Quill looked at the smaller Cyndaquil confused. He had never seen any that were half his size before. "Wait, what did you mean by 'brother'?" He asked curiously.

"That's just something we say." The Cyndaquil said. "But why not? All Cyndaquil should think of each other as a brother or sister, right? We're peaceful like that."

"Uh… sure?"

Cyndaquil looked curiously at the emerald around Quill's neck. "Where did you ever get something like that? That looks like the royal crest!"

Quill finally remembered. Grovyle had given it to him and told him not to lose it. But him and Aamira… Where did they go?

"Are you alright?" The smaller Cyndaquil asked.

Quill looked back at him. "Oh, yea. Sorry."

"You're kinda weird, stranger." One of the other Cyndaquil said. "Who are you and were did you come from?"

"Don't be rude to our guest!" The first Cyndaquil said.

"It is a bit weird though… that you're so trusting." Quill said. "Either way… my name's Quill and I come from Vine City in the country of Sylva."

"Silva?" They all stepped back a little in a panic, except for the first one who appeared to be their leader although he did seem to be a little nervous.

"What's wrong with Sylva?" Quill asked.

Their leader seemed to calm down a little and turned back to the other mini Cyndaquil. "The tragedy that befell our island many years back can't cloud our vision of the present. Our guest is a Cyndaquil and cannot be evil! Let us not forget that!"

"Aye!" The other Cyndaquil saluted, all smiling happily.

"What's this tragedy that you mentioned?" Quill asked.

The Cyndaquil leader looked around nervously. "Lava Lava Island is surrounded by whirlpools. We always thought that it would keep unfriendly folk away from our island, but a few years ago a pokemon showed up on the beach like you just did. It was badly hurt so we took it back to our village. Our healer spent morning, noon, and night trying to help it recover. When it finally woke up it said that it came from Sylva, but wouldn't say much more than that. That pokemon lived with us while it recovered, but soon we noticed things were starting to go missing around the island. We all see the whole village as a family and we would never steal from each other. It was apparent to our leader that our visitor must have been the thief. But then our 'guest' suddenly vanished.

"Things were getting back to normal. But then two months later our leader's wife disappeared and the thief sent a letter for our leader to head into the forest if he wanted to see her again. We never saw any of them again after that. One of his cousins took over as the leader. He was my dad, so I became the leader after him. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Shortly after our real leader disappeared, the volcano erupted and most of our homes were destroyed. We were all fortunate that no one got hurt when the volcano erupted, but none of us really knew how to rebuild the houses but our leader. He was the oldest and was around when a lot of the houses were built, so naturally he was the only one who would have been able to build them.

"We were able to make smaller versions of our old homes, but we have to rebuild them nearly every year when typhoon season comes. During that time we all live in a cave in the face of the volcano, but living in the cave is nothing compared to the smell of the sea. Plus you can't swim in lava."

"You can swim?" Quill asked. Some of the Cyndaquil laughed.

"Of course!" their leader said. "What, can't you?"

"No. I don't even float…" Quill turned back to the ocean behind him. "So how did I even get here?"

"Who knows?" He said. "You sure were lucky though. What were you doing out at sea anyway?"

"My friend Aamira and I were sailing to the country of Ignis to do an investigation. But then the ship was attacked by pirates. Grovyle, the pokemon who was sailing us to Ignis, gave me this emerald amulet and told Aamira and I to hide below deck, but then she went up to help Grovyle. I didn't want to get thrown overboard or something, so I stayed down there. I heard fighting from on deck, but after a while it died down, the voices stopped, and the pirates sunk the ship while I was still on it. But I don't know what happened after that." Quill turned back to the ocean again. "Oh, I hope they're okay… What would those pirates have done with them?"

"Who knows? But I'm sure they'll turn up."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I'm not, but I know that good friends always have a habit of finding each other again if they look long enough."

"Maybe we should take the giant Cyndaquil back to the village?" The smallest, and apparently youngest, Cyndaquil asked.

"Sure, why not?" Their leader turned to Quill. "You can stay as long as you need to as long as you don't steal anything."

All the Cyndaquil started to walk back to their village. Quill ran to catch up with their leader.

