Quill woke up earlier than usual to a weird pounding sound coming from Aamira's room. By now it didn't really surprise him that something was going on in there. Aamira was always up to something nowadays.
Out in the hall, Machop was looking into her room wide eyed. He screamed and ran out of the way just in time to dodge Aamira's punching back which flew out of her door and almost hit him. It looked more beat up than it ever had before and there were several holes in it where the stuffing was coming out. What was more shocking was the reason it had flown out of the door. Somehow, the chain attaching it to the ceiling had snapped.
Aamira stepped out of her room looking a little embarrassed and brought the punching bag back into her room.
"Chill out, will you?" Quill said. "I know you're not having too bad of a problem sleeping anymore, but I'm not sure if it's normal to have this much energy… Especially after training all night."
"No idea where Lucario learned all of this stuff, but he knows a lot of tricks. Even ones for getting more energy when you're really tired. Apparently he never even sleeps!"
Quill looked at her a little confused. "You know, you're acting different from before he showed up."
"Remember when I told you about that rivalry thing between Lucario and Riolu without a teacher?" Machop said, still a little stunned from before. "Well somewhere along the line when a Riolu gets a teacher they start to admire them instead of think of them as a rival. In fact, even further along the line they don't even think about anyone except their teachers. That's why most Lucario and Riolu end up loners."
"Loners!" Quill turned to Aamira. "That's not what's happening to you, is it?"
"No, of course not. It's just that the trick he showed me really works to help me from getting drowsy and he… started giving me homework…"
Quill looked into her room. The floor was covered in papers and martial arts text books and it looked like she even got a new desk. The mess was unbelievable. Even when Quill was in the academy, Quill's room had never looked like this before. He had no idea how the two of them had been keeping this a secret from Mismagius if they were carrying textbooks back and fourth between their Treehouse and Stony Ridge.
Aamira slammed her door shut and blocked it so no one could get in again. Quill could feel how embarrassed she was over that.
"I didn't know Lucario give their students written homework…" Quill said.
"It's not just that. I have to practice anything new until it's perfect and if I somehow mess it up I would have to learn it all over again… And now that punching bag's broken so it looks like we'll have to get some missions today."
"Finally!" Quill said.
"I'm afraid that might have to wait!" Delibird flew up the stairs. "I've been looking for you. I thought you would be down stairs so I waited, but no one showed up."
"Oh, sorry." Aamira said.
"Never mind that now." He said. "Mismagius says that your whole team has to get to town hall ASAP."
"Well that's a problem since Nuzleaf left to visit his family last night." said Quill. "Either way, we should probably see what's going on."
Out by town hall, Noctowl and Mismagius were waiting along with the four Hoothoot who were the elders of all the other cities in Sylva. The four of them looked really shocked and were fluttering around frantically.
"How could it be that many?" One of them said.
"Gone without a trace?" Another said.
One of them stopped and landed on the ground and started to calm down. "Team Sleuth is here!" All the others stopped and landed.
"So what's going on?" Aamira asked.
"You remember how Crawdaunt and Croconaw vanished without a trace a while back, yes?" Mismagius said. "Well in reality, there are a lot more than just the two of them. All over the world and from every country, at least one pokemon has gone missing without a trace. Regrettably I fear that Lucario and I won't be able to handle this alone. Just recently one of the investigators at Special Services headquarters went missing. Teams Sky and Overgrow left earlier to investigate disappearances in Pacis and Chalybs. We thought they would be able to handle it, but shortly after that, another missing report came it."
"They're okay, aren't they?" Quill said.
"Oh, yes! Team Overgrow and Team Sky are fine. In fact, the strange thing is that the disappearance happened half the world away from our headquarters. Team Sky and Team Overgrow won't be able to make it and after digging around we discovered that you two are well liked in the area of the new missing pokemon."
"It wouldn't be Ignis, would it?" Aamira said excitedly.
"Actually yes." Mismagius said. "And also, I'd like for your other team members to help me on an investigation in a dungeon called Forbidden Forest."
"Yessss!" Haunter turned in the air excitedly.
"Just my luck…" Machop said glumly. "Nuzleaf's gone and we're going to a place where I'll be at a type disadvantage the whole way…"
"Oh it won't be that bad." Mismagius said. "Anyway, you two should be going."
"But isn't Ignis on an island on the other side of the world?" Quill asked. "How are we supposed to get there?"
"Someone from the west coast is going to fly in and bring you to a boat that will take you to Ignis."
