AJ was at least a head taller than Ash and built like a Machoke. His Sandshrew was also abnormally large and had the beginnings of spikes riddling its back, signaling the Pokemon's pending transition into a Sandslash. His non-official gym was correspondingly large: there was an entire battlefield molded out of sand just outside of a large circus tent (maybe that was a trend in the area?). What Ash found most interesting was that the other trainer had not yet challenged a single gym.

League rules stated that you could not openly challenge someone who had two or more badges fewer than you, however you could challenge anyone above you or less than two badges below you. This was to avoid multigym trainers from absolutely decimating their novice counterparts, and it was a rule that Ash personally agreed with. While most of the trainers he'd met so far were around his level, Ash knew that as time wore on he'd run into more and more experienced trainers who'd already done the Indigo League Gym Circuit and were going through it again to compete in the conference. Still, it did mean that challenging AJ was a bit inconvenient.

First both AJ and Ash opened their Pokedexes and turned on the video feature, before pointing their cameras so that they were both clearly visible. Then AJ formerly challenged Ash to a battle, making sure to acknowledge that he knew Ash had two more badges than him. Then Ash formerly accepted the challenge, reiterating that he was not the one who had proffered it. Finally both boys positioned their respective cameras so that the sand arena was clearly visible.

AJ performed the entire process with such an air of precision and efficiency that it was obvious that the entire process had become muscle memory, but Ash couldn't imagine going through the whole procedure before every battle. It was so mind numbing and stiff! Ash couldn't understand how AJ put up with it when he was obviously more than capable of obtaining at least one or two badges without a sweat.

Preparations complete, the two boys stood on opposite sides of the field and took battle stances.

"How long have you been training anyway?" Ash called across the arena.

"'Bout two years now, give or take. But I'm not even trying for the Indigo Conference until I beat a hundred newbie trainers. You're lucky—you'll be my last one!" AJ laughed, but Ash didn't.

"We'll see about that." Ash muttered. As one, both teens sent forth their Pokemon—AJ's monstrous Sandshrew against Ash's recently evolved Breloom.

"Stun spore, leech seed, mega drain." Ash murmured in rapid succession. Across the field AJ pulled out a whip and had it crack near his own Pokemon, who promptly burst into action, curling into a ball and beginning to whirl around at a fantastic pace before beginning to shoot out star-like projections of energy—a combined rapid spin and swift attack. The astral energies shot straight at Bacchus, but even as they did the Breloom shot yellow spores and small seeds out to cover the field before trying and failing to drain energy off of the Sandshrew. AJ cracked his whip again and the Sandshrew tried to avoid the spores and seeds by diving into the sand, but it was too late and the Pokemon was soon covered in growths and powder. AJ gritted his teeth but cracked the whip again as Ash shot out his own orders.

"We've got him now, Bacchus. Mega drain until he's fainted."

Despite what Ash thought, it was not going to be as easy a victory as it first appeared. The Sandshrew struggled past its paralysis in time to miss another of Bacchus's mega drains and began to slash in a way reminiscent of only one move—fury swipes. Bacchus tried to dodge, but even with the paralysis the Sandshrew was just too quick and the mouse Pokemon was suddenly upon Breloom, ripping the poor Grass-Fighting type apart. Thankfully not all was lost. The closer distance also meant that the Sandshrew was much easier to aim at, so Bacchus was able to hit the Pokemon with one draining attack after the other. As the two battled it out in a close combat fight, both trainers egged on their respective partners with support and advice. For one minute, and then two, the two continued to barrage each other with super effective moves, but the recovery capability of mega drain finally won out and the Sandshrew fainted.

"No!" AJ shouted, and ran into the field, tenderly picking up the fainted Sandshrew. Ash ran to his Pokemon too, and both trainers sat side by side as they worked to heal the damage their Pokemon had taken. Ash even let AJ borrow a Cheri berry so that he wouldn't have to go inside and get one. As they waited for their Pokemon to recover, Ash congratulated AJ.

