Chapter 4: The Wilds 2

Later that night Magnus was sleeping in a secluded corner of the cave, surprisingly enough the cave was actually pretty warm despite holding so much water, therefore there was no need for a fire to keep warm.

Breaking him out of his rest were talons that vigorously rocked his shoulder. Magnus' eyes blasted open and he prepared for some sort of attack, but thankfully he was just met with Corvisquire silently pointing in another direction.

It was his shift for the night watch and before Magnus and the others went to sleep, he made sure to tell whoever was on duty to wake him up if they were being attacked, or if something suspicious was happening.

Feebas took the first watch, then Corvisquire and after that it should've been Magnus. So judging by who woke him up, it was safe to say that it was the middle of the night, or early morning depending on how you look at it.

Following Corvisquire's outstretched wing he saw a bunch of lights moving around about a hundred metres away from them, probably a group of people since none of the Pokemon Wellspring Cave produce light naturally without the use of a move.

His and Corvisquires movement managed to rustle Dratini awake, who was tiredly squinting her eyes at Magnus from her spot next to him. Before she made a sound Magnus shushed her, emphasising that she should stay quiet.

Magnus then shuffled over to Feebas, who was quietly floating on the water with her body tilted so that only one side was visible. Gently rocking her, Feebas's sunken eyes focused on her trainer.

"Feebas, go and wake up Gyarados, make sure he doesn't make any noise and stays under the water. Stay close by, we don't know who these people are yet, and you both need to be ready to attack on a moment's notice." Magnus whispered.

Magnus wasn't sure what these people were up to, or if they were even up to anything in the first place. But his gut is telling him that something is up, it's far too late for a group of trainers to be spelunking anyway, and as far as he knows there's no expeditions or businesses being run in the cave either.

With Corvisquire on his shoulder and Dratini around his arm, Magnus silently approaches the unknown group. Their flashlights randomly shone in their direction, to stay hidden Magnus used the natural environment of the cave to stay hidden, boulders, crevices and walls were all used as cover, where he waited for the light to pass them over.

As he drew closer he began to hear the faint murmurs of the group.

"Why the hell do we have to clean up after those idiots, we weren't even here for the subjugation" One of them aggressively complained as they moved closer to another tunnel that led away from the main area.

"Beats me, I don't question it, you know. Better off just doing what we're asked" another replied.

"Tsk, it's their mess. They should be the ones to clean it up, but no. Instead we're stuck cave diving in the middle of the night. I don't want to be in some shitty cave because of someone else being useless" the first one continued in a gruff voice.

"I hear ya man. The place gives me the creeps, who knows what's lurking around down here" he second softer voice said as he flickered his flashlight around, illuminating the darkness in its path but finding nothing but rocks.

"Put a sock in it already. The two of you haven't shut up the entire time we've been here. All we're here to do is retrieve the items Sage Bronius ordered us to get, and destroy the rest." a third voice sniped, clearly a woman from the sound of things.

"Chill woman out, loosen up a bit. We're just getting some things off our chest, letting the stress out, you know. It's hard working for Team Plasma where they make you do stuff like this every other day" One of the men said as they entered the tunnel.

Magnus was gobsmacked the instant he heard the identity of those grunts, thank Arceus he was being cautious while tailing them.

There was so much he learned from that short conversation, a possible base? Team Plasma's return and a subjugation?

As far as Magnus knew Team plasma was supposed to have been a thing of the past, hell Drayden even taught his pupils about their fall at his school.

Around ten years ago an organisation named Team Plasma was created in the Unova region. They were a kind of social justice group that wanted equality between people and pokemon, they preached about how pokemon were slaves to humans and that the driving force of that was pokeballs.

They wanted to abolish the creation of pokeballs so that Pokemon couldn't be enslaved by humans any longer. Got a good bit of movement behind the idea too, at least until they were done with all sorts of crimes.

Burglary, arson, embezzlement, murder, you name it and they'd probably done it. Once all of their crimes were exposed all the momentum they had going for them vanished and they were quick to be classed as an 'Evil Organisation' with the likes of Team Rocket in Kanto and Johto as well as Team Aqua and Magma in Hoenn.