"Couldn't they just fly us all the way there?" Aamira asked.
"No, unfortunately. Their kind isn't really welcome around the island." She looked up. "Oh, here they come now!"
A couple of Pelipper flew down and landed in between them.
"Ready to go?" The first one asked.
"No dilly dallying!" the second one snapped at them.
"Are you sure about this…?" Quill asked.
"Oh, no worries!" Mismagius said. "These two are faster than they look. You should be there in just a little while. Though I would watch out if I were you. Sometimes some of the flying type pokemon will attack if they see pokemon from the ground flying in their territory on another flying pokemon."
"Mid air battles!" Aamira said excitedly. 'A good opportunity to practice that new technique!' Then Aamira realized that this would mean that she would have to miss her classes with Lucario, and they didn't have many left.
Quill understood what Aamira was thinking and asked Mismagius so she wouldn't have to, since her classes with Lucario were supposed to be a secret. "By the way, I haven't seen Lucario in a while. Is he okay?"
"Yes, of course. He's one of the most famous Investigators there is, after all. And that's not all just talk. He's been asking to go on a top secret mission for some time, but I didn't think he would be able to do it with his temper. But ever since we got, here he seemed to be calmer than normal. In fact, the change is almost scary. So when I asked him if he still wanted to go, he leapt at the opportunity."
"Oh, so he's gone on a mission?" Quill asked, feeling Aamira's sadness.
"Yes, but… he wanted me to give this to you two, strange enough, but I can't figure it out…" Mismagius handed the two of them a note:
Youd onth avet owor ryab outt heho mewo rkin stea dwat chou tfor thek idna ppe rsthe yrec lose rtha nman yrea lize iwor ryfo rthe safe tyof allt hepo kemo nint heco untr yofs ylva ican note xpla inno wthe rea resom ethi ngst hata rwor ryin gmed ontt rust anyo neno teve ntho secl oses ttoy ouwa tchf orap atte rnin thek idna ppin gsan dyou mayf indt hean swer
Quill and Aamira both looked at the note with no idea of what it meant.
"I see neither of you have any idea of what it might mean either." Mismagius said to them. "Well, you can figure it out later, maybe. What's really got me confused is why he would want to give the two of you something like this."
"Hel-lo!" One of the Pelliper said. We should be going, right?"
"Oh, yea!" Quill climbed onto the back of one of the Pelliper and Aamira climbed onto the other.
A few hours later they landed in a port on the west coast. There was a large ship waiting for them.
A Grovyle jumped from the ship and landed in front of them. One of his eyes had two bad scars over it and seemed to be stuck in a squint. Aside from that, he had some more scars all over him and the leaf on his head was even torn. He was also duller in color compared to most Grovyle and had an emerald pendant around his neck.
"You're Team Sleuth, eh?" His voice sounded tough, which added to his appearance. He made the two of them nervous. Upon realizing this, he laughed. "No need to be that worried about me. Been in one fight too many when I was younger. I prefer just to stick to the sea nowadays." He turned to go back to the ship. "Well, come on! Ignis isn't going anywhere but the pokemon living there might!"
Quill and Aamira hurried onto the ship without saying anything. Grovyle jumped up and released some of the sails and the ship started to move out of port.
"Can you really sail this without a crew?" Aamira asked after a while.
Grovyle laughed. "Of course. And no crew means I can do whatever I want. Besides, 'crew' sounds like a pirate word to me. I don't want anything to do with pirates."
It was obvious then that he wasn't trying to act tough or anything. If he really wanted to look tougher, he probably would have gotten an eye patch, which would probably do more for Grovyle than a lot of pokemon.
"Hey, do you ever have any trouble seeing out of that eye?" Quill asked nervously.
"I've gone completely blind in that eye. Sometimes I have trouble seeing out to port, but it's not a big deal. Nothing out here for miles."
This didn't do anything to calm Aamira and Quill down. Especially Quill since he was a fire type and he couldn't swim.
When they were farther out to sea, Grovyle jumped up to the sails that were still up and released them. He pointed a triangular sail towards the wind and the ship noticeably picked up some speed.
After a while the sound of the sea and the Wingull had a calming effect on both of them. Quill fell asleep in the shade of one of the sails and Aamira looked out at the sea while standing on the prow of the ship.