"You said that friends can usually find each other if they look hard enough." Quill said. "But I can't swim. And even if I could, didn't you say that there were whirlpools around the island?"

"Well then I guess your friends will just have to look hard for you." He said cheerfully. "What in the…?"

In the middle of the village was a small group of other mini Cyndaquil all talking nervously.

"What's going on here?" Quill asked.

One of the Cyndaquil looked over at them and ran to their leader, completely ignoring Quill. "Chief! Chief! It's horrible! That thief has come back!"

"What!" he said. "Where did they go?"

"I saw it disappear into the forest." One of them said. "I lost sight of it quickly, but I went looking for it. But when I got to the other side of the island, you can bet I was shocked, there was a huge group of pokemon there! And one of them was the same type as the thief!"

"This sounds serious…" Their leader said. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"I can go check it out for you." Quill said.

"You'd do that?" One of the other Cyndaquil asked.

"Sure." Quill pulled his Aura Glass out of his bag. "I'm an Investigation Team member! I do stuff like this all the time. And with this Aura Glass, I can even track down that thief for you."

"Alright." Their leader said. "But I'm coming too. As leader of Lava Lava Island, it's my duty to protect the citizens!"

"Okay, if you're sure…"

Aamira and Grovyle woke up and the first thing they noticed was the band of pirates surrounding them. They were on a beach somewhere, but the location didn't matter. Walrein and his crew discovered them while they were trying to escape and immediately gave chase. And now they were captured again. Aamira was getting ready to fight her way out if she could, but Grovyle looked as if he had given up.

"Now, let's not be hasty." Walrein said. "Last time, we got of on the wrong foot. Or flipper in my case. But I started thinking and then I thought that you might not even know the whole story behind this."

Aamira lowered her guard a bit. "Actually I don't have a clue what's going on…"

Walrein laughed. "You mean you've been helping this guy all this time and you don't even know what's going on? Well let's just say that that Chatot makes a much better first mate than that Grovyle does!"

"What…?" Aamira turned to Grovyle.

"It's… It's true…" He said.

"Yea that's right." Walrein said. "He was my best crew member. But he's nothing but a lowly little thief. He stole that emerald amulet from me. When I found out I attacked him, but he escaped with just those scars."

"That part's a lie!" Grovyle said. "That amulet never belonged to you, and I don't know why you want it so badly, but you're never getting it!"

"Why wouldn't I want something back that belonged to me!" Walrein said. "I suppose he told you that 'someone special gave it to me' story, didn't he? He's just been trying to suck up to you so you would help him!"

Aamira looked at Grovyle in shock then turned back to Walrein. "It's just an emerald. You probably have a lot more stuff than that. So why do you want that amulet back so much?"

"I'm vengeful. All pirates are. We're thieves so naturally we don't like to be stolen from. And all he would have had to do is give me that amulet and then things could go back to normal for him. You know where he hid it, don't you?"

"He left it with a friend of mine…"

"Aamira!" Grovyle shouted, but she ignored it.

Aamira clenched her fists. "And you made him sink to the bottom of the sea along with that ship, you dirty, rotten, liar!"

Grovyle looked at her, surprised.

Walrein laughed. "So you never bought my story for a moment, didn't you? It doesn't surprise me. And you would definitely make a good pirate. You have the perfect personality for it. You don't take anything from anyone, you've got that vicious temper, you're vengeful, and you see through deception as easily as air. Not to mention your strength and will to never give up the second you decide to do something."

Aamira saw what he was trying to do; either get her worked up, or make her think about if all that stuff he was saying was true. While that probably would have worked before, she knew how to see through a trick like that as easily as a lie now. But that still didn't change the fact that they were surrounded. Then Aamira realized; Walrein was just toying with them.

"Aamira!"

Grovyle and Aamira turned to see Quill and another, smaller Cyndaquil with a darker colored fur and a feather around his head, jump through the bushes on the edge of the beach.

"That must be the pokemon that the Cyndaquil back in the village mentioned." The smaller Cyndaquil said, pointing to Grovyle. "Yea, I'm sure about it. He doesn't match the color description, but he's definitely the same type of pokemon that came to our island some years ago."