Unova United and cracked down on them, pushing them into a corner before they went into hiding. Sometime later they found Team Plasma's main safe house in ashes, burned down and destroyed by an unknown source, thought to be a legendary pokemon and in the process killing all of the Team's high ranking members.

At least that's how the story went, clearly someone is still running the team. This 'Sage Bronius' by the sounds of it.

On top of that they were going on about a subjugation, Magnus would bet money on it being those Dragonite. Thankfully they failed, a Dragonite in the hands of someone malicious is a calamity waiting to happen.

Magnus took a quick glance at Dratini before recalling Gyarados, he wouldn't fit in the tunnel, and there's no water for him to swim through.

He owes it to his newest pokemon to put a stop to these cunts.

Magnus soundlessly crept through the winding tunnels, tailing the Plasma goons from a distance. The darkness of the cave was difficult to traverse without a torch to guide him, but he managed to make do with the slight ambience that reached him from those he was stalking.

The tailing lasted for a good forty five minutes, the group from team Plasma managed to take the wrong tunnel a few times, causing Magnus to almost get caught when they started to back track.

Though because he unintentionally got so close, he was able to get a look at the three people he was following as well as their pokemon.

The one with the gruff voice looked exactly like he sounded. He was big, at least 6'4 and had the muscle to back up his large body, Magnus initially thought he might have some background in martial arts, but the slouch and uneven frame said otherwise.

The other male in the group was a lot smaller than his counterpart, though he was smaller and thinner he seemed to be the oldest in the group. His messy beard and hair that had streaks of grey running through them only strengthened this idea.

Lastly the woman, she was of average height and seemed to have a decent bit of muscle under her clothes. Magnus never managed to see her face but she was on the younger side of things, early twenties maybe.

All of them were garbed in dark grey bodysuits, underneath a thick black vest that had the Team Plasma emblem sewed onto the position over their hearts. The emblem hasn't seemed to change if Magnus's memory was serving him correctly, it was still the black and white shield with a blue P right in the middle.

The uniforms included hats and masks, to hide their features, though the only one that had their face covered was the woman. The two men never seemed to be fond of the piece and had it tied around their neck.

Trailing behind them was a Seviper and a Whirlipede, but he wasn't sure who their trainers were. Though, he was positive that they had more pokemon on them, if the balls on their belt was anything to go by.

The two pokemon never looked particularly strong, but numbers can make up for quality, something that Magnus learned first hand with the Yanma.

Eventually, Team Plasma arrived at their destination with Magnus and his pokemon not far behind. Hiding behind cover, Magnus peeked out to see what they were dealing with.

Using the light from their flashlights, he was able to identify a bunch of high-tech machines lying around, none of which Magnus recognised. The goons were looking through storage trying to find something.

"I think I've found it" proclaimed the bearded man, holding up a locked case.

"How can you be sure, there's loads of cases that look the exact same here" The buff figure retorted, gesturing at where he was looking.

Shrugging, he pulled a digital key from his pocket and said "Oh well, I might be lucky" as he attempted to unlock the case.

Failing to open the case, the large mockingly laughed at him and started piling all of the cases onto a nearby table. All three of the grunts were busy looking for something while their pokemon lazily stood guard.

Magnus decided this was the best opportunity to strike.

He whispered to his team the plan, it was going to be quick and clean, hopefully they'd be able to take down the three trainers before they have the chance to release any more pokemon.

With the plan set out, Corvisuire quietly flew down the tunnel, by the time he had returned his beak and talons were brimming with newfound energy. With Corvisquire prepped, Magnus and Dratini quietly and cautiously crept towards the grunts.

Dratini eyes burned with anger as he stared at the Team Plasma uniform, back when they were tailing them, she almost hastily attacked but Magnus managed to hold her back, persuading her to wait a little longer.

The pair snuck past the two guards, both seemingly tired as they dazedly stood still. Reaching the unpowered machines, they crouched behind a large one, big enough to keep them both out of sight.

Nodding at Dratini, she slithered closer to the man-woman pair that were scanning through cases. Once she got in position, Magnus made his move.