Soon night fell and they realized how long they had actually been gone. But what were they expecting? They lived half a world away, after all, but they hadn't eaten anything all day. Quill obviously didn't feel hungry though. In fact, he looked like he was about to be sick when he finally woke up.
Grovyle was suddenly more alert than usual, which made Aamira and Quill nervous. He kept turning his head to the left, which was of course his blind spot.
To keep their minds off of it, they went to looking at Lucario's message.
"I don't get this at all. Is this even in English?" Quill said.
"No idea. You would think he would at least tell me about something like this." Aamira had even tried her ability, but it wouldn't work. In fact, it hadn't been working as much as it usually did lately.
"Well let's look at the bits we do get. It looks like a few of these words are English at least."
"Go below deck!" Grovyle ordered them.
"Why? What's going on?" Aamira asked, then followed his gaze out to the left side of the ship. Another ship was quickly approaching them. On board was a whole group of pokemon. At the front was a blue one with large tusks.
"Walrein…" Grovyle was shaking all over. Then he turned to the two of them. "Get below deck! Quickly! Before they see the two of you are here!" He took his emerald pendant from around his neck and gave it to Quill. "Hold on to that for me and don't lose it!"
Aamira and Quill hadn't the slightest idea what was going on, but both ran to get below deck. Once they were in the deepest part of the ship they could find, Quill looked at the emerald pendant, wondering what could be so important about it.
There was a loud bang and the whole ship shook so violently it felt like it was going to capsize. Another one followed, but Aamira and Quill were able to grab onto some wooden beams so they wouldn't fall over.
"Are we being attacked?" Quill said. "What happens if the ship sinks?"
"Then you better find a piece of wood to hold onto!" Aamira looked towards the stairs leading to the deck. Voices could be faintly heard above them. "Wait here." She got up and ran to the door before she could be knocked down again.
"Wait, don't leave me here!" Quill said.
"What else could we do? You don't want to get thrown overboard or something, do you?"
Quill shook his head and Aamira ran above deck.
"Stop being so difficult!" The Walrein from earlier yelled at Grovyle. "Give us your treasure and we might even consider tossing you somewhere near the shore!"
Grovyle had his hands tied up and was surrounded by another group of pokemon including a Meowth, Persian, Golduck, Duskull, Sneasel, and Chatot.
Grovyle looked defiantly up at Walrein. "Not if you froze me and tossed me into the sea!"
"What does a treasure like that mean to you, anyway?" Walrein asked.
"Anyway!" Chatot repeated.
"You'll never find out!" Grovyle growled at him. "And you won't ever lay your eyes on it again!"
Walrein traced the scars on Grovyle's eye with his tusks. Grovyle flinched. "Those scars are the mark of your near escape. You're not going to be so lucky this time unless you tell us where it is!"
"Tell us where it is!" Chatot repeated.
Aamira didn't have much of an idea about what was going on, but she knew that Walrein was trying to mug Grovyle and Grovyle was completely defenseless. Aamira used Aura Sphere, which had gotten a lot stronger since she started training with Lucario, while Walrein's back was turned and Walrein fell onto the deck.
The other pokemon turned their attention from Grovyle to Aamira, who already had another Aura Sphere ready.
"Captain's down!" Chatot screeched. "Attack! Attack!"
All the pokemon attacked Aamira at once. She used Aura Sphere on the nearest one, then started using the martial arts moves that Lucario had taught her. One of them was a spinning attack for multiple enemies. She would spin on her hands and kick all of them away at once. The Duskull was a bit of a problem though, being a ghost type, but luckily he scared easily, so after a few hits he flew away towards the ocean.
All of the pokemon attacked again. She used the spinning move like before and knocked four of them overboard. Aamira felt more triumphant than ever before, but she wasn't allowed that one moment of glory. Chatot, the only one of them that was left, used Areal Ace and knocked Aamira out in just one attack.
"Excellent work, Chatot." Walrein got up and walked towards him. "This one's got some good fighting moves. Maybe we could persuade it to join us."
"Grovyle!" Chatot squawked.
Too late. Grovyle had broken through the ropes and attacked Walrein with Leaf Blade. Soon the two of them were fighting tusk and leaf.
"Get 'em captain!" Chatot shouted. "You show him why you're called the menace of the sea!"
"Stop your squawking and attack, you bird brain!" Walrein shouted.
"What's the matter?" Grovyle said. "Too chicken to fight me alone?"
"Don't try that with me! Pirates have no pride! I could build up an army and attack you if I wanted to!"
