Chapter 54:

Museum Mayhem

Location: Nacrene City

Nacrene City was such a peaceful place compared to somewhere like Castelia and certainly not ahead of everyone else like Opelucid. Today, I had plans; battle Lenora!

I ran to the Museum, standing outside the doors where Hilbert fought N in their second battle. "Look out Lenora, I'm coming for you!"

Coming out of the Museum was Hawes. "Oh, my goodness, it's the Champion. Come on in! Lenora is waiting!"

It was as if everything was going my way. Hawes wasn't expecting me, maybe Lenora was? I didn't know.

"Well, hello," Lenora said, standing in front of the giant Pokémon skeleton (with its head on).

"Lenora," I said. "I challenge you to a battle!"

Lenora looked at me awkwardly. "Ah, yeah. I don't think I told you. I'm retired from my Gym Leader duties."

"WHAT?!" I said. But then I thought about it. Mr. Cheren was the one who gave out the Basic Badge. It all made sense. Why didn't he tell me? "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"You're not the first one!" Hawes said. "Come make yourself at home!"

We all went to the Museum Café. Lenora ordered a cup of tea on her.

"So, what brings you to this neck of Unova?" she asked. "Aside from wanting to battle me of course."

I sipped my tea. "Training. And I'm heading towards Nuvema Town!" I got out Hilbert's Journal. "See? I want to return this to Hilbert, though I doubt he will be in Nuvema Town specifically. He has already requested a battle with me."

Lenora looked out the window. "That was an amazing battle. It took him two tries, but he beat me. After Hilbert became Champion, people started coming to the Museum expecting to see the Dark Stone, or should I say the replica we now have. With that, I became too busy to battle. So, I handed Gym Leader duties over to Cheren. People would now have to travel to Aspertia City to get the Basic Badge."

"But business has been great!" Hawes said. "We've been selling lots of pencils in the gift shop!"

"That's great!" I said. "So, who was your final challenger?"

"Honestly, N," she said. "I had no more challengers after that because I needed a break after his crushing victory with Reshiram. After helping take down Team Plasma, I decided I had enough. I've put all my efforts into the Museum. That's the other reason."

"But since you come all this way," Hawes said. "May I present you with one of these." He handed me two Fossils. "You may pick one."

I pointed to the one that looked like a feather. "The Plume Fossil!"

"So be it!" Hawes said.

Later, I had the Fossil revived into an Archen; it was sent to the PC.

"Sorry you didn't get your battle," Lenora said.

"It's fine. I'll be heading to Striaton tomorrow!"

"Good luck and say hi to the Gym Leaders! Don't worry; they still do challenges!"

Well, I didn't get to battle Lenora. But at least I got a prehistoric new friend!