"Oh, that's Grovyle. I mentioned him earlier, remember? Don't worry about him; he's a good guy." Quill said. "And the other pokemon with him is my friend Aamira."

"We can do with the introductions and everything later." Aamira said. "In case you haven't noticed, we're surrounded by a band of pirates!"

Walrein looked over and Quill and roared. "He's got the amulet! Get him!"

All of the pokemon attacked at once, but then another pokemon jumped out of the trees in a surprise attack and in one attack defeated all of the pokemon except for Walrein.

The mini Cyndaquil hid behind Quill. "That's it! That pokemon is the thief!"

It was another Grovyle, but this one was different. Unlike most other Grovyle, this one looked something like a tree during the fall. She looked at the little Cyndaquil confused for a moment, then laughed. "Oh, now I know what you mean. I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding. But as the Riolu said, we'll do introductions and everything else later."

"Autumn…" Grovyle said under his breath.

"It's been too long…" She said simply. "I can't wait to fight along side you like we used to… And luckily it seems we don't have to wait for that."

"Traitors! Both of you!" Walrein growled at them.

"I've had enough running and fighting, Walrein." Grovyle said. "Just give up now; there's no way you can win. It's five against one. Two of us are former pirates, from your crew, in fact, and you yourself said that this Riolu acted like a pirate herself."

"And believe me." Autumn said. "You do NOT want to mess with these Cyndaquil."

Walrein looked around at all of them. "Fine! I know when I'm beat. But don't think this doesn't mean I won't be back."

Autumn walked over and stood next to Grovyle. "You really think you can defeat us when we're together?"

Walrein growled, then went into the ocean and swam out towards his ship.

"Great, he left all of these guys here." Autumn said, referring to his unconscious crew members.

At that moment, Chatot woke up and noticed his captain leaving and flew out towards the ship. "Hey! Wait for me!"

"We should probably help these guys out though, shouldn't we?" Quill asked.

"So bighearted!" the mini Cyndaquil said. "I knew size didn't matter; you're still a brother and you act like one too!"

"Looks like story time's going to be somewhat lengthy…" Aamira said. "Well we know our stories at least. Grovyle and I were captured, we escaped, and were followed here. Walrein sank the ship, Quill somehow ended up here, and found us. But I think the two of you have a bit of explaining to do…"

"It's unavoidable, I guess…" Autumn said. "But can I have my amulet back now?"

Quill took the amulet from around his neck and handed it to her.

Back at the mini Cyndaquil's house, Grovyle got to telling his part of the story. "A few years back I was sailing out at sea with my grandpa. There was a bad storm that came that night and I fell overboard. It was so horrible that my grandpa didn't even realize. The waves tossed me all over. I thought for sure that I was going to drown, but then I woke up on Walrein's ship. I didn't know what I could do after that, so I became a member of his crew. Autumn was already a member of his crew at the time, but she didn't like it much.

"One night I caught her getting one of the life boats ready. I begged her not to leave, but she said that she couldn't stay there anymore. But then she gave me that emerald pendant and said that it had been handed down from one person to the next in her family for generations and it was pretty much a part of her because of it. So as long as I had it with me, we would meet again. And when we did, we could explore together and not have to worry about Walrein.

"I didn't want to leave. Walrein had saved me and became somewhat like a father. But the things Autumn said started to get to me. I started wonder if I really did want to be there. Walrein got a little annoyed with me looking at the amulet all the time. One day he had enough and told me to either give it to him or throw it into the sea. When I refused, he attacked me. I ended up with these scars on my eye, and I fell over the side of the ship. He thought I'd drowned but I survived somehow. At that point I realized I'd rather be doing anything than being a member of his crew. When he found out about that, he became even more infuriated than before and came after me time and time again. But I always managed to get away somehow."

"I knew he was lying!" Aamira said, though she still couldn't help but think about what Walrein said about her being like a pirate.

"Okay, so that explains what happened to you." The mini Cyndaquil said. "But a few years ago, didn't you steal from our island?" He asked Autumn.

