CH121 (735), Soul Guide

It was not all that surprising that Dennis hesitated a bit when I asked him about the origin of his (Hisuian)Typhlosion. "Follow me to my office. We can talk there without having to bother about others," Dennis said after a few moments of silent rumination before he turned toward the audience. "The Gym Challenge is officially over. Thank you for coming to support us and I hope you enjoyed the show," He said with a slight bow of his head before smirking for a moment.

"I certainly enjoyed the battle against Mr. Geo here, and I'm sure the battle would have been even more exciting if we had gone with the old rules instead," He added, and I caught him glancing at a certain person among the audience when he said that, which had me assume that it was one of the league inspectors he mentioned. The audience laughed when he said that; There were a few shouts of "It was still great" and "You were still awesome" that came from the crowd which had Dennis thank them for their kind words.

"Nonetheless, the show's over, so as much as I enjoyed seeing you all, I'll have to ask you to vacate the area so that we can start fixing it up. For those of you who are interested you can head to our souvenir shop where you can find dolls, posters, clothes, and all kinds of memorabilia. Also, my monthly signature session is in two weeks, so those that want to take part can sign up for it at the front desk," Dennis followed up, and for one moment I could not help but wonder if this guy was a sales rep, some kind of spokesperson, or a bloody Gym Leader.

Dennis seemed to feel my stare. "One of the Gym Trainers usually does the second part, but I decided to do it myself this time," he said and I could feel that he felt a bit embarrassed. "We've got to keep our popularity rate up after all," he added as if that explained everything, and to some extent it did, but hearing a Gym Leader endorsing a souvenir shop just felt a bit surreal, especially since the previous two Gyms did no such thing, but I guess Dennis did it because of the league's actions and the many complaints/rumors about his Gym online. He confirmed that a moment later when he told me as much in his own words.

"Alright, let's go," he addressed me when the audience began to stream out, but I had to deal with something before I could do that. "I need a moment to talk with a friend of mine who came to watch my Gym Battle," I informed Dennis, who showed his understanding and told me to go ahead. I couldn't just leave Kinji and his plus one hanging/waiting while I was busy at Dennis' office after all.

I thanked him for his understanding before heading towards Kinji and Violet. The two congratulated me on my successful challenge, and after I thanked them for that, I told them that I had to talk with the Gym Leader about some stuff. Kinji understood that it was likely going to take some time if I brought it up like that, and he told me to go ahead. We agreed on meeting at Bianca's Kitchen, a local restaurant that Violet, who had simply let us talk until then, recommended for lunch at 2:30 p.m. That would give me a bit more than two hours to talk with Dennis and deal with the follow-up.

After sending the two off, I followed after Dennis, who led me to his office. Once we had taken our seats he just studied me for a few moments, and it was obvious that he was considering what or how much to tell me, so I decided to go ahead and say something before Dennis decided to serve me some bullshit. I began to project my aura. "I promise you on my honor as a Professor and an Aura Guardian that I am going to keep anything you tell me a secret for as long as you want me to," I then pledged, and I saw Dennis put up a wry grin at that declaration.

"How often have you found yourself in a situation like this? You seem quite experienced," Dennis said, which he followed up with a short laugh when I just shrugged in reply. "I was just about to tell you what I told the league when I registered Tiffy, which is that she became a ghost-variant during her evolution to Typhlosion and that she had been a regular Quilava before that; One that evolved from a regular Cyndaquil that I caught in the wildlands around Mt.Silver a few decades ago," Dennis professed and I had to chuckle at his wry tone.

Truthfully, his story made sense, since it was known that Typhlosion, or rather the Cyndaquil line could be found around Mt.Silver, which was why they were such popular starter Pokemon compared to the Chikorita and Totodile. They were simply a lot harder to get outside of the starter deal compared to the other two. That did not mean that it was impossible, just that it was easier to get Chikorita and Totodile in the wild.

Not that that made finding either easy, which was proven by the fact that most trainers who had a royal Pokemon in their team that they did not receive as a starter got them from either breeders or friends/relatives that had a member that produced children. Anyway, pushing those thoughts aside I went ahead and addressed the important bit in his reply.

"And what do you plan to tell me after I made that promise?" I inquired and he shrugged before he replied. "This will likely disappoint you, but the truth is not really all that exciting, I just did not want to deal with the scrutiny that would have followed if I went with the truth," Dennis replied. "Which is?" I followed up. "That the whole thing was a coincidence and that I have no idea how it happened," he responded with a shrug, which did not tell me much.

