บท 9: AJ

The Sandshrew next to AJ steps up to in a battle stance ready to compete with whoever Grayson throws out. You can tell that he is very well trained by the confidence in it's eyes that his trainer will come out on top.

Our MC reaches to Prinplup's Poke Ball and releases his starter Pokemon. He would have gone with Exeggcute's evolved form due to his proficiency in Special Attack, but alas Grayson has not had the luxury of procuring a leaf stone as of yet. 'Maybe in the next city I should check the stores to see it any evolution stones are available.'

"Prinpplup" Prinplup gives a confident roar as he steps up to battle, conflicting with the also confident Sandshrew.

'With the fact his Sandshrew's Special Defense is so low and Prinplup's Special Attack is so high in comparison, adding to the obvious advantage Water type has over Ground type this should be a cake walk.'

"Alright Sandshrew, let's show the fruits of our training!" With a crack of a whip, Sandshrew balls himself up and aggressively rolls towards the Prinplup.

Not deterred by this incoming attack, Grayson calmly instructs Prinplup. "Use Metal Claw on the ground in front of you then prepare a Bubblebeam towards the air" Prinplup complies and creates a large divot in the ground, almost like a moat inbetween the Water and Ground type Pokemon respectively. While preparing the Bubblebeam the Sandshrew reaches the divot and gets redirected into the air by the almost ramp like hole made by the Metal Claw previously. Now at optimal height to be a direct target of the prepared Bubblebeam, Prinplup hesitates no further and releases a powerful Bubblebeam, splitting the air on it's way towards it's target. Sandshrew while in the air has no chance to dodge so is constricted to take the hit and try to minimize the damage taken.

Crashing into the Sandshrew, the Bubblebeam makes a huge cloud of vapour from the impact and all that can be heard is the crash landing of the Sandshrew. Believing that there is no way that the Sandshrew will be able to battle after taking such a hit, Grayson has a tinge of disappointment on his face as he was looking for a challenge for the first time in this world. He is aware that at this point in the anime there is no high difficulty trainers to take note of, with AJ being one of the only ones worthy of recognition as his training methods do seem to produce good results with the top percentile Sandshrew. Joey would be proud to accept another trainer who as well has a top percentile Pokemon of their respected species.

An unexpected sound brought Grayson out of his thoughts as he looks and sees the Sandshrew that he was disappointed at the lack of a challenge just a second ago, push through the pain and stand up ready for the next guide from his trainer. Grayson smiles at this as it just might get slightly interesting.

"Good work buddy, any other opponent and that is a one hit KO, but this pair are not like most" 'Looks like that water training AJ puts Sandshrew through does make a difference after all'

"Sandshrew, looks like we are gonna have a tough struggle keeping our undefeated streak this time" "Sa-Sand- Sandshrew" barely able to reply to his trainer between breathes, Sandshrew focuses solely on the Prinplup as if his focus waivers he may give in to the pain and be out for the count.

"Alright Sandshrew, looks like we underestimated this kid. Let's try something else!" Another crack of his whip directs Sandshrew in a way only those two understand, gritting his teeth and making a darting run toward Prinplup, then suddenly starts to burrow underground signifying that he used Dig.

"Prinplup use Agility and try to dodge as soon as you sense any movement" Prinplup's speed gets a boost and he focuses on the sole of his feet to try and get any indication to when Sandshrew will appear and strike. Suddenly he feels movement and makes a move but due to the shear physical nature of this Sandshrew he shoots out of the ground with much more force than ever expected, catching Prinplup off guard even with the boost of speed. Taking a hit Prinplup backs off slightly panting. And exactly like anyone would guess, the Sandshrew hit like a ton of bricks, Prinplup has been slightly overconfident recently due to the fact that Exeggcute doesn't put too much effort in training and only works hard during battles, and that until just recently Nidoran was no where near it strength wise. But now that whole root of overconfidence has been plucked out quickly with just one hit from the opponent. Steadying his breathing he is ready to finish this.

"Prinplup, let's finish this with another Bubblebeam" As he has become even more focused on this small yellow Pokemon, he complies immediately and shoots out an unavoidable stream of powerful bubbles, and as hoped Sandshrew with his sustained injuries and energy used up from the last attack, was in no state to do any swift movements to dodge the incoming Bubblebeam. Resigning to his fate he used his arms to create a shied in front of himself, lessening the pain caused. When the dust settles the valiant Sandshrew was unable to battle, which means that Grayson is the winner of this unofficial Gym Battle, the biggest challenge he has faced so far since coming to this world.

"Darn it, guess I can't say I am undefeated no more can I?" AJ joked knowing that the trainer in front of him is a powerful opponent and is worthy to have his first loss against. "You were my toughest battle so far AJ, say, why haven't you taken on the Gym circuit with your strength it would be more than enough" Grayson asks already knowing. "I am only going to take on the Gym challenges once I have 100 wins under my belt, until then me and my Pokemon are going to train our hardest to prepare for that day" he says cheerfully.

"I see, well anyway good luck on your upcoming wins, I'm sure it won't be long till you get that number 100. I am expecting to see you in the Indigo League" Grayson throws out this statement because he knows that in the series besides a special about Ash's rivals or something, he is never seen again or mentioned. Seeing if he can change the original fate of this trainer he plants a seed of the Indigo League in AJ's mind to get him to think about it. And after saying this Grayson walks away quickly, not giving AJ the chance to reply. If he makes it to the Indigo League, then he would welcome this change for the better, if not then he hopes that AJ keeps getting stronger and reaches whatever goal he is looking for.