"It wasn't me. It was someone else. I started to get worried about the thefts when everyone started thinking I was responsible, so one day I went off to search the island, but I didn't find anything for a long time. Then one night I heard a couple of pokemon talking and hid so I could watch them. One of them was standing in the dark so I don't know what it was. The other was in the moonlight, but I couldn't make out the shape of it. It seemed to be just a shadow."

Aamira and Quill exchanged nervous glance.

"Then I noticed a third pokemon that was tied up. I recognized it of the wife of the tribe's leader. But the two other pokemon seemed to be arguing over it. The one in the dark, I remember, didn't really seem to be sure what they were doing or why they were doing it. The shadowy one said that if they could get the leader to come with them, they could find 'it'. Whatever 'it' was. After that they sent a ransom note. The leader came looking, but I found him before he ran into the other two. Having skills from previously being a pirate, I was also able to get his wife out of there without the shadowy pokemon and the pokemon that was standing in the dark noticing. We found a secret path through the volcano and the three of us somehow ended up in Ignis. From what I hear, the leader's wife, though it pained her to do so, left to go back home so she wouldn't somehow put her husband in danger again. I think by 'home' she meant the place she lived before she ended up on Lava Lava Island."

"Oh, that's right." The mini Cyndaquil said. "She wasn't a Cyndaquil. It was such a small detail that a lot of people forgot about it."

"Is it just me, or does that shadow keep showing up?" Quill asked.

"It does sort of seem like it." Aamira said. "Oh, I just remembered. What about Lucario's letter?"

Quill looked through his bag and pulled it out. "Wow. Talk about luck. It's not smudged or anything from the seawater. But why did you bring this up?"

"I don't know." Aamira took the letter from Quill. "It was just a feeling I had when we were talking about the shadow and the other pokemon…. Oh why didn't I see it before! This is so simple! These aren't words; they're just letters in groups of four. They make up words, but there's a space after every fourth letter, get it?"

"Why didn't we see that?" Quill got out a pencil and his notebook from his bag and handed them to Aamira. "Can you figure out what it says?"

"No problem now that I know what it is." When Aamira was done decoding it, this is what it said:

You don't have to worry about the homework, instead watch out for the kidnappers; they're closer than many realize. I worry for the safety of all the pokemon in the country of Sylva. I cannot explain now; there are some things that are worrying me. Don't trust anyone, not even those closest to you. Watch for a pattern in the kidnappings and you may find the answer.

"You just happened to think of this letter when we were talking about the shadow?" Quill said.

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" Aamira said. "Whoever, or whatever, this shadow is and the other pokemon must be the kidnappers! A shadow appeared when Meganium disappeared, a shadow was seen when Team Rapids disappeared… Out of all the disappearances we've looked at so far, it does seem like it keeps showing up. Come to think of it, wasn't there a couple of shadowy figures seen when Charmeleon escaped from prison? It might have been the other pokemon that was hiding in the dark."

"You think they had something to do with that?" Quill said. "Actually, since we're heading to Ignis to investigate a disappearance, maybe it would be a good idea to ask Charmeleon about that."

"Didn't you say there was a secret path in the volcano that leads to Ignis?" Aamira asked Autumn.

"Yea, I can show you. I think I want to help investigate this after being accused as a thief and a kidnapper." Autumn said.

"Count me in too." Grovyle said. "We're finally back together, so we're not about to split up, plus I was paid in advance to get the two of you to Ignis. Though I'm not sure how long we'll be able to stay since it's a fire pokemon country."

So after many goodbyes from the Cyndaquil, and the former pirate crew since they were pretty much stranded there, the four of them headed towards the volcano. It seemed amazing that she had somehow found that path when she was a grass type and it was deep in a volcano. When they got to Ignis some few hours later, they found themselves in Ember City, where Charmeleon apparently lived.

Lucky for them, Charizard was flying around and noticed the four of them. He landed immediately. "It's about time you got here. You're here to investigate the disappearance, aren't you?"

"Yea." Aamira said. "And we think we might already have a lead, but we have to talk with Charmeleon before we start on the mission."

Charizard looked around nervously. "Didn't Mismagius tell you? Charmeleon IS the missing pokemon!"