He lurked towards the big man, who was by his lonesome at the other side of the encampment, completely unaware of what he was in for.

The man just put down what he was carrying, when Magnus sprung into action. He threw a straight punch right into the back of the man's head, a blow that did way more damage than it should've.

A dull thumb was heard when the man's skull collided with Magnus's knuckle duster, blood splattered as the man crashed into the table unconscious.

The knuckle dusters have a bit of a story behind them, but that's for another time.

"What happened Da-" The bearded man tried to say before he was convulsing on the ground from a Thunder Wave.

As the electricity got to work on the man's muscles, the woman tried to reach for her pokeballs but grabbed nothing as dratini had already swiped them away. In anger, she tried to reach for Dratini, which in hindsight was a terrible idea, luckily for her Dratini skittered away to collect the grunts' pokeballs.

Losing the chance to get her pokeballs back, she lunged at the approaching Magnus. Her sloppy jab was slipped with a little head movement, and she ended up walking straight into a hook placed right on the tip of her jaw.

Her head jerked from the punch and her legs gave up from beneath her, the punch was much weaker than the one the muscly man got, but it still did its job. Only when her slumped body hadn't moved for a couple seconds did Magnus relax.

Equal rights, equal fights.

The woman got off a lot lighter, with only a little facial bleeding compared to the other guy, who definitely needed to be patched up soon to prevent the problems that come with excessive bleeding.

A moment later Magnus heard the pained hisses of the Whirlipede and Seviper. Just after Magnus dropped the first guy, and the two pokemons attention was diverted at him, Corvisquire and Feebas jumped them.

Corvisquire used Power Trip to one hit k.o the Seviper, and Feebas Dragon Breathed the Whirlipede. The Bug-type tried to roll away in fear but was quickly caught up to by Corvisquire and put to bed with a peck.

All in all the plan was performed with little to no mishaps. The grunts were incapacitated before any other pokemon were released and the Seviper and Whirlipede were dealt with quickly and effectively.

Scratch that, Magnus and his pokemon did a quality job. Honestly, he was expecting something to go wrong, but he's not complaining about it.

Magnus was just done pulling a bundle of rope from his bag to tie the plasma bastards up when Dratini bumped into his calf. Looking down he saw Dratini holding a bunch of pokeballs with her tail.

Thanking her with a head pat, he shuffled through them all until he found the two empty ones. Returning Whirlipede and Seviper back into their pokeballs, he stuffed all of the Team Plasma balls in his bag for safe keeping.

Once that was finished Magnus and his pokemon got to binding the Team Plasma members, he was half tempted to tie the lady into some bdsm-style bondage for the shits and giggles, but maturely thought better of it.

With the trio tied up and for the most part unconscious. Magnus started going through all of the cases with the newly acquired electronic key.

Soon after attempting to find the right box with the key, Magnus quickly gave up. There were literally forty plus cases that all looked the same.

The smart thing to do was obviously have Corvisquire crack them open with his talons, which were extremely sharp after consecutive uses of Hone Claws.

With Corvisquire's help, the cases were all sliced open within the minute, and Magnus had free reign to look through the contents. Granted, Magnus soon realised what a daft idea it was, as now he never knew which of the cases actually had the important stuff inside.

Impatience leads to stupid mistakes.

Now all Magnus could do was try and guess what was important.

Most of the cases were filled with different hard drives, labels with random names such as 'Pokeballs' and 'Watchog'. Still to be on the safe side, Magnus jammed each and every one of them into his Pokedex to gloss through the stored information.

The titles on the drives really gave away their contents, for example one named 'Stoutland' brought up various bits of information on the pokemon. From the movesets, to training methods, to breeding methods, he wasn't sure what he expected to find inside criminal teams files, but shit like this definitely wasn't it.

Bar the hard drive there were also a few material goods packed away. One of the cases stored a bunch of expensive healing items; Full Heals, Max Revives, Revives, Hyper Potions, Max Potions, Max Elixers. You know, the good shit.

It even had a small supply of Carbos, probably enough to feed one pokemon for a week. The stuff is full of nutrients and shit that somehow increase a Pokemon's speed, Magnus isn't entirely sure how the shit works but he knows there's a limit to its usage before it becomes ineffective.

