Chapter 33: Too many surprises

Jenny was finally ready to go. She had a pouch of all of her tools on her waist. Glancing at the pouch, Ark felt like he could see a radio, Pokeballs and a few other items from the opened lid.

"Ready to go?"

Jenny looked at Ark as she asked him. Seeing him nod, she frowned slightly at what seemed to be a severe lack of resources he was carrying. Currently, Ark only had Sylphs Pokeball, a spare Pokeball and a small amount of food in his backpack. This left the backpack looking very deflated.

"You do know that we will be out all day right? That bag does not seem to be enough to sustain you both"

A small sweat trickled down his forehead as he forgot about the backpack. He had gotten so comfortable around Jenny, that he had forgotten something so vital. Placing his backpack on the floor, Ark used the Pocket Storage to place items inside of it as he opened the lid. When the backpack was fully uncovered, a days worth of food was placed neatly inside.

"My bag is a bit weird. It looks a lot bigger than it actually is, it's still full of stuff and just as heavy"

Ark carried on with a laugh that was not truly believable, however Jenny who had no reason to doubt him, just assumed it was the truth and that it had caused him previous trouble, that's why he forced a laugh.

"My bad, let's go then. We can follow around the edge of the lake for now and see if we can get it's attention from the shoreline"

He nodded at this plan. Neither of them had water pokemon. As a result, they could not send them in to lure them out, thus they were relying on baiting it themselves or catching sight of it naturally.

"Sounds good, Jenny. Sylph, stay close and be ready to jump into battle at any moment"

Sylph nodded her head as she looked over the lake. The water was calm, not a single disturbance was shown on it's surface. However, beneath that thin veil of tranquility, could be home to an environment far more dangerous than the Viridian Forest itself.

With their speaking over, the three set out along the shoreline of the large lake.

Regret filled Arks very being. It seems that he had failed to prepare enough and had underestimated the sheer size of the lake. From the angle they were staying in, they could only see a small portion, when in fact the actual size of the lake was the same size as an average football field. Luckily, Ark and Sylph had good stamina due to their training, however under the blazing hot sun and the non-stop walking, it made their water supplies drain rapidly. They found themselves drinking a lot faster than they ever intended.

"This heat... it makes me want to jump in the lake to get rid of all this sweat"

Jenny complained as she used her hand as a makeshift fan. Glancing from the side, Ark witnessed Jennys clothing sticking to her gorgeous curves as she desperately attempted to cool herself down. Once again, he was reminded how fortunate this alone time is right now. Reaching into his Pocket Storage at the lid of his backpack, Ark pulled out another full water bottle. Handing that to Jenny, she smiled as she rapidly loosened the cap and downed the water.

Right now they were on duty, so as much as they wanted to dive into the lake, it was not appropriate right now.

So far, they had not seen anything except the occaisonal Magikarp that crested the surface of the water. If anything, the lake was eerily quiet.

"It may be worth going into the lake to investigate soon, I am pretty sure there was a wooden boat back at the cabin. I don't mind taking a dive whilst Sylph and you wait for me"

Jenny finished the bottle of water and thought about Arks plan. It was much riskier than circling the lake from the outside. On the contrary, it had the highest chance of luring out the Seaking. All eye witness reports had come from severely injured sailors who had their boats attacked. As a result, it led Jenny to believe that using a boat would provide the highest chance of meeting the raging water Pokemon.

"Ok... It's really dangerous but at this rate, we could be here for weeks without a sighting. Let's head back and get ready. We will do a quick check today and not go out too far"

In no time, the three of them found themselves back at the cabin. Taking this opportunity as a quick break, Ark and Jenny chose to have a quick wash to clean their sweat and sat down with cups of water.

The room was in silence. Jenny and Ark were sat next to each other but never spoke a word, only quietly sipping on their water as though they were deeply thinking. Unable to bear the silence, Ark decided to start a conversation.

"By the way Jenny, I haven't asked you yet. What sort of Pokemon do you have?"

It was a generic question, however under these circumstances, it was a pretty important one.

Scratching the back of her head, Jenny looked at Ark awkwardly before reaching into her pouch and pulling out a Pokeball. Clicking the lock device on the ball, a white light shot out and a figure appeared at its destination point.

Standing tall and proud, was a Pokemon Ark was familiar with. It was the staple Pokemon of many Officer Jennys across Kanto. A Growlithe.

However, what made Ark look at it with a hard stare, was it's colourings. Unlike it's usual orange-brown coat, this Growlithe had a glowing golden coat. It was much ligther than it's counterpart and looked a lot more regal.

Arks mind was rapidly going into overdrive. He had never expected to meet with such a situation so soon. He was filled with feelings of deep jealousy and awe.

"Jenny... Do you realise how amazing that Growlithe is?"

Jenny cocked her head slightly. Often, people look at Growlithe and comment that it looks cool, however she had also heard many comments from others talking about it being defective. She refused to believe that was true and found that it was just as strong as any other Police Growltihe, yet it was still looked down upon even in the academy as being 'Too odd' or 'A defective Pokemon'.

Arks words stunned Jenny slightly. It was the first time she had someone call her Growlithe special in what seemed to be a positive way. Additionally, the jealousy in Arks eyes were evident, to the point that she feared he would outright steal it from her hands.

"It's slight discoloured... is that what you mean by special?"

A tinge of bitterness entered her voice as she replied.

Standing up with a large amount of vigor, Ark walked over to the Growlithe and started to stroke it gently. Surprisingly, Growlithe just quietly accepted the petting as he stared at Ark intently.

"This Growlithe Jenny, is what some people call 'Shiny Pokemon'. I worked back at Professor Oaks lab for a few years and during that time, I was introduced to these variants of Pokemon. Basically they are Pokemon variants who are highly sought after by those in the know. Not only that, the chances of meeting such amazing Pokemons like this is astronomically small!"

He spoke with an unconcealed passion. Fortunately, he still maintained a slight grip on himself so that he disguised his knowledge as something he was taught by the Professor.

"Anyway jenny, that Growlithe is a fantastically rare Pokemon, so you need to cherish it."

He smiled at Jenny without any of the jealousy from before. All that remained was a smile full of care for the new duo who had given him endless amounts of beautiful sights.

Seeing this smile, a tinge of red appeared on Jennys cheeks as she gazed lovingly at her Growlithe who was now laid down with its head on Arks leg.