CH122 (736), Sneaky Sneaky

"You are indeed very impressive," I told Tiffany/Typhlosion, who preened under my honest praise, after finishing my literal observation as well. "I would like to move on to the scans next if you don't mind," I told Tiffany, who nodded in agreement, before turning toward Dennis. "Can I do the scans now?" I asked Dennis, who was being stared at by his Typhlosion, and he motioned for me to go ahead with a wry smile.

"Shouldn't you be asking me that first before turning Tiffy to your side," I heard him grumble good-humouredly and I had to smile when I saw Tiffany glare at him for using Tifffy, showing that she had heard him as well, which I was sure was done by him on purpose.

I brought out the Multipurpose Scanner I bought during my time at Oak Labs which allowed me to do a scan of a Pokemon even while it was inside its PokeBall. A scan like that was obviously not as detailed as one that scanned a Pokemon directly, but larger scanners were not only multiple times more expensive, which would have been a hurdle I could have willingly and easily passed, but also much harder to procure, had more stringent usage/storage requirements, and more importantly were currently unavailable to me.

Still, being at a meter in length, width, and height, the scanner before me was already pretty big; At least it was bigger than the scanner I used to scan the Pinsirite during my practical year, though that was no surprise since that one was unable to provide any comprehensive data on Pokemon. Not that any Pokemon larger than a Joltik would have fit in that particular scanner, which still meant that 6 general species along with smaller-than-average members of quite a few more could have fit in if one wanted to get technical. Consequently, a Pokeball could have fit in as well, but that scanner was unable to interact with the PokeBall to scan the Pokemon inside so doing so would have been in vain.

Anyway, after explaining to Tiffany/Typhlosion that she could not force herself inside the scanner, even if she could do so as a ghost because the scanner could only do its scan if she was not operating her energy, Tiffany agreed to be recalled into her PokeBall and for her Pokeball to be placed inside the scanner for 6 minutes. In fact, the scanner needed only around 3 minutes to complete its scan, but I doubled that time to give Utopia some time to do its work during phase two.

Once Tiffany was persuaded, I asked Dennis to recall her, and I let him place the ball inside the scanner by himself. Dennis took a step back after he did that, and I used my telekinesis to close the lid. "It's easier this way," I said with a shrug when Dennis looked at me at that.

I then used my psionic ability to start the scanner, and while that might have looked lazy on my part and slightly over the top, I actually did it to prepare an excuse in case Dennis was capable of somehow perceiving that my telekinesis came in contact with the scanner during phase two, which was necessary for me to transfer Tiffany's ball inside the scanner to Utopia without his notice/while the scanner was closed.

I kept an eye on the scanner since I had to be really quick and smooth for the next bit. Moments before the scan was complete I sharpened my focus and the second the process was complete, I started a second round without giving the scanner any time to signal the completion of its scan, leaving Dennis none the wiser. I did not interfere with the second round around, so the scanner got to signal that the process was complete. "Go ahead, you can take her out," I told Dennis after opening the lid, and he stepped up to the scanner to take back his PokeBall.

"Thank you for cooperating Tiffany," I said after Dennis called her out. "{It's fine}," she said nonchalantly, and after smiling at her, I gave Dennis a grateful nod as well for allowing this. "There's only another test or rather another scan I want to do, but this one requires Tiffany to be asleep during the scan," I proclaimed; "I'm sure you have someone with Hypnosis, Yawn, or Sing that can take care of that," I quickly said to Dennis seeing the brows of the two furrow. "With your permission of course," I followed up for Tiffany.

"What do you think?" Dennis asked his Typhlosion, and I listened as they discussed my request. Thankfully, Tiffany ended up agreeing, and Dennis called out a Camerupt that used Yawn at Tiffany. Less than half a minute later Tiffany was asleep and Dennis recalled her to her ball. "Place the ball back inside the scanner please," I told him and I closed the lid using my telekinesis once he had done that.

Dennis and his Camerupt watched as I activated the scanner, unaware that the scanner was empty right now since I had used the opportunity to move Tiffany's Pokeball to Utopia. I was not worried about the scan results since the second scan would take care of those. Anyway, the ball appeared inside the living room inside my mansion, and I let the sleeping Tiffany out of her ball without losing any time.

As soon as she appeared Utopia registered her appearance and began the registration/optimization process. Not wanting to risk the chance of a mishap, I intervened using my owner/admin privileges to disable the talent and modifier-related procedures, leaving only the analysis and potential optimization process active along with the habitat-generation one.

I mean I would be hard-pressed to explain why Tiffany suddenly ended up becoming a Shiny or whatever if on the off chance, the modifier process ended up being successful. The same was true for the talent process where any upgrade to her existing Soul Guide talent or the appearance of a second talent would be greeted with disbelief and suspicion.

