Chapter 6
Ash and his friends had finally arrived in Nacrene City. Cilan was right, they had just made it to the city and it was already starting to get dark. As the group made their way to the Pokémon Centre to book a room for the night, there was shadow lurking in the side street.
"It's the Twerps! What are they doing here?!" Jessie questioned as she noticed the presence of Ash and his friends.
She ran over to a parked van, entering from the back to inform James and Meowth of the situation.
"Doesn't matter. Pikachu is no longer our concern. Our only objective right now is to enter the Museum and retrieve the Meteonite." James told her. "We'll be moving in shortly. We need to make sure that the Museum is completely empty first."
After 10 minutes of waiting, nobody was seen going in or coming out of the Museum, so James made a judgement that the Museum was empty. Driving the van around the streets to blend in and then driving behind the Museum to be undetected, James unloaded a briefcase with the fake Meteonite and handed it to Jessie.
"I'll be staying in the van to hack the Museum's security systems and give you and Meowth time to make the switch." He explained, "However, once you're in, unlike the main security system controlling the doors and cameras, I can only keep the security system protecting the case off for 20 seconds, so you're going to need to work quickly."
"Don't worry, we'll be in and out with the real deal before you know it." Jessie assured him.
As Jessie and Meowth scaled the wall to enter the Museum from the skylight, James went to work disabling the security cameras and alarms so that the two could enter the Museum undetected. Once inside, Jessie and Meowth entered the room with the Meteonite, Jessie contacted James to tell him when to turn off the case's security. With the security alarms and cameras disabled, Jessie and Meowth went to work quickly; as Jessie ran and grabbed the fake from the briefcase as Meowth jumped and removed the case, allowing Jessie to make the switch. As Meowth placed the case back down, Jessie placed the real Meteonite in the briefcase and the two left the Museum undetected.
Arriving back at the van, Jessie handed the briefcase to James, who then opened it to observe the Meteonite.
"Everything looks good. This is the real thing alright. We should leave the scene so it doesn't raise suspicion. We can contact the boss when we are at a safe distance from here." James told them as he started the engine and drove down the street.
Morning arrived quickly. The sound of a Pidove flock's soft cooing entering through the Pokémon Centre's open windows. Ash was already wide awake, he was doing some training with his Pokémon.
"Okay, Dewott and Pidove, I'm planning to use you both in my gym battle at the Nacrene Gym, so let's let a little battle practice in!" Ash said to his Pokémon, who had serious and dedicated looks on their faces. "Pikachu, will be their opponent to help improve the speed and accuracy of their attacks?" he turned and asked Pikachu, who was more than happy to assist them in their training.
"Dewott, use Razor Shell, and Pidove, Quick Attack let's go!" Ash commanded the two attacks as both Pokémon raced into action towards Pikachu. "Pikachu, stay put until I say so, 'kay?" Ash informed Pikachu, who focused on the upcoming Pokémon as they got closer and closer. "Do it, Pikachu! Jump up now!"
As their training session came to an end, all three Pokémon were soon exhausted. "Alright guys, I think we'll leave training there." Ash said, noticing how tired his team was. "How about we go get some breakfast?" he asked as all three Pokémon had now stood straight up at the mention of food, which made Ash laugh as they entered the Pokémon Centre.
Once they got inside and began making their way towards the kitchen, they soon picked up a sweet aroma that had wafted around the Pokémon Centre, which made them head towards the door. Opening the door, Ash soon caught the sound of slight humming and upon entering the kitchen, saw Dawn near the open fridge.
"Morning Dawn" Ash said lightly as he knocked on the door so he didn't startle her, which caused her soft humming to come to a sudden stop.
"Oh, good morning Ash!" Dawn replied as she held onto a jug of milk. "I was just making coffee for you, me and Cilan and was about to take it to your room for you guys for when you woke up…but looks like you've been awake for quite some time" she told Ash.
"Yeah, Cilan was still asleep when we left the room, so we've just been doing some training for our gym battle today so we didn't wake him, and we have just come in now for some breakfast." He told Dawn who handed him his coffee. "They've been working really hard, so they deserve something really special. After watching Brock, it has taught me a whole lot about cooking, so hopefully I can do just that."
