"Electabuzz, Thunderbolt!"
"Sceptile, Solar Beam!"
When it came to charging up their ultimate moves, Electabuzz was obviously faster than Sceptile. After all, unless the weather was under harsh sunlight, Solar Beam normally took two full turns to complete.
However, even after Thunderbolt struck Sceptile first, relying on its powerful will, Sceptile's move was not interrupted at all.
"What?!"
Wattson stared at Aiden Flint's Sceptile in disbelief.
In all his years as a Gym Leader, this was the first time he had ever seen such a powerful Sceptile.
It had actually taken Electabuzz's attack as if it were nothing?
At that moment, the seeds on Sceptile's back all lit up. In the next instant, a dazzling white beam shot out!
The entire battlefield was swallowed by blinding light, and then everything returned to silence.
When the battle ended, Electabuzz had already been blasted out of the arena, slammed into the wall of the Mauville Gym, and was deeply embedded in it!
The power of Solar Beam in a single strike was terrifying beyond words.
"Ding! Sceptile defeated Electabuzz, gained 457 experience points, level increased. Current Level: Lv.44!"
"Electabuzz has lost the ability to battle. Sceptile wins! Since all three of Gym Leader Wattson's Pokémon have lost, the final winner is the challenger, Aiden Flint!"
As the referee announced the result, Wattson burst out laughing.
"What an amazing Trainer, Aiden! This Dynamo Badge is proof that you defeated the Mauville Gym. I hope you perform brilliantly at the Ever Grande Conference!"
As he spoke, Wattson handed the Dynamo Badge to Aiden.
Electabuzz, who had just regained consciousness, couldn't help but give Sceptile a thumbs-up.
Seeing this, Sceptile nodded coolly in response, accepting its opponent's acknowledgment.
After receiving the Dynamo Badge, Aiden had now secured more than half of the qualifications needed to participate in the Hoenn League Ever Grande Conference!
The Balance Badge from Petalburg Gym, the Stone Badge from Rustboro Gym, the Knuckle Badge from Dewford Gym, and now the Dynamo Badge from Mauville Gym!
A total of four badges!
Putting the Dynamo Badge into the badge case that Nurse Joy from Petalburg had given him earlier, Aiden looked at the badges he had collected so far and felt deeply satisfied.
Unlike in the games, holding a real badge in his hand gave him a sense of achievement that was impossible to describe.
It had been almost three months since he left Littleroot Town. There were still four months before the Hoenn League Ever Grande Conference began, yet his progress was already more than halfway done.
From now on, he didn't need to rush his journey so much anymore.
After saying goodbye to Gym Leader Wattson, Aiden returned to the Pokémon Center once again, handed over the Pokémon that had battled to Nurse Joy for recovery, and only then walked out to stroll around Mauville City.
Checking the map, he discovered that Mauville City also had a museum—a Fossil Pokémon Museum that even displayed revived fossil Pokémon. That immediately caught his interest, and he went to visit.
After spending 180 Poké Dollars on a ticket, Aiden entered the Mauville Museum.
Looking at all the fossils on display, he couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation.
In the Hoenn region, fossil revival machines had long since been developed, even if they were not widely used. But the Mauville Museum possessed such a miraculous device and was even one of its investors. That was exactly why so many prehistoric Pokémon existed in this world.
Steven himself owned an ancient Pokémon—Armaldo, which had clearly been revived through Devon Corporation's fossil technology.
The Mauville Fossil Museum stored large quantities of fossils: Kabuto, Kabutops, Omanyte, Omastar, Armaldo, Cradily, and many more.
They even had a separate exhibition area where all the revived fossil Pokémon were kept together for visitors to observe.
To Aiden, it felt just like the first time he had visited a zoo in his previous life—fresh and fascinating.
A museum staff member nearby was also explaining that these fossil Pokémon had all been revived through the fossil revival machine, at the cost of tremendous resources.
Looking at these living prehistoric Pokémon right in front of him, Aiden felt a growing desire to capture one of them.
Of course, among fossil Pokémon, the one that truly stirred his heart was the legendary Aerodactyl.
Unfortunately, he didn't see one anywhere in the Mauville Museum.
He remembered that in the Kanto region, there was an Aerodactyl in the mysterious "Valley of the Obscure" that had once even kidnapped Ash, forcing his Charmeleon to evolve. That incident had also led Misty to obtain Togepi's Egg. But according to the current timeline, Togepi should have already left Misty and stayed in the Togepi Paradise.
"Excuse me, does the museum have a living Aerodactyl?"
When Aiden asked, the museum staff member paused before answering carefully.
"Aerodactyl is extremely violent. We do have its fossil, but we haven't revived it, so you won't be able to see it here. Sorry."
"Perhaps there will be such an opportunity in the future."
Hearing this, Aiden wasn't too disappointed. If he couldn't find Aerodactyl here, then after finishing the Ever Grande Conference, he could simply go to Kanto and search for that mysterious valley to capture the Aerodactyl there.
After finishing his tour of the museum, Aiden was about to leave when he saw a large crowd gathered around a researcher who was advertising something.
"These are all fragmented fossils discovered by our museum. If any visitors wish to buy and collect them, please come and make payment here!"
Realizing this was just the museum selling merchandise to make a profit, Aiden wasn't interested at first. But when he scanned them with the system, he was suddenly shocked.
"Ding! Mega Aerodactyl Stone detected. Host, please take note!"
The moment he saw this message, Aiden hurried over to the stall and began examining the items.
"Are these really fossils dug up from the field? How much do they cost?"
Looking at the chunks of rock covered with fossil marks, Aiden honestly felt that they didn't look very real. If not for the system telling him that the Mega Aerodactyl Stone was here, he wouldn't have believed it either.
Hearing his question, the researcher smiled.
"These fossils are incomplete. First, they can't be revived by the fossil machine, and second, they can't be exhibited in the museum. So we sell them to give visitors a chance to collect them and to quickly recover some of the museum's funds."
"You can rest assured, sir. These are all genuine fossils."
As he spoke, Aiden's gaze fell on one particular stone.
This was the one the system had scanned—it contained the Mega Aerodactyl Stone. It was simply covered in fossilized rock, hiding its original glow.
"How much is this one?"
"Sir, you have a great eye. There might be amber inside this stone. The price is 100,000 Poké Dollars."
Aiden's lips twitched.
If Mega Evolution were already fully popularized, the price of a Mega Stone would be far higher than that—easily reaching millions, even tens of millions.
But right now…
It was time to haggle.
In the end, after some bargaining, Aiden bought the stone for 30,000 Poké Dollars.
A perfect bargain.
Big win.
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