"Your Pokemon's trained up great, AJ. My team and I fought a ton of Sandshrew in Mt. Moon and none of them were anywhere near as powerful as yours."

"Thanks." AJ replied. "You know, Sandshrew's the first Pokemon I ever caught. I mean, I got a Weedle from the Sensational Sisters two years ago—he's a Beedrill now, and a darn good one—but I spent the next month looking for a Pokemon on my level. I mean, I like Beedrill and all, but he don't got nearly my drive to succeed, and I wanted a real partner to share all my experiences with. And then one day there he was—sitting on a rock just outside of Mt. Moon and staring straight at me as if he knew exactly why I was there. Maybe he did, I don't know. But I do know that that was the moment when I knew that we'd be able to take on the world together." AJ grinned at the Pokemon in his lap and scratched between the Sandshrew's ears as he reminisced.

"Wow. I mean, I pretty much lucked out with my Pokemon so far. Each and every one of them shares my ambition—I want to be the greatest trainer of all time, to become the youngest Champion ever—and I guess it's kind of amazing that I lucked out like that. I can't imagine having to look that long to find your partner. But why haven't you challenged your first gym yet? I mean, you've got both Pokemon and you're obviously strong enough."

AJ sat back to think. "Well, I'm not going to lie, I've thought about it a couple times. But, I mean, most people end up going through the Indigo Circuit five or six times before they even reach the top 16, so I figure if I give my Pokemon two years of training right out of the gate—without worrying about getting more powerful, just about getting stronger—then I've already got an advantage right out of the gate and I'm still a complete unknown to most of my competitors."

"How do you do that? Work on getting stronger, I mean. I've been working on improving moves and speed and such with my Pokemon, but what you're doing is above and beyond."

"C'mon, I'll show you!" AJ gestured towards the tent and then picked up Sandshrew and led the way while Ash followed with Triton and his tank in hand while Bacchus, now nearly fully recovered, hopped behind.

Inside the tent was a veritable work out center. There was a hoop with fire and a deep swimming pool and weights littered all over the place and a trampoline and two treadmills side by side and a fully functional kitchen and Arceus knows what else all scattered throughout the marquee. Ash couldn't help but gape. He couldn't afford 90% of what was in the room, and that almost terrified him. That a teen only two years older than him—only 17—could afford all of this was stunning. It was true that generally those who lived in Cerulean City were the richer residents of Kanto, so the trainers starting out there were more likely to be given benefits others might not from their families, but this was just unbelievable. Ash stared at all of the equipment and tried desperately to keep his brain working. But even as he did, he began to be disheartened.

When he and AJ had started talking, Ash had felt that maybe he could get his Pokemon to the level of AJ's Sandshrew, but now he felt as if he would be lucky to come close. There was no way he could afford the gear AJ was using. He had been lucky enough that his mother was able to give him as many berries as she could—just one set of all-Pokemon weights could set him back about as much as the TM case had.

A few steps ahead of Ash AJ noticed that he'd stopped walking and turned to look at him. "Hey now—don't be discouraged. I know it looks like a lot, but most of this stuff you can find substitutes for." AJ grinned and sat down Sandshrew before tugging Ash further into the tent.

For the next half hour he led the younger teen around the room pointing out various equipment and suggesting various substitutes that Ash could use on-road. "Now, the treadmill's nice and easy: you can just run for that, and for weights I guess I'd suggest using some rocks and rope. Just make sure to be careful of your Pokemon's skin—rope ain't exactly been treated for comfort like my weights have. For the pool just have you and your Pokemon swim whenever possible for as long as possible—even if they, or you, don't like the water." That was one thing that AJ emphasized. It was not just the Pokemon in training—it was the trainers too. "See, how could you ever ask your Pokemon to do something you won't do yourself? I'm always right there beside my Sandshrew and Beedrill, working just as hard as they are."

