Ah so that was what I was missing, ran around in school and forgot second floor did let me into the lab room all other floors saying school is over so I thought it was no point being there and must've gotten it wrong. Thanks.
I'm not sure what's wrong game told me I should proceed with finishing defeating the infinite corps after having done all gyms & the beacons but this npc is still preventing me from moving on. also had a few odd bugs where npc interacting occurred despite no visible sprites after I had finished...