Gotta Catch Em All In Ni No Kuni!

Chapter 8

They all stayed at the palace that night, and Oliver had only stalked to his room, not coming out for anything. Aaliyah had dinner sent up to him, and the servant had said that he wouldn't come out, so he had left it outside.

Wayne had come back with Harmony, and tried to talk to Oliver through his locked door, but Oliver wouldn't respond.

"Poor boy." He murmured at dinner.

"Is Oliver really that close to people in both worlds?" Ash asked them, and Harmony nodded.

"Yes, he is. He grew up in Motorville."

"And he's got lots of friends over there." Swaine added. "Myrtle, Phillip, Denny...." He gasped. "Nichole!" This made them all jump.

"What about Captain Swan?" Harmony asked through gritted teeth, trying to remind him subtly that Nichole preferred to be called Captain Swan to people she didn't know.

"She's still back with her parents! She said that she'd come by for dinner!" Harmony, Esther, and Aaliyah jumped up at once. The Cowlipha was away for dinner with King Tom and Marcassin. Harmony wasn't attending the dinner with the false excuse that she was ill, though she used that excuse to escape meeting with the royals so many times, they were starting to not believe it.

"Where do her parents live?" Misty asked.

"In the other world!" Harmony told them. That was when a weird spark flickered in the air, and was beginning to get bigger, like a wormhole...

"Everyone get back!" Aaliyah shouted, but it was too late. The wormhole appeared, and everyone was sent flying back, Jessie hitting the wall, James hitting Jessie, and Meowth hitting James. Brock hit smacked into the wall with a grunt, Misty and Pikachu flying next to him as the dining table nearly smooshed them, if Brock hadn't held out his hands and pushed away the table with all of his might.

Esther was already pressed against the wall by the strong wind, as Aaliyah and Swaine held onto two pillars, watching as the hole grew bigger, and bigger. A chair suddenly came flying back at Esther, nearly hitting her face, had James not blocked it with his arm, earning a nasty cut, but saving Esther from even worse pain.

"Shutness Porta!" Aaliyah shouted, and the hole shrank, just as a screaming figure came flying out and hit Swaine, sending him flying back into the ground.

The table fell to the ground, Brock flopping down onto it, Misty trying to help him up as Pikachu ran over to Ash, who had been rammed into one of the pillars.

"Pika Pikachu!" it shrieked as it jumped into Ash's lap and gently licked his cheek, making Ash giggle.

"I'm alright, Pikachu."

"Well, this is certainly not how I thought we would be meeting for dinner." Came a deep pirate's voice that had been created over time. They all looked over, and saw that the famous wolf pirate, Captain Nichole Star Swan had appeared, and had collided with Swaine.

Swaine just smiled up at her. "Well, our meetings are always fun, are they not?" She just rolled her eyes and gave him a small smack across the cheek, before standing up and pulling down the shirt she wore to hide her midriff.

"Sorry to barge in like that, everyone. Gateway wasn't acting right." Aaliyah nodded.

"We know, please avoid using it. We're trying to patch our worlds. Now, we only have nineteen uses of Gateway or the Door of Worlds, if we're lucky." Nichole furrowed her eyebrows.

"Only nineteen uses? What in the name of the seven seas is going on? Where's Oliver? Does he know that something like that will happen if we use that spell?" Aaliyah nodded.

"It's a bit complicated." Nichole raised her eyebrows defiantly.

"Then be precise, and I shall listen. I don't want to put any of you in danger." Aaliyah sighed, but she gathered everyone around, going into the long story.

OM

"So, you're saying that we may have to wait another day before we can use Gateway or the Door of Worlds?" Nichole asked after they had finished their story. "And it's because I used Gateway just then?" Aaliyah nodded.

"Unfortunately." Misty and Brock sighed, as Jessie, James, and Mewoth went over to the window to watch the familiars run around outside.

Misty and Brock were worried for their families, even though Misty's sisters were very capable of taking care of themselves and Brock's father was watching his siblings. But still, what if something happened to them and Misty and Brock weren't there to help take care of them? They couldn't forgive themselves.

Ash and Pikachu, however, decided to take this as an opportunity to check out the new creatures around this world.

"Wow, look at that one!" Ash exclaimed as he and Pikachu looked out the window, and pointed at a Turbandit and a Sunshine having a battle down below. "It looks like the sun! I'd love to catch it!" Aaliyah laughed at his eagerness.

"Well, from what I've heard about your world, I would presume that "catching" familiars is very different from catching Pokemon. You see, we don't catch familiars, we tame them. If they're impressed with our fighting skills, they fall in love with us and we play a song so that they go into our creature cage, or the familiar retreat!" Ash furrowed his eyebrows.

"Tame them? You mean, you don't beat them in a battle, then throw a ball at them while they're weak to catch them?" He croaked, looking down at his belt that held all of his Pokeballs, feeling a little ashamed of himself. What if Pidgeotto and Butterfree hadn't wanted to be caught? What if Pikachu wanted to go off and live with other Pikachu, rather than follow Ash around all of the time?

Aaliyah shook her head at his question. "Well, they are usually weak when we tame them, but they're usually okay with coming along with us!" Then she sent out Aurora, Empress, and a Spitoo. "Aurora came from my heart, Empress I helped take off poisoning that didn't allow her anywhere near people, and I found Strawden in the Deep Dark Wood!" Ash looked at Aaliyah's familiars as they stood around her. Aurora had flown up onto Aaliyah's shoulders and was purring against her neck, Empress kept bumping her hand to be pet, and Strawden was nuzzling her leg. His Pokémon never did anything like that.

"Hey, Aaliyah?" He said quietly, coming closer. "You don't think that you could teach me some of this taming stuff, do you?" Aaliyah nodded, smiling.

"Of course I can! Might as well, since we're stuck here for now." Ash smiled back.

"Alright! Then let's go learn how to tame familiars!"