"Tiffy was a Cyndaquil that I added to my team after picking her up from my family's ranch. Her parents are regular Typhlosion, and none of her grandparents is a ghost type, so her evolution and the variation that took place during the evolution came as a surprise. None of the other Cyndaquil that came out of our family ranch aside from her has become a ghost variant since then, and even the two little Cyndaquil she brought to the world after she finally settled on a partner ended up evolving into regular Typhlosion. That is also why I choose to add a bunch of Chandelure, Lampet, and ghost Marowak to my roster, to keep Tiffy some ghostly company without breaking my family's specialty," Dennis followed up, and frankly, while he did say a lot, nothing in all of what he said told me how his Quilava ended up becoming a ghost type Typhlosion, though it did reveal the reason why he started adding ghosts to his roster.

"Say Dennis, would you mind showing me Tiffy? I have to admit that I have only ever read about the Hisuian Typhlosion, err, sorry that's what the science scene calls your ghost-type Typhlosion," I requested, and he gave me a silent look as if he was judging me. "Nothing intrusive, I just want to check her out," I followed up when I saw him stare at me like that.

"Well, I don't mind, if you'll let me use you checking up on her as an excuse to fob off the league personnel the next time they want to do a check-up on her," Dennis stipulated, and I jumped at the opening he unknowingly gave me. "Sure, go ahead and do that, but then I'll have to do a few extra examinations in case they come to me for answers. Still, nothing intrusive as I promised, but I'll have to scan her for more detailed results, but I can do so on-site using portable scanners, so we won't have to head to a lab or anything like that," I clarified and Dennis seemed to consider my words.

If he agreed I could use one of the scans to secretly transfer Typhlosion to Utopia for an analysis, which would allow Utopia to create the perfect habitat for her, and while I would obviously have to return Tiffy, I could use the habitat to try and cultivate my own Hisuian Typhlosion.

"Alright, if you can do those tests within our facility, then you can go ahead with them," Dennis eventually agreed, and his acceptance put a smile on my face. "Good," I returned with a nod, and Dennis returned a nod of his own before he stood up from his seat. I followed suit and we made our way out of his office toward a training facility/room inside the Gym complex/building.

Once there, he locked the door behind us before he released his Typhlosion. "She's beautiful," I said when I saw Dennis' Hisuian Typhlosion, and she looked rather proud at my comment while Dennis gave me a wry look. "I'm sorry, I've only ever seen images of her species and she looks even better than the ones I have seen," I freely admitted, and Tiffy looked even prouder at that, while Dennis released a sigh.

"Tiffany's going to put on airs for a while now," he said before chuckling and explaining to Tiffy, sorry, Tiffany what I wanted to do. It seemed like Tiffy was short for Tiffany and seeing how he was not using it when he spoke with her, I would wager that she was not particularly fond of Tiffy. Regardless, maybe it was because of what I said, but Tiffany had no problem with my request to check her out, and actually seemed to enjoy my presence, so with the permission of them both I stepped up to her and began to observe her. I did so both literally and using my ability.

'Species: Typhlosion

Gender: Female

Type: Fire, Ghost

Potential: Blue

Stage: Dark Gold-Stage (High)

(Genetic) Modifiers: Ghost-variant

Abilities: Blaze, Frisk

Talents: Soul Guide

Affinities: Fire, Ghost'

Tiffany's status sheet not only confirmed my canon knowledge but also gave me an unexpected surprise. She had the expected typing, and Dennis had already said that she was at the (high) dark gold stage. Tiffany's blue potential was good for her since it meant that she could grow until at least the (low) palladium stage as long as she kept training. The modifier and her abilities were also as I had expected, but her talent was out of my expectations.

I had frankly not even considered whether she would have a talent or not, but not only did she have one, a rather cool sounding one at that, but after reading its effect, I had to say that it was more than just a cool sounding one. In fact, it even fit the whole theme the Pokedex gave her species if I did not remember things wrong. According to it, Hisuian Typhlosion were said to purify and guide souls to the afterlife, I think.

Meanwhile, Soul Guide allowed Tiffany to sense whether a soul was good or evil on the karma scale, which made me think that might have been why she seemed to enjoy my presence, at least that was what I hoped it was instead of it being just because I complimented her. If it truly was because of her talent, things were looking good for me. Regardless, this good and bad sense in itself was already pretty impressive, but even more than that, Soul Guide granted Tiffany's fire a purifying effect that if she wanted to, allowed her fire to do extra damage to individuals with bad/evil souls and heal individuals with good souls.

I was frankly not sure if Dennis was even aware of that ability or not since something like this was extremely overpowered and if it came to light it would likely put a massive target on his Typhlosion since a talent like that was something that would attract any organization regardless of whether it was a criminal or normal one. Well, or he did know about it but did not think anyone else would be able to find out about it without actually witnessing it happen.

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