Oh, I was sure that neither Tiffany nor Dennis would mind it if that ended up happening, but it would be obvious that something like that would not happen during a scan like this and that I was the most probable "culprit". It was just not worth having to deal with that, so I disabled both procedures. In my honest opinion, raising Tiffany's potential was more than enough to repay them for giving Utopia the chance to generate an ideal habitat for Hisuian Typhlosion.

Anyway, once the process was complete, I moved the generated habitat to an unused part of the cuboid since I wanted it to remain undisturbed, before recalling the still-sleeping Tiffany and returning her ball to the inside of the scanner. There was more than half a minute left until the completion of the first scan, and I made sure to pay extra attention to ensure that I could start the second round without being detected. Once the second round was done, ensuring that I had an actual scan if it ever became necessary, I opened the lid and told Dennis that he could take the ball out since we were done with the scans.

"Say Dennis, can I see Tiffany in action? You said you would have used our battle for her debut, and while this won't be an official Gym battle, I'm sure she would appreciate the chance to go all out," I brought up with Dennis, and he looked a bit conflicted. "I was actually going to let her sleep through until she wakes up naturally," Dennis replied. "Oh, yeah, that's fine," I returned without masking my disappointment; "Thank her for her cooperation please," I followed up before walking up to the scanner and putting it away.

I heard a *sigh* coming from behind me. "I'm sure she would be happier if you told her that yourself," he said after letting out that sigh; "Just like I'm sure she would definitely appreciate the chance to go all out against someone aside from her usual battle partners," he followed up and I turned around in time to see him release the sleeping Tiffany from her PokeBall.

Dennis then went up to his sleeping Hisuian Typhlosion and gently woke her up while joking that he did so to avoid a fiery awakening. Once Tiffany was awake, he told her about my request for a battle, and she readily agreed, obviously fired up at the chance to fight.

"Just give me a moment," Dennis said to me before heading to a panel on one of the walls. He then came back and shared that he had activated the combat shields of the training facility/room, which meant that our Pokemon could battle without having to worry about collateral damage. After that, he moved to one end of the room with Tiffany, while I made my way to the other end of the room before releasing Anubis/Lucario onto the field.

I told him that he was going to take part in a private bonus battle against the Gym Leader, before motioning towards Tiffany/Typhlosion and telling him that she was going to be his opponent. Dennis, who had been silently watching together with Tiffany, asked if we were sure Lucario could match Tifanny, and after I confirmed that he could and that we were ready, he shrugged before he began to countdown. Both Pokemon sprang into action the moment he said go, and the battle that followed was surprisingly even.

It was a surprise for them because Tiffany being a fire/ghost type had the definite type advantage over Anubis/Lucario, which taking into account that she was at the (high) dark gold stage should have given Tiffany the upper hand in the battle compared to my (high) gold Lucario. It was a surprise for us as well but the other way around. We were surprised that Tiffany was able to keep up with Anubis. I had expected him to have the upper hand thanks to his blessing, talent, and the fact that he was about to complete his limit breaking; Foresight allowed Anubis' aura moves to hit Typhlosion without any problem after all.

Yet, both Pokemon dealt out as much as they took, and even though Anubis did manage to come out on top after the nearly 10-minute-long struggle, he was wobbly on his feet at the end of the battle because he was burned, cursed, and confused. As expected of a Pokemon a Gym Leader had focused on so much I guess. Either way, I quickly congratulated Anubis on his victory before recalling him and moving him to Utopia where he began to recover from the battle.

With Anubis dealt with, I made my way to Dennis and Tiffany's side and offered to help with healing Tiffany, which he accepted. I first gave Tiffany a drink that helped take care of her injuries and woke her up, before giving her something that sped up her stamina and energy recovery. They tried to thank me for my help, but I told them to not mind it before bringing something up that I wanted to ask since Utopia generated the optimal Hisuian Typhlosion habitat.

I asked Dennis and Tiffany if they had any Cyndaquil eggs that they were willing to entrust to me in exchange for anything I could offer them. Unfortunately, Dennis ended up reminding me that he had already told me that Tiffany had only brought two eggs into the world so far and that both eggs had long hatched with the children already having evolved to regular Typhlosion. Tiffany verified that and shared that she had no plans to have another egg anytime soon, which left me a bit disappointed since I had hoped that the Cyndaquil from an egg from her would at least have a (budding) ghost affinity.

I tried to ask if Dennis had any other Cyndaquil eggs he would be willing to entrust to me, but he denied that as well, leaving me pretty disappointed. Still, I let it be since I had other ways to get myself some eggs, so I thanked both Dennis and Tiffany for humoring me, before leaving the Gym. Once I was out, I found myself a bench to sit down and took my phone out to make a call.

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