal, we'll have to battle some other way. The tie breaking match will be a trainer's battle!" declared Reed as he walked over to Ash.

Ash nodded. "Okay. Let's go," said Ash as he drew his katana.

"Oh, we're not fighting here. Come with me." said Reed as he led them out of the room.

From that room, they climbed up numerous stairs. As they got up, it seemed to cool a bit. The fresh air was welcomed by everyone. Including Reed. When they reached the top, Ash, Misty, and Brock gasped. They were on top of the volcano. Many rock pillars jutted out from the lava. Reed smiled.

"Prepare your weapon. We fight now!" said Reed as he jumped back a good distance and landed on a rock pillar. He streched out his right arm to the side. Flames formed in his hand. He squeezed them making everyone but Billy flinch. The flames grew out from his palm where he squeezed them. They formed a sword handle, a crystal red orb, two golden curved pieces of metal on one side and a crimson red blade that looked like fire itself.

"Just you wait Reed! I'll win for sure!" shouted Ash as he jumped off too.

"Be careful Ash!" shouted Billy. "I don't know if I can heal lava burns! I definately know that Misty can't!"

Ash paid them no heed as he jumped after Reed, who was constantly jumping back. Ash clenched his fist, focusing his energy. Red light emantated from it. Ash smiled.

"Firelight!" shouted Ash as he punched forward and opened his hand.

A flame red light shot out and headed for Reed. Reed glared at it.

"Be careful if you play with fire Ash. You might just get burned! Fire Blast!" yelled Reed.

Reed opened his palm and blasted. The powerful pokemon fire attack surged forward.

"What? How did he do that?!" shouted Ash as he jumped back as the fire attack swallowed up his and hit the pillar he was just standing on.

"I suppose you're puzzled. Pokemon can teach us many things if we take the time to learn." said Reed as his eyes glowed flickering shades of red, yellow, and orange. It was like a fire was in lit in his eyes. "Fire Blast Double!"

Two fire blasts flew from Reed's hands and came at Ash. Ash jumped back to avoid the first. However, the second one went farther and came for him again. Ash hurridly jumped back and almost lost his footing which would have caused him to fall into the boiling hot lava beneth. Ash regained his bearings and charged as fast as he could to strike with his katana. Reed expected this and defended with his sword. The two clashed with sparks. They both drew away only to try and attack again. When their swords met, Reed punched Ash away. There was the sound of a bone or two breaking as he did. Ash flew back and landed on his face and chest on a reasonably large pillar. As he got up, scratches became present from the rock.

"Had enough yet?" said Reed calmly.

"Not yet." growled Ash as he got up and came at Reed again.

"Don't be a fool! Grand Inferno!" yelled Reed as he let loose the giant flames.

"YAH!!" cried Ash as he still charged forward, not minding the fire.

Reed's eyes widened in shock. "What? He's going through the flames? Are you crazy Ash!"

Ash paid no heed. There was no sound in his world now. There was only pain and the desire to win. Nothing else mattered now. Ash charged through the fire as it licked at his skin and clothes, near setting him on fire. Infact, Ash's hair was singed as were his clothes as he came out of the fire, still charging. His body sustained more burns as well. Reed's eyes widened even more as Ash came through looking almost like a demon. Ash jumped up as soon as he was out of the fire. Reed fired some small blasts of fire at Ash to disuade him from coming down and attacking. Ash knocked them away in his adrenillin fueled rush and charged downward. Reed looked up in his direction and his eyes glowed before Ash struck down and there was a huge explosion.

"Ash!" shouted everyone not in the battle.

When the smoke cleared, there was one figure standing and another down and out. The figure standing was Ash.

"Ugh..." moaned Reed as he got up. "Ash you are the craziest trainer I've ever met, but you're the most determined to win and guess what. You did."

Ash's eyes widened. "You mean it?!"

Reed fished around in his pocket before pulling out something and putting it in Ash's hand. It was a crimson red flame with orange and yellow bits in it. It looked similar to Blane's badge, but in the center, there was a ruby shaped like the fire too.

"Here, the Fire Crest is yours." said Reed.

Ash couldn't hold back his excitement. "YEAAA!!! I GOT A FIRE CREST!!" shouted Ash as he jumped up with a fist in the air. Suddenly, he looked as if in pain. "OOOWWWWW!!!" When Ash fell, he clutched his wrist and ribs.

Reed sighed. "Whiner..."


StarMage: So, how was that? Was that firey enough for you? I think it was good enough. Although I do think Ash lacks some injuries that should be present...

Brian: You're evil you know that? I think he got beat up enough. Anyway, it's time for me to tell you about the next chapter! Okay, so this is what happens: Ash is now victorious in his attempt for the Fire Crest. Can any gym leader beat him? But on his way for some definately needed medical help, some one stands in his way. That person is a... Girl? What does she want? A fight? With Ash? But he's in no condition to fight, right? Right? Hey! What are you doing Ash? You're not seriously going to fight her are you? Your inability to resist a challenge is astounding, Ash. Get ready for another battle folks! The next chapter! The challenge of Nicole Dragonstraught!

StarMage: Okay, I'm going to get writing. While I do, I'll kindly ask you to review. Brian, tie this up.

Brian: *waves* See you on the battle field!