As Dawn left the kitchen to see if Cilan was awake so she could give him his coffee, Ash began the preparations for breakfast. When Dawn came back to the kitchen, Ash had started to make breakfast for his Pokémon, but then decided that he would make breakfast for Dawn and Cilan's Pokémon too, as well as breakfast for him and his friends too. He soon noticed it was going to be a lot of work.
"Need some help?" Dawn asked as she tapped him on the shoulder.
"That'd be really helpful, thank you Dawn." He said happily.
Once they had finished, Ash left the kitchen a moment later to set the table and then helped Dawn bring out the plates with the breakfast on. Cilan was almost speechless when he arrived, nearly to the point of tears when he saw the effort his friends had gone to. As everyone sat down to eat, Cilan once again looked thoroughly impressed by the taste of the food.
"This is amazing!" Cilan commented, "You two are really good cooks, top notch!"
When the group and their Pokémon were finished eating, they cleared the table and headed back to their rooms to pack ready to leave. Once everyone was packed and ready to go, Cilan mentioned they should set off for the Nacrene City Museum, which confused Ash and Dawn.
The City was quiet and had a peaceful atmosphere to it. Ash and Dawn noticed that the buildings had various artistic designs on their walls. Cilan mentioned to them that Narcrene City is known as the "city of art" and that the warehouses are 100 years old and are still used today. After admiring the beauty of the city, they arrived at the Nacrene City Museum.
"So, uh, Cilan, what are we doing at the Museum?" Ash asked him, "We're supposed to be going to the gym."
Cilan turned to him, "You see Ash, not only is the Nacrene Museum a Museum, but it is also the gym." He explained.
Entering the Museum, the group saw a woman wearing an apron, and a man who was slightly smaller than her wearing a suit. The two were inspecting the numerous artefacts around the Museum. As the man looked around, he saw Ash and his friends out of the corner of his eye.
"Yes? How can we help you?" he asked.
"Oh, hi there, my name is Ash, this is my partner Pikachu and my friends Dawn and Cilan. We were looking for the gym leader so I can challenge the Nacrene gym" Ash replied to him.
"You've come to the right place, kid!" the woman said before looking to Cilan. "Well Cilan, you certainly look different, I never expected you would have gone on a journey. Sounds like you didn't tell your friends a lot about me, otherwise they would have known I am the Nacrene City gym leader!" she added.
Ash and Dawn looked at Cilan, who was laughing nervously. "Oops…I suppose that might have been something worth letting you both know…" he said. "This is Lenora, the gym leader…" he added.
As the group followed Lenora and Hawes to the back of the Museum as they lead them into a rather big library. Ash and Dawn were astonished by the size of the room, and even more so by the amount of books. Cilan on the other hand was completely in his element, admiring the sight.
"So Ash, since you will be challenging me, you will need to take this challenge." Lenora told him, which got Ash worried. "You will need to find and follow clues written in these books. Only then will the path to the battle field be revealed." She explained further.
"Oh man. The thing is, I'm not the best with studying or tests…" he said, "…but that doesn't mean I won't take the challenge. A gym battle is what I came here for after all, so let's do this!"
"You really are fascinating, Ash. If I may recommend you a book, I'd suggest this one to you" she said as she tapped a book over her shoulder slightly with her knuckle. As Ash saw this, he made his way to the tapped book.
"You mean this one, right?" He asked as he pulled the book from the shelf.
As the book was removed from the shelf, the room started to quake slightly as the bookshelf moved and revealed a staircase beneath it. Ash and his friends followed Lenora and Hawes down the stairs to a huge underground battle field.
"So Ash, are you ready for the next part of the challenge?" Lenora asked Ash.
Frankenstrike: Ash isn't getting a Tepig or a Snivy. I'm doing it similar to how it was done in Hoenn (and how it's now done in Kalos) by giving the main characters a starter each. Besides, Snivy would suit Cilan better since he uses Grass-types, and Dawn already has Piplup, so giving her another starter of the same type wouldn't be interesting for me personally. Besides, I already have a Fire-type in mind for Ash.
Magical fan18: Oops! I didn't notice that, but don't worry, it has been fixed now, so thank you very much for pointing it out!