Grovyle and Walrein were evenly matched, so Grovyle didn't stand a chance when Chatot joined in. They attacked him mercilessly until he was finally unconscious.
The rest of Walrein's crew came up in their much larger ship and waited for Walrein to say something.
"Golduck, Sneasel, throw these two in the brig and make sure there's no possible way for them to get away."
"Aye, aye, captain!" They crossed a plank and took Grovyle and Aamira onto their ship.
After Walrein and Chatot got back to their own ship, Walrein turned to Duskull, who thought it would have been smarter to come back then to run away. "Fire the cannon's. Sink the ship."
"But captain!" Chatot said. "What if the emerald is on board?"
"Then let it sink! Oh what would he think when he finds out? I'd love to find out. If it's hidden somewhere else, we'll get him to talk, if it sinks with the ship, we'll know right away. Now, sink the ship!"
"Aye, aye!"
"I told you to stay below deck!" Grovyle said to Aamira sometime after they woke up. Both of them were chained up below deck on the pirate's ship. "And you might as well stop struggling. The chains that these pirates use are really strong and impossible to slip out of."
Aamira didn't listen. Instead she continued to struggle. "I know I can get out of here."
"Give it a rest already, kid!"
Aamira stopped. "Alright. Then how about you explain what's going on!"
Grovyle sighed. "They want that pendant that I was wearing. They've been chasing me around for a long time trying to get it from me. During one of our battles, I was able to jump overboard and get away, but Walrein just barely got my eye. Ever since then he's been attacking from port, my blind spot. So now after the sun goes down I always get really anxious and keep looking to my left to make sure he doesn't appear on the horizon."
"If he wants that pendant so much, why not just give it to him?" Aamira asked. "I think a valuable gem would be worth your life at least, no matter how much IT'S worth!"
"That emerald is my life. It was given to me by someone I really care about. I don't know if it was just an old myth or if their was some truth to it, but when she gave me that pendant, she said as long as I kept it with me, some day we would find each other again."
Aamira looked at him guiltily. She didn't know it could be worth that much to him.
"But it's safe, right?" he asked. "Your friend had it. And all Cyndaquil can swim."
Aamira's heart suddenly started racing. Walrein had told them that he sunk the ship and was convinced that the pendant didn't go down with it because Grovyle didn't react much, but Grovyle thought Cyndaquil could swim! And all this time Aamira thought that Walrein had been bluffing and Grovyle had just seen through it!
She started struggling again.
"Quill can't swim!" Grovyle said, also in a panic. "What can we do? These chains aren't breakable."
Aamira took a deep breath and twisted one of her hands. After taking another breath, she was able to slip it out of the chain.
Grovyle just stared. "Nice trick. Where did you learn how to do that?"
Aamira didn't answer and instead concentrated on getting her second hand out of the other chain. After Aamira was free she got Grovyle out of his shackles. "There are life boats on these ships, aren't there?"
"Yea, of course. Not even pirates are stupid enough not to have some, but you're not suggesting that we steal one and escape in it, are you?"
"That's exactly what I'm suggesting." Aamira remembered the time in Divum when Quill's life had been in danger. Somehow she had cured him. She had no idea how she did it, what she did, or if she could ever do it again. But since then, Aamira could always sort of sense Quill. Somehow, he was still alive.
Quill was having a dream that Wingull were circling above him. The violent waves out at sea that he had heard before losing consciousness now sounded very quiet and distant. One of the Wingull flew down and started pecking at his nose. Quill wiggled his nose to try to get it to go away, but it poked at him again.
"Stop it!" Quill rolled over onto his back. "Just let me sleep!"
The Wingull pecked him again, so hard this time that he yelped and opened his eyes. It wasn't a dream. Overhead were Wingull flying out towards the sea in the morning light. There was even the distant sound of waves, which meant that he must have been on a beach somewhere, even though he was sure he had just been drowning. As he blinked the sand and sea water out of his eyes, he saw what had really been "pecking" him in his sleep. Standing above him was a darker colored Cyndaquil, wearing a band around it's head that had a feather in it, and it was pointing a spear at Quill.
Quill yelled and stood up in a hurry. There were more Cyndaquil like the first one standing behind him. A lot more. And they were all about half of Quill's size.
"Am… Am I dead?" Quill said after a while, his voice cracking after swallowing all of that seawater.
The Cyndaquil that had been poking him just laughed. "Of course not, brother! Welcome to Lava Lava Island!"