Nacrene

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 Leonora'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.

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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 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 big 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. Leonoras 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.

As expected, at exactly ten o'clock, the old man arrived at the museum. Magnus swears that he must arrive early and just hide somewhere until the right moment to time everything so perfectly.