Another was chalked full of pokeballs, not the normal type but variant ones. Net Balls, and Dive Balls, each of which have their own niche for usage.

Net Balls have a higher catch rate for any Bug-type pokemon, and a slightly increased catch rate for Water-types.

Dive Balls on the other hand are geared towards catching Water-types, boasting an equal catch rate to Ultra Balls in that department, making them heavily sought after by Water-type Specialists.

The one after that even contained two types of TM's, Low Sweep and Focus Blast, the good reusable ones too. Just one of these bad boys would've put Magnus in the red.

That is, if Magnus paid for them.

Every single one of the things he found were promptly plundered, fattening his sack even with the shrinkage technology.

Magnus did this with a big fat shit eating grin on his damn handsome mug. It's as they say, Arceus always looks down on those who do good deeds.

One of the last cases he rummaged through had a distinctly different feel, compared to the others. Most cases were stuffed full of things, but this one only had a single hard drive inside.

Its name, 'Project Kyurem'.

This just exponentially increased its suspiciousness, first of all, none of the previous hard drives were a 'Project'. Secondly, while the others had easily distinguished names, 'Kyurem; certainly wasn't easily distinguishable.

Magnus had never heard of anything remotely close to 'Kyurem'. It sounded like some kind of new pokemon, but that's just a guess. Saving his brain the effort, Magnus began to upload the data into his Pokedex.

What he read was shocking.

You are reading story Pokemon: Black, White and Dodgy at novel35.com

Project Kyurem

Log Entry 3

Codename: Kyurem 'The Husk'

Third member of the Tao Trio.

To our current knowledge, Kyurem is the third and final part of the 'Original Dragon'. From the DNA gathered, Plasma Scientists have confirmed that Kyurem's is indeed related to both Reshiram and Zekrom.

The three DNA samples of Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem are all compatible with one another, and we have recently been able to produce an unstable chimera strand of DNA with the genetic makeup of all three legendaries.

This has allowed us to make a giant leap in progress, the husk's DNA Splicers are al-

DETECTED UNAUTHORISED DEVICE

-TERMINATING PROGRAM-

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̶̣̘̫̪̦̙̝͙͖̮͙̹͙̓̾̃̒̂́̀͊̒̒̇̾̏̉̂̿͑̏̈̃̈́͊̀̔͑̏̿͒̀̉͊̓̀̉̕͘̕̚̕͜͠ ̴̢̧̧̛̺͕͇̗̳̻͍̬̤̯̦̫̟͙̲͇͓̭̣͓̘̖̫̪̝͇̙̗͓͌͂͒̀̀̿̀̈́͆̈́̃͑̒̀̑͊̂͑́̓̀́̂͐̒͌̌́̽͘͘̚͜͠͝͝

̴̡̼̣̹̘̼͇̳̝̜̪̬̥͔̜͍̜͖͖̮̦̫̖̣͍̜̞̻̓͆̍̏͆̒̋̽͐̑̆̍͌̎̅̄̓̒͐̇̑͂́̀̍͑̈̒͑͑͛̚͘͝͝͝͠͝ͅͅ

̷̡̢̛̛͙͉̼̠̠̱̞̬̲̝̙͇̪̬͖͓͎̭͍̥̪̻͚̪̙̩͉̞͈̣̇̔̌̎̐̃̐̾͗̇̒̊́̐̾̊̉͐̋̂̔̈́̂̀̇̀́̄͗̏̔̚̕̕ͅͅ

̴͇̠͚̩̈́͑̀̉̉̾̍

̷̛̛̻͍͎͖̟̗͊̈̑͗̓͌̌̆̈́͒̐̃̋͐̎͌̈́̓̽̃̓̀͗̈́̓̅̄̂̄̆͌̃̋́́̏́̎̊̚̚͝͝͠͝

-FILE TERMINATED-

"What the fuck." Magnus swore, staring incredulously at the now blank screen.

Trying and failing to get his Pokedex to work, Magnus had to restart the device to get rid of the empty white screen.

"Fuck me man" Magnus sighed with no small amount of exasperation, "This is way above my pay grade."

The Tao Trio? Kyurem? Just that part is enough to send Unova for a spin. Everyone and their grandmas know about Reshiram and Zekrom, the two legendary dragons of Unova, and they know the story behind the pair.

Two brothers, who don't know the word 'Compromise' ended up causing the original dragon to split into two separate entities, that each represented truth and ideals respectively.

Now thought, Magnus knows there is a possible third part of the original dragon - Kyurem. If the moniker 'The Husk' is anything to go by, Magnus would bet on Kyurem being made from whatever was left over from the creation of Reshiram and Zerkrom.

He wasn't really sure what half the sciencey stuff meant, but he gleaned that Team Plasma were trying to fuse the DNA of all three pokemon to create the Original Dragon once again. As well as some tool to help them with that endeavour, DNA Splicers?

While his pokedex was rebooting, Magnus pulled out his notebook and began to jot down everything he saw in 'Project Kyurem' before the file terminated itself.

Once he finished that he planned to get the hell out of this cave and send an SOS signal to the nearby city, hopefully some police would get here and take the Team Plasma grunts off his hands.

Phone Drayden as well, the stuff he found out was crazy, and if there was anyone he could trust with it, it was him. Professor Juniper is more of a pure researcher and isn't much of a battler, Magnus didn't know if he should tell her about Team Plasma, so he stuck with the safer option of Drayden.

Now all they had to do was leave, each pokemon - bar Feebas - grabbed onto the rope and began to pull the delirious trio down the tunnel. Since Feebas wasn't pulling she was in charge of leaving marks behind them so they never lost the route to the plasma machinery.

It was a gruelling trip to the surface, by the time they had found the exit the sun had already broken the horizon, bringing the early morning along with it.

Corvisquire was up in the sky, acting as a look out for any incoming people, Magnus wanted to have an early warning if anymore Team Plasma members came. As well as be notified when the rescue team arrives.

Currently he and the rest of his pokemon were waiting in the cusp of the cave, watching the three grunts they captured. They were all still unconscious, whenever they started to wake up Feebas would use Hypnosis to keep them under.

The contents of Project Kyurem keep running through his mind. The significance of it was just that great, and to think he had only read a small portion of a single entry. He was unable to fathom just how much he didn't know about his home region.

A criminal organisation silently growing in the shadows, a new legendary pokemon that was hinted to be part of the original dragon. Any of the two would make the public go wild if they found out, never mind both.

Making up his mind he decided to call Drayden.

Pulling out his X-transceiver, he scrolled through his contacts until he found Draydens number. Clicking the picture of an old man with a questionable choice of beard, the transceiver began to ring.

It was still early in the morning, 6:18 to be exact so there was a chance the gym leader would still be sleeping, Magnus wouldn't blame him for it either, he wouldn't want to be called up so early.

Thankfully after the fourth round of rings, Draydens icon expanded to fit the entire screen before changing into an image of an upper-class suite and a serious looking gym leader, who was wearing blue striped pyjamas and a matching nightcap with a bobble on its end.

Any other time Magnus would've started laughing at how out of place they looked on the constantly well dressed man, but that could wait… for now.

Staring at him through the video call, Drayden spoke somewhat tiredly, "I wasn't expecting a call from one of my students. Not to mention at such an early hour. Magnus, what is it that you so desperately need" Narrowing his eyes he said heavily "Might I add, at nearly an hour before my usual waking time."

Magnus just shrugged, he already knew how grumpy Drayden gets if woken up early. Not just that, when his pre-determined schedule is altered. Draydens the type of man that has his entire day meticulously planned out from the time he wakes, to the time he pisses. Deviance from that predetermined course, miffs him to say the least.

"Yeah, well this couldn't wait. While me and my pokemon were exploring the Wellspring Caves, we ran into Team Plasma" Magnus held off on saying anything to let it sink in.

Drayden never showed any surprise, no even the slightest smidget. He just faintly inclined his head and gestured for him to continue.

"The grunts from Plasma were nothing big, it was only a team of three, they never caused us any problems. It was what they were after" Magnus paused debating whether to tell Drayden the specifics over a call or in person, quickly he decided, "Plasma were up to something in the caves but had to abandon it. Whoever was in charge ordered the grunts to retrieve something before destroying the rest, after taking them down. I found what they wanted"

Now looking thoroughly invested, Drayden stroked his beard and asked "Is that so? Are you going to tell me what it is or keep me waiting?"

Feeling more at ease from telling someone else about Team Plasma, even if it wasn't the entire story, Magnus replied, "I think it would be better if I told you in person. Can you get to Nacrene city?"

Slowly nodding, Drayen took out a book from one of the drawers in his desk and began to look through it, took his time with it as well, which irked Magnus to no ends. Eventually he casually answered "I can be there at ten o'clock. Does that suit"

Magnus nodded "Yeah that suits, it'll take me a bit to get there anyway" Even though he'd prefer earlier, Drayden has an entire city to run, and school full of brats. With all that on his plate, disappearing halfway across the region isn't as easy as he'd like it to be.

Before Magnus could end the call, his ex-teacher said "In the meantime, I'll contact my colleague in Nacrene. She'll handle the situation with Team Plasma." Snapping his book shut he inquired "Those grunts you spoke of, have you apprehended them?"

Instead of answering Magnus flipped the camera and showed Drayden the image of the goons passed out against the rocky walls with rope tied around them.

"Splendid job Magnus, I'll be sure to tell her about the captives" he said, Magnus couldn't be sure if he was happy or not. It's hard to decipher how someone's feeling when half their face is covered in thick hair.

"Stay safe" With that Drayden swiftly ended the call.

Say, so much for a caring teacher, dick never even asked him how he was. Normally he's quite cordial during their conversations, maybe it was because he was woke up early… or maybe because Magnus hadn't called in a few months.

Either way, "He knows something" Magnus sighed, as he continued to wait for the damn slow acting rescue team.

Around half an hour after the call to Drayden, Magnus was alerted by Crovisquire. Someone was coming, thankfully it wasn't team Plasma, but to be on the safe side, he hid and waited for them to approach.

Peeking out from one of the boulders that littered the cave's entrance, Magnus heard the heavy footsteps of what seemed to be a galloping pokemon. As the galloping gradually got louder, he watched on as a tall, powerful Sawsbuck escaped the confines of the forest.

It was a magnificent breed of its species, big and strong enough to carry two people on its back at the same time. One of those was a tall black woman with a large amount of curly hair that was pushed back by a striped headband.

If looks aren't deceiving, that was Leonora, the Normal-type gym leader in Nacrene City.

Sitting just behind her was a young man, probably a few years older than Magnus. He had wavy blonde hair that seemed a bit overgrown, and wore a persimmon jacket with white sleeves and a collar. All in all Magnus didn't recognise him from anywhere.

Relaxing at the sight of a gym leader, Magnus walked out from his hiding spot, and dragged the comatose grunts.

Seeing him approach with the captives Leorna stated, "You must be the Magnus that Drayden called me about" shifting her gaze to examine the three grunts she squints her eyes, "As much as I don't condone a trainer as young as yourself dealing with these criminals, I can see that you've handled the situation appropriately. Good job." she finished with a smile.

Shrugging Magnus replied "Not much else I could do. Was way down in the caves when I saw them, couldn't get a signal for anything. Caught them off guard as well, it was barely a fight."

"Smart, most trainers would either jump in head first or run away" She agreed with my tactics, moving onto the rest of Draydens reports she says "I assume you've left marks that can guide us to the Team Plasma hideout?"

"Yeah, pretty obvious ones, shouldn't be a problem to get back there. Do you want me to take you?" He questioned, thinking about the allotted time for meeting Drayden.

Shaking her head she explains "Nope, you'll be coming back to Nacrene City with me. Virgil here." The blonde waved at him when his name was mentioned, "And the officers on their way will go down and check the place out." To which Magnus nodded.

Speaking for the first time since his arrival Virgil said "I was actually the one responding to your signal, on the way over I bumped into Gym Leader Leonora and she ended up roping me into teaming up with the officers. Not really my place of expertise, but I can't really refuse an order from a Gym Leader when it comes to stuff like this" Timidly glancing at Leonora at the end.