By the end of the tour Ash felt much better about his ability to recreate most of the equipment he saw in the room. While some items like the macho brace weren't exactly possible to mimic, Ash wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be that intensive. While additional strength rather than power training did seem like a good idea, and it had certainly worked well for AJ, Ash felt that the most useful training tool would simply be challenging other powerful trainers. This went directly against AJ's policy of 'grinding', but Ash still felt like it was the better method.

AJ had also given Ash a TM that he had two copies of—Focus Punch. Ash couldn't wait to test it out with Bacchus.

"So I guess you're staying here, huh?" Ash asked as AJ walked him and his Pokemon out.

"You bet! I've gotta beat 100 newbies in a row before I'll move on, and you've just set me back to zero! Be sure to send anyone you see my way, though! You owe me!"

Back on the road again, Ash felt that it would be better to implement the new training techniques he'd learned about immediately, so he went straight to the river he'd been meandering towards since leaving Celadon City and released his Pokemon, tying rocks to each of their limbs as well as his own. For the rest of the day he and his Pokemon worked through many of the exercises the Sandshrew's owner had told him about, running, jumping, and leaping around as they worked to improve their strength. He also had Triton hop out of the water as long as possible, before jumping into the water with Tyche, Bacchus, and Boreas and practicing diving as much as possible.

By the time the sun began to set all of the Pokemon were exhausted and Ash set to putting each to rights. Triton got a couple of Oran berries and his tail was massaged to help ease the ache of hopping on it on the ground. For Tyche the largest issue was the weights—the dancing Pokemon was unused to the resistance training, and was quite content to be put back in her pokeball for the night—after a few berries, of course. Bacchus took it by far the best out of the group, and in fact seemed to enjoy showing of his strength in and out of the water. He'd also taken to antagonizing the little Horsea, which was a new behavior from the Breloom and one that Ash hoped would stop soon. If Bacchus took it the best then Boreas took it the worst. Despite how his species was well known for fishing for much of their food, Boreas seemed to be particularly against the water and spent a good amount of time after the exercises were complete shaking his wings free of water and glaring spitefully at Ash. Nonetheless, once the teen got a fire set up and a little nest for the bird at the very edge of it the Staravia calmed down and settled in for the night.

Ash himself was a different matter. His body was not used to being pushed in such a manner. While it was true that he had walked alongside his Pokemon, and had even trained some prior to beginning his journey, he had not spent the time practicing one attack after another like his team had. By the end of the day he felt as if he was about to die. Still, he carefully went about making all of his Pokemon comfortable and only after all of their pains were eased did he slowly lower himself to the ground and pull out his first aid pack. He fished through the bag until he found the anti-inflammatory pills and took two. Then he began the slow, careful process of massaging all of his aching muscles in his arms and legs. He was suddenly much more happy about the mandatory human health class at school. While he'd understood the need for the Pokemon health class, the human version fell, to him, in the same category as the compulsory advanced math and science classes—technically helpful, but not as much as the Pokemon centered courses.

Now though, the course seemed much more useful—he couldn't imagine how he'd feel the next morning if he didn't know pain relief techniques. Returning to the first aid kit, he found the snap-packs—wonderful inventions which you simply 'snapped' in order to get a burst of heat or cold. While he was tempted to use one of the former, he knew it was the latter which would be more useful in the long run, so a quick flexing of the pack later and a wonderful chill began to spread from the pack to his right leg. He pulled out three more—one for each limb, and positioned them correspondingly, before finally allowing himself to fall into a fitful sleep.

The next day he woke up feeling as if he'd been slammed into by a Donphan, but at least it didn't feel like he'd been sat on by a Snorlax. He spent the next thirty minutes stretching every muscle in his body, before he finally felt like he could stand.

The entire time his team stood to the side laughing at him. It was, Ash reluctantly thought, a rather good bonding experience for the rest of the team. Bacchus and Triton, at least, seemed to be hitting it off over a shared love for seeing Ash hobble around like an old Crustle.