Sounds like he got a mouthful, seems like the rumours about the Nacrene Gym leaders assertiveness are true.

Looking happy with herself that she got the rescuer to cooperate, Leonora roughly pats my back and says "Chop chop, I haven't got all day you know. Don't want to keep the old man waiting." Walking over to the proud looking Sawsbuck and saddling its back she beconded from Magnus to join her.

Returning Corvisquire to his Pokeball, Magnus jumped onto Sawbuck's back, which was about higher than it looked from a distance.

Taking a few seconds to get properly seated, Leonora warned him, "Better hold on tight, Birar moves fast."

Hardly a second later Birar the Sawsbuck, rapidly accelerated away, causing Magnus to tightly grip onto Magnus's waist to stop himself from flying off the back.

When Leonora said Birar was fast, she meant it. Magnus had hardly blinked and they were already inside the forest, the Sawsbuck ran with giant leaps, causing the ride to be full of bumps and jerks.

While Leonora laughed at his own difficulty, Magnus couldn't even retort as he was too busy trying not to fall off. While Leonora had a nice handle on Birar antlers, Magnus could only flounder about and try not to lose his grip on the gym leader's firm waist.

The ride to Nacrene didn't consist of much talking, mostly because Magnus was too busy stressing over falling off to chat… and Leonora was too busy laughing at his expense.

Nacrene was a city full of colour, the stones that built those buildings were well maintained and each place had a different tint of paint layered on their walls. The windows were mostly stained glass, which shined vibrantly as the light rays from the sun glimmered over them. Granting every building you looked at an artistic image.

Magnus followed Leonora along the path to her gym, which was built around an old unused train track, hinting at Nacrene's roots. Way back in the day, Nacrene was only a small stopping point where trains would be refuelled and the drivers and passengers would rest, at that point Nacrene was no bigger than a village with a few Inns.

Eventually someone found the Wellspring Caves, a resource point that caught the attention of lots of people. The rich and poor alike wanted a piece of the cave, and with Nacrene's location being close by, on top of being a stop on the region-wide railway line, the people came in droves, bringing with them the foundation of the Nacrene City here today.

After reaching the Museum that doubled down as Leonras gym, we just sat around and waited for Drayden to arrive. She never mentioned anything about the Plasma item that he found, Magnus's guess is that Leonora was just waiting for Drayden to arrive so they can both drill me about it.

Other than that, she did completely roast him for details of the Plasma grunts. Leonora never moved on until Magnus coughed up every last detail about the encounter.

Once Magnus was given the space to breathe again, Leonora disappeared for a while before coming back with Plates filled with food.

"Thought you'd be starving after everything today. Hope you don't mind my home cooked breakfast" Leonora said, undoing the knot in her apron and handing it up.

Leonora sat down the meal in front of him, and as soon as Magnus saw what was waiting for him on the plate, his mouth began to salivate.

Pausing before he took a bite, Magnus cautiously questioned with genuine concern "I won't have to pay for this, will I?" Ever since Gyarados has evolved, he's become an absolute eating machine, the food Magnus bought for him had already run out and soon he'll have to buy even more grub.

Taking his bank account into consideration, he decided to start saving up money again. Which means he won't be eating any fancy meals again for a while, at least until he figures out what to do with Basculegion and the Plasma stuff he looted.

With a loud snort Leonora replied "What? Think I'd take money from a kid that just caught Team Plasma members, I'm not that much of an asshole" While sitting down at the opposite side of the table and digging into one of her sausages.

Knowing that his money wasn't going to be taken, Magnus began to quench the hunger in his stomach. Leonora's cooking was absolutely spectacular, it tasted like something that came out of the triplets restaurant.

After eating survival food for that past week, Magnus devoured the filling breakfast quicker than Gyarados eating his pokemon food.

By the time they had finished eating and had cleared up the table, it was nearly ten in the morning. Leonora brought refreshments through, which included the Dragon-type Gym Leaders favourite tea.

And as expected, at exactly ten o'clock, the old man arrived at the museum. Magnus swears the old man arrives early and hides somewhere until he can make a